The Loft 313
The Loft podcast is a Detroit based podcast with the distinct feel of late night television. Our renowned host, Felix The Don dives deep into the heart of artists, producers, entrepreneurs and many more bringing their amazing life stories to light.
The Loft 313
Ep 20 w/ Jay Squared
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Have you heard of Jay Squared? he is your favorite rappers favorite rapper. and now, he is your favorite rappers favorite influencer as he has taken Instagram by storm with his lyrics videos. Who knew just repeating lines would catch peoples attention? Well here he is live, in the flesh, and we got the exclusive only at The Loft 313!
Just say the word never get to fly. You gotta tell me twice. Fly out later night. Now we overseas. Swimming in the sea.
SPEAKER_02What up, though, everybody? Welcome back to the Law 313. I'm your host, Felix, aka Felix the Don, aka Top Two and not two. Back with my co-host Nate. What up, Donate? How you feeling, man? We back. We back, man. Episode 20, technically episode two with the new setup. And we got a very special guest today with us today, man. Everybody welcome Jay Square, man. How you doing today, my boy?
SPEAKER_01What up, man? It's so good to see you, both.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, man. I'm glad we finally made this happen. Me and Jay kind of been following each other for years, you know, following each other's journeys. And we we've always kind of showed love to each other on the gram. I appreciate you for that, by the way. That's why I'm here. Um, and then now, so we like, you know, let's bring it together. Let's sit down, have a conversation, you know, let my fans know who you are, and that, you know, the loft people, you know who you are. And uh, I'm excited to have you on the show.
SPEAKER_01Man, I'm really excited to be here. Like, I I said this to you before, but like, bro, it's so dope in here. Like, I appreciate it. But for the people who haven't been here, it's dope in here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, man. You know that high quality uh and it smells really good.
SPEAKER_01Like it smells like really good. Yeah. And I'm like, oh my god, it smells angelic in here. Like, what's going on? The or is crazy.
SPEAKER_02Um, so man, we we just want to get to know you a little better and and learn your story, learn about you, what you got going on in your life. So we're gonna kick it right off. Tell the people who is J Squared, where are you from, tell us about your upbringing? Let's let's go back to the roots. And I'm gonna smoke while we do this, man.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you do your thing, man. Um, my name is J Squared. Uh government name John Johnson. Got it from my uh algebra teacher in ninth grade. So she called me J Squared, just kind of stuck. Don't know how to happen, you know what I mean? And uh yeah, born and raised Detroit, Michigan, West Side Puritan, you know what I'm saying? That's the hood. Yes, you know, you know what I mean? Just in the hood, but not in the hood, you know what I'm saying? Like very much on the porch. Um, but like you feel me, it's it's it's beautiful to even, you know, be from Detroit, you know what I'm saying? Like, we have so much lineage and so much like you know, cultural relevance across the globe, you know what I mean? And just to have that tutelage in our and on my shoulders and ours, it's really dope. So yeah, and I make music and I I'm I do socials and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_02Okay, and what got you into making music? Like what how first of all, how long have you been making music?
SPEAKER_01Okay, so yeah, but I would say about since I was about 12, I've been writing music or whatever. Really before that, I was doing like poetry and stuff like that. Um, but professionally I would say since about 2016. Yeah, 2016 is when everything kind of like popped off during like the SoundCloud boom when you had people like Lil Yachty and like all those different folks. But on the outskirts of all of that on SoundCloud was another uh wave of lo-fi artists like Elijah Who won two, um Tampa beats, you got Chance Thrash, and so many different people that were like popping off on SoundCloud, and you know, we were just renegades, just rapping off of lo-fi beats, you know what I'm saying? Shout out to Love Sad Kid. Um, and yeah, we've been just cooking, you know what I'm saying? And that kind of just transitioned into going into streaming and okay, now I gotta take this brand thing professionally. What does that even mean? You know, and trying to figure these things out. So yeah, and ever since then it's just been I'm trying to incorporate hip hop into literally everything I do. Yeah, yeah, I feel you.
SPEAKER_02At the core of it, everything man, hip-hop is is what we live and breathe. So, what was your early influences? Like what really because I know when I was younger, you know, my brother's a singer, so coming up, my brother, he would he's an asshole. You he gonna tell you no in a falsetto type shit, you know, growing up with people like that, my dad on the label. Um, you know, coming up we lived down the street from Blade when I was coming up when I lived on Lynwood. So it's like it was always R R P Blade, you know. So it was always music around, you know. So those were like my early influences that made that like you know attractive to me. What was that for you?
SPEAKER_01Man, like very, very, like, very similar upbringings. Like, I mean, we we in Detroit, so everybody kind of get the same sort of vibe, you feel me? So like um, yeah, my sonic upbringings was very much a mix of two different worlds. So my dad, you know, he's been in the fire department for he's a senior chief of the fire Detroit fire department for like 35 years and everything like that. Yeah, just pun intended. And and uh yeah, but before then, uh he's been a music head. Like I'm talking about like my dad is the type of person to play a song to the ground. Like just if the if he likes some little loop or some lunch, one little sound on a thing, he's just playing it over and over and over and over again. But he used to DJ back in the day, like in the 80s. You know, remember when like techno was super like starting to pop off with Juan Atkins and everybody like that? He kind of came up around that type of tutelage. And um, so but he was very much in, you know, in you know, in the streets, moving around and shit like that. And so I was in that sort of sound a lot. Like that's a lot of stuff I heard. So a lot of NWA, you heard a lot of, you heard a lot of T Stucky, you heard a lot of like different people, like uh Blade, obviously. I have this line I wrote, uh I remember days on a yay bumping Dilla and Blade, you know what I'm saying? Like it's uh you get two sides of like a the different coin. And then my mom, my mom actually was like real eclectic, like she was really eclectic. Like she used to listen to like a lot of like you know, Pan-Africanism type artists, people of native tongues. My first actual song I've ever learned by heart was uh Ready or Not with uh the Fujies. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so it was very much like Lauren Hill is my introduction into hip hop. So like, you know, that's the best way to, you know, best way to get introduced. And um, yeah, just all types of different artists at that point. And once you get once you get in, you start listening to everything. Now I'm listening to like I'm go, I'll be listening to Blade, then listen to The Smiths, then listen to freaking Daft Punk, and then listen to, you know what I mean? So yeah, I'm so grateful for music.
SPEAKER_02Growing up in Detroit, the music is is very similar. Like when I was coming up, my sisters are listening to RB, Neo Soul. My mom's listening to like old soul music and gospel. My grandma was like heavy with the jazz. My grandma was like, you're not hearing lyrics, you get in her car, it's just jazz radio all day long. And my brothers listen to Blade Icewood, yeah, the Cheddar Boys and all types of, you know, different shit back in the day. You know, a lot of Pac, a lot of ice cube and things like that. Uh a lot of like uh what do you want to call it? Like uh adversity, like adversity type rap, you know, shit like that is what I came up on. What did you listen to a lot going on? Like what was your shit? Because I feel like I really I feel like I didn't really get introduced to more alternative stuff either until I was older, but then I kind of like middle school, I started listening to rock music, yeah. Started listening to more pop music, shit like that. Right.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean I grew up on well obviously I heard like I'm I'm younger than you, so I I was listening to, you know, there was the Kanye's Jay-Z and all that stuff, uh Eminem obviously. But it was like I didn't really get into like trap or like rap music until future. I was riding in my buddy's car and his mom was like shaking out. I heard on the same damn time for the first time in my buddy's car, his mom was playing. Future is like that's kind of what like got me onto rap music. But I grew up on you know stuff like that, pop music. My sister was listening to a lot of that Jojo, like you know, all that type of stuff, and then country rock. I kind of listened to everything. That's kind of why like works for me to be a producer because I just try to come a lot different sound, you know. That's awesome. I feel that.
SPEAKER_01I feel that that's awesome because like that, I think that's very similar into how like my parents used to listen to things too. Like, like, though my dad used to listen to like a lot of street shit at the same time, like, but like don't get it twisted, he was playing some Anita Baker or playing some Amel Marie or uh I forgot her name, but like that what's that one song that you're a brave bird? That's okay. That's a vibe. Like he'll just be just riding through that, you know, uh Phil Collins, different people like that. And then my mom on the opposite side is just listening to straight ice cubes, you know, most America's most wanted type, you know what I'm saying? So like it I kind of was a very much a ensympathical sort of situation for me to kind of get into music the way that I am. So I'm really grateful. And that's awesome, and that's awesome too that uh y'all had the same similar experience.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, for sure, for sure. I mean, uh when I I didn't get to rock music until I started playing uh Guitar Hero. I ain't gonna lie to you. Oh man. Guitar Hero put me on to listen. Guitar Hero 3 Legends of Rock.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, that's just bro. Guitar Hero and also wrestling. Yeah, wrestling for the room. Oh my god, wrestling for the road. What?
SPEAKER_03That's it.
SPEAKER_04I was the miles inside that spin up danger.
SPEAKER_03A lot of video game soundtracks is kind of what opened my ear to a little bit. Come on, man. SmackDown vs. Raw has some cold soundtrack.
SPEAKER_01So many amazing soundtracks. You know what's the best video game soundtrack on the planet? Be careful with your answer because people might cut up on you. Okay, hot take, and I stand by it. Two of the best soundtracks on the planet. Number one, it's no order. They switch up for me. Number one, Mark Echoes getting up, contents under pressure. If you know, you know. Voiced by Talib Kwali. It had you had survival of the fittest plan with Mob Deep and oh my. If you know, you know. If you know, uh shoot me a DM. Um and the second one, the herbs. The Sims.
SPEAKER_03Really? Yes, bro. I was never playing the Sims like that. Bro, I love it.
SPEAKER_01I love the Sims. I gotta fuck with it. The Herbs was my introduction into the Sims because like I didn't know it was, you know, it was a computer game for the most part.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Fun fact it used to be a um an architecture simulator.
SPEAKER_02Really?
SPEAKER_01Yes, it was about building houses and things like that, and then they had to put people in the houses to make them interact with the things, but they were like, why do we do the it architecture when we can just make it about the people, make it about the sim. Yeah, and so then now you can build your houses and do all these different things. I never knew that. I never knew that. Yeah, look at that. It's understandable though. Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, it's super dope. But yeah, the herbs was the shit, and it was awesome because this is my first time like really listening to the black eyed peas, and like, and bro, people people sleep on the black eyed Ps for real. Shout out to uh Nicole Captors. I know she's roasting me right now for saying that, but like the black eyed peas, bro, super hip hop, super hip hop. They had hits, bro. You know what I'm saying? And they had hits, and bro, like, Will I Am is doing some insanity type stuff with AI and technology and stuff right now, just all off of the strength of being motivated by hip-hop. I could go on all day, but those who's like. Um, I think that okay, so I don't got kids, right? So we gotta start there. I don't got kids, so it's a weird way to say like my life ends with me. There is no legacy past myself. However, there are other people who do have kids, you know, or plan to have kids. And AI is very much in that sort of world where it's like, oh, you guys are actually destroying the world. You know what I mean? And the reason why I say that is because if we put music into it, the one human, one of the few human things that we can do on our own that's just completely brain to think. One of the most organic pieces of it. It's so organic and authentic and everything like that. I just don't see a world where where AI has to be the incorporated into that. I understand the logistical side of things, like when it comes down to like LLMs and you know, making a task manager or like making graphs and things like that. Like, you know, the stuff that you don't really want to do, but we want petty work. Exactly, but we want to do the music. Like, I actually I yeah, I get frustrated. I like that take.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that makes sense. Like, because that's how I feel about it. I mean, I work in the corporate world, you know. I on the on the regular, I'm in the cannabis space, running shops, and you know, I'm you know, actually overseeing all the logistical shit going on in the building. I'm not trying to make graphs and do all that extra shit. Yeah, I can hop and copilot, be like, hey, make me a chart that says this, has my information in it, throw some data and fucking Excel, analyze that shit, throw it in a pivot table. Like, I don't got time to do that. You got it. I was gonna say that makes the workflow fast or like jobs, you know what I mean. On the other hand, I feel you on the music shit, like you know, we're creators, you you know, it take it take time, effort, and it's really emotional. Yeah, emotion coming out of it when you're writing a song, when you're making a beat, you know, anything like that. So I definitely understand like where I feel like AI is useful and where you what you said, like why do we need it in this? Exactly. Now, on the other hand of that, as a producer, because when we talking AI and music, are we just talking AI artists, yeah, AI writing lyrics? Are we talking AI helping with like mixing, with equal, you know, like where is it that AI or do we just not want AI period in music? I that that's a great question.
SPEAKER_01And I would love to hear your perspective on it also, just from a producer standpoint. But for me, like I feel like the people who really love what they do, whether it is making beats or like producing or mixing and mastering, tracking things or whatever, like we get frustrated, right? Like, we have those moments where we'll be like, Man, what is this line? Or like, what should I put here? Or what is missing here? And like, that's the video game, that's the challenge that we're trying to face. You know what I mean? And I think mitigating this completely like offsetting that and like just going, figure this out, it's kind of like it robs you of the the satisfaction you get from like going, oh my goodness, I came up with this myself, you know.
SPEAKER_03Like, so yeah, I would love to hear everything. I see both sides to it, especially as a producer. Like, you know, it's different if I'm making a whole beat using just AI and I did I didn't touch nothing. Yeah, but if I'm like making a beat, let's call, let's say I'm in like an RB soul type of beat, and I hear like you know, like some female choir vocals or something. Like, yeah, I can go to my plugin and do this, but if I have a certain thing I wanted to say or something, yeah, that's cool. I can go generate that, and you know, but like there's certain things that I think like are beneficial to it. Yeah, but I don't I think like like we said, it takes a lot of the emotion or like that rewarding feeling that you get from making that piece of art. Yeah. I see both sides.
SPEAKER_01That's that I think that's the part that's kind of tricky too. I think the reason, another reason why AI should not be in the world of art space is because of people who may or may not have the capability to afford a choir to come to their house and record a thing. Yeah, so yeah, that's enticing to want to put that on. Like, I want to put that in my song, like of course, but I can't afford to go to you know the second Ebenezer Baptist Church to go get the choir, pay everybody and whatever, and break that down. So it's exploitative in a lot of different ways, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03It just depends on how you use it to be.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think it it I and and you know, I'm trying to keep an open mind with certain things, but like just just make me a a a graph for me. Like make me a list. Like I'm I'm good on the list.
SPEAKER_02No, I feel you, I feel the same way because it's like we don't need it in the music space. Yeah, I don't I I can see where it can be necessary, but then I understand why people don't want it because there's that fine line of people who are gonna use it to just do the thing for the bro. There is literally, I don't want to say the name, I don't know if we but there's literally an app because I'm not even gonna give these niggas no promo, which is crazy. Yeah, there's an app where you can be like, write me a country song about my girlfriend Tanya, who just broke my heart, and that bitch will write you a song, record it, you'll have a demo in seconds that you can listen to, and if you pay for the subscription, you now own that song. And you get the stems and everything, you get the stems from it, everything, and you can re-record it, do whatever. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_01I ain't liking it because there's some country artists.
SPEAKER_02Come on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, nah, duh.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's crazy. I'm gonna show it to you off camera. I'm not gonna get them niggas number four.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, yeah, fuck up. But like that, like, cause I can't imagine being like, um, who's what's dog name? Uh like Luke Bryant or somebody or Ella Langley or whoever.
SPEAKER_02Me got the number one country dog in the free man. How is that?
SPEAKER_01The real chaboozy. I done yeah, like I done grew up in, I done grew up in the Appalachians and did all this stuff, man. Shout out to Shaboozy, dog like the reality, bro. Like, come on, man. That would be crazy.
SPEAKER_02It's actually crazy. And I I didn't believe it. So I'm like, let me look into that shit real, bro. It not only does it give you the song, it gives you like 15 versions of that.
SPEAKER_01Nah, crazy nah.
SPEAKER_02Maybe this, bro.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's see, that is I hate getting caught like that. Yeah, I think that's the part that's so I get robbed. I mean, I don't wanna, I ain't gonna talk about it. Yeah, hey, it's a safe space.
SPEAKER_02I don't understand that situation. Because I kind of, you know, I don't be, I don't give a fuck at the same time. I just be I be seeing shit and I don't know what's real. Social media be so fake sometimes. So, Phoenix Flexer. Is it an AI song? Is it not an AI song?
SPEAKER_03I wanna the song's a banger. I will say that.
SPEAKER_02Listen, the one he just the snippet is not though. I didn't like the second one he just dropped the snippet up. And you can tell you. Yeah, like we don't know you. I don't know you.
SPEAKER_01This is my we're consumers at the end of the day. We're all consumers, you know what I mean? But I ain't trying to fight that one. I only know that one truck. Yeah, like okay. Here's my thing. My thing about Phoenix Flexing and Rubbers is what the song is called. It's confirmed AI. So confirmed, and he tray, so he spent a whole time trying to say, Oh, this is uh, you know, this ain't AI, this is just melodyne. I just threw this on here and I showed the stems and none of them broke out or nothing like that. And so, like, then you he go, he people did the research to figure out that he is made an AI song, and then he goes into a comment that somebody left and says, Well, I didn't say I didn't use AI. You know what the fuck we were made about. That's what I'm standing on. Yeah, made AI, bro. And the song is a smash.
SPEAKER_02And that yeah, they say he made AI. Did he just put his voice on the AI voice?
SPEAKER_01That's or and that's the thing, bro. Like, because people were saying like he had a British accent, which he really didn't for real. Um, and two, in my opinion, and this is no disrespect to Phoenix Flexing. Dog, this is follow up. This is your cousin. I'm just trying to talk to you. You feel me? Like, listen, bro. If you would have just stood on it and just been like, man, I just was playing around with the AI shit, and it came up with this thing. I I tweaked a little bit of this and that and tried to make it my own thing, but yeah, this is what I came up with. We would have a totally different conversation right now for sure. But you felt, I think the shame of having that AI music-ness on you is the thing that made you lie about it. Yeah, and that is the part that like look what that just created. Now, now we really don't like AI music now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you tried to play, you tried the game of.
SPEAKER_03Did you see the studio session files of it? Did you see you see that video? Bro, yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was like AI beat one. Yeah, like come on, man.
SPEAKER_03Say like layers, ad libs, like whatever, whatever. Then there's one that like it's literally straight from the source, bro. It's like excuse me.
SPEAKER_01That's so weird to me. Like, because he's talented. Yeah, Phoenix Flexen and Shoreline Mafia, they're talented. Well, I'm not even gonna put that on OGZ or whatever, but like, like uh Phoenix Flexen, I've bro, the Hollywood or YG, bro, like bro, Shoreline Mafia been dropping some crazy shit. All organic. So why why fight for this thing? You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03Just own it, bro.
SPEAKER_01Does it slap? Yes.
SPEAKER_02It does slap.
SPEAKER_01But I don't like being deceived.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I feel you. The second one is not that hard. I'm I'm sorry it's not, but yeah, and we let's go back to rap it, man. You be talking crazy. Yeah, come on. No more AI in music, please. Thank you. No more AI. Get your bars up, get your bars up, get your motherfucking uh. Get your vocals right. Come on, man. And get in the studio, man.
SPEAKER_01Pay your engineer, pay your producer, and and read about lyrical devices. Like.
SPEAKER_02All right, back to back to J Square. Excuse me. Sorry. Yeah, we went off on a dance. I love it. I love it, man. I love it. All right. So who are some of your favorite artists specifically from Detroit? Um, because I know we can go on a real tangent if we go first. And I'll try to keep it short. Let's go simply from Detroit. Who are some of your favorite artists?
SPEAKER_01Rah. You gotta you gotta mention Slum Village first. Like for me, Jay Dilla, T3, you gotta mention, you gotta talk about Danny Brown. You gotta talk about shout out to Nick Speed, Clear Soul Forces, shout out to Bro, shout out to fucking Babyface Ray, shout out to Um Sada Baby, shout out to T Grizzly. You feel me? Like, so there's so many different artists that like, bro, anybody that is touching a mic in Detroit, like we got Detroit got this, we got this thing when we go to other cities and stuff, like we'll be like, I don't give a fuck what type of problem I have with a person. Like if from here, if I'm out in the city, like that's like I'm not about to shade nobody from Detroit out of nowhere else. You know what I'm saying? And I think that is kind of the beautiful thing about Detroit music because like we're seeing like a nice renaissance of different artists that are coming out of the city that I can't, I can't like I'm just so grateful for. You feel me? But yeah, I would say for show baby face Ray. Shout out to the niggas in Flint, you feel me? Like, bro, Flint is going dumb right now. Um, you have beat the Pac-Man. Yeah, yeah. He had a bunch of features on there too. Yeah, honestly, like that, and just seeing how all these different people come up, um, I just love it, bro. I really any any artist that is coming out of the city, I'm fucking with it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, man. We got a lot of spotlight on this, just on the whole state, you know, statewide right now. It's really crazy to see. Like, cause it was not like that, yeah. I've been rapping since what 2014, 2015. So it's like it was not like that, man.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, oh man, them shows.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, the Detroit sound did take over over the last few years.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it's kind of a lot of people, yeah. It's everywhere. And and you know, that's that's it kind of we, you know, we're kind of the birthplace for a lot of that, you know what I mean? From with Motown and Barry Gordy and like all of those different types of like artists and stuff like that. I'm just so grateful to just even say, thank God I'm from Detroit. If I was from like, I don't want to shade nobody else's city, but like, you know, if I was from somewhere else, I'd be like, ah, damn. I'm in, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know what's I mean? We'd be catching a lot of strays on Instagram that keep pissing me up. I'd be in niggas' comments, like, y'all got us fucked up. Come to the city, bro. Yeah, I'm sick of it over here. I'm sick of it. Uh it's crazy, y'all niggas. We said shout out Shabuzi. He threw a stray when they was talking about Gotham. They just talk about Gotham and comparing us, compared Gotham to Detroit. I'm like, bro, like we catch a stray. Yeah, yeah, like like come on, bro.
SPEAKER_01Like, come on, bro. Detroit is such a beautiful city. Y'all gotta just come here. Like, people just gotta come here. I feel like, I feel like if you got picked up and dropped off in the Russell Industrial Center, you might feel a little weird. You might you might you might lock a door or two, but you like, but it's beautiful. It's beautiful. Go on the inside. You ain't even see what's going on in there. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, people look weird, bro.
SPEAKER_02That's crazy, Russell. Hey, it does look crazy. It doesn't look crazy as hell over there. There's some nice spaces in the wrestler. Yeah, beautiful, beautiful spaces. Gotta check it out. Yeah, hey man, we got good food, we got uh great music. Yeah, there's a lot of shit to do. Downtown is transforming right now. Um speaking of that, you see the new uh Cosmic? Cosm. I was about to say Cosmos. So I went to Cosm in LA, and that shit is fire. I went and saw The Matrix. So it's like it's immersive. So, like when they was in the white room, like nigga, we was in a white room watching fucking Neo and Morphids talking about it. Like the Vegas sphere, but like Yeah, I had to show you at the I'll show you all the videos offline. That shit looks that's crazy. No, so it depends. It depends. So if you go to a game that's sold out, it's gonna be more expensive, or you go to some go to a game people don't care about, but the movies are a lot cheaper. Like the movie experiences are a lot cheaper than the games.
SPEAKER_03I was gonna say because I saw like 700 Lions tickets, and I'm like, well, I gotta just go to the game at that point. Exactly. But shit, you damn near at the fucking game.
SPEAKER_02It's a it's a cool experience. But you can you can definitely find some for a little cheaper. You just gotta one, do it in advance, and just look at their schedule and go find a game nobody gives a fuck about.
SPEAKER_01Detroit didn't guess that.
SPEAKER_02In a way game, sometimes even the home games, because a lot of people will be at the game, so it'll probably be cheaper to watch it at thousand people.
SPEAKER_01That's fire. I've never been, and there's so many new things that happened in the city since I done left and came back. Yeah, like I'm I'm still learning shit. Like, I remember when I found out about Big Pink. I was like, what the hell is Big Paint? I'm like, what is this? You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we got a lot of cool spots. Uh in the cannabis space, we do a lot of like events and shit in these different like places where you can consume and drink. That should be lit, bro. Yeah, yeah. It's a lot of little gems and Easter eggs around the city that come to Detroit.
SPEAKER_01It's cool. It's lit over here. Move Detroit. Let's get it.
SPEAKER_02I'm telling you. All right, so you started this new thing. Is this new the verse thing?
SPEAKER_01Uh, it's it's I mean, it's new to me technically because I've been doing it since you know for two years now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but it's really I didn't really start popping it off on the gram until like a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So let's talk about that because it's crazy. So yeah, like I said, we I've been trying to, you know, we've been kind of supporting each other for years, and then I was like, you know what, dude gotta come on a pot. We actually talked about it before, yeah, but then we kind of went on a hiatus, but now we're back. So I'm like, we it's time to circle back. So I told I told Nate about you, we talked about it, and then we was like kind of prepping for the episode, and every day I'm like, hold on, this nigga getting like 10,000 followers every day.
unknownThis is crazy.
SPEAKER_01I am still trying to figure it out, dude. Like my phone feels physically heavier from notifications. I can't, I'm so grateful, super grateful.
SPEAKER_02How many followers have you gained since we booked Sid Looks? It's been about three to four weeks since we booked it. How many followers have you gained?
SPEAKER_01Okay. So my follower base was kind of like dormant at about like I think it was about like 10, 15k or something like that. I wasn't really posting shit on there. So from then, from the first video, which was Rick Raw, shout out to MMG. Um from Rick O B O. Hey, so this way uh TDE West. I don't know nobody, but hey, but you know, uh hey, respect. Um from that moment in its inception, yeah. I would say if I'm at 15k right now, I think I grew 200,000 followers in three weeks. I guess that's what that means. That's great. Yeah, like, yeah, it's I'm bro. Shout out to Instagram. Like, shout out to the gram, bro. For real.
SPEAKER_03What did you like think of that niche though? Like that that specific type of video.
SPEAKER_01You know, I think that has a lot to do with just like that's such a great question. I think, you know, it if I could just take it back for a second when I first started doing it, it started because of the Kendrick and Drake beef.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01So, like Oh, you're breaking down the verses. And the thing is, I wasn't even doing that. Like, I really wasn't even doing shit on TikTok for a long time. And it I was just kind of just weirded out by the fact that they were beefing in general, you know. Like, I'm just like, bro, y'all two totally different people, two totally different artists, y'all do different things. Kendrick is a half super, whatever, but like respect, respect. Can we rap on the fucking? I mean a real? I'm not gonna lie.
SPEAKER_02Man, I ain't gonna lie. I fuck with Kendrick, but I'm I'm a Drake fan, bro. At the end of the day, that's fair. I don't you and I'm a I gotta stand behind my my dog because one, I fuck with his music. Two, I don't fuck with the calling a man a pedophile that I don't believe is a pedophile either. That's crazy. It's crazy. That's a crazy tag to put on a to put on another.
SPEAKER_03Performing it at the Super Bowl is even crazier.
SPEAKER_02It's even crazier. And look, I'm gonna tell y'all niggas right now, them Drake tickets better not be $3,000 because all y'all niggas want to go to the concert now. Because you hated this nigga before. So I better be able to walk in that bitch and buy a ticket day up.
SPEAKER_01Hey, I'll I'll tell you what, I don't know nothing about the messiness and none of that shit. I've been a fan of Drake for a long time. Yeah. Take care. Uh nothing was the same. Um, thank me later. Home improvement. Uh, you know, and I'm talking about like we talking dat era shit. Like, I've been a fan of Drake for a long time, respectfully. Don't know the man. Don't know the man, don't know Kendrick, don't know nobody. Like, just I just know you. Like, you know what I'm saying? I just know you. You feel me? So, like, all I'm saying is just from the hip hop standpoint of it all, when it was just like push-ups and euphoria and all of these different things, I was like, okay, pop it off. But it's the it's the little shit. It's the, are you popping at my wife? Are you popping at Pusha T wife? Are you popping at such and such wife? What's up with the women? Why we sitting here like making women a target, keeping music? Hey, you feel me? I to me, it was just weird. So to go back into that conversation just a little bit, into how they got into the lyrics of it all, I was just the first video I made was why would you ever beef with a man that made a song like Cartoons and Serial? Like and Cartoons and Serial is a crazy song.
SPEAKER_02Did you post that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's about yeah, it's a real, real old video now. So it's like about two years old now. But like, and then that went viral. And then I was just like, man, there's so many different things that's happening around Kendrick. I'm just like, bro, like, like when GNX dropped, it's kind of the moment when things started happening because I kept stemming certain verses from uh like uh I think it was um hit of J3's verse. He said, uh uh damn, what did he say? Um like it's Iraq shooter name, Who's saying, riding with the dirty blicky switchy, make a new flame. I just kept saying that over and over and over again on online. And then I said it on camera. I'm like, yo, y'all need to go listen to GNX. And then people was just flooding in the comments like, have you heard this song by Kendrick? Have you heard that song by Kendrick? Have you heard this song by Kendrick? Then it turned into, have you heard this song by Delva Funky Homo sapien from or Souls of Mischief or Wu-Tang Clan or this person or that person, or you know what I'm saying? And so it just kind of became a snowball effect into me, just kind of, you know, sharing some of my favorite songs and artists and stuff like that. I feel that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, it's a cool niche. I fuck with it too. Cause I feel like sometimes when I'm like, I listen to a lot of music, especially when I'm by myself, yeah, rapping and shit, and just I really listen to lyrics when I especially when I'm alone. And sometimes even me, I'm sitting there like, damn, I can't believe that nigga just said that. It blows my mind sometimes when I'm listening to some of these. Yes, dude.
SPEAKER_01And yes, I love that. And that feeling, AI can't give you that feeling. Yeah, it can't, it can't give you that feeling.
SPEAKER_03While that like that growth is great for your personal brand, how has that affected your let's say like music streams? Because like that's such a great case. People might know you just from the verse breakdown, yeah. Yeah, yeah, they go tap into the music, but like how has that like kind of counterplayed? And and to be fair, I think. Yeah, you told me to kill me.
SPEAKER_01And I appreciate that too, gang. Like, thank god, like I appreciate it, dude. Like, you know, and that's such a great question because I think we we kind of talked a little bit about this off pod, which is just like, you know, social media is kind of the driver to all of these different things towards, you know, uh, you know, different yo songs. You know what I'm saying? If you want to post some shit out, you gotta be talking about it. But I've spent my whole, I've spent two years talking about other artists. You know what I mean? That I'm grateful for. And I have, I am a student of all of this, these things, and I'm I'm kind of leaning more into starting to promote and push my own music now. Like I'm in a symbol sound right now for four months making an album called The Romance of Street People. And uh it's fire. Thank you. Thank you. It's it I got it from um uh Baba Umar Ben Hassan from The Last Poets, and um I saw it was a poem that I saw performed at Deaf Poetry Jam with most Deaf. Uh, and like this is like we're pulling it back into like the like and just put it in into the ether, and that just really inspired me to get into that. But on the sense of transform in the streams, funny enough, I've had like I went to go look, if you go look on Rick Ross's uh Devil's in a New Dress music video or whatever, I know you don't fuck with Rick Ross, but but somebody do. Um I do. So he like he uh I saw uh you go on his music video and you look in the comments, and then the com the damn near one of the number one comments is like who's the who's here from the guy breaking down the verses? Oh shit. I at that moment I'm like, oh my god, I have transfer rate. Like I I'm moving people off platform into different places. I'm like, no, this is crazy. That's so dope. So dope. So I anybody that I've been talking about, like anybody whose verses I done broke down, it's just really people I've just been fans of or just I fuck with, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, and beyond that, like like, yeah, so it does work, but I just haven't done it for my own stream.
SPEAKER_03So next few weeks we'll be uh getting a video of uh J Square's really soon. Yeah, like I said very hard.
SPEAKER_02I fuck with the content, man. It's cool to see that it's translating too and that people are looking at other avenues because that's hard, man. Yeah, getting people like people's attention spans so short, it's really hard to get them off of one platform to check you out on another. Yeah, because I feel like a lot of my traffic goes towards like Instagram, Snapchat, shit like that. But it's like translating that to Spotify, translating that to YouTube. YouTube is starting to it's it's starting to do its thing a little bit. We still, you know, but uh but I'm interested to see, you know, where you can how far you can take this. Yeah. So you know now you're gonna be doing the music, like I was saying, your music was already doing okay. So it's like now taking you know this new avenue that you're in, yeah, and it's gonna really just bolster your music even more.
SPEAKER_01Oh my goodness. And and that's and I told you this before, but like, bro, I am so grateful. I'm not gonna do it, but I could break down and cry at the amount of people who have been reaching out to me that are like titans in the music industry.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I I ain't gonna say who or what, but I got some co features on this goddamn album, dawg. I got some co features, bro.
SPEAKER_03Can we get a little feature?
SPEAKER_01I I'll topping up with y'all off camera about it, but oh my god, I got some features, bro. That's fire. And it's like I'm so grateful, bro. Like, God has really put a lot of things into position for you know, for me with this thing, and I'm just I'm just doing the work. Yeah, put the work first. Shout out to David Kennedy, you know what I'm saying, and Dan Wyden, you feel me? You put the work first, bro. Like, and I think that's kind of been the the my mantra for these last, you know, four years since I left Detroit and came back. Like just really just wanting to focus on the work, just making the work the best I can and and and and just making a un an undeniable product that I can be proud of, and not even just in a sense of a product, but something that like I can put my spirit on a record or put my thing into whatever like creative avenue I'm doing, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03It has been since you dropped an album, right? When I was tuning into some of the music, I was like, damn, this guy's gonna put out an album in a minute, bro. I'm sure that I'm sure it's gonna be something great. Yeah, bro.
SPEAKER_01It's been shit. Ooh, God. Uh it's been I think it was like six years or something. It was like 2020. Yeah, yeah. About six years, man. Whoa.
SPEAKER_02So if you could have, I'm gonna ask a two-part question. Anybody on this album, who would it be? And then Detroit artists, like that's in your, you know, in your umbrella, that's in your like just in your space. Who do you want to put? Who do you want to put on the album?
SPEAKER_01I got a list.
SPEAKER_02Like you know who come who who's gonna be on the album, basically.
SPEAKER_01I can't tell you who's gonna be on the album because you know who you like on that. I'll tell you who I'd like on there because I I want to get a hold of these. It's dope you have it written down too. Oh, yeah. That's how you manifest shit. Oh man, I look at it every day. You gotta write that. You gotta write that. I've been looking at this every day. I need to get Babyface Ray on this project. Okay. Okay. I need to get Boldie James on this project. I love that. Shout out to charity. I ran into uh I ran into her at the studio the other day. Uh her voice is amazing. Gotta get her on that. I mean, this list is long. Like, if I could shoot for the stars, like I don't think it's possible. But if I could, I would love to get this is not even I hadn't I these are all realistic goals in my head. Like, I feel like I I really feel like I can get these people on this album, but if I could shoot for the stars, somebody that's completely outside of my thinking, if I could get Al Green.
SPEAKER_02Oh man.
SPEAKER_01If I could get Al Green, bro, we not talking about the same thing. Like, like, bro, I would be dropping a totally different album. But oh, but I could talk producers, um, conductor Williams, I would love to get a hold of. Um, I would love to get a hold of Monte Booker. And um, oh, you know who else? Uh bro, I could go all on on and on all day. Danny Brown. I want to get Danny Brown on his project too.
SPEAKER_02I love it.
SPEAKER_01So many different artists I want to get on here, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I'm excited to get the music. So are you writing? Are you recording already? What's what what stage are you in?
SPEAKER_01I am in the I am in the process of kind of like just finding producers that's sticking right now. I'm talking to a couple different producers right now that I'm really grateful for. And um, uh yeah, so I'm kind of in the writing process. I got a single and I got like two singles that I have right now, um, and another one that I'm working on. I really want to just have about 12 songs in this album, just keeping it real simple, not too chill, like super chill, not really trying to do too much. And uh, so yeah, I'm writing right now.
SPEAKER_03That was my next question too, is like what's like the overall sound you're trying to like accomplish with this one? Because like I said, when I listened to your music, I heard a bunch of different, you know what I mean? So like what are you really like trying to hone in on for this one?
SPEAKER_01For this one, bro, and you know, keeping it real, it's this shit is it's so important that I showcase black love on so many different facets, not even in a sense of just uh a courtship or romantic type of love, you know what I'm saying? It's just more so in a sense of like communal black love. Fucking like I you we talk like you said in the beginning of the pot, we've been knowing each other for the longest. I don't give a fuck what what happens with my career. I'm pulling up because I got you got my word, you know what I'm saying? Like, and that to me, like just showing up for like my people is the thing that I want to do with this project and like forever. And that is kind of the most important thing for me right now, sonically. So it's gonna very much sound Afro futurism, soul, melodic, hip hop y type vibes. It's kind of a little bit a little taking all that I learned from those years and just kind of like putting it all into a very cohesive project. Yeah, no, that's exciting.
SPEAKER_02That's gonna be cool, man. I'm excited to hear what comes of it, you know. Uh, if you hear something with your boy on there, let me know. Hey, you know what I'm saying? Hey, we locked in. Uh so outside of the album, what else is what's next for you? What else do you want to pursue? What are things that you are looking towards? Like, what are some goals you got right now?
SPEAKER_01Man, um, that's such a great question. Right now, it's really just been really just trying to grind on socials, really just grow these followers up, and uh, you know, and but at the same time, I'm trying to build a creative community uh uh of just different, I just want a network of people that do other stuff besides the stuff that I do.
SPEAKER_02Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Because like I feel like we are all as humans inherently creative, like we all have creativity in in us, and and not even just in a sense of oh, I can paint a mural or I can, you know, build a couch or something like that. Like, I'm talking about that people if you know how to problem solve, you're creative. You know what I mean? If you are saying, like, oh, I I don't know how to put these two things together, but I'm a I'm gonna just I'm gonna Duct tape the wall and put the thing here and do-da-da-da. And you did what you needed to do. And they call that nigga Reagan. But the thing is, they don't want to call it creative. You feel me? Like, and I think that to me is the thing that I want to super be a part of my inner circles is kind of opening up a community where people are reaching out for each other. So, like, and if you need a thing, so like say if you needed uh an artist, like you're like, Man, I want to get some fresh, you know, talent or fresh voices to the pie. Come to the Atwater Company and you can see a bunch of different people that's looking out for trying to promote their music or share their art or do whatever. You know what I'm saying? So that's been a thing that I've been trying to build for the last five years now. And now I feel like I'm in a very good position to be able to kind of talk about it publicly.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's important to have community around you too. Like it's everything. It's everything, man. And it's I feel like I've been doing that too, you know, just building up the people around me that just it's crazy. Some of the people I know. I was thinking about this the other day. Yeah. Like some of the people I be texting is surreal to me. Yeah. I know you feel that way too, like, especially related. Yeah, right. It's it's crazy to have those types of people in your network, but it's important, yeah, you know, and and it it definitely helps you just see the world in a different way, you know, from different perspectives, yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's amazing. And I'm so grateful for that. The feeling to be able to say, like, you know, if you just put the work first, do the things that you love to do, and then that energy will just kind of just start, you'll just start being around other people that do that. Yeah, you know what I mean? You guys have been consistent for a long time with the pod. You feel me? Like, and up the quad. Look at these walls. Are y'all kidding me? These walls are so dope, man. And like that to me is like, bro, like I want to be around spaces in spaces and create a space for other people who care about their product and the things that they're not even just their products. I hate the word product, but the the the things that they want to create, the experiences that they want to create. Yeah, you know what I'm saying, and doing the best that they can with it. And that's why I fuck with y'all. So, like, yeah.
SPEAKER_02We fuck with you too, man. We appreciate it. I think uh it's important, man. You gotta, we talked about it last episode, being delusional about your own success and really just honing in on doing the work and letting it speak for itself, showing up every day, yeah, doing what you gotta do and making sure you're making shit shake.
SPEAKER_03I gotta what's that saying? It's like uh the five people you surround yourself with is like who you're perceiving. Yeah, you hang around five million as you're gonna become the six. Yeah, I always say I want to never be the smartest person in the room either because I have to be a sponge.
SPEAKER_01I am like I walk in, that's another widenism. I walk in stupid into every world I walk into. Every room I walk in, I walk in stupid. I'm like, what's going on? Radio Woman is it? There's chairs here. Like, that's I'm very much like that. You know, and honestly, I want to add on top of that real quick with this this thing that I've been thinking about for the longest time since I've been getting into music and socials and stuff like that. So there was this, I'm sure that creative people have kind of had these this experience before, but there was a point in time um when I was younger when my dad would just be like, it's like it's like, bro, you're not living in reality, like with this music thing, bro. Like, get a job, do the things we need to do, and this, that, and third. And he was so right. He was so right. Because the reality that we are in is very much like stay, you know, you gotta you gotta survive, you gotta make money, and you know, do the things you need to do to sustain yourself as an adult.
SPEAKER_02Exactly.
SPEAKER_01And and the reason why he was right that I didn't quite figure out until I became an adult is I wasn't living in reality because I was actively trying to create a new one. You know what I mean? And I think that to me, and I think I'm sure that we have that those same, I'm sure there's so many different creative people in the world that are trying to figure out this life thing, especially with how crazy the world is right now. I'm not gonna get into it. It is crazy, but like it's like we need that art, we need these different outlets, we need painters, we need welders, we need, you know, different people who have these creative mediums or just have a creative mindset to be able to walk into these different places where we wouldn't necessarily go and just be like Am Dani and be like, you know what, why don't we just fix everything? Creative idea. Why don't we just sit here and put fill the potholes up? Like, why don't we just try to look out for people? You know what I'm saying? So I think that to me is the future of the world if we just kind of stay in our creative bags. You feel me?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel you. I feel like I was uh I feel you with the not living the reality part, like trying to really pursue this thing and that like being the driver, but it's like that's all you're focused on, that's all you're doing. Yeah, you know, all your eggs are in one basket. And it works for some people, but yeah, you other people you gotta find other avenues to feed into that. Yeah, you know, and that was something I had to learn too, yes.
SPEAKER_01And I found, like I said, I found my niche in another world, yes, but it feeds into this creative world, yeah, you know, yeah, you know, yes, because that we're fucking like shamans or like some type of like like we're we we we we or alchemists in a lot of different ways. Like, how are we able to take a thought and bring it to life like that? Like that's crazy talk, bro. We'd be burned at the stake a hundred or a thousand years from a go, like about that, you know?
SPEAKER_03Genius that ain't crazy.
SPEAKER_01Name one Jesus genius that ain't crazy. You know what hip hop taught me, and I think, and I know y'all got more to say, or I don't know what time we we got or whatever.
SPEAKER_02You good?
SPEAKER_01Okay, well, hip hop taught me this, and I can never credit myself into saying this, so this is all from KRS1. Okay, so like, so you see you got uh yo uh backwood right here, right? Shout out to Backwoods. Shout out to Backwoods. Okay, if you close your eyes for a second and just think about the logo, right? We y'all got your eyes closed? And y'all I've done this experiment before, yeah. I'm with you. Yeah, and you and you're thinking about the logo right now. You can see the the logo, right? And you can pretty much say the word backward in your head, right? What is that voice? What is that voice that is telling you to say backward? What is the voice that saw, what is the eyes that saw the word backward? And you heard yourself say backward. That is insane to me. It is insane. That is insane to me. And it's one of those things that you when you sit down and really think about it, like people call it consciousness, people call it um, you know, just some sort of mental thing that you can do. Some people call it God, you know? And I would love to be able to master that thing or be able to understand that voice, those eyes and those ears that listen up here, and opposed to just the ones that we physically see in front of each other in the mirror. You know what I mean? That was deep, bro.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I listened to uh hip hop taught me that yeah, I want to say KRS1, man. Gotta get hit. Come on. He did it with the monster energy. Yes, and it was yeah, and it's like because it's crazy, bro. Like, I I talk to myself often, yes, not not physically out here, but in here. That's why honestly, like the show Dexter, yeah, I fuck with Dexter because he be talking to himself. Yeah. Like, I don't know why that shit just was always intriguing to me because I literally talked to myself throughout the day. You have to, and that's that when I first heard that experiment too, I was thinking about it too. Like, what, like, yeah, what is that voice? Like, what is that consciousness that's there? Same thing like when you're dreaming. I remember still right now, remember the dream I had last night. It was like I was literally there, man. And I was dreaming, I was slumped in the bed. So it's like, what is that consciousness that you know it's like you're watching a movie in your fucking head that you really can't see, but you can vividly see. Yes, and feel too. You know what I'm saying? It's crazy.
SPEAKER_01That I had a dream once back in like 2015 when I knew I wanted to, before I knew I wanted to take music seriously, like I had a dream. It was a very, I think that's what they call like a lucid dream or whatever. And I was asleep, I was sleep on my cousin's couch, shout out to Curtis Roach, sleep on his couch, and um I was sitting there having a dream, and then I I dreamt that the entirety of Woodward and uh you know where the spirit of Detroit is and Jefferson and then into the river where Heart Plaza is at. I had a dream that that was all grass, like that all that street was grass, and you could still see the city, the skyscrapers and everything like that. And I just remember walking on this grass and I could feel my feet in the grass, you know what I'm saying? So much to the point where I heard like a heard breezes coming in. I heard the river of heard the river, I saw the river, smelt the the the river, like you know, the I smelt the Detroit River, you know what I'm saying? And then I I remember feeling so euphoric that I took a deep breath, and then I think that kind of like did some type of atom because I the real breath that I took in and then the metaphysical breath that I took in kind of talked to each other for a second. It woke me up out of my sleep. God, and and then I well, you know, I was very high before then. So like so we don't know, but at the same time, there's something powerful there. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03So you guys have done like the well, kind of like with with dreams, but it's kind of a little off topic, but it's uh near-death experiences. I'll catch myself on a YouTube rabbit hole listening to people's near-death experiences and like that consciousness, bro. Yeah, some of the stuff that I'm hearing, I'm like, this is crazy. Wow.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they say that you have a it's because uh you you produce DMT when you when your body naturally produce DMT. Yeah, that's when it naturally happens. So maybe I wonder, does that maybe you get a little tiny hit when you have a near death death experience?
SPEAKER_01And I think that's why we feel the euphoria of things sometimes. Well, like we'll like I don't wish this on anybody or anything like that. I don't even like talking about it, but at the same time, like if you're driving or something like that, and you well, I once did this before where I swerved out and had to swerve back into it. And I'm like, and I'm like, oh god, I can't believe I'm alive. Like that, I think it's just like the biggest manifestation of like gratitude and things that we can feel of having life, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03So your life literally flashes, yes, yeah. Like, how do I hydro plane? Yes, man.
SPEAKER_02I hydroplane last winter, but I was good though. You just gotta stay calm. You gotta stay cool. Step it's back, you can restrain. Stay cool. You just gotta stay calm. Stay cool. Man, that's crazy. Well, is there anything else you wanna shout out? Anybody you want to shout out, anything you want to talk about before we get out of here? Thank you. It's been cool sitting here, you know. Man, I really know you're better and really enjoying some time with you, man.
SPEAKER_01I've been looking forward to this. Like I really have been looking forward to this, and I really appreciate y'all's time. Um, yeah. So I'm working on this album, uh, The Romance of Street People. I got four months to make it. Shout out to Assemble Sound. Um you can follow me on everything at Ila at I Love J Squared. And uh shout out to shout out to my shout out to my dog Lone Visionary, you know what I'm saying? Doing his fucking thing. Shout out to my boy Hayes Sleep Guide. Follow him on Twitch and all socials. Shout out to my boy Sippy. If y'all ever in Windot and go into this uh pizza place called the Pizza Bar, it's his pizza bar, y'all good. I was in Wyandotte last night. Hey, let me know. Just let me know, and I'm gonna talk to him. I'm telling you, you good. And the pizza, awesome. Okay. Um, yeah, shout out and shout out to Detroit, shout out to black folks across the diaspora. You feel me? We here, like, and I'm super grateful to be here. The loft, we in this month.
SPEAKER_02All right, y'all. Well, that's been the loft 313. I'm your host, Felix, aka Felix of Donna, aka Top 2, but not two.
SPEAKER_03All day. Yay, yay.