All right, you are now in Saint Uno's hip hop masterclass.

Yeah, man, I love it.

Okay, so I got a whole lesson plan here, but the first thing that we're going to do.

Wait, before you.

Before you even start.

Before you want to start.

Okay.

Because, you know, I know, I know I'm not that important because I know you were like, chilling with Kamala Harris just like five minutes ago.

No, no, I'm mad you said that.

This is more important to me.

This is more important thing.

So you were.

Cause I feel really special actually right now.

Cause you were like, oh, man, I don't know if I can make this lesson because I'm recording Kamala Harris right now.

And it's like, oh, yeah, it was.

A last minute thing.

She popped up at church and I had to, so.

But I mean, this has.

You have my undivided attention.

So like I said, music.

Music is the most important thing to me.

So I'm glad you decided to take the class.

You are the man.

Okay, so first things first.

Have you ever freestyled before?

I have, so I've never freestyled before, no.

Okay, so this is going to be your very first thing.

This is going to be like our warmup.

I'm sorry.

I got a beat loaded up.

You let me know if you can hear it.

And you just give me your best bars.

Off topic.

Oh, man.

You're gonna fuck with me like that?

Yeah.

Diving straight into it.

Wait, can I.

Before you start it, can I tell you something?

What's up?

So for the first time in my life, for real, I decided this week, this past week, to take a martial arts class.

Okay.

Which has also put me in a spot where, you know, I was, to say the least, fairly uncomfortable.

Right?

So this is gonna be number two in like three days of being extremely uncomfortable.

Hey, you're gonna.

You're gonna be extreme.

That's how you grow, man.

You get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Let's do it.

That's how you expand.

All right, so I'm gonna throw this beat on.

It's just an old school boom bat type beat.

You just show me what you got.

Okay.

I don't got much.

I got nothing, actually.

As a matter of fact, that's all you need.

Oh, wait, I don't hear it.

I don't hear it.

Oh, you can't hear anything?

No.

Oh, no.

That ruins the lesson plan.

Really?

Yeah.

Hold on one second.

You know what I think it is?

What?

Where'd you get to?

Where'd you get your bee from?

It's Just.

It's on the Internet.

All right, one second.

Because I think I know.

I have a suspicion I know what the problem is.

I could also send it to you and you can play it where you are and then that might be easier.

I thought about doing that anyway, but I was kind of late, so I just hopped right on.

All right, so go ahead and send it to me.

Okay, but go ahead and send it to me.

But there is a thing about zoom.

But you know what I can do is.

One sec.

Okay, I'm gonna grab that.

So go.

Can you text it to me?

Yep, I'm doing that right now.

Because I actually.

So you know, there's a thing about zoom where it doesn't necessarily.

It doesn't necessarily connect audio.

I thought I had it set up to do that, but maybe it doesn't.

It doesn't necessarily pull audio from your sound card.

You have to set it up specially, which I thought I did because I've streamed music on this podcast before.

Okay.

Because Dan and I did a live review one time where we played our own song and then paused it and talked about it and played more.

But you have to set it up.

So I thought I had it set up for that, but apparently not.

But I do have this speaker right here, which I can actually just play it in the room.

Yeah, that might be easiest.

And I just sent it.

I just texted it to you, so you should have it.

Okay, so hang on one second.

There it is.

Is it super loud?

It's phantom.

It's perfect.

It's perfect.

Okay.

Oh, I like this beat.

Okay.

My name is Keith.

Spitting through my teeth in the bed.

I'm a freak.

Yeah, I'm a phantom.

You can't see me.

You can't be me.

You want to be me.

Can't see me.

I'm invisible.

I always multiply.

Not divisible spit from the crucible.

They call me Lucifer.

Cause I'm bad.

I've been born bad.

I hit a wall, cracked my bones, smashed my brain.

I'm bleeding through a tube.

I'm feeding in a hospital bed.

Blood red.

It'S downtown.

Okay, okay, Okay.

I can live with that.

Okay.

Should you work with that?

That's the question.

That's the question.

I can work with that.

So first freestyle ever.

You know what I'm saying?

First freestyle ever.

Have a beer.

Congratulations.

A new life.

Milestone.

It's.

This is hop water.

No.

No affiliation.

It's non alcoholic.

Okay.

It's got.

I just don't want you to think I'm over here.

Drinking a beer when I'm supposed to be taking this thing seriously.

Hey, no.

I mean, some of the greatest musicians of all time have been inebriated while making music, so.

Yeah, I wouldn't be mad at it.

Well, this is.

We got ashwagandha and L Theanine, so it's not like, totally neutral.

No, no, that's cool.

I take a little ashwagandha, supplement myself.

Good for stress relief, you know.

Yep.

But.

Okay, so that was good.

So other than just.

The reason why I wanted to start with that is because a.

Like you said, it gets you out of your comfort zone.

And then also it's kind of like the essence of hip hop.

You know, it's like, it's.

It's thinking on your toes, it's being spontaneous.

It's like the first thing that comes.

It's not too overly calculated.

It's not trying too hard.

It's just really just being yourself.

And when you, when you don't have time to prepare for something, what naturally just comes out is just kind of what's already latent within you.

You know what I'm saying?

So I would.

If you're serious about.

About being a hip hop artist, I would incorporate some freestyling.

You know, maybe when you're in your car, just throw on some beats.

You know, YouTube has a plethora of beats that you can look up and stuff like that and just get comfortable with doing it.

I.

It's.

It's better to do it around people because it kind of makes you more performative and puts more pressure on you, but you can do it in isolation as well.

But is that how you learned?

Yeah, I think that's how everybody learns.

You know, it's just.

It's just kind of how like.

Like I just did it with friends.

And then, you know, people started to say, hey, you're actually, you know, it was just a thing.

We're just having fun with.

And they said you could actually do it at a.

At a good level.

So I decided why not?

So, yeah, it's.

And then hip hop is all about having fun.

So, you know, that's why, you know, you don't think about it too much, but then on a more musical note as well.

So I took a class in college.

Right.

So I took a.

As, you know, I'm a jazz fan, so I took like a jazz.

I didn't learn how to play any instruments or anything, but it was kind of just like a jazz theory class.

And I forgot the name of my professor.

But yeah, I Was gonna ask you, who'd you take it from?

He was.

You.

Would you mind?

You said woman.

Man or woman?

He was a drummer, not Thurman.

How did you know that dude?

I was.

I studied with Thurman Barker.

Oh, that was his name.

I was.

I was trying to think of his name this morning.

I was like, thurgood Urban man.

I wonder where he is right now.

Yeah.

Okay, so perfect.

Okay.

So did you take any classes with him or you just know him?

Yeah, because he was ahead of the jazz department when I was studying there, and I studied jazz.

Okay.

Oh, so you already know this.

This is going to be a reap.

Well, then, you know, his kind of tagline for the whole course is that jazz incorporates.

There's only two things necessary for music to be jazz, and that is syncopation, which is kind of like the swing on the beat and then also improvisation.

Right.

So again, in a lot of ways, that draws parallels to hip hop, too, because it's.

It's improvising, it's thinking on your toes.

It's really just catching what the beat is doing and not trying to overthink it and really shine.

But just like I like to say that the beat is playing you as an instrument.

So depending on how the beat sounds, you're going to come up with different flows, different styles and things of that nature.

But it's just really about feeling that beat and then adding the kind of best harmony that you can add on to that in an improvisational manner, you know?

So, yeah, that's.

That's why we got started with.

With the freestyle.

And then also in terms of the syncopation, it plays out.

And you kind of did it naturally because in hip hop, when you.

Especially when you're freestyling, you don't necessarily just want to stay on top of the beat too much because you're thinking, right.

You need time to think.

So it kind of.

It's something cool that you can kind of incorporate in your style when you're, like letting.

You're letting some beats skip or you're taking a little long to come up with the bar, but then you sneak it in at the last moment.

So it has like a double effect of it having a musical quality.

It's like you're not just, you know, always on top of the beat, but it gives you time to think as well.

So.

And you kind of naturally.

I did that.

You know, you didn't.

You didn't let the beat bully you into saying, okay, I have to say a word every time the drum hits or something.

You know, you got to give it little pauses.

And it was mostly just trying to think of stuff.

Right, right.

So.

And really, the best.

The best way is to like, not think, if that.

If that makes sense.

You know, it's really.

It's almost like, yeah, you know, you got the hot water ashwagandha.

So it's like.

It's almost like Zen in that.

It's like getting out of your own way and just, you know, becoming the beat or whatever that is.

Right.

So very good, very cool.

And then also, which actually leads us into the next thing that I have on the.

On the lesson plan.

Your very first line was, my name is Keith.

You know, and so.

And the very first thing I have on the lesson plan is, what's your name?

Right.

So.

Oh, it can be a hip hop name.

You can't come with a title or you can just rap under the moniker Keith.

But your very first line kind of hit.

All right.

Nail on the head.

Because the reason why your name is important is two reasons.

It gives you something to rap about.

As you can see, your first line is, you know, my name is Keith.

So it's good for content, but then also in terms of the content that you're saying, it, it allows you to, you know, pull.

It's kind of like your brand in a sense.

Right.

So based on whatever your name is, you know, if my name is Young Thug, you know, I'm going to be rapping about thug things, violence and stuff.

Like, my name is Saint Uno.

I pull on a lot of spirituality and things of my nature.

So it kind of like sets the tone and puts you in the right mindset for what you're actually going to be talking about.

Yeah.

I actually wanted to tell you two things.

I thought there was, you know, James Clear.

He wrote a book.

He wrote an inspirational book.

But he had a quote that reminded me of you.

It was.

It was basically two.

His.

His motto is like, always do one thing, always go, always get to one.

Because two is a hundred percent better than one.

But one is infinity better than zero.

So if you're doing nothing and you can get to one, that's infinity better.

Because zero times one is still zero.

Zero times infinity is still zero.

Right.

But once you get to one, it's like you got.

You manifested.

You became real.

So, like, I thought I was.

When I read that quote, I was like, I gotta tell Saint Uno because it's one.

Right.

Exactly.

Now, I have not been practicing rap, but I have a lot of names that I've been tossing around.

Okay.

That's practicing in a sense, you know.

Yeah.

Even though I said my name is Keith, I have a million.

I have a million hip hop alter egos that I've been sort of toying with, that I haven't.

I haven't settled on one.

Spit them out to me.

All right, so my main one is Perry Nice.

I actually thought of having a whole thing where I just had a million different names.

A lot of artists have multiple monikers they go by, so I'll just.

I'll just spit them out real fast.

Harry Nice.

AKA Frederick Rederick.

Oh, I like that.

AKA Duke Frederickson.

Like Duke Ellington.

Okay.

AKA Bryce Precise.

AKA Ice Babylon.

AKA Wise Cracker.

I like that one.

AKA White Giant.

That's like a star, right?

AKA Tony Trillions.

AKA Honest Abe.

I'm gonna skip some of these.

AKA Daddy Mobucks.

AKA Donnie Iceberg.

None of the.

Oh.

AKA Due Diligence.

Not like that one.

Yeah.

AKA AKA Huckleberry Fine.

Okay.

AKA Vanilla Abstract.

No, I don't like that one at all.

No.

Yeah, I don't either.

AKA Father Manhattan.

No.

AKA Uncle Keith.

I don't like that either.

Uncle Keith.

I kind of like Uncle Keith.

Okay.

AKA David Data.

Oh, the last one is actually this.

So I actually, now that I'm saying them out loud in public.

Yeah.

The only three of them are really so.

And the last one is the stoic Lucius Braggadocious.

That's too long for me.

So actually, Perry Nice or Frederick Perry Nice is the one I've always been sort of late leaning back on.

What's the origin of Perry Nice?

You know, honestly, I do not know.

Why.

I don't know.

Maybe that's a problem.

But Fredrick, because my name is Frederickson, my last name is Fred.

That was.

That was one of my top three.

Frederick Red.

Frederick Redderick is not bad.

Right?

Yeah, I like that.

Yeah, that one has resonated with a lot of people.

Okay.

And Wisecracker is just funny.

No.

So.

Okay, if I was the label A and R, your name would be Wisecracker, because that had the most jump off the page, kind of like troll, you know, that's gonna.

That's gonna get the people to click and stuff like that, you know?

So I'm not mad at that one either.

Okay.

And then you had another one.

Was like ice in it.

It was like Ice Babylon or something.

Ice Babylon.

Yeah, I like.

I like those.

My favorite three Frederick Rhetoric, Wisecracker and Ice Babylon.

Yeah, but you got a lot Of AKA you came.

You came to class, prepared you.

I did like White Giant, too, because a white giant is a type of star.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, I like that one too.

I like that one as well.

But I guess a lot of the other ones, you know, maybe I'll start deleting them.

So I don't.

I don't.

They don't take up my mind space.

Right.

And then the more you freestyle, you'll start to.

It's good to have more names because that's, again, more stuff to rhyme stuff with, you know, so it's good to have multiple monikers that you can go by because, you know, it's more stuff to rhyme about.

Yeah.

And.

Yeah.

So what's like your.

The overarching ice.

The overarching kind of concept I got was kind of like, lyrical wise and.

But also, like, not too serious, like kind of jokey, you know?

Yeah, well, actually.

And so I think I want to incorporate this.

So I'm starting kind of like a soul band, like an old school.

I don't know, like an old school, like.

Like Motown and kind of old school R and B band.

Okay.

And I'm hoping to sort of make some of my other music into that.

And so I'm calling that.

So I'm calling that.

You might probably like this Servants of Universal Love.

Okay.

Because that's an acronym for soul.

Ah.

I didn't.

Okay.

And I want to get into.

I want it to be sort of like a secular, spiritual sort of situation where it's like.

I love it, you know, like, it's like spiritual, but not specifically any one religion.

Right.

So I think what I might do is, you know, like, as I start to come up with raps, even though I, like, off the top of my head, I came up with some more, like, not.

It's all fine, it doesn't matter.

But, like, I want to be more.

Maybe more.

More like uplifting and spiritual if I can be.

Right.

Right.

So I'm gonna try to go down that avenue.

I would.

So I resonate with that a lot.

What I would say is, you just gotta practice more.

So the way I come about it is I'll even notice, like, when I'm first starting a song, the first couple lines might be like, just completely, like, secular or, like completely, you know, just talking shit or whatever.

But the more I get into it and just the more I don't fight that and say, oh, I don't want to sound like I want to be preachy or I want to sound.

The more I just Allow it.

The first thing to come to my mind just go out.

Over time, the lyrics become more so, like you're saying, like, more soulful, more spiritual.

So I would say don't let the fact that the first thing that comes to your mind being too jokey or being too, you know, basic or whatever, don't necessarily block that out, because you got to, like, trust that and see where it takes you.

That's literally what I do.

And a lot of people who are.

Who.

They get too much in their head about it and like, oh, I don't want them say this.

This sounds.

You know, this sounds dumb.

This sounds bad.

What they end up doing is they get up and they get writer's block because they're like.

They're stopping themselves before they're.

Because really, at the end of the day, it's all spiritual.

You know, it's.

There's no, like.

Like, we.

We have things that we consider.

This is spiritual and this is.

But literally the entire.

I think of spirituality is just as an experience.

And your experience, your spirit likes to experience highs, lows, positive, negative, dark, light, serious, funny.

So when you put it in a box and say every line has to be lyrical, miracle, spiritual, then you end up getting writer's block.

And you actually block a lot of the fun and the creativity that could have happened had you just kind of let yourself go with it.

So that would be my advice on that, because that's something that.

Not that I struggle with, but I notice I'm like, I don't have any filter.

And then I noticed by the end of the song, I've given a whole wide range of emotions from, you know, spiritual, fun, light.

And it's.

And it's just a masterpiece at that point.

Did you just come up with that lyrical miracle, spiritual?

No, that's kind of like a cliche.

Is it a cliche?

Yeah, that's like.

That's like a.

When people are.

You know.

Because people get divided into schools of thought.

They're like, oh, I just like fun rap or, like, mumble rap or, like, trap or whatever it is.

And then I don't listen to people who are like, lyrical, miracle, spirit.

You know, it's like those artists who, like, are holier than thou.

And it's all about the lyrics and stuff like that.

So.

Right.

That's.

That's what people will call you when, you know, when every line is just about some.

I'm the most serious.

I'm the most.

I use the biggest words with the most syllables and stuff like that.

It's like, that turns a lot of people off, you know?

It does, yeah.

I bet it does.

Yeah.

So you can.

I like to balance both.

And so I would, I would, I would encourage any of my pupils to do the same.

Yeah.

So I.

Yeah, I totally get that.

Because you can't.

If you want to flow, you kind of can't hold yourself back.

You have to just actually let it flow.

And I.

That's a big challenge for me because I.

I'm probably just way too much in my head about it.

You know, lots of people are.

That's why, that's why we started off with freestyling.

I'm like, just to get you out of your own way so you're not thinking too much about it, you know, so.

Okay, that's cool.

Yeah.

And I had as an example, I want to rock right now.

I'm Rob Basin.

I came to get down.

You know, there's so many lines of people just stating their name and that's like the.

So your name, your name is very important in hip hop.

Yeah.

Okay, so moving on to that.

What.

When you ask the.

Not like the hip hop head, but just the average person who may not be into hip hop, what's their favorite part about hip hop music?

If you've ever asked that to anybody, what would you think their answer would be?

Or what?

What do you think?

Most of the time they say probably the beat.

Look, I don't know if you can see it, but I have a big one.

It says the beat, the beat is everything, right?

So, yeah, again, in getting out of your own, so you as a cons, you're fresh into it, so you know that to be true.

A lot of people, once they become mcs or rappers and stuff like that, they forget that most people, their favorite aspect of hip hop is the beat.

Of course, lyrics are great, you know, and it's a.

It's a harmony where the two things help each other.

And the what is it?

What do they say?

The sum is greater than the halves or whatever the saying is, or something like that.

But the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Yeah, exactly.

That's the one that's the perfect balance.

But at the same time too, most people are just drawn to the beat.

So it's easy to get into a place where you forget, once you start actually making the music you like, forget that that's what a lot of people are actually into.

And like I said, you'll get too much in your head and try to think, what do I want to Say, what do I want to show people?

I want to give somebody a brain blast or a brain orgasm.

Like, what's the craziest line I can think of forgetting that most people, they don't even give a about that when they.

They just want to hear the beat.

So that's why I said in the beginning of the class is.

Is really you're the instrument and the beat is playing you.

So based on however the beat is, you're going to come up with different lyrics, different flows, different things that.

But you always like, I think the best hit.

Like me, I like.

I listen a lot of people, they grab their pen and they start.

They hear beat and they start writing, they start thinking, you know, they start externalizing based on what their message is or what I.

I literally just hear and internalize and feel the beat.

And then I'm just.

Whatever comes, if it's smart, if it's stupid, if it's funny, if it's sad, whatever comes from it, that is what's going to be most complimentary to the beat.

Because I wasn't in a space of.

Let me try to think of what I want to say.

I'm basically just letting the beat talk through me because that's what most people.

And so now the music that you create, it is going to complement the beat more as opposed to you just, you know, wanting to say whatever you want to say on top of the beat.

And it may not necessarily match that beat at the moment.

So you're right.

Yeah, you're spot on from the first three things.

You.

You pretty much got it.

So I have written down your job as an NC is to.

Is not to get people's attention.

It's really to not get in the way of the beat.

Right.

And the more you cannot get in the way of the beat.

That is what creates a great song, you know, with.

With great moments.

Because you're going to get the credit.

You're the artist, you're the person speaking.

But you're like letting.

You're like being the mouthpiece for the beat.

So it's important not to forget that and get too much into.

Like I just said in that whole lyric.

That's why a lot of people don't like the lyrical miracle spiritual stuff, because it's like they can't.

I'm too focused on your words.

I can't even enjoy the song, you know, and break out of your hands or anything like that.

And what was it exactly that you said about not getting in the way of the beat?

What was It.

I said, your job as an emcee is to get.

Is not to get people's attention, is to not get in the way of the beat.

Enhance it.

Not to get right.

You can't get in the way of the beat.

That's actually really brilliant.

I.

You don't even think about that.

But it's like you can't.

Some people I hate, I'm going to, I'm going to piss a lot of people off.

But I feel like one of the people who does this a lot.

Yeah, me.

You're going to hate me too.

Tupac, I feel like it's too much.

Right, Right.

And I get it.

Like, he says he's so brilliant.

He says all these brilliant things, but for me, he's getting all.

He's all over the beat.

You're a Biggie fan.

You're more of a Biggie fan.

I'm a weight.

Yeah.

Biggie's like, he's probably my number one.

Okay.

Yeah.

And that whole.

And they're, and they're both amazing, but like, I'm the same way, right?

I'm like, Biggie, he just flows like, who gives a fuck what he's talking about?

He's like hot, sicker than your average pop up Swiss cabbage.

He just want to bob your head and it's just.

You enjoy it.

And it's not so much about the preachy sermon not to like shit on Tupac and stuff like that because he's great in his own right.

But hang on a second.

Do you know every lyric to that song?

I'll probably.

I know a good bit of it.

I don't know.

I think, I think I do too.

Okay.

Yeah, I think I do too.

But it's just, it's just his flow is this.

You know, that's the funny thing between like, you know, spirituality.

Like, people always love to talk about the flow state and enter the flow.

You know, Bruce Lee be like water.

And then you get hip hop where it's like, it's like the flow, you know, and the flow is directly related to the beat.

You know, it's you not getting in the way of the beat.

You're not swimming against that current, but you just allowing the current to take you where it wants to go and then you just become the mouthpiece for it.

So, yeah, don't ever forget that.

Don't get so much in your mind of what your message is or whatever you want to say.

Learn how to listen to the beat, feel the beat, and then the words will come naturally and that's how you prevent writer's block a lot of the time, because you always got.

And then even you are in a scenario that I wanted to like jump in a couple of times while you were freestyling.

But it's like once you realize there are no limits and there are no boundaries and there's no right things to talk about, no wrong things to talk about, you can't get writer's block.

You can literally be like, you can make a bar about how you're having writer's block and then just talk about that experience in and of itself.

You know, the reason why people get writer's block is because they think they have to like stay on track or talk about a certain thing.

When it's like your, your mind is always turning shit out.

You know, you're just, you're analyzing it too much and you're, you're judging it too much.

You can't be, you can't be judgmental in hip hop.

Yeah.

So, yeah, that's where that, that's where that comes from.

I was feeling, you know, I was feeling judgmental into while I was doing it.

But then I started rapping about, like I said I hit a wall.

And then I was like, all right, I'll just start talking about what it's like to hit a wall.

Yeah, you did.

You were like, I'm bleeding.

It's like, how do I, how do I let go?

You know, how do I just let go and just say whatever?

You know, it's getting comfortable with being uncomfortable what you're doing right now.

Right?

It was your first one.

You're not, you're not going to be, you know, you're not going to be Mozart the first time you get on a piano.

But that's, that's the thing.

You just got to really not give a fuck, you know, that's why even hip hop has that whole not give a fuck attitude.

You know, that's.

And that's what ends up attracting a lot of the people.

It's weird.

It's like when you, when you allow yourself to be free and non judgmental, you actually end up attracting a lot more that way, as opposed to trying to think of what people want to hear or pander to people and, you know, give them.

It's just that freedom in and of itself is, is more priceless than any word that you can think of, you know?

So, yeah, you just, you just gotta do it and be non judgmental.

Okay.

So that's it.

You know, how to not get in the way of the beat.

You got names, you got different monikers.

You are on well on your way to becoming the best rapper alive.

Now the next thing.

So since you've been getting everything spot on, what would you say is the next most important thing?

Hip hop?

After the beat, I feel like.

So I'm just gonna say what I think you want me to say because I'm not 100% sure.

Don't do that.

Well, I'll tell you because I am a musician, so I have.

I'm a little bit, you know, I'm informed.

I'm somewhat informed.

I'm also a hip hop fan, so I think probably your flow, the delivery is probably the next thing.

Am I wrong?

I mean, there's no.

Or is that part of it?

That's not what I have on the paper.

But I do have a flow section, so we will get there.

But what I want to talk about is rhymes, you know, so another word for raps or hip hop or stuff.

Like people literally call it, like your rhymes, right?

So the thing about when you're.

When you're coming up with.

And you probably naturally did this while you were freestyling, but just didn't know it.

But another thing that leads to writer's block is because people kind of forget that the kind of essence of hip hop is the rhyme, you know, so when you're.

When you focus on the.

Like, I literally beat and like, the first thing that comes to my mind is like a.

It's like a sound, it's like a noise.

It might be like.

It might be like time.

And I'll.

I'll put a word on it.

I'll say time, mind, shine, or something like that.

But when you're freestyling, what you're actually doing, it's like everything is like you're working in reverse.

So like you're.

Since the beat is.

I mean, not the beat, since the rhyme is kind of the most important part of whatever lyrics you're delivering, right?

You want to start there, right?

So if you rhymes are popping in your head, what you do is you reverse engineer that sentence based off of the rhyme, you know, so don't think, oh, I want to say this, that, and the third.

Like, you said one thing that rhymes, and then you got to.

Gotta kind of quickly, without even thinking, you think of the next word that rhymes with the words you just said.

And now you gotta quickly reverse engineer for that and find a sentence that leads up to that word, right?

So, yeah, it's because that's like the impact that's like the.

Oh, he rhymed this with this, you know.

Right.

So that's.

And that's why a lot of people, you know, is it gets difficult when you're trying to be too deep or too, you know, lyrical miracle because the words have more syllables and you.

You can be a lot more impactful a lot of times saying stuff that just.

It'll resonate a lot better just because you're focusing on the sound of the actual rhyme itself and not trying to get too lost in conveying a message, you know?

So, yeah, like I said, you're reverse engineering every sentence.

You.

So once you really start freestyling a lot, you're gonna just.

It's just like words are going to come to your head, and then you're going to be able to quickly reverse engineer sentence after sentence after sentence.

And then that's the way you build a sentence as opposed into, like, just regular writing where it's like, the boy went to the grocery store.

It's like, store, grocery store.

You know, you do it backwards.

I can't do it backwards.

Yeah, actually, I felt that happening.

And, you know, I write other types of music, so I could sort of feel it.

It's just that I can't do it very quickly.

But when you're freestyling, you have to do it.

It's got to be, like, instantaneous, pretty much.

Right.

You know, we're obviously, we're capable of it because people do it and people do amazing jobs of it.

But it's like, for me, you know, it's going to be a lot of practice, probably, you know.

Yeah, like, anything.

But as long as you're aware.

Don't, don't.

I'm just trying to make you avoid common pitfalls, you know, like, because once people get into rapper mode, they get so serious, they get so focused on the message, and I'm trying to do this.

They forget the kind of.

The brilliance and the simplicity of things.

Does it sound good on the beat?

Does it rhyme right?

You know, like, you can say the most impactful, profound thing in the world, but if the rhyme is kind of weak, then it's not going to hit the same.

You know, it's.

It's not music.

It's just poetry.

Right, Exactly.

And, you know, and hip hop is a blending of both, but at the end of the day, like you said, it's music, so we can't forget that.

And I had somebody tell me one time that brevity is the soul of wit.

So.

And that.

That's a famous Quote.

Okay, somebody I don't know.

Yeah, it stuck with me because like I said, it's not always about the big five syllable words.

Like, you can be a lot more impactful with keeping in brief, chief.

You know, Keith, you know, it's like.

It's just something more potent about, you know, keeping it brief.

So on that note, we're going to keep that point brief and go on to the next one.

So now.

Okay, now we're getting to lyrical miracle school pretty much.

So that.

That was kind of the crash course in the.

In the foundations, the basics.

Right.

All right, so we go back over them again.

So it was.

The beat is number one.

Well, first number one was syncopation and improvisation.

So that's kind of tied in with the beat, you know?

Right, Syncopation, improvisation.

Yep.

You know, just being on your toes gives you time to think.

Switching up the flows fast, slow.

Not always.

Not letting the beat push you around.

Because just because the beat is doing this, there's a bunch of different ways I could do that with it.

Right, right.

And then we got.

What's your name?

You know, you got a couple.

You got some really dope names.

That's going to give you things to rhyme with and then also give you content to talk about based on whatever your name represents.

It's kind of like your brand, whatever, what are you selling, you know, as an artist, that all is tied into your name.

And then we get to the beat, you know that because that's.

That's what everybody loves about hip hop, the beat.

So don't.

Don't get in the way of that.

You just become the mouthpiece for that, and you'll be all good.

And then.

And then we get to rhymes, you know, which is so simple, people often overlook it.

But yeah, you can have people saying the most profound stuff in the world, but if it doesn't rhyme, then it like.

Yeah, like you said, it's like spoken word, you know, that's more.

So for spoken word, you want to talk about big, long sentences, but.

But music, people, it's something catchy, is something musical.

It's just about how words sounding the same after each other over and over.

And on that note, like I said, brevity is the soul of wit, you know, Don't.

Don't over complicate it.

Okay, so wait, are you about to move on?

Because that was the recap, right?

I feel like I have to tell you something because when you were talking about Thurman Barker and the jazz thing, so, you know, there's A whole thing about jazz.

Like, if you ask a jazz musician whether they play jazz or not, a lot of them just say, no, I just play music.

Right.

Jazz is just.

Somebody named it that, but it's not.

Right.

We play is like, you know, just the real soul of music.

And you can call it whatever you want, but that's what it is.

So I spent a lot of time thinking about what, like, actually makes jazz.

Like, I disagree with Thurman Barker.

Hmm.

Okay.

So I think there's three things, and I call it the three eyes.

Number one is improvisation.

It can't be jazz without improvisation.

But the second thing is individuality.

Okay.

Because bringing your own personality to it.

So, like, when you said your name.

Right, I was gonna say that.

Yeah.

It's like the same thing.

Right.

And then the third thing is innovation, because jazz never stood still.

Like, it never stayed the same.

It was always innovating.

So if you have those three things, that's jazz.

So I think a lot of hip hop is jazz, right?

Yeah, Based on that criteria.

Literally.

Yeah.

Like you said, we don't have to necessarily call it, like, it's just kind of music, you know, it's.

Yeah.

And the two build on each other, so.

No, I like that as well.

Yeah.

And then with the whole.

And then I even have a kind of.

In a lot of the content that I make outside of music.

Just kind of me talking and stuff.

One thing that I always say is spirituality is individuality at the same time.

You know, it's just.

It's just being your.

It's like no two snowflakes are the same.

You know, it's like everybody.

Yeah.

It's again, when we put it as a label is.

Oh, spiritual.

It has to deal with chakras, and it has to deal with.

It's like, literally, it just be yourself.

It's all the good, the bad, the ugly.

It's all a part of it.

And when you see humans put things into categories, it's like, good, bad, you know, devil, God, evil.

Right.

When it's all just.

It's just all just some shit, and we're just experiencing it, you know?

So.

Yeah, so.

So you just blew my mind twice because you said before you were just talking about how you can't get in the way of the bead.

Your job is not to know, make an impression.

Your job is to, you know, be one with the beat.

You can't get in the way.

You have to let the beat sing.

Right, Right.

And if you're not doing that, then you're you suck.

Right?

You're not doing.

But then the second thing is individuality is spirituality.

Yeah.

And that is deep, man.

That's.

There you go.

I'm gonna have to spend some time on that later.

And that's.

And that's why, like you said, music.

And then that's how music and spirituality are ultimately connected.

Like you said, it's improvisation and individual.

It all.

It all flows, you know.

Yeah, that's deep.

Okay.

Okay, so now we're going to get into like a little bit of like your high school, like grammar class or.

Not grammar class.

I just.

Language arts, if you will.

And this is the title I have for this section, is your tool belt.

And we got four.

There's lots of different literary tools you can use, but there are four main ones, and I call it squaring out the circle.

So, you know, these are like the four tools that you're going to use because when you.

When you're not getting in the way of the beat and you're just, you know, becoming the mouthpiece for a beat that's like the circle, you're going with the flow.

But at a certain point, you got to actually come up with words and they have to be logical to an extent, and they have to, you know, you have to give them more masculine qualities in the sense that they have to make sense.

They can't just be like.

It can't be like Scott Scat or what's it called?

Yeah, that's kind of like the origin of it, you know, but.

Yeah, yeah, you know, that's kind of what they're doing.

They're just.

Just flowing on the.

Whatever the beat and coming up with sounds and stuff.

But for it to be hip hop, it has to make sense to an extent, too.

So that's when we get into the actual words.

And now we're going to get into the literary devices.

So the four main ones, like I said to take you back to high school language arts class, are metaphors, similes, hyperboles, and entendres.

So those four things.

Now we're getting into like lyrical miracle territory.

When somebody's.

Especially when we get into, like, entendres, you know, words having double meanings, you know, you saying one sentence but having two different meanings and things of that nature.

That's.

That's an entendre.

So a lot of people.

That gives them.

So that's why this.

This kind of takes it to the next level.

When you're just going with the flow, people hear.

They just like the way that whatever you're saying sounds because you're flowing on it well, and it rhymes.

And then after that, it's like, oh, wait, that made sense too.

Or, oh, he said, I get money, I print money, like a money machine.

Oh, it's like a.

You know, it's a simile.

So, like, is like your best friend in.

In hip hop, you know, that's similes.

It's like whenever you're running, whenever you're reverse engineering those sentences, it's like, you.

I'm looking at an apple.

It's like, oh, I'm.

You know, I'm more juice.

I'm juicy like an apple.

I never drink.

You know, just.

Just to bring those things into reality.

Similes are.

Are really useful, right?

So that's like.

Or as.

But really, really, like, a lot of the times as.

Not so much I could think of.

Just as you're saying it, I'm thinking of a whole bunch of examples.

Yeah, exactly.

Like, this is.

This is all hip hop is.

But now we're just putting words on things that you already pretty much knew for the most part, you know, and then also metaphors.

So metaphors is also in that vein of making things, you know, spiritual or deep.

And it's useful in hip hop because you.

You're using these.

These words.

You're kind of confined to the words that you're using.

But when you.

When you look at it more like a metaphor, things can take on, like, a deeper life of their own just beyond the words, you know?

So, like, one of my.

And this is.

I.

When I had this pointed out to me, it was like the craziest thing ever, I think.

I think in the original interview he did, I told you, one of my favorite artists growing up was Lupe Fiasco.

He has an entire song, right, that, like, it made sense in one aspect, but once I figured out, somebody pointed out to me it was a metaphor for a whole nother thing.

It, like, it just completely blew my mind, you know, like, that too.

It's.

It's simpler.

So I could probably bake that one down more.

But he has a song called Homecoming, and it's basically the whole song is like, written as, like, he's talking to a girl, but the girl is actually a metaphor for Chicago, the city, you know?

So a lot of the.

Everything he's saying in the song, I met growing up when we was four years old.

And then in the one summer you got so cold, you know, you can say that about a relationship.

We met at this age.

You started to get cold on Me, I had to leave and stuff like that.

But once you realize that it's a metaphor for the city that he comes from, it's like, oh, you know.

So the point is not to get too caught up in the metaphor.

So now when you're writing a rap, it's okay, I have to come up with the craziest metaphor ever?

No, you just don't get in the way in the beat and make things that rhyme.

But the more comfortable and you know, involved in that process you get, you'll start to see a lot of things may even have double meanings.

And it's okay even if like the audience doesn't even necessarily pick up on it because now we're getting into kind of the more cerebral type hip hop artists who, you know, your fan base is going to be less, more limited at that.

You know, a lot of people just like it simple, you know, you know, 1, 2, 3, hip hop, hippity hippity hop.

But you kind of reach the next level once you're able to make things more of like an extended metaphor and give things double meanings and that nature.

So those are kind of the, the four tools that you are going to end up using to really give people that brain blast.

That's where.

What was it, what was the name Frederick Rhetoric comes in.

You know, that's when he comes in and says something that blows.

It just sounds good.

But then when you play it again and think about it, it's like, oh shit, there's like a whole nother meaning and layer there, you know?

Yeah.

So what are the, what are the, what are your four main tools?

Just, just repeat them back to me.

So I know you're.

I know you're.

It was metaphor, simile, hyperbole.

Yeah.

And then the last one was, I can't remember now.

It was entendres.

Entendre, Specifically double entendres.

Double entire.

So stubble meaning.

Yeah, double meaning.

One, one word, two meanings.

It's kind of like a metaphor.

But a metaphor is kind of like.

Is that.

It's like even to this day I don't can't remember the difference between metaphor and simile.

A metaphor.

A simile is a metaphor.

It's just using the words like or as so as opposed to saying I'm juicy like an apple.

A metaphor is like I am the apple.

So juicy, so juicy.

Call me apple or I'm the apple the way I'm so juicy.

You know, it's literally just like our eyes are the only.

They're essentially the same thing.

A lot of these things are kind of the same.

And then also I kind of skipped over hyperbole.

But that's another thing that you talked about in our, in our interview was how hip hop kind of has this bravado about it and this kind of, you know, I'm the one, I'm the man, I'm the guy, stuff like that.

And a lot of that comes from hyperbole or just really just over exaggerating and making whatever you're saying seem way more important or way more like, fantastic than it actually is.

You're, you're way richer than you actually, you know, that's what a lot of like, producers, they get mad because, like, a lot of artists will like steal beats and then they'll find out that like, they stole their beat.

And it's like on the beat, you're rapping about how rich you are and all that like that.

But like, you can't even pay me for my beat and stuff like that.

But it's just, it's kind of like you, you cut, you kind of almost expect whoever you're listening to in hip hop that it's not always just like a hundred percent truth, you know, it's like.

But, but it is an extension of the truth in that it's just like, it's like you're like creating this character.

And like, even, and even if, even if you're looking at it from the aspect of like it may have not happened yet, you're, you're creating that reality for it to become true.

Like, a lot of people even talk about how, you know, what do they say?

Like, manifesting through the word or, you know, you know what I'm saying?

The power in the word.

It's like that's, that's kind of one way to justify all the hyperbole and exaggeration in hip hop.

You could be negative and look at it as, oh, these people are lying about how much money they have, lying about how many girls they get, lying about this.

And third, or maybe they're wizards and they're changing their circumstance and situation by saying, speaking things into existence.

That's the phrase I was looking for, you know, so don't be afraid to overextend yourself because, you know, that's a part of the power of hip hop in and of itself.

It's like, you know, it takes people from rags to riches, it changes people's lives, you know, and, and if you identify with that now, just because it's not your current reality doesn't mean that it can't be your reality at some point.

So that's when we get into hyperbole.

It's not, it's not like a lie.

It's.

It can be if you want to look at it like that.

But it's also just like, you know, like I said, speaking things into existence.

So, yeah, those are the four tools to kind of make your rhymes and the way you're getting on the beat make more sense.

Let me give myself a time.

Oh, it's 250.

Damn.

Okay, so these last ones, of course, the deeper into the lesson we go, the more kind of deeper these things are.

But I'm just gonna kind of just make you aware of them.

We don't have to necessarily flesh them out.

Too crazy.

But the next thing that I have is storytelling.

Right?

So this is a big.

That's hard.

Yeah, that's like.

It's kind of leveling up, you know.

Okay.

We're just riding words, we're just flowing on the beat.

Okay.

We have a couple catchy punch lines or we use metaphors.

Now I'm making an actual narrative.

These things are.

Not only are the lines making sense, but they're, they're painting a picture, you know.

But the way I have it listed is because there is a, you know.

Do you remember in math they taught us pemdas?

Oh, yeah.

Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally.

Yeah, it's like parentheses, exponent, exponent, multiplication, basically kind of getting you in the sense that there's an order of operations.

Right.

So.

Right.

Because a lot of people think metaphors and similes and storytelling that like you said, that's what kind of makes you like a real great mc.

But where people mess up is in the pemdas or the order of operations.

They, they start, they, they hear the beat and the first thing they want to do is tell some story about this life changing spiritual experience they had or come up with the craziest metaphor.

It's like, no, just hear the beat first, make it rhyme first, you know, get.

You gotta crawl before you can walk.

You gotta walk before you can run.

You know what I'm saying?

So totally.

Right.

That's, that's what, that's kind of a good reminder anyway.

Yeah.

Because like I said, it's a common pitfall.

A common pitfall.

People, you know, they go straight to, I'm going to tell this crazy.

And it's like, you can't even like make people nod their head.

You're just stepping all over the beat, getting away, trying to make this story or come up with this crazy metaphor.

And.

And that's not what we want to do.

But again, with storytelling, this also kind of takes us back to the first point, which is whatever your name is, because your name is kind of indicative of your story.

You know, even how I talked about in my interview, like, okay, my spiritual journey was kind of a integral in me becoming a hip hop artist.

So that's like, my name and my story are kind of inextricable in that sense, you know?

And the great thing about storytelling, not the great thing, the important thing to remember about storytelling is it doesn't have to be super exciting.

It just has to be authentic, you know, So a lot of people will be.

Because, you know hip hop.

You know, when you think of traditional hip hop, you think, okay, you know, guy, urban environment, from the hood.

He, like, grew up from rags to riches, faced all this adversity.

So a lot of people get into this thing where it's like, oh, my story isn't as exciting as that.

So I'm going to do one of two things.

I'm either going to lie and make up a story that I heard Tupac say or something like that and try to emulate that because I know people like that, or I'm just going to avoid storytelling altogether.

But it's like, no, you.

Everybody has a story.

You know, you just got to.

What people resonate with isn't like, how crazy the story is per se.

It's like how authentic is.

You can make a really mundane story, but if it was really impactful for you and it was really authentic to you, people are going to be able to pick up on that.

You know, One of my.

One of my favorite artists, his name is Currency, and he, you know, he has like, one song where he's just talking about, like, getting stoned and, like, playing video games and, you know, I'm saying eating fruit snacks in his house and stuff like that.

And it's like, it's a real.

But it's a great story and.

But it's not anything, you know, who hasn't been high in their house eating fruit snacks or something?

It's just a regular day.

But it's not.

It's not what you do.

It's like how you do it.

You know what I'm saying?

So the more when you're authentic and speaking from your own genuine experience, you can.

You have access to certain details that can make that story pop, you know, so don't feel pressured by, like, oh, my story isn't as Exciting or cool as the next guy.

It's like, is it authentic to you?

And that's all that matters, you know what I'm saying?

And then you go from there, and then also, even in that same breath too.

The story can also be abstract and even fictional to an extent.

But when, if I'm saying something that's fictional, it still has to.

It may be factually a lie, but it has to be like emotionally true, if that makes sense, you know?

So, yeah, the same way, like, you may have.

It may not be your story, but you may have witnessed it or you may have heard it and it impacted you or made you realize something about yourself that was so profound.

You're.

You're talking about it.

And the best way to make that art is to talk about it from a first person perspective.

And it may not be your actual first person perspective, but one of my favorite quotes, I used to watch this show on hbo.

I love everything on hbo.

They had the show called Boardwalk Empire.

And on the first episode, this politician, he's like telling the story and then he gets off the stage and then this guy's like, hey, that, that part about this, this, then the third wasn't true.

And he was like, never let the truth get in the way of a good story, you know, so that's.

Authenticity is a thing that is important, that is key, you know, but it's not.

Again, you're never putting yourself in a jail cell.

Oh, I didn't really experience that.

So I can't talk about it.

No.

If it, if it impacted you, if you can emotionally relate to it, if it will make a good story.

Right.

Something that you will resonate with.

You know, we love mafia movies and things like that, but like, these guys weren't in the actual mafia, but, you know, somebody's got to tell the story.

So that's really a lot of hip hop people who were just around certain people experiencing things, and they weren't necessarily the ones experiencing it, but they had the skill to put it into words and make an art form out of it.

And you do the world of this justice by thinking, oh, I didn't experience that myself, so I can't talk about it.

It's like, no, you know, you never, like I said, putting yourself in a jail cell.

So storytelling, that will come, but once you master all the first things, that's.

That's really like a 200 level class, if you will.

Yeah, but that's high.

That's high art.

Yeah, that's.

That's high art at that Point.

And then after that I have flow, which you may have thought been at the beginning, and it kind of was, but I guess I just put it at the end as well, because to emphasize the importance of it, you know, there again, like I just said, don't put yourself in a jail cell.

I have written there are no boundaries.

You have to let the beat breathe, slow down, speed up, give yourself time to think.

Variation.

And keeping things fresh is very appealing.

Right, so you kind of did that in your.

In your freestyle, you know, you had like whole sections where the beat just kind of rode and then you hop back in.

You know, it kind of.

It's a good way to build anticipation.

That wasn't intentional.

That was just not being able to think of stuff.

Right.

It works.

It's an entendre in and of itself.

It gives you time to think.

Right.

So there's a functional aspect of it, but then also stylistically, it builds anticipation, you know, when you're like, what's he going to say next?

Or, oh, he was rapping, really, and he just disappeared out of nowhere.

So again, the more you can not put yourself in a jail cell.

Feel like I have to always just.

Or, you know, it's just allowing that flow to happen, you know, and that's pretty much it.

I have, at the end, I have melodic hip hop as well, but that's.

There's no real course for that, if I'm being honest.

That's.

That's kind of getting back to the.

First part about what is melodic hip hop.

Is that, like, where you actually sit?

You're.

You're kind of rhyming, but you're also singing actual notes.

It's like you're not really.

It's.

It's harmonizing, you know, so you're not singing, but like, there's a.

Like, auto tune is something that's really big in hip hop now.

But it's not like they're like, oh, but like the way they say the rhymes, they're still in key.

There's still a certain.

It's kind of like another way to rhyme almost.

When you think about it, it's like you're not only rhyming words, you're like rhyming notes as well.

So a lot of people, when the beat first comes on, they may just like hum something or it's kind of like if you get into certain religions, they have like, you know, like, speaking in tongues and just like all this kind of like.

Like a lot of like, Arab music stuff.

So it's like you Allow it.

And that's kind of like they look at it as like God speaking through them and stuff like that, you know, and then you kind of take that melody or that harmony that you're experiencing and you basically just put words on top of it, you know.

So yeah, that's.

That's really where hip hop is.

Like a lot of people are more so into the melodic hip hop these days.

It's like I said, less lyrical miracle and more so about just making good music.

So yeah, that's my crash course in hip hop.

Nice.

Yeah, that's awesome.

So let me.

Do I have any homework?

Well, I was going to say you got to give me homework the same way we started with a regular freestyle, I would encourage.

And I can even send you a beat where the beat is more or less like boom bap and more kind of like emotional moody.

I would want you to do like a melodic freestyle.

Yeah, maybe.

Maybe what I should do is like make a beat or something so that I have my.

This is my beat, you know.

Okay.

And then, and then, you know, and so I have made some.

So let me dig through some old beats, see if there's anything that's kind of like reasonable that could be used as a beat.

Perfect.

I'll say like, oh, that's my beat.

You know, that's like.

Cuz I mean, if it sucks and I'll just use someone else's beat, but maybe I can commission a beat, you know, like, where'd you get your beats?

You know what I mean?

Like you do.

There's literally like millions on YouTube.

What?

No, where'd you get your beats for your album?

Oh, really?

Yeah, that's like, that's.

What are they like royalty free beats or how does that work?

No, you can you.

I mean, I'm not gonna lie, sometimes I steal them, but I think on the last album I actually pay for them.

But you, in a perfect world, you pay.

They have like the link for you to buy them.

Yeah.

And then you can just pay the producer and you know, or you can just rip it off of YouTube and download it and you know, there's like 60,000 songs uploaded to Spotify every day, so it's like no one's probably gonna catch you.

All right, so I'll tell you what.

Can my first assignment just be to get a beat?

Cuz.

Cuz I'd like to actually like work towards actually having like an actual song.

Like.

Okay.

You know, like being able to like have a couple of verses, you know, maybe a chorus, like an Actual.

Maybe even have an actual song so I can find an actual beat and I can pay for it.

And I can say, okay, this is my beat.

I'm gonna use this thing.

I feel comfortable with it.

And then I'm going to like.

And then I'll start to rhyme over it and I'll come up with stuff and maybe you can critique it or something.

That sounds amazing.

That sounds.

So what you do on YouTube and it's kind of limiting, but it's.

You got to work with what you got.

I kind of like the idea of you making your own beat, but I don't know how if you want something more professional.

I'm just not sure if I have the skills to make something that's really going to be so great that it'll.

Inspire you to come up with.

Inspire me to.

Yes.

Get to that, you know, so what.

You do is you basically go to YouTube and you type in like Biggie Smalls type beat or Outkast type beat or Erykah Badu type.

Whatever.

Whatever the vibe you're kind of going for.

Just put that artist in type beat.

You'll get a whole bunch of results.

Listen to them, and then they have in the description how to buy the link to buy it and things like that.

And.

Got it.

Yeah, that's a.

That's a good place to start for that.

Awesome.

Dude, this is amazing.

This is amazing.

Yeah, I enjoyed it as well.

I love it.

So, you know what I.

And I.

So what I was going to do was just throw this on one of my channels, the one that I told you about before.

Servants of Universal Love.

Okay.

I think that's probably where I'm going to end up kind of like letting all this kind of like hip hop ish type stuff live.

But I'll send you the video too.

And I mean, you can post it wherever you want.

I'll probably just do an intro and say something like, you know, this is my actual lesson with Saint Uno.

He let me post this.

He gave me permission to post this.

But this is an actual lesson.

So you see like a behind the scenes situation.

Right.

You know, and then, you know, but you can do whatever you want with it too, obviously.

For sure.

I love it.

All right, man, thanks for.

Thanks for dropping Kamala to come hang with me for an hour.

It was my pleasure, man.

Cool, man.

All right.

Yep.

Looking forward to it.

I'm running for it, man.

Thanks.

Thanks again.

Really appreciate it.