MikeManik aka Kanye East

MikeManik, aka Kanye East, is a content creator/musician for 15+ years, leaving an indelible mark on the hip hop landscape with his smash hit “Fortnite Balls” with over 1.4 million streams. You can find his content on his website thakanyeeast.com.

Transcript

Intro Song

Rob Valincius: Welcome to the Drink O'Clock Podcast, I'm your host Rob Valincius, and uh, I got a banger. I mean, I don't normally have, uh, look, so this has been a new year for me, so I hit my hundredth episode, um, like late December ish, and I had six other people on, and if I could handle that, then I could handle with, you know, having just you two, because that shit was crazy.

You know, it, It's so hard to corral six other people, let alone, uh, you know, what I'm doing now. So it's like, normally the one on one is easy, but, um, so I have MikeManik, aka Kanye East with me. And I have his manager, Manager Matt, Manager Matty, however, however the fuck you like to go. Welcome to the show,

Matty Flip: Mattie Flip is fine.

Kanye East: doing? How you doing, man? Nice to be here. Nice to be here.

Rob Valincius: So, um, Mike, where, where, so you're coming out of South Carolina.

Kanye East: Yes, yes, South Carolina. Walterboro, South Carolina, actually. Very, very small town. You've probably never heard of it. Um, I usually tell people it's near Charleston, and then they get the, ah, yeah. So, usually how it goes down here, usually how it goes down there, but yeah, small country town, uh, not that many people. And been born and bred here man and just loving music and it's the only way I could you know escape Whatever, you know, I had I had a lot of issues as a kid, you know, this is whatever but you know

Rob Valincius: we all, man? Don't we all? Um, and then Maddie, you're out of, uh, NJ.

Matty Flip: Yeah, New Jersey, man. I actually grew up in a small town in New Jersey too, but it's a little, um, I grew up where, like, that Jersey Shore shit was filmed. Like, basically. So, kinda known, but still, like, the town is like three square miles. It's called Point Pleasant. Uh, but yeah, that's where I grew up. Um, back up here again, taking care of my family now.

So, but yeah, man.

Rob Valincius: That's awesome, dude. That's awesome, brother. Well, look, let's, let's start the show off by, uh, Mike, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about, about growing up. Talk about, um, you know, cause for me, you know, the whole point of my podcast is for people to get to know a different side of you. Right? So you have a lot of people that listen, you know, I think when I was looking at your Spotify, you have, what, over 33, 000 active listeners.

I don't know if that's gone

Kanye East: Oh, oh, yes. Um 40k now 40k.

Rob Valincius: Awesome. So, like, you have people that listen to you, but they don't necessarily know a lot of your backstory. So, I like to start there. I think that's, like, a great point of learning who you are. So, talk about growing up, and then, um, a little bit about, uh, where you got to today in terms of what got you into music, what got you into rap, and, and content, and, uh, creating content.

Kanye East: Oh, man. So, um Oh, man, so how I grew up. So, um grew up in a poor family. I mean Like most of us, you know, I didn't have much,

Rob Valincius: Same. Same.

Kanye East: most of us, it didn't have much, um, my mother was very religious, very religious family. My father, you know, I never got the, to know him, but you know, my mother was very protective and, um, she wouldn't let me like.

Go out and have friends unless they were like from a church or a Christian or whatever or what not and like she had to know what church they were coming from and so like when I would ask to go over someone's house, she would just be like, do they go to church? And then I'm like, well, I don't know. So she's like, no, no.

So she, she kind of like, I lived kind of like a sheltered life. Like, I didn't have many friends. I didn't get to go out to parties. I didn't get to a You know, it was only church. I was only able to go to church, but um through church, you know That's where my love of music started because it was just like you go to church and they sing hymns And you know most of the time we're singing I was on the I was on the the sunshine choir youth choir But I would write I would write gospel songs I would actually write the songs that we would sing and you know That that's what I love and and like the love of writing and the love of music began, but I didn't I didn't I didn't fully understand how to like compose music based on my feelings because it was it was basically, you know You know about god, you know So so, you know changed it to my feelings that actually came through the poetry that I was right because you know being not being able to have friends or not being able to To go anywhere, you know, after, you know, you hit adolescence because I was there till I was 23.

So once you hit adolescence, you're like, you want to go out and you want to see the world. And I didn't know that I could leave my mom, you know, she kept me now, even when I was 18, I didn't know what I could leave the house. I didn't know that I could just. Leave if I wanted to so it was just like I just felt like I was I was trapped and the only way I could get Out was like through through like music or or video games or writing poetry or somewhere where I could just escape My like prison I used to call it my prison with no bars like just to escape from that and I have pages and books of poetry Like pages and books of poetry, like I didn't, I didn't, I didn't know that I could translate that into full on songs until so now this is going to sound crazy.

Right? So 23 years old, right? My uncle comes down from New York. He sees me. He's like, you're not going to turn my nephew into a bitch. Like, what are you doing to him? Like, I'm taking him to New

Rob Valincius: It's always the uncle. It's always the cool uncle. 100%.

Kanye East: Always man. I love my uncle. He was he was like the only father figure that I had like Actually, the reason why my name is Mike manic is because his rap name was time attic He actually had a hit back in the day. Um, you can look it up. It's called raw. Don't you try it? it was their only hit and he you know, and you know, but You know, to continue the story, he took me down to, uh, to New York to live with him, and I finally got to experience the world for the first time.

But, um, as soon as I got there, not, not even like a couple of months later, he passed away. So, I'm, I'm, I'm out here in New York. I've never been out in the world. I, I don't know anybody else but him. And, and he's gone. I don't want to go back to my mom. I don't want to go back to South

Rob Valincius: it's got to be a shelter shock, bro, to go from like a small town in South Carolina to New

Kanye East: I did it. Listen, I did it. I went to the shelter system. I didn't want to go back. Like, I didn't know. I didn't know that. I didn't know how to maneuver anything, but people really did help me. Um, they, they, they understood that I didn't know what I was doing. And it was, it was the people in New York, the, the, the, the, the ones that, uh, You know the dss office the the department like they're the ones that really really helped me like they put me on therapy they got me like Set up because they was going to ship me back to south carolina, but I told them please

Matty Flip: ticket.

Kanye East: They was gonna send me right back.

They was gonna, they was gonna give me a bus ticket right back, but I begged like, please, please, like, I told them my situation and I didn't want to go back there. And they, they, they, they, they, they did. They helped me, you know, they, they couldn't house me or anything, but they, they gave me the information that I needed.

So I went to the shelter, but through that program. Now, this is the crazy part through that program. They, uh, they helped me find friends and they did it in a way that they, they made me, um, Right? A Craigslist profile. I don't know if you know what a Craigslist profile is, right?

Matty Flip: Craigslist.

Rob Valincius: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Kanye East: Alright, so they made me I had a person who was on Craigslist and, um, a young lady answered.

Her name was, um, Ellen Lomax, right? Um, cute girl. Uh, we we we went out. It wasn't even supposed to be, like, a date or anything. It was supposed to just be a friendship. But we kinda, like, really hit it off. And she was cute, but she told me that she was DMX's sister. She Yes. She told me She told me that she was DMX's sister.

I didn't believe

Matty Flip: the kind of thing where like, that we're like, when someone tells you that you're like, oh, yeah, all right, whatever. Like,

Kanye East: Exactly. That was

Matty Flip: believe it

Rob Valincius: crack right

Kanye East: was my exact reaction. That was my exact reaction, but she was cute. She was cute. Yeah, you know, and it was just like, okay, I really want to hang out with you again. I really don't care that, you know, whatever your DMX's sister. Right? So I was still hanging out with her, you know, and coming to see her every day.

And she's one day she's like, Hey, do you want to come with me to the bodega to meet Earl? And I didn't know that DMX's name was Earl.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, he did not have a lack you can see why he made a DMX.

Kanye East: So I'm, I'm looking for Earl. And lo and behold in this bodega is DMX and I'm like, oh, she's not lying. So if, if you, if you, if you ever, um, if you ever look up cashmere, that's her cashmere, uh, featuring DMX, walk these dogs. That's her. Um, and her name was cash. Uh, it was Ellen Lomax and we, we became best friends and she was actually the reason that.

I figured out that I could transfer that poetry into music like I, I got to hang out with people that was doing music. I got to see how it was actually done. I got to see people record. I got to see what programs they used. And it, it just, it inspired me. It inspired me and, and, and I, and I realized that, you know, I had, I had this gift. And then I could transfer that.

Rob Valincius: like bro, that's kind of like meant to be. I mean, you don't get much more of a like, but here's the wild thing to think about that, right? Um, and this is why like so i'm 38. I don't know how old you guys are. I'm old as shit

Matty Flip: the same age.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, we're old man. It sucks But but here's the thing Um, I think in in today's society and i'm not gonna get political here, but I think in today's society The parents don't want their kids to fail.

So what they do is they try to shield them from failing and I think that that is so detrimental to being a human, cause, uh, and, and, you know, I say this to my dad all the time, he had some crazy shit happen, his, um, his wife died of 23 years with, uh, brain cancer, not my mom, my, my step mom or whatever, and it's been a year and he's struggling, and I try to tell him like, listen man, , there's always someone out there that has it worse than you.

Like I know that, that's like hard to comprehend 'cause you got all, you know, health issues and all this other shit. Right? But always think about you, you could have one leg, , you know, you, you, you could, you could be blind. Like there's so many other things. That could happen, so like, you have to like, try not to think about the past, and think about the future, but push on, you know, you didn't fail, but you had some fucked up shit that happened, um, and, and that's the same concept with you, right?

You had all this, this shit kind of happened to you really quickly, and instead of saying, fuck it, I'm gonna go back to my sheltered world with my mom, and just, you know, I don't know, maybe you're, you're working at a fucking dollar store or some crazy shit, now you are, You know making music and people are listening to you and you have hits like there's There's not many people like if more people did what you did and took the harder way.

I think we'd have more Especially creators creators are a different group of people. Um, and they're also the quickest I think sometimes to just give up

Kanye East: Oh

Rob Valincius: hard being a creator is not

Kanye East: Oh man. Oh yeah. So many times, man, I actually gave up one time before, man, before, before the Kanye East thing, I gave up, I wasn't doing music anymore. Um, I was gonna, I was gonna focus. Cause at that point, you know, I was like, Oh, I gotta get my life together. You know, you may, you get that point to where you're like, yo, you're doing the music, it's not working, no one's listening.

You're like.

Matty Flip: going through a

Kanye East: my life together. Like

Matty Flip: like, what am I gonna do? Yeah,

Kanye East: life together, like, and so I just went full on into my second passion, which was cooking and you know, but, but still creating, always creating, never stopped, got on tick tock, never stopped creating, you know?

Rob Valincius: I love tiktok man. I'm a tiktoker bro. I fucking

Matty Flip: same,

Rob Valincius: I was sad when it was gone for for 13 hours and

Matty Flip: Yo, shout out, shout out to all the people that deleted TikTok in

Kanye East: Oh man. Rest in peace to you guys. Rest in peace. Oh man.

Matty Flip: peace, man.

Rob Valincius: That's, that's stupid. You know, people are buying like iPhones for like

Matty Flip: 10

Kanye East: I saw that. Hey, by the way, if anybody's listening right now, I got a phone with tick tock on it right now.

Rob Valincius: Yo, I got, I got an Android. I know it's not as popular, but if you want a Samsung S21 Plus with TikTok, it's all

Matty Flip: that's still a good fucking phone. Oh, fuck. Shit.

Rob Valincius: I know, right?

Matty Flip: Yeah. That's funny.

Kanye East: oh man.

Matty Flip: But yeah, so he got

Rob Valincius: on one second.

Matty Flip: Oh yeah.

Rob Valincius: Sorry, guys. My, uh, my dog has been having, uh Seizures,

Kanye East: Oh man.

Matty Flip: Hey,

Rob Valincius: She's just, she, Just, um, give me one sec, okay?

Kanye East: Yeah. No, no, no. Take your time, bro. Take your time.

Take your time. Dexter, by the way, Matt

Matty Flip: Mm-hmm

Kanye East: loves snow, bro.

Matty Flip: Oh boy. I

Kanye East: Oh my God. Oh my God. You should see

Matty Flip: that's funny.

Kanye East: going in it, playing, jumping in it, digging under it.

Matty Flip: That's

Kanye East: itself back up like

Matty Flip: Oh my goodness. I could see him doing that. That's hilarious. Did you get you didn't get no videos of it. Did

Kanye East: I needed I should have got videos. I don't know why I get those videos. He gonna keep doing it There's still snow out here next time. He doesn't I'm gonna catch him He's so fucking adorable and he won't come inside though. He won't come inside. He will not come inside He won't he won't

Matty Flip: He's like he's a I'm a snow dog now fuck you

Kanye East: know I had him in the shed bro. You can't be a snow dog. It's too cold It's fucking 18 degrees nigga. What's fucking wrong with

Matty Flip: away Yeah,

Kanye East: I'll leave it on if I turn your computer completely off that chord doesn't get hot So just i'll just leave it on for him

Matty Flip: and we'll know if you well if

Kanye East: should be

Matty Flip: You should plug it in to like unplug the the main extension cord that comes in there to the power strip And then, and then plug it into that, because that's a thicker gauge, it won't get as hot. Like, you don't want to use, uh, uh, you leave it on low, or

Kanye East: No. No, i'll leave it on high

Matty Flip: Oh.

Kanye East: It doesn't get hot at all. I've tested it, like,

Matty Flip: Hmm.

Kanye East: stays cool. Only time it gets hot is if I turn your computer on.

Matty Flip: Hmm. Oh, because it's plugged into that power strip with everything else. But, um, you, you should plug it into the main extension cord, if anything, because the less connections that are plugged into it when that

Kanye East: The better.

Matty Flip: the better, yeah.

Kanye East: Okay.

Matty Flip: Less points for where, where it to get hot and melt something.

Kanye East: Alright.

Rob Valincius: Sorry about that, guys. She's been, she's had seizures since she was at, like, four. But, uh, She's had three in a matter of, like, 30 hours, which isn't good.

Kanye East: Oh no.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, yeah, you know, Fuckin dogs, man. I love dogs,

Matty Flip: we were just talking about his dog who's seeing snow for the first time

Kanye East: Yeah.

Rob Valincius: Oh, yeah, it's probably, you guys probably got a ton of snow. It's weird snow that you've never seen

Kanye East: Yes, yes. We got, we got eight inches down here. Eight inches. Everybody's driving crazy. They don't know how to drive in the snow. They're sliding all over, falling in ditches. Like, it's

Rob Valincius: dude, I mean, uh, I saw, I saw videos on, on TikTok of people in like Pensacola, Florida, and they had eight inches and palm trees, you see palm trees and shit.

Matty Flip: Houston, uh, New Orleans got 10 inches, like

Kanye East: It's it's crazy. It's crazy. We would have never

Rob Valincius: of mine, a buddy of mine is in Houston, and he was fucking sending us videos, and he's like, what the fuck do I do with this? You know?

Matty Flip: shovel, like get rid of it fast.

Rob Valincius: I fucking, I hate, I hate snow, dude. It's when you're an adult, snow, snow is just worthless. It's all it does is cause unnecessary shit

Matty Flip: That's why I moved to the desert in California for like 10 years.

Kanye East: When I was when I was

Matty Flip: I was so happy.

Kanye East: when I first moved to new york, I ain't gonna lie south carolina We never have snow. So the first time it snowed in new york I was like, I built a snowman and everything yo built a fort did all of that right after about the 15th day I was like, yeah, I hate snow no more. I don't want to go out in this shit no more.

Like,

Rob Valincius: cause it doesn't just like, at least in South Carolina, it like, this is like a generational storm, right? It's going to pry eventually it's going to warm up soon. And for you guys, it'll, it'll melt

Kanye East: yeah, it is.

Rob Valincius: us.

Matty Flip: No, it's

Rob Valincius: That, I don't know if you guys, yeah, I don't know if you guys watched the Eagles game when it went from like regular to like crazy snow.

It's still, there's still snow everywhere bro. It's, and it, there's ice. And it doesn't matter how much you salt, it's just fucking there and it's, it gets it

Matty Flip: hmm. Biggest inconvenience in the world, bro.

Rob Valincius: It's fucking awful. It's so bad. Um, so yeah, so sorry about, uh, sorry about that. So, um, yeah, so, so, That's wild, man. So, you were talking a little bit about, uh, you gave up one time,

Kanye East: yeah. Yeah.

Rob Valincius: then, um, You know, what kind of brought you back into the fold?

Kanye East: Um, it was actually, it was the Kanye East thing, man. It was just. It was like lightning in a bottle. I have to say that because it was I was actually working at Arby's I was I was an Arby's manager at the time and

Rob Valincius: That's my wife's favorite fast food restaurant,

Kanye East: oh really I hate it like

Rob Valincius: She fucking, she fucking loves it, bro. Like, I, I am NOT the biggest fan, but She, she is obsessed with the, uh, with the roast beef sandwiches.

Kanye East: They're good they're good I can't that was the only thing I really ate from there it was the roast beef sandwich That's pretty much it. But um, yeah, I work I work there And that was around during COVID time, you know, and, um, we were, we were still, we were still required to come to work and, and do all of that.

And, uh, so I was doing the, I was doing Tik TOK at the time. I was just making up silly videos, doing all the silly videos and stuff. And, um, and people started calling me Kanye. And so I'm a goofball. I'm a goofball. I like to do like comedy and stuff like that. So I put on a pair of shades and put my hat backwards and I started making Kanye parody songs.

I started taking his beats and I started making parody songs about being broke. And like people started, people started liking that, you know, but I wasn't, my plan wasn't to stay Kanye East. My plan was to like, just do funny videos.

Rob Valincius: Yeah,

Kanye East: And so I guess the Kanye name kind of like started from that. And then I did something called Kanye questions where I asked the question, uh, who was in Paris and that got almost a million views.

So I kind of like established this Kanye character. Right. But then. Um, I was I was doing also doing like these lives and stuff where where I would like sing karaoke kanye songs I called it karaoke kanye And and uh, someone came through and he was like, hey, man, why don't you uh, why don't you rap comments? Right and and the person whoever I don't know who gave me the suggestion. I don't know that person's name. I don't remember But whoever you are, thank you for that idea. Cause no one was doing that at the time on, on Tik TOK. It was uncharted territory there. And so I just, I just started wrapping people's comments and, and because I guess I looked like Kanye and I had already established the Kanye character. They, they, they started like spamming it as Kanye West singing these crazy songs. And the one that blew up was like fortnight bowls and, and

Rob Valincius: was hilarious. Hilarious song, by the way.

Kanye East: yeah. So, so the one that was the one that blew up, but the funny story was, it wasn't the, the song that has a million streams plus. That's not

Matty Flip: not even the original.

Kanye East: that's not the original one that blew up The original one that blew up was like fortnight balls.

I'm gay. I like boys. I kidnap autistic kids little mosey is

Matty Flip: a free, it was a

Kanye East: It was a

Matty Flip: whatever was in the chat. Yeah.

Kanye East: and so everybody

Rob Valincius: That's wild.

Kanye East: everybody was like, oh my god You got to make a fortnight ball song You got to make an official song and I didn't know what fortnight balls was I I didn't even know what fortnight was.

I never played the game. I didn't know it was a game

Matty Flip: hold on, back up for a second though, because before you even had the idea to make that song, someone had come up to you at your job, didn't they? And they were like, Hey. Mr. Mike, isn't

Kanye East: Oh, yeah, that's that's when that's when the fortnight bulls thing went Yeah, one of the kids at my job was the ones that brought it to my attention. Yeah, I forgot about that

Matty Flip: screen recorded the live stream

Kanye East: Yeah, they screen

Matty Flip: when he said that, and

Kanye East: and it went viral It went viral and that and that's what started the whole thing And so everybody was like you gotta make an official fortnight bulls.

And so I did that, you know I didn't know what fortnight was. I just

Matty Flip: He hadn't even played the game.

Kanye East: no so 20 minutes inside of my um Manager's office in arby's I recorded fortnight balls And it just blew up it just blew up it just blew up and

Rob Valincius: And so all the lyrics were comments from a TikTok.

Kanye East: i'm not on the official song the official song I wrote that I wrote that little mosey white that's for real sussy like that that I wrote that The one that I didn't write was the one that went viral That was a rap your comments fortnight balls. I'm gay. I like boys. I kid that autistic kid. It makes me laugh every time Say

Rob Valincius: Dude, the internet's undefeated. It's undefeated. Anytime,

Matty Flip: was still around when that, when, when that came out, bro, you would have been, we would have never heard from you again, bro. Like you'd been on the moon.

Rob Valincius: There's, uh, that, it, it, That reminds me of, like, I don't know if you're a fan of, uh, You ever listen to Gym Class Heroes?

Kanye East: Yes, of course, of

Rob Valincius: Class Heroes has a song called Taxi Driver. And the whole song is all band names.

Kanye East: Really

Rob Valincius: the whole song is just, like, band names. They, Fall

Kanye East: listen to this song

Rob Valincius: Dude, listen to it. It's a banger.

It's I'm a big I love Jim Classier. They have like, probably ten songs that no one's probably ever heard of

Matty Flip: Travie McCoy is awesome, man. I love him even as a solo artist too.

Rob Valincius: Oh, he went solo?

Matty Flip: Well, he's, he's put out solo work, you know, without gym class heroes. Like he did, um, uh, he had this one song I really liked. It was called Dr. Feelgood. Um, Doctor, won't you come and help me take this pain away? And he did it with, uh, it was Travi McCoy and, um, dude from Gym Class Heroes, I'm pretty sure.

The lead singer.

Rob Valincius: I'll have to, I'll have to

Matty Flip: it was, no, it was Travi McCoy and Bruno Mars. That's who it was. He did a collaboration with Bruno Mars.

Rob Valincius: I think I know what you're talking about. I think I know what you're talking about. But that's like, like, they're one of my bands when I was growing up that I just, like, I love all music. Like, uh, even country's starting to grow on me a little bit, which is weird. I never thought I'd be in a

Matty Flip: Me either, but yeah, I agree with you.

Rob Valincius: I just, I like, I like any, anything, I'm a beat guy too, so like if something's got a good beat to it, I'm a sucker for that. Um, but Gym Class Heroes was always one of those ones, they were like a hybrid of like, rock, rap, before it was really even a thing, you know? Um, and they've always, they've always had some goods, but that, what you're talking about just reminded me of that song, because it was the whole song, is just names of, of bands around that time.

Kanye East: I mean, that's exactly it It's just random words that people wrote in chat and I somehow make them rhyme like uh I think that's the appeal too. I could make I make it sound like a actual song, you know So like people I think they're drawn into that and they want to they want to participate in that they want to They want to make they want to be part of the song So I think that's like what the appeal is like they just want to put their input You know

Rob Valincius: TikTok comments are, or any comments really at this point on the internet, are just, they're undefeated, man. Like, there is, like, I'm here, like, if I see a video and, you know, it's, it's like a retarded kid, um, I'm there for the comments. I go right to the comments, because I know there's gonna be some hilarious fucking comments.

Kanye East: and i'm the guy and i'm the guy i'm the guy that's gonna go to that video And i'm gonna take those comments and i'm gonna turn that into a song

Matty Flip: We've done it. We've done it a lot. We

Kanye East: I've done it several times

Matty Flip: and we'll, I'll be like, Mike, this, the comment section on this one's perfect. We got to do something. Find a beat for it. And, and we'll, I did all the video editing for a lot of that stuff for him. But, um, but yeah, like that was a huge hit with the content, man.

Rob Valincius: Dude, that had to be immense. Like, that's hilarious. For starters. Because there's, like, the shit that people say online

Kanye East: It's it's crazy

Rob Valincius: I'm in another podcast, and it's just a group of podcasters, and we just talk about random shit. And, uh, we were talking about that there's this kid on TikTok. Um, he's on the spectrum, whatever.

But his parents basically have him, like, eating food. And, like, Saying what he feels like he apparently got in the legos like he went he went viral, you know a couple times and The comments bro, like he's eaten for starters. He's eating a and do you guys have chick fil a down there?

Kanye East: Yes, yes,

Matty Flip: Yeah.

Rob Valincius: fil a is the shit.

Kanye East: it's good. I love chick fil a.

Rob Valincius: This kid, this little fuckin kid, bro, he's seven, he's eaten a large mac and cheese from, from Chick fil A, which, I've never eaten, eaten even a medium there, that, that's a lot of

Kanye East: It's a lot of mac and cheese, man. Oh,

Rob Valincius: waffle fry, and a fuckin chicken sandwich, okay? And he's giving his review and he's got like a little bit of a lisp, you know, he's like a french fry Flies or whatever and you go into the comments dude, and it's just people roasting him Like what wascally wabbit like it just shit like that, dude

Matty Flip: Oh, the ones that kill me are the ones that just put gifts, which is

Kanye East: they don't say anything. It's just the gifts

Rob Valincius: And it's, they're perfect gifts. They're almost always perfect for the situation.

Kanye East: They're perfect like

Matty Flip: Oh my god. This

Rob Valincius: so, I mean, uh, I guess while we're on the topic, so, um, you know, obviously you put out some great stuff on YouTube, um, what's your experience with, with, with haters? Because obviously a lot of your stuff is parody, so you gotta get some fucking crazy haters and shit just being assholes.

Kanye East: Okay, so my my story was wild, you know I went through the whole kanye east thing and I started doing the rap your comments thing and um I got burnt out, like, I got burnt out of doing the, the Kanye East thing and the, and the, and the having to say balls, cause that was like the most comment that I would get, balls, balls, balls.

So, so I got burnt out and I said, I didn't want to do it anymore. I even had a funeral for Kanye East in one of my songs on YouTube, it's called DMT Balls. I, I didn't say anything but balls the whole song, nothing but balls. Just just said balls

Matty Flip: the last hurrah, boys.

Rob Valincius: That's hilarious.

Kanye East: and I stopped doing it the hate was immediate

Matty Flip: his name on all

Kanye East: Yep. Changed my name to Mike Manning change everything. The hate was immediate. The hate was immediate I learned a lesson that

Matty Flip: too.

Kanye East: I learned a lesson that day cuz it was just like yo, you know I thought y'all were all here for me. Like I thought y'all were here for like the laughs I thought y'all were here for like Why do we need the name Kanye?

We don't even need that. We don't even have to say balls. We can make other funny content. No, we want that.

Matty Flip: And it was like he killed their hero, bro. It was like

Kanye East: That's what it felt like. I got a lot of emails and then one email in particular, and this is why I changed my name back to Kanye East. It was one email in particular, and they were like, man, you are my hero.

Please don't change your name. I really just, you know, I love you, man. And, you know, I understand that you want to be yourself, but don't, you know, don't take my hero away, basically. Like, and I'm thinking like, oh man, this is just a silly guy. Like, how is this? You know, I didn't understand. I didn't understand the impact.

I didn't understand the impact and so I changed my name back to Kanye East because now I Understand now I guess you could say the the responsibility, you know It's not even just being a content creator doing all the silly stuff and doing all the funny stuff you also people look up to you yo, and you You don't want to damage that because I was damaged that way when I was young So I don't want to do that to somebody else, you know, so I kind of like put myself in this hard place But I dealt with it, you know, I went through a lot of depression.

I lost I lost my girlfriend You know, I gave up my job because I was making I was making a lot of money There was no need for us to work anymore But I put actually put more problems on us that it took away actually which is crazy And so I just went through this I went to this long thing I I didn't want to do content anymore.

I didn't want to do music anymore And, but I'm happy to say now I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm back to wanting to do it. You know, it took me a while, it took me a while to get back, but you know,

Rob Valincius: It can get tough, man. Like, um, I, I remember with streaming, um, specifically, and I didn't have like a big following, okay, I had 20 people, whatever, watch me, but I was playing video games. I was making a couple hundred bucks a month, just playing video games and people watch me, like, you can't really complain,

Matty Flip: play video games anyway, might as well stream it.

Kanye East: might as well stream it and get

Matty Flip: how, that's how I felt when I started streaming too.

Rob Valincius: and, um, so what ended up happening was, is I just got to a point where, uh, and, and it's a funny story, it's kind of the same thing with you. Someone, uh, I would, uh, I would play games and my mic was always, I had a good mic, and people would always go, Why do you have that mic? You sound good. You should be like a podcaster.

An announcer every time, bro. Like every time. And I'm like, yeah, no, I just, you know, I, I streamed so I wanted to like, get something that was half decent. Right. Um, and then it got to a point where I'm just like, I'm playing games to make money and games are supposed to be my stress relief. So I'm like irritated that I gotta like, put a smile on.

You gotta continue with the act.

Matty Flip: exhausting. Like,

Kanye East: That's why I don't

Matty Flip: don't

Kanye East: do it. I don't like to do it. That's why I don't do it.

Matty Flip: games offline, like.

Kanye East: I want to enjoy my experience. That's why I don't stream. I tried it. No, I just like to play video games. Like

Matty Flip: Well, because when you stream, Mike, they come in and they automatically assume that you're doing rap your comments and they come

Kanye East: Oh yeah. Every time.

Matty Flip: of the, the word vomit, uh, meme culture terms that they want him to say, and why aren't you wrapping comments? And I'm like, he's playing video games, bro.

Kanye East: So, so I just, I just saved the life for wrap your comments, man.

Rob Valincius: yeah, I mean, look, dude, it's, it's, um, I have a mass amount of respect for people who stream because, uh, there's a lot of trolls

Kanye East: Oh, man.

Rob Valincius: if, if you're known for one thing, that's what they expect you to do all the

Kanye East: Yeah.

Rob Valincius: Um, and it takes a lot out of you. Like, I know it, like, people are probably listening like, Ah, yeah, fuck you guys.

It's, it really, like, from a mentality and a mentally state, it just drains you the fuck out. Like, I would get home from working all day. I would get here, set my shit up. And then start, and then immediately want to stop. Like, within 20 minutes, because I'm raging because I'm fucking losing. And then I got someone call me a loser in chat.

You know? Um, and I'm not

Kanye East: skin. Oh yeah.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, I'm not trying to dance around for five bucks, bro. Like, it's just not. It's not worth it to me, like, at the end of the day, and that's when I was like, you know what, fuck it. Cause on Twitch and, and, and YouTube Live and shit, you kinda can't say what you want. Whereas here, I can say and do whatever I want, cause it's, this, I own this, this is mine, it's a business.

So I can say whatever the fuck I want and no one can say anything to me, and if you don't listen, I don't give a fuck. Like, I really don't. Um, but that's always been my attitude and I think that's why I do still have, I have people that listen to me because, um, this show is, is, You know, it's, it's supposed to be a safe place where, yeah, don't be a fucking dick or like blatantly racist, you know, I mean, look, if you come on here and be like, all right, Asian people can't drive.

Yeah, we know that, you know, that's, that's funny, but like, you know, don't be blatantly racist and outside of that, like, you know, I, I think my guests are, since you're the central spotlight of the show, it takes a lot off of my plate. I just have to kind of do some research and figure out what the fuck you do, you know?

Yeah.

Kanye East: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,

Rob Valincius: it gives you an avenue to, to, to, to talk about what you do. And I'm, I'm not gonna judge you like, fuck, fuck outta here. What do I have to judge? You know, like, um, and I think, uh, if we, if we did that a little bit more, we were less judgy with shit, you know, it would be much easier to do this especially, but people, man, especially these fucking kids, bro, like

Kanye East: it's the internet. It's the internet. I mean what

Rob Valincius: say that shit to you if they were sitting in

Kanye East: Yeah, it's just

Rob Valincius: right in the

Kanye East: it's just the internet It's just it's just the culture of the I had to learn that I had to learn that that's the culture of the internet Because i'm not really, you know, I was never really on the internet like that.

I wasn't really an internet person I was more of a real life person So like to, to, to start doing it, you know, my sister was the one that actually introduced me to TikTok and she was like, Oh, look how funny it is. And she was showing me all the cute little videos she was doing. So I was like, Oh, I gotta like, I gotta hop on it.

And the more I did it, the more I loved it, you know. And I still, you know, I had that innocence about it and it was, and when I got viral, you know, you're thinking, Oh man, all of these people, they support me, you know, like, yeah. And then you find out like, yeah, no, I'm like, yeah,

Rob Valincius: They'll be the first people to stab you in the back and then kick you while you're down, bro.

Matty Flip: Oh, you're done. I'm leaving. Bye. I'm good,

Rob Valincius: a wild, it's a wild world, the internet.

Matty Flip: Yeah, it is, man.

Kanye East: didn't understand that. So that's why I went through the depression. Cause I didn't understand it, you know, but now, you know, that, uh, I've been here for four years now, like it's four years later, you know, and, and now, you know, I understand the climate. You know, I understand it now, like,

Rob Valincius: Plus you can fuck with people.

Kanye East: that's the, that's the fun part.

Now, now the tables have turned. Like,

Matty Flip: Oh, bro. When he gets, when he gets cameos, they like, he'll get cameo where like they, he's like, they want him to roast himself and, and he'll just turn, he'll flip it. He'll be like, oh, all right. That's what you want me to do. I ain't doing that today. I'm roast, I'm gonna roast you,

Kanye East: Thank,

Matty Flip: and you just paid me to roast you.

Kanye East: paying and thank you for paying me for roasting you,

Rob Valincius: Fuck him. That's what I say. Dude, I had this one guy. I swear to God, I had this one guy we put up in, in one of my other podcasts. We put up a video and this guy was like. Oh man, if, if only I was a middle aged man, uh, talking about dumb shit, and then I looked at his profile, and his profile picture, he looks like he is, like, it looks like he hasn't showered in two weeks, and he's a fucking gas attendant clerk in a fucking gas station.

So,

Matty Flip: Like that was his job title on his profile, like.

Rob Valincius: No, but that was his picture. Like, that's the picture he decided the internet should have. So, I'm sure he wasn't expecting the Drink O'Clock podcast to comment on his comment. And I commented and was like, Oh man, if only I looked like I didn't shower for two weeks and I worked at a gas station.

And he commented back saying, It's actually three weeks. And he like roasted himself because he knew, like, Fuck you,

Matty Flip: shit. I got caught. I got caught.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, um, but that's funny that you'd, like, I would find that hilarious. I'm sure some people probably, like, get irritated

Kanye East: but, but I mean, but I mean, you know, after this all this time, you know, and I've asked for respect, you know, and they know it. So if you, if you do that, then you're just being a dick now. And so if you're gonna be a dick, I'm gonna be a dick. Like,

Rob Valincius: Now, how did you two link up?

Kanye East: oh, me and Maddie, man. Okay, so I, I got this invitation one day from, um, from this, this, this little website called you. Now, I don't know if you've ever heard of you now.

Rob Valincius: No, no I

Matty Flip: platform.

Kanye East: a, yeah, it's, it's

Matty Flip: I was

Kanye East: another streaming platform,

Matty Flip: Um, and they started recruiting people from TikTok who had big followings. Um, and I, uh, my role on the platform was I would just go around and help people set up their streams, like OBS and stuff like that. So I would find newer creators because I saw them bringing in a bunch of people.

And I was like, Oh, let me just go check out new streams and help people. Like, so,

Kanye East: And that's what he did.

Matty Flip: came into his stream, met him. Uh, I was a DJ for 15 years. I did entertainment. I just like, and I'm a tech guy. So he would hit me up to help him with his techs. I said, Hey, hit me up. If you want me to help you set up your OBS or anything, you know, everybody was super surprised on the platform because of my camera quality.

Like I have a DSLR camera and they're like, wow, your quality is really, how'd you do that? How'd you get the overlay? So he had the same question. So I was like, I'll set it up for you. Here you go. And that's kind of how we first met. And then the kind of group and I'll let them finish.

Kanye East: yeah, he sees he just came into my stream was really nice and, you know, very helpful and, you know, and so I knew I could just, you know, ask some things and, you know, he would be, he would show me because a lot of the times when you ask somebody, they won't, they don't want to show you how to do something or they'll try to make you pay, but like, oh, but you gotta, you gotta pay for, you know, for me to show you not Maddie.

Maddie is just like, hey, oh, you need help. Oh, yeah, here you go. So, you know, I thought he was like that was like that's a real

Matty Flip: PDF files and stuff and little short video tutorial videos for them. I just wanted to give back, man. That's it.

Kanye East: Hey, he was a real nice guy So, you know, I just you know, we hang out I went to I started going to his streams and hanging out with him and You know, he played video games and I like video games. So it just from there We just

Matty Flip: nights too. So he

Kanye East: yeah, yeah and carry and I would king sing sing karaoke, too so from there, we just started hanging out, you know all the time and and From, you know, I started noticing he has all these editing skills, too, and, you know, and I don't know anything about editing, I'm more of like, let's just do the music stuff, you know, my editing is kind of janky, I'm using an Android camera, and I kind of like, you know, you want to elevate.

You know, so I'm like, hey, Matt, hey, Matt, do you, do you want to like, you know, do, do some music videos for me? Like,

Matty Flip: Uh, of course I was like, sure, man, I don't mind. You know, and I, yeah. What were you gonna say?

Rob Valincius: No, I was saying I was saying like see that's so I know we talked about the bad part about it But there's also times like this where you meet people like do podcasting and streaming I've met so many people that I talked to probably Daily or every other day and like some of them are people that would you know?

Do whatever like if I really needed them to do something for me, they would do it

Kanye East: Oh yeah.

Rob Valincius: And I would do the same thing, but you, you, you, through networking and shit like that, you, you do meet some really good fucking people

Kanye East: Yes.

Matty Flip: There's, there's a lot of, there's good actors and bad actors out there, man.

Kanye East: Yes. I have quite a few now, man, that, that, you know, I call family that, that aren't blood family, man. So, you know, and the internet really did help me, you know, find a lot of people, like minded people, you know, and that's what you need to build. Anyway, you need like minded people, people that are on your team and, and they, and they really understand your vision and they, and y'all want to get it together.

And like, that's, that's how you get it. That's how you get it. Like,

Rob Valincius: I mean, look, networking is so fucking important. Like it really is. And like, it doesn't really matter what type of content you make. It's how, how many people you can meet that are like genuine

Kanye East: yes, that's, that's the word.

Rob Valincius: don't meet many of those these days. Um.

Matty Flip: not at all, man. And that's why I was happy. Like, I didn't even know that he had a huge I had no clue who he was when I met him, too.

Kanye East: Yeah, I'm not the type of person to go around and

Matty Flip: He was a partner right off the bat. And I was like, well, I guess they're just partnering people right away, then.

Handing it out like candy. So, I was just And then I looked him up, and I was like, I was like, you have a million followers on TikTok? You got music, too?

Kanye East: So wait, wait. So I really hate before I became, before I became social media, whatever, whatever. Um, I really hated that when you talk to somebody that really had a big following and you like genuine to ask them something, it kind of snobbish. And they're like, you know, they act a certain way, like they above you.

So I said, yo, if I ever got it. That type of following I would never be that way. So I was a type of person that'll go around and hey I got this mini file. Like i'm not that type of person. I never that i'm always me I'm always genuine and i'm not i'm not gonna be like i'm above no i'm a regular person like everybody else And i'm just trying to like Entertain people like that's it.

Just just entertain people make it make your day a little bit better like

Matty Flip: yeah, when he came to you now, he kind of saw that as like an opportunity for kind of like a Clean slate to build a different community and and I kind of ruined

Kanye East: balls like

Matty Flip: Okay. Well, I mean, I didn't ruin it for him, but But yeah, they went.

Rob Valincius: think that there's, I think that there's a certain way that you can build up your brand and, and change your image. While still keeping some of that, right? I mean, you know, it's, it, but it's, it's a, it's a careful, like, tip toe line that you gotta play. Um, because the moment you start changing is when you're gonna see who really actually enjoys your shit.

Kanye East: Yeah. It's it's definitely a pushback. I'm definitely trying to do the tiptoeing thing um, I haven't gotten rid of the kanye east name, but I have Everybody knows who mike mannich is now Um, everybody knows that I'm doing music. It's not just, you know, the, the jokey stuff anymore, but I, but I'm still retaining people, I'm not, I'm not losing, you know, I'm still retaining.

So I'm thinking people are understanding now and they're getting it and, and, and, you know, and they're still supporting. So,

Rob Valincius: But you're still kind of a jokester, man. I watched your Jesus

Kanye East: oh yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that is me. So, so.

Matty Flip: Okay,

Rob Valincius: I did get the reference. I didn't watch a ton of that on Adult Swim, but I got the reference right away.

Kanye East: So like, that is just who I am. I am a jokey guy. I'm not trying to, like, I'm not gonna go out here and be super duper serious. Like, I'm not gonna go out here and be something I'm not. I'm not no thug, I'm not none of that, man. I'm a nerd. I watch anime. Like, I'm, you know. So, I'm gonna keep it jokey. But, you know, what I'm talking about is serious.

And what I'm talking about, you know, comes from learned experiences. You know, so we can merge both together. I can, I can, I can, I can have a story and tell a story and do it in a funny way.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, I mean, dude, it was a great video. I mean, the guy you had that played the devil was great.

Matty Flip: me. That was

Rob Valincius: That was you?!

Kanye East: You didn't know that was him?

Rob Valincius: No, dude, I had no idea!

Matty Flip: That's

Kanye East: Oh, you did a good job, man.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, dude, I was, I I had no idea. Maybe it's 'cause you're wearing, you're wearing a hat right now. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It had to be the hat dude. But like the devil thing that you did, it was hilarious. Um, I was dying when you had the one chick and then you went like this and it was like the, the, the big black chick.

You're like, dang, get outta here . I was dying, bro.

Matty Flip: Yeah, man, it was it we mean we flew out to Vegas for that and everything man

Kanye East: Went out to the desert.

Matty Flip: It was, I, I filmed all of it. Uh, and, uh, he, you know, and edited it, but he came up with the ideas for all the scenes. Like he wrote the script. He, it was, you know, a lot of him on his part. So he is very creative dude. And he knows how to tell a story really well.

Kanye East: Yeah.

Rob Valincius: it was good, and, and Vegas is my favorite place on the planet. I fucking love Vegas. Uh, I'm also a degenerate, because I love gambling, but, uh, Vegas is a place that doesn't sleep, man. You know, like, you can, you can definitely get lost in Vegas. You don't even know what time it is half the

Matty Flip: no. There's no clocks and no windows in those casinos, bro.

Kanye East: Yeah. We stayed

Rob Valincius: out to the desert?

Kanye East: Out to, that was the literal, yeah. That was the literal desert.

Rob Valincius: awesome.

Matty Flip: degrees out. We were out

Kanye East: We, we were sweating. It was very hot.

Matty Flip: middle of the day too, like noon

Rob Valincius: dude, that's how it is in Vegas, too. Like, if you're on the strip, sometimes it'll be I think we were there the one time, and in order to get, we wanted to go to a restaurant down the strip, and we stayed at MGM, uh, typically. And, it's like, it was like 120 degrees out, like on the strip. And like, you have to bob and weave inside and out of the casinos, just to like, stay alive.

You know,

Matty Flip: those casinos with ice cold A. C. though.

Kanye East: They do. Oh man, it feels so good when you walk in there.

Rob Valincius: They want you to be comfy, man. They don't want you going anywhere,

Kanye East: They want you to

Matty Flip: it's nice and cool in

Kanye East: Come spin this money. Come spin, spin.

Matty Flip: Yeah.

Rob Valincius: We, we, we try to limit ourselves. So like we'll bring, uh, me and the wife, you'll bring, uh, we'll, we'll have like 200 each a day. You know, we'll be there for four or five days, whatever. And if we come home with anything, it's a win. You come back with what you get. If I'm hitting the ATM though. It's a loss.

It's an instant loss.

Matty Flip: all gone.

Kanye East: Yeah, I had to learn that the last time. I had to learn that. Yeah. Uh, I don't want

Matty Flip: He called me I was scoping out the locations and he's like, I'm up 300 I was a good put it away and go back to the room. I

Rob Valincius: One more hand. One more

Matty Flip: Dude, I

Kanye East: Oh no, no. I put it away. I put it away. Wait, I put it away. It went back to the room that night. That night

Matty Flip: yep

Rob Valincius: It's, dude, it's like the famous, the famous gambling last words. Like, one more hand. One more hand, you know?

Kanye East: and maybe I'll make another three hundred dollars Lost that man. I gotta go up here and get that hundred dollars back that I lost

Rob Valincius: You're always chasing the hundred you lost.

Matty Flip: Yeah, exactly. It's too I gotta go get that hunter back

Rob Valincius: So, so in terms of your um, In terms of your music, um, you know, I'm always interested in the creative process of that. You know, do you write all your songs? Do you, do you write all your own, or create all your own beats? Like, how does that typically work for you?

Kanye East: So I I write all my own songs, yes I do, um, I don't do on my own beats, um, usually I buy a beat Um, but I have to like, I'll listen to it and if I, if something comes, then I'll, I'll buy the beat. Um, but recently we've gotten a lot of beats from, uh, uh, from different producers. So we, I got to go and cycle through those beats now and see if anything shakes sort of, but you know, that's, that's just how I do it, man.

I'll just listen and. You know, if something comes to me, I'll, I'll, I'll write it down. It's usually the hook first and then I'll write around the hook. So

Rob Valincius: The hook's important.

Kanye East: yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't, I can't have the, can't have a song without that. Can't have a song without that.

Rob Valincius: Um, and I, I like how a lot of your stuff has like, like, video game elements to it and shit. Uh, you know, I'm a nerd too, so, you know, I was, I was eating it up. Um, now your song, um, just face it. Which had Lil Wayne in it. You gotta tell me, like, what was the process of getting him on the track? Like, obviously he's one of my top five all time, so

Kanye East: Okay. So I don't know if you've heard it or not, but, um, now you could actually buy features from popular artists. Um, you get, you get. Yeah, yeah, you could buy features now from popular artists. Um, you buy the license, you get, you get, uh, rights to the beats and the vocals.

Matty Flip: Yeah, so you get licenses for both. And it depends

Kanye East: it's, it's

Matty Flip: buy them from. It's expensive, yes. But it depends on who you buy them from. Um, but usually licenses from like websites like BeatStars and stuff will have like limitations, like 10 years. Then you got to renew it, go back to the producer, and it might not be the same price.

Um, some producers will let you get an unlimited license, which allows you to distribute it unlimitedly. So, all the licenses are different. And then the features, um, we actually came into contact with a, another artist friend of mine that I work with. And he put us in connection with this, this, uh, A& R. So, uh, an artist in repertoire, um, he's an attorney, essentially, for music artists.

Uh, he has rights to a lot of, you know, or his company has a lot of rights to these, these, um, or he owns the rights to these verses, and he will sell licenses for them. They're non exclusive, so other artists can buy that. You might hear that verse somewhere else, but the fact that you can say you have a track that is officially released, that you can collect royalties on 100%, and you own The sound recording masters for with a popular artist like that says a lot about yourself, you know, in the music industry.

And it also shows that you put your money where your mouth is.

Kanye East: and, and that, and that song has doubled, a matter of fact, almost tripled my investment so far. So it's, it's well

Rob Valincius: paid for

Kanye East: Yes, it did. It paid for itself.

Matty Flip: It paid for the itself and the neck and a couple

Kanye East: And and a couple of the track I got I got a couple of other ones, uh bought a couple of the features That's coming soon.

So yeah

Rob Valincius: That is wild. Yeah, I got into the wrong business, bro. Like, I got

Matty Flip: very dangerous because you're dealing with copyrights and intellectual property, too. So we got to read. This is the message to any artists out there. Read your licenses, read your contracts very carefully,

Kanye East: Read

Rob Valincius: Or,

Matty Flip: or you'll get sued and you will lose everything you own. Oh,

Rob Valincius: and have him do that shit for you. I use AI for everything bro. I'm like, yeah I need you to summarize this shit.

Kanye East: Oh, oh,

Matty Flip: Or yeah, you put the licenses right into chat GPT and summarize it. Yeah, exactly.

Rob Valincius: it'll, yeah, I need you to act like a lawyer, this is a contract, tell me everything I need to know about this and I'll just throw it in there. Hey dude, it's wild what fucking AI will do for you these

Matty Flip: It's nuts. I, I've just gotten so used to literally just reading every line of those of contracts and licenses and stuff that I don't even go to chat GPT for, but like, I know what to look for now in each section. So, but yeah,

Kanye East: why he's my manager.

Matty Flip: and yeah. So once I started doing that, that's kind of when he asked me, he's like, Hey Matt, I know you edit

Kanye East: Yeah

Matty Flip: but would you like to.

to also represent me and work with me as my manager. And I was like, yeah, sure, man. I want to, I want to make sure you don't get screwed. I want to make sure that you're not wasting money, um, you know, and spinning your wheels, uh, and, and kind of help motivate them too, you know, but, um, but yeah, man, it's, it was interesting how I fell into it.

Cause I've never been an artist manager before this either. I learned

Rob Valincius: man? I think it's, I think it's, I think it's overrated to, you know, be like, Oh, this, this is what I do. Right. I think sometimes like if you're learning on the go, sometimes like, like I, all the video editing, audio editing, all that shit. I knew not a goddamn thing before I started doing this, bro.

Kanye East: You gotta learn it.

Rob Valincius: I had to teach myself everything. Now, I'm an IT guy, so my, you know, my degree's in IT, so like, I made my website very easily, like, I own all that, like, I'm, I'm very business oriented, so this podcast is technically, uh, has its own DBA and is owned by Valencia's Group LLC, so it's, it's an official, official, uh, Um, you know, but there, there, there are certain things you learn as you go through.

And I think that if you learn them, it makes it easier for you to be able to, you know, kind of continue on repping, you know, kind of repeat the process and even refine it, make it better.

Kanye East: exactly. Exactly.

Rob Valincius: Like, who you are now is probably not who you were when you guys first met, right? I

Kanye East: Oh, oh, oh, no Oh, man, all the stuff i've learned man for these four years, man If I had this knowledge back then I probably would be way more way more successful right now

Matty Flip: Hmm.

Rob Valincius: Hindsight's 20 20, man, you know? Uh, uh, but I think, I think that's important. And it's cool that you guys are friends. You're not, like, you're not really in it to, like, I think when you throw money into it Like that's really when things can get really crazy. So if, if you have like, if you're like friends with somebody and you, you, you're not doing it strictly for the money, like I don't do this podcast for money, like, you know, like I've been read on this for two years, you know,

Kanye East: love it, bro. You do it because you love it. I do it because I love it. I'm not doing it for, I'm not doing it for a big cash prize or anything. I'm doing it because I love music and I love creating and I love making people smile and laugh and entertaining people. That's, that's what I do it for.

Like, right,

Rob Valincius: it takes off even more than what it is now, right, if it continues to grow, then it becomes what you want it to be, right. Which is ultimately your career.

Matty Flip: Yeah, man. And it was crazy because as soon as, as soon as we started working together with the music videos and editing and stuff like that, his quality of his videos went up, he started getting more comments on it.

Kanye East: Started getting more followers.

Matty Flip: growing like crazy. He was like, he's like, Matt, he's like, I never even would have thought of this if I didn't talk to you.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, and I think that comes with, uh, you know, experience and just learning on the fly too. Cause like, you know, you, you also find out what works and what doesn't work. And then you don't repeat the shit that doesn't work. And you continue on, and then you, you do something, you fuck up, and you're like, Alright, that doesn't work, let's move on, let's try something different.

The, the features thing is fucking cool, I've never heard of that.

Kanye East: Oh,

Rob Valincius: So that's really cool, that's really cool that you can do something like that.

Kanye East: yeah, yeah. I didn't even know it was a thing either until Maddie, you know, brought it to my attention. He was like, Hey, you could do this. And I'm just, okay. Like, you know, just let's try, you know? And sure enough

Rob Valincius: there's um, I, I interviewed a girl, uh, she was like, uh, in the UK, she was, she, she raps and creates music and, uh, she had a feature from somebody in Atlanta and it was like someone, they didn't even like charge her, they just said, yeah, you know, we'll do it or whatever. I forget the name of the rapper, uh, that she, that she did it with.

And, uh. You know, it was definitely one, like one of her best songs, but it wasn't like a feature like that. I don't know what, if there was something that she didn't know on the back end where she can't use it, you know, everywhere or he owns part of the rights, but apparently he like gave her all the rights to it.

And I'm like, you gotta, you gotta think that there's, there's gotta be some people out there that are like, cool with shit like that, you know? And it helps, like, smaller artists like she was to, like, gain some, some follows, gain some, you know, networking, and, and I guess cred, you know, at the end of the day, right?

Kanye East: that's exactly it, man. You know, I saw, I, I, I'll do, um, features for my followers, you know, small, you know, if they, if they're, especially if they're doing funny songs. You know, silly songs. I'll do that for them. No charge, no charge. Cause, cause that's for the love, man. That's for the love of the community.

Rob Valincius: Well, that, you build, you build a better community doing that, because then they, then they tell their friends, like, yo, this guy did a feature for me in, in this song, and then they'll come to your, your shit,

Kanye East: Oh, yeah.

Rob Valincius: listening to your music. It's, it's so organic. I think all too often people want to think that Everyone's their competition.

And, yeah, I mean, In certain avenues, maybe, but At the end of the day, we're all just trying to I don't want to say make it big, you know But we're all trying to, like, do what we like And maybe get paid for it. Like, you know, at the end of the day, that'd be cool. I wish I could fucking fly you guys in And we could smoke a blunt.

Like, in my studio, you know, like Hopefully that'll be, you know, We'll be able to do that in a couple years, you know And

Kanye East: knows, man? Who knows, man? Meet up on a boat somewhere, you know?

Rob Valincius: exactly And that's, like, and that's at the end of the day What if, uh, in a year from now You fucking go crazy bro, and then people come back and they listen to this and then they watch the fucking YouTube video I'm gonna edit and they go, holy shit, and then they listen all my shit And they're like it's the same concept or my podcast takes off and people listen all this stuff like oh Who's this guy and they listen and then you know, it's like it's it's a weird give and take but like at the end of the day When you're a creator, like, just fucking network with people.

Doesn't matter what it is, just

Kanye East: That's it.

Rob Valincius: with people, man.

Kanye East: Don't act like you're

Rob Valincius: Our generation's different. Our generation's different, though, because, like, growing up, I didn't grow up with a fucking cell phone. We played with Super Soakers, we threw footballs, we played basketball, like, we were outside, like, you know, we played with fucking Pokemon cards and Yu Gi Oh, like, like, you, you, you hung out with people, you networked with people, and I think that's why we're better.

At it than a lot of the current generations.

Kanye East: Yeah, you know, I think just don't just try to be bigger than you are. Like, a lot of people have that big head and I think they don't, they don't want to talk to people, but you should just talk to people like you find you have a lot in common and build a nice community. Like, come on, like, he, everybody wants that.

I think that's what everybody wants. They want, they want their own community where they have like minded people that just enjoy what they enjoy, you know?

Rob Valincius: Yeah, I'll tell you I'll tell you where I'm at nerd wise right now Um, i'm i'm opening a so like, uh, I decided i'm gonna do a collectibles business and uh, I started fucking buying pokemon cards again, which is basically because i'm a Degenerate gambler. It's basically the same fucking thing, you know ripping a pack hoping you get something that's worth money But yeah, it's uh, it's like a wild Concept because so many people dude are into Pokemon

Kanye East: Oh, man. Yes. Yes. I love Pokemon too as well. It's, it's, it's, it's global. It's global.

Rob Valincius: I love watching people open packs. I like, I love it. I want them to hit something. So I'm just sitting there and I'm like, ah,

Kanye East: What did you get? What did you get? What did you get? What did you get?

Rob Valincius: What'd you get? What'd you get? You know, um, but that's like, I just bought, I, I created, uh, the, the DBA. I like, I'm, I'm, I'm set bro. I'm just, I'm waiting to launch it.

So, um, but that's like my new. My new little addiction that's like semi, well it's, I'm a nerd dude, so it's pretty nerdy, but um, what's, what's your poison over there? You gaming? You,

Kanye East: All right, so i'm gonna tell you this man. So We we scheduled this podcast today, right? We scheduled it, you know in november way before final fantasy rebirth was announced Final fantasy rebirth came out today and i'm like matty It's final fantasy day. Why today? Like but okay, I came to the podcast but right after we finished I am going to go play.

I've been waiting for it to be on PC for a while now because it was exclusive PS5 only. So, yeah. I'm about to go get lost.

Rob Valincius: bro. Since you're a PC gamer then, like me.

Kanye East: Yeah, yeah. Well, see, I'm a new PC gamer. I used to be a console guy, but, you know, when I started this whole thing, I got a PC. And now, I play all my games on the PC. I haven't gone back.

Rob Valincius: don't go back,

Kanye East: My my

Rob Valincius: You don't go back.

Kanye East: that's what that's what maddie told me He's like, yeah that console about to go collect dust.

Rob Valincius: Dude, I, I, this is the first generation of consoles. Cause I used to work at GameStop. Like, I, I was a regional manager for GameStop. I got every console in the

Kanye East: I was I worked against scott, too

Rob Valincius: Yeah, yeah, dude, I did it for 12 years and that's probably where all my fucking gray hair came from because I was working 75 hours a week at one point but This is the first generation of consoles that I never bought a PS5.

I never bought a new Xbox Why like I you know, I'm a fucking I build my own shit So like I basically have a supercomputer here that guy now I am probably gonna update my graphics cards at the end of this month because the new 50 series is coming out and I have A 30 I have a 3080 that I got in 2020 So it's, but it's, it's a beautiful card man.

It does everything I needed to do. I've never had any issues, um, but I only play Valorant. That's like my main game right now

Kanye East: Oh valerie. Okay.

Rob Valincius: pretty good. I'm pretty good at it. But, um, it, it triggers the fuck out of me because there's so many toxic little bastards in that game. You know, before you know it, I'm being called a fucking old, let's see, uh, you know, someone's calling me, uh, when I tell them I'm, I'm in my thirties, they're like, oh, you old piece of shit.

Fuck you, you know, um, you know, it's, you, you picture, I'm sure, some of the shit they fucking

Kanye East: Oh, yeah, I can imagine I can

Rob Valincius: if you're a woman, if you're a woman, you're fucked, most women don't even talk on there because they just get destroyed, uh, which is sad, but yeah, I haven't bought anything. The only thing I did get, I did buy a switch because, uh, we like to play like Mario party, which was fun.

Kanye East: Yeah, yeah, the only reason why you buy it.

Rob Valincius: if you're a PC guy, now, Maddie, I don't know if you're into this. Go buy a steam deck.

Matty Flip: Yeah, I've been wanting to get a Steam Deck

Kanye East: Oh, yeah, i've heard about those. Yeah

Rob Valincius: Steam deck is amazing. Especially if you fly at all, dude, it's a wild thing to play Witcher three, like in your hands,

Matty Flip: imagine, bro. I mean, like, it was,

Kanye East: Yeah, i'm gonna get one i'm gonna get one

Matty Flip: it was like when we figured

Rob Valincius: just updated the screen. It's, it's OLED now. Like what are the new ones? Yeah. It's the battery life is better. Like do any, most of your games. Dude, oh, doesn't even compare.

It doesn't

Kanye East: Good good. Goodbye switch

Matty Flip: Yeah,

Rob Valincius: you can play, uh,

Matty Flip: Windows on those things. You can run Steam on it. You can run anything you could pretty much want on those things.

Rob Valincius: it's Linux based, so with Linux you can fucking do whatever you want, bro. It's very easy to fucking do whatever you want. Yeah, me too, me too. Um, but yeah, you can do a lot of shit with it. Like, most of the newer games you can play. And your, what's cool is, is it's, it connects to your steam account and everything's through the cloud.

Like what I would do is like when, when 2k 25 goes to like four bucks, I'll buy it, you know, and I'll play it for a month or two. But like if I could play it on my PC and I could play it on my handheld and they talk to each other. So if I'm like, take, if I could take a shit and I want to play a game as the Sixers halfway through the game, I save it.

And then I can come sit back at my PC

Kanye East: yo,

Rob Valincius: pick it right back up.

Kanye East: that's crazy. I

Matty Flip: do they go for? What do the, what do the steam decks go for now?

Rob Valincius: 650 for like the best one, I think, I mean, it might be a little bit more for the one with the better

Matty Flip: getting like a gaming pc. Pretty much. It's like, and it's the same price that you would pay for a low end gaming pc.

Rob Valincius: you can put like, we, I have a deck for it. You could like plug it into the TV and me and the wife, you'll play games. You know, we like, we'll play like, you know, battleship and some, you know, we'll play like board games and stuff, but like literally you could just connect it right to your TV whenever you want.

And then it connects to, I have a PS4 controller that are PS5 controller that I use for

Matty Flip: Like a Bluetooth

Rob Valincius: yeah, it connects to any Bluetooth, any Bluetooth headset you have. Yeah, it's, it was, it was a great investment. Um, I'm, cause I travel, like I work in insurance, so I travel a decent amount, like, you know, now until like.

July, so like wherever we go, I just bring it with me and it's easy because I could just break it out on the flight and it's not bulky like a laptop, you know, um, but, but listen, we're, we're hitting that hour mark. Um, I wanted to, to talk to you a little bit about, you know, your plans going forward. I know, uh, Maddie, you had mentioned, you know, you got some, some stuff in the works.

So tell me what, what, what's going on, man, going forward. What can we look for, uh, that's coming out and, uh, Maybe you can give us a heads up on when some of the new stuff, maybe the new album

Kanye East: all right. So so what we got coming up next is um, it's going to be the the east ep And so the east ep is kind of like a tribute to like the old kanye east content Um kind of like a a final send off before I do the the main, you know full on album Um, but I am gonna release fortnite boss 2 on the mike mannich ep.

So anybody that's A fan of fortnite boss. Now's your time Because fortnite balls 2 is coming. I do I do want to warn everybody. It's it's it's it's a little bit different It's a little bit different. I am i'm still gonna use All of the terms like all the I think they call them brain rot terms now back when I did it before It wasn't it wasn't being it wasn't called brain rot.

It was just meme culture. But yeah, all of the brain rot words Yeah, it's gonna be a little different this time

Rob Valincius: Well, you know, retards, retards made a comeback. That's all I'm saying.

Kanye East: I i've heard i've heard i've heard i've heard I

Rob Valincius: I've never took it out of my vocab, bro. It's, it's so hard. It's because like growing up, you're just like, Oh, that's retarded. But like, it's not like I'm thinking in my head. Yeah. Screw the retarded people community. Uh, you know, no, it's that's retarded. Like, this is what you said when we grew

Kanye East: exactly. Oh, that's retarded. That's crazy. I you know Yeah, yeah, but they did

Rob Valincius: Or like you say, that's gay. You know, you're like, Oh, that's

Kanye East: yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Matty Flip: Dude that was said a lot a lot in high school and like middle school and I was like and no I never know it was like people got too sensitive as I feel like it's

Kanye East: yeah, people, people take things out of context and, you know, it's not, it's not the meaning of what you mean, you know,

Rob Valincius: It's what people, it's what people see and hear. I mean, look what happened to Elon, right? like, he's, he was, he was throwing his heart to the crowd, but they got him doing the Nazi salute.

Matty Flip: I couldn't believe it when I saw that I was like it

Kanye East: I was dying at the comments.

Matty Flip: he's about to get roasted on the internet for

Kanye East: Oh, oh, yeah. I knew that. I knew that when I saw it, I was like, yeah, yeah, Elon. Yeah. Yeah. You going

Rob Valincius: I saw some I saw some crazy videos of people doing compilations of all the politicians them doing the nazi salute like out of context

Matty Flip: I saw

Rob Valincius: AOC someone did one with AOC. Oh, dude. I was dying like what are you doing? What are you doing AOC? And you know

Matty Flip: like it's like

Kanye East: that's exactly what it

Matty Flip: Stop hitting yourself. Mm hmm

Kanye East: because that's exactly what it is. It's, it's, it's,

Rob Valincius: know she's pretty, she's, she's pretty like left sided, so it's even funnier, and she was pissed. She was livid.

Kanye East: you shouldn't,

Rob Valincius: so, so what about, uh, what about the album? You got, uh, you got some sights set on that, or are we still We're still putting that together.

Kanye East: oh, I haven't even picked out the beats for that. Um. I'm gonna be honest. I'm gonna be honest. I'm, I'm busy. I'm trying to get the East EP perfect because I want, I want to try to like draw people into getting excited about the, the possibilities because I, I, I, I, um, I'm honestly about to put a lot into this album and I don't want to put a lot into this album if people, you know, if I don't have enough people that's going to come listen.

So I'm trying to like, you know, Gauge that that interest and also build up that hype with the east

Rob Valincius: It's smart.

Kanye East: you know

Rob Valincius: It's smart. Um, you do more things like this where, you know, you got, you're on podcasts, and you're doing different things. Your shit will get out there, more people will listen to you. It doesn't take much, for sure. Um, so, uh, let's uh, let's end it there, man. Tell me where everybody can find your shit.

Find your content, and uh, you know, we'll end it there.

Kanye East: Well, as always you can find me on youtube. That's kanye east, you know real simple kanye east, um on spotify It's mike mannich. But if you want to just find everything, um The kanye east. com is always available. Um, all of my socials are there and links to all of my music Tha th a not th e th a kanye east.

com. I

Rob Valincius: Awesome. Awesome. Anything you want to leave us with over there, Matty?

Matty Flip: Um, no, man, I appreciate you having on us, uh, on the podcast, man. I know it was, we was a little bit of communication and some time waiting here, bro, but I enjoyed being here and I think you guys had a, yeah, this is a great conversation, bro. I love doing these podcasts with them.

Kanye East: Yes,

Rob Valincius: Yeah, yeah, it was, it was, it was fun, man. And, and, uh, you know, I know he's itchin He's fuckin bitin at the bit to go play fuckin Final

Kanye East: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I told him man. I told him I told him

Matty Flip: I know. But yeah, man, it was

Rob Valincius: Dude, if I could've did this earlier, if I could've did this earlier, too, I would've. I just, I get done work at five, and by the time, I, I, I work in the suburbs, so like, it's like a 40, 45 minute drive home. So like starting at six is like, it's like me fucking, you know, taking a piss and like jumping in my chair and it's just, I need to wind down for

Kanye East: Oh, man, I know I know man. Yeah, I know it's not your fault that it was released today, man

Rob Valincius: There's shit man. If at least that shit on a Thursday, that's such a weird day

Kanye East: It is that's what I said. I said, why'd you release it on a thursday get it released it on the weekend like you

Rob Valincius: It's cause the PC's the red headed step kid of fucking games sometimes, man, which makes no sense because it's just a better

Matty Flip: Still better. Yeah, exactly. It's a better experience.

Rob Valincius: ha,

Kanye East: that dumb graphics gonna be real nice. I'm gonna laugh at everybody that played it on ps5

Rob Valincius: Well, look, man, um, my, my podcast is Drink O'Clock Pod on all socials, Drink O'Clock Podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts. And, uh, I, I know this is gonna be crazy, but, uh, I'm gonna have this episode up tomorrow. So, uh, we'll get this, we'll get this going. Um, probably not the video. We'll see, we'll see.

Maybe I'll have the video up too. You never know. We'll see, we'll see how I go with my, my editing. I, I've gotten Descript, bro. Descript is, uh, is really helped me with the video editing. I have like settings and shit. It's all ready to go. I just throw it in and boom. It makes a blog for me. I fucking transcript it.

Ah, dude, I'm

Kanye East: I need this. I need this program. I need this program that I need to, I need this. Then

Rob Valincius: Well, we can talk offline, bro. I can, I can help you out if you need help with it. But, alright boys, you have a great night.

Matty Flip: Rob. Thank you so much, man. You too, Rob. You too, Rob.

Rob Valincius: Yeah. 

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