I'll beg heav ocasions. My mind is strategy verysi. So I spent this,
pars out and that and on a make them looking at the clothes,
they looking at my bed. I just mind end up but nothing with nothing
victim funny, Well we live them, but ain't nobody had it? When
I with the headlines out making other destraction as we have a happy really good
tell still flat in a bar song like ain't on myself? It starts showed
up to do this, gonna move fewers hopeful like the keys of Computerist.
You couldn't tell which one is. Shoot up group worked, school walked.
They can't even see the room worked. But the part's gonna leading like coop
coups in it says sickness. You can find it. Try to get my
starts in alignment to this. And when I just said this on timing order
the team that's body they save my phony signed it was out here like Simon
said, I'm ahead, got put her on top of my red if you
need it, I can spread. I'm gonna get to the top of the
world, but I only got my legs. You'll push it to the limit.
No, we don't just try our best if you gotta tell them something,
better tell them that you next, miss Patrae order to create them.
Don't wake come up, bust the leaders. Sooner's time to take my shot.
I'll be feeling the parenas swoops out, so my voice, it's uppenty,
bends a beamle might put the king to sleep. Because I always spend
a dream up. I haven't having visions. My mind is straged, princess.
So I spent these barts out and added on her. Read them looking
at the police, say, looking at my bed man, I just might
end up for another freedom of victim. Funny will be living. But ain't
nobody laughing? When I read the headlines out thinking of the other's section.
Ask me how it happy? I say, ain't all myself. We don't
play a round because I'm too old and I'm walking around with his injury.
Good boss for the new league, y'all foundation in the industry, I feel
the rams at the top, and we're gonna act well. I'm on the
enemies. We got hope with me. That's a new way with a little
bit of hood energy. Most rapports the slow level. I upgraded for the
cars. You ain't never seen that pop friends, in the cutting, clutching
their yall, seeing the ice cube of that swamp water. Every day.
I used to chop borders, long visits within no limits, now cheating chong
at the border, tenty ars and that stickboy, I ain't playing the rapper,
that's got it. It's that lot of clear, those snoping mirrles,
got y'all thinking this is Maddy. I'm with Hope boy in a matrix.
So I'm sucking, gonna hey, this is gonna fix thish, gonna make
shift, dropping them. This seems like it's eighty sister. Every every float
for the car, for the culture from the prison yard, bloat boats,
no hear bolls win four years without cars, ge y'all cuss a little what
I said, crazy, got to thank God for these plays. Ain't coming
to fascinate with no lights. I'm never pumping my mind. Please don't start.
They have in fictionis my mind distracted dresses? So I spent this farselt
and added on a random looking at the police, they looking at my pavement.
I just might end up but nothing nothing victim funny will be living.
But ain't nobody last n When I read the headlines, I think of the
distraction. He has been away happy really can't tell stiff trying to get a
bar song like, ain't on myself. You're listening to total humination, Command
God, don't get sorely Maxio. Good morning, Welcome, everybody, Here
we go. It is that time again, Matt Connorton unleashed and we are
live from the studios of WMNH ninety five point three FM, Inglorious, Manchester,
New Hampshire on Canal Street. Today is Saturday, May eighteen, two
thy twenty four and I am not alone. Good morning, Suntime. Jenny
is here at the news table. Good morning. I am yes, Yes,
and we've got an exciting show for you today. We do yes Yes,
and our first guest and we just heard one of his tracks. We
have Hoped the rapper here in studio with us. How are you, sir,
I'm doing good. I'm doing good. How are you guys? Good?
Good, welcome and uh, thank you for having me when you originally
reached out to us. So we have a track that we're going to be
playing in a little bit called Mama Yeah, which is really cool and that's
first song though Visions that also includes mister goodbars correct. Yeah. We've had.
He's been on the show a couple of times, and even when he's
not on the show, his name comes up a lot, you know,
because he's just very active and it's cool too that he works with multiple genres
of music and yeah, really talented guy. Yeah, I know, it's
awesome. So it's been really good working with somebody like mister Goodbars because not
only does he have like the rapping aspect of it, but he also like
educates me on like the business aspects of it. Yeah, he's just been
around the industry enough, like nob oh absolutely absolutely. Yeah, fascinating guy
to talk to if you have any questions or anything at all. For our
guests, hope the rapper is here with us. The studio line is open,
uh six oh three two five oh six oh seven, six oh three
two five oh six oh seven. We also have the text line at six
one seven nine one seven four four seven six. UH. You can reach
me on social media at Matt connorton. You can email me Matt at Matt
conorton dot com, and of course you can interact end O Pine in the
Facebook live chat and you can even go to Matt condorton dot com slash live.
Uh. For all the contact info and live streaming options. But the
best thing to do is to give us a call at six o three two
five oh six o seven, tell us about we'll we'll play it. Uh,
we'll play that in a couple of moments on Mama. But tell us
about that track because that's the one that you that's the one you reached out
to us about specifically, so obviously that's a special one to you. Absolutely.
So my whole life, my mom was like probably one of the most
important people in my life. Yeah, and recently she has been going through
some things in life that has set her back, and just like seeing her
not as strong, seeing her trying to like fight through these moments, it
kind of reminds me of where I get that fight from because a lot of
times people look at me in situations like why haven't you given up? And
that comes from my mom. That's strength. So I made this track so
that she knows that she she had all boys, well we have my sister
too as well, but she just primarily boys and she doesn't have to be
that strong. Yeah. So, like when we all have a mom out
there and we all want to like say something to her, so like I've
always wanted to write a song for my mom. But just like hearing like
the news of my mom not being as strong as like I know that she
is. Yeah, just the words flew on her paper. I wrote that
song probably in less than twenty minutes. Oh no kidding, Wow, wow.
Yeah, it's a it's a great track. It kind of it reminded
me a little bit of Dear Mama by Tupac. That's kind of the inspiration
behind that. Dear Mama by Tupac was one of I remember like just driving
around as a kid, and I was like, yeah, that's exactly how
I feel about my mom. I'm not going through any of these things,
but how I feel about her. Yeah, yeah, no doubt. So
she's heard it obviously. Yeah, what kind of feedback did she give you?
So my with music, so I do make primarily like secular music,
but she's always wanted me to make a Christian song, and that's kind of
like where a lot of the inspiration of this song was, like it was
something that I wanted to make her song that she can listen to all the
time of my music. Yeah, So her reaction to it was kind of
like she was taken back because she hasn't heard me rap that way since I
was probably like eighteen oh, a lot of Christian music. That's why I
started rap. Yeah, and then so just her hearing me back in that
element and everything like that, it felt great. Yeah, So I'm probably
gonna be making more music like for her to be able to listen to her
and like that whole genre of people, because like I do connect with it,
like that Christian religion. Yeah. Yeah, that's very cool. So
we will. Let's go ahead and play this now and then we'll come back
and talk some more and get to know you. We also have a song
very appropriate for Father's Day which is coming up, which we'll play later.
Got our balance last year, Dad got one, Mom gets one this year.
Perfect. But let's give this a listen. So the track is by
the way, this has this been played on the radio anywhere? No,
So this is a world radio premiere the world. We like the world radio
premieres around here, so very cool. We appreciate it, all right,
So let's check this out. This is Mama, and this is Hope the
rapper. Well and something else is playing and I don't know why. That's
a second week in a row. I think that's happened to me. Since
happened, I worked great T and T so dealing with technology. There you
go, all right, here we go. I think we've got it.
Here it is. This is Mama, and this is Hope the rapper O.
It's open sent It's gonna be okay, Mama. Let's walk through the
rain. Mama. See you when you smile, you ain't got out out
of pain. Mama, don't know what the same mama, looking for some
change, Mama. Sorry for those hiss I was hiding in my pain.
Mama. It's gonna be okay, Mama. Let's walk through the rain.
Mama. See you when you smile, you ain't got out your pain.
Mama, don't know what the same mama, looking for some change, Mama,
Sorry for those I was hiding in my pain. Mama. What I
need some manergy. I'm praying for your strength. Still a bend the table,
and I've been thinking about the bench, telling them miss your turn.
I tried myself and broke the wrench. It's gonna hurt my back if I
keep sitting on the fence, only being a human when it comes to my
defense, showed me what is real because they just playing this pretending I just
hold my Mama meets my family in the end. Came a long way from
when they call us aliens. It's gonna be okay, Mama. Let's walk
through the rain. Mama, see you when you smile, You ain't got
out how to pain. Mama don't know what to say. Mama looking for
some change, Mama, Sorry for those his I was hiding in my pain.
Mama, It's gonna be okay, Mama. Let's walk through the rain.
Mama, see you when you smile, You ain't got out out of
your pain. Mama don't know what the same. Mama looked it for some
change, Mama, Sorry for those his I was hiding in my pain.
Mama's hell him. If I could I take your pain in making mine,
I don't want to be your son. If Mama could have shined, she
told me, in this world, hardy giving you is time. The rest
of it is senergy, consistency, and grind the way life playing. And
I just want to hit Rwan, but only if I'm taking all the knowledge
in my mind. So maybe all the travesties are actually a lesson. Don't
ask me for I love her because that never been the question. It's gonna
be okay, Mama. Let's walk through the rain. Mama. See you
when you smile, you ain't got out out of pain. Mama. Don't
know what the same mama looking for some change. Mama. Sorry for those
hiss I was hiding them pain. Mama. It's gonna be your pain.
Mama. Let's walk through the ring. Mama. See you when you smile,
you ain't got out your pain. Mama, don't know what the same
mama looked there for some change, Mama. Sorryful, I was hiding in
my pain. Mamah. That's nice. That is mama, and that is
Hope the rapper here with us live in studio. That's the world radio premiere
of that track. So really really good. Thank you for that too as
well. I appreciate you giving me that chance. We love getting to do
that. Oh yeah, absolutely no, we're glad you. We're glad you
reached out to us. We'll play the we'll play the Dada song a little
bit later. But yeah, really really good. Where do you record,
by the way, because the production is excellent, So two different studios.
I do record with mister Goodbar's, but I also work in Lowell at Stupid
Genius Studios and my French has Okay, he was part of a music group
that went on to California, but he actually came back here and is producing
music, has his own studio. Oh, it's been awesome because I connected
with a bunch of individuals in Lower Massachusetts who have been helping lift me up
in the game. So I have like the super Genius Studios, I have
One Eyed Visuals that I record with. Just I keep a close knit community
that I work with. Yeah, and it's been great because we reach out
to each other when each other has projects, and we help lift each other
to the next step. Yeah, yeah, that's excellent. How long have
you been recording hip hop so this go around, it's been three years.
Prior to this, I used to make music whenever I was like fourteen.
I remember, Oh, I think I found something of yours online from like
twenty eleven or something. Yeah. Yeah, I made music when I was
like fourteen. It's funny because all the old music that you'll hear of mine,
I didn't record in like a professional studio at all. I had my
Windows computer. I couldn't afford a mic, so I used my rock band
mic. Yeah, so I literally plug my rock band MIC and like would
just make it sound as good as it could, and then I would release
music that way. But it came to a point where I got lost in
life where I stopped making music. But then I stopped drinking. And then
once I stopped drinking, I was like, you know what, I was
really good at making music? Yeah, something of mine. And then since
then I picked up the pen put down the bottle. Yeah yeah, So
what is it about not drinking that helped you with that? Did it just
kind of clear your mind and more of a focus, Because rather nights where
I'd want to like go out and drink and let go, I'm at home
like writing or reading and like trying to figure out different like ryme patterns and
different schemes and stuff like that, because it, to me, it's more
than just like the rhyme and the punchlines. I think it has to be
a lot of deeper, like the double entendres, the triple on tendres,
like really getting into it, but not like on a lyrical miracle level,
and it still has to respect the art and still sound like music. Yeah,
yeah, we have a The drinking thing is interesting it sounds like that
was getting in the way because we know somebody who we have that conversation with
occasionally where drinking can kind of get in the way. So now do you
not drink it? All? Are good for you? Good for you?
So it's just been music for me. It's it's awesome too because like I'll
go out to like these events and shows that I'll have and the luster for
it isn't there. Yeah. I like the environment that I can create,
and then like I go back into my own little shell where I'm like,
all right, what what can I do next? Yeah? Yeah, no,
that's really cool. Now are you? Because uh, there's a couple
of references in the songs are are You? From Kenya? Originally? Okay?
So I moved to America nineteen ninety eight, nineteen ninety seven. Yeah,
so it was definitely an interesting trip moving to America. There was like
eleven of us and I'm at wow, no kidding, yeah, wow,
eleven of us two bedroom apartment and my dad is probably one of the hardest
working people that I've ever met in my life. I've never understood it till
I was older, Yeah, because I always took it as like punishment because
like I didn't understand like where we came from. Now as an adult,
I look back or where we came from, and I see all the things
that he's done. I'm like, you couldn't have on that if you didn't
focus. So like being able to do that has just been able to help.
Is that where where your drive and focus comes from? Do you think
from the example set by your dad? Yeah? Absolutely? Absolutely. For
a while, I was just very resistant to it because like I had my
own ideas of like what I wanted life to be. I was like just
like really in love like with the idea of America and everything like that,
like, no, leave me alone, I'm American. But he just like
remember your roots. Like in the end of the day, you can like
do whatever you want here. But then in the day, if you don't
like behave right, if you don't act right, you'll get sent right back
to again. And like if you don't, if you don't understand them,
then it's just gonna happen to you. So then, ever since like I
finally like sat back and just like talk to my dad, like had these
conversations with my dad that I refused to have when I was younger. And
that he wasn't wanting to have the conversations. I refuse to have them,
and since then I've been very focused. Yeah yeah, that's awesome. Eleven
of you so big family? Yeah yeah, my dad has like eleven brothers
and sisters, my mom probably eight, No kidding, that's a huge family.
Wow. Wow? Was that? I mean it's hard for me.
I grew up in a very small family, so it's hard for me to
even imagine. I mean, was that difficult growing up having because it sounds
like you're very crowded, especially when you first came to America. But then
again, I mean, if you grew up in a big family, I
guess that's all you knew, right, So I don't know, was that
it's stressful? Did you ever have moments where it was like, geez,
I wish I wish I had some I don't know, Yeah, space exactly.
Honestly, it comes to a point where you do you do want that
space, And that's where you see as an adult, where people grew apart.
If we were in the position to have our own space and grow in
our own element, who knows what could have happened. But that's not the
cards that life handed us. So we had to look at the cards that
life handed us and figure out how to still stay around each other. Yeah,
and there's points in time where we'll still like break apart, but in
the end of the day, the chorus is still there. Yeah, the
important part. And I think it's those struggles, remembering how much we struggled
with each other. It's like, now, let's just talk this out like
this, this is solvable. We've we've been through worse, we could have
imagined worse, and we got out of that, right, So this situation
we can't make a monster out of, right, right. Yeah, it's
a good way of looking at it. Now, when did you How old
were you when he started making music? And writing? Music has always been
in my blood before I moved to America. My dad called me when I
was like in Africa and he asked me, like what I wanted for like
gifts. When I got to America, I asked for a drum, a
piano, and guitar. Now I don't play all those instruments fluently to this
day, but like just that idea of making music was in my head.
Me and my sister, we'd sit there, we just like he had a
little karaoke machine. It didn't have like it wasn't the one with the words
or anything like that. It's just like a mic and a speaker. So
we just like performed these little shows. He'd always have his camera too as
well, so he there's a bunch of videos of me when I was younger.
I started because they were very Christian and like Captain Verians, so like
it only had me listen to like raps like Aaron Carter. Okay, like
bow wow Aaron Carter. It wasn't until my dad found Nas and he respected
what NAS did, and he's like this this guy Nas, there's a video
I know, I can't. He had me watch that with all the kids,
like I know I can't remember, like him like introducing me into like
the whole rap world. But he didn't want me to get too into it
because they didn't want my mind to get lost. That's really interesting to me,
So so it sounds like so so he heard Nas and was like this
guy's so good and Nas is I mean, let's be honestly, some would
say the best ever. So he he was so enamored with Nas. He
was like, Okay, I can't I can't keep this from him. Yeah,
he even had a like a DVD because like back then they used to
make DVDs for music videos. Yeah, he even had NAS DVD music videos.
And I don't think like knows like the impact of just not something that
small did to me as a kid. But I was like, this is
life for me. I don't know what else is going on, video games
all that. No, this is what I want to get into. Yeah.
Wow. So and then once he like, did he bring bring other
artists to your attention to or was it kind of like okay, no,
I'm gonna show him NAS and then he's kind of on his own. Yeah,
it was more of NAS than I'm on my own. He always like
would we'd watch like music videos together. Back in the apartment that we lived
in, he always had music playing, but more than rap. It was
like an R and B home. Yeah, so we listened to a lot
of old R and b's, so like the soul and all that, like
melodies and all that is in me. Because of that, my sister is
a much better singer. So I was discouraged when I was younger, like
I'm not gonna get like good at this. She's really good at this.
Yeah, I'm gonna get get at the wrap party and she could sing.
I had this whole idea in my head We're going to be this group.
Yeah, but she she's doing big things with Amazon right now, so like
I'm happy for her. Okay, so she doesn't she doesn't still sing or
no, no, no, I think she's like the Northeast operational manager for
all of Amazon's. Oh so she's got a big job's Did you ever have
an opportunity to record anything with her? Is? No, that's that is
a dream of mine. Yeah, there's gonna be one day where I write
a hook and I'm gonna be like, hey, what are you doing just
like this one song that we could have? Yeah, and that would be
amazing for me. Yeah, no doubt, No doubt. I did whenever
I was younger. My little brothers, I don't. I'm not sure if
they wanted to, but like I'd make them like rap with me and I
recorded them. Oh no kidding. Have any of your family have they also
done anything in terms of music? No, I'm pretty much the one who's
like this is it like, because like they're all hard workers. I'm a
hard worker too, but music is just something that I had an extra passion
for Yeah, yeah, and you you're from Lowell? You live in Lowell?
No, I live in Hudson. Oh Hudson. Oh okay, all
right. The studio that you yeah, the studio recording and like mostly everything
I do music wise is Lowell. I do it with either like One Eyed
Visuals or Talk of the Town. Yeah, yeah, yeah, One Eye
Visuals. I noticed at the beginning of some of your videos. Yeah they're
there, now, where are they are they? He it's it's actually one
man director, which is amazing. His names Xavier, and he's been recording
music videos for up and coming artists in Massachusetts and giving them a platform for
a while. He actually we do shows over at the Smokehouse and okay yeah
yeah, yeah, So we've been doing shows over there, like bringing like
legendary artists out and just giving like everybody a chance to like shine. What
you do with this is up to you. But he'll put you at the
table. Oh that's cool, make you eat? Yeah? Yeah. Did
he do the video? I like the video for chin Up, which which
we're also gonna play today. He did that one ye. Yeah, we
went to New York for It's funny because the Dad video and the chin Up
video were shot within the same like twenty four hour forty eight hour span,
oh okay, And I was so amazed because if you watch chin Up and
if you watch Dad, the themes are completely different. Yeah, so in
this head he was in like two different worlds yep. While I was just
like in my head, I was like, how is he gonna do all
this? But no, Like one's like a lighter us theme for like the
Dad one, and then you have like the city theme for the chin Up
And I was like, this is amazing. Yeah, when you shoot a
video like chin Up. I've always been curious about this because I've I've played
in a lot of bands and stuff, but we never actually made a video
for like none of the projects ever did Did we ever make a video?
When you're when you're in the city and you're making a video like that,
what's going on around you? Like are people? Are people walking by and
they're curious or maybe that's something they see every Like in New York you probably
see that every day, right, people filming all kinds of things. But
like, I'm just curious, like, what's going on around you while you're
doing that kind of why I picked New York because, like I knew that
was like a common thing over there. Now now as far as what people
are doing, they are watching, which was something that I actually took advantage
of because while we were shooting the chin Up video, I like would walk
up to like groups of like kids and be like, Hey, I have
this one song. Do you wanna listen to it? Real qui because I've
seen a bunch of videos on Facebook like that something. Yeah, what's stopping
me from doing that? Yeah? So then I there's a couple of scenes
in the music video where you'll see me like rapp into groups of people.
Right, I'm like, this is a little bit awkward, but this is
actually a powerful song of like I could like play in front of people and
know what I'm doing with it. So then after a while, like people
see like people watching you, and then you just become a part of the
city. Yeah. Yeah. I was curious because it's like I would think
it would be distracting in a way, like you're trying to do what you're
doing and you got all these people around you, But then if you can
involve them in it in some way that makes sense. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, No, it was it's like at first, I was like,
it's just gonna be me, and like in my I got in my head
a little bit. I'm like, no, let me, let me just
involve them, right, Yeah, No, that's cool. You know what
I think we should do. Let's play that one next, but we play
the Dad song too. My dad listens to the show, so we'll play
that. Well, maybe we'll save that one for the end of the segment,
but let's play chin Up because I love this track, and I do
encourage people to go on YouTube and watch the video to the video is really
really cool. Where is here it is? And I I did make a
radio edit. I didn't have to. I didn't have to add it much
on this one, but there it is. I just want to make sure
I'm downloading the right one. I don't want to download the wrong one and
then get in trouble. All right, check this out. This is really
cool, very very positive. I love the vibe. This is chin Up.
And we have Hope the rapper here with us a live in studio.
But let's get us to spend let's go be hell he see okay, And
my daddy was black and miss Daddy was black, so I missed the office
up. I can't help them. Will you look at the facts, tell
me who'll send charge? But the look on your face the roofs different with
loss, rather see us in costs. Waste the money your boss. Fellow
locks of course riven under the bark. But distress with lights make me feel
like a star if I spend it today, And no hope for them all.
It's the system we live. Got me penditive still taking my shot?
Wouldn't if I don't miss can't live life like this man, There's gotta be
more. Yesterday I was shrowling. Now I'm climbing the shore with this my
god, griff to the beats in the morgue, got the world of my
chest for them only in George that will telling me stress, So I pray
to the Lord. They think life is a game. Want them playing my
board? No, no hand four. Should not hould your head high?
We out there dirt just a yet by, We out there dirt just a
yet bye, We out there dirt just a yet by. Should not hold
your head high? Were the dirt just a yet pie? We all de
dirt just a yet pie, we all. And my mama was black and
the mama was black. She got an army. In fact, that's my
family, my pack. We spread over the mask, but Lord knows where
we at let a trick of the cat. I keep calling these words,
and I know that they're feeling me. I be calling these nerves. They
follow while I'm shopping. Man, this king got me cursed. You wouldn't.
That's the worst. But it follows this purse. I've been stuck up
a first. I just swann to be first, open everything last, running
from the feet. WU my feet on the path again, the swarm feet.
So we meet on the path. Got me on a tase. It's
been weeks on the path. I just keep walking with the world of my
back for the pound of marriage. Just the fay relaxed. How don't roll
the face? Life is more than just crabs, Shady said the Hey,
because I'm young and I'm black, don't know where I'm headed. I'm designing
the man. Shin up, puld your head. Ha. We out did
dirt just to get BA. We out did dirt just an get ba.
We out did dirt, just ant yet BA. Shin up puld your head.
Ha. We out didn just to get BA. We out did dirt
just to get ba we out did that is chin Up. That is Hope
the rapper. He is here with us a live in studio on this Saturday
morning. Such a great track. I appreciate that one. Love that one,
and again I encourage people to go on YouTube check out the video.
The video is really cool, but it's catchy as hell. And that we
all did dirt get get stuck in my head that that's a great hurt reminded
me when I was writing it. It has nothing to do with like the
lyrics, but reminded me of like an Acon type of hook, like yeah
yeah. So I was like, let me just keep it going like y'all
did just together. And then there was this old nineties song just to get
By? Yeah, So that was in my head too when I was writing
it. So I was like, Acon, just to get by? How
can I do this? And the Yeah, that's what came out. Is
there a sample in there too that I should recognize? I'm not sure if
I don't recognize the sample, Okay, there's there was something familiar in there,
but it might just be you know, it might just remind me of
something. So do you in terms of writing? Obviously you write the lyrics.
You also, do you do the beats? Do you do everything?
Or no? The beats I buy the least's force, so I went all
the rights for them. Okay, So with writing, that's something that I
take like very seriously. Like when I'm writing, like the first song that
we played, the Jordan Cradle Dunk, I didn't know what that was before
I was writing. Yeah, in my head, I like had a picture
of like a basketball move, So then I like would research different types so
basketball moves, and then I would figure out which one would work. Were
the better cadence inside that? Oh wow, that's how I fit that in.
So like I'm writing them research Oh wow. Cool, It's like a
whole thing for me, which I love because it makes it more than just
the song because I could think of where I was at mentally. Mm hmmm.
Yeah, it's interesting. I've never heard anyone explain it that way before,
but that makes sense because, yeah, if you're coming up with some
pretty sophisticated references and not everyone's even gonna know which a school too. Now,
can you tell us about because some people probably don't know what you mean
and about you know, leasing the beats and stuff, and we talk.
We talk a lot of music business on the show too, so I'm sure
people are interested in how that process works. Absolutely, So you want to
make sure that you're very careful because whenever like a couple, like when I
first started in the game, like it in my head it was like get
the beat from YouTube, record over the beat, and it's yours. That's
not how somebody owns the rights to those like I get it, like there's
twelve notes and it depends on how you arrange it. But in the end
the day, you want to make sure you're covering your basis so you have
the ability to make money off of this stuff. Yeah, because if you,
let's say you accidentally because it's happened to people where they take a beat
off YouTube and that song accidentally is the one that blows them up. Oh
yeah, but then that song is accidentally the reason why they're in legal issues
for the rest of their life, right, And that's what you want to
avoid. You want to make sure you have the rights, the contracts,
you say, those all in a file computers, so like if anybody ever
asked you, it's actually this, I have it right for this. Because
with the leases too, you want to watch because some of them they'll only
give you a certain amount of like radio plays that you can do, a
certain amount of online plays that you can do. I didn't know that.
Oh, I didn't realize that until like a lot recently. So then you
have to buy I get the exclusives now because I don't want the chance.
Where I when I first started, like three years ago, there was a
beat that I got, and after I got the lease for it, somebody
bought the exclusive for it. So I'm not sure how that legally, if
it's even right, but they'll I'll play that game. Though. In the
industry, you have to make sure if you have the exclusive rights, at
the end of the day, you're the one who has the right for it.
But the least is something you want to be careful because there's a lot
of terms and conditions with them, right right, I'm old enough to remember
when back in the days, when you know, somebody would put something out
and it would it would use a single a sample that wasn't cleared, you
know, and then there's there'd be all kinds of litigation. And this is
kind of another version of that, right exactly exactly people get in trouble using
stuff that they don't have the rights to exactly. Yeah, and the with
the Internet, it's still kind of I'm sure there's a lot of I mean,
obviously there's ways that you can do it right, like you're yeah,
absolutely, And it's also trustable sources too, because you want to make sure,
like even if like for the artists getting your beats off YouTube, you
want to be careful because sometimes that person on YouTube doesn't even have the rights.
Yeah, yeah, exactly, you paid this person on YouTube and you
think you covered your base, but you didn't. You didn't because they didn't
have the rights to it. So like I go to directly to sources like
like a beat Stars kind of thing or like a Soundclick kind of thing where
they can provide me with the contract that I can reference to later on okay,
because if that person doesn't own the beat and like I make a really
good song on it, I'm almost like discouraged to even write on like YouTube
beats because I don't want it to make a good song and then it's not
mine, right right, I'll get paid off of it. Have you ever
found yourself in a situation where you had to go through and prove no,
look, I have this legally I paid for this, and has that happened
to you or have you been able to only with YouTube? When I after
I uploaded a song, but they were referencing to the beat maker Okay,
yeah, so like the beat maker on and I'm like, no, no,
no, no, I bought it from this person. And then I
sent like the email over and then then I was cleared what was the process
like in terms of showing that to YouTube? Because I know, I know
from a lot of content creators, know, you know, it's not like
you can just call them up and say and it's no, no, no.
You have to upload documentation, so you have to have the original documentation,
the original receipts and everything like that. They send you an email,
you click on the email. The email brings you to a page where you
upload the documents. Then you wait for litigation or whatever they go through,
and then they decided if it's yours or not. And how long did it
take? Two weeks? Oh that's not bad, Okay, at least I
didn't drag on for a long time. Two weeks. Yeah, now,
LUCKI lethle it wasn't too long, but like still two weeks of like man
I don't know about this song, like, should I just take it down,
like because this might there's also the chance where like you upload that song
and you're on your way up and that song. This actually happened to me
when I was younger, and this was one of the main reasons I stopped
is I had a love the Way You Lie remix. I uploaded it had
two hundred and fifty thousand views within like a week, and I like a
organic promotion. Yeah, they took down my channel, no warning, no
nothing, no strikes. You just took Eminem's beat. It wasn't you're right,
And like as a kid, you're like, that's not fair, But
like as an adult, you're like, yeah, you should have covered your
base because that was Eminem's beat and no matter how good you did on it,
right, you didn't get permission. Then there's there's ways to do.
I haven't looked into like the remix like clauseways, but I do have something
that a cover that I'm working on right now that I'm working on getting cleared
for a Black Puma song that I did yeah with my friend. It's actually
they played it. They're playing it on NHPR at the end of this month.
Oh, no kidding. Oh congratulations. Oh that's very cool. I'm
excited about that. Very cool. Well, on what show you so,
we did a like a tiny desk concert and conquered Yeah. Yeah, so
I'm not sure which one of their channels that they're going to be putting it
up on, but that's gonna be awesome to see up there too. Oh,
very cool. Yeah, congratulations, that's a big deal. That'll get
you. Yeah, yeah, that'll get you a lot of exposure. I'm
very excited for that one. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. It's tricky
too with the utube stuff because the rules change, you know, like I
put this show after like we're you know, we're going out live on Facebook
in addition to obviously on FM. But then afterward, I also I download
the video from Facebook and I put it on YouTube, and sometimes I'll get
I'll get different notification, like I don't get in any trouble, but I
get these notifications like your video is blocked in some countries. Yeah, never
the United States fortunately, but it'll it'll be blocked in certain countries or territories.
And that's I've figured that one out actually, with the help of mister
goodbars and partially to the fault of artists, and I stopped doing this with
my songs because as artists, we have the ability to independently upload our music
to multiple platforms. When you use the websites such as distro kid, like
I use, it gives you all these different websites. What you want to
make sure is that you're picking like your your titles, your iTunes, your
Spotify's those, But there's a lot of random a lot of different random business
like I don't even know what they are, like, yeah, companies that
you're uploading your music to. Yeah, and they have the rights to it.
Oh so if they flag your music, like if they like pick up
your music on a different platform and you upload it on THEIRS to make money
off of, now they're just like, no, we have the rights to
that. Oh okay, yeah, I've seen that happen to me. So
that's why now I when I upload my music to distro kid instead of it
felt good to have my name checked on every single one of those platforms.
But unfortunately, some of these companies that are based in other countries and everything
like that, they're just going to claim the rights to my music. Okay,
Oh, Wow, that's sturdy. I didn't even know. I didn't
even know about that part of it. So good Bars explained it. So
distro Kid doesn't even They don't warn you about that. No, No,
they just say upload your music everywhere, which sounds good. But when it
comes to music, you're talking about legalities. When you're talking about legalities,
people can do whatever they want if you playing with their money, right right?
Oh wow yeah, yeah, it's funny too because uh, now like
Facebook does a thing. Now, did you ever put your music on Facebook?
Yeah? Because they do a thing now. Like I said, we
you know, we streamed the show to Facebook, and they used to They
used to knock us off sometimes and I would always appeal and I would write
just an appeal I had to memorize at one point where I would say,
you know, we're a federally licensed uff and radio station, we do a
radio show. And I would always win the appeal, or almost always.
But now what they do is they send me a notification saying we're gonna leave
your video up, but you're you can't monetize it. Yeah, this person's
monetizing off of it exactly. I just got that notification the other week I
don't even know what it was that I uploaded, and like I think it
was they said that I'm making money off of it. Yeah, like this
was picked up. It's Hope the Rappers music. Hope the Rappers is gonna
be me. I'm like, okay, yeah whatever. Interesting. I'm like
that is me, but I guess. And I did share his Facebook link
in the chat room. Oh good, good, excellent, Yes, I
saw that. Yeah. Oh, our friend Isaac Banks was asking about influences.
Influences, so I would say, now under as far as j Cole
is unpopular as that, that opinion is right now jay Z and then the
Wind Yeah, yeah, I love NAS and I haven't. I don't really
know much Jake Cole. I just the hits, you know, I've never
really listened to him. I love jay Z ninety nine Problems Is. I
mean it changes, but that's probably my favorite hip hop song of all.
Yeah, that song, no matter what mood I'm in, Yeah, it'll
just bring me up. And the video is amazing too. Oh. Our
friend uh Axel Bagley uh is in the chat room from a the band Dad
Harrison and various other projects. He says, keep up the amazing work.
Man, Oh, thank you, thank you. I actually I think I
reached out to Axl when we were doing the tiny desk things. I wanted
him to play guitar. Oh, the right axle that I'm thinking of.
Okay, yeah, yeah, he's amazing. I know him mainly for his
drumming. But but everybody plays multiple instruments these days except me. I'm a
bass player. That's all I can really do. I can play a little
bit of guitar, but not much. Let's let's because we were talking about
it earlier, let's go ahead and play. I was gonna save it for
the end, but let's let's play it now because we've got We've got something
else we can play at the end too. But we were talking about the
Dad song. I think we should play any anything else we should know about
this? Uh uh. Dad is didn't always deserve it's It's definitely an intense
song. So this song is interesting because I started it as I hate song
towards like one of my ex girlfriends, really, and then I was writing
and I was thinking about like who I was in that relationship, and I
was like, you didn't do things right either, Like you have issues too,
Yeah, like if you're gonna sit there and you're gonna write this song
about this woman, you have to call yourself out first. So then it
became that and then and I was like, what are my issues? And
then I realized a lot of my issues come from the same reasons why I'm
mad at people sometimes, Like, yeah, you have that issues? What
about your dad issues? Have you figured out your dad issues? Because you
can't accuse people without pointing a finger at yourself first. You explaining that makes
me understand the song even better. Yeah, because I listening to it last
night, I understand the lyrics even more now now that you say that that
that totally makes sense. And I like that you know that personal response,
but you know it's it's funny. It just as a side note, I
was thinking about this a couple of years ago. I remember thinking about conflicts
I had had in my life along the way, like not not anything professional,
but just personal issues with people, and thinking about it, kind of
reflecting on how most of the time it was actually my own fault. Yeah,
you know, but I but I didn't have the emotional maturity at the
time to recognize it, you know, And and uh uh, there's there's
such a thin line between ruminating and reflecting, and I try to Sometimes I
reflecting on on things as healthy because that's how you learn. Unfortunately, sometimes
I cross that line into ruminating, which is not so healthy. But but
I remember reflecting on on on that, and you know, and then you
and then of course, you know, you start to think about things you
learned growing up and and what you saw like in your family and your dad,
your mom and whatnot, and how some of sometimes some of those behaviors
they get passed down to you exactly exactly. So that's how I wrote the
song too. So like the first verse is like you'll hear it too,
with like the background, it's like it has a deeper tone because it's like
what my dad would say to me, okay. The second verse is what
younger me would say to my dad okay. And then I break it off
with the hook again and then it's dad, I finally get it okay,
yeah, yeah, yeah, cool. All right, let's give this a
listen. So this is Dad didn't always deserve and happy Fathers. Everybody check
this out this Sunday. This is a great track. Hope the rapper got
some missions that I really need to tend to and janglem Abandonment is always on
the menus and times I look to God and question why Badley saying you had
to learn my lesson. You will membors of my issues if I keep on
tripping on these girls, and will I make it? I got daddy issues
too. I used to be his favorite until he found that money I had
hidden in the basement. Told me, hustle backwards and you'll never be the
greatest, and you don't even need a crowded story on your own. Or
maybe buy some tribe and show me that's your grown. That's what you got
to wonder. Wife, want those straight, they get them up the mess.
I know you've got some issues in you, probably ready next. But
I was in the country that I didn't know one's stressed. I didn't have
a mom and dad and a bullet check America America. I felt it on
my neck and with every single breath, I felt the world wouldn't take my
son, and then I felt they did, because so would you become.
I never once imagined that the sevile king on earth, but just imagine it
if I never built the family first. I used to be distraughted when you
always kept and guarded at the time you told me no till me felt like
they the hardest and kid you told me all this. So I'm walking with
the smug until I got me wondering if heavens fall with dog. I want
to learn to catch up all that? Why you kind of work? The
other kids are laughing and the pressure turned their heart. This isn't going no
work. Why you bring me in this country? If I can't wanting family
and you keep wanting money, I am not in tummy. You mean you
want this plan? I'm kenning someone run away the bestest there I can regretting
no decision because I learned to being a man. And if I never falled
and I never learned, the land got some issues that I really need to
tend to entanglem Abandonment is always on the menu. Sometimes I look to God
and question why really saying you had to learn my lesson? You were members
of my issues. And if I keep on tripping on these girls, and
when I make it, I got daddy issues to I used to be his
favorite until we found that money. I had hit it in the basement.
Told me, hustle backwards and you'll never be the greatest and your daddy.
You know, why can't it? All the late nights have me starving and
I ain't even have a key to get in the apartment. What makes it
the hardest? Since I finally see the light. You was fighting for what's
right and I was fighting for my rights, and every single night we spend
away it made me bitter. I couldn't understand how your brush will paint the
picture. But now I'm just this day and then it looks like a couple
of castle all that misadvice. I just see it twice tomorrow, browning in
my sorrow. I don't know what about my choices. Siting in my room,
I'll consume my the voices or maybe just the noises in the head.
As of regret, I kept on lighting fire. So what did I expect?
Now? What got me smiling us call and tell a circle? And
every day I'm going in Like when you said the curfew, I didn't mean
to make you scream until you turning purple did and Dad just skates floor.
We did always deserve you. Basically, I'm saying that I'm finally seeing a
vision. Was teaching that make all these sounds I didn't listen I'm sorry for
your kitchens and those sounds. I made a mess, but I was in
the country then I didn't know it's pressed instead a c collect. Then you
would know its pressed the five. So when it comes to family that you
never testify, I want to thank you because I wouldn't pay my father apologies.
Well anytime I'm trying to break that is. Dad didn't always deserve Hope
the rapper here with us live in studio. Thank you, thank you,
thank you. I appreciate that one. I appreciate that one. Great track,
great track. That video is cool too, And you were saying that
that was done the same the same time as chan Up Up. Yeah,
yeah, so different because chin Up you know, you're outside and of course
then there's a lot going on. Yeah, and Dad you're just on the
roof. But it's it's cool. He like it's weird because like we shot
the chin Up video and then I was like, because we still had to
shoot the Dad video. That's why we went out there because I did that
and then I recorded a video with Mickey FATX, so he like took the
airbnb we were in and just made it a scene. Was no plans,
nothing, he didn't like sit there and like write like a scene by scene.
Yeah, he just like in his head he had like this whole idea
from like when we walked into the airb which was amazing to see him do.
Yeah. So like if anybody visual works, one eye Visuals is the
guy. Okay, okay, yeah cool. How many videos have you done
with him? Pretty much all my videos, So at this point we're looking
at like six seven videos. Melanie La Liberty in the Facebook live chat one
of our friends from Vermont, she says that was nice, thank you,
thank you. I appreciate that. And Isaac Banks says, awesome, really
awesome all the way, thank you. Do you uh do you play out
a lot? Do you do a lot of live shows? Yes, yes
I did. I just actually did a little tour I did in the last
month and a half, I've done probably eight shows. Oh cool. Yeah
good. Though it's like two a week or something like that. Yeah,
it's it's hard because I have to, like I work like forty to fifty
hours outside of that. Yeah, so it's like one second I'm in Portsmouth,
the next second I'm in like Massachusetts for something, Connecticut for something else.
And yeah, you just got to balance yourself out. Yeah. How
long of a set do you do typically or does a very fifteen to twenty
minutes? Yeah, that's like a standard set. Some nights I'll go thirty
minutes, or some nights it'll be a shorter set because there'll be a lot
of people on the list. Yeah, but you gotta make do and make
an impact while you're there. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah, I used to
do. I used to promote a lot of live shows, and you know,
a lot of a lot of rock shows, but but some hip hop
shows too. And some of the other people I would work with on the
hip hop shows, it was like they wanted to cram as many performers in
the night as possible, and it's like at a certain point, it's like,
geez, are you sure we're doing this right, because everybody's gonna get
like ten minutes. Yeah, that's kind of like. So I love doing
shows and everything like that, and I have my platforms that I will stick
with, but I can't do shows with artists who aren't serious about themselves.
Yeah, because it came to a point where like you'll look at you'll look
around at your environment and everybody that you're surrounded by, your and you're like,
look at their social media for the last week, and you're like,
I've been sharing every day, I've been trying to engage with my fans.
You haven't done anything right, So you're gonna get my work if I do
this show with you. And you don't want to give your work to people,
right, because it's we It takes a lot to go out there.
It takes a lot to like put yourself out there and like be that figure,
the public figure that we are as musicians. Yeah, and you can't
give that people just because they have fun making music and that that's it's great
to have passion for making music. Don't get me wrong, not to scourging
a single soul out there, but there is a point where you have to
separate yourself or you become a part of the pack, right. Yeah,
and uh, And there's no excuse for not putting in that effort, right
because it's easier than ever with social media. It's it's not hard buttons,
right, The same buttons that you used to scroll is the same buttons you
could use to share or like even like recording your own stuff isn't even that
hard anymore. Yeah, And then they sell like the little stands and everything.
They make it just so easy to do for yourself that if you're not,
then that just says that you just want the like the name for it,
right, and that that just doesn't work out in my book, Yeah,
you see that a lot. You run into that a lot. Absolutely,
absolutely and it It actually took my video director to tell me, hey,
separate yourself. Yeah, separate yourself because I see, I see the
passion you have for this, but you can't be everywhere because you've become everywhere,
you become part of everything. If you're part of everything, you don't
stand out. Interesting. Yeah, yeah, it's an interesting way to to
put it, and I agree, Yeah, I have an axiom. You
know. When I first started and getting involved in music, it was like
I said, everyone wants to be a star, but only as long as
it's easy, you know, exactly, Like so many people once once they
realize there's actual effort involved, they're like, oh, I didn't get ten
thousand shares right right? What do I never mind? For the example I
like to use is you know the rock band that thinks if they go and
they play the same club every weekend, that you know the too, the
mythical record company. I like to talk about the mythical record company scout.
It's just gonna happen to wander into the bar one night and see them and
be so impressed that, oh, here's your million dollar ten album contract,
Like look at the track history. Has this happened here yet? Right?
Because if it hasn't happened here yet, you might need to relocate. And
you want to not be scared to do things like that. Like at the
end of this month, I know that I'm for no good reason at all
other than to promote myself. I just bought myself a plane ticket of the
California for five days. Oh wow, out there network with people. Yeah
yeah, get myself because like here's cool, but let me just get myself
out there. Yeah yeah. And and because of the era that we live
in with the Internet, with social media and everything, you'll be able to
not only make those contacts, but it's easier than ever to keep up with
contacts that you've made. You know exactly, I'm not writing letters right exactly
exactly. It's it's not like you know, you're going out there and you
get somebody's business card and then you you maybe you'll try to call them someday
and hope that you can reach them. You know, it's it's all.
It's it's easier than it's ever been to maintain all of that. So so
that's great, that's great, good for you. And then as far as
now the songs that you have do you have are they part of an album
or do you do you only release singles or I have one album that came
out with Hollyweird, Okay, ever since then, I don't so I call
it more of a mixtape. I don't want to call anything I put out
an album. As an artist. You could set yourself back by doing that,
because if you're coming out with albums, you're giving labels reference points.
If an album doesn't do like you're probably like, it's not to discourage anybody
like you might, but you're probably not going to do like crazy numbers for
your first couple albums. But let's say you get a buzz and you have
those albums out. The label is going to look at your numbers for the
albums and value on that. They're not going to value you on like your
potential. Yeah, they already have something they're based on. Ye, So
you could potentially cut yourself short of one hundreds of thousand dollars of dollars.
I put out singles and that's how I'm going to do it till I get
the attention of a label, and then they're gonna put out my album for
me. Yeah that makes sense. Yeah, you know, I grew up
in a time where it was like, you know, the formula was,
you put out a you have an album coming out, you put out a
single a little bit ahead of the album, and then the second single comes
out after the album's already out. And of course now we live in a
time where you have so many different ways you can do it. You have
so many options. Attention span is so short too. Yeah, So like
if you're for something like an album, it's again not to discourage artists,
but we also have to be realistic with our there's not the attention span for
that anymore. If you focus yourself on a bunch of good singles, once
you get signed, then the album will come. You'll have your time to
do that, but until then you're working on grabbing attention. And in a
society where we have reels and shorts, it's not gonna work with an EP
or an LP right, it's just the humble fact of it. Yeah,
exactly exactly do you have Have you gotten into the merchandising aspect of everything?
Do you have merch that you sell it, shows and everything? Or I
started a merch design but I haven't put it out yet. I'm thinking so
starting June, I'm gonna go on a ten week run where I'm dropping a
single every week. Oh cool. It's something that I picked up from an
artist, Nipsey Hustle rest in Peace, and I want to try to do
that too, and like after I release the ten singles, focus on like
the social media and like boosting it up that way. Yeah, but that's
when I'm gonna come out with merchandise once I have those signals coming out,
but I have the designs and everything ready, Cool, cool, excellent.
The time goes so quick. We are all already approaching the top of the
hour, and we will play we will play one more of your What was
the other one I wanted to play? I think it was uh, we
played visions. Oh it was oh fourth and goal, oh, which I
made a radio edit to that, and I think, is this You've got
a really cool video for that? Yeah? Yeah, so that video is
amazing because the same people that shot Joiner Lucas and like were a part of
his come up or oh shot that video for me. Oh cool? So
I think it's our projects to studios, Okay, so shout out to them.
They shot that video for me and I got to work with the model
in that Erica, and we were able to create something great, which is
awesome. Yeah, yeah, no, it's a great track. And before
we do that, though, before we let you go, what should people
know about where to find you online? How to keep up with everything that
you're doing bars Instagram and TikTok. It's hoped the rap on Facebook is gonna
be Hope the Rapper on all platform forms as far as music goes, like
major platforms, you won't find me on the smaller ones. But if you're
talking about iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, anything like that title, you could
find me under Hope the Rapper and yep, that's where you can find me.
Hey, where does the name come from? By the way, Hope
the Rapper? So I wanted it to be originally Hope And I don't know,
it's just something that suck to me when I thought of myself and like
what I wanted to like portray as a message. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
no, I dig it and you know and it fits you. You
know your music is very positive. Thank you, Yeah cool, I Hope
the Rapper, thank you so much. This has been your shit. This
has been absolutely wonderful. I'm really glad you got in touch. And when
you when you do the ten singles there, you know, we'll we'll play
those here if you if you want, yeah, please do by all means
all right, so we will. We'll finish the segment with this. This
is a fourth and goal and this is Hope the Rapper. Check this out.
Getting money every day been the option. I cant fly every way like
a mucked and getting I'm a face that I'm not him. We, the
ones in the back, get it up. And getting money every day been
the option. I get fly every way like a muck and getting I'm a
face that I'm not me. The ones in the back get it up.
And I was out hustling, trying to turn the pain into nothing. That's
some money talking. We don't entertain discussion forging, not my brains, not
laid on percussion. Now she ignin't even talks deduction of this off. Tell
me how inhost a function. Let's get down the business. Ain't no need
for introductions, any instrumental. I could give you the instructions. Long time
coming, y'all, don't really push my butt. Witness and volcanoes in eruption.
If you want to smoke, we could crack them like some Dustion said
the world was cold, so she never knew what love is. For every
reference, man, I really swear to gloves. It's crunched out at this
point. This point fourth an interest for everybody, for everybody. I want
to season. Getting money every day been the option. I get fly every
way like a monck t and bracket and time a face that I'm not tim
me. The ones in the back, get it pop and stop getting money
every day been the option. I get fly every way like a mounked and
brokeet and time a face that I'm not me the ones in the back,
get it pop, and I rope this while thinking about the old kay and
how money could turn us into a cold pay way whatever to make the broke
pay me never forever. She's staying no name for then, it just kind
of smoothing different. Usually they had a reason, not they're using payments.
Unfortunately that's and never did they never tell us I'm suppake of being fly,
I mother by propellers. I'm getting greens, but they feel with it.
I think they're jealous over sell us. Eat the change, and I know
it's nature. Seeing the man flip his ways like he was in a paper
hold. This money in my face is a motivator. Mo hatus with success.
Let's talk about it. Hit a beef next with a draw, chalk
around it, reading docks in your nose. But I'm never clowning. Told
him couldn't find a floor with a water fountain.