A Waste Of Time with ItsTheReal

Latest Episodes:

#172: PRhyme (Royce da 5'9 and DJ Premier) Feb 19, 2018

Show notes

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome legendary lyricist Royce da 5'9 and legendary producer DJ Premier, together known as PRhyme, to the Upper West Side! We talk with the guys about their new album PRhyme 2, the most meaningful co-signs they've ever received, what Dr. Dre's studio speakers can do to an artist's music and their chest, how to react to internet trolls, all the numbers they have in their cell phones but never text, and their first ever TV appearances. Royce discusses working three jobs a day after graduating high school in addition to starting his rap career, all with the threat of his father sending him to the army hanging over his head. Royce recalls almost rapping for Redman in Detroit, the open mics around town, his one-way plane ticket to NYC, working with Pharrell and Chad and Kelis before The Neptunes blew up, and how he ruined his first record contract with Tommy Boy. Preemo reveals how he and Guru lived out of Branford Marsalis' brownstone in Brooklyn, meeting Dave Chapelle through Talib Kweli and Mos Def, knowing Ol Dirty Bastard when he had a staircase flattop in 1988, programming drums on Gangstarr records together with Guru, each of them punching buttons, and the absurdity of artists being paid to make an appearance in a music video. All that plus stories from the guys about Slaughterhouse, Jay-Z, Eminem, Danny Brown, Onyx, RZA, Killer Mike, and so much more!

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#171: 2 Jews and 2 Black Dudes Review Black Panther (feat. Styles and Sheek of The LOX) Feb 14, 2018

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For Episode 2 of 2 Jews and 2 Black Dudes Review the Movies, Eric, Jeff, Styles and Sheek hit the theater to check out the highly anticipated Marvel film, Black Panther. There's never been a movie review show as fun as this. Listen and let us know what you think! AND JUST KNOW: SPOILERS ARE UNAVOIDABLE IF YOU PRESS PLAY.

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#170: Digital Music Marketing Executive Jamal Jimoh Feb 13, 2018

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This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome digital music marketing executive Jamal Jimoh to the Upper West Side! Jamal discusses being raised by a single mother in Rockaway, getting into a gifted and talented program, getting asked to leave the gifted and talented program, playing advanced music at an early age, going to high school with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Immortal Technique, being asked to leave Hunter High School, getting his GED and going to college at 16 years old. Jamal talks about working as a librarian, interning for TheSource.com and Revlon over the same summer, doing facilities work at the Universal Music Group headquarters, roaming the halls of Def Jam, and ultimately being asked to leave for being too social and doing his job too quickly. We talk in detail about the harrowing circumstances that put Jamal under sedation in a hospital bed for a week, waking up with a tube down his throat, how thankful he is for his mother, who saved his life, and how this all changed his perspective on life. Jamal gets into his digital career at Island Def Jam, working with Fall Out Boy, Rihanna, Justin Bieber and The Killers, how he was named to Billboard's esteemed 30 Under 30 list, why he chose to join Nick Cannon's NCredible Entertainment, what being let go from that job after five years meant, and the long, difficult road to bouncing back and figuring out who exactly Jamal Jimoh was outside of a job title. All that, plus his days as a rapper, what his denim collection was like in high school and college, and again, what a great person his mother is!

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#169: J. Cole's Manager and Dreamville President Ib Hamad Feb 06, 2018

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This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we traveled to Los Angeles for an epic sit down with J. Cole's manager and Dreamville president Ib Hamad! Ib talks about moving to Queens from Paris, the second youngest of five children, with English his third language, finding his voice on the New York City basketball courts. We discuss coaching youth basketball, studying SportsCenter highlights each morning, fleeting thoughts of playing Division 1 college basketball, but ultimately ending up at St. Johns where he'd chase girls and befriend future multi-platinum rapper Jermaine Cole, who at that point barely admitted that he had rhymes. Ib goes through the early days, supporting his friend's musical ambitions at open mics, getting jobs together at call centers, knowing that they had album-ready songs, and eventually capturing the interest of the music industry: meetings with 50 Cent, Shady Records' Paul Rosenberg, and of course, Mark Pitts and Jay-Z. Ib takes us through how the "Dollar and a Dream" campaign started, how Dreamville started, the power of Cole's mixtapes, the many starts and stops Cole's early major label career went through, acting as a push-button DJ for Cole, the differences between the first and second albums, what the HBO series meant, and how exactly 2014 Forest Hills Drive came to be. All that plus stories about JID and Earth Gang, Bas and Cozz, why Interscope was the perfect label partner, who's nicer on the court between Cole and Ib, and much, much more!

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#168: GuapDad4000 Jan 29, 2018

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This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome the Ferragamo Falcon, West Oakland’s own rap phenomenon, Scam Boy himself, the one and only GuapDad4000. We discuss growing up quickly as a child of two scammer parents, taking care of his younger siblings while his mom and dad were locked up, moving a half-dozen of his friends into his house so they could all pay off the mortgage, and eventually finding his way into his own scamming business. We talk about his personal style that got him notoriety, his early presence on Tumblr, throwing the wildest parties in California, based off the movie Project X, wrap-up videos going viral on Worldstar, getting calls from BET’s CEO Debra Lee looking to get her son onto the list, and eventually falling into a depression when the party business died off and he had no identity. GuapDad goes in depth on why he found his way back to scamming, what his goals were with music, and what happened when he crossed a border into Arizona with stolen merchandise in his trunk. GuapDad speaks on moving to LA, sleeping at the studio, immersing himself in the recording process next to Young Pinch and Cee-Lo, finding himself via Instagram on his birthday, and taking the internet by storm with his honest, authentic, dynamic, and hilarious hurricane force personality. Now in the midst of a major label bidding war, we talk about all that plus riding horses, hosting parties, the fine arts, his toxic relationships, and we have one of the most amazing endings to our podcast ever.

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#167: Wiz Khalifa Jan 22, 2018

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This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we traveled out to Los Angeles to sit down with Pittsburgh's own Wiz Khalifa in the studio as he records his next album! We discussed the infamous Chief Keef video shoot in the desert with 50 Cent, hitting Curren$y on MySpace and moving to New Orleans to live on Spitta's couch for a month, how Snoop talked Wiz into acting, what it was like to perform for three audience members at a CMJ performance in NYC, his inspiration for the O.N.I.F.C. artwork and the internet's initial reaction, and what he thinks of all the artists who have taken inspiration over the years. We talk growing up in the Steel City, being comfortable wearing Chucks when everyone else was rocking Jordans, spending much of his high school years focusing on recording music and performing at local colleges, and the best thing he got from signing to Warner Bros. Records. All that, plus why he's gotten heavily into kickboxing, his favorite remixes, his most hilarious dated lyric, how fatherhood changed his perspective on life, what happened when Berner asked to borrow Wiz's car, which major records he's broken as a Vegas DJ, his honest reaction to the news that there's a SuperFly remake, and much, much more!

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#166: Durant Company Partner Rich Kleiman Jan 15, 2018

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This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome Kevin Durant's business partner and former VP of Roc Nation Sports Rich Kleiman up a few blocks on his native Upper West Side! We discuss playing high school basketball around New York City, getting a scholarship to Boston University and immediately finding a different kind of “sports interest” (?) which took him away from his studies, unceremoniously dropping out of school, moving back to NYC, briefly considering getting into the restaurant business, becoming COO of a dot-com bubble website, music supervising the ESPN docuseries The Life, producing the Jay-Z documentary Fade to Black, and ultimately being recruited to work for Jay at the inception of Roc Nation. Rich's story is one of overcoming long odds, believing in himself, outworking everyone else, finding his lane and dominating it, taking chances, getting co-signs from Heavy D, Puff Daddy, Jay-Z, and John Meneilly, working with Mark Ronson, Q-Tip, J. Cole, Solange, Wale, Victor Cruz, Kevin Durant and on and on. All that plus asking Jay-Z for a raise, getting fired by Mark Ronson, walking around Soho with Amy Winehouse, explaining what he saw in Meek Mill and his team, what Kevin Durant's free agency was really like, and so much more. This episode is an amazing listen, full of inspiration; take heed of how Rich, a man with no undergraduate degree, turned his unbelievable experiences around music and TV production and entrepreneurship into a master's degree in real life. Listen now on iTunes and SoundCloud and Stitcher and everywhere else!

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Want ItsTheReal To Come To Your Town? Jan 10, 2018

Show notes

We spoke with people who've been to our shows in New York, London and Los Angeles, to get their honest opinions on what an ItsTheReal show is like. Want us to come to your town to perform? Let us know!

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#165: Digital Marketing Executive Alex Ciccimarro Jan 08, 2018

Show notes

This Week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome our great friend and digital marketing guru, Alex Ciccimarro AKA The Bald God, to the Upper West Side! Alex discusses growing up in Brooklyn, his parents' van being stolen on a weekly basis, calling Bad Boy Records as a 10 year old, getting into music management as a teenager, dedicating himself to the idea of working in the record business and simultaneously giving up on high school, going to Full Sail University, passing out fliers at 3am outside clubs in Orlando, Florida, working at a store in Walt Disney World called Once Upon a Toy, and eventually building up a resume through digital marketing relationships with the hip-hop blogging universe. Alex talks about linking up with Al Lindstrom, working his way into Sirius Satellite Radio with Tony Touch and Statik Selektah, hanging out in the studio with Just Blaze, road managing Two-9 around the South, going to Fadia Kader's Broke and Boujee parties in Atlanta, mastering online monetization, and spending his last money to catch a flight back to Brooklyn to do digital marketing for Rich Homie Quan. Alex gets into independence, mentors, working for HotNewHipHop, and his big break with Atlantic Records, where he worked with Gucci, Cardi, Kodak Black, PNB Rock, Meek Mill, Jill Scott and many more before moving to Universal Republic. All that, plus the funniest stories about Ron Browz, Jack's 99 Cent Store, shooting a video with the Dolla Boyz in Philly, and much, much more, including news about his brand new work opportunity, which was announced today! AND TO ALL OF OUR NEW YORKERS, DON'T FORGET: WE'RE PEFORMING LIVE ON WEDNESDAY AT SOB'S, SO GRAB YOUR TICKETS NOW AT ITSTHEREAL.COM

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#164: True Hollywood Stories Jan 05, 2018

Show notes

Today on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, in advance of Eric and Jeff's upcoming headlining show at NYC's legendary venue SOB's on Wednesday, January 10th, the guys share some of their true, ridiculous stories from their decade-long career in and around the music business. Get your tickets now for next week's show at ItsTheReal.com!

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