What made you decide to do this intimacy concert? Well, I think

all of what you just said helped to make the steps for us to take it and say, you know what, we're going to have to really take this bull by the horn because a lot of our other hip-hop generations, I guess it's about five of us, about five generations now, the youngest generation, you know, they have DSPs, they listen to their music, they don't mind other people programming music for them.

I come from a generation like we are going to put together our music on our iPods, and we are going to listen to what it is that we want to listen to.

We're not all about discovering new music from artists that we know.

I mean, the truth is if I'm listening to the Isleys, I want to hear the Isleys I know.

I'm not really into the new Isleys or the new Earth, Wind, and Fire.

I want the stuff that's going to make me feel what I felt when I was younger.

And why did you want to go independent?

So when did you, when did you guys feel that the spirit of hip-hop, at least the transformation of it, was slowly eroding? Like, what was your first uh-oh moment? And I don't mean like, oh, when this guy rose to prominence or whatever, but like, was-

When, when, when, um, when I heard, uh, women referred to as bitches by NWA.

I was like something, something's-

Hmm

... about to happen.

Something's different.

'Cause I had never heard Kane, KRS-One, Slick Rick, Heavy D, Fresh Prince.

I'd never heard-

So, so now are y'all just hanging out today, or what's going on with Van Van?

Well, we are, our company, Sunny Girl, manages Van Van.

And so from, uh, from the age of four, and now she's seven.

Yeah, she introduced Queen Latifah's Kennedy Center performance-

Yeah

...

Salt is on one of the songs with Big Daddy Kane and, and, uh, Raheem Devaughn, and it's called Woman.

We've got so much great music out there.

[laughs]

No, but I was, uh, I was shocked, honestly, because it, it wasn't something that I even was aiming for.

You know, like a bucket list kinda thing, I wasn't aiming for it.

Um, but I was totally psyched once I found out.

Mm

...

the president is actually painted green.

So it was, it was great.