Young Dro
Appearances
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
coincidentally his mom got her section a voucher and moved out there and my mom got hers and moved in the same okay yeah so that's where we was at and you know and and we started out just being friends and you know being i was actually i was healing up from wearing a colostomy bag because i had been shot yes talk about that i i saw that on on porsche you did an interview with porsche and um whoa like i can't imagine at 15 getting shot tell me about that audience to hear more about it
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
It was crazy, man. I was supposed to go to summer school this day because I was real bad in ninth grade, you know what I mean? And so we was at Atlanta Area Tech, and I was going to summer school, and I really didn't like that I had to go to summer school. We out, we go, we get off the bus, we go to school. And next thing you know, we were supposed to got something to eat after we went on break.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
So we was going on break. I was like, nah, man, I'm finna go sell me some. I'm finna go sell me some drugs, man. I'm finna go hustle. I ain't got no money. And they were like, no, let's just go get something to eat, bro. And I had the polo on. I had the polo sport on. the white and blue polo sports shirt with the white and blue trunks on, with the white and blue socks on, with the Reeboks.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
You were like the first polo influencer before there was influencers. And my outfit wouldn't let me stay still, so I was like, I'm gonna go. So I went to the hood, man. So when I went to the hood, I got into some stuff. This guy tried to bully me and take advantage of me being alone and fresh. And I had a pair of expensive Armani shades on.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
He was saying he was going to take them and stuff like that. I was in a position to where this could have been controlled by conflict resolution. I could have came up with a better decision than I came up with. The decision I came up with at that age was to go get my cousin, and we finna come back, and we gonna get you about what you just tried.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
But it was premeditated, and that's the reason why I believe I got what I deserved in a way. You feel what I'm saying? Because I was smart enough to know that by the time I got to Bankhead Court and got my cousin, I could have had a different thought. I could have been like, you know what? My feelings changed. I don't even feel the same way. I'm not even mad as I was.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
And I almost cried at that point when he tried me. But when I got out there, my cousin, it was later on that day. We hadn't been smoking and all that. He was like, hey, what that was you were talking about? Because I came over there and told him, man, I need you. We got to go handle some business. But some time passed. He was like, what that was you were talking about? I was like, oh, yeah.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Home tried me and woo woo. We finna go over here. And we went back and we did what we had to do and I ended up shot. When I got shot, man, after we handled the boy that I got into it with, you feel what I'm saying? Another dude came up And I thought that was my friend, you know what I mean? When I'm looking at him and my cousin was like, who that? I'm like, oh, that's my guy.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
He pulled out the pistol, boom, boom. And when he's shooting, you know what I mean? I kind of like tried to, you know, shoot back or whatever, but he ended up hitting me in my back. And it went through like this way. And when it tore up everything in the inside. So, sitting in the car, crying, going crazy. We driving, my cousin, he...
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
going crazy, we throw the guns out, go to the hospital, and when we get to the hospital, the lady told us we couldn't come in, and she was like, you can't come in this way because this is the wrong, I'm like, lady, I'm dying, you know what I'm saying?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
So my cousin, because when he got out, he went in there, and they was like, this is the wrong door, and when I seen them giving him problems, I tried to crawl over into the driver's side, And hit the guy. He was like, bro, get out of the car. So he pushed me back over. We drove around to the other side. He got out of the car again. And he ran in there.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
And when I seen him take it too long, I got out of the car, thought I could walk. And I fell to the ground, crawled in there.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Yep. And then the doors, you know, they open automatically. I saw a wheelchair, got up in the wheelchair, rolled in there and was like, save me.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that I had got shot. I had seen it in movies. I had heard of, you know, I'd seen some people shot before, but it was just, it was groundbreaking for me and my position, you know, how young I was, you know, bleeding from somewhere and throwing up. And, you know, you know, it was it was crazy. And now now I think everybody's going to do I think the worst.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Like if I'm at a club, yes, I'm standing somewhere. I'm like, this cat finna hit me in the head with a bomb or I'm finna get stabbed or, you know what I'm saying? And I have these fears and this anxiety that, you know.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Had these talks about hey addiction is very powerful because I thought that you know My aunties and uncles did drugs and everybody was cool. Yeah people drinking beers Mm-hmm smoking weed and you know, they doing crack and shoot heroin. You know I'm saying we're saying that yeah, you know I'm saying because it was I just like, like on shoulder lean.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I was saying like, I don't know about Lil Momo, but a bunch of junkies, like all her brothers and sisters would come over and this would be normal, you know what I'm saying?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
So in the hospital, I don't know why I was addicted to it, but if that would have been explained to me, maybe I would have been able to say, wait a minute, or, you know, somebody else could have said, wait a minute, let's tell him, you know, about the feeling he's feeling because I was in that, man,
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
when that jump put, like I was in pain because, you know, when you have 56 staples and a colostomy bag sitting right here and a tube right here, you feel what I'm saying? And then you healing up from the gunshot, you know what I'm saying? I went on a couple of surgeries, you know? So I'm in pain, pain. So when that lady hit me with that stuff and I went out, it felt like, it was like,
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I don't know how I feel to be born, but it felt like I was just coming into the world, like coming out of a womb, like, oh my God. And I was like, this feels insanely good. And it was taking the pain away, but I enjoyed the feeling more than what it was for. You know what I mean? So that led down.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
So I had, she used to stick me right here and stick me right here to the point where I had knots in me because I was asking so much. You feel what I'm saying? And I had knots. She was like, I can't find a good place to stick you now. I got to go. And then it happened over here. And I was like, she was addicted.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Well, well, it wasn't even, um, It wasn't likely that I survived. So I guess it was a delicate situation. I didn't even supposed to survive that. Well, most teens die from shock and this and that, the fact that you're here. And I was totally in pain, though. And it just got to the point where I don't know. You know what I mean? They just kept giving it to me.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I needed it, but I don't know if I needed it for what I wanted it for. You feel what I'm saying? So by the time they governed it, I had already had that taste. And then when I got out of the hospital, I was like, so what y'all gonna give me when I get out of here? So they was like, oh, we got some songs. I was like, I hope it's like that. They was like, this guy here, man. It's crazy.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Yeah, so I mean, I got out the hospital. Man, you know what I did? I end up smoking a blunt. and I passed out. I was, I drove my bike down the street, and I was, you know, we in the projects, everybody out there crowding around me, and you know, they like, man, you okay?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I'm like, yeah, I got this bag on, I got my boxers on, and my t-shirt, I'm skinny, I think I'm like, I had to be no more than like 90 something pounds, but when I went in, I was like 135, you know what I mean? I got out, so I ain't no smoking a blunt and passing out.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
And the only thing I could tell them was like, do not tell my mama that I came down here and mixed street drugs with this hospital stuff and fell out. You know what I mean? But what I do wish would have happened was that my family was educated on our drug addiction and my father's drug addiction and my auntie's and uncle's and addictive personality and how to navigate what I felt.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Counseling, you know what I mean? Things of that nature. Because I wouldn't have this story to tell today.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Yeah, it was set in. And by the time I got there, you know how you deflect.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
you know, I used my celebrity to hide behind what was actually a problem. So I was like, oh, well, because I was one of the ones, like, when I pop a pill, I take it on like a thundercat and all kind of stuff and, you know, the pills and the lean and coming up with ways to rhyme it and make it sound, you feel me? So I was a part of that, you know what I mean?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
And everybody used to always see me out and be like, You keep up and I'm like, not now, you know, but, you know, probably later. But, you know, they always put that on me, you know, I mean, because I used my platform to put that out there that, you know, it was OK when actually I was just hurting and, you know, trying to figure out a way to deal with it.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
That was sociable because a lot of things that I did, a lot of people didn't do socially.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
So at that point, yeah. That happened in the studio, and the reason why I wanted to share that is because I was all out of options. I faked the help a little. Tip took me to get help one time, and I was in there, and I was like, and I seen people that was on drugs, and I was like, I ain't that type of junkie, you know what I'm saying?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
And I felt like, you know, and I just, I didn't go back, you know what I mean? Then one time I tried to get help at the crib and the lady came and I was lying to her and you feel what I'm saying? And then I just kept repeating that. And then, you know, I would tell, like, say for instance, this is a professional place. This is where I rap at. Me, you know, you my manager, you know what I'm saying?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I'm telling you, oh, I got it. You know what I'm saying? Cool, cool. Then I go out and get high. Then I come back to you and I done miss a couple of shows, then I tell you another lie. You know what I'm saying? You kind of got an idea what you don't. Until the day you overdose around me, now I'm all out of options. You feel me? So when that happened at the studio,
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I was like, man, you know what I mean? I'm out on the floor, and the fire department guy, he was young, and he was a fan, and he was in tears. He was like, come on, bro. And I'm on the floor like, what? I said, in front of everybody now? You know what I mean?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Because in high school, in high school, this is what I was. Yeah. You know what I mean? So to come into, you know, celebrity and rapper and all that and then join it, I was like, this is normal.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I have been, you know, I got it. It ain't like that. You know what I'm saying? I'm handling it. You know what I'm saying? I pop a few perky, you know? You know what I'm saying? But it got to the point where like, It came out, like, you know what I'm saying? And it came out in the worst way.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
And to have my nephew in that position, to where he in there, because he was like, oh, you know, this is what they telling me. Oh, hey, you know, and I didn't answer. He was like, man, something wrong.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
and he went to work on me. And when I came to, and Tilt was, they FaceTimed me, and Tilt was like, get up, nigga, hey, hey, Joe, hey, boy, you good? I'm like, I'm not good, what are you talking about? I just came to, you know what I'm saying?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
the money's there and I could see the look in his eye and I could just apologize to him now like, I'm so sorry that I put you in the position to where you had to see your uncle in this way because of something that, I didn't share that I needed help, you know what I mean? And in that position, in that studio where I made hits at, you know what I mean, and I was broken at,
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
And I didn't want to go back in there. I was like, oh, man, everybody has seen it. I ain't got nowhere else to go. I can't lie no more. I can't pop it to you. I got control. I don't have any more control. I said, you know what? I'm going to just stay out of the studio. And then next thing you know, God was telling me, he was like, go back to the studio.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I was like, I don't want to go back in the studio. Why would I want to go in there for? People looking at me every time I go in there. When I see people now, they be like, you okay? You look good. I was like, I'm good, man. But I appreciate the love, but I did not want to go back in there because it was like the walk of shame.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
You know what I mean? So, you know, when we be having this, you don't, you know. Yes, you don't. You know, it's just, it was just. So you woke up today. What was the thought process? I don't know. I kind of wanted to be like Mr. Rogers type. Yeah. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. He's getting very scholar. You know what I'm saying?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
But when I went back, it was some reason God kept telling me to go back. So when I went back, he was like, you can't be on nothing that you was on. You can't even be this person you was. I need everything back.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
pulled out i need everything that you was nothing can be the same wow you can't have the same antics you can't you can't hang with the same people but when i when i send you back in there make sure you're like this and i went back in there and i was cleaned up right and um Next thing you know, I record Thank God in there with Kirk Franklin, Sonny Sir.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
The choir come in there, and I released what had happened to me on paper because I had never shared it. And I felt like God was saying, you know, where you broken at, you know, I'll rebuild you.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Is he? He's okay. You're gonna make me cry.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
So we shared the same thing because I had, it was complicated because I was like, okay, God, now I can't just glorify this. I can't just say perk, pill, lean. I can't do that. You know what I mean? So how do I, he was like, you could be yourself. You could talk about what happened to you, what it made you feel like, what your experiences were. He said, but not, it's a way to do it.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
And the green and yellow, I felt like my skin would pop off that. Yes. Then I went corduroy. And then I was going to leave them down, and I was like, I can't disrespect the sock like that.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
So now... that I'm doing, that I did that song, a lot of people look at me like, oh, well, he's strictly doing church now. I'm from Bankhead. I'm from the hood. I have to tell you about real stuff that I went through. I'm a real person. And God is real also. And he's also instrumental. And that's where we lose at.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Because we feel like if we're some way, but I believe church people make you feel like you can't be come on god if you just yeah all the way like they do yeah you know what i mean i ain't finna just and god knows that exactly and at this point in my life i'm just letting him Got me.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
You know why I need to go and I'm also, you know Letting the spirit lead me to why I'm like, well, I ain't gonna do that.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
It's certain things I won't do. And I'm skeptical about things that I would say. But doing what I used to do, totally not. Totally different from that. I don't walk that walk no more. And there's a lot of people waiting on me to do something. But they're probably going to be old and gone by the time. Because I don't plan on breaking this covenant that I have.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Actively in therapy, man. My therapist, Original Michael, man, and his wife, Socrates, Michael, they're good people that help me identify what mental health and stuff like to be healthy mentally is very powerful. And it all coincides with the peace that God gives me that surpasses all understanding. I can't be in a position to
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
You know what I mean? And it's just something light. A little light, son.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Be better or prosper or talk to people if I don't go talk to my dude and sit down and unpack it You dig what I'm saying? And it's okay to you know I'm saying and then from a clinical from a clinical standpoint My manager is actually she has her doctrine in brain behavioral and mental health CRL, you know I'm saying so she's there to hey look thinking like this being like that cuz a long time I was
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
a lot of things when i got out of drugs i seen how crazy of a person i was i was like this dude is crazy you know what i mean and it's a lot of things that i have to sit with that's why i don't have an iphone yes he has a flip phone i have to because it allows me to go out and disconnect oh because you probably can't get like instagram or nothing on that phone no but but i still that's amazing you know when if i'm if like if i watch
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
because you know what i have to tell you this the spirit was like because i look at a lot of nonsense and the spirit was like you have to watch this show wow and you were in it and then it gave me standards morals like things that you could live by other than Instagram, Nikki girl, this shootout, robbery, that, news, trial, murder, Ricos. You feel what I'm saying?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I never really had a stylist, though. Really? So it's always been you. I love that. I can walk in, like, I can walk in somewhere and just bim, bim, bim, bim. But it took, like, I had these socks for, like, a minute. But I just had them. And at least about eight months. And then this just came out. So it just works.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Because all of this stuff that I take in, I start to handle my family like that. You feel what I'm saying? The influence. People underestimate the influence on TV. It's hard to choose a stable woman if you're always looking at, you know, stuff that's online and how women are. You know what I'm saying? You'll tend to say the wrong thing to a girl.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
you're talking to. I thought it was the internet. That's what y'all like. I thought it was what you like. You need to get off the internet. Okay, I got it. Alright. So, I don't have a phone for that matter so I could sit with what I need to sit with and face it. We call it fighting demons but they is the demons only grow if you feed them.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
So if I keep feeding it and it gets so big, I'm like, this dude that's behind me is huge. You feel what I'm saying? So, yeah.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Because I knew I knew the real meaning of loyalty, love, and acceptance. That's good. You know, I wanted to see, like, when he came out, and this, I ain't saying this because this is my friend. He was my favorite rapper. I was like, the stuff he's saying is, you know what I'm saying? And just for that to be my friend, my close friend, that's just a bonus. You know what I mean?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
And to be a great leader, you have to follow. You know what I mean? So I was good. That's good. going around and, you know, following in his footsteps and seeing the connects and, you know, picking up off that and this. And to this day, I'm utilizing that relationship. You know what I'm saying? He has a lot to offer out in the world.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
And it's a lot of things that I appreciate him for, for knowing me. Like I've always wanted a friend that knows me and knows me.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I tell me and know who I am, you know what I mean? But there's a lot of things that he said no to that sheltered me from people actually seeing. Like my story now, it could have been something that you already knew. You know what I'm saying? But it's a lot of stuff he was like, nah, leave him there. Because he's going to get the acting crazy. He done had to send me home a lot of times.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
No, go home. It's going to get embarrassing after this point. And you know what I mean? So to say I felt the way I always felt joy to see him speak and I learned how to pick up some lines. I ain't learned those big words yet. A couple of them. You know what I mean? But, you know, to see him in action is a pleasure.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
appreciate people that work for you tell them that you appreciate them you know what i'm saying like we rapped on the movie the other day and he had a speech and it was so heartfelt he was appreciating everybody that came and everybody that shared the the the dream that he had and brought it to life and he was thankful and you know this is an icon you know what i'm saying like he takes the time to
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
do little things, you know what I mean? And that's what I picked up and learned from him. Like if we at the house in LA and I see how he interact with errors and it's the little things, you know what I mean? He picks her up and if she has a problem, you know, with how he's, you know, being too clingy. Dad, you're being clingy. Well, I have to be clingy, you know what I mean?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
What are you doing here? And we're going to eat vegetables. And this is, you know, this is totally the opposite from what you're thinking. Yes, yes. You know, make sure you eat your vegetables and this and here and this your Uncle Joe and y'all going to race today. You know what I'm saying? Stuff like that.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
And I feel like that, you know, that's why he's still always covered and blessed because his family is first. He's a strong leader and he's the best friend in the world.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I don't got that much skin in the game, but I'm so good with movies. And I know, like, I can watch a movie that I've never seen before, and I could tell you, like, when a woman is finna cheat or when she finna kill him, I can tell you if they're gonna walk in the room and die. I can tell you if they're gonna survive. You know what I'm saying? I'll be like, he's gonna survive.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
They be like, how you know? I'm like, watch. And it's just that I'm so into it like that. And I've watched... countless movies and countless TV shows. And so I'm a big deal when it comes to TV, you know what I mean? So acting, I do act a lot in the mirror in the bathroom and with nobody around, you know what I'm saying? You know? Yeah. Yeah.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
So and then so Tip kind of like pulled it out of me like a long time ago. He asked me, he was like, so I thanked him for acting in the movie. I was like, man, I just want to call you and appreciate you and let you know I'm thankful for letting me act in situationships. He was like, I said, I always wanted to do this. He was like, you sure? I was like, why you say that?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
He was like, man, I asked you to be in ATL. He said, you supposed, I asked you, did you want to play big boy's role in ATL? And you said no.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I was like, I was high. I was high, just overlooked that, you know what I mean? I was high, dude. Like, you know, I said, well, I wanna do it now. He was like, all right, cool, we got plenty of stuff coming up, so yeah.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
He got me in Apartments 2, Apartments Part 2, you know what I mean? I'm in that, and I'm in Situationships, and doing our thing.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Me and Zay Tobin are going to release in January. The PSC project is almost done. Well, it's majority done. You know what I mean? We got T-Pain, we got a lot of people on there. We got DJ Drama is gonna put that project out. You know what I mean? But for now, me and Zaytoven has a project called 10 Piece Hot. Make sure you bring your blue cheese.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Bring your blue cheese, I'm gonna need that. So it's called 10 Piece Hot, and it's just, 10 songs that is very hot that I could put out right now to represent who I am and what I see. Because a lot of people are like, oh, now that he's over, let's see if music sounds like when you geeked up.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I thought, well, the devil convinced me that Oh, you can't do this without drugs. And that's what I was. I was stuck in the rehab. I was scared to come out of rehab because I thought I had to have drugs to write good music.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
No, you don't mess around overdose trying to find out.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
You feel me? You don't pick up the wrong thing trying to find something that you don't even need. Because I had this I had this thought that just pop a light popped over my head and I heard God say, you think I haven't equipped you with everything you need to get what you got?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I don't know how I feel to be born, but it felt like I was just coming into the world, like coming out of a womb, like, oh my God. And I was like, this feels...
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
You're crazy. I was like, oh, yeah, you're going to need.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
It's okay to admit that you walked in the wrong door than to spend your lifetime in the wrong room. You know what I mean? It's okay to say, hey, look, I didn't get it right.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Yeah, so that song, man, I just wanted to make sure that I just put the fun back into it. Because when we was coming up, we didn't want to stand and do all that stuff, man. We just wanted to be fresh, have a good day. Everybody see the outfit. You feel what I'm saying? Back up, man. I'm clean.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
You have to stay over there. Yeah. You can actually elevate. It's good in all of us. And I always tell people, if you can't see the good in me, I'm going to just give you a hug and tell you, life is difficult for the blind.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Listen, bro, I'm like, tear, go back in the eye.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I was in pain because, you know, when you have 56 staples and a colostomy bag sitting right here and a tube right here, you feel what I'm saying? And then you're healing up from the gunshot. You know what I'm saying? I went under a couple of surgeries, you know? So I'm in pain, pain. So when that lady hit me with that stuff and I went out, it felt like, it was like, I don't know how it is.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
When my manager, Sierra, had got it all together and, you know, the powers that be came together and said, we're going to give Young Droids day to day. I always wanted a day. You feel me? They used to have Dro Day in Atlanta, but it was unofficial. You know what I mean? But I felt like... this is a important time for me.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Like I w I was thinking like have fun on that day, but I do want to make it meaningful and impactful, like giving back to the kids and doing stuff with the community also, you know what I mean?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
It was important because how I grew up, we were just bombarded with how we were going to get some food, or if mama had some money, or what kind of clothes we were going to wear. And we went years and decades without even having an awareness about voting. And as I got older,
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I kind of just had like an epiphany or some sort to, you know, it took me back to I was looking at movies and, you know, my life experience. I was like Martin Luther King and John Lewis. You know what I mean? Like people that walk that walk. And if Martin Luther King was living, you know, my birthday, January 15th. And if he, you know, and I'm probably sure we would have met. Yeah. For sure.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
You know what I mean? And I could just see him saying, you know, if he was alive, like, you got to do this. You feel what I'm saying? Look at all I did, you know what I mean, for this moment. And I just, you know, I felt the importance of it, you know, because in our culture, we be complaining about so much. We do. Pony messing with us. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
The street light might be out, potholes in the street. You feel what I'm saying? No cameras in the neighborhoods to protect and see us and our, you know, well-being. You know, we have these complaints and then we don't do nothing about it. You know what I mean? So voting is very important. And in our culture, too, you know, is some people that like my manager ran for
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
a position in Georgia on council. Right. And and I was telling people vote for her. They didn't even know what she do. So we're so we have to understand, too, that voting for like the president, that's one thing. But if you want real, real change around you, you dig what I'm saying, you have to vote locally.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Like it's so many of us right now, like that's from the hood. You know what I mean? And I speak to them because our voices can be heard now because felons can vote. You feel what I'm saying? It's okay to be a part of something that you now have children in. You feel what I'm saying? We look at voting and all that politics stuff, we put that in the same bracket as police.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Like we steer away from it or, hey man, ain't with all that police. You feel what I'm saying? So when you look at it like that, you actually ignoring the fact that I have a child coming up in the same environment, in the same world. You know what I mean? I want to be able to have the best things for this child possible. So find like minded people, you feel what I'm saying?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
And make your voice heard as a young black man. It don't even really matter what color you are, but mostly us are, you know, resistant on that. You know what I mean? And if I could say something to them is like, it's OK to be a part of what your children's future look like.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
He is so cute. I could be gangsta as I want to be about how I want to protect him and how you ain't been, you know, I'm from the west side, bank hidden, you know what I'm saying? But at the end of the day, he has to go out into the world, you know, alone to school, you know, with his friends, to the movies. I can't follow him everywhere, and I want to make sure that
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
the area that he's in is comfortable. You know what I mean? And the laws are put together to represent him and not be against him.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
It had to be... in high school, I think I was listening, I was listening to something like some Tupac stuff and like Biggie, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, and you know, Mason, Puff and all that. So when they came out with that song, I had this Sherlin coat on that I got from my sister's boyfriend. He was a hustler. You know what I'm saying? So I go to school, I got this Sherlin on.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I stole my sister's Versace glasses. Got the big glasses. So I'm kind of looking like, you know what I'm saying? And I learned the verse. You know what I mean? B-I-G, B-O, B-P-A. So I'm rapping it. So, you know, and there was a girl in there. She was kind of green. She didn't know what I was saying. She was like, that's you? I was like, I lied. Yeah. Yeah. She was like, yeah, that's you.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
She was like, you sound good. And in my head, I'm like, man, if I could do that. You know what I mean? Then I heard Tupac one day, I Gotta Get Mines with MC Bree. And then I rapped that. And then they was like, that sounds like your music. And I was like, oh, maybe it's my voice.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Then I knew the voice was something that they was fond of. And then when I put it in pen and paper, it kind of worked.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Yeah, it was deep and it was cool, like, and the girl was like, you wrote this? And I'm like, yeah, you know what I'm saying? So I used to, I was into that, you know, and also I used to perform, like, I Need Love for My Mama by LL Cool J. You know what I'm saying? Shit, you know, they'll give us like 50 cents, you know what I'm saying? We'll be in there.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I'll perform that and, you know, different songs. So I knew that I had the talent and I used to sing in the choir for my grandma.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
And Center of My Joy was one of the songs that I had to learn it. You know what I'm saying? So after I was musically inclined, I was like, um, I think I want to be a rapper, because I ain't want to be no R&B singer.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Yeah. She was like, Sane, baby, I'm going to get you a cap. And by the time I got through Sane, I had like four of them. Grandma.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Yeah, like one of them had the little cut in it, like a little nugget, you know what I'm saying? One of them had a champagne, and one of them had a little heart, you know what I'm saying? That is funny. And one of them was silent, so it was almost like... Did you catch it? Yeah, I caught it. Mr. Miyagi drove.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
So that's when I knew I was musically inclined, but I would just go around rapping, you know, in the hood, you know what I'm saying? And one day I was on Bankhead at the Bounce, And I was rapping up there, and I got noticed.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
Nah, I was in my teens at that point. Yeah, so what me and T.I. was, we grew up together, like, like a time after that, I met Tip because we had got our Section 8 voucher and stuff like that. You know, we went from, you know, apartments that just had heat, you know what I'm saying? Then the big radiated thing that was on the side. You know what I'm saying?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I done burnt my behind on that a couple times. But you know, we weren't used to carpeting. You know, when we got our Section 8 voucher, that's when I met Tip. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, at that talent show, though, on the west side, I think I was around about, I couldn't have been no more than about 16, 17. Wow. You know what I mean?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
I was on before Tip. I was on before Tip. It was a dope thing. That's what's up. And I knew what he wanted to do with music because in the beginning, He didn't really even do, he didn't rap. He used to produce. And you know, he did beats and hustled. And I couldn't, he was, so I was like, one day I was like, you know, what are we doing? He was like, I'm gonna do these beats.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Joy, Pain & Purpose w/ Young Dro
You just kick that rhyme, you kick, you know what I'm saying? But we wasn't even no rappers though, you know what I'm saying? When we first got around each other, you know what I'm saying? And we just was fond of each other, of our hood antics because we lived in Riverdale, you know?