#1581 - J. Prince

Joe Rogan (0:17)

Thanks for being here, brother. I appreciate it.

J. Prince (0:18)

Hey, it's a privilege and honor.

Joe Rogan (0:20)

Listen, man, you command a tremendous amount of respect. The more people I talk to you, the more the respect grows.

More people I talk about you, rather. It's a pleasure to meet you and a pleasure to be with you.

J. Prince (0:32)

Likewise, bro.

Joe Rogan (0:34)

Josh Dubin loves you, too.

J. Prince (0:35)

Oh, yeah, the feeling is mutual.

Joe Rogan (0:37)

Yeah, I love that dude.

J. Prince (0:38)

Yeah, me too.

Joe Rogan (0:39)

He's a good man, and the stuff that he does on the side, you know, outside of boxing, and the stuff that he does with The Innocence Project is really amazing.

J. Prince (0:48)

Yeah, yeah, he's an awesome friend to have as well.

Joe Rogan (0:52)

Yeah, so we got a lot of shit here, man. We got your loyalty brand, you've got champagne, you've got wine, you've got, what's this?

J. Prince (1:02)

Esther Merlot.

Joe Rogan (1:03)

This is Merlot, and you have a Cabernet as well.

J. Prince (1:06)

And Rosé.

Joe Rogan (1:07)

I love a man that's involved in a lot of different things.

J. Prince (1:11)

Well, I'm just trying to diversify my portfolio.

Joe Rogan (1:15)

But that's always been the case with you, right?

J. Prince (1:16)

Yeah, pretty much so.

Joe Rogan (1:18)

From the beginning.

J. Prince (1:19)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (1:19)

You are responsible for a tremendous amount of the music that I listened to, especially when I was a young man. Like, you put together The Ghetto Boys. Willie D was on here, and he explained the whole story to us that you're the one who talked him into being into The Ghetto Boys. Like, he was like, nah, I wanna be on my own.

He did it as a favor to you.

J. Prince (1:38)

Yeah, that's a true story. That's a true story. I actually had got rid of the other set of Ghetto Boys because they felt like I was too deep and they couldn't relate to some of the subject matters I wanted them to write to.

Joe Rogan (1:53)

Like, what kind of subject matter?

J. Prince (1:55)

Well, just real life situations, you know what I mean? Like, real street things that I was living.

And they were spitting more tonka toy type of raps. You know, they was following the trend of the East Coast at the time. And I realized that we're from the South, and we just had different stories.

Joe Rogan (2:16)

Like, what was the stories of the East Coast? Like, what was the difference?

J. Prince (2:19)

Well, more commercial. You know, back then, the East Coast was more commercial. This was the time when Run, DMC, LL, Cool J, you know, the hardcore rap hadn't hit the scene yet.

So down South, we were considered rebellious at the time because we came with a different flavor. You know, we came with ghetto stories. That's one of the reasons I named the group The Ghetto Boys because I knew it was ghettos all around the world that had a voice and we became their voice.

Joe Rogan (2:51)

Well, it was also, there were songs that, they were very unconventional, like, Minds Playing Tricks on Me. Like, that's an unconventional song, and it shows like a vulnerability. Like, talking about the pressure of that life really fucking you up, you know?

There was a lot of that in The Ghetto Boys. There was a lot of layers to it. If you looked at it on the surface, you would think just gangster rap, but there was a lot of thinking behind that music.

J. Prince (3:23)

Oh, most definitely, and that was part of what we done together. We brainstormed together because we wanted to make sure we tapped into, you know, everybody that didn't have a voice. You know, a lot of the things, such as the mind playing trick song, for example, you know, it was a lot of individuals that was like norm to their lifestyle or what would actually take place of inner city kids. And we were able to make that like real visual.

Joe Rogan (3:54)

You, it's fascinating to me, all the different things that you've touched, you know, that you've gotten into, like, first of all, how did you get started in the rap game? Like, what got you into being part of that?

J. Prince (4:07)

I got in the rap game because of my brother. His name was Sir Rap-A-Lot. So I actually named the company after him.

And I was encouraged to do it because, you know, he was a rapper. At the time, you know, I was hustling a different way and I didn't want my brother in the streets. So I'm like, you go in the studio, I'm gonna support you in the rap world. But ultimately, my brother decided not to stay in the rap game and we got him like 23 years.