← The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club
INTERVIEW: David Banner Talks 'The Family Business,' Settling At 50, Working With Jill Scott, Music Industry
00:58:45
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- [00:00]
Charlamagne Tha God
Peace to the planet Charlamagne Tha God here. And I want you to know from Curtis, 50 Cent, Jackson and the executive producers of Power comes the explosive new season of the Stars original series Raising Kanan. In the riveting fourth season, slates have seemingly been wiped clean for Kanan, Rock and the rest of the Thomas family. However, in the eye of the storm, one very dangerous obstacle looms large. Unique is alive. Unique makes a volatile and violent return as he hunts to upend the lives of the Thomas family. Don't miss the season premiere of Raising Kanan. Watch now only on Starz and the.
- [00:28]
DJ Envy
Starz app Geico makes it easy to get affordable renters insurance in as little as 90 seconds. And then you'll start to wonder why everything else isn't so fast. Like why does it take so long.
- [00:38]
Charlamagne Tha God
To do the dishes?
- [00:39]
DJ Envy
A meal that's gone in three requires.
- [00:41]
Charlamagne Tha God
45 minutes worth of dishes.
- [00:42]
DJ Envy
Doesn't make sense. But it does make sense to get renters insurance through Geico. That way that pile of dirty dishes and the other things you love are covered. Get more with Geico.
- [00:54]
Just Hilarious
I'm Hunter, host of Hunting for Answers on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Join me every weekday as I share bite sized stories of missing and murdered black women and girls in America. Stories like Erica Hunt, a young mother vanished without a trace after a family gathering on 4th of July weekend 2016. No goodbyes, no clues, just gone. Listen to Hunting for Answers every weekday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you remember what you said the.
- [01:31]
DJ Envy
First night I came over here? Ow. Go slower. From Blumhouse TV, iHeart podcasts and Ember 20 comes an all new fictional comedy podcast series. Join the flighty Damien Hirst as he.
- [01:41]
Just Hilarious
Unravels the mystery of his vanished boyfriend.
- [01:44]
DJ Envy
I've been spending all my time looking.
- [01:46]
Just Hilarious
For answers about what happened to Santi and what's the way to find a missing person. Sleep with everyone he knew, obviously.
- [01:52]
DJ Envy
Listen to the hookup on the iHeartRadio.
- [01:54]
Just Hilarious
App, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.
- [01:57]
DJ Envy
To your favorite shows. Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club.
- [02:05]
Charlamagne Tha God
Morning everybody.
- [02:05]
DJ Envy
It's DJ Envy. Just hilarious. Charlemagne the guy. We are the Breakfast Club. Jess is out. Lon LaRosa filling in and we got a special guest in the building, David Banner. How you feeling brother? I'm feeling so good.
- [02:17]
Charlamagne Tha God
Good to see you, man.
- [02:18]
DJ Envy
I'm floating, dog.
- [02:20]
Charlamagne Tha God
I like to hear that.
- [02:22]
DJ Envy
It's good, it's good. What's been going On Brother man so much. First of all, I want to say thank you to you all. There's a lot of amazing things. There are a lot of things that are changing in my life. I'm making a whole lot of money. It's different now. I ain't gonna even lie to you, though. You know what I'm talking about? I just shook your pockets down. You know what I'm talking about? 400,000 fell out this man's pocket, man. He's like, oh, that's just change.
- [02:47]
Charlamagne Tha God
That's just changed.
- [02:49]
DJ Envy
But. But the thing is, man, I wanted to thank y'all because a lot of times we invest our time, and you all have built a certain crowd and certain rapport with people. And to give it to me, you know, there was a conversation that me and Charlamagne had off. Off camera. I called them before the first time I came to the show, and I was like, bro, I'm really serious about the liberation of my black people, of black people, man. And it means a lot to me. And we had a very, very in depth conversation. You remember that conversation? And, like, our relationship has grown since then, bro. I was even talking about you introducing me to your family, bro. You remember, we had dinner. You brought your family so I can meet him. That kind of stuff matters to me, man. And, you know, a lot of rappers don't get the opportunity to grow. It was funny. BET said something to me when 106 and park was still on TV. They said, David Banner, you are one of the few or only artists that talks about anything of substance. They said, the ratings might not go up. They said, but they don't drop. And we have never seen that. So for you all to give me the opportunity to grow and turn into, you know, this thing, because, you know, this is sort of sad, but Prince died. And, you know, as much as that hurts me, it did open up the opportunity for me to be the sexiest motherfucker on this planet. And it has happened. And the Breakfast Club has allowed me slide into that place. Don't you start wearing the mask out jeans now.
- [04:15]
Just Hilarious
Was this the energy homegirl felt on that NAACP red carpet? That was the sexiest ever energy.
- [04:20]
Charlamagne Tha God
You tell us, Lauren.
- [04:21]
Just Hilarious
I mean, I'm not gonna say no.
- [04:23]
Charlamagne Tha God
Names, but one of our producers in here just randomly yelled out something. She was like, mississippi in the building. She ain't even from Mississippi.
- [04:28]
DJ Envy
Yeah, she from Philippi.
- [04:30]
Charlamagne Tha God
Never heard her do that ever in life.
- [04:31]
DJ Envy
When she said in the building, that could be literal.
- [04:34]
Just Hilarious
No. They said, yeah.
- [04:36]
Charlamagne Tha God
Yes.
- [04:36]
DJ Envy
Oh, you know What I'm saying. But let me tell you something about that. I do wanna clear this up though, is that people think that I'm joking about my admiration for black women. I'm dead serious. And what some people are uncomfortable with, they're not used to a black man giving admiration. And I don't want anything from you just because I think that you're beautiful. Just because I speak about how I feel about the black woman in general. I don't want anything from you. But to let you know how I feel. And sometimes we don't believe in ourselves. And it's hard to really think that there is a man that really, really feels that way without having some type of game connected to it. Because, bro, I'll say this, and nobody ever noticed this. Since I've been in college, SGA President at Southern University, I have consistently, for the most part, outside of my actual art, been the same man consistently. I have never sold our people out. I've never done anything flawless. And it's like, you know, when, when, when. When we do something, they. They either try to make a joke of it or, or poke, you know, when, when they. When I came out and say I'm ready to be married, you know, people found a way to poke at that. I thought you said, you know, not having any diseases, not whooping on, nobody raping, nobody, not having 4,000 kids. I thought that was amazing and awesome, you know? So for me, I am again grateful. I do want to tell you something though, bro. You did something that you will forever have an ally. I spent close to a million dollars on the presentation of the God Box. I told black people about streaming. Now everybody's coming back saying that me, Snoop, Prince, T. I was right. When we told folks about how stupid the concept of streaming was, right? Everybody ran towards that. One of the reasons why the God Box wasn't as successful at the time, because I wouldn't let him stream it. Because I had just gotten to the point where I got $9 an album. Imagine that, G. You go from having dollars and cents to micro pennies, things that you can't even calculate. And bro, you stood up in front of the world and told people that you believe that the God Box was one of the best hip hop albums of all times, bro. And you didn't have to do that.
- [06:58]
Charlamagne Tha God
It was though.
- [06:59]
DJ Envy
You put your. But, but still, but still, you know, and, and I know how much you fight for it. Cause I see what you've done for me, Mike, everybody. You get the opportunity to. You being from the south, you get. You put us in positions that we normally are not in, bro. And what people didn't understand is every time that I do hip hop, every time that I do what people say that we should do, I lose money.
- [07:21]
Charlamagne Tha God
Wow.
- [07:22]
DJ Envy
When I stay, you know, doing the stuff that America wants young black men or black men to do in general, I stay getting bread. But you gotta think about Crooked Letters, mid 9th wonders album, death of. I mean, the death of a pop star, the God box, bro, I done spent almost $2 million of my own money bringing what we call real hip hop out. And people just talk about it. And bro, you put your career on the line. And I will never, ever, ever. And usually we only hear the negative shit, dawg, but as a man, bro, I was paying my own money. Billboards, everything that you've seen for David Banner for the last 15 years, that's my bread. That's why you might see me out in the streets picking up flies. No, I'm dead serious.
- [08:09]
Just Hilarious
You might spend money on this.
- [08:10]
DJ Envy
That's my money. You feel me? So I like to thank y'all as a whole, and I appreciate, appreciate it, all of you.
- [08:15]
Charlamagne Tha God
You said something just now that I stress all the time. If you want black people to do a certain thing, when they do it, you got to support it.
- [08:23]
DJ Envy
And I, you know, these Lamborghinis and Ferraris, cost them. I need my bread.
- [08:30]
Charlamagne Tha God
You talked about it because I did see people getting on you about this. Why now, at the age of 50, do you think you're ready to settle down?
- [08:35]
DJ Envy
All right, peep this, now this. Let me pull off my glasses for this so we can, we can dead this right now. All right, so people talk about love languages, right? I told a young lady this and it shocked her. I said, what are your. What are your main love languages? What do you see and want out of a man? She said, I want him to be successful and I want him to spend time. How? How? I'm a fucking activist, a top tier producer, a top tier rapper, actor. I do more than most people do in their one career. In my five or four or five careers. When do I have time? If you want me to be successful, when in the fuck do I have time? People haven't noticed. People didn't notice my 10 year run. Think about this, dude. When I wasn't putting out like a pimp, I was producing Wayne or Chris Brown or Maroon 5 or Quincy Jones.
- [09:32]
Charlamagne Tha God
Quincy Jones.
- [09:33]
DJ Envy
I did that, okay? Me and Warren Campbell or I was acting. People forget Black Snake Moan. It's funny they think that I'm just starting this. I haven't done 38 films or television shows, right? One of the top people on the speaking circuit, right? When do I have time? So then if I were to get a wife, right, she'll be at home. I'll be an absent provider. And then people would talk about, I didn't raise my kids or didn't have time with my wife. We have to choose what it is we want to do. And then I'm successful at it. I won, so. And then the other thing that I always wonder is, why do grown people care about can I. Can I curse? Yeah. Yeah. I just. I try, you know what I'm saying? Because I go over there sometime who I'm fucking.
- [10:24]
Charlamagne Tha God
I'm grown.
- [10:26]
DJ Envy
And then they don't say nothing about them white folks who had wives and kids. 38,000 children.
- [10:32]
Charlamagne Tha God
That's right.
- [10:33]
DJ Envy
We don't say that, bro. I did what people said was the honorable thing to do. So we keep thinking that we winning. Look at the shit that we say about good people. You make me not want to fuck with you no more. You tell kids what to do and what the right thing to do, and then they do the right thing. And you still talk shit. That's why I tell these rappers, do what the fuck you want to do. Because people are going to criticize you regardless of what you do, no matter how good you are, bro. You ain't never heard nothing negative besides me getting in a fight with them cops. That's the only thing. And when that happened, I was protecting black people. So we act like we're winning. We act like we got all of these leaders. And then when you do have the people that do the right thing, that's how you do them. There was this documentary last night that I went to being first on the call sheet, right? And I was watching Denzel's portrayal of Malcolm X, right? And it hit me. It hit me, bro. Cause I was thinking about, like, how many Malcolms, you know, how many Betty Shabazz we have in current time. And we always talk about Marcus Garvey and Martin Luther King, but there's people that are like them to this day. I'll give you a great example. As much as people revere Killer Mike, you and I know how long Killer Mike has been doing this. That's right. That's right. We know that most black people don't even know his real group. That's right. They don't even really know why he's popular. That's Right. And so the fact that he decides to come back to our community is a blessing because he probably shouldn't because of the way that we treated him. I was producing, I produced Mike on with his first mixtape or the second mixtape, right? So I watched how hard he worked and he had to go to another community. And bro, that's happening to me now. Like, I had one of my mentors, bro, he told me, he said, banner, you always get in the position of power and then you throw it all away for your people. And then you have to go somewhere else and build it all the way back up to come back and give it back again. And people are not really being reciprocal. I do what I do by the grace of God, and I do what I do because I truly, truly love my people. But what I am not is stupid. So to answer your question really quickly is that I have a library, extensive library, and I write and the pages of my books to my unborn children. I tell them right now, I love you. And I don't even know you. I love you so much that I couldn't pick my mother and father. You couldn't pick your mother and father, but I can pick yours. So I will make sure that I do that with honor. I will make sure that I will take my time. Because right now the only thing that I'm focused on, bro, you know, where we from? That's right, dog. I'm from Mississippi. There's no way in the fuck I supposed to be here. I bent time. So the thing, if you notice, man, and all of us in here are successful in a way that most people are not. Every story that you read of substance, whether it's in the Quran or the Bible or the Torah, is really about what you are willing to sacrifice. I wanted seven children. I wanted a few rappers. I want to be married. But usually if you want something that bad, you have to sacrifice that other thing that you wanted the most. But the cool thing is when I do find her, she don't have to want for shit. My kids won't have to. I be able to go to their football games. I'll be able to take years out to make sure that they all right. So I just hate what people say. Cause I love black folks so much and I can't act like it don't bother me. Envy it does. You know why I was gonna ask.
- [14:06]
Just Hilarious
You, did the marriage conversation bother you? Because it's kind of backwards for people to be upset that why does it bother you when you're accomplishing you can devote that time. They're like, bro, so you done ran through, like, they made it almost like a. They made it. Not almost. They made it a negative thing to say. I'm ready now because I can devote the time and energy. How did that make you feel?
- [14:23]
DJ Envy
And I'm doing superhero movies. Like, how you gonna be out here? You 50, you 50, you 50. Y'all know that don't work with my job, you with my money. Why are you doing that? Cause I. Look, sweetheart, do me a favor. I know you're used to gazing at mortals. Close your eyes on. Open them. It's about the closest you're gonna get to God.
- [14:43]
Just Hilarious
Okay.
- [14:43]
DJ Envy
That happened.
- [14:44]
Just Hilarious
Yep. So in saying that, I'm feeling the carpet vibes. I get it.
- [14:49]
DJ Envy
No, it's not a car.
- [14:50]
Just Hilarious
It.
- [14:50]
DJ Envy
Does it stop, baby.
- [14:51]
Just Hilarious
But I think. But I think with you, people are so used to, like, people saying things for clickbait, like, whatever, which hasn't ever been you. I don't know how people confuse that, because I feel the energy like you mean what you're saying.
- [15:02]
DJ Envy
But that's what I'm saying. Since I've been in college at Southern, I've stood for the same thing.
- [15:06]
Charlamagne Tha God
That's right.
- [15:07]
DJ Envy
You've never seen no flaw in me. I'm not saying that. I won't make a statement.
- [15:10]
Charlamagne Tha God
You don' I want Bannon. I've always wanted Bannon to be out there more.
- [15:15]
DJ Envy
Well, the reason why is. Cause they just kill my ass. Like the real truth is. And charlamagne. I know you understand this because we have a personal relationship. Bro, now ain't the time to be talking. We are at war. And I didn't come here for that. I'm gonna stay on family business, just so y'all know. But we are at literal war. You can't name an outwardly strong, vocal black man in the last three years. And I've been very sick. That was the reason why I took time off. I had gotten sick. I think God set me down, bro. Because if I would have been the banner that y'all know and love, that would have killed me. I'm for sure. I mean, we know no COINTELPRO really exists. That you can go and get it in the files. The United States government will send it to you. What they did to us. So we think that those people and those things don't exist.
- [16:07]
Charlamagne Tha God
Shit. It's stronger now, especially with social media.
- [16:09]
DJ Envy
And so love. What I'll tell you is to get that from the people that you fight for and love. Do you know how bad that hurts. Go and look at the last picture that you seen of Pac. Look at that look in his eyes. Look at Malcolm X, his last picture. Look at Martin. That got this look like, damn. That's what we get from us. I expect that from them. But to get it from the people that you care about, you fight for and that you. That you really, really. Because I could be in much better places if I was shutting my mother fucking mouth. But it's hard for me to be in this position of power and not speak for my people, not stand for my people. But what I'm not going to be no more is broke. I'm putting me first before I do anything. So the reason why I don't talk more, bro, is because I've talked about the same thing for the last 15 years and we haven't done anything. If you really think about it, whether it's Elijah Muhammad, whether it's Malcolm, for the most part, get your own shit shop with your own people. Believe and love yourself. Grow your own food. It's not the hate of white people. It's not. Because that's something that I haven't said. I wasn't gonna say it, but I will say it. So y'all have something exclusively for you all love and exclusive. I honestly don't even hate or have a problem with white folks no more. And I'll tell you why. I learned that there's a finite amount of energy in the universe, right? And so if whatever you spend your energy on, you only have so much, right? So if I only have 100% and most of my life is spent on talking about how they have oppressed us, what they've done to us, then 50% of your energy is gone. That could be. That could be used for attraction of love and money and knowledge and information. What I know now is I know what they've done to us. So it's like if they. If you go and kiss a rattlesnake, would you be mad that that rattlesnake bit you in the mouth?
- [18:06]
Charlamagne Tha God
No, it's a rattlesnake.
- [18:07]
DJ Envy
Cause you know better. So if you know historically what they have done to you, why would you keep going over there? Stupid, right? So what I do now is I understand who and what I am dealing with. And now I concentrate on love and attraction and building what I want to see for my people. Because the powerful thing about the. I always talk about this, the powerful thing about the Black Panthers, people thought it was the black fists and the Afros. It wasn't it was food. That's right.
- [18:36]
Charlamagne Tha God
Breakfast.
- [18:36]
DJ Envy
It was that they took care of people's children. And then on top of that, I look awesome.
- [18:43]
Just Hilarious
I remember we were speaking for sure. Nick, wait. Do you feel like the pushback came mostly from women or men? On the marriage conversation, I never heard anything from men.
- [18:51]
DJ Envy
I actually have to say that something happened recently that I don't want to talk about. And black men stood up for me. They really, really stood up for me. Like, my family called me and said, man, go look in the comments, bro. Like black men are saying, like, he the one that always stands up. He was the one that was at Katrina. He was the one that when this happened. And that why are we doing this to him? You know? And what I'll say about the black woman is that my resurgence is because of the black woman and their love and admiration for me. And usually it's just one person. See, we don't read the comments. T. Pain taught me this, and that's somebody that I have love and admiration for. He is one of the premier people in our culture and we should treat him better. I just want to say that. Shout out to Ali Siddiq, too. One of my favorite comedians in the whole wide planet, bro. That's my homie. That we should just make sure that we do better with treating each other and respecting each other. And a black woman has done that. For me, it's just a lot of loud, negative voices. It's one or two people. And what I will say is black women will tell somebody ass up about their David Banner. And I just have to find a way to group those people together. And I've started a company called the Banner Vision, my movie company. We're about to do sci fi movies. And I'm really, really excited about it. And it's funny because I want to do a movie that's similar to Love Jones and people would say, david Banner, I thought you were doing sci fi. I said, well, isn't black love in the media right now science fiction? Cause we damn sure don't see it. That's my wife's favorite movie, you know.
- [20:37]
Charlamagne Tha God
Love Jones and Color Purple.
- [20:38]
DJ Envy
And I really want to do it with Jill Scott. Cause, like, I want a different body type. I want a different type of sexy. Jill Scott is sexy in a way that beautiful. Oh, my gosh. Just like she's all aura. And it's funny, we just talked about Mississippi and Philly before we came on. Like, she, she from Philly, but she got that Mississippi. Oh. And you know, just on just on the low. I don't know. I. I should see if she want me to talk about it. Too late. I'm actually helping him with an album right now. That's all I can say right now. That's dope. Jill Scott. And it has been one of the most eye opening. Cause I only really produce, you know what I'm saying? People that I love or care for or like. Young artists that I really believe in. Music has taken a lot away from my spirit. So why, good or bad, it's the business of it. And because we have gone into streaming, it's forcing the more talented people out. Because as a businessman, it don't make no sense for me to spend all the money that I spend. Most people don't spend money on music. Watch this. I want you to really think about this. This is crazy. Hold on.
- [21:46]
Just Hilarious
Ready?
- [21:47]
DJ Envy
All right, here we go. They have taken away American society. And we have allowed them to do this. Have taken away any hustle that we can do in becoming a millionaire or a billionaire in a lifetime.
- [22:00]
Charlamagne Tha God
Me and Duvall talk about that all the time. Especially when you're black.
- [22:02]
DJ Envy
Music, right? They tried to take away movies, but they were still making a lot of money off of that. So they didn't. Because think about this. As much as they. They went to war about movies, they had just done the same thing to music. They had just taken all of the money. They take it. They took the foundation, they put AI on top of it. They were trying to do the same thing to music. I mean, movies and white folks, like, no, we still making a lot of money. Y'all can't do that to us yet. Dope. And I'm not saying to sell dope, but anything that we could do to make money and catch up with them, they've taken away from. They have taken it away from us. And we run right behind them and let them do it every time. Family business, New Orleans is on bet. Plus, it's very important for you to watch. My name is David Venner.
- [22:45]
Charlamagne Tha God
You know, I forgot what we was talking at that one time. But you. You say this constantly. And I'm paraphrasing.
- [22:49]
DJ Envy
Yeah.
- [22:50]
Charlamagne Tha God
If you want me to be me, you gotta support me.
- [22:54]
DJ Envy
Charlamagne, bro. You hit me with that one. Because I actually feel that with my own team, it's like I'm a force to be dealt with, bro. I have that same energy of a Muhammad Ali. Like, I want to be free. I don't want to start stuff with people, but I want to be Able to speak freely. And the only way that I can speak freely is either I got a lot of bread or the people are really, really behind me. The real truth. And we won't admit this, bro. You know, folks will walk away from me, bro. When I was sick and you knew about it, bro, didn't nobody come see me. I was up in the North Georgia mountains by myself. And people left me up there. And I think God allowed me to be in that valley, to really see that. Not even what you perceive as being positive is before God. The movement ain't before God. Helping black people ain't before God. So let me sit. Sit you out here and show you what this feel like. Alone. And the crazy thing, y'all, they still didn't find out what was wrong with me. Like, I got hold of my blood pressure, my cholesterol, all of those things. Sleep apnea, all of those things, and they still don't know. So God was like, okay, put something before me again. So I don't put nothing before me. And now. And I say this especially to you all, love, please listen to me. I'm very serious about this.
- [24:12]
Just Hilarious
I'm listening.
- [24:13]
DJ Envy
What I found out in my valley is people treat you exactly how you treat yourself. I was being a martyr. So all black people brought me was death. My son got killed. This happened. The police did this. When I became about opulence. Now people bring me money. If people know, like, when Erykah Badu walk in the room, I don't care who it is. It could be the niggas. Nigga from Nigga Dom, he stand up straight. Cause she treats herself. She has a standard for herself. Whether it's the way that she eats, whether it's the way that she thinks. I saw Erica do something that was so powerful. One time. She. I believe she pulled the vibration. She did the vibrations to get all the negative energy. Whoever came before her let me clear out the whole stadium. She played positive vibrations, high level vibrations. She said, let me clear this shit out before I get started. And so, like, man, for me, see.
- [25:11]
Charlamagne Tha God
We got her overlooking the room. Right there in the middle, in the center. Yeah, right there.
- [25:15]
DJ Envy
Yeah. And y'all get ready, man. Y'all might as well go ahead and give me a whole section. I'm about to take a mouth out much. When y'all see what's under here, when I decide to. To show my abs and my chest, I'm gonna come up here just for that. It ain't gonna be for nothing else. You can see one peep I mean.
- [25:34]
Just Hilarious
Sure, if you gonna show us.
- [25:35]
DJ Envy
Are you sure?
- [25:36]
Charlamagne Tha God
You know what was funny when you was like, I want you to listen to this. Love. Lauren's like, I'm listening to.
- [25:39]
DJ Envy
I'm listening.
- [25:39]
Charlamagne Tha God
I mean, to me, I just straightened up.
- [25:42]
Just Hilarious
I'm. Yeah, I'm missing.
- [25:44]
Charlamagne Tha God
Oh, I want you to expound on this too. You said. I saw you in the interview. You said, black people don't take care of our og. So you don't want to be an OG in the black community because we don't take care of our elders. We don't take care of our leaders. Yeah, I tend to agree with you, my brother. Yeah, but you can't help it if you're an og. You gonna be that regardless.
- [26:04]
Just Hilarious
I saw that and said, well, what else are you gonna be? Cause you there for a lot of people.
- [26:07]
DJ Envy
Well, the thing is, is that it's cool, but I'm telling you that I don't want it, so you can give that energy to somebody else. Don't give me my flowers. You can keep your fucking flowers. I can't spend or eat flowers. I want your money and your attention. I want the same thing you give white people. Give me your money and attention. If you're not giving me that, I'm not an og. I said this in that same interview. I was debating one time, and I said, do black people think I'm the antithesis of Trump? And they said, yes, I do the opposite. Right. Okay, well, then that means I should have as much money from the black community as Trump gets from the white community. If you love me that way. But we. We say one thing and do the. Do the. Do the other. Oh, we want positive music, but you don't pay for positive music. Oh, we want a leader, but you don't take care of your leaders. In that same clip, it was crazy. I don't know if you saw this. It went sort of viral. They put that part where they said, I don't want to be an og. I don't want to be an og. Cause you don't take care of your elders. Then they cut to, I believe, Malcolm X's daughter. And somebody asked her, do you think that the black community took care of your family? And she said, I don't believe so. So why would I want to be something? Why would our kids want to be a king when we allowed the other one to get killed? Kids don't. That's one of the reasons why I'm so fly. That's one of the reasons why I went and, you know, I'm whipping the Ferraris and I'm whipping the Lamborghinis on purpose. Because when kids usually see somebody conscious, they broke. I don't want to fucking be broke. Why? We don't have to. We give everybody else our disposable money. Even if every black person gave. This is something I'm gonna try. Me and you, we gonna talk about this. Think about how powerful this show is, right? And I say, here go my cash app. My name is David Banner. I wanna shoot a $7 million movie. Let's raise the money right now on the Breakfast Club right now. Here go my cash app. I ain't fucking gotta go through nobody else. I'm going to the fucking people. That's true power. But are we willing to really do that? Because most of it comes from self hate. I don't believe that I'm shit. So how dare David Banner call himself a God? How dare David Banner look that fucking good that. You know what I'm saying? My wife and my daughter and all the women around me really want to have as much sex with him as they possibly can. But I don't know if it's possible.
- [28:26]
Just Hilarious
The way he just looked at me, I was like, what is happening right now?
- [28:28]
DJ Envy
You sweating, man.
- [28:29]
Just Hilarious
I'm not sweating. I just. It was the intentional look. It was a piercing look. Look. I'm like, you know what you're doing?
- [28:37]
DJ Envy
You stuttering. But, but, but doesn't that feel. But doesn't that feel good, though? Seriously?
- [28:41]
Just Hilarious
Yeah, it's very intentional thinking about this.
- [28:43]
DJ Envy
It's intentional in what I. What I would want to do.
- [28:46]
Just Hilarious
Maybe I am sweating.
- [28:47]
DJ Envy
You are sweating. Just tat. Just pat.
- [28:49]
Just Hilarious
I think I'm glowing, but that's a whole nother conversation.
- [28:52]
DJ Envy
Okay, on another note, she's single, too.
- [28:54]
Charlamagne Tha God
She went to a hbcu. She's.
- [28:56]
Just Hilarious
Emmy, can we. Can we not. Let's go back. Why you taking.
- [29:00]
DJ Envy
Why you standing. Why you giggling? Why you giggling? Why you giggling?
- [29:03]
Just Hilarious
She's a young girl jacked off like that.
- [29:05]
Charlamagne Tha God
She with the Delaware state.
- [29:06]
DJ Envy
She got a degree. She's very bright, has her own.
- [29:09]
Charlamagne Tha God
She already invested in real estate.
- [29:11]
DJ Envy
Got a couple of properties. Enjoy yourself.
- [29:13]
Charlamagne Tha God
You just gonna make a hotter putting that on her.
- [29:16]
Just Hilarious
Oh, it smells great.
- [29:18]
DJ Envy
That's why I did that. So listen, I'm very honest with you. I'm very intelligent.
- [29:26]
Just Hilarious
She's a go getter, Emmy, relax.
- [29:29]
DJ Envy
I'mma tell y. Not a square. She party.
- [29:31]
Charlamagne Tha God
She get dressed.
- [29:32]
DJ Envy
So I put cologne here. Put cologne here. I put cologne here and here. So that when somebody hugs me, that it can go. They put their nose right there.
- [29:42]
Just Hilarious
Yeah. Smell it.
- [29:43]
DJ Envy
You know what I'm saying? When I shake somebody's hand. I learned this when I was at Southern in business class that Everybody has a 4.0. So at the time, that's when they put resumes on paper. Sometimes the quality of the paper is the difference between you getting that job. I remember my ex girlfriend told me. She said, you know why I called you back? I said, why? She said, cuz I smelt your black ass for the rest of the night. I could not. I took baths, and I could not wipe your scent off of me, man.
- [30:12]
Charlamagne Tha God
Like a pimple's more than the record, huh?
- [30:18]
Just Hilarious
What is this scent?
- [30:20]
DJ Envy
Don't worry about it. Actually, I combine scents now, cuz I don't want to smell like anybody else.
- [30:24]
Just Hilarious
Okay?
- [30:25]
DJ Envy
So depending. Depending on where I go and what time of day it is like, one of the things that y'all. And I really need y'all to watch this. I'm gonna bring masculinity.
- [30:34]
Just Hilarious
Wait, wave this in a way.
- [30:35]
Charlamagne Tha God
Okay, my bad.
- [30:36]
DJ Envy
I'm gonna bring masculinity back to high fashion. I'm gonna bring masculinity back. Cause sometimes people make us feel like being what God made you be is oppressive to somebody else. It's not. Just because I love black people don't mean I hate white folks. Just because I love being a man and love being honorable don't mean that I'm taking any space from anybody else who don't feel the same. So for me, all of this stuff that I do is intentional. You know, I want to be like when I told you I'm making sci fi movies. I want to be a superhero for my people. And instead of what most black people I see who are actors do, I don't want to take it away from the community. And that's what family business helped me do. I came family business blessed me to be able to get my, like a pimp fans back without compromising my spirit. So I'm about to gather all the black folks up, and I'm taking them with me.
- [31:26]
Charlamagne Tha God
What made you think you lost them, though?
- [31:28]
DJ Envy
Well, because I don't. I don't say I lost them, but what I can say is that I didn't make enough material that would bring me back in a way that was familiar to me.
- [31:39]
Charlamagne Tha God
Got you, got you, got you.
- [31:40]
DJ Envy
Because it was hard. Like, this is the real truth, and we got to be honest with each other. I make fight music better than just about anybody on this planet. That's what I'm great at. Spiritual music and fight music.
- [31:50]
Charlamagne Tha God
That's your answer.
- [31:52]
DJ Envy
That's what I love. And I'm actually great at it. And it's almost like a wizard because I bet you nobody ever noticed this. There was hardly ever a fight at any David Banner show and people didn't notice. As violent as my music was because I willed that power responsible, I might get your jaw broken right when I.
- [32:12]
Charlamagne Tha God
Charlamagne tha God here and I want you to know from Curtis, 50 Cent Jackson and the executive producers of Power, the hit Stars Original Series Raising Kanan Is Coming Back the new season of the family crime drama continues the origin story of fan favorite Kanan Stark, originally played by 50 Cent, and the flagship series Power, as he delves further into his evolution from a devoted son into the ruthless villain that fans have known and loved from the jump. This is a transformative season for Kanan that you won't want to miss. Watch the new season of Raising Canaan only on Starz and the Starz app.
- [32:42]
Just Hilarious
There's a type of soil in Mississippi called Yazoo Clay. It's thick, burnt orange, and it's got a reputation. It's terrible, terrible dir. Yazoo clay eats everything, so things that get buried there tend to stay buried until they're not In 2012, construction crews at Mississippi's biggest hospital made a shocking discovery.
- [33:05]
DJ Envy
7,000 bodies out there or more, all.
- [33:09]
Just Hilarious
Former patients of the old state asylum, and nobody knew they were there.
- [33:14]
DJ Envy
It was my family's mystery.
- [33:16]
Just Hilarious
But in this corner of the south, it's not just the soil that keeps secrets.
- [33:21]
DJ Envy
Nobody talks about it. Nobody has any information.
- [33:24]
Just Hilarious
When you peel back the layers of Mississippi's Yazoo Clay, nothing's ever as simple as you think.
- [33:29]
DJ Envy
The story is much more complicated and nuanced than that.
- [33:35]
Just Hilarious
I'm Larison Campbell. Listen to under yazukle on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Hunter, host of Hunting for Answers on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Join me every weekday as I share bite sized stories of missing and murdered Black women and girls in America. There are several ways we can all do better at protecting Black women. My contribution is shining a light on our missing sisters and amplifying their disregarded stories. Stories like Tameka Anderson. As she drove toward Galvez, she was in contact with several people talking on the phone as she made her way to what should have been a routine transaction. But Tameka never bought the car and she never returned home that day. One Podcast one Mission Save our girls. Join the search as we explore the chilling cases of missing and murdered black women and girls. Listen to Hunting for Answers every weekday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
- [34:50]
DJ Envy
This is John Cameron Mitchell and my new fiction podcast series, Cancellation island stars Holly Hunter as Karen, a wellness influencer who launches a rehab for the recently cancelled. In the future, we will all be canceled for 15 minutes, but don't worry, we'll take you from broke to woke or your money back. Cancellation Island's revolutionary rehab therapies, like bad touch football, anti racism spin class and mandatory ayahuasca ceremonies are designed to force the council to confront their worst impulses. But everything starts to fall apart when people start disappearing. Karen, where have you brought us Cancellation island, where a second chance might just be your last. Listen to Cancellation island on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Felt that spirit when somebody was about to get their fucking head bust. Cadillacs on 22, calm your black ass down and get moving or some shit like that. You know what I'm saying? And I believe great DJs do the same thing. Be honest with me, bro. You can feel it. Yeah, of course you can feel right before motherfucker about to get pregnant by wife, before they about to get their head bust. And if you are a responsible person, right before a motherfucker about to get cut, you'll move to something else if you care. To the ladies, right? Absolutely.
- [36:16]
Just Hilarious
Do you feel like your intention and like, your commitment to, like, black people in the black community who you keep saying, like, the love waivers. I know you dealt with, like, mental health things and you talked about like, no one's immune to mental health issues. Do you feel like you want to serve a community that you never get to that goalpost, like, is. Do you feel like that fucks with you? Like that fucks with the mental health?
- [36:35]
DJ Envy
All right, do me a favor. Ask. Ask the question for me in one sentence so I can. So I can. I can give you the answer in the proper way.
- [36:44]
Just Hilarious
Do you feel like your love and commitment to the black community affects your. Your mental health?
- [36:49]
DJ Envy
Hell yeah. Affects my money, affects my relationships. I was. I was. I fell in love once with a woman that wasn't 100% black, but she didn't look black.
- [37:05]
Charlamagne Tha God
And Dr. Umar would not have approved and.
- [37:08]
DJ Envy
But I'm not. That. That part I don't worry about because we live our lives for other people. Only thing I give a fuck about is being happy. You know what I'm saying? We live our lives for outside people. But you know, and to be honest with you, I probably should have stayed with her. I'd have been a lot happier. But I cared too much about the perception of what my people thought. And I shouldn't have done that. I should have just did what was best for me.
- [37:34]
Charlamagne Tha God
If that would taught you that lesson, to not care about what people think so much.
- [37:37]
DJ Envy
Well, that and the fact that, you know, like after Katrina, as much work as I did, people left me alone. I was almost broke. You know, people didn't realize like I had played during that time. I had the number one rap single. And I never go back and look, I never ever promoted my album because one thing I didn't want to do is ever make people. I didn't ever want people to think that I was using the movement to make money. So I never cross collateralized. When I talked about. If I came to talk about the people, I talked about the people. If I came to get money, I came to get money. And what I even found out is a lot of my rapper friends would push me up there so I could do it and lose my career. And they went and got money. You know what I'm saying? How hurtful it was that. Cause I heard you mention money a lot, right? And you sacrificed a lot of money, about $12 million. I counted it. And you feel like people didn't come and help you, people didn't come and protect you like they should have. Cause I hear it in your voice so much like you feel like you sacrificed this.
- [38:37]
Charlamagne Tha God
But at one point it seemed like.
- [38:39]
DJ Envy
Damn, I had to struggle. I was fucked up and nobody helped me. Is that what I'm hearing from David Ben? Not no more. Because God got me in. Not no more, but before. God got me in the way. And all of those pain is nothing but to push you in the right direction. That's all it is. And again, my blessings don't come from man, they come through man, but they come from God. So like, yeah, it hurt me because even think about this, I just learned this concept. Watch this. When we bless somebody, right, our ego leads us to want to get that blessing back from them. Specifically from them. But if they had the power to do that, they wouldn't have needed your blessings in the first fucking place.
- [39:20]
Charlamagne Tha God
That's right.
- [39:21]
DJ Envy
So the thing is, I don't even want my blessings back to the from the people that I get it from because it blocks God's ability to give it to me. So, like, I'll give you a great example. They could have gave me the money back, but there's not too many artists that comes from the generation that I come from that would even garner the respect of your fans for me to be on this fucking platform. Think about my homies that came up that sold so many millions of records more than I did. They can't even come up here even if you wanted them to come. God blessed me to actually even still be here. So all of those things. Think about that. When I did what I did for Katrina, that made me bigger than a rapper.
- [40:00]
Charlamagne Tha God
Mm.
- [40:01]
DJ Envy
It may have not manifested in money, but it did manifest in grace and protection. When I lived. There's a certain city that I lived in that when I left that city, I realized the type of motherfuckers that I was around, and I didn't know they was that level of. They was real killers. And they kept me away from all of that because they respected what I did as a man. You can't buy that shit. You can't get honor, bro. You can't get respect, bro. That's what I love so much about Nipsey, as much as he was about his money. Honor. You knew him. Honor was first, bro. Honor was first. So as much as envy as it did hurt me, look at the man that I am right now. I wouldn't have been who I am right now. Like my Asian naturopathic healer, he told me something. He said, your ability to love is in direct proportion to how much pain you have experienced. So the deeper and the more you've been hurt, the more capacity you have to love. But our ego makes us not want to love because we have been hurt. But actually, that's like us saying, I don't want my arms to hurt while I'm doing this extra set. No, we gotta make it has to. Hurt and envy. If they knew how to treat themselves, then nine times out of 10, they would know how to treat me. And if they knew how to treat me, they wouldn't need us.
- [41:31]
Charlamagne Tha God
You preaching, my brother. That's why I always say I don't judge anybody based off how they. God's not gonna judge me based off how other people treat me. He's gonna judge me based off how I treat people.
- [41:40]
DJ Envy
That's a bar.
- [41:41]
Charlamagne Tha God
That's it.
- [41:42]
Just Hilarious
Who was leading your team and stuff around the time when you were doing all the Katrina stuff? Cause you didn't have people in your ear, like, you should be promoting the music and, like, what was Your pushback to them at that time?
- [41:50]
DJ Envy
Well, no. I mean, I am such. This is. The crazy thing about me, is that people are afraid of me. And I didn't know how afraid people were of me. Because the thing is, if I hadn't put my hand around your neck, why are you worried about it? And so I think a lot of people are afraid to tell me a lot of things. And I always say that. Let me know. Just tell me. I may. I'm a big old bear. But if you say it to me and I know that it's good, like, we done had a couple of calls. Well, we didn't talk about it. Hey, bro, you might not need to do this. I remember I was going on cnn, and a friend of mine who works at Apple, he called me and I told him what I was about to say on cnn. If I would have said what I said, I would have probably had the biggest standing ovation in history from black people. But it would have been the last time I would have been on public tv. Yeah, I'd have been done. And he said, banner, we need you for the long run. We don't need you for short term. So as much as you wanna get on there and say it, you done if you do it. So.
- [42:52]
Charlamagne Tha God
And you've always been like that. You've always been a person who said, man, y'all, we talking too fucking much. Stop talking so fucking much.
- [42:58]
DJ Envy
Let's build schools. Let's shoot the movie. Like, that's where I'm at now, you know? And it's funny. Cee Lo wrote a song and he put my name in it. Cause I told CeeLo, CeeLo called me one time, like, man, I'm ready to get back on the front line. Shit, better stay your ass in Vegas and get that damn bread. You can send some money to the front line. But, like. And he. That was the name of the song, the goody. My song, Front Line. David Barrett told me, you know what I'm saying? I told him, like, bro, no, we the only people that put our generals on the front line. Don't nobody in the Army. You can't even speak to a general. You know what I'm saying? So for me, love, to be honest with you, I had a great team and I had great people, but I'm so driven sometimes that people are afraid to just tell me to sit my ass down somewhere. And two, a lot of that came from fear. I'm grown enough and been through enough therapy now to say that the David Banner that I am, Now, I would beat the living shit out of the old David Banner. Cause if you think about a kung fu master or a martial arts master, you barely ever see them mad. What the fuck they gotta get mad for? Being angry is ignorant, because if I know how to snap your neck, I can snap your neck and it's over with. Keep it moving. I'm not talking a whole bunch of.
- [44:12]
Charlamagne Tha God
You know, I want to talk. You talk about therapy. You know, I love therapy. You know, I love just being on a journey of healing. And I saw you say you had to overcome some mental health issues. And physically, you've always pretty much kept yourself together. What made you realize you had to get it together mentally and emotionally?
- [44:30]
DJ Envy
Bro, this last time I went through it, though, it was the first time in my life that I thought that I may not come out of it. Like, I've been through a lot, dog. People don't understand about people. These kids say they want to be famous, but imagine coming from the streets and where we from, like, we don't. We don't allow people in. Like, y'all know this. I didn't smile the first fucking two years of my career. The Mississippi, the album, days. What the fuck you. We don't smile. Where we from, y'all? I gotta tell you, this really happened to me. So I'm 10 years old. I walk in the house, I'm playful. My dad said, come here. He said, what the fuck you smiling for?
- [45:16]
Charlamagne Tha God
Dang.
- [45:16]
DJ Envy
I said, huh? He said, I pay all the bills and I ain't happy. What the fuck you happy for?
- [45:22]
Charlamagne Tha God
Damn.
- [45:22]
DJ Envy
And I don't think I smiled again until I was 21.
- [45:24]
Charlamagne Tha God
Jesus.
- [45:25]
DJ Envy
Like, Jackson, Mississippi, was the murder capital of the United States when I was growing up. It's just that we was in the south, so we didn't get the sexy looks. And that ain't the thing to be proud of. But it took me a while to understand that my happiness is my freedom. Like, that's the reason why I correct people. Now, I'm not gonna let nobody around me who not happy. I don't want people around me that's not getting it, that don't have the same type of draw. Cause you have energy. Vampires. But, bro, what I realized is that if I didn't get on top of it, there's a book that I read that they said that your mind is like a garden, but the weeds, just like a garden, grow faster than the fruit.
- [46:07]
Charlamagne Tha God
That's right.
- [46:08]
DJ Envy
So every day I got to put a new thought in my head. I have to Read something. I have to stay on it because it's just so much negativity, man. And then I realized that I didn't like myself. You know, I was too hard on myself. I didn't give myself grace. And this dude told me one time, he said, God has forgiven you. Why haven't you forgiven yourself? So I forgave myself for the things that I did, man. And I really love no lie. I started loving me. This may sound strange, but I date myself now. I date myself. I take care of myself. That was the reason why I went and bought the cars and all that kind of stuff. Think about all the money that I made, and I ain't had shit. Everybody else that didn't work, a quarter of how hard I worked had all this shit. My third in command had more cars and shit than I did. Not that it's about cars, but I just realized that I was doing for everybody else and not me. Government was coming. So once I started loving myself, Charlemagne, and I realized that if I didn't get control of it, that I would be in a place forever. Because think about this, bro. You can even be in a jail cell. You can be at war. But know that you maybe could get home if you hate yourself and your mind is the prison, bro. That's really. Hell, I got to get about that motherfucker. And I'm not playing with nobody. I don't care if it's my mother, my cousin, anybody who fucks with my mental health or my well being. I got to get at you.
- [47:41]
Charlamagne Tha God
What led you to therapy?
- [47:43]
DJ Envy
My mentor, David Moody, he owns one of the most successful black construction companies in the United States. And I had a mentor who was actually a woman. And she came to me one day, and she was like, I can't do nothing with you no more. And I was like, what? And she said, you need a black man in your life. And so this. Right after my dad died, she introduced me to Mr. Moody, and it was crazy. We went and ate at a steak spot in Atlanta, and LL Cool J was in there. And so Mr. Moody was like, I love LL Cool J. And I was like, let me go get LL get him an autograph. Like, I know LL, and I ain't know LL for shit. And I walked over and said, what's up, LL? Hoping that he knew me. And he was like, Bella? I was like, yes. I was like, dog, would you come take a picture for me? He took the picture, and then Mr. Moody became my mentor, and he was really open to me, and it's funny. I was talking to my publicity team, and this is something that I want to say. And y'all tell me if it's the same with y'all. I didn't talk to my homeboys about the shit that was going on with me. Like, I just recently had a conversation with my friends about anxiety. I'm like, dude, I've been in the streets. Tough, tough. Why in the fuck am I having anxiety about shit that's not life threatening?
- [49:00]
Charlamagne Tha God
Been dealing with it my whole life.
- [49:01]
DJ Envy
It made me feel soft. I'm like, what the fuck am I tripping for? I was on a really big show recently and had a fucking anxiety attack. Me, dawgalizer. I can't tell y'all.
- [49:14]
Charlamagne Tha God
They gonna be looking for it.
- [49:15]
DJ Envy
They gonna be looking for. Let me tell you. Nah. But I had a straight out fucking anxiety attack. But then I realized how important it was for me to have a better team. Cause I was doing too much shit, bro. You know? And I wasn't talking to my friends. And Mr. Moody said, they not your friends if you can't talk to them. Cause in the streets in Jackson, you don't trust nobody. I don't care who it is. So I had always been. I had always been taught to not talk about it and just hold it all in. And y'all, this is very personal. My cortisol levels were so high that it was eating my body up. Like, that's how stressed I was, man. And it was killing me. And so Mr. Moody said, Just talk to your friends. And I called up my five tightest homeboys. And it was crazy. Cause it was like they were waiting on me to talk. I was like, my toughest homeboy, One of my toughest homeboys, he from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I called him. I was like, hey, B, bro, have you ever had an anxiety attack? He was like, fuck, yeah. And like, now we talk. And it's crazy. Cause everybody tripped. I be on the phone. My homeboy. I love you, dog. I love you with all my heart, bro. I'm gonna talk to you later. Cause we don't know if they gonna live. You know what I'm saying, bro? So I had to do it, man. And because I'm outwardly tougher than most people, I can say stuff to these children that most people are scared to say. Like, I can say I had an anxiety attack. That won't stop me from choking you. You know what I'm saying? That won't stop me from putting these legal firearms. Firearms. But no, man, I'm grateful to God, though. Cause think about it. That now draws us closer.
- [50:52]
Charlamagne Tha God
That's right.
- [50:53]
DJ Envy
I'll tell y'all this. This happened to me. It was like either the bass player or the guitar player from Earth, Wind and Fire. He said he changed his religion because of the God Box, that album. So I thought about it. With so much music being out back in the day, we remember what was number eight on Michael Jackson's album. Now it's so much music. We don't. But think about it. If you are the person that helps someone to become conscious, they'll never forget you for the rest of their life. Bro, you helping me with that album, bro. I will never, ever forget you for what you said, bro. This man got on TV when you and Joe Buttons was rating the albums, and you put the God Box on there, and they took it off. Cause Joe Buttons had never listened to it. And I went and confronted him about it. I was like, dog, like, I'm independent. That look would have. But I will never, ever forget you for that. So imagine if I'm the man that allows someone to become conscious. Or you the person that teaches someone to tie their shoe. Or someone who teaches somebody how to ride a bike that transcends all of that. So for me to stand up as a man and say, yeah, y'all, I'm all of these things, but I'm also not perfect. I don't know if y'all saw that clip. That clip went super viral. This young lady asked, she said, david Banner, you got it so together. And I stopped. I said, no, baby, I'm a wreck. She was like, no. She couldn't believe it. She was like, no. I was like, yeah, baby. And I'm only telling you that I'm a wreck. So that whenever you become a wreck, you know that you can still get up, put on some clothes, and keep it moving every day. So when y'all see this, when y'all see me vibrating, when y'all see me talking to shit, it's because I am healed. And I'm gonna do everything that I possibly can to be a consummate example of what a man looks like in America. And I hope that I make y'all proud.
- [52:41]
Charlamagne Tha God
And part of that healing is telling your story. Because, you know, when I first started about dealing with anxiety and depression, I didn't know my father had been dealing with it his whole life. When I started telling my story back in, like, 2018, my father told me that he was going to therapy two and three times a week, that he tried to commit Suicide. That he was on 10 to 12 different medications. You know, when you're from the south, they give you what they call crazy pills, man. Take these pills. Take these pills. But imagine if he would have told me that when I was younger, I would have known exactly what I was dealing with. So that's why you telling your story is so powerful.
- [53:09]
DJ Envy
Yeah, it is. And family business on bet. That's right. Family business. Family.
- [53:15]
Charlamagne Tha God
Right. Now, I wanna ask you one more question before you go. What's more treacherous? The music industry, Hollywood or the streets?
- [53:24]
DJ Envy
I think it's definitely not the streets. I think the streets. You know what it is? It's clear. And that's what I. I tell people this all the time. My preference is Mississippi white people. And they say, why? If a Mississippi white person loves you, they would die for you. If a Mississippi person doesn't, white person doesn't like you, they'll try to kill you. Unlike you, living up here next to a white person and working with them every day. And they smiling in your face. And then it's time for you to retire and your pension gone. The industry, and they've been smiling in your face all the time. At least I know what it is, you know? And the streets, and it's so funny, man. I fell into believing that this construct that we call the music industry and the movie industry, that is any different, it's no difference. It's oppressive. It's built for you to fail. And that's one of the reasons why a lot of people get mad at me. Because as a producer, think about it, I probably lost 20, 30 million. I'm one of the top producers and I never put out an artist. And the reason why I never put out artists is because I care about human beings. And I know the game is about things. Throwing 35 people lives on the wall. And you have to become callous in order to do that. That's the reason why hustlers do so good in the music industry. Because they've done so much on the streets that they've already become callous. So being callous in this shit is easy. You know what I had to do out in front of my grandma house? In front of my fucking grandma house? I had to serve my fucking uncle. And you think I give a fuck about this music shit, that shit easy? I. I care about people. If I fuck with you, I mean it, One of your friends and I whisper in your ear and tell you who it is. I had to tell him. You might have to rethink our friendship. Cause I'm serious. If I say I fuck with you, I mean it. So if you come in town, it ain't that you gotta check in with me, but I wanna see my friend. I'm excited. I really think we homies. I don't throw that shit around, bro. So for me, I'll say at least, you know what the streets are. It is what it is. You know what it is. It ain't personal. Let's keep it moving. What I do like about the movies is that usually as an actor, if I step on set, my check there, and so it is what it is. I might not get much on the back end until I'm able to negotiate at that level, but I know this amount of money. I can run with this money, and I'm gone. It ain't personal, you know what I'm saying? But what I will say is that I plan on being one of the best actors who ever touched the screen. I'm very serious about black art. I really think, as much as I love music, if people can't see it, people don't understand. One of the reasons why the west coast popped off the way that they did is because they had hour, an hour and a half long video to go with the music. When Snoop and them came out, Dre and them came out. What else did they have? Minister society boys in the hood. So, like, they had. They had, like. They had all of that. And we really didn't believe that it was that until we saw the movies and then we had the music. Oh, shit. For real? Cause people could say what they want to. They weren't smoking like that till Snoop came out. Till we saw it on the screen, we was like, yo. And if you think about the south, we still haven't had that one movie.
- [56:50]
Charlamagne Tha God
Nope.
- [56:50]
DJ Envy
That properly depicts the South.
- [56:53]
Charlamagne Tha God
Nope.
- [56:54]
DJ Envy
If you really think about the south, right? And I always tell. I tell people this. They use us for cheap labor. Cause we still don't have our Will Smith. We still don't have our Queen Latifah. We're very close to it. We still don't have our Ice Cube yet. And as much as we talk stuff, until we can cut a check from where we stand, then it's still New York and la. So, like, for me, that's what I want to do. I want to cut a check. I don't want to beg for dei. I want to give you the job. And we ain't got to worry about them. Because even in the strike, y'all. And I know they don't want me to talk about this. But how. How dare someone try to take away your whole livelihood, take away your likeness, show you that they want to cut everything, every tie that you have to sustainable, lifelong generational wealth, they're going to cut that away from you. And then, because they give you some scraps, now we okay. Like when Tip with Tip and Ernestine boycotted Houston's in Atlanta. I still ain't been there. I still. I'm not going back. Once somebody show me what they really, really mean and how they feel about me, I ain't never going back. Fuck you for life forever until you show me in your efforts over time that you have changed. So for me, y'all, like, when do we start identifying? And this is one thing that I want to say about the kids. This is what I love about the young revolutionaries. They don't talk about the man. The man, no. Edward Jenkins, who lives at 156 Solid street and works, said, yeah, let's go get that motherfucker. Let's talk about this board member. Let's specifically go to his fucking house. That's revolutionary. That's the shit that we should do. Family business.
- [58:44]
Charlamagne Tha God
Let's get banned out of here.
- [58:47]
DJ Envy
Come on. Say something about family business.
- [58:50]
Just Hilarious
I've seen it. It was. You're good. You're great in it. Lila Rashawn is like, I love her. Love the dynamic. But I wanted. Cause when I watched that, and I know before you talked about love and acting so much, it almost made you leave music. You're not thinking about doing that again, right?
- [59:02]
DJ Envy
I just stepped away from music. I am almost to the point financially. I'm very close where I want to get back to making music. Like when we made it in high school. I can put out music and it don't really matter. I could just do it from a very pure place. I spend a lot. I still mix and master. I still pay artists. I still pay the bass players. So, like, music is expensive to make. And black people give their money to tech companies. They don't give it to the artists. That's so stupid to me. People who don't even care about music. This is not a shot at any one particular company. As a matter of fact, I'm not gonna say their name. I'm gonna be smarter. But this one particular company that we give all our money to, right? Music is the last thing that they care about in their company. But we give the thing that means the most to us to a company that cares nothing about music. It's not even on their front page, much less black artists. Music in general, they just don't give a damn about. So you're gonna give your. Like, think about it. It's tech moguls. They don't even like music. They wasn't cool. They don't give a shit. They really, really don't. And they get. We give them all our money, our residual income, all of these things. And what they did that was really, really smart was they gave a lot of money to one influential or two influential artists. It was one pop young lady, and it was one top rapper, and we all followed them no matter if we were going to hell or not. But to answer your question. To answer your question directly, I. I love. I love music. And. But it. It hurt me. And every time I go back to music. I'm serious. Every time I go back to music is when I get depressed. Wow.
- [60:43]
Charlamagne Tha God
So the music industry or mute the music industry.
- [60:46]
DJ Envy
Well, either way, because I'm gonna sell my music. I'm too old to be doing shit and ain't making no bread. You know what I'm saying? So it's built that way. But, like, to be honest with you, bro, every time I go back to music, I start feeling that way again, and I feel less free. So I said this in the interview. If God is constantly saying, son, every time you go over there, you get hurt, why in the fuck you keep going over there? So you know. You know, bro, The God Box 2 is probably my best album. Even better than the first one. So many people jumped on Griselda, bro. They whole clique jumped on the album for me, bro. Shoot, bro. Like, you name it, they own it. Tip two chains just. Everybody came through for me, Raheem. But I just feel like, man, like with the movies, like I told you, on the west Coast, I can show people how I want them to think. I want to lead this interview with saying this. I think that black people look at freedom the same way they look at death. Death may be better. We don't know. But the fact that we don't know, we don't want to try it out. So it's the same thing with freedom. Until they know what freedom looks like, we got to show them what it looks like. Think about our iPhone. If you look at. Not Star Wars, Star Trek, besides teleportation, all that shit we could do on our iPhone now, that's what sci fi is. It's preparing us for a future. I said this, man. It was a young black girl who came in crying uncontrollably. Her dad say, what's wrong? Why are you crying? She said, daddy, are there gonna be any black folks in the future? He said, why? She said, cause I was watching the Jetsons and I didn't see any. So as much as we put out good music, if people don't know what that looks like, it don't matter. Banner Vision. I love y'all. I appreciate it. Make sure that y'all go and stream and look at Family Business. You can look at all the episodes like we like to do, even though y'all, we need y'all to watch it every week so we can have those elongated stats that we need. Because if you look at it in one sitting, then we're only gonna get that credit for that day or for that week. But what I'll tell you is, like, put on family business when you. Family Business. New Orleans when you cleaning up, and just let it stream all day when you're cooking. Just do that for me when you're cooking, even if you don't watch it. Cause I'll be honest with y'all, there's some black movies that come out. I'll pay for the ticket and then go watch Avengers. I sneak in Avengers like I did back in the day. I'm just being honest with you. I'm gonna give my brain.
- [63:25]
Charlamagne Tha God
Between this and the guns you carrying in the club, you gotta stop telling on yourself.
- [63:28]
DJ Envy
Why? No, I'm telling them what I want them to do if they gonna pay for a Banner Vision and then they go watch something else.
- [63:34]
Charlamagne Tha God
I With that.
- [63:35]
DJ Envy
Don't give me the bread. What I say. Give me the bread and your attention.
- [63:38]
Charlamagne Tha God
Save it. Banner ladies. Fight Night, too. Check the ban out on Fight night, Peacock.
- [63:42]
DJ Envy
And equalize with Queen Latifah. I'm on that tonight. Even though tonight may be five years from now, if you looking at it depends. Hey, y'all. But seriously, y'all, thank y'all. Appreciate you. Love y'all. And it was an honor to meet you.
- [63:55]
Just Hilarious
It was nice meeting you, too.
- [63:56]
DJ Envy
I would have flirted with you a little bit more, but I don't want thinking people. People that think that I'm just a. He needs a jacket back, too. No, I don't. I want you to smell.
- [64:05]
Charlamagne Tha God
I'm sorry.
- [64:05]
Just Hilarious
Oh, I do. It's there.
- [64:07]
DJ Envy
It's the Breakfast Club. It's David Bannon. We'll let them do their thing later. Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club.
- [64:19]
Just Hilarious
I'm Hunter, host of Hunting for Answers on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Join me every weekday as I share bite sized stories of missing and murdered black black women and girls in America. Stories like Erica Hunt, a young mother vanished without a trace after a family gathering on 4th of July weekend 2016. No goodbyes, no clues, just gone. Listen to Hunting for Answers every weekday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get get your podcasts. Do you remember what you said the first night I came over here?
- [64:58]
DJ Envy
Ow. Go slower.
- [64:59]
Just Hilarious
From Blumhouse TV, I Heart podcasts and.
- [65:01]
DJ Envy
Ember 20 comes an all new fictional comedy podcast series.
- [65:05]
Just Hilarious
Join the flighty Damien Hirst as he unravels the mystery of his vanished boyfriend.
- [65:09]
DJ Envy
I've been spending all my time looking.
- [65:11]
Just Hilarious
For answers about what happened to Santi and what's the way to find a missing person. Sleep with everyone he knew, obviously.
- [65:18]
DJ Envy
Listen to the hookup on the iHeartRadio.
- [65:20]
Just Hilarious
App, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.
- [65:22]
DJ Envy
To your favorite shows. I'm Mark Seale.
- [65:26]
Charlamagne Tha God
And I'm Nathan King.
- [65:27]
DJ Envy
This is Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli. The five families did not want us to shoot that picture. This podcast is based on my co host Mark Seals best selling book of the same title. Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli features new and archival interviews with Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Evans, James Caan, Talia Shire and many others. Yes, that was a real horse's head. Listen and subscribe to Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli on the iHeartRadio app.
- [65:51]
Just Hilarious
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey y'all, it's your girl, Cheekies. And I'm back with a brand new season of your favorite podcast, Cheekies and Chill. I'll be sharing even more personal stories with you guys and as always, you'll get my exclusive take on topics like love, personal growth, health, family ties, and more. And don't forget, I'll also be dishing out my best advice to you on episodes of Dear Cheeky. It's going to be an exciting year and I hope that you can join me, listen to Cheekies and chill season four on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.