I wanted Phil to give me like a Dwele vibe… like a grown and sexy vibe. Like all white party. Beautiful women on couches. Like shit I ain’t got work tomorrow, I’m bout to go up you feel me?

Me and Phil and Money used to just be like… I was very impulsive. Very. Because I was making music every day. I’m like, ‘Let’s go to the studio. Nah. Let’s have a party. Nah let’s hoop. Then go to the studio. Then have a party’. Niggas would be like, “Slow down.” That’s always been my problem.

When I’m inspired, I just want to do everything. So, towards the end of the session, I’d be like, ‘Y'all got two or three hours in the studio to start mixing some records. I'ma take a nap. Have that motherfucker lit.’ I used to come downstairs in my pajamas. That shit used to look like Studio 54 in that motherfucker.

I remember one party, we had this big ass bowl. And that joint had so much pack inside. It was so much pack! I never seen that much pack in front of me. Different flavors, colors, all that shit. That shit look like some shit off of Entourage, man. And I’m like, ‘Damn. I don’t even know these people, but this shit is a vibe.’

The police shut that motherfucker down like three times. I remember one time he came through and was like, “Man I can’t even be mad. This shit looks…” Even outside, you could see the lights coming from the living room. That shit was just a vibe. I’ll be back, L.A.

Don C hats is crazy. I can’t fit none of my shit no more because I got too much hair, but, that was just a little homage, keeping in line with the fashion concept.

‘Shea Butter Twitter’ can be whatever you interpret it as. Some people think it’s all black people. Some people think it’s hotep, you feel me. It’s kind of one of them things, it’s whatever you think it is.

Bee-High, that’s Jay’s cousin. Chaka is one of the bosses at Roc Nation. All the successful motherfuckers over there, you gone see Chaka somewhere around working. Wonderful woman. Love Chaka to death. Black Bo. Always with Rozay. Anytime you see the OG with the gold teeth, that’s always right next to Ross holding shit down? That’s Black Bo. Pucci is the old president of Maybach Music, and I remember he gave me so much game when I first got there and, you know, even when me and Meek was going through our stuff, he was trying to… Ace is Rich, right? Rich Kleiman is the second manager I had after Dan Wiseman. Dan ended up going to Roc Nation too. Rich is the second manager, but he ran to Lito when I was with Mark. Rich took me to Roc Nation. So I was signed to Lito as an artist, but me and Rich wanted to keep working so he started managing me at Roc Nation. And you know, we had a good run. And I felt like maybe at some point his heart wasn’t in it no more. Because he was always a sports guy. And you know, Roc Nation started doing sports. And I remember I introduced him to a lot of people. He introduced me to a lot of people. And now he manages KD. I was a little but fucked up at first. I lost my manager. You lose your manager, it’s difficult to recover from that. Because a lot of niggas ain’t gone keep it 100 with you. A lot of niggas ain’t really good at they job. But Rich… He’s a close friend now.

But that was just a lil nod. If it wasn’t for Rich, there would be no Wale. He the one convinced Mark Ronson to sign me. It was another lady. I forgot her name. But she talked to Rich. Her and Rich was cool. She was like, “Yo. This kid from D.C. is fire! You need to fuck with him.” Then he was convinced and he convinced Mark to sign me. Mark was on 50/50 and Rich was like… But now he manage KD and you know. And Tony is Kevin’s brother. I’m sure me and Tony sat courtside together a lot of times. And you know, everybody know the Shammgod joint. Kyrie and Westbrook do it all the time. You go see Kevin at Berry Farms, he liable to tear your Achilles' tendon.

So we end it off with one of my closest friends, Kevin Durant. Me and Kevin going on almost 10 years now. One of my closest friends, that’s from 10 minutes away from where I’m from, living his dream. We all visualizing, and it’s like, “All I wanna do is live my dream.” We rooting on one of our heroes from the DMV.

That nigga so wise bro. I mean, two times that stick with me. One, he was like, “Man, sometimes friends are gonna be like seasons, bro. You might think it’s all love, then a year from now it’s ‘whatever happened to…’” Sometimes it just goes like that. It just taught me to be a little more cautious of shit like that. And the other time was… I was clinically insane for like a week, when my cousin Bo died. A day after his first child was born. Going back to work. Somebody drove on the wrong side of the road and hit him. That’s it. And I was so fucked up, bro. I just used to go outside and I remember my eyes would be so swollen and I’d be drinking Hennessy all day. Throwing up. I just didn’t care. And I remember three people that I talked to in the industry. Kendrick was one. Kendrick said some shit to me that changed my life. For real. It changed my whole life. 2 Chainz. Because I was living in Atlanta at the time. And Jay. And Jay told me something… I’ll keep that private, but he told me something that just let me know this nigga ain’t what a lot of people think. He’s a little bit deeper than niggas think he is. He’s a little bit more with it. You gotta see the signs though. You gotta see the signs around Jay about what type of person Jay Z really is. And he gave me all that game, dog.

That’s just a play on “Chillin'” Listen Band let me rock a couple times. Backyard let me rock a bunch of times. UCB let me rock a lot of times. Red Essence. TCB. Rest In Peace Polo. I rocked with Chuck one time. So I mean when I was young, I was rapping in different Go Go bands and I used to just be rapping. No chill. Just go in. That was my bottom level trying to make it and prove myself, and, you know, nobody really knew who I was and then I used to just keep going. That’s why I kind of got a delivery like I’m at the Go Go sometimes. Even on “Fashion Week.” As far as Gaga, you know in “Chillin',” that scene where I’m holding her in my hands and shit. Shoutout to Chris Robinson and Lady Gaga. To this day, that’s one of her only rap features. One of two, maybe. In retrospect that was very important. But I was so young at the time, I didn’t really put it together. I didn’t really get the importance of me breaking barriers and doing shit like “Justice” and Lady Gaga is my first single at the time. I didn’t really know what it was. I was just like, “Oh this is cool.” Looking back on it, I’m like “Damn.” So, that’s just me reflecting on that shit. Because, you know, this song is about reflecting. And telling people my story, if they forgot or don’t know. Be reacquainted with me.

That was maybe 2007. I was seeing this one girl. She lived in northeast Washington and… The Fader. Source. Unsigned Hype. Both of them, back to back. I remember I was working at the shoe store. My phone ring. “Hello, this is Mark Ronson.” I said, “I know who you are.” I went to go see him. He said, “Would you like to come to London with me?” I went to London and I was there for three months. I came back and everyone wanted to sign me. Jay Z, Clive Davis, all these ones want to sign me. I went to go see Jay Z at Def Jam. He said, “I’m leaving here soon. Don’t sign here. You should go… Just be managed by Roc Nation and you will be fine.” I signed with Roc Nation then we go to Interscope and get the deal, and then you know the rest.

it’s just like survivor’s remorse a little bit. I’ve always dealt with that in my career. Trying to do too much for people from home and I can’t afford it. I’m not the richest. A lot of us niggas at the top is really just trying to stay there. But, my heart too big. I forgive a lot, you know what I’m saying? I don’t know. Sometimes I be like, “We really could do this together,” but you really can’t save everybody. You can’t save everybody. Like, all the niggas in the draft, this year going through it right now. They trying to figure out how they can help every nigga they played AAU with. Every coach. I often wish I could save everyone, but I’m a dreamer.