A Waste Of Time with ItsTheReal

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we get on the phone with our best friend, musical partner and third creative partner in ItsTheReal, Greg Mayo! Greg discusses growing up in a creative household, the son of a painter mother and a touring musician father (who played with, among others, Hall & Oates, Foreigner, Aerosmith and Peter Frampton, most famously on Frampton Comes Alive), how he initially shunned his musical side to focus on baseball, what it meant when his parents divorced, how listening to ONYX, Cypress Hill and LL Cool J informed his rhythmic thinking, how being competitive with his brother took his learning guitar into overdrive, how he focused his musical ambitions through high school bands and into studying jazz composition in college, and the unforgettable weekend his dad flew in to feature on a handful of tracks on Greg's first solo album. Greg takes us back to the phone call he got his sophomore year at Purchase College informing him that father passed away in Europe on tour, how he's moved forward in living life, the advice that his dad left that carries through to everything both work and personal, and how he's since responded when dealing with the loss of other close family members, including his brother. We reflect on our collaborations through the years, from writing and recording mixtapes as teenagers in Greg's basement to dreaming up sketches to give to the internet to stepping on stages we never could have imagined, the core values and good energy that surrounds that creativity, and how that same passion to make each other laugh is what we strive for today. All that, plus how's Greg's gotten into doing film scoring, how he became a staple at NYC clubs like Rockwood Music Hall and The Bitter End, who he leans toward between The Neptunes and Timbaland, why he didn't attend his high school reunion, where life could have taken him in a sliding doors moment, another classic Greg Mayo car story and so much more! Wanna collaborate with Greg? Go to GregMayo.net

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This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome Roc Nation singer/songwriter/rapper and son of Seattle, Washington, Jay Park to the Upper West Side! Jay speaks on growing up the son of travel agents in the Emerald City, running around town with his crew on a mission to make a career out of breakdancing, doing poorly in school and hiding his report cards from his parents, and with his back against the wall, auditioned for a Korean talent competition, which ended up getting him cast in a boy band. With his folks going through a tough time, Jay took the gig to support his family and flew to South Korea knowing nothing of the language or culture, not to mention the shock of K-Pop artist development. We discuss his time in 2PM, what differentiated them from 2AM, their supergroup 1 Day, his attempts to work the system and take care of his body and soul without losing who he was over three and a half years before they ever dropped a project, and why he left the group. Jay gets into the reality of coming back to Seattle, his job working at a used tire shop, how his love for music came back, how starting to sing YouTube covers in the bathroom gained him a fanbase, why he felt weird about it, and how it ultimately make him an international draw once again. All that, plus the levels of Korean tattoos, friends by convenience, holding onto creative control, getting a 2 Chainz verse, living in Korea as former member of a boy band, becoming a businessman, his latest project Ask Bout Me, and much more!

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In this special episode of A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we speak with Yusuf Abdul-Qadir, Director at the New York Civil Liberties Union, who recently went viral, thanks to his powerful message about police policies, spending and officer accountability concerning his hometown of Syracuse, NY. We speak about bringing meaningful change to the local level, the national level and the transnational level, how a message is disseminated and the role media should play, and whether Syracuse's current leadership can be trusted with enacting forward movement. Yusuf discusses growing up the youngest of eight children, the differences in being raised in The Bronx vs. Rockland County, the full effect his father's loss had on his life, and the joy he's found in raising his own young daughter. We get into Yusuf's time as an undergrad at Syracuse University, the Islamic faith's belief that one should lead when called upon, how he found activism and took it global, and why he came back to raise his family in the city of Syracuse. All that, plus the challenges in running for high school and collegiate office, whether this country will ever even the playing field for children regardless of where they grow up, if there's any light fare he can watch to get his mind off of things, and much more!

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This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal we call up our friend Sheek Louch, the Silverback Gorilla, 1/3 of The LOX and 1/4 of 2 Jews & 2 Black Dudes Review the Movies for a super dope and meaningful conversation about Bad Boy, Ruff Ryders, D-Block, Yonkers, Harlem, The Hamptons, Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliott, Puffy, Biggie, DMX, Swizz, Suge, Heavy D, Carl Thomas, The Neptunes, The LOX's group projects and solo deals, the joys of fatherhood, growing up in YO, working at Burger King, working the street corners, playing football, breakdancing, watching his mother get a masters degree and invest money in different businesses while raising her son as a single parent, suffering the loss of his mother to cancer far too young, signing to Bad Boy and buying into the Shiny Suit energy, the thinking behind the Let The LOX Go campaign, how Suge Knight tried to sign the group, how Dame Dash offered to sign the group, giving Swizz his name, why we've waited so many years for a long-form LOX album, and much more!

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This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we make two phone calls to Atlanta legends, chopping it up with Big Boi and Sleepy Brown to discuss their collaborative project The Big Sleepover and their individual journeys from Savannah to A-Town to international funk superstardom, as well as stories about Organized Noize, TLC, Jay-Z, Puff Daddy, Pimp C, George Clinton, Missy Elliott, Jermaine Dupri, Bobby Brown, Ludacris, Bubba Sparxxx, Dr. Dre, Pharrell, Sade, Brick, The Source Awards, The Grammys, Andre 3000's driving, the International Players Anthem video shoot, who came up with the double-CD idea for Outkast, owls, bengal tigers, sharks, and so much more!

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