Nightcap Hour 1: Unc & Ocho react to Bengals-Commanders + Browns name week 1 starter + Joey Bada$$ Joins | Nightcap

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Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us for another episode of Nightcap.

Y'all know me, I'm your favorite uncle, Shannon Sharp.

My partner and co-host is having technical difficulties.

Hopefully, we can get him connected.

If not, it's going to be you and I tonight.

But hopefully, we can get him connected here in the next few minutes and get everything going.

But he is having technical difficulties.

We are trying to get him connected as we speak.

But hopefully, we'll get an opportunity to talk to Ocho, and Ocho will be able to chime in in just a little bit.

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Okay.

What was we suspected all along?

Kevin Stefanski said he was going to name a starter today, and he did.

And just like Ocho and I surmise, it's Joe Flacco.

The 40-year-old, we're

making his first week one start since 2022 when he's with the Jets.

TBD on the rest of the depth chart, Kenny Pickett has not played since he tweaked that hamstring.

Dylan Gabriel got the start on Saturday.

Shador did not play because of an oblique injury.

He started the first regular preseason game.

and Tyler Snoop Huntley is also on the list.

Adam Schefter said this morning, I expect the Cleveland Browns to carry four quarterbacks on their 53-man roster.

Wow.

That doesn't normally happen.

It's just, I think they're afraid that if they let one of these guys go, somebody's going to snatch him up.

You'd probably like to probably, you know, cut them and then have them come back on the practice squad, but they don't feel they can do that.

They feel that if they were to release Gabriel, excuse me, release Dylan Gabriel or Shadur Sanders, somebody would sign him to their active roster.

And you don't want to run that risk.

Guy that's been in your program for the better part of six months,

April, since April since the draft.

So you don't want to run that risk.

Excuse me, guys.

But I don't think any of us are surprised that Joe Flacco got named a starter.

He didn't play, but Stefansky did, the head coach, Kevin Stefansky did say they're going to treat this as a dress rehearsal of of what they might do in week one.

So Joe Flacco is going to get the start for the final preseason game,

and we'll see how that works out.

But I don't think we're surprised.

I don't think any of you are surprised that Joe Flacco was named a starter.

You look at Kenny Pickett, he has not been able to do anything, any team drills since he tweaked that hamstring early, early in training camp.

Obviously, Dylan Gabriel was nicked the first, you know, first for about 10, 11 days.

Then he came back.

Shador played really well the first game.

Then he got an oblique injury.

He was out.

And then Dylan Gabriel took it over and then he

played fairly well.

I mean, he had a pick.

But I don't think either guy did anything.

I mean, look,

you are where you are.

I mean, some people say, well, Dylan Gabriel has played better.

I haven't heard anybody say that, but some people like Dylan Gabriel and think what he brings to the table.

I was listening to somebody today say Dylan Gabriel has a stronger arm, throws with better anticipation.

I don't know if I necessarily agree with that or believe that.

It's going to be a very tough decision, but in order for them to carry four quarterbacks, that means

they're not really sure.

And they don't want to make the mistake.

Nobody wants to make the mistake and get off one of these quarterbacks, have him go somewhere else and play really, really well when we had him in our folds.

So that's what I deduce from that.

Cleveland put themselves in the bind by signing Joe Flacco to a one-year.

I think they traded for Kenny Pickett and then selecting two quarterbacks, one in the third, one in the fifth.

And you find yourself in a situation because none of these quarterbacks really have separated themselves from the rest of the guys.

Pickett didn't really get a chance to separate himself because he's been injured for the better part of training camp.

And so I don't know.

Does he start?

I don't think he started on pup.

How is he progressing, Ash?

Do we know anything about how he's progressing?

Be interesting to to see.

I don't think you put him on pup because you put him on pup, he's going to put him down for six weeks.

I don't think it's going to take that much length of time.

He'd be out almost three months with a hamstring injury.

He hasn't been just filled in a night

since starting for a sense.

Wow.

So we're coming up on a month.

Funny that you say that because Justin Jefferson just returned to practice and he was out for 25 days.

And we're going to talk about that in a little bit.

But these hamstrings are very, very tricky.

You want to err on the side of caution.

The last thing you want to do is miss that amount of time.

Come back and tweak it again because you're probably going to double the amount of time that you're going to miss moving forward.

So Cleveland Browns named Joe Flacco as their starting quarterback.

They did not give a depth chart after Joe Flacco.

Normally it was Kenny Pickett two,

Dylan Gabriel three, and Shadura Sanders four.

But I guess that's in the next couple of days.

We'll find out.

We'll see how healthy Shadur is.

oblique healed well enough for him to get some action in game uh uh in the final preseason game um we'll see um but joe flacco name starter for the cleveland browns to start the 2025 season

titans quarterback cam ward got into a scuffle with dt jeffrey simmons and cam cam ward and defensive lineman jeffrey simmons got into a scuffle on monday ward threw a touchdown pass to calvin ridley toward the end of practice and went over to celebrate the rookie quarterback stopped gave simmons a shove before doing the trademark zombie land celebration in front of him simmons reacted with a two-hand two-hand shove towards face mask.

The offensive lineman came running to help towards defense.

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I think we kind of had a conversation.

We kind of had a conversation about this a couple of days ago.

I wish Ocho's connection would get fixed because this is what I wanted to ask him.

I think both guys need to be smarter in a situation like this.

That's your starting quarterback.

You're only going to go as far as he take your Jeffrey.

So, look, you don't want to do anything to hurt that guy.

He's the number one overall draft pick, and all your hopes and aspirations are pinned on his shoulder.

Now,

Cam, that's your team, mate.

You know what I mean?

Come on.

And it's been a long day of practice.

They said this happened towards the end of practice.

And anytime like that, you know, guys are frustrated.

I didn't want you to score, but

you stopped and celebrating my face.

You know,

I'm not feeling too well.

That might be the reaction that you get.

But normally teammates,

I couldn't imagine, to be honest with you, have John celebrated?

Yeah, absolutely.

But I couldn't imagine an offensive lineman, I mean, excuse me, a defensive lineman doing something like that to seventh.

I don't remember being on a team where a defensive player would do that to the quarterback, understanding how important the quarterback is to the team's success, especially the starting quarterback, maybe the second or third team, something like that.

But the starting quarterback, nah,

I can honestly say in my 14 years, I've never been in a situation where I've seen something quite like what's being reported coming out of Tennessee, where the quarterback throws a touchdown pass late in the ball game.

He shoves Jeffrey Simmons.

I don't know why he shoved Jeffrey Simmons, but if you shove one guy, you should probably expect to shove back.

I'm just surprised that he shoved Simmons to to begin with.

Maybe I shouldn't be as surprised that Simmons shoved him back because at that point in time, I'm not looking at you as a quarterback.

I'm looking at somebody that shoved me

and I'm going to shove you back.

Glad he didn't know nobody got injured.

The offensive linemen did what they were supposed to do, run to Cam Wars defense.

That's what's supposed to happen.

Somebody attacks your quarterback.

You come hella high water.

You defend that guy.

Right, wrong, or indifferent.

You defend your quarterback.

We'll address it and we'll figure it out later.

Hey, man, don't do that.

Hey, you're too valuable.

Don't get into no, you know, no shoving matches.

Don't say anything to those guys.

Let them do all that talking.

We don't have to worry about that.

But

I can honestly say

I've never seen a situation.

In my years of being around football, when I was at Denver, when I was at Baltimore, and when I went back to Denver, I don't remember that happening in high school.

I don't remember it happening in college.

Not to say that it haven't happened.

I haven't been around and haven't seen every situation that arises on a practice field or in a locker room.

but I like to speak to the things that I've seen, and I can speak clearly and intelligent on it.

But

this must have been something that was brewing for a significant time.

And emotions ran high.

And

I guess Cam Ward shoves Jeffrey Simmons.

And Jeffrey Simmons is like, I don't know who you think you are.

I understand you're the starting quarterback.

You're the first overall pick.

But now I'm finna throw that out the window and shove you in the face.

So hopefully

nobody got injured.

Glad no punches.

Hopefully no punches were thrown.

Nobody damaged a hand or a wrist or a fist or anything, a finger, anything like that.

And they're going to be good to go for the final preseason game, Friday, Saturday, or whenever these guys play.

And then hopefully everybody goes into the season healthy and with no lingering injuries.

But

I guess we live in

a different time now.

Jimmy Johnson recalls not letting the Cowboys eat on the plane after a loss in his Netflix show.

The former Dallas Cowboy head coach revealed during a clip in Netflix, America's team, the gambler and his cowboys, that he once prevented the team from

eating a meal on a flight home following a loss.

After that loss, we got on the plane.

I'm just fuming because the way we played.

So the flight attendants start to serve and I say, no, no meal.

They don't deserve to eat.

I want them to be naughty.

I want them to be nauseated, to be sick to their stomach when they lose, because that's how I felt.

Is this what's been missing from the Cowboys today?

A leader that wants to win so badly that he'll take your food away.

That's not uncommon.

Dan Reeves,

that happened to us.

We lost a ball game and he took lunch away.

Like, I ain't paying for y'all to eat.

Y'all hungry?

Y'all go get your own damn food.

It's never happened on a plane.

And man, you got to realize, like, when you go to get on that plane, because you haven't probably eaten since pregame.

And according to when the game was.

So, you know,

you play the early game, you playing at 1 o'clock East Coast time, and you get on the plane to fly back home.

You haven't eaten probably since 10 o'clock, 10.30 at the absolute latest for

a 1 o'clock game.

And then by the time you get...

on by the time you get because they give you an hour after the game you got an hour to basically get from the field to the locker room get showered, do your interviews, get to the bus, bus, get to the airport, go on the tarmac, you get off.

Normally that takes about an hour, about 60, 70 minutes.

So think about how long that's been.

Now you're on a plane.

Now, I don't know where they were coming back from to get to Dallas.

Let's just say it's New York and you haven't eaten until 10, since 10.

That's a long time.

And now you understand why the Cowboys were how they were.

Jimmy trimmed the fat.

There was no excess fat

with the Dallas Cowboys when Jimmy played.

And you see, now, if a coach probably tried to do that now, Jerry said, nah, let him eat.

And then guess what?

Team's going to eat.

But

that'd be,

that's old school coaching.

I don't know.

I don't even know if that'll fly now.

Chad, y'all think that would have fly now?

I don't think that would fly now.

Man, I think the players would lose their damn minds if a coach said, nah, we're not finna eat.

Nobody's gonna eat on the plane home.

That's old school coaching.

That's the way they did it in the probably 70s, 80s, and 90s.

Like I said, not on the plane, but lunch, it happened.

And

you made sure if you lost the game, you gave better effort.

Because I think the thing is with Jimmy said, I wasn't happy with the, yeah, we lost it.

I'm ticked off that we lost the game, but I didn't like the effort that we gave in losing the game.

Because, you know, you're not going to win every game, but sometimes the effort, you saw yesterday, the Bills lost, what, 38-0.

And you see, McDermott had a problem.

He was upset with them.

So

it's tough.

It's tough.

There's an expectation that when you play, especially when you got the Cowboys, you're talking about Emmett, you're talking about Troy, you're talking about

Michael Irvin and Charles Haley.

I mean, they were all those Hall of Famers.

There's an expectation that

when you take that field, you win this game.

And even if you don't win, how you play is as important.

And Jimmy, clearly, clearly, but this is Jimmy Johnson.

Like I said, there is no excess fat when Jimmy Johnson is your head coach, be it

Oklahoma State, be it Miami, be it

Dallas, Miami.

Hey, you got to get it.

You got to get it.

Jimmy Johnson is going to get it at you.

Whatever you got in, Jimmy's going to get it at you.

I'm not surprised that he said this.

I'm not surprised because, you know, talking to some of the guys,

they like, hey,

Jimmy cracked the whip.

Jimmy was not a guy.

Jimmy did not BS.

Jimmy was hardcore.

You know what to expect.

Look, as long as I know what to expect, I'm cool.

You go to, it's probably a little different if you never had a coach like that.

I mean, that's all Emmett knew.

That's what a lot of these guys knew.

So it probably wasn't a big thing.

It would probably be different if you've been somewhere else and it's not even close to that for six, seven years.

And then you come to that like I said it's always easier to be tough and lighten up as opposed to lighten and then try to toughen up because guys look at you a certain way

having Dan Reeves as my coach an old school guy that learned cut his teeth under Tom Landry practices were hard training camp was hard so I know any anyone that I got after coach Reeves was gonna be a piece of cake ain't no way training camp and practices and could be any more difficult than what I had already had gone through for three years.

But I'm not surprised by that.

I'm going to make sure I watch this because I want to see, you know, you've heard a little bit of the stories, but to hear Emmett and hear, you know, obviously talking to Emmett and we came out together in 1990 and the playmaker and I are good friends.

But to hear Jimmy from his own mouth, to hear Troy and hear some of the other guys talk about it, Coach Prime is in it, to hear some of these guys talk about it.

That's going to be, I think it's going to be very, very good.

And it explains to you why the Cowboys had the success that they had in the early 90s, especially under Jimmy.

They had a down year in 94, where they didn't have a down year.

They went to the NFC championship game, and then they bounced back in 95 when they get Coach Gip time to come over from San Francisco.

They went to the Super Bowl in 95 and it's kind of been, hadn't been back to a championship game since they went to the Super Bowl and won it 95 season, 96.

So we're approaching 30 years in which the Cowboys have not went gone.

whatever terminology you want to use to an NFC championship game.

That's a long time

when you talk about America's team and when you talk about some of the better players that they've assembled on that team, you look at the all-pros, you look at the Pro Bowl players that they consistently have year in and year out, there's no excuse for why the Cowboys haven't gone to an NFC championship game, at least multiple, considering some of the teams that have gone into an NFC championship game.

So

I think a lot of you guys, Cowboy fans or Cowboys haters, want to see why the Cowboys were so successful in the early 90s.

And I think watching this will give you a glimpse into why, how he practiced, how they met.

Hopefully they tell the story about the guy

that Jimmy, I know, I'm sure they are going to tell the story about Jimmy cut a guy that fell asleep in a meeting.

And

well, he cut one guy because he fumbled a football last game of the season.

So they cut him.

And then they cut another guy they cut because he fell asleep in a meeting.

And a reporter asked him, asked him if that was Troy that had fallen asleep in the meeting.

Would he cut him?

He said, No, I'd have woke him up.

It just goes to show you treat everybody fair, but you don't treat everybody the same.

That's Jimmy.

Coach Prime says his punishment for any player that hits the quarterback.

For the players who violate the rule, consequences range from up-down, stadium runs, etc.

This is definitely an

old school way of disciplining players.

But do you think this style of punishment can work in the NIL era where guys may transfer from one up down?

Yeah,

I don't know if this style of punishment worked because I think some guys are already looking.

You can't really coach a kid.

Now you coach a kid hard.

He'll jump in the transfer portal.

Somebody offering him $50 more than what you're paying him and you ticked him off or he didn't get as many reps as he thought.

He didn't get as many targets as he thought.

He didn't play as many plays as he thought they jump in the portal now this is this is real business this is like like a real job like i'm on a job and i don't i don't i don't like my boss i quit and go find me another job leave you high and dry and that's that's just the era that we're living living in now um you know what coach prime is he's trying to get his point across the last thing that you want to do is hurt is uh have your players uh hurt one another

i'm glad to see our technical technical difficulty guy

is joining us

You got us on Joe?

Yeah, boy.

I'm sick of the motherfucker

Can you hear me?

Yeah, I got you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

How about how about how about them boys tonight

Boy, y'all defense steal some trash.

Wait a minute.

Wait a minute now.

Let's not do that.

Let's not do that.

Now, we look very bad on the first Tuesday that the commanders had the ball.

They took their their starters out

but we look better we look better from that point on let's be optimistic let's be optimistic about the situation oh joe did you see how did you see how they ran down the field oh y'all yeah

i like that i i can i can tell you who blew the assignment i can tell you who blew the assignment who blew the assignment the mic the mic backer the mic scrape over the top he knows

he's scraping underneath you knowing you can't get there underneath and all the shooting

he tried to put a ray lewis over

what are we doing what are we doing and they did it twice.

Did it twice.

And the guy bounced right outside and he gone.

We had a conversation last night.

I said, Ocho, I want to see their backs, and it'll give us a better understanding why Brian Robinson Jr.

is on the trade block.

Well, we see why he's on the trade block.

We saw those two backs from Washington.

Now it makes sense.

I don't know how much you could speak for yourself, but it makes a ton of sense to me.

It does make sense, but obviously, Brian Robinson, we've seen what he can do.

And I just saw some reports, obviously doing my little homework talking about he runs a little bit timid, not hitting the hole, and just stuff like that.

I'm not sure if the injury history is probably a cause of that, but obviously, they like the young bulls, especially Bill.

He doesn't want to be called Jacob.

His name is Bill.

Bill,

Bill.

Uh,

hold on, he got

Rodriguez.

No, no, the other one, the other one.

Oh, oh, uh, uh, Cosky.

Because what's his full name?

The one that

Jayden Daniels got the ball back for?

Yeah, yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

C say he wanted to be called Bill.

I'm going to call him Bill.

Okay.

Yeah, he looked at him.

I mean, 30 rush attempts, Ocho, for 185 yards and two touchdowns.

I mean, you look at it, the two top guys, 17 rushes between the two of them for 108 yards.

And y'all got, look,

Lovu.

Everybody in the stadium, everybody at home knew the Bengals were not going to snap that ball at the 38-yard line on fourth and three, except you.

Yeah.

And you jumped off sides.

Everybody, nobody, when they start doing all that motion, when they bring the guy outside, they bring him to the backfield.

Then they sprint him out there.

They're not running no play, bro.

They're trying to get you to jump off sides.

And you did it.

Yeah.

I get.

Ocho, we get New England,

the Eagles last year.

Remember on the goal line?

And he jumped off sides like five times, four or five times in a row?

And the officials say, you know, if you keep doing this, we're just going to award them the score.

I get, okay, fine.

They're going to score the touch push, they're going to score anyway.

But in a situation like this, these kind of players will get you beat.

Because guess what?

Guess what happened, Ocho?

Didn't they go right down the field and score a touchdown?

Yes, we did.

Yes, we did.

I want to talk about how good our offense looked, except that second series,

that second series with Joe Burrow

and the number twos.

Yeah, yeah, I don't know why he did that.

Joe know better.

He pulled back all the running and scrambling and that like that.

Yeah, throw that thing away, Joe, because you don't want to take any unnecessary hits.

Unexpected punishment, yeah.

And then he got bailed out again because old Brown got beat.

And why just happened to horse, Collin?

They're going to have to do a better job of protecting Joe.

But OJo, your offense has to look good because that's where all your money is.

So wherever your money is,

that's the side of the football you're really going to have to win on.

Yeah, most definitely.

Most definitely.

Look at the Broncos when we play in the 90s, TD, TB, myself, John, Sim, Rod.

Yeah,

so that's where the money was, so that's where we had to be.

That's where we that's where we had to be, yeah.

So, uh,

yeah, I thought your offense, you know, Joe was, I mean, Joe was what, uh, nine of 14, 62 yards.

Jake Browning came in, but Jake Browning, you know, he plays well when asked and given the opportunity, Ocho, he plays well: 16 of 25, 159, two touchdowns.

Uh, Desmond Ritter came in there, threw one pass, He was one-on-one for seven yards.

But,

and they were going down the field again, and then Josh Johnson threw a horrible interception.

Yeah.

Oh, Josh.

Boy, that's Madal there, man.

Good to see Josh.

Good to see Josh still out there, man, working and working and working.

I like it.

Yeah, yeah.

Hey,

he done.

I mean, hey,

he collect his own jerseys.

And he ain't got no other player.

He ain't got no other player jersey.

You know, you trade jerseys, don't you?

Hey, I just collect my own.

He got by 14.

I think he's uh, he's been on 16 of the 32 teams, 16 of the 32.

Damn,

yeah, oh, yeah,

I like it.

So, hey, so if he ever wants to coach, he knows somebody, somebody somewhere.

Hey, absolutely, absolutely.

And listen, when you, when you played, when you played that long at that position, they will definitely give you a job.

Is he signing in it?

Who's that?

Who's that?

Our special guest.

You ain't tell me.

I thought I sent it to you.

Here he is, ladies and gentlemen.

He's a generational talent and a revered voice in the modern hip-hop.

He announced tour dates.

Dark Aura Tour in 25-city headlining run kicks off October 16th in Boston.

The tour comes off as an announcement as his highly anticipated new project, Lonely at the Top, that's out August 29th.

Here he is, ladies and gentlemen.

Joey, badass.

Joey, what'd it do?

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This is Danielle Fischel from Pod Meets World.

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Variables are not

$100

Man, I'm doing good.

How you doing?

Man, I gotta say, like, y'all really shoot the show this late?

Yeah,

every time.

Do you really shoot?

Yeah, yeah, babe.

Let me ask, y'all, y'all in LA, huh?

Nah,

I'm in Miami.

I'm in Miami.

Oh, you're in Miami.

Oh, okay.

You see, Miami, you know, that's that nightlife right there.

No, no, no, no, no.

Hey, Joe, Joe, I don't do the night life.

I don't do the nightlife.

So I take a nap during the day, so I'm able to get up, you know, to be able to do the show saying.

You see, you see, you understand the program.

I don't understand the program.

So

I'm over here fighting sleep.

I'm like, yo.

Well,

but you in that green room, I mean, like you developing pictures or something, like you work with Kodak.

Damn.

My studio room right here.

It's like, you know, part of my ceilings, right?

Like, I had a little, a little leak, but you know, you all good, but check it out.

I never fixed it because I was like, you know what?

I like that.

It kind of reminds me of like the old days, you know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah, keep you hungry.

So I keep it, I keep it raw.

I keep it raw.

Tell us a little bit about the album.

So, yeah, Lonely at the Top is out August 29th.

You know, this project is,

it was made in a short amount of time.

I want to say this is probably like the fastest I've made a body of work.

You know, I mean, a lot of things transpired for me this year musically.

And it was really just kind of pushing my pen, you know what I mean?

In a way where it's just like, you know, I'm just kind of eager to get the music out.

You know, lonely at the top means to me is like, you know, kind of looking around and you being at the top of your success and you realizing like, you know, how

how much isolation you find there on the other side, you know what I'm saying?

Like, I'm sure you guys can relate, but like being on that life journey and, you know, you're dealing with things like survivor's guild and, you know, you wanting everybody to come and things like that.

But what you find on that other side, you know,

for you to make it is like, you know, sometimes

it's an isolating feeling, you know what I'm saying?

Because you got to block so many things out to maintain that balance, you know what I mean?

So that's kind of like what this collection of music feels like for me.

It's kind of like a reflection of where I am today, right now.

Yeah.

You get that a lot, you know,

coming from the background, and I'm sure we kind of all come from very similar backgrounds, but no matter how big a bus is, no matter how big a plane is, there are X amount of seats.

And everybody ain't meant to fly on that flight.

Somebody meant to catch the next one.

Everybody ain't meant to get on that bus.

They meant to catch the next one.

And so what we have to do, what's hard sometimes,

is figuring out who's supposed to be a passenger on our bus.

Who's supposed to be a passenger on our plane?

You know,

that's,

you do feel bad because you, like you said, you've been around a lot of these people your damn entire life.

Absolute.

Absolutely.

And, you know,

I got the analogy that I use is like the Aladdin's purple carpet.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, if you got hundred motherfuckers on there with you, like you ain't going nowhere.

That's your

take off.

It should barely levitating off the ground.

You know what I'm saying?

Like I'm trying to go to the mountaintop.

So it's like, you know, I got to keep it light.

You know what I mean?

So I could, right?

I could ascend and everything.

Yeah.

Hey, Joe, but how do you, how do you balance that?

How do you balance that?

Obviously, coming from where you come from, most of us have the same background and those that we grew up with.

Once we start to ascend in our respective craft and whatever it is that we do, a lot of people trying to go along with us, they complain, oh,

you hating, you ain't real no more, you're not taking me on this journey that you yourself has been working to do.

So how have you been able to navigate with those when you have a, when you have an album coming out, it's lonely at the top, but those that feel that they deserve to go along with you?

Well, you know, if I'm being completely honest and completely transparent, I think that I am still on the journey of learning how to balance that.

You know what I'm saying?

I think it is a matter of continuing to find that balance.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, you know, different things do it.

I think the strongest thing is putting God first.

You know, like that is my grounding factor right there.

It's like, you know, remembering God as often as I can on the daily.

And, you know, remembering that this journey is

a predestined path, if you will.

You know what I mean?

And it's just like, I am doing what I can at each given point in this journey, applying the wisdom that I can to make the best moves.

You know what I'm saying?

You know, sometimes you might look like, yo, could I have done that better?

But you know what?

That's part of the growth as well.

You know what I'm saying?

That's part of like reflection and all that.

It's part of it.

For sure.

Yeah.

You're one of those old, like, now I don't know how many true lyricists that we have.

When I,

you know, and I hate to hate saying this.

It's not enough.

It's not enough.

That's my point.

Because it used to be, you know, you had the KRS1s,

you had Kane, you had Rock Him, you had LL, you had Slick Rick, you had the Scarfaces, you had the guys

that was literally on point.

And now, you know, it's different, but you want to take it back because, you know, a lot of the OG

lyricists originated Brooklyn, the Boogie Down Bronx, KRS1, all those guys.

The Mecca.

Yep, the Mecca of it all.

Absolutely.

Do you feel that's what's missing from hip-hop?

I would say that,

first of all, I would say that I don't like to look at it as I'm taking it back.

I like to look at it as like I'm taking it forward.

Okay, you advancing it.

I'm living in this time.

You know what I'm saying?

And

there's a Nina Simone quote that has always resonated with me.

She said, like, you know, music is going to reflect the times.

I'm paraphrasing it, but, you know, something along the lines of that.

And, you know, I always kind of stay cognizant of that because I think that we are in an interesting time, which is why the musical landscape looks the way that it does.

Because as a society, we are prioritizing certain things, and that's coming out in our subcultures, if you will, like, especially the music.

But if anything, I look at it as a purposeful position to to be where I'm at and to represent what I represent.

Because in a world full of just like

godless behavior and just vanity and stuff like that, you know, I try to keep my balance by

spreading a message when I can and being purposeful when I can and upholding a certain level of skill, effort into my craft.

Hey, when you talk about that skill and effort and being able to maintain that balance when it comes to your, you know, to being a lyricist, the sound of music in general from the 80s to the 90s to the 2000s, obviously to date 202010s to now, the sound changes every 10 years.

Has it difficult for you to adjust to what the sound is at the time, or do you just stick to your guns and say, listen, I don't care how what it sounds like right now, I'm going to stick to what I've always done and what has worked for me?

And in all transparency, I've definitely found myself at certain points in my journey, you know, trying

to

adapt, if you will.

But like, you know, where I'm at now, I think I'm at a space where it's like, I don't, I no longer necessarily care to adapt.

I think what's important to me is being as authentic and true to myself as possible.

Because I feel like in 2025, it's like, that's the best thing that you can do.

Like, you know, with...

with the internet.

Like, I think it was a little bit different back in the day because it was all about like, you know, where you was from and things things like that.

But I think the internet kind of allows for people to be a little bit more expressive and not be so bound by like

where they are or where the culture is.

You know what I mean?

It's like we have,

you know, people with classic sounds re-emerge.

Like you said, it's like the game changes every 10 years, but it also comes back every 20.

You know what I'm saying?

History repeats itself in an interesting way.

So I think, you know, right now my focus is definitely just what is my authentic voice at this time?

What is true to me at this time?

What do I want to convey?

How do I want to convey it at this time?

And I think that I use that as my guiding light, my North Star, and not like what the landscape of the game is per se.

Like there's a small awareness of that, obviously, because you got to know the league that you win.

You know what I mean?

You guys can relate to that.

You know what I'm saying?

You got to know the playing field or whatever.

But for the most part, I play my game, you know?

But that has to be hard because if you do something over and over again, it's like, I wish you'd give us something new.

And when you give them something new, I wish they give, I wish you'd go back to the old stuff.

Because I see that a lot of times.

Guys, like, man, I wish you would do something else.

And when they do something else, now all of a sudden, man, I want that.

Oh, I like the old stuff.

So, how does someone evolve if every time they give you something that you're not used to seeing?

It seemed like to me that the only person that they allowed to evolve was Beyonce because she went from one genre to a whole new genre and got and got more people and got women wearing cowboy boots and cowboy hats and Daisy Duke still at the concert again.

But when it comes to rap and other genres,

they won't let that artist get out of that box.

It's more pitch and hole.

Yeah, yeah.

I definitely agree with that.

I think,

you know, you got to do your role in blocking out the noise.

Okay.

Because, you know, what I've learned is that fans are fickle.

You know what I'm saying?

Like what Jay said is like they love you, then they hate you, then they love you again.

You know what I'm saying?

It's like they don't know what you want, what they want.

So I feel like as an artist, you always got to be doing for you.

You know what I'm saying?

Whatever is true for you at the time.

And even if, because I'm definitely big and big on that idea of not making the same regurgitated thing and taking risks.

I enjoy taking risks.

You know what I'm saying?

And being experimental.

Like I enjoy when I play a song for somebody and somebody's like, that's you?

Like that, that, that, that, that.

Okay, yeah, you like, okay, you like that surprise.

Yeah, because it's like, okay, like, I did something that you didn't think I could do.

You know what I'm saying?

It's like, I'm breaking the mold that you may have over me in your mind.

You know what I'm saying?

You didn't know I could go there.

But at the same time, it's still me.

if you will you know what i mean but um

yeah i like like i said just to answer your question is short, though,

we got to do it for you.

You know, it's funny too, because I was just kind of having a mental thought and I'm like, damn, like, who do I make music for?

And I'm like, you know what?

Like, I really can generally say that I make music for me.

Like, I make the music that...

from my experience and that like I kind of want to listen to or I want to drive my car to or I want to feel fly to you know what I mean and then it's like everybody else is kind of secondary and I know that might feel feel that might sound a little funny but that is that was the thought that I had when I made my first body of work like there was nobody there was no audience there was no fans it was just me and my four walls and I'm like this is dope like I think this is tight you know what I'm saying so I stay I try to stay as close to that that place

listen as long as you've been in the game

and all the work that you've done over the years, I understand the politics that comes into the music industry.

It's a very, very fickle, very, very, very

dangerous industry from a political standpoint.

If there's one author that you would love to work with that you haven't worked with, who would it be?

I would love to work with Pharrell

because my phone is about to die.

Telling y'all, I was

I was flying sleep for real.

But yeah, Pharrell is definitely somebody who I've always wanted to work work with and we've crossed paths many times we just haven't been able to damn uh joy did you pay your did you pay your light bill

oh did i pay

you

god damn if i ain't no but i swear you like

yo yo i don't i don't think you heard i don't think you understand like it's bedtime over here you know what i'm saying like like lights is out over here

yo where you at where you live at i'm on the east coast Okay, okay, okay.

So I'm up in New York.

Well, you at the, you, you are at the uh, the birthplace, the mecca of hip-hop.

Give me some of your early influences.

Who was influential to that joy?

Like, you know what?

I want to do that.

Oh, Jay, Nas,

um, Biggie,

MF Doom,

uh, Pac,

Black Moon,

um,

dang,

J-Ruda Damager.

I was a big J.

Ruda Damagers fan.

Who else?

Shit, even R ⁇ B, man.

Shit, Lil's shit.

Even more new generation, Lil Bow Wow.

I was a kid in that era.

So like seeing Lil Bow Wow do his thing did a lot for me because I was like, oh, shit, I could do that.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

People sleep on my boy Shad.

Shad deserves way.

about

that.

Yeah, he had a he had a beautiful, he had a nice run, boy.

He had a real nice run.

Hey, hey, Joe, you listen to back.

You listen to battle rap?

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I love battle rap.

You know what I mean?

My man, Loaded Lux.

Lux.

I just had a back and forth with the homie Daylight earlier this year.

You know,

Scotty is probably on my top five battle rappers rappers as well, along with the other two names I mentioned.

Yeah, I love the battle rap culture, man.

Yeah,

I love that rapport.

So what's going on with you in the West Coast?

What's going on?

Yeah.

Oh, we cool.

We cool.

We had a little, you know, lyrical squabble.

Right.

But, you know, it wasn't about nothing.

It was just, you know,

everybody wanting to show that they the best.

Right.

You know, so yeah, we got we got down a little bit, it was fun, but uh-oh, it was,

I just didn't know y'all, you guys were still on that type of time,

yeah, yeah.

Like, I mean, listen, it was all in good faith, and um, I'm grateful for that.

You know, I mean, I made a statement at the beginning of the year, and one of my records and some rappers on the west coast took offense to it.

I didn't mean offense to it, but at the same time, I respected their perspective, right?

And, you know, we

pretty much just traded some bars.

Like,

may the better may the better pin win.

May the better pin win.

Indeed.

Indeed.

Indeed.

Do you kick it with?

I mean, do you kick it with anybody or you a soloist?

I am by nature.

Now, in this phase of my life, I do.

I am solo a lot, but yeah, yeah.

Like when you say anybody, you mean like rapper friends type of thing?

Yeah, yeah, you got, you know, the homies that you kick it it with oh yeah

you know JID is a great friend of mine

Corday is a great friend of mine okay

Ferg Denzel Curry like those are those are my guys for real and then it's like you know I got I got a bunch of people just scattered throughout the industry that like you know are really solid individuals and I've been rocking with for a long time for sure But you know, you know how it is like, you know, as a man, you get to a certain age.

It's just, it's just not what it was in the early 20s and in your teenage years when it's like you hang with people every day and stuff like that.

It's like,

we all got our own like the older I get, you know, the older you see, once you get to a certain age, you get to pick your friends.

It ain't like when you're in, you know, you're in elementary school, junior, high, and high school, and everybody just surrounded, oh, that's my friend, that's my friend.

Right, right.

As you get older, you get to pick your friend.

Absolutely.

And you notice you pick less and less of them.

Yeah, nah, that's true.

That's true, man.

You got less time.

You got less time to vet them.

No, that's a fact.

I've always heard this saying, pick your friends like you pick your fruit.

Because

I'll be in the fruit aisle in the grocery store for a minute, like looking through.

Yeah, that's why, see, that's why, that's why you got to wash your fruit when you get home.

You hear what he's saying?

He done had it in his hand, he done thumped it, he done tossed it up like it's a tennis ball.

Yeah, you got to watch that apple for sure.

Hey, look, so check this out.

You made your television, uh, television acting uh debut on a U.S.

network.

You try to do any more acting?

Oh, not trying, brother.

I am doing.

Oh, you doing?

I am absolutely doing.

Yeah,

I got some projects in the works right now that I can

necessarily reveal at the moment, but I'm excited to share them when I can.

Reveal like this really big project I'm really excited about that shoots in Paris next year.

Probably going to be like, you know, one of my,

I feel like this could be like, you know, my real magnum opus in the film tv world you know um inshallah but um

yeah you know raising canon we still got one more season to go for that that's been a pleasure and then um i had the netflix short a few years ago two distant strangers that won the oscar and um yeah a couple projects in development as well so acting is definitely something that um you know i take serious Yeah.

We want you to do us a favor.

You know, Ocho is a lyricist.

He goes to, you know, do open.

I know you remember the movie Love Jones.

Yeah.

Trey Torre Lorenzo Tey.

Lorenz Tay.

Lorenz Tay, excuse me.

And Neil Long.

So Ocho has been, you know, going to these, you know, this open, you know, these spoken words.

Yeah.

So, Joey,

grade it.

We're going to let you grade it because, you know, you're the professor and the lyricist and great penmanship.

So grade Ocho's spoken word.

Let's go, Ocho.

Let's do it.

Hey, listen, Joey, my pen is like that.

Hold on.

Stay less.

Let me get in character.

I'm a little, I'm under the weather right now.

Let me get in character.

All right, bet.

Do you think?

Do you think, Big Dog?

Long summer nights,

they all come to play.

They walking across the streets acting like a stray.

She has an umbrella, but it's not even raining.

That's it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm going to give you one of those, man.

I appreciate that.

Appreciate that.

Appreciate it.

You got to

keep it classy, man.

The funny thing about it, the funny thing about it is people will hear what I just said and not be able to visualize what I'm talking about.

There's a message behind that.

but unless you in that

mode and that spirit and have that vision, you'll never understand what I say.

So you go back and listen to it again with your eyes closed, then the people in the chat, you'll understand where I'm going with it.

Then it comes to life.

Bingo.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Everybody can't, they don't, they don't have my vision.

Everybody can't go.

Everybody can't get on that plane, big dog.

We just talked, we just talked about that.

He has a tour, Dark Aura, starts off 25 City.

Headlining kicks off October 16th in Boston.

New album drops August 29th.

Lonely at the top.

Joey Badass,

stop back by and talk to us sometime.

And let me ask you this.

Let's do it.

Who you got this year?

Who your team and why?

Who's my team?

Basketball?

Football.

Football.

Oh, like, you guys probably hate me when I say this, but I don't really watch football, bro.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't know.

I'm the wrong person to talk to.

I don't know what's going on in football.

Who your basketball team then?

Who your hoop team?

Oh, man.

Like, I'm always rooting for LeBron, man.

I'm always rooting for LeBron.

I'm a big LeBron fan, man.

There you go.

That's what we talk about.

We're going to get you out of here on that one.

Joy, man, best of luck.

Continue success, man.

Stop back by and see us sometime, bro.

Sorry it was so late, but this was

the first time I'm going to make sure I get my power nap in like Ocho Sale.

Make sure.

Yeah, yeah.

We appreciate that, bro.

Thanks for joining us.

Much love.

Joy, badass chat.

Drew and Sue and Eminem's Minis.

And baking the surprise birthday cake for Lou.

And Sue forgetting that her oven doesn't really work.

And Drew remembering that they don't have flour.

And Lou getting home early from work, which he never does.

And Drew and Sue using the rest of the tubes of Eminem's Minis as party poppers instead.

I think this is one of those moments where people say, it's the thought that counts.

Eminems, it's more fun together.

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