The Optics of a Black Man's Shoes

Dj Drama sat down with Adam to talk about his impact on the music industry, Lil Uzi Vert, Jack Harlow, the DatPiff era, and more.

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00:00 Intro

0:05 Adam and Drama met in Atlanta with Shoreline Mafia years ago, Drama says he wishes he would have talked with Adam a bit more back then

3:00 Drama speaks on the conception of Gangsta Grillz and says he would've never seen this trajectory coming

7:00 Drama on how the game is constantly changing and speaks on how hip hop is a young man's sport

10:30 Drama on having a high percentage of finding young undiscovered artists and speaks on how Jack Harlow becoming a generational talent

13:00 Drama speaks on Uzi being the first person he signed to Atlantic

15:00 Drama on seeing the vision in artists that he signs and how they want to be great is a key attribute to look for and says that success doesn't always bring out positive things in a person

24:30 Drama speaks on how he doesn't mind playing behind the scenes and how attention has become less appealing as he got older

27:00 Drama on how people became aware of him via Jack Harlow or Lil Uzi Vert and the negative connotation behind "riding waves"

29:40 Drama on watching The Roots come up, playing video games with Questlove when he was younger and says that these experiences is an ode to how long he's been in the game

33:20 Drama speaks on his relationship with Stevie Williams

41:40 Drama on if he's always understood the importance of building relationships with people and networking

43:00 Drama speaks on if artists have ever been upset about not having the top spot on his tapes

44:00 Drama speaks on the backlash he received from Lil Uzi Vert saying the reason for the holdup in music because of him + How artists feel like they need you less the more successful they get

48:00 Drama on artists not realizing the value of equity and says it's very rare for an artist to stay with their original team

50:30 Drama speaks on the success of Jack Harlow, his love for Jack's authenticity as a White rapper and says that Jack is very tunnel visioned on what he wants to accomplish

53:40 Drama on Gangsta Grillz being a one dimensional brand when it started and how it evolved into what it is now

55:50 Drama reacts to people on Twitter complaining that he says the N-Word and asks if people really think that he would be able to get away with saying it for this long without being Black

59:40 Drama says that there's not enough gatekeepers in hip hop and how playlists have become what mixtapes were

1:02:20 Drama on not being on Tik Tok although he probably should be and the stock that labels put into Tik Tok

1:05:10 Adam asks Drama if he's ever thought about selling his catalog, says everybody could use more money and our kids would know what to do with money better than a catalog

1:08:30 Drama on the importance of investing outside of rap, not getting a return on his Liquid Death investment yet and speaks on the money he made in the height of the "DatPiff Era"

1:10:00 Drama on DatPiff being a vital space for art that doesn't exist on any other platform and wanting to bring the whole Gangsta Grillz catalog to the DSP's

1:13:30 Drama on his passion for what he does and how his income has never affected his motivation for the art

1:15:00 Drama addresses rumors of Lil Uzi Vert being a satanist, says that Uzi and Carti were trying to "out-devil" each other at Rolling Loud and says he's never gotten an invitation to any of the Illuminati meetings

1:21:00 Drama speaks on Jack Harlow being carried by Black security guards at the Kentucky Derby and commends Jack for how he handled the situation

1:23:30 Adam asks Drama what's so special about the Jack Harlow's KFC meal and Drama gives his thoughts on all of the fast food collaborations with artists

1:25:00 Drama on his next studio album being his first in 6 years, reveals features, upcoming music and how he's talked about his FED case for so long

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