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Undercard of

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All right,

go ahead

intro man,

thanks - Jesus, y'all will have a whole fluid conversation over there. - They know

who you are. - It's like they do it on purpose. - Yeah, no we

get it. - Yeah, but it's like a framing thing. Like an opening, introduction, presents

you guys like it's structured to this. I know y'all think y'all just sit down

and we on fire, but there's some straw that's true too. But, uh... No, y'all

talked over me already. It's cool. Salutations. Welcome to episode 375. 375 of the Joe

Budden Podcast. I'm your humble, gracious, grateful, and highly favored host, Joe Budden, here with

a few of my nearest and dearest. Brother Maul is here. I'm here. Parks is

here. Rory is here. Sunset Valley, when they're together. Yes. Uh... Erickson is here, Papirazzi

in the flesh. - Sunset Park. - Savon the Don is here, and Sunset Park.

Sunset Park and Sunset Valley. Sunset and Valley. - And I was just in the

Valley. - Come on, where's the EP? Where's the EP, you guys? - Just in

the Valley. You hoes get dragged, I'm just jet lagged. - I see what type

of game Roy would do with that. When you just start doing that, like behind

the back pass. I never saw them say that one. U-Holes get dragged on this

jet lag. Yeah, you know. Yeah, come on, man. Fresh off. Fresh off United. Imagine

if we got a good night's sleep. We got to keep Rory out of the

studio. He in there providing ideas. - Yeah, some creativeness is just not good. -

He in there telling Frank Ocean, "Well, what do you think? "I did a different

riff." - A different riff? - A different riff. I tried to, "Uh-huh." - I

wouldn't have did that right then. - Yeah. No idea, that snare. Young Roy. Alex

the Great is over there. You know the vibes. You could lo-fi the drums. And

Rim is in the kitchen. Gentlemen, how is everyone doing? I want to ask Roy

if he won his sneaker raffle this weekend. I just want to know how everyone's

doing. When did I become the sneaker raffle guy? Last week. Okay. All right. I

didn't win. You didn't win? No. Same shoes on as last episode. How was your

weekend? How was your Monday? It was cool, man. How's your mental health? Good man.

How's everything? I was home all weekend, watched the games. I took a nice day

off from society on Saturday. That was nice. I mean, all of that's great, but

I mean, what are you guys afraid of? Spiders. You afraid of spiders? Really? Not

really, but if they're on me. I'm afraid of not trying. You ever be? See

how that just basically gave you a lot and nothing at the same time? No.

I hate when niggas say, I'm afraid of not trying. Nigga, what? I'm just afraid

of the success that I know I'm birthed to have to provide. Nah, that's when

you body in the toxic game. When your game is just naming all your traits

that you won't exhibit. Like, yo, I do all this shit. I'm just scared I'm

gonna love you too much. Like that's one of my biggest flaws. I love

hard. That's what I'm scared of. Like once you with me, like you with

me. Loyalty. Loyalty is my biggest trait. Fail. Why is everyone's biggest fault they're

too loyal? Yet everyone's getting fucked over. Somebody's lying. Everybody's lying. Everyone is. Everybody

is. Nah, they're not loyal to you now, yo. Nah. Nah. It's over for that

loyal shit. Nah, that shit's corny. Look out for yourself. Alright then. Woah, that took

an awkward turn. What's such morbid souls inside? I mean, it's probably not gonna work

out. How are you guys doing? Just wanna make sure everybody's good and Gucci. How

was your weekend, Joe? Before we start predicting-- I went to the mall. Oh, okay,

that's risky. Look at you living life on the edge. Yesterday did you ball

not not so risky on a Monday? Yeah, and This is my point to bring

it up. I went to the mall and Just instantly got sad about the state

of things like it's bad. Whatever. What if what a reminder of them all now?

You know nobody nobody has any money. Nobody has any money No one is shopping

The mall hours... No, I don't know. I don't think that's true. No, no, no.

It was full during stimulus check time. People shop online now more than anything. Niggas

are spending money. The mall I went to is normally pretty active and a good

indicator of things in central New Jersey. And it was completely empty. There were lines.

You had to wait online to get in the empty stores at 33% capacity.

It just was a reminder that shit is fucked up. And will be fucked up

for the foreseeable future. Remember, I'm just coming off of my kid is in college,

woe is me, play the victim story. So now I go to the mall and

it's just like everything is depressing everywhere. But you're not one of those brokies. You

were spending. No, and it doesn't feel right to spend, Roy. I'm with you. Yeah.

Like there's nothing that was important enough for me to go in any store. I

don't need anything. We're blessed. Yeah, no, we spoke about that early in the pandemic

that we have more than we need. Fam, the pandemic has me reassessing the shit

I bought before the pandemic. I'm in my closet like, man, what were you thinking

with this? Where were you going in this topic? Where were you wearing this? In

these pants. That you would wear once. I drove in, I was in the city

coming from getting something to eat and We was driving up on Park Avenue and

it was scary to see literally every apartment building. Like there's only maybe three units

that people are in. Like people have moved out of New York. Oh yeah, a

lot of them. Like it's like every apartment building on Park Avenue was completely black.

Like you wouldn't think the power was on in the building. I thought I read

there was like half a million people moved out or something. No, you can see

it at night. There's nobody in these apartments. Like there's nobody in apartments. Although a

lot of people still maintain their apartments. They just move to their summer homes. Yeah,

to their homes. And a lot of the, this is New York, New York. If

I can make it there, I can make it anywhere. Allure has kind of left

New York. Entrepreneurs and just forward-thinking creatives are just, I'm moving anywhere. Yeah, because everything's

online. I don't have to be in New York to succeed. Yeah, you don't have

to be in that centralized location. Yeah, everything is online. People work remotely. Be where

you want to be in New York. still succeed yeah and the rent prices are

just so astronomical at this point that why would you and but they've dropped though

now they have a little bit yeah they've dropped but they're still not back to

like no they ain't going back there yeah yeah so that was my time anymore

sadness yes definitely a new feeling did you go to johnny rockets i only went

no i went to sephora to get my lip balm oh nice which one uh

all of them okay all the ones that i like that they have there they

have good ones yeah yeah no real good ones i thought the mask would protect

me they still knew who i was in there well i mean you're a huge

celebrity you're like they saw the botox forehead if the mask was on the teeth

through the mask no they saw the forehead they was like you had a clear

you got the smoothest forehead in jersey joe that's jersey joe right here could crack

an egg on that forehead they could tell i got my body done yeah they

know they knew my body walking different they like look at joe you walked in

and said okay yeah i got it again i'm not playing with y'all no all

of that all of that is fine and dandy but How you assess being an

hour early to open up Sephora in the mall as a celebrity male versus how

you assess that if they can recognize you is different. Like, I thought I was

doing it with the mask. I thought it was low. The gate is down at

Sephora and I'm standing there. Mm. for 45 minutes. No, they know that you serious

about the chapstick. So I pulled out one of the chairs from the little mall

cubicle centers. The kiosks. And I sat there and then Shorty came to work. You

gotta move. Your shift is over, Joe. So that was my time in the mall

office. Other than that, I had a real quiet, peaceful, peaceful weekend with my baby,

hugging and kissing him the whole weekend. And here I am. That's a cool. God

has delivered us all here today to pod. Absolutely. True story. All right, you guys.

Huh? Huh? We got the one we was waiting on. I don't think we were

waiting on this one. I was really a little bit. This wasn't one that we

spoke about. Yes, we did. This was brought up early. We spoke about Brandy Monica.

We said we would never see it because Monica is too much of a G.

Okay, I think I remember that. Because the talk was going around when they were

trying to get this battle to happen, and Monica was like, no, all my career

I've had to battle them pitting us against each other, and it's not something that

I want to perpetuate now. Right. And it doesn't feel that way. No. Now, let

me start with that. This is a celebration. I'm rolling with the whole celebration thing.

Yeah, they're going to have a lot of fun with this. Now, I'm picking a

winner just because that's what I do, but... This is gonna be awesome. Yeah. I'm

really excited about this. Who's the winner besides the fans? For me, Brandy. I think

so. Tyler Perry. The white sandals. How come you guys... Steve Madden is the winner?

Do you notice that y'all can't get through anything seriously? Is that like a thing

that we do? You can't go through life seriously, Joe. We were just talking about

a depressing mall trip. Yeah. Oh, yeah. All right, lighten it up. Steve Madden will

win this. Yeah. His stocks are gonna be through the roof. He'll go

back to jail. No, I think one of y'all said earlier, 12-8. Yeah, Joe mentioned

that. I like that score. 12-8 Brandy, I like that. 12-8 Brandy feels right. And

that's hilarious when chicks used to be arrogant in the Steve Maddens. We used to

like it, though. Some of y'all don't. Yeah, because we didn't know. Yeah. But then

the dudes found out. And then it was like, all right, we made our list

of items you can't be arrogant in. The Steve Maddens was on there. When we

found out about the coach trick... That was the coach trick. It's not Gucci. That

was the trick. What are you talking about? We thought the coach print was Gucci

all that time. Yeah, no. Then they got the Michael Kors joint off on us.

That's true. For years. It's another pair of those stupid jeans they got off on

us. Parasucos? Apple bottoms? Yeah, yeah. See, because girls will try to cheat you. You

got to work your way up to the Chanel's and all that shit to stunt.

Y'all got to go through your coach... Coach and Ross phase. Yeah, you have Ross.

You can't be arrogant. Being arrogant wedges periods. Funny. But listen, those were the don't

take your personal force. That little shoe that all the girls saying they're wearing to

this battle. So all of you have Brandy winning this? I think so. Yeah. I

think it'll be close. Why? Tell us why. Give an in-depth review. I just think

Brandy has more records that he just has bigger records i believe monica has big

records as well but i think brandy's you know waiting takes hell soundtrack and it's

going it's just hard it's when you start playing those type of big records i

mean monica definitely has a lot of records in her catalog as well but brandy's

uh she's they're pretty close numbers wise yeah but as far as your favorite records

though yeah i think brandy has bigger records yeah um who wins the boys mine

that's a good question oh that's a walk who takes who takes round one

The culture. You think they could get that out of the way around one? Uncle

Clifford. Yeah, they should play their versus. They got to end it with that. They

got to end it with the boys' mom. I thought you meant with Uncle Clifford.

They got to end it. Uncle Clifford wins the boys' mom. A little murder. Yeah.

Or her and a little murder. Yeah. Listen, I don't know about all that. I

know one thing. When this come on right here. Sorry, Brandy. You can back that

car in the garage, mama. This is a point. Oh, no, we

got to sing a little bit of this together. We got to sing this together.

Look at the songs we sing together. A little bit, come on. Don't look at

me. You're the first chair. So when this battle happened, and you all the first

here, when this battle happened, I went back to a few of these Monica songs

just to see what the vibe was. She got a lot of heat. Monica got

a lot of songs where Duke was doing her like real bad, but she wasn't

going to go. She was resilient. See, they fooling

you with this beat. You would think that this guy was a stand-up guy. He's

a piece of shit? I don't know. Listen, man. Monica was understanding. That's all. She

understood that God was still working on him. Nah. See, that's the next level of

toxic, too. When you toxic enough to get her to apologize to you for you

being toxic. Oh, yeah. That's what this chorus is. Listen. Look. Yeah, that's hard to

get through. When you're trying to find a way out. She ain't mean to bother

him. And she'd be like, yo, you know what? That's my fault. I apologize. It's

like, no. No, that's the absolute worst. I want to get out of this relationship.

When you want her to break up with you and you're giving every reason and

saying, hey, this isn't working out. My behavior isn't going to change. It's better for

you to leave. I think it's how I was treating you that you feel this

way now. - Yeah. - No, I feel this way. - I don't want to

be here. - I don't want you to get away from me. That's only because

I haven't been listening to you. - Exactly. - Well, listen to me now. -

Yo, Rory turned into JJ Reddick on these topics. You know what's that? He could

get shit off. - I'm a Monica fan. - Me too. Oh yeah, when you

can sell them on how things used to be and they stay for a little

while longer. Oh man, this is great. That's a point for Monica when it comes

on, by the way. - I agree. It's a great record. I'm with y'all. Brandy's

shit is just too long. Her catalog is different. The big records are different. And

statistically, they're not. They're not. They're paired very evenly. They have almost the same amount

of albums, if not the same amount of albums, same amount of number one hits,

or top ten hits at least. It's really close, statistically. Statistically. Well, I'm excited. It's

gonna be fun man. What is this? On my birthday! Hey! Come on, they singing

to me. I'm the boy. Yeah, you are. You gotta be the boy. I'm the

boy to this one. It's been you all along? They seen my teeth. Yeah, they

seen the boy. They seen the teeth of the boy. They was fighting over Makai.

They got to bring him back. Somebody Photoshop Joe's face on Makao Pfeiffer. Don't. Don't

do it. Don't take instruction from him. They got to bring him to the battle,

man. He got to come out for this one. For the culture. It's always for

the culture. And Mace. Yeah. No. No. Why Mace can't? No, just Makao. I'm going

to celebrate... I hope they don't get catty. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm

kidding. I'm kidding. We're not going to see that. This is two queens on full

display, and we're celebrating their catalog. I'm excited about it. But, Mo, you did bring

up an interesting point that I didn't notice upon release of the flyer. Yeah. They

switched it. Yeah, my name is first. They had a little my name is first

battle. What? On one it says Monica versus Brandy, on one it says Brandy versus

Monica. And we would never know these types of placements mean so much if it

weren't for the Roots Picnic. Like, nah, your name needs to be a little bigger.

If it weren't for these festivals, man, us artists are so egotistical, right? Yeah, absolutely.

But I feel, and I'm not putting your face first on my page. No, no,

you can't. This is perfect. You read my face first. this is definitely y'all gonna

watch this alone you have a nice young lady with you reminiscing about the jams

back in the day parks you're gonna watch this with your fiance rory your fiance

of course are y'all gonna two-step together high five remember this jam high five no

not gonna give him none of that no this is gonna that's gonna be fun

to watch though honestly i agree i think they're gonna really do like a a

huge production for this Is this going to fit into your sexcapade birthday party that

you had planned? Are you going to maybe air this on a big screen? Wherever

I am, I'll be watching this as it airs. I didn't mean to step in

your joke. Pardon, sir. No, it wasn't a joke. That actually would sound like a

great birthday party to have a sexcapade party with Brandy and Monica. This isn't the

kinky soundtrack. Yeah, you don't want this playing in the back while you're trying to

like... I'm just talking about being somewhere with a good vibe. With a good vibe

and a good energy. You're not trying to swing to Brandy? No. Rory. Rory. Tame

yourself. Tame... My bad, I went over the line. We need one of them things

that white people be putting on their kids, the leash. For a grown man. Yeah,

relax, relax. Why y'all was doing that? Doing what? Putting leashes on kids. So they

didn't run away. Seems logical to me. It's a white people thing. For centuries. Yeah,

black kids, we didn't need that. You should probably edit that. Your mother just gave

you the look? You should probably edit that. Your mother just gave you the look

in the mall like-- 2805, say what? No, no. No, we're not going to edit

that. There's no more alley-oops for you for the rest of the game. Stay the

baseline. You tomahawking, that's it. He going crazy the first quarter. My bad. First quarter.

I don't want to get out of breath. Relax, man. Yo, you guys. You guys

are doing that thing you do again, man. When you give the good pot away

off the air. No, that was funny. Bring back the leashes. I need pot leashes

for you guys. Unleash the leashes. Unleash the leashes. They got a pot leash on

us. Yeah, they do. Look. You know how many people call me this weekend like,

yo, what's going on over there? I'm like, well, what's up? They like. They keep

talking about, yo, you might like this if you like the joke. I'm like, no,

I've never clicked on that. And no, I don't like it. I won't like it.

It's been there for two years, and I've never clicked on it. I specifically don't

like that. I'm like, man, whatever. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come

on, come on, come on, come on, because y'all doing too good. Doing too good.

When Rory come out the tunnel hot, we going to win that game. I don't

care what Jamal Murray has. This is the song

I heard. Oh, same Z's. Elitism. Is that

a word? It is now. Rolling with it.

Ayyyyy. Yo, I'm so glad that there are

so many unreleased and unheard Nipsey verses. I'm

so glad that the hip hop community reached

out to him in abundance before his untimely

demise. And I'm so glad that we're still

blessed and fortunate enough to still get Nipsey

verses that resonate with us today. Like when

real dudes just say real shit. It just feels real it'll always work and Yeah,

it'll never not work. Yeah, there's no expiration date on that. Yeah, no, it feels

good It feels good to hear nip rest in peace nipsey hustle, of course. Yeah,

that's that's something that's still That still doesn't sit right with me man. I'm sorry

every time I hear nip see a video is this is I don't think we

really realize it yet, but this was something that I think we'll look back in

20 years and realize exactly how much this affected hip-hop. He was that.

I don't think we do. It's definitely not spoken about him. With Nip, I realize

it because it's energy. I can feel it. With Pop Smoke, it's more unfortunate for

me because it's still energy that I feel. It's been a long time since I

heard a bunch of the young women that a lot of guys find desirable think

that one guy's joint or just the sound of his voice makes the track. And

that's what Pop Smoke... was before he left yeah uh nip at least had a

little more time to get himself ingratiated with us yeah so a lot of us

felt like we knew a lot of us knew nip yeah no we knew what

he stood for yeah he put he put his codes on front street there was

nothing to guess um which is why i guess there are so many of these

verses and so many people reached out how did y'all feel when y'all heard the

song oh man i i mean you know when they played it on the hit

boy boy won the battle when hit boy played it That was the record that

everybody was like, "No, no, no, no, no. We need to hear that." You damn

near won that battle because of that record. Yeah. And to get this record last

night and get to hear it and turn it up as loud as you want

it to and listen to the lyrics and feel the music. I mean, yeah, if

this is a glimpse of what Sean has in store on this album- I'm looking

forward to it. I'm gonna be honest. This is I think this is gonna be

if it feels like this This is gonna be that album know people be Sean

as a household name, but don't say glimpse in store in the same sense He

grabbed the board I didn't need to step going on his own. Are you right?

I didn't need to step back. That wasn't the play. Yeah, you're right But it

was a glimpse. It was definitely a glimpse. I had the the nip versus like

even The Khaled one, this one, and like, not to sound corny or anything, but

it still feels like Nip is here when these verses come out. Yeah. Like, he

was so specific with his words and what he was trying to say. Right. It

just, the presence of him every time these verses come out feel like he's still

here. Well, because they're not verses that are just taken and placed somewhere. Yeah. He

was actually... there with this beat this wasn't a beat that was just you know

I mean like this was the record like he was actually the energy is there

the real energy is there yeah yeah so it's a great verse Sean how many

bars did he go for he went for a while it's it's nice to hear

rappers rap yeah for a long time straight yeah Sean said some in there that

I was like okay Sean had some to get off his chest yeah he's tired

he's tired of y'all that's number one who's y'all The critics. Just us. The naysayers.

He's sick of y'all. The naysayers. Is that what I am? Yeah. Names? You say

names quite often. But I think Joe walked back his big Sean disdain. No, don't

do it, Sean. Sean is my man, man. Don't do that. No, you walked his

disdain back. I walked that walk back. Yeah, you did. Walked that walk back. Yeah,

no, I did that. No, yeah, Sean is sick of y'all. He's been minding his

business. Y'all continue to say foul things about him. And he just wants to live

his life in a positive manner. I respect it. No, that verse is crazy. He

definitely killed that shit. He went off on that shit. I'm excited. Sean's a great

rapper. I'm really excited to hear that. Elite rapper. The project. I am. Hitboy is

on quite a tear, huh? He's the go-to right now. Yeah. It definitely seems that

way. We spoke about it last week when the Nas album came out. He just

has... He's able to... work with so many different type of artists and not sound

forced. Yeah. You know what I mean? It doesn't sound like a force. It just

fits. Like, he doesn't force the artist to come into his world. Clearly he also

spent like the last two years really working in the studio. Oh, yeah, you know

I'm saying like this stuff is probably not recorded last week this all got me

so no, but this is oh yes, this is it for sure But he's the

go-to right now man hit boy guy and um and Sean announced his release date.

Yes, it's September 4th September 4th Detroit - His fifth album. Cover's dope. Yeah. Shout

out to Mike Carson. Oh, okay. I do think that album artwork has vastly improved

in the last five years. It's become more important. I mean, with the amount of

music that you are thrown in your face, sometimes artwork will stop you in that

scroll. Like, oh, what's this? This looks cool. Yeah. It's an Instagram era, so Instagrammable

pictures. It's a visual era. But again, this is... i look at a lot of

these artists like that they're exactly that they're artists you know so this is it

should be art yeah and that's it's dope to see artists pay attention to detail

and treat it like it's art and not just something that's gonna bring you a

check. I agree. You know, paint the entire picture. Yeah. So when you pay attention

to your album cover and you know it has a message and it ties into

the music because you know this is hip-hop, this is a culture, this is we

a lot of these things even Nas in on his album, his QB piece belongs

in the museum. I feel like I feel that way towards rappers and artists because

they are artists. Whether it's hip-hop, whether it's R&B, whether it's rock and roll, it's

art. Yeah. So treat it like it's art. So I respect, I like when artists

do shit like this. This can be a piece hanging up in your living room.

You can hang this in your wall, you can hang this in your studio. And

treat it like it's art. Pay attention to the detail. Sean has always been good

visually with album art, videos, merch, all that shit. He's always been good. Are you

saying that? I said, hey, yo. Was it possible? Don't tell me about when

another guy has been good visually. I mean, you don't know my taste. You don't

know your taste? I'm not doing it. I'm not doing Gay Justice Week. I'm not

doing Gay Justice Week. I know Rory will try to lure us there. I'm not

doing it. It normally works for me. I jump in. Yeah, come on. Where's the

leash? A little tug. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Two tugs. What are your expectations of... Dude,

I give Rory a tug right now. Two tugs. listen man we outnumbered dude

it's too it's too freaky white boys in the room that's way

too much why are you so freaky i don't know man just

white boys man it's a pandemic what are y'all with the level

of freaking come on It's a pandemic, man. What do you want from me? How

do you lose all your girls during a pandemic? You were supposed to be home.

There's nothing you could do to lose. How did you meet someone? How did you

have fun? What did you do? I've been home since Christmas. Yeah, I know. You

still managed to fuck it up, huh? You made your little hot ass out there

to Tulum, huh? It means it's not working out. Oh. The revenge vacay? Oh yeah.

Come on. Come on, give me expectations about Big Sean's album. Don't joke me to

Tulum because I'll cry. No, but in this verse, I do like when he spoke

about deadening the issue with Kendrick. I appreciated that. I like when a girl take

a little trip, but it's like some trash resort, but she don't know it.

Joe, what's wrong with you, man? Are you vacation shaving? Joe's vacation shaving. Does that

shower have curtains? Oh, my God. Some of them rooms that y'all giving me the

full panoramic view of. You could just stay at the window. Go home. It's what

you could do. You can see the sadness in her eyes in the vacay pics.

I'm happy. Don't let the thong confuse you. No, she's crying. They can be behind

the thongs are confusing. They are. But yeah, I like the fact that he spoke

about reaching out to Kendrick and talking about the little issue that they had after

Nipsey passing. That was that was dope to hear that. He's been talking about it.

Did he? I don't think he went everywhere. He keeps saying me and Kendrick's not

a thing. You know, I'm blew it up. He keeps saying it. But I just

I like the fact that he said after Nipsey's passing. that forced him to be

like, yo, I'm squashing anything that might be an issue with somebody. Like,

I'm getting, I'm removing that. Earlier, y'all asked about, earlier, y'all asked about

Ryan Leslie. And instantly, I thought of, R-Less, R-Less. No, Andrew Luck. R-Less,

Andrew Luck, and Kendrick. Like, just guys that can go away. Okay.

I just admire it. That's it. That's the end. Where from Kendrick in years? It's

been a while. Andrew Luck got his money, retired, and you don't know where he

is or what he's doing. You ain't seen him. They're not a peep. He retired

due to injury, though, right? Yeah. Was it an injury? Yeah, but what's stopping him

from getting on the phone and still live and throwing some shit at his kids

or bullets? Running around with his kids. Throwing a football to a tire. Ain't nothing

stopping him from doing that. I admire that. Um, what else is important? Did you

guys see the interview Nas did? Breakfast Club? I did see it. Where Charlamagne asked

him the question we've all been waiting for. I didn't see it. What do you

think about... I saw the clip, but I didn't see it. Two questions we've all

been waiting for. But we can start with the first one. Oh, man. Do you

think Jay-Z releases projects on your album, release dates on purpose? That's what everybody says

every time. I saw 50 say that to Woo Kid. I see a little meme

going around. No, no. I think... I think maybe there's an energy that we

both have where we maybe we feel like we work around the same time and

then it's They said, "Still Madden" came out December 18th. They said, "AJ released Unplugged."

Then he said, "Strike the Cycle" November 30th. Then "Collision Course." "Nazia" and "3 in

6." "Nazia," everything is love. "The Lost" and "Beyoncé," Jay-Z, "Lion King." That's where it

got stupid. When they drive home a question that the guy avoided already. He was

an entrepreneur. I think it's great. What's "Collision Course"? That's an album? The Linkin Park

song, man. Everybody don't know the link. Oh, that's some coincidence.

I Think Nas just realized, you know, do you think Jay-z?

No, I just such a smooth gentleman. That was super fly.

Yeah, I If you feel like that, it's fly. If you don't feel like that,

it's fly. Right. Well, yeah. You always got to go to the energies. Nas is

a... He's one of the eldest statesmen of hip-hop. And, you know, you don't feed

into a lot of that, the new shit that people create. So, I mean, I

understood. And hearing him say that... Like how you didn't even know which one would

one album was he was like that's the mall like every time I'm joking in

here and you treat it like a real thing You don't even acknowledge that it

might be a joke in here somewhere something funny. No, but you know, I'm not

that's the energy I don't know y'all about it, but he ain't feeding into that

man Like nothing both entities and we share the same sign, but there's nothing you

can say we put nothing you could say to that So what the energy? Yeah,

you can't find out. There is no response. You kill it. That's the end. That's

him stepping on it. Especially with you, Nas. Yeah. Yo, man, that Nas album got

a lot of replay value for me. Yeah, definitely. I'm enjoying it. It does. I

haven't left it. I haven't taken out the cassette deck. A.K.A. my phone. Hopefully your

shit don't need tapes. I see what you did. Nas pointed it. Yeah. That's cool.

Charlamagne also asked... You can't trust Charlamagne because he called Who Kid, Woo Kid. Well,

he has trouble pronouncing words with R's and S's. He has a problem with S's?

I don't know. What the fuck is Rory talking about? Listen to Charlamagne talk. He

did ask the other question that I wanted to know. The Kanye album. He just

straight up asked it, which I have to respect Charlamagne for that. Yo, what happened

with the Kanye Nas album, man? I didn't hear it. What was Nas' response? Another

cool ass Nas response. We have time, man. We didn't have enough time. Time. Yeah.

Energy and time. Yes. Time and energy. You can't beat that. Yeah. Time and energy.

Nas is just too cool for interviews. Yeah. He ain't feeding it to him. Because

when you a GOAT, Why am I even talking to say anything? Yeah, I'm not

feeding into none of this online narrative that job created like no Fuck out. I

don't want to be on this zoom call which are anything he says will have

been except Yeah, hey, no, what happened with you and um that you and that

Kanye project man. I Yeah, I'm hungry. And then you start thinking, like, damn, I'm

kind of hungry, too. What's the nearest pizza shop? What you going to say? You

going to give them directions in the nearest spot? That's Nas. You can't say nothing

to him. I'm going to let you go, Nas. I'm happy for Nas. I'm happy

for Nas. I'm happy for Big Sean. I'm happy for Halim. I know we touched

on that briefly last pod, but to have somebody – that just has grinded the

way he has uh that's worked the way that he has and it just knows

what they're doing to have them in the building is is priceless it's priceless i'm

happy well well deserved for halleem and those are the type of people that labels

need in the building definitely yeah it's true um on to more radio news patty

duke yeah we brief briefly patty duke who don't step in my intro i'm the

intro guy here you support me yo yo my bad bro um You support me.

Suck my dick. Patty Duke, we briefly mentioned

this. If you've seen the Yousef Hawkins documentary,

by now you will see that Patty Duke,

a.k.a. Pascal Roussey, I'm not certain how you

pronounce that. I'm not trying to be funny.

Pascal Roussey. Roussey. I don't know. It's Italian. Was

complicit in the murder, the brutal murder of Yusef Hawkins.

when a young man and a few of his friends went to Bensonhurst to look

for a Pontiac and were targeted and just watch it. This is on HBO, if

you have yet to see it. Storm Over Brooklyn is the name of the documentary.

Yeah, Storm Over Brooklyn. And this is the first time a lot of us in

the community learned about Patty Duke's involvement, and most of us are familiar with him

from Hot 97. Long tenured... Been there for two decades. You've heard his name no

matter the drive time you were listening to. So we were all taken aback. Yeah,

that was crazy when I read that. And the first question that we asked was,

what, how could this have happened in Hot 97 not be aware, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I mean, according to their Twitter, they took swift action after 20 years. Well,

first thing Monday morning, they let us know that he was let go from High

97. And they all said that they were totally unaware of his involvement in that.

And they were shocked and taken aback, as most of us were. You can take

that how you want, whether you choose to believe that or not. But the bottom

line is he is no longer a High 97 employee. I don't think nobody believes

that. Watching that documentary was disturbing. I could see them hiring him and not knowing,

but at some point it's going to slip over the 20 years. Yeah. I saw

some people talking about when background checks started in New York City was like 2000.

He was hired in the 90s, I guess. So they did that with new employees.

They didn't do that with the employees that had already been there. So there was

no real background check required for him to get hired. No black people can tell

you that background checks have been around for a while. Longer than 20 years. A

little longer than that, buddy. I was reading off what people were saying. No,

it's bullshit. That's what 197 is supposed to say. But it's bullshit. The thing

that I've been thinking about since this became a story is how many more

people in these companies and these buildings that have a past that we don't

know about and they're just walking amongst us and making decisions on our career a

lot. You know what I mean? Like, it's something to think about. It's really something

to think about. That's not the part that makes you a little sick to your

stomach that someone involved in such a heinous act, such a hate-filled act, can just...

remask and make their living for the next however many years. I couldn't have worked

at High 97 for 20 something years having killed a culture. An Italian kid in

Manhattan or involved in a killing of an Italian kid in Manhattan. It wouldn't have

happened. Well, Dallas Penn tweeted, America is a glorious place. Where else could someone who

hates black people go out with a lynch mob, kill a black teen, reinvent himself

as an executive for a radio station that only plays R&B and rap music? Mm-hmm.

And that's where Dallas, shout out to Dallas, rest in peace Combat Jack. That's

where I first learned about this, through Dallas tweeting it. And listen, make of

it what you will, man. But, ew. Y'all hear me? Never mind. Make of

it what you will, but super unfortunate. It was nasty. Again, if you haven't

seen the doc, it's on HBO. Storm over Brooklyn. And that's that,

but that's nasty. And rest in peace and prayers still to Yusuf Hawkins and

his family. Absolutely. But yeah, this is something to think about. Because he's not

the only one that's at these companies that has a questionable past. Well, that's

my thing about aliases. Enough of aliases. Who are you really? Right, right. What do

you stand for? What do you represent? Where were you raised? Who can vouch for

you? How many friends do you still have from your childhood? What was your childhood

like? Right. Like, where are you from? People get offended by that question. Like, when

you ask them, like, where are you from? Like, when you generally don't know, like,

you meet somebody as an adult. Right. And you ask them, like, yo, where are

you from? Like, where are you from? You grew up over there? Like... People are

like, yeah, why? Fam, I think I have the right to know who's standing in

front of me. I don't know nothing about you. But people get offended by that.

Yeah, I can't see how this wouldn't have come up in 20 years. Not directly.

Yeah, I was involved in that. But just, I don't know. Things just come together

piece by piece a little bit. A part of me was a little upset because

Patty Duke is such a tiny man. So for 20 years, this existed. Seems to

be the tiny man. Yeah, but let all the black entertainers know that have

been in your presence over the course of two decades and give us the option

to want to beat your little tiny ass or not. Right. That's fair. That may

have sounded real stupid, but I did think to myself, you tiny motherfucker. I think

a lot of people felt like that over this weekend after this came out. Because

I really don't think a lot of people did not have any idea about this.

You little motherfucker, you. Yeah. I feel you, though. I feel you. Yeah, I find

it hard to believe that no one knew. Until people knew last

week. People knew. Yeah, cool. They knew. And that's why this Hot 97 statement is

just all bullshit. They knew. Yeah, it was crazy watching Ebro, Rosenberg, Laura, and all

them talk about the documentary on the morning show and not bring up anything that

had to do with Patty Duke or Hot 97. The reason it's bullshit is because

this documentary didn't just get filmed yesterday or over the weekend. This documentary has

been in production for probably years at least. As most documentaries are. They're filmed

over a course of at least two or three years. People do interviews. So

to say that nobody at Hot 97 had any idea that this was a

thing? No, that's bullshit. We have some more unfortunate news that we have to

get to. We're back here again, huh? Never left. Yeah, back again. We

never left. Fortunately, this young man lived. So it's a bit different.

But Jacob Blake was shot several times by Wisconsin police. The story,

the apparent story is there was a dispute between women. He was

attempting to break it up. His children were present. Police were called

to the scene. There was something, there was some type of tussle that ensued

right before the clip that went viral began. And as he was calmly, what appeared

to be calmly to me anyway, walking to his vehicle, calmly as in, when I

say calmly, I mean non-threatening. In a non-threatening way, walking to his vehicle. He looked

straight up calm. Yeah. If he wasn't calm, You should be able to subdue this

man. Yeah. Not only were you trained, you've called for backup and you have him

outnumbered. Why are you, why are you a public servant? If you're unable to subdue

this man who doesn't have a weapon. I mean, that's the question that comes with,

I don't really care what he was doing. Yeah. Walking away, yelling, screaming. None of

that matters to me because you should be able to subdue him. What ensued from

there, uh, I'm going from the news because I'll be honest, I didn't click that

click. I won't do it. I've seen it enough. The story's been remixed, changed mad

time. Not that story, but just all the countless stories of black people being murdered

or attempted to be murdered by police. Say what you want about it and watch

it. But he's walking to his car, seven shots loudly. I heard the audio because

the news played it and it was just as disturbing. Rushed to the hospital.

His dad reports that he is indeed paralyzed from the waist down and the

officers involved have been placed on leave. You guessed it. Temporary leave. You've seen

this movie before. You've heard this before. Protests ensued from there. And prayers that

he's not permanently paralyzed. Well, prayers to the family no matter what because you don't

want to have to experience this. When you love somebody, you don't. The last thing

you want to do is scroll the internet and see this. This is not it.

So prayers to the family. Prayers to Jacob, Blake. Boy, God is good. Thank you,

God. This just ended a bit differently. Super unfortunate that he's paralyzed, but no, he's

here with us still. He lives to tell it. Yeah. And my heart goes out,

man. I'm sick of this. I'm sick of this. I've seen it enough. It's heartbreaking.

I wish they would do something. Rubber bullets. Something. Address it. Make it a federal

crime. Something. I just can't. In looking at videos like this and other videos that

we've seen, I just hate that because it looked like he had friends or family

out there as well. We got to get to a point where they just got

to... I'm outside and you shoot my brother in the back like that, you're going

to have to kill me as well. Like, I'm not standing there watching that. Like,

I'm rushing the police at that point. Like, because looking at that clip, somebody sent

it to me in my DM. I didn't know what it was. And this is

before it came out. And dude was like, he lives five blocks from there. He

sent it to me. He said, it's another one that just happened. I didn't know

what it was. I just clicked the video. And I'm looking at it. I thought

it was fake. I'm like, that's not real. Like, you know, I've never, we have

never seen police walk up and shoot somebody. Getting in their car at that close

of range and they're back like that. I've never seen nothing like that So when

I saw it, I'm like this has to be fake. I Like he's walking away,

he's getting in the car, and you shoot him in his back seven times? No,

we've seen this. I got it. You got to kill me. I can't stand out

there and watch that happen and record that. You got to kill me as well.

The family has hired attorney Benjamin Crump, a prominent civil rights lawyer retained by Blake's

family. This is said by the CBS News that Blake is now in stable condition.

Crump set up a car. Crump said three of Blake's children, ages three, five and

eight, were inside the SUV when their father was shot by police. And that's the

part that was extremely disturbing. You would have to kill me when I heard it

on the news. You would have to kill me. That man is not going to

his car with his kids in it to do anything threatening to the police. and

you're not running to the car with your kids he wasn't doing something that would

end up he was trying to break up with his children right like he was

trying to break up a fight and whatever happened to risk assessment you don't you

don't see kids that's also another thing you don't see kids you don't see you

don't see a crowd you don't see like what are you thinking you shooting into

a car with three children in it with the crowd present right this is not

like you alone in the alley at 3 a.m when there's no cameras and You're

doing this in broad day in front of a crowd with kids in the

car. The stories just get more and more unbelievable. They don't care. They don't

care. My heart goes out to Jacob Blake's family and him, and I hope

he makes a speedy recovery. I hope the doctors are wrong, and I hope

he is able to walk one day. Gotta hit a little off-standing after that.

Shout-out to our first and last time listeners. I salute y'all. Shout-out to all

the ladies listening. Hey! Can tell he's back

on the market. The market is funny.

Rory missed the market. I've strolled by

the farmer's market. Hey, huh? Got a

couple of winks. It looks active over

there. A lot of produce. Very active.

Very. A lot of produce. All right.

Hut hut.

You can see why y'all never went

to Juilliard. Juilliard? A lot of people

never went to Juilliard. NYU. Where else

they didn't go? LaGuardia. I mean, mic

check, one, two, one, two. Oh, man.

Is this how Sweetie? More than fine.

Okay, good. Listen, out of respect for

Quavo, I don't even double tap those.

I don't even double tap those like

all you guys name I see on

my baby mom's page when I go

on Esther page last week It's a statute of limitations.

It's just showing love. Nah, nah, nah. It's a statute of limitations. Corey, my man,

Monopoly every week. It's a statute of limitations. I caught him on Esther giving some

likes out. I'm like, hey, Cor. It's a statute of limitations. That's always funny when

you catch a man out there. What's this? Nah, nigga. The statute of limitations. What's

the statute? Three years. Three girlfriends. Three girlfriends? Nah, fuck out of here. Damn, bro.

I'm roaring. We got heat. We got action. Nah, see? Nah, that's forever? Forever. And

ever, ever? Yes. And ever, ever? You could like the cool pics. But not like

the sexy pics. Not the sexy ones? Like, oh, you're doing some cool shit with

your life. Okay. Like that. But when she's showing the thigh or the gym workouts.

And even girls that like publicly I didn't let the world know. You still can't

like those neither. Damn. It's rough, man. Damn. Can't like the hidden gems? Those are

the ones that hurt. They hurt the most. The public don't even know we was

a thing. You was mine. We had something. Yeah, you just going about the course

of your day? Oh, man. The whole world calling her fire in the comments. I

know. I know. The sadness in that tone. I just never... You never could let

you know that I knew. I was trying to keep it a secret. Oh, man.

That's some funny shit. Yeah, but shout out to Sweetie matching the bucket hat to

the bikini. Bucket though, you know how she do. and stop liking sends new

music posts i don't know i'm kidding i'm kidding i'm supporting it shout out

to my baby mom stream that yeah oh yeah oh you're not stream that

costume the co-parent support the co-parent support is all right like listen man no

matter how you feel about me we got a bid here yeah there's a

bid that's a fact um All right. What else is important in

the universe? Nothing, right? No, it's a lot important. A lot of

important things. A lot of important issues. A lot of important transactions

happening. Or a lot of important transactions not happening. How you feeling,

man? You okay? I'm great. You good? Life is great. Parks? Yeah,

man. Life is good. Transactions. That's it. Erickson, you all right over

there? Um. What did I just call you over there? Don what?

Don Browse. Don Browse. Don Browse. Don Browse. And look at his eyebrows.

Why are your eyebrows pretty, nigga? He went to the same kiosk you

were sitting at. Hey, scruffle him up, nigga. Since he's glazed. Save one

was at Roosevelt Field. Yeah, all night's eyebrows are weird pink over here.

It's salmon. All right, listen, man. Seven episodes left. Mm-hmm.

Lucky number seven. I have put this off long enough, but I'm

nothing but a humble servant of the people. And the Lord. And

the Lord. I am nothing but the Lord's shepherd and messenger. So

it's important for me to venture out. Take the call right now.

Look at God call. That's Spotify? No, not right now. Yo, yo.

Hold up. This is Joe Budden from the Joe

Budden Podcast. Who might I be speaking with

on this fine evening? What are you talking

about? Who's them people back there? Hey, Angie.

I'm recording my podcast right now so that those are my beautiful No, no, it's

fine it's fine you the voice in New York you don't have to have it

Listen I got around the way to although the other night a little late you

wasn't you wasn't moving and shaking But I was moving and shaking out there. We're

older moving and shaking night. I No, we were out there. We went there. Then

we went across the street to the other spot. Then we went to the spot

that you and me were going to. I need some of that. I do. You

didn't call me. You should have told me. I was right there. No, no. Well,

I still need some of that and we should do that. Is that what you

were calling me about? Well, that and a couple of other things. But call me

when you're done. Okay. I'll call you later. Okay, bye. Bye. Well. I love Angie

Martinez. And because I love her so much, I would have never used that opportunity

to ask her about Patty Duke. Of course. No, no, no. That's not that. Ang

is my sis. I know some of y'all are listening, saying, hey, what was up

with that? Let me tell you. Ang is just like me. Yeah. She hates all

this shit. She don't want to talk about it. She don't want to be talking

publicly. Yeah. She hates people. I love Ang. Ang is my Ang. I love you.

I love you. I love you. Now, with that said, where was I? I can

put this, I can put it off no longer, Rory. Slow down. You got it.

We got, listen, we have seven episodes left. Let me hit a round of applause.

Let me know, you know what I mean? Well, when you say that, because a

lot of people, they hit us in our mentions and they ask, what does that

mean? So just tell them what that means. Even my own mom keeps asking, what

does it mean? Tell them what that means. Do they? Yeah. Yeah. Me and my

mom had that conversation over the weekend. That's interesting when you get toward the end

of your contract and have to keep your mom abreast with things. My mom is

into shit she would have never been into. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. That's

on Rogan. Put up a post. No, no, no. I'm with you. I'm with you.

My mom is very clear about everything that's going on. I'm like, but how do

you know? What's wrong with you? So listen, it's important that we talk through some

of this stuff. And before I get into any of that, yeah, man, Don Browse,

pop champagne, pop champagne, pop champagne. I don't want anything that I'm about to say

to be lost. This is such a celebration. This is such a celebration. Before I

start, I want to thank y'all, all of y'all here. I know I have done

that in the past, but... We do this thing, man. Yeah. We do this thing.

Yeah. And we come in here and we talk about a lot of shit that

maybe some of the time we don't even want to get into. But the commitment,

the commitment, when you speak to new podcasters, the one of the things that they

have trouble with early is the actual commitment. Yes. The commitment from you guys through

thick and thin, no matter the hurdle. I know we joke around a lot. That

can't be understated. So I recognize that and I thank y'all because without y'all, I

would be unable to make some of the tough decisions that I'm forced to make.

So let me explain it for the people that have no idea what I mean

when I say there's seven episodes left. Thank you, Joe, before you go on. Thank

you. You should get some thanks in this thank you fest. It's a thank

you fest? Thank you, Jam. The thank you Jam band? Yeah, man. Come on, come

on, come on. Yeah. Listen, we are approaching what seven episodes left means is we

are approaching the end of our Spotify contract. And for me, that's really, it's an

important milestone to note because I got to be honest with y'all in a moment

of transparency. Let me pause it right there if you are listening to this podcast

for the normal banner and jokes and stupid shit you have to fast forward for

a little bit because this is a this is a sir this is a public

service announcement um at the beginning of this contract I was fearful I might have

mentioned this here before I didn't know how to podcast a week we're going to

produce yeah that was the biggest thing at first I didn't know if we would

be able to to produce at such a high volume twice a

week for two years straight. And it was a risk. It was

risk assessment involved in that that we took on. August 20th, not

August, September 23rd. What seven episodes left means is that September 23rd,

this podcast, new episodes of this podcast will no longer be available

on Spotify exclusively. September 23rd,

I cannot tell you where this podcast will be. As

it stands, I can tell you where it will not

be. And that is Spotify. I know, I know, you

guys. Whoa. The backlash. The questions. How could this be?

You were number one. Yeah. I understand. No, we were

17. Last week 17 I Understand it's important for me to open it's important for

me to open some of these doors and report back to the people again I'm

a humble servant of people. So let's let's let's let's let's paint a picture Let's

start at let's start at two years ago two years ago before this contract began

and again I'm only I'm only gonna offer my perspective of things here across this

timeline. I As I said earlier, there are a trillion

different perspectives to every singular moment. And this is just mine. Two

years ago, let's talk about what the market and podcasting looked like

two years ago. From my perspective, there were many of us that

were trying to figure out where the money would come from.

Lot of us went into ads but to get in the ad business

you kind of have to know ad People and many of us creators

do not At that time. I was really hype about the mid-roll deal

that we were about to close mid-roll ad company fast-forward mid-roll has recently

sold yeah, but that's another story for another time mid-roll deal two years

ago and That's when, in my story, you guys were fucking

fighting me down about the title offer that I was saying we

shouldn't take. I know you guys' story is different there. It's fine.

And Spotify calls. Spotify calls. I rushed to L.A. And this is,

it's important to note that a lot of us podcasters had information

questions about the data along with economics questions. Mm-hmm. um at

that time these exclusive deals weren't such a phenomenon it was

a very new idea so i go to la we sit

in the mondrian and it's me and it's ian and it's

carl cherry and it's about three other people from spotify staff

and they begin to tell me about a vision that they

have for podcasting and at the time that vision was very much aligned

and in line with mine right also important to note that this spotify

deal was done as a whole to gain information to see what it

felt like when you were able to centralize most of your entire audience

to one specific dsp that would help us determine the true value of

what we're out here doing and without us actually being able to go

inside the house we can all look at the house from outside of it and

say it's pretty but if we don't go inside the house we just not gonna

know what the moldings look like the picture that they were paying was of a

company that was kind of in a disarray and was uncertain of what the future

held why could that why would that possibly be expensive to operate because the licensing

costs i would imagine For music? You guessed it. Because music labels receive

70% of all income. That's not Joe saying it, that's public knowledge. That's

written in plenty of stories prior to this deal happening. Insert podcasting. Talk

about a low overhead. Talk about projections that in the next five years

we're through the roof. in um in comparison to some

of the radio ads talk about keeping a consumer on an app

for a longer amount of time than music ever could yeah the

people at this meeting begin to tell me about this huge plan

they had for podcasting and first up the bat was who you

guessed it amy schumer our label mate Already that's a bit

disturbing to Joe. Again, this is only my perspective. Already that's a little concerning to

Joe because you're fucking the market up. You, who this move says knows very little

about the market, easily can disturb it. Remember I came in here a bunch of

podcasts ago and I said I'm mad that Will Smith's getting in the content game

and y'all laughed at me and called me crazy and said, why? That's why. Because

when celebrities enter a field... It skews the market for the rest

of us. And I'm saying us as if I'm not a celebrity, but not on

that magnitude. You know what I'm saying? So Spotify is telling me we have Amy

Schumer and they begin to divulge. They had grandiose plans of Amy Schumer leading off

the exclusive deal and then me following up. In my head, I'm thinking this is

two different audiences. I understand. But boy, this is fucked up because Amy Schumer isn't

a podcaster. Not only is she not a podcaster, she's a

celebrity who I just watched go on this long rant about wage pay disparity at

Netflix. That's what was going on at that time. She was beefing. Oh, it's raining.

God know I'm about to. Yeah, that's right. She was she was. Sky just opened

up. Whatever. I just say it. I'm saying, no, it just happened. Yeah, that's right.

So so they had really high expectations of this. And all of this is great.

But I have to tell y'all that the corporate people go

off of numbers. As a creator, all we have to go

off is energy. So even while all of that good shit

is being proposed at that Mondrian lobby table, you know what

I'm thinking? You guessed it. Hey, what happened to Tuma? We

can't even really talk about no business between us before I

know what took place with my brother, Tuma. Tuma, for

the people unaware, built hip-hop's biggest playlist at Spotify, Rap

Caviar. And again, I'm not divulging anything that's private. This

all played out publicly. He built that playlist, argued with

Spotify about... Who owns it? What should happen being

paid properly from an IP that you birthed? That's right! Yes!

From an IP that you birthed. They didn't resolve that. That

was odd to me that you could create the biggest streaming

playlist and not be compensated. So I asked and I got

some little bullshit runaround story. Wasn't really important. Oh the

tumor thing we can't get into it's complicated Cool that tells me

all I need to know whole situation inspired the album I'm working

on now they then present an offer for this podcast and From

the rip I have to tell you I was aware that they

were valuing Valuing improperly they didn't know and But that was

cool. I knew they didn't know because they had just told me that

they had an Amy Schumer podcast that was coming that was going to

blow through the wall. So it's cool. They don't know. Fine. Here we

go. Load them up. Launch date. Joe Budden podcast. Amy Schumer podcast. What

happens? You guessed it. Amy Schumer has underperformed. Whatever you projected for Amy

Schumer happens. It didn't quite reach wherever you hoped it

would. Our podcast, I don't know what you projected. We're 900% above

your projections. For the people listening along at home, what 900% above

your projections means is we've recouped in hour one. Remember that Jordan

doc where they was talking about his Nike deal? We blew through

the projections. That's what we did. Day one. Hey, the site crashed

when we launched. We had to call them. Biggest streaming. Eight in the morning

and say, say Vaughn, right? And say, yo, maybe y'all don't understand how this

audience works, but they're serious about their shit. And now you're late. And there's

a lot of them. They had to make some major changes. But if you

think they were not watching, While all of you were tweeting

your dismay, you're wrong. Broke the system. Awesome. When was that?

That's when we launched. For me, it begged the question, what's

a kingmaker and who's a kingmaker? Is it the person that

actually built the kingdom or is it the person in charge

of running the kingdom? What is you guys' answer to that?

Say it one more time. Sorry. Kingmaker who is a kingmaker

gatekeeper? We have that gatekeeper conversation a bunch in this podcast All right, but let's

change it from gatekeeper to King maker Who is the actual King maker here the

person that builds the kingdom or the person that actually runs it? To an extent

both I think you need a if you build the kingdom then actually you are

the king But um, you also have to run the kingdom as well to an

extent both right when the system crashed Spotify was totally unaware of

what our fanfare would bring to their platform right we

are now at a crossroads mm-hmm agree agree yes absolutely

that that's what I'm prepared for yeah if Spotify we're

getting 30% of music income because all of the labels

had a deal in place with Spotify again public information

then low overhead projection boosting podcasting would seem like it

could be a resolution but from amy schumer something that

did not work inserting a celebrity into podcast land you

might be hesitant to spend insert y'all insert the joe

budden podcast and what do you have i think successful

business model i think you have that doesn't say anything i think you have the

guinea pig of a market you have interest in bringing into your system but you

don't fully understand how that market works you have no idea so you take that

market works so you take someone that is established in that market and use them

to see if this podcast thing is worth us putting money into how do

we how do we monetize it let's just use this from an analytical perspective of

a well-established podcast you're 100 correct rory you are you are on the money with

that date did did they purchase gimlet after offers we're gonna get to gimlet we're

not even nowhere near that yet let's get back to rory uh whatever rory just

say uh you have a company that is interested in oh you are absolutely

correct but as podcasters and creatives we never know right because it takes the

addition of you pardon me plus technology to see the true value two things

i've said all well one thing i've said a bunch in this podcast is

in my business travels they have sat me across from a lot of well-educated

people And some of y'all know my history and my backstory. I

dropped out in the 10th grade. It wasn't for me. My education may be

limited. My knowledge is not. All you got to do is know how to

spot a liar. We get that from the underground level. We get that from

like The bottom of the bottom because we come from the bottom of the bottom.

I break America up into tiers. It's the bottom of the bottom. It's the middle

class. It's the high class. We have a few tricks when we come from the

mud. It's part of survival. When we get it from the mud... You're forced to

realize things for survival that other people may not realize. And those things come across...

When you start dealing with the higher class and in business, not just in the

mud, those things still translate over and you realize them quicker because you come from

a place that you have to survive to know these type of qualities and realize

these things quick because you could be compromised with your life physically, not just in

a bad business deal. So we get back to what is a stream worth, our

age old question. And that's an important question to podcasters, especially because in music they

have set the rules. Right. And the rules are in place for three minute bodies

of work in podcasting. We at ours. You are on. So I'm highlighting some

of the confused. I'm I'm I'm just highlighting for the audience why you want

to go into two years ago. You want to go into an exclusive deal

with somebody who's assuring you you'll get all the information and analytics that you

need. But because I come from the bottom, my analogy is the strip club for

the people that are having a hard time understanding and following me. We've all been,

right? Yeah. A few times. On occasion. A dabble. What is every trip in a

strip club? What is your every trip to the strip club worth to the strip

club? Parks, what is your every trip to the strip club actually worth to the

strip club? I present the same question to Rory and any other gentleman that has

lived here. I'm getting a plate of lasagna. Oh, please. I'm buying alcohol before I

even throw money at it. It's priceless. For the people that don't know what I'm

saying, and I'm admitting to some things here because I've been in the strip club

quite a bit. I've spoken to the women that work it. I've spoken to the

men that work it. the strip club you are taxed at every

corner without knowing paper towel in the bathroom hey you ain't

even got a pee yet yeah getting the door pull up

ain't no door valet you're paying aggressive pat down the door

you're paying the coat check you're paying the food on display

right after you're paying The drinks, you're paying plus the surcharge. The

hundreds that you order, you're paying plus the surcharge. Every hundred is 90. Table.

The hundred is 90. Yeah. It puts you in that weird predicament of, hey,

do I pay the ATM the fee or do I pay the strip club

the fee? Which the ATM fees are triple what they are. The bartenders are

beautiful. You're going to keep ordering drinks. I'm taxing the bartenders.

I'm taxing the strippers. I'm taxing the DJ

at every single turn you're being taxed. That

was my analogy for the audience that we

brought to Spotify, an unproven prospect and platform,

because this is a music platform, in podcasting.

The way that they made the podcasting market sound because

be advised, this is all a market share game. Two

years ago, Apple controlled it. All of it. Without their

knowledge. Hey, by mishap. Yeah. We got hardware and other shit over here. Listen,

we just getting taxed too much money. We own all that shit. Podcast app has

been on the iPhone 3 when you bought it. Yep. They without knowing were holding

that market share. Yeah, I don't want to make this sound. I don't want

to make this sound as if it's a bad thing at all. Trust me. This

isn't a shit on type segment. This is a great thing. We both ran into

the small percentage that we never thought we would. Two years ago, they told me

that if they were able to get to 3%, 4%, 5% of the podcasting market,

then that this would be unbelievable shit. It was almost unattainable. Right. That's how much

of the market share Apple owned. So that's what they said two years ago. The

small percentage that we would have never guessed would happen is we hit all that

shit. Right. I can't tell you that at the lobby in the Mondrian. All I

can tell you is you're projecting wrong. You don't understand podcasting and just move out

of my way. Move out of my way and let us do what we have

to do. That's my problem to the two things that you said in this whole

segment executives Focusing just on the numbers and then the word value Because the amount

of people that we brought to Spotify in the podcast market in the information they

got from it back to the strip club is it's invaluable back to the strip

price on that all you have to you don't know how many people you have

to put in the strip club for the strip club to turn a profit yeah,

I You might walk in and say, this shit is horrible. It's 100 people here.

On the back end, the strip club is thriving with 100 people in there. 20

of those people are athletes. They done fucking threw money in the air for five

hours today. We got this. We got this here. But let's get off of that

for a minute. The strip club, we brought the people to the party. The people

was y'all. Round of applause for y'all. Yes, always. Hold up. Round of applause for

y'all. Thank you. Y'all's contribution should not get lost in what's going on here. And

a lot of times we may feel so insignificant, we may think that we don't

have a grand effect on the totality of things. I'm here to tell you, you

would be incorrect. That is wrong. Let me get back to year one. Strip

club analogy Amy Schumer fails from my perspective we fill

up we fill up the strip club 900% above projection

for star tenders This is year one of our contract. Year one of

our contract. Year one of our contract. Gentlemen, how long do you think it took

them to figure out that this was a really profitable business? I'm asking you. You

fucking guessed it. Instantaneously. Instantaneously. Hey, listen. Crooked Eye told me that I need to

honor my contracts. Crooked Eye told me that I can't be upset with a contract.

I should honor it out. And as a black man in this country, you

know what I live with? I live with you being afraid of my response

to anything. Right. Let that not be lost here. The systematic oppression part is

huge. Let me not show these people. Let me not act like I don't

know how to finish out a contract. Right. Like I'm not professional enough

to be here. That goes back to the evolution. This is all just the evolution

of Joe and Spotify. This is all cause for toast and we toasting soon. Four

months later, exactly four months later, do you know what happened? You fucking guessed it.

A Gimlet acquisition. Hmm. Talk about harkening back to my fear

of being able to produce two podcasts a week and stay number

one two times a week. February 2019, Gimlet, $250 million. Gimlet is

a company. They have a million podcasts. At Def Jam, I learned

this. See, and that's the problem with these fucking DSPs. I come

from music, fam. Some of these rules that y'all are

trying to put into effect, it's an old game. It's an old game.

I come from music, which means I've been robbed and scammed for 18

years of my career in a game that I had no say so

on the rules that were being put in place. Podcasting, not so much,

buddy. This is new ground. All you niggas is new here.

Spotify, my contract with y'all, I helped design it. Y'all didn't

know. There's an entire ecosystem here that you have to respect.

Have to. If you looking to feed the soil. See, everybody's

not looking to feed the soil. Some are just looking to

take the fruit. Right. Gimlet comes. 250. Guess what? We took

our little money guys. None of y'all complain. None of y'all said nothing to

me. We didn't do what the average artist would do in that position because

what we've been taught to do in this position is while the leverage is

at an all-time high, threaten stoppage of work. The market at the time, two

years ago, quickly changed. Two years ago, podcasters didn't know where to go to

get a bag. We didn't have the relationships. Hey, a few

months in, everybody was giving out a bag. It's the reason most of

you podcasters are rushing, searching for a deal with some high numbers to

fucking announce. You don't value the freedom the way that you should. We'll

get to that part later. Gimlet comes February 2019, April 2019. You know

what else comes? You fucking guessed it. Podcast. Slow down, buddy. You now

telling me that the Joe Budden podcast worked and in

an attempt to scale up, go find another one. Any one.

Just one. And we rocking. You now hire Gimlet, who produces

podcasts in a mass, in a mass abundance. And in April...

You purchase, purchase to own, purchase podcasts. Podcasts, if you're unfamiliar, is

a technology that you need to make a podcast. Tell me what

that says to y'all while I'm quiet, not saying a word. Oh,

wait, I got to rewind. I got to rewind. I made a

huge mistake in the story. Before I took the short

from y'all, because I was in it for the branding and the

information. Before I took the short from y'all, when I leave Complex,

what happened was I got millions from everywhere. Don't paint me out

to be Hit-Boy here. I'm not clout chasing. Don't do that. And

neither was he. I love Hit-Boy, followed him even. I did it.

I did it. I did it. I did it. I'm following him. I'm not cloud

chasing. That's important to note because this is all poker and monopoly. So what I'm

saying is when you don't have the finances, sometimes you may take a deal that's

not valued the way that you see it valued. You follow me? Yeah, of course.

So I closed that Spotify deal at whatever we got. I won't get into numbers.

I have NDAs everywhere. I'ma get fired. I took

that deal and you know what happened after that? I got

M's from everywhere. Everywhere. I used to be so confused when

Drake said, "Your first million is the hardest to get and

the rest of them come easy." I was home with $20

saying, "How could it be?" It's true. One million puts you

in different rooms. That's a fact. It gives

you some different relationships. Sorry. I learned this is what I'm

saying. Spotify deal came. We took it. Branding and information. And

in the meantime, Joe got an M. M. It was raining

M's. M from Viacom. M from Revolt. M from over here.

M from over there. It was lit. Know what it told me? Whoa, uh-oh, something's

wrong. Something's wrong. Something's wrong. My time is my inventory. My time is my inventory.

What I'm spending the most time on is my podcast. For me, it's my most

valuable asset. Also, for me right now, I'm being paid the least in it. Man.

I'm being paid the least in it. In my most valuable

asset. And not numbers. Not numbers. Again. Time.

It's 102 episodes a year. I beat that

doing eight pull-ups. That's crazy. I beat that

doing X amount of loving hip-hops. I beat

it everywhere. Revolt. I get paid more than

this shit. Joe is great. Changes things a

bit. Sure. Changes a few things. Yeah. It's hard

to play poker broke, Parks. Yeah. If you don't have any money and you're at

that poker table, I don't care what hand you have. You're going to think for

a second. Yeah. Because you can't lose. Oh! All of these M's came. And granted,

I understand that. Because the greater that Joe does outside this podcast, this podcast does

great. Like, I get it. It goes hand in hand. Listen, it's no beef. No

beef there. But you paid Gimlet $250. April came. 2019, you gave Parcast $250. You

have a whole streaming farm of podcasts. You run Blank Air Podcast today. Doesn't matter

because everything is cool in year one. Our numbers are going through the roof.

We are rocking. We are number one so much so We

get approached eight months into a two-year deal to say hey,

we would like to further business I'm applauding you guys. I'm

applauding you for the foresight of Recognizing a profitable business and

looking to lock in way ahead of time. Mm-hmm. That's awesome

But it wasn't a podcast deal. It was a podcast deal.

It was a pull-up deal and It was a Rory album deal. Whatever Maul

went and did on the side, it was a Maul deal. We own 50% of

that. Parks, you and GIF, throw that shit out the window. We own all of

your shit, Eric. You're saying you're not taping nothing, are you? Because we own that

too. That's what happened eight months into this contract. Know what I said? It's silly.

Why would I acknowledge this when any graph that you pull up It's to the

moon for us. They all up all the way up that Joe Remy Ma

Hey, any graph is all the way up. Hey, you know what? I said

no quickly brashly abrasively No, do me a favor. Don't present that to me

again. It's common sense. I have a year left on this deal Yeah, if

you're offering me seven figures now for all of this bullshit Why would I

not wait the year? To see what's going on. Master P gave

it to you on Solange album. It's the same thing. I can't

quote this, but it seems they didn't like that. Of course not.

You don't say. I could be wrong in that. Ian and I

felt like they didn't like that. We could not confirm that. And

that was in July, August. A year ago. 2019. 2019. I'm

just painting the timeline from my perspective. September 2019, our

one-year anniversary. I was expecting a raise. Are we going

to get into the whole thing? Hey, real niggas would

have tore this contract up in month one and done

right. Yes, that's what would have happened. We have earned

you nine figures. Mm-hmm. I don't need to get

into the how, but I'm telling you for fact, we

have earned nine figures, not low, not one. In sports,

this contract should have been ripped up. It wasn't. September

comes, we're owed a bonus because there's benchmarks there. We

have been number one for a year straight. $500,000

just bonus just because. Guess what happened in September? God damn

it, you guessed it. Not a bonus in sight. I was

confused. Any right decision that I've ever made in business only

comes from something not feeling right and making me ask questions.

Other than that, I'm still just this 10th grade dropout without

any information. But the smart people are stupid. So when we

don't get a bonus in September, a year after being number one, I

say, what happened? And they give me a bunch of bullshit about the

difference between a start, a stream, a unique start, and however the hell's

fuck you calculating some shit. Who the fuck are y'all? I come from

the music business. Know what that is eerily similar to? 1500

streams making a sale. Says who?

Walk me to his office. I'm off. Take off.

Now, where you at? The third floor? No, no, no. Come on. Let's go. Explain

this to me. That's real shit. I want to talk to him. We didn't get

a raise in September. Guess what? I got fucking Crooked Eye's voice stuck in my

head. You honor a contract. I got Ian's voice stuck in my head. You honor

a contract. You show these people that you professional no matter what your personal grievances

may be. Hmm. Because that's when they paint you as threatening. I've spoken to enough

bill collectors to know how this goes. Hey, fuck y'all. Oh, they said, oh, you're

getting irate. Gotta go. You don't need to curse. September comes, we don't get a

bonus. It's cool. I don't ask. Start streams, unique starts, whatever. Listen, I am also

watching the numbers and I can assure you what we are doing in consumption and

retention is isn't that matched by many? That's a fact. Some

of y'all are wondering why I kept this thing three hours

for two years. Some of y'all have listened to us talk

about Parks collard greens. There's a fucking reason that I'm sitting here

talking for three hours because the past two years have been nothing but a fucking

case study. I'm watching. I'm watching. I'm watching. How long will they stay? They stay

until the last hour. I come from hip hop. I know what

that means for advertising. I'm sorry if I'm losing some of y'all that are here

from the jokes. Come back to us on Saturday. We'll get to it. I promise

you. This is important because there's too many podcasters and creatives out there being led

astray and making the same mistakes for 70 fucking years. Where was that? They did

what? After year anniversary. Year anniversary. Well, we'll leave out the watches and vacation.

No, we won't, Rory. No, we won't. No, we won't. This is a two-year

review. That's fucking dope. That was in September. In December, you know what happened?

The same thing that they've been doing to us in the music industry for

our entire lives is taking all the money and giving you a fucking plaque.

Mm-hmm. Look at this shiny thing you can hang on your wall.

They put out a chart. Y'all are number one. The fans applauded. We

rejoiced. We did that shit. What did we do? Nothing. It's a blink

stat. Put a name on a chart. It doesn't mean a thing.

If your number one act for a year and a half was unable to meet

the bonus, something is skewed. Something is off. What are you basing this off of?

We're number one. We didn't hit a bonus. Fuck the bonus. I don't know what

number two is. What's three? If I'm in the league and I'm the Raptors, number

one record in the East, guess what? I know what number two is behind me.

We didn't get any of that. None of it happened. Not only number one

for exclusive deals for podcasting period on their site. It's two different charts. Yeah.

That's important. Not just the exclusive Spotify stuff. All right, whatever. We'll be number

one there. Right. Who knows what that is. Number one on podcasting period on

Spotify. Stupid me, right? Because I come from the bottom. So like...

I never decided to manage an artist though plenty of them asked because I

didn't believe in the system that I would be walking them into and it

would be difficult for me to sleep at night knowing that you're just in

the wrong infrastructure. Right. And that's kind of the same thing here. It's hard

to guide someone through something you disagree with. For me and my personal goals,

I'll just tell y'all some of my personal goals. For me, it's about building

a network. For me, it's about having quite

a few of these. And if I can't bring them to somebody that's

gonna value that properly and respectfully, then I'm the small percentage of podcasters

that will say no to the money and not bring it to you.

Be very clear, the money I'm talking about turning down and that I

walked away from is substantial. It is more money than I have ever

been privy to in my entire life. I've never touched it. I've never

had conversations about it. Guess what? So? Right. It's not right. Right. September comes, cool,

we don't get a bonus. We in year two, this is where things get interesting.

Christmas comes, podcast charts come out. We number one, the fans are going crazy. Spotify

is going crazy. Everybody's going crazy but me. I want to know what number two,

three, four, and five is. What's Gimlet doing? Y'all just gave him a quarter billy.

What's podcast? Oh, what's podcast doing? You just gave my hunnit. 56 million, whatever you

gave. I don't give a fuck what you gave him. I know what you gave

us. And because I come from music, I know that I could be working a

Pump It Up at radio and Def Jam be working a Put It On Me

and what these bitches want. And you're in direct competition with your label mates. Of

course. Please don't get that twisted. Hey, if you're an athlete, when you're on the

floor with your teammates, the other team is pitting you against your teammates. It's all

an area in which to be judged is what I'm saying. I hope I'm not

losing people out there. I hope y'all follow me. This stuff is very important. Eric,

see anything I'm losing? All right, cool, cool, cool, cool. What happens next? Oh, my

fucking God. I bet you by golly, wow. No, 'cause all of

this shit is cool. This is the normal, this is like normal

shit. We all come from music. This ain't new to us, niggas

trying to rob us. We know what this is. But in December,

but in December it gets interesting. It's Christmas, holidays. New Year's is

coming. Easter's coming. Valentine's Day is coming. True. Most

important. Man. Arbor Day. Man, shit is coming. We sat in this fucking small,

tiny living room and said, hey, you guys, we've been busting our ass two

pods a week. We have been going hard out. I'm so proud of y'all.

We have showed up and turned out at every turn twice a week. Yeah, Savon's

not wrong either. New Year's Eve is coming. Christmas is coming. Let's get a vacation.

Why don't y'all highlight some of the days that we went off so we can

come back January 1 recharged, full of the right podcasting energy. Because again, I'm still

on energy here. They can go off numbers. I'm on energy. And we took the

time and we highlighted those dates and I submitted them. Yeah. That

shit was crazy. Nah, fam. Nah. I'm going to get tight again. I kind of

wish you didn't even bring this part up. I'm going to get tight again. Rory,

I can assure you, I promise you. Listen, do you trust me? Of course.

There's nothing to be tight about. That shit. There's nothing to be... In December. I

want to assure you, gentlemen, before you get angry, there is nothing to be tight

about. And we'll get to that. We'll get to that later. We pick out some

vacation time. Were we ambitious in that? I don't even think so. No, no, no.

It was one, two. No, we weren't missing more than three episodes. Yeah. Yeah.

Maybe. Marks might even be right. It might have been two episodes. Yeah, I think

it was two. I think we were trying to plan it to miss like a

Friday to a Friday, but whatever. No, no. Y'all wrong. Because he was going to

pre-record. We wanted New Year's Eve off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, we were going to

pre-record, but the bottom line, we wanted New Year's Eve off. We wanted Christmas off.

New Year's Eve, I think, fell on the actual day we recorded. Yeah, yeah. Those

we stayed away from. Mm-hmm. And I submitted that vacation time. Vacation, we need it.

Two pods a week. Three hours long. We need a break. We need a break.

We need a break. Yo, we want Christmas over. It's a no. We need a

break. Nah, son. Yeah, like we have families. Nah. Nah. Fuck your families, B. Yo,

you know the family thing? Nah. Fuck that. Fuck your family. Fuck your family.

You don't get me mad. Niggas couldn't get a Christmas. Nope. No wonder the

household is in shambles. No one to send left. Yeah. Now it all makes

sense. Oh, come on. Come on. I'm sitting there married. I got to work.

I got to work. No, you don't. No, you don't. I submitted those days

for a vacation. Let me stop playing around. And what I got back was,

nah. Nah. No. You don't need those. Like, why are you trying

to take a vacation? Everyone else is off. You guys need to be on. Listen,

no, I understand it's Christmas and New Year's Eve. Maybe there's a way you can

pre-record something. Just put it out there. I mean, you don't want your audience to

just go let it stray. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You white people are not

telling me about how my audience acts, right? Wait, who do you think know my

audience better, me or you? They say no. Wasn't so

upset about the vacation time I can work for years straight I don't have a

personal life like so my job is my job is this my my off time

is my job and Like, I work. I work. I get to it. We're fortunate

enough to, our work is what we like. Oh, we get right to work. Listen,

I'm fortunate enough to be able to come sit on the couch, talk to my

friends, and be paid for it. I don't take that for granted. That was our

attitude towards it. Yeah, yeah, we coming to work. But on the flip side of

that, boy, was it telling. Boy, was it telling what it said to Joe after

your Gimlet and Parcast acquisitions we need to recoup

was y'all can't afford for us to go on vacation yeah we can pause right

there because i know that sounds really stupid to think of that that sounds dumb

at first that a fortune whatever company one of the biggest companies needs little ass

us that's real for their overall numbers and for the people confused by that let

me just add a little bit and i missed a huge part that i'm going

to go back to but let me add some of that right now

Spotify never cared about this podcast individually. Don't be angry at

that. It's fine. It's great. Spotify only cared about our contribution

to the platform. So when we're talking about ads, however many

months in, because that was my fight six months in. Six

months in, they delivered an ad back to M's raining everywhere

and Joe getting millions just from taking a shit.

They came back with some ads for us to put throughout our

podcast and the ads were like I won't say the companies because

I'm respectful and professional but it was something like over the course

of six to eight episodes You get a hundred and fifty grand

for a company that you may not endorse. This is solely ad

related here eight episodes 150 grand some of you that are familiar with my story

the ad fight was my fight at complex it's how i ended up at spotify

if they would have just done any due diligence they would realize all this but

no what i had to tell them was no i'm not taking your bullshit ad

because you are devaluing me personally in the market space and that didn't even make

sense as far as our Listener shipping. Yeah, but even if they found one that

made sense parks Even if you name something that Rory loves and you come and

say eight episodes 150,000 and Joe is getting 1.5 for seven episodes You can see

something is off here, right? I turned them all down turn every ad that they

brought this way. I turned it down I said you were devaluing me outside of

this system and I cannot allow it unbeknownst to me and I'm sharing this with

you guys and I don't think there was ever a plan to

get advertising correct. Complex when my fight was ads, they always blame it on our

ad team sucks. When I got to Spotify, I thought that the ad team, this

is Spotify, so you got to have an ad team that's fruitful. We got the

hottest podcasts and streets. This combination, if you want to know Joe's calculations, just off

our ad split, I expected y'all to be millionaires in year one. Yep.

Well, if we do a 55% sell-through rate of ads

on a three-hour product that's holding retention well into the

second hour. Yeah, that's insane. And I know what our

splits say in our contracts. Y'all about to get paid.

We all... Yeah. It's lit. That did not happen. Spotify painted that as if

they were doing me a favor by saying we're going to dead all that. We're

not going to come to you with no ads. We're not going to come to

you with advertisers. We're going to let y'all do what you think because the listener

experience is important. The listener experience is important. It's all I've ever thought about. Hey,

some of you that listen to podcasts out there will now see your favorite podcast.

The listening experience is interrupted quite a bit. Yeah. This is probably one

of the only podcasts where you don't hear ad nowhere, but everybody's paid. Yeah.

It's because I guard this thing. You can't just come and pillage this thing.

Back to year two, December comes. December comes. We don't get a bonus in September.

I'm spilling all the business. December comes. Know what they say after they put their

little fucking chart out that has us at number one that I don't give two

fucks about that they maybe think I do? They say, you guessed it, we would

like to offer a token of our appreciation. You guys have been

killing this shit. Killing meaning we are still number one out of over

500,000 podcasts. That's important. Don't get my self-deprecation fucked up when I come

in here and just joke around with my friends. I am well aware

of our stature in the marketplace. I don't discuss it because it's business

shit. Dan, where was that? Number one out of 500,000. Number one out

of 500,000. Hey, we want to offer you a token of our appreciation. Can we

get you guys watches, Rolexes, ball out? I love Rolex. It took me 10 years

to get the Rolex I have on my wrist. Hey, I even bought fake Rolexes

until I was able to get me a Rolex. That was up to my fucking

stature. So when they said that, what did we all go do? Come on, y'all

can share. Don't be embarrassed. Before that, they was talking about... Marwin picked out something

with a bevy. Diamonds on Mar's shit. Mar picked out the greatest Harlem Rolex you

could possibly pick out. Come on. He had the globe in the face. And that

was being subtle. I was going to say the all gold AP. But I was

like, You know what I mean? Let me just chill. That was the chill

look. That was the chill look. You know what I mean? That's what I'm saying.

Hey, we all gave them the chill look. The most subtle joint. I had the

little green face joint. We were humbled. Like I could have bought. We were humbled.

Oh, come on. I got to drop T. Don't hurt him. I got to give

him the T. You got it from here. Yay, damn. Hey. Was Ye killin'? No.

He was chillin' actually. He was calm. No. "Oh, K.O. Chill, Ye!" He wasn't

even... He wasn't hype? "I got it from here, Ye damn!" Like, "Ye was

my fam, I was eatin' fuckin' cheese and crackers. I wasn't even goin'." Yo,

no but... Is his blood diamonds? Don't lie to me, man. No but... He

didn't ask Jacob that. Jacob just got out of jail, Kanye, for

selling fake diamonds. And what are you talking about? Is they Jacob?

Don't lie to me, man. Kanye, Jacob's lying to you. It's okay.

They're not even diamonds. They're little diamonds. It was glass. No, the funny part about

that is, Hov didn't care what that song was about. That song was about Blood

Diamond, Sierra Leone. Yeah, no. Kanye was getting on his deep shit. Like, it was

a cool record. And they're like, nah, I'm about to smash. Hov came on here

to revisit that Memphis Bleak line. Bleak could be one hit of Ray's whole career.

We heard you. We know you're going to hold him down. And Kanye said Dane

was coming back in the middle of their beat. Talking about your crew in the

middle of a Blood Diamond song is... You know the next question, dawg? Yo, where

Daymat? And while we're having this conversation, I think that Nas and Hov should have

did Black Republicans over. Agreed. Well, they did success. Like a whole different song. Thank

God. But that was different from Black Republicans. Look how petty Hov is, man. He

said, all right, yeah, I'll let you get your Black Republican shit off. That'll be

the first one. But the good record, success, that's going to be on American Gangster,

sir. They're not even Republicans. Listen, man, go back. Papoose, black Democrat. More schooling, man,

on Republicans. Yo, y'all are stupid. I feel bad about this only because I understand

that record and I'm not as mad at black Republicans as everyone else is. Triumphant

horns you need with a collaboration of this magnitude that we've been waiting for for

years. And when that comes, you've got to let the beat rock for 90 seconds,

two minutes. They did that. And then they did both rip. It just didn't age.

It sounded too much like that year. And that year didn't age well. Yeah, that's

what happened. And they should do that. They should do that again. Because you know

what I forgot about during all of this? Jay keeps releasing shit on Nas' release

dates. is at the B-Sides concert that you and I attended two years ago,

Roy. Nas came out. And the building erupted. I won't say that again, listeners. The

building erupted. Is it a frenzy? It's pandemonium. I was part of the eruption. Yeah.

Yeah. I definitely think... It's whole, man. I erupted. I think I had a different

high pitch. My fiance was leaving me at the concert. And I was like, oh,

shit. Shit. - Yes, president! - I had just got decked. - Yo, Rory just

got hit. - Oh no, you're the show leader. - Oh my God! - Sin

left me, I'm like, oh, can I live? - Oh my God, is that Kim

and Jim Jones? - Noms came out during that shit and it was all everything,

everything was great. We need a black Republican remix. We need a redo. - Just

a remix, okay. - We need a redo of that. Alright, so everyone pick their

watches. Maul picked something with diamonds. Of course. I picked a little light AP. A

little light AP. Quick 70. It's quick 70. Parks picked something light. I did something

super light. Rory gave something that Sam could feel. Like everybody picked a watch that

was appropriate to them. The bill was no more than 200 grand. We wasn't picking

out a watch for Don Browse. It was for us. And Spotify came back and

said, We were thinking fossils. It's a lot. It's a lot. I was thinking

swatches. How do you feel about used watches? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on. What

are you doing? What are you doing? Hey, we're not greedy people. No.

We sent them our used watches. Hey, I can get my shit

used. It's 70 new, might be 40, 50 used. I'll take it.

Used watches for everybody. We sent that in. What did they say?

You guessed it. Have you seen the new G-Shock? We don't know, number

one, number one podcast. We don't know. It's a lot. It's a lot. Okay.

You may not be able to afford Parks, Rory, Maul, and myself new or

used Rolexes. Rubber bands. Hey, you might not be able to afford us used

Rolexes, but guess what? We would love a trip to Tulum. Wasn't that their

idea? I think it was. We would love... No, it was Grease. Fam, we didn't...

No, no, no, stop. Let me stop each of you. You've just been on Instagram

too much this past week. Everyone, we didn't ask them for anything. No, we didn't.

Yeah, this was all their idea. This was an offer. Yeah, we... We was minding

our business going, hey, how about Christmas? Hey, what about the pod next Saturday? They

came in, hey, Rolex is appreciation. Number one, you're lit. We just gave mad money

to the white people. But you guys, you get a watch. I thought us saying

no to the new Rolexes was like us taking a mall Harlem stand. Like, fam,

we don't need your new Rolexes. We are okay. When we sent the used Rolexes

and they said no, I thought we were taking a mall Harlem stand. I thought

it was like, fam, you got us fucked up. You don't know how fly we

are. We can buy our own used Rolexes. It's okay. Like, you don't have to

worry about this. All right. Then we were tossing around the idea of private jet

to Greece, mini vacation. Spotify. Bringing the gear. Yeah, we was going to record. Spotify,

pay for it. We get our podcast in Greece. Everything is cool. Sent that up

the chain of command. Guess what? Spotify says, yeah. We don't really have

to I don't know I don't know about I don't know about that Greece

how about Queens? I don't know a lot of Greeks their story is very

Greek That's a lot of money to private jet Greece. What can we do

to make everyone whole? We want to show our appreciation to you guys, but

everyone should be made whole this is in December and I say to

them, you know what if you're serious about truly showing us appreciation for being number

one for two years and you're gonna give us a budget to celebrate What we

want to do that's when I came to y'all and said how do y'all feel

about giving money away to the fans in December? Mm-hmm. I said hey, this is

their token of appreciation This money would go to us but I don't believe that

we could really honor any appreciation without appreciating the fans and That got us here,

that came here to this undeveloped market. If you have 50 grand, let's give

it to the fans. If you have 75 grand, let's give it to the

fans. It's the holidays. You can't buy more promotion than you can with that.

It's a great gesture. You're doing the right thing in your heart. And wow,

what a look. Nah. Nah, we'll hold that. We

got some more signings coming up. Why give it back to the people that are

subscribing to us? That was the first time it dawned on me that Spotify is

pillaging. You pillage the audience from the podcast and you've continued to pillage each step

of the way without any regard for actually how the people feel, the impactful people,

the people that are responsible for making all of this come to fruition is how

I felt. You will not give the fans money during a holiday to Christmas

New Year's Eve it's fine it's your money it's your business I

didn't ask for a Rolex watch I didn't ask for a trip

to Greece everything is cool did I mention the new offer that

they presented in July I did or I did let's rewind a

little briefly let's rewind a little bit in July prior to the

bonus hitting I was presented with a contract offer from Spotify For our

podcast for everything for the pull-up 360 just for everything I

said no cool be for rise for REM. We don't get

a bonus charts Chairs II mostly charts come out. We got

over 700,000 podcast now we own this percentage of the market

share and And we're not going to give you all any money to give away

to the fans. All of that is cool. That's cool. We're in year two now.

That's in December. But that flows all the way into by the time we get

an answer from that. No watches, no grease trip. It's February. The pandemic has hit.

We continue to work. The pandemic hit and we kept coming to work. We didn't

stop. We didn't ask each other about COVID tests. We all just came because this

entire time we all have been just married to the goal line. We know what

needs to be done head down to the finish line. We say not a word

until my dad gets really, really ill, gravely ill. COVID already had health complications. I

don't need to paint this to y'all how it happens for people with existing health

complications. My dad began calling his kids with the will. Like my dad thought that

it was over. My dad was calling me with all these. I love you. He

said, I love you to me. And I'm, 30 years. It's not how you end

a call with your dad. Yo, I love you. I care about you. It doesn't

happen. It's not what we do. My dad was so afraid. In turn, that made

my mom really, really, really, really scared. While I was having a lot of faith

in God, my mom was calling me just really, really worried. My entire family was

concerned. So we stopped. We stopped recording. I used the global pandemic...

As a reason for us to slow down recording because my dad was gravely ill,

dying, scared for his life in Palisades Hospital in New Jersey. And while my dad

was first priority, I would be lying to you if I didn't say that the

fact that we couldn't take a vacation two months prior was well aware in my

head. Hmm. It's two episodes a week. It's two years. Niggas need a

break for the energy to flow properly, for you to discuss things properly, for your

mind to just be cleared. Gotta live for a second. So my dad dying made

me call him and say, fam, check this out. We're not recording. It's a pandemic.

Everything is fucked up. What are we recording for? Niggas don't know if they're going

to live. And that was cool. because what can you say to that right what

can you say to there's a global pandemic and people need to stay home and

contagious and mask and it was it was new it was the beginning the beginning

phases of that and i'm checking on my dad and we're talking every day and

so forth and so on and i start getting calls to say hey man when

y'all coming back oh i skipped a part again in december in december i want

to say we went on a little four show run tour

Yeah, that was Philly and Baltimore. Philly, the Beacon. Baltimore, New York. That was

the Beacon. So, yeah, three. Second year of our contract says that Spotify does

receive some type of passive participation in the touring. Mm-hmm. Which is

cool because I'm with that. You have all this technology that maybe will be helpful

for us. You're going to help with the branding, which will help for us to

put people in the seats during tour. I don't mind you passively participating at all.

But truth of the matter is you contributed nothing. Correct. And you handed me some

bullshit pull up in everyone's rights offer in July. And in September, we didn't get

a bonus at all. but when i tell you my phone and email and

ian's phone and email went off non-stop when we went and did those shows for

them to receive their passive participation which maybe i'm exaggerating it felt like it felt

like it was nine times a day for at least three four weeks and it

wasn't that much money especially to spotify well the act the the act here is

the pillaging yeah Pillage is a proper word I want to

use because that is what has been taking place for two years now. But I

sent that money. Whatever money we got from the tour and whatever money I agreed

to send them, I sent it, get off my back. But again, creators going off

the energy, the corporate people going off the numbers. Now pointed out to you

at least six different ways before the new year hit in 2020 that

this relationship Began to sour and that we were no longer aligned Not

sour because we may do future business, but we weren't aligned Right anymore

our objectives had quickly changed and The people that I had been

in communication with inside of this company, they have reversed roles, left

the company, played musical chairs. They've been removed from any conversation. Anybody

I had a rapport with has been removed from any conversation. Used

watches, we say no. Cool, that's the end of that. February 2020,

what happened? You guessed it, Bill Simmons deal. $250 million, quarter billion

dollars. For his network. Yeah. Now, what they'll tell you is

we purchase these things. They belong to us. We purchased Gimlet. We

purchased Park Parkast. We purchased Bill Simmons. We own those things. And

I can understand some of that. I get that. This has been such a profitable

business. You are no longer in the licensing business like you were with Joe Budden

and Amy Schumer. Now you need to own these things so the person that developed

it has no right to say a fucking word. They don't know. I don't have

a clue about the money that's coming in. Yeah. Doesn't matter to them at that

point. Yeah, no, not at all. February 2020, Bill Simmons comes in. Let me interject

in this story just to say... As a nigga from Jersey City with the number

one product twice a week for two years in a row with the consumption and

retention and retention being what it was, I'll be honest. I thought that we were

in lieu of a big payday. Yeah, I did too. Yeah, me too. I did.

So did my mom. And mine. And mine. My mom couldn't wait to

talk about renovations. I want to get a new bathroom and put the tub

with the jacuzzi things. They started borrowing more. Yo, I need $6,000. I know.

And then rent a 700. I know. I know. I know. I know.

Hey, you started to get a better grip on what parents allowance meant. Yeah. I

mean, you know Con Ed this month. It's the winner. Oh, man. My mom's allowance

kept going up. I understand how she felt when I was a kid. I need

about $1,900. I'm like, Mom. It's Wednesday. Who asked for $1,900 on a

Wednesday? You're telling your parents, what do you think, money grows on trees? I

didn't teach you about fiscal responsibility. Yo, Bill Simmons, get paid. I'll be honest

with you in a moment of transparency. I think that our payday is coming.

I've been shown no behavior to result in this. Right. But I'm going to

remain optimistic, optimistic. I'm gonna hope that if we just

continue to do the job even though the exclusive company that we're signed

to is Actively pitting against us with all of these signings. Mm-hmm Guess

what happened you guessed it. We were still number one Couldn't budge us.

It's a good time to insert Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan my

music hi This is what he was talking about. 1

million, 2 million, 3 million, 4. For 18 months, 70 million

more. Whatever he said, this was it. Hey, Hov has always

been right. He's been ahead of his shit. He's been, he's

been, that's Roy on the Hawks. Right on time. Hey, Roy

on the Hawks. Turn it up, Roy.

But this is then a, ay, ay, on my,

I don't, ay, this ain't a sewn outfit, Holmes.

Turn it up, Rory. Turn it up, Rory. This

ain't a sewn outfit, Holmes. When you call a

nigga Holmes, you're up. You have the upper hand

in this. Hey, Holmes. Hey, whatever you think it

is. Hey, what up, Marlon, Santa, Wyatt? Hey, you

think it's that, but it's this. Right, yeah.

Holmes is like the nicer Duke. It's not a fucking sewn outfit, Holmes.

Holmes is about it. I'm not fucking rapping about no blood diamonds. I'm

rapping about my friends. My crew. I don't know what we're here talking

about. You're the one that brought up Dame. Bill Simmons gets quarter million

dollars February 2020. Spotify will tell you that They purchased these companies, so they

shouldn't be compared to whatever it is you're talking about. My reply to Spotify would

be whether you lease the car or finance the car, the price is in the

same ballpark. All it means is that at the end of the term, who owns

the car? Who has to pay for the damages that have happened to the car

over the last three years? Right. Lizzy, you can't tell me. I tried

to buy a rose. Hey, and when I got there, I said, well,

the lease. Well, what about the lease? The mileage. Hey, how many? Hey,

2,000 miles. So I could just go... I go to see

like twice Hey, I'm trying to stunt give me

500 miles. I'm gonna drop I'm driving a full

day and take it home and park it up

Bill Simmons 250 million dollars they own it congratulations

made around the ball. Yeah Not all the way

For consumer facing. I like him a lot. I don't know him. I never met

him. Like I told you, I can't vouch for these guys I never met. I

never met him. I don't know him. I don't know what he eats on Thanksgiving.

Does he have cranberry sauce there or not? Good question. I would hope so. But

probably. He looks like he would have cranberry sauce. Is it ocean spray or is

it like... Ocean spray. Bill Simmons, $250 million. I think we're about to get paid

February 2020. We've been in a deal that is vastly undervalued and undermined for the

good course of a year and a half. And the guinea pig to all these

deals that they're giving out now. You're just watching everybody get paid. I watched Gimlet

get a quarter of a million dollars. I mean, a quarter of a billion dollars.

I watched Park ask it. Seventy million dollars. I watched Bill Simmons get a quarter

of a billion dollars. I'm not counting anyone else's money because they've earned it along

their journey. But what I am doing is trying to figure out the appropriate value

to the asset that I own. Yeah, that's not counting pockets. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm

just trying to figure out, hey, if you paid a quarter billion dollars for a

company and they came in and still didn't budge me out of number one or

perform anywhere near us, we have to account for it. Hey, it got to a

point I was welcoming any of the new signees. Hey, get your bum ass in

here. Let's see what you do. See, because a big problem here is, hey, I'm

just your button. Pump it up. Good tune. I threw rocks at some kids. They

deserve it. Moon music. Hey, depressed people, you love me. Listen. No, no, no, no,

no, no, no. You do state the culture, too. I state the culture. Listen, I

all the way understand the perception of... Look at Rory, man. You get another alley-oop.

Poor Korda. Poor Korda. I'm throwing it your way, man. He just keeps shooting. Yeah,

boredom Hayward. We can fight outside. We really could do it. No, we're in

a fight together, Rory. We're in a fight together. Have you missed me? I'm fighting

for you, Jack. I'm fighting for you, Jack. Where was I at here in this

bullshit? We saw Bill Simmons inviting other people to come with exclusive deals. Oh, let's

get off of Bill Simmons. If you finance and lease the car, it's somewhere around

the same thing. Cool. I take a vacation. My dad is dying. We weren't granted

a vacation in December. I think this is a perfect time to not really stir

the pot and for my guys to get the time they need. And me. Needed

it. My dad is sick. My grandpa was dying and died in April. We did

not stop recording because of COVID. We stopped recording because my dad was

dying. And four weeks into my dad dying, who do I get

a phone call from? Parks, Maul, Rory, Savon, Alex, Corey, Erickson, all

of you guessed it. Bill fucking Simmons. Label mate. Fuck my dick.

DMX to your Jay-Z. I've never spoken to Bill Simmons a day

before in my life. We've never text. We've never

DM'd. Email? CC? BCC? No! We weren't

BCC. We weren't anything. Okay. How did

this moment come to fruition where Bill Simmons is calling my phone? If you're here

for the stupid Instagram jokes, I'm sorry. There'll be none of that right now. How

did we get to the moment where Bill Simmons is calling my phone? Joe Budden,

my dad is dying. It's a global pandemic and we are not recording. What is

happening? What meeting took place up there where Bill Simmons has to say, I'll call

him. Hmm. Look at their $2 million. $200 million. How do you get your number?

We back to not letting these niggas take vacation. Now they found a way to

take a vacation. And no, Bill Simmons go. It's Billy. Yo, yo. Yo, I'm thinking

it's one of my chicks. Hey, how you doing? It's Bill Simmons. I just got

a quarter billion dollars on Spotify. I know you're waiting on your money, but listen

here. Hey, Bill and clearly some pussy bill now mind you

I wanted bill on my podcast before and I reached out to bill Wasn't

the easiest of processes sure no he's peace bill Simmons. Yes It was tough.

I will get back to that later. Hmm this time bill Simmons is right

on the phone Hey, I noticed you haven't been potting you guys are right.

What's going on over there, man? Oh Listen, it's a really simple process to

record from home. If you don't know, listen, I, owner of the ringer, owner of

250 billion, I just bought nine houses, nigga. The fuck you doing? I don't even

know where a pandemic could be. Yeah, none of my houses. I have nine houses

that I purchased. If one gets COVID, I just go to the other one. Listen,

I can walk you and your little stupid friends through podcasting from home. if you

and what's your mal uh rari why can't anyone pronounce it i don't understand that

at all it's so easy to pronounce if you and mal and ravi and park

you went to a park we'll do this in the park right if you guys

do this in a park if you guys can figure out if you guys are

having a hard time with potting through the pandemic Me. Sign to the

ringer. William Simmons. I can guide you and instruct

you through potting from home. Thanks, Bill. Thanks, Bill.

Bill, you know, you're a stand-up guy, even if you were sitting down.

I'm around him. I'm around him. Croc of bullshit. Audio genius. Wait, so

what's... It's called Zoom? Yeah. How you spell that, Bill? How you spell

that? Wait, he uses the internet? It's an S or a Z. That

sounds crazy. I said, Bill... Billy. I said, Bill, Bill. Bill. We stopped

potting because my... Dad is dying. He's actually in the hospital right now

up the street. I'm headed to go up there, man. See, the soul is

gone from Spotify. Because if the soul is there, you should be able to

say that and somebody read between the lines and pick it up. When I

said that to Bill Simmons, do you know what he said? Listen, man, I

can send over the name of the equipment that we're using to get our pod

up and running, and I think that'll be really helpful for you. You can FaceTime

me. I can walk you through podding while your dad's dying. Hmm. Know what I

said? Bill, I gotta go. Thanks. Yeah, which is what you should say. Thanks. All

right, cool. All right. Highly appreciate it. You're a weirdo. But thank you. But

thank you. I appreciate that. Don't call my phone again. Yeah, that's important too.

And don't text me. You and I should never speak again. But this was

really, really, really helpful. And that was in February. That was in February 2020.

We all hated to Zoom. We got right back to in-person recording. Everything

was great. And at that point, we're just expecting to or I'm just expecting

for our renegotiation conversation, because for us, Well over a year and a half now

I've been waiting for the right opportunity to let you know that you have valued

this thing and properly the entire time and through the course of two years I've

been watching certain actions take place that are demeaning to us that are offensive that

is offensive to us. It is disrespectful to us. It is a slight to us

again. You're looking at me as a Joe Budden and and and what is happening

is complete and utter disrespect not only to me and the gentleman that are some

surrounded with it's disrespectful to all to all the people that believe in what we're

doing all all of the different areas of this network that we have built out

for years. So when you come to me and say all of this

stupidity, it's not just a slight to me. I have to think about my

multiple production companies cruise on both coasts that add to this. This is not

a Joe Budden thing. I have to think about our legal department that exists.

A bunch of lawyers that we just talk to every day. Our finance department,

our department of accountants, our social, our social team. Our editors, say Vaughn

and these niggas, Pod Parasi, there's way too many people to account for.

So when you present me some bullshit, I'm not only thinking about myself

and what it does to me, I'm thinking about what it does to

my company as a whole. And you would be ill to not think

of it that way because us gentlemen in this basement have outperformed every

acquisition that you have acquired in a year and a half since we

have been there. Hold up, I got you. Gimlet came, we didn't budge.

Number one still, Parcast came. We didn't budge number one still influx of

all of these user-generated Podcasts we didn't buzz number one still bill Simmons

comes. It's February. We're damn near at the end of our deal We

don't budge we're number one still that presents a problem for Spotify If

you're listening out there, I may have lost some of y'all it's a

problem for Spotify and These two black dudes and these two

white dudes from wherever the fuck they from I never gave a fuck

about them to really find out Have changed our entire business model We

are a music streaming platform that is not paid from music streaming So

we're finding all of these consumer facing tricks to trick people we've now

diverted all of our energy into podcasting where meet where we make 100%

of the pie and News flash to anybody that was

unaware out there the gentleman in this Astoria basement have just

effectively changed the entire business model and infrastructure of one of

our main DSPs the I know means sounds crazy Sounds nuts.

It's not a coincidence that there are podcast companies at record

labels now That's not by that's not by chance it's a part of the

chess game that is being played between the labels who have deals and equity in

place with the streaming services and Them oh you trying to get from up under

us using podcast guess what we'll do we will go and sign the fucking podcast

bitch If you're not watching this thing accordingly it is easy to get lost and

February comes me and more me and more have our phantoms picked out Hey

royal blue for me Do like a cross no listen more don't see me

now you wouldn't see me with a phantom I don't know what color he

was getting some Harlem shit Rory bought fucking a new engagement ring Everybody just

spending money. That's not here. I Cool. We're waiting on the renegotiation. And

that's where this story will stop. To this day, I have not received a

proper offer for the podcast individually. And that's where something is off. I have

not received a proper offer in isolation for the asset that has gained you

nine figures in profit. It's not up for debate. So when you come to

me and talk about a renewal, listen, I don't sit here for two years

and just talk it. I don't sit here for two years and

just preach it. Freedom is important. Absolutely. And the offer that has been

presented, and let me make myself clear, there has been an offer presented

of money that I have never seen in my lifetime. Money that you

gentlemen have never seen in your lifetime. Still not enough to make you

sleep right at night with what was being asked for. Audio

video for the podcast, audio video for the pull-up, all

of Rory's rights, malls rights, parks rights, everybody's rights. Well,

hold up a second, man. Why would I do that?

Where the market stood two years ago versus where it

stands today. Let me tell you something, Spotify and creatives

out there. If you are, if you are, if you

are assessing this improperly, It's because you

are either too busy sucking your own dick and the head is amazing and that

happens when you popping out here. Absolutely true. You could get lost in a bubble

thinking that your world is the only world. Lost in the sauce. I want to

take this time to shout out all of my people at all of these different

companies that are tasked with making your senior level executives understand what's happening in the

creative space. There are so many of y'all where you're

talking to some 70 and 80 year old white people that just might

not understand. Sometimes you have to crystallize it for them. They may not

get your vision. They're not the creative. They are the numbers people. It

is our job to look at the energy. And while all of these

podcasters searching while unemployment is at an all time high in our country is in

a disarray, are searching for just a way of means through sitting down and speaking

with their friends. For me, it signifies something much bigger, much larger and much greater

than that. If I were to accept that bum ass deal that Spotify put in

front of me, I would not be able to sleep at night. I don't care

how much money it is. I couldn't come in

here and talk to y'all the way that I speak to y'all and be behind

these doors moving in a way that's not in accordance. My words need to match

my actions at all times. And again, I do not want this to come across

as angry, upset, or bitter because the reality of it is we both hit our

goals. Mm-hmm. Spotify hit their goal. Listen, where the stock price is today is where

Joe Budden could have told you three years ago, two years ago, the stock price

would be. I told you all I only get to have some punch when I'm

the first one to it. They don't respect me enough to share with me another

way. So now because I'm fucking with the Silicon Valley techie people, now look

what you forced me to do. I got to go learn about stock. It's a

good thing. I got to go learn about stock. And the first thing I learned

at stock, and whatever I learned in smart people world, I have to equate to

my broke people experiences and Monopoly and poker because it all relates there for me.

What I've learned in stock is, have you gentlemen ever been broke broke? Yes. Yes.

Yes. and went to somebody who wasn't broke broke. Yes.

And pitched them. That's all I did when I was broke. And

pitched to them about... Some ideas or some problems that you have that you

can use some capital to fund. Yeah, of course. And if this works, if this

works, if you could just loan me a G, man, what I'm going to do.

Hey, and sometimes if you lie good enough and pitch good enough, you can get

that G from a few different people. Yeah. That's a fact. Stock. And that's Wall

Street. Hey. Yeah, in a nutshell, honestly. I own a company. I'm going

to go tell to all these people with money all these ideas I have for

my company. And if they believe in it, the stock price goes up. The stock

price is doing exactly what the stock price is supposed to be doing. Now it's

gone the second we acknowledge the now. It's only in the now. The stock price

is in what you're acknowledging now. And if you're too busy sucking your own dick,

or playing naive or ignorant to what's going on outside the

house, you could be vastly and severely mistaken. That's where I think we

are today. Or think you have more leverage than you actually do when you're dealing

with people that will leave. That's where I think we are. That's where I think

we are today, ladies and gentlemen. We're close to three hours in. I'm sorry. You

better get a four-hour podcast. But this was important. You got to inform your people

of what's going on. A lot of you have been asking, this is what's going

on. I can't tell you where we're going. I could tell you where we will

not be September 23rd. If you've been busy sucking your own dick and you've been

busy... only filling the headlines up with some of these grandiose ideas

that you have fed your hedge fund people and your senior executive

level staff and they buy into it, the stock goes up. And

it's up. And then everybody in the company along with the labels

and everybody who actually has stock options here put these headlines up

and then they all get rich. And then I'm looking at Maul

and Rory and Parks and Erickson and Savon and Alex. No.

No, no, no, no you did it in music the music business y'all set the

rules You I have these artists jumping up and down because they received a plaque

and a number one placement on Billboard and the back ends look very different I

want to get us to a place where my white and black Brethren can receive

back end I want to get us to a place where we stop using that

word talent for talent. It's demeaning. I It's like calling you well-spoken. What

does that mean? You know how to speak? What does talent mean? Am I

to assume the people that are not in front of the camera don't have

talent? I'm sure you guys are talented. Come on. Come on. God gave everyone

a talent. but you're calling me talent to keep me in this talent

box talent talent what talent means is you don't participate too much in the back

end nor do you really know anything about it i'm the small percentile of podcasters

that clearly understands everything that's going on i want to do away with that word

talent The talented people in this industry run this industry. You

wouldn't refer to Nick Cannon as talent. Know why? He's proved himself in a

billion dollar, with a billion dollar asset. Tell me if y'all would refer to

Kevin Hart as talent. Tell me. If you do, we can talk through it.

This is not a talent thing. And although this says the Joe Budden podcast,

and you may see a crew of six, seven, there's hundreds of us.

This doesn't get to be that successful of a pod without there being hundreds

of us. It is a slight. It is a insult. It is offensive. And

when I delve into that contract that you sent over and vowed to leave

there till the end of our term, because that money that we walked away

from, it's still sitting there for us to take.

Dawn Ostroff got on the phone said hey, we love you guys

I'm gonna leave this contract here for you to take also Joe.

How's LA treating you? It's energy parks the corporate people go off

in numbers We go off for energy So when the head of

your senior level executive staff gets on the phone and says how's

LA it should say something to you Good question I mean, let

me call my LA people. I know plenty of people in LA, I can tell

you. But if you can't figure out how the nine-figure earning asset is doing in

WeHawk in New Jersey, if you don't know that we're there, the Bronx, Journal Square,

Astoria, if you don't know that this is where we are, then we can't negotiate.

There's nothing to discuss. Your senior level executive staff is disconnected and out of touch.

And if they're disconnected and out of touch, and I only know that because I

speak to all the creators. So as soon as we ink that deal, all the

creators call me to talk about their podcasting woes. They've spoken to me about some

of the deals y'all have approached them about. Hmm y'all whitewashed them all how you

attempt to whitewash Vin Staples is beyond me Anybody with the with eyes and ears

can make that a hit You whitewashed it you took van who was the leading

tokenized black voice at TMZ somehow managed to put him underneath Bill Simmons a white

manager company that you gave 250 to it's off is what I'm saying Yeah, now

Rogan got a bag. So the fact that it's off for him will not matter

He got a bag But when you're offered something that says hey, I know

this particular asset made us nine figures But we need that audio. We need that

video. We need to pull up audio. We need to pull up video We need

ads Host read ads. No you there's no rev share. No, we don't account for

retention. Hey you how can you not account for retention? I used to work at

the radio station TSL is a thing and Time spent listening. When the top

eight of eight come on, if I listen to the whole eight, guess what? That's

valuable to the radio station. Dick. Mm-hmm. For y'all to pay no mind

to the amount of time that I get an audience to spend on your DSP

as a minority market shareholder, it is vastly mistaken. It's a mistake that you can

make when you've just brought in the biggest podcast in the universe. Be clear, Joe

Rogan is the exception, not the rule. No podcaster out there should be comparing their

numbers to Joe Rogan. None of you. Us included. Yeah. He speaks to a

different demo. A larger demo. It's a different audience. Yeah, no,

no, a larger demo. It's just a larger... No, it's larger. It's larger. That demo

has more people. Yeah, but you know how... Y'all know how I feel about that.

There's an ecosystem in podcasting. Yeah. And if you want to join podcasting, you cannot

skip certain steps. There's an entire community on YouTube. September 23rd, our YouTube video is

no longer a two-day delay. We're hitting instantaneously. I know what that does. What

they failed to mention is there are projections for everything in the universe. There are

projections for what the Joe Budden podcast will do as not a Spotify exclusive. Let

me be the first to tell you the projections are tremendous. For you guys to

not be able to account for those projections, but you can tell me when 400,000

people farted throughout the course of a day, something is off. You are a tech

company. You are tracking all of us. You are doing consumer-facing tricks. You are doing

everything you need to do to make sure 100% of that podcasting pie

comes to you. But the mistake on my part was thinking that a

company that was robbed for so many years would then become whole and

do the right thing. I'm not even going to get into what the

wage disparity here is. As I've said earlier, with all due respect,

We outperform Gimlet. We outperform the ringer. We outperform all the

companies that you have put there to devalue us. I come

from music. My experience is being devalued. Hey, let me take

it up a notch. If I never came from music, I've

come from at least 10 different relationships. where they took my

finest attributes and stepped on them. Yeah, that's a thing. Made me feel

like the biggest piece of shit in the world for qualities that I

felt were helpful to me. That is where we are. Streaming, advertising, insertion.

I'm going to stop there because I've been rambling for long enough.

We still haven't done our toast yet. I've been-- toast, toast. Right now, right now,

right now, right now, right now, right now. Right now, right now, right now. I

got a cup of water. Come on. Come on. Right now, right now. Well, listen,

before we toast, just so I'm not talking to air, you guys, my family, my

friends, my crew, my squad, we know why we're toasting, right? Oh, yeah. We don't

feel bad turning down these millions, right? No. No, I actually feel amazing. We're not

spending money that we didn't attain. We know what the value is. We know what

the worth is. One day, I want to come in here and spit that whole

verse. Bleak made millions. He made millions. Ma made millions. Parks made millions. Beans will

tell you if you want. I want to say that. Uh-huh. Savon would tell you

if he wasn't in his feelings. You know he got feelings. He went back to

the Denver Club. The empty Denver Club. Come on, come on, come on. You know,

I want to come in here and say that to y'all one day, and unfortunately

that will not be able to happen here. And let me tell y'all, I only

lost one night of sleep when they made this offer. Because the one night of

sleep I lost, and Ian would tell you, y'all talk to him on your own

time one day, was, hey, Ian, I can afford... To say no to this amount

of M's am I making the wrong decision for my people? My crew that has

not eaten the way I may have and they may have some big plans niggas

got wet We got shit going on niggas as adults. Yeah, am I making the

wrong decision? For them that was the one night that I lost sleep next day.

I didn't feel like that so much so what I said to y'all a long

time like like I During our own shit that we won't get into it's my

job to protect y'all from some of this shit That these DSPs are gonna try

it's our history It's our experience then it's silly of me to think that somebody

who has been robbed their entire existence would get made whole and do the right

thing It's a mistake It's a mistake now. I'm not saying that we will not

do few business in the future because we may and Please do not

take this as a deterrent to Spotify. All that I'm telling you

right now is that our views of where podcasting is taking us

for the next five years are not aligned. And we are not

in a position where I am going to succumb to any bad

deal, any deal that is not working favorably toward the people that

have created that path. It's just not going to happen. And back

to the point of sucking your own dick. Oh no, before we get to sucking

your own dick, SAIs, we severely misvalue. You guys are building a YouTube. You were

building Netflix, then you were building Amazon, and now you want video and you're building

a YouTube. Why the fuck would I bring you a million people that I have

blood, sweat, and tears equity into on YouTube and bring them over here after I

watched what you did with the audio audience? I watched your pillage. The Joe

code. Promo code. When it was renegotiation time, hey, pull up the numbers from the

Joe code. Know what they said? You fucking guessed it. Hey, we got hacked.

That was funny. Yeah, we don't have it. Listen, yo, it's a big, it's crazy.

The system. It just happened when you asked. The system. The system. Someone hit control

C. The system. The system. Let me tell you something. On YouTube, you know what

has been happening for two years on that Joe Budden podcast video in the bottom

right-hand corner? It says promo code Joe, Spotify. I have my YouTube analytics. So

God forbid that was active this entire time. You know what time it is. It's

a stick up with no gun in the daytime. Of course you got hacked. It's

the reason I didn't go to title. Hey, can we get information? No. Damn. All

right. Fuck. Sorry. Got to find another way. Yeah. If we can't get information and

we can't get data and we can't get advanced analytics, Then why are

we here when the market has changed, Spotify? If you stop sucking your own

dick for two seconds and you look outside of your own house, it would

be gravely ignorant and naive to believe that some of these other huge companies

with the same amount of capital that you have don't have something coming. Listen,

I know. I'm talking to them all. Can't tell you anything. I have NDAs.

But outside, it's nice. It's nice. I love outside. Well,

I would have loved to take all of my business to one place and they

value you properly and you centralize your audience. Of course. But you can't expect the

people that have been getting robbed their entire career to get whole and not rob

you. Yeah. It looks... The robbery looks shinier because it's more money. But it's still

a robbery. If you think I'm not paying any attention to the user, the consumer

experience, you are sadly, sadly, sadly mistaken. And SAIs... We can move on to a

different conversation now. There's nothing to discuss when you talk to me about backloading my

catalog with streaming ad insertions. What that means is your RSS feed is no longer

the feed. Give us another feed and we're going to layer some ads over the

top of it. Back to that strip club theory. Go to the strip club. They

tax you everywhere. Put your podcast material over here and we're going to just add

a bunch of shit. We may even change the ad. It doesn't matter. People are

listening. So we're going to change them. Boy, is there value there? Last week we

had 20,000 people listen to our first episode. One. One. Episode one. No more. No

Rory. Episode one. I remember. Just in case you need perspective on how this layout

looks. Too many people out there to talk to. too much of a

profitable business. Spotify, you don't have to value it correctly. I'm a walking proof of

concept. The conversations are different. Where y'all are two years removed is exactly where you

want to be. And I'm grateful that where we are two years from where we

started is exactly where we want to be. That's the most important part. If two

years ago we could talk to everybody out there who had an eight and nine

figure budget, We would have done so. In podcasting, it does not

behoove you to lock into a long-term contract because the landscape can change

daily, especially when you're dealing with people who have enough capital and enough

power to instantaneously change it themselves. I don't think I have any more

for you guys today. Toast. Would like to I would like

to toast come on bring it in bring it in you guys Short-ass

white arms White arms you toast to freedom a lot of us talk

it and don't live it it comes up in a lot of other

topics But it's only really valuable when you when it's applicable to your

own life No, my business this entire time has been ran off of

what's right is right and And what's wrong is wrong. Spotify,

you cannot tell me that podcasts are only profitable in two areas

for you. Because Ian and myself have counted at least 30 different

ways where this is profitable. And along with doing away with the

word talent, we need to put the word licensing into its proper

perspective. Because what licensing means, what IP ownership means is what?

You guessed it. All the different stream revenues,

profit revenues that exist because I own it.

I want to fucking participate, bitch. If a

fucking nickel bag gets sold in the park,

say it with me. I want in. That's

a fact. And yeah, bottom line is, and a lot of the stuff

that I just said, some of this is y'all first time hearing this stuff, but

I can't sleep at night like that. I feel you. That's what I got. How

about Mooka? Spotify, hopefully we can talk later, man. Yeah. We can talk later, but

I got to tell you, outside is sexy. Outside is sexy. There's a lot of

companies with a lot of plans that y'all are just not factoring in, which is

weird, especially being a company without a hardware. Y'all are the only ones.

y'all have an alexa you're not serious you're not in my car what do you

have nothing back to my original question who's the king maker here the person that

runs the kingdom or the person that builds it answer it on your own time

i say suck my dick and y'all when the person that built it can leave

and feel fine about it that should answer your question when the first when there's

power in turning down more money than you've ever seen and being comfortable with that

So that should answer your question. Oh, man, listen, it's called oppression. It's called

oppression. It's called wage inequality, wage disparity. There's a bunch of words for all

of this stuff. Hopefully I was able to provide some clarity for my audience

out there. Erickson, do you think so? Yes. A little long winded, but it's

important that I share this with y'all. Listen, it's too many podcasters that look

up to me. It's too many podcasters that aren't privy

to some of the doors that I'm able to go behind. When I talk

sometimes it's not from opinion. It's telling you what's happening. It's explaining the space

out there. How you navigate that space is totally up to you. I will

not let any of mine ever be robbed for their hard work. Sorry, Spotify,

you are not the only DSP to exist. Actually, you're at a hindrance

because what hardware do you have? Where are you taking this game in the

next five years? Or are you looking to continue to pillage? Do it with

them. Not with Joe. Maul, do you pick the Blazers to beat the Lakers?

The most important question. Right. Let's get down to the creators. It's over for

that, man. They're not healthy. Dame is out tomorrow. I'm not sure that Portland was

doing it with Dame. I think his finger was more than dislocated. I think he

broke his finger. But, yeah, it's over. It's over for Portland. All right! Great run,

but they did this night. Now walk it back. Now walk it back. Not healthy.

I didn't see Dame breaking his hand. The Lakers are too big and too good.

Like the big guys aren't whack big guys. No, they're just not healthy. I don't

think a healthy Portland is beating that Lakers team. No. I didn't know Zach Collins

was healthy. I would like to see a healthy Blazers team. Me too. I like

the Blazers a lot. I picked the Blazers because Dame did our podcast. I speak

to him on the regular via text. He was super focused, and I'm supporting him.

LeBron supported my album, but Dame has actually been here. He's a friend of the

show. I'm supporting that no matter what. Now, barring injury, who knows what would have

happened. But if either one of them would have advanced, Joe would have been happy.

I'm totally fine with that. And LeBron will probably get the MVP this year, deservingly.

So, yeah. Yeah, the Lakers have round one lock. I think the Lakers go

to the finals. I don't care about the Lakers. Say it with me,

y'all. Come on. In unison. On three. One, two, three. His name is

Luka Doncic. His name is... Come on, come on, come on. One, two,

three. His name is Luka Doncic. I don't even know his last name. I don't

know. But that's a man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That last game. Hey, sorry, Trez. Hey,

Maul said, what are you going to do when Trez comes back? Sorry, Trez. That's

a man. That boy Luka has been playing professional ball. That man Luka. That man

Luka has been playing ball in a third world country since he was eight years

old. You calling him soft with his Compton aggressiveness. It's not translating with him. Yeah.

He didn't have running water. Kawhi, you switched off three seconds left. You went to

guard Duke. Yeah, that was a bad decision. You went to guard Duke. You left

Reggie Jackson on. His name is Luka Doncic. I don't even know his name, but

we got to say it. This is without Porzingis. Listen, I don't know who's going

to win this series, but... I would like to continue watching Luka. Yeah. I could

see Dallas winning it. I'm not saying that they will, but I could see them

winning it. It's a winnable series for them. Nah, it is, but the Clippers will

win this series. I didn't think it was going to go seven games. I think

we get a weird bubble championship this year. I know we all love the teams

that are contenders. The Lakers, the Clippers, and the Bucs. And the Raptors. And the

Raptors. I'm going on record as saying a team that's not those four teams will

win the championship because the bubble has to take place at some point. I got

the Clippers in Boston in the finals. I got Miami in the conference finals in

the East. Really? I have them beating Milwaukee. All right. I don't see that, but...

That's why I was telling you what I think. That's a take. You can say

what you think. Yeah, I got Lakers bucks, I think. Okay. You guys...

No, you guys are not Sixer fans. I was in 2001. Is anybody ready to

say that the process failed? Could have said that two years ago, three years ago.

Well, I was saying it two, three years ago. Yeah. I don't think that's a

new. They got Ben Simmons. Listen, listen, listen. Shut up. They got Ben Simmons and

Embiid out of the deal. They drafted Ephraim Payton at nine one year. amounted

to nothing i'm not even going back to michael carter williams jr i'm not going

that far back okay they took uh nerland's noel ended up on that squad somehow

they drafted okaf uh jaleel okafor over uh porzingis and devin booker cool cool i

guess they traded up they traded up from the three pick to the one pick

to get markel fault to allow boston to take tatum A lot of mistakes made

with all of that tanking and plummeting and the process. I wouldn't say the process

failed. And we still don't know if Bill Simmons and Joel Embiid can play together.

And the Colts just got fired. You can't say that it worked. You can say

we don't know. Well, no, especially not Bill Simmons. They let Jimmy Butler and J.J.

Redick walk away. Again, if you're just now joining us, right here is where you

find some of the worst sports takes in the universe. Listen, right here. Nowhere else.

They let Jimmy Butler and J.J. Redick walk two of the guys that were dedicated

to winning. No, Jimmy didn't want to be there. He didn't let him walk. He

didn't want to be there. It's a difference. Jimmy didn't want to be in Minnesota.

He didn't want to be in Philly. And he wants to be in Miami because

they're winning. They start losing next season. He's gonna actually scrappy little team down there

Miami. Oh good team. Yeah, real good team. Oh, yeah I just Boston is um,

yeah, I don't see him beating Boston Toronto or I think Toronto's have a problem

because they're gonna ask Lowry to guard Kimball night and then you're gonna try to

ask Larry to score. That's just too much. I Off injury. Yeah, it's just it's

too much. And again, for the people that are just now joining us while you

and I pick the Blazers to beat the Lakers, you are coming in and reneging

on that, saying that Dame is hurt. Yeah, I don't think it was more than

a dislocated thing. I think Dame broke his finger, but he was obviously going to

play. Tell me about Kawhi switching on Duke's name that I don't know and letting

leaving Reggie Jackson out on Luca Island. Yeah, I don't... Some of the worst sports

takes ever. Listen, listen, listen, listen, man. Skip who? Yeah, I don't... Sorry, don't worry.

Listen, we're over the rails. We're not getting paid anymore. I don't understand why. There's

no more checks. No pressure. We got to start talking about Paul George, his lack

of performance. Paul George. I mean, we got to talk about it, man. I mean,

I don't know if the Seth Curry thing is real. He traded nine first-round picks

to get PG. Yeah, it's... Houston's in trouble too. No they're not. Okay, see you

buddy, come on. I'm not rolling with that. Houston's in trouble. Houston's in trouble. And

Luka's better than James Harden. I'm saying that right now. Alright, I'm good at it.

Okay. I think Luka is probably better than James Harden. He's better than Greek Freak,

but I ain't... He's better than James. I ain't about to say James. Have you

seen Luka play? Prisoners of the moment. Of the moment? What do you mean? It's

only been two years. James Harden's been three years. I'm talking about the way he

runs his team. James Harden's been doing this shit, man. We was at the party.

We was there when he got drafted under that boss. That's a long time. I'm

just saying that's a long time. He got drafted and has been getting busy for

a long time. James Harden's a scoring monster. I'm talking about a better player. Luka's

a better player. He runs his team better. Luka's the what best player in the