Bobby Shmurda: Life Before & After Prison, Adversity & Addiction, “Music Today is Fake”

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast FOLLOW HAPPY DAD: https://www.instagram.com/happydad FIND HAPPY DAD: https://www.happydad.com/find Accept, Adjust and Move Forward is the basis of any life pivot and this episode shares a story of making a big pivot from being at the top having it all, losing it and coming out on the other side of it better. Not only is this one of the most entertaining and wild conversations, we've had, but it's truly one of the most impactful discussions about overcoming adversity and the lessons learned along the way. Artist and entrepreneur, Bobby Shmurda, born name Ackquille Jean Pollard, sits down with Ryan, Channing and Fred for a conversation covering everything from his music success to how his upbringing shaped his mindset to how he remained positive through tough moments and how he approaches everyday day and building for the future. In 2014, the young man from Brooklyn gained international fame as he found himself at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 charts with his hit single "Hot Nigga" followed by a record deal and his EP album Shmurda She Wrote. A few months later he was arrested in NYC and charged, along with several other members of GS9, with conspiracy to murder, weapons possession and reckless endangerment and ended up doing seven years in prison from 2014-2021. Regaining his life and freedom, Bobby shares what kept him hopeful while being locked away and his approach to life that completely changed the man he was to the man he is today. From his babysitters being drug dealers and him growing up in the streets, Bobby took his early childhood experiences to help mold a different outlook for while creating a new path for himself. Telling Ryan, Fred and Channing that change starts with our youth and how his real flex is making money but doing it legally and being able to brag about his investments and success the legal way vs what he used to do now gives him true validation. Ofcourse the guys address the rumor mill of his personal life and Bobby doesn’t deny having a sex addiction and opens up on the incident that caused him to seek therapy and change his ways. A conversation that could continue for hours with the laughs and gems dropped, Bobby shares how music and hip hop has lost its authenticity and that he only respects a few artists now which is why he is hesitant to get back into the business but leaves the door open for new music on the horizon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Flowing ad budget on metrics that look great till the CFO sees them? That's bull spend. And marketers are calling it out in Dashboard Confessions.

• 0:09Speaker 01

  I remember telling my boss, "It'll be good for the brand," when leads were slow. Yeah, it wasn't.

• 0:17Speaker 00

  Cut the bull spend. LinkedIn lets you target by company, job title, and more. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

• 0:30Ryan Clark?

  What's happening, dawg?

• 0:32Speaker 03

  What's up, gang? Yeah, gang, good.

• 0:36Ryan Clark?

  What's in your cup, man?

• 0:38Speaker 03

  Water.

• 0:38Ryan Clark?

  Okay, I knew if you was...

• 0:40Speaker 03

  I'm old school, pal. I drink water, homie. I gotta stay hydrated. Lot of smoke outside, lot of shit going on.

• 0:47Ryan Clark?

  I just didn't see the cat come in with the Dixie cup of water.

• 0:50Speaker 04

  You want these mice like...

• 0:51Speaker 03

  Let me see how it look on me. See how it look on me?

• 0:53Speaker 04

  Oh, man.

• 0:58Speaker 04

  You would think I've met you like before.

• 1:02Ryan Clark?

  What kind of glasses are those?

• 1:07Speaker 03

  Aviators.

• 1:08Ryan Clark?

  Aviators. Top Gun.

• 1:14Speaker 03

  I want them to see my eyes.

• 1:16Ryan Clark?

  Top Gun.

• 1:18Speaker 03

  Can't see shit outside. This is a city battle right now.

• 1:21Ryan Clark?

  Nah, that's, man, that was you down there.

• 1:24Speaker 03

  It was a good day to wear pink. Somebody need life. Need life right now.

• 1:28Ryan Clark?

  Dade County.

• 1:28Speaker 03

  What's up, dawg? It look like, oh, you from Dade County?

• 1:31Ryan Clark?

  Nah, you was born in Miami, right?

• 1:33Speaker 03

  Hell, no, Brooklyn.

• 1:34Ryan Clark?

  You weren't born in Miami?

• 1:35Speaker 03

  Nah, don't believe nothing on Google about me, man.

• 1:38Ryan Clark?

  Switch it up, then.

• 1:39Speaker 03

  Nah, it's a bunch of people who don't like me who wrote that shit.

• 1:41Ryan Clark?

  Oh, I gotta reset it. They got people confused and mixed up, man.

• 1:46Speaker 03

  I'm from Dickly, New York, Kings County.

• 1:48Ryan Clark?

  Oh, E, we starting the show? I know, I know. I'm sorry, guys.

• 1:52Speaker 03

  Is the show starting? We're showing my...

• 1:55Ryan Clark?

  Yeah. They got cameras on you all over, bro. This'll annoy you too right now. Just gotta go about this.

• 1:59Speaker 03

  Got all of them.

• 2:00Ryan Clark?

  Oh, it's chain to B?

• 2:03Ryan Clark?

  None of us, none of us got changed like that, so I get it. Yeah, I can't. You don't really know how to, how to mic him up. It makes sense. You wanna trade? This is real little, come on, this is little.

• 2:13Speaker 03

  We can trade down here.

• 2:14Ryan Clark?

  Come on, come on. Where you get your chain, your chain from, Chan?

• 2:18Speaker 03

  He got the biggest chains.

• 2:19Fred Taylor?

  This little baby of these.

• 2:21Speaker 03

  He got the biggest chains over here. My chains ain't fucking with him, look at this.

• 2:24Fred Taylor?

  Nah, these babies.

• 2:25Speaker 03

  We got two ropes. That Alamo have two ropes.

• 2:27Fred Taylor?

  But you left the Smurda chain home, come on now, dawg. You got the moonlight.

• 2:33Ryan Clark?

  What, what it do?

• 2:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm a Leo, y'all right after me.

• 2:39Ryan Clark?

  I, I, I have no idea what astrology is.

• 2:42Speaker 03

  The man that runs a lot of my shit is a Virgo, they're very organized. Virgos are the best, they're very organized. Bro, you mess with astrology? Of course, it's spiritual, man, I love astrology. That's not spiritual, that's not God. It's not? Astrology? What is that? I don't know, it's some shit people made up in my mind. It's, uh, no, I don't think so. I think it's personalities, it's like personalities. But it only works if you true to yourself. No. So, you know, eighty-five percent of the world ain't be true to themselves, so it only works if they're true to yourself. You're true to yourself, then it works. But if you're not, then you probably a [bleep] lion trying to be a cap reporter or some shit. So, you're trying to be a who knows what, what the fuck going on with you? But, once it works, well, you being yourself, I believe. I believe once you be yourself, it works.

• 3:50Ryan Clark?

  My man, welcome to the pivot, bro. This is Chan, I'm RC, this is Freddie T. To our partners over at Happy Dad, appreciate you guys, our sponsor.

• 3:58Speaker 03

  Happy Dad shout out to all the fathers, you know?

• 4:02Speaker 03

  All the baby fathers.

• 4:06Ryan Clark?

  Bruh, so hey, when you mentioned being true to yourself, what's true to Bobby Smurda? Like, when you feel your most authentic self and you're being exactly who you're supposed to be?

• 4:18Speaker 03

  I think can't be altered. I can't be altered at no price. So, when you be authentic, your mind is always straight, or you see everything clear. And once you see everything clear, it's different, you know, it's like, um... We all can see clear, but if you can be bought or altered, it's like, I could, it's like a dog. If I throw a dog a bone, it's gonna turn its head. Right? And if I could, um, you could be just yourself at all times and not turn your head, then that's like being yourself. Like, if I give you a question, you give me an answer that everybody gonna say is like, "Motherfucker." I don't wanna hear from you. I don't want you to go talk to your mom or you, like, be in a relationship, right? Be in a relationship. Your girlfriend, you ask your girlfriend, say, "She gotta go ask her friends."

• 5:00Speaker 03

  Then she gotta ask her mom, or, "Nigga, that's not true. I'm dating your mom and your friends now."

• 5:05Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 5:06Speaker 03

  You feel what I'm saying?

• 5:06Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 5:08Speaker 03

  So, it's just like that. Just be authentic, like, be yourself.

• 5:10Fred Taylor?

  You stood tall for your man, Rowdy, right? Is that being yourself and being straightforward?

• 5:16Speaker 03

  It could've been Rowdy, it could've been anybody, anybody on my team at that moment. So, anybody on my team, or anybody that I go with, or anybody I'm with, I go a hundred with. So, we need to, we come together, we gonna leave together.

• 5:28Fred Taylor?

  Right. And does that also involve being comfortable in your skin? Like, today, New York, Smokey is a motherfucker.

• 5:35Speaker 03

  He look nasty, he look like Avengers outside. Right. I'm thinking, what's his name, Velvys, what's the monster name, we get him? From Avenger?

• 5:42Ryan Clark?

  He talking about, um...

• 5:43Speaker 03

  Delmis, what's his nickname?

• 5:44Ryan Clark?

  No, Thanos.

• 5:45Speaker 03

  Thanos, I think he bout to come out the sky on some shit. I wonder what the fuck going on?

• 5:48Ryan Clark?

  He say Delmis, I know, who the hell is Delmis?

• 5:54Speaker 03

  He motherfucker bout to come out the sky.

• 5:56Fred Taylor?

  And even with that, being comfortable, right, and confident, today you can wear pink. But about a week ago, in Miami, you flexing on the beach where it was sunny. Being yourself, and even in your, your videos, and, you know, I've read some stuff where people say, "Smurda, wildin'." "He loose, he doing his thing." Like, is that just all part of the upbringing?

• 6:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm Jamaican, so we, we came up wild in Brooklyn. We came up wild. But I was also just always smart, so that's what happened. I'm like a, a sweet and sour patch. I go in and out of moods whenever I feel, so I'm like, like, it depends on, how would I say it? It depends on the environment, sometimes, like, I'll be focused on this, so if I'm in this environment, my mind is focused on this. If I'm in this environment, I'm like this and this, so I kinda, like, growing up, we was wild. We was like, it was like the jungle, it was Brooklyn, you know what I'm saying? And, you know, on top of cars, on top of buildings, I'm building, building, a whole bunch of dumb shit. And growing up out of it, like, um, in different environments now, so I always like to conquer. It's just like conquering certain things, so I'm conquering my mind now.

• 6:57Speaker 03

  Like, I did all the physical things, testing right now is conquering my mind, behaviors, work, tasks, you're like that.

• 7:04Fred Taylor?

  And as you continue to move forward and grow, you mentioned about music, and how it affects kids, children, the state of hip-hop. You also mentioned, um, you know, not necessarily being as heavy into the hip-hop space, and you catch it when you catch it.

• 7:18Speaker 03

  Um, yeah, I'm not really heavy into the hip-hop space right now. I make hip-hop music, but the, the thing is, is like, it's not viral no more to me, it's not real no more. Everybody's just talking about everything. You got like, like, these good people, like, I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say good civilians, you know? They rapping now, they got tattoos, they put tattoos on their face, they put, um, they buy a million, couple million views, and then now they're influencing these kids to make the kids think that this, this, and I got nephews, I got nieces. Like, when I left, when I went to jail, they was young, they was five, six, now they're twelve, thirteen, they're growing up into this music. They listening to this music, and then half these guys, I'm like, "No, you're not it."

• 7:57Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 7:57Speaker 03

  Like, the shit that they talking about, they influencing you guys to do, and catch five years or ten years after, you know, this and that. These guys are on yachts and doing this and that, but I'm gonna tell you that I'm on yachts and doing this and that. You know what I'm saying? I'm gonna tell you the real shit.

• 8:11Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 8:12Speaker 03

  I ain't gonna lie to you, you know what I'm saying? These motherfuckers on yachts. Getting, you know what I'm saying, the balls licked this shit like that. Not in no drug spots and doing stuff like that, okay? You need to stop listening to these guys and then they didn't kinda grow up like that neither, I feel. You know what I'm saying, it's like, even to hip-hop nowadays, when I hear female rappers, right? I don't even listen to female rappers, they talking about shooting and drilling, I'm like, I don't wanna hear that shit. It's bullshit, come on, come on. And I'm a person, I like real, authentic things, that's what make my spirit jump. So, it's not that I'm being disrespectful, it's just not for me.

• 8:45Channing Crowder?

  Right.

• 8:46Speaker 03

  You know what I'm saying, I need something real, that's, that's what makes me go. Cause I'm like, yo, this is real, this really happened, this could really, and then he overcame this and this and that, this and that. So, I can really catch a, like a spirit, I can get energy off of it. Other shit, I'm like, man, this shit some fucking Booboo Clown shit. It just look good, it sound good, get that shit out of here, you know what I'm saying? That shit off the block, nigga, off of Brooklyn, you better take that shit off the block somewhere.

• 9:09Channing Crowder?

  But, but, but that, that's why it gets to you, cause you done been out there. You done, you just saying, I got out of jail, and I've heard it talked about before.

• 9:15Speaker 03

  Like, to me, the difference is nowadays, shit don't be viral, it be hacked. If you ask me, I'm like, these motherfuckers gotta be paying for this shit, cause this is no way, who the fuck is listening to dumb shit? But, you know, like, what the fuck? But, you know the label, you know how they should go, but, you know, it's, it's, it's certain different thing. You got authentic music, like back in the day, you got commercial music, and you got authentic music. We listening to DMX and growing up in the streets. And it was so authentic that they had to take it and put it on the radios. You understand? Nowadays, they just being painful with this other shit on the radio, I ain't trying to hear that shit.

• 9:47Channing Crowder?

  Can it be fixed? Or it's too far gone now, music too far gone now, rap?

• 9:51Speaker 03

  Yo, listen, man, they got, I don't know what the fuck going on. Every time I go, I'm like, I see girls talking about shooting every day, I'm like, what the fuck? She like, yeah, pop up on that bitch with the, ah, ah, ah, ah, and when you see me, it's smoke. It's a fuck up.

• 10:10Speaker 03

  Shut your ass up.

• 10:14Fred Taylor?

  That's wild. It's true though.

• 10:16Ryan Clark?

  But for you, for you, what is music supposed to be though? Because we've heard, but we've heard other rappers, entertainers say that a lot of rappers are actors, that they're portraying an image that's not truly them. But they seem to accept that. Why, why for you is that something that you say you can't buy?

• 10:36Speaker 03

  It's hacked, it's pushed in our faces, it's bullshit. It's bullshit? It's bullshit, I tell you.

• 10:45Ryan Clark?

  But like when you, when you see dudes like that, that you feel like you say you're telling your nieces and your nephews that that's not, don't buy into that sort of lifestyle. Because while you doing five to 10, they'll be on their yachts and they'll be doing those things.

• 10:58Speaker 03

  I heard somebody the other day, right, it was this rapper. And we was talking, he's like, yo, when he got this deal, he had like four number ones on this, that, this, that. He was going back and forth to the trap, right? And I said, this is crazy. I said, how old are you? You like 27. By the time I was 19, in the first inch that they gave me out, I was choo, I was gone. I was gone like no tomorrow. You couldn't bring me back. You couldn't pay me to go back to the trap. You failed it.

• 11:24Speaker 03

  You had to jump out the window, you know, take this shit all out, like, hey, go back where? Yeah, I said? So it's the mind state that shows me like, as you just begin turning things, you get, oh, this is amazing. And then, you know, in the streets, I grew up in the streets, I was on the corners, I was forced, you know? And I grew up amongst drug dealers, my drug dealers, my babysitters, so I seen a lot of things early. I didn't have like a really childhood, I got, it was like really mature. You know what I'm saying? For my childhood, like a lot of drugs, money, this, that, um, calculations, this whole bunch of stuff. And business, I was learning business. And when I grew up and I turned 19 and I got into, to get out the hood and able to meet these, um, so much individuals, to put my money here, there, there, there, there, there.

• 12:03Speaker 03

  And even just show me so much other stuff, like building businesses, um, tax forms, all types of shit that, of course, I heard about in the hood, but it's different when you seeing it and you doing it, you know what I'm saying? And they showing me this and they showing me that. And, um, the first chance I got out, I stuck the fuck out. I didn't stay for clout to be like, I don't need no clout, I know the trouble. I know the, I know the, I know the, um, the back end of it, you know what I'm saying? A lot of these motherfuckers don't know the back end of it. So it was cool to talk about it, or we talking about your brother, or your friends, or the cousins. I ain't nobody wanna hear that shit, what the fuck? You do.

• 12:38Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 12:39Speaker 03

  You know what I'm saying? Cause you can't be telling me to do some shit, that one, rap some shit.

• 12:42Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 12:42Speaker 03

  And I'm outside doing this, but you ain't never lived it.

• 12:45Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 12:46Speaker 03

  And then now you're thirty or twenty something trying to live it, it don't makes, it don't add up. You know what I'm saying? Trying to be twenty something, thirty something, trying to live it, it's like, y'all still doing this? We didn't do that when we like twelve, thirteen, fourteen, like what the fuck? I can't, I can't be down with that shit.

• 13:01Fred Taylor?

  Do you go back and try to explain that to them?

• 13:03Speaker 03

  I go to juvenile all the time, so I was supposed to go to juvenile yesterday, but I missed it. I sent them a bunch of food and stuff, I sent them like twenty boxes of pizza, this and that. And I gotta go see them, when was it, twelve? The twelve, so I go in and out to juvenile, and I talk to the juveniles all the time. And then when I come, they love it when I come, you know what I'm saying? Cause when I, when I'm not there, they be cutting each other, doing a whole bunch of shit. And when I come, I let them know, like, yo, I was here. So if I could do this, I haven't had a platinum record out since twenty fourteen. I've made over four, five million dollars, I've been did this, I have businesses, I have this and that. It's about being a businessman. And when I tell them this, and I tell them how I did it, cause I'm gonna tell you how I did it. I got residual income every day, I mean, every month sitting on my ass. I got this and that that I set up.

• 13:46Speaker 03

  Now, um, when I tell them that this is possible, it's different because when they look at it, it's only like two people. If you in the industry, if you think about it, me and Mike Tyson, I've been through juveniles, really, in, um, New York and this and that. And nobody came back and talked to them. Everybody goes to the prisons. But I'm saying, you gotta start from the kids first.

• 14:03Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 14:04Speaker 03

  My whole thing is prevention before care. So before we, they even turn to the adults because sixty, forty percent of the prisons start in juvenile and graduate. Like, I was one of those, you know what I'm saying? And when I went there, I seen a lot of people that I was in juvenile with, graduate to the prisons and stuff like that.

• 14:19Fred Taylor?

  Right, and, and being, being a youth, you know, being a child, you know, coming up in certain hoods, you know? You're influenced by a lot of things, you know, you see a whole lot of shit that can influence you.

• 14:30Speaker 03

  Doing things like the hallway smell like piss.

• 14:32Fred Taylor?

  Right, right.

• 14:33Speaker 03

  It's just nasty.

• 14:34Fred Taylor?

  With that, you know, and definitely coming up in Brooklyn, you guys have a, a rich history and tradition of hip hop. A lot of legends in the game. What was your biggest? Influence to lead you throughout your journey in music?

• 14:46Speaker 03

  Well, you know, I love Diddy because he's a party vibe. Um, Diddy, I gotta give some to Jay for businesses. I love his businesses, I expect Dr. Dre, Diddy, Dr. Dre, and Jay.

• 15:00Fred Taylor?

  Jay?

• 15:01Speaker 03

  And Birdman. Nobody gives, I don't feel like Birdman don't get enough respect, and Master P.

• 15:06Fred Taylor?

  That's the big one.

• 15:07Speaker 03

  Snoop Dogg, I'm sorry.

• 15:09Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 15:10Speaker 03

  Snoop Dogg is bossing like a motherfucker right now. Yes, he is, man. Also Snoop Dogg.

• 15:14Ryan Clark?

  I actually want to get to that with you. Um, from the outside looking in, because your personality is so, like, it's so vibrant, right? And you see it right away. What I've learned in these fifteen to twenty minutes is you're really intelligent. And that intelligence seems to come from-

• 15:29Speaker 03

  Don't be telling nobody that.

• 15:30Ryan Clark?

  My bad, though.

• 15:31Speaker 03

  People start asking me questions, I'm like, "Oh, my God."

• 15:34Ryan Clark?

  Stupid. You know what I'm saying?

• 15:37Speaker 03

  Forgive me.

• 15:38Ryan Clark?

  And it seems like that's come, that experience has, I mean, that wisdom has come from experience.

• 15:43Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 15:43Ryan Clark?

  You know, you mentioned business. Now, the way we got connected to you, if they would have told me that that's someone you frequently speak to, I'd have been like, "Hell, no. Ain't no way." Right? And he uses this thing called country dump, right? He says people listen to him talk and listen to that he has fun and he makes jokes, and they underestimate his intelligence.

• 16:02Speaker 03

  The smartest people make jokes all the time because you're too smart. You be bored till you make jokes. You're like, "Do you see this shit? And why you don't see this?" You see shit ahead of time when you're smart.

• 16:10Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 16:11Speaker 03

  So sometimes when you see shit ahead of time when you're smart, you become lonely a lot, you know? And not lonely as in physically, lonely as in mentally. Because it's like you'll be around a bunch of your peers probably growing. Like me, I grew up around a bunch of peers and sometimes motherfuckers wouldn't know what I talk about, and I'll make a joke, and then they'll see you later, and I'm like, "I told you that like twenty minutes ago, motherfucker." Yeah, all right. So, you know, it just, you know, sometimes, um, they told me when you become like individually smart, sometimes even every tribe, you come from every family, you come from a place, you come out, you shoot up and then sometimes, you know, like a rocket, a lot of things get, um, left. So like the mentors don't add up no more, shit like that. So sometimes you become a little lonely. But not, you be around a whole bunch of people, though.

• 16:52Ryan Clark?

  You would seem fast to me, and not like fast like when your mom would be like, "Don't be hanging around that fast ass girl." But like fast in the sense that you said you grew up and your babysitter was on the block.

• 17:03Channing Crowder?

  Right, and so a lot of times if you're in that environment, you're hanging with people that are older than you. And so you mentioned telling jokes to my peers. It's because mentally, I'm faster than they are. When you deal with dudes now who are your age, who haven't been through some of the things that you've been through from your block.

• 17:20Speaker 03

  It used to be frustration. I tell my assistant all the time, it used to be frustration. But then, I remember an older female told me, she said, every time I see you, you got a lot of new guys working with you. I said, listen, sometimes McDonald's, McDonald's been there for years, but the workers always change. Because as you said, a lot of people can't keep up. They wanna chill, they wanna do this. And I grew up around older people where it's like,

• 17:47Speaker 03

  I would not wanna be up in no club unless they pay me to be up in a club. I would not be up in no, nah nah, I'm good. You know what I'm saying? So as he says, like, bro, you right. You right, I be around a lot of older people. I don't be around people my age.

• 18:03Channing Crowder?

  Bro, your energy, we heard you coming before you even saw you. You know what I'm saying? We all know you're a damn boy. We knew it was you. We heard you coming. But like you said, on socials, every time, that energy you bring. But you done been through some shit. Like you, and you even, how you talk about jail, bro? Six away? And you talk about that shit like you ran to McDonald's for a quick second. Like, the way you talk, the way you are, like, how did you not let your past affect? With your daddy, what, he got 120 years? Like, you start reading about it, bro, and what you are, I would not think it came from what you've been through.

• 18:34Speaker 03

  Um, it was being strong. Um, I had nobody to cry to. There was nobody, I had, I had, like, when I was outside, I was the youngest, and you on the road to big boys, you gotta be, you gotta be tough. And then it was just, I guess, where I grew up at, I was already like adventurous kid, and it was like a crazy spot. So that was on top of everything. And then, you know, just, just going through everything is either you gonna smile or cry. Yeah, I'm saying we don't go through it regardless after you gonna smile or cry and then you ain't supposed to live down and break you. I feel like everything is a learning lesson to make you stronger for something. Well, it depends on how you think about things, you know, some people see how they see stuff through um glasses. Somebody might see a cup halfway empty, some people see a cup like it was an investment, we can fill it up more, we can more stuff.

• 19:18Speaker 03

  And I'm saying some people are ah fuck it, you know what I mean, so just on how you visual things, I feel like. Every time I visual things, every time I wake up is a blessing. I got so much friends that passed, I'm taking their kids when they're not there because it's like, I mean, they're not there, so it's like when they when they call for their father, they call their uncle, you know what I'm saying? They probably not there to pick up, so I gotta pick up all the time. You know what I'm saying, every time my nephew or son call, so I gotta do a little extra work and stuff like that. So it's like, oh, oh, every little thing I take, I take appreciation of. I take appreciation of everything. I got friends that's got ninety eight to life and fifty three to life that. I was my co-deans that we get suspended in first grade with. And when we turned twenty, he's getting fifty three and I was getting seventy years and shit was crazy, you know, and I'm seeing their daughters and their sons and shit like that.

• 20:02Speaker 03

  So it was like appreciation through life. Every time I get up, I appreciate the breath of life.

• 20:06Fred Taylor?

  Appreciation is amazing. Perception is a whole nother thing, especially in the environment.

• 20:11Speaker 03

  Woo, that's a motherfuckers, but you know, social media, et cetera, et cetera.

• 20:15Fred Taylor?

  But um, we got this thing on the show, right? We we dropped the show, just we were just chopping it up at the crib. And um, I was talking about my grandmother and I cried. So we got this thing on the show, actually, they started the shit. The last one that cried on the show, the softest one on the show. But that's perception, right? Like.

• 20:34Speaker 03

  Nah, I'm talking about my grandmother, I start crying too, I don't want to talk about my grandmother.

• 20:38Fred Taylor?

  So, well, yeah, nah, I don't get there.

• 20:40Speaker 03

  Granny's, I start breaking down too, that shit fucks me up, that's a raise.

• 20:44Fred Taylor?

  But in your bid, you know, trying to keep that face and be tough. And even in the industry, sometimes you gotta keep that that face, but if it's real, it's real, it gonna happen naturally. Were there any nights when you were there during your last six years? Did you cry? Did you smile?

• 21:01Speaker 03

  Hell, yeah. I lost people in there. I lost people in there. I had people sick on COVID. I couldn't do nothing being a self. I remember last time I cried, I lost my little bro, um, one of my little bros in there. And it was right before I came home. And, and they got called and they say he died. And I'm like, ah, my, and I was having a good day. I was having a good ass day and I just went inside. And I went inside and I, I talked to my wife for like three days. But my bro, they knew something was up. They like, I'm like, they seen me. I'm like, I was tensed up. I'm like, I'm good. And I was like, yo, this a trick right now, cause I'm about to go home.

• 21:35Speaker 00

  Are your ad campaigns lighting up the dashboard? But not the pipeline? That's bull spend. And marketers are calling it out in. Dashboard Confessions.

• 21:45Speaker 01

  My boss asked for results, so I opened my dashboard for the only positive sounding metric I had. Impressions.

• 21:52Speaker 00

  Cut the bull spend. See revenue, not just reach. LinkedIn delivers the highest return on ad spend of major ad networks. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

• 22:06Speaker 03

  I ain't go outside for three days. Cause I said, if a motherfucker probably say something, then it's miscommunication and oh, hell no. You know what I'm saying? I said, wait, hold on now. And I had to take in a breath and I had to sit there. I sat there and I cried for three days. And then I came outside and I was like, this, this, this, that. And I had to get myself together.

• 22:21Fred Taylor?

  What are the things that you look most forward to? When you was, you know, halfway done and just about to come home? Was it like family, friends, fanbase? You know, getting back to the money, making music again? Like, what were some of your priorities?

• 22:34Speaker 03

  Priorities was definitely family, friends, um, the fans. Three F's. Family, friends and the fan, fanbase. And the after was just work, getting on my work in order, just like building all. Cause when I was sitting there, the thing when I was doing it in jail, I was reading. I was studying the industry. I was reading everything. I was writing. I was, I was just studying my businesses and I just wanted to get my business in order when I get home. So I was making like five year plans. And I'm still in the midst of my five year plans. A lot of things are going. You know, I'm like 26, 27 months home. Five years about was like 60 months or some shit. So I still got a couple more months, you know? And I was just making plans, 36 month plans, five year plans,

• 23:18Speaker 03

  and overall 10 year plans.

• 23:20Fred Taylor?

  What epic. You know, did you feel like a prisoner in that deal?

• 23:23Speaker 03

  I don't wanna talk about it. I don't even wanna talk about it. I don't even wanna say nothing. Fuck, they gonna say something.

• 23:33Speaker 03

  Bruh, nah, you know, it's like, um, I'll keep it short.

• 23:37Fred Taylor?

  Cause that's part of the business plan.

• 23:38Speaker 03

  It's like a girlfriend, you know? You have a girlfriend, you have a bad breakup. You know how girls are. That's it. I keep it simple like that. You wanna leave, you wanna be free, you know? A shawty will, ah, oh, yeah, you know, things happen.

• 23:54Fred Taylor?

  That what they say?

• 23:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, but I still got love for them.

• 23:56Fred Taylor?

  Wow, that what the girls say though? Ah.

• 24:01Channing Crowder?

  Like, you talking about going uptown for, what, six years? Bruh, it's right when you blew up.

• 24:08Speaker 03

  I was four months, it was four months. I was, I was, uh, got locked up December 17th and I signed July 17th.

• 24:15Channing Crowder?

  So like, when the world knew you, then you put away? Like, I don't wanna say regret, I hate the word regret, but like, do you look back at it like, god damn? Cause you said I made millions, but them millions could've been tripled and doubled.

• 24:27Speaker 03

  Nah, nah, nah, I feel like, um, it wouldn't have been nothing probably. It'd have been life, prison. So I feel like the six years sometimes saved me. But I got smart, I got so smart in jail. The thing is that when I went to jail, I met this guy. And I met this guy and he told me something that I can never let people define me. So I was like the smartest, stupidest motherfucker. I would have the smartest plan, but I had an anger issue when I was young. And my anger issue was very bad. So it was like, I was like, it was like the Hulk. I'd be like Ben, like the Hulk, I'd be the nicest motherfucker on earth. But when I get mad, I gotta be restrained. And then I can't be talked to, none of that. So that was the thing. And like, my attitude was like very, very nasty when I got mad.

• 25:12Speaker 03

  So I had to start making people, um, define my personality. Like, you know what, but when I was young, I was like, if you be an asshole, I'm gonna be an asshole. I'm gonna be even bigger dickhead. No, if you be an asshole, I'm out. You're gonna be sitting here mad by yourself, stupid. Fuck outta here.

• 25:28Channing Crowder?

  I'm gonna be sitting here mad with you, dickhead.

• 25:30Speaker 03

  No, I'm gone, you know? After that, I stayed out of trouble. I learned the trick. That used to keep me so much trouble. Cause I'll be so smart, I'll always make it right here and then it'll be boom. Some stupid shit'll just happen, like, I'll do some crazy. So that's what I learned to leave. I learned how to walk away. I learned how to get the fuck out of there. I learned how to stop staying away from places. I learned how to think ahead of time, like, aight. If I know if I'm always over there and I'm always getting in trouble when I'm over around these type of people, guess what? I'm not going around this crowd. Because there's always gonna be a stupid motherfucker. There's always gonna be a stupid person that's gonna do some dumb shit. I'm not with it. I'm not, you know what? I'm going. So I don't even put myself to sit around crowds. And even if I'm in a crowd, if somebody be an asshole to you, just be nice back to them. They make them feel more like a dickhead.

• 26:16Ryan Clark?

  But for, but for you, bro, like you mentioned graduating, right? People from, you know, cats from, from the juvie graduate to prison.

• 26:25Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 26:25Ryan Clark?

  A lot of time, that's the story, though. They, they're in juvie.

• 26:28Speaker 03

  Do because they start, they get these years, 10 years, 15, and then you gotta go to prison once you're at a certain age.

• 26:34Ryan Clark?

  A lot of times, that's the rest of their life. Right? You see people that end up following that path and they die in prison. You seem to have said, hell no.

• 26:43Speaker 03

  I see so much people dying in prison.

• 26:45Ryan Clark?

  You seem to be like, hell no, that's not where I'm gonna die. What made that switch flip for you where you say, okay, something needs to change or that is where I'm gonna end up?

• 26:54Speaker 03

  The older guys, I had these older guys around me. Um, I had this older kingpin guy, his name is, um, Fat Cat. Nicholas Fat Cat Lorenzo. And he told me, he like, Bobby, he like, Bobby, you like the smartest dumbest motherfucker I ever met. I said, why you say that? He said, you always do some smart shit and then you let somebody throw you off your game. You always let somebody trick you out your spot. And that's what they gonna do if they know that that's your, your target. That's your, yeah, I'm saying that was my, that was my button. Everybody had a weakness. I had the, I don't tolerate disrespect shit. But then I started learning people disrespecting themselves. You know what I'm saying? Cause I, I, like, if you gotta alter reality to feel a certain way or anything, once you start altering reality, talking some bullshit, I'm not even listening to you no more.

• 27:34Ryan Clark?

  How do you do this?

• 27:37Speaker 03

  I learned to not give people power over me.

• 27:39Ryan Clark?

  How do you do the Bobby Smurda thing? The authentic, I'm fun, I'm having a good time. I can break into a dance at any second. My roots is Jamaican, you know how we do. How do you do that? And then you bottle that dude up and sit with CEO, sit with dudes who can own one Vanderbilt and have those conversations where you keep building your portfolio. Because you talked about being authentic, right? That you can't throw me no bone.

• 28:03Speaker 03

  Andrew dances a little.

• 28:12Speaker 03

  Well, I'm not gonna lie. When I was growing up, I used to be in a lot of trouble, but I used to have a lot of special treatment when I was growing up. Like, the principals, everybody loved me, the guidance counselors. When it wilds, my wilds is like fun wild, positive wild. It's like positive, fun thing. I'm always on fun time, always on building. I'm always on growing, light, enlightenment, righteous things. So, the things that Andrew does and stuff like that, I'd be amazed. Like, that shit is like legally fucking drug dealing. It's legally drug dealing, fucking building buildings and shit. That's like the most genius thing I would like think about, think about. Everybody needs a place to be, everybody needs a place to work, everybody needs a place to do something, right?

• 28:54Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 28:54Speaker 03

  Land. He's one of the biggest landlords in fucking New York City, right? And then I sit there and I hear about the projects he has. He has these companies in there, you got Starbucks in there, you got train stations, motherfucking train stations coming through this shit. You know? That's some genius shit.

• 29:13Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 29:13Speaker 03

  And then I sat there and I remember growing up under drug dealers and watched them, how they playing a whole hood together, a whole hoods. And I said, damn, if you put your mind to this, what the fuck you could become?

• 29:24Ryan Clark?

  You ain't never intimidated in them room?

• 29:27Speaker 03

  I love it. I'm just like a sponge. I ask questions all day, everything.

• 29:32Ryan Clark?

  You ever see yourself writing a book? I know you announced that, what was it, June 2nd?

• 29:37Speaker 03

  Didn't know, well, last Wednesday we just started writing.

• 29:39Ryan Clark?

  Autobiography?

• 29:40Speaker 03

  Four hours a day. It's gonna be like four hours a day, three days a week.

• 29:44Ryan Clark?

  Who's writing, nigga, with you?

• 29:45Speaker 03

  My guy named Masha.

• 29:46Ryan Clark?

  Take us through that four-hour session. How does it work? My dog coming with a real cup of ice water, too, though.

• 29:52Speaker 03

  I gotta stay hydrated. That's all I drink all day, water. I ain't never had a cavity. Nah, I'll drink. I drink occasionally.

• 30:00Speaker 00

  Special occasion?

• 30:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:01Ryan Clark?

  Do you eat candy?

• 30:02Speaker 03

  No.

• 30:03Ryan Clark?

  Cause you say you never had a cavity.

• 30:04Speaker 03

  I hate candy.

• 30:05Ryan Clark?

  Really?

• 30:05Speaker 03

  Yeah. I eat it like once in a while when I need sugar.

• 30:08Ryan Clark?

  You know what, man? You're an enigma.

• 30:11Speaker 03

  What's an enigma?

• 30:11Ryan Clark?

  Enigma is when you think you can have something, a person, this isn't in a human form, you think you have it figured out. You have a perception from the outside. And the behavior seem the same, the characteristics seem the same, but the actual fruit and the foundation is totally different. It's almost as, when I look at you, I'm like, oh yeah, like you say, dude's wild, or, but you're like, nah, my wildness is positive, it's about building, it's about these things. Where a lot of times, it's like, and kinda early, you talking about like dudes be on some clown stuff.

• 30:43Speaker 03

  Cause that's the imitators. See, the thing where people don't understand is the imitators, the imitators see this, and then you can't imitate, cause when you imitate, you don't know the whole ins and outs, as you say, you don't know the whole foundation. You understand? If you don't know the whole foundation, I could try to be you, but I don't know what to do when I get to step seven or eight. You understand? And that's what happens with a lot of this rap shit. You know what I'm saying? People imitate the lifestyle of the the guy in the hood, the righteous one in the hood, and then they seen it growing up, they from the hood, they seen it play being on a block, so they go to these labels, you know, imitate to them, this, that, they put a whole bunch of money behind them, this, that. And then now you got a fucking imitator running the world doing this because he's on this platform. Cause he sit on this platform where everybody's listens, once they heard, that's the platform.

• 31:29Speaker 03

  So, you know, there's stuff like that. But it's just imitators, you gotta know the difference, I know the difference between them.

• 31:33Ryan Clark?

  When you're sitting in those sessions, Bobby, and you're thinking about your life, you're like, cause a lot of times, like I've heard people who've written books about themselves, and they said there were traumas that they had to explain, or traumas that, that they had to relive. What do you feel like that process is gonna be for you?

• 31:50Speaker 03

  I think that's when I drink.

• 31:55Speaker 03

  I take a shot when I'm writing, so, um, I remember they told me, um, they told me it takes like a year to write a book, actually. Told me it takes a year to write a book, with a certain amount of hours a day, so I'm doing like four hours a day now. I'm trying to cut it down, but actually, it's really, actually more, you know, and I remember they told me, We gotta do twenty of the most traumatizing, craziest stories you think of your lifetime from young to your age. So I just broke it up in like twenty-eight. So I broke it up in like seven. From one to seven, I picked five situations. From seven to fourteen, I picked five situations. From fourteen to twenty-one and twenty-one, twenty-eight and stuff like that. And I just went going through all of them. I ain't go through all of them yet.

• 32:40Speaker 03

  We still on one to seven right now. I know why I was like, yeah. As you get thing, I'm gonna need some more shots.

• 32:47Ryan Clark?

  Do you ever expect, or how do you expect to feel after that? Because sitting here, listening to you, bro, I feel like you should be celebrated more. You're actually a success story to be in the position that you're in with some of the positions you were put in growing up, with some of the trauma, with some of the connections, the relationships, the friendships you've had. And then now, as you're telling those stories, you'll be telling them from the other side, though. From the side of understanding, I'm not gonna spend my life in prison. I'm not gonna...

• 33:18Speaker 03

  I did that. I mean, not not to prison, but I did the prison and all that. I don't know what you're saying.

• 33:22Ryan Clark?

  No, I'm saying like that now, though, is there any pride, I guess, in knowing?

• 33:25Speaker 03

  I don't, I don't, that's one thing I stay away from. I'm scared of that. I do not want that disease, pride disease. I always wanna be myself. I always wanna be honest. I always wanna be vulnerable. I always wanna be myself. I'm scared of pride. I know pride is a dangerous disease in that that fucks people up from seeing the truth and being reality, alters reality and shit like that. That's one disease I do not want. I do not want pride. Like, I'm good with that shit. I just wanna be myself and be honest. And either you like it or not. Whoever gonna like it, whoever gonna like it. Whoever don't like it, don't like it. So when you know somebody like it, it's real. So I'd rather be, a hundred girls, right? And all the girls, ninety-eight girls said they want a guy to do this. I'm not doing that shit. Motherfucker.

• 34:11Channing Crowder?

  So the two girls or the one girl that do like it?

• 34:14Speaker 03

  I get amazing because I know it's real. I know she love me for me, not for... I gotta pretend and then do all this other shit and I'll be tired. And motherfucker, fuck that. That's too much.

• 34:26Channing Crowder?

  I'm glad you brought up the girls. Because I read somewhere you said, you said you was a sex addict.

• 34:33Speaker 03

  Once.

• 34:36Channing Crowder?

  What does that even mean? What's up? Everybody loves sex. Are you reformed?

• 34:40Speaker 03

  I was reformed. I went celibate. I went celibate for like, it's supposed to be 90 days, but I did 46.

• 34:49Channing Crowder?

  Isn't that still part of the addiction?

• 34:51Speaker 03

  I made it a little halfway over, you know? Like 51%, 55%.

• 34:57Channing Crowder?

  I don't want the contract.

• 35:03Channing Crowder?

  I don't believe that, bro. Everybody likes sex. I like sex. That don't make you an addict, means you enjoy it.

• 35:07Speaker 03

  Nah, I almost had twins this last year, December, with a female that wasn't, it wasn't,

• 35:18Speaker 03

  it wasn't, how would I say it? Emotionally beneficial. It wasn't financially beneficial and mentally beneficial.

• 35:25Channing Crowder?

  Drop my black ass.

• 35:35Channing Crowder?

  You know, we on the topic. I got a couple, brother. Because I heard another story about a tongue ring. I gotta know, you said it ruined your, ruined the sex life. I don't know how a tongue ring could ruin sex, your sex life.

• 35:47Speaker 03

  She cut me.

• 35:49Channing Crowder?

  What kind of ring did she have on?

• 35:50Speaker 03

  Oh, I think it was a snake eyes. But you know, they be having a whole bunch of shit. I wasn't really looking. It was just something shining in that mother...

• 36:08Speaker 07

  I was sunshine.

• 36:12Speaker 07

  Then I see blood on the floor and the blood, it was this blood gushing. I went and touched it.

• 36:20Speaker 07

  Get a ride, get the soft one.

• 36:30Speaker 07

  Yeah, you might have a problem, brother.

• 36:33Speaker 07

  I was scared, you know, I was like, oh my gosh, you know, and she was just, she was fucked up, man.

• 36:43Speaker 07

  See, what's up?

• 36:46Fred Taylor?

  So was it, was it the too much sex that drove to the celibacy or the healing process?

• 36:52Speaker 07

  She was pregnant and she was trying an abortion, that she was scared. I was like, what? She like, we having twins and she hung up on me. And you ever got, a girl ever called you and said you having twins and you ain't even get no call back for a month? Imagine, I didn't know what to do, I was drinking. I was, I was drinking, oh my gosh. Yo, see if they got the money right there, tell them we gotta help them close this deal. We got twins, oh my god. That's two of them motherfuckers.

• 37:22Speaker 07

  It's two. She ain't even say one, she said she keep them both.

• 37:27Ryan Clark?

  You know, you know the way it works, you keep it, you gotta keep both. You don't get to, you don't get to choose one, Bobby. Like, that's the way it works.

• 37:35Speaker 07

  So I got two and her, oh god, that's a three piece.

• 37:46Speaker 07

  I was out of it, I went and got a reverend on tape, so I went, I went to the, I went and got a pastor on tape, so I started going to get my pa, I got a pastor, everything. I went and got a pastor.

• 37:54Ryan Clark?

  What'd you get the pastor for, to prepare to be a dad?

• 37:57Speaker 07

  No, no, um, he told me I got sex demons and I'm a sex addict, he told me I need to stop and go celibate. And then I went celibate for like forty-six days.

• 38:06Ryan Clark?

  How did that help you? How did that, how was that process?

• 38:13Speaker 03

  About a year ago, while he came in, I was trying to talk to him, you know?

• 38:22Speaker 03

  How you?

• 38:27Speaker 03

  You know?

• 38:29Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm alive. I have a wild imagination.

• 38:35Ryan Clark?

  Bro, how did you make it six years in prison?

• 38:38Speaker 03

  The female COs were cool with me, but the guy COs didn't like me too much.

• 38:44Ryan Clark?

  You know what I'm saying?

• 38:45Speaker 03

  Some of them.

• 38:45Ryan Clark?

  I'm saying like, when you say the female COs was cool, were they that cool with you?

• 38:50Speaker 03

  Oh, the visit, they let me go on a visit, you know, the visit. They let me do my thing, you know? They let me do my thing sometimes.

• 38:56Ryan Clark?

  Didn't you have some trouble with a visit where somebody, you know, like a crazy fan?

• 39:00Speaker 03

  A crazy fan.

• 39:01Ryan Clark?

  Something like tried to?

• 39:02Speaker 03

  No, they ain't trying to bring it up. It was in the place already. And then the guys had miscommunication thoughts that I was telling her like, yo, you gotta leave. You know what I'm saying? Luckily, my mother was outside. She was coming in and I thought it was my mother. So every time I used to go down, I used to see a bunch of fans all the time. And I'd go down, I'd say hi to them, because you know, I want to be disrespectful to my fan. I ain't gonna just, oh, I'm like, yo, love. They always come over. I'm like, yo, I know love, love, love, but you gotta leave. You know what I'm saying? I gotta get my visit today. I love this and that. So when I was leaving, I remember I was leaving, they caught a knife in the back and they tried to say that she gave it to me. I was like, oh shit. I said, that's my fan, you gonna do that? I said, yeah, I fucked up. That was fucked up.

• 39:38Ryan Clark?

  That gotta be scary though to, like, almost scary and flattering that you're doing your time. And it's scary that you'd be put in that position, but that people loved you so much, man, that that was part of their day. That that was part of like, I'm here to see family or I'm here to just see him. And you could actually still brighten people's day.

• 39:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'll come down now at eight in the morning. I'm like, damn, she said she coming at three. I'm like, shorty said she coming at three. It's nine o'clock in the morning. And I just, I'll be down there and I'll see people. I'm like, where my visit at? And they be like, right there. I'm like, who the fuck is that? They're like, ah, I'm a fan.

• 40:12Ryan Clark?

  So wait, tell me about, they would let fans through to visit you?

• 40:15Speaker 03

  They wouldn't know they was fans. And then, then they started making me a list after like a year and a half. After the, um, the scapule incident happened, they started giving me a list of people.

• 40:24Ryan Clark?

  They don't put you in prison under the name Bobby Smurda though?

• 40:27Speaker 03

  Huh? No, no, I kill polon.

• 40:29Ryan Clark?

  That's what I'm saying.

• 40:29Speaker 03

  So they'll Google me, they'll Google me.

• 40:31Ryan Clark?

  Okay, I'm about that.

• 40:32Speaker 03

  And then go on.

• 40:33Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 40:33Speaker 03

  I remember one time a GQ guy came to visit me for an interview and they just kicked him out. I was, I was, I felt so bad for him. They just kicked him out. They're like, get the fuck out of here. I said, no, it's GQ, I don't do that.

• 40:45Speaker 03

  It was crazy.

• 40:45Fred Taylor?

  So the reason you, a lot of those fans came down there is your 2014 hit.

• 40:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 40:50Fred Taylor?

  Platinum Hot Nigga, you know, number one on the rap chart, number six overall Billboard, right? Can you do it again? Pride aside, well, you say.

• 41:00Speaker 03

  Will I do it again?

• 41:01Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, will you?

• 41:02Speaker 03

  Will he do it again? Who knows?

• 41:06Speaker 00

  Are your ad campaigns lighting up the dashboard? But not the pipeline? That's bullspend, and marketers are calling it out in. Dashboard Confessions.

• 41:15Speaker 01

  My boss asked for results, so I opened my dashboard for the only positive sounding metric I had. Impressions.

• 41:23Speaker 00

  Cut the bullspend. See revenue, not just reach. LinkedIn delivers the highest return on ad spend of major ad networks. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

• 41:36Speaker 03

  So what's the process now? I'm gonna do it again, I'm gonna do it again.

• 41:40Speaker 03

  Of course I'm gonna do that motherfucking again.

• 41:44Ryan Clark?

  Didn't it cost like $20 to make though?

• 41:46Speaker 03

  That was $20 to make, but a whole lot of marketing that I didn't know about before. But yeah, it was good, it was great, it was viral.

• 41:52Ryan Clark?

  That, that is return on investment.

• 41:54Speaker 03

  It was really viral, it was good viral. Yes, it was, yes, that, that, I still get paid to this day, all of those things, you know? It pays bills, it pays, it pays good bills, stuff like that.

• 42:04Ryan Clark?

  So for you, that, that's not a hack though, that's viral.

• 42:07Speaker 03

  That's viral.

• 42:08Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 42:09Speaker 03

  Back in the day it was viral, nowadays, everything be hacked nowadays, I don't know what the fuck going on.

• 42:14Fred Taylor?

  But pivoting back to what we were talking about earlier, you know, the energy and, and creativity and where you are now in your head with music. How do you find those creative ideas to tap back into, to, to find another hot nigga?

• 42:30Speaker 03

  I don't wanna make a next hot nigga. I don't ever wanna do the same thing over. I wanna create something newer and bigger and evolve. I wanna do something better. I don't want the fans to be stuck on hot n***a neither. I want them to see more, I want them to evolve, I want them to have, open their ears. Like right now, I see a lot of drill going on. I'm like, I'm not doing no drill. Drill came out when I was in juvenile. I was eighteen. I'm not doing that, bruh. You know what I'm saying? That shit is like, that's like, being two thousand, being in two thousand and seeing somebody break dance on the corner.

• 43:04Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 43:05Speaker 03

  And they trying to tell me it's break dance. It's hacked. I don't wanna hear that shit. That shit hacked. Anything with drill, they just pick it up and put it in the system and put a bunch of numbers behind that shit. I, I do not do drill. Know what I'm saying? I create a new sound.

• 43:18Ryan Clark?

  So that's my, that's my question for you. It seemed like the, the first big one was organic. Like that was, like you were just, you, yeah, like you were just being you. Like you even said, the marketing and stuff behind it, you didn't necessarily understand that at the time. But in making it, twenty dollars, like this is just me being me. Like, the, the light went on in the studio. It might have been small, like a closet, but I made it happen. It's different for you now.

• 43:41Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:41Ryan Clark?

  You know, because of that hit, because of your story, because of the personality, people are looking for the next one. It's not just gonna sneak up.

• 43:49Speaker 03

  Oh, no, no, it's gonna come, it's gonna come.

• 43:50Ryan Clark?

  Is there a lot of pressure for you though, you feel?

• 43:52Speaker 03

  No. I don't feel like it's pressure. I feel like it's me finding the right team. This should, because music is different from nowadays, from back in the day. Back then, you could put a music, a song out, and it was just like, nowadays, you have to prepare before you put a song out. You gotta twenty day, twenty one days prep. You gotta hit the DSPs, you gotta hit the Apples, Spotify, Youtubes, and all these other shit before you put a song out to get it on these playlists, to get it on these Shade rooms, all those other shit. So, I tell independent artists that it's not like, don't, don't, I'm, I'm not gonna have you sitting there just leading, leading, running into a, um, how you say that? A brick wall. I'm gonna tell you to play. Know what I'm saying?

• 44:32Speaker 03

  And then you make your play, and then, once you make your play, that's when you'll see if you are talented or not. And you'll see if people like you, you'll see who like you for. See, my whole thing is, I'd rather... Two hundred real people than a thousand fake people. Because now I got a thousand fake people and it's like I gotta do a whole bunch of other shit. And two hundred people is gonna be there forever and ever and ever. The thousand, they're gonna, fake people, they're gonna be here for four or five years and they're gonna go to somebody else. And then they're gonna go to somebody else. And then there's gonna be a next. So you want that real long time forever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.

• 45:10Ryan Clark?

  Do you feel as, as old as you seem though? Because like listening to-

• 45:13Speaker 03

  Sometimes after I get out the gym.

• 45:16Ryan Clark?

  Because listening to you, listening to you talk, man, you know, it's almost, and your, your personality is so that you can tell it's not sour grapes. You can tell it's not hating, like it's all true, authentic thoughts. But the conversations you're having about your business, about your lane, about what you do for a living, is the conversations people our age have about our sport. Like I'll watch football and I'll be like, yeah, that's not it. Or that's not, that's not what we did. If I was playing, I couldn't be this way. I couldn't do those things. Listening to you talk about the rap game is, is like hearing that. But bro, you're still in your twenties.

• 45:52Speaker 03

  Like growing up, I had no friends my age. So that's the thing, I was like, I was like ten years old with people that were like thirty, twenty-eight. I was like four years old with people that were like fourteen, eighteen. I was, I was the youngest. My friends was always like nineteen, ninety-eight, eighty-nine, eighties, eighty-four, something over seventy-eight. Something over school with my mama. You know what I'm saying? And I was like real smart in the hood where I always sell drugs where I was fourteen and I was running like the drug houses. I had four or five employees working for me. Drug house, they all older than me. I had guys that was thirty-something used to come to me and ask me to help them move this, this, that. I was very smart and I know how to treat people. So it was like, I was always like cool.

• 46:35Channing Crowder?

  And you say you, you made plans. You got five, ten. Give me the ten-year plan. Where, where, where is Bobby, where is Bobby Smurda in ten?

• 46:43Speaker 03

  I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you, uh, uh, I can't tell you the twelve-year, uh, the ten-year plan, but I'm gonna give you a thing, a hint. It started with a clinic and is gonna end with something bigger.

• 46:53Ryan Clark?

  So what does eventually Akil Pollard has to be who we know, who we see? That's the guy that's gonna sit in the boardroom.

• 47:03Speaker 03

  I like my name Akil Pollard. I kill Avalon Tyreek. They put me as Gene on Google. What the hell this name came from? I like my mom gave me good name Avalon Tyreek. I like it.

• 47:15Ryan Clark?

  Well, a while back, we were at Notre Dame. And we're at Notre Dame and Channing was making fun of people, right? And when you're at Notre Dame, you're not gonna name the kids what you named the kids at Howard University, right? He's not, he was, so he wasn't like, yeah, Jerome and Dontarius and Leroy. He was like, there's John and there's Tyler. And then he said, and there's Bobby. How the hell you pick Bobby? Like, you don't have, nothing, nothing about you says Bobby, bro. Nothing about you.

• 47:42Speaker 03

  Okay, so I was a little bad boy back in my days, you know? A little, I was a little bad boy back in the days, you know? And when I was transitioning, I was trying to transition to this money stuff. I was getting a lot of, I was starting, I was, I was in the streets. I was getting like $5,000 a day. I was making money. I was making good drugs and money. But I was trying to put it into like real estate. I kept telling people all the time, I wanna go in real estate. I wanna go in the cars. I'm gonna go to dealership. I knew, I knew guys that, my OGs, when I was young, they, they sold drugs and they took it. They put, made, um, real estate out of it. They made, um, um, fricking, they got a whole car lot. You know what I'm saying? They sell this, that. And they, I know a whole bunch of stuff like that, um, clothing lines. So I was always telling that.

• 48:24Speaker 03

  So when I was trying to transition, my name, Chuy, I didn't like the name because people would be coming up to me, talking to me. They know they was talking to me. They're like, yeah, this guy named Chuy. Ah, ah, ah. I'm like, what? I'm like, yeah, it's black ass over there. They're like, what's your name? I'm like Bobby.

• 48:42Speaker 03

  I was like a little, I was a little famous in the streets before I turned Bobby Smurda for the wrong things, though. You know what I'm saying? And I would tell people, no, cuz they, they never explain the story. You know, it was always two, three sides to the story. You know what I'm saying? So the thing was, I was never a guy that looked for trouble. I just finished it, but the way I finished it was not good. So I learned how to finish it a different way. I told y'all, just walk away now. You know what I'm saying? I don't give them my energy. I don't give nobody, nobody can't say something and just make me jump. Or nobody can't, back in the days. They had that power over me. That's what I was mad with. Until I turned twenty-three, twenty-four. And once I learned that, I had that power, like, you can't just say, "Oh, bitch-ass nigga, I'm laughing. What the fuck wrong with you? You having a good day?" How wrong with this motherfucker?

• 49:28Speaker 03

  When you think about it, right? And then you become free now. You become free. You gotta kill the animal in you. I had to kill that. I had to kill what was in me, was holding me back. And I was the lion, that animal, that, that, that urge, the pride, or whatever. That call, I had to kill that. And once I killed that, I got to see everything free. I had to see everything more. So, just being Bobby is just like a change. I killed, was just in a lot of trouble. And Chewie had a bad name. So I just like, Bobby, once people meet Bobby, they be like, "Oh, man, ain't nobody worried about Bobby coming over." You know what I'm saying?

• 49:58Fred Taylor?

  So, aside from the autobiography, right? Aside from that, are there any plans to do a movie, bro, or a- acting? Because you, I can see you playing yourself for a whole lot of-

• 50:09Speaker 03

  I read the script right now.

• 50:10Fred Taylor?

  Yeah? It's coming.

• 50:12Ryan Clark?

  Can you be something other than this, though?

• 50:14Fred Taylor?

  Other than what?

• 50:15Ryan Clark?

  Like, your personality is so big. Like, I think, like, Denzel is the, the greatest black actor of our era, our time. But he just turns everything into Denzel. Like, he's just, like, I watch Macbeth, and everybody on Macbeth had an accent. And Denzel sound like Lonzo from Training Day.

• 50:35Speaker 03

  But he was still passionate.

• 50:36Ryan Clark?

  It was hard.

• 50:36Speaker 03

  He was passionate.

• 50:38Ryan Clark?

  You know, Den- you know Glory Denzel is, is like, is just Denzel fighting in the Civil War. You know what I'm saying? If you got Denzel on anything, Training Day Denzel, that's Denzel, that's the bad cop. You know, uh, Remember the Titans, that's Denzel. That's the cop. Yeah, Flight, that's just drunk pilot Denzel. You know what I'm saying? Are you gonna, are you gonna always give us Bobby Smurder? Or we might see you with a little, little drama, little leading man?

• 51:04Speaker 03

  I'm a adventurous person, so I like doing new things. So I'm always see what I could do. And so if it come out looking like I've been doing it, I've just been pimping since ninety-two. But I was born in ninety-four.

• 51:17Speaker 03

  But I like adventurous. I'm gonna try everything. I ain't gonna lie, I like to try things. So I'm gonna try it. I'll try like different roles. I'll try a cop role. I'll try a superhero role. I'll probably be a funny superhero. What about Usain Bolt? You know Patois? You Jamaican? Yeah, yeah. I can do some, I can do some John Patois. I'll do some Jamaican roles. Yeah, I bought my thing there, sorry. I mean, yeah, I recognize. Know you fast as hell. You play sports coming up? Do any sports? So the thing is, right? This the funniest shit. I'm athletic but not athletic. You get it? I'm athletic but I'm not athletic. How's that? I got a lot of energy but I can't structure like the points and stuff. I'm like, I like go. You lack coordination. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not. Like clumsy feet. Yeah, I'm wild.

• 52:02Speaker 03

  It's wild.

• 52:06Speaker 03

  That will be easy because you're just running a straight line. In track.

• 52:13Speaker 03

  I ain't play no sports but he's running.

• 52:16Ryan Clark?

  I'm gonna ask you a question though.

• 52:19Ryan Clark?

  What is it? What is it? Who was it that we were talking to? And we said like every time? He said every time they go somewhere, people try to put a battery in their back and make them do something. Or like comedians? Every time, like Chan? Like every time we're somewhere with Chan? As soon as they meet.

• 52:34Speaker 03

  That was Lil Duval, right?

• 52:34Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, Duval said that. They want him to be a comedian every time. When you have a dance? When you have a dance like you did, right? When people see you, do they always do the dance? Or do they want you to do?

• 52:47Speaker 03

  People always do the dance. Or I just hype them up and get them hyped to do the dance. Sometimes if I'm tired and I don't feel like doing the dance, I had them hype them up to do the dance. They'll do the dance. And they're still making me do the dance. They'll do it so much, it makes me do it. And like, ah, fuck it, I would do it with you.

• 53:03Ryan Clark?

  So when you fell over, when you fell over the couch, a million dollars worth of game? And your feet kept doing the dance without you? It was just, that's just what happens?

• 53:12Speaker 03

  I told you, I'm a person, I don't start shit, but I'll finish it. When I get started, I don't know how to stop. So I just be, you know what I'm saying?

• 53:21Ryan Clark?

  So this will be my last question for you, bro. Because you, I mean, you have spoken this whole time like an OG. If there are people in the game right now that you respect and that you would do music with, who would those people be?

• 53:34Speaker 03

  See, I enjoy music, so how I keep it sometimes? I don't. I don't look at like their whole background. Like one of my favorite artists besides DMX, some of my favorite artists, I think I don't know their whole full names. You know, I didn't ever look that thing. I just looked at the art and stood at the art. So, a couple of people I do want to do music with right now. Look, I think like pop, so I be listening to a lot of pop now. I want to do a leave on Adele. Do a leave on Adele so bad. I want to do a song with Doleep and Adele. I got pop songs. That one here my pop songs?

• 54:06Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 54:11Ryan Clark?

  Hey, bro, I'm just gonna be honest, man. Like, this was, like, for us, so off the beaten path, but legitimately, man, one of the most fun episodes we've ever done and also super enlightening. Bro, we appreciate you just taking the time to sit down with us, man. But I think we always ask this question, and I know you can flip it to this mode. The show is called The Pivot, because we all got here by making a pivot from being somewhere else. If you look at your life, at all the trials, tribulations, the adversities, the successes, what is the one moment that you would say was that pivot that created the Bobby Smurder we see today?

• 54:51Speaker 03

  The pivot was 2014. When I got into the business, I learned that music wasn't just my endgame. Music is not my endgame. Music was something I got into to open more doors, to get where I needed to be, to do what I needed to do for father, extension of, um, business and stuff like that. So, I love music, don't get it twisted, but I just, I can't do one thing. I gotta do multiple things. I got a lot of energy. You know, like when I used to sell crack, I'd sell crack, babysit, sell counties, do this, had these people over here doing that. I was always an active person. So, like, I'm just an active person. But me just doing it now, everything legal is different now. So now, it's like, that's the shit I can brag about.

• 55:34Speaker 03

  Because everything I had before was illegal. Everything was I was doing illegal. Yeah, I was making money, but it's different now. I can make that money legally. It's like, how would I see that?

• 55:45Speaker 03

  It's like a breakthrough. It's like a breakthrough through, um, how would you say that, that word? Statistics, that boom. So being statistically, you know, being the statistics. I think that's a challenge. I like challenges. Like when I was young, I used to like to fight the biggest person outside. So now I like to fight the biggest milestone where they say I can't do or can't do. And that makes me like, you know how a girl get you hard? That makes me hard.

• 56:11Ryan Clark?

  And that actually makes sense though, for you to finish the show talking about statistics. Because statistically, you should be in the pen, you should be dead, you should be broke. You shouldn't be an inspiration. You shouldn't be a story that deserves an autobiography that has a positive present and future. So man, we appreciate you, man. Appreciate your journey, dawg. Yes, sir. That joke was great, dawg.

• 56:39Ryan Clark?

  That was great, dawg.

• 56:41Channing Crowder?

  I let him go, bro.

• 56:47Ryan Clark?

  I ain't know Drew liked to dance, man.

• 56:50Speaker 03

  Take a little shot. You a little shy, y'all.

• 56:58Speaker 03

  This is legal.

• 57:01Ryan Clark?

  This is gonna make everybody say shit. We gotta go on a roof stand. That was awesome. I appreciate you setting that up, bro. Thank you, bro. Thank you so much.

• 57:09Channing Crowder?

  Yes, sir.

• 57:10Ryan Clark?

  That joke was great, dawg.

• 57:35Speaker 08

  Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time.

• 57:40Speaker 09

  We go V.

• 57:43Speaker 08

  We go V. Ask your prescriber about Wegovy. Semaglutide injection, 2.4mg a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4-WEGOVIE or visit wegovie.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about Wegovy. Why wait?