0:38CYou can listen to it on anywhere music is streamed, called The Return of Rap.
0:43BReturn of Rap’s a good album. I’d even say it’s a better than good album.
0:47CIt’s lyrically proficient, it’s poignant, it makes some really good, uh, cases for social justice and requires some people to look introspectively upon themselves. It’s everything a rap album is supposed to be, at least to my understanding. And I also lost both my parents, so I was not in the best place in my head.
1:09BSorry to hear that.
1:10CAnd that’s okay. Someone with my personality type shouldn’t have a chip on their shoulder as though the world owes them something. Makes me real bad. So I needed some time away before I started acting poorly.
1:25BAnd I, I took it. My album just came out.
1:28CIt didn’t do great. And I was just -- I couldn’t be on stage just singing songs. So I dipped off to Florida for a couple months, which turned into a couple years, which turned into me going to Mexico for 3 years, meeting my wife, all kinds of shit. But before I left, left, I was just in Florida.
1:46BI’ve been there maybe for 8 or 9 months. I’m watching on Facebook and everybody’s like frolicking.
1:55CAnd my music career started in Baltimore.
1:58BEverybody’s frolicking, they’re all gallivanting around. I’m a rappity rap guy, man. People didn’t want to be in cyphers with me. And people, whatever revisionist history, say what they want now. I was there. I remember. I remember running demo. It’s not that I’m the nicest rapper in the world. I’m a proficient MC. And rapping outside is right in the middle of my strike zone. So I’m really good at that. So people didn’t want to do it. So I would get left off stuff, not invited to things. And it was just really -- I learned to not care. You get a callus, right? When I left, yo, you would have thought Dracula died and all the Transylvania people was out having nighttime jogs and midnight soiree picnics in the park.
2:51AAnd I’m like, yo, where was all this?
2:55BHaving ciphers and congratulating each other. Yo, what the hell?
2:58AWhat?
2:59BI just did 2 sold-out one-man shows. Back to back. For those who don’t know Baltimore, that ain’t easy. No openers, no feature, no bringing my friends up. Just me on a mic with my stage and my audience. Just that -- just me rapping, killing, sold out, standing room only. That’s it. And I watch people paint over my tags. And it hurt a lot because, yo, I ain’t got parents. My parents is dead. My friends is dead. Everybody gone. I’m out the game. I’m down here in Florida. Nothing’s good. I’m still figuring out how to not be a rapper working, living in Daytona. It’s weird and it sucks and no one knows me here and I’m not a famous local person anymore.
2:59BAnd now the only thing I got is that, yo, way back there, over there, I’m still somebody. And I’m watching them paint over my shit, and it’s not fair. And it made me mad. And this -- and the music didn’t sound like Return of Rap. The music started to sound like how I talk. I’m off what you on. I’ve been seeing what the time it was. I’m -- I start talking how I talk, you know. No fake deals. No talking about our money on the post. No past due notices. Ain’t nobody broke. You see it. A lot of that. Start talking that talk. It also helped that I was in a penthouse overlooking the city with a Benz and a new motorcycle.
2:59BLike, I was living. Tailor-made suits and whatever. Like, I was having a good time. So I made the album from a place of that. An unsettled spirit, broken dreams, hurt feelings, and I just sat on it.
