American Rapstar (2020) Movie Script

Yo, Arnold,
what inspired you to get
Anne Frank tatted
on your fucking face?
Uh, basically,
it's like how you see
a lot of young artists
with tattoos on their face,
basically like,
a fucking statement, bro.
Yeah, it is.
She didn't have
any power to do shit,
so, she fucking died
in her room and shit.
Other niggas are jerking off,
not doing shit
with their life, bro.
Like, why don't they just get
out and go fucking get it?
As long as you're chasing
your shit, bro,
I stay in my fucking lane,
you know?
Hey, I'm gonna just say this.
We are all new-wave rappers,
and new wave is taking over
the mainstream.
What's your actual intake
on narcotics every day?
Well, I don't condone
no drug use.
All my fans, don't do drugs,
that shit's bad.
I'm not promoting drugs.
Especially you, Instagram,
keep suspending me.
I'm not promoting drugs.
Like, don't take drugs,
but I am addicted
to a couple things, you know.
My name is Jon Caramanica,
I am a pop music critic
at the New York Times.
Is there a prescription drug
problem amongst young people
who have been
systematically overmedicated
from the time they're
12 years old?
Yeah, like, this is
the music of those kids.
Should we be surprised
that this is how it sounds?
Of course this is how it sounds.
How else would it sound?
These kids aren't...
happy.
Or at least,
they're not finding joy
in the things that ordinary,
polite society says
you should find joy in.
You know, not rapping about
lacrosse leagues and shit.
We're going crazy this year.
Esskeetit!
Everything I'm doing...
is lit.
How can you hate Lil Pump?
Esskeetit!
I'm off of molly,
I'm off of lean.
What was the question again?
These are people who know
how to cut through the noise,
and it's usually
in blunt-force fashion.
Unfortunately,
what often happens
in those environments is,
the thing that,
barks the loudest,
gets the attention.
Hey, man, fuck bitches,
pop a molly and go crazy.
That's all there is to it.
We gonna shoot a movie, man.
The one and only,
the one and only Lil Pump!
I went on stage,
everybody "esskeetit."
That's what.
Fucking valet parkers.
Matter of fact, I just gave
the fucking paparazzi
too many books.
Giving
out money to everybody
'cause we really having it.
We having this shit, you know?
Why not give back to everybody?
Honey, honey,
honey, honey, honey.
We got Lil Pump from,
ooh, "Esskeetit."
-Oh.
-Yeah.
And my favorite Pump song...
"Molly" That's right.
with this nigga.
Hey, I see Matt is going
crazy everywhere, nigga.
-For real.
-This nigga, right here.
Playing around.
I had him pretty young,
so we're close in age.
It's hard to find, like,
a structured program
for kids to do,
like, creative things.
This has tested the water,
I'll tell you that.
Getting a little bit
of fame-y thing
so he can kinda
do what he wants,
-so we're working on that.
-I just want the money,
y'all can keep the clout.
I'mma get her a mansion,
I'mma get her a car.
I'mma get her a new boyfriend.
Well, last year,
last summer, he saved up
all his money
and bought a microphone.
And then,
from September to December,
he was putting
music on SoundCloud.
So, this is how successful
this young man is at 12.
You've just bought
your mother a home.
Yeah.
-What?
'Cause she retired.
She's retired now, so...
I took a break from working.
All because
of what he's been doing?
Well, how does it feel
to be, at 12,
to be able to do
that for your mom?
It's crazy.
-It's hard work, you feel me?
Yeah.
Didn't Meek Mill, at one point,
wanna have you on, to sign you?
Yeah. It's just, for me,
I want to be at the top
of Philly one day, you feel me?
And I don't think I could be
at the top of Philly
if I'm signed to somebody
that's already
at the top of Philly.
I love that attitude!
You wanna build your own empire.
I'm trying to be
my own king, you feel me?
Yeah, I feel you.
There should be
lots of Matt Oxes,
and I think, probably, if
you go to any town in America,
there probably is a Matt Ox,
we just don't know about yet.
You know, if there's
a Mason Ramsey,
let there be a Matt Ox.
What's social media has done is,
it's given metrics
to our personal lives.
If I behave in this way,
if I share this intimate
piece of information,
if I tell a story
in a certain fashion,
I'll receive attention.
It's hard not to be
drawn in by that.
I come from a generation
where that...
we didn't have that,
and now we do.
I can't imagine
what it's like to be
just hardwired into that system.
Right now, the norm
that people are being taught
is that all of these things
are good to chase,
quantifiable
and should grow over time.
And I'm not sure that's
what kids should think.
I think, prior generations
largely understood
fame top-down.
But in current generations
understand fame as, like,
building something
and then growing from there,
one kinda follower at a time.
The distance
between star and fan,
hero and follower,
is collapsing.
As that happens,
the entire notion
of who's famous
is completely
thrown up in the air.
I mean, just think
the Internet is getting
more and more interwined
with mainstream culture
and when I first started
reporting on all of this,
back in 2009, it was very much,
well, Internet curlture is
over here and real pop culture,
mainstream pop culture,
is over here.
And by now,
these all fuse together,
there's no distinction
between the two really,
especially, for young people.
And I think it's had a profound
effect on their mental health.
Punk rock, 1977.
People who are tired of,
like, the lush,
over-produced rock music,
and where they just say,
you know,
"Let's just do three chords,
you know the song."
That's the punk-rock
thing, you know?
Let's strip everything down to,
like, its bare essentials,
and you can do it too.
Like, go start a band,
learn these chords,
you can make this.
And that's
what SoundCloud rap is.
It's like, I can make
this in my bedroom,
and it doesn't even have
to be mixed or mastered,
and like 100 million people
will listen to it,
a billion people will
listen to it.
SoundCloud is like, the answer
to the great promise
of the Internet.
There was just like,
this energy around it.
Like, a bit of a dark energy.
Why it worked so well was
because it kinda bucked
against all the trends
that were happening.
This is becoming like a,
like a... like a thing.
They diving, breaking shit,
fucking up hotel.
We doing everything rock stars
literally do.
Before there was any hype to it,
SoundCloud is the shit.
I love SoundCloud.
But I just look
at the computer like,
"I could just drop this, just
fuck the Internet right now."
That's a fun feeling.
What about the fact
that they might be being, like,
molded by what's happening
in these times right now?
This is the Wild Wild West,
and we're in for a fun ride.
Streaming has really destroyed
and reshaped the model
for how you release
and promote music.
And is someone
who just likes to see
all the institutions torn down,
and to see things change,
and just see
the landscape evolve,
That's extremely exciting.
Goldman Sachs predicts
that streaming revenue
will hit something like,
34 billion by 2030,
which would exceed
the 1990s peak,
and the overall
music industry revenue,
it's looking at, like,
131 billion by 2030.
Let's go!
Hi, Davey.
-How you doing?
-Nice to meet you, baby.
That's...
That's, uh, Mama Bighead.
I wanna say thank you
for everything you do,
and for being there for my baby.
-Of course.
-I appreciate it.
You know what I'm saying.
I thank you for everything.
And I thank you
for having Bighead.
-Yeah?
-Yeah.
Aww, thank you.
I got her back here.
Hold on,
gimme these. I can't...
Oh, my God!
I can't do it.
I'm sorry, but let me...
What, were they dirty?
Uh, yes,
and he's on camera. No.
No, no, this thing's
not happening.
Yes, it is.
And I ain't playing.
Okay, give 'em to him.
So, how about that?
Now you can see better.
Oh, yeah, she's right,
she's right.
Thank you.
You're both legends.
He's a legend. I'm whatever.
You're both legends.
No, you're not whatever.
-I'm a ratchet.
-Trust me.
-I'm a ratchet, like you.
-I'm not a ratchet.
I haven't had sex
in a long time,
so I don't know
what you're talking about.
-Hey, my mom's .
-Nice meeting you, baby!
She crazy .
I told you,
I'm from the projects.
Got a ghetto Mom.
This generation,
all the kids are bad.
All of 'em.
I don't care how much these p...
'Cause, you know,
there's always those parents,
"Not my angel, not my angel."
Oh, yeah? Well, your angel
is getting fucked
in the back of a car
while she's high as shit.
So, that's your angel, right?
That's your angel!
Go get your angel!
'Cause I know half these parents
who didn't like me,
none of their daughters
are virgins anymore!
I've heard all the "how I lost
my virginity" stories
from all the little bitches
who try to be my friends now.
So, explain that one to me.
Your... Your angel,
not your kid, right?
Not your kid.
Uh, it's your kid,
so... explain that.
Danielle Bregoli,
many people were introduced
to her on Dr. Phil.
And all these hoes laughing
like it's so funny.
She's talking
about the audience,
that they're laughing at her.
It's like
a foul-mouthed kid
saying terrible things
to her mother.
Catch me outside,
how 'bout that?
"Catch you outside?"
What does that mean?
"Catch me outside."
She's like a little 13-year-old
girl who went on Dr. Phil
and said some viral-ass shit.
So, you wanna take this outside?
'Cause I think they can
bring cameras outside.
-Thank you.
-Sit down.
-Sit down.
-Alright, then.
Every kid right now
wants a face tat.
Every kid right now
wants to be all tat,
they wanna color
their hair different colors
and get dreads and do this,
and it's just like...
Y'all wanna be so unique,
but y'all doing the same thing!
Just, who can do it stupider?
That's what kids wanna see now.
That's what kids are seeing,
so that's
what they think is cool.
What they should be seeing is,
"Oh, look, this went gold,
or this went platinum,
or da-da-da-da".
And seeing people do
good things,
seeing these motherfuckers
do good things.
But no, what are they seeing?
They're seeing fucking
them acting dumb,
and fucking punks smashing
the back of a fucking
expensive-ass car
with a fucking golf club.
So, now, a kid's gonna wanna go
in an empty parking lot
when they see a nice car,
and they're like,
"Oh, Pump did it, so come on!"
And then, now look,
that kid's in jail.
Wow, lovely.
Because that's
what they think is cool.
They're not trying to do music
because they see how...
This is how Pump could get
up from the dirt,
and come up and do this,
and could become this.
They think that that's
what they have to do.
They're not looking
at the music part
'cause they're
just worried about that.
That's the biggest problem
with this whole fucking
shitshow of music.
It's such a f...
This industry is
such a fucking shitshow,
it's disgusting.
"Put this tattoo on your face,
dye your hair this color,
and act like this,
and do this, and do that,"
and it's like,
when you don't care,
when there's nothing
for you to give a fuck about,
you're just like, fuck it.
You just act out and do
what the fuck you wanna do.
I wasn't focused
on getting good grades,
and staying
in the clubs at school,
and not getting kicked out
of cheerleading or something.
I didn't give a fuck
about none of that shit.
I wasn't worried about the cops
that were getting called on me.
I never had nothing
to care about.
My mother wouldn't really try
to punish me, 'cause she...
What are you...?
"Oh, you're gonna lock me
in my room? I'm gonna
sneak out the window.
Oh, you're gonna tell me
to stay in my room?
Okay, I'm just gonna
have people come over
and we're gonna
smoke this house,
and you're gonna be pissed.
So tell me, tell me
what you'd like to do?"
Then she says she just
wouldn't punish me
'cause there'd be
no way around it.
She's not gonna stay home
and fucking hold my hand
and watch me sit in the corner
the whole fucking time.
In Florida, like, you can
fucking get
from a nine-year-old.
Like, it's not
an abnormal thing,
especially the part
that I'm from, where people,
like, don't care about anything.
Like, it's, like, whatever.
Age literally means nothing.
And I mean
in every way possible,
age means nothing, no one cares.
Little tablecloth,
little fucking leaf.
The ones who haven't got
their face tatted yet,
they will still get jobs,
they'll be okay.
The other ones...
You know, L. A., they're
used to the weirdness.
Guy with a face tat is nothing.
Even the guy
with his balls hanging out
on the side of the street
is nothing in L. A.
This next generation,
they're coming into
some fucked up shit, man.
Like, these kids nowadays
are like...
I'm starting to see...
I feel like an old man
and I'm only 22,
and I look young but like...
Man, I feel bad for this next
batch of kids, man.
They're really entering a world,
like, a really dangerous world.
I feel bad for them.
They're the first generation
with technology.
There's, like, three-year-olds
with fucking iPhones,
like goddamn.
They're being born
into something
that we created, unfortunately.
We created, you know,
like, popping Xans
and doing all that shit,
so, unfortunately,
I am part of that problem,
and I apologize to the world
and to the next generation
of kids for that,
because this shit
just ain't cool.
Like, people losing
their lives over this shit.
We're just different, just like
the generation before you,
and before them,
and before them,
and before them,
we're just different.
You won't understand this,
no matter how hard we try,
like, to get you to.
This generation is
run off of aesthetic
and the way you look,
rather than back
in the old days.
It wasn't how you looked,
it was how you rapped.
So, this generation runs off
face tattoos, you know,
aesthetic, the way you dress,
the way you look,
the way you act, your persona.
That's another reason
that they don't like us,
'cause they're like,
"Well, in 40 years,
you're gonna have
saggy face tats."
Well, guess what?
Everybody else who's getting
face tats right now is too,
and that's gonna be
our generation.
I'm never gonna fall off.
And anybody who said
I'd fell off,
you're stupid
'cause I'm on TV, like,
fucking three times
a fucking week.
So, if you think
about hip hop
in the mid to late-'90s,
you think of the...
kinda the first moments
where broader American
mainstream pop culture
understood just
how potent hip hop was,
both, as a musical force,
but also an industry force
and a financial force.
To say nothing of a contagion
like effect on style,
art, film, etc.
Hip hop became the lingua franca
of American pop
long before most people
really understood that
that's what was happening.
These are flush years,
so you're going from Bad Boy,
and then Roc-A-Fella,
and then into 50 Cent,
and you're just like,
"Wow, this is never gonna end."
This is just...
This is what the next 30 years
are gonna look like.
And then, of course,
at a certain point,
the Internet comes
along and, like,
yanks the stool out
from underneath everything.
Rap as a genre
did a really good job
of adjusting to the Internet,
but the industry, as a whole,
did not do a good job.
The radio only played,
like, 0.1% of what...
of music I thought
was interesting.
The idea that it was
all available out there,
I mean, I remember the first
time I went on Napster.
It was like, holy shit.
Like, it's all here, all of it.
But you also knew
it couldn't last forever.
A wildly popular website
called Napster
has changed the landscape
for pop music fans
who download music
on the Internet.
Downloading
music files isn't new,
but using the web
to share music files
among thousands of other fans
for free is not only new,
it is controversial,
creating a copying frenzy,
and it's all free to the user.
You can't stop water,
you know what I mean?
It's gonna find a way.
You can't stop it.
And the industry was very,
very slow to accept that.
I think, at that point,
they were so preoccupied
with playing defense,
because they were seeing
their bottom line
get jammed and jammed,
and halved and cut.
I mean, these are people
who were selling
half a million CDs,
a million CDs of, like,
genuinely, like,
not-relevant artists.
But because all you could
do was buy a CD,
that was just like, you know,
it's a false inflation
business model.
And so, the flood starts,
and, by the mid-2000s,
I think hip hop realized
what it took
everybody else
ten more years to realize.
And, frankly,
in some of the genres,
still haven't figured out.
Obviously, in two years,
there'll be a million artists
and there'll be a million
start-up labels.
And, for the longest time,
the labels' dominance have
kept the little man
from participating
in the music business.
They're screaming and crying
because they'll have
to share the marketplace.
The former rules are out
of the door, like...
like an old baseball game.
The new rules of music sharing,
music distribution,
music exposure,
are now globalized.
I'm working with people
in Silicon Valley on...
on a way to work
with MP3s to make it
free for the public,
and then, retraceable back
to the artist having
control and money.
But the thing about it,
the company actually,
being, you know, the...
Wait a minute.
It's free to the public
and it's traceable back...
back to the artist
so that they have control?
Makes revenue for the artist
and whatever team,
hoping that they...
Who pays
the revenue to the artist, then?
I don't get this.
Well, this company exists
out there.
They're working on it now.
SoundCloud,
it never became
the biggest music site
on the Internet,
but it was this like,
this very special place
for this very special, like,
unique type of thing to come up.
And it was like,
the first time was like,
"Oh this is something kind
of new in music since Napster."
Like it was the first kind
of music platform
that I was like, "Wow,
there is something interesting
happening here and there is
new types of songs
that aren't
just on iTunes, either.
Streaming has changed
the music industry completely.
deals were just
being handed out like candy.
Everyone that wanted
to be a rapper
came in with a face tat,
came in with their hair dyed,
came in with something crazy
so people would remember them.
Initially, labels
were against streaming.
And then, once it became clear
that streaming was
an inevitability,
what labels did is they found
a way to profit from streaming.
So, this is the key thing.
I do think streaming
would have eventually,
become the norm, I think
it happenned quicker
because labels decided to buy in
and when they bought in,
they profited.
It totally
removes the middle man,
anybody could do something,
you start to kind of find
interesting people.
Kids in their bedroom
making this songs,
putting them up in the Internet,
going around gate keepers,
that's cool.
They should do that like,
fuck the music industry
and then, of course,
the music industry
came right in
and co-opted all of it.
It's almost comic
how quickly it turned
from "we hate you"
to "we're in bed with you."
A young generation
only understands
how to consume music by pressing
play on a website,
as opposed to pressing play
on an iPod or anything else.
The labels
are in with like,
they're literally in bed
with streaming companies
like, they're partners
and they invest
in eachother
and pay eachother and so,
the way that
they've kind of like,
modified the entire
process of music discovery
and made it just like,
marketing line,
is kinda like, whack
and overwhelming to me.
People who knew
about music would understand
that there were
things on SoundCloud
that didn't exist anywhere else.
So, you have this whole kind
of shadow industry
that was really robust,
but it wasn't formalized
in the system.
You couldn't ignore
Internet-only consumption.
Internet-only consumption,
originally, was like a nuisance.
And when Billboard decides,
At a certain point,
"we're gonna take in streaming,"
that's a... To me,
that's as radical as shift
as when Billboard decides
to go to SoundScan in, like,
'91 or whatever it is.
The week before SoundScan,
the number-one album
in the country is an REM album,
and the week after SoundScan,
the number-one album
in the country is
an N. W. A. album.
The adoption of streaming
into the Billboard data
is roughly a similar sea change.
I think it was
an acknowledgement
that the paths that music was
traveling, were changing,
trying to accept that,
hey, maybe more people are
exposed to a song
on a Vine than they were
on a radio station.
What you start to see
is a lot of artists
who have a tremendous
presence online,
but almost no presence
in radio or touring,
or any of these other
conventional places,
all of a sudden popping up
on various charts.
But when I first saw what
was happening on SoundCloud,
especially if you're 16,
17, 18 years old
and you wanna be a rap star,
who wants to be a rap star
the old-fashioned way?
You can be a rap star this way.
'Cause I moved to Florida
when I was a young kid,
probably like, three
or four years old.
And I lived almost everywhere
in South Florida,
so I went to a lot
of different schools
and I got kicked out of a lot
of different high schools.
I was doing Xans
from the beginning.
Like, Xans, personally,
I was doing that shit
from the beginning, like,
I used to sell drugs.
really, that's
what I used to do,
and I was just like,
fuck it, I'mma rap.
Esskeetit!
Growing up in Florida, it's...
You know, it's crazy.
It's a lot of party,
it's a lot of drugs,
it's a lot of, like, you know,
a lot of everything.
It's, you know, it's not...
Where I grew up,
it's not the best place.
I moved... I moved
around really a lot.
Like, I almost went, like,
everywhere around Miami from,
like, Little Havana to Gardens
to Opa-locka, Carol City.
I was really close
to Broward, it was, like,
five, ten minutes
from Broward, or so.
Since I was young, I just...
I just always loved music,
from when I was young.
For Halloween, I would just...
I was a kid.
I would just dress like,
a rapper, myself, like...
I always, like, liked music.
I never knew it was gonna,
you know, happen,
but I always wanted to do music,
and I loved music
since I was a child.
It was really everything
that you imagine it would be.
It's, you know, Xans everywhere
and fights in the crowd,
and you could feel that
that's where the action was
if it didn't burn itself out.
And this thing that seemed
very ad-hoc and kind of casual,
like, probably
within three to six months was,
like, very formalized.
These kids were ahistorical.
These kids were
high-energy and reckless.
These kids really didn't care
about rap history, at all.
I care about rap history,
you know?
Like, these kids didn't.
Not interested, not impressed.
And so, you... you have
to start coming up
with different approaches,
different frameworks,
different ideologies.
It was clear to me
that the incursion of these kids
into hip hop was, like,
as much of a puncture
as what was happening
with punk in the '70s.
I hadn't seen that energy
at any show
of any genre in 15 years.
But looking at the kids
in the crowd,
13, 15, 17, losing their shit.
You can see their brains,
like, kinda like,
becoming bigger,
and bigger, and bigger.
There had been
this like, hyper-curated
version of yourself
online, right?
Like the "Instagram aesthetic,"
the like, millennial
Paul Smith pink wall,
kind of everything
hyper-curated,
pop music like, Katy Perry
kinda pop type stuff.
And then, the SoundCloud
kids were like,
didn't give a shit
about any of that,
and looked like shit
and kind of embrassed like,
this "messyness" almost
and it was the beginning
of this new aesthetic,
which I think we are in now,
which is more like this messy,
kinda "I don't care" attitude,
like a "fuck you" attitude.
Bro, Smokepurpp
shows, they are insane.
If you haven't been
in a Smokepurpp show,
you're missing out.
I see... I see, like,
also compares it
with the punk shit,
with the distorted base.
It's really, like,
it's really punk.
What you're seeing now
is a lot of attitude first,
personality first.
The most immediate
marketing venues
are intimate, personal, visual.
And so, you're gonna
get people who act out,
you're gonna get
people who look unusual,
you're gonna get people
who are extremely effective
at communicating with a screen.
In the hip hop of the '90s,
performing was, like,
kind of a secondary concern.
But now,
it's the dominant concern,
certainly more than,
like, "rapping."
I almost was, like,
"Well, this is gonna be niche.
This is gonna be, like,
a weird, 12-month bubble."
But it became clear that there
was a real organizing principle.
There was a sonic ideology.
Obviously, it helped
that a lot of the people
of that generation came
from the same place,
Broward County,
Florida, South Florida.
And maybe cared more about
SpaceGhostPurpp than Drake.
At this moment of,
like, peak smoothness,
what happened on SoundCloud
was the polar opposite.
We're talking heavy distortion,
ridiculous bottom end,
real serrated base.
Like, it's stuff that fuzzy
and sharp at the edges.
You know, lyrically, like,
not dense whatsoever.
A redux on, like, Reagan-era,
me-generation, materialism,
and sort of, like,
out for yourself-type mentality.
Because it's like equal
parts trauma, and stress,
and, like, anxiety,
but at the same time,
you know, it's decadence
and it's a celebration.
And so, you begin to see
songs that, frankly,
functioned in this
very radically concise way
become really popular,
and like, "Look at Me"
is really the song that
changes everything.
Probably the biggest conundrum
of covering hip hop
in the last five years has been
how to deal with XXXTentacion.
This is .
But we're not talking
about being Colombian,
I'm being interrupted.
Now, listen.
I'mma ask everybody
to back off and get down.
We're not starting the next song
until you back off and get down.
Back off and get down.
Yes.
Hey, if you are over here,
make some,
back off and get down!
We're not
till you back off and get down.
Back off, you hear that?
Back off.
Rabid fan base.
Musically, pretty interesting.
Really diverse influences.
Hip hop, folk, rock, emo, etc.
All these... All these things
doing together.
Really pointed,
often pained lyrics.
A lot of...
tactile emotion in the music.
Now listen. Are there
any motherfuckers left standing?
Force that motherfucker
to get down!
Right the fuck down.
That's what the fuck
I'm talking about.
Stay down.
-Stay down!
Stop.
Stay down.
Stay down.
Anytime I see any of you
motherfuckers hop on,
I'm stopping the music.
Do not ruin it for everyone.
Stay the fuck down.
Play that shit.
Stay down!
Wait, wait, wait.
[XXXTentacion and Ski Mask
The Slump God singing
"What in XXXTarnation"]
Of this generation,
X felt like the person
primed to change the center
of the music conversation.
Jah's an...
He's an artists' artist.
Like, he's... he is,
in every sense of the word,
every part of the creative
process, he is a part of.
He never did anything
just to make money,
or just for any type
of short-term gain.
Like, everything was
carefully, carefully,
carefully executed
for his brand.
Like, I say he was a genius
because he was, and that's why,
you know, all his supporters
feel so close to everything,
because they know that he comes
with a certain level of truth.
I often say, like,
the kids are always right.
That's a flawed premise,
but I... but I do think
you have to listen when kids are
glomming onto something.
I think the thing that
you probably can't trust
the kids on, is morality.
The things that, as we age,
just become sharper
to us, are fuzzy,
I think, when you're young
and still developing.
And so, I think it's easier
to see X as just, like,
a great artist who's troubled
if you're 16 or 17,
than if you're 36 or 37.
When X would put out
an album and go number one,
you're like... I'm like,
"What the fuck?"
How is XXXTentacion's album
number one in the country
right now?
That's fucking crazy.
The relationship
between him and his fans
was so palpable and so real
and so, like,
fostered, he's got
legions of teenagers.
The only information
that they consume about him
is from him, and so,
they don't give a shit
about what figures
as XXXTentacion.
It's almost, like,
tribal at that point,
where it's like,
"I just, like, trust you,
and you're the person giving
me the information."
The separating the art
from the artist thing is, like,
the oldest conversation
in the book almost, you know?
And there is an interesting
discussion happening,
where it's, like, we should
be challenging ourselves
to be holding people
who are morally correct
in an elevated way.
Is that really fair to the art?
Is that really fair
to the artist?
Is that really fair to,
like, the medium
in which the art is
being created?
It's kind of like the question
of our times, now especially.
How do you separate
the art from the artist?
And is that something
we should do?
Here is a figure that's
actually in modern day
How do we handle this?
Should we let
him get more famous
or should we cut him off and...
I think it was this like,
reckoning of like,
Do we want accountability?
Is Spotify gotta be
the one that suddenly holds
people accountable,
is that what we want?
With enough fans, you could
do whatever you want
Are you selling yourself
as a controversial person?
If you're selling yourself
as a controversial person,
no matter how controversial
you are, people don't care
'cause they expect
that from you.
And as long as your fans
don't turn on you,
you cannot
with impunity.
That is the way that Internet is
constructed right now
and that is the way
that our like,
culture of fame is constructed,
where there's almost
no nuisance either.
I mean, if you think of stan
culture on the Internet,
it is about blind fate
and to devoting yourself
to this person, and if
you question that person
or if you try to like,
you know, push back on them,
Other stans will bash you
and you'll be sort of like,
and exorcise from the community
so, we saw a lot of that.
Those types of fandoms emerge
for these people
because they came
from the Internet,
they understood that very early.
X spoke to a lot of kids.
To me, the more definitive
X stuff is less the songs
and more, like,
the Instagram sermons,
and the IG lives,
and the conversations.
If I'm not teaching people
how to make money,
if I'm not teaching people
how to love themselves,
if I'm not teaching people
how to do everything
they wanna do with their lives,
then who the fuck am I?
Someone who really valued
one-to-one communication,
tried to, like, offer
words of positivity
to fans and to fellow artists.
A tough personality to kinda
get your head around.
Yo.
Hold on.
Listen, listen, listen,
listen, listen, listen.
Listen.
No matter what happens,
I need you guys to make
a promise to me.
I need one thing from you,
just one thing.
And I don't ask
for much from my fans.
And the promise I want
you to make to me is that,
no matter what happens,
no matter what you face,
no matter who you lose,
no matter what happens,
you do not give up.
I need you to make
that promise to me.
make that promise to me.
You know, I know I can't give
each and every individual
in here how fucking hard
, I get it.
I understand.
My energy and my love
and my heart is fully with you.
And I appreciate...
Listen.
I'm passing you, listen.
I'm passing you this lesson.
Once you leave this building,
something good is gonna happen
to each and every one of you.
You got my word.
My name is XXX and I
, thank you.
When X got out of jail,
I remember he did some shows
I'd, like, follow on Instagram,
and he'd be, like,
jumping off balconies
and getting into fights.
And, honestly,
we had a conversation
here where I was, like,
"Should we write
an advance obituary for him?"
'cause it just seemed...
volatile, and liable
to blow, at any moment.
Signal 33,
just occurred.
3671 North 60th,
at RIVA Motorsports.
Several gunshots,
possibly a drive-by.
No description on the subject.
Someone in a black BMW 3X.
This is how we process
death in, you know, the 2010s.
Like, it's presented
to you on your phone.
That's the moment
where it's like, no.
Real things, real people,
real consequences, real lives.
Breaking news
from Deerfield Beach, Florida.
Authorities are investigating
the fatal shooting
of rapper XXXTentacion,
as he was gunned down
leaving RIVA Motorsports
in his black BMW i8.
The 20-year-old rapper,
whose real name is
Jahseh Onfroy,
was approached
by two armed suspects,
and at least one fired
in what authorities say
was an attempted robbery.
The suspects fled the scene
and Onfroy was taken
to the hospital,
where he was pronounced dead.
Tonight, Kanye West tweeted,
quote, "Rest in peace.
I never told you
how much you inspired me
when you were here."
Hundreds of people have gathered
in the Fairfax District
tonight in a vigil
for the late rapper.
Police are also out in force,
making sure things do
not get out of hand.
Over 1,000
people are in the street
near Melrose,
completely covering the street.
There are people
on top of buildings,
dancing around
and jumping off roofs,
and the LAPD was having a real
hard time containing them.
Tuesday night
fans also held a walk
in X's memory
to stop the violence.
We trynna preach today
to put the guns down, man.
Stop all the... all the killing,
all the senseless violence.
It gotta stop, man.
We losing too many.
Now look who we lost.
We lost a Broward County legend.
I knew kids were gonna
feel about X's passing
kinda on a Kurt Cobain way.
Because he
doesn't wanna be known for...
being a drug addict, he doesn't
wanna be known for being
a loser, or anything the rest of
the world called him, you know?
People over 32, they are...
They're not meant to understand
what Kurt... Kurt was,
like I say,
he was put here
to irritate them.
You know, these people
grew up in the '60s
with a generation gap, and now,
they're really pissed
that there's another one.
Two years ago,
two or three years ago,
boyfriend
was just getting out of jail
at the Broward County Main Jail,
where X was at.
He came in the car, said,
"Let me see your phone,"
typed in "XXX look at me"
and played the song,
and I'm like,
"what the fuck is this?
What is this?"
There was something
about him that just, like,
made him stand out.
He was just such
a powerful person.
Everyone's kids are
gonna know about it.
He's gonna be one
of those things
that stick out in...
in music.
Yeah, I think... I mean,
I think losing an idol
is a very difficult thing,
whether it's shootings
in the neighborhoods
or the death of friends
or folks at school.
These are all events
that have an impact,
a lasting impact, and
we can't underestimate that.
I know there's
a lot of shock value
in the SoundCloud generation,
but I do think it's sincere.
It doesn't feel cheap to me.
I do think it's people coming
from tough circumstances
who are choosing to go all in.
What the Broward SoundCloud
kids had,
they understood that
you can be rageful
or you can be frustrated,
but what those kids
understood is,
if it didn't have a sound,
kinda didn't matter.
But I think
what you're gonna see
are people influenced by X
and his flexibility
and fluidity between the genre
and raw access of emotion.
And, again, you see
this with Peep as well,
though on a very different way.
And obviously, there've been
tensions around.
Are Peep and X complementary?
Are they sort of at odds?
But I do think
they were, probably,
the two people best suited
to carry some of the lessons
of that era into, like,
the broader mainstream,
and now we don't have
either of them.
This is my friend Peep.
This... His name is Lil Peep,
but it's Peep .
-Yeah.
-The third.
The third, nigga.
He been rocking with me
before his fame.
If you wasn't on Skid Row,
you not our homie.
That's right.
You can't come
to the new .
That's a fact.
at the lofters.
If you wasn't at the lofters,
you don't know.
Like... He was at the lofters.
Yeah, Matt...
Matt was there in spirit.
Matt was there in spirit.
Matt was there.
What was the first time
I had split?
I was like six
or seven years old.
He does already like to be seen.
-Show was tight.
-We go back.
-We go way back.
-I'm his big bro.
Yeah.
-Wanna get lit?
-Oh, my gosh.
Some fidget spinners.
Goddamn!
You can't .
We in Peep's trailer, bro.
Peep got the rich trailer.
He got more views than me.
He got more photos an all.
What do we got here?
Antwon, you know,
just a little bro.
He started making music
like last Thursday.
I'm little bro? Dude, I'm older.
-I'm little bro?
-Yeah.
I'm about to put him
on big time in the game.
You know what I'm saying.
Yeah. Next up, bro, I'm next up.
-I'm the OG.
-Yeah, I'm old, nigga.
I feel like Justin Timberlake,
you know?
I feel... No, I don't even feel
like Justin Timberlake,
I feel like... like... Rihanna.
You gotta aim bigger, be...
Ricky Martin.
I feel like Madonna.
Be, uh, Romeo Santos.
I feel like Madonna/Matt Ox,
you know?
A combination of the two.
I'm always overwhelmed.
I get overwhelmed by, uh,
breakfast when I wake up to eat.
-I get overwhelmed by...
-Breakfast?
By anything.
I get overwhelmed by large
French fries at McDonald's.
A lot of shit.
I'm always overwhelmed,
you know?
But I'm always high
in this world.
Same.
I remember when I,
when I interviewed Peep, I...
I rarely feel an urge
towards protection.
I mean, he took
a Xanax in front of me,
you know, like mid-interview.
There was no filter,
and no protective outer shell.
But that was
also clear in the music.
When I think of, like,
the most affecting music
of his generation, like,
it's... they're Peep songs.
Like a Peep feeling.
I would just phone Peep
and smoke weed and pop Xans,
and... just relate
it to his pain.
And "Star Shopping" was
the first song I heard by him,
and I was like,
"Can it... Can a song get
more beautiful than this?
Like, Jesus."
And then I learned that,
like, that was one of his,
like, first songs,
and I was like,
"My God, like,
it's just such a beautiful
fucking song, dude."
Then you start going down,
looking at his discography
and all his music,
and then I was...
I was hooked.
He spawned the likes
of all these copycats
that are trying to imitate.
Like, you go
down Melrose in L. A.
and you're going to see
30 Lil Peep lookalikes,
just trying to dress like him
and, "oh, I'm so fucking goth,
and I'm so fucking this," but...
And he honestly inspired me too.
He took these intuitive cadences
and flow patterns,
and things that he learned
from hip hop, and...
imported them into a totally
different framework.
And I remember the first time
hearing his music,
hearing the Crybaby tape
or whatever, and just like...
It was like, that's it.
They did it.
It's done, nobody has
to do it anymore.
It's done.
He was only 21.
Emerging rapper Lil Peep
died last night
right before he was
set to perform in Tucson.
My brother just died
in my arms, man.
I'm done with this shit,
man, forever.
Fuck this shit.
Tucson police
say they found Lil Peep
unresponsive inside
of his tour bus
from an apparent drug overdose.
People, like, rapping today is,
like... it's just, like,
influenced by drugs
and suicide like that.
People just, "Oh, it's
just another rapper,
just it's whatever," but
people need to understand
that he was actually
calling for help.
Seeing the videos,
there's always fucking videos.
Why is there always fucking
videos, you know what I mean?
I hate that shit.
'Cause, like, no,
I'm not gonna watch it,
but I do end up watching
it 'cause...
okay, I didn't... I didn't
wanna believe it, you know?
I was waiting for so much
more music from...
from Lil Peep.
Legends never die
and energy lives forever.
Rest in peace, X, Peep,
and everyone that's after.
My first tour with Peep,
you know what I'm saying?
We shared a room like, on a tour
me and him shared a room,
so, we were really close, bro.
He was just like, a fun,
positive person, you know?
He was just a cool person,
he reminded me a lot of me.
You know what I'm saying?
He was like a mirror, almost.
Reminded me of myself.
We were really close
and I miss Peep everyday.
Miss X everyday, miss
all my dead homies everyday.
Shit, man.
You can tell a pressed Xan.
Like, come on now.
It looks weird.
So, they're think
they're doing Xans,
but usually it's,
like, Fentanyl.
Fentanyl bomb.
But, like, lowkey,
Fentanyl's a hell of a drug,
so if they got the dose right,
I ain't tripping.
But, hey, we had a epidemic over
there, was like .
I died and came back from it.
Yeah, the Xans was
killing people
because they got the dosage
wrong, so it was like...
So much Fentanyl, so you take
it and you start puking,
and you gotta go
to the hospital.
But, bro, I've seen this man
die, like, ten times.
The relationship between
early trauma and substance use
and addictions is remarkable.
In other words, when younger
people are suffering
from either deprivation
or toxic exposure,
the likelihood that
they're going to use
and rely upon substances
and become addicted
is remarkable,
and can lead to some
of the epidemics
that we're seeing.
There's a clear opiate
epidemic in our country,
and in some places worse
than others.
Control of the pharmaceutical
industry is a big challenge.
There's a lot of incentive
to make drugs and sell them.
Anxiety and depression
rates in younger people
are increasing,
and it's not clear
whether that's because we're
looking more carefully
and we're detecting
it more effectively,
or whether, in fact,
it's more people
that are suffering
for a variety of reasons.
And we're from, like,
a shitty-ass town.
Like, nothing happens
here, and so,
for someone to actually make
it out here, is, like...
It's insane.
There's very obviously
a drug problem
with young people, and it's very
obviously a Fentanyl problem.
What you're seeing is
a lot of sadness,
a lot of pain, a lot of attempts
at self-medication,
and not a lot of oversight,
from governmental oversight
to legal oversight.
It's people feeling their way
to some kind of resolution
of pain, and, when you do
it on your own,
you're not gonna have
all the information.
You know, tragic things
happen, but...
is it representative
of a larger issue?
It's definitely representative
of a larger issue.
My fear is that it's gonna
take more losing people
to wake
certain people up and say,
"Maybe we should think
harder about this."
That's my fear.
Any artist
who decides to talk
about drugs or, like,
go that route,
a lot of them are coming
from a place of authenticity.
Who are we to tell an artist
that they can't make a song
about lean and coke and Xan,
and whatever the fuck that,
you know, they have used
or gone through an experience?
I think that some people are
coming from a real place
with that stuff, and, like,
it feels really horrible to try
to police their expression
because we're sensitive
about the effect
that it'll have once
it gets out there in the world.
Same reason I feel the need
to take so many and,
you know, we just...
we just wanna numb the pain
and we wanna feel good,
we wanna feel normal.
Once you've done enough,
you can't get off it,
you can't just up and quit.
You have withdrawals,
and nobody wants to go
through withdrawals.
They're quite possibly
the worst thing in the world.
And I'm... I've gone cold turkey
and actually made
it off two times
without any sort of help.
It's not an easy thing
to just put down.
You just wanna feel
a sense of happiness
when you're sad,
and there's a lot of...
a lot of sad kids
out there right now
that people don't know about,
hiding their emotions.
I was hiding my emotions
for a long time too,
and it's...
Sometimes I still do,
fake smiles and all that.
I wanna show y'all
what mental illness really
fucking looks like.
Y'all wanna see
what that looks like?
I just did this to my car.
Scratched it, keyed it up.
I just bought it.
I just bought this fucking car.
Keyed all the way.
Hit the fucking door.
Wanna know why I'm doing that?
'Cause of mental fucking
illness.
All this materialistic shit
don't mean shit in the world,
and when they won't let you do,
I'm owned, I'm a fucking slave.
I'm a slave to my management,
I'm a slave to everybody.
I don't get control
of my bank account,
I don't get control of shit.
I can't even drive
that fucking car.
So, fuck everybody!
You wanna see some? Look.
Fuck that shit.
Honestly, these kids
just don't give a fuck.
They don't.
It's just like,
it's kinda sad because,
like, all these artists now,
the big thing is
"I can get higher than you."
It's all... And they video
it and they joke.
-What the fuck?
-I'm on it!
-You want this purp?
-I need the purp!
Then you have artists,
like, example,
Lil Xan, whose name,
like, glorifying it.
And it's not something
that should be glorified,
it's not something that's okay.
"Xanarchy" hoodies.
You can't even get this no more.
Like, what if
you used to do heroin?
"Oh, I'm Lil Heroin.
I'm Lil Cap."
Like, no, you ain't
gonna do that shit!
The first time I ever sold
a drug, they were roxies.
So, um, like, that's like,
the first drug I ever sold.
They're supposed to go
for, like, it was...
I think it was
ten dollars a piece,
and I sold them for like,
three dollars a piece.
I was 11 or 12,
what did you expect?
If you wanna get high,
if you wanna be
in a different place,
smoke some weed.
If one is not enough for you,
okay, smoke two,
get high off your fucking ass
so you can't breathe right.
Go ahead, do what you want,
weed's not gonna kill you.
But y'all wanna feel
this different high,
so y'all wanna do fucking
molly and your lean,
and fucking snorting
Xanax after,
and fucking shoving
Adderall up your ass.
Like, what comes from that?
Okay, now you can't even work
'cause you're so fucking
dysfunctional,
you're foaming
out of your mouth.
A lot of people fuck
with me because I'm honest.
A lot of people fuck with me
because they relate to me.
Others fuck with me because
they like my personality.
What young people want
from pop culture
is not what old people want
from pop culture.
Weirdly, she seems designed
for mass consumption,
and it just took
that unorthodox series
of events to put
her in the position for it.
Well, two songs
went gold,
I dropped a mix tape.
I'm proud about everything
I've done
'cause I've done it all, so.
It's kinda turned me into
this little Hollywood demon.
It's like, I was talking about
getting a nose job earlier,
and I'm just like, "Nose job?"
"Be lucky you even got
your fucking teeth then,
you little fucking
ungrateful bitch.
Sit down."
It's like, okay, I want
people to take me serious,
I want people to like me,
I want people to think I'm cute,
pretty, whatever.
And it's like, okay,
so I can go get a fake ass,
I can go get...
whatever the fuck,
'cause you can literally do
anything at this point.
And then, what is
that gonna do for me?
Now it's like every one
of these other bitches,
and still ain't nobody gonna
take me serious,
so what's the point?
Now you just look
like a double idiot.
Like, go ahead.
But there's no pleasing nobody.
Being a rapper is a job.
You gotta show up,
you gotta make records,
you gotta do press,
you gotta do photoshoots,
you gotta do chores.
That's a lot of work.
It's hard to do that if you're
fucked up all the time.
And I think because there's
so much competition now,
if someone drops the ball,
there's someone else waiting
right behind them
to take the slot.
I used to just take
random pills, like, I...
I didn't know if they were fake,
I didn't know if they were real,
so that shit, you know,
that shit scared me.
Like, that could've been me back
then, you know what I'm saying?
Like, it could've been me.
I can't rap about
if I never .
Can't rap about guns
if I don't have a gun,
you know what I'm saying?
Like, that's how it is,
you know?
That's how real music is.
I feel like that made me,
like, overdo it.
So then I had to, like,
quit that shit,
you know what I'm saying?
And stick to weed,
you know what I'm saying?
Considering your name is
Smokepurpp
and how early it is in the day,
you seem very clearheaded
and together.
Have you...
Have you upped the level of...?
Oh, yeah, man, I'm sober.
Really? Stone sober?
Yeah. I mean, I smoke
weed and shit like that,
but... but I cut
everything else off.
You know, I feel like
I had a strong mind
and I was able to make myself
better just doing stuff
outside recording
and doing fun stuff.
There's a lot
of these kids got thrown
to the wolves and can't survive.
And so, if it takes
sobriety to allow them
to actually have a productive
career, Godspeed,
like that's exactly
what they should be doing.
Various other generations
of music would've turned out
very differently if people had
embraced sobriety.
A lot of what we think
about of the excess of the '60s
or the '80s or whatever,
these were not sober
environments, but rap is a job.
You would be so surprised
who really be listening
to this shit, like,
it'd be like a mother.
It could be a mom, it could be
a grandma, it could be an uncle.
The influence, man.
Seeing, like, little white kids
pull up to the show
in the front row
with red bandannas,
and twisted up sets
they don't know
what the hell
they twisting it up, like.
They diss the hood,
all type of bullshit
that they seen niggas
put up on the Internet.
Really seeing
them blacked out like,
"Aargh! Slack
14 Blood gang!"
And they don't even know
what they're saying,
they're just putting
words together,
so you be like,
"Slack Blood gang 14 slack?
Like, what? What?"
Like, okay, bro, bet.
We can have
this conversation any year
in the last, like, 60 years,
and someone could've said,
do you think it's bad that
so-and-so is emulating whoever?
The Grateful Dead, John Lennon.
Yeah, I hope kids aren't, like,
doing Xans and, like, walking
women around on leashes.
Gang shit,
gang shit .
You don't pop a Xan on stage,
what you talking about?
I popped a Xan on stage.
Danielle! That's Danielle!
I see you!
Drugs are
so easy to combine, right?
Like, I mean, just look at all
these male orders pharmacies,
or these like, pill mills like,
it's just easier than ever
to get prescriptions
for tons of harmful drugs.
And a lot of kids are
given drugs, I mean,
a lot of parents feed their kids
drugs from when they're young
just because they don't know
how to treat
mental health issues, you know?
Or Anxiety, or things,
We don't address the root causes
of these things in society,
so we over-medicate children
and then wonder why they have
a drug problem.
When you talk to young people,
more than anything,
in my experience,
they're nihillistic
and that can express
itself in various ways.
But, for so many people,
they turn to drugs
like Fentanyl,
to kind of escape.
Pain killers, Oxy, they're
seeking that out,
they're seeking out
that escapeism,
because they've been raised
in this insane world
and the world is just getting
more and more, and more fucked.
So, why not, you know,
get fucked up youself
and just be crazy,
because life is short.
The music industry has
always capitalized on that.
They do not care about your
health care,
they care about money,
is a money industry
and so they, yeah,
they're gonna kind of...
sometimes, facilitate it.
I'm not surprised to hear
that these managers
provide pills, provide alcohol,
I mean, a lot of managers
are adults and should
know better but,
once you get
a little bit of money,
you know, people just start
making consessions
and I think, sometimes,
they lied to themselves
and think, "Oh, it's
not that bad"
or "Oh, he's a little addicted
but we'll eventually,
get him off, you know,
he performs so much better
when he's fucked up.
I can never go to a job,
I can never go to the military,
like... But I am my own boss,
I am my own figure,
I am my own, like, .
So, the fact that I can,
like, speak out and be myself
and shit is actually, like,
that's more of rewarding than,
like, actually having
a fucking voice.
You know what I mean?
What I think the term
"SoundCloud rap" did was,
it captured the immediacy
of the moment.
Here's this platform
that is kind of not popping,
and here's a group of artists
who use the platform
that is not popping,
and made it popping.
So, SoundCloud rap is
like saying Chicago rap,
Seattle rap, London rap.
It's the place
where these things happen.
It just happened
that the place was virtual.
Yougest artist of the decade
to go platinum.
People like to doubt me but when
it's like, putting their face
it's almost all
that you can say.
Is some people that are
famous but have no money,
and that's the worst.
So you can't even
and you're broke?
Could have been me.
The only fans I would
cooking videos
so you could recipes
on it and shit.
I ain't gonna tell you
what I'm doing on it.
Y'all have to go
see for youselves.
I never thought I was gonna
see this much money, tough.
Ever.
I was just going to do
it to see what it is
and whatever.
I wasn't like, "Oh, I know
what I'm doing
and I know this is gonna
be the biggest thing" but,
somewhere in the back of my head
I was just like,
"Mmm, I wanna .
My manager starts
texting me like,
"Okay, so this now, this now."
And I'm like, "Okay,
whatever, whatever."
Yeah, I made
one million in six hours
just of, I didn't
think we had a
When he hit the first million
assets I said, "Listen,
just make me enough
to where I can get
three millions in an account
and put it away.
Made way more than that.
Y'all wanna keep calling me
to "Catch me outside?"
Or wanna start
calling me the bitch
that made 53 million
on only fans.
'Cause I have never told that.
People don't really know...
People knew about
the millions so,
but, 50 million dollars
I bought a house
6,1 million in cash.
Bought a Ferrari, cash.
Bought a 2021 , cash.
Try hawk, cash.
Bought everything cash.
It's funny 'cause
one thing an ex told me,
one thing I always remember
that he told me,
"When you get some money,
first thing you bought
is the house, cash.
Nobody can't take that shit
from you, is exactly what I did.
Exactly what I did.
Even if I wouldn't have been
making money like this,
years ago, 17, 16, 15,
I wouldn't have known.
I see why people hate me,
I would hate me too.
Danielle made
so much money,
I guess over a million dollars
in 48 hours,
that's an insane amount of money
most only fans creators
make nothing like that,
so I think it really speaks
the power of the fandom
that she built
and her hability to monetize it.
She was kind of ahead
of her time
becausea lot of times like,
people that were mimes
really did not like, were not
able to capitalize on anything
People used to think we weren't
gonna make it, bro.
People used to be like, "Bro,
these two little kids
blah, blah, Pump's pink hair
Boom! Yeah,
Ans speaking of sound of music
and other things,
one of the big superstars
of the world, Little Pimp.
There he is.
How's it going? Do you wanna
come up and say something?
Come on!
Little Pump, come on.
Come on up here.
Come on up here.
Does everyone knows who he is?
And you know how big he is?
Come on up here.
I remember watching
the video of Trump
at some campaign event
in Florida
and he brings up Lil Pump and
introduces him as Little Pimp.
And I just remember being like,
"Okay well, this is
like, a viral moment
because its gonna get clips
and it was inmediately clipped.
It was like, one
of those days on Twitter
when you just saw the clip,
and the clip, and the clip,
and like, every other tweet
that was so viral.
Bring the troops home and you're
doing the right thing.
Mega 202020, don't forget that!
Don't forget that.
I remember watching
his talk and just being,
"This man, has no idea
of what's happening,
like, he was just kinda talking
and I felt like somebody had
just kinda just
plopped him there
and be like, "Okay, go ahead."
And as a journalist
I was like, "God, I almost
feel bad that we have
to write about this, because
it's kinda of a trainwreck."
Do not smoke
for sleepy Joe, at all!
Life for me now is exactly
what I wanted it to be
when I was younger.
So, I'm happy like,
you know what I'm saying?
I'm happy,
I'm exactly where I wanna be,
I'm on the right tracks,
I go where I wanna go, you know.
My life is going perfectly fine,
perfectly smooth
Drugs are always be around,
people always sell drugs,
people always use drugs,
so drugs and music
are gonna be there forever.
I don't know, I remember I use
to pills like,
Yeah, okay, like, you wouldn't
even think "Oh no,
it's gonna lace me,
it's just like,
"Oh, here's the perc take it."
You put two N boxes
next to each other
one fake, one real, you can't
even tell the difference.
You ain't
that shit again.
'Cause they are making
that shit...
You know how I knew
I was taking fake percs?
You taking charts,
I'm talking about like,
you could scrape
that shit with your nails,
take the dust and be
high for hours.
That's how I knew
I was taking fake percs.
It's like playing a russian
roulette with your life.
For a 4 to 6 hour high,
not worth it.
I would just like,
one in a while like,
Not like everyday but then,
started becoming everyday.
Real or fake, I don't
know what they was
I was either, high on Prozac
or high on Fentanyl.
One or the two.
Around six months
I was addicted.
So, I did a drug detox, which
was supposed to be 30 days,
but I did it in like, a week.
I made my Mom and my Grandma
fly out to take care of me.
I wanted to kill myself.
It was just... You just...
'Cause your brain is so used to
that, your receptors
being hit, when that's not being
hit, your body is like,
"What the fuck? Where are
we gonaa find happiness at?"
No, a lot of people don't,
that's why they just stay
doing that shit, 'cause it's
gonna be easier
to keep doing it, than stop.
'till your dead.
I don't know, I kinda
looked at it like,
"You have to be a strong person"
but, not everybody is.
I wasn't a strong person for a
long time because Iwas so young
and being told the same thing
over and over,
over and over, over and over,
over and over again
while your brain is
still developing,
those things are gonna
stick and it's gonna be
very hard to get them out.
The Internet has just become
such a fucking toxic place.
I was literally like,
contemplating
jumping off that fucking
balcony right there,
like, it was getting
to like, that point
I was like, "Dude, how could
you hate someone that,
has manners, is so nice,"
and they're like, "Oh, man
this fucking kid is stupid like,
he's got face tats."
I'm gonna be an old head
in 20 years so,
and I'm probably gonna be
dissing the new generation.
That's just how it goes,
every generation is gonna
hate the new...
the new wave.
I am the face of new wave.
I don't think
your ending is hopeful.
I think you're talking about
complex and conflicted stuff.
I don't think you should leave
your viewers feeling good.
I think they should be
walking out of the theater
scratching their head
a little bit,
and trying to figure out
how they're implicated as well.
"Rapper Juice WRLD died
of an accidental overdose
of painkiller Oxycodone
and codeine,"
the Cook County Medical
Examiner's Office
said Wednesday.
The announcement comes several
weeks after the 21-year-old,
whose given name was
Jarad Anthony Higgins,
died following convulsions
on December 8th.
21-year-old
Alexis Lynch was found dead
on New Year's Day, 2020.
Authorities say she died
from an accidental overdose
of Fentanyl and alcohol.
She had a blossoming rap career
under the stage name
Lexii Alijai.
Rest in peace, Mac Miller, man.
My favorite...
favorite artist of all time.
Another one gone.
Another one gone, bro.
Worst thing come to worst,
I fucking die a tragic death
or some shit, and I'm not able
to see out my dreams,
I, at least, wanna know that
the kids perceived my message
and were able to make
something of themselves,
and able to take
my message and use it
and turn it into something
positive, and to...
to at least have a good life.
I used to be
bad as fuck.
Really bad, like, really, really
bad, but I just didn't care.
Hey, cash me outside, dude!
Cash me outside!
It's crazy because I used to be
trapping in the same building,
and now I'm selling out
shows at the Roxy.