Tane Runo Interview: Producing Travis Scott's "Grey", Justin Bieber Song Leaked, and More -

Like my favorite songs, I don't really know the lyrics to them. I just know how they sound. Like, I just know like I know the melody. Like, mm-mm. mm-mm, mm-mm. I know his songs to this day. I still didn't. I'm still learning. Like, oh, that's what they said, the One More Time Podcast, genuine conversations with genuine people about music, hosted by Henry with a three and Playback Ben. One more time. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back for another episode of the One More Time Podcast. One more time. I'm your host, Playback Ben, here with my co-host. Henry with a three, aka The Trap Jack Black. Trap Jack Black, who we got in the hot seat today. Welcoming in on episode 62 of the One More Time Podcast. Legendary MC and actor from New York, The Rough Rider himself, DMX. Har har har har har. Har har har har. He still got it.

You thought he was dead. Yeah, you thought he was. In all seriousness, we have legendary producer. We got Tane Runo. Tane. For sure. Hit my foot. And yeah, we were playing the name game before. We definitely have some, you know, mutuals. You know, shout out Jeremy. Yep. Because I knew I had heard your name from Jeremy when you know I first locked in with him. He was kind of telling me his story. And then obviously I'd you know heard of you since then, and I was excited to get you on today, man. You interviewed Jeremy on the show. No, he's one of those cats. He's too cool for school, you know. He doesn't want to do any interviews. But I'm gonna get him on because Deshaun, also who we were talking about, he has not had an interview until ours. So go stream that shit. It'll be a link in the description or up in the on the top. Episode 60. But Tane, we appreciate you coming on. You are born in Columbus, Ohio. You guys were talking about the Ohio State. For sure. Real champions. Real Buckeye shit in the building. Um, I have no dog in that fight.

I'm a tar heels, so you know, that's fine. Stick the basketball kid. But yo, your music career started at a very young age. Yeah, it did, for sure. Tell the people about kind of your first experience in the game. Uh my first experience in the industry. Um, I had to this beat competition at the vinyl. No, way before that. Bro, way before that. that. I'm giving you the real okay. So when I first got into music, when I first got into music, I was doing music when I was a kid. So, like, I was for uh can we curse on here? Yes. Oh, for real? Fuck no. All the curse words. Shalakazam. Especially that one. Yeah, you can use that a few more times for our audience. But um, okay, so I really started like doing music when I could talk really. My mom and my dad used to have a radio station in Columbus or radio show in Columbus called the Capital City Rap Show. Okay. And so one day I was just in a car freestyling. I wasn't saying nothing in English. What language?

Uh shit, I made up like to this day. I was just like, Everything she been. You talk about yourself. crazy. I know you're so crazy. Yeah. So kind of how rappers get like hum tracks out. today. Yeah, exactly. But the thing is like, for, like five years old, man, yeah, like four or five. Wow, ahead of the game. Man, I it's so crazy because to this day, like uh I the way I listen to music is so different. I I don't like my favorite songs, I don't really know the lyrics to them, I just know how they sound. Like, I just know like I know the melody, like mm-mm. Uh-uh. But anyway, bro, I'm the exact same way. I love that you said that because even as someone who consumes so much fucking music, even like you said, your favorite songs, I catch myself being like, What did he actually say there? Man. But I know exactly the inflection and like whatever. Do y'all go back to like old songs you listened to as a kid and then realize what the lyrics were later, and you're like, he said what? I'm gonna give you a perfect example. Um Brian McKnight. I don't know if he'll know the song, but it's a song called Started Back at One. And he goes, uh uh uh and I started back at one yeah, but I didn't know he said that.

What did you think he said? I thought he said and uh I think I actually made the same mistake now that he's like saying it out loud. Yeah, and I'm like, man, what the fuck? No, for sure. I said, I never knew that. Yeah, it's like I know his songs to this day. I still didn't, I'm still learning, like, oh, that's what they said. Yeah, for me, it was a big example of like the ones that were very explicit. Me here being like, was I saying that as like a 12-year-old? Oh, yeah. I don't think I was. Yeah, listen. I just don't think I realized what was actually being said. Not at all. There's something beautiful about being able to experience a song as a whole, and not just you know, you remember just the whole feeling of the song and not just breaking it down into the parts. It's kind of cool. It is entirely because it that like that contributed to how I create music, It's kind of great in general, because like my whole perception and just receiving this shit, like my satellite is different. So I'm like getting all this information. So just way different from my friends.

Like, you know, that's a different structure of just like how I'm computing this shit, which is perfect because I know like when I walk into the room, I have a certain je ne sais quoi. Nice curse word for y'all. There we go. So so you're freestyling in the car, yeah. Freestyling in the car, and then he brought me into the radio show, and uh when he brought me into the radio show, I was just like freestyle on the radio, and that shit was cool, so I was rapping. Then he was like, We about to make you with that, you start rapping for real. So we had like these Africans uh called Achiyami, Achiyami Daniel, Achiyami Kwame from Ghana, and they were just producing songs for me, and my dad's friend was writing the music, and so I would perform and like I do a song called Role Model. I had a song called Role Model, had a song called Out of Control, like it was about ball and out of control, like this really just ahead of the motherfucking game. The front cover of it, I'm like in a prowler. Like this, you know, the the slit eyes, like you know what I'm saying, the squinty eyes and shit, like the sun in my shit. I had like how old are you? Charge. Hit it till I was like five. Bro. That's amazing. I saw one of your other

cover arts. It was under the after the tragedy, it was under the Taji Dynamite brand. Yeah, Taji Dynamite. Because that was your that was your rap name. And Dynamite is spelled... D-Y-N-A-M-I-G-H-T. M-I-G-H-T. Oh, like Mike. Dynamite, right? Oh my god. Stop playing with him. I just thought that was incredible because this is around the time I think when like Bow Wow Romeo, the kid stars. The kid rap was like for sure. I mean, just seeing those guys, it's crazy because I I can't even say necessarily as a kid, I was competitive to this day. I'm like, I gotta be bigger than them. Like they five, but I gotta be the hardest. So, but it was this definitely wasn't around with Bow Wow and Romeo and Sammy. There's a lot of young um black artists, like you know, kid artists and shit was coming up and popping. So I was really revving that shit up. But then I had like moved to... I did that for a minute, and then I moved to Georgia, and when I moved to Georgia, it's like right after September 11th.

Um I started getting into production. Honestly, the first beat I made, I was four years old. My dad had a computer. We was in the projects, and he was one of the first people in period. I knew what a computer projects are not. And he had this program called Acid Pro Loops. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. It's like it's it's pretty much how folks can make music now. Like they put loops in, and you make a beat. And so I was sampling like some Al Green shit, and I made a beat at four years old. I mean, that's the first time I made a beat. Wow. That's crazy. Really cold shit. So anyway, moved to Georgia. Um started producing more. And uh after I started with producing more and shit like that. My dad had like a my mom and dad had a um youth association. So they had like a camp where we was doing a lot of creative arts and shit, and I was teaching kids and shit like that and doing beat competition. I did my first beat competition at 14. Okay. iStandard. Um, I don't know if you guys heard that. Yeah, but iStandard standard had a beat competition. when I was 14. I got second place.

I was salty because I'm like, I'm harder than all these motherfuckers up there, man. I'm the coldest in the fucking world. I'm 14. These beats not, they're not hitting on mine. And so I came back like you know, I think the year after, did not place, came back the year after that, did not place. So I'm like, somebody playing with me. Like, this shit can't be true. This shit can't be real. But just continue like making beats and stuff like that. I really wasn't, I wasn't collaborating a lot. I learned from a guy named Toby Rivers, uh, my uncle Rod from Mideast Productions. My dad was showing me how to make beats. Toby Rivers used to make shit for Toni Braxton and um a lot of LaFace artists, like babyface and shit like that. Um, and he was just teaching me the ins and outs of that shit. And not a bad early mentor. Hell yeah. Yeah, so we were talking, you know, off camera about the fact that you went to not DSA, but D E S A, which was still like an art school for like elementary kids. So you're keeping me on track because I'd be I go on a lot of tangents. that's my job, bro. Lot of tangents. I can do it. A lot of tangents. Yeah. Not so I've I've had plenty of tangents on this podcast where we try and leave a little bit.

I'm gonna get you back. I'm gonna get you back. No, for sure. But but so going to like an art school at a younger age, looking back, like did that help you with your creativity or not at all. Not at all? Nah, I was fucking with you. Okay, I was like, I don't know. No, because we've had a couple other people that did arts programs. And and honestly, and honestly, they kind of had that response. That's crazy. And not joking. Man, not at all. It kind of felt like it didn't really like it was already in them, so it almost like distracted them because they had to do all the shit maybe they were forcing. I think arts colleges seem a lot less useful than like the early formative years. seem more helpful. Because, like, the more I got older, like, when I got to school, when I started doing college and shit, it was confusing to me that people were going to college for music. I'm like, What the fuck is you doing? Like nobody who you look up to went to school for that show, or at least completed school for that shit. Like, you know, I'm looking up to a lot of a lot of black rappers and shit like that. Like, I know the top people I'm thinking of Wayne, Jay-Z, Kanye. Like, two out of them three folks didn't.

I mean, well, Wayne, I think went post uh his rap career, but they didn't go they didn't go to college for that shit. Like, you know what I'm saying? But yeah, to bring it back to DSA, DeKalb elementary school of the arts. It was an elementary school. We came in that term earlier. Um, it was K through seventh, and um, and that school, that was the first time I ever heard of a performing art school. Yeah, I came from a school in Columbus called the Columbus Afrocentric School. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's uh I guess uh it's a public school, K through 12 theme school, all I guess, all black. You don't even call the teachers uh Mr. and Mrs. You call them mama and baba, so it's like really. African. Oh, wow. So do you have like rich African roots? It's crazy. Like, are your parents from? I got our very like very big pro-black roots. Okay. You don't come from. By the way. Um, they taking 10% off y'all reparations get back for letting the black person have a platform. So okay, perfect. Fuck yeah. Y'all good. Y'all good. is that in like a coupon we get or something. Yeah, yeah, it's going to come whatever. Yeah. It's a food stamp coupon type situation. It's an Amazon gift card. Yeah, the next stim. It's coming out of Bezos' pocket. Straight up. Yeah, that's the only reason we do the podcast.

Oh, okay. Yeah, that's and that's smart. Y'all own it. Yeah, eventually y'all shit gonna be right. You know what I'm saying? Scott free. Right off. You feel me? So anyway, went to the uh Columbus Afrocentric School. I actually also, before I went to Columbus Afrocentric school, I went to a Jewish community center school. Awesome. Interesting. I'm born and raised Jewish. For real. Yeah. Shalom alaikum, my brother. Okay. There we go. Yeah, Yeah, yeah. I went to a Jewish school. It was a Jewish private school, it was really awesome. man. Actually, I actually had to leave because one of the kids hit me and I hit them back. And the teacher said, Why you do that? I said, Well, my mom told me, like, hit them back if they hit me. She said, Well, your mouth is the devil. Wow. And my mom pulled, yeah, gunshots for sure. Mom pulled up, like, yeah, what the fuck? Like, bitch, you got this shit twisted. I'm taking him out to school. Went to Columbus Afrocentric School. Left Columbus Afrocentric School, went to another elementary school, went to Georgia, came to Georgia after September 11th, was in Kennesaw for a year. Another racist uh school I went to. Then I went to man, Georgia was an eye-opener. Cause I come from a very pro-black family.

Like, my last my my original name was Taji Jones. Now it's Taji Osar. Like I took the slave name away, type shit. You feel me? Like, really, like creating our own legacy. Uh shit, my name is Taji. You know, that's Swahili for Beholder Crown. You dig? like real African root, but I don't know my full African roots. I just know I'm highly melanated, motherfucker. You feel me? So anyway, the Cab Elementary School of the Arts went there. Um, a predominantly black institution as well. So much love. I was actually taking um dance classes there. Like I was doing ballet, jazz, modern, African. Um, and I was a part of a traveling, like um singing a dance troupe called Shows to Go There with a few of my friends. And I really wasn't doing too much music there, which is crazy. Like I auditioned there and I had to, I didn't know that you had to audition. So I was freestyling to audition, like ticking, saying old rap, singing gospel records and shit. I'm like I forgot about ticking. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

That was the whole thing. You know what I'm saying? So it was crazy. But like I it did cultivate my creativity because there was I did take a choir class. And so um with a teacher named Mr. Christian, and he taught me about like Broadway, Les Miserables. he taught me like old like hymnals and shit like that. Like slaves used to sing, like keep your lamps trimmed and burning. Really cool, like rhythms, cadences, and melodies, and like how to read music and shit. I don't know how to read it now, but we was just these are components we was learning. Yeah. Um and I'm in like fifth, fifth, sixth grade doing this shit, and it was really cool. And so um met a lot of people there, uh, built up my creativity muscles, and then after I went there, I went to like you went to like 20 more schools, right? Hell yeah, I loved it. I loved that I like I loved that I was hopping in between schools. I was talking to your brother, you know, shout out Wayne. Big Weezy, shout out Wayne, man. Shout out to Wayne, man. Yeah, that's that's dope. But he was like, he was giving me like a lot of background, on, like the schools, and I was like, okay, I can't keep up.

Like this dude has literally gone to like 30 schools in his 28 years of living. Like, I don't even know how this is possible. So yeah, you definitely bounced around a lot of schools, but but so you liked that? Um yeah, man, I loved it. Like what did you I really want my kids to go to different schools because I just know what it did for me. It just. What, what did it? I was very charismatic of a of a of a person, still am. Um, and so you don't say, yeah. You dig it, yeah. I had no idea. This is new to me. So new. I'm like, I'm like, you know, when I'm at these schools, I'm making I'm very impressionable and personable, and like shit is like amicable between me and all the people. The teachers love me, like I'm really developing a real relationship. Like, I still know teachers from when I was in fucking pre-K. Wow. Who still like Taji? You know, we love you because anytime you're here, you know, you good, That's how you get this and the other. Um, so yeah, like going to different schools is just expanding my network because my parents was big on communicating. At least my mother, call your friends, like you know, have them come over, you can spend a night See, you can go stay in they house. And so I stayed in touch with folks, and so even if I went to another school, I'm still kicking on my friends from the other school, and then you know, when, when, bam and the other to this day.

Like I have man, it's just so fun to have so many so many places that you've experienced in so many different cultures, just like Dunwoody, going to Dunwoody, going to Shiloh High, going to Grayson Tech. Um, we're gonna get to Grayson Tech in a minute because I actually made like two really cool songs while I was in high school, my senior year, at Grayson Tech. And like meeting people, and I don't know if y'all remember a song called Brookwood where you at. It was, like a famous like song when Brookwood and fucking It was the song the football team always played. Brookwood, where you at? Brookwood, Patrick Sullivan. Uh he went to Grayson Tech, a kid, uh a student there, and he made that song, and he was popping and shit like that. And when I was at Grayson Tech, I took a music tech class, and that's how I learned how to use like really getting to learn how to use logic um and reason. And actually, I made um I made this record for Justin Bieber in that class. I didn't know, like I had no industry connections, and this is just a beat I was just making at the at school, but I had made that record in that class, and I had made Gray for Travis Scott in that class. Wow.

Major. And both of those songs, both of those beats were like songs I had done. Like there were full songs I had done. Matter of fact, the record, the beat for Gray was a song was a record called West Hadden that I had dropped as a single. I think you might be able to still find it online. That's called West Hadden. And then yeah. And then you just took the vocals off of it and gave it to Travis. What happened is my manager was in. So Gray came about because my manager at the time, um, Jay Hill, he had Is that the not fit for society? Jay Hill? Yes, sir. But yeah, Gray, I had a record out called Gray. I had been working on that beat in class every day. I had a it's crazy because there's, like three switch ups on that. It's actually four. They didn't play the they didn't put the fourth one actually on the record Travis drop. Um but I just like I had been doing beat switch ups on my beats for a long time. That shit ain't new to me because I just like the multiple dimensions, you know what I'm saying? Keep it interesting. Yeah, like really like a string theorist when it comes to this music, like just so many dimensions to this shit, you feel me? So um I had like made that beat originally.

What I did was I was working in Reason. I had took a I had found like I was learning what third-party sounds were. I didn't know what that shit was. I didn't, I was using all stock for the major part of my career. Like, nothing but stock. I didn't know shit about nothing. You can download drum kits? Yeah, I'm like, whoa, what's a what's a VST? Yeah, like you know what I'm saying? I'm like, oh, that's just a program, like combinator or NN-XT. These are all like VSTs within Reason, but I didn't know they were called VSTs. I'm just like, yeah, this is a this is where you get your piano. this is where you get your drums and shit. So anyway, um fucking made the beat. I had put some sounds in from GarageBand into my reason. So that dun dun dun dun. That's uh um like a royalty-free loop from GarageBand. Hard. So crazy. Put that shit in, had some drums. I'm like, oh yeah this is like this is gonna be cold I was originally making it ironically for A$AP Rocky Travis's twin right now but um I made it for them and then like the second half of the beat then dun dun dun dun I had that beat in my head which is and I know you hear a lot of people say man I just have a a thought in my head and I execute that shit different for me because I don't when I'm in the studio making shit I'm freestyling like fuck every time because I'm trying to make something different that ain't really been done for I don't want to do the same shit I did before I'm always trying to innovate all I'm always going to innovate let me let me correct that you dig so um had a beat on my head and I was actually making it in reason I said okay this is fine literally every day in class going in the morning when I had free time working on that beat in class um and then I made a record to it um probably like a year later and Travis my manager I had put the song out I had sent it to like reverb nation and shit to get reviews and stuff people was not fucking with the song like they was just trashing me songs so fire. I'm gonna fuck what they was saying. I'm the code song was so crazy like the beat like you know y'all hear that fucking beat like I'm like, come on man. I can't I just can't do basura I what do they say basura I can't make no trash at all.

So uh anyway uh my manager was out there with Sean Kingston's house because you'll see on Rap Genius, it'll say like backgrounds by James Fauntleroy, not him, it's Sean Kingston singing background on the record yeah interesting and he played the beat for Travis and he said this is after Travis had played him a record uh with Kanye and Drake on it. I that record's still not out to this day. I don't know what the fuck it was. We need that. Yeah, we do. So Travis heard the beat for gray and was like, um, what'd he say? He's like, blow that up immediately. Yeah, I guess he made some shit to it. This is you know, days before Rodeo. This is right after Owl Pharaoh. Yeah, it's a while back. Yeah, while back. I want to say 2014 is when that shit happened when it dropped. Okay. Yeah, that's right. And so um a week later, Jay calls me, he's like, Um, yeah, we're trying to get Chance on it. Chance the rapper on there. I was like, okay, fine. I wasn't super too super hyped about it. I'm like, Okay, that's cold.

That's fine. And then a week, like two weeks later, Travis drops it. Gray. All this shit and everybody. And I didn't even know the impact of Gray for real. And so, I went to a party or something. I was talking to somebody, I said, Yeah, I did gray, and the dude's like, but there was like some controversy around like that, right? Uh in a sense, like I mean, I'm just saying, what I heard was that Travis, like, because I would meet people and I would tell them I did Gray, and they'd be like, what? They'd be like, Travis told us he did that record. Yeah, did that beat. And I'm like, Travis, who? Mr. Scott. I went to my mom, like, is my middle name Travis? So, I'm saying. dude's trying to find his birth certificate. Travis, Travis, Travis. Nah, but yeah, Taji. Is that short for Travis. You feel me? Yeah. am I dyslexic? Yeah, but um, yeah, Travis, I guess, was telling people that he had made the record.

And like I'm hearing this from people who was in the studio, like, oh, you did that? Travis told me he made that beat. I'm like, fuck no. How'd that feel? It was just weird. Because I was just like, the credits is out. So I'm like your name's on it. Yeah, my name on it. Oh, wow. Okay. Like, so when you go online, You'll see Tane Runo. and I'm like, okay, that's interesting. But all right. So just some weird. It's just weird. Like I said, I never met. I met Travis twice. Not in the studio though. And actually the second you ask him? Yo, why he gave you so good in the middle of the street? I don't know. Did you ask him? I never, I didn't hear. Did you ask him? the first time I met Travis was at a wish. He was doing a meet and greet or Shout out to Wish Atlanta. I was with Nestle. Shout out Nestle. Shout out Nestle, man. The Bionic Armed Man. himself. That's the Auto-Tune. Yeah. So he um we was at the meet and greet. I had gave Travis like a thumb drive while I was there. We was young as fuck. And then the second time I met him was at another meet and greet after days before rodeo. And uh I had met him. I said, Yo, Travis, What's good. He said,

What's good? I was with my girl at the time. Um and he was just like, I said, yo, I did um I co-produced Gray. Um he was like, oh, that's what's up. And took a picture. So that's it. Damn. Okay. Yeah, weak. And I was like, all right. But I thought in my opinion, I'm like, man, a few things. He probably was geek. True. Didn't give a fuck. Like he probably was just like, hi. And I was just like, oh, that's what's up, bro. And kept it pushing. And I don't know. It ain't really, it was just like, all right. Well, also one thing I want to, you know, you know, get out there. This was during the mixtape days, still. I guess kind of like the end of the make like towards the end of the mixtape era, if you will. It's 2014, we said. Was it true that producers just weren't getting paid paid? Is that true that you haven't Yeah, so sneaky motherfuckers. I was like, nah. Yeah, no, nobody got paid for that. Because it was just like put out on SoundCloud. Like, you know, that's not on streaming services. I know, but like, how does that not at least I didn't get paid? So he may have had some homies he paid for the beats.

Like, shit, he had vinyls and shit on there. Yeah. Fucking Metro and shit. But um everybody has it. That's such a that's so crazy I'm talking about like payment in the game. Um, because it it it can get real funky when it comes to payment in the industry and getting paid on time or getting paid, period. My best experience is with like when it comes to just like businesses on that is um like Reach Records, like gospel company. That's the uh Christian label that Kenan worked at. Lecrae and all the shit. Yeah, Reach. That's right. Exactly. Yep. Shout out to them, man. They do really they do excellent, excellent, uh excellent business. They're doing the Lord's business, they're really like the Chick-fil-A of the music industry, man. They still hate gays, uh, they got great chicken. sandwiches. No, for sure. Yo, man, you fucking like but man, they say my pleasure, like every time. All the great customer service. Their customer service is through the roof. Nah, but Reach is all love, man. Shout out to Reach. man. Thanks for the beat placement opportunity. My pleasure.

That's hilarious. Nah, but yeah, um, yeah. Yeah, I didn't, like it. As far as like payment and stuff like that goes, it was a it was a free mixtape. So you don't necessarily expect to get paid when something gets put out for free all the time. Yeah, the artists weren't really getting paid either. That's the thing. I mean, I get it, but like it obviously was a big part, you know, not just that record. Of course, I'm not trying to like discount Travis's come up, but like that was of course one piece, no matter how big of the puzzle that like, you know, helped shepherd him into the industry, right? I mean, so it just I'm glad that like those days are a little bit behind us, and that you know, even if it's going on SoundCloud, artists can monetize the SoundCloud. You can't monetize. producers out there, like don't just take the artist saying that they're putting it on SoundCloud, like there's literally a monetization button you click when you upload to SoundCloud. This isn't some free shit anymore. So, like, I don't know. You can negotiate a piece of that you can negotiate a lot of shit because like you know it's your likeness it's your sound it's your music and shit like that uh but also it's valuable to just say that you know you you produce for Travis Scott definitely it definitely that shit comes with it too so like that's like a part of bartering with like artists and stuff like that like when you get in the business it's a bartering system it's not always like I need my cash now it's not always that because you can negotiate some fine shit with artists depending on who you rocking with or some shit like that you can negotiate shit like where okay um shit instead of paying me um let me be put me as a uh like the co-artist on the record so I can get some monthly listeners yeah so you can buy pat yeah I just showed you like four there was like some famous entertainment lawyer that posted like four ways to do a creative uh deal like honestly you might've seen the same tweet I don't know no that's off the top well there you go shout out to my manager Justin Chaz he's definitely got the sauce but like exactly so you can kind of do like a streaming services like shout out where you're a primary artist too you can get some you know recognition that way because people are like who the fuck's Tane Runo and it's like oh that's this guy he also is a producer whatever um and then you can do like hey I'll give you this one for me if you give me one for like a producer tape type shit so yeah like don't fuck up relationships over money yeah for sure. You can. but also get your fucking money so it's like this like get your worth man. know your worth yeah know your know your worth and I know that's like that's a very common saying but it's literally just about negotiating and like not tolerating disrespect because it can be times where you might negotiate something with somebody and they they'll disrespect you because they feel like you ain't worth shit. And I've been in circumstances like that where I'd be like, okay, this is what I want.

And instead of the response of being like, oh nah we can't do that. Let's Try something else. They'll tell you who you not. And you know what I'm saying? You ain't you ain't Metro or you ain't this, that, and the other. I don't give a fuck. I know I'm not Metro, nigga. Like I'm Tane fucking Runo, like, and that's how I feel about what I do. You know what I'm saying? Man, It's like reminiscing about Kanye. I don't know if y'all seen that genius documentary. Of course. He was telling people his worth and shit like that, and folks wasn't feeling that way. And now he's richer than everybody who was in that motherfucking documentary. Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's gotta be a respectful way to negotiate. For sure, man. Versus just coming back and belittling the person. It'd be like that's a weird tactic. It is strange, man. It is very strange, but everybody, everybody operates differently in the game. You know what I'm saying? There's probably a lot more examples of the weird disrespect than there are. Whoa, way more. Way more because they're also just more memorable. Definitely goes wrong. They stick and stains. I don't know. He remembered the Reach Records like smooth negotiations. Yeah, it's memorable.

It was incredible. Cause I'm just like, yeah, these guys do a really they do excellent work, man. Like they just they make sure that the people who are working on these projects are taken care of. Yeah. And like, you know, shit gets done and shit gets put out in a very amicable way. Like for sure. Because it's always a good situation with those people, man. Shout out. So, So you mentioned that I should fact check like the people I spoke with before I say something. So I do want to fact check this. You were doing beat battles, you mentioned. You were, you know, it's a five man. Yeah, appreciate it. So you were coming in like either second place, you weren't placing, you were like going to more and more, you were showing up at the same ones every year, whatever, trying to do your thing, right? Did you actually get a pub deal off of like someone recognizing like your talent? So good point. Okay, so at a certain point I stopped doing beat competitions. Okay. Um, and then I got to college. I went to Morehouse. Shout out Morehouse. For a very short Very short period. Every school was very short. Yeah, literally, man. I guess you're right. It kind of fit right in with his uh literally. But that was your last school though, right?

It was, yeah. Y'all are hard. That's fine. Y'all got bars, man. It's usually me, but I I fuck with that. Next day coming soon. Yeah, for sure. So produced by Tane Runo. Anyway. Yeah. We need some beats. You feel me? So when I went to Morehouse, it was two, years. Um like the first year I was going to class and shit. I came late. So I didn't understand how college even necessarily worked. I was commuting to school. Um, I had an academic scholarship and shit, but I just did not know how college worked. Like nobody necessarily guided me. I was in the freestyling and shit, but I was making it shake. I was going there for um aerospace engineering. I was about to be an astronaut. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I'm a fly guy, what y'all think, man? I'm saying that's a bar. You feel it? Damn. Yeah, for real. It'd be it'd be quick, man. I know. I can't keep up, yeah. for real. Um, so anyway, uh, went there for aerospace engineering. He actually did. Okay. I didn't know if that was part of his joke. No, no, no.

I went there for I was going there for aerospace engineers to do a degree program. It was a dual degree. So, like, after I did probably like three years at Morehouse, I was gonna be able to go to a school like Michigan. Um, which is crazy. Boo, big boo. Yeah, I know. Fuck the big blue. still, you know, the Ohio State. I'm a real Buckeye guy. I didn't go to Michigan. I could have left that part out of this interview. It's all good, man. Just went south. I can I can edit it out if you guys want. Appreciate you, man. Just bleep it. Yeah, I was gonna go to beep. Where was he gonna go? Just bleep it. So um went for aerospace engineering one day. I was like, I glee that I got an underbite. I got some Clorox wipes, anyway. Um, so went there, and then I had saw a flyer for um a beat competition called I Beat Daily. So shout out Rachel. I saw the competition. I told my brother, I said, listen, this is how we're gonna do the competitions. Because it's like it's not just about your beats being hard. Because I've had the every competition I did, I had the hardest beats.

But that's they don't give a like they give a fuck, but that don't mean shit. It's about how they receiving that shit. Cause if you gotta make sure you're playing the right shit. It's like DJing. You got to feel the room and see what they feeling and shit like that. So yeah, XL Eagle, who produced Tommy Lee by Tyla and Post Malone. He's done a bunch of shit with Jacquees. He's done a bunch of shit with Money Long. I just got one with Jacquees. Shout out to him. Nice. Yeah, he has say yeah with Jacquees that just dropped. Okay. Most recently. So yeah, he's super dope. he's done a like a lot of work with Nard and B, the producers I know, Nard and B? Yeah, so classic. He he had some similar stories about doing a lot of beat battles, and he played like a fire RB beat, and that's like not the move. It's not a battle. beat. A beat battle. Yeah. So he kind of learned the same thing of like, you gotta A pick the right beat, but then you were doing something I feel like different, right? Or what were you doing? Yeah, uh first of all, like man, beat competitions are such a fine thing because it's literally you have to you have to know the crowd. And like if you have to come there with a pre-made set, it can suck because the crowd might just be on some other shit.

You feel me? But me and my brother, I said, we're gonna go up there, like Silent Bob. Was it Silent Jay and such and such Jay and silent bob? Jay and Silent Bob. So I'm gonna go up there, I'm gonna talk proper, and you're gonna be quiet as fuck with a mug on. And I'm gonna present it like we make these beats. Like, you know, we're brothers, we're really brothers, but I'm gonna presenting like we make the beats, so I'll go up there. I'll be like, Good evening, everyone. This is Tane Runo. I'm here with my brother, uh, Nashim. He wasn't going by Wayne at that time. Okay, okay. I'm my brother Nashim, and uh, we are here to present you guys with a lovely experience, uh display, a showcase of some fine tunes. We have uh engendered, and you know, we gandered up, we mustered up the strength to be able to do this today. And I think today or tonight, it is the evening. Yo, what were you wearing as you said this? Man, it's crazy. I was like, you wear like some Urkel shit or something. Nah, hell no. I still had to be fly. Like, I probably had like a Ralph Lauren head to toe or some shit. You feel me? Because you sounded So lame. in my head. like the way you look. I was like, if you would have said that, like looking like that, I don't know if I would have.

But that's the but the thing is they seeing that they like, oh fuck, we did not expect you to first of all talk like that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, like you came here looking like we didn't expect you to talk like that, and your boy, like, and he not saying nothing. He got like a mug on, like, what the fuck is going on? And so all that happening, and then I'm like, all right, and track one play the DJ. Cue me up. You know what I'm saying? Shit like that. And they'll play the beats, and folks will just be like, what the fuck? And ever since I did that, I started winning every competition. Period. Cause they were just like you feel like you set like low expectations in their heads. Exactly. It's almost like, yeah, it's like and then you blow them out of the water. Blow them out, because I know my beats was crazy. I had like you usually in these beat competitions, you got like a certain time. The max time they usually give you probably 60 seconds to play a beat. So you gotta fit like some fly shit in there. And so I'm like, okay, I know what to do. Like I know what to do. I know how to they like it's they like switch ups, they like shit like that. So you gotta know how to put that shit in there. And uh with my brother being there, they it's just innovative.

Like you never heard no shit like that. Still ain't heard no shit like that to this day. And um, people picked up on it. Like, like you can like I feel like I was impactful on just like the beat showcase culture, especially iStandard, like you know, they started making beats similar to that glitch and shit. Like putting just doing a lot of mic, like doing EDM effects on beats, like um like drops, drops, I was big on drops, stutter, stutter edits and shit. Nobody was doing that for real. Like, I remember I went to my friend Def Beats, who I met at the first beat competition. Shout out Def Shout out Def motherfucking beats, man. I love that guy. Um, he's hard. He does a super way. It's an ironic name, by the way. I like that name. It's so crazy because the thing is he made he came up with the name Def because it's supposed to like the whole concept is making beats, like making music like you never heard it before. Like, you know, what I'm saying Love that. you did, like making it like incredibly just innovative and different. That's what we're so big on, just doing something fresh and new. So you did that for a minute. Uh met the freshman at the competition at the same competition I met Def. Uh his team got second place.

And um I went to the freshman's house and Jay Hill was there. So I was playing beats, and then Jay Hill was like, oh, what the fuck? Like, you you cold, bro. Um, let's chop it up. We chopped over a minute, and then I got my first pub deal through uh was it BMG Chrysalis. And then just like that. That's crazy because like you had no hit records out. I had nothing out. You had no records out. No placements. No placements. It was just me being raw talent, like working on music. I didn't know many artists. The artist I didn't know was my like uh this guy named Young Thor. And uh my homie, his name was Self Dread at the time. He's like a brother to me. Uh he goes by Dred Montana for, you know, um, incredible artist. Um Tana Almighty. Um he's he's just so fire. He's like he's a he's like he's a he's a trap artist, and he's incredible. He taught me so much. And it's so crazy to hear the music he makes compared to the music I make. But I was making music with them. No big names or none of that shit. Um and people were just learning my name through these beat competitions and shit like that. And yeah, Jay Hill came across my music after hearing and was like, yo, come fuck with me.

That's crazy. We can make shit happen. That does not happen pretty much at all anymore. So don't take this as advice. that you're going to go to a beat battle and get a pub deal with no records out. It's not going to happen. It doesn't, I'm sorry, it's literally such a rare circumstance that happened. Like I said, I don't it's so it's like some real old school shit. Like they coming across a doo-wop group and like, oh y'all sound good. I'm about to produce y'all or some shit. Like it's like one of those situations, and that's crazy. He just knew, like, okay, you got some shit, so let's take it up through there. And that's when I got my first placement with Travis and Justin right after that. Yeah. So talk about the Justin placement. Yeah. Okay. Can you tell us the like circumstances surrounding this Justin Bieber song? The Justin Bieber record, it's not even officially out. Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna I'm gonna say it's a placement because it was the first time I ever had any like major artists on my shit. Period.

Like, it was crazy. So the beat is this beat called Bad Mind that I made um in Reason. I actually made that beat when I was 16. Wow. In my bedroom. And I added on to it senior year high school. Um that's a gem. Yeah, going back to an old beat. Going back to an old beat, updating it. Listen, I do this shit. I never do that. Man, I did that shit. I got fucking got some fuzz. A perm in my mouth. So fucking um Justin. Uh so I made this beat called Bad Man. That's like a reggae beat super fire. I was like, I'm going to play a beat. and I fucking um, what happened? So years later, did it fuck with it in high school, made a s my final project was over this beat. I'm like, this shit's gonna be cold. I started adding some more shit to it, had people come play guitar and stuff in class. And um one day, I just sent some packs of my my beats to to Jay Hill. So he was um in LA. He had met up with Pooh Bear.

Shout out to Pooh Bear, you know, wrote huge hits for a lot of Justin Bieber hits. Um he even wrote Peaches and Cream for 112. Oh wow. You know. That's his first placement. He wrote that when he was like 15 or 16. Damn. Crazy. Um, so anyway, he ends up meeting with Pooh Bear. I think they had dinner, then they went to the studio that night playing on records. Pooh Bear like did a few references and he said, I got one more record to play you. So he plays Pooh Bear, the Bad Man beat. Pooh Bear says loaded up. He does a record too. He he hits me up. He like, yo, uh Pooh Bear did something to it. I'm like, okay, that's cool. That's what's up. Like, you know what I'm saying? Nothing too much of it. Um, and then probably like a within a month later, he like Pooh Bear hit me, bro. He said, Justin liked the record. I'm like, okay, that's fine. I'm just taking the shit the grain of slug. I'm like, okay, that's that's cool, but put that shit out. And this is like I said, this is my first time having any experience in the actual industry. Um that's crazy that you didn't get so excited. It was because I'm just like most people like are jaded and then they don't get excited, but when you're like early on and you haven't caught these big placements, usually you s you're a sucker to like No for sure. be like, I got Justin Bieber record.

He's so crazy. Even though he's got millions of records he's never putting out. Yeah. I still was a sucker to it because I'm gonna tell you how I still was like, because the thing is, well, this is yeah, I guess. because he was telling me this, but I'm like, okay, cool. But this is why, like I said, you can still get you can still be a sucker to this shit, even at the point I'm about to tell you. Cause one day I'm on the phone with one of my homies talking about like, you know, just future endeavors of my music and shit, and I get a text from Jay Hills. It's a tweet from like a Bieber account or something. It says, uh anti, I think new Justin Bieber produced by Tanruno and Jay Hill. So I'm like, what the fuck? And I click it, and it takes me to Justin Bieber's Instagram page, and it's him in the studio playing the record, him singing on it in the studio. And that's when I went crazy. Okay. So you did. You did get. Exactly. Hook line and sinker. This dude got. Because I'm like. Because I'm hearing it. Like I'm hearing it. He posted it. And he posted it on his page. This is fresh after like journals. So it's supposed to be like a journals part two. Yeah.

All RB records. And I'm like, what the fuck? I was at my, I don't think I was at some old high school people's house. And I'm like, I fucking told y'all I was gonna be the ghost. This shit ain't a fucking gang. I told y'all. was this during like Bieber's heyday of like baby fucked up shenanigans of like. I want this. like I said, it's just after and like Whatever he was doing. It's after journals. So I want to say potentially, like when he was on lean and shit. he was just all fucked. He was going crazy, TPing cribs and shit. Yeah. Um I can't remember what all he was doing, it's just some wild shit. He was going, nuts for he was really his celebrity bag. Um he did not cope well with money. Yeah. I mean, he 18 years old with like 20 million dollars. Yeah, I might mess anyone up. with. I can't fault him, but what the fuck I'm just saying. This is this crazy? He was going, he was double. Yeah, he was having his way, he was having this motherfucking way. So um, yeah, the record, like I heard it, he had posted 11 snippets on his Instagram page. Yeah, I was just like these records, and I'm like, I'm on the next album. Like, yeah, I'm on the next album.

So did you think you were out of here? Oh fuck yeah, it was Justin Bieber. Like, I'm like, y'all, cause I just heard like he just did Journals, like I said, it was an RB album. I'm like, he already been did the pop shit. Now, like, he has this black crowd who loves journals. Like, we man, this fucking Journals is such an incredible project. And I'm like, I know I'm about to be on part two. It's a wrap. Like, yeah. What y'all gonna tell me? I'm the fucking best. You know what I'm saying? So uh yesterday's price is not today's price. It's not today's fucking price, Yeah. Damn me. So he went, um Damn. That happened. I thought this shit was up. Never came out. Yeah. Yeah. Never came out. But you can still hear it. You can. You can't go to it because they ended up getting leaked. Because just Beliebers, man. That's just so funny. Cause when I first made the Twitter, one of my first followers was Justin Bieber. Wow. It's hard. So crazy. Um, he follows fans. I didn't even follow him, which was nuts. He just followed me. So I was just like, you know, You dig your course. Anyway, um, but um, like uh Beliebers were hitting me up, like, yo, can you send me this record? Can you just send me the beat?

Can you? I'm like, I'm talking about they would hit you up in every single way they could find you. It was just wild. Like for years they were hitting me up. Oh, Deshawn told a story about how they went on tour, Childish went on tour with Billie Eilish. Yeah, just because Billie followed Deshawn. he got like 10,000 followers. He only had like 12,000. He said he has 10,000 of them are basically Billie fans. That shit real like these That's crazy to me bro. these pop stars, man. They really garner like devout fans, man. Like these are real ride or die fans. Like, they want to know what your fucking cousin doing, your grandma doing. That's crazy. man. They want to know anything, and they will reach out. Like I said, these Beliebers wasn't playing. Like, I remember one time. So did you give them the record? Fuck no. I was like, so was it? Hell no, I couldn't give them no fucking record. It leaked, so what happened? So I don't know how it leaked, but this is the crazy part. When they were sending. likely story, somebody somebody sent me a snippet one time of um of the record being played somewhere. But apparently what was happening was I heard a story that B-Boy would just ride around the city and then like he'll have like a sprinter or something, and like fans will be there, and he'll like have a he'll like be like, Y'all want to hear some new music and have him come in a sprinter, listen to the new music.

Oh wow. So somebody had recorded outside of the sprinter of him playing the song. So that's the leaked version And then. Nah. the leaked version is CD quality. Oh wow. So I heard I said, Whoa, what the fuck? Like, how are y'all even knowing he's doing this? Like, where are y'all That's crazy? Does he have a schedule or something? Like, send that shit to me. I need to know what the fuck is going on. Like, damn. Um, but then I don't know how the CD quality version got leaked. I just remember one day somebody said, Hey, I have antidepressant if you want to hear it. I didn't, I still didn't respond to none of them to this day. Yeah. Um, and then one day, um, I think it was on YouTube or something. Somebody sent me a link on YouTube. I clicked it. I said, Whoa, that is the fucking song. That's the song song. That's crazy. it got leaked. Um, I actually ended up uh the beat ended up getting remixed by um a Travis Scott affiliate named Ashton Travis. My homie, my homie's Tiege. and um and uh Groove who I met through Childish and Deshawn. Groove is a producer, incredible. Tiege is a producer, also just an immaculate guys, man.

They're awesome. they flipped a beat and did a record for Ashton Travis. Is Groove one of Childish's DJs from the city? He used to be too, yeah. Remember how Childish had like four DJs or something? Groove is the homie, man. Dose used to DJ for him a lot. Dose Diaz. I love Dose, man. Dose is hard, man. Dose is the homie, man. Um okay, so Def Beats uh also played a role in your Nicki placement, right? Yeah. Shout out Yikes. Shout out fucking Yikes. Shout out Nicki. I'm a real fucking barb. You dig? yeah. Nicki. Would you consider yourself more of a believer or a barb? Uh definitely a barb, man. I got to stick, yeah. Yeah, don't real shooters over there, though. They don't fucking play, man. I love it. I love the Barbz, man. Yeah, she's got a cult fan base. She got a super cult fan base. They really ready to ride for her, man. Yeah, that's crazy. But the record with um, man, y'all asked us on five questions. I I don't really get to talk about these shits much, so I'm really happy to do that. That's what we're here for. Yeah, for sure. This shit gonna, you know, when we get to the rock and roll Hall of fame, songwriter hall of fame, they're gonna look back on this like. Yeah, that's what's what we're trying to do.

One more time. Anyway, one more time. Oh five. Okay, one more time. So uh we me and Def was like, this at a point me and Def were staying together. Uh we have been living here for some years. he's really family. He's like a the just he's a he's a brother who's not blood, honestly. Yeah, um it's crazy he called me before I came here. So he um me and him was just talking and they're like, bro, we need to make some loops. Like Q Beats was going crazy with they shit. And we were just seeing like the success they were having. They weren't making no fucking beats for real. And I'm just like, how are they doing this? How are these Germans? I think they're Austrian, I think they're Germans or Austrian, um, European Europeans kill the loop game. Man, they go crazy. They go so crazy, and Q Beats is like they're like the I'm trying to think of the word, but they're like the godfathers of this shit. You feel me? To this day, they still get major placements. They're definitely the gold standard of that world. They are. They're the benchmark. They're the benchmark of like what it is. They set the bar. They did, bro.

They really did. So um, we're like, man, we gotta make loops because that's clearly where it's at. Like, that's how they win it. So we had made these, like, we made like 10 sample packs called the goop packs. And um, we just make them on fruity loops and send them to our homies and shit like that. The first goop pack sample that got used was by Lil Gnar called Jasmine Song. Shout out Gnar. Shout out Gnar. Okay. Shout out Jeremy. Shout out Jeremy. It's crazy because Jeremy, I don't even know if he helped put that one together. Yeah, I don't even think he was with Gnar when this came out. I don't know if he was with Gnar at that point. But Gnar and OG Parker had flipped the sample and called me and Dev's like, Yo, I flipped y'all a sample for this shit. And it's a sample called Rockets. It's a really fast, it's a really fast piano sample we made. And um he used it for that. And then Pooh Beats. Winter Circle published and they got like Pooh Beats, Grizz, uh, yeah, that's a cash. They got everyone. That's Cash Johns. Shit, yeah.

Yeah, man. You know your shit. Okay, for sure. You know your shit, Ben. but so like yeah, go Grizz, uh, another just incredible guy learned so much from him. Pooh and them was all signed, and Def was signing them as well. So Def had um gave some samples to Pooh. I remember he Pooh had flipped a lot of the samples. Pooh had made, if y'all know Pooh Pooh Your Fool, he did Suge for the baby. Pooh you fool for this one. Yeah, Pooh you fool for this one. He did fucking um what else did he do? He did fucking Suge. He did that song for Jack Harlow, What's Poppin'? What's Poppin', Yeah, he did that too. Yeah, so anyway, the one. The one. the one, the one that really took. I mean, it's crazy because Shook really took Pooh shit off, but then that was Jack's shit that was popping, came not too long after that. Um Pooh still goes crazy. Um, a Midwest legend from Michigan though. Wow. Motherfuckin' wow. So anyway, Pooh, yeah.

Pooh had Pooh had uh fucking he had flipped the beat and sent it to us. I mean, so I was like, oh yeah, Pooh, this shit hard. Pooh's drums are always knocking. Shit, this is always incredible. It's just streamlined. One day in the house with Wayne, I think we had just gotten to like a slight argument or some shit. And then he was just playing videos on his phone, and he was just making jokes. He was like, Man, look at Nicki's husband, man. He is dancing so funny. And he was playing it. And I'm listening like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Start that over. That's it. That's my beat. That's my beat. That's my motherfuckin' beat. Yeah. No cap. I was like, that's my motherfuckin'. You sure you want shit, bro. That's how you found out. That's Nicki on my shit. And so because the thing is, she wasn't gonna release yikes. She was just posting a video, like, I'm I'm back in the studio. Then Barz was like, you gotta drop that shit. Like, but but did you did you look back at how you treated the Justin thing and did you like settle yourself when you saw that? I mean, I had to. Or did you still go fucking?

I was gonna say, I knew what it was then because I was like Nicki, because Nicki big. So like it's funny because I had placements after the Justin beat. like I knew how this placement shit worked now. Yeah, essentially. Um, but yeah, I got hype. Cause I I knew my manifestation powers are a little bit stronger. So when I saw I said it's happening, so you had a little bit more of a feeling. I knew it was gonna happen. Like, cause Pooh was popping, you know what I'm saying? Like the shit was undeniable. Woke up the price of Coke. I just can't do it. Couldn't call my folks up. It's just it comes in so fucking epic. Like, yeah, this is gonna go. This is gonna fucking go. It's Nicki fucking minaj, man. And it did, and it fucking did. Platinum record. my first platinum record. Congrats on that one, man. Major. Appreciate that. That's huge. yeah. Now we definitely had a few people tell stories about like them finding out that they most likely got a placement or already did get a placement by like hearing it on the fucking radio. that shit sucks, man. Because like I said, it has to suck. it's like it's it sucks and it's cool. It's a gift and a curse.

I I love to say gift and a curse because of the Jay-Z album. I don't know if y'all ever seen the blueprint. He did like a blueprint and he did like two parts. I think it was for like the blueprint 2, gift and a curse. Anyway. Yeah, yeah. Um, it's a gift and a curse because like I said, sometimes like a record will be so hot sometimes, and you don't know who the sample is, and they like, man, we gotta put it out. You put it out, somebody's gonna hit you up about it. You're like, okay, we're gonna take care of you. Yeah, no, that you're gonna come across some people don't give a fuck who made the sample. Put that shit out, and you try to hit them They're like, okay, so what? But like I had a homie who um Epic Pro, he made don't. He he co-produced don't for uh Bryson Tiller. Oh yeah, it was from a sample pack he had made, and uh the song came out and they didn't hit him about the sample pack, but end up working to where he ended up getting his pub and be able to get his shit and stuff done right. So it's situations where it works out perfectly, and some situations it doesn't. Of course, you always want to get paid before or the day of the record comes out. When it comes to just rap music, I'm not gonna hold you. That is typically not the fucking case.

I don't know about any other industries or any other music, but that's just when I've I've dealt with predominantly uh rap and RB music. That doesn't that doesn't happen like that. Majority of the biggest. Don't hold your breath, guys. Don't don't my experience if the song has gotten a lot of buzz, then the people will do whatever they can to make sure the song stays up. So if the producer comes back and says, and that you sit down. That's my sample. Yeah, that's my sample. I will cease and desist and we will get the song taken down. They'll be like, all right, name your price. You know what I mean? We need this record to keep going. For sure. I mean, and you got some situations where people wait till that shit stacks up and then you know, yeah, which is kind of sheisty, right? It is it's next level because that's the Juice WRLD and sting thing. Obviously, stuff. I don't hate the uh approach though. I'm about to say that's why it's a business, it's a it's a it's a gift and a curse situation. That does make sense to me. Honestly. it's not like they're dodging the people or something that we're putting it out, like that's on them, you know. Not True. Yeah, it's like you gotta know who holds the rights to this music.

I don't know. I guess it is like a childish, like kind of immature, like I'm gonna fuck you harder Fuck them back. But it's crazy because you can like it's not even always unnecessarily I'll fuck you harder. It's just like I'm gonna wait till that shit get big and I'm gonna get my payback. Like it ain't even about you getting fucked over. I'm about to get up. Yeah, yeah. Like, you know what I'm saying? Because, like, okay, like because some people may, if you okay, blurred lines, one of the most controversial ones. You know, they they Marvin Gaye's a state. That record made millions of dollars. Also a rare thing for records that make millions of dollars. People need to understand it. It's yes, it's a big feat. Going platinum is great. The record course made over a million dollars, but everyone on that record has not made a million dollars, Individually. No. At all. Not at all. People definitely overestimate. There are platinum producers who still have jobs right now. That's crazy. For sure. Home depot. Right now, you feel me?

No, for real. Like, this shit is not like you know, it's a shit's not easy. I mean, uh a fucking a whole album uh for an album to count through streaming, it takes 1500 spins in order for it to count as one like actual set. one record sold. Yeah, I'm gonna be honest with y'all. I've looked on my iTunes and I and I've done it by the most the songs I've played the most. I don't have one fucking song over a thousand over a thousand plays, bro. Yeah, I don't have one song over a thousand plays. I don't know. It's just not realistic. But these are the standards of the game. That's how this shit works. Yeah, meaning you personally, if you would have bought the single, that would count as one single sale. You've clearly not listened to one song 1500 times. At fucking, like listen, guys. You'd be insane if you have. That's a lot of that's a lot of listens. That's what I'm saying. Even your favorite songs, you just have not like I literally there's not enough time in your life. Fuck No, it ain't enough time to listen to my song that much. Dude, though. There's too much music now, too. I did that back in the day. Like, my iTunes would keep a count. 1,500? 1,500? Yeah, I'd th I had yeah, like four or five thousand on some like system of a down song.

What? Oh, you different, dude. That's what I'm saying. I have never heard no shit. I don't know what you were hearing, though, bro. Okay. Henri. That's crazy. That's crazy. Henri. Um, all right. So we talked a little bit about this, you know, off camera. Uh, you know, talked about Christo, your relationship with him. Love, because I was just on the phone with him. I saw Christo. So yeah, shout out Stu. Go check his episode out too. For sure. Please go check this out. Link in the top right. My man Benji. Yeah, yeah. Um, yep, we have Benji on too. Benji's my homie. Yeah, love. him. Benji episode in the top, right? Right now. Dang it. What am I what am I offering up here? So we've gotten Jace's perspective on the ROTD3 sessions. We've gotten uh Da'Shawn's perspective on it. I got to hear theirs. We've gotten A couple other people's, I feel like perspective. We've talked about these sessions a lot, but they are legendary, so they deserve to be talked about. You mentioned that it was a pretty pivotal pivotal networking uh opportunity for you. Yeah, man. Paint us the picture of kind of like what your approach was when you when you showed up, right? Because I heard it was chaos.

Like, how did you how did you actually treat being there? You know, just A bunch of rooms, it was a bunch of shit going on. Man, It was so much. It was um, it was it was it was good chaos. Um there's a lot of people there. It was at Tree Sounds. My homies uh Michael Aristotle and uh Oh love him, yeah, Mikey. Yeah, he did a record with Neek uh that I loved Oh, for real? Yeah, am I making Neek? Shout out Michael Aristotle. Yeah. Him and my homie Willie Hendrix. Um Willie Hendrix and Mikey are I know both of them through Wara. You know Wara? Nah, who's Wara? Wara from the neighborhood? Nah, damn. Works with both of them. And him, he's uh good buddies with Grip. Who uh grip. Grip? Nah, I know they know okay. So Grip is how Mikey and Willie guys. okay. Yeah, same circle. Yeah, okay. I went to high school with Willie. Uh and me, him, and Mikey used to hang out a lot in high school. Cool. when I went to Arabia Mountain. Um, so anyway, uh, they were actually like working out of Tree Sounds almost like exclusively at the time. Um, I think they were doing shit with Missy. Cool. so fucking fire. They was working with Missy.

We was in high school together, guys, like coming up together. Oh, wow. Me, Willie, Mikey, Aristotle, uh, Mr. 217. Uh, I don't know if you ever heard of him. He's a 217 on the track, yeah. Atlanta legend. Yeah. Um, we all went to high school together. And so um, one of your high schools, right? One of them. One of them. You was going to high school with everybody. For sure. At least for a few months. At least for a few months. At least. So anyway, um, anyway, I was um my homie Chase the Money also uh shout out to Chase the Money. Shout out to Chase the Money. Shout out to Chase. Chase we both have you on the podcast. Yeah, for sure. Tap in. Get ready, Chase. Come on over here, Chase. So I think me and Chase was like staying together. Me, Def, and Chase was living together, and then Chase was like, uh shit, just come with me to the studio. And Mikey and then was also telling me, like, listen, if you just come up here, we're gonna let you in. Because it was like, you know, they had them flyers, they're like, You've been cordially invited. Right. But people got in that didn't have those. Fuck yeah. It was so deep the first few days. It was so deep, bro. It was so deep. So anyway, went in there. I ended up getting in through Mikey and them, and then linked up with Chase because he was in the room.

And Chase was in a room with Ian from EARTHGANG, Wild Wild Great Deluxe, Christo, um Wayne was in there, Pyrex Whippa. I actually got video footage um of it when we was in there, and everybody was playing beats and shit like that. Um I said Wayne was in there with me, and then uh they passed me the AUX and I started playing beats, and they was like, Oh, you crazy. Yeah. Yeah, I am for sure. And um they was fucking with me. And I just was like hopping from different rooms, met Kid Hazel, met a lot of people there, like ran into Ari Lennox. J. Cole. Um, you know, just shaking hands and shit. I'm not, and I'm not fanboying. I'm in there trying to work. So I met Monty Booker, like over the next course of days and shit like that. And so actually, one of the times I was playing beats, because my name was gaining buzz around the the camp after like you know for the week. About day two or three, I was playing beats, and uh, Monte and them was next to me. That's the first time I met Monty, and they were just, we was in a room and it was crowded, and everybody was just surrounding me. Uh, me, Monty, and I think this guy, I forget the other guy's name.

Damn. Um Shout out to him. Ron Gilmore. Oh, there you go. Shout out to Ron. So I was I had the aux and I was playing shit. These beats are just next level. And they just like uh Zeke from since the 80s goes, yo, yo, yo, yo, come here. Come with me. Takes me to the A room. And then fucking um, he took me to the A room. DJ Toom was playing beats. Shout out to Toom. Toom. Toom. matter of fact, Toom just had uh, I think Atlanta just gave him a Toom Day in Atlanta. Cool. Yeah, he's a man. He's a legend. A Major for sure. So Toom had played some beats, and then um right after that, they said, okay, play some beats, Tang. And it's a packed ass room. It's the A room. Packed ass room. I'm like, all right, shit. Boom. Oh my god. Yo, everybody, you so fucking fire, you raw. Da, da, da, da, da. And then, you know, just kept working and networking me and people throughout that time. And so I didn't make it on the project. I was salty at first because I've seen so many people on my timeline. Like, yeah, I'm on the album.

How many songs did you do you think got made with your production? I don't know. Because I remember one time I was just in the studio uh making some shit with Kid Hazel and Death and Mies. Uh I think his name is Yeah, Mies. And um Yeah, Mies is dope. Him and uh Louis G. From the West Coast. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Okay. I haven't seen Mies in such a moment. yeah. their artist is this dude, Kyle Banks. He's pretty dope. Kyle Banks is actually a producer. He's also a producer. Yes, he is. He's mainly, he's actually crazy part of his. Kyle is getting into his artist shit. Kyle is one of the coldest producers. He's mainly doing a lot of. He's kind of like a childish character. Because he's kind of like- Him and Childish are very close. Yeah, yeah, okay. Him and Childish are very close. Um I'm I was actually with Kyle and Childish out in LA. He was at the soul house at a party. Kyle was DJing. Kyle does a lot of shit for Doechii. A lot of shit for Isaiah Rashad. Oh, dope. Kyle is one of the coldest creators, Period. period. He's a dope like RB singer too, though. He does sing and rap. Oh, yeah, exactly. He's kind of- Kyle also produces for Baby King. He put me on the Baby King.

Oh, wow. When I first met him, he put me onto a guy named Kiefer and Baby King. He said, You know what I'm talking about? this guy named Baby King He said, That's all I've been working with. I was like, okay, cool, I'm gonna take him out. And at first I didn't I didn't understand. I was like, this sounds like some regular trap shit. Then I started listening to more. I said, okay. This is very special. guy named Baby King. Yeah. And then, you know, voila. So that's his history. The rest is history. So that's how I met a lot of those folks and shit. I like I said I didn't get none on the project, but it ended up eventually getting me my relationship with Dreamville, EARTHGANG, and JID and Stowe and all them. What is your relationship like with them now? EARTHGANG, it's um it's cool. Like, I mean, I don't really talk to those guys much. Like they do their own thing. They going up, I'm going up, but they just turned up. They doing their thug thug shit Yeah. For sure, for sure. It's crazy. I have I recorded them okay uh when I very first started uh learning to produce an engineer probably ten years ago. Oh fuck. Barely knew what I was doing. They were signed to Think It's a Game with like Trinidad and Rich Homie. Remember that one? I was just with Cyhi because when Cyhi's dad used to be a part of Think It's a Game. Um he used to be hanging out with them and I actually was looking at it's so crazy.

I was looking at some I think a YSL documentary or some shit, and they were talking about them wanting to Think It's a Game in the documentary and Rich Homie, Lucci, uh Trinidad, Jacquees, Jacquees, Forte Bowie. Yeah, all of these folks was on was on Think It's a Game, like a real staple of Atlanta music culture for sure. Not anymore. So not anymore. Not at all. So speaking of Cyhi, he's also another he's also another character that's made his uh way into our podcast at least a few times because either been shouted out, people that have worked with him, whatever, right? Tell us about your involvement with his latest project and kind of how that came about. Um so Cyhi randomly ran into a big fan of his. Um was watching his freestyle videos when I was coming up as a kid and just what he did on So Appalled was just amazing. Well, yeah, he just he's just so cold. Anyway, I was at R. Thomas with a friend of mine, uh K. Shout out to K. And um we went to fucking um we were at R. Thomas and I went up there, I said, Yo, you might not know me. This is the day after Yikes went Platinum. So I was like, yo, I'm Tank

Runo, this that and the other. Um I do this and the other. So matter of fact, I did Yikes just went platinum yesterday. He said, Oh, where he said, I heard you. I said, Where he said I'm through the letter M. Shout out to Shout out letter M. M is also someone who was texting me earlier, so I left him on read and he texted me just the eyes, you know. Yeah, of like You should send him a picture of us. I I will after we get done for sure. Malik. Um yeah. We also had a guest um FaceTime him uh uh during the episode, and he was taking a shit. And he promised to to do the podcast. Oh no, he's on my ass now. He already sent me some people to like chat with. Like the shit. He he basically commented that he's shitting on people daily. Is his punny, his punny way of saying he's he's taking his shit. For sure. But yeah, so letter M. So we're getting you on the show. It might actually already be happening at this point. Yeah, for sure. By the time this comes out, shout out to the letter M, man, another creative, another Eastside legend, man who's impactful upon just how I think and what I do shit. So anyway, M, he had been talking to Cyhi.

I remember one time he had FaceTimed me with Cyhi, because they was, I guess, cooking up and shit. He's like, Yes, my homie Tank, he's playing my beats in there and shit. I said, damn, Malik, I appreciate you, bruh. Because you didn't have to do that. Yeah, but she made a very smart decision. So anyway, um, he did that, and, uh, Cyhi said, okay, yeah. So I sent Cyhi some beats through text. He texted me like, Yo, can you come to the studio today? And I'm like, okay, let's let's get like I was busy, I said let's link up the next few days. Linked up, came, heard the He was playing me the project called The Story of EGOT. if you don't know what EGOT is it's gonna be something that I'm gonna be getting. Emmy Grammy Oscar Tony. Yeah, it's all it's all four. Yeah, yeah. God, what if y'all wanted to, you know what I'm saying? Get your get your junk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, get your shit. I really want the P-GOT, the P-GOT, which is the Pulitzer, the LVMH award, and the EGOT. You know, oh wow Pleasy season. So, you know, stamp that. Anyway, shout out to Tim Type B, Baby Rose's producer, and he also produced on Tim Type B who just uh mentioned him too. Someone just mentioned him. Vision, I mean Vision, uh fucking uh Sean, I think maybe okay. So Tim Type B, producer of Baby Rose, he also did three records on the new Kendrick album.

Uh that I hope you find a piece of mine. Yeah, yeah, Yeah, I might have to bleep that out, but yeah, that's my homie Tim. Very, very good friend of mine. We coined pleasy season. So anyway, um working at MetSide. We went to the studio and he played me his Story of EGOT project. And then he played a record called Slide. I said, ooh, that's fire. Shout out to Slim Wave and Go Grizz who are on the production. He said, Tank, can you just like do a switch up on this motherfucker something? I said, sure. Did a switch up. He like, damn, that was fire. Can you do something else? And so he started bringing me other records. He brought Slide. He brought the record uh Tears with Jacquees on it. Um he did a record called So Help Me God featuring uh Baby Rose and Lizzo, I think is on that record. And um this is on the EP EGOT. And it's one of the records, Slide Tears uh So Help Me God and Extra. Ed Sclusive also who produced uh I'm All the Way Up, uh co-produced on all those records.

So me and him co-produced on all those records. And yeah, me and Cyhi, did that, and then we got some more shit coming out for his album where I touched on all the records and shit like that. All of them. Mm-hmm. Crazy, for sure. So did you end up getting an EP credit? Yeah, well, I didn't get an EP credit because Ed Sclusive was the official EP producer. Yeah, like I came on some post-production type shit. Yeah. Um had you done that before for any other artists? Uh post-production type shit. Yeah. Man, that's actually like one of the main things people come to me to do is help close the album. Really? Yeah, I mean, I manifested that because like you want your like people have these visions of how they want their projects to stand uh sound. Like the benchmark of a classic project, I think a lot of the people I work with or a lot of musicians, especially black musicians, um rappers, especially, and RB artists, it's Kendrick's, any Kendrick project, but Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. City. Yeah, or that's like the gold standard of the stuff. You feel me? The Skits, it's very it's a storyline, it's very streamlined, it's it's great sequence and sequential order. Um, another great album that's just seamless is Roddy Ricch's debut album, which he has like strings and shit attached to it.

It's one long song, yeah. And so they want to make this experience bigger than just me pressing play. You just press and play and just going, cool. They want to make it like a full embodiment. You feel me? That's how I feel. Yeah, listening to a lot of albums, yeah. Cool. No, but um, so like you just you you want to like bridge it together and like like add strings on a part or like make it sound like you want to uh in a like just give an environment and shit like that. That's my type of shit right there, man. I love that stuff. So and like I can that's another specialty. My I can do, I got I really can do it all top tier level, no cap. That's how I've always felt when I manifested I was gonna do that. But that's what's really been happening. So people use like what typically call a tank. I'm trying to wrap up the album. Can you come check this shit out and help me bridge it together? That's that's a cool, a cool niche to for sure because I feel like it's Rick Rubin-esque. Exactly. Yes, exactly. Very Rick Rubin-esque. That's amazing. Yeah, well, this has been great, man. You got some amazing stories, I appreciate it, man. some great impersonations. That would have a... Yeah, exactly.

No, this has been great. We really appreciate you coming on. Yes, sir. And M, we're getting you on the show soon. Yes. Would love yo, Cyhi did comment on one of our posts for real saying that he would do an interview, and then I DM'd him and he didn't open it. I'll call Cyhi, can you fucking make that happen, bro? And remind him that he already agreed. Say less. Yeah, Say less, just be like, you know, if he's heard of the One More Time podcast like five times, eventually he's gotta do it. Yeah, for sure. I'm looking. We're going to get Cyhi. I mean, that's what happened with M. He also said he would do it like you know, 10 episodes ago. We're gonna get We're going to get... we're going to get... And then he got FaceTimed on the show, and he was like, God damn it, I guess I gotta do this. We're on people's asses. Literally, yeah. So Jesus. Yeah, appreciate you coming on, man. Henry, until next week, what are we doing? Getting out of here, getting out of here. Peace.