In terms of dealing with addiction, are you on the other side of that now? How did you get through that?

Yeah, bro, I really was on that shit. Like Xans — five, six a day. Drinking. I was coming to the engineer's studio just fucking wasted. Ecstasy, mollies, whatever — I was on that shit. It got to a point where my body couldn't handle it, and then I still didn't give a fuck. I still was there mentally. Then it got to a point where I couldn't take it, physically and mentally. I blacked out one time — I don't even remember the exact moment or time, but I woke up and I was in a hospital. And, not like a regular hospital — not like a psych ward, but, just like when you're kinda outta here. When you lose it, bro. You're staying for a week or two, or however long your crazy ass needs. [Laughs]

The drugs took a hold of me, bro, mentally. I thought motherfuckers were trying to kill me. I was paranoid like shit. So I sat in there for a week and had to completely sober up — get a grasp on life and understand what's going on. I got outta there, hooked up, and now I'm back on track, man. That's what it took for me really to quit. Been sober about a year, dude.

Man, congratulations. That's really big.

I got out of there, and don't get me wrong, I hopped back on the shit, but not like that. It wasn't recreational. That shit was a ritual — I would wake up and pour up, take some Xans, and I would go in, and that was it every day. I didn't sleep for like three, four days. I would close my eyes and still be awake. It was a real tough time. It had my mom crying and shit, bro. It really ... That was fuckin'....what the fuck am I doing? She had to come in that hospital. We got visits like twice a week, so she would come in there, man, and...It was really deep.

You know what's real, though? They evaluate you in there, so once I was done and getting discharged, the doctor was like, "The first day when you came in here, you just kept sitting down." And I was acting like I was making a beat, but nothing was there. That's how I knew I had got looped out, ya dig? I was doing that every single day, so that's all my brain knew.

How do you even begin to go back to sitting in front of the computer and making a beat after that?



I would come back in there and cook up like, "Man, I can't. This shit don't sound right" — or I just wouldn't say shit, but I knew it wasn't sounding right. It was like jogging. I broke my ankle recently and now I'm good, but I had to do ABC exercises, walk on it, and take a rest. I didn't suck, it was just that my mind wouldn't go and look for those sounds like it would have, so I had to train it and find inspiration again.

Where did that inspiration end up coming from?

My girls are seven and eight, and I got two sons that's three months and a year. My girls love music. Shit comes on the radio, They love Cardi B. They love Nicki. They don't really know the difference right now, but they figure it out sometimes. They understand what I do. They see the plaques and shit, but they don't hear it, so I'm not really cool like that to them.

That's my inspiration, and seeing these young cats out here do it too. The way they cook up and the ambition they have, they're so fuckin' hungry. They just wanna get it, bro, and they got these new ways of seeing shit that I can't understand sometimes. I feel like I'm getting old, but I chill around them and try to understand that wave.

What producers are you listening to right now?

I love Pi’erre [Bourne]. Tay Keith, I like him too. The shit he did on Drake's album — just the bass line and the drums, that shit is so dope to me. Metro is always the shit, bro. That's the young homie. He's always lit. I like what Mike Will is doing. DJ Mustard, too. Building those artists, branding them, making them household names, changing music — I like that shit, on some Dr. Dre shit. CashMoneyAP too.

A few months ago, Waka teased the cover for Flockaveli 2. What was the process like of getting back into that pocket with him?

I was going through my shit and we would always FaceTime each other. He'd be like, "What, bro? You trippin'.” Like, really sonning me, in a sense. I had to look back and look in the mirror like, "You know what? You right. You fuckin' right." That helped me grow. I was sending him beats on and off, but the relationship wasn't here. I don't even think he was giving them a chance. But we had some more conversations and I told him I went through what I went through with the drugs. We talked about real shit. Eventually, we linked up and had a show together in Atlanta. That was our first time seeing each other in maybe three or four years.

That was it right there — that shaking of the hands, me looking him in the eye, he looking me dead in my eye, and we choppin' it up like that. Not even about music. It was all on me, so it was as easy as I wanted it to be. I had to put the ego aside, just man up, and realize shit. He respected that over anything, so it was easy. I just had to get my shit right.

Was it more difficult to rebuild your relationships with other artists that had soured?

I ruined a lot of relationships, and I kept a lot of them too. Me and Waka are like brothers, but with other artists it’s not that easy. Shout out to 2 Chainz. he kinda had to talk to me too — like, "Man, you was tweakin', lil bro. I couldn't really fuck with you at the time." That's what he told me, and I had to respect it. I was like, "You right, but I'm in a different position.” Sent him the records and it was all love. I be sending him shit on and off, but it is kinda difficult sometimes, 'cause like I said, I gotta put the ego aside and be the real human being. It's not just fuckin' artists, rap niggas trying to make paper. These are real dudes.

It takes a bigger person to admit when you're wrong.

Right, that's all, bro. It's easy and it's not easy sometimes.

