Souls of Hip Hop

MyVerse

December 15, 2020 MyVerse Season 1 Episode 14
Souls of Hip Hop
MyVerse
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

In this episode we interview Natalia Pitti aka MyVerse. She is a songwriter, poet, emcee, and humanitarian, best known for being a battle rapper in the SMACK/URL circuit. She was also a contestant in the improv comedy show Wild 'N Out on MTV and VH1.
 
We chat about her upbringing in Orlando, transitioning from poetry to battle rap, the science behind writing bars, collaborating with Wayne Brady and Monie Love, giving back to the community, directing videos and much more.
 
You can find MyVerse here:
https://myversewashere.com/ 
https://www.youtube.com/c/NATALIAdidthat 
https://www.facebook.com/MyVerse/ 
https://twitter.com/myverse 
https://www.instagram.com/myverse/ 
https://soundcloud.com/myverse 

Support the show
Unknown:

It's so nostalgic. You don't realize those very simple moments. Were just a random person comes and like, Hey, I brought you a coconut. Do you want some to drink from the coconut? You know what I mean? Like you go, like, that was like, Oh wait, I gotta sanitize this. I gotta make sure I stick a stick up your nose and make sure you ain't got no shit. Okay, you good. Welcome to Souls of Hip Hop. A podcast for hip hop heads that aims to bring inspiring people together to share their wisdom, passion, and unique stories. My name is candy. I'm DJ Razor Cut. And together we are Soulidarity - connecting souls organic. What's up you guys? MyVerse, Rock Steady crew, poet, emcee, battle rapper, comedian, humanitarian and best friend. Welcome to the show. How would your parents describe what you do? My mom would say that. I look at my daughter. No, just kidding. I mean, I mean, my mom, she would be like, My daughter is a rapper. She's a rapper, and she's a poet. And she'll always show Shall we show my my song, the 100% remix that I did a punch. She loves watching that. And she's like, I watch it every day. So yeah, she'll say, I'm a rapper. That's what she'll say. She said my daughter that she's a musician. She does music. And then my father, my father, Loki wants to be my manager. Because when we went to Panama, he went to the DJ, and he was like, my daughter's a rapper, and she does music. Get her on the microphone right now. And he got me to rap at a club out there in Panama. So he was so happy for me. But yeah, they'll they'll say I'm a rapper. So my MC that'd be bodying these holes. So you just touched on Panama, you have Panamanian and Puerto Rican roots. Tell us more about your background. Yeah, absolutely. My mom's from Puerto Rico. And my father's from Panama. My mom came to America to you know, just better her life. And she came with my my little brother. And then she met my father in Orlando, who he came from actually my father lived in New York and then moved to because our family was in New York, and then he moved to Orlando. Yeah, from there, he met my mom at church, and he kept going to church because of my mom. That's what he says. So yeah, my background is very, very much church oriented, because my mom had me definitely going to church every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. You know, that's very much established as far as like, spirituality. You know what I mean? I wouldn't say I'm a religious person, but I'm very spiritual person. That's a foundation of of me. You know what I mean? And so, my father ended up living in Ocala, you know, they separated because my father, he's a very, he's a very, how do I say this? He is a very, he is he loves to party. Okay. He's a good he's a party goer, you know what I mean? And then my mom is very, about her church. That's what she's about. So sometimes people are unequally yoked. So but my father ended up living in Ocala. And all this a lot of fields a lot of horses and stuff. So he would train a lot of horses for like the Kentucky Derby or for like, different like horse races. And so that and he would, and he will also breed and help give birth to two horses, cuz like horse racing and all that is like, in panamas, like super big, you know what I mean? Like, it's, you know, they have a lot of branches out, they were horses, those he took that what he was doing in Panama, and brought it to Florida and then well, New York and in Florida. So I used to go to Puerto Rico a lot. And I used to go to Ocala a lot. And just so it's like, I'm a city slash country, girl. Almost, you know what I mean? So yeah, my background is very culture culturally aware, because my mother, she always made sure that me and my brother were exposed to like ballets and like, Flamingo and like, if there's something that I like to do, she would always cultivate that, you know, like fashion. She took me to a fashion school because, you know, I told her, that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a fashion designer. Yeah, my mother she was she was one of those moms that was like, Oh, you you like fashion, okay, we're going to a fashion school. We're gonna go get us all mushy. And we're gonna you know what I mean? I'll be like, I like I want to learn how to dance outside. All you want to do sighs Okay, we're gonna take you to satisfy heat. We're gonna take you to any musical that has it, you know what I mean? So, yeah, I got two very loving parents. They were very loving parents and they were able to co parent without having to be together. So it was cool. Like I had, like, my mom always respected my pops even though he was he was out here, you know, saying below that now he's better. You know what I mean? My father knows better than my father that was you know, he's married and he goes to church, and like he like stopped drinking. Stop smoking. He sobbed like he's completely different, like completely changed man and I got my two little sisters. It's good it's good right now you know? So that's a little bit about me a little bit about my background as far as like my mom my pops. I mean, I can understand the enemy inside I'm half kind of me too. And in Orlando you're at the city but then you're surrounded by all this farmland outside Orlando's all that what we call red area. Right? I mean, really saw you know what I mean? clearly saw the difference. Florida's hilarious Tell me about what it was like growing up in Orlando. You know, Orlando is such a like mesh, I was raised around a lot more boutique was, you know what I mean? Especially like, what he goes from New York, and like, from the island to the people that are from the island, we're went to my church, and the New Yorkers and the New York, Puerto us were in my school, you know, you have that appreciation of being from Puerto Rico. And then seeing the difference between Puerto Ricans from New York and Puerto Ricans from Puerto Rico, you know what I mean? Growing up in in Orlando, you, there's a lot of that. And Jamaican culture, like Caribbean culture is like very strong out here. So there's an essence of like hip hop out here in Orlando. That is very true, from the elements to like, MC freestyling. Like we've we really like pride ourselves in that every Monday you go to Austin's coffee, or you went to the hush show, growing up in Orlando, it was you know, it was hip hop, you know what I mean? It was hip hop, and like, there's an essence out here that it's not like any other place, you know what I mean? Because a lot of people from New York, come here, a lot of people from New York, relocate here. So it's like, you have that that ism of the culture. And then on top of that, you got Caribbean, it's very Caribbean out here. So you got a mix of like, you know, could I get on reggae, and some way super hip hop heads, you know, gangster We out here? gangster like, these are? These are things that like, you know, there's an appreciation of the elements, the four elements out here in in Orlando, you got your tags, you got to be boys, you get the DJs you got your MCs, you know what I mean? And people pride themselves in being the best at it. My mom, we lived in the hood, you know, when we lived in like, Oak Ridge area, you know what I mean? And if you from Orlando, you know, that Oak Ridge area, Lancaster area that that areas kind of hood. And so then my mom ended up working two jobs and getting this added there. And, you know, we lived in a one bedroom apartment. And we lived in a little bit more of a conservative area a little bit, you know what I mean? better schools, you know, and so, you know, I lived in that area for until I was like in seventh grade. And then we and my mom ended up being able to buy a house, but she had to move back to the hood. So instead of moving back to her, because that was what she could afford buying a house, but she always instilled like, invest in real estate investing, you know, get a house for yourself, you know what I mean? I'm doing this so I can pass this on to you. You know what I mean? She's like, we moved back to that. And then from there, I started learning of like, what B boys and B girls were, you know what I mean? Because it was the area we were in was heavy. Like Bodie was from New York, or LSA, just boutique was, but like, just the culture of New York was an area that I was living in, you know what I mean? And then my mom bought a crib and so from their influence, a lot of like, me getting into breaking like I loved breaking breaking was my first introduction to like, hip hop and how dope it is. and not knowing what it was. I didn't know what it was. I was like, What are these people? spitting on? This guy just landed on his wrist? How did he do that? This guy's crazy. How is he flipping out of that position into another because like it was it just boggled my mind. And so like, you know, you got your different areas in in Orlando, you know what I mean? Like, you got your New York side and then you got your like Little Haiti and then you got like little Jamaica here. You know what I mean? And so there's just a, it's like a melting pot here, you know. And then on top of that, Disney Disney was like growing up Disney was just kind of like the supermarket like you just saw there every day. Yeah, like Disney Central Florida. That whole beach vibe here too. You know what I mean? We made our own entertainment. You know what I mean? That's what we really did. We really try to create outside of just not just Disney, you know what I mean? Like we you know, the chose those events you know what I mean the grind time events you know Ryan time which is the battle rap channel that kind of created the format that we have today and battle rap started in Orlando you know growing up in in Orlando that like I said battle rap and like freestyling is a very is very prominent out here and it's always been a part of the fabric of growing up in Orlando. You know, we was we was out here Yo, who's out here rapid? Yeah, trying to put our poems to beat flow to that you always rep in Orlando hard. Great because in your battles, people go for that as a disk and you go and you flip it on them like hard. It's great. I like especially being someone that's from Orlando. I'm like this girl dude. Right? You know, we got a rep not every that's the problem is that everybody thinks everybody in Florida is the same and it's like clearly even you could see in this election, you know, Miami Tampa, Orlando more than Metropolitan places, you know, I'm saying where there's more people that are a little bit more educated. There you you know what I mean? You could see that like, there's a big difference from like, the weirdos that be out. Like, in the outskirts. It's like the Hills Have Eyes and shit. Don't go, don't go do it's scary. It's a stigma and it sucks because there's a stigma for Florida that like that people are wild out here, which I'm not gonna deny there are crazies out here. But there's crazies everywhere. You know what I mean? But there's people that'd be given us a bad rap and I'm like, yo, listen, y'all haven't gotten to where like Orlando and like the roots of Orlando and Tampa and Miami and Jacksonville all these places like I said that are very well educated. Tallahassee they got fam you over there. They also have very, they're very bunch of deep rooted outs on hip hop culture. There's a lot of historically legendary people that came out of Florida and in in Orlando, you know, and they continue to build and and you see that impact in the culture everywhere that you go, you see the people that have created especially with UCF jams back in the day with Bieber jam, or you know, breaking events and But let's get back to you. Uh huh. Well, I love that you were touching on that though, because Florida in general like we started the bass music the booty music You know, they're the Miami was big on that. You know what I mean? Miami Magic Mike came out of Florida, you know, Diplo is out of Orlando. So like, there's a lot of very powerful people that have that have affected the culture or that have affected us a different part of probably culturally but like, yeah, I mean, like you grab on his joint. But like, for example, having like Tony touch always out there and legs is always was out in Orlando, he was always supporting things, just just so many instances. nathi dj Khalid, you had all these from Miami recruiting. I mean, there's just there's so much going on. I met Craig two weekends ago, and we're doing a record together. And it's so funny, like, he was talking about Miami hip hop, you know what I mean, in Miami scene and how it was and like, there was kind of like a one point there was like a stillness and then eventually, like, came back and it was like calot and Rick Ross and then and then rob banks. All these like Miami artists kind of brought back life. Like back to Florida music. You know what I mean? Or Miami music? Don't put us in the in the category of all that are weirdos out here in Florida. Okay. Not just Baskin. Yeah, dagli Oh, my God, for perfect example. My gosh, so you get introduced to breaking in your hood. But then how did you transition into becoming a poet and then transition into battle rap? I did actually, when I was living in that nice area, I started doing like poetry. And that's where I started doing poetry, right. But all of my poetry would rhyme. And I was it would already like it was already bars, you know what I mean? And so then, when I moved, my mom moved, you know, and bought the house. And it was more of like, the people that I went to school with, there was more MCs, there was more MCs, there's more be boys, or breakers. There was more hip hop enthusiasts, there was it was there, you know, it's being surrounded by that and that, I never realized that me the poems I was writing, were actually like wraps. And so then, from there, I just kept writing poems. It was easy for me to write, you know, I got into a group of friends of like rappers. And, you know, I would write stuff to in a way, like, be like, yo, look, look at my new look at what I wrote. Now, look at my new poem. You know what I mean? And they would be like, Oh, that's fine. That's cool. To the point where I would have home girls be like, yo, can you write a poem about this boy like, and I would write a poem. Send get my poems to the little boyfriends or whatever. Yeah, like it poetry was just something that, that I love to do. In fact, for wrote poetry, I used to write stories. as a little kid, I used to write stories about this character named Stacy. And then from there, like, I started writing poems. And then I started writing poems, stories being surrounded by MCs, you know, I would try to show off my poems, and I would give my props, you know, and so these MCs would battle freestyle battle. And I love seeing that I was just in awe of like, people that could freestyle off the top like that, to me was just like, wow, like, how do you do that with nothing, that was something that always that was so intriguing to me. And so I would get on the internet and I would look up freestyle battles. And I came across this documentary called ciphers and supranet battle Jews. And they showed Medusa from the west coast and like that whole scene, and that was like, wow, this is a whole like, freestyle MCs. You know what I mean? Like, this is so cool. You know, at that time, though, I was, you know, I would rap with my friends, but I was strictly poetry, like, it was just strictly poetry that rhymes. And I wouldn't even do it on a beat. Like, I would tell them don't turn off the music for everything off complete silence. Let me do this poem. You know what I mean? I didn't even want to do it on a beat. I remember I was I was doing poetry like in high school, and then college, I met Matt ILS. And Matt ILS was like, yo, you should go to this event. It's called vocalizations. And it was on Monday nights with so little acquista sounds and from theirs. That was the first time that I remember I went on stage. And I did my poem. And I remember suam and all them like suam. Alex, like, they was like, yo, you're dope. Yes. Keep doing it. You know what I mean? And they I love them because I was so like, I didn't want to do it on a beat. I remember they were like, Nah, you gotta do it on a beat you guys, do you bomb on a beat? I was like, no. And then they and I did it. And but I didn't do it. Like on beat like in the pocket. It was just like a poem. Yeah, I remember from there. Like, there was a point. I went through this, like self reflection that I just stopped doing poetry. I stopped writing, I stopped everything. You know, like, as far as like, creating whatever, because I was like, yo, am I really doing this? Because I want to do it, or am I doing this? Because I want to be cool. You know what I mean? Like, am I doing this just so I could fit in with people? And maybe I was doubting myself or something. But I was just like, I don't want to do this. I'm just gonna do real estate. You know, I mean, I'm gonna sell timeshares is all I'm gonna do you know what I mean? And then I remember, I was upset about something. And I was just like, I'm just gonna write, I just want to write, I did the poetry to express myself because I was feeling like, I feel like am I doing these poems just just for show? Or am I doing this to really express myself and express and that's why i say i'm not going to write anything until it's something that is me giving myself and being vulnerable. And this being something that this is the true mean, this is the truth to me. This is the true this is the truth that I'm living right now. And this is the most honest, she's like flow it just flowed it came it was just, it was like you don't like when you like have so much bottled up inside and then it's just like literally me of like getting you to exit exercises just like that rejected. But it was just a flow just like every like all the pain all the down all the regret, or all the whatever. It was just like, flow flow. And then like, I came to a realization was like, I fucking love this shit. What is wrong with me? Why would I not do this? This is so great. I'm not be a poet. So then. So then I was just like, you know what, let me let me do an open mic. Let me have a place where I can just release, you know what I mean? And I did these open mics called prolific Mondays. And I remember you start a very small startup that would play guitar and then a guy on that got home and then blue box would come out. From there, I started practicing putting my poems on a beat. And like really try to like rap, you know what I mean? Like really actually put in my poetry to bars and like learning, flow, learning the structure of a verse, learning the structure of when a hook comes in and, and flow going from poet to emcee. It's easy to rhyme. But when now you have to come up with a cadence it's very different now you're an instrument. Now your your voice an instrument. So you know those open mics really got me comfortable being on stage and weekly, like getting on the mic and creating in some of my greatest poems came from those prolific Monday nights. And then throughout that whole time, grind, time is happening. These battles are happening, and they're asking me Oh, when are you going again? You should battle you should battle and I'm like, Nah, man, I'm straight poetry. You know what I'm saying? I'm straight. Like, let's uplift our sisters. Like this is where I'm at. I'm not trying to. I'm not you know, I'm not out here trying to like, write about How should a person is I want to write to heal people. I did that. And then I got into music. I was like, you know what I'd rather use. I'd rather do music. I rather use my time to music. And then eventually I ended up getting signed with grind time as an artist, I was granted as an artist. So I was going to use the battle rap platform to share my music and to be an emcee, because there just really at that time was in a lot of female representation. The first time I wrapped a poem on a beat was at this place called tengo. res. No, I think it was on Sunday night, they would have like a band play. And I remember I was like, for the first time, my job in front of all of my peers that know me as a poet. And I remember, I was like, I'm gonna do this poem, and I did it. But I did it like on a be like, I was emceeing and people were like, I remember Am I am was there. I always remember my mom's reaction because Am I am was the first one I got up he was like, yo, you're rad. Like, yeah, fucking rapper. Yeah, no rapper. I'm a rapper. And then that's what I started my prolific Mondays and that was when I was like, Okay, let me start putting my posts to be in learning flow. How did you get the name my verse, My verse, so you know what? I used to be called diverse but then there was there was an MC quote diverse so like now I can't you know, I'm saying about the fight nobody for that name. So then, Matt ILS had something called the written battles where it wasn't a freestyle battle. It was written battles. This was before grind time. This was probably like lounge battles. Remember, we used to have these things called lounge battles. So manual said, yo, there's a written battles you want to enter. And I'm like, All right, I'll get it. I'll get in the battle. So I was like, Okay, so this isn't a freestyle battle. I can write these bars down and I can go up there and wrap them right and it was funny because this is the format that it is today. Now every l The battle is all written. Now. You know what I mean? You know, you're gonna battle when you're right for them, right. But I wanted to this battle, this type of battle, I went in with universal bars that oh, this somebody you know what I mean? And it wasn't on a beat, it was all acapella. I remember, I answered it. And before I entered it, I was like, I have to have a name. I can't enter this battle without a name. So I picked a name that if they were to use my name, it would be dissing them. If they were trying to diss my name, they would diss their name, they would just themselves. So if they were like, yo, my versus trash, I'll be like, you're right. You're versus trash. And if they're like my versus ill, I'll be I add that, my verse L. That was why I picked the name, my verse, what's your science behind writing bars, I can really be inspired by anything. I could hear a word and I'm like, Oh, I could do something on that. Writing a battle, writing music and writing poetry are like two different or three different parts of your head that you're using to come up with bars for a song depends on the concept, how you're going to conceptualize this song, when it comes to a person that I'm battling. You know, I think about, okay, this person that I'm battling, I can really talk crazy to them, you know what I mean? I can get super personal if I wanted to, but I'm more of the type that I like to strictly make bars and I like it to be bar heavy. I'd like to talk to you as a person and like, tell you how you can be better, but like, you know, depending on how I feel like sometimes I feel like I want to do more hyperboles you know, I got money so totally reaches to the sky or reaches a cloud hyperbole is where you kind of exaggerate what you're saying. Sometimes I want to be lyrical miracle. Sometimes I don't want to be like, metaphorical or vulgar. Bring them borders or borders on how to forward nocona corporate poses. I'm sure you're gonna be like, I feel like I want to do that. It's all about your opponent. I'm pretty sure candy knows when it comes to battling. Like, whatever they got to strengthen. I'm going to show how I can do that better. Oh, you do that good. Well, I love what I do. I since I've gotten to battling it has helped me so much with creating songs. It's helped me so much with even poetry. I never realized that my poems like the bars and my poems would have been great bars for battles. So because I was doing poetry slams to I just everywhere rapping, right is how do you prepare yourself like mentally for these battles? Because it's brutal. Like, if anybody would say that to me, I would be really either really upset or just want to cry, like how do you prepare mentally and emotionally? Like mentally to prepare for a battle? You got to say, fuck what they're gonna say to me. I got to focus on this person. Some people approach it like be rabbit ish. Remember how B rabbit in a while he was like, you're going to talk about this? You're going to talk about that. You know, you can do that. But to me, I don't want to waste my time. Like I want to talk directly to you. Let me tell you, it could drive you crazy. Thinking of what ifs? What if this What if this person does that? What if this you know what I mean? You can be mentally, you know, sometimes you have to vision how you want your battle to turn out like I'm going to visit That I'm going to go second in this battle me person I freestyle. You know, like I said, Orlando We out here freestyling. So like you can say whatever you want to me. And if it's strong enough, I will do a rebuttal it going into a battle you have to obviously prepare yourself for what you think your opponent is going to say. Find a way that you could still diss them, but still defend yourself at the same time. Yeah, going into a battle mentally you just you just have to get some thick skin straight up. You got to have some thick skin because people are gonna say some crazy shit to you that you're just like, who raised you raised you? Yeah, I'm gonna be honest with you. I like crude humor and battle rap isn't for everybody. Just like comedy rows. They're not for everybody. Some people are very hypersensitive, and they don't see it as just battle, right? They're like, Oh, those are fighting words. But it's almost like a boxer. You know, you can't get mad that someone punched you in the face. That's your job. You just got to really love it. And there's people that fight with honor and there's people that just they get their rocks off of having a cheap shot or taking low blows. You know, just depending on what kind of battler you to me. I'd like to fight with honor still son you and still keep my dignity and Rabb better than you to me. I'm like, I want to show that I can rap better than you. I want to show that you as a person y'all believe in this person this much. But really they're not that great. That's kind of like my mentality when I go into this battle even if they're my friend, you are my enemy for today. I love you but I ain't about to be out here taking ELS Hell no. You touched on it earlier like how you know writing this is very different from writing a song from a poem. Why do you think that it's fairly rare for very successful battle rappers to cross over into being successful recording artists? I don't know there's a stigma that battle rappers can't make music and I think we're getting out of that element right now especially in 2020 because Jay Z was about a rapper big he was about a rapper. The thing is people don't be claiming they battle rap side. They don't want to claim it. We out here making good music battle rappers do make good music. Shout out to ruin your day mixtape. There's a mixtape that is out. It's already on volume four. And it pretty much puts all battle rappers music. I think the problem the reason why you don't see many battle rappers being like, super successful as far as I can music is because they don't realize the marketing behind it. This thing, battle rappers, they unfortunately don't realize that they have a platform to push their music. And a lot of them don't push their music enough. You literally have a million people subscribe to this channel that you're on. The first thing in all of my battles, you're going to see my music, you're going to hear my song, you're going to know that my verse has music because I'm not just going to stand up here and let you call me a bitch and whatever name in the book for nothing. Okay, I'm going to get some residuals off this at the end of the day someone's going to go and doubt you don't say streaming music or buy a T shirt or something. You have to be able to brand that's the problem is that battle rappers just want a bad rap. So now it's like they're not realizing like their fullest potential which I'm going to be honest there's there is battle rappers that that are realizing it now. For example, k shine, k shine. He's like a major label behind him. k shine is like one of the top battle rappers right now. He's doing exactly what he's supposed to do, which is battle rap and push your music. Because you've got to understand people think just because our song isn't on the radio doesn't mean we're not successful. There's a lot of MCs that you don't that are super successful that their song isn't on the radio and they don't it's not like they don't have stardom. We need to get millionaire we need to get some millionaire battle rappers you know what I mean? We some battle rappers that are gonna be millionaires off of their battle raps one and their music. I just can't say that the better rappers don't make good music because I've met many like New Jersey twerk that's a crazy name. I know. But that's his name. And he makes really good music. Two L's recognize, recognize I was just on the phone with him today. I love that you said that. Yes. Recognize that's another one. He became pretty successful. Like, I mean, he wasn't like Jay Z famous. But for the most part. Yeah. I'll tell you one thing though. All your favorite rappers watch battle rap. All of them. And a lot of them now nowadays are getting their bars from battle rappers. So in a way, we do make good music, because our bars are in those songs. Our bars are in those hits. So yeah, I really love seeing you on Nick Cannon show. Because you you're super funny every time. I mean, you know we're friends. So we do spend a lot of time having fun and it's always something coming up on the fly. Little Mermaid in the pool. Yeah, see you up there and doing these things, you know, how did you feel? It was an amazing opportunity to really help spring a lot of things as far as like people seeing me learning me the first experience of battling Nick Cannon you know live I think the impact of that was because of the fact that it was live there's no edits it was straight up live on national TV you know what I mean live that had such an impact on as far as like even our battle rap culture, you know what I mean? salute to Nick Cannon because he was always given a stage for battle rappers. What your choices to do after it is completely up to you you know what I mean? Are you going to capitalize off of it? Or are you just going to be like Hey, cool. I was on TV salute to Nick Cannon for giving us that opportunity. It's I'm gonna tell you is probably one of the funnest jobs to have fun is jobs to be a cast member of wiling out. And yeah, it made me actually dig into different parts of my artistry as far as like improv. I started taking improv classes because of wiling out and, man if Have you ever done improv? Yeah. You got to do it. You want to do it. It is so much fun. It's so funny. It's so creative. It lets you use your imagination. It helps you with critical thinking like it's such an awesome thing to do. In fact, I think just to throw this out there, I think it would be really cool if you implemented a little bit of improv classes into childhood this culture. Oh, yeah, word. I appreciate wiling out for that experience. Because learning about improv, like, improv is so great for kids. Because like, especially kids that are being bullied, that like, they may not know what to do you know what I mean? When kids roasting them, they don't know what to do because they like they like a deer in the headlights. They're like, Oh my God. But improv helps you like kind of maneuver out of a situation or maneuver a situation to be in your favor. Shout out to wallet up for that experience. Because I was able to dabble into improv. It got me into dabbling into comedy, like actually writing jokes and like scripts for like comedy. And I'm happy that you know, it was it was you grow from Orlando, just a little girl from Orlando. You knows a little TVs? TV's MTV. So it was cool. I think in the website, they even have you like that you beat him. Yeah, my verse bodies in Yeah, great. It was. It was great. I do think it's really cool. How improv or the comedic element is very entertaining. One of my favorite shows as a kid was like, Whose Line Is It Anyway? Yes, I remember that. That's funny. You say that. I'm literally doing a record with Wayne Brady. Like we actually did a record together. He's so talented. Oh, my gosh, just chirps from him. Talent is just like, spewed singer dancer was on a singing show where he was dressed like I think a fox or something. Yeah, he was a singer. Yeah. Oh my god, that was amazing. He won. This is something about you that I always think is super cool. It's like, Oh, yeah, I just did a thing with crazy Oh, I just was with Wayne Brady. Oh, I'm just you know, want to MTV or taboo. I was just in welding now. And you just you're so humble way? How do you maintain that balance? And I keep my friends around that have been around from the beginning to stay grounded, you know. And I keep in mind that this isn't, I still have so much more to do. I can't just like I'm so proud of like, the accomplishments that I've had. And I'm like, so I'm like, Man, I'm so grateful for like these once in a lifetime opportunities that I've been given. I just want to I keep going. I just keep going. Like, I just want to keep going and maintain being humble. Because what you do know is you know, nothing at all. And if you keep that hunger of wanting to constantly learn, legs told me this perfectly, he says, think like a vet, but keep the hunger of a rookie. That's what I always want to maintain is not be complacent with like, okay, yes, yo, you've done all this stuff. But I just feel like there's so much more for me to tackle and so competition to, to actually discover of myself as an artist. I really truly try to like just keep like the people that have always had a pure intention around me. That's why like, Can I don't I don't even like I'll be sitting on my fans. I'll talk to the people that support me. You know what I'm saying? Like I really, when I say people are my tribe, like I call like the people that support me, I called my tribe. I really believe that like we are a tribe. That can never be where I'm at if it wasn't for the people that shared my stuff. If it wasn't for the people that are sharing their platform with me to like, like you guys. you sharing your platform with me like, I appreciate that. And so like, I'm just I just maintain gratitude. Like, that's what I want to always keep gratitude, just like being grateful. You had your own show too called this and that. Yes, this and that shout out to Queen Jolie and shout out to be girl Genesis. Those are my sisters. You know, this year, we kind of had to take a hiatus on it because of the whole, you know, pandemic, you know, I can't miss them so much. But shout out to Genesis because she'd be holding these little jam sessions I'll be seen, like, they want to go and I go, but I'll be so in my in me creating cuz now I'm catching up with things that like I haven't been able to finish because I'm always been on the road. But yes, this and that. That is a podcast that we started 2019 we Yeah, we have this year, we just kind of we I think we did one in January. And then from there, you know, I had to travel and then, you know, we want to we want to get it off off the ground again. Because we had some really good you know, it was really cool to have like female perspective in the culture. salutes and my sisters, I love them so much. I mean, you do a lot of giving back. And we we've done a lot of things which are this culture with us. And during the pendant mega saw you were so in mass, what gives you hope during this time? Yeah, I mean, I was doing I was, and I'm actually it's funny, I literally just got an email because I have to donate 50 more. We donated 25,000 masks to essential workers. And that's with so for lives, salutes Sofer lives, they pretty much rounded up a bunch of people that know how to sew, and have the make face masks for from post office workers to nurses, to people that are delivering food. You know, these are essential workers, people at the grocery store, these are essential workers. And so it's been an honor to be able to be part of something like that. I know my grandmother is going to be very proud of me because you know, she showed me how to sew in you know, I've been holding the data while I've been holding it down. So for lives, that's what I've been doing on my pastime, it's inspired me to actually make masks of my own for my page, like fashion wise, you know, the best that I make to donate are more like they look like medical ones. And the ones that I have on my site aren't they're more fashionable, but they're still medically approved because I put a propylene in the middle and I put a little wiring at the top so we can like pinch on your nose. And it's a little baby plug in there. You also shoot and direct your own videos recently, I caught you and you were shooting a video in a furniture store. Can you tell us more about that? Oh, thank you. Okay, so let me tell you, let me talk to you. So if you want to know what I've been doing to stay busy, you know, I've been creating songs, I do this thing called the department store. And this was going to help me get into how I made that music video. So department stores is I go into random stores, and I'll just, you know, I'll make bars off of whatever's around me and I'll do it in a form that's like battle rappy you know, say like, it's like a battle rap cadence. Because that's my style. You know, like my style of filming. Like I do guerilla style, like Australia just pull up and be like pulled camera. Let's go. So for that video, I was like, Yo, I really means I need to find a place that has a bookshelf. You know, I need an office because the concept that I had was like I want this to be like an office and I'm like don't call your own mafia style whatever. I was like damn, where could I find a place that I could do this? So then I'm like well I'm thinking I'm thinking I'm thinking I'm like fuck let's go to a furniture store. So I'm like I go to a friend cuz your furniture stores we have in the whole thing set up lighting everything you know, I mean it's a whole like movie set right there for you. So yeah, that video was shot at in Caine's furniture shout out to them I straight up we pulled up like I had I had already done you know you got to do location scouting so I look I found the location I was like okay, this is spot went there the next day I'm dressed up Matt you know I'm saying when my blazer ready. And shout out to my boy trust. He you don't say he filled the whole day. We straight up used canes furniture and it was right in the coat. Yo was so perfect. When I'm looking at the video. I were like cracking up because you're like Yo, we had to move the middle of the price tag off. Yo, I had left one though. There's one there's a price tag in there that nobody has done. I don't think anybody cut it. video now they can pick it up but saying you're resourceful. I always use you as an example for entrepreneurs and the type of energy and the type of like you You come up and again with the idea of critical thinking and problem solving and figuring out okay, I make this video I don't make this video look good. How am I gonna do it? And here we are. Yeah, I Loki want to find another couch and be like, Alright, we're gonna do some here, you know, said maybe I act like it's a club or something. We'll get some girls with like sparklers. I don't know. gave it to them. Kick me the fuck out. But that would be that would be funny. Yes. Are you gonna buy any of this? And you're like, yeah, I'm just looking Yo, like three times I was like, Yes. I just want to see if this is good. Okay. Ask you funny. How are you? Okay? Let me see this chair fields. I don't know, the concepts of the videos that I make. I'm actually it's so funny that you mentioned that shout out to the official Latino film and art festival or art awards. I'm actually nominated the video that I did in Chicago. It's for alopecia, I directed it I edited, you know, pretty much curiosity. And yeah, it got nominated. I love film and I love music videos and stuff like that and I'm all about production value. And like I said, Caine's furniture has amazing production value, for great production value. For sure that people have to realize like you were in a day and age that like everything is tangible if you want it to be if you want to make your own music video, you can make it you know what I mean? You can you can do it. You got to find like minded people that are willing to help you and like hold the camera and want to see you when, you know, talking about entrepreneurial endeavors. What's the deal with you getting certified to grow weed or sell weed? I am certified. Bud tender. Yeah, I am a certified bud tender. Thank you to learn CTV University. Yeah, I think is a joke. This is dead. As we out here in Orlando, we got a school called learn to tiba and I learned how to do hydroponics pretty much learning how to grow weed without being outside. just pretty much learning for making it a seed. I mean, have I been able to use it now? No, I just go and like buy from a regular guy. But like, yeah, like I have an actual certification of being able to grow trees. You know? It's like do I want to show you I have aquaponics they taught us aquaponics where you put fish it's like you use like the water jugs a big water jug. And then you put water in it you put fish in it right and then the fish poop helps fertilize the the trees, like your your whatever, you know your tomatoes. It's great skills to learn. Especially like let's say a zombie apocalypse happens. Hey, you know, I know how to grow tomatoes. Especially tomatoes. I'm in my gardener candy now out here. Yeah, you got the green thumb. I got it. Yeah, I got it. Making some set. No, I mean eating lettuce all summer. Oh, that is so cool. Oh, that's what I want to do. That's amazing. You'll How long did it take you to like soil? And probably when we started actually getting some lettuce grown pretty fast within a month. I would say within six weeks we're getting the lettuce kale to probably I will give it two months. So I we got here in the beginning of June by like middle June. Yeah, by middle July, we're already making little salad packs. Like you know, you get the little salad effects with the whatever it is I was getting them and then herbs too. It's dope. So I can I can see that. You know, you know how to grow some tomatoes, and some add some tomatoes. It's the same one. Yeah, there was like yo, say it's a safe tomato. Marriage alone. But yeah, where do you get this entrepreneurial spirit? Because like, you're like, Girl, I can brain. You know, I'm going rollerblades and play basketball, you have all these different skills. But where do you get that from? You know, I don't know. Maybe my father, my father is a very hard my mom's a hard worker too. You know, like I said, My mom was a type person she was she very much cultivated, like anything that I wanted to do. And so that was something that was always instilled in me. Like, if this is something that I like to do, then you know, I'm going to cultivate it like I'm going to make, you know what I mean, I'm going to learn about this. I don't believe me as a person. I'm just one labeled one thing, you know what I mean? I believe even as humans, we're so complex, especially the time the day and age when it's like we have we have the opportunity to have so much to learn. There's so much information out there for us to learn from. So when I said I want to learn how to make tomatoes. When I want to learn how to make tomatoes, you know what I'm saying? I want to learn how to grow wheat. It was presented to me my boy was like, Yo, I'm in the school for wheat. I'm like, No, you're not and he's like, yes I am. I said let me see. I want to learn if there's something that you want to learn, do it breaking. I said I want to learn how to break I'm gonna learn Okay, and I'm gonna learn from from the great I'm gonna learn from Candy Candy was one that told me yo learn how to get down On the floor that's what you need to practice practice how to get down on the floor that was one of those gems and I still carry that with me. I wanted to learn like i like i said i'm an empty vessel that just wants to fill itself with knowledge and just be a well versed person bars. You did a project with Moni love How did that come about? Yes, with Modi love I did a record we actually actually had an album together me her dealer rule and Karolina dirty she got four MCs like this was something that Modi loved curated along with J. Ross. J. Ross is actually the producer that he produced on black stars album, my one of my favorite Black Star songs is brown skin lady way go and yo he produced that and so he ended up I guess linking with with money, love money, love ended up getting me Carolina dirty and dealer row and we formed a group called heresy. And we released a project. It's an album so make sure you guys go look it up heresy. Yeah, we did a record we did like five records on there. And then I think a sixth one, the sixth one was kind of like a promo record. mony love is so dope. She's just so dope. She's such a good human. You know what I mean? Like, just in general, she, she always encouraged me. She always said, you know, my verse. I'm doing this because I want you to etch your name in the tree of hip hop. That's what I want you to do. I want you to etch your name. And she's like, you've already etched your name, but I want you to just etch it a little bit deeper. That metaphor always like stuck with me. You know what I mean? Yeah, did you know what I'm doing? I did a project with Loni love Yes. Yes, I did. About more incredible achievements. You also took over as the host of quitter Rock Steady after blu ray passed away Yes. honored honored, saluted destroyed for co hosting with me. We did the damn thing you know, we did the damn thing and in remembrance of Voodoo Ray those those are big shoes to fill. Especially like just his energy the way he'd like. Put a rock steady was Voodoo Ray, you knew that when you went to Puerto Rocksteady. You were going to have the most warm, most warmest welcome from him. And so that energy is something that I carried with me. You know, when he gave me the honor of being a host I said, you know, that's what I want to do. I want to just every you know what I mean? If I see someone just standing still, I'll be like, Nah, you gotta dance. Let's go Let's go you know what I mean? Because that was the energy that Ray always had his energy was always to uplift and just that transfer that energy and just make you laugh and still keep it hip hop and still keep it Latino and still honor the earth. You know, he was always about that life and so like I did in remembrance and in reverence to my late bro Voodoo Ray Yeah, I was looking forward to doing it again this year. You know, maybe next year you know, we'll make it happen I really want to bring battle rap to because I know we were doing freestyle battles, but I really want to bring like actual like battles to pull the rock steady because like the anniversaries they used to have battle events like battle rap, pussy. So is there anything that you want anything that we left? I didn't want to share anything. You um, I guess you know, subscribe to my verse on YouTube. Make sure you guys go to my vs here.com get some merch if you want to follow me on Instagram, my verse on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, whatever. Look up my verse one word, everything is one word, my verse one word. And you know, I got new music. Always got music dropping, I just literally dropped the record today. It's actually a song I'm featured on but still, you know, I get residuals from it. So make sure you go stream that two that is called on tour. And, yeah, we always end up our interviews with what is hip hop to you? Hip Hop to me, is community. That's what hip hop is to me. tribe. That's what hip hop is to me is tribe is a tribe in itself. it's it's a it's a talk, the way you dress. You know what I mean? It's tribe, you know what tribe you're from when just by like how you carry yourself tribe. That's what hip hop is, is community. Thank you so much to our guest M Verse for taking the time and be ng so open while sharing your pe spective with us. Some of the ge s we took away from this in erview where old ways won't open new doors make a habit of trying and learning new things. improv training embraces other people's ideas and responses, which can rapidly diffuse the anxiety of the unknown. There is a great joy in doing what you do well when it gives back to your community. Our theme music was beat boxed by Denis the Menace and roduced by Zede. A big shout ou to the brothers fro Switzerland. The backgroun music was produced by Tak Brano. A big thank you to our brosky from Providence. Happy holidays from our family to yours. Much love to Afrobeta for uying us coffee. Gracias. We lov your new album illusion motel. Our podcast basically runs o coffee to keep our show runnin. You can support by buying us a coffee through the link i our show notes. And we would love to get your feedback questions and any suggestions you might have. You can reach out to us on Instagram Twitter or Facebook @S ulidarityLLC or via email s ulidarityllc@gmail.com if you li e today's show, please tell a fr end about our podcasts or as Phife Dawg would say: tell y ur mother, tell your father, sent a telegram. In our next episode we welcome married couple Honey Rockwell and Orko. Honey is a legendary B-girl from the South Bronx. She created the first film dedicated to B-girls in the 90s. Orko is a legendary B boy from California. He is also a marine veteran. Honey and Orko have performed around the world on Broadway movies and television. They currently own the Rockwell Dance Academy and are proud parents of four children. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave a rating and review. See you on our next episode. Thank you for listening to our podcast. Now Seriously though, thank you. I am candy. I'm DJ razor cut. And this is Souls of hip hop

How would your parents describe what you do?
Growing up in Orlando
Transitioning from poetry to battle rap
Science behind writting bars
Preparing for a battle
Cross over to the music industry
Wild 'N Out
Staying humble
Giving back to the community
Entrepreneurship
Voodoo Ray
What is Hip Hop to you?