GELO stops by V-103 in Atlanta to talk with Greg Street about "Tweaker" and more.
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00:00All right, it's another exclusive here at the People's Station, V103 in the studio.
00:05Your daddy called me, that's what I'm going to call him, man.
00:07Hey.
00:08What's up, Jello?
00:09What's up, man?
00:10Hey, man.
00:11This movement is what's up.
00:12Yeah, bro.
00:13That's been a thing since I was a kid, man, even in class, swinging them knees and shit.
00:18Going crazy?
00:19Yeah, bro.
00:20That's just how it is.
00:21What was it like growing up as one of the three ball boys?
00:23That had to be a crazy, amazing experience.
00:26Yeah.
00:27Every day was lit and competitive.
00:29We used to go outside, hoop every day.
00:32We was rapping, rap battles.
00:33We always just outside doing random stuff, bro, but it was fun.
00:38Always competitive?
00:39Yeah, always.
00:40But I was watching the interview with Big Boy.
00:42You guys were always competitive, but you guys were also still ... At an early age,
00:45you understood balance and family and respect.
00:48Oh, yeah.
00:49We was real close-knit.
00:50We was together every day, and my dad was like, don't fight your help.
00:54These the only two that going to always have your back, no matter what.
00:57Because how close are you guys in age?
00:58Y'all got to be pretty close.
00:59Yeah.
01:00Zo a year older than me, and Melo two to three years younger.
01:04Wow.
01:05Yeah, we all close.
01:06Close.
01:07I got to say this about your dad.
01:10I think for basketball, your dad is probably one of the most amazing fathers to ever be
01:19into the sport of NBA ... Just basketball, period.
01:22That we know from looking at it through the lens, because when you guys were doing your
01:27thing and he was just telling everybody what was happening and how this was going to go,
01:31and he saw that thing through, my boy.
01:35But not only did he see it through, he was making these statements about what he was
01:39about to do.
01:40And I think the NBA really owe him a check.
01:44He been like that, too.
01:45He going to call out what he want, and it's going to happen like that.
01:48He been like that since a kid.
01:50That just sound crazy, man.
01:52He saying anything.
01:53He like, no, bro.
01:54This is how it's going to be.
01:55It's going to be like this, man.
01:57Everything happened in that order, too, so ...
01:58Yeah, but for me, from the outside looking in, not being close to the situation at all,
02:03I could just see him talking about what he was going to do and how he was going to do
02:08it.
02:09The NBA stepped in and took his whole blueprint and really invested into the G League.
02:15Yeah, and college took his stuff, too, with paying the players now and all that.
02:20NIL?
02:22Yeah, NIL.
02:23Pops was paying people to play in his JBA League, so I feel like he started that, too.
02:27Then after that, they had the NIL deal and all that.
02:31You know what's about to happen with you, right, with this whole music and being an
02:35athlete?
02:36What?
02:37You are about to be the king.
02:38We're going to say it.
02:39This is the first time you ever heard somebody say this.
02:42You are about to be the king of celebrity basketball games.
02:46You about to kill the circuit.
02:47I'm trying to take over the music world, man.
02:51That's what it is now.
02:52The MTV celebrity basketball games?
02:54Oh, yeah.
02:55Oh, yeah.
02:56Oh, yeah.
02:57Any basketball, MTV type of entertainment hoops, I'm taking that if I pull up.
03:02You might need to just start your little entertainment basketball league now.
03:05Dad, let's get it.
03:09Coming out with this record, I was reading about how you started penning records and
03:13started writing records when you were 13, and then you started going into the studio
03:16and recording music.
03:18A lot of people think from the outside looking in, because most of us don't do no research.
03:22We just go by what we see on the internet.
03:24They don't realize that you got a lot of music.
03:26Yeah, I got a lot of songs unreleased, and I still make music.
03:31I still add on every other day.
03:33I'll be making four or five songs sometimes.
03:36I've been writing since I was third grade, so eight years old, nine years old.
03:40You started recording, actually, when you was 13?
03:42I ain't recorded my first song until 17.
03:4417?
03:45Yeah, something like that, 18.
03:48Like a real recorded song, but I've been writing and freestyling and messing around
03:51since a baby, third grade.
03:56Timing was impeccable on this record.
04:00When did you decide to say, I'm just going to go ahead and drop it?
04:02That was just all out the blue, for real.
04:05I ain't had no plans.
04:06I didn't even expect to do music like that.
04:09I was just hearing my song.
04:11I was trying to show Ne-Yo my song, for real.
04:13That's it.
04:14I went to sleep, woke up, and my phone was cracking.
04:17Like, hey bro, you got to drop that one hit you put out.
04:20I was like, hit my people up, D-Mo and them.
04:22Yeah, let me just keep, let me drop this.
04:25Actually, I hit my people up, D-Mo and them, and then we got together a team for me and
04:30stuff, and then we just, we went from there, for real.
04:32The team came together pretty fast.
04:35What I really admire about what you've done now is, most young artists that are streaming,
04:42they don't understand the partnerships with a label.
04:45They don't understand how much bigger they can be than just getting 100 million streams
04:51and getting them 10, 15, $20,000 shows, and stacking a few million dollar bag.
04:56It's like, for you to be so young and for you to understand, I go do this partnership,
04:59and they're going to give me some money.
05:00They're going to give me some upfront money.
05:01They're going to give me some budgets, but I know how much more my publishing, how much
05:05more my masters, how much more I'm going to be worth as an artist if I team up with somebody
05:10who can take me to that next level.
05:13Right now, you're doing promotions.
05:14You're doing a promotional tour, basically, and young artists now that are streaming don't
05:19do promotional tours.
05:20They don't understand it.
05:21Yeah, that was my first stream I actually went on, really.
05:26It seemed like the right move.
05:27I was just showing love, for real.
05:28I was like, let me hop on this stream.
05:30I know everybody.
05:31I know all the kids watch that now.
05:32That's the new TV.
05:33But just think about L.A.
05:35L.A. has a lot of ... The West Coast has a lot of rappers that are not famous around
05:40the world.
05:41Yeah.
05:42And they haven't been on Big Boi.
05:43They're everywhere.
05:44There's rappers everywhere that's not ...
05:46Of course they're everywhere, but I'm just saying, just writing your area alone, how
05:49many rappers that are big in L.A., they're streaming big in L.A., they're doing shows
05:54on the West Coast, but they've never been to Big Boi's show?
05:58They don't understand the value.
05:59Yeah, I don't know, bro.
06:00I just know me and my team move professional, bro.
06:03If I'm going to do something, it's going to be at the highest level, whether it's basketball,
06:08music, anything.
06:09It's going to be getting done at a professional level.
06:12That's why we sit down and talk.
06:14Does that all go back to that grounding from Pops?
06:16Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:18That's probably start way back there, man.
06:21Everything we do, we got to be the best.
06:23That's what it be feeling like.
06:25Now, of course you're in ATL.
06:27You got a big video you're about to shoot.
06:30Yup.
06:31A crazy one?
06:32Yeah, it's going to be nuts, man.
06:33My Can You Please video.
06:34This is supposed to be wild.
06:35So, today's the big shoot?
06:36Yeah, that's today.
06:37Is this the second shoot for you?
06:38This is the second music video.
06:39Second music video?
06:40Yup.
06:41How's it moving around with the Def Jam family?
06:42It's great, man.
06:43Everybody taking care of me, showing me the ways and stuff.
06:44We getting stuff done.
06:45So, JB and Ron taking care of you?
06:46Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:47They showing love.
06:48They showing love?
06:49Yeah.
06:50Hey, man.
06:51We definitely got to show love.
06:52The influence for this record, for you to be so young.
06:53Nah, I didn't even know that was a throwback vibe when I made this song.
07:19I just heard people like, oh, that's that 2000s feel.
07:23That shit sounded new to me when I made it, but everybody, like the voice shit, it's like
07:29growing up my whole life, bro.
07:31You talk weird, bro.
07:32Why you sound like that?
07:33You talk weird.
07:34Even when I read out loud in class and shit, I've been hearing that my whole life, bro.
07:38Your whole life?
07:39Yeah.
07:40Okay.
07:41When it comes to, back to a little basketball, I got a question for you, because a lot of
07:46young people are having this debate often.
07:51And I know coming from your background, you can truly give a real answer from your foundation.
08:00The often conversation about LeBron and Jordan.
08:05But you want to know who better, like one-on-one or something?
08:11Not just better, but just your whole, from the mind of a young man who was raised the
08:17way you were raised and was taught the way you was taught from a home standpoint, how
08:23do you view people always having this conversation about, is LeBron better than Jordan?
08:29Jordan is the GOAT and LeBron, no, just the whole conversation.
08:32I always go back and forth, man, because I grew up watching LeBron in his prime, like
08:40the early Cleveland, Miami Heat days, so that's who I've watched.
08:46My dad showed me all the Jordan clips and all that shit.
08:50I like Jordan's demeanor, bro, like how he finish stuff, bro.
08:53If he going to get to the championship, he going to win, most likely, for sure.
08:57So that's why he got six of them.
09:00I think physically and just playing the game, I feel like LeBron better, though.
09:06He's 6'9", can run, jump, dunk, do it all.
09:09He do it all.
09:10Yeah.
09:11Across the whole board.
09:12And he bigger and stronger.
09:15For you, being a part of that whole environment, how important is it for us not to always go
09:22backwards and keep going forward?
09:24It's new people every day coming in, so it's like, you might every, I don't know, I feel
09:32like every probably decades, one of them ones come into the NBA where it's like, you know,
09:37like this dude going to be something crazy, like, that's how I be feeling.
09:41So I don't know, the world keep moving, man.
09:44Everybody get better.
09:45So we just going to see.
09:47And when you going to drop this project?
09:51I'm aiming for like May or something like that.
09:54Got an album coming out, pretty much, yeah, about May, June, around there, summertime.
10:01I think for summer 2025, spring and summer 2025, you may be the guy that can really fill
10:10this void that Drake is not focusing on right now, because he's so caught up into his whole
10:17feud with Drake, with Kendrick, like with the Fun Records, the Girl Records, the Club
10:22Records.
10:23Is the chamber loaded?
10:25Yeah, man, the chamber loaded.
10:27I got music that I love, so I'm going to see, I'm going to put it out, hopefully y'all love
10:31it too, man.
10:32But yeah, I got songs I like better than Tweeker.
10:36I'm hearing.
10:37We'll see.
10:38I'm hearing some great things about these records you got in the chamber.
10:42Yeah, man.
10:43And I keep making more too, so it's here.
10:46Who would be your dream collaboration as far as production right now?
10:52I'd do a collab tape with Youngboy if I could, NBA, but that's, yeah.
10:59That's art.
11:00As far as producers, who you feeling?
11:01Producers?
11:02Who's the-
11:03Probably Metro.
11:04Metro?
11:05Yeah, he's a producer, right?
11:06Yeah.
11:07Yeah, Metro Boomin.
11:08I could really hear a Jello Future with Metro.
11:13Yeah, I can get in that bag, but we'll see, man.
11:18Well, congratulations, man.
11:20Thanks for stopping by.
11:21The People Station, VRO 3 Live from the Odyssey Studio in town to shoot this new video.
11:28Who's the feature?
11:30We got Glorilla pulling up for the feat.
11:32Uh-oh.
11:33Yeah, yeah.
11:34She set it off, man.
11:35Big Glo?
11:36Yeah, Big Glo.
11:38Oh, yeah.
11:39That's going to look good on camera, too.
11:40Yeah.
11:41I know the record's a banger.
11:42Yeah, it's tough.
11:43It's going to be tough.
11:44And when is that single dropping?
11:46We still be debating.
11:47It's coming out soon, though.
11:48I think, shit, probably next Friday or something, we might drop it with the visual.
11:53But I got to go back to the question, too.
11:55Well, not the question, the issue we was talking about with being a young artist and understanding
11:59the partnerships, because a lot of artists are leaving a lot of money on the table when
12:04it comes to publishing and just masters because they want to own everything and they don't
12:08want anybody to make money off what they're doing and don't understand.
12:11If you're not going to invest the money into it to maximize it, you're really wasting a
12:16project.
12:17And I wouldn't say wasting a project, but you're not taking it to its fullest potential
12:21because of, I guess you wouldn't call it greed.
12:26I guess you would call it being selfish.
12:29Yeah, man.
12:30To go to the top, I feel like you need a team.
12:33You need help.
12:34I mean, you ain't never going to just be the greatest by yourself, really.
12:37You got to have somebody, whether the world know it or not.
12:40I feel like you just need that team behind that's going to push.
12:44How did you feel when you first dropped the record and it was going crazy on streaming
12:49and on social media, but then once it started going to radio on the West Coast and all across
12:55the country?
12:57How did you feel the first time you heard the song on a radio station?
13:02I actually pulled up out here and on the way to the hotel, I heard it in the car.
13:07So I was like, damn, that's the first time I really heard it on the radio, coming out
13:11the radio.
13:12So it was in Atlanta?
13:13Yeah.
13:14Wow.
13:15And I was like, oh, that's nice right there.
13:16It was the tweaker remix with Wayne on it.
13:18But how did you really feel?
13:20I asked a lot of artists this question, especially artists from Atlanta who grew up in Atlanta.
13:26It's going to be a different feel, but for you to hear it the first time in the ATL on
13:30the radio, the first time?
13:33Yeah.
13:34Like riding in the car, I heard my song just come on.
13:37That's the first time.
13:38Wow.
13:39In Atlanta?
13:40Yeah.
13:41On V-103?
13:42Yeah.
13:43Yeah.
13:44Big jump.
13:45The biggest.
13:46He's here.
13:47Three brothers.
13:48Is there going to be a movie?
13:49There has to be a movie in the mix.
13:50Yeah.
13:51They should.
13:52I think so.
13:53I think Big Baller going to put a movie together one day.
13:55This story is like legendary.
13:57Yeah.
13:59I think the black community really need to see it.
14:02I think my pops going to put out a book or something like that.
14:05The book first?
14:06Yeah.
14:07The book first.
14:08Then the visuals going to follow up, probably, most likely, if I had to guess.
14:12It'll be an incredible movie.
14:16We really need to see this on the big screen.
14:19It'll be dope, for real.
14:21Three little boys.
14:22Especially if they put the blueprint in there for y'all, man.
14:25The blueprint was amazing.
14:27Man, congratulations to Pops.
14:29We can't say that enough.
14:32They try to clown on Dion, they try to clown on your pops, they try to clown on Mayweather
14:36Sr.
14:37But it's like, these guys have made legendary moves by helping and just empowering young
14:48men from our community.
14:49They got their own Boys and Girls Club.
14:52Even growing up, my dad, there'd be like 20 kids at our house, hoping, going to the park.
14:58Every day was like that.
14:59My dad was a trainer, so every kid in the neighborhood, damn near trained over there.
15:04It was packed.
15:06So the movie, because you can see it.
15:08You just said it.
15:09Remember LeBron had the More Than a Game?
15:10Yeah.
15:11It just showed the whole little thing with him and his friends and how his friends, parents,
15:15and they took care of LeBron.
15:18This is a big one, though.
15:19Three brothers?
15:20Three brothers.
15:21Three blood brothers?
15:22Yeah.
15:23Crazy.