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00:00:00
Speaker 1: What up, y'all?
00:00:00
Speaker 2: This your main man Memphis Bleak right here. Welcome to Rock Solid, a production of iHeartRadio and the Black Effect Network.
00:00:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what it is, man. Yours truly, M. Greasy.
00:00:26
Speaker 2: Back with another exclusive episode of Rock Solid Podcast. And this one right here is very special to me. This is my man right here. We came up together. Same grind, same time. writing rhymes, sitting on the bench in Marcy. He coming through to see his peoples. But he wasn't even from the projects. But to me, he from the projects. He was in there more than niggas that was from the projects. So let's welcome home and welcome to the show. One of the illest, Fucking spitters Out of Marcy Projects Out of Brooklyn, New York Jinx the motherfucking Juvie.
00:01:02
Speaker 3: My brother What's up, big dog? What's up, man? How you been, man?
00:01:05
Speaker 2: Long time, my G I appreciate it, man Long time from sitting on the bench With this dream Yo, we gonna do this We gonna make it Before we get into all the connects And who linked with who Right Let's let you tell your story, though, man. What was it like for you coming up in BK? You know what I mean?
00:01:24
Speaker 3: Coming up in Brooklyn, I had no older brothers, none of that. Just my moms and my two little sisters. And if you heard of Brooklyn or you from Brooklyn, you know what that atmosphere is like.
00:01:35
Speaker 1: That's right.
00:01:35
Speaker 3: So I had to make a lot of decisions to basically protect myself and my sisters going to school, riding the train or bus.
00:01:43
Speaker 1: Shit was rough back then. I be trying to tell you.
00:01:46
Speaker 3: Right. And it just grew inside of me as time. Anything you do for a significant amount of time. it becomes a part of your character. And I took that and navigated my way through. So yeah, it was rough. It was crazy out there. You know how it is. That's right.
00:02:00
Speaker 1: We was young and wild in them times, man.
00:02:03
Speaker 4: I got shot six times, man, on four different occasions.
00:02:06
Speaker 3: Man.
00:02:07
Speaker 4: Once by police.
00:02:08
Speaker 2: I already know. Man, let's get into that. Because before we get into that.
00:02:12
Speaker 1: Right, right. The rapping scene, usually I ask people.
00:02:15
Speaker 2: When they fell in love with rap, but I know we fell in love with rap around the same time when we realized it could change our life and get us up out of there.
00:02:22
Speaker 1: How did you link with Russell Simmons, though?
00:02:26
Speaker 3: I linked with Russ after numerous things happened. That was like the third or fourth thing that I wound up getting next to Russell Simmons. First, I got with a producer from East New York. Shout out to Jay Swift. He came to the project.
00:02:44
Speaker 1: I remember Jay Swift back in the day.
00:02:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, I owe it to Jay.
00:02:46
Speaker 4: Jay Swift came, he grabbed me. He took me to Coogee Rap.
00:02:50
Speaker 3: Coogee Rap took me around battling people.
00:02:53
Speaker 1: Okay.
00:02:53
Speaker 3: I went to Rough Riders, different places I wanted them to sign me. Remember you fucking with Rough Riders.
00:02:58
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:02:58
Speaker 3: They went to sign me first. Shout out to D & Y.
00:03:00
Speaker 1: Yes, D & Y the fam. Word. I was proud about that.
00:03:05
Speaker 3: Word. So shout out to Kiss too, but um, After I made the decision, or rather my mom made the decision for me because I wanted to sign the Rough Riders, I cried.
00:03:14
Speaker 1: I was 15 years old.
00:03:16
Speaker 4: I couldn't sign by myself.
00:03:17
Speaker 1: No, no, definitely.
00:03:18
Speaker 3: So she was like, you know, the best thing for you to do is sign the Def Jam. It's more longevity. So once on the label, I got shot when I was 16 and Leo sent me to go visit Russell so he could talk some sense into me. And from that first day. We just link, you know?
00:03:33
Speaker 1: And y'all been like, that's what I'm saying.
00:03:35
Speaker 2: See, that's how I might have forgot about the stuff in the beginning because I felt like ever since you linked with Russ.
00:03:40
Speaker 1: You was in that position. You was on, you was on, you was in the fat farm, all the modeling ads.
00:03:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, DJ you in the magazines.
00:03:48
Speaker 1: Word up. You was doing all that shit, bro.
00:03:50
Speaker 2: So what was that like being in front of projects, having those opportunities?
00:03:54
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
00:03:56
Speaker 3: When you young like we was, bro, you don't really understand what position you in. Because one thing, as I got older now, I knew what I wanted to do before I knew who I was. See, and when those lines cross, I didn't know what position I was in. That's why dudes be like, yo, what's wrong with him? I didn't understand. It took experiences. It took time, you know.
00:04:18
Speaker 2: And I can honestly say like, you know how they be like, yo, some kids fuck up their opportunity or they blew it. Looking at you and thinking about back then, like how we came up, you not having no older brothers, you moving around because you was in East New York.
00:04:32
Speaker 1: Brooklyn, Brownsville, Brownsville. You was in the hood.
00:04:38
Speaker 2: When they had hood to hood DVDs, he should have been the star on them because you was in hood to hood everywhere.
00:04:44
Speaker 1: But at the same time, trying to balance getting a career. And these are the days when. you had to be outside in order for this to work.
00:04:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, no social media, no just posting something. You had to go get on the corner with the ciphers and be present and really put your feet on the ground.
00:05:04
Speaker 1: And that's a fact.
00:05:05
Speaker 2: And like, what advice would you give to any young artists today that you think might be stuck in between that, trying to juggle that balance of
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getting on and still transforming from who they are and what they want to become?
00:05:19
Speaker 1: Hmm.
00:05:20
Speaker 3: I would say create harmony amongst you, amongst your circle.
00:05:25
Speaker 4: Believe in yourself.
00:05:27
Speaker 3: Practice your craft and understand that the craft is going to open the doors. You don't have to rush it. It's a process and it's going to organically happen. Don't rush nothing. Don't skip no pages. Don't do none of that. Just take your time with it. Practice your craft and create harmony. And I say harmony, right, because... prime example with myself and it's like I'm talking to myself for the people that's listening it's like you say you want to be a rapper and you believe in yourself but you spend more time rearing up from the weight man and being in the trap house that's communicating to the universe that you really don't believe in yourself so create harmony practice your craft be patient and that's about it.
00:06:08
Speaker 2: Man but in them days that like today right Kids have a million ways to get jobs. They can do Uber. They can do delivery service. You don't even need a bike to be a delivery man now. Just walk and delivery. You know what I'm saying? And back then there was no, only opportunity was That corner. I was right there with you. That's why it's like I hear you talking and we was young together. And I couldn't even look at you and be like, yo, son, you wildin'. Because we was doing the same shit in the same shit. But the only difference I think I had, I had be high. As my manager, your cousin, B-Hot, like, and he was the OG, like, you didn't know, like.
00:06:48
Speaker 3: He was checking niggas, pulling niggas, pulling niggas' coats.
00:06:51
Speaker 1: Yo, but back then, like, think about it. We used to run from the police. You know what I mean? Used to run from the bikers.
00:06:57
Speaker 3: Right.
00:06:58
Speaker 1: Used to hide from your moms. Right, right. Like, you used to hide from your mom's best friend. Like, you don't want you telling my moms.
00:07:04
Speaker 3: Right.
00:07:04
Speaker 1: But then I had to run from B-Hot and them two.
00:07:07
Speaker 2: That I had to hide from them too so that was like another extra layer of guidance that I had that I felt like anybody in your shoes today and even back then that's the one thing I felt like that you.
00:07:20
Speaker 3: Missed I think I think If it's something I could have grasped on more back then, because a lot of people don't know our relationship. My godmoms lived 542 right across. I watched Bleak cop the Jordan two weeks before they came out when he was riding a bike.
00:07:38
Speaker 4: I watched him get the green. I forgot what green called.
00:07:41
Speaker 3: Then it was the silver Acura, the black Acura to the 542. So I watched all of that, Hugo. Get the silver Yukon.
00:07:49
Speaker 1: On the Tahoe.
00:07:49
Speaker 3: Shout out Skane Dollar. Skane Dollar, that was my hand up.
00:07:51
Speaker 1: That's where I got my shit from. Word.
00:07:53
Speaker 3: I think, you know, seeing you make it and seeing you progress... I should have believed more that it was Rilla, because I got a front row seat more than the average person.
00:08:04
Speaker 1: And we was together. Like, I come to the hood, and me and you, we sitting on the benches, man. Everything, man. Yo, bro, I remember.
00:08:11
Speaker 2: When I got hit by a car in Miami riding a bike.
00:08:14
Speaker 1: Man, I came home and bought bikes.
00:08:16
Speaker 2: The homies was, remember, I had the four-wheelers, the bikes, niggas wilding out.
00:08:20
Speaker 1: And it was like.
00:08:22
Speaker 2: I was trying to put everybody on at the same time.
00:08:25
Speaker 4: Niff Bleak, his video, Mossy Day.
00:08:27
Speaker 1: Yo, word up.
00:08:27
Speaker 4: That was lit.
00:08:28
Speaker 1: Yo, that Mossy Day, my G.
00:08:29
Speaker 3: That was a big record.
00:08:31
Speaker 2: They had the police shut that shit down. That's when I knew. That's when it hit me. It was like, yo, this shit real, bro. You famous. Listen, your album release.
00:08:42
Speaker 3: I met you at the W Hotel, and we got in a Sprinter together to go to the tunnel. Me and Pow Wow.
00:08:49
Speaker 1: You used to be with me all the time.
00:08:52
Speaker 2: Anything we was doing, any opportunity I had to be like, yo, Jizz, come on, we out.
00:08:56
Speaker 1: You was like, yo, M, I'm with you. But then nine times out of ten, you was grinding. Yo, Bleak, I'm on the block. Yo, Bleak, I'm trying to get it, man. Yo, I'm going to be there.
00:09:03
Speaker 2: But I always used to be like, yo, when the new shit dropping, we would compare rhymes. We would spit together, be in the crib. And that's the thing, like, people don't know our relationship.
00:09:13
Speaker 1: Me, you, Jeter, Poof, Vaughn, Murder, Leaky. Like, the whole squad was together, but then.
00:09:21
Speaker 3: It's big Brooklyn energy, man. All day, my nigga. I watched it, and that definitely inspired me in coming up. I wish I could have grasped onto it, but everything happened for a reason because our journeys have to, we have to go through certain things in order to be, it's a responsibility to be an artist. A lot of people don't know that. It's people putting money behind you. You got to show up to interviews on time. It's people that's investing in you, so you got to be mature.
00:09:46
Speaker 2: I had no idea about that until I started the warehouse, like until I.
00:09:50
Speaker 1: Really got the warehouse.
00:09:52
Speaker 3: Music group shit.
00:09:53
Speaker 2: You know, when we started getting budgets and it's like, yo, we got to spend, 20 grand on this record or 30 grand on this record.
00:10:00
Speaker 1: Record. And it's like, yo, y'all wilding. We ain't spending that. And they looking at me like, what? Jay used to spend 70, 60, 70 on your shit. I had to call that nigga. Yo, every record I dropped, he was dropping a 50 pack.
00:10:13
Speaker 3: And he
like, yeah.
00:10:13
Speaker 1: It's like, yo.
00:10:14
Speaker 3: That's when the budget was big. I got signed up, Jim, for 500,000. When they dropped me and released me from the label, I went to Burt Bedell and my budget was $ 800, 000 at the time, right? And I remember Havoc, right? Kevin Labs hooked me and Havoc up to produce a record. I don't even show up to the studio, Blee. He gets paid and everything. I'm not even showing up to things.
00:10:40
Speaker 1: Yo.
00:10:40
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying? It's things like that. I'm not even showing up, man.
00:10:43
Speaker 2: That's crazy. But then you did have mad records, man. You got records with kids, records with Fab.
00:10:48
Speaker 3: Fab.
00:10:49
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? What was that like? Oh, man. Because that's the beginning of Fab, the mixtape era.
00:10:53
Speaker 3: Nah, I'm going to give it up to the homie. Big Brooklyn Energy, he spanked me on the record, man.
00:10:58
Speaker 1: Yo, chill.
00:10:58
Speaker 4: He spanked me.
00:10:59
Speaker 3: How y'all be saying, Paul's, I ain't into the Paul's thing. No, no, I'm too old for that, man. He was, what's his name, though? He was.
00:11:06
Speaker 4: more mature in taking his craft serious.
00:11:09
Speaker 3: I was just more direct instead of, you know, enjoying the craft, playing with words. You know what I mean? My sit down right now after being incarcerated for 12 years, I read a lot of books. You know, that's why when you say, yo, that freestyle that you just did, I'm going to punish these niggas right now because I play with words different and I take it more serious. But the record with Fab, That's one of my favorite records, man. I enjoyed it. It was big. Just Blaze did the beat. Matter of fact, I had an OG homie that was in the studio. He thought we made it. He was up there. Vinny Vegas.
00:11:39
Speaker 4: Shout out to Vinny Vegas. He was crying, Bleep.
00:11:43
Speaker 3: We in Quad's studio, he start crying like, yo, we made it.
00:11:50
Speaker 2: That's how it was, though, man. You had the opportunity, bro, but What was it like? I know you caught your case. You did 12 years, man. I know sitting there, I know everything flashed before your eyes. Like, what the fuck? Did you feel like you let yourself down or whatever?
00:12:07
Speaker 3: Absolutely. You know what I'm saying? And not only let myself down, I let people who believed in me and who needed me, you know, I let them down. Most of all, I let my daughter down because when I left, my daughter was 12 years old. I come home and she going on 25. You feel what I'm saying?
00:12:23
Speaker 1: So.
00:12:24
Speaker 3: And then it's like I didn't even have to do some of the things that I was doing.
00:12:28
Speaker 1: No. Right.
00:12:29
Speaker 4: So you feel what I'm saying?
00:12:31
Speaker 1: It just was that era, bro. It was the streets.
00:12:34
Speaker 3: But I appreciate the adversity because it builds character. And one thing that I did on the bid on the conservation was I looked in that mirror. I didn't point no fingers.
00:12:45
Speaker 1: That's right.
00:12:46
Speaker 4: It's his fault.
00:12:47
Speaker 3: Oh, I only got a single parent, mother, and a household, and it's they fault. Nah, nigga, it's your fault.
00:12:53
Speaker 4: You in the mirror.
00:12:54
Speaker 3: So I spent a lot of time doing that. And, you know, after about three years or something like that underneath me, man, like, I really just getting into my studies, reading a lot. You know what I mean? And building myself, bro. That's how I came up with the brand Urban Graduate.
00:13:08
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you about that, man.
00:13:10
Speaker 3: Urban Graduate, man.
00:13:11
Speaker 1: Tell me about that, man. What made you even think about starting the clothing line? I mean....
00:13:17
Speaker 3: It started with Russell when he told me, yo, I'll give you $ 10, 000 to go back and get your GED. It took me like two years to even go get it. Because I had a little couple of dollars from him. I'm like, man, I'm not going to get no GED. Then he tightened up on the bread for me. And I'm like, man, I need some bread.
00:13:32
Speaker 4: Well, I could get it.
00:13:32
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, he said we'll get the GED. So I'll go get the GED. And the crazy thing is I was so removed from school because I dropped out at like the 10th grade. I tried to pay somebody to go take the test. He leaves out the Brooklyn shit.
00:13:47
Speaker 1: I love you.
00:13:48
Speaker 3: He goes one day and do that part. And then the second day they catch on to his ID. He runs out or whatever. So I go take the GED. I pass the GED. I come to his office.
00:13:57
Speaker 1: Thanks.
00:13:58
Speaker 3: I appreciate it. And I go to his office and he like, yo, man, you the urban graduate. It was in my head that those words and I held on to him. So now I get in prison. And I'm like, yo, what the fuck? I got 25 years, man. Rap, I ain't trying to fucking write no rap, nigga. I come home, I be fucking 50 years old. You know what I'm saying? So I'm like, how can I use my voice and create something that God willing, if they do cut me out early, I can have something that I feel comfortable about and that really speaks.
00:14:29
Speaker 4: Urban graduate is like a bar to me.
00:14:30
Speaker 3: Urban graduate. So I start doing that. And now people sending me money. you know, not people, but my family sending me money. I'm like, yo, nah, my dad, $ 100, you going to send me for commissary? And yo, get 10 t-shirts and put the logo on them. I'm doing shit like that now.
00:14:46
Speaker 1: That's fire.
00:14:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, bro.
00:14:47
Speaker 2: That's a blessing to even still have the inspiration and the motivation to want to still create, man. That's how you know you was born to do something great, man.
00:14:56
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
00:14:57
Speaker 2: Come home and, bro, it's, one thing, shout out my man, Tac Stone, man, right? He put up a
tweet because he was down. He was like, I think he was down for six years and he had put up a tweet.
00:15:09
Speaker 1: Yo, today is my sixth year currently being locked up.
00:15:13
Speaker 2: And if the people out there, if you didn't elevate, you still in the same position you was in when I came to jail, then you in jail with me. You just have you just free right now. But your mind is in jail with me. And I was like, Dan, that's crazy for you to be locked up.
00:15:30
Speaker 1: Facing 25. No, had 25.
00:15:32
Speaker 3: That's what I mean.
00:15:33
Speaker 1: Had 25. Do 12.
00:15:36
Speaker 3: Come home.
00:15:37
Speaker 2: Get back popping. Get a clothing line going. Yo, bro, think about these guys who've been home 12 years still pointing fingers.
00:15:44
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:15:44
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? It's just like a waste of time. It's like, was they there with you?
00:15:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean... I can't really speak on them, but they definitely out there. And I think stories like mine, it might be somebody right now who's saying, you know what, let me stop pointing the finger and go in that mirror. And if there's one thing that I want to happen from the interview, maybe it's that. Maybe it's more than one. Maybe it's two, three, four, five.
00:16:06
Speaker 1: Inspire millions, bro.
00:16:07
Speaker 2: That's what we're here for. You came home that fucking come up. Yo, that freestyle, bro. Soon as I seen it, I called my dog B.I. I said, yo, listen, get it cut.
00:16:17
Speaker 1: Hit Jinx. Tell him, listen, he got to pull up.
00:16:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely.
00:16:21
Speaker 2: Son, like, nah, you murdered that shit. I sent it directly to my dog. I said, yo, this one.
00:16:25
Speaker 1: Of the homies here.
00:16:26
Speaker 3: Nice, nice. I ain't going to play with him right now, too, man. After a while, after sitting down, I was writing a lot of music. My last, like, maybe seven years doing it and writing a lot of music and then coming home. You know, when I first came home, because I've been home like a little over a year, but it wasn't about, you know, yo, yo, let me, yo, let me get on the podcast.
00:16:48
Speaker 4: Yo, let me get on the come up.
00:16:49
Speaker 3: I had to come see my family, my daughter, my mother, get myself established in the world. That was important to me first. the rap thing, but I was always promoting Urban Graduate, but it's easier to promote Urban Graduate in the cut versus music. Now once I put the come up freestyle out and the responses with it, now it's time to move around a little bit.
00:17:09
Speaker 1: Yo, that shit moving, bro. I ain't going front. So what does life look like for Jinx the Juvie today? Simple. How have your priorities changed from then to now?
00:17:19
Speaker 3: Nobody calls my phone. I'm unavailable, right? I'm unavailable, but a lot of people that know me from the past I ain't going to say they did bad, but I didn't get the support that my hand was called for.
00:17:34
Speaker 1: And that's cool.
00:17:34
Speaker 4: That's okay.
00:17:35
Speaker 3: But now it's like, keep it the same way. It's love, but it's love from a distance. You're doing your thing. I'm doing my thing. So I keep it simple, man.
00:17:43
Speaker 4: I hang out with my moms. I be in the crib. You feel what I'm saying?
00:17:48
Speaker 3: I talk to Russell. I go to the gym. I go to church. I be chilling. He about to be back active, y'all. He got some things. He got an app called The Plug.ai. It's a management tool that people can use, you know, like an AI version. Instead of having a manager, you can like type things inside of the search box of what you're doing. And it's going to be a manager for you. Like I put a video out. And it'll tell me, all right, well, shoot two shorts.
00:18:16
Speaker 4: Shoot a video. Like, it'll tell you and direct you what to do.
00:18:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's dope.
00:18:19
Speaker 1: That's dope. Look at Russ still creating new flash.
00:18:22
Speaker 3: You know, I'm trying to have my hand in it like they do save bodies with hoes. You know what it is.
00:18:26
Speaker 1: That's right.
00:18:27
Speaker 3: Let them know. Hey, yo, Russ, you see the.
00:18:29
Speaker 1: Plug, right?
00:18:30
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:18:30
Speaker 1: That's right, Russ.
00:18:31
Speaker 3: I plugged that in for you, yeah. Hit me later.
00:18:33
Speaker 1: We'll talk. That's how we go. That's how we go. Let's promote it, baby. What is it? Theplug.ai?
00:18:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's it.
00:18:40
Speaker 1: Jinx told me, say it. Yeah. You know what it is.
00:18:44
Speaker 4: Count me for that, Pop. I'll call you later.
00:18:47
Speaker 3: But I'm not. I love it.
00:18:49
Speaker 1: Yo, so what's the new music like, man? What you got brewing? What you cooking, my G?
00:18:54
Speaker 3: Recently, I tapped in with Dane Grease and Selfie. That did a lot of early DMX stuff. So I'm going to work on an EP and a mixtape. I'm going to drop the mixtape first. It's called Life After Fez. Like Life After Death, Biggie shit. Life After Fez. This is my life.
00:19:12
Speaker 4: Right.
00:19:12
Speaker 3: So we're going to be creative with the type.
00:19:15
Speaker 1: It's real life. They like you fabricating, making up some shit. You really lived it, bro. And you have to. tell your story through your you have to bro yeah it's right there is do you have the blueprint for what these kids try to be today yeah you you did it and i know you got some get some game to give them that yo shorty man it ain't what you think it is like.
00:19:38
Speaker 3: If they if they if they want it because a person got to be ready you know i mean at the time for it because it's a lot of things that i was being told over the years but i couldn't catch it like Rush used to tell me... the universe and energy. I'm like, that's some rich nigga shit.
00:19:51
Speaker 4: I don't want to hear that. What you mean the universe, nigga?
00:19:54
Speaker 3: Where
the money at? I need some bread.
00:19:55
Speaker 4: That's all I need is the universe is money.
00:19:57
Speaker 1: I'm not going to lie. Them niggas do talk that earth, moon, and stars.
00:20:03
Speaker 2: Shit got to line up. You know the sun, it goes in line every three years.
00:20:08
Speaker 1: It's real, though.
00:20:09
Speaker 3: When I got older, for me, it got real. Like I said, keeping things in harmony and reading books, reading material. You know, the thinking, grow riches, the richest man in Babylon, you know, the power now, all these books and the shit, different information. It's like, okay, I started to understand why things happen to me the way they happen, you know?
00:20:29
Speaker 1: And you know what they say, man, if.
00:20:32
Speaker 2: The way to hide information from our culture is to put it in a book.
00:20:35
Speaker 3: That's why I got an idea. And they might jack it, right? They might not jack it.
00:20:40
Speaker 1: Don't even tell them. Okay, say no more. We ain't giving away no free games. Lock it down, then you give it away.
00:20:47
Speaker 4: You know what I mean? That's what big homie for. That's what big bro for.
00:20:50
Speaker 3: But I got some shit cooking outside of Urban Graduate and outside of the music that's going to be real influential for the culture and helpful for dudes to elevate, man, because that's what it's about.
00:21:00
Speaker 1: That's a fact.
00:21:01
Speaker 2: Like, Looking at the current generation of Brooklyn artists now, man, what excites you about the city music and where we're headed with it?
00:21:09
Speaker 3: I like everything, man. I'm biased when it comes to music. I can't even call nobody trash or whack. I just love it all. It's different. The fact that I don't want everybody to sound bleak or everybody to sound like jinx or everybody to sound like ho.
00:21:30
Speaker 4: Things have to grow and evolve.
00:21:32
Speaker 3: So it might not be necessarily something I might pull up through the hood bumping with, but when I see them doing anything like the group 41 from our projects, for example, from Brownsville, when I see them doing what they're doing and they got a cult following and they living out their dreams, it might not be per se my type of music, but I like to enjoy.
00:21:51
Speaker 1: What they're doing. And you just want to see them win, man.
00:21:54
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:21:54
Speaker 1: Especially you from the culture, you from the hood, man. You deserve it. It's enough for all of us. Yeah. I like that, man. That's dope, man.
00:22:02
Speaker 2: Like, looking back on your journey, what's one moment you would say you're most proud of? Because anybody could say, yo, you regret something. But what's the moment you could look back and say, yeah, I did that?
00:22:15
Speaker 3: I would say Rapsody in the Basement with Russ. You know, and the reason, like, I'm going to tell you the back story to that. I wasn't invited to Rapsody in the Basement with Russ.
00:22:28
Speaker 4: I'm in the office, right?
00:22:30
Speaker 3: So I'm in the office. I hear somebody like, yeah, us down there, you know.
00:22:36
Speaker 4: At 106th and Park. I'm like, what?
00:22:38
Speaker 3: He where without me? Goes down there. I pull up down there, go up in there. He like this, looking at me like, that's what I'm talking about, little nigga.
00:22:45
Speaker 1: Get here.
00:22:46
Speaker 3: If you paying attention and you reading the room, you supposed to know that.
00:22:49
Speaker 1: That's right.
00:22:50
Speaker 3: So I went in there and I smashed the joint and I signed my name on the wall with him. That was like one of my biggest accomplishments right there.
00:22:58
Speaker 1: What's up, man? If you could go back, right? This is a question I used to ask myself. If you could go back and give the younger Jinx the juvie one piece of advice about life, music industry, or just in general, any advice you think he would be, would be useful to the younger version of you, what would it be?
00:23:19
Speaker 3: Never allow circumstance to dictate how you feel about yourself or how you're moving or what people say or people's opinion to dictate get so much inside of your mental to where you start believing what they said, whether that's good or bad. Because sometimes we get gassed up because somebody said it. Yo, Bleak said the come up was fire. Now I don't go home and write no raps no more because Memphis Bleak told me my shit was fire. You know what I'm saying? So you just got to, I would say, don't allow circumstance to dictate how you're moving because everybody, even the most successful people, come from humbling experiences. That's right. I would say that.
00:23:57
Speaker 1: That's a good gem right there. What do you think people misunderstood most about your story?
00:24:05
Speaker 3: Oh, man. Russ wasn't giving me no fucking handouts.
00:24:09
Speaker 4: Yo, talk about it. Yo, and another thing.
00:24:12
Speaker 1: Talk about it.
00:24:13
Speaker 4: Niggas didn't want to fuck with me because I fuck with Russ.
00:24:16
Speaker 3: Made it harder.
00:24:17
Speaker 1: Talk about it.
00:24:18
Speaker 4: Oh, nah, you fuck with Russ.
00:24:19
Speaker 3: I ain't.
00:24:20
Speaker 4: Listen, nah.
00:24:21
Speaker 3: Matter of fact, you ask a nigga, yo, son, you don't assume me.
00:24:24
Speaker 4: Yo, why you ain't? Why Russ ain't?
00:24:27
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm talking to you. You talking about Russ. That's all. So that Russ thing was like a gift and a curse. That's right. That's not really, you know what I'm saying? And that's the thing that hurt. I know you know.
00:24:39
Speaker 2: Nick, they swear hold wrote everything. He was with me paying for everything and not everything. It's like, are you bugging? If I needed that, I'd have been back on the bench.
00:24:50
Speaker 1: Are you kidding me? They don't understand them niggas up there. They really give you no training wheels.
00:24:56
Speaker 3: No training wheels at all.
00:24:58
Speaker 1: No helmet, neither. Go out there and fall eight million times. It don't matter.
00:25:02
Speaker 3: Do your thing, though.
00:25:04
Speaker 1: And don't come here until you do your thing.
00:25:06
Speaker 3: No crying, no nothing.
00:25:07
Speaker 1: Straight up.
00:25:08
Speaker 4: I'm grateful to come up like that. No handouts and all that.
00:25:11
Speaker 3: This whole thing is going to be organic and through trial and error, through hard work, through discipline, through dedication.
00:25:19
Speaker 2: Bro, we live in an era today where Everybody pointing fingers and it's everybody else's fault except the man in the mirror, like you said earlier. So I think that way of being raised in the business helped us to never be that guy. Because, bro, it was a time when this shit wasn't working no more for me neither. And I'm home trying to figure it out. Music ain't poppin'. mixtapes ain't hitting, shows ain't being booked. Man, it's like, what the fuck do I do now? Where I go next? That's why I got into the liquor thing. Let me try it another way.
00:25:53
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
00:25:54
Speaker 4: Reinventing yourself. You are Memphis Bleak.
00:25:57
Speaker 3: You just reinventing yourself.
00:25:58
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying.
00:25:59
Speaker 3: You sure what I'm saying?
00:25:59
Speaker 1: And a lot of these guys still be stuck.
00:26:01
Speaker 2: On that one way and think, being that it ain't work, man, it's this nigga for why it ain't work.
00:26:06
Speaker 4: And it's like, that's when you gotta think about it, Bleak.
00:26:09
Speaker 3: Everybody not built. No disrespect to nobody, but It's easier to say it's your fault.
00:26:15
Speaker 1: Easy. That's the easiest thing to say.
00:26:16
Speaker 3: Man, I could do that at the blink of an eye.
00:26:18
Speaker 4: Like, yo, it's your fault.
00:26:20
Speaker 1: That's right.
00:26:24
Speaker 3: And I got some homies, not to call them out, but it's people, when you've been doing something for 20... 25 years one way, and it's not working. It's a hard pill to swallow to say that's not working.
00:26:35
Speaker 1: It ain't fucking with me.
00:26:37
Speaker 3: You feel what I'm saying? And that means in the streets or anything. You just got to have the courage and be brave enough to say, this look like it's headed toward a dead end. As a matter of fact, I'm at the dead end. It might be smart enough to make a U-turn.
00:26:50
Speaker 1: And go back. Yo, I'm telling you, bro, that's the definition of insane, though.
00:26:55
Speaker 2: To continuously do something the same way and expect different results.
00:26:59
Speaker 1: And like you say, if you've been doing this shit 10, 20 years and didn't get nothing different, it's like.
00:27:04
Speaker 3: You've been hustling forever. You ain't over 250 yet. You ain't rich yet and it's been 30 years.
00:27:09
Speaker 1: You still on the same block.
00:27:11
Speaker 3: Time to get a little trade or something. A little vocational or something. Yeah, you know what I mean?
00:27:15
Speaker 1: Don't sweep the park, you can stand in the chair. They'll pay you more for sweeping the park.
00:27:20
Speaker 3: Real shit, though. Real shit, though. This nigga be crazy, man.
00:27:25
Speaker 1: Nah, that's a fact, though, man.
00:27:28
Speaker 2: Like, when it's all said and done, right, and you want your name said and people talk about Jinx the Juvie from Brooklyn, New York, hip-hop, even the sacrifices you've been through, the trials, the tribulations, what you want to be remembered most for?
00:27:44
Speaker 3: I want to be remembered as somebody who was resilient, that took.
00:27:50
Speaker 4: All the bumps and bruises like Rocky.
00:27:54
Speaker 3: I want to be somebody like, if I had to be somebody I could compare it to, I want my career to look like Rocky. He took the beat, the loss, the drop from Def Jam, the 25-year sentence, and this, that, and the third, and came out on top. So it could remind him that even when the chips is down and when you down, nah. That nigga Jin, you still got something in your tank?
00:28:14
Speaker 1: Give it to him.
00:28:15
Speaker 3: Because it's never over until that shit is over. Until God take the breath out of our lungs, it ain't never over.
00:28:20
Speaker 1: Until the fat lady sing.
00:28:21
Speaker 3: That's it, man.
00:28:22
Speaker 1: These fat women on Ozempic now, so I don't think they're going to be singing No Time Soon, my G.
00:28:27
Speaker 3: Nah, for real, though. But that's what I want to be remembered by, man.
00:28:32
Speaker 1: Word up, man.
00:28:33
Speaker 3: Like, yo.
00:28:36
Speaker 2: Yo, so what's next, man? What's the next move? I know you got the clothing line, you got the music. Anything you want to get ever thought about doing acting?
00:28:46
Speaker 3: I heard some people tell me about the acting, but more than just what's to come next, And I hate to sound like them people up there that we was talking about. I'm present in the now. You know what I'm saying? I'm present. I'm real present in the now. I got a lot of work to do. You know what I mean? It's not going to come easy. One freestyle that's hot on the come up, it ain't going to be that. It's going to take consistency. And I think between the music and my clothing brand, it's enough on my plate at this moment. But I am going to do my book though. I've been working. I got a great book where it's a lot of different stories in there that's You know, behind the scenes, that's crazy. That thing is going to be interesting and inspiring at the same time.
00:29:27
Speaker 1: Got you.
00:29:28
Speaker 3: Because my book is either terrifying in some chapters, but it's inspiring in others, depending on what chapter you read.
00:29:34
Speaker 1: You really been through it, Jinx, man. Like you said, man, you've been shot six times, bro. I remember being young.
00:29:40
Speaker 2: And then hearing that shit yo jinx got shot like no way like what the
fuck like what my son is he doing man what he doing he wilding he just was over here cancun with these niggas right like what are you doing.
00:29:51
Speaker 3: You know what it is too bleak back then you know you go to dev jam office and you're around all the stars and everything like that you're around jay around all of y'all But then when I came to the hood, I was the man. So now it's more fun in the streets back then with that mentality. Because when I'm out here, I'm Jinx. I'm the one giving out fat farm clothes. I'm the one with the dick. I'm that nigga. So now I want to be in that environment versus being around more people that can make me great and bring me to higher levels.
00:30:19
Speaker 1: That's a fact. Trust me, I missed a lot of opportunities with that same dumb shit too.
00:30:23
Speaker 2: I want to go to the hood. I want to play the bench. Play the hood. I want to be the man. Bring all the cars, all the bikes out. By holding them, partying in the city, rubbing shoulders with millionaires on their way to becoming billionaires.
00:30:37
Speaker 1: I'm on my way to become the hood icon.
00:30:40
Speaker 3: I remember one time I was in Hamptons at Russ Cribb. I'm like, man, I don't want to be here, man. I want to get to the, not for real, like, the fuck? I'm bored as a motherfucker. Like, man, I ain't trying to, like, that makes sense. I'm being, and I share some of those experiences.
00:30:55
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying.
00:30:55
Speaker 3: But think about that today, bro. It sounds crazy.
00:30:58
Speaker 1: You admire those trees.
00:31:00
Speaker 3: Sounds crazy. That boring, empty pool.
00:31:02
Speaker 1: Because I remember being in the Hamptons back in the day like, this shit is trash. I never want to be here. Now it's like, you bugger. How much the crib? They wilding. We going to rent the hotel. We'll get the crib next year.
00:31:14
Speaker 3: Come on, man. All that's going to be in the book though, man. Those experiences, being transparent about the come up and the setbacks and the mind friends.
00:31:23
Speaker 2: That's another reason why I started this too, man. Like, For people to learn the personality, who I really am, because, you know, just reading the source, XXL and Vibe and listening to the album, they're not going to really know who you really are.
00:31:37
Speaker 3: That's right.
00:31:37
Speaker 1: So transparency, I feel like.
00:31:39
Speaker 2: A lot of rappers today we we are i'm pushing i'm 48 i'm about to be 50 bro ain't no more acting like the rap mystique is still there we we about to go double platinum next month and that shit over though it's time to let niggas know what it is and i feel like a lot of rappers would go further if they were more transparent more transparent away that fake the road you know what i'm saying.
00:32:04
Speaker 3: Shout out to listening not to cut you off but i got a page man um jinx life at the feds youtube channel and i ain't wait to the come up dvd and all that
i show niggas like riding a bike i got i got footage of me riding a bike to go fill off a job applications and stuff like that like i'm gonna show the transparency and the real shit So they can walk with me through that journey. You know what I'm saying?
00:32:27
Speaker 1: That's what I be trying to tell people.
00:32:29
Speaker 2: Like, they look at it like, yo, Duse, you started, you got with Duse and you just lit.
00:32:34
Speaker 1: Like, Duse started as... Nothing.
00:32:37
Speaker 3: And build it up.
00:32:38
Speaker 2: It's 13 years later. Now you're looking at the, and it ain't even, I ain't going to say the end result. Because we in the middle of the book.
00:32:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, we moving.
00:32:46
Speaker 2: But that beginning of the book, niggas was not out there in the front of the club with me trying to sell bottles.
00:32:52
Speaker 1: To the club. Going to these liquor stores like, yo, Pop, what up? Can you take this? And you know what I mean?
00:32:57
Speaker 2: Dealing with other companies paying these liquor stores and clubs not to carry our brand.
00:33:02
Speaker 3: Right, right, right, right. All those adversities.
00:33:04
Speaker 1: Niggas wasn't out there with me in the rain trying to get shit done. With trunks full of this shit trying to promote. Putting it on the ground. Now that it's popping. Now it's, yo, Bleak, you ain't take care of me.
00:33:15
Speaker 3: Let me do this.
00:33:16
Speaker 1: Let me be an ambassador.
00:33:17
Speaker 4: And that's for the audience as well.
00:33:21
Speaker 3: You can't expect everybody to believe in your dream from the beginning, neither. So you might as well get that out your mind. Like, niggas want to come when this shit popping.
00:33:28
Speaker 1: That's it.
00:33:29
Speaker 3: So, yeah, that's another thing people need to know.
00:33:32
Speaker 1: And like you said, reality, bro, I remember 07, right when the recession hit. 07, 08, around that time. When I realized, and it hit me. And I'm just like, yo, Blizz... You're not that nigga no more. They ain't checking for that big.
00:33:50
Speaker 3: Rocker fella shit. I heard you say that in a different interview. You're saying that nigga, you're not young no more, but at the end of the day, what you carved in the game and how you came in the game from the whole coming of age joint to the sequel to your albums and things like that and being around Hov, coming from Marcy, coming from Brooklyn, being a young dude that was coming up with a big dog.
00:34:16
Speaker 4: That's going to forever be in history.
00:34:18
Speaker 1: No, no. Yeah, no. That's right.
00:34:20
Speaker 2: But what I'm thinking, what I'm trying to say is I just think the message was wrong. I didn't grow up. You feel me, bro? Like I was still on that young shit. I was still rapping about we still spinning. We still clipping shit. We out here pushing work. We doing this. I remember my man B.I. I bleed on my mixtape. I had a mixtape. Beat off the land. I'm putting
it out, right? And I sent him the mixtape. That nigga was in NC. He called me like, yo, Bleak, yo, this shit fire. But I just want to ask you one thing. Yo, why you rhyming about so many guns? Like, yo, my nigga, we don't even be strapped no more. We don't even got no beef.
00:34:59
Speaker 1: That nigga's like, yo, why you don't talk about none of the fly shit we doing? We just was in Greece.
00:35:03
Speaker 3: Russ say the same thing to me too. And you got to take the, they are not artists, right? So, I take what they say as important because it is, but at the end of the day, if I, Cole said it, truthfully, I want to rhyme like common sense, but I did 5 mil, I ain't been rapping like common sense. Yes. You know what I'm saying? So you know the audience, but you got to do.
00:35:27
Speaker 2: It in a way that's... But what I didn't understand when he said that and what it is now is you have to.
00:35:33
Speaker 1: Rap about what you actually live.
00:35:35
Speaker 2: What you're seeing, what you're doing, what you're experiencing, what you feel, your happiness, your sadness, your confusion, everything. Because it's people in the same boat as you. Like my dog Cheat said when we first linked, he like bleep. I'm a real fan of you, bro. Like I grew up with you and you just stopped. You didn't teach us how to be adults. You didn't tell us what it was like being an adult.
00:35:58
Speaker 3: That's a true story, though.
00:35:59
Speaker 1: Like, you gave us the game as kids, but then you just stopped. So what are we supposed to do as adults?
00:36:05
Speaker 3: Like, what's the name of your joint? That was my shit. Yo, I grew up like a regular cat. Some nigga hit me with Kusami. Shit, yo, I settled with that. Went to my block, got it off of Cop Metal with that. That was my shit right there.
00:36:20
Speaker 2: Skins Passing Away inspired that record. Like a hundred, a hundred percent. It's a sad thing, but that's one of my illest records and him passing away inspired that record because it was like at that time, like that's what we was on.
00:36:34
Speaker 1: Nigga giving you consignment. First thing you needed was that strap or, you know, niggas coming to.
00:36:40
Speaker 3: Take that strap.
00:36:41
Speaker 4: With the band, all that.
00:36:43
Speaker 1: Niggas was a part of the trends.
00:36:44
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:36:45
Speaker 3: You can't forget about that too. Dressing, the do-rag, the bandana with the hat.
00:36:49
Speaker 1: I was a little fly nigga.
00:36:50
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
00:36:50
Speaker 1: I was stepping a little something, you know what I'm saying?
00:36:53
Speaker 2: They don't try to give me my props, but they know who put these niggas on.
00:36:56
Speaker 3: I seen boy put it down from day one, you know what I'm saying?
00:36:59
Speaker 1: I always looked up to you, bro.
00:37:01
Speaker 3: Appreciate you, man.
00:37:02
Speaker 2: We looked up to each other, man, because I always, like one thing I always said about you, I was like, yo, This nigga got that distinct voice, man.
00:37:13
Speaker 1: Like, I don't give a fuck who on the record. You know when Jinx rhyme. And even to this day, Cheap said the same thing. I sent them the come up DVD freestyle. Nigga said, yo, some voices, ew. I said, yo, since a kid I've said that, yo.
00:37:29
Speaker 3: That's definitely important. And I hear it too, not to be no arrogant way, no nothing. Like, hearing myself in the booth, because I just went in the studio for the first time, maybe like A month ago. I've been home 14 months.
00:37:43
Speaker 4: And when I heard myself, I said, yeah, you got it in your tank, boy.
00:37:48
Speaker 1: Nigga, you got that distinct tone, like that James Earl Jones, like how he did the commercials. You could do voiceovers like that, too. Don't just get stopped on rap.
00:37:59
Speaker 2: You can fuck around here on the American Express Capital One commercial.
00:38:03
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
00:38:04
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:38:06
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, you got them voices. I ain't going.
00:38:08
Speaker 3: To lock myself in no box, man.
00:38:12
Speaker 1: We came up in the box.
00:38:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, right. We out the box.
00:38:15
Speaker 1: You feel me?
00:38:15
Speaker 2: Once we got out of there, we was out the box, man. Fuck that. It's a long way to go now, my G. And definitely, man, welcome home. Continue much success. Continue doing everything you're doing.
00:38:28
Speaker 1: I'm a supporter. Anything you want to promote, anything you need, get any shirts, send them. I'm going to rock them.
00:38:34
Speaker 3: I'm going to promote them on the bar.
00:38:36
Speaker 2: You know I want to see all my guys win. I wish you much success, much longevity. And, bro, no more bad decisions.
00:38:45
Speaker 1: Let's go, my nigga.
00:38:46
Speaker 4: That's 25 years. That shit fix everything.
00:38:49
Speaker 1: I already know, my brother. Real fucking spitting. You hear me?
00:38:53
Speaker 2: Real Brooklyn shit. Niggas don't play when it came to that pen. And I welcome home. His pen is sharper than it's ever been. Tap in, man.
00:39:02
Speaker 1: Jinx the juvie. You urban graduate. Everything he got, man. Tap in. It's real Brooklyn shit, man. We here. Rock silent.
00:39:10
Speaker 3: My nigga.
00:39:11
Speaker 1: Love, bro.
00:39:15
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows at. And you can follow me on any social media platform under the name Memphis Bleak.
00:39:27
Speaker 1: You see anybody fronting, flag them.