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Don Toliver speaks on his new album 'The Life of A Don' with Sway In the Morning.
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Don Toliver Talks New Album 'The Life of A Don' | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
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0:00
criminal minded you've been blinded
0:03
looking for a style like mine you can't
0:05
find it they are the audience
0:08
i am the lyricist
0:11
is that what you think
0:13
okay come on man criminal minded shout
0:16
out to ks1 and big daddy kane we're
0:18
going to talk that verses in a minute
0:19
but first
0:20
i got to say it man every time this
0:22
young man come on the show i smile hb
0:24
because a good guy is winning
0:26
a good guy is winning we saw him from
0:29
the beginning i say it every time you
0:30
come on the show because i want to
0:32
remind folks
0:33
everything starts somewhere
0:36
and at some point you got to stop
0:38
listening to what people say and follow
0:40
what it is you say but sometimes some
0:44
incredible people might have something
0:46
to say about you that you could reflect
0:48
on and learn
0:50
how you're affecting people externally
0:53
and when you get someone if you're
0:55
working in music
0:57
and you get someone like pharrell
0:59
williams
1:01
and if you're a young artist like the
1:03
one we have on right now i say that he's
1:06
about to release his second album i mean
1:08
his third album or second album
1:11
is that the second or third he's put out
1:13
he put out so much music we're going to
1:14
talk about that in a second
1:16
life of a don
1:17
is about to come out
1:19
and um
1:22
what can i say about this dude man we
1:24
watched him come up a lot of the biggest
1:26
art biggest artists from a kanye um
1:29
to a travis scott
1:31
to this next man that's about to speak
1:34
are all inspired by him and i wonder how
1:36
that must feel to him today here's
1:38
pharrell
1:39
williams speaking on don toliver who's
1:41
with us right now who are you listening
1:44
to who you drawing inspiration from i
1:46
think don toliver is like i think he's
1:49
special he's something else what does
1:50
pharrell like about don talver that
1:52
maybe he doesn't see in someone else his
1:54
tone is super unique his choice of like
1:58
melodies
1:59
and harmonies is just like something
2:01
else
2:02
um
2:03
he's older beyond his physical years too
2:06
like just his melody choices and the
2:08
stuff that he chooses to talk about i
2:10
heard no idea for the first time and i
2:12
was just like
2:14
who is this dude and like
2:17
[ __ ] just blew my mind i listened to
2:18
that for like a month
2:20
if that were me i could retire off those
2:23
words alone but
2:25
but this man got something else to do
2:27
man welcome him back to the show this is
2:29
our family and friend give it up for don
2:31
tyler don tyler what's bobby
2:34
yes sir
2:39
we different now though bro
2:42
you know it's different now man you you
2:44
working with you're working with a whole
2:45
lot more every time i we have you on the
2:48
show man it's like the bank account is
2:50
bigger the clothes are flyer you know
2:53
you're traveling around the world even
2:55
the hair is tighter man it's different
2:57
now right
2:59
yeah no that sounds about right man
3:00
everything way bigger for sure what does
3:02
that feel like man when i look at some
3:04
of your music and see that you got over
3:06
a billion streams and
3:08
what does that feel like does that
3:10
doesn't
3:11
yeah is that tangible to you
3:14
yeah it is tangible because it's like
3:16
you know that's all i really worked for
3:17
like that's like the moment these are
3:19
the moments like i've been working for
3:21
all my life just to sit back and look at
3:23
the accolades and look at the career
3:25
like wow you know we we here you know
3:28
i'm saying we ain't going backwards
3:30
we were talking about the uh inventor of
3:33
the series the squid game i'm not sure
3:35
if you had a chance to see that on
3:36
netflix yet but it's
3:38
it's destined to be one of the biggest
3:39
series that they've ever um had on
3:41
netflix platform and we were talking
3:43
about uh ryan reynolds as well
3:45
how he had um deadpool as an idea and
3:48
people
3:49
just wasn't invested in it you know and
3:51
it took him 10 years to make that it
3:53
took this guy eight years to make the
3:55
square game and then what we concluded
3:57
is sometimes you can't listen to people
4:00
you know every time they brought their
4:01
project to someone they got told no they
4:03
got turned around or told them it wasn't
4:05
going to work sometimes you can't listen
4:07
to any of that you got to listen to the
4:09
voice in your head were you ever told no
4:12
this isn't going to work
4:14
[Music]
4:16
i was i ever told no it wasn't gonna
4:19
work that's a great question to be
4:21
honest i don't think i was ever told no
4:25
because
4:26
i always had like a distinctive type of
4:28
sound to me people knew that and i feel
4:31
like that was was like kind of it wasn't
4:34
a no but i definitely got to run around
4:36
you know i definitely you know people
4:38
tried to send me up the block a couple
4:39
times but
4:44
i'm glad he said that don what's up it's
4:46
heather so glad to have you back on the
4:48
show family um and great to hear your
4:50
voice as well that's funny that you said
4:52
that because we were talking to uh
4:53
offset jim last week from oakland and he
4:56
was saying like just being outside being
4:58
on the block and whatnot he just was
5:00
trying at one point in his life he was
5:02
just trying to get to 10 000 views on
5:04
youtube
5:05
like and he said so he's kind of blown
5:08
away by what's happening for him right
5:10
now do you remember like did you have
5:12
initial small goals like that and how
5:15
did you feel like reaching them once you
5:17
got to that point whether it was a
5:18
thousand followers a hundred views where
5:20
were you early starting on in terms of
5:22
goals
5:24
honestly when it came to goals man it
5:26
was really just like yeah views i feel
5:29
like um when i put my first video video
5:32
out my goals was like little blogs like
5:35
shout out say cheese tv like it was a
5:37
blog for my uh blog i feel like it's
5:40
based in texas and it was just an honor
5:43
just to even make it on the blog and
5:45
just like to get people to comment right
5:48
those were like my my goals just to see
5:50
comments on my videos on blogs just to
5:53
see people chiming in saying anything
5:56
good or bad just to see the views on
5:58
other people's pages go up was enough i
6:01
wasn't even thinking about my own
6:02
youtube views my own streams or nothing
6:05
like that i was just strictly based off
6:07
of like the internet and what people
6:09
were saying what people were saying
6:10
about the music period
6:13
um that's interesting that's interesting
6:15
the music
6:16
you know you have your own what pharrell
6:18
said you you man you got a beautiful
6:20
tone you know i want to give you uh
6:22
props for that an acknowledgement like
6:24
when i
6:25
got a beautiful tone when i when i watch
6:27
what you need or drugs and hell of
6:29
melodies and i'm thinking man this dude
6:31
got a very
6:32
alluring
6:34
tone about him right
6:37
how has that evolved though
6:39
in your opinion like do with success do
6:42
have you noticed that as an artist or
6:44
your creative process how has that
6:46
changed at all if at all
6:49
um i feel like it hasn't i feel like
6:52
change isn't the word i just feel like i
6:54
evolved as a person
6:56
and um you know i just roll with the
6:58
punches like i'm getting older you know
7:01
my voice is changing you know we all we
7:04
all change as human beings
7:06
and it's just like i'm just trying to
7:07
stay in the loop of what i wanted to
7:09
sound like what i think it should sound
7:11
like and what i want it to be so
7:14
that's really just the the the change
7:16
factor it's just like i'm adapting to to
7:18
me being who i am you know
7:21
in this in this day and age so
7:23
that's really the that's really the vibe
7:25
when it comes to just
7:26
the vocals and
7:28
like how i'm using the vocals and the
7:30
ranges that i'm using
7:33
don toliver is here man this guy is on
7:35
he's on fire 888-742-3345
7:39
um
7:41
you know i watched when you first put
7:42
out what you need in drugs and hella
7:44
melodies uh the videos for them man can
7:46
you talk about did you come up with do
7:48
you come up with all the concepts or or
7:50
do you leave that
7:52
you know for for the directors uh to put
7:55
together nah
7:56
this album it's like this album right
7:58
here i really took like a lot of um
8:01
a lot of responsibility in just like
8:03
creating my vibe and just
8:05
just going out my way to just create
8:08
whatever i felt like i needed to create
8:10
and um
8:11
yeah a lot of this was just slowly
8:14
focused on me just trying to create my
8:15
own vibe
8:17
i was like but don because this is my
8:18
life you know and i wanted to be
8:20
extravagant the way it is in real life
8:23
oh his life is extravagant
8:27
let them know let them know
8:30
hey i heard that um the drugs and hella
8:33
melodies that these was that shot where
8:35
was that shot at was that shot in
8:37
colombia
8:38
yeah it was shocking to come up here
8:40
okay what was your experience like in
8:41
columbia that's that's one of the places
8:43
i've always wanted to go
8:45
and haven't gone i haven't been to
8:47
columbia hp i uh i haven't
8:50
i'm trying to think have i been
8:53
yeah i haven't been to columbia man what
8:54
was it like out there like the video
8:56
looks amazing it's it feels it felt like
8:59
the people there knew you did they were
9:01
they aware of you
9:03
oh no they definitely didn't know me but
9:06
i mean i mean they might have
9:08
either way it goes it was beautiful man
9:10
colombia is a beautiful place um
9:13
it was definitely different you know me
9:15
being from america me being from texas
9:17
houston texas
9:19
uh columbia was definitely uh something
9:21
to see and something for me to
9:23
experience that was
9:24
for sure different but i loved it i
9:27
really did man
9:28
what's the food like
9:30
the food man
9:32
food it's a bunch of different type of
9:35
foods you can go for but
9:36
um
9:37
it's it's it's good man it's it's
9:40
different and really in texas they got a
9:43
lot of like little colombian spots that
9:45
you know my friends will always take me
9:47
too so
9:48
um i wasn't it wasn't new to me it was
9:51
great man it was great it was delicious
9:53
yeah man i love
9:55
i love uh colombians
9:57
i love uh mexican food too so
9:59
uh it was perfect for me
10:01
and your travels i always say travel is
10:04
to me the best teacher you know and one
10:06
of the places i went that i learned the
10:08
most was in south africa you know and i
10:10
was able to come back in and you see
10:12
light differently when you come back to
10:13
the states what's one of those places
10:15
you've been to other than columbia that
10:17
really impacted you
10:21
man
10:23
to be honest man i just came from
10:24
milwaukee and milwaukee was going crazy
10:30
shout out to milwaukee baby milwaukee
10:34
i love that you said one of my favorite
10:36
tour stops oh i'm not even gonna lie to
10:39
you man
10:40
what is it what's different about
10:41
milwaukee
10:42
man it's just it just gave me like it's
10:45
like so you know i'm from texas and we
10:47
got like
10:48
like you know it's like two main signs
10:50
for me it's like south side north side
10:53
and it was just giving northside vibes
10:56
all day long everywhere i went and i was
10:58
loving it man
11:00
ah i like that oh man we got don toliver
11:04
uh that's with us right now 888-742-3345
11:10
do you um
11:11
embrace
11:14
know your status you know what i mean
11:16
like and and how things
11:18
what
11:19
you know you you're coming in in the
11:21
space with all these major artists now
11:23
you know how how does the energy change
11:25
for you like do do you embrace do you
11:28
see yourself as a top tier artist or
11:30
does that not really matter in how you
11:32
factor things being a top-tier artist
11:35
honestly i'm still just hungry like it's
11:37
it's just like it's like the hunger in
11:39
me it's just i just can't leave it alone
11:41
like i just want more for myself i want
11:43
more for my family i want more for my
11:45
legacy you know i'm saying i want to be
11:47
as big as michael jackson i want to be
11:49
james brown i want to be marvin gaye so
11:52
that drive right there just pushes a
11:54
different type of battery in my back to
11:56
be the best downtown where i could be so
11:58
status isn't really everything to me
12:00
right now it's me focusing on focusing
12:02
you know like where i want to be so
12:05
i still feel like i got a lot of work to
12:07
go
12:08
got a lot of work to go you like this hp
12:10
you hear it i love it yeah because you
12:12
know like dream big stay humble put in
12:15
the work and that's what it sounds like
12:17
to me like you have that mindset and i
12:19
was saying like i'm loving that he's
12:20
shouting out
12:22
a spot like milwaukee because
12:24
like
12:25
we you you have fans in places that
12:28
people just kind of feel left out and
12:30
they they love and support the music so
12:32
when you're blessed to even visit a city
12:34
like that and to see that love and
12:36
support is also good for the artists as
12:39
well you know so i i love it i think i
12:41
think like the traveling and the music
12:43
and your perspective on everything is on
12:45
point where you are right now keep
12:47
hitting up those cities keep hitting
12:49
those spots giving back to the people
12:50
that support you i think is great
12:54
thank you so much facts
12:57
okay i like when the last time milwaukee
12:59
got a shout out besides the
13:01
what the bucks winning other than that
13:03
nobody'll be checking for milwaukee like
13:04
that wasn't laverne and shirley in
13:07
milwaukee stop playing okay
13:09
nobody yeah that was too deep
13:12
all right uh
13:15
yeah dr don tyler is like who all right
13:20
hey fam so drugs and hella melodies what
13:23
uh can you break down the title like
13:26
there's no real relationship is there a
13:28
relationship with drugs still or what
13:30
what what's the title tell me what's up
13:32
melodies it's really just the vibe and
13:34
the tone of the music it's like
13:35
serotonin you know i'm saying it's a
13:37
different type of drug it's the it's the
13:39
melodies and the vibe of exactly what
13:41
was going on you know what i'm saying
13:43
it's really what was the whole factors
13:45
of drugs and having melodies it's all
13:47
like a
13:48
scripted role of just crazy music
13:50
psychedelic music music that takes you
13:53
somewhere it's really just the basis of
13:55
it
13:56
it's just the basis of it okay uh we're
13:58
gonna play that song man i know you got
14:00
a you got a lot going on uh uh you know
14:03
you got the the life of a don you got
14:05
the tour happening give a round of
14:07
applause for that i know you you did a
14:09
collabo with guests
14:10
[Applause]
14:12
congratulations with that man talk about
14:14
your fashion i saw you get the the nasa
14:17
jacket from kanye can you only wear that
14:19
once or can you wear it you know because
14:21
i ran that for the rest of my life man
14:26
for the rest of my life man
14:29
it that's it you sleeping in it or you
14:31
know you take it off for the shower
14:34
nah for sure take it off for the shower
14:37
it's it's my jacket man it's like that's
14:40
like
14:41
like
14:42
so iconic from so iconic to me and like
14:46
it's one of the biggest possession
14:48
trophies
14:49
i have in my house right now you know
14:52
what does it mean to you it's obviously
14:53
not just a piece of cloth what does it
14:56
mean to you
14:57
man it means a lot man it's like
14:59
i feel like you know kanye kanye man you
15:02
know giving me that jacket meant so much
15:04
you know because
15:06
you know me being as an artist like i
15:08
don't really i don't really look out for
15:10
handouts i don't really look out for you
15:12
know help love and nothing nothing like
15:14
that but just the fact that yay went out
15:16
his way to you know like make sure i got
15:19
that jacket he went out of his way to
15:21
like talk to me about the things he
15:23
talks to me about me so much you know
15:25
you know i just i just take it man and
15:28
go all the way to the moon with it like
15:30
for real for real
15:31
and i just appreciate them like beyond
15:34
regards man me being a real day one fan
15:37
and
15:38
you know growing up you know listening
15:41
to yay day in and day out with my mom
15:43
like
15:44
it's just a real moment for me you know
15:46
what i'm saying
15:47
yeah man i'm happy for you brother i saw
15:49
well when you opened the package and
15:53
i could tell that was a special moment
15:55
for you congratulations and it's only
15:57
one of a kind right there there's no
15:58
other one like that
16:01
jackson man 101.
16:03
hey bro i feel like if it could fit me
16:05
too i saw i was a little big on you so
16:07
yeah yeah that reaches on you hear that
16:12
put on another hoodie that's all you
16:14
know i feel like you're gonna fit the
16:15
kid dog uh we got fernando
16:18
fernando's on the line from dallas grand
16:20
rise since fernando how you doing
16:23
all right
16:24
good morning sir how are y'all doing
16:26
we're great man we got a winner on the
16:28
line with us
16:30
yes sir dallas what's up man i just
16:33
wanted to comment uh became an uh a new
16:36
fan of don toliver's work here recently
16:38
man i'm
16:40
really impressed with with your vocal
16:41
range the stuff you did on the new kanye
16:44
west album is amazing
16:46
you got a bright future ahead of you man
16:49
thank you so much man i appreciate you
16:51
man thank you so much man
16:53
all right i know you're coming out on
16:54
tour here in dallas soon at uh what used
16:57
to be called the bomb factory looking
16:59
forward to seeing your show uh hopefully
17:01
you got a good set lined up for us
17:03
because man those pandemic
17:06
that's that's what us as as an audience
17:08
want to see man we want to see you guys
17:10
come out and and really entertain us man
17:12
cause it's been a minute since we've
17:14
been exposed to great shows man so
17:16
hopefully you you got something lined up
17:18
for us
17:19
yeah you might want to prepare your
17:20
limbs i'm trying to tell you it's gonna
17:22
be crazy get ready
17:27
what's up man much love all right
17:29
fernando you should've said all right
17:31
hey demetrius he's in evanston now
17:33
demetrius how you doing grand rises
17:35
what's popping in garage i'm doing well
17:38
well you know it's a little cloudy
17:39
outside but i think i'm going to change
17:41
that over here yeah man you get to talk
17:44
to one of the hottest artists in the
17:45
game right now what you want to say to
17:46
don toliver
17:48
hey what's up man you know uh
17:50
i've been rocking you from uh no idea
17:52
and after party that album you know uh
17:55
the no idea was the first talk i got off
17:57
to you and um i believe you didn't
18:00
cursing that on that song and i remember
18:02
somebody was talking about it you know
18:04
me i'm i'm you know i'm a big believer i
18:06
remember talking about the dude
18:07
yesterday who just came on cursing you
18:09
know you gotta have vocabulary sort of
18:11
souls you got intelligence and i think
18:12
that helped you know i mean it's like
18:14
when you can go through especially
18:15
today's rap rap if you go through a song
18:17
without cursing you know that's big ups
18:19
man you know people just you know rely
18:21
on that way too much in my opinion
18:23
yeah man honestly
18:25
i really
18:26
when i go through certain songs and i i
18:29
don't curse it's really just
18:31
it's really just me just cooking i
18:33
really it was nothing intentional i
18:35
thank god for that ability that i have
18:37
too because it was it wasn't intentional
18:40
it took like a minute to for me to even
18:42
realize that i didn't like it was this
18:44
it's one of my friends like coming up to
18:47
me like yo you know you you didn't say
18:48
wordpress writing this song and when i
18:51
realized i was like whoa
18:53
that's a dust talent
18:55
[Laughter]
18:57
i totally agree with that you know to me
18:59
because i got a kid you know what i mean
19:00
so i like playing music for her and like
19:02
i definitely you know go towards artists
19:04
you know and j cole who don't
19:05
necessarily need to curse and like be so
19:07
vulgar you know what i mean like
19:09
actually like my daughter actually like
19:10
what is that what he just said you know
19:11
actually like vocab words so um no i was
19:14
big upset because once i pointed out to
19:15
me and i heard that i was like you know
19:16
just made me like you even more because
19:18
um
19:19
just like you know i said i was drawn to
19:20
you just from your sound and you know we
19:22
could go through a whole song and not
19:24
curse with me i just i said that's your
19:25
vocabulary is there you know and i said
19:27
you didn't even notice that's even
19:29
better than me the fact that you're you
19:30
know i'm saying you didn't like
19:32
intentionally say i'm not going to curse
19:33
you just when did what you did
19:36
that's
19:40
right outside chicago so i was like uh
19:42
you just milwaukee
19:44
yeah yeah for sure man i was in
19:46
milwaukee i went and bought some atvs
19:48
and everything i was having a blast
19:55
in the city new york you know where it's
19:57
crowded you got you know you go do some
19:59
stuff so
20:01
hey demetrius thanks for your call
20:02
brother check this out um life of a don
20:05
is out this friday october 8th you going
20:07
what you going to do with it
20:08
oh man that's going to be playing all
20:10
day all day every day okay there it is
20:12
you're a citizen brother in the morning
20:14
and then also
20:16
nominated for best new hip-hop artist um
20:19
tonight on the bt hip hop awards what
20:21
does that mean to you bro like damn man
20:23
you've nominated for awards you've been
20:25
nominated
20:26
not only am i nominated it's a bt award
20:28
man i've been watching bt all my life
20:33
it's just an honor man that you know
20:36
they they even nominated me you know i'm
20:39
i'm super happy i'm super honored to
20:41
even get that nomination because i love
20:43
bt man like i said i've been watching it
20:46
all my life it was a top tier channel so
20:50
it feels good that's what's up man
20:53
listen you know we're proud of you we're
20:55
happy for you
20:56
i think you're beautiful for culture
20:59
you know and you know it's not something
21:01
like you said you did intentionally but
21:03
if you told rappers they couldn't curse
21:05
in a song 98 of the game would be would
21:08
disappear and so
21:10
so you you're able to reach both sides
21:13
of the spectrum and i respect that but i
21:15
respect your drive man don toliver
21:17
congratulations
21:19
uh good luck tonight
21:21
we'll see each other soon you can check
21:23
him uh you're gonna be doing rolling
21:25
loud this year in l.a
21:26
you know that yes sir okay you check him
21:29
out rolling loud anything you want to
21:31
say before we cut out
21:33
man life of dawn ten eight let's go man
21:36
i'm trying to go crazy everybody stream
21:38
that joint everybody tap in come to all
21:40
the shows i'm going crazy man i
21:43
appreciate you sway all the time man you
21:45
know you know have the bee got love for
21:47
you too you might get a home cook if you
21:48
ever get a cooked meal from hp that
21:50
might be better than the hip-hop award
21:52
all right i got you guys
21:58
[Applause]
22:02
all right here's drugs and hella
22:04
melodies man congratulations on life
22:06
love family and success brother okay
22:10
be safe yes sir all right don toliver
22:14
sway in the morning come on
22:19
[Music]
22:29
[Music]
#Arts & Entertainment