Wiz Khalifa: How to Build Your Schedule to Make You Happy & Strategize Your Life 5 Years in Advance | On Purpose with Jay Shetty

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The craziest part of my life, I can go from performing in front of 40 ,000 people to either being in a dressing room, being in a plane, or being back in a bed all by myself.

He is a multi -platinum selling recording artist, mini mogul, and an actor.

Did you feel like a big break was coming?

I didn't know what that big break looked or felt like, but I knew that what I was doing was working.

The gang -banging and the drug selling.

That's not really for me.

But the looking cool, the having girls, the making music, I'm like, I like that part of it.

What's it like to get a record deal and then lose the record deal?

Oh, there's no bouncing back from that.

How unsafe was it when you were in Pittsburgh?

The streets are crazy out there.

I remember one of my first friends getting shot and killed in seventh grade.

Wow. When was your sibling who passed away?

She passed away, I think maybe seven years ago.

How was that experience for you, losing someone so close to you that you loved?

I am grateful that I was able to have the last moments that I had and to be able to prepare for it.

It was something that I'm still dealing with.

What's a misconception you think people have about you?

The number one health and wellness podcast.

Jay Shetty. Jay Shetty.

The one, the only Jay Shetty.

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to On Purpose, the number one health and wellness podcast in the world.

Thanks to each and every one of you that come back every week to listen, learn and grow.

Today's guest is the one and only Wiz Khalifa, multi -platinum artist and Grammy nominee who rose to fame with his 2011 debut album Rolling Papers featuring the hit Black and Yellow.

Wiz won Best New Artist at the 2011 BET Awards and Top New Artist at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards.

His songs see you again from the Furious 7 top charts in 95 countries and earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song.

Today we're talking about Wiz's newest album, Kush Plus Orange Juice 2.

Please welcome to the show, Wiz Khalifa.

Hey, what's up, man?

What's up, Wiz? I'm chilling, how are you?

I'm good, I'm good.

It's great to have you here.

Yeah, good to be here.

You walked in with this real chill energy today.

I was like, it was very calming.

Yeah, I'm a super chill dude.

I love that, man. What's the first thing you do in the morning?

Smoked wheat. Every day?

Yeah, yeah. First thing?

Well, I take my dog outside.

I have a doberman. He's a puppy.

But he's a big puppy.

He's like, he's 10 months now and he wakes up pretty early.

So I take him out and then I smoke wheat.

Do you ever remember a day before that was the case?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember the days before that was the case.

What were those days like?

I was in school, so I would just get up and air my clothes and go off to school.

Was there ever a time in your life where you tried to stop smoking, or has that ever been a goal?

No, I never really fell back off of it.

I never had a reason to.

What does it do for you that you feel it needs to be your first habit of the day?

For me, it just kind of gets me in a relaxing mood.

I have a lot of things on my mind, like, as soon as I wake up.

So I was like, I'm here, I'm there, I'm everywhere.

But if I smoke, I kind of chill, relax, put everything into its place.

I write my goals down.

I start to, you know, make some text messages or phone calls or whatever, depending on what the situation is.

So everything just starts to come into place.

You write your goals down regularly.

Is that like a regular habit, a consistent habit?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.

Walk us through what that looks like.

It's really like me kind of like just spitballing stuff, whatever it is, like short term goals of mine, whether it be about clothing, music, family, visuals, content, just kind of like just writing the first ideas, like really short, really just to the point, nothing really crazy.

I have a blackboard, so I sit in front of the blackboard and physically write it.

Or if I'm in my car or something like that, I'll write it down in my notes.

You know what I'm saying?

Just to like little reminders and things like that.

Yeah, I love that. How long have you had that habit for?

It goes on and off just due to like necessity, like how crazy my life is.

So I just, I feel like I don't know how long it's been because I do it like so regularly.

And then I look back and I see how much I've done and I'm like, wow, I've been doing this for a long ass freaking time.

So I think it's kind of like a second nature type of thing for me.

What do you find is the craziest part of your life?

The craziest part of my life, I think the entertainment part is the craziest part.

And I think it's because I can go from performing in front of 30 ,000, 40 ,000 people to either being in a dressing room, being in a plane or being back in a bed all by myself.

And it's like to go from that much energy to just be it all by like back by yourself.

I think that's pretty crazy.

Walk us through what that feels like mentally.

Like you just described two polar opposites and the majority of people on the planet will never really experience those extremes.

They might experience the loneliness in a room, but they won't experience the 30 ,000 people screaming your name, wearing your merch.

Whatever it may be, singing along to your music, what are you feeling in the in -betweens, in the transition of that to that?

You have to have this thing where you kind of wind down and you know what is for wear.

Like you can't bring the stage home because eventually you have to wind down and go to sleep and wake up and do it again.

And you can't be too turned off when you're on the stage because you have to bring enough energy to where somebody is way in the back and they can feel you.

So it's really just like a projection of like your energy and how you feel.

And the majority of the times I'm in a great mood.

I have great interactions with my fans and the people around stage and things like that.

So it goes good. I'm in a great mood, but it's just a lot of this goes from really, really intense and then it could just all just be shut off at one second.

And I think that that's like the craziest part to me.

Yeah, I can relate.

You know, I'd heard that before and I can relate in a small, very small way comparatively.

But I remember doing my first ever live show in 2019.

It was at the Ace Theatre or maybe 2018, something like that in the Ace Hotel.

And it was like, I don't know, 1500 people, 2000 people, maybe.

It was my first ever show and I remember walking off stage, jumping into the car to get driven back home.

And it was just the strangest feeling like it's so hard to explain it.

And I wasn't, you know, it wasn't like I don't do music.

So I haven't got even with that experience, but I'm feeling connected with my audience.

And then you get into the back of a black car.

You barely know. I didn't know anyone in the car with me.

I was alone and I'm driving home and I just felt I was like, wow, I don't even know how to describe the juxtaposition.

And then I went on my world tour last year.

We did roughly 40 cities around the world.

And that was like, you're in a new place every day.

And now you're feeling that same thing every day.

And so I know it's much smaller compared to what you've done.

But to me, just getting that experience.

And I remember that night, I was lucky I came home and my wife had planned a surprise party.

So all my closest friends were back in my house.

And that kind of like it was a relief.

But it is a really weird feeling.

Yeah, I don't think the feeling is smaller due to the crowd or whatever.

I think the feeling is the feeling.

It's like when you're on a roller coaster and you get back and you're in your bed and you still feel like you're on the roller coaster.

It's like, you know what I mean?

So I feel like we still have that in common, even though it might be at different levels.

And it's not even always 30 ,000 people.

Sometimes it could be a private event or sometimes it could be an event with some kids or something like that.

To where it's like you just get really two totally different parts of life.

And they're both great.

I love my normal life and I love my work life too.

It's just the difference between them is crazy.

Yeah. What's helped you continue to love them and deal with that paradox, with that ease and comfort?

What's really soothe your relationship with those challenging or crazy experiences that you mentioned?

I think it has a lot to do with my relationship with my fans because I love the people that I do music for.

And they give me a really, really great response and reaction.

Not only to my performance, but to my music and just the appreciation that they have for it.

So I appreciate them as well.

And it makes it easier because I enjoy it and I love to create.

I love to be on stage.

I love to be in front of people.

So it doesn't feel like I'm doing anything out of, oh, I just want the money or this is just for this certain reason.

It's really, really enjoyable for me.

So it's a great experience.

That's such a beautiful place to be.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

That gratitude to your community for being there for you, for being present with you.

I did. Definitely. Yeah.

What's been your craziest fan experience or fan interaction or memory that you have with one of the audience members that stays with you?

I think the craziest stuff is when people come up and give me to sign my name on them so they can get it tatted.

Wow. Or they show me tattoos on my face on them.

I think those are the craziest interactions because I have tattoos.

I'm covered in them.

So I know how important that is and to be just me as an artist and doing what I'm doing and to have people want to tattoo me on them is pretty tight.

Have people ever done a lyric as well?

Yeah, they do lyrics.

They do song titles.

They do pictures. They do autographs.

They do all types of stuff.

What's your most meaningful tattoo or one that really speaks to you?

Probably, I got a couple.

I got my mom's name.

I got my brother's name, my sibling who passed away.

I got my little sister.

Yeah, probably like my family tattoos mean the most to me.

The rest of them are just like stuff about life that I've learned throughout the way or things that I've called myself throughout life.

When was your sibling who passed away?

She passed away I think maybe seven years ago.

I don't remember exactly how many years ago.

It could be more or less.

And how old was she then?

She would have been 40 now so she was probably 33 when she passed away.

So you had some life together?

Oh yeah, hell yeah.

We grew up together.

Same mom, same dad.

How was that experience for you losing someone so close to you that you love?

I wouldn't say rough because you get through that type of stuff and you learn how to deal with it.

But it's definitely a situation that I never would have expected.

We weren't sick growing up or anything like that.

We were always the same.

So it's like when you get to a certain age, you don't plan on losing a sibling.

It was just something that we had to deal with.

And as her health declined, it was something that we knew was going to happen.

So it was like, all right, cool, let's get ready for it.

I am grateful that I was able to have the last moments that I had and to be able to prepare for it.

My son has memories of my sibling and things like that.

Her birthday was actually on Halloween, so we celebrate every year annually.

We throw a party. It was definitely an experience, but it's something that I'm still dealing with.

A lot of the times I'm doing really, really well.

And then sometimes it might hit me to a point where it's like, all right, let me just slow down and kind of deal with this.

Or just think about it or talk about it or just whatever it is that gets me through it.

But it's just like a continuous thing.

How did you prepare for it at the time?

You said you kind of knew health was diminishing over time.

How did you prepare at the time?

Were there specific rituals or things you did or memories you made together that stayed with you?

No, I wasn't really too many rituals or memories or anything like that.

I was traveling a lot at the time, so I did make sure that I went home and spent some time with her before she passed away.

And then my mom was really the one who was right by her side the whole time.

So she was giving me kind of like blow by blow of everything and just how the situation was going to go.

And I just did my best to try to make her as comfortable as possible for those last couple of moments.

I mean, it sounds like you said you're still dealing with it, even though it sounds like you made the most of that time.

And now you're saying you reach out to people and talk about it.

Who would you reach out to when you want to talk about something like that?

I would talk to my aunt Rachel.

We all just laughed and joked and just had a real good time together.

Talk to my mom, talk to my dad, talk to my baby sister about it.

I most recently talked to just one of my other aunties about it, just randomly, because I feel like we all feel the same and we all have losses and can relate in certain ways, even though it's not the best thing to be relatable about.

But we feel similar about it, so it's cool to have those conversations and feel good about it afterwards.

Yeah, I love that you still celebrate her birthday.

Yeah, for sure. That's a beautiful way to think about it.

Yeah, definitely. It's such a hard balance, I find, in terms of mourning or grieving someone's death and then celebrating the life you had with them.

And it's such a fine line.

And often you're pulled in either direction, but I think it's so important that we do celebrate life and memories we had with someone and celebrate their life as well.

Yeah, absolutely. I look at it as if she was still here, we'd be partying.

Let's not stop the party.

Yeah, that's beautiful.

Thank you. I was diving into a career with and I feel like when someone like you becomes as successful as you become and is dropping successful hits here and there, you almost forget the journey that they've been on and the graph that they've been on.

And I was really fascinated by that because it hasn't just been a smooth, easy, linear journey.

I think people think of success as like, you tried something out, it worked and now you're this big phenomenon and yours had lots of twists and turns.

What was your life like before Black and Yellow compared to what it is now?

What was it like before that?

I would say it was pretty normal.

It was pretty regular.

I was just like any other 20 -something year old.

I think just the way that we were working and traveling and going on the road and the money that we were dealing with.

A lot of it was getting reinvested back into the business.

So I was making money, but I was spending money on myself.

Not even in a big way, but it would just be hotels, travel, things like that.

So I was putting myself through courses and business and how to make money, spend money, reinvest, blah, blah, blah.

I was doing all of this stuff naturally, but it wasn't on that level yet because we hadn't met anybody who was in the game.

We had business managers or anything like that.

So it was just me and my friends, we were kind of just really, really hustling and making the best out of what we knew how to do.

I mean, did you feel like a big break was coming or did it feel like, God, we don't know how this is going to go?

Well, being that I already had a record deal and then essentially lost that record deal, I didn't feel like a big break was coming.

I didn't know what that big break looked or felt like.

But I knew that what I was doing was working and I knew that the people who were into me and the movement that I had created, I knew that that was more popular than the mainstream and what was really, really popular at the time.

So I was really confident in that, but I didn't know a big moment was coming.

What's it like to get a record deal and then lose a record deal?

It sucked for me just because in those days, if you had a record deal, that was it.

And then if you didn't have a record deal, you were done.

So to have one and then lose it is like, oh, there's no bouncing back from that.

I never knew anybody who bounced back from that.

But in my mind, it was never over.

I never counted myself out.

I just never knew what the next situation was going to look like or how long or what that time frame was going to be like.

Where did that confidence come from?

I love how self assured you were that what you were doing in the community you were building was resonating with what you were doing.

Where does that come from?

Because I think, like you said, so many people today might be listening and maybe they just got kicked out of a job, maybe they got rejected from their record deal.

I remember when I was first coming up with the idea for this podcast six years ago, I had a production company and a partner that was going to launch the show with me.

I went away for the holidays, Christmas holidays, came back.

And then I was told that it wasn't on anymore.

So I remember that feeling and having to launch the show on my own.

If someone's going through that right now, how did you maintain that composure and that confidence?

Like, no, we're doing something here.

We may not know when that break's coming, but we're going to keep moving.

Yeah, I think it was just by standing on the things that I believed in and the stuff that made me most comfortable.

And if I wanted to show it, I was going to show it.

If I wanted to talk about it, I was going to talk about it.

It might not have been where everybody else would have considered what's going to take somebody to the top, but it made me feel free.

And I enjoy myself by doing it.

And I think just in turn, a lot of people have fun enjoying watching me do it.

Yeah. If you could give your younger self any advice before Black and Yellow came out, what would it be?

I was good. Keep doing what you're doing.

You got it figured out, fool.

Is there anything you would have liked to have known for how to deal with it afterwards?

No. Everything that I learned and that I figured out along my way, I think happened in its time and how it was supposed to in its position in me for even greater points in my life as well.

Yeah. Where does that come from?

Because that's such a peaceful thing.

And like I said, from the moment you walked in, there's such a peace and ease about you in an industry where people can get jaded.

Yeah. People can get ruffled.

They get flustered.

Yeah. How have you kept that peace and composure for yourself?

Where's that coming from?

Really like just my goals in this shit, I have my own personal goals and I've reached a lot of my old goals that I was trying to do and I reached them by being myself and doing exactly what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it.

So, you know, knowing that that's possible and seeing that it doesn't make me want to rush to the next point or the next situation.

I'm comfortable waiting for what's mine and just seeing how everything plays out as opposed to trying to make it be somebody else's story.

I feel like my whole story and everything as far as my life, if I see it, I wanted it.

It's just a matter of time until I get it.

So, you know, I'll just wait that amount of time and just keep to stay down and just be very, very like have a lot of gratitude for where I'm at and what I've done so far.

And even when I was coming up, I was really, really happy with what I had.

So the more and more that I started to get, it wasn't because I wasn't happy where I was at and I had to get more.

It was just because I was so happy.

It just, you know, just kept turning into more and more.

So I just keep it like that.

Yeah, there's a beautiful quote that says, when you're grateful for what you have, you'll receive more to be grateful for.

And I think it's true that gratitude expands.

But it's beautiful hearing you say that.

Did you learn that from anyone?

Did anyone teach you, mentor you, guide you, or was this an internal thing that's kind of evolved over time?

This is definitely some internal that's evolved over time and it's like gotten me really, really far dealing with people in business or dealing with the law or dealing with just different personalities in general.

As far as I just get what I want creatively and not freaking losing my mind and just being able to talk to people and have clear conversations with an understanding of what works, what's real and what's not and what we can make real.

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See you there. What's been the hardest conversation you've ever had to have with someone?

The hardest conversation I've ever had to have with someone.

I think the toughest conversations that I have to have are when I have to explain my ideas.

Yeah, because because I'm so hyped up about it like before it start before I verbalize it and then as soon as I start to say it, I just feel like the level of intensity of it just comes down.

I'd rather just do shit sometimes and just show you.

But I learn by working with so many other people how valuable it is to have a team.

So, I learn how to be able to express what I'm thinking and have that go through a whole process and then we make it real.

That's so true, man.

I feel like that sometimes.

You can see it in your head, but then you can't press play on the projector and then it comes out.

So, when you're explaining it, everyone's like looking at you like you're crazy.

Yeah, exactly. And you are right.

Sometimes I do feel we live in a time in an industry where people have heard so many ideas that until you see something you don't even understand it.

I feel like when you look at music or you look at movies or film or TV or whatever it is, when you watch something, you're like, oh, that was amazing.

But like someone when they talked about it, no one wanted to buy it.

Did you find that record labels and people that you've worked to the music always understood you immediately?

Or no, you kind of had to go prove and show.

Oh man, they didn't know what to do with me.

There was no clue what to do with me early on.

That's why I lost my first record deal because when I came in, the song was really good.

And it was a sample from a popular song that people, you know, was really recognizable.

But after that, it was like, well, what do you do?

Do you make like five more of these songs or like, what are we going to do?

And they really didn't understand like me being from Pittsburgh, me smoking weed, me being lyrical, me, you know, being a cross between like, you know, really, really hard hip hop culture.

But then like really cool, trippy, hippy, skating, you know what I'm saying?

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There was no cross between that at the time.

You really had to be like, big white tea, like chain.

You know what I'm saying?

So a lot of labels didn't understand what to do with me.

And it wasn't until, you know, I built my fan base of people who believe the same thing that I believe in.

And I was able to travel and do shows, and then they would come and see the show.

And they'd be like, these motherf***ers are going crazy over this dude.

It doesn't matter what we say or what we think is dope.

It's obviously, you know, there.

And I feel like that whole format, you know, has been done a lot, like, especially in rock and roll and pop music, where the act will be bigger in real life than they are.

You know what I mean?

To other people, like, they're bigger in real life than they are, like, to hype, like, as far as the hype goes.

Once they started to see that, that was my situation.

And that's when people started to pick up on me.

Was that the way you built this audience that understood you?

Was it performing live?

Do you feel like that was the significant part for you in creating this amazing connection you have with your audience?

Yeah, absolutely. Performing live.

Going to a lot of different colleges and festivals before they were as big as they are now.

Like, stuff like South by Southwest.

And the really, like, grassroots underground stuff is, like, what built, you know, us.

And we packed into a van and just went on our own tours, just up and down, and just drove ourselves.

And then on top of that, YouTube had just came around.

So, you know, I was recording myself and putting my vlogs on YouTube.

I call it a day -to -day.

And I still do these to this day.

They're like a compilation vlog of, like, a week in my life.

And I just started doing it because I was like, my life is so crazy.

Nobody sees it. And it's so much fun.

And there's so much, like, stuff that goes on.

I was like, so I might as well turn it into, like, you know what I mean, a little 10 minutes short.

And it worked. It worked a lot.

It helped sell a lot of merch.

It helped sell a lot of tickets.

It helped build a really consistent fan base of people who are still here to this day.

Yeah. Do you remember any of those trips, certain places you went to where something crazy happened that you caught on camera?

Man, it's all on camera so you can see it.

Anyone that stands out to you?

Yeah. I mean, I think, like, there's really classic episodes.

There's like an Australian tour with me and A $AP Rocky.

You see, like, me and J.

Cole in his early days, you see me and currency in our early days.

You see a lot of artists.

You see me and Kendrick in his early days.

You see me with Nipsey Hussle.

Yeah. You see, like, the whole community of people who we really came up with who are, like, OGs in the game now.

But there's really classic footage of us when we all just started out.

Mac Miller. A lot of people.

Everybody, man. Everybody who you listen to now was in those day -to -days, like, originally.

How did you guys all meet each other back then?

Like, how did you connect?

Yeah. We were - I guess there was no Instagram DM.

Maybe there was. Maybe there was.

No, we would connect through Twitter.

Right. Yeah. Twitter was the vibe back then.

There was no IG. We weren't, like, DMing each other on there.

But we would connect through Twitter and clothing.

If anybody needed clothes or weed, like, we would all hit up the same people's for clothes, weed, and, you know, just vibes and stuff like that.

And we just all clicked.

And as we started to, like, take off on different levels, we would just bring each other with us based off of who we, you know, not really liked the most, but who we were closest knit with at the time or who it made the most sense with.

Yeah. What's it like watching Kendrick then and Kendrick now?

It's really dope watching Kendrick then and then now because we all came up together.

So we were all doing the same things.

We were all speaking to the same crowd.

And we were at different levels in our career.

And I just remember performance -wise, Kendrick would kind of like scream on stage.

Like, he didn't sound like he did on the record, but now he's, like, one of the best performers and he's, like, one of the - you know what I'm saying?

The guy's really carrying it for our generation.

So to see him, like, just jump up levels and levels and levels through, like, hard work and branding and, you know, just being around the right people at the right times.

Bringing people along with him, like, baby came and all of them.

Like, you know what I'm saying?

He's just really doing every move to the tee of how you're supposed to do it.

And how's J. Cole involved as well?

Cole is the same thing.

It's like, you know, we all started out just the homies, like, trying to get a verse on each other's tapes.

And now dudes are, like, elite rappers up there.

You know what I'm saying?

And it's, like, it's cool to see him have his own festival.

It's cool to see, like, he doesn't have to do as much work throughout the year.

But when he does drop, people pay attention how they're supposed to.

He does great tours.

And, like, as a performance artist and as a substance artist, I feel like he has a type of career.

Like, that's all you can ask for.

Yeah. That's powerful.

What does it feel like?

You were saying there, like, in some ways things have changed.

Like, what's changed for up -and -coming artists today?

Like, what are they doing right, what are they doing wrong?

How would you advise someone?

If you were starting out from scratch today again, how would you approach your career differently or in the same way?

I think that there's levels to it.

I think that a lot of people aim for, like, the surface level, where it's like you get one or two things and you're good and that's what takes you to the top.

But usually, that works against you because you'll have that spike, but then you'll go back down and you'll have to go back up again.

It's really difficult to have that spike and to have that feeling of validation.

And, like, oh yeah, everybody's doing me, blah, blah, blah.

And then, boom, they're not with you and then you got to try to do something to get them back on your team.

So, you know, a lot of people are going to want to go that route, but it has a lot of negatives that come with it on the back end.

And it's a really good time for artists to, you know, cultivate a real fan base, whether it be in front of people's eyes or whether it be behind the scenes.

It's a really great time to cultivate a fan base of people that understand you, understand your slang and how you dress and what your lifestyle is about and really push that to the forefront.

Let that slowly build and eventually, whether it's a year or two years, three years or five years, you know, you're always making a little bit of progress here, here, there.

And wherever you land at, you're going to permanently be there.

There's a lot of people today who get told, you've only got 12 months, you had your hit.

You've got 12 months to make as much money off of you as possible.

Like a lot of people hear that like, hey, look, your career is not going to be that long.

Let's make the most we can.

What would you say to someone who feels that fear themselves or gets told that, like, hey, look, you had one hit.

Let's just, you know, crush this peak.

If somebody tells you that you better get some drugs and start selling them, use that money, flip it, get some real estate, because, I mean, like, somebody who only has a year planned in you and they're like, yo, you're only going to be here for this amount of time.

They're going to move on.

They're going to find other artists or, you know, different people to represent and you're going to be asked out.

Like so any artist or any personality who somebody is already talking about, like the limit of the lifespan of their career, they should definitely be worried and not try to race to, you know, do the most in that amount of time.

But to try to figure out how to extend that lifespan.

So let's take what that person just told you and let's try to figure out, you know, what the next five years looks like instead of the next 12 months.

Yeah, that's good advice.

Yeah, definitely. How far into the future do you look when you're planning music, work, life?

I always try to look at least five or 10 years in advance.

How different is where you are today from where you looked at where you'd be five to 10 years ago?

I'm doing way better business wise than I've ever done.

Not just making money, but managing money.

And I feel like I'm getting better and better at that.

And, you know, that's what's going to take me, you know, into the into the future as well, is not only just, you know, the making of the money, but the money management.

What have been your best moves in money management or business that you think people could learn from?

My best moves in business is just being accountable for everything.

I think in rap music, we get so caught up on on the lifestyle and we're like, I have to have this or if it's a new truck, I'm buying that or...

But me, I'm more like, I'm only going to spend this much on clothes this month.

You know, if I want a new car, I'm going to wait a year and a half until I get it.

You know what I mean?

Or I'm going to move money from this account to spend on this.

So this is here and that's there.

And, you know, we can still pay for tour.

And, you know, how much are we spending on tour?

How much are we making off a tour?

How much comes in off of merch on top of the other businesses and things like that?

But really the money management, like the everyday type of spending where it's like, you know, you could get carried away buying too many clothes or, you know, getting too many nice rooms or...

You know what I mean?

And I have a lot of luxuries that come with my life, but I could also do without a lot of that stuff, too.

So the unnecessary stuff and knowing what the stuff that is not really needed, paying attention to that, not letting just those things just slip through the cracks because they all add up and shit.

So I think just being way more conscious of that type of stuff.

Yeah. Did you learn that the hard way because you were overspending or did you learn that because you saw other people before you were overspending?

Luckily, I didn't get to a point where I overspent or overspent.

I just received large as amounts of money.

And with that comes advice.

And, you know, so it's like yearly or quarterly, you know, we need to have these conversations where it's like, this is what the money looks like.

We had to spend for this because of that or, you know, you had a little bit of fun spending this.

So let's just bring it back on this, this, that and the other thing.

And just throughout time of having those conversations, you start to figure out where the unnecessary spending and the problems come from.

Or even if you start to create little different issues, you'd be like, okay, this isn't really working in our favor.

So we need to wiggle out of this.

And, you know, even if it's spending this big chunk over here, that's going to take away from the continuous spending that's kind of like bleeding and taking away.

So just to learn that and have that visual in my head, you know, while I'm making decisions, a lot of people, they feel like they're being controlled if somebody's telling them that.

But for me, it's a choice.

It's like, do you want to be broke 20 years from now or do you want to be having more money 20 years from now?

All right. Well, this is how you do it.

So, yeah, good advice, man.

It makes sense. And it's it's hard to do in the moment because you just you want to get that thing or you want to buy that thing.

And it applies across the board.

What's the dumbest thing you ever bought?

And now you look back, God, that was dumb.

Man, I don't think it was ever like one dumb thing.

I just used to be dumb how I how I bought stuff like I would see anything and just like it and buy it.

It didn't matter how much it cost.

If it was a car, I wanted it.

I will buy it like right then and there.

Sometimes it'd be a watch or something like that.

Like a lot of these watches I don't even have no more.

So it's like gave them away or sold them.

Sold. Gave away. Lost.

Yeah. And what was the best investment you've ever made?

It probably be like some stocks or it's like some, you know, like a percentage of a business that I've invested in.

Yeah. Yeah. I've had multiple.

But there's some really good ones that, you know, I put some money into that is going to come back in some really good ways.

I hope people get inspired by hearing you talk about how sometimes you got to put off those big purchases, wait a year for that car, because I think when when we're young, especially.

And you come into even a little bit of money, which feels like a lot of money.

It's so easy to to spend and just get carried away.

And especially now, I feel like with all of us just ordering things off of Amazon and everything else.

You have no idea how much money you spend.

Oh, for sure. It's so easy.

It's super easy to look up and, you know, however much just be gone.

And when it's gone, it's gone.

Yeah. And to me, I feel like you have to go through that you have to really feel that and understand it.

And whatever, you know, you believe in, I believe in God.

So it's like, that's God telling me, like, OK, you spent this much.

It's gone. You're going to get more.

But you need to deal with the feeling of you having it and it being gone.

And then now we'll see what getting more feels like.

But some people when they have it and it's over with, they don't even know what that bounce back feels like or looks like.

So, you know, unfortunately, the best way to learn is to go through it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But afterwards, like, you know, it's on you after that.

Like you don't keep doing the same thing over and over or you don't learn from, you know, what happened.

What is what is your relationship with God look like?

My relationship with God is the shit I pray all the time.

I thank God all the time.

Yeah. A lot of people there.

There's certain people who don't feel like God is like a higher power or anything like that.

But I like to just imagine that my God is just like chilling up in the sky, like with a big deep voice.

The sun could be going down and I could be driving and the Hotel California could be on.

I'd be like, thank you, God.

Like, you know, I mean, because like the situation just feels right.

Yeah. Yeah. And what does God say to you in God's deep voice?

You're welcome. You're you're supposed to have this.

That's awesome. Has that always been there since you were young or is that it's come with time as well?

Yeah. Definitely since I was a teenager, definitely since I was like, I can remember, you know, being in like ninth, 10th, no, probably even like eighth, eighth grade, just praying every night, thanking God for a wonderful day, asking him to bless everybody that I care for.

Yeah, just like really cool stuff like just normal, normal ass shit that I want the world to feel.

What would you pray for?

What else apart from other people to be safe?

I was I was in a crazy ass place when I lived in Pittsburgh, so I definitely asked for like that.

That safety, the older I get, you know, I asked for like patience and understanding and things like that.

You know what I'm saying?

So just regular shit.

Well, that's not regular.

That's that's really deep.

Yeah. Yeah. How unsafe was it where you were in Pittsburgh?

Super unsafe in Pittsburgh, man.

Like the streets is crazy out there.

Friends of mine started getting murdered when I was in like seventh grade.

Like I remember like one of my first friends getting shot and killed in seventh grade.

Wow. And then when did you leave Pittsburgh?

I came to Pittsburgh permanently when I was in middle school and I stayed throughout high school and I probably didn't dip until I was like twenty three years old.

Right. Right. Because you moved around a lot growing up, right?

At least as far as I saw.

Yeah, probably like every two years in Japan.

Yeah, every two years I would bounce around.

And my mom was always in Pittsburgh.

So I would go live with my dad for two years and then I would come back to Pittsburgh.

Then I will go live with my dad and then I will come back to Pittsburgh.

So I was in Pittsburgh in third grade and I was also there for middle school and then I came back for high school.

And then other than that, I lived like in Oklahoma, South Carolina, Japan.

Yeah, those were a couple of what was your favorite place?

I think Japan was my favorite place.

How old were you when you're in Japan?

I was in like fifth or sixth grade.

Okay. Yeah. What was that like?

I mean, Japan at that time.

But now I feel like everyone's like Japan's the place to go.

Yeah. It's cool when you're like exploring Japanese culture, but I just realized that as an adult that that shit was kind of fucked up because it was like I'm living on an American base in Japan.

Right. And like just the concept of like Americans occupying Japan was like you never find a Japanese base in America, but like we have the audacity to like go over there and just be like here.

Here's our base. We're going to operate as Americans.

We're going to send our kids to school here.

Don't teach them your language.

Nothing is just going to act like America in Japan.

So that's that's yeah.

You never learned Japanese.

I learned a little bit of Japanese, but it was like basic.

It wasn't like really any like diving into the culture or anything like that.

How do you think that experience impacted you now?

Like how is that childhood experience of moving around, dotting around every two years defined who you are today?

It was cool because I was able to just be a regular kid and I was able to like meet friends and different groups of friends and run around and play and knock on doors and ride bikes and climb hills and stuff like that.

So it was super chill, man.

It was fun just being normal and not really worried about too much.

I think the older that I got and the more settled that I got in in Pittsburgh, that's when I started to like figure out who I wanted to be later in life.

But in those early years, it was just all about like being a kid and just playing with my friends.

When you saw all of that around you, how did you have what gave you that feeling to dream and to want something more?

When you're seeing like the violence around you, you're saying it's a rough neighborhood.

What's given you the ability to go?

There's more to life than this.

I think it was just like knowing that I had talent with music.

I always did music since I was younger.

My uncles and my cousins were older than me.

They were like, you know, 15, 16, all the way up to almost like 20 years old.

And I was like, the baby, I'm 13 years old.

So I'm really kind of trying to do what they're doing, but I'm picking the parts that make the most sense for me.

So it's like the gang banging and the drug selling and the guns and all that shit.

I'm like, that's not really for me, but the looking cool, the having girls, the getting money, the making music.

I'm like, I like that part of it.

So that's what I always really stuck to.

Like just even as a kid, like I was just like, I'm gonna just do what I know is cool for me, which is just making music.

And you know, that's kind of like what led me on my path.

How did you stay away from all of the other things?

Because sometimes those can look cool when you're young, they can they can be attractive when you're young.

I didn't really stay away from it.

I definitely like, you know, the older that I got, and the, you know, the more fun I started to have.

I kind of was in and out of that stuff.

But it wasn't for me, you know, like just, there's it's a lifestyle for some people and for a lot of those people, like they're still doing it now.

And for me, it was just kind of like, you know, being a kid or like a write a write a passage type thing, or it's like, product of my environment type stuff, you know, like the little stuff that I would get into is like, I'm here.

So, you know, I'm, I'm getting down, like, I'm not gonna be the only one who's not down.

You know, you grow out of that stuff too.

And you learn from that stuff as well.

So I learned from the things that I did do, and I learned from the things I didn't do as well.

Yeah, I mean, now you're a father yourself.

Yeah. How do you feel looking now from the perspective of being a dad?

You've been a father to Sebastian for a while now.

Right. And then you just had a daughter cadence.

Congratulations. Thank you.

And like, what's it been like to be a father to Sebastian?

And then how is your views of childhood changing now that you've had a daughter?

Yeah, it's been really good, having Sebastian and having a boy, especially at his age, he's 11 now.

And there's just certain things that are starting to kick him, you know, where it's like, he was a young boy now he's like, you know, a young man, and he's growing into a more of a young man every day, really.

And just that programming of, you know, life and discipline and being polite and, you know, on top of, you know, just everyday stuff of like handling his emotions with his friends and things like that.

It's a really like fun experience going through all of that with him, because I'm able to remember what it was like for me as a kid.

So instead of just like telling him the rules and what you should and shouldn't do.

It's more like guiding him of, you know, how to navigate through these situations, which is really, really fun.

And I had that with my dad as well.

He was always there for me and talked to me about a lot.

And he was way more disciplinary than lenient.

And I'm a super lenient parent with my son, but I'm also really real with him.

And he's able to be real with me, and he's able to talk to me about real life things.

And when I think about the stuff that I did when I was, you know, coming up, by the time I was his age, I was doing a lot more stuff because, like I said, my uncles and my cousins were older.

And I'm just thankful that I was able to have those experiences and know what's appropriate and what's right and what's not.

So I'm able to monitor what goes on with him and what will affect his behavior later.

And then just having a baby girl, I think it just adds to it now because I'm able to just give all types of love.

Like I got the tough love with my boy and then I got like just the sweetness of having a daughter, which, you know, helps out a lot.

Yeah. How do you think you're going to shift your strategy as she grows up?

I think I'm going to do it pretty much the same.

Just like cater to her needs, like whatever she needs.

If she's like super girly girl, then we doing ballet and we doing dance and we doing drama and we doing all the girly stuff.

And if she's a tough girl, then we doing kickboxing and we doing whatever else to rough her up.

We do horseback riding, we do whatever we want to do.

Like, you know what I'm saying?

There's no the sky's the limit, but, you know, keep her active, keep her entertained and just cater to her needs.

Yeah. What's Sebastian into right now, 11 year old?

What's what's like his obsession?

He loves basketball.

OK. Yeah. He loves to play basketball.

He's really just now learning like the fundamentals of it, but he's good at it.

He's an athletic kid and he's like it's good to see him, like, roughing around with the boys, like being one of the boys.

They talk shit to each other, they give each other's faces and like they really get after it.

So he's he's like gravitating towards basketball more than anything just that and just being with the friend, being with his friends, like just being a kid.

Were you ever any good at basketball?

Was it? Yeah, hell yeah.

I never had like like official training like what he's going through.

But if I did, bro, I'll be so much better than I actually am.

And I'm really, really good.

So I would be like, I'll be deadly if I knew how to do it.

What he's learning right now.

So you could give him some pointers along the way.

Just like naturally, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah. Yeah. I love that.

And you never did ballet or anything or anything?

No, no, I never did that.

I did like acting classes and shit like that.

I wasn't like speech and drama and all of that shit, but never no dance.

Did that help speech and drama classes?

How did that? I think that helped.

Yeah, I think it helped a lot because it was like, you know, you learn how to project your voice and all of that stuff.

And you learn how to like hit cues on stage and, you know, just kind of like get outside of yourself in front of people where you're still yourself.

But then you're like outside of yourself.

I definitely think that helped for my performance.

Yeah. If Sebastian K -Pop team was like, I want to be a rapper too, what would you say to him?

Let's go. Studios downstairs.

What advice would you have for him to find his voice?

Studios downstairs.

Get in there and start rapping.

Would you want that?

Or you're kind of open to whatever?

Yeah, I wouldn't mind.

Especially the way that I'm implemented in the game.

Like I do what I want to do.

I'm not like, nobody controls me.

Nobody tells, nobody's like working me harder than I need to be worked or anything.

So I see the same vision for him, especially in the age that we're in.

So it's like, if you're going to be an artist, you're going to be in complete control of everything.

So it starts now. Yeah.

Yeah. The team was saying that you plan a lot of your life around him.

Yeah. They were saying that like sports, sports games and things like that.

You've really taken that idea of an artist should be in control of their own life.

Yeah. Like walk us through that mentality, that mindset.

A lot of people focus so much on their work and they think like that the work is going to come to an end at some point or they have to sacrifice things that are important for work.

And I believe the opposite.

I think I should sacrifice work for my family and it should just be the other way around because of how much that work and how fortunate I am to be in the situation where I put in a lot of work.

I've done a lot of things so I don't have to feel this sense of urgency that things aren't going to go my way if I miss out on something or if I speak up and just try to make sure that everything works out how I would rather it work.

And I had the point in my life where I would be in a studio every day or I would be a different country every day or I would be a show fitting, assigning, TV appearance, blah blah blah.

I would do all of these things back to back to back to back to back.

So I've done that already, but now it's more important for me to just wake up, work out, spend time with my family, make sure that he is at his best because he needs to go to practice.

He needs to train every day for him to be successful later on in life.

And if I'm not there to motivate that, either he's going to get it from somebody else, I don't know who, or it's just not going to happen at all.

And that's my job right now is to make sure that he's successful.

So if I miss this or if that doesn't go the way that it's supposed to, I'm cool with that because in the end, he's going to get to be as successful as he needs to be.

Yeah, that's beautiful, man.

Because I feel like there's such a, it's wonderful to hear, because I feel like we're living at a time where there's such a pressure to constantly be relevant, to constantly like keep up with what everyone's doing.

And now you've got a million platforms to stay relevant on and everyone's doing this and that.

And so it sounds like you've created like a healthy detachment between who you are at your work and who you are at home.

Yeah. And that's that's quite a beautiful thing.

Yeah, I see that better working out long term.

Like I said, I look like 5 -10 years into the future.

And me chilling and me and my family seems way more realistic than me like ripping and running around still.

So I might as well get used to it.

Did you feel your dad was super involved in that way as well?

You were saying that.

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Yeah, absolutely. My dad was super involved with me, especially through my teenage years.

A lot of my time that I spent early in the studio was with my dad, because he built a studio and was running it.

He didn't know about music and he didn't know about any of that stuff.

But I told him I was into it and he built a studio and was like, all right, learn how to use the equipment, start writing songs, put an album out, do this, do that.

And I did it all. And he was like, damn, I didn't know he was really gonna do it.

I'm like, yeah, this is what I want to do.

So like just through, you know, seeing how important him being involved with what I was passionate about took me to the level that I'm at.

It lets me know, like whatever my son and my daughter are passionate about, I have to experience those things with them.

I can't just give them money and provide it for them.

I have to actually do it with them.

And it's going to make a hell of a difference.

Yeah. How does your dad feel about seeing you now?

My dad loves it, man.

He's like in awe like all the time.

And I think out of everything, he understands like how hard I work too.

And he's really proud of it.

Sometimes he gets a little bit worried.

Like he's like, is this too much?

Like, you know what I mean?

Like, I know you do a lot.

I'm like, no, it's cool.

I'm built for this.

Like this is what I do.

So he sees how much I work and he sees how much effort I put in like constantly.

But he's really proud of me.

What's something you learned from your mom?

The value of family.

Yeah, my mom taught me the value of family.

She always kept me around my family members.

She kept me around my cousins, my aunts, my granddad.

She even keeps me around my dad's side of the family.

And they got divorced when I was two years old, but she still hangs out with my dad's sisters, my aunts, my cousins and all that on their side.

So she keeps me in touch with them.

She keeps my kids in touch with them.

She does the whole genealogy of the whole family.

Like my mother is so family oriented and that like rubbed off on me as well.

That's beautiful. What's a misconception you think people have about you, if they have one at all?

I don't think at this point there is any misconceptions.

I think there's just like learning more about me.

I think that the more people learn about me, the more they see like how chill, how educated, how well spoken and like thought out a lot of things that I do are.

And they start to really understand why the people who love me, you know, whether it's my music or I change their life in whatever way, they start to understand like where that comes from.

Yeah. What's something about you that people may not know that you'd like them to understand along those lines?

I think right now I just want people to know like how you said, like how detached I am from the whole success world.

Like I'm cool with it, but like that's not the goal.

And it's not a lot of people say like, oh, well, you have money.

So it's easy for you to say that.

But I think you just reach certain points in your life where different things are important no matter how much money you have.

And, you know, some people I'm 37 years old, some people reach my age and this is the time that they start their business and they're like, I'm going to go hard and I'm going to build my empire now.

I was just lucky to have got a head start in my twenties, build my empire.

And now I really understand like, you know, how to sustain it and maintain it and keep it going for the next 10 20 years.

And those are the things that I'm really, really working on along with the music, you know, which is super duper important, but it's really just about like making this thing last.

Yeah. And I think you're right.

I don't think it's about how much money you do or don't have.

I think anything can become a drug and you can get addicted to it.

Yeah. And I remember, you know, Kevin Hart was sitting in that chair and he was talking about how success became a drug for him.

You're just addicted to more and more of it.

And so it's easy for you to get addicted and obsessed and just and you're actually saying, well, actually, I don't want to get addicted.

No, yeah. No, that's my work.

It's my job. It's what I'm really, really good at.

And I don't never want to give that up for, you know, the normal life or anything like that.

But I do value my normal life as much as I value, you know, the value of the 30 ,000 people on stage, but I also value being in my bed alone at night when the lights are off.

But I love it. Yeah.

I appreciate that. And I think I think we need more of that healthy thinking, because I think if you only like one or the other, or if you start to detest one or the other.

Right. That's when it starts to get scary.

Like a lot of people love being in the audience.

They don't like being alone.

Yeah. Or a lot of people like, oh, God, I hate being with the fans now and I love being alone.

And I think both of those can lead to a lot of like right pain intern.

Yeah. You have to work on both.

And when you know what you're here for, you know, which time is to do which one.

I spent a lot of time working on the other side of it to where I love my job and I love what I do.

And I'm very grateful to be able to make the amounts of money doing what I do.

But that's not everything to me.

I work as hard on my personal life as I do on that side of it.

I'm in the studio, you know, if I'm in the studio, 12 hours, or if I'm on a plane, you know, 16 hours and I barely get any sleep and I don't eat.

And I'll do promo and I do a great show and I do a meet and greet and I smile.

I take everybody's picture.

That's all part of the game.

That's me going hard to make sure that that part of it lasts when I'm by myself.

I'm waking up, you know, at a good at a decent time, I'm going to sleep at a decent time.

I'm working out. I'm spending these certain hours.

I do yoga. You know, there's just certain things that go with the process.

And then like you said, planning things around my kids.

So it's like I'm making sure that I'm spending this family time where it's not they're getting the short end of the stick off of anything.

So I'm working passionately and hard on my normal life the same way that I do in, you know, my professional life.

And sometimes it takes more energy in normal life than it does in a professional life.

I agree with you. Yeah.

It's easy to be disciplined at work, right?

It's actually short for your family and be disciplined at home.

Right. Right. It requires a whole other thing.

And a lot of people, they run from that because it's easier to, you know, just put all the put all the guilt and responsibility.

Oh, I got to work. It's my job is this.

It's easy for you to do that.

It takes some time.

You know what I'm saying?

You know, be a little bit nervous, be a little bit uncomfortable, be a little bit bored.

But you're not going to be bored if you're around people you love.

Like I'm never bored around my kids.

But, you know, take be passionate about your normal life as well.

Yeah, it sounds like you have so much order and discipline in your life.

When I'm hearing that, I'm like, it sounds like everything's very structured and organized and intentional.

Yeah, it's not like this random, like, yeah, it's not random at all.

Every day is very regimented.

Yeah, it's definitely regimented.

You know, I look at my schedule regularly.

I'm updated the schedule regularly.

And it just really built to make me happy.

Like, I'm cool with everything that I have to do as long as I'm happy.

Like, you know what I'm saying?

And if we talk about it and we arrange it and we put it in all the times that it's supposed to be.

I'll be really, really happy and I love to do it.

But when things start coming out of left field and you have your idea of what an appropriate time is and we didn't run that by each other, like, that's not going to make me happy to do this.

And I'm doing this because I love it.

I saw your men's health video with the MMA, which has become your fascination and I guess workout routine for a couple of years now, I feel.

Where did that start and how did that come about?

A lot of my big homies were getting, and when I say big homies, I mean security.

They were getting into MMA and doing jujitsu and just martial arts and just meeting all types of people.

And this was like almost 10 years ago and they were just telling me like, bro, this is the next wave.

Like everybody's about to be doing this, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You got to get into it.

I'm like, yeah, it's cool, but you know, I rather like, you know, smoke weed and be in the studio, like, you know what I'm saying?

But as soon as I started working out, I just developed like a passion for like out of nowhere and it didn't make me slow down smoking any like I was able to like still get stoned.

But I love training and I love working out and I love like learning new things.

So it just just kept building on top of each other and just building and building.

And then I just, you know, started to develop some skills that, you know, we're still sharpening to this day.

Do you go to watch as well or you just like training?

Oh yeah, I watch the shows as well.

Yeah, I got a company called PFL that I'm involved with.

I go to their shows all the, I mean, I go to their fights all the time.

I go to boxing matches, just wrestling matches, there's jujitsu matches.

There's all types of stuff.

Combat Sports is like, as you've seen, has grown so much and so many influencers want to do it.

It's just a really good lifelong thing too.

Like it's gotten popular for how much money it makes people and things like that.

But as a lifelong practice, like I would suggest that for any and everybody.

Yeah. If there are men who are watching who want to get into helping fitness, what would be your best advice to them to motivate them, inspire them, let them know how important it's been for you and it could be for them.

I would just try to paint the scenario of you being about late thirties out with your kid.

Somebody like is just in your face and your kid is standing right there and you only got 30 seconds to prove to your child that you're the protector or somebody who's gonna get whooped.

Start working out now.

That's hilarious. It's funny because my next question is gonna be about like, you know, I feel like masculinity is such a big talking point right now.

And you know, a lot of men feeling like they've inherited the mistakes made by men in the past.

And so men carrying around a lot of judgment, men feeling left behind in the conversation.

The different things you've talked about today and the way you're organizing your life, like masculinity is a very broad spectrum.

It's not just one way.

Right. And so have you ever thought about that, raising a son for yourself?

The message you put out, I feel like rap and hip hop had a version of masculinity before.

That's right. What are your thoughts on that?

I think I've always like approached masculinity just off of my vision of it.

And the most masculine in people that I respect and just the situations that I look at as what, you know, a man should model themselves as are usually the most like moderate and mild tempered and just chill and kind of, you know, observant and just guiding the situation.

And any way that you can position yourself to be that type of person, I've always felt like that was the more, you know, respectable thing.

And we all have feelings and we all have emotions.

And that's where like training in combat sports helps you like to put all of that stuff in the right place.

Because when you get a chance to get that stuff out, you realize where it has a place at where it doesn't.

And a lot of people, they don't have a place to get that stuff out.

So they think that they're being masculine by like showering or yelling or being rude to somebody.

But really, that should be like the last case scenario.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, that's why I say protecting your child, because I would never use what I know to hurt anybody unless it was to protect my family or myself.

It wouldn't be in any other situation because to me, that that's not cool.

That's not tough. That's not even what it's for.

So I think the idea of masculinity, it just comes from whoever is putting it out at the moment and what they've learned from it.

And, you know, the world judges the way that it does based off of their experiences, because they think, you know, the most mean or the most scary or this, that and the other thing.

But they haven't. They show that, but there's not a lot of real situations that people are in that prove that that that's the right thing.

And from my experience was proven the most is the most mild, chill, moderate people are the ones that you should probably be like the most worried about.

So the more that you can position yourself in life to have an understanding of your own emotions and be in control of your reactions to things, I think that just makes you more looked at as what people would consider masculine or a leader or a provider or something.

Something like that, rather than like an emotional person.

Yeah, that's a really powerful answer, man.

I feel like you kind of feel the world going through two extremes where it's like masculinity used to be this bravado, chauvinistic, arrogant, you know, alpha male type.

And then it's swung to being vulnerable and soft.

And now I can't feel like it's kind of swinging back the other way.

Yeah. And it's almost like I like how you described it because it's not really hard or soft.

It's kind of like the person who can like calm it down, guide it, move it along, knows what to do with everything.

Exactly. Exactly. Because I've seen both, you know, and I've been around like growing up in Pittsburgh, you see a lot of dudes where it's like the street nigga type is like the hyper masculine.

But a lot of those dudes end up like going to jail, getting shot, or when they come home from their jail, they're not who they used to be.

And all of that masculinity kind of goes away when you see like the perception of this person go away, you see who they really are.

So it's like deep down, who really are you inside without this whole thing that you're like putting off on people and men have a lot of pressure, especially like growing up because we're more competitive.

We're like really competitive.

So it's like I could see it with my son, like being in sports with him and his friends, you know what I mean?

They just off rip, just go to this certain type of personality.

And I'm like, bro, you know, you're like a better teammate if you tell dudes, like, yo, good shot.

Like, you know, I'm saying good job.

I see you, blah, blah, blah.

But they don't understand that.

Now, as kids, they're so competitive and they're so at each other's throats.