Listen to his new song "J.O.B" here: https://orcd.co/job1
Listen to his album "Too Empty" here: https://orcd.co/2emptydeluxe
This is the FCNB podcast network. Areas that we won't with say then we won't to say, oh we got it? Does? No one can take that? Owen gonna be okay? A press that we won't with say then we won't to say oh we got it? Does? No one can take that? Owa be okay. Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of Just Listen to Yourself. This is j LT y plus and today is a really special episode. I've got a really special guest. Some of you are going to recognize him. I've had inquiries about him because this is a gentleman who provides my theme song that has actually gotten a lot of interest from the j lt Why fans please welcome artist and FCB family member Aaron Malik to the show. Aaron, Welcome to the show man. How are y'all? Monday? Going first and Forum? Hi? How is y'all doing? Yo? I hope everybody's doing good? Finding Dandy, how are you? I'd have you on the show and we have this is our first time speaking. We've never actually met, even though we're both in the network. I'm on the radio side, of course, and you are on the music label side. A Darby O Kingping Marrow, who is my producer, is also your producer, and he's been talking about you for a while, Aaron, even before I ever thought about having you as my theme song provider. He's like, I got this guy. He's so good. And the thing is, we're really struggling with the idea of well, who he is as a rapper and what it means to be a clean rapper, because I think at that time maybe you guys struggling about like how we define yourself in the world of music. So and I realize I can giving you introduce yourself. So introduce yourself to jlty audience, and then tell us a little bit about where you fit into the rap world. I got you so first and foremost, Hello, young and old, how are y'all? Yes, my name is well, fun fact, my my MC name is actually my real name, my first and my middle name. So if you know me and you say my name in public, I might give you a hug that that's just me now where I feel like I fit in into the rap world? See that? Yeah, you're right, that was definitely not okay. So it was a struggle at first, Yes, because primarily right when you're trying to be in a space where we'll say your peers, I'm not going to say competitors, where your peers are all rapping the same way I'm talking because by cuss words, or go at it the way our predecessors did right, where however, your process is if you run out of stuff to rap about, you'll use curse words. Right, And at a young age, I was kind of like off put by that because I felt like, okay, if I'm going to be an artist in this industry, right and kind of leave my interesting mark, if you will. I had to do it different. So it became a challenge because it's like, Okay, how do you manage to not cuss but still like appeal to rap fans who are used to hearing that. So over time what I did was, even though I wrapped clean, I rapped. If that makes sense, We're like, Okay, for example, if you say rap about kittens for every example kittens, I'll figure out eight different ways to re word kitten or tell you about a cat without telling you that I'm rapping about a cat. So basically I had to get a lot more deeper into my lyrics and my craft in order to really kind of like make myself fit in. I hear what you're saying is excellent. It's very astutid. What you're saying is is that not leaning on these things makes you more creative, not less creative, because you actually have to put thought into your words. Can't lean on those, yes, surface things to that make people tingle or feel good, but they're meaningless ultimately. Okay, I wouldn't say completely meaningless, right. We're like, okay, so just because I won't curse doesn't mean I won't touch on the same things an industry rapper would, right, Okay, for a perfect, perfect example, I have a song tempo right, that's my attempt at doing what those guys do, but I'm doing it in my way. We're like, okay, instead of okay, I'm not even gonna say it, but instead of making you twerk, I want to make you dance, If that makes sense. You know what I'm saying. I don't want to make you throw it up. I mean, okay, if that's the idea, and that's what I'm going for, absolutely, but nine times out of ten, I don't even want to make music like that. Like, I want to make music that makes you feel good. It makes you want to get up and dance, and even if you can't dance, you can at least move your shoulders a little bit. You know what I'm saying. I want to be able to kind of bridge that gap between cause, like you know, I, it honestly hurts my soul when I hear I'm not going to call them old, but when I hear the elk, the more experience there. It is when I hear the more experienced folk tell me that they don't like rap because of what they talk about. So that's why I really go hard with paraphrasing, rereading my lyrics over again to make sure, like if I'm rapping this and not only does it make sense, but if someone asked me to oh what did this mean? Or what does that mean? I have no problem breaking this down to you. You know what I'm saying, Absolutely I get it and I love that. And actually you're right to point that out that the topics aren't meaningless, but sometimes the language can render them meaningless because, as you just said, the work experienced people might be like, I don't feel good listening to this. You mentioned tempo, and I'm gonna play a snippet of it, right here, but and don't worry, we'll put that in post, so don't worry about that. I don't play it right now live. But I was just listening to Tempo this morning because I was going back through your actally, and I was like, oh, you know what I like about Tempo. It's a song about dancing, not grinding. It's like, Wow, I'm so glad you saw that. I am so glad that you got that out of that song, because that's that's all I wanted. Look, because when I make songs like that, I want everyone to be able to get up and do something. Whether you're young, old, in between, you can feel it and still you know, like get something out of it. We're like wow, Like that actually made me feel like I wanted to dance, not like I had to or like, oh like I had to grab somebody right like, because what do you guys do when the club they feel like they're gonna dance with somebody, They're just gonna writ No, you could like dance by yourself if you wanted to, Like, you can get away with that with songs like this. Do black men dance by themselves? I do? Okay, I do? I do? I hand dance. Oh yeah, my mama taught me how to hand dance. Mm hmm. I know how to do that. I know how to give your distance. I give your space and if you get any clothing in that, that's on you. But I know how to keep it, you know, hands length away. I'm like, okay, and I want to give you a chance to expound on this idea though that people who there are people who might be amenable to listen to. I mean, you know, it all depends on what genre you're interested in. I know a lot of my listeners might not be specifically interested in this genre. But if you're going to choose to spend some time with with a piece of work, with a piece of art, you want to be able to feel good about it. And that. Yeah, and I think that is what you offer people in your music. Oh yes, oh yes, ma'am, because everything I write okay. Fun fact, I'm gonna take you back a little bit. When I used to make music, believe it or not, I would not listen to my songs over again. When I was younger, and I would, I would record, I would be able to do it in one take, one breath, But I never listened to it again because I didn't. I ultimately didn't like my voice. I didn't like how I was doing it. I didn't like what came out. And normally whatever I didn't like, I would just put it out anyway, because you know what, what did all your friends tell you? Drop the music, Drop the music, drop the music. I would drop it, but I would never listen to it again because it's like I mean, I thought it was cool. I sort of believed in it, but like, after a while of doing that, I started to realize I did not enjoy my own music. So as I got older, and after eighteen, when I decided to start taking this seriously, like, Okay, this is my thing, this is what I'm good at. Because I can't shoot a basketball, I can't play tennis, I can't run track, I can't catch football. I can run track, but I don't like physical labor. I'm gonna do this. That was when I started to focus more on making music that not only you guys can enjoy it, but I can enjoy with y'all. You know what I mean. That's so deep, because you have to be able to enjoy what you're creating. And I think it's why people even when they have, you know, regular jobs. I'm talking to you right now. You're on your job right now, your regular job you're taking. Yeah, well, even when you do, you just got off my way home. Even when you even when you have like a regular job, you have to find outlets to do what fulfills you. You have to do something that you like to do. But especially when you're creating. If you're making music you don't like, it shows. It comes out in the music man, and it shows in your personality too, because like, even though right again, I'm gonna take you back, when I used to write, I didn't reread my songs over again. I would rap them once and kind of just all right onto the next one. These days, I get to a point where I listen to myself and I would hear things that I didn't even know were a double triple sometimes even quadruple on tendras that because I just write, and when I rap it for people, I catch my own lines where I'm like, wow, I said that, that's kind of nuts that I worded all of that together. Because Okay, believe it or not, my biggest influence for the way I write now is battle rap. Yes, I listen to nothing but battle rap. I barely like mainstream music because it doesn't inspire me. It doesn't like most of the stuff that I hear on the radio makes you want to hurt somebody, makes you want to do something bad or just do something ignorant. But when I listen to battle rap, even though even though it's heavily violent, and the stuff that they talk about is what they talk about. It's the delivery, it's the passion behind their words. It's what they write and how they manage to do schemes and setups and angles and stuff like that to where you still understand what they're say but it's the way they organize it. And it inspires me to do that with my music. But not to a point where, Okay, let's say someone that doesn't listen to rap coms and they're like, uh, they listen to it, but they don't know what anything I say means. Because now I've learned how to write to a way where one line could mean eight different things. You could carry away anything you want out of those eight. It still means that. But that's why I write the way that I write now, and that's how job came to be actually because like in my head. This was just a song that Darvio said me. I wrote it in about what twenty is thirty minutes. I was feeling it. The idea came in my head and I'm like, okay, cool, I like this, it makes sense bam. But it wasn't until I listened to it again where I'm like, no, this actually like means something. And I songs before that, but this is the one for me that like hit me hard because even when I wake up in the morning, I wait up and take a shower to the song. I've never done that with any other Well, let's talk about Kob because this is your latest single that's just dropped, and it's why I wanted to talk about that. By the way, the title of the song that Aaron provides for this podcast is called Faith. I get a lot of responses about it. People love the idea of the song, they love that it's so positive. But I was listening to jailb I told Darby, I'm like, oh, this is fire. I might have to change up my themes go. But it's a whole listening to it. It's it's about a lot of things, but one thing that appeals to me I'm a mom. I have got a twenty one year old and a sixteen year old, and so they're just now getting into the workforce and having to provide work. And it's like the idea of hard work I'm discovering is really foreign to a lot of kids their age, like they have, you know, they're on their third and fourth jobs and their kids, their friends. I don't know the content of working for something. So there's that idea that, to me, is one of the things stood out most about the song. Oh yeah, oh yeah. And that's great that you got that out of that, because when I wrote that song and now I'm playing it back again, this song is meant for anybody that has that thing that you are willing to kind of like very literally forsake just about anything regarding fun on the look job is made in my living room. I did not go anywhere else. I go I work, I go home, I lock the door, and I do not go outside. Only reason I don't do that is for that very reason. I found my thing that after I get off of work, I don't go to sleep. As a matter of fact, I get mad at myself sometimes when when I go home and let's say okay, because I stream as well. I stream on YouTube. I played any video game you can stemp like Kirby Metroid, you name it. If I think it's cool, I play it. I get mad at myself when I have days where I don't feel like doing it because there's this thing that there's a word that I want a lot. Whoever's listening right now, to take away from what JAB actually like, deep down really means discipline, being disciplined about what you want because motivation is fleeting. I learned that at a very young age. Motivation comes and it goes. Discipline stays even when you don't want to do it anymore, even when you feel like, oh, I'm just tired, I've had a long day. Life sucks, bills are powering through the sky. I don't know what to know. You have to put all that on the shelf for a minute and do that thing, because if you keep doing that thing, eventually it might be tomorrow, it might be a year, it might be ten years from now. It doesn't matter. As long as you keep doing your thing, it'll happen to you, even if it's slow. You know what I mean? That is so good. The idea that motivation is fleeting, and you're absolutely right, and it's not something to be dependent on. The discipline is what and I don't think we do. And you know, specifically, I'm going to say this, this is an issue in the black community. I think for us specifically as black people. The idea that I think we've had this idea because we've had such strong civil rights leaders in the past, like Milchael matts Martin, that we're supposed to be inspired and motivated and men will go change the world. And it's like, sometimes those things come along. Sometimes you get an MLK and he really inspires you to make change and go out there and be the force for good and change your community. But that's what he's a human like everybody else. He died, just like everybody else is going to die. So when that motivation goes, what do you have? You need the discipline. It's the same with how we build our communities. We can't just simply get a great idea and then be really excited about offering this to the black communities, be it wherever it is, inner city or suburbs, wherever. We can't just do that. We have to have people who understand the meaning of what it is to be disciplined about something, and even if you don't want to do this, that you have to do it because that's the key to success. No one's gonna give you anything, And it doesn't matter if you've been treated unfairly or not. It really doesn't matter. No one's gonna give you anything. No, no, no, they're not. I am a firm believer of that because as I was coming up in the industry, everything that I've ever received or done was by my own hand, if that makes sense. We're like, okay, how I met Darva For a perfect example, Right, I was in a loof if you will, if you know what that word means, shout out to you. But I was kind of in this aloof space where I had to do something different. Right. I knew I wanted to make music, bottom line, I knew I had to do that. But how I didn't have the money, I didn't have the resources, and I did not have the team to do it at all. So how do I do something like that on my own? I'm walking to the work one day, I come cross with the homie Cato. I don't know if you know him or heard of him, but I seen him. I seen him. He's close with Darvy and me. I'm walking to work and he gives me the idea. He's like, hey, man, I know a guy downtown Cleef, somewhere like a little bit all of downtown. You have to take the bus, you know. I wasn't driving at the time. I had to take several buses to get to this man. But it's the simple fact that I chose to do that. I chose to go meet this man. Walk several miles, I'm talking several miles to meet this man, you know, just to have a few minute conversations. When I'm like listen. He even told me himself, I can't promise you anything, but I can get you to the dough. That conversation alone was like it's go time, you know, because I'm not looking for an easy wagan. I never liked the easy way. I've always been that type of person where I want to struggle. Why because I'm around a bunch I'm around people that I don't want them to struggle this way, if I can go through the mud, go through the ridicule and the hardships that comes with being an artist, a creator, or whatever you want to call it if I could go through that first and be able to relay the information to you. So that way, if this is what you want to do, let's say, let's say I have kids. If you want to do what Dad does, I have a whole blueprint for you already made. You want to be able to have the not really the thickest of skin, but also you want to be like vigilant. You want to be disciplined, rooted. You want to have so much underneath your feet, and a belief in God. I cannot stress that enough. You need a belief in a higher source. You need a belief in God. You need to believe in something higher than you. Because on those days where you need a backbone and you look back and nobody's there, guess what you have? You have God all the time, all the time. And that's why, like me being on platforms like this, I really hope that somebody young, or someone's in the car with somebody that's peeping this that doesn't know or need somebody to say this to them. Yo, you can do whatever you set your mind to. The only thing stopping you is definitely you. And that is what I'm glad that job is giving me the chance to kind of show people because look, I know, let you talk in a minute, because like that's where Jaob came from. JAILB came from me sitting in my house just being on it every day, every single day. I stream every day, I go to work, every day, I write almost every other day. That song is my life and I hope that other people listen to it and it relates to you too. Amen to all of that, everything that you just said, And I think that is the wisdom that we need to be passing on right, this idea that And I love what you said about how I don't want to do things the easy way because guess what, the easy way comes with a lot of strings. And I don't know if you know, I think you're probably more familiar than me or anyone else in this audience what strings can come with eusy success, especially in the music industry. And there is a lot of darkness in the music industry, and you have to subject yourself to that, and you know, and in a lot of cases, you have to condone a lot of it. And so you you know, if you have to decide what are you willing to give up? You've got a song called is it worth it? And one of the things you talked about in that song is like what will you give up for respect? What are you going to give up for fame? What are you going to give up for? What? This thing? Who are you? Basically is what I got from this from the song. But you really talk about like is what you're doing worth it? In a good way or a bad way? Is what you're doing worth it? And I think that's that's a question that an artist like you would I would really have to ask himself at some point. Cram on my job Henderson p s Q's figured out that everything like me and I don't want to be like you and you got everything inside I need already know them that dude, I'm gonna see to finished my soon. Oh man, listen that is that was okay? Like I like the tie in back to God, right, I have conversation with him all the time. And what I've learned is when you pray, you pray one time and then you let it go, you don't go back because that's where faith comes in to see, That's where that's why faith is deep too, because like when you pray once, but you pray again, do you actually believe exactly. You know what I'm saying. You don't really believe in what you're what you're praying for. So when when I'm sitting here, oh Dad, I just completely lost, bring me back, bring me that? Yeah? So worth? Yeah so worth. They actually came from a very bad relationship. Believe it or not, that relationship was really, like really really bad. Right. I was in a I was in a state of do is it really worth me? Like giving you my mental health? Is it really worth me? Like basically like killing myself being with someone? And then it also ties into like is it really worth me being subjected to being a rapper? Right? And to answer that question, No, I don't want to be an average, everyday rapper. I want to be an EMC, and an MC in my mind, carries himself different. Like you won't see me in a club unless I'm meeting the owner. You won't see me at a bar unless I'm meeting with somebody there of power at that bar. And if I'm there to have fun. Guess what we just celebrated a win. Somebody hit a million, I hit a gold plaque, you hit a go somebody did something of something substantial. Where Okay, now we could go out and celebrate that thing. Because I also and that too, because I like what you said about the black community too, because I feel like we celebrate things like weekends, like we celebrate things like a new baby. We celebrate things like oh oh, oh, Scotty just got out of jail. What no, dog, no, no. We need to start celebrating better things. And that's why it's it's harder for me because I want to celebrate my homie just hitting a million. I want to celebrate my homi getting out of college. I want to celebrate my sister getting out of college. I want to celebrate my mom getting out of an apartment and getting a house. I don't want to celebrate about the things that everybody else in the world celebrates about. And that's where it all ties into it being worth it for me, because I know reaping the benefit of seeing my words affect somebody, change their life, save somebody, even that is what I get out of it. Sure, and I'm not gonna hold You'm not gonna lie to you what. I love a big Cuban gold chain around mind, absolutely, but that's not all I want. I want to be able to change lives. I want to change people's perception of what rap actually is. Right, Because if you want the gold chain around your neck, Aaron, you're very talented. I honestly you could probably have it, but it would involve of you doing some things and making some choices that would violate a lot of your core. So you do have to make the decisions, make them in little ways along the way that you don't even know the idea that you know. You saying, I'm not in the club unless I'm meet with the owner. I'm not in the bar unless I'm meeting with somebody who's gonna get me a job there, or if I'm celebrating with somebody. But I think we need sometimes in the black community to we we make fun of celebrating certain accomplishments, you know, for me, or like my husband will tell you my husband is from Gary, Indiana. He's from the hood and though and he will you know, and so he got made fun of his whole life. You know, people were people talked poorly about him because he was educated. You know, it's like, these are not things we're supposed to be We're not we're supposed to be celebrating these things. Like you said, Let's not celebrate Boobo getting out of jail. Let's celebrate Boobo getting the college degree, marrying his baby's mom, you know, paying his mom's house off, like these because celebrating those things and making it a to celebrate those things is actually it. It puts out an energy, right, Yes, Yes, And that's the kind of thing that I want to protrude. Whether that's why I said, like I kept my rap name my actual name, because it's like I put so much of me and my music. If you listen to it and you get anything out of it, you get a piece of me, whether you know it or not. You get a piece of my soul, like a piece of me. I was in look because when I wrote job, I was in a happy place. I was in a genuine warm spot both in my heart and in my spirit, you know, like I couldn't help but write something that made not only me feel good, but made everybody else around me that listened to it feel good. So that's what I'm saying. I want to really really hammer home that rap isn't just a boat to push negative flows. You feel what I'm saying, Rap can be a boat to push something good. It can be used to be pushed in idea because rap, in the definition of it, is just talking. You're just talking about whatever it is that you want to talk about, but you do it. That's where hip hop comes in. Rap it's just talking. Hip hop is adding flavor to it, you know. But I want to take a rap out, you know, because I don't just want to rap. I want to do hip hop and MC. I want to be able to add way more flavor to what I'm saying. So we're like, you're not just getting your average rapper vibes out of me. We're like, Okay, for example, let's say let's say something happens make a million dollars, and you know where people say money changes you once you get it. I want to be one of those first few people that if he comes into it, he doesn't change. All he does is he just you might see him outside a little bit more. Yeah, you might see him, you know, doing meet and reads, meeting the people that like the stuff that he's making, stuff like that. But I refuse to be that kind of unquote unquote famous person where like let's say somebody that okay, let's say I go outside, I get dappered up let's say, you know I look I look good to that. Let's just say that. And let's say somebody who I would you would assume isn't on my economic level. Is what I'll say. I refuse to turn you away if you walk up to me and say, oh, are you give me a hug, Give me a hug, give me some dad, give me something, and if I have something in my pocket, Like let's say I get to know you a little bit and I got a little something in my pocket and I could bless you. I want to be that type of person that can do that. But I don't need a camera behind me so you could see it. I would rather do a whole bunch of good stuff in silence, un less. Let y'all see the benefits of that, as opposed to me having to record my every step so that way y'all see that I'm a good person. No, I would just rather let the energy and the actions that I take show. Like I don't want to go out like Tupac. I love Tupac. I don't want to go out like Biggie, but I bless the soul. I don't want to go out like Nipsey. I don't want to go out like my predecessors. I would rather go out like like how my dad did in his sleep. Calm, everything is good. I put my best foot forward, I do my best. Yeah, we're good. That's that's my thing. Yeah. Well, and I think, going back to how we originally started, the conversation about this being a slow burn for you and this being a building I haven't had success like quickly or rapid fire, I think all of that speaks to the fact that you know that will that that what's God, that's what God is building you towards that. And I think and I think the same way for my career. I'm in the political space. And Darvo knows we have conversations all the time because I'm a bit of a diva, and well, call, I'll be like, everybody appreciates me, Darby, I'm just quitting. I'm gonna quit. I'm gonna quit the business. And and He'll always be like, no, this is how it is for us, because God knows you know what we need. And I'm you know, I'm gonna admit to you here and that I'm not the most always the most humble person, and I'm not always the most reasonable person. Although My podcast is based on reasoning through. You're a bit of an anomaly here in the podcast, I have artists sometimes, but really a reason through ideas and political ideas and thoughts about that kind of stuff. And I think that people, I think, how much how should I say that? I think everybody believes that they'll be the person that isn't carried away by fame and stardom, and we're but we are all that person. And I think the older I get, the more I understand myself, I'm not totally convinced that God did drop fifty million dollars in my lap today that I wouldn't complete become a complete, raging narcissist. So I think that is something to be said Aaron for building something. That's another thing I wish our community spent more time thinking about, even in the arts, especially in the arts, because art has been has been the most amazing blessing to the Black community. It has made us one of the strongest and most influential cultures in the world because of our artistic endeavors and the influence that our artistry has on entire industries. And I'm going to ask you about that in a minute, because i's questions about how you feel about the industry in general. But I'll let you respond to this, Aaron. But the idea I do wish that we there is because I used to work in education. I used to run an after school program in Gary, so I had a lot of kids, and all those kids and everybody, even my own kids, you know, I'm always having to pull them away from this idea that there's this one viral moment you're gonna get and if you just put most of your life online, you'll get a viral moment, and then you'll be rich and famous, and then you won't want for anything anymore. You won't need for anything anymore. And that is a lie from the pit of hell, and it has caused us, particularly in the black community, to lean on avenues like quick fame or athletic fame or artificate instead of leaning on each other. And the idea that we place building blocks for ourselves in our community. And even if the outside world is stressful and oppressive and maybe not giving us all the things that we have, we still have so much. We don't need to be convincing kids that it's one make it or break it. We need to be building kids who can build things. And I love that you brought up the kids because that is my prime motivation for why one I wrap clean and why I make the music I make, because like we are the leaders, we're the new leaders, me by me almost being thirty. I'm about to be twenty eight at the end of this month, me considering myself like a new leader. Someone has to let these kids know that. So what if it's slow. If you start something at sixteen and it takes you to you're almost thirty five, forty, Bro, you have put so much time into your thing, why would you stop? So what if it takes a minute? All you need to do is keep hammering away at it, learn new ideas, learn new skills. Look, we have the Internet, people. I say this thing to everybody all the time. I went to college for three years right only because I wanted to expand my knowledge of what music actually was. I wanted to learn the business, and I wanted to learn, like what certain things did. I wanted to learn what a compressor did, what an equalizer did. I had to learn deeper things that I feel like. I felt like at the time I didn't have time to learn. So I spent three years in school, learned a lot, and the only reason I stopped going to school was because I have financial LEEA. At the time, financial A ran out and you know, I'm already living alone. I don't have it like that to just buy classes, right, So when that happened, I still needed to learn. I still had things that I didn't know that I was blindly jurant to. So what I had to do was go to YouTube. YouTube has taught me everything I know. To this day, I still push to people, listen, if you want to learn anything, take your time. It's oh, hey, you have nothing but time in the world. If you believe you could do something, But you have to put that necessary foot forward though, because oh my gosh, I couldn't said the better. No one is going to hand you nothing. No one's going to walk up to you and say, hey, you want to get signed to Atlantic, you want you want to get signed to this billion dollar record. No one's ever going to do that unless you know somebody who knows somebody that knows somebody that could get that person back to you. It's okay if it's a slow burn, it's okay if it takes you a while. What matters is are you still doing it? Are you doing it because you feel like you Now here's the difference. Now here's where it's gonna divide it. Right, Are you doing it because you feel like you have to do it? Or are you doing it because you love it and you want to do it? That is the healthy difference, because that is what your average everyday person goes to their job and do. Right, you go to work not because you want to. You go to work because you got bills, you got kids, you got mouse to fee. You have to go to work. You have to do that, and that's what people feel. To realize, that's where you have so many unhappy people at work because they don't feel like they're appreciated, they don't feel like they're paid enough. But they have to go. With music and the arts and the ability to kind of take control of your own destiny, you kind of lose that over a minute, because that's what I'm kind of breaking the shackles of feeling like I have to make music. No, I make music solely because I love it. It's therapy for me one and I do it because I enjoy a second But like, at the basis of it, all. I love what I do, everything I do. I don't care how long it takes. I don't care how long I stay up. I don't care if I shirk off. Like you know. Okay, So, like I said, I got a group of friends and they say, oh, Aaron, wanna go to the card. No, I'm going home. I'm gonna stream, I'm gonna write, I'm gonna make something, and then I'm going to bed. And if you can't respect that, And this is another thing for any again, I hope somebody youngest peeping this south. If you have friends around you that will get mad at you because you choose to do something that makes sense to you, you don't need them. You don't need them. You need people around you that will be like, yes, go home, do that, do that thing, bro, and we'll be right here. We love you, and we don't we understand. We understand that you're focused your tunnel vision right now, go ahead do that. If no one's telling you to go ahead and achieve your dreams. You do not need that circle. You do not need that person, and you do not need that individual, no matter what sense it is, Bro, you could be an ice sculptor. If your person or people don't believe that you could sculpt a figure of ice. Get away from those people. If you want to be a teenage mutant ninja turtle, by all means, be a teenage mutant ninja turtle. Be the best darned teenage ninja turtle you could be. But don't let anybody else tell you that you cannot be that teenage mutant ninja turtle. If you believe you can be well, and you're making really good sense, because the truth is Aaron and Ami, I can't believe you're so young. You're such a baby. It's eight years old. Much about that, but I love your advice is great for young people, the the idea of your friends, because the friends, you know, I still got daughter in high school and so dealing with the peer situation and the pressure and really hard to try to get the kids to like they can't see around the corner, right. They don't know that in the years you're gonna leave high school and the world is going to open up. These people aren't your entire world. There's so many people in the world, and it's going to be really important for you to surround yourself with people who are supportive or at least who understand your dedication and don't take away because the older you get and you're you probably notice this already, but you're gonna notice this as you get closer to my age. I mean, this is my last year, my forties. Next year I turned fifty and way over twenty five. All right, sattery, it will get you everywhere. But the thing that, well, now I lost my train of thought. What was I saying? Oh? Oh, you talk about surrounding yourself with the with the right people and making sure that your friend group is the right group of friends. But you're going to notice this as you get older, as I have, as I get older, that actually the people who want to, who are willing to go to that jail, be put in that work, be tired. Uh, you know, turn on the the music when you don't want to, get out the pen and paper when you don't want to. Those people actually are fewer and more far between than you realize. Most of the world actually is not made up of workers. Most of the world is made up of followers. And it's when you find a group of people who are willing That's why I love about FCV. Right, you find a group of people who are willing to put in the amount of work that you're willing to work. Stick with those people, because guess what, those people are rare. There's a reason why only a certain amount of people make it to the top of any industry. Most people don't want to do that much work. And you're gonna have harder and harder time as you get older finding people with a good work ethic. Those people are actually fewer, not more. Oh girl, I'm already here because like what I used to do wag in the day, I used to record people, you know, for a few dollars here and now, you know, because I learned how to make the master at a young age. And what I used to do was, you know, I would record anybody, you know, not really to show that I could do it, but more or less give you a better experience. Hear me out. When I would record people, I would give them the experience of a lifetime. I would get into their song like it was my own, you know, Like I don't care if you didn't buy the beat. I don't care if you rip this beat from YouTube. There's tags all over the place. Listen, this song is my baby too, you know. And what I noticed I was working really, really, really hard, and this dude only comes to the studio once every three years. And I learned then. I'm like, I'm not about to record y'all. I want to record somebody that's just as thirsty about this as me. I want to record somebody that wants to get in the booth as bad as they want to breathe. There's a quote, and I think Steve Harvey or something. I forgot who said it, But if you want anything in life, you gotta want it as bad as you want to breathe, whether it's it's anything, anything you want to be in this world, you have to want it as bad as you want to breathe. And if you come to a person like me or you or Dario and you don't want it as bad as you want to breathe, or We'll still rock with you, but you don't get left behind. You're going to get left behind. You're gonna get upset because you're gonna feel like no one's Oh my god, no one's paying attention to you. Listen, listen, listen. It's not that anyone's paying attention to you. And I'm just going to tell you the hard truth. Because I'm doing it now and I'm actively doing it. Work harder, though, you have to work harder, and it doesn't matter what it looks like as long as you know you're doing it. For example, I'll give you an example for me, Like I said, I do a TikTok a day, a shorter day, a real a day, and that real post on Facebook automatically. Do you know how much work I do before I even go to my real job. I do about hours worth of work before I even go to my job. You know what I'm saying. But that's because when I wake up in the morning, I have a schedule. Hear me out, people, you need to schedule in your own you need to go in with like. Okay, for example, I'll tell y'all how I start my day. I wake up in the morning, you know, shower, shave, brush my teeth. Well I don't obviously I don't shave, you know, but I wake up, I brush my teeth and before I even you know, get dress and worry about here my job. I go sit down with that computer and I sit and I ponder, Okay, what can I make before eight o'clock? What can I do before I have to sacrifice eight hours. Hear me, eight hours of my life for somewhere I have to be. What can I give of me within now and the time I have to go to something I love? I give about an hour in the morning, maybe hour and a half waste eight hours now before I get into what I do after that. Look, understand people, you if you work a job, you know what I'm saying. You give your life to a job for eight hours plus, especially if you need to do it. What time do you have for you? Exactly? Everybody in the world has twenty four hours? How are you using yours? If you're already using eight to go to work? Maybe? Okay, if you do what I do, I'd get about four to five hours of sleep roughly. But let's say you don't. You get about a good six to seven roughly eight hours of sleep and in between. Let's say you're a mom, dad, you shop or do whatever. Right, Let's say you do that. What time do you have for what you want to do? What time do you have to build that wall? What time do you have to create something? You know? That is what you really want to hone in on is how much time do I have in this day to do as much as I can for what I love. And that is what I want a lot of people to take out of this conversation is look at that. If you notice you have an hour of your day where you're just sitting there scrolling on your phone on Instagram, baby whatever, and you've been on that. You want to do a thing, you want to paint, you want to make a picture, you want to draw, you want to make a comic book, instead of taking that hour to scroll. Imagine what you can do in an hour if you if you put that down and focus really really hard on something for that hour instead of doing that, and save that from you. Hey, Aaron, I didn't invite you on this show to convict me of my scrolling habits. I love you. I love this is another god thing because luation that I really needed to have. And I'm feeling inspired by this too. I've been doing, you know, in a little bit of a lull lately and having asked me, you know, if I've got this time, and you know what am I? What am I doing? And I love the idea of getting, you know, getting up in the morning and saying to yourself, no one has stolen this time. I have this time, So what am I gonna do with this time? Because if you're not even making the effort, then don't go around bitching and complaining when you're not getting the things you want and so and so has more than you have, and it's not fair. And it's like, you don't go you don't get up with Aaron in the mornings. You don't go to his job with him in the afternoons. You don't come home with him and sit while he writes and agonizes over rhymes and and fiddles around with beats. You don't you don't, you know, get his coffee when he's only had three or four hours of sleep. So then don't look at a guy like that and think, well, how come he's you know, working and making music and getting listens and views, and how come he gets that? And I don't get anything. You I think you already said it in this podcast, erin, you gotta work hard. I work harder word, I work hard. And that's because again, and I say that to get you in that mind or whoever's taking anything away from this, I say that to not sound arrogant. I don't want to come up as like that, dude. It's just like work hard. No, because for some people, yeah, I agree, it might be easier said than done to do that. I'm saying that it is possible if you make time for it. Look, if you are dedicated to something, you will, in fact forsake anything to make time for that. Whether it's a woman, your job, whatever you want to do, you will make time for what you want. If you going around saying okay like you just said, right, if you're going around saying, oh, I want to be famous, I don't want to make music, but how come Aaron's getting everything you Listen, listen, I'll give you my blueprint foe free. But here's the thing. You have to actually do it. You have to actually put it into practice. I could look my favorite thing, right, I told this to kids, and I told this to my girl ones. Listen. I could dangle these keys in front of you, right. I could give you the keys to the dough here, take them. But what I will not do is hold that. Oh I'm not gonna hold this door open for you, because I know how to open the dough. I got my own set of keys. I know which key to use to unlock this dough. You know, I know how to get through it, get by it, get underneath it, around it, and another thing and I'm gonna get back to that in a minute, but another thing to take away out of life when it comes to including you know, like feeling in the law. You could get over it, around it, underneath it, or beside it. As long as you still moving, you're fine. But that's what I'm saying, Yo, you have to have that in your mind that no matter what gets in my way, no matter who says what, no matter what goes on. If you judge me, you you your grandma, it doesn't matter who judges me. I'm gonna do this thing whether I want to do it or not. And my friends people, that is what you need in order to be. But we're just saying that's what you need to be Drake. I'm just gonna say it. That's what you need to be, Drake. I'm just gonna say, if you want to be Drake, that's what you gotta do. You gotta wake up with it. Look the mom. But mindset. I don't know if anybody here actually listen to what Kobe said, or seeing any of his interviews or seeing anybody else talk about Kobe. But here's something that really stuck out with me, and I hope it six with y'all too. There was an interview I think it was Chris Bosh and he described Kobe in the gym Pete. He said, you know, I wake up in the morning, I do my drills, and I go to the gym. But when I get to the gym, Kobe's already at the gym with ice on his ankles. That man has been there for hours and I'm just getting there. That is the exact mindset you want to have. Listen, if you get into it before he's getting to it, you ahead of the game. If you get on your grind at seven in the morning, but that man don't get on his grind till nine, yet, ahead of the game. You always want to keep in your mind what aren't they doing? No, yeah, what aren't you doing? So I can do it? You know what I'm saying, And don't even worry about it doing it better? You're twenty eight years old. I think gen Z. Yeah, I think that's gen Z. And this is and now I'm going to brag on my kids. I raised kids that work. I have raised kids that believe in work. Where I always you know, great, we're always like my kids are always like my house at my house, This isn't your house, this place where you stay. You know, someday you're gonna go have your own. But the idea is that we're creating independent kids. We believe in that. But I do notice, I mean very much so, especially in my daughter's age group, that the gen z, there's this anti work ethic that is in your generation. And I mean, I have to be honest. I sound like an old lady saying this, but I find it really refreshing to hear a young man talk about yeah, like, yeah, I'm going to work. I'm supporting myself. I'm going to this job, and then I'm doing the things that I want to do. I'm supporting myself, I'm supporting my community. Not complaining. I'm not that you never have complaints, but just saying not making that your personality and then blaming everything else. It's refreshing. Where do you get your work ethic from? Baby, I'm gonna keep it in a band with you. It's been and now you brought up something interesting earlier about I don't I forgot who he was, but you said he was made fun of it being intelligent. My work ethic. My work ethic comes from always being counted out, whether verbally or non verbally. When when I was growing up, I got picked on a lot. Right. Wasn't always this devilishly handsome, you know, but at the time, you know, I had a very bad confidence problem. I had lows up esteem. I had when I use the word fleeting, when I said my soul called friends were left and right in and out. You know, I had people talk behind my back. I've had friends look me dead in my face to say I was using them. My work ethic comes from a burning desire in my soul, in my heart, and I can feel it in my feet to not only poo y'all wrong, but to prove myself right. And I choose to do that first because what I learned in this life of mine, because I like, you know, I look at life like a video game. That's how I'm able to put in the work that I'm able to because I like that have fun with life, but I know that take it serious. I learned that in this life of mine, people aren't going to have your best interests at heart when you think they do. People aren't gonna actually mean they love you until something serious happens and you actually see what that love looks like. And this thing that I feel in me isn't to prove you wrong. I learned that malice begetting malice only brings more malice. My work ethic is solely to show you what you can do if you just put your pedal to the floor. If people come, people go, it doesn't matter because the people that stay are the only ones that matter. I learned that if you just put your foot on the gas and go as fast as you can, and you know, if you gotta drive it mellow it out. But if you got your foot on that gas that you never let up, the only thing that's going to stop your flow is you. And I only learn that through trial error, losing things, gaining things, having a listen. I had to start how many facebooks over No. I had to start on Instagram that I was working on all over again because it had I have four thousand followers on that account. It was looking pretty good, but I lost it because you know, I hit a moment of weakness and I got scammed out of it. But I had to start all the way from zero. I am now at almost breaking fifteen hundred, all because I put the pedal to the floor and realize, this isn't gonna come to me. No one's gonna hand me what I want. No one's gonna walk up to me and say, I see your potential, Let me give you everything. You know, that's unrealistic. What you need to realize, people, or if anybody young watching, what you need to realize that will only come to you if you work your fingers to the bone for it. It will come to you slowly, piece by piece. The only way it will come to you all at once is if you know a guy like that, and or mommy and daddy got you and they're able to fund you, They're able to give you what you need, and you have that support. Because that's another thing why my work ethic is like that. I did not have that immediate family support, right because you know, when you how do you explain to your mom, Hey, at first, I want to rap. How do you explain that at fourteen? You know your mom doesn't want to hear that. She wants to hear you be a doctor, a basketball player. How do you explain that? Right? No, I learned results are everything. You can't just walk into a room and say I'm the best rapper ever with one song. Was what I'm saying. You can't walk into a court or not a court, yeah, a basketball court, right and say I'm like Lebron James Kobe Bryant had a baby and then miss every shot. That's what I'm saying. You can't walk around like the big Cheese until you feel like you're the big cheese and you work like the big cheese. You have to be able to back up everything that you say. And that's why my work ethic is so deep and where I like, I feel like the fact that there's not many like me that scares me because listen, baby, I was born nineteen ninety five. I got the tail end of the nineties. You know. I saw that I got the tail end of the nineties, right, So like everything that was cool immediately became uncool, but I got a taste of it and like again, and it ties back into my belief in God. I believe my purpose on this earth is to deliver light. I don't want to come into anybody's life, whether it's through music or whatever, and deliver the same amount of darkness that everybody else is giving. You. I want to show you that, yes there is a beacon of light. Yes you can believe in yourself. Yes you can love yourself again. You can crawl yourself out of it because I've done it, I'm doing it, and I'm learning every single day what you could get out of it. And it's a personal sense of fulfillment. And that's why your work ethic has to be like up there. You know what I'm saying. You have to have an unbelievable amount of faith, not just in God, butting yourself too. I think this is a great place to end it. And we've already literally gone twice as long as I promise you we would go. But that's fine, that's fine. I've had a great time talking to you. Definitely have to have you a I have more questions, but I'll say I have a couple of controversial questions, but I'll save them for the next one because we're running out of time. However, before we go, tell the people a little bit. Tell people where are your base? Because we did not get into that. We just got right into this conversation. Where your base If they want to know what you're doing live or where you're gonna be like, what's the area you're going to be around, tell them about the new single, and where they can find you online. I'm gonna tell you with one word, everywhere, literally everywhere. Now, I don't have any shows or anything like that, but if y'all want to see me YouTube, SYMBA, games, S I N B, A, G A M E, capitol Z. It's a it's a little funko pop version of me. You'll know it because it's the only one with or I don't have my hoodie. Hold on, do I have it in here? No? I don't, But you'll know that it's me because it looks like me. It's got glasses, little funko pop and like it has a low he has a logo that I made not so long ago. I'm there every single day, literally, whether it's for an hour, two hours, or you could come say hello, say hey, I heard you on the show and I just wanted to say what's You're all welcome to come and high at me. And I would love to meet somebody. I love that. And what's your Instagram? My Instagram? Real Aaron Malik underscore. I think I don't know if the top of my head of the underscores there or not. But I know real Aaron Aleik is the thing, and you want to look for a picture with a green background and my hands. You know, if he doesn't have real Aaron mak, I'll have Jarvio put all of the links to all of your stuff in the show notes so people can find you. Now listen jail two I FM. Aaron might not be this political show, mostly so I don't know what the tastes of the music bring me back whenever you but talk about that again. I'm down to talk about anything, whether it's politics. I'll talk about anything because I research it all and I think it's all. Now you really got now you're now, we're you're coming back, and then we're gonna hit some of the controversial stuff and we'll see if you anytime to send me whatever. Oh yeah, I'm here, send me anything. Let's get it. I'm down to talk about anything that because I don't get listen. Like I said, I don't go outside, I don't talk to people. So anything that you want to talk about about and that's great. I actually love that. I think frankly, I think a lot of more young men just need to like stay in. Yeah, go home, Bro, streets cousin, go home, Bro, you got work to go home. But what I love about your music, Aaron, and I really do think that people are gonna hear jail I'm loving Jail B. I'm loving the new single. Uh you're hear it on my I think I'll at least have Darby replace it temporarily because I'm not a person too. But I'm like, because I'm gen X, so I'm like, I don't really care about your feelings, and I don't really care about how hard your life was. Like my parents didn't care how hard my life was. Imember one day, trying to tell my dad that I was like having a hard time at my mom's house about something and him going, oh, I suppose you're gonna tell me how hard your life is? Like No, he didn't care. Nobody cares. I don't care how hard your life is. I really don't. I have I don't. So the idea of like working hard and earning what you want feels very generous to me, and also taking care of yourself is very gen X. That's a gen z or with these values. I love it. So j l T I audience, please go reward Eron for his positivity and for he's putting in the work. He's a young man putting on the work. This might be not be your kind of music, but even if it's not, would you do us a fing and just download the song anyway, just to say, hey, this is how I'm showing my support. You can put it on mute on your podcast if you want. It doesn't have to you know, it doesn't have to come up, and you can take it out of the rotation. But if you just hit that that button, you know it's what is what is a dollar twenty nine on Spotify? I think I don't know how much it is. I don't know nothing. I just say the song is available and is out. You can go get it. I don't know how much. I don't worry about the money. I being a supporter of the arts, I always buy my music. I don't. I mean, I do stream to find the music I like, like I use pans or or something. But if I like a song, I go find it and I buy it because I have so many artist friends. So please buy it, download it and buy it from Aaron and share his stuff. And even if it's not your cup of tea, just know, like, if you want to see more positivity, if you want to see more light, as Aaron says, if you want to see more of the stuff instead of always complaining about the culture and the trash coming out of the culture, you have to support even the things that maybe aren't your cup of tea. So please go support Aaron. Aaron, I'm definitely gonna have you back. And when I have you back, this was a get to know you episode. When I have you back and put you in hot seat. Oh I love it, I love it. Oh yeah, listen, I got a lot of things I wish I could say, and if you ask me anything, oh baby, listen, I got as Okay, well, we'll definitely all right. Well listen, I'm gonna say goodbye to you. But but as this podcast ends, I just want you to hang on all right for just no hang up right away and then I go offline to talk. I want to tell everybody to please rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast. That is the thing you can do to help us. Please do the same for all of Aaron's projects out there, and support this guy. As you can tell, he's a really cool guy. I've enjoyed my time with hin. So we'll definitely be back and I'll make him uncomfortable. Talk about enjoyable Wednesday. I'll make them uncomfortable. All right, Well, everybody, we're gonna pick up every once in a while, just stop and listen to yourself. Opraids asodad that we won't with say then we won't to say oh we got it? Does no one get tag that? Owen d this gon'na be okay? O braids asod that we won't with say then we won't with say oh we got it? Does no one get take that owen du? May this don't be okay? This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast Network, where Real Talk lifts visitors online at fcbpodcasts dot com.