Unglossy with Bun B
Unglossy is a raw dive into the cultural forces shaping identity, creativity, and influence today. Hosted by legendary rapper, professor and entrepreneur, Bun B, alongside music industry veteran, Jeffrey Sledge and brand and marketing guru, Tom Frank, this is a conversation about cultural impact.
Through real stories and unfiltered dialogue, Unglossy explores how artists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries define themselves, move culture, and build legacy beyond the gloss of hype and headlines.
Tune in to "Unglossy" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you catch your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @UnglossyPod and join the conversation.
Unglossy is produced and distributed by Merrick Studios. Let your story take the mic. Learn more at https://wearemerrickstudios.com
Unglossy with Bun B
Noochie: Roots, Reinvention & The Power of the Porch
This week on Unglossy, Tom, Bun B, and Jeff pull up chairs with DC’s own Noochie—the mind, mic, and movement behind Live From the Front Porch. What starts as a freestyle on his stoop evolves into one of the most important new stages in contemporary culture, drawing everyone from Big G and Raheem DeVaughn to Robin Thicke, George Clinton, and Snoop in a borrowed wheelchair.
Noochie walks us through his origin story—growing up in the shadows of Go-Go royalty, navigating label highs and industry letdowns, learning audio engineering in a legendary studio, and building a creative work ethic forged in DC, Atlanta, and Hollywood. Then he breaks down how the porch became a cultural touchstone: a homegrown Tiny Desk with more bass, more soul, and far more neighborhood dogs walking by.
We get into the Houston–DC connection, the power of place in hip-hop, the responsibility of curation, why artists feel like family by the time they leave his block, and how the front porch just touched the Kennedy Center and might soon hit the road.
Burgers get discussed. Crabs get promised. A Bun B porch appearance gets… dangerously close to confirmed.
Pull up—you’re home.
"Unglossy with Bun B" is produced and distributed by Merrick Studio and hosted by Bun B, Tom Frank and Jeffrey Sledge. Tune in to hear this thought-provoking discussion on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you catch your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @UnglossyPod to join the conversation and check out all our episodes at https://wearemerrickstudios.com/unglossy-pod.
Last week on Unglossy.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Mike Love wanted to hire me at WBLS in New York. He called me, finally called me back after I sent like six or seven packages. I don't, he didn't say I really don't. He said, I don't represent night jocks because y'all don't make no money. But it's something about you, I think I'll do this. I flew into Dallas. The brothers didn't go crazy over this. So when I flew to the interview, I get off the plane, I got the sweatshirt on. I'm like, hey, I'm ready to go to work, my boy.
SPEAKER_07:It all made sense.
SPEAKER_01:What we doing, my boy?
SPEAKER_08:From the top.
SPEAKER_02:I'm Tom Frank.
SPEAKER_08:I'm Jeffrey Switch. And I'm Buddy. Welcome to Unglossy.
SPEAKER_02:Real stories, unfiltered dialogue, and the voices moving culture beyond the gloss of hype and headlines. So buckle up, Unglossy starts now.
SPEAKER_03:Alright, folks, we are back for another Unglossy. And since our last recording, our uh co-host here decided to drop a whole new album. Didn't even bring it up, just dropped it.
SPEAKER_07:I didn't think this my business was supposed to be brought up on this show, though.
SPEAKER_03:Business is always part of this show.
SPEAKER_07:I mean, but we got guests that we be having on here. So I feel like we're supposed to, you know, build lift them up, amplify their voice, not talk about my stuff.
SPEAKER_03:But let's sneak in a little bit about you. Tell us a little bit about the album release. How about it?
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, we dropped an album this uh past Friday. Um album was called Way More Thrill. It's the second album from me and the producer Corey Mo. Uh first album was called Mo Trio. We dropped that in 2022. And then uh he hit me, you know, probably last summer or so and was like, you know, you know, we still got some records over here. Because I go to Atlanta a lot. I do a lot of features uh when I'm in town, so I typically record them at Corey's house. And while he got me over there, after I finished doing what I'm supposed to do, he started cutting other beats and stuff on, so I ended up knocking out a verse or two. Next thing you know, he hit me like, yo, you know, we got like five songs over here. I was like, five songs. He was like, Yeah. Like, you don't want to just finish up, you know, four or five more, just knock out an album. I really didn't have a good excuse to say no. So I just went ahead and knocked him out, you know, hit up some of the homies, you know, some of the you know, the usual suspects like Ball and G, Jazzy Faye, you know what I'm saying, Juicy J, Project Pat. But then we reached out to the next generation as well. So we had like, you know, Mona Leo on the record, LaRussell uh is on the record. And um, we just wanted to put together a nice mix of artists. You know, this this wasn't necessarily done for money. I just, you know, I like to stay active in the space and um, you know, work with people I like to work with. That's the beauty of not being on a record label anymore, no disrespect, Jeff. But I'm not a I don't work on a label no more neither. Well, I was that was a that was a jive joke. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's all good. But but nah, but I like the freedom to be able to create how I like to, with who I want to, uh how I want to, when I want to. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03:So we're pretty good freedoms to have right now.
SPEAKER_07:No, no, we we get a lot of great freedom. And you know, I like to work with people that you know look still like to create, you know, guys like Ball and G, you know, we've both been here for like 32, 33 years, and you know, we still like making music, we still like contributing to the culture. So it's always fun to call them. I got Juicy and Project Pat on the song together, so I got both the brothers, you know what I'm saying? So, you know, we're just having fun. We're just putting things together, having fun, and put together a release party in the in Houston after doing a couple weeks of promo in New York and Atlanta, and you know, had a lot of friends and family come up and you know, had some fun. I cooked some burgers for people. And when they saw that, you know, first it was kind of like private and closed off. And then like when people started seeing the burgers, everybody started like trying to get in line and get in the business. I said, I said, fuck it, let them in. You know what I'm saying? Those are consumers. Let them come in, hear the album. You know, if it takes a burger to draw them in, that's cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we enjoyed it. And uh the album's out right now, everywhere. Way more trail. You know what I'm saying? Am I allowed to promote self-promote? You're allowed to promote it. I don't know.
SPEAKER_03:If you don't do it, we're gonna do it for you.
SPEAKER_07:I don't want to throw the unglossy algorithm off. Talking about music. It'll it'll enhance the algorithm. That's the bet. So yeah, it's everywhere. It's everywhere.
SPEAKER_03:It is out there everywhere.
SPEAKER_07:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Well, hey, speaking of freedom, we got a good guest on today. I'm gonna start from the topper here. Some ideas come from studios, agencies, or long whiteboards covered in arrows. And then some ideas they come from the front porch. Literally. Today's guest took one of the oldest community spaces in America and turned it into one of the freshest formats on the internet. Live from the front porch is part conversation, part time capsule, part block symphony. It's honest without being messy, intimate without being invasive, and somehow gives you the soul of a neighborhood in under 10 minutes. So today we're breaking down how it started, why it hit so hard, and where this new wave of porch borne storytelling is headed. Pull up a chair. This is on Glossy, and today we're welcoming Nucci.
SPEAKER_06:How are you, sir? That was that was tight. That was a little mobile. You like that? That was nice.
SPEAKER_03:I try to get you on good. You are a DC guy, which I'm already, I'm already down with you.
SPEAKER_04:I appreciate it. I gotta play that before I come out on stage or something.
SPEAKER_03:It is yours to use, it's yours to use.
SPEAKER_04:No, for sure, man. I appreciate it, man. Good good seeing y'all fellas, man. Appreciate you, Tom, Jeff, Bun, man, OG. Salute, man, first and foremost. Congratulations on the new project. Thank you. Definitely, definitely need to be spoken on, for sure. I I uh just not too much uh about what I'm doing already before we get into it, but my my whole thing is highlighting, you know what I'm saying, legends like you and making sure that in this social media era that, you know what I'm saying, they reminded that uh hip hop ain't got no age on it, and that uh music that you created before ain't old, it's a masterpiece, just like the Mona Lisa or or something like that. They don't call that. I ain't never heard nobody call that old. So it's a it's an art piece too. So, you know what I'm saying? Salute, keep keep going.
SPEAKER_03:That's a good way to put it.
SPEAKER_04:I love that. I love how you did that. But you gotta play that before you come on stage. I need a verse. Yeah, I know, right? I need a verse on something. That's a bit.
SPEAKER_07:That's a bit.
SPEAKER_04:That's how for those that don't know, that's how the post got started. Just me freestyling on the post by myself. So talk about it, talk about it, talk about it. Talk about it. This came when you time you speak of freedom. I was in the process of leaving a uh a record, a record deal, and just unsure about how I was gonna do it if uh if if the record label wasn't the answer, and then I just went out there, I said, I just want to be heard and unfiltered and without having to call nobody and and fast forward, here we are.
SPEAKER_03:So before we dive deep into the porch though, you gotta give us a little bit of your backstory. Like you're a DC kid, like where how did you get into music? What what where'd the love of music come from?
SPEAKER_04:Man, first and foremost, my dad, one way booby, free booby. I say that at the end of every episode on the porch. My dad was uh, you know, DC is a go-go town. So doing hip-hop in DC wasn't really nobody was excited about that. Like that was like going against the grain. So in like the early 2000s, like 2000, 2001, he had dropped a project called One Way Up. And it was like the equivalent to like what I would call like it was Booby and the Young Farmers. It's a group of uh other other rappers from an area called Barry Farms. It's like uh Barry Hood in DC. They got this this way, this where the porch even gets its origin from. But Booby and Young Farmers, they dropped a project called One Way Up, and this is at the time like the equivalent to explaining the street life of DC the same way NWA did. Same way UG, the same way Outcast explained Atlanta. Like it was so vivid to me at such a young age, and like I'm around all this, but I'm the young dude around. I'm like, I'm the I'm his son. So it's like he ain't gonna put me, I ain't gonna be thrown in the shit, in the fire. So it's like I'm just got a front row seat to it. You know what I'm saying? I got a front row seat to all the action, all the uh the real life that's happening. You know what I'm saying? Everything that they're talking about in the songs, I can see where how it got in the song, you know what I'm saying? So it's like to see music be translated like that, or like a story be translated like that at such an early age, it's like, okay, it kind of prompts the idea of storytelling and understanding what hip hop really is and and what it's about, is about expression. Like they weren't necessarily doing it for money either at the time. It was more so like for real, like my dad was on the run when he started when he started riding. Like, this was to to to make something else happen, make some shape. So, and it and it and it shook. And he made an impact, and he was like the first person from DC to be on 106 and Park or uh uh MTV James Rap City, uh also uh having features where like he bringing juvenile to the city, bringing uh Scarface and Gucci Man and uh Juicy J and uh uh uh uh uh collab mixtace with DJ Kyle and Don Kahn and you know what I'm saying, all them folks early at the time where it's like this is unheard of for somebody in DC to be bringing all this action to the city.
SPEAKER_07:Nucle, let me ask you a question. While while your daddy and his group was making this music and doing these features, you said he was on the run. Did the community know he was on the run and just was quiet about it? Nah.
SPEAKER_04:Nobody knew. Well, this was this was like early when he first got when he first got started in it. By the time he was doing all that, this ain't this no longer a thing. Like it's newspapers and like it's newspapers and stuff you can see, but he was he wasn't charged with nothing at the time. He got it, he was acquitted for whatever he was wanting to run. But this is like 2000, this is early, late 90s, early 2000s. By the time he was doing these features with Juicy J and collab with like DJ Kyler, this is like 06, 07, 08, 09, and like the juicy, I remember him doing uh something, the Juicy J Jump. That was probably like 2012, maybe.
SPEAKER_07:How old were you when all this was going on, Nucci? When you see it.
SPEAKER_04:I was a senior in high school in 2012. 2013. I graduated 2013.
SPEAKER_07:So like you caught the bug by then?
SPEAKER_04:Oh, for sure. I was I caught it way before like I was I was doing it way before, like way before. I just ain't tell nobody. So like I just waited till I used to go to my cousin's house and be rapping with my cousin while he eat and my my little brother Carto, and we just be rapping on Audacity on the little USB mic on the computer and shit. And you know what I'm saying, just having fun with it. And you know what I'm saying? And then uh it came a point where we moved, my dad, he's chasing the music, so we moved to Atlanta in like 08.08, we moved to Atlanta. So like middle school, eighth grade, ninth grade, I'm in Atlanta. And uh I'm really I'm now my my whole shit just changed. Going from Go Go and like just, you know what I'm saying? They idolized Scarface out here, they idolize UGK, they idolize uh Devin the Dude, they uh like it's a lot of trick Tupac, like to go now. I'm going to Atlanta. And this is like the height of like Gucci Man, no pad or pencil mixed these on like no pad or pencil stuff. So it's mixed tapes. Every week I'm going to school. You got that new Gucci, bro? You got that new Gucci, bro? It's a double Gucci. I'm like, all right, cool. You know what I'm saying? But it's also like that super futuristic, that uh, the album that uh Metro just dropped. Yeah. It was like that era of that's the time where I lived in Atlanta. So at the same time, I just moved down here. I don't really know about DC. I got a new balance. They're like, what the fuck you got on, boy? Like, just let me balance, you don't know nothing about like what the fuck you talking about? But at the same time, I'm so disconnected and we went so abrupt that I'm like, man, 90% of the time, I got headphones in. I'm listening to music. So like around that time, and even like as we moved, like I got in trouble before we before we moved down there. I had to cut my head and everything. And then like me and my dad just driving down there at Dolo, and I'm in a I'm in a van with him, and like we literally just stopped and got some like some CD from like the gas station or some shit. And uh, and it was the radio was broke, so all we had was the two CDs in the car, go all the way to Atlanta. So it was uh he had reasonable doubt in there already. Okay. And then so far gone was with the what we just bought. Okay. So the whole ride, I'm listening, so we listen to over and over and over. We listen to Reasonable Doubt first, and I'm like, I'm like, I'm probably like seventh grade, what's that like 13, 14, maybe something like that? And I'm listening to Reasonable Doubt, and I'm like, I feel like watching a movie. I feel like watching like Scarface, it feels like watching one of the movies at a young age, and like I don't know everything he's talking about, but I done grew up around them and listen, everything they was talking about. So it's it's a bunch of shit that I could put together. But like, uh I sold it all from crack to OPM. I was like, what the fuck is OPM? I was like, what the fuck? So I was like, you know what I'm saying? Like early on.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_04:So I'm like, I'm like, as I'm sitting there rapping it not knowing, but I'm like, okay, um it's visual. And then all right, reasonable doubt go off, and we put Sofar Gone on. And this is like early, this is the first Drake jump. So it's like we don't even know that this dude about to be this dude for real, for real. You know what I'm saying, in a certain way. And like to hear uh Sofar Gone and like get the same feeling, but more like this is more relatable. I could, I could, I did he's doing the same thing he was just doing, but it's like more uh I wouldn't say surface level, but more age appropriate to where I'm at. But still painting a picture of, alright, he's still older than me, so it's still certain things that I ain't experienced yet, but it's still relatable to where I'm at in life too. So like at that time, I'm like, alright, and damn near on that ride and then going to Atlanta and just listening to the music all the time, I'm like, alright, you know what I'm saying? But you on the out, you know what I'm saying? So that's that's you know what I'm saying, that's even crazy.
SPEAKER_05:That is crazy, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And uh get to Atlanta, like, alright, that same time period, what else come out? Uh Wale, more about nothing. I'm already heavy while from DC. And uh what else? Uh Cushion Orange Juice, uh Friday Night Lights, J. Cole, uh Kid Named Cuddy, uh No Sillings, uh Big Sean, uh uh The Blue Jump, the uh finally famous three, I think. And it's like them like heavy in rotation for me. Like, like I'm listening to them all the time, and like I'm like, alright, this is what I want to do. I want like I feel like I'm I feel like I don't even know them. I ain't met none of them. And I feel like I know these niggas. You know what I'm saying? So I'm like, alright, that's where maximum altitude as an artist you done reached. Like, you don't gotta meet a motherfucker and they know you. You could just they hear your voice, you done told your story so much, and you know what I'm saying, to where you just say your ad lib before your verse start, and they already know what's about to happen.
SPEAKER_06:You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_04:It's like, that's alright, that's the level I want to achieve with this shit. You know what I'm saying? And this is early on. This is before I even told my dad I wanted to rap. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_07:I would I was just for the say, so you trying to figure out exactly what your voice is gonna be and what exactly you're gonna represent, because you got the whole aspect of it, which is, you know, aspirational and you know, growing up being a baller and a boss and all of these type of things, and you know, you're still listening to guys that are still on the come up and all of this stuff. Um, then you get to Atlanta, which is its own individual scene, separate from everything else that's doing. And in the midst of all of this music and all of this culture coming together, this is where Nucci finds his voice in music.
SPEAKER_04:For sure. And then even to even fur further that, like, back to the balls aspect of it. Like my dad, it went from Booby and the Young Farmers to the Oi Boys. And that was because they was gonna uh the label they made was called One Way Records, and they was gonna call it One Way Records. They they tried to solidify that, but the the the band One Way that didn't be. One way, yeah. Uh I mean Cutie Pie? Yeah, yeah, for sure. They had it already. So they took the first letter and the last letter uh one way and made it OI Boys. And then that was that's how that started. And then uh, but my dad was pretty much the CEO. Like he ran that, and his his partner Chu uh wanted uh he rapped with another group and they came together and they pretty much uh eventually when I told my dad that I wanted to rap, like this is like post, this is post-Alanta, so like after ninth grade, we moved back up to DC. And so like a 10th through 12th, I'm like, I'm just sharpening that motherfucker. Like, I'm just like, you know what I'm saying? Cause I done already told him, like, hey, I'm This is what you wanted to do.
SPEAKER_07:Like, I think he just seen a lot more than most of the people that you grew up with. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04:Sure. And I I equate it to like Dale Curry and Steph Curry. Like, you know what I'm saying? So like you grew up on the course side, like all the tools is there. Like, I grew up in the studio, you know what I'm saying? Like, by the time like I'm about to graduate, like my mom wanted me to go to college, I'm like, I already know what I want to do. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03:Like, you know how you know what you want to do and you know how to do it.
SPEAKER_04:You're about to waste money. You sending me to college, you know what I'm saying, or try to do something. We're about to make it a few times. Money and time. You know what I'm saying? So we'll come right back. Exactly. I literally got to the point where I was like in this, in the school, signing up for like I took the placement test and everything. I was literally signing up for the classes. I'm in there on the computer picking the classes. Yeah. And I'm like, I'm like, man.
SPEAKER_03:What are you doing?
SPEAKER_04:Fuck this shit. And got like I stood up, walked out that jump. I called my mother, I was like, hey, I can't do this. You know what I'm saying? This ain't mind you, like, I was great in school, like, you know what I'm saying? Like, I should have went to college, like I'm saying, based off how I did in school, but it was just like I already knew what I wanted to do.
SPEAKER_03:Like, I told him what college were you sitting in there picking the classes for it.
SPEAKER_04:It was like a community college, you know what I'm saying? Because I wasn't even trying to, I ain't even apply to nothing like that I could have. I was like, that ain't what I'm wasting time. So I I had a conversation with my dad, and we ended up, I went up going to uh, it's a studio in uh in Falls Church called uh uh Q Recordings.
SPEAKER_06:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:And they they didn't did like Michael Jackson shit in there, Bruno Mars and Mary J. Bly's like rock star shit in that jump. And they got a course for like audio engineering. And I went and I took the course for audio engineering, and mind you, I like I said, I grew up in the studio. I already knew like the the basics of it. So like this was like me sharpening it, me getting certified in it. It's like now, shit, I can run the studio, charge niggas studio time, and you know what I'm saying, that could be my that could be my shit, and you know what I'm saying, until whatever happened, happened, you know what I'm saying? That way I can still be in the studio, I can still be wherever I want, and you know what I'm saying, keep the shit in my pocket. So I'm like, all right, bet. And I'm certified. I got this plaque right here, I can charge you more, nigga. So it's like you know what I'm saying? And fast uh after that, uh uh around what's that like 2012, like the end of 2012, beginning of 2013, like I literally put like my first piece of piece of music out, like for like the world to know like I'm here and existing to making music. And like I was still in high school, like we put that shit on World Style. My dad, my dad, I I skipped the part. Once I told my dad I wanted to do the shessuries, he had he put me with my my man Ryan. It's the dude who uh wheelchair Snoop took.
SPEAKER_02:Oh we're gonna get to that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we're gonna get to that shit. But Ryan, I know Ryan since like I was going from high school to Ryan House recording till it was time to go back to school again. Like, and then you know what I'm saying, every damn near every every day, every week, you know what I'm saying? So he's like, man, we just gotta, you know what I'm saying, we'll be you know what I'm saying, just get with them to y'all, see what happens. Gotta put something out. Exactly. So fast forward to the uh it was a video called Gotta Go. We put it out on WorldStar. This was like 2012 or 20, yeah, 2012, 2013. And like on WorldStar at the time, I'm expecting like a bunch of hating ass comments, you know what I'm saying? Maybe a couple thousand views, you know what I'm saying, some something. That shit had like a hundred thousand something by lunch.
SPEAKER_07:Wow.
SPEAKER_04:And the comments was like, hey, this fire, dude. Broke a project out. You know what I'm saying? Who this? You know what I'm saying? This meek mill looking nice nigga, who is this? Like it was it was a bunch, it was so buzz shit, but like mostly it was like, I was like, hey, oh, they made it.
SPEAKER_07:Let me ask you something, Nucci. I I I understand why you get the support and backing from your dad. But how was your mom taking it as? Because like you said, you decided not to go to college and she sees you doing the same thing your daddy did. Did she does she feel like, well, at least he'll be doing this with his daddy, or this is exactly what I didn't want this boy to do? Good question. So what was the last part? It went out. I say, is this something that she looked at it like, well, at least he's gonna be with his daddy doing this music, or was she like, nah, this was the last thing I wanted this child to be doing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I say, I say early on, like, I love a part. Like, I'm the oldest of five. My mother and my father, they was together pretty much to, they ain't together now, but like pretty much I was grown. So I already had the early, I was third, I called myself the third parent. Like, I was taking the kids the football practice, like I got a license early just so I could do shit for them. Like it wasn't for me, you know what I'm saying? It was gonna be oh, I could go take the kids the football practice to the doctor, help my little brother out. Like my youngest brother was born with a uh a heart murmur. He had a hole in his heart. So it was like a lot, it was a lot of shit, you know what I'm saying, that he had, he needed, you know what I'm saying? Like, he couldn't even like he got fed through a tube when he was a baby. So it was like it was a lot of shit I had to do early on. So it was like, I wasn't never really in no position to where it's like I was gonna be on the run, you know what I'm saying? It was more so like I took the the the like my dad knew what to put in front of me. Let me say that. And my mother, she identified that, and she also like she a gangster too. Like, if she like if she walked if she was in here right now seeing you on this jump, she starts reciting some lyrics, like right now.
SPEAKER_07:Hey boy was raised right, I love it. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:She be like, man, she be at all the porches. Like, you know what I'm saying? She be at every jump. So at every show, like she she super she've been supportive too. Like, even not doing like I don't even remember I blacked out so so hard walking out that school, like I don't even remember how that conversation went. Like, I don't remember what I like I just told her I couldn't do, and then like I just knew I had to this one it. But she been she been super supportive, like no matter what. And it trickled down into everybody for real, for real.
SPEAKER_03:So you put up that song, people are loving it. What does you said that you were signed with a label at one point? How how did how did that how does that come about?
SPEAKER_04:Okay, so after we put this song out, this is like 2013, February 2013, we getting the good comments, and my man Ryan, I was telling you about that was recording me. He was like, We got we gotta finish the product. Ask it for a project, we gotta put something together. So I end up like, my goal is February. I graduate in like June. So I'm like, shit, I'm trying to get signed for I graduate. Fuck it. Like that was that was my my mindset. I was like, I'm gonna get signed for I graduate. You know what I'm saying? Let's go. I'm so I'm gonna go even harder in the studio. You know what I'm saying? And then we put a project out called rookie season. Man, I had this I had the whole school wearing my shirts and shit in the school. My dad helped me get some shirts printed up with the cover on it. I got the cover made, like it was, it was so much, you know what I'm saying, into it like with school super support. Like I had my first show at like uh uh Crystal Skating Rink in Maryland. And uh like the whole I ain't gonna say the whole school porter, but it was like A lot of the school came.
SPEAKER_03:That's cool.
SPEAKER_04:Damn, like to this day, like people remember that, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. And that was like still have those t-shirts.
SPEAKER_07:Nah, I just seen some people they faded like a motherfucker, but I just when I hear people talk about actually putting music out while they in school, I couldn't imagine how famous somebody could actually be walking the halls of a high school having a song out that people outside of the high school like, but they could have been your first like critics.
SPEAKER_03:They could have been the first one to be like this ain't.
SPEAKER_04:That's what I assumed would happen. Like the fact that it was any positive feedback, I was like, that's all I needed. My motherfucker said, hey, this shit's hard, nigga. You know what I'm saying? I'd have been like, all right, bet, cool. That's all I need to know. Somebody say that.
SPEAKER_07:I'm on it now.
SPEAKER_04:But me and you think it, it's probably a million other people that think it too. There's enough people out here. Somebody think it. You know what I'm saying? Like, so once we did that, I uh I didn't get signed before I graduated at all. You know, uh but I did get reached out to by some folks in Atlanta. Uh uh, I start working with my I don't really like saying his name in interviews because it ain't in well. But I don't have to match it. I get it, I get it. Because I've because I've done it, I've done it before, and I, you know what I'm saying? People say stuff to me about it, and it's like, I feel like it's part of the story, but it's like, nah, I don't give no credit.
SPEAKER_07:We we we understand Jeff and I spent many years in the music business, and we know how these things work sometimes. It's just not a good mix. You know what I'm saying? People see the buzz. You know, a big part of us getting signed when we were coming up was because we were we had a buzz and we had everything. So they knew we had fans and the music was popular. Yep. So they wanted to be connected to it, but they didn't really understand the culture behind it. You know what I'm saying? And they did their best, Jeff did his best, Dave and those guys, and you know, but we just couldn't, we couldn't explain it. It was a culture we represented that couldn't be just explained if you didn't see it.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, you had to live it. You had to live it. Same thing with DC, you gotta you gotta know that backwards and forwards. Like it was telling you I had been spent a lot of time in DC at one point because I really had to figure it out, you know, because there's so much going on there. If you're not in it, you don't get it, you won't be able to promote it.
SPEAKER_03:And and and Jeffrey, you you had to be there around this same time. Where were you? Why why didn't Jiv get a hold of uh Nucci? Nucci.
SPEAKER_08:Actually, we had we had an RB artist um that that is still going now. We had Raheem Devon. So we had an RB art. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Shout out to Raim. That's that's that's fan right there. That's Raheem Devon, my dad was like super. Like I think Raheem was a kid, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_08:Mm-hmm. Jerry and Cliff and all them cats. Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm saying. I was there, bro. And we actually we we we recorded most of that. Um, you mentioned it in an uh interview I watched. We recorded Raheem's album and um Kevin, Stacy Ladisau's husband at the studio. I forget the name of the studio now, but yeah, but so I that's why, because we was with Raheem and I missed the rapper Cast Philip Day and some other cats down there, but was a yeah for that. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_04:He was on R Day project too, bro. Uh-huh. Everywhere.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, no, I was I was I was outside back in those days. Uh as it was a version of me I wasn't proud of, uh, to be honest, because there's certain things that people do in DC that they also did in Houston at the time. Oh, yeah. I know the time. You know what I'm saying? So you know, I wasn't I wasn't striving as high as I should have been. No, I understand back then. But but but Lucci spoke to it, man. Like the relationship that DC and Houston has is really, really crazy.
SPEAKER_03:Because I never realized there was a lot of things.
SPEAKER_07:Like DC is on the East Coast, but culturally, they're not they're not East Coast like like derivative, I would say. Because DC dudes and New York dudes are very close, like in proximity.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Right in mileage, but they are totally different, like they consider DC people down south. Yeah, which is crazy to me. Uh-huh. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_06:If I go to New York, they've got to be able to do that. D.C.
SPEAKER_07:would identify more with the South than with the East Coast. But I remember the first time I went to DC, like, and this is the thing that a lot of people don't understand. We did a sh we did two, we had to, we they booked us for a show, but we had to do two shows. So we did one show downstairs. It was a two-story club. We did one story, one show downstairs, all rap, like the album version of everything, the radio, all of that stuff. And then about an hour later, we had to go upstairs and do it with Junkyard. You know what I'm saying? And do go-go versions of every song I just did.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Did you do a go-go version of it?
SPEAKER_07:Yes, of every song. The whole place fell like Love Boat. And you really love boat, love boat. Jesus. I'm just being transparent here. It's real. It's real. But I really understood the city because it was like, yeah, we're gonna let you get your rap shit off. We're gonna let you do what do that. But like I had a I had a two hour sound check because I had to go through the stuff that we did. Yeah, and then I had to go with the band and figure out how they wanted to do it. Because they not even really recreating my song. Like I'm rapping to a go-go beat. It's not a go-go version. You rap a number of people. Absolutely. Absolutely. So you got to rehearse it with the band.
SPEAKER_04:Did somebody tell you that? Did somebody tell you that before you did it? Or did you just find out like that?
SPEAKER_07:Nah, nah. Do something go-go. But I'm sorry. We didn't realize that we were going to do like the whole thing.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Nah, they said that we're going to have to do at least we're going to have to do this twice. And we didn't really understand it. And Big G called me and Big G kind of talked to me about it. You know what I'm saying? About how to really navigate these things. And then once he once he talked us through that, like, look, man, the big homie said, We got you, Joe G. Don't overthink it. Just do the song. Y'all gonna be alright. You know what I'm saying? And uh man, it was it was a beautiful night, but I understood the city so much different after that.
SPEAKER_04:It's a it's a it's a very specific place. And uh back to the Houston, D.C. connection. Like my dad and Paul Wall, like, like this. Like my first time in Houston was Paul picked me up from the airport, and I stayed, I stayed at his at a studio. Uh, I forgot where it's even at, but the little junk with the barriers around it.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, he got he got a it's a residential studio.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, like I was I was and it's similar to it's literally similar to my setup. You know, I ain't got the barriers, but it's it's similar, but my dad and Paul go way back. They got like records. Me and me and Paul got records. Like I recorded in his crib that day, like that's that's that's family, like, you know what I'm saying? For real. And uh back to the uh me going to Atlanta with redacted and uh uh redacted uh redacted identified that I had uh some talent and we had some connections and we uh for for the simple connection for just for understanding of what redacted is uh no scrubs, uh bills, bills, bills, uh Hensync uh is a producer. Yeah, I know I know you talk about now. Yeah, and you know what I'm saying? Like, I pretty much, my dad and his business partner too, and they pretty much identify like, all right, if we want to keep this music going, it's like 2013. It's like I didn't put out probably like two, probably put out like two projects by this time. I did a project called Rookie Season and Sophomore Slump. So like I ain't get I ain't get it by when I graduated, but got reached out to by this Grammy Award winner producer at the time that, you know what I'm saying, St. Potential, and pretty much they like, all right, this is the college you're going to. You're going to, you're going back to Atlanta for for college now, for music. That's what it felt like. So now I'm I'm down there living, I'm living in the studio. Like I'm in there every day. Like uh Jazzy Faye in there, uh South. The first day I go in there, Southside and TM88 in there cooking up for Juicy J and Big Sean, and the room smoked out, I'm like, oh, I'm here. You know what I'm saying? Because prior to that, like, I'm I've only seen my dad in them studio, and like studios that I booked, and like, you know what I'm saying, like the this this like what the pinnacle is in DC. Like, DC ain't really got the it's go-go, you know what I'm saying? So, like, we ain't got that much music history. Like, I just my dad, Danny, was one of the first people to even break through to for people to take rap series in DC. You know what I'm saying? To the point where he get to Wale, and you know what I'm saying, like, even he had to infiltrate with Gogo. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's it's it's it took a lot. So by me seeing Atlanta, it's a whole different atmosphere. And Atlanta's like a crazy place, but to go from DC to Atlanta, like these two are the blackest places in the world.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And it was like a culture shock, but it was also like, I've been here before already. You know what I'm saying? I already know how Atlanta works. Right. So thank you. Right. I know where I'm going, you know what I'm saying? I know people, you know what I'm saying? Like, but this time it's like, it's all fuck school, it's all music shit. Like, I mean, it's motherfucker got me writing verses eight times after I thought the first one was tight, redoing the hooks.
SPEAKER_03:Like, so it's becoming a real business for you now rather than just what you love.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, but it's just, I was all my work at it was already like that. But it's like just to hear somebody, like now you're getting produced. It's not just you doing it. Like, it's not like understand that this is the sound, the song structure. Understand putting this hook right here, this verse is intro. Talk right here. Say this like this, pronunciate it like that. You know what I'm saying? Think about like what if they don't know if they can't understand you. Make sure they can understand what the fuck you're saying. Like, uh, and like to this day, like that's one of the the biggest compliments I get, like, from certain people, they be like, man, I can I can I can understand what you're saying. And it's like, you posted.
SPEAKER_06:Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:That was, you know what I'm saying? That was something that was thought about. And uh just building relationships. And like to this day, like, that me and I don't fuck with redactor no more, but literally everybody else is like a phone call away. You know what I'm saying? Like, I've I made so many good relationships and so many people that I came across that to this day have been like super impactful. It's like, shout out my man Doe. Doe, you know what I'm saying? He did, you know what I'm saying, so much. Like, he he worked with uh my Sean and he worked with uh uh Big U as well. And uh he uh pretty much was like when me and redacted wasn't eye to eye, this was the person who was like, all right, it makes sense to still do this, you know what I'm saying? And eventually, I like I put everybody on game, like this motherfucker trip. You gotta give a fuck about it. You know what I'm saying? Like, ain't nobody here. Y'all gotta come see this shit for yourself. Fast forward, everybody seen it for themselves. Fast forward, redacted and sold a studio. He live in another country.
SPEAKER_02:And we'll be right back.
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SPEAKER_03:And now, back to the show.
SPEAKER_08:But you know what? I like, I like, I mean, not not trying to skip too far ahead, but I do like that all these relationships that you are building, like even with the people you said, you know, Wale and Sean and all those guys, now like with the front porch joint, like there kind of loops back around. Because now you're able to help them out. You know what I mean? And I and not not on some charity shit, but just like, yo, I got this platform and I could bring you on and whiz, but I've seen, you know, and all these people that that's that's that's incredible to me.
SPEAKER_07:If you about say if you listen, like I was a fan first. And now hip hop is what you wanted it to be, right? Yeah, I'm gonna do that.
SPEAKER_03:So let's speak to the the front porch. So, because I think you said something pretty interesting when we first started. You wanted your music still to be heard, so you walked out on your front porch. Now, obviously, I've tried to walk out on my front porch and sing and nobody listens. Somehow something worked for you. How how did this thing start? Like, what is it as simple as you walked out on your front porch?
SPEAKER_04:Nah, it's not it's not that simple at all. After my Atlanta uh situation, I had a record with Jazzy Faye and uh with Rich Army Kwan. I ended up doing while I was down there, called One Day and a record with Rich Army Kwan, rest in peace. Uh it's called uh Confidence. And I ended up getting a situation with Atlantic and uh working with uh Omas Keith. Omas Keith was the one that brought me to Atlantic. His brother with Nay is he he heard the records and then connected me with Omas and then fast forward, we end up on Atlantic, and I'm in Hollywood, kind of doing the same thing that I did in Atlanta with Omas now. But it's like a way, you know what I'm saying? I'm it's like it went from TM88 in Southside to now Nigo is just popping up in the studio, Anderson Pack. I mean Chad Hugo, not Nigo, Chad Hugo is in the studio. Anderson Pack, uh Jeff Giddy, like I'm I'm saying meeting him in his in his infant stage and like uh Georgia Smith, and then we go to Dr. Dre studio and Oman is like ducking Dr. Dre. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, damn, this is the type of environment. Like, why are you ducking Dr. Dre? It's like, cause you do so much, you do so, it's like I'm it's a different level of work now that it's like I want this shit to come out if I'm you know what I'm saying? Like that was that was his thing. But uh to experience that was like, oh, this shit about to happen. You know what I'm saying? I felt like that in Atlanta too. Like I plugged back to DC until this happened. Then now I'm in Hollywood doing this, and then the Atlantic situation, I ain't really getting support of the label like that, and it's like I don't really know what's causing it. I ain't even really trying to find out. I'm just still on my path, so I'm gonna go do something. And then me and Omas, we still got a great relationship, but I didn't find that it wasn't what we wanted to, it wasn't going how we wanted to. So we end up, I end up going back home again. And I'm like, man, how the fuck every time this shit seems like about to happen, I get back, plucked back to this mother. Like, why am I getting shown the best of the best, top best studios, all you putting all these damn grimies in my face, all these, you know what I'm saying, plaques, all this money, all like I can't touch, and you know what I'm saying? All these dicks going down and shit. It's like, oh, oh, oh, I gotta do it in these, I gotta do it at home.
SPEAKER_05:Uh DC.
SPEAKER_04:There it is. Yeah. I gotta do it at home. You just showed me all this shit.
SPEAKER_07:Universe, universe, universe has shown you what to do.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I gotta show you.
SPEAKER_07:But they've also shown you that you can't do it here. Because if you do it here in LA, there's things that come with things in LA. If you do it in Love, this ain't your own.
SPEAKER_04:A lot of these things become very how you got that H on, like, that's that's the part. Even all the artists, uh all the artists I was talking about in the car, Drake, Toronto, Ho, New York, Wale, DC, uh, Wiz, Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh. Uh everybody from Atlanta, Atlanta. You know what I'm saying? Like for Rick Ross, Miami, like anybody, Kendrick Compton, anybody who is somebody or who is, you know what I'm saying, supposed to be championed by the whole culture. You gotta be championed by your place first. By your own place. Your first place. How the rest of the world is supposed to. So it's like, I was like, okay, that's that's what you gotta do. Go home, figure it out how to do it, did. The first step was, all right, I'm still in this shit. People got to know I'm I'm like that. Let me go out there and just rap. So my first, like, the literally first front porch freestyle I did, like, I prepped it like in Omar Studio before I went and actually home and did it. So, like when I was just home, I said, man, might just do this shit. I did it to uh Jaden Smith icon, icon living. This was like two 17, 18. Crazy track. Crazy track. Crazy track. That was literally the first John I ever did. And then like the response, it was like, oh nah, people, I like these. And then I was like, shit, I'm gonna do it again. So I was like, I got every time I get something dope enough to do them, because I'm like, nah, these are statement pieces. This ain't just me fucking around. It's like, this is how nigga put an album into this freestyle, nigga. Cause this all they might see. Right. How can you do that? Put an album into this shit and do it to something that they fuck with. Or like something you might not just that shows your music, you know what I'm saying, how much of a fan you are the music. It ain't gotta be like the most current beat, nigga. Do some classic shit that you ain't nobody gonna touch. Do some shit like that. Cause it's like, nigga, you already know the risk in doing that. Nobody wanna hear that shit if it ain't fucking with it. Guess who who the person, Lil Wayne, nigga? Lil Wayne, the only nigga I wanted to hear rap on somebody else's shit other than the purse. It gotta be good as Lil Wayne's shit, nigga. That's the only way people gonna fuck with.
SPEAKER_08:If this shit ain't good, you're good as dedication.
SPEAKER_04:It gotta be like that. So it was like that was I was doing that for like three or four years, you know what I'm saying? To the point 2018, my dad get incarcerated. You know what I'm saying? He's still he's in right now. Uh, and like my whole shit's with, it's like, it's literally Lil Wayne, locked the CEO up. Now I'm the CEO, fuck. And it's like, all right, damn, it's a lot of shit fell on my lap at the same time. And mind you, I already started these freestyles. I've been doing them. You know what I'm saying? And like I'm getting calls from like Pusher, you know what I'm saying, showing love. David Banner showing love, drummer boy, like even at this time, like I'm cooking now, you know what I'm saying? People are like, man, this platform is working. And David Banner hit me be like, man, man, I had some people call me from DC, man. All I'm gonna say is, bruh, keep going out on that porch. Keep going out on that porch.
SPEAKER_03:I want to ask you something though. Is this literally at this point, when you say the freestyle is going, you are you doing this on your front porch? I'm on the front porch.
SPEAKER_04:But your this is your front porch. People walking by walking their dogs, and I'm sitting here, I'm saying witch and all that type. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03:Like, so you're out there with a mic and a camera, you're recording them.
SPEAKER_04:But my phone, like this. Phone. Wow. And you're throwing them up on YouTube. No, I'll just put them on Instagram at the time. Instagram.
SPEAKER_03:Instagram at this point, okay.
SPEAKER_04:Fastest way to get Insta. You know what I'm saying? I don't even know how YouTube works at that time. Like I'm just uploading shit, but it was like, I'll just upload videos, you know what I'm saying? Like, I ain't like how these vertical videos looked on YouTube. So I was like, I don't like it. So I'm gonna just put it here. And uh like 2022, like uh Pharrell had the uh the uh Summon the Water Festival out here.
SPEAKER_05:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_04:Virginia I literally like he shut down Independence Avenue and like I was like it was some shit like I never I didn't know you could do that in DC.
SPEAKER_07:We cooked out there, it was crazy. We we we cook burgers out there for that. You were there for with Chilberger? Yes.
SPEAKER_04:No, there he's all in my story. I was about to say, uh, so I walk, I literally walked past Pharrell and I see him, and I'm like, bruh, thank you. And he's like, what? I said, man, I didn't know you could do this shit. Like I didn't know that this was even possible. Appreciate it. You know what I'm saying? That's the last that was my only ever time talking to Pharrell ever. But I seen uh my uh one of my homies that I went to school with, named uh Tyler at that same festival. And like he does videos and for a lot of people and shit. And we always wanted to work together. We ain't never worked together. But by this time, he don't want to do music videos no more. He's like, man, I want to do something else. And I'm like, I don't really like the music videos, they cool, but I'm like, this freestyle shit, I'm getting more, I'm getting more bumped with this, you know what I'm saying? More impact, yeah. Like, well shit, let's, let's, let's try to turn that up. You know what I'm saying? And so he ended up bringing the tripod and the camera over there, and my uh my man Terrence that.
SPEAKER_03:Now you're stepping it up a little bit.
SPEAKER_04:Like my guys that I was doing videos and like my regular artist content with already, my man Sliz right here, my man Terrence, we we come together and like start filming them now. You know what I'm saying? Like, I got a mic on, and you know what I'm saying, we are we we bringing the production level up. And my uh my homie Reggie that I worked on uh like during like this time my dad was locked up, I did like a lot of different shit. Like I was driving a truck, still while I'm doing the freestyles and shit. Uh I'm dropping shit off. People like noticing me while I'm doing all these jobs and shit too. And I end up working on like production, like for like Apple TV on a TV show called Swagger. And I do like a couple jumps, uh a jump with Denzel, uh Columbia Pictures jump. Like I'm just working on the beat uh behind the scenes and shit. Worked on Run DMC uh documentary for Peacock uh with my homie Kirk Frazier. He does a lot of dope uh documentaries. And uh like I learned the production game, you know what I'm saying? So I learned to be an artist, but I also to learn in production and also to have the runs, like I'm so much shit I'm learning, you know what I'm saying? And then by the time me and Tyler link in, it's like, all right, shit, my homie Reggie that put me on production, he got all the equipment to where we could just put a band anywhere. He always been like, man, let's just perform somewhere. And I actually see him do it one time, and I'm like, oh shit, I gotta put a band on the porch. I'm already doing my record freestyling. I'm not gonna put the band.
SPEAKER_03:Now you're bringing the band onto the porch.
SPEAKER_04:So now instead of me just freestyling, I'm doing my original records with the band on the porch. And people like, I was like, oh shit. Nigga Snoop posts one of them jumps. Motherfucking.
SPEAKER_03:Right. So Snoop sees this and reposts one of yours.
SPEAKER_04:Just this is what I would have guessed. Just me on the jump, like with the band. So I'm like, oh shit. All right. And then back to Big G. Big G the first person I thought of. So I see G at an event and I show him the first video I did with the band. I said, hey, I need you to come do this with me. I show him the junk, he was like, oh, I don't give a fuck if I come by myself. I beat it. Like, I'm I'm nigg. So him and Wincy came and I put the band, I put the band together for uh, it wasn't actually backyard band, but I put the band together, like created a house band for, you know what I'm saying, where artists come.
SPEAKER_03:Because that's like your own band now that's playing for these artists when they come in. Exactly. That's kind of the battle. Is your you're doing this on your front porch. Your neighbor, I mean, are your neighbor what your what are your neighbors thinking of this? Are they coming out and watching? Or are they like, turn that music down? What are they doing?
SPEAKER_04:One of my neighbors, like, this this he ride or die, man. I don't give, I don't care what what happens, man. What if his if his house, if something happened to his house, I'm gonna go fix it. It's nothing fucking happening. They can do everything. You know what I'm saying? My other neighbor, he a little older, he be beefing a little bit, but put some wine over there like some box. But everybody else is cool. Overall, it's cool. Like you could imagine, you could imagine just like Bun uh Bun B performing out in in front of the crib before you pull up, Snoop outside. Uh you know what I'm saying, like you got Rob McTick just outside playing the piano on the, you know what I'm saying, before you pull up, like that's I wouldn't be mad at that. Yeah, I couldn't be mad at it.
SPEAKER_07:What you could do is find out who your neighbor's favorite artists are and invite them to the porch.
SPEAKER_04:Well, that's that's what I'm saying. I think he might have done this, right? I mean I don't know who he likes. I ain't think he likes nothing. You know what I'm saying? He's older, but figure it out.
SPEAKER_07:It might be gospel, right? It might be blues. It'd be something that it's something that he has a connection to.
SPEAKER_04:No, I'm gonna I'm gonna figure it out for him. I got something for him because I don't because he he do be he do cool, he's cool for the most part, but overall, I don't want nobody.
SPEAKER_07:Give him one, Nuch. Give him one. Give him one for the holidays, right? Like around the holidays.
SPEAKER_04:Give him one, man, and and he'll uh I definitely I definitely didn't I knock on doors and drop stuff off for sure. But you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_07:But he needs to know he needs to know what it feels, what the other people that support you feel. Why they love it. Right. When he can have that connection with somebody that comes on you, I think he'll understand why you do it and why people love it. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_08:So let me ask a quick question. So with the the guests, because I you know you had so many amazing guests. Are you are you reaching out or are they reaching out?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, how in the world is this working?
SPEAKER_08:It's crazy. I'm obsessed with your YouTube. Robin Thick or Lenny Williams, how's this happening? I mean, you know, it's incredible.
SPEAKER_04:One of them other odd jobs that I had too during my stress was I was DJing. So like curation is like I be playing like my favorite thing I get while I was DJing. Damn, I ain't heard that in a long time. And it ain't like, damn, why you playing that old ass shit? It's like, like, damn, I, you know what I'm saying, it made me feel like something. So like when it comes to the Porsche, that's why I wanted, that's why I wanted Backyard and Big G to be the first guest. Because I know like when I'm in DC, I need DC to know that this DC shit.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Djob, that this would this come from. And then my second guest was Miss Kemp, another pretty much the female version of Big G and Win C and Backyard. And them two were like my first two guests. And then Raheem Devon was literally my third guest. But when I call him, I was like, hey, I need people to understand that this is a real production. I like, I need people to see what it looked like when we got an artist with a catalog that's a torrent act that you know what I'm saying, what it looked like for real. So people can really know, like, pretty much like the call and card of like, hey, we here. You know what I'm saying? And he did it. You know what I'm saying? He did it literally after that. Penny Lattimore, uh Eric Robeson, Ruben Star.
SPEAKER_03:But it just starts building upon itself, these people start hearing about because in 2023, you had an article in the Washingtonian, right? And they were calling uh your porch kind of the DC's hottest new venue. And so I'm assuming that get caught because all of a sudden somebody's taking notice that you you're getting some pretty big acts that are playing.
SPEAKER_04:Well, like I said, DC's known for go-go. Like if you come to DC, you gotta do like Business. When he came, you had to do it with a go-go ban. You know what I'm saying? So it's like now in and when what year was that when you did that?
SPEAKER_07:That was that was like the Pimp was home, so that would have been oh that would have been that would have been within that I'm trying to think. Not that I no, it wouldn't have been before he came. That would have been before he got locked up. So that would have been that would have been the early 2000s for sure.
SPEAKER_04:For sure. And these same bands been out here playing nonstop. Yes, absolutely. And it's still not even like it's it's known to a certain degree, but we got like a couple doing the butt, bustin' loose Chuck Brown, uh Sexy Lady, be like I can almost name the original record. So it's like for it to be taken serious on another level. It's like, and these be our classic records that we love, and it kind of is a a version of it's not covering the music, but it's like a a remix, if you almost, if you will, that is like, all right, we need to be able to see this in another light. Like, we need to be able to, because you can't experience a go-go unless you add it. So it's like outside of that, you just hearing the song, you're like, what is this? But if you see it and hear it, and it's mixed, it's it's sound like my goal is to make this the best sounding shit that they got. Because I already know, like, a lot of engineers be half-assing, you know what I'm saying? But it's like cause it's live. It's like you're getting paid as a job, versus nah, the goal is to make sure that this shit is the best heard and the best visual representation of our area. So the rest of the industry could take this shit serious. Cause I just seen what it looked like. Like, we, you know what I'm saying? We we gotta, we gotta uh we gotta up the standards. You know what I'm saying? We gotta up the standards of what our quality is and you know what I'm saying, how people see and hear us. And if that was what I was seeing, that's why I was shown all this shit to come back and do, it's like, all right, that's when I identified. It's like, all right, let me make sure I just want to curate. It wasn't just for DC no more at that point. It's like, oh no, this is for just black music. This for us, this for the culture. This ain't no Arsenio Hall show. Ain't no soul train, ain't no 106 park, ain't no, ain't no M BT Jams, ain't no Rap City, ain't no nothing. Only Jones Tiny Desk. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03:The tiny desk, because it does kind of remind me of like a step up from the tiny desk. It's a tinier desk, though.
SPEAKER_04:A porch is a tinier desk. Yeah. Like squeezing them drums up, they was crazy. Like the first episode we did, we had the whole band on the porch. Like, I was like, this ain't gonna work. But but but those platforms and and like even Tiny Desk is is one of them as well. But just like where 106 apart felt like. When I'm like when I'm getting to know the artist, when I'm feel like the the platform cares about the artists. Not to say that they don't, but I'm just saying that I feel connected to the culture when they come over. I want the artists to feel at home when they come in. Like everybody that that comes in, like, this really the crib. Like I say, me cost a soucosa when you come in. It's whatever you need, we got it. You know what I'm saying? And we're gonna make sure that your sound is good, your my like my the whole The sound is great. Fast forward, it goes from from just being the a handful of people in the beginning to now it's like, oh, it's like 20, 20.
SPEAKER_03:You have a whole production in your front yard from what I've read.
SPEAKER_04:The best, I got the best team in the world when it comes to getting this shit done. You know what I'm saying? Everybody got uh the same way I'm explaining shit, like my skills that I gained through, you know what I'm saying, trial and error, or just through the journey. Literally everybody over there got the same. So by the time the artists come over there, I I would be thinking, like, we, as as sometimes saying, like, damn, we doing the right thing. If, you know what I'm saying, they're coming over here, you know what I'm saying? They didn't came on our path. But it's like, nah, this they path too. Like something brought them over here, you know what I'm saying? Because there's people that ain't made. You know what I'm saying? And it'd be certain times be like, man, it is what it is. You know what I'm saying? A lot of most of them is relationships. Like, I like I said, I met a lot of people coming up. So they say the same people go on the way up, same motherfucker you see on the way down. And there's so many people like see me never fret, no matter what the situation was, whether it be my father getting locked up, whether it be the Atlanta situation, whether it be the Atlanta situation, whether it be whatever, and it's like, oh nah, you still win this. I'm like, yeah, man, let's pull up, let's keep doing it. Nothing changed with me. I just had to catch up. That's it. I'm still catching up.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah. I I I the one thing we we talked about we talked about this um on the phone, me and um, is that DC was uh but when BT, and one of us you know this too, when BT was in DC, it was such a it was such a cultural thing, and everybody in the in the uh record companies in the business really loved to go to DC to go to BT. Like it was it was a great thing to see Donnie Simpson or Teen Summit or whatever you were doing. And so I I love how you you've kind of made it this an extension of that DC thing of people coming to DC, you have a good time, you know, the there's a culture there, and like you said, there's no other outlets for black music like this, really. You know, some people get on tiny desks, but it that's not just us, but this is like this is kind of like it makes you feel like what what what BT and DC was back then. Right.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, they're not getting Lenny Williams, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, exactly. They could, but they not literally back to curation. Like, I'm just thinking like uh like when we first start getting like acts and stuff, like we literally put a whiteboard together and wrote down like everybody who I thought would make this the blackest platform ever, you know what I'm saying? Uh just culturally successful with our shit. And like literally it's been the same board up there since we started, and like we done checked off.
SPEAKER_03:You just checking people off, huh?
SPEAKER_04:Checking them, man, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03:I got so many questions here. Like, I would take me through I I just can't imagine like when I saw uh Snoop on on your porch rolling out on a wheelchair, like I really double checked that. Like, this is AI or is this for real? Like this guy, how in the world does do you get Snoop to fly in and go to where your house and perform? Because the the the the visual and the audio of that is exceptional. Like it is so good, man. And so, like, walk me through that process. Like, does he does he call you up one day? Do you call how how does that even happen?
SPEAKER_04:My first Snoop interaction is literally like what this was my second one. But my first one I opened up for him at Echo Stage, he was DJ Snoop Adelic. I ain't really get to interact with him, but I I opened up this is like 2018, I think. But fast forward, like I said, he posted, he posted the front porch. Like he seen he seen it on his own. Like, like when I finally actually met him and had the conversation, he said he's just seen it on his own. And you know what I'm saying? He fucked with it. Like he said, and he made it a note to say this before the guest. He's like, this is before the guest. I just seen when it was just him.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:You know what I'm saying? And my uh my manager now, uh uh Big Country Bobby, he uh got a great relationship with like so many people. Like I don't like getting put on blast, so I ain't gonna tell all this business. But we got a great relationship with everybody. And once, you know what I'm saying, I hit him up once I seen Snoop, you know what I'm saying, show some some some insight, and he said, shit, I called him, and he called. And then fast forward, you know what I'm saying? Snoop just gave his word. He said, Man, I definitely I want to come do that shit. I'm gonna come do it. And it it probably was like it was a minute since he said it to when it actually happened, but when he ended up coming to DC, they reached out before right before they came and we made it happen.
SPEAKER_03:And so he just rolls up one day and and he just comes out of your front porch and does what he does.
SPEAKER_04:That was crazy. The neighborhood loved it that day.
SPEAKER_03:Did he bring the wheelchair?
SPEAKER_07:Did he bring the wheelchair? Whose idea was that?
SPEAKER_04:He didn't, he it was his idea for the the night before we did the shoot, I go meet him at the hotel. And mind you, like, this is the a nice ass hotel. And then get on the elevator, we get off the elevator, and immediately as soon as we open the elevator floor, I'm like, oh, this is the floor, snoop on. Smell. I can smell it. It's already on. And then we go, we go from uh we go, we go to the Ruby and then you know blowing down, and uh he pretty much was like, man, I want I want to do uh I'm cause I send the settlers to him. I told him the songs that like anybody who comes, like I pretty much like I created settlers that I think would go crazy. They can do the fuck they want to do. But I send some that I think, you know what I'm saying? This shit gonna sound crazy and the fans gonna appreciate it. And like I researched people like live performances and see if they got like a dope live performance of this, and if they don't, I'm like, you gotta do this, bro. It don't even exist as one of your hardest jumps. That you ain't did it. And we about do it a bang. Come on, man. But so we did murder was the case, and he said, Man, I want to come out in a wheelchair like I did at the Wolves show. I said, I said, man, that's gonna be tough. And I'm thinking he just got a wheelchair. And he don't. So when he gets to the house, my uh one of my engineers, my man Ryan, that I talked that I went to when I was going to school and going to the studio, he he been he in a wheelchair. So we tell me he said, Hey, Snoop, Snoop wanna use the wheelchair for the uh for the shoot. He was like, My chair? I said, Yeah, he said, Man, give me up, you the fuck, give me up.
SPEAKER_07:I don't know if you can have a higher honor with your wheelchair than having like Snoop Dogg use your wheelchair.
SPEAKER_04:Man, look, he told me, he said, man, people say, man, I was getting calls. He was like, he said, I got caught up. He said, he said, nigga, I know that ain't your wheelchair. I was like, how did I identify your wheelchair?
SPEAKER_07:I was like, Yeah, man. Let me ask you this question. Because I have to believe that you've either been asked to do some sort of, I don't know, front porch tour, or someone has tried to come and put a corporate logo on your porch. I have to believe these things that you've at least been approached. Or I was thinking people if somebody's asked, have you ever considered that? Have you ever considered that? Yeah, and like if like if you like a football stadium, like I'm sure you could you could sell the name rights to the front porch.
SPEAKER_04:For sure. That's why I made sure I uh I locked in all the ownership and everything. Because I done learned the label game already. Made sure that porches, you know what I'm saying? You can check that and make sure it goes right to where it's supposed to go. But man, I'm waiting for the right thing. I got a lot of people that I feel like we gotta to feed with this, and you know what I'm saying, if it don't make sense, it don't make sense, and we all about doing the right business over here, and we go, we're gonna figure it out always. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_07:Because we can see we can see the cultural value. That's why we were so excited to have you on this podcast, right? Because we like to explore. We like to explore people's reasoning behind culture. And so I have to believe that with all the views you get and how viral you've been going since the, you know, the early 2020s, that somebody would have to be like, yo, we need to get a piece of this. You know what I'm saying? Like, like, how can we do Coca-Cola presents front porch? You know what I'm saying? What makes you want to keep it close to chess?
SPEAKER_04:I mean, as long as it's true to, I just want to keep it true to us. And not to say, like, if Coca-Cola did come and holler at me, that we'd figure it out. Coca-Cola. Uh, Coca-Cola, if you're listening, yeah, I'm just gonna call it kind of always my my my vision too, because I'm like, all right, I want this to be aligned with uh like the top brands, like how Apple is, or like how uh car brands, Sprite, or like shit like that. So like we've we've done events like with the Wizards, we've done stuff with the Mystics, we've done stuff with like Pepco, like we've done like uh one-off events a f a few times early in the game, but now we're into doing live events. Like we just did our first uh our first live event was in September at the Bethesda Theater. Um we sold that out and we don't and we just pronounced the the the show is just announced Nucci's live from the front porch, and that's the bill, and we don't tell the guests who coming. And we sold the show out. And then the actually the lineup for that show, we had uh uh Eric Robinson, uh Young Drew, Tweet, Ari Lennox, and then Big G and We see, Sugar Bear, and Miss Kim. And I did something as well. But like it's just a it's a whole experience. And we don't uh the the fan base and the supporter, they trust the curation so much that they show up, you know what I'm saying, and and are able to, you know what I'm saying, make the brand stronger by doing that. And all we gotta do is deliver. And if somebody comes in ready to deliver the same way we trying to deliver, then we could deliver together.
SPEAKER_08:Hey, real quick, before uh before you I wanted you to talk about the Kennedy Center.
SPEAKER_03:I was gonna say that's a huge one.
SPEAKER_08:That's nice.
SPEAKER_04:Well, listen, that that show was actually uh that was like my first goal. Like I wanted to do that actually as the first show because I'm like, this is the most prestigious platform in DC. Mm-hmm. The country, the country, damn near. Like, this is where they do the highest honors and awards at. And like this show was eventually aligned in August 2024. That's when it was announced. Alongside Andre 3000, and D Nice. That was the hip hop lineup for Kennedy Center 24 to 25. Everybody else got to do their show before uh the election happened. And by the time Kennedy Center had a different uh a different different stigma on it, had a different stigma on it by that time. So it was like trying to figure out how to do it. But like the the the essence of what we're doing is to be black faces in our culture where it's supposed to be, everywhere it could be. So I I felt like I couldn't let that deter what the original goal was to take this from the crib to the highest the highest spot in DC that you can go, you know what I'm saying? And and if it was in the 60s or something, I feel like they'd call it a sit-in or something like that. And you know what I'm saying, it's more more of a uh a protest to what you think versus.
SPEAKER_07:Hurry up, I had to cut the camera off so they went see you in the window.
SPEAKER_04:Mm-hmm. But yeah, the that was it was a big show. The people showed up for us. Oh, yeah. It was crazy. We did what we're supposed to do.
SPEAKER_03:And this just happened, right? This was on November 9th?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it was last one even a week ago.
SPEAKER_03:About a week ago, yeah, at the Kennedy Center.
SPEAKER_07:Because I was actually a part of the D Night show. So I know I know what he means. And that with the idea of actually performing in the Kennedy Center. You feel it in the room. You feel you, you understand the the grandeur of the space for sure. Exactly.
SPEAKER_04:Like when you're in, it's like, damn, like we done took this from the house to here. But it's also like, all right, if the it's also you don't want you don't want to uh go against your people, but it's also like that ain't what that ain't what this is. Sometimes your people gotta be educated they self to understand. I understand. It's not your job to uh lower your standards, is you know what I'm saying. If anything, I felt like it's more my job to educate, and like that's all I'm saying.
SPEAKER_03:Did you recreate the porch as part of this? Or or what what was the visually? How did it look?
SPEAKER_04:Uh we had a like screen with porch and graphics and stuff.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_04:You're gonna see us walking out the porch one day. Whenever you come to the show, it's gonna be a porch on it. We're definitely coming down.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, we are definitely coming down. Would you want to take this on tour? Yeah, that was my next question, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:100, 100%. I want to do the because we only did it in DC. Like you I would love to do it in Houston. Where we got the Houston ledgers coming out, where we got, you know what I'm saying, unexpected, where we got, where we in LA, and then we got Snoop, we got, you know what I'm saying, like all these relationships that have been built with all these people and all these uh fan, different fan bases. Like we got we just had Lenny Williams and then 803 Fresh, and then Robin Thick, and then uh uh Benny the Butcher and then Memphis Bleak, George Clinton. We just dropped Ramble. Uh we drop I we dropping listen, we dropping some crazy jumps. And like the Monday, this is gonna be when this comes out. This will come out probably next week. All right, Monday, by the time this comes out, we used to drop Wale's. So like nine out of ten, crazy like it. And he's having a crazy run right now.
SPEAKER_03:So I guess like some of it, and Bon, I'm curious to see what you have to say about this. To me, like going on tour is cool, but there is a part of me that like the actual front porch is so cool that like bringing people to you to me is almost as powerful as you bringing it on tour, and or maybe there's a mix of the two somehow, but the idea of coming to the actual front porch, and it doesn't, it's not like it's right down on Independence Avenue. You know, it's it's a little bit out of the city, not really out of the city, but it's a unique place in itself. And to me, that is what becomes special.
SPEAKER_04:And that's that's 100% agreed, but if that's the case, only Bond will be able to experience them. So that's and that's in the crew and then the team that's over there with doing with doing it like that. Because it's like it's not a it's not a public venue. It's not like how LaRussell like invites people to, and shout out the Russell, he came on the platform as well. He invites people to his house. Like, I don't want these niggas in my house.
unknown:You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03:That becomes a whole different thing, I guess.
SPEAKER_04:This is equivalently, this is equivalent to a studio session that's just on the porch. Like we're trying to capture the best video and audio for this performance to give to the masses. If we're doing a tour, this is letting the masses come nice too. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_07:Or at least the I see it. I I see it because you're obviously limited by the space, right? And the space not only limits who gets to come and perform, but also who gets to come and enjoy. You know what I'm saying? Like that's the limit, the true limitation is the fact that you guys are creating something that if you had a bigger porch, right, more people could come and enjoy it. If you had a bigger yard for people to stand in, more people could come and enjoy it. You know what I'm saying? If one neighbor was cool, then we could have set up something across everybody's front yard and blocked the street off. You know what I'm saying? But but because of that, we almost have the porch stands for something.
unknown:Right?
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, that's what I'm getting at. The porch stands for something. So as long as the porch still represents outside of DC, outside of your home, as long as it still represents that for people and doesn't have to compromise any cultural integrity to be that for people, man. Take that shit on the road, bro. Like make sure you bring the porch with you.
SPEAKER_03:Like the port, the recreation of the porch.
SPEAKER_04:But definitely, yeah, that shit got to go on the road. But Tom, you're 100% right when it comes to like the it just in my mind of like where I'm at and like I'm just snooping this motherfucker. We just had, well, like we just did two, we just did uh oh, like all these people. I got a wall of signatures on the wall of everybody that came over. And it's like, it shouldn't make no sense. Like to think like the police done ran up in here before. You know what I'm saying? Like, like it's just like that. You know what I'm saying? To fast forward to now, and it's like, you know what I'm saying? We're gonna have a special, a special journal, uh Thanksgiving. But this probably be out by then too. But we Patty LaBelle. We just had Patty LaBelle over there.
SPEAKER_03:It makes no sense, but it makes perfect sense.
SPEAKER_07:If it ain't out by then, they coming to see it. They gonna they're gonna tune in.
SPEAKER_04:No, for sure. It's coming out the Monday of that week. So, you know what I'm saying? It's probably, you know, man, we be good. Nonetheless, I'm cool. But the element of surprise is part of the shit. So it's like that's what how we could build it as Nuclees Live from the front porch. We could just drop on Monday and they not know what we're about to drop. Just be happy that we drop. It's Monday. I know they're about to do something. I don't know what to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But when you do go on the road, like I I got I got to go see uh Pete Rock and Common when they when they were, you know, this this past year.
SPEAKER_04:And what I really love the living room set up.
SPEAKER_03:They had his living room, and that was like I think it's his aunt's living room. Um, I think definitely.
SPEAKER_08:What do you say?
SPEAKER_03:When when they had their set, they matched it perfectly to, I think it was his aunt's basement, like living room. Oh, yeah, Pete.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, it's Pete. It was Pete's aunt, right?
SPEAKER_03:And it was perfect, like every little detail was actual stuff, you know, from her basement. And so like I think there's this thing, that's a cool opportunity that like you could document and bring on tour exact every little thing. You know, like if the little corner is a little bit cut off or or rusted, like that's gotta be on tour, you know, like it's gotta be the authenticity of it because that's what makes this thing so special. Like it's literally your front porch. Um it's crazy. And as we wrap up, though, I gotta I gotta challenge. We gotta get bun. Bun, yell if I'm speaking out of turn here, but I want to see bun on your front porch. I want to see bun on the front porch. How can we make that happen, bud?
SPEAKER_04:I feel like we just made it happen. It's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_07:I feel like we just did. Is it that easy? I think so. I think so.
SPEAKER_06:I won't need a wheelchair. No wheelchair.
SPEAKER_03:You want a grill? Yeah, we'll put a grill out there. I gotta have it just for a second.
SPEAKER_04:You don't gotta be on the grill. We can just have it out there and get some some trio burgers getting grilled while we out there. I think that'd be good.
SPEAKER_03:Here's my talent deal. Bun, I'll flip burgers, and then one day somebody will say, Who is that white guy standing out there flipping burgers the whole time while Bun's trying to perform? And were they any good?
SPEAKER_08:Exactly.
SPEAKER_03:Tom burgers.
SPEAKER_07:I'm up for Nucie. I'm up for I haven't been to D.C. in a minute. That's why we haven't reached out. And we have it like with the with the Corey Mo album that I just did. We we didn't have the the budget to go to D.C. for something like that. But the next time I'm booked, I'm on the porch. So DC promoters book me to the city so I can go to Nucci house and get it up.
SPEAKER_08:I'm sure for Nucie, that's one phone call. I was about to say, we see it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, Tom, Tom, find a reason for me to come to Maryland. I'll believe me, I'll get you a reason very soon. Very soon. So you be ready for us, Nucci.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, sir. And my last thing before we go, man, I just want to say I appreciate y'all, man. Uh, for sure, for, you know what I'm saying, reaching out, you know what I'm saying, all legends uh in in y'all own right. And you know what I'm saying? I want to shout out the team for, you know what I'm saying, making the front push even happen. Like, it started with an idea, and it was just me at first, but now it's a whole there's some whole shit. I want to shout out the team and everybody that supported. And, you know what I'm saying, just appreciate everybody that's coming to the live events. See y'all when we go on the road. Shout out to all the artists that believe in it and understand, like, damn, we just going to because some people be coming over, they be like, this is a really good house. And then by the time they leave, by the time we done, they don't want to leave. Like, we over like it's all family now. You know what I'm saying? We in there eating the shit like it's like we real live family, like uncles and and aunts, and like, oh, back. That's my last thing I want to say. So you say aunt, Tom. Is y'all say aunt or aunt? How y'all say it?
SPEAKER_08:I say aunt, but a lot of people say auntie now. Like, it's it's it's a vibe. I say ain't.
SPEAKER_07:Why not? I say ain't why not?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. I'm thinking that.
SPEAKER_07:Now, let me ask you this, Disney. When I when I come, I'm probably gonna come with my wife, and she's gonna want some crabs.
SPEAKER_04:I live I live by the best, by the best crab by the well, you got it. Oh, we look, we have for well, all the artists come, we ask them what they eat, and we make sure it's there.
SPEAKER_07:Well, that's what we're gonna want to eat some crabs. But I bring you bring the crabs, I bring the burger.
SPEAKER_04:You gotta bring some burgers.
SPEAKER_07:I ain't even burger.
SPEAKER_04:Say less. Alrighty. I like it.
SPEAKER_06:Hey man, thank you.
SPEAKER_04:This was special, man. Yes, it's great. That's super salute, man. I appreciate you.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, absolutely, bro. It's funny because I like I feel like you and I have been around each other, but we had never met. Like we there's so much, so many common threads where we start talking, and I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. He was like Atlantic. I was I worked at Atlantic, but he was on he was on the West Coast and I was in New York. So it's all these kind of common threads that we got, and I'm sure we know a bunch of the same people, so I'm glad we got to finally put it together, you know?
SPEAKER_04:No, already, man. I definitely felt like we were in the same room before. Absolutely. Absolutely. I just remember hearing your voice somewhere. I think that very important. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_03:But thank you all for listening. Thank you for bringing us to the front porch. Thank you, Nucci. Until next week, leave us your comments on Instagram at Unglossy Pod or YouTube at Merrick Studios. Tell your friends about the show. I'm Tom Frank.
SPEAKER_04:I'm Jeffrey Swedge, and I'm Bun B. I'm Nucci.
SPEAKER_03:Unglossy is produced and distributed by Merrick Studios.
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