Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: What's going on, y'all? Corpus Christi originals, back at it again.
Coming to you live from the Produce Streamlab Studio here downtown, Corpus Christi, Texas. We got lead guitar co host Xain Sanchez and Michael White. Here we go.
What's going on, Michael White?
[00:00:20] Speaker B: What's going down, dude?
[00:00:22] Speaker A: Happy that you're here. Glad that you're here.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Tell them what give us said. Don't tell them.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: Nice, man.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Appreciate the candy. Yeah, no problem, dude.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: Shoot.
Hell, yeah. So you're originally from Corpus, Michael White.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I've been here since I was five years old.
I was born in Florida, Pensacola. But my mom took me away from my father because he was an abusive person.
So we moved to Texas, and she didn't have any money, so we were living house to house. I was going to, like, three elementary schools a year, to the best of my knowledge. Like, three elementary schools a year. So I was always the new kid. Always getting bullied, especially in the. I'm saying it was crazy because she didn't use being poor as an excuse to leave an abusive relationship.
You know what I'm saying? She wasn't one of those people. She didn't use being scared or being poor as an excuse. She's living proof that there is no justification for women to stay stuck in a toxic relationship. If Harriet Tubman can run away from the plantation, you can break up with your.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: So you. Is your mom still around?
[00:01:49] Speaker B: No, she's still.
So we were going through that shit. We were going through struggling. I was growing up with babysitters. My main babysitters were in. My main babysitter was in Molina and Trayway, Gulfway Manor. Back when it was the hood. You know what I'm saying? 97. 96 type shit.
So those are my main babysitter right there. That's where I was going to every day after school, on weekends. If I wasn't at the boys and girls club on Greenwood. You know what I'm saying?
What's it called?
You know what I'm saying? So we were going through all this shit until she. We were just going through this struggle until she met my stepdad.
And my stepdad didn't like the kind of.
We didn't see eye to eye because we were different cultures, right? You know what I'm saying? It's a culture clash, I guess, the nice way to put it. And traditional Hispanic that doesn't like rap music. You know what I mean?
[00:03:05] Speaker A: Like traditional Hispanic? Like from Mexico Hispanic or.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: No, like traditional, as in, like, don't bring those Mayantes to my fucking house that kind of traditional.
Did you bring it like that? But in person, it'd be like, real cool, my friend. Like, hey, what's up, man? Hey, what's up? He's in his room. He's in his bedroom. And then when he leaves, I don't want them fucking in my house.
Crazy, bro. But, yeah, he's not like that now. He's really different now. When we see each other after the divorce, he really changed.
But during that time, it was like, I think for about three years.
We were on the south side of town during that time, I was there for, like, three years and living in a house on the south side, Bear Creek. And I was living there for, like, 13 years old till, like, 16. That's when I moved to my grandma house on north side, because I would wake up every morning listening to him yell at my mom, like, you need to send his white trash ass back to his white trash father in Pensacola, Florida. Every morning, I would hear that. He would repeat that every fucking day, yelling at her. And she's crying, and I'm scared to get out of my bedroom. So it was like, I begged my mom, like, I want to live with my grandma on north side, even though it's like the shittiest fucking place to live. Like, her duplex. She had, like, a little duplex on.
Lived like, she lived every fucking way. She always moved, you know what I'm saying? I lived with her on 6th street before I lived with her. She's always fucking moving. Like, she's real paranoid and shit. Like when she hears gunshots, she thinks, like, moving down the street be better place. You know what I'm saying?
[00:04:56] Speaker A: I'm chuckling because I live on 6th street right now.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I was there when I was seven years old.
Those are little fucking brick apartments, right? Oh, on Elizabeth or right there on 6th street, where Lisa's taco place used to be? Right there. And then behind it is the fucking. I remember celebrating my birthday on that street when I was seven. We walked to. Me and my grandma walked to the 711 for the icing and cake and shit.
I still remember that.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: She still was.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: Yeah, she moved to Brazil.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: I remember she moved to Brazil.
Anyways, so I didn't technically get kicked out. I know. My mom always tells me, we never kicked you out. We never kicked you out because when I talk about living in the streets, she gets mad because it sounds like I got kicked out.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: Kicked you out?
[00:05:51] Speaker B: I didn't get kicked out. I just didn't want to live like that I didn't want to be somewhere where I wasn't welcome, you know what I'm saying?
So 16, I went to north side, and I was still going to King High school when I was living. My grandma, because she didn't know how to check me into Miller High school. That's why I never checked in there. So I was taking a b bus to fucking King high school every fucking day.
And I want to say I was really, like, running the streets by 15, you know what I'm saying? Because my number one mission was to stay away from that house, you know what I'm saying? I was scared to be there, you know what I'm saying? So I'm running the streets. I'm going to different hoods that I knew, homies that I met at the rap battles growing up in, tequila boom teen nights and cityscapes teen nights, you know what I'm saying? So I'm out there, like, going to different hoods, hanging out with my homies on west side, north side, you know what I'm saying? Trayway fucking, you know what I'm saying, everywhere. And I'm spending the night over there as much as I can. I'm like. I'm like, hey, I'm going to spend a night over here. And she knew why I wanted to spend a night. I don't want to be there. And she's like, okay, as long as they're okay with it. So I'm always, like, spending the night. So I was already kind of like my own in the streets and shit by 15, but I always say 17, really? Because that's when I was really out there.
16 is when my first time sleeping on somebody's porch, because I told her that was one of the times where even when I couldn't spend a night at somebody house, I would tell her, hey, somebody's letting me spend a night. And that's how much I just wanted to be away from there. I slept on somebody's porch, you know what I'm saying?
By 17, I was really just out there. Out there, like bus stops and everybody's couch, you know what I'm saying?
It was easy for me living in the streets and spending night crashing at people's places. Because I'm not a thief, I'm not a drug addict, I don't drink. All I focused on was music battle, rapping, you know what I'm saying? And you know what I'm saying? Trying to pursue my dreams and shit. And everybody knew that, so I didn't get looked at like oh man, you can't have him at my house, you know what I'm saying? He dirty, you know what I'm saying? Yeah.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: I want to go back to talking about your dad. Did you develop like was it difficult for you to make relationships with other Hispanics in town because your stepfather was that way? Would you?
[00:08:15] Speaker B: No.
All my homeboys was either mescan or black. It was hard for me to meet white friends because of who I was, you know what I'm saying?
[00:08:25] Speaker A: Because your reputation as an MC.
[00:08:32] Speaker B: I just couldn't meet.
I still don't really have white friends. I don't know a white friend. I can just go to his house and show up.
I still don't know anybody. You know what? Usually I started meeting white people through Facebook really and when I started going to Austin, Texas for the comedy shit, you know what like there's nothing but white people there at the fucking sign up for kill Tony show, right? You know what I'm saying? In Austin, Texas. So I'm just now finding out what white's being like, what it's like to.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Be white and your last name is white.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: I was never somebody that like, oh, because this person of this color did something. I'm going to be mad at every other person that looks like him. I was never like that, you know what I'm saying? Because all my mexican partners were just like me, you know what I'm saying? All my black partners were just like me. So I just stayed away from those kind of people that were closed minded, you know what I'm saying? And I would run into people that reminded me of him. I'd be like, okay, you'd be best friends on my stay there.
But like I said, he cool now, we cool now. Whenever I see him now once a year I will see him on a holiday or something at my mom's house and I only go to my mom's house on holidays because I don't see out her new husband either. He's kind of the same way but he keeps it cool for her, you know what I'm saying? It's one of those things where I'm walking on eggshells and I got to make sure this dude doesn't talk crazy to me, you know what I'm saying? So I never got to really have a good like a real relationship with her other than just kind of on the phone type shit because I try to make sure I don't ruin nothing, you know what I'm saying?
Especially I'm trying not to get too deep into it, you know what I'm saying? Because I don't like opening wounds on other people. I'm trying to talk about just myself, but it's hard to do that without mentioning the world around me, you know what I'm saying?
[00:10:35] Speaker A: Definitely.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: So you can have an understanding of who I am. Like, I have to bring shit like that up. I hate doing that. You know what I'm saying?
[00:10:44] Speaker A: You mean open a wound? Meaning you don't want.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: I want to be where people have to feel like they fucking.
It's just really what it is. I don't want to just talk about other. I hate talking about other people, you know what I'm saying? I try my best not to bring them up, but if I have to, to help you understand the answer to my life, you know what I'm saying?
[00:11:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
I think I'm kind of the same way in a sense, because I don't like to talk bad about people, but when I'm talking to them about them, it's like, oh, well, this is the reason why I don't hang out with them or I don't associate them or whatever.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: But I think after the divorce, my original stepdad really changed.
I think he really became, like, a more open minded person. He would be like, what's up, man?
I heard you doing good on your rap. Back in the day, it was forbidden. If he found out I was at the studio, if my mom was on her way to take me to the talent show, to 102.9, a bomb talent show, and he found out, he would yell at her, and she had to turn him back around and drop me back off at home. I would have to sneak to rap battles without him knowing. It was really hard for me to pursue my dream. I was really, like, crying every night. They used to have a rap contest on a freestyle contest on a station where two people could rap and people call in and pick the winner. One time I finally made it through, and he was home.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: I was like, fuck.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: So I had to fucking whisper. I mean, this is what I did before he came home from work. This is how hard it was to pursue my dream. Before he came home from work, I had to pre record my rap on a fucking talk boy, the home alone talk boy shit. And I spit a rap on there. I called the fucking station. I put the thing up to the phone so they can hear my rap because he came home. When it was time for the freestyle, it was like, 07:00 p.m. 08:00 p.m. Type of thing or 09:00 p.m. So he was home. I had to use the talk boy. I was like, hey, is it cool?
Can I be one of the contestants for the radio? Yeah, go ahead, spit some. And I was like, all right. And I play it and it kind of sounded good on the radio. You know what I'm saying?
[00:12:55] Speaker A: Funny man?
[00:12:55] Speaker B: But that's what I was going through. It was really forbidden for me to do that shit. He really hated that culture. And my best friends were black and mescan and what I also mean by traditional Mexican. He didn't like other Mexicans either, that were like.
He just didn't like hip hop. You know what I'm saying?
That kind of thing.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Is there a stigma with that between hip hop and.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: Because he kind of manipulated my mom, too, into thinking it was a bad thing. So they used to think like, oh, this is the reason why you're getting, like, seized in fucking school or you're felon or why you got detention.
Hip hop is the reason why this happened. You did this. You know what I mean?
So it wasn't really like a racist thing. It was more of a prejudice. Think about it.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: We grew up on metal and everybody that, they were like, oh, that's satanic. That's causing me to do.
[00:13:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess it was like that, like how parents were with rock music back in the day.
You listen to the legends of Van Halen. I don't know, whatever the fuck you weren't allowed to listen to.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: It's not like a black or white.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: So do you think he was doing.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: That because he had a black friend? Because he was just like him. So that's why they were friends. So he wasn't racist. It was just culture thing.
[00:14:19] Speaker A: That's interesting. Yeah, that's awesome, man. So you mentioned. What was it saying? So you mentioned you were in the battle rapping and all that stuff since.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: What age was it, 13 years old in that neighborhood, ironically, I met my best friends. My two best friends were black. And we were always.
And they were fucking.
It was the house. Nice era. So everybody would be at my home. I had a homeboy named Sebastian. We'd all be at his house because his dad would be like, in his bedroom. In the bedroom. And we just kind of were allowed to do whatever the fuck we like. His place was the place to be. So he would play instrumentals online and, oh, yeah, rip to his pops. Yeah.
Shout out to Stalin. He owned a salon. I don't know if y'all remember that. There was a salon called Stalin Salon. So, yeah, his son was my best friend, and they got me into rapping.
So they would play the instrumentals from the computer, and we would just be freestyling all day, like Texas type shit. I didn't came down. We would rap it like that. We made little tapes on a karaoke machine, and they were the kings of the fucking Rodney. My other homeboy that would come over, that was our best friend as well.
He go by GHK Abu.
He's one of the local artists out here. He's still doing it.
He was older than us. He was like, 15, and I was like, 13. But at that time, 15 was old and, like, og shit to me, you know what I'm saying? So I looked up to him, you know what I'm saying?
And he was like the king of the freestyle, kind of at the skating ring. And I would always go. And I was the only one that didn't go up there and rap. And I remember somebody pushing me on my shoulder, joking with me, like, go up there and do your Moby shit. You know what I'm saying? Because I was like, the only white kid at city skates. There might have been, like, one other one if you looked hard enough.
It was the white jokes. And they knew that was my partner, so they were kind of joking with me, like, why don't you go out there? Your boy doing it.
[00:16:36] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:16:37] Speaker B: And that kind of inspired me. Like, man, I could fucking do this shit. Ain't no fucking moby.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: You know what I'm saying?
By 2001, the first week of 2001, because that was the year 2000, like, the last week of 2000.
And then the first week of 2001, I came, I was like, hey, you all doing a freestyle contest today? He's like, yeah, we'll do it today.
Because at first, they kind of did it every now and then. It wasn't like an every Friday thing. I made it an every Friday thing, because every Friday, I would come. I was the only one that would go up to the dj and be like, please do a freeze contest.
I want to spit again. And he's like, all right, man. We don't usually do it every week, but since you all seem like it's becoming successful, you know what I'm saying? And they would always play the south side beat, you know what I'm saying? That was our shook ones. You know what I'm saying? Up north, they do the little sugar one beat, corvus, Texas, south side beat. That was the freestyle beat. Every fucking week.
[00:17:33] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: You know, what I'm saying?
And then I became really good about 14. That's when I started. Like, I still remember a line. Let me give you an example of how good I was. I think this is pretty good.
I said, you need to wipe your face off with a bunch of oxy pads. Your teeth look like a traffic jam of New York taxicabs. You know what I'm saying?
I remember that bar because I remember that blew everybody away. Everybody was, ah. You know what I'm saying? If you just knew how to insult somebody and rhyme that shit, they went crazy. You know what I'm saying?
[00:18:07] Speaker A: That's amazing.
[00:18:10] Speaker B: But my first time performance rap battling was when I knew, like, this is what I want to do. And how I got into battling was, I'll get to that. I know you want to know about that. So the freestyle contest, how it works is everybody sign up, and the best two have to battle. That's the next round. First round, just spit a rap. Second round, you have to battle. So you had to do it, you know what I'm saying? So I had to do in a rap, you know what I'm saying?
Because I would always end up in that round. I would always end up in that fucking that battle round.
So that's kind of what got me into battling, was having to making it to that round, you know what I'm saying?
[00:18:59] Speaker A: Did you ever write anything down, or was it all from the head?
[00:19:03] Speaker B: I've always been more of a. I wrote in my head.
I never came to the contest with nothing written or nothing. Ready. You know what I'm saying? And being a kid, shit, that's pretty good.
I knew a lot of my friends around that age that were fucking having, like, mc west write for him, or what are the OG local rappers write from him, you know what I'm saying? I'm like, man, wow, you got him writing for you? That's fucked up. I write my own shit, you know what saying? So that was a big deal to me, because even bow wow, like, I hated Lil Bow wow because he was, like, the same age. And I found out that Jermaine and pre were writing for him and all that shit. And I was like, man, they need to sign me. I write my own shit. You know what I'm saying?
So, yeah, I might have not been too good at off the dome shit, but I knew how to write my own shit, man.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: Dude, that's fascinating to me, how you can just keep it all in your head, bro. Because my memory sucks.
[00:20:08] Speaker B: I think that's another reason why I don't drink a smoke. But the reason I don't drink a smoke is because hip hop was my drug.
That's why. I don't know why parents would trip him. It's like, man, this is keeping me off selling and doing them because I was selling cds by the time I was 15. I made that an actual job because subway wouldn't hire me because I wasn't 16. So I was like, I like bet, and I turned that into a rip. I first saw my CD at 14 when I did a song at Q Productions, selena's family studio, Kentania productions.
I didn't know that was their studio.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:20:52] Speaker B: They just had an okay price around that time.
So I did a song there, and I would sell that, like, at the mall and at the skating rink. But by 15, I had, like, a four song, five song CD, and that's when I was hitting the streets. I was going to every hood, every Walmart I was walking. I just felt like that's what you had to do to blow up, because there wasn't really no Internet. I was like, man, this is what I got to do. Blow up. I got to do this. So I'm just like, check me out. I had the headphones, like, listen to it real quick before you say anything. Listen. And I was making money because it was, like, $3 a CD. It was burnt CD written on it.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: Right.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: You know what I'm saying?
[00:21:32] Speaker A: Nice, man. Wow. So, you started selling cds, and you figured out that Walmart.
Is there a certain Walmart that you shop at?
[00:21:42] Speaker B: I would sell cds at.
I made a lot of money at the Greenwood. I would say the west side. I made the most money, right? Because the west side has money and love.
It might not have the most money, and it might not have the most love, but it was a great balance, because north side had a love. They just had no money. South side had money, but they don't have no love.
So west side was like my sweet spot. Air Greenwood. That was my sweet spot.
I was making money, so I was always around there. You always saw me over there most of the time. And I got kicked out of the Greenwood Walmart. Like, every.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: Go in the store and show me.
[00:22:21] Speaker B: Were you outside when you used to be able to play music in the electronic section with the CD players to see if you want to buy the CD player or not? I would put my music in there, and I would just walk around like, hey, you like that song? That's me. Only $3. You know what I'm saying? Only $3.
And then I would be outside selling and a little puto in the car driving around me. Yeah.
He would pull over and be like.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: You can't be selling cds over here.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: And I was like, it's my stuff. I used to think, why is it a problem? It's my shit. I'm not bootlegging nobody's shit. I started learning, okay, it's because it's loading because you're taking money from them spending in there. But I'm like, well, people don't come to Walmart to buy Michael White CD. If they're going to come in there to buy a fucking towel, they're going to still buy the towel. They're not going to fucking just buy my CD and be like, fuck, I can't buy the towel. I don't understand the concept of running people off for selling.
[00:23:23] Speaker A: Did you write your own music or did you have somebody write your music for you? Or how did you.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: I always wrote my own music.
[00:23:30] Speaker A: You wrote it?
[00:23:31] Speaker B: No, seriously.
I made my own beats.
There'll be people that will give me a beat and I'll do that. And then there's beats I'll grab from mainstream rabbit and wreck the beat, right? But most of the original shit is my beats. Yeah. Because I was making beats around the same. I was playing the keyboard at the same time. I started rapping like 13, I think. Yeah, I got a keyboard.
[00:23:57] Speaker A: Did you take a class or you.
[00:23:57] Speaker B: Just learned it on your own? No, I asked my mom for a guitar for Christmas, and she couldn't afford it, so she got guitar. So she got me a keyboard that has a guitar section, right? And I was like, ain't this a bit song? I'm playing the guitar and it just sucks right on the keyboard. And then my homeboy comes over and he starts playing the south side beat. My black homeboy, he just starts fucking wrecking on the percussion. I'm like, man, you got to see how to fucking do that shit.
You know what?
And so he taught me how to do the south side beat. The boom boom, boom, boom boom. So I started with that. And then I started just. And then he taught me how to do Mary had a little lamb. So I did that in the south side beat. And then I started just listening to music on the radio, and I would imitate what I hear, and I'll be like, okay, I just find the key. And that's how I learned how to make music. Just by learning how to hum something.
I would hum what I heard and try to find a key, boom, boom. And then I'll start playing it.
And then I eventually started humming my own thoughts and then did that. So that's how I learned how to write my own music. I don't know how to read it.
[00:25:05] Speaker A: You know what saying, that's dope, man. So I guess eventually, fine, you got the drums, you got the bass.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: Puto power.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: So that's your acronym.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: What's up with that?
The reason I call myself and my fans putos and putas, because that's what you get treated like for staying true to yourself, but you get praised for following trends instead of creating your own and being scared of what society thinks instead of only fearing God. So if that's what they call real, then call me a puto. Players undermining their ops and my putas is princesses undermining their adversaries. Puta power.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: Damn, that's awesome, bro. I love that, man.
Adversity, like, sticking to the trend. I was thinking that about earlier today, man. I was like, if you stick to the trends, they're just going to come and go, bro. But if you stick to the things that are actually good. I was telling my brother one time, we used to write music together. If you write good stuff, it's going.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: To be around and corpus. Nobody wants you to know that. You're talented, handsome, pretty, smart. Anything good about you, they will not tell you. So we had to learn on our own what our worth is.
But it helped us become independent thinkers because we couldn't rely on anyone else keeping it real with us but ourselves.
And just because 99% of what we have to say about corpus is negative, also is 99% the reason we knew how to overcome that adversity?
That's what separates the players from the player haters. It's a tough city. Only the strong survive and real motherfuckers know how to embrace that negativity and extract the positive from the seed of the rotten apple. Welcome to Crooked Christie.
[00:26:53] Speaker A: Damn, bro, it's everywhere too, man. I can't stand it either, dude. It's almost, I can't stand it.
[00:26:59] Speaker B: But I appreciate it because if I was like, from Minnesota or Wisconsin or something, I wouldn't be this smart, intelligent and strong. I had to grow up in a city that's surrounded by a lot of bitch ass people to become what I didn't want to be. You know what I'm saying?
[00:27:17] Speaker A: So you become what you didn't want.
[00:27:19] Speaker B: I mean, become what I didn't.
Does that make sense?
[00:27:25] Speaker A: I was going to have you elaborate basically not become like them. Would you say that? Like, those two types of.
[00:27:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess. Peeping game, like, damn, I don't want to be that kind of person. You know what I'm saying? Growing up around people you don't want to be like, helps you if you're just born with that real mindset, like, if God just bless you with that fucking as an empath, really, you know what I'm saying? It's easy to fucking make your own decisions for your own character. You know what I'm saying?
[00:27:56] Speaker A: Yeah. And I feel like our society wants to suppress it, not only here in corpus, but, like, the school system, bro.
I want to say the school system is made for a certain type of person, which when I was in school, I wasn't that type of person. They try to put me, you need to be like this. You need to be like that. I'm like, no, every time I tried that, it doesn't feel right for me. Do you understand what I'm saying? So it's either like, all right, well, if you're not going to be like this, then we're going to cast you out.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: That's why when people say. People always tell me all the time, like, man, why you still repeat, they don't show you no love, man. You need to be repping Austin. They show you love over there, like, nah, I'm not gonna rep. I'm not gonna rep Austin or another city just because they show me more love. You know what I'm saying? Because that's not what made me who I am today. Austin ain't made me who I am today. Corpus made me who I am, like, you know what I'm saying? And that's why Austin loves me. You know what I'm saying? If I was from Austin, Austin wouldn't love me. I wouldn't be this person that they love.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: You know what saying, man? I find that fascinating how you flipped it on it. You flipped it in the sense that you were like, no, I'm not going to be downtrodden because of it. I'm going to actually make something of it.
[00:29:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
I feel like you can't hate your city, just like you can't hate what your parents put you through, you know what I'm saying? Because it made you.
If you love yourself, you love who you are, then you got to appreciate everybody in your life. Everybody, no matter who the fuck it is. Haters. You know what I'm saying? Lovers, anybody, your up.
And that's when I realized that's why you should forgive everybody because it was supposed to happen. You know what I'm saying?
[00:29:44] Speaker A: That's huge, bro. That's huge. And it's very difficult to do, to forgive somebody that has harmed you or hurt you in any way and to not be able to go around and be like, yeah, I forgive you, but from a distance, you're still over here.
[00:30:01] Speaker B: It's because they don't understand.
People say that because they don't understand how much of an impact, how much of an impact that was towards them in a positive manner.
A blessing in disguise. They don't see the blessing in disguise.
I know how to take a mask off or something and realize, okay, yeah, you know what I'm saying?
[00:30:27] Speaker A: So you mentioned God, you mentioned forgiveness. Are you a religious person or how do you view that approach?
[00:30:34] Speaker B: Spiritual. Okay, I believe growing up, when you're a kid, you're going to believe whatever, whatever your mom tell you, you know what I'm saying? And if you want to keep believing that as an adult because you don't want to disrespect moms or your parents or your family tradition, then that's what's up.
But me, I grew up wanting to make my own decision on that. I was like, all right, well, okay, this is what I grew up on. But then I thought of it like this. Okay, well, what if I grew up in fucking Afghanistan? I wouldn't be a Christian over there, I'd be a Muslim. You know what I'm saying? What if I grew up over here in Jerusalem or wherever jews be at, I'd be studying that jewish shit. You know what?
I look at it like this. I'm not going to be this just because I'm from here. You know what I'm saying? Where this is where everybody is. This is what everybody is over here. I'm going to look into it and see what makes sense to me. I want to see, why do they worship you? Why do they worship really? It's just I don't believe in religion in general. I believe there's a higher power because I've seen karma. I've seen karma happen. So I believe in karma. I believe in destiny, I believe in fate. You know what I'm saying? I believe in shit that happened for a reason. And there's somebody controlling that shit. I don't know his name.
If you think you know his, you know, if you think his name is I'll. Or you think his name is Jesus, cool. I don't know his name. I personally don't want to disrespect him by calling him the wrong name. So I'm just going to say, God.
That's just my personal belief.
[00:32:15] Speaker A: So at what age did you start? I guess researching on your own and.
[00:32:19] Speaker B: Figuring that out, man, you know, what made me realize what I really am is someone that I would say 2015. I started getting into numerology. I started seeing numbers follow me around too much to where I didn't know what numerology was. I didn't know that these things, that there was cultures that used these things to help them, guided them through their journey.
So I looked it up and I was like, okay. So I looked up, like, why do I keep on seeing this number? And then it told me, and then I found a good source where it really explained what I was going through. Because some of the source is going to be silly and shit. Like, oh, it's because you're going to have a happy day today. You got to find the real shit. And then that's what I did. I would find, like, a nice source and I started just typing in the number that would fuck with me and it would always be what it was.
So numerology is something that helps me get through my journey, you know what I'm saying? And it tells me when I'm fucking up and when I'm doing right and when I need to fucking go on a diet, like shit. Like, you know what I'm saying? So that's how I have my relationship with God. You know what I'm saying? And I'm sure there's religions that be like, that's the devil. You're talking to the devil. But I'm like, if I'm talking to the devil, when he pushed me the wrong way, you know what I'm saying?
[00:33:45] Speaker A: It. So was mom's Catholic or do you know?
[00:33:53] Speaker B: I think she's, man, Christian or Catholic? She might be Christian, but I think she grew up Catholic, but she's Christian.
When I was going to church, when I was a kid, I was always going to black churches with my homeboy. I'd be like, I'm going to go to church with my friend, okay. And it was always like a baptist church. So I grew up in a baptist church.
[00:34:13] Speaker A: Which one? On the north side?
[00:34:15] Speaker B: I don't know. It was like so many different churches.
I was always the person that had to stand up when the preacher be like, all right, I think we have a few guests here tonight.
Please stand and introduce yourself. And I'll just sit there like this, hoping that he doesn't recognize me being someone, just call me bro. And he just kept on saying he knew there was. He was looking right at you. He knew there was a guest here tonight. And I was like, no guest here tonight.
And he's like, come on, stand up.
He ain't going to stop in my own way, but just get up. And he whispered in my head, they ask you why you came. Just say because you want to get saved. I was like, what does that mean? He's all, just say it. I was like, all right. And I stood up like, hi, Michael.
Michael White. Hey, brother White, what brings you in here today? Or whatever? The house of God. I was like, to get saved. And everybody's like, why?
I was like, what the fuck does that mean?
It was always like. It was always those churches. I was always at those.
[00:35:28] Speaker A: So we got somebody in the live chat, Chris Garcia. He says, michael White, the comeback.
[00:35:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Really?
[00:35:34] Speaker A: So I guess that's right there. Yeah, I guess that's having to do with what you coming back as a comedian or what do you think?
[00:35:41] Speaker B: I'm not a rapper or a comedian. I'm an entertainer.
I don't limit my talents.
I just got into comedy more because I was always funny in my raps.
I've been retarded since third grade when I first started learning with bad words like fucked up, crazy shit. You know what I'm saying?
I was always hyper. I was on riddling at five years old.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: So you've been retarded since the third grade? You really mean that when you say that?
[00:36:19] Speaker B: I think third grade, I don't know. Was it second grade? No, but okay, I think third grade is when I really started being retarded.
It couldn't have been second grade from the best of my knowledge. I remember third grade is when I just started not caring what people think about me.
[00:36:36] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:36:37] Speaker B: And I didn't care if I embarrassed myself or looked retarded in your eyes. You know what I'm saying?
[00:36:42] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:36:43] Speaker B: So I would say, like, being yourself, basically. Yeah, being myself. But people call that retarded.
[00:36:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay.
[00:36:49] Speaker B: So I'm helping them understand what I'm talking about. Those people that call it that?
Yeah. The way I act like, oh, you're retarded. Okay, cool. That's what you call it. That's what it is.
[00:37:03] Speaker A: It seems like whenever I watch your video and stuff, it seems like you sense when people are being like that towards you, where they're, like, thinking that you're retarded or you're stupid and you react certain way. Would you say that you do that. Can you sense it easier through people.
[00:37:19] Speaker B: That are judging, man?
I can tell when I walk into Jersey Mike's and the way the dude's telling me hello and I can just see it in his eyes that he just judging me. You know what I'm saying?
I can tell you hate me through your handshake. You know what I'm saying?
You hate me.
I know you hate me.
I think it's a street smart thing, man, being out there in the street for five years. Until I was in the street for five years without a car. So that's like a lot of walking.
And I was always in the hood. When I say homeless, man. I wasn't like just homeless on fucking sitting on Everheart street holding sign. No, I'm in the hood when I was homeless. I'm at trap houses.
I'm out there peeping game on real street shit. You know what I'm saying? I was out there with everybody just doing my thing.
I sold CD, they sold Craig, they did their thing. I did my thing. I was the rapper, they were the trapper, you know what I'm saying?
And I just, you know, I learned a lot of, I learned a lot from, from them because, you know, I grew up with a lot of real people and a lot of bitch ass people.
And that's what really helped me realize when somebody's a bitch ass person, damn great.
I mean, a fake person, I can realize somebody's a fake person just by, you know, because I have had a lot of fake people that seemed real and then the fake came out. So now it's easy for me to see that even though you seem real. You remind me of a motherfucker who seemed real. And then the fake came out, you know what I'm saying? So that's what I learned from the streets. And that's why it's easy for me to, I guess to see that in someone that's not even being like that right away.
I might slip up a few times, like, damn, I didn't know you would ever hate me. That's crazy. You know what I'm saying? Maybe like something super successful I did or whatever, and then just come out of nowhere talking shit and being jealous about it. Damn. I ain't see that coming. I usually see it coming. I'm a human though, you know what I'm saying?
So that's what I mean by Kesla. But usually I could tell. I can always tell by I'm becoming Internet smart too, like using my street smarts to the Internet, I could tell when you say something slick in a comment, and I'll be like, okay, maybe it is a joke, and then I'll go to the reactions and see if you at least like the post. So if you didn't like the post, I'm like, okay, you really do hate me. It says a lot about your character. You say something slick because some people will say something slick behind a joke, but say it in a joking way to mask the hate so they don't look like a bitch ass person. You know what I'm saying? Of course, nobody's going to come out and just be a bitch ass person. They're going to put a mask on it to where it looks real, like, oh, man, are you tripping? And try to gaslight you. Like, no, man, you tripping. I ain't mean what you thought I meant, but actions speak louder than words, and vibes are everything.
But, yeah, that's some real shit. Like, just when you pose something, leave a comment, you feel like. It's kind of funny being funny.
Let me go see if he liked it. Oh, he didn't like it.
He don't like me. I'm blocking him.
[00:40:51] Speaker A: Do you feel like you own it? I got several stuff, man. Crazy. Do you feel like you overanalyze, or do people tell you that? Because I feel like I'm like that.
[00:41:02] Speaker B: In what situation?
[00:41:03] Speaker A: Yeah, some people will always tell me, man, you're just thinking about it too much. Just stop thinking about it. I tell him that all the time. Yeah, I'd be like, hey, what do you want to do? And he'd be like, oh, I don't know. And I'm like, dude, just pick something. Stop overthinking.
[00:41:15] Speaker B: I did that a lot in a studio growing up.
I recorded Metropolis recording studio since I was 15. Nice.
And I used to always redo a song every fucking day. It would take me, like, months to get the song right, and then until I stopped. That was like, one of my biggest over analyzations is doing that. And I'm finally at this point where I don't do that shit no more. Sometimes I'll just do what it is, and then if it's cool, it ain't broke, don't fix it. You know what I'm saying? I just let it be what it is.
I learned how to look at flaws, look at the beauty inside of flaws. You know what?
You know, like Pac said, the rose that grew from the concrete. You know what I'm saying?
[00:42:06] Speaker A: Nice. Yeah. Speaking of that, man, we were talking about that. What are your mean?
[00:42:14] Speaker B: Definitely Texas rap before it became mainstream.
When I was growing up, the mixtapes, Lil flip was big to us. And the color changing click.
I like the Texas d twelve.
You know what I mean? They were like, the Texas d twelve, man. The color changing click. Command, command. Paul, all the people that was on that.
Of course, Eminem kind of was an inspiration in a sense of like, okay, it's okay to rap.
He really opened that door to where it's okay to rap as long as you're good. You know what I'm saying?
At first, you had to be, like, super phenomenal, and he broke that door down with that phenomenal shit. And now you don't have to go through, really what he went through. It was still hard. I was getting booed off stage every Friday for a while in 2001 at the skating rink because I was white.
And I always knew it was because of that, because when I would get off stage, it seemed like the whole place was booing me. But when I'll get off, like, I'll go to the bathroom or something, people will go to me like, hey, man, they just hating on you because you white, man. You did your thing. And the DJ would be like, the DJ would talk shit to him. He'd be like, man, shout out to DJ fresh.
He was the owner of fresh cuts. Fresh cuts over there. He opened up a barbershop in a bluff called fresh cuts. I think it was called that. But yeah, his name is DJ Fresh, and he moved to Chicago now.
But yeah, he would stand up for me. He'd be like. He'd be like, man, y'all tripping, man. He'd be just as good as Lil flip. And y'all hate on him because I kind of rap. Like, I came down and I had some humorous.
I was always a humorous person, right? So even when I was like, I didn't came down main hole up, I still wanted to be funny. You know what I'm saying? Okay.
But, yeah, I would say, man, chameleonaire, zero magno, the underground Texas rap scene, man, before five, that was my biggest inspiration. Lil kiki pimpsy, big mo, just all of that. The screw tapes, the swisher house tape. I used to spend my lunch money on screw tapes. Bootleg screw tapes. Because there'll be kids bootlegging the screw tape. It'll be like $3 for one of the little Maxwell tapes with screw music on.
[00:44:56] Speaker A: So which side of town would sell the tapes?
[00:44:58] Speaker B: Everybody, man. I think everybody was doing that nice yeah.
[00:45:03] Speaker A: So you were saying that.
[00:45:07] Speaker B: Corpus used to be all around hip hop. It was all around hip hop back in the day.
It's really getting super gentrified now.
[00:45:19] Speaker A: Gentrified?
[00:45:19] Speaker B: What do you mean?
Did I say it right? Gentrified?
[00:45:23] Speaker A: I don't know what that means.
[00:45:24] Speaker B: Sounds like a good word.
The city is killing the culture.
For example, they're kicking everybody out of Northside.
[00:45:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that.
[00:45:39] Speaker B: Destroying the culture.
[00:45:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I was talking about that on the last podcast. How do you feel about basically Hillcrest, Northside?
[00:45:48] Speaker B: I think it's crazy that for anybody to believe that people needed to move out of that neighborhood for them to build the harbor bridge, because I don't see nothing from that harbor bridge going over that neighborhood where they had to move out of that neighborhood. You know what I'm saying? That was the original reason. I remember, I remember on the news they talked about like, oh, we have to build over the neighborhood, so we have to have everybody move.
They ain't do nothing. I don't see no freeway over there.
Yeah, that's gentrification right there where they're going to tell you these lies on why they do this, why they do that, and then you see it right there. That's gentrification.
[00:46:38] Speaker A: Yeah, man. And I was thinking like, well, that culture there, where's it going to be at now? Which side of town is it going.
[00:46:43] Speaker B: To be at, man? It's everywhere now.
[00:46:46] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:46:49] Speaker B: What's so fucked up about it is a lot of these people from that culture are going to start losing. They're going to start losing that shit because now they're in different cultures.
We're around places where you can't really embrace that culture because there's people in that neighbor that don't like that shit. You know what I'm saying?
It's going to be harder to have facilities and places and neighborhoods and events where everybody can agree on this right here, because the whole fucking city is mixed up now.
But hopefully, I don't know.
[00:47:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I hear you, man. It's almost like that culture. I was thinking that too. It's scattered. Like, you got the people that were in Northside, they're everywhere else. And interracial relationships start mixing, you know what I mean? And then it's like, dude, that was the culture that they had. They would have the park meeting on Easter time, you know what I mean? Where everybody would show up there. I found out about that to my driving school teacher, man.
[00:47:54] Speaker B: When I was a kid, I used to go out there and freestyle at the Hillcraft park on Easter Sundays. I remember I was 17 years old when Willie Nichols was huge on the radio around that time, and he had the song called the n word, and he was performing at Hillcrest park that day. I was 17. I forgot what year it might have been. Four, five.
And I went up to him and I said, hey, man, can I open up for you? And he's like, I don't think he really knew me yet. He might have. I don't know.
I know my generation knew me from the brat battles and shit, tequila boom and city skate. So west side notice, a lot of people knew me. A lot of people were talking about me because the rap battles was real big back in the day, and I was one of the top battlers in that scene.
But anyways, he was like, yeah, I think he told me to ask the sound man or some shit like that. So I went up to the sound man and I was like, hey, is it cool if I rap on a mic before Willie? Go want. He said, he ain't tripping.
So I spit an acapella and wrecked that hoe. And then I gave the mic to Willie, and then he wrecked those songs that he had on the radio. Shout out to gotti, gang. You know what I'm saying? And I remember the next day, I was at the stable station, the north stable station, after school, and I remember everybody from Miller getting off the bus, coming up to me, and one of them telling me, hey, man, everybody at school talking about you. And I was like, what are they saying?
They saying Willie Nicholson, some white boy erected yesterday. So I was really out there pushing myself, you know what I'm saying?
And, man, we ain't going to have some shit like that again, man, if this shit continues. But every city is really doing it. I'm saying every city is kind of trying to do that shit. That's what the government do. You know what I'm saying?
[00:50:00] Speaker A: Damn.
[00:50:02] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:50:02] Speaker A: So you get into a lot of that government stuff, would you say?
[00:50:06] Speaker B: Not too much less. Let's try to keep it cool so I don't get blacklisted.
[00:50:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I thought it was sad, too.
[00:50:15] Speaker B: I'm not famous enough to get canceled yet.
[00:50:18] Speaker A: Got you.
[00:50:19] Speaker B: Let me get there first.
[00:50:20] Speaker A: It's cool you think about that, though, man.
[00:50:21] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:50:22] Speaker A: So how do you find yourself marketing yourself? Well, I guess I don't know if that's the right term on social media, because you mentioned that earlier, how you were just, like, looking at people's comments and stuff.
[00:50:33] Speaker B: I'm not scared to become a meme. I think that's why I'm one of the most, if not the most successful, arguably in this city.
Because I'm not scared to be a meme, you know what I'm saying? Because I'm not.
Because I'm not scared to be me, you know what I'm saying? I'm not scared to be made fun of for being me, you know what I'm saying? As long as you're making fun of me for being me, cool, I ain't tripping, you know what I'm saying?
And I think that's what a lot of rappers, there's a lot of rappers, okay. I would say I think there is a lot of rappers that post a shit and put it on friends only because they scared, you know what I'm saying?
They won't post it in this group page where they'll get a whole bunch of views and go viral because they scared somebody going to leave a bad comment because that page, they leave bad comments on your shit. Fuck that. I don't care. You know what I'm saying?
That's why I'm one of the most successful. I ain't going to say I'm the most talented, I'm not saying that I'm the best. I'm not saying I'm the best, I'm not saying I'm most talented in corpus, but I am the most not give a fucking corpus, you know what I'm saying? And that's why I'm one of the most successful, because I'm not fucking scared to be ridiculed. Basically, let me put it like this. When nobody likes you, you learn to embrace your talents more than most. You learn to not care what nobody thinks about you because you're already not liked. And there's nothing you can do to be liked that's worth walking on eggshells for. Hence, you don't mind the risk of losing a rep that you never had during the process of achieving success. Once you accept it, not being accepted, your mind opens doors to your most original characteristics, and that leaves you with all the time in the world to focus on your talent and be the most consistent. Why do you think the cool people don't make it as much as the losers? Because when you're losing, all you got on your mind is winning.
[00:52:23] Speaker A: Nice, man. Wow, that's awesome, dude. I really like your outlook in this.
[00:52:29] Speaker B: And that's the problem. People are too worried about being cool, you know what I'm saying? And that's why they're not as far as I am, because being cool matters to them.
[00:52:39] Speaker A: That's definitely the right attitude to have, though.
If you're so worried about what people are going to say, you're never going to want to do anything. Yeah, I think that'll mess with society too. Like, if you're just worried about being cool, it'll mess with society overall. I mean, look how it is, how social media is right now. Oh, I have this, I have that, and behind the scenes.
[00:53:02] Speaker B: That's why it's so hard to make a music video too, nowadays, because people don't want to become a meme or be screenshotted and somebody put a mustache on their lip or something. I don't fucking know. It's fucking hard now. Back in the day, it used to be easy to fucking. Everybody wanted to be in a video during the camcorder days. Like, oh, there's a camcorder.
[00:53:22] Speaker A: I want to be.
[00:53:25] Speaker B: But now that shit gets posted everywhere. Nobody wants to be in front, oh, shit, everybody like this now. Could you ever look on TikTok and then you run into them videos like how life was in 1993 and they're at blockbuster and they're just like, filming people in their fucking face like strangers and they don't give a fuck. They're like, some of them are like, they don't do that shit no more. And I was like, the fuck out of my face.
You're not sending me.
That's why it's hard to make videos, man.
When I made that make it black video with bloody Lou, that shit was so hard because it's really hard to get people to participate in a video, man. They scared. Especially a Michael White video. Like, oh, man, I don't know, man. I'm going to get fucking talked about.
That's why I salute bloody Lou, man, because he don't give a fuck either. He one of them rappers that don't give a fuck. And that's why he became so.
He got a big buzz because he didn't give a fuck. I'm going to work with Michael White, one of the most. That's his mentality. Michael White, one of the most biggest artists in the city. I'm a fuck with him, you know what I'm saying?
And he a solid dude. When you're a solid dude, you can make music with somebody that has a different personality than you and not be judged for it, you know what I'm saying? Or even give a fuck about being judged for it because you know who you are. You know what I'm saying?
[00:54:49] Speaker A: Is it difficult to find people like that these days?
[00:54:52] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, man. That's why I appreciate them when I do. I really appreciate them. I only know a few that don't give a fuck that know who they are, you know what I'm saying? And don't need somebody else telling them who they. They're, you know what saying, man.
[00:55:09] Speaker A: That's awesome, bro. And have you known that? How long have you known him?
What's his.
[00:55:16] Speaker B: Man, I don't know. It's been some years.
Maybe about four years. Five. Four, five years kind of recently. But he knew my best friend for, like, pretty much as long as I know my best friend, you know what I'm saying? Because they went to the same school. My best friend, tz, you know what I'm saying? He from Northside, and I know he known him back in the day, too, tz and his mama, when I was not accepted at home and shit, tz mama, mama, Ira. She was pretty much.
Pretty much my mama when I was in the streets, you know what I'm saying?
[00:55:59] Speaker A: How to cook anything. Did she cook for.
[00:56:01] Speaker B: Man, I remember when she lived at Slade west, and I remember being out there in the streets all day, hustling and shit. And then coming back, man. She had some good food on the fucking.
I missed that shit, that soul food. And she knew how to make some enchiladas, too.
Black people know how to cook mexican food in Corpus.
[00:56:23] Speaker A: That makes me think about my brother's friend Lamar, man. I remember he stayed the night one time and he was like, hey, let me show you how to cook some bacon, bro. How do you make it the right way or whatever? And anyways, this cool relationship I had with him, I actually got introduced to screw through him.
My mind goes blank. I think that's the room that I really remember, or I think it's 25 ladders on my dress.
[00:56:44] Speaker B: I thought you met screw.
[00:56:45] Speaker A: No.
[00:56:48] Speaker B: To the music, all right?
[00:56:51] Speaker A: And I'm a metal guy, too, so my brother wouldn't do that type of stuff.
[00:56:55] Speaker B: I started becoming like every genre guy. When rap started sucking, when that mumble rap era started coming in and I just couldn't stand the radio no more, I would change it to the OD station or rock and roll. I'm like, oh, they got some good songs on these stations. And that's when I started realizing, like, oh, I like other music.
And mumble rap helped me do that.
[00:57:14] Speaker A: It helped me. Wow, bro.
[00:57:16] Speaker B: Helped me fall in love with other. So thank you, mumble. Rap helped me realize that. And if you hip hop, you got to fucking listen to other genres, because that's what hip hop is. Hip hop is about reinventing. You know what I'm saying? Reinventing shit. And that's what hip hop did. They grabbed disco and turned it into hip hop.
That's why I feel like you want to be the most original rapper ever, man. Don't listen to rap, listen to odies, listen to fucking rock, and then come up with your own hip hop ways of doing what you hearing from that. You know what I'm saying? Because that's just not in hip hop. You know what I'm saying? You turn that into hip hop. Hip hop is already a hip hop. You know what I'm saying? So you keep evolving it. Yeah.
Changing it, man.
[00:58:01] Speaker A: That's awesome, dude.
Yeah, that's awesome. We got like 56 minutes, man. Damn, it went by fast, bro.
[00:58:06] Speaker B: Yeah, shoot.
[00:58:08] Speaker A: That's awesome, man. Well, you got anything else to share, Michael White?
[00:58:16] Speaker B: I probably do. Yeah, man. I have two episodes on Kill Tony show that's really been pushing me a lot.
I'm actually getting white people famous off of that show.
[00:58:28] Speaker A: Your song, too.
[00:58:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I wrote that song in 2013, and then I redid it this year because I performed it on Kill Tony. And everybody leaving comments like, I want to hear what's the video? And I was like, man, I didn't like the old video, the old song. So I redid the song. Redid the video, and then I put it out like it's new. You know what I'm saying? That's another thing rappers need to stop being scared of, man. They scared to put out old song because their friends already heard and they might make fun of them. Like, oh, you already put that shit out, man. There's millions of billions of other people that need to hear your shit.
[00:58:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:58:59] Speaker B: You know what I'm saying? Fuck them all fuckers. Stop worrying about them, man. It's your shit. You could do what you want with yo painting. You painted that motherfucker. Who cares how many copies you make of that motherfucker? That still put it out.
[00:59:10] Speaker A: That's what's up, man.
Do you distribute your own music? Do you use distro kids?
[00:59:17] Speaker B: I heard that, man. I used to go to fucking. I used to go all over different places to do shit.
I remember in 2009, I used to go to Gilly's record, still ask him to burn my cds because he would do the CD covers for me. And the fucking Freddie records took a picture for me. Steve, I think that's his name. When he used to be one of the main runners over there. He took a picture for me for my cover for one of my mixtapes in 2009. And yeah, I used to run everywhere. Then when I heard about fucking found some phone numbers where you can call California and they'll fucking push your shit up. And I started having them mail me shit. I was doing all that shit. And then I started doing the spaghetti hustle because the CD thing was kind of dying out. But the CD hustle, but my music helped me become a brand. I wasn't just selling music. I was selling my name. I was selling me.
Now I'm able to sell whatever, you know what I'm saying? So by 2020, my ex from Italy taught me how to make spaghetti I thought tastes all good. I was like, man, this is money right here. And I remember she was like, she like, no, michael, you know, to sell the spaghetti, to get a real job, you need a real job. I was like, no, I'm really famous in my city because she just came from Italy, so she didn't know how big I was. I like, bro, I could sell this shit. And look, let me spend $50.01 time on this shit and if I don't fucking make no money, I won't do it again. She's like, okay, makerly, I bought it and double the money I spent.
And then she let me fucking do that as my job.
It was never something she wanted to do. She didn't want to fucking be a part. She wanted to work, continue working at her own job, whatever. So people say like, oh, you stole her recipe. I'm like, man, she didn't even want to do this shit, you know what I'm saying? Something she taught me how to fucking do. And I saw money in that shit, right? You know what I'm saying? So that became my new hustle after CD, you know what I'm saying? And I do that now. I used to do like every day. Like I was just hustling, hustling, hustling. But then I realized that I wasn't making time to write music, to create content, to edit music video. It takes me hours to edit videos, to go live and entertain my fans, to promote myself. So now I only do the spaghetti hustle shit when I really need to. Like I need to pay a bill or something, you know what I'm saying? If I don't need to pay a bill, then I'm going to work on my content, you know what I'm saying? And have my fans send me money, you know what I'm saying? Fans that appreciate my content, it's just like only fans, people hate on me. Like, nice people hate on me because I ask my followers for money. But I don't hate when my followers ask me for content.
It's the same thing as only fans. The difference is, you're not just getting my feet, I'm giving you my soul.
You know what I'm saying?
[01:02:18] Speaker A: That's a good way to look at it.
[01:02:22] Speaker B: Time is money, and I spend a lot of time entertaining my fans, so I don't feel ashamed leaving a poll. And it's not like I ask anybody individually, you know what I'm saying? I leave a whole polls, whatever. And then I say, hey, man, help me out. I need some money for this, whatever.
And then whoever, send me money. Cool. That's the person that appreciates what I'm doing, has faith in me. You know what I'm saying?
[01:02:44] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. That's awesome, man. I had some other stuff on my mind. I'm looking at that. We've been here for an hour, man. That's awesome, dude.
[01:02:52] Speaker B: Because I feel like I'm a ghetto preacher, you know what I'm saying? Like a very explicit ghetto preacher trying to change the world the way I see fit.
Jesus was this kind of prophet, Moses was this kind of prophet, and Michael White is this kind of prophet, you know what I'm saying? This is what I believe will help change the world. So this is what I'm doing. So it's no different than when a preacher pass a basket around the fucking church and you pay your little ties or whatever. So my fans that come to my church, they don't mind paying ties, you know what I'm saying? And just coming to my church in general is enough ties for me, because having faith is all I need. And that's why it's not mandatory for them to do so.
[01:03:39] Speaker A: These churches aren't even really called out like that because it's true.
[01:03:43] Speaker B: Dude, I really got a piss. So is this about to get wrapped up?
[01:03:47] Speaker A: So is there anything else want to share?
[01:03:49] Speaker B: Think that's about it. We find you. How do we find you? Michael White, three six one on Instagram. Michael White three 6100 on TikTok. And find a way to find me on Facebook. I don't know.
[01:04:00] Speaker A: All right, appreciate you guys. Appreciate you guys for tuning in.
[01:04:03] Speaker B: Michael White, you guys have a good one. Thanks a lot. Monster grind.
[01:04:06] Speaker A: Tune for the next podcast.
[01:04:08] Speaker B: I appreciate you, bro.
[01:04:08] Speaker A: Have a good one, y'all. Okay.
