- What was fashion like for
you when you first came out? - Niggas was dirty as fuck like... - You know what?
- Ain't on the same shit. - You know what's crazy?
Niggas are still dirty, B. - Dirty, dirty word. (both laughing) (upbeat music) - This is what we doing? - Mm. - Mr. Bada$$. - [Joey] Mr. Method. - Peace, peace. - How you doing?
- I'm good, I love it. What's happening? - You know, I was checking
out these fabrics or whatever. There's a lot of choices. - Fabrics. I see that. - [Joey] They look fabulous. (chuckling) - Hello, how are you guys doing today? - We are good.
- How are you? All right. - Well, my name's Jose. Welcome to Hive & Colony. We're gonna be working
on designing your suits. - I like this green,
it's like a green yellow- - Yeah.
- Type of vibe. It's making me feel real Jamaican. (group laughing) (elegant music) I wanna ask you a question. - Yeah. - What was fashion like for
you when you first came out? - Honestly, for me, I was
never really into fashion. We came after a era where
was a lot of suit wearing. Honestly, people that was
on the block, you know that, didn't dress like that.
- Yeah. - Everybody didn't dress like that. I mean, if you was getting
money like that, absolutely. But the majority of the people dressed like they was going to war. I guess the more rugged you looked, the better off you was and it was cheap. - How would you describe
your style at the time like going back to the M-E-T-H
video shoot and all that, 'cause you had the eye contact, you know- - Yeah.
- That kind of thing. Like, what was going through
your mind at that time? - I was still building
off the Wu-Tang chamber we was coming out of. And Wu-Tang was still
going and going strong. But now, it's like my solo look. And one word to describe it is grimy - Had to be ready for war in all times. - All the time and all time. Well, a lot of times dudes wore Timbs, either they expected
they either had a warrant and they was expecting to go to jail. And it's like, you don't wanna go in jail with your best shit on
because they gonna take you. That was the room and
they're gonna take your shit. So it was Timbs. - There's like a buzzer door.
- It was Timbs and fatigues. Timbs and fatigues. - Do you guys wanna design your own suits? - Sounds like a plan.
- Oh, hell yeah. - [Jose] Yeah, so we could
look at some of the fabrics that we have. - I need something that compliments my Godiva chocolate skin. You know what I'm saying? - See, so there's definitely
a lot of fabric options. - I like this right here,
kind of go with the bracelet, you know what I'm saying?
- Wow, yeah, yeah. - yeah, I like that. - [Method] Well, as far as these fabrics, I'm pretty open to whatever
you guys think with, you know? - And then I could show you
guys some of the design options that we have for jackets.
- Right. How did you use fashion
to elevate your career? - To me, there's two things, right? You got fashion and you got style. I always feel like fashion
is something that you buy. Like you'll go to the store
and you can purchase fashion. - [Method] Okay. - But style is something
that like, that's inside you. - [Method] Inside, that's fair. - That's part of like personality. So I would say like,
you know, stylistically, style goes hand in hand with
just my artistic expression. - How would you describe your style and who are some of your influences? - Definitely, I'd say that
when it comes to that raw, rugged aspect like just old New York is definitely a big part
of my stylistic influence. You know what I'm saying? I still like to put on that raw, rugged- - [Method] Put that on. - Why don't we get ready
to measure you guys to get these suits for you guys. - [Joey] All right. - You first though. You lead the way. - Okay, - I'll lead the way. - [Joey] You think you can
make me an old fashioned or something right there? - [Jose] Yeah, definitely. - Yo, this water hitting. (laughing) (Jose chuckling) (upbeat music) - So we're gonna get you
started with fitting. So I'm gonna start with the shoulders, arms and chest, okay? - I hope we got enough tape for that. - Yes.
- All right. - Shoulders broader than and Broadway, B. - Right.
- Broader than Broadway. Yeah.
- Nice. Was that? About 100? - 19 1/2. - 19 1/2, son. - Hey, man. How did growing up in Staten Island influence your taste in music and who was your biggest
influences at the time? - Oh, so back in the day when
I was introduced to hip hop, it was Sugarhill Gang. I was lucky enough that when
I moved from Long Island back to Staten Island
to hang out with dudes that loved hip hop as much as I did. But not only did they love it, they was writing their own rhymes. These guys was good. I'm talking about Chef, Kappa and a few others that didn't make it to where we at right now, you know? About my first year of high school, LL Cool J dropped his first album. "I Can't Live Without My Radio." What? 16, 17 years old. We idolized Todd. To this day, that's like my spirit animal, you know what I mean? I love Cool J, shout out to him. But major influence on
my rap style, everything. My first round, my raw was
in his style, you know? - What was it like for you
going from being in a group to being a solo artist? - Well, I mean, we all
started out that way. Honestly, we was just dudes that liked to rhyme on the block. It was never like any
really, any type of real. You know, you had your different rap crews and things like that and
dudes had they routines but with us it was a little bit different 'cause everybody had their own rhymes. - How do you continue to like- - [Jose] Move the hands back. - Elevate and push
yourself to the next level? - I know my only competition is me. What I mean by that is I ran into Sean P, people that ain't familiar
with Sean P, I was- - Heltah Skeltah-
- Rest in peace. Duck Down, Brooklyn's Finest. There was a time in hip hop
where a lot of the people that came in my era, we went on a not a self-hiatus, more
like an industry hiatus because we were being pushed out, I guess. Or the music genre was changing. And I remember listening
to this kid, Sean P, and I'm like, "This dude
is nasty right here." I became one of his biggest fans. So when I ran into him,
I had to ask him like, I'm trying to talk to
him and tell him like you hit like this pen renaissance. Like how'd your pen get so crazy? And he looked at me, you know, Sean P, he looked at me he's like, "I'm better than niggas, that's why." (Joey chuckling) Tip. - I was like, "Yeah, yeah." - Classic Sean P. - That makes sense.
- Yeah, yeah. - That makes sense right there. So that's how I approach it
now like better than niggas. - Right.
- With everything. That's how I gotta approach every... Not just with the pen, but every aspect. - Everything.
- To write better than nigga. - Word.
- For real. - All right. Niggas, you
know what I'm saying? Niggas ain't got the same
symphony of thoughts, B. - At all, so when you a creative and you have room with an empty canvas and you have room to create,
whatever your vision is, man, it's going to translate right there on the motherfucking canvas. - Right.
- Please believe it. Right. - How do you feel like
the shoulders fit you? Pretty good? Comfortable?
- Yeah., yeah. It's comfortable.
- My arms long enough, B. - Got somebody out, pop, pop, pop, pop. - Yeah, his arms are pretty long now. Do you want to go swap places now? - Yeah.
- Okay. - He said it's my turn? (upbeat music) - I know you uploaded a video of yourself freestyling on YouTube
when you first started. Did it make it easier for you to tap into the music industry? - Absolutely. You know what I'm saying? I used social media,
YouTube being the platform at the time as my end. It's crazy because one day I
just kind of had the vision, like I was coming home from
school and it just dawned on me. I'm like, "Yo, I'm nice, that's one. Number two, all I gotta
do is show the world that I'm nice, right?" Like, it's one thing to do
it with just putting songs out on YouTube and helping
people discover your shit. But I'm like, "Nah, I need
like a real freestyle moment." My vision was I'm gonna
send it to WorldStar and they gonna put it up. They ain't never posted, B, at that time. So I'm like, "All right, you know what? I'm gonna just put it on YouTube but what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna do like a little marketing
ploy on the title." So I uploaded it and the title that I put was 15-year-old freestyles for WorldStarHipHop. And my first manager, he discovered it and one morning I was gonna
school, I got a direct message. What he said in the message. He was like, "Yo, I just saw
your video on WorldStarHipHop." I was like, "Wow, look
at God, the shit worked." - Mm-hmm. The vision. 'Cause I'm like, I'm laughing internally 'cause I'm like, "He ain't
even see it on WorldStar. He just thought he did because of the psychology
that I put on this video. - Wow. - You know what I'm saying?
- Take notes, man. Go ahead, bro.
- I feel like, you know, social media still continues
to propel my career. - With us, it was luck of the draw a lot. You had to really put yourself
out there, put the work in, run out there, sit in
front of record labels. You guys took that and put the power back into the hands of the creators. - [Joey] Right. - Through social media,
which is fantastic. - My advice to young
artists now is out the gate, show people versatility. That way they don't ever try to put a cage around who you are and
what you can express. - [Method] Absolutely. - How did you feel with the
jacket? Was it comfortable? - It was good.
- Good. - I just think the arms is
too short to bow to God. - Okay.
- (indistinct) likewise. (group laughing) - So we'll go ahead and you
know, work on the jacket and you guys could go and have a drink. (elegant music) - How did you first get into acting? What made you want to act? - Man, I mean, it kind of
fell in my lap at first. The first thing I ever
did was a small part and a movie called "Great White Hype." Harlem brothers, Sam Jackson, Peter Berg, Jamie Foxx, Damon Wayans, - Great company. - From there, I got a call
to do "One Eight Seven." After that it was an audition, I went on an audition, and I
remember the first time I went in the audition, I didn't get it. I got a note from my agent
at the time, go in with you bring the pain stuff on, bring the fangs, bring the eyeball, the whole shebang. So I go in and I do my whole
spiel and I got the part in the movie called "Cop
Land," which was Peter Berg, Sylvester Stallone, Harvey
Keitel, so on and so forth. - And these joints was
both before "Belly." - Both before "Belly," yes, sir. - Oh, wow. - And, but I still hadn't
gotten an acting bug. Hype Williams was doing the movie and he called me in to do it. Called in Nas. - They only state this thing. - That's when I got the bug. So I gotta ask you now, how did you get into the acting thing? - One of my greatest inspirations
growing up was Will Smith. - Nice. - Tupac.
- Mm. - And you know, music
was always my first love. Like music was that
thing that spoke to me. When I was making that transition
from junior high school to high school, I
realized that at the time, there wasn't any programs
that was gonna help me enhance my music career or
like, you know, rapping. - Yeah.
- Stuff like that. So I'm like, "All right, you know, what's the next thing
that I would love to do?" And it immediately dawned
on me was like acting, you know what I'm saying? So I applied for school.
- Way back then. - Yeah, so I applied for school
was like LaGuardia, PPAS, and I ended up getting accepted into Edward R. Murrow's
screen theater program- - That's right.
- As a theater student. Getting accepted into theater like I still hadn't
caught the acting bug yet because for me, it was a culture shock. It was my first time going
to school with white people. - Yeah.
- You know? And being in the theater
class, it was like I was one of three black
kids in that theater class. So it was all new for me and honestly, it was very uncomfortable. It definitely wasn't
anything that made me feel like this is what I want to do. But I learned quickly that how
difficult it was to make it as an actor, especially
growing up in New York City. - You are aware of that back then - Right.
- All right. Got you. - Like I learned quickly
because, you know, I'm in class with all of these kids who've been doing this shit since they was in elementary school. - Right. - Like they've been in the arts program. - But they're in that class with you now, so they ain't really did. - And they was advanced,
you know what I'm saying? I was learning, I was literally
at the bottom of my class, literally at the bottom. Long story short, I ended
up getting kicked out because my... - (chuckling) That no
long story short, huh? - Yeah. (laughing) - Wait a minute. Hold up, listen. Rewind. Why you'd got kicked out? All right-
- Yeah, 'cause, you know, I got to high school
and then I met all my... Like I met STEEZ, rest in peace. - Mm. Oh, yeah. - CJ, we all forever homies.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - And you know, music was
something that was still so fiery in my spirit when I met them. I'm like, "All right, bet. Like shit, I didn't even know
that I was gonna come here and meet cats that could rap." - That's dope. - So, you know, that turned
into me cutting class to be, you know, with the bros - It happens, yeah. - And stuff like that so we could rap and we could sharpen our
skills with each other and that broke, I was already
at the bottom of the class, but that broke me to the negative bottom. (chuckling) You know what I'm saying? - So what brought you back though? - Well, what brought me back is, so the moment I got kicked
out I was like, "Okay." A lot of stuff that was required to be in the theater program was- - Theater.
- Theater - Yeah. - Musicals, you had to do
ballet, you know what I'm saying? All that stuff. And I wasn't really too enthused,
like I just wanted to act. Like I wanted to do-
- Yeah, let's get to work now. - You know what I'm saying? Real type of acting scenario
situations type of thing. So I'm like, "You know what,
I'm gonna just double down on the music for now and
I'm going to use music as a leverage later." I was like, "You know,
it'll be better if I come with something to bring to the table. That way people would
actually want to cast me. And once they find out
that I can actually act, it's only going to be a win-win." And you know, the first role,
shout out to Sam Esmail, Rami Malek, Christian Slater. 'cause the first role
I landed was in a show called "Mr. Robot" and- - Mm. - That was a ill, ill first role. What's your preparation process like? Like, you know, when you get a role and you preparing to go in, or let's say you already
booked it and you know, you preparing to go deliver the, you know what I'm saying? Your scenes. - Well, first thing I do
is get a good night's rest 'cause I wanna show up on time. - Right. Okay. Well, that's difference
between me and you. (both laughing) - That's that young energy. You'll figure it out sooner
or later probably, trust. As soon as I get this
script, I'm going over it. I wanna know what it looks
like, what it feels like. And the process for me
is, okay, after I read it, how would I react to
this in the real world? - Right. - I'd probably be this way with it. Okay, well, the words are saying this but how would I actually say it? - Mm-hmm. That's big for me.
- You know what I mean? So that's basically the process for me. Learn your lines. If you gotta go there, go
there, whatever that is, I don't need to do that. I have so much life experience, PTSD from living in the situations I've lived for the majority of my life. It doesn't take me long. - Right. - Put me in a situation.
- Need to blend in. - Yeah.
- Yes, absolutely. And that's it. I mean,
what's your process like? - My process is very similar. Like, I would say I would
classify yours as instinctual, which is like me, you
know what I'm saying? Like for me, I gotta see what
the environment feels like. Like I read the script, I read my lines, you know what I mean? And then after that, what I like to memorize most
over lines is the energy. - Mm-hmm. Like, okay, what's actually
being done in this scene? - Mm-hmm.
- Like, what's the goal? How am I feeling? How am I making the other person feel? I put that over words because
sometimes, like you said, like the words will limit
you, but you know how it is. - It's a beautiful thing.
- You know how it is though. Like, well, Davis MacLean got way more monologues than unique. So it's different.
- It's a lot. I feel like it requires way more than what it is for me like.
- Definitely a lot. Well, I think we both do the same thing, but when we have an objective,
the same way in life, you're gonna fight for
that with all your being. - Bear with you.
- Whether you're in a scene and your objective is to win an argument- - Absolutely. - You're going to do
everything in your power to win that argument, to
get your point across. Whether it's life, you
just want to win in life and be happy, you're gonna
fight for that happiness and there it is.
- Facts. That's a fact. Yo, I'm Method Man.
Thank y'all. (laughing) - And I'm Joey Bada$$, you heard. Yeah. Yo, this was pretty dope right here. - This was fly, B.
- Fly as hell. - This whole lot, this was a
real luxurious experience, man. - You know how it is.
- Shout to Jose in the back. - Jose.
- Fixing the old fashion. - My boy, Jose. - I gotta say thank
you for your time, man. This was a pleasure and an honor. - Salute. - For real.
- Yes, yes. (gentle music)
