Future Projects and Closing Thoughts

On BBC iPlayer. Gareth. Simple question really. Do you think you're up to this? A brand new drama starring Joseph Fines and Jody Whitaker. Everyone thinks that footballers are overconfident, arrogant. They're afraid . Based on the award-winning play. Keep believing. Keep going right up until the final whistle. A new England that comes from behind, that fights. Dear England. Watch on BBC iPlayer. Did the kids get home safe? Where is the dog? With Arlo's early warning system with emergency SOS, you'll always know. Arlo's AI doesn't just detect, it recognizes your dog on the sofa, your kids coming home, unfamiliar faces, and even fire . Get real-time alerts and connect to emergency services in seconds so you can act before damage is done. Arlo. Home where you need us to be. com. Hello, I'm comedian John Robbins, and I'm here to tell you about my brand new memoir Thirst. In Thirst, I tell the story of my life through twelve drinks, those that made me and those that broke me. It's been described as the funniest book ever written about wanting to drink yourself to death, and in it, I explore what alcohol means. Why did it mean more to me than other people? Why did it mean I felt better? And why did it mean so many things went wrong? It's also about friendship, creativity, Buddhism, and I'm afraid, hemorrhoids. Thirst is out now in audiobook. Read by me, John Robbins . This is the Hip Hop Save My Life Podcast. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Hope you enjoy the podcast listen back because it's time for the podcast welcome to hip-hop save my life. Um a couple of big things to talk about. First of all, Rupert is not here because he's sort of doing some sort of birthday celebration, so he can't join us today. So we're joined with by our other hip hop save my life collaborator, Ben Green. Hello, Ben. Hi. It always feels like a disappointment. And actually Sue's face looked like he was disappointed. No right. Well, I imagine he was disappointed. It's really awful. I imagine he's disappointed that you brought him straight in without us giving him a proper intro. Do you know what I mean? Like this is supposed to be the bit where you and I sort of talk about how excited you are to have him on. Do you know what I mean? So he's not here. Okay, let's start again. So how have you been, Ben? You you good? It's good to have you. Yeah, all right. Uh quite yeah, stressed a little bit stressed at the moment 'cause we're doing doing work at the house. Um and yeah, it's it's that well basically I'd fucked it up. How'd you mean? Well , I've built a floor on my house, which is quite a big so a loft conversion. Yeah. And you've added a floor to your house, because the way you said that, it makes it sound like your house didn't have a floor before you put one in. That's that's sort of the way you phrased that Well yeah, but I've added one and the reason for doing it was I wanted a projector in the and I know this doesn't sound like a big like it may not be like like I know other people got bigger problems probably but yeah I mean you're you're in the middle of a pandemic and you're talking about how your projector's got an issue. Go on. But carry on. Well, I basically forgot to wire it before we built the ceiling and the floor, so now I can't have one. So I I don't yeah. But they didn't tell me. They I put a plug there, but they were like and then the guy came round from Richer Sounds and he had a look at it and he were like, Where are you gonna put all the cables for like they like to wire from the projector to this to that? And he was like , I don't know where he went well you can't you have to do it let's like run it across the floor so you can have one yeah but would you want like six cables running just straight across your room but but you but you can have one. Well I could yeah would I want six cables running along the floor is is yeah is a separate . If how much do you want this projector? Do you know what I mean? Not that much. Okay. Well look let's bring our guest into this, all right, because I feel like we're wasting his time here. Okay. Uh so um look, Ben, we're excited, right? Yeah. Very excited. What's the way to describe this guy's a polymath, right? He's a rapper. He's a T V presenter. He's an author. He's a BAFTA nominee. He's just next level big deal. It's big zoo. Hello, mate. Yo, yo, yo, you listen . Sorry, I do know what I realized there that I actually was quite interested in your what your take was on this uh on this projector situation. That's why I've brought you into this conversation. I'm I'm a person I proper don't care about wires. Like they don't they don't piss me off. That's like a police system. Bro, like my telly is here, it's hanging, the wires are everywhere, they're bare. They're bare to see . But it does a job, man. Like even if you hide them, I know they're there. So that's true. Yeah. Yeah.. Yeah. Yeah I mean the fact that he that Ben's considering not having a projector. Do you know what I mean? Because he doesn't want visible wires. That's a that is that's big. It is big. Do you know what I mean? That is a big decision. I just can't tell you what the mo I mean the moment where I went in and like they'd literally finished doing the top coat of paint and then I had did genuinely consider like ripping open all the walls and ceiling to like do it but my builder looked at me my builder doesn't like me very much anyway. He's made that quite clear. Nice. Right. So yeah, he uh he he just said no. But isn't it but builders builders don't like uh don't like their clients towards the end of the job anyway, do they? They fucking love you. They're practically sucking you off at the beginning when they're giving you a quote and that and then it towards the end. I mean they're barely turning up. Yeah there's also a massive slow like there was like 50 people there at the start and now white once once a day, a week, someone shows up to do like a little paint. Yeah, I'm never getting back into my house. It's never yeah. Anyway, sorry. Well, good luck with that . Zoo, how's life treating you, man? Uh it's not bad. I'm just doing a lot of random stuff, um, kind of navigating through music world and TV world um the best I can. And I'm just trying to enjoy myself, man. That's that's the main thing. Just have fun and do do things that are fun, you know? I mean it's fair to say you're absolutely smashing it, man. Do you know what I mean? Because Thank you, man. Because you just out of nowhere have this TV show on Dave, which is fucking great, right? Like this uh Big Zoos, Big Eats, and you just rock up the different comedian shows and you you kind of make it is it is it a dream meal? You kind of take their likes and and and the things you and then you create something off the back of their kind of bespoke desires, right? Is that right? Yeah. We we make a full course meal which is based off what they love and it's it's it's easy because we're cooking food that they love so it it rarely goes wrong. And the first season we cooked while they was actually on tour, so we was linking comedians on tour and normally comedians unless you're Jimmy Carr, you're not having the greatest dinner after you tour because you're in the middle of nowhere, you know, you're in Leighton Bozard and there's just one donner shop or one curry house. There's nothing to really eat. It's always really shitty food. So we turn up in this big food truck and cook you all the food you love, like it was instant once I once I saw that the comedians loved what we were doing, I knew that it would do well on telly and the reactions went crazy, you know, season two , that's done now. Trying to work out the contract season three, you know, David being long, but we're getting it done. And it's just like, yeah, it's T V world now. Now all my meetings are with production companies talking about what would you like to do zoo where where would you like to go yeah where would you like to where would you like to take it next and I'm just like make telly about more food Strong pitch. No, it's not bad . It's working. So it's keep going How did it come about though? Because I was quite surprised. When I saw it was like I didn't know you were so chefy. Do you know what I mean? It's very random. Um literally I was doing some cooking videos for fun on YouTube with a couple of couple of my friends and the production company that we worked with, they literally just saw that video online and they were like, well, this is sick. Why don't we turn this into a tele program? And we were kind of like, okay, how do you do that? And then they kind of went and got the pilot. We did the pilot with Ed Gamble. Um, on the day of the pilot, they were supposed to get some social media influencers to be on the show with me, couldn't get anyone. So I said, oh, let's get my two boys I went secondary school with. Um because we're we have a good rapport. And they were like, all right, we'll try it. We'll try it on this paid pilot. And then it went really well.. It went really well So they said cool. We're gonna commission it with your two boys. And we were just like, okay, what happens now? We did then we banged out the whole series just before the first lockdown hit. And then as we finished filming, lockdown started. So we couldn't do any of the like glitzy glamoury TV things that you do to promote it. We kinda just had to sit in our house and tell people to watch it. And then luckily it just it it it it it took off and and I think it being on Dave helps you know being on a random channel like Dave it's it's been really good because we've been able to kind of set our foundations, get a core audience uh on telly without being on all the main channels. So we're just kind of like over there doing our thing and making a little bit of noise. And that's why now it's kind of like we're just deciding what we want to do. People always cuss Dave, people always cuss our channel with that way on. They always cuss it. Like, but I I'm I I love it as a whole, man. You know, there's there's there wasn't a lot going on on Dave. There's a lot of top gear, top gear repeats. So we've helped with that. Yeah. Yeah. But I I think I I think I know what you're saying about like, you know, people make jokes about Dave. But the truth is the other thing that people say about Dave is they're one of the bravest commissioners. Do you know what I mean? Like in terms of like they if they like an idea they'll back it and they'll get behind it and they'll promote it. And you know, there've been some great shows on Dave. Like you know Taskmaster came from Dave and obviously now it's on channel four. But like nobody, like the channels passed on Taskmaster, do you know what I mean when it first when it first got pitched? And so I think they have got a reputation for that. And that's that's you know, that's been borne out by the fact that you have been able to because you watch that show, you watch your show, and it's it looks completely untouched by commissioning notes or anything like that. Do you know what I mean? I mean that as a compliment. It it just looks like you guys literally did just turn up and do your thing, and I think the show's all the better for that because so many times, you know, you know, Ben Ben works in TV. Well, there's loads of times where you see a really like good talent, and then they go, Let's make a TV thing for them. And then when you watch theed final TV show, all of the ed ges have been knocked off. Yeah. And so this thing that you liked about this person or this group of people has gone. Do you know what I mean? And actually your mates being in the show, probably like that's probably a better show it's a much better . With that actually have never really met and then just like sort of act like mates. So it's kind of better it's always gonna be better if they're actually your friends that you actually know and as you say have a rapport with. Yeah well million but it's good that that happened by accident. Trust so what what do you reckon now? 'Cause like you've you're doing music, you brought the book out, the TV thing is going really well. Like not only do people like it, but you're getting close this window. No worries. You're getting embarrassed about these brags like just leaking out into the neighbourhood and that No My neighbours are just drilling. Yeah man. No, but I mean what what what do you what do you think do you feel like you're just gonna carry on on all fronts or is it are you thinking oh maybe I'm gonna focus more on the TV or I'm gonna try and combine them? What's it what have you got any plans? Yeah, it's it's a weird one. It's kind of like I'm in a place where I'll finish my album pushing that. I'm doing a show soon, which I'm probably not allowed to say what it is, but I'm doing a show that kind of clashes with the release of my album. So this is like the first time I've kind of like been like, okay, maybe I can't do both at the exact same time. So I might have to push back my album because of a sho w, because of the filming commitment. So like now I'm kind of like, okay. So navigating, doing both, is not exactly possible. But I'm trying to make it work as much as possible right now. I feel like all the people I've seen before me like transition from music into telly, people like Kano , who is one of the biggest Gram MCs of all time, and is also on Top Boy, absolutely smashing it and then doing other bits behind the scenes. Um people kind of like transition into tell and film and they kind of become these massive people within the industry and still make music. And for me, I've kind of like I've always been a grime MC. I've always just an MC at heart. That's what I am. Give me the mic, let me split some bars. And the more I do telly, the more I do these things, it's like it's fun, but my essence is always gonna be like radio. So like I always wanna go radio, always wanna spit bars. So I'm always gonna do music, but I'm definitely gonna have to have fun within telly because my mum needs me to pay her bills and television is great for that aspect. Yeah . My my mum will testify to that. Trust me on that. I love how you bring in your mum Z. I love that. That's what I'm on. Like I put I put my mum on my show and there's something there's a special energy when you're with your mom on Delhi. It's like it's it c it's just it's something that you can't feel unless you do it. It's like there's a bit of a go on Ben. I was gonna say is your mum easy to control? And I don't mean that in a weird way, but like is your mum like does she like get the TV thing and like like yeah, because it it's it's it's she's getting it's slightly tricky with Shanty. Yeah, so Ben Ben directs has directed shows that I've done with my mum. So Asian provocateur Ben directed. And he's the first director to have to sort of instruct my mum and very quickly realize that you can give my mum a a direction and then say action and then watch her do something completely different to what you suggested. It's it's amazing, isn't it? It's almost it's almost willful. Yeah. And then better and then better go cut and then go, Shanti , uh like it wasn't quite you do know I asked you to specifically not do what you're doing. Oh my god, did you? Oh, oh, oh God, sorry. And then she do the same thing again. Incredible. That's what I' sayming. The mumsy just got a certain type of energy where they're just not trying to complete the task at hand. It's it's so good. And I think I think that's what gives it the greatest energy because it's like so many people have this like idea of how to be on telly, like you bring them into a room and they'll act like how they think you're supposed to be on telly. Whereas mums, they yeah, they don't think about that. They're not coming into England working their life to raise their children to then become televis ion stars. They're not on that. They just they just want to have fun and make bread. So I remember the first time I brought her on set and she was like, Oh, so much people. I'm like, yeah, mom. That's the producer, that's the director, that's the line manager, that's the and I got a small crew for big geeks. So we've got a really small crew. So I told her you listen, this is just this is nothing. Like this is this is how this is just little starter pack. And she was at um she was probably proud of me because she was like, How do you do all of this stuff while they're watching? Yeah, yeah. She thought, man, just film and there's one person laughing with me. Nah, there's a whole crew behind. It's very awkward when you're saying all your jokes and your life story, everybody's watching and I think my mum kind of appreciated how hard it was. And at first she was very stiff, but then once she kind of got used to the treatment and the runner getting her coffee, she's like, hey, yeah, you want to get me a coffee Okay. I'm not gonna complain. You know what I'm saying? And then and then she started realizing the runner can get more than the coffee, they can get other stuff. So she started asking for like cream and stuff, hand cream, face cream, random like can I get a hat my mom''ss so funny it so it's so quick isn't it with like with moms how quickly that sort of oh my god I can't believe it to you didn't get me the thing I asked for about that switches in about a day I reckon yeah, the bouginess. They get bougie quickly. And you know what? If it's your show, it's worse because they're like, this is my show. I know. That's what that's what they think. They think like, okay, this is my son's show, but I made my son. So everything you do, you're doing for me. So yeah. When I'm getting my lunch order, my mom's like, yeah, I want double his whatever his order, I want the quantity to be double and the price to be double for mine because I made him so listen you you talk about being a gram MC and um what what how do you see the like did you grow up listening to hip-hop and and that led you to grime or was gr or do you see grime and hip-hop as completely separate? Like kind of what's your take on a relationship between those two genres? Grime is definitely influenced by hip-hop. Grime music is influenced by I think Grime is like a truly British art form. It's something that was created here in the 2000s by uh by your wileys, Dizzy Rascals, Kano. They kind of cre ated a sound within jungle and bassline and garage. They kind of took that hip-hop sense where a lot of rappers in the in the UK were rapping with American accents. And they were kind of like the first to kind of spit with an English accent on on obviously you had people like Kashnakoff and the rappers before them who were doing hip-hop in English accents. So I'm never ever gonna say that wasn't happening in the UK because it definitely was in the 90s and early 2000s. There were rappers who were rapp ing without an American accent, but I feel like Grime kind of took off a bit more than the hip-hop scene. So when I was growing up, I was listening to American hip hop before I listened to UK music, yeah, yeah, yeah. UK rap or hip hop or grime. I was listening to your fifties and you know, Tupac, Biggie, M M, you know, kind of what was big in the early noughties that that was kind of the vibe but then once I found grime when I was like nine ten years old all I listened to I I oh my god like I understand what man are saying man are speaking slang like talking about the the hood and talking about this and that and then all the hood politics come with it, all the all the stories, and then I just fell in love with grand music. But I always still had my love for hip-hop. Like that's the thing, like growing up, obviously with CD's era, yeah, and then obviously when everything transitioned to online, lime wire, thatpiff.com, I would download mixtapes from American artists that aren't even them. It's not even them on the project. It's a random guy pretending to be ti but I'm still listening to the whole project like yeah and the mixtape's called like TI Revenge point eight and you're like okay I'm still gonna listen to it so that was kind of I kind of loved my hip hop but I was also in love with Graham so it was like a journey of both worlds. So you started off listening to 50 Cent, right? And was he kind of your favorite artist when you started in the beginning? That was like my first my mum bought me get Rich or Die Trying when it came out, she brought me the CD. And you know, this is when YouTube weren th't aing and this is when you kinda if you wanted to watch rapper rappers on TV, you had to have Sky and you had to have MTV base . You know what I'm saying? It was not coming up on top of the pot. I think 50 performed on top of the pops like once though but it was kind of like back in the day it was the cds that was popping and i remember my mom getting getting me getting me get rich or die trying and then the marshall mothers lp and i just played both of them back to back and my mum mom definitely didn't know about the lyrical content on there. When I pull up out front, you see the beans don't do when I roll twenty DBs, twenty nines in the club. Niggas wrote a fuck with Trey. Now they wanna show me love. When you sell like them in them then and the house, they wanna fuck Homie, ain't nothing you change hold down, G's up. I see exhibit in the cut, they nigga roll that weed up. Roll watch how moving mistake the four play up hip. I've been hit with a few shelves, now what we're lit. I'm out in the hood in the lady saying fifty you have they like me, I want them to love me like they love pop. But how in New York and niggas to tell you I'm local. We playin' it to put the rap game in the chunk for the focus, man. I was gonna say that's quite a bold first like I had it I got Paul Simon and Rod Stewart as my that my mum bought first album. And she was quite worried about that, wasn't she? She was yeah yeah she censored the uh some of them, yeah. Like Maggie Mae. Yeah, yeah, sure. But uh yeah, that's uh so did you guys listen to Wangster together or how what did you listen to it together? Do you know what's mad? We never listened to it together. I kinda just had my little CD player. You know the little C D player when your headphones would attach straight into the thing, like that was the vibe. Like I used to run that and then and then obviously when times were bad and obviously iPods come out and this and that and it's music on Bluetooth and infrared and it kind of left the CD era and went into the internet age of YouTube and stuff and that's where I kind of saw all these rappers that I was listening to on CD and on TV kind of got to learn more about them now, got to learn more about their story, especially coming from West London, like and growing up with my mum who wasn't like a big hip-hop person. She just loved music. That's why she got me those CDs. But I never grew up like understanding about Tupac and Biggie, like what was going on. I had to learn myself once I had the access to the information. You know? So I was kind of lucky in that sense that once I got old enough to kind of understand music, by the time I was 10, 11 okay now you can go on youtube now you can go watch all the stories go listen to all the music and that that's all I would do like literally me and my friends just sit there and listen to music and just be super gassed that we can listen to it and just go on line wire and destroy my parents' computer you know, with viruses for years. W when you when you think about that that Limewire, I remember like when Limewire first came out, I remember just thinking it was fucking amazing. It was the one. That you could just download whatever thing. But but back then, if somebody told you it would take that long to download a song now, it you you would consider it like fucking rage inducingly unacceptable. And like you know the like now just whatever you want, cops you but I would just sit in there going, holy shit man, I could literally just type in a thing. And in just twenty-four hours I might have an album. Do you know what I mean? This is unbelievable. And then it'd be it accidentally might be the like the Moroccan version or whatever, but you know we're just gonna find out when it's fully downloaded. We just hope. Yeah, yeah. Good times though. Was your was your mum uh was she alright about you listen to hip hop? I mean did she like did you just think oh it's music, and it's good that my son's getting into music, or was she worried about the type of it? She never cared about the lyrics or the bars. She kind of just she she she's from Sierra Leone and wet West Africa, they love their music, man. All they do all day is listen to music. So my mum was my mum was a very musical person growing up, but she never would like internalized it or kind of like looked at it from an art perspective. She always loved it because of the vibe. She loved listening to it. So with me, it was kind of like she just loved that I was in my room spitting bars. Maybe not she didn't really care what bars I was spitting , but she was just happy to know that okay. Cause I was a good you as well. I wasn't a bad bad man kid, I wasn't like a bad boy so it's not like I was listening to the bars and then trying to become a drug dealer and and kill people. You know what I mean? Yeah she didn't she didn't see the lyrics if affecting me like that. She always saw it as that was um me having fun spitting M M um some of the songs on Marshall Mavers LP are very bad and but I she was more ghost that I was able to rap them like that she was more excited that oh my god my son can like perform and have fun with it and it was never a thing where I was gonna do music it was just kind of like something that I loved I only started doing music when I turned like 16 17 started writing bars so all of the music just listening growing up was kind of a fun and then yeah, how did you like transition from like listening to actually writing and performing? Like w did you quite quickly get the confidence to go out and do that or were you doing it at home for a while? We was we was it was when I went to college bruv we was bored in the blocks fam we was just in the block bored so my boy used to put on like hip-hop instrumental like master ace or or one at like you know the old school, you know, if you just write rap instrument al and you'll get some Jay Diller or you get some no ID and and you get you get some moss def, you know what I'm trying to say? You get bag of common instrumentals, you know about common just every single rap beat that you could think of. Like I remember rack my first bars, I wrote them to Master Ace Beautiful, which is such an amazing instrumental. It's proper hip-hop classic. I got a lot to say. Usually my smile sta y locked away, but not today. I have to laugh on the reeler after maths, kinda ill, like I'm Dr. Dre. Sometimes I run to the club and get faded. This game makes you get jaded. I just hate it. But this song is a different kind of feeling. It's a new kind of dealing. It's a special kind of healing. And I can show what it is. Best flow in the binge. You know what it is. Positive over negative. See the ace of master. Even when I face the That's kinda like what we because we were just bored. So we go on YouTube, write a hip-hop instrumental, and then man just started freestyling like saying rat , cat, bat, flat, rhyming all the easiest words. And then one of my friends was like, yo, Zoo bruv, you might as well write some bars. And then started writing. And then I met Tracy, I met AJ Tracy and found that he was, we was connected like family, like his cousin was my cousin. And then he was writing bars. So then we just started writing together, going youth club together, and then just it just went like that. Like we started we kept on just having fun with it. How long were you doing the bat and cat stuff? Oh my god, that went on for a while. No, no, that was from like when I was at 16, 17, up until about 18, just having fun, going studio, writing stuff, putting out stuff on YouTube, getting 100 views, getting gassed. To then one day when I was like 18, 19, we got invited to Pirate Radio in East London. We got invited to Deja Vu, which is a classic Grimes station. But coming from West London, you know about Deja, but you don't really, you never would go there. So we got invited there, and I'll never forget it. It was our first time on radio. I spat a bar and I got a wheeler, and I was like, oh my days , this is mad. And then from then, stuck to radio, kept going radio. Me and Tracy, we batted it like every state, like we would go Flex in in South, we'd go West Side Radio, Deja Vu in East, Moda Femme in North. Then that led to bbc kiss started to do more mainstream stuff then all the like companies started loving grime it was in that same transition when people started to love grime 2013 1415 skepts started doing mad things again, J andME Grimes started taking off. Like people like Stormzy making songs like Shut Up, Charting. UK music started building. So while UK music was building, I was kind of in the scene building with it. And now we're where we are now, where Dave is number one in the charts with a with a rap album and you know UK music is very prominent. How how did it feel to be inside Grime as it sort of exploded like that? Was it mad? Oh bro, like growing up listening to Grime, watching it die 2010 times, no one listened to it, and still I still loved Grime. So we was doing, we was doing rap, hip-hop, we was spitting other bars, but we also still kept kept on doing grime. So when the time came up to go radio and do grime, it was like, okay, we'll go split some bars. We never knew that it was gonna blow up. So when it blew up, we was actually part of the scene. Like sometimes I look back and I look at the grime scene like a bunch of superheroes. Everyone's got their own little special power. And like the skepters, Dizzy's, Wiley, Kano, they're like the forefad. They're like the Avengers. And I thought of I'm like the little, I'm like a little Miles Morales, like looking up to Spider-Man, I want to be Spider-Man. I'm kind of that man and and I feel like I've grown within it and now I'm like one of the the most prominent grime MCs and sometimes I look at look at stuff and I'm like rah how do we get here but it's with a lot of hard work a lot of sets a lot of shelling, a lot of bars. Yeah. And I'm kind of one of them brothers that I still I make different types of music, but I've never turned my back on the scene and I'm always I'm always going to make grime music, always going to do stuff with grime. And um I'm kind of happy to represent it. That's probably the best way to put it. Is it difficult to like you know, if you go into to all these radio stations and spitting bars and stuff, was it difficult and is it difficult to fuel that with like writing? I mean are you just writing all the time and like is it how difficult is it to do that? Because we there's certain MCs that you see and you sort of think I've heard this quite a few times. No no disrespect, like you're just like, you know, I've heard this and there's other MCs that every single time you see 'em, they've got new bars that you've never heard before, right? So like you know what what how where do you sit on that kind of scale? I mean you you gotta have your classics, you've got to have your like reload bar. That's what everyone has. Everyone has their reload bar but was young and you know I was we was in uni but and I dropped out of uni and I started working for Uber Eats like I would that was fueling my my my music career literally being able to go on my phone turn on app and go deliver food.' Thats how I was making my bread and butter while I was going . I'll be going radio, going uni, going to work. So I was lucky that I was at a time in my life where I could spend a lot of time in the studio and spend a lot of time spitting bars. I didn't have mad responsibilities. All my time literally went into music. So we was mad hungry. So you know, go on radio with new bars, trying to bring up the Wheel at bars, go into Eskimo dance, go into a Raven. You kinda have all that practice in the radio for the live. Yeah. And then we had to learn about the live, like learn okay, when I come to the stage show, I can't spit my deeper intellectual bars. I need to split my one, two, three, simple. And we had a lot of training, man. That's one thing. I had a lot of time to train. And I never realized how important that would be to then doing live performances and doing festivals and doing shows, that all that mic practice, we had all of that. So when we stepped into that world now, we was ready. And yeah, man, I always big up the um the DJs that gave man the space, the DJs that sacrifice their time sit in front of decks for three hours, always playing new music, always finding the newest beats. The DJs, the DJs and producers make it possible for the artists to become big. If it's not for them, you would haven't people like Skep, people like JME. You wouldn't have them because it's the DJs that put in the grind. They're the ones that come with the new beats. They're the ones that come with the new mix. They're the ones that put on a show. We as artists come to their world and use that energy to propel ourselves. And you know, they don't normally get the shout-outs. The artists, the artists always get the love, but really it's the DJs and the producers that make it possible for us to do our thing when it's nation versus nation when the whole world is watching when you're with friends and family and the magic happens. Come on! Yes? Yes, yes, yes! We're gonna win! Don't jinx it ! Nothing brings us together like great TV. And the TV license covers you to watch all TV channels plus BBCI player so you can cheer along with everyone across the country. Search TV License Together . Hello, I'm comedian John Robbins, and I'm here to tell you about my brand new memoir Thirst. In Thirst, I tell the story of my life through twelve drinks, those that made me and those that broke me. It's been described as the funniest book ever written about wanting to drink yourself to death, and in it I explore what alcohol means. Why did it mean more to me than other people? Why did it mean I felt better? And why did it mean so many things went wrong? It's also about friendship, creativity, Buddhism, and I'm afraid, hemorrhoids. Thirst is out now in audiobook. Read by me John Robbins . So you went on to keep listening to hip hop. Now the the artists, because we obviously we send out questions to get an idea of what stuff you like. Yeah. And actually, we've been talking about you you've you've put up as your favorite hip-hop album an artist who we've been talking about a lot on this podcast because he's actually proven to be quite divisive, right? So this is uh born sinner, Jay Cole, right? So your Jay Cole is up there for you as like one of the greatest of all time, am I right? Yeah, 100%. Came back when I was sleeping in my mama crib, leaving back when I was up there in my homie crib, paying 1700 for the rent, money well spent, no heater, but a nigga may eat, may I vent, had a thing for you. Even wrote the song Dreams for you, cause I had dreams for your thoughts of a ring for your tired of shit You know tired of shit And I'm a slower sink You no coward shit Nine niggas on the hose Took a power trip back home I'm grown now in the city's my throne now The same clubs that I used to get tossed out Light got crisscrossed, totally crossed out Cause now I'm in his bits and I'm totally bossed out Old Six crying cause they know that they lost out Put I'm still on you, I'm still on you My drinks fell on me while I fell on you, I'm saying He's my favorite artist that's living. Right now in the world, I would say J. Cole is my favorite artist. Especially how he's transitioned from where he was to where he is now. You you hear his output, like his last album before Fall Off Season, which was KOD, which was absolutely crazy. All his songs are about like being righteous and not following fashion and not taking drugs and being a good person. He's pe I think he's like the epitome of what hip hop stands for. Hip hop is that's what hip hop was made. Hip hop was made to to educate people and to express pain and and to talk about oppression and he's a rapper that became so big, done so many things, and then said, you know what, actually let me take off my chains. Let me he like the reason why I love Bourne Sinner so much, because I feel like that was at a a peak time in his career where he was blowing up but then he started realizing actually let me have a message within my music so you have songs like crooked smile on there which are about him not fixing his teeth yeah because that's what a lot of people do when they get money, which is understandable, you know. You've got a crooked smile, go fix it. Whereas he said, Nope, I'm gonna make a song about how my shit is crooked and I'm gonna inspire young people to not change their teeth. But he does it in a way where I feel like he's not patronizing people. I feel like he does it in a way where he's trying to educate man. Then he's got a song on there called Chaining Day which is about him buying his Jesus piece. Then he's got a song on there called Let Nars Down which is about pissing off Nas for me. That song is so good, man. I used to print out Nas raps and tape 'em up on my wall. My niggas thought they was words, but it was pictures I saw. And since I wanted a job, I used to read them and up. Then he dropped still medic ine cleaners for luck. Fast forward, who'd a thought that I would meet him on top? I'm earning strikes now, nigga got a deed as gallop. Backstage, I shook his hand, let him know that he's the man. When he said he was a fan, it was too hard to understand. No time to soak up the moment. Yeah, it's he's he's on some next shit, bruv and Nas replied saying you made Nas proud that was his reply and I just remember listening to Born Cinner like definitely downloaded it illegally definitely still in the that piff era where we was downloading mixtapes and stuff and I remember just listening to it and being like, this is such a body of music that I love every single like every song. Mo Money, Land of the Snakes, um , there's Power Trip on there with Miguel there' theres's the actual song Born Cinner there's a song called Villuminati which is about him being an Illuminati like him saying how can I be in there I'm a young black millionaire they're young they're old white billionaires, they ain't trying to mess with me. And it's like, you know what it is? But I I I I said my management, my my answers to your question, and my manager's a big hip-hop fan, like his mom's from New York and he loves rap, and he was like, Warnson is your favorite album of all time. And I was like, yeah, bruh. Because it's it's less about how impactful the music was to the world, it's more about how it impacted me. Sure. And that's taught me a lot about music. So the the the thing that um I was talking to, we had Steve Stamp from People Just Do Nothing uh on here, Steve's. And uh we were talking about J. Cole because I just watched a thing where this guy said it was a video of a guy I can't remember who it was that was saying it, but he was saying, he was saying, I know that J. Cole's dope, I know that he's skilled, I know that he's brilliant at what he does. I just don't ever want to listen to J. Cole. That was kind of that was kind of his argument. And listen, I I I I love J. Cole. Do you know what I mean? I think he's great. And I totally and I totally understand why you put Born Sinner as your favourite. I'd get it. I totally get it. J. Cole's amazing, right? But there's this group of people that think that he's just kind of boring. Do you mean have you heard that? Have you heard that argument before? Yeah, of course. He always says that he went platinum with no features. And that that's like the biggest diss for J. Cole online. Like everyone's like, yeah, but do you know that J. Cole went platinum with no features . Um and I I find it hilarious. I obviously I get it, you know, you're not gonna be in a party and be like, hey hey hey, put on some coal. Put on some coal. We got a lot of girls in here. Let's put on some pole. You know, that don't really happen. But hip hop, hip hop is hip-hop hip-hop is is is that spectrum, you know. One day I wake up, I want to listen to Migos. I love culture. I love culture one, two and three. I remember when I remember when the Migos came to Brixton and performed culture. And that's when bad and bougie was pop in. And that's a whole nother side of hip hop. That's like the mumble rap. People don't some people in hip-hop don't even accept it as hip-hop, whereas I definitely do. Braindrop, truck, drop talk, drop talk, smoking on cooking the hot bar, cooking, fucking on your bitch here, that, that, that. Cooking up, dope in the crack, pipe, pipe. We came from nothing the something, nigga. I don't try nobody grip the trick, nobody call up the gang and they come and get you a river, give you a tissue. Bad and bush, bad, cooking up though with a oozie. My niggas is savage, ruthless. We got thirds and hunter round too. My bitch bad and bush. I feel like you have to have the Migos to have J. Cole's. Music is is is vibe. See some people the problem with them is that they're so used to only listen to their one vibe that if anything is not part of their vibe , they don't rate it. And a lot of people, they love their little Uzivert, they love little bit of Migos, a little bit of Playboy Carti, that whole side to to hip hop definitely doesn't connect with Jay Cold's wall. So if you don't listen, if you like that sound, you're never gonna like this guy spitting all this knowledge and wisdom in your ear. Yeah. It's interesting, isn't it? Because there's there's almost a bit of snobbery from both sides to each other. Do you know what I mean? Because I I'll be honest with you, I was a bit like that. You know, I was a guy that was like, I don't recognise Migos, I don't want to listen to Future, Playboy Carti, all of that. Because to me, hip-hop is about fucking skills. Do you know what I mean? It's about like you know being lyrically amazing and like all of these lyrics that you don't figure out till like six months later when you listen to it. Do you know what I mean and suddenly you go, Oh shit, that's what they meant. You know, all of that. But then the truth is, Migo s serves a different purpose to like a J. Cole. Do you know? Even though it's within the same umbrella genre, you aren't going to listen to those in the same context. When actually you you you just want to hear something that isn't about like heavy lyrics, although I have seen Migos do like freestyles on on like on on certain radio shows and they have got there's no doubt they've got skills. I mean they have got skills But they're known for going Quavo that's what they're known for. They're known for their ad libs and their high and their vibe. It's like someone like future. You play future to a proper hip hop head, they're gonna be like, What is this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But future in the club in a party it's a vibe bro you you don't even care what you're saying. You hear all this mumble and you're like, yep vibes. And and like you said I feel like both of them they kinda clash but they're also part of the way that hip-hop is formed like obviously the the origins of hip hop you look back in the day you you you you look at your people like flavor flavor and them man and and literally before your NWAs, you know, before gangster rap was glamourised in the nineties, hip hop was a form of it was like against the man. It was like a uh it was an art form that was created to speak out against oppression and anti-system, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you know what I mean? And that that's the that's the that's the roots of hip-hop. But then when it became gangster rap and you get your ice cubes and your snoop dogs and Dr. Dre and Tupac and, it's all about West Coast versus East Coast. It became a whole different thing. Hip-hop became this like big phenomenon of like rap. And then I feel like people like J. Cole and people like Kendrick Lamar, they kind of represent what old school hip hop means. Whereas your futures, Migos, they're like new school vibes and they've kind of like taken that rapper jewelry, Ice, big cars, they've taken that and gone over there. Whereas you have your people like Vince Staples and Dave East, who's who still represent hip-hop. And it's just about what you connect to, man. Some people connect to both and some people only connect to one and I feel like they can all live within the you don't have to put them against each other. Do you know what I mean? I think people like ASAT Rocky are really important because I feel like he represents both sides of the coin. He's like super hip-hop, but also does proper weird songs. You know, I feel like who else I feel is a bit like that? I don't know if you listen to much of Denzel Curry. Yeah. But I feel like I feel like Denzel Curry kind of cr kind of bridges that as well because he sort of got those mad songs but also he can spit. Do you know what I mean? It's like uh he's crazy. Yeah yeah it's his album's called Zoo . Yeah yeah his last album is called Z U U. It's the random thing in the world. People like to me, yo, why did Denzel Curry name his album after you? I'm like fam, I don't know, man. I'm just so inspirational. Love the eats. Just loves it. He loves the eats. I remember I like when the album came out, I got at it every day. Like Ben Zell Curry, it's big zoo album out now. I'm like, yeah, take it. Carol City nigga, boy, I'm coming up the so boy coming out the soul So Boy we coming out the zoo So Boy we coming out the zoo So Boy, I'm coming out the rep your set, grab a tech, leave you wet and project in the cut Like Gillette Where they servant, don't protect Place a bet on your head, call your bluff and make a check Guilty until innocent Far as I know I'm evident But yeah, I totally know what you mean. And I think like, you know, when you know you have discussions with people about hip-hop not being what it used to be. And by the way, I I'm like, you know, I'm much older than you. I that conversation about hip-hop being over has been being had since I started listening to hip-hop. Do you know what I mean? So that's not a a new thing, but it's like if you want a lyricist, if you want somebody going off over like some sparse beat, you still got it. It's not disappeared. It's just like there's a certain branch of it. If you want that, there's almost too much of it. Do you know what I mean? You're fucking you can occupy every minute of every day with that type of hip hop. It's just that there also exists this other whole branch of it. Do you know what I mean and you can you could like it or you don''t but it doesnt you know it's just so broad now. I find it I think it's one of the things that it's one of the reasons that hip hop's so amazing. So is there is there anything about hip-hop that you don't like? Um, I said I when you look asking this, I said it's the fans, man. And that it's because of this combo. Right. I don't like the fact that people, the fans control the narrative of what's sick. Back in the day, the fans didn't have as much input. It was kind of like up to the labels and he was popping and like J. Cole's story is so important because he's somebody that was absolutely killing it in a hip-hop scene, couldn't get signed, went to Jay-Z, didn't get the respect, had to put out a single like workout where it's this poppy hip-hop song, and got his probably his biggest selling track to then have to break himself down and come with real stuff, you know. I feel like the fans almost ruined hip-hop because they kind of like they turned their back on real hip-hop and kind of went with the consumer the consumable like easy understandable hip-hop and then basically made the narrative if you make real hip-hop you're boring yeah or it's too lyrical or it's too and I felt like that that always pisses me off because it's like like you said both can live within their own art form but have we have to have respect for these people that actually put their time and effort into creating art like it's like it's like say If you love hip-hop, if you love rap, you're not you're not allowed to say that. Do you know what I mean? But NAS is definitely not gonna give you the same vibe that the Migos in the future are gonna give you. And I feel like it's it's it's interesting. You know, someone like Dave, you know, like Dave from from UK the UK, Santan Dave. I remember I went up to him and I was like, bro, you must listen to a lot of Nards. He's like, nope. I was like , what? He's like I'm like what? No, Jay Z. Not it. No, nope. I just listened to he's like I just listened to like U gay music and was popping. I was like, what? I was so confused because he's such a sick rapper. Yeah. But he didn't grow up on that. He grew up on UK road rap and he grew up on the gang and man them. He didn't grow up on Tupac Big E Nas that he couldn't tell me one nah song. But he's so sick at rapping. Yeah, Dave is like one of the greatest rappers in the world, and I feel like that's where that's where it really comes down to. It's like there is this whole side to hip-hop that we we cherish and people like stand up for and there's people just don't give a shit about it. And I find it hilarious because you wouldn't have what you have without that. And then does that make me an old head? I guess I'm an old head, and but I I feel like the fans that's the one thing of hip-hop that pisses me off is when people like disrespect the people that what make what we have. Yeah. How much do you let like the fact like your fans influence what you do? Like how much do you how much is just coming out from what you want to create in your own head to oh people like this about me? I better do something on that line. Like do you think about that at all? I I I definitely think about what is popping, right? Because the fans decide what pops. So if drill is going crazy, I got a spit on a drill beat. It's it's just part of the that's part of music. The best musicians navigate through the sounds that are popping. Obviously, I wish I could just do my own sound. I make whatever I want, but I'm definitely influenced by what's popular. And and I I still put out I put out a grime chat this year called Variation with Double E. And it's super grime, no drill, no drill 808s. It is just straight grime and people loved it. Uh giving the spill, giving the low down, can't lie keeping it real, I can't slow down. Girl panels of an old time. I'm the BFG, it ain't rolled out. I got the hash boss got a soul cow. No it's only double you's like Joe Cow I've been meet, I never sold out. But I can tell you about the shows that I sold out. I'm in the lane that have my own route. Good girls wanna settle down in the whole shop. I ain't tryna fall cow. Cop I got a whole And it kind of proved that, okay, you can still live within your world. But I also put out a song called magical, which is that Afro beats and dancey and vibes. So I definitely let people influence what I make. That's that's definitely that's definitely for sure. But you are someone that's quite versatile though as well. It feels like you could go either way into like, yeah, into like a more hype track or do that more conscious stuff as well. Things like you can kind of both. I've I've definitely that's that's just like because I've been like I said, when I first started writing music, I didn't just do grime, I did all different sounds, so I've always been someone that does all these things. I just kind of became prominent as a grimy OC . But definitely I've always worked on different types of music. And I feel like my album is definitely the epitome of that. My album couldn't be one genre. It''ss it there's R and B on there, there's rap on there, there's drill, there's grime, there's singing. It's like just all the vibes, man. And that's and that's what music's supposed to be. Musicians should be able to make what they want, you know? Yeah And what about live experiences? Do you I mean I'd say what what is it what is a big zoo gig like? Ah, ener gy, vibes , a lot of attention to detail. I'm I'm um the pandemic has really hurt sure especially putting out music because my live element I say is the best element of my music. My music is great, I love it, I think everything's beautiful about it, but I feel like when you hear me perform it live, that's what kind of tips you over the edge. So you might be like, oh, that makes you guys cool, but then you see me perform it live, you'll be like, nah, no, no, no, no. It's a different thing because of radio, cause I came up in that having to be in a room, one mic, fifty man around me, have to make sure my ten seconds on the mic is the most important part . I kinda have all that practice with live, like live. There's some musicians, UK rappers who blow up overnight one song, they they have to headline bloody park life. They come out, it's their first time ever performing on the mic. And their song is big, so everyone's gonna sing the song, but they ain't got no no tech. Whereas me, I didn't come out like that. I didn't blow up and get booked for wireless. I was doing this I was doing old blue last in short itch with 50 people in the room, having to control that room to then being able to do certain things like now I've done stuff where it's like okay that's that's a bit mad do you know what I mean but when I perform live I go absolutely crazy I make sure that I get and and I practice a lot all I do in my yard instrumental practicing that's all I do yeah literally so are you practicing are you practicing freestyling or you're practicing like your your own change everything man so we look I still got we still got instrumentals in the background tal,king rubbish, freestyling. Whenever I jump in the car, I take the aucs, my boys know what time it is. I'm gonna put on the beat. Yeah, less than eight. We went we went to Top Golf and it was like an hour journey and I had one beat on loop for the whole time. Just so I spat a couple new bars old bars freestyled and it's just to stay it's just to stay sharp i just i i'm always i'm all about staying sharp i think rap and hip hop is somebody stopping in the street saying spit some bars and you going, cool, here's my new fire sixteen. Yeah. That's what I think rap is. Like I that's how I came up. I came up of Don't do don't invite people to fucking do that to you in the street, man. I know, I know. People are gonna stop me and be like,, yo yo,, yo, yo, yo, yo I heard you on that podcast, bro. Let's get some bot and I'm gonna be pissed off trying to get a cross on . Bro, I'm just trying to film . But is it right? You toured with Dave, is that right? Yeah, we did. We did Europe, man. He he he hit I've told with a lot of people in the UK, random people. I've talked with um KSI, yeah. I've told with AJ, AJ Tracy, um, Chip , J K , um I've done my own tour in the UK and I literally finished my first tour, my first big zoo tour, and I was dying like no voice, very ill, needed a couple months to recover and Dave's team hit me they're like do you want to go on tour in Europe? I'm like, oh my day, let's go . And I literally I stopped smoking, I stopped drinking, I took it super serious because it's a big opportunity, you know. Dave Dave was it is one of the biggest artists in the UK. I mean, he went number number one today with 74k cells, which is more than Storms. So Dave is technically bigger than Storm's D. So it's crazy like going on tour with him. We did nine dates. I've I performed across Europe already, but I know that they really take in music, especially when you perform live. So I took it super serious and it was one of the best things I've ever done, man. I left every sh every show I went in. Nobody knew who the fuck I was. Nobody. Maybe like one person would know who I was. And they all sold out. Each venue is like a thousand cat . So I'm coming out, and these bunch people just want to see Dave. All they want to do is see Dave. Like, people pay to go to a headline show to see the headline artist. They do like it when they see the new guy they have fun. But where's Dave? Who is this guy? So I was coming out and I was like hitting them and so I'll give them the hype, I'll give them the gas, then I'll give them the the singing, then I'll give them some conscious stuff. And they was really receptive because Dave has that audience where they listen to his lyrics but they also love the vibes. I got a song called The Struggle, which is a freestyle about life and young people. It's a three-minute freestyle. Just straight looking in your eyes, spitting bars. King from the struggles to the bubble, we move like life is a hustle. We came up for society's rubble. They try break us down. It's the little things that when a youth in school gets in trouble. Then they put the bad kids in a hurdle. And if you wait on the system's wave, then they just stuck in the puddle. Yeah, cause things at home, they're not easy. So it was like real life in school, you gotta juggle And if it right here it's a jungle So if you don't pass your test at a certain age I have Farkle Unless you got links with your uncle Will you do a retake in the same system that put you there in the struggle? Now then there's where ever Every time I was performing after the whole crowd would just they start clapping and it was super sick for me and then I saw the streams for that go out like through the roof and then like my Europe fan base grew. So like that Dave Tour is probably one of the best things I've ever done. That and and touring in Australia, that was super mad as well. Touring in Australia I find really fucking hard because of the time difference. I'll go be honest with the but about the time that I started to get appreciating the time difference, it's time to come back. Like I I the first few shows I found so I found it so hard. Where did you do in Australia? So we we did we did Sydney first, then Perth and then Melbourne. So it was a bit all over the gap. It was it was super random man. What was your favourite? Because I love Melbourne, man. I think Melbourne's sick. Melbourne's lit Melbourne's like London. Melbourne's Melbourne's the city of Melbourne is very is very similar to London. I like Perth though because Perth is kinda like what you see on like um home and away, you know, it's it's like you know like neighbours. When you watch neighbours, that is what Australia looks like. Perth is like beautiful beach. You know, obviously they speak English, which we know, you know, you because the English um we know what they did to make Australia. So when you're there, it's like abroad, but they know all the bars. They understand every single it's not like when you do Europe where people just go, hey, they don't even know Australia they know all the bars. So I was out there and I couldn't believe it that the people were spitting my bars back to me and then it's like raw I'm on the other side of the world. Yeah. And you know all my lyrics. Like this is crazy. And because they're just like super gassed. They're like, oh my God, you're here. Like we are not gonna be like a dead London crowd who just saw Stormzy live. So we don't really need to see Big Zoo live. Nope. We are in bloody Australia. You have flown 20 hours, 24 hours from here. We're gonna give you all our energy. And that's how it was in Perth man. Literally. Is it is this scene big in Australia then? Bro, there's grime. So basically, there's this click of grime MCs in Australia. Yeah. Who are from England. One of them had a girlfriend in Austral ia. So him and his four lads flew over. What is his name? Uh, I'll I'll have to give you the name after man. If you just write Australian grind, we'll come up straight away. But they flew over like 51 years ago when Grime was popping 2006, 2000, around the 2005, 2006 era. They flew over to Australia and just kept doing what they was already doing. And then they became like the forefathers of Grime in Austral ia and like massive out there. They got like Melbourne's got its own MCs, Perth has its own MCs, Brisbane has its own MCs, like they all got their own little fan bases. It goes off there, man. It like I think one of the biggest festivals is is in Australia and Auckland is in New Zealand as well. And I I know that Stormsey, gig, Skeptar, every New Year's, that's where they go to perform. What is uh what's the Aussie accent like on a grand track?? Does it work Bro, it's funny. They say cunt a lot. They say the C word. They they say it in a good way, in a engaring way. Oh right, yeah. Then they call you a good cunt or sick cunt. And it's obviously in England that's such a big swear word, but over there it's like the greatest thing to be called. I remember I came off stage and a kid came up to me, he said your mum's a cat. And I said, What we what did you just say, bro? He's like, No, I'm saying that your m'ums a G because she made you. I was like, okay. Weird thing to say after someone gets off stage. Bro, writing my grill, like your mum's can't. And I'm like, even without the can't, yeah. But now they're sick, man. They got like Australian, they got Australian drill, the drill scene over there is crazy. That's so mad. It's magic. I I can't who's the artist? Artist did a remix of a drill track and they got like one of the Australian guys on it. I've done like I've done like ciphers with them with the Australian gram and see I've got a song with one of them. Yeah man they're good people. There's a guy called Chillin' it he's like absolutely massive sells out mad tours over there like he's he does grime and lyrically so sick bro he's just this Australian dude like he's got chilling it here check out some Australian grime then man I guess trust it's so random bruh so okay, well look what what you listen to at the moment then? Have you got any recommendations for us? Um maybe not super hip hop, but um I've been listening to a lot of children of Zeus. Oh yeah, they're so good. They're kinda like they're like R and B vibes, but yeah, the guy that spits, so there's a singer and there's a spitter, and the guy that raps, it's all hip-hop. Yeah, and it's like super old school vibes. They're from Manchester, like you would even think they're from Manny, you know. We're very London-centric in the U K like so i i i definitely want to say children of zeus that their their new project is absolutely it's i think it's called balance and it's like there's some beautiful songs on there man yeah they're amazing they're amazing everything i do is for the balance Yeah, I've been feeling content still never too comfy for the challenge I often think on my mother wonder why she money Why my stepdaddy still embraced her with all that extra baggage I see my girl and my kids and I instantly think of blessings. It's only more recently I figured out what successes. Maybe you can appreciate the sentiment in this mess. We may never see the fruit of this labor which we invested. This foundation for the future's built on something which these kids can be bent, trying to stack a pick. And uh look, we're almost out of time, Zoo. So we just want to uh ask you what to look out for next in the world of uh Zoo? What should we checkin' out? Album man, the album is called Navigate S, it's on pre-order now. I can go get all the match and stuff we're lining up a tour for it. Yeah, man, the album. I put a lot into the album, spent a lot of time on it. So yeah, just go look out for the album. I got some new singles out today. Just literally bagger, always new stuff coming When she looks back, no way she's regretting it. Left everything for her son to be getting it. Always had dreams about buying a council house. One need to start letting it. Then I said, yo, I can do way more in England, they would call us poor. But in Africa, we was rich, that's what they thought Now I've gonna win and I didn't come up with a draw. I was lucky in life, cause I picked Do you want people to stream the album or buy the album physically ? What's uh what's the deal? How are you asking? Um easy., Me if you want to buy my merch and spend hundreds of pounds on my t-shirts and hoodies and get us uh a barbecue sauce and get the physical by all means. But I'm I'm easy, man do I I I'm a person that's I I I grew up l stealing music and listening to it for free. I'm not gonna now tell you you spend 11 pounds . I would like it if you did but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna be upset if you just go on YouTube and listen to my songs. Yeah. Okay, well look, man, it's been a real pleasure to to um to have you on. The last thing I want to ask you about is not to do with you, it's to do with Ben actually. Uh when Ben and I working in America, we drank a lot of this m what is it sparkling water different flavour sparkling water called LaCroix have you heard of it? LaCroix Yeah it's like a big it was a big thing for us. And yeah just before you came on, Ben was drinking LaCroix