Transcription
Here in my garage, welcome everyone to the Here in My Garage Ty Lopez Show. I've got the one and only Gino the ghost.
One, two Grammys. Build a big personal brand. That's how I first saw them roast people. Sometimes people like me in my industry, but that's okay. The world needs dissenting voices. So for me, when people say, "Hey Ty, you're what you're doing is a scam," I go, "Let me, for a second, before I defend myself, try to put myself in their shoes and see." Because there's always some truth to your critics. But thanks for being home, man.
Happy to be here, man. Here, here in your garage. Here in the garage. Here in the garage. He was out a party that I had where half of the people you've roasted, we, we had to put a separate security detail to ensure his life. Yeah, I walked, I, I dude, I took three steps in and I'm like, "Oh, made fun of that guy. Made fun of that guy. Made fun of that guy." I was like, "I gotta say hi to Ty and get the [ __ ] out of here." You know?
For those you don't know, Gino the ghost, he got one of the most entertaining Instagrams. I started following, I don't know how I found you, just on one of these viral pieces. Obviously, it's a little bit ironic because sometimes you ghost people. I mean, sometime, no pun intended. Yeah, yeah, we need to call that a ghost where you like, make fun of. Sometimes you roast, not ghost. Yeah. So I saw you ghosting somebody. I don't even think I knew. I've seen you ghost people, roast, ghost people since then. But, uh, what, because you were doing mostly music stuff? Yeah. And you know what? I tell people, a lot of people want to build a personal brand and go viral. And I'm like, you got to experiment, even outside of your original idea. So was your original idea? Probably. What's your most famous one? It's the one about the house. "All you have to do to be famous if you can own 10 homes before you're 30, you can have generational wealth because then those homes can make you more. That's passive income." Ty. Yeah, it's that video. "So Adrian, if you want to be wealthy, all you have to do is buy 10 rental homes before you're 30." It's simple. So all you have to do to become a millionaire is have a million dollars in the bank account. So I think, do people send you these? Yes, all the time.
So now, okay, so to go back to your original question and then we'll get to it. How it started. So yeah, I'm in music. I've been in music for a long time. I'm like a two-time Grammy winner, 12-time platinum, like that's my bag, right? Right. Uh, but I've always been a [ __ ] talker on the internet, okay? Forever. I'm a, I'm a, I'm an Italian from Detroit. I love talking [ __ ]. Yeah. And, um, I've always just been, you know, I went really, really viral on TikTok a few years ago, okay? Ironically roasting this guy. It turned into this whole trend. I like, took over the app. And well, well, was the theme? It's a guy named Ben Tect. So he used to just like, he was this guy who would just like point and laugh, like fake laugh at really bad jokes, okay? And like fake laugh, okay? And then I like stitched the video, you know? Yeah. And I was like, "Yeah, was it that funny?" And I kind of like turned it into this super villain mantra. It's like a joke, right? But it just went so viral and it turned into a series, okay? And what I quickly realized is like, yeah, like how do I then make this something more consistent? Yeah. 'Cause I'm not going to just make fun of the same guy forever. You, it got stale. I got bored of it. And so the podcast was kind of like, "All right, let me, everyone's been telling me to start a podcast." And "what we need in this world is more white guys with podcasts." So I thought, "Let me do something groundbreaking." More microphones being from Amazon, Guitar Center. Needs more business.
So I went, I, um, yeah, the original show was, "I'm going to talk music. I'm going to talk tech," because I'm, I'm, I'm really entrenched like Web 3 and like music tech. And I'm going to talk about culture. And at the end of my show, I have a segment called the FOH HF, which is the [ __ ] out of here Hall of Fame, okay? Where I'm gonna roast somebody every episode. And you know, I'm like posting all these like super in-depth music conversations and things. And they're doing okay. Yeah. And then I post a video making fun of this guy, and it moves. Yeah. And I'm like, "Okay, it's interesting." Next week I do it again. It's the mover. Yeah. And working in music, something I've learned as like a hit maker, yeah, is that you don't get to decide what's a hit. Exactly. And when you're developing an artist, or you're putting out music, or you're trying to figure out what the sound is, you think you know what that sound is. Like, "All right, it's going to be, this is the hit." You know? And there's been several examples in my music career. Saweetie, for example, we dropped a record with Quavo. Yeah. And that was the single. This is the single. This is the single. It's called "Emotional." We put it out. It didn't really move. There was a song on the album called "My Type" that I co-wrote. Yeah. And that went three times platinum and number one. Really? And that was the hit. And then that was the sound. And so similarly, as an, as an artist, which we are, content creators are artists, yes, you got to know what the streets want from you. Yeah. And the streets want me talking [ __ ]. Yes.
So I, you know, it's like, it's like the old saying. I used to hear this is when I was little and I was like, "This saying's wrong." Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, the billionaire said, "The customer is always right." And what I thought at first, and people get this wrong, they think that means a customer can walk in your store and yell at you and you always have to be like, "You're right." No. What he was saying is, what the customer wants to buy is what you should sell. Because the customer's always right in terms of knowing what they want. Nobody takes money, goes into Walmart and drops $1,000 on something they just have no idea or no interest in. So yeah, yeah. For people trying to build their personal brand, I'm like, throw a lot. I call those, I like to use Hollywood terms. You know, we're here in the Hollywood. They call those formats. Yes. And every personal brand out there, to me, you need at least three formats. I've done all these different, I've tested hundred formats. One of mine that does really well is I take a beautiful woman and I'm like, "Guess her ethnicity." $300. It's like my finger going like this. I don't even put myself in it. And people like it. It's like a little bit of a game. You know, Mr. Beast came up with his format, which is like these charitable, massive craziness giveaways. But formats, if you have three formats, you have enough to build a personal brand. People think they need hundreds. So you've got, so you've got the music talk, but that's going to be more niche because not everybody understands music. Correct. You've got the Hall of Fame. So in the Hall of Fame, kind of shitalking one, what was the one you got the most negative feedback from people saying, "Don't roast this person. I love them."
It's a great question. You know, with me, like nobody's off limits, right? If you say some [ __ ], 'cause again, like a lot of it's where I'm from. I grew up getting roasted and roasting. And it's, it's a form of, in many cases, like adoration. Yeah. Just because I'm roasting somebody doesn't mean I don't, I don't like you, right? Some people I roast, I do not [ __ ] with you, you know? And, and you can usually tell because I'm a little bit more when I do it. Uh, I, I roasted Brad Lea. Yes. And it was a hilar, I mean, it was a great roast. And, um, and a lot of people in the comments were like, "Yo, actually [ __ ] with Brad. Like, this is really funny. He deserves to roast him." He says something about like, wearing a suit is for like, poor people. Like, you shouldn't wear a suit or something, something like that. And I started like clowning him on fashion and style. And then we just started going. And he made a video on me. I made a video on him. And we've been like in each other's DMs to do something together. He was a good sport about it. So him, all, it's tough. Like, for me, I try not to punch down, right? Which is tough because I also, like, one of my mantras is to bring back bullying. And, and when I say that, I think people think like, "Whoa." But it doesn't mean like literally like, you know, in the, in the movies in the '80s where you're like, bullying. But like people that deserve to be made fun of, right? We've lost our way as a society where we're scared to tell somebody that they need to shut the [ __ ] up or stop being an idiot or whatever it may be. And so there's instances where like, something is just so, so funny that I have to make fun of it. I got to punch down. I have to punch down. And there's been a couple instances like that. I'll take, oh man, um, oh, um, whenever I make fun of like musicians who like are bad or do, or like, who's a m, who's the worst?
Let me ask you this, 'cause you, who's the most famous person who, in your opinion, has the least talent? Oh, this is, you're going to get me in trouble, dude. But this, we got to talk about it. I like what Elon Musk says. At the end of the day, if you let free speech go, it kind of moderates itself over time. If you say something too crazy, free speech, people are going to attack you too much, and it pulls you. It's literally what they call equilibrium in economics. So somebody charges too much money for gas at a gas station, then another gas station opens next door at half the price, and this guy has to lower. So I think, yeah, okay. I'll give a very safe answer. Nickelback. No, no, dude. Nickelback has some bangers, okay? They know how to write a great song, okay? Um, it's tough because like the easy answer is like SoundCloud rap, okay? And it's in very, it's very much the right answer. There's a lot of like SoundCloud rappers who are just like dog [ __ ], which is basically just like, but that's why they're on Soundcloud. But it, but, but that kind of thing, like we live in brain rot society, right? Attention, attention, attention. And whereas they're terrible at making music, they are good artists in going viral. And that is half the battle. They have no longevity. They will look like a shitcoin chart, one-hit wonder, right? Yeah.
Let me flip it to you, okay? Because the reason I was so excited to talk to you, you know, you're the, you're the Godfather, right? Of the entrepreneur bro. Yeah. You like, you spawned. Yes. I like that. I gave you, you gave birth. I brought forth from the abyss. You're the father. Yeah. Like, you're like Wilt Chamberlain, just having sex with like 3,000 women, giving birth to. But not any of the influencer guys. No, just to be clear. I want to clarify. I'm not Wilt Chamberlain with them. Some, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, but these guys that have popped up, you know, I remember being, I'm not going to age myself, but when I was younger, seeing the "Here in My Garage" video. And I know a lot of your, and I don't want to like expand on this because I'm sure you've talked about this with other people. That's not kind of, guess you've, you've had a lot. I like these kind of questions. Well, I'm saying you've had a lot of success like selling courses and you bring actual knowledge and you've made money and you've done these things. There are very successful entrepreneur bros who don't know what the [ __ ] they're doing. They're selling vaporware. It's scams. It's a grift. It's a p, whatever. Yes. You don't have to say who. Yeah. But like, what, what is it? Is it tough now being in this position where you get lumped in with those people, right? You know what I mean? And it's somebody who's had a bunch of ventures, I'm sure you've had stuff that hasn't worked out or you try things because you have to try things that don't work out. And so people are like, "Oh, he's done this scam or whatever the [ __ ]." That's just something that didn't work out. But like, how do you separate yourself from the entrepreneur bros that I roast, right? The ones that aren't selling or doing anything of value?
Well, one thing, I mean, when I launched "Here in My Garage," here, I had built my personal brand in '09, but it took off 2014, '15, '16. I got C. I remember, you know, your famous, when about a month later, Reddit just goes, "My brother's a big Reddit guy. He's like, Ty, look at this." And it was just insane. And people looking through your past, insane. D.A.D. The one thing about me is I started my online in '01. I didn't sell a course for over 12 years. I'd already made millions. Yeah. So one of the biggest things is, if people have ever made money, the only way they're making money is by telling other people how to make money. That's it. And I got accused of that. Like, to this day, people think Ty never made a penny. Well, people don't, history of like, you sold like, you did like dating, online dating. I had a wealth management company, big nightclub. All my friends see. I, I always tell you, if your friends tell you you're being a hypocrite, listen, because they know you well. But my friends remember, I, I was making millions a decade before I was actually on a show. Bravo show called "Millionaire Matchmaker." No, F. I was on, dude, my episode that was with the second most. It was number one for like four years because I got an argument with Patti. I was like, she's like, "I want you to dress different." I'm like, "Why don't you just find me a girl that likes how I dress? You're a matchmaker, right?" Like, I can go out and do it hard on my own. If someone you, but I was on "Millionaire Matchmaker" and had the Ferraris and Lambos. This is '07. So it's like, doc, it's not even me. It's like on TV with 50 million views. But I think the worst ones, and you know what, honestly, I don't follow anybody really who teaches stuff. So I'm a little bit out of it because I'm all, I follow the 33%. I'm always trying to learn from people that are way ahead of me. The thing about courses, here's the good news. Even for people that they say is a scam, there are people out there that are selling a course for $100 or $50. And, and let's say they don't have a crazy amount of experience, but they have to have to sell at scale. They at least know how to build a funnel on marketing. And some of them are teaching you how to do marketing funnel. To me, nobody in this world really gets destroyed financially by buying a $100 course. Let's be real. The things that are destroying people financially in America in the education space are two trillion of university debt, college debt. So I'm going, "Okay, let's say we have two paths." Let's say I have a young, younger brother, and he can make a path. This is my opinion. I've never done network marketing, but I always think I should have. MLMs, you know, multi-level marketing. But my thing, my mom was into them. And I'm like, maybe it influenced me because I remember always from age five, I had a single mom. She was always in some little network marketing thing. The women would come to the house. It'd be like Tupperware. And my mom paid $300 to get in. So people say that's a scam. I'm like, you don't really get scammed by $200 or $300 things. You get scammed by structural scams. So like America, I live in Europe. When I land in America, 60% of people are obese. That's a structural food pyramid scam that's being perpetuated at the governmental level and literally kills people. So my thing about all the entrepreneur bros, I'm like, "Look, man, you're going to have, it's the Wild West." If I gave birth to the Wild West, I think out of the Wild West will come a few good couple John Wayne. John Wayne. Exactly. So my thing is, in a, in a free market society, you have to have the crazy people because once in a while, like Steve Jobs said, "It's the crazy person who comes up with the new innovation."
I think you, like, it's, you made a great point about just the societal scams and that those will [ __ ] you. I think the problem with a lot of the grifting from these vaporware entrepreneur bro stuff that some of them sell is they're just huge time wasters. You're not going to waste. And I think a big problem is like, it's not only what they're selling, it's, it's the brain rot social media way of going viral to sell it, which is like, "Oh, if you don't make $20,000 a month, congrats, you're lower class and you're a [ __ ] loser." And like, and people are down so horrendous right now because of so many of these societal, like, they just got caught in the system or they're just trying to break out of middle class. That when you see something like that, yeah, it is so, not only like enraging, which I think is why people connect with a lot of my content, it's like, "Man, I'm sick of these [ __ ] too." Yeah. You know? And because a lot of them have no real business. They just stumbled upon money for the first time. Yes. Like, you know, when I got my first pub deal and saw money for the first time and bought a Rolex and got like, I could have started being like, "Right, look, you don't have any money 'cause you're [ __ ] broke. Let me teach you how to make money in music." But I didn't have the experience yet. And I think the problem is like, the barrier to entry is so low now. Yeah. And just like music, anybody can be an artist. As like an entrepreneur artist. And that same level of [ __ ], like SoundCloud rap, yeah, social media is what's corrupting all these like young, impressionable kids who have like their mommy and daddy's credit card. Yes. And they're like, "Oh, I'm going to let this 24-year-old teach me how to make money," even though he doesn't know how. You know? Yeah.
Tell people I have a private mentor program. I just, it's something I do. It's a lot of entrepreneurs that are doing between these are more advanced. And to a $500 million a year. One of the things I tell them, I say, "I follow the 40-year rule." All my mentors have been wealthy for 40 years. Now, that took me a while. But I tell people, be careful. There's an old saying, "The young doctor fattens the graveyard." So like a dude who's been making money for one year, the main danger is if you make them a mentor, they have no strategy. They might. What I say is, what you can learn from these new entrepreneurs is one little tactic. Like one dude's really good at automating your Instagram DMs for sales using ManyChat. I consider those like advisors. So I'll take advice from anybody at any age. But you got to separate mentors. Mentors are people who give you big life strategy. Like, "Should I sell my company or should I keep it?" That's a huge decision. "Should I move to a different country? Should I raise capital?" One of my people that's been wealthy for more than 40 years, I, um, is a guy named Steve Ballmer. You know, I paid $250,000 to have lunch with him. People go, "That's crazy." I'm like, "Well, this guy, now he's the sixth richest man in history." The reason I did that is because he's him and Bill Gates started Microsoft. Say what you will. The dude's been in the trenches. He was the CEO of Microsoft, biggest company in the world for 20 years. So when I ask him big pictures, I ask him questions privately that I don't even and share. Like, "If I have kids, how do you manage kids with a big?" I can't ask that to a dude who's been had a kid for one year and has a $100,000 business.
I think the second thing you said that I agree with is that, um, I don't like when people trivialize money. So there's people out there. I saw a podcast. I don't know if you roasted them, but you should. I don't even know who these guys are. Probably these Australian guys. Roasted him. It's basically two dudes, 24. One guy's like, "Yeah, man, I have like, I'm going to make $100 million." The other guy's like, "Man, you can blow through $100 million." And I'm there like, "20, dude, going like, that's not even a lot." I'm like, "Dude, get out of your mom's [ __ ] kitchen while you're recording this video." Making, if you make $400,000, you're in the one percentile of America. Which put you in the 100th of one percentile in the world. So I, I did a video. I think you would like. I don't think you'd roast it, but you could if you wanted to. I, it went viral a couple, a couple months ago. I said, "The most legit get-rich-quick scheme in history is figure out to make $150,000 online and move to Brazil or Thailand." Because now you are, you're buy it's not how much you make, it's how much you're buying power. I was just in Brazil. You make $150,000, you're a millionaire, bro. I was millionaire lifestyle. I was in Thailand, top of the year, working with this huge artist in Bangkok. When I tell you I was moving there like I was the, he's also like one of the richest people in Asia, right? But I was with him. I'm like, "I feel, I'm king of this [ __ ]" 'cause America's out of control. So I think, you know, Grant Cardone, he's a friend of mine. And he said this thing that went viral. I don't know if you roast, but different people. Was like, "I'd be embarrassed as a man to make $400,000." Look, it's social media. People going to say stuff to go viral. If what he means is making $400,000, if you live in America and California, where I was paying 52.5% taxes, you now, $400,000, you won't quite be in the highest tax bracket. But I'm just saying, let's say you make $1 million net and you live in California, and it's all active income, you have to pay $520,000 of that. So you still got a lot of money, but it's a weird thing to make $1 million and then have $480,000. It's tough for people to conceptualize that. I mean, and that's the thing too, like again, it is a lot of money still. Yes. And I think that like nonchalant throwing it around is what people don't like when they're like, "Yeah, $400,000, whatever." But yes, like if you live here, that's 190 after taxes and paying all your people and your lawyers and your agent, you know? So which again, still a lot of money.
But you know, another thing I don't like also, I think the main problem where sometimes I'm like, "Man, I should have put, told, put a little disclaimer." I don't think everybody should be an entrepreneur. You can't have. It's just like, not everybody can be a leader. You got to have some people follow. By the way, Steve Ballmer, the richest guy I know, was an entrepreneur. He was the like, one of the first employees. And now he passed Bill Gates. So we need doctors. We need more doctors. We don't need more lawyers. But we need more doctors. And there's so, there's things. If you totally make a whole generation only want to be an influencer, which is by far, if they pull kids, number one thing that's a problem. You need farmers, man. I'm going to my farm. You need farmers, dude.
Not only does everybody want to be one. Yeah. Everybody is one, right? And, and what's unfortunate is like, you post a video online, you are one. You get a, a modicum of validation from like, your cousin, and then you're like, "Oh my God, I'm here. I can do this for." And I see it in music. And like, man, I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with people like, "Some people ask me, yo, what's the best way to get like, how do I get rich doing music?" I said, "Quit music." Yes. Yeah. Don't do music for art. Not art. Not for anything else. You know what I mean? And, and like, I just wish more people. Same way I'm sure you wish more people were not entrepreneurs. I wish less people did music because it's like, you don't. Anyway. Yeah. I see some people and I'm like, "Bro, it's not for you, bro. 9 to 5 is not that bad, dog. Go." Yeah. Or, or, but, but like, I like to bring back some of the classic professions, dude. Like, I'm going from here tomorrow to my farm. Like, I would, I have a guy when I'm gone. I have two Baine farms and I have farm managers that run them. That guy lives a good life. He has zero. I don't even think he has an Instagram. I have one friend who has two followers, Craig. I'm like, "Craig, how do you only get two followers?" He gets bot. He doesn't even have bots. Don't even like them. But that's how this guy who runs my farm. But man, he lives. He's living a better life than people out here making $200,000 in LA, struggling, striving. So when the apocalypse hit or AI takes over, whatever the [ __ ]. I'm gonna come live on. You're gonna come on the farm for f. Med. I need you to take care of me. I'm need you to. I don't need anything else from you. Like, I don't need you. I don't need any favors. But, but when [ __ ] hits the fan, I'm gonna hit your phone. "Hey, where's that farm at? We need the." We're gonna have the apocalypse podcast. [ __ ]. Yeah, that could be your contribution. Oh, that would hit. You could be roasting. You'd be roasting Putin. Roasting. Remember how Putin only launched that one missile towards Ukraine? He could have launched two if he had known what he was doing. There we go.
So what do you, let's talk AI. What do you give the odds that AI ends human civilization as we know it in the next 20 years? I'm not a doomer. Yeah. Like, less than. So, and you know, I work in music. So that, that, the conversation I get more than that is, "What are the odds AI is going to destroy the music industry?" In, let's talk about that. Yeah. I would say less than 10. Question a lot. So I don't. This back when autotune first came into the picture, yeah, there was this whole fear. Well, no reason to be a real singer anymore. Like, autotune's going to destroy real singing. And like, no one's going to be. If you don't have, if you don't sing, it's okay. And the reality is, all it was was a tool. Yeah. For singers. It's just a tool. And if you're good, it makes you better. Adele uses autotune. Like the best singers in the world use Melodyne or autotune. When it comes to AI, different version. Melodyne is like. Melodyne is when you literally go into the audio file and change the notes. Ah. So like, what does autotune just bring them up to the correct? Autotune is like. Autotune is a plugin. Um, that it runs through the wave. The, the audio file runs through the autotune plugin and you set it to a set key. And then it catches that key and it bypasses certain notes. So it stays in that key. But Melodyne, you literally to make it sound even better, you go into the actual file and change the individual. It's, it's an art. It's wild. But anyway, um, as it pertains to AI and, and I work in like AI music and generative music. And yeah, I don't think, similar to technology in other fields, it will replace mediocrity. Okay? Like, like you, if you are just a loop maker, or you are mid, yeah, which many are, yeah, there's definitely in like 10 years, you're cooked. You're done. You're cooked. And you're just going to have to learn how to use it and monetize that output. Like those. Did you hear about these Albanians that went on Spotify and they made their stuff loop over and over and they, I think they made bot listeners and they made a million bucks before Spotify figured it out? Spotify is a mess. And, and, and the fear. Spotify is in a lot of trouble because, and they kind of got to their credit, kind of got ahead of it. They added a a threshold, okay? Right. Uh, to get paid. Similar to how YouTube is. YouTube is a very high threshold. Yeah. Spotify is a very low threshold. Okay? They used to have no threshold. So the way it works is everybody gets paid out of the same royalty pool. And it's nothing. You make Snoop Dogg, he's like, "I got a billion views and made like $50,000 or something." It's crazy. It's crazy. And so with AI, the real fear, my fear of AI is not that it's going to eliminate the position of songwriter, producer, or artist. It's that we are going to see 10x the output. Oh, just dilute you of just mid and just drown [ __ ] and it's people don't care anymore already about who the artist is of the song. They just care about the song. Yes. And so now you're going to have, again, yeah, 10 times the amount of songs coming out with no artist, no person, no, no soul. People won't care. And they'll be flooding DSPs. And that's going to just further dilute the royalty pool. So it's gonna get. It's gonna be.
By the way, top five. Let's rank top five most talented musicians. We get. Let's pretend we can bring people back from the dead. But let's not go back to Bach, 'cause he's arguably. My grandpa used, was a, knew music. He's like, "Nobody's better than Johann Sebastian Bach." So let's just say go back 100 years. You can go back to the 1920s. Today, we put five people on this podcast. The most talented overall. So maybe it's VO. Maybe it's. Who's your lineup? It'll be a combination of like, most talented in my favorite. 'Cause I think it's hard. And these could be bands or individuals. Who are you ranking? I want to get. I want to get Josh's too. MJ. Let's do three. 'Cause I feel like top five. MJ is like an artist. So MJ is one. Or three. Is he number three? He's in the top three. So we got Michael Jackson. Uh, Hall & Oates. Hall & Oates. Okay. Okay. Incredible writers and artists. Very slept on. They're beefing right now. Y'all need to quit the beef. Okay. Hall & Oates are beefing. Um, I really respect Andre 3000's like creativity, okay? As a, as a rapper and composer. And I just think that's really interesting. Um, this is gonna shock you, okay? Gucci Mane. La Flair. Gucci Mane. Because what Gucci did, his talent lies in, he's a, he's just a [ __ ] machine output. Like, he was the Godfather of Atlanta rap, which shifted how the music industry is entirely. The landscape of rap, really. And, uh, probably Kanye. I mean, Kanye. For New Year's, I had a huge argument. Well, I mean, a good argument. We're all debating at Joe's house. So I would say top five of all time. Yeah. I'm gonna put Michael Jackson at number one for just, he had the voice. Entertainer of all time. Yeah. I mean, but he had the voice to back it up. And he was a producer. He could produce beautiful things. So I, and he understood the crowd. Like, Michael did not put out stuff that wasn't good. No. And shout out Quincy Jones. Yeah. Quincy Jones, of course, the brain. So I'm going to go Michael, number one. I'm going to put up there, you know, Queen. And just the voice. I like voices because to me, at the end of the day, I separate out the voice and the musician. Sometimes they're one. But the great voices of all time, you know, I would put, I'd put Whitney Houston in there too for a voice. Um, and then I would put The Beatles in there because I like people. If you can make a simple song, that's the. It's like Einstein said, "It's the greatest." People can explain the most complicated thing. And, and I play music. I play just from, but I read music. And The Beatles have simple stuff that has just enough complexity that it doesn't sound like what we had, the three-chord music we have now. And then I would put fifth in there. I think you have to put someone in that was the transitionary period. So I think I'd put Elvis in there, man. And I saw that that concert has gone viral. Elvis's last, uh, concert before he died. And he's overweight and he's drinking coffee and he's sweating. But when he's sweating profusely, he had no. It's a stadium. A Grand Ole Opry. There's nobody. There's no backup singers. There's no other musician. And he just has a piano and he bangs away and sings on that thing. And you can feel it through YouTube. That's hard to do. Very few people have the charisma to just go. Huh. I put a sixth. I always had a crush on Alicia Keys. Because I like people. Don't let Swizz Beatz hear that. Yeah. Sorry, Swizz. I went, by the way, I went to LA once. I went down to the Staples Center. Alicia Keys was there, man. Lesbian women like Alicia Keys. It was me and 18,000 lesbians. I was like, "The most lesbian." I mean, 'cause Alicia Keys is beautiful. That's really. It was all Mexican lesbians. It must be a Mexican lesbian. No, off LA. I wasn't mad about it. I was like, "I'm the only dude here." It was pretty interesting. So if you ever, for any reason, you need to connect with the Mexican lesbian, uh, community, you make sure Alicia is playing and you're done. Did you see when, um, what's the L? Not Diane Warwick, one of the big voices. She, she ranked all the people. Did you see? I got to show you this video where she, they, they just asked her like, "What do you think of Adele?" And she goes, "Adele's a great voice." And he goes, "What do you think of Whitney?" She goes, "Whitney had some of the greatest talent." And he goes, "What do you think of Taylor Swift?" She goes, "Gowns. Good gowns. Really good gowns." Oh my God. You know, you know what's like an important distinction that people need to make? The difference between a great voice and great tone. Yes. And it's the reason that a lot of people like will win American Idol and won't go anywhere. They have a great voice, but their tone is boring as [ __ ]. And people don't care. Yes. And so, you know, when you look at somebody like, you mentioned Queen, yeah? Or why I think like Freddie Mercury. Freddie Mercury, that tone is crazy. And, and today, I think one of the most, like, the indicator of how big you're going to be as an artist, yeah, is your tone. And why somebody like Gucci, again, who like maybe isn't the best rapper of all time, his tone was so, was so good. And like Young Thug, his tone is so distinct. And when you look at certain artists who may not have the best voice, yeah, again, a tool like autotune, yes, enhances their tone. And even like me, for example, like I demo a lot of voices. And, you know, I was an artist before, but I don't have the best voice in the world, but my tone is really cool. And it helps me place records. It's that distinct, distinct tone. You, yeah. It's like Snoop Dogg, you know?
So last music question for you. So I grew up in like, very African American. I was born in Long Beach. My dad was in prison, which was more Latino. But when I was 13, I moved to the South, North Carolina. I went to basically all black school, played basketball. So hip hop is definitely an African-American thing. Is it right that maybe Eminem is the greatest rapper of all time? 'Cause I hear people on both sides. Some people are like, "Look, man, you got to give add to black people. This is our thing." It's like, he is one of the. Nobody would say he's not one of the great lyricists of all time. Sure. But do you think is that possible? Because we live in a world where everything's cultural appropriation and wokeness. It's like, but I don't think given Eminem that title is cultural appropriation. The man was good. But do you think there is an argument that's has clarity that Eminem might be the greatest rapper of all time? Question to ask a white guy that works in rap. So I, yeah. So I work in hip-hop. I made my bones in hip-hop. That's how I broke into the industry. You got your your Grammys in hip-hop? Was it hip-hop? No, actually in Latin music. Really? Bad Bunny, that kind of stuff. No, uh, Christina Aguilera and Natty Palo. Oh, nice. But, you know, I'm, I always say like, I'm blessed to operate in a space that is not mine. You know, like, I'm, I'm blessed to be able to work in rap music. Yes. As a white guy. And like, learn from a culture that's not mine. And that goes for anything. Like in Latin music, in K-pop, these are not my cultures. I'm blessed to just be able to give my perspective, to work in that genre, and working those things. And I think Eminem, to his credit, I would assume has probably said and feels the same way. He knows he's operating in a space that is right foreign to the white folk. Yeah, the whites, the, um, the whites. Um, I think like to say he's the best is in cultural appropriation. I think that's your opinion. Like, people's opinion. I think like, you have to look to more than just lyricism in my opinion as to say who's the best. It's about like, who makes the best records? Who's saying the most impactful thing? And I think when it comes to like, what made hip-hop music so impactful was what it's saying and how it's shifted culture and like civil rights and those kind of things. And so it's easy to fight back against that in that sense, you know what I'm saying? But by that, you could say Public Enemy or somebody like that is one. But then if you look at that, it's like, "Well, those records really that hot?" Are they? Public Enemy. So you need to be able to. And again, like, man, I've had this argument in some of the biggest rooms with some of the biggest people. Yeah. Like screaming. Yeah. 50 Cent versus Eminem versus like, you know what I mean? And just being in the middle of these arguments. And I think my answer, I guess, like, what do I think? You know, I don't know if I think Em is the best rapper of all time. I think he, at the time when he was in his peak and in his prime, yeah, what he meant for free speech and culture and just like that movement that was so wild, which is interesting because back then conservatism and liberalism, they were flipped. Yes. So the Republic, the conservatives and the Republicans were like, "This is horrible [ __ ]. This, he can't say that. FCC." We don't. And, and now like government liberals have become so conservative, they become conservative. And conservatives are so liberal. You should be able to say whatever you want. Free speech. These [ __ ] are liberals. Yeah. So it's just funny like what he meant for that time. Yeah. Um, and, you know, a lot of it like best of all time is how do you age? How, how does the music age? And anyway, we won't get into that for political reasons. But, um, well, Eminem, I'll tell you this. I tell you, there's three people, whether you love them or hate them, you don't want to ever have a battle of the wits with. Correct. Donald Trump, Adam Corolla, and M. The Ghost. And Gino the ghost. That's a good. You're the four. But I mean, M. I was on the Adam Corolla show. He's a quick-witted dude. Donald Trump's quick-witted. If you love him or hate him, he's up there with poor Hillary, who's accomplished, but she shouldn't have gone one. And you don't go toe-to-toe with Eminem. He, he's R. You ever seen his thing where he's like, "People say you can't rhyme anything with orange?" Yeah. And then he just does like a long, like a seven-paragraph rhyming things with the people.
You never want to get to just make it even more vague. The three people you never want to get into a beef with are comedians. Yes. Battle rappers. Yes. Or an ugly guy. Or ugly. And I'm, and I'm two or three. And I'm not ugly. You, you know what I. But, uh, yeah, my dad's always like, "Don't pick a fight with an ugly guy." But you don't want to get in the. You just don't want to get into it with people that don't have anything to lose. Exactly. Comedians, man. Like, where I see people that go to these comedy shows and they're like, try roasting from the crowd and they're just getting like, plus, the guy has a microphone. Just speak over you. You're like, he's talking all loud. And then you're like, and you're not gonna win when you can't be heard. So let me, let me ask you this, uh, as we wrap up. I like to ask this question to people. So you've done a lot. Build a personal brand, two Grammys, made money. If you, you were going on a spaceship and you're headed, Elon Musk, you're going to Mars and you ain't coming back. Okay. God. And you need to leave. Do you have kids, by the way? I don't. Okay. But maybe you have future kids, or maybe there's a couple in the hopper right now. And you're leaving tomorrow. What's the paragraph you say to friends, family, and the world that you learned in your life?
Wow. That's a nice, light question. I like to ask that. That's a profound question you're asking me. But I think it's important. I think people need to leave something for the world. Yeah. What would I think? Like my ethos, and I think like what I want the mission statement of like my show and like my personality and like what I'm like, kind of the imprint that I'm trying to make. We, we live in a time right now where like algorithms are pulling everybody to extremes, yes, all the time. And I think as humans, entrenched in the digital age, we've lost like the nuance. Yeah. And like the rational thinking. And being able to just like discern what's propaganda versus like, you know what I mean? And like cut through. And, and, and just not be an [ __ ]. Yeah. I think like, "Don't be an [ __ ]" is the first thing. First and foremost, just don't be a [ __ ] [ __ ]. Yeah. And, and just think rationally. And, and, and like, it, it's really troubling to get on the internet every day and see people just falling for the most. Like, you see like, you remember when you were younger and you'd hear about like some old person getting scammed by like a Nigerian email scam or like a. And you're like, "Wow, you [ __ ] idiot. I can't believe. Oh, that poor old person fell for that." We got people that are like in their 20s and 30s falling for the most obvious [ __ ], whether it's like misinformation, fake news, AI, yeah, or just propaganda. And it's like, get out of your bubble for a second and just like, [ __ ] think critically. Yeah. I like that. Because when you spread that, it's just, it's the virus. So I guess it's not really a paragraph, but that. Think rationally. And it's appropriate because you're in the gym where we coined the word "knowledge." That's kind of what I said. It's like, "Look at that. Focus on knowing things." Because there's an old saying, I'm not religious, but in the Bible, it says Proverbs. It says, "Get wisdom, because wisdom is greater than wealth." Because with wisdom, you can get wealth. But with wealth, you don't always get wisdom. So if you see, and I, I just encapsulated in that word, knowledge. It's like, the people who are seekers of the truth. Sometimes it'll be painful. Sometimes it'll be hard. But it's worth it. And Ty, that's why I read a book every day.
There we go. You're in my garage. You need to roast that. I should. I'll do maybe an ad. In, uh, what's the word? In memory. In memory of this podcast. This podcast. We do a recap of the video. You know what's crazy? And I'm gonna, I'm gonna defend myself here on that. I shot that. He, you know, reading a book a day. Here, I did a TEDx talk on it while I was still living here. And the crazy thing is that under exaggerated. I used to take three books. I would buy them and I would do this thing where I would lock myself upstairs for three hours. And I'd try to read the equiv of one book, but like a third, a third, and a third. And sometimes I'd read two or three books a day. And, uh, I said I read a book a day. And people were so incredulous. But I learned that from my first mentor, Alan Nation. He would lock himself away for three hours a day. Not everybody can do that. But it's, but he was a very wise guy. And I heard recently, Elon Musk's sister posted an article like six months ago. She said, "My memories of my brother, Elon, as a teenager is he'd read two books a day." So I'm like, "I'm a slacker, man. You're [ __ ]. I'm a slacker. I haven't accomplished." You can read 10 books before you're 30. You can read 10 books a day. But you know what's funny? It's, I like that. How do you become smart if you could just read 10 books a day? That's all you got to do for 10 years. Joe, this is a simple formula. You can have generational knowledge. You can actually use that knowledge to to teach your knowledge. More know. I, but I think, look, I don't read books anymore. But, um, because lazy. But what's great, like the way I do my show, yeah, I'm very well-researched. And I have to be because a lot of it is like debunking [ __ ]. Yes. And I've become so much more knowledgeable over the years. Yeah. Just not reading books, but reading like scholarly articles and reading actual. Consider that reading. It is reading. That's reading. It is. Yeah. And that kind of thing like allows you to sit down and have a conversation with somebody that's knowledgeable. You know what I'm saying? And it's like, I haven't read as much as you, and I'm not as knowledgeable. But knowledge is [ __ ] power. Otherwise, you're just consuming brain rot all day and you can't have an actual conversation more than three feet in front of you. So my man, knowledge, man. Thank you for coming. That was awesome. We got to do it again. We got to talk AI next time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll get into it.