Leon Thomas Reveals His Journey from Nickelodeon to Grammy Win 🏆 | SWAY’S UNIVERSE

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you know what I wanted to do right there had to be you know what I mean i just just wanted to catch a vibe with this
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kid right now man and you know he been doing this for quite some time and there some people you just can't really put in
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a box right you know what I mean and that's when I call them Renaissance guys i call you that Eric Surman you're a
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Renaissance guy can't just put you in the box with all the music that you done but right you know a lot of people met
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this dude just being on Nickelodeon and you know at the time you know I was working with uh Paramount um but prior
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to what was it Viacom you know you know I was a part of the network so um
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Victoria Justice you know Ariana all these folks I was interviewing them you know for for all these different shows
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that was under the umbrella and what I realized about all those folks they weren't just one thing they weren't just
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you know thespians they weren't just actors they they had a lot of ways they wanted to express themselves and um this
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young man right here man I really when he first rocked start rocking with Tai dollar sign and at the time when Tai
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dollar sign and Whiz Khalifa was doing their thing and he was a part of that as well we going way back you know I was
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like damn who are these dudes i always look at who's the dudes surrounding the dudes because nobody can do it by
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themselves man and then this dude that's just been consistent with the Electric Dusk album the Genesis project um and
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now this one that's been out for quite some time but it's like the project that keeps on giving man I want to welcome
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this Grammy Award writer right now to our show today give it up for the one and only Leon
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Thomas what's up man what's good y'all how y'all feeling yeah blessed you from
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Brooklyn yeah I'm from Brooklyn New York yeah why you get so excited at that New York how we do it
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okay but but what what part of Brooklyn you grew up in park Slope yeah right near Prospect Park and it's nice over
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there the upper class oh you know it was rich over this time
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that's the Cosby Show that's the Cosby Show area yeah yeah lots of brownstones yeah a lot
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of You grew up in a brownstone no no i grew up in a regular crib it was cold yeah uh-huh but you grew up around a lot
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of music or Absolutely you know my parents were musicians you know so you know in Brooklyn they had a really cool
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circle who would come by and you know rehearse and and vibe out and I grew up backstage uh they would open up for
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people like Shaka Khan Earthwind and Fire yeah they were doing some really cool stuff in the New York scene they
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were the house band for the World Trade Center um so it it was uh it was definitely a really amazing experience
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to to to just be around them and to soak up all of that musical energy you know what what was the first instrument you
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picked up i picked up the drums first you know I was like obsessed with uh jazz and um artists like Art Blakey and
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Miles Davis and John Cold Train um I really didn't start listening to popular music till I was like 13 14 so what was
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popular at that time um around that time you know you had like uh you know Andre
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3000 um I'm thinking like Soulja Boy was popping 50 Cent like it was just a lot
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going on there's like a bunch of different eras coming all together um you know but for me I still started from
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the beginning of uh you know the golden era of hip-hop you know so Tribe Called Quest was how I got introduced and I
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fell in love with that vibe dmd you know what I'm saying de La Soul um just like
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you know the the the legends that really found ways to be afroentric and you know popular culture at the same time okay
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let's pull back on the claps y'all just a little bit man tyler trying to show him love right he
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don't want to not clap because then you'll tell him that deserves a round of applause Tyler
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i just like the origin story like when I listen to your music you know um I was
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just I like how you blend what they call genres you know you hear a lot of sonically you hear a lot of uh no places
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you hear a lot of vibrations from different areas of music so if you grew up liking you know Tribe called Quest
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you know that makes sense to me absolutely right so you you was into how Q-Tip and them produc yeah yeah how they
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produce you know um shout out to Bob Power uh he was like one of my first like producers that really showed me how
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to work in Logic and uh even like the art of sampling um but you know to be
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real I'm also a multi-instrumentalist so I try my best to just like find ways to put bands together and really like turn
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up these songs you know turn it into a musical moment and that's always going to be a blend as a kid growing up
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playing like live instruments and then when you got finally introduced to hip-hop and hearing music popular music
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at a certain age did it sound different to you were you able to pick up like "Wait a minute that's sample that's not
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live." Were you able to just do that naturally absolutely you know my stepdad was a producer too so we had like a
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studio at the house and for me like picking apart records was like my favorite thing to do growing up like you
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know listening to music my iPod was filled with all types of genres um so you know Yeah yeah i definitely listen
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critically um but it's just all about the feeling and the vibe hip-hop definitely really inspired me dope so
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when uh we we about to approach the 15th anniversary of Khalifa's um Cush and OJ
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yeah absolutely you can give that a round of applause tyler's confused round of applause round of applause shout out
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to Whiz three with Whiz so I used to be signed to this label called Rostroom yes
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and um you know we were kind of label uh uh mates at that point and uh you know
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around 18 years old we started hanging out and I learned a lot from Whiz he's such a humble and kind spirit and an
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absolute superstar he understands brand and um you know I learned a lot about how to build a team i feel like music is
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a team sport and he put some amazing characters around him from Juicy J to Tai dollar sign his whole click and uh I
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you know to this day I'm I'm I'm still really thankful for those for those early days what do you remember though was it a was it a a a urge any urgency
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back then to man we're going to make it man we're going to reach a certain goal like what was the the spirit like back
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then well I I feel like by the time I met Wiz he was already a superstar black and yellow was tearing up the charts
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there was like no like aspect of like we're going to make it y'all you know I feel
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like Yeah yeah he was a main man making millions at that point um you know but but I was just really thankful to just
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be in his world um you know shout out to even like a lot of the amazing entrepreneurs around him like Burner who
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started cookies i was able to see Burner build a billion dollar company from scratch yeah yeah to like see what that
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was before you know marijuana was legalized just to see how he was able to operate and and and really form an
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amazing corporation in cookies uhhuh and you took that do what part of that the business aspect have you carried with
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you when it comes to your music well it's crazy i was at his condo early on uh Burner I'm speaking about and and uh
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he was just explaining how music is a means to bigger business and uh how there's all types of ways to transfer
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what we do in music into an a material item and he was saying I should be selling merch at that time he was like
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"Yeah you don't got any t-shirts on your page or this or that?" He was like "Yo you have to find a way to sell something
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that's tangible." And um I always kept that with me and now I'm doing collabs with amazing clothing lines and you know
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really building building that you know kind of kind of business line for myself you know yeah look at Eric Surman just
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smiling at you man and shaking his head in agreement it's because because um the
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the people don't know that part about the business the music is just the the the vehicle to get you to where you need
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to go to for big business in this in this era you know what I'm saying because people be like "There's no money
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being made." But there is money being made but you do need that other part to go along with it to make sure you're
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okay i mean storing and merchandise so so tell me about these collaborations and how can I get some free stuff
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i got you man you know I'm just saying man I'm right here i'm doing something real fly with this uh brand called 40s and shorties um and we're about to drop
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something really dope a nice capsule and shout out to my merch as well you can definitely find that on my website like
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40 o mhm but he still want it for free though for free no no we got you we got
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you you got some dope hoodies on the way you know what I'm saying it's going to be flying man i made sure you got that MTV interview man oh my god
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wow wow sweet go ahead go ahead Trace it's so
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good to meet you even if virtually leon you have incredible energy you've been able to accomplish so much you still
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have so much of life ahead of you when you were talking about Whiz and you mentioned how you view music as a team
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sport that really sparked something in me because nowadays with the internet
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with all of these tools you definitely have artists that are you know kind of
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like a one man or one woman or one day band where they can be at home and
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create their own production be their own engineer you know they don't have to go into studios you're getting you know the
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verses emailed to you and so in that way there is a lot of autonomy and you're
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able to kind of tap into your individualism but then you kind of forget to balance it with community and
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the strength in that in collectivism can you speak on both sides of you the
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difference between Leon Thomas when he is an individual and then Leon Thomas within a group setting and the benefits
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of both yeah uh I mean as a creative um I'm a little antisocial sometimes you
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know I might just be in the studio by myself doing my thing there's like certain collaborators that I love to
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work with um and I keep it a a pretty tight circle when it comes to that but when it comes to marketing and when it
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comes to you know really finding ways to push this music to the people I think it's really beneficial to be in a
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collective because you have something called crosspollinization where they have a whole group of fans that have
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nothing to do with my group and we can both trade groups of people and collect
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a collective uh consciousness essentially um that can that can add to numbers um really help us push this
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whole mission forward and shout out to Ty Dollar and Easy Money there's some new artists coming in um and I'm really
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excited to continue that that mindset you know with Tai and uh the rest of the game hell yeah i like that man mike Muse
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you want to you want to jump in there they're in New York by the way hometown i can tell i can tell i actually live
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right slope too up in Prospect Heights yeah yeah you know the vibe i be taking
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my laps around the park uhhuh it's a beautiful park yeah go ahead Mike my bad no no it's okay leah it's so great to
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meet you i just wanted to say that your idea for collaborations is paying off i was just texting Sway that I was going
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to text him about a month ago like "Yo have you heard this remix with Chris Brown?" It is about JM and that's how I got discovered by you're doing so many
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great works i'm just curious how did you think about Chris Brown specifically to do that remix with well you know that
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was an idea that was uh proposed by the label but it was also a creative idea that we had always dreamed of you know
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it's just sometimes when you're dealing with these superstars like you never know if they're going to be uh receptive uh to the creative collaboration but
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Chris has been nothing but cool to me every time I see him out at a party or something he shows love invites me to
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the table he's just really dope um so I'm glad that it worked out and he really sang i mean he was up there doing
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his thing so I'm glad that people are are receiving it with open arms sway and Eric are working on a show
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called Beats and Bars and they're looking for the next best MC and the next best producer from different
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regions um I watched some of it i watched the tape and I watched the audition process and I'm always curious
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as to what do you look for in a person in terms of talent we saw a lot of they
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saw a lot of talented people in the past couple days in terms of producers and um artists but what do you what do you look
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for now cuz you can't tell anymore where people are from it used to be like "Oh he's definitely from Cali you definitely
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from New York." What What do you look for now um I just look for honesty you know i feel like um there's a lot of
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rappers who can rap fast there's a lot of rappers you know who have you know intricate bars but I think honesty and
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culture if you can really uh have that shine through within whatever piece of music that you're doing um I think
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that'll really resonate and then when it comes to producers the biggest thing for me is just uh I can tell the producers
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that did the homework you know that you know studied the greats prior to the 80s
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and like understand what a Quincy Jones means to this whole this whole music thing you know and sometimes that's
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space sometimes it's not adding a bunch of different sounds in one track it's just about helping the artist or the
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songwriter tell the story yeah dope what did it mean to you to work in and around
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um Baby Face oh man he's he's such a legend man it's so cool you know to see
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him uh at his you know legend status still do tours and he's he just announced uh Uncle Charlie yeah Uncle
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Charlie's Cookout i'm definitely popping up to that one for sure um but but when I when I first came to LA I was on the
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the show uh Victorious and I was trying to find a studio to work out of and uh luckily I met Baby Face around 18 17
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years old and he opened up a a room for me and my production partner Chris Rick times and told us we could come in there
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at any time and just create freely and that's the kind of uh moment of a legend
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paying it forward that has really paid off and I I'm I'm just so thankful for
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him you know he he's a he's a real mentor he was like my Mr miyagi you know what I mean coming in learning how to
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write these songs and like vibe out yeah is it because of your parents that you met him something like how do you just
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meet baby facial records i used to be signed to
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them and and I mean there's not a lot of young black R&B artists playing acoustic guitar and writing songs so they were
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like well you know realistically that would be like probably the best fit and they weren't wrong um you know meeting
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Baby Face definitely changed my life tony Braxton yeah tony Braxton yeah what was that like that was amazing um you
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know they were doing uh a duet album and uh just to be around that legendary energy was was phenomenal you know we
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were we were so young around that time she was definitely like you know auntie like sit down you know what I mean
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definitely not playing any games with us but like luckily you know uh we had an opportunity to be uh on one song on that
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album that they did and it ended up winning the Grammy which is cool 21 clap Tyler a clap that's a clap grammy work
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um you look happy brother i am happy man you should be right
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success like that you know people they dream about that you know even though he
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was around it but now he was able to do it himself my song came out i'm an
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artist now and I won you know so you feel do you feel that kind of gratification it's great to feel seen
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you know um I feel like in music it's it's hard it's a lot of millions of people jumping up and down like I'm I'm
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right here i'm right here so it's great right now to feel to feel seen and heard by the world it's not even I mean my
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friend's in the military and he was like "Man I'm on a military base and you got like everybody black white Asian
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Hispanic singing your song." He's like "That's a big deal." You know this isn't we're in a foreign country right now and
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uh you know that that's a big deal to me man congratulations man thank you man i appreciate that you write that truth too
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man i I know a lot of people talk about mut and you just being just a scandalous
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you know individual but being honest all that praise you going to just drop right down huh
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ain't a low vibration man at some point you get nothing from me but I'm a mut but one of
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my favorite songs because you don't hear men talk about
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the emotions they feel when you really got the person on that's that that's on
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your heart on your mind and they not answering their phone oh my gosh man answer your phone shout out to Diane
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Warren you know I went and sat down with one of my favorite producers Jeff Giddy and you know we sat down i played him
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the whole album he was like "Man this is very braggadocious very like uh masculine." But he was like "You need
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you need a song like a pleading record." So um luckily that same week I got hit
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up by the legendary Diane Warren she's had like the most number ones songwriting right and uh I sat down with
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her and she you know went to the piano and played me Answer Your Phone uh and it was so cool because there was no demo
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it was just her singing it you know and but I I felt it and I resonated with it and it was probably one of the only
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songs on the album that I didn't didn't write fully and and um you know I I I really respect her for for you know
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lending me that record that was beautiful you ever felt that way though by in a relationship or with a Yeah man
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i've been in love plenty of times you know and you know when it doesn't work out is when you have that feeling of you
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know being separated from that human being and and and still wanting that connection um but boundaries are
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important um but uh yeah answer your phone is a great example of being on the other side of that boundary i was okay
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this month so you brought that up because because that that so I'm going through
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it at this moment because again I mean y'all messed me up just now
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i'm about to dig a little deeper it's gonna be all right brother i'm about to dig a little deeper i ain't
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turning the knife for you E but you mentioned Diane Warren and she has had like so many nominations even in terms
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of the Academy Awards and never taken over it's been like 16 nominations something crazy and never taken that
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song of the year record of the year um what Lady London sat here the other day
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and said that music is the only game that the best players probably don't get
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enough time they don't they don't get they don't get the love they don't get heard they don't get the recognition
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what do you think it is with Diane Warren because at this point it's it's almost weird that to write a song like
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this that three men never sat here and talked about before but can all relate to this song written by a woman by the
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way what do you think it is that she's not getting that acknowledgement well I personally am always going to
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give Diane Warren her flowers you know just because I have pure respect for uh
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great wordsmiths and and and she's definitely one of those um but I think
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this entire industry regardless of how old you are is high school you know uh it's like a popularity contest and it's
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very political um you there's there's smart people in high schools all over the country who don't always you know
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get to sit at the cool kids table and I think there's there's a there's like all of these moments that that that
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sometimes you have to be more political about um but I think you know her time is coming when it comes to that Academy
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Award um it's going to happen for her and I'm going to continue to speak that into existence she's so wonderful she's
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an amazing songwriter you're wonderful too bro man I like that
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you're the personality yeah yeah no no you got and and and stay like that that
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humbleness is what you that we're here too i know this is 37 years for me yeah
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you know what I'm saying so at the end of the day like people always used to ask me Russell Simmons used always to be like "Listen just stay humble." Mhm you
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know didn't know what it meant cuz I was too young to know what humble was at the time but I'm also an introvert though
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too like I said for I was always a person who you know when I was doing my thing you know whatever i just it was
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just me so I was me and Red Man me and Keith me and Method me it wasn't a I didn't have a team i never had what Dre
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and him had it was only me i did everything so I was you know that's what
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I was like so I'm like this now so so when Sway like "Yo he come to the back i don't know nothing about about being
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that i'm only a humble person but it gets you everywhere cuz again you go up
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you coming down that's real and I'mma see you on the way down and remember I asked you for a piece of cake you didn't
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give me nothing yeah yeah no no no for real for real yeah I
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understand that but you've had quite a journey um to this point um I want to ask you another question i want to ask
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you about Dancing with Demons but before I do that I feel like if he tell this story of why answer your phone really
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resonated with him through this story you could probably write another song for the upcoming EP what's going on
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he turned a knife i said I wouldn't and see what your man did man I mean cuz he
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might he you know Leon might catch a vibe off that and N just everything like except for Yeah the the heart is the
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heart like you can talk mess and you can be angry and all that type of stuff at the end of the day though that person
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that you in love with and that you missing stuff you look for that text and then hours go by and hours go by and
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that phone doesn't ring and then you make the text and then I do the thing where you you hit the you hit the phone
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and then you hang it up so hopefully she say "Oh you missed I missed your call." It don't happen it don't happen man you
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know it's crazy that no matter what age you go you at you still go through this [ __ ] no for real the heart is like the
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heart is the heart that's the title that's the title of the song we get it
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we get it right part two part two what What do you
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just in general do you have demons you you you dance with today well you know that record was really interesting for
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me um because I was I was at the house and I was starting to get creative at
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the home you know I I I got all of this art you know from random places i put it all around did interior design so it
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just felt like a creative space set up a drum set in that same room and uh was
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just like really getting super creative for about three weeks um I was also micro doing on trooms at the time okay
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you know so that record was like more so just talking about Hollywood and and and how many different energies are out here
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and in order to kind of climb this mountain to get to where you know my version of success is um you know
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sometimes it feels like you're you're dancing with demons in order to get to what you want and uh same thing can even
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happen when you're trying to date to find your person you're like out at a club and this girl looks beautiful but
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you know her soul ain't right um once again dancing with demons with so it's
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it's not like I have demons i just think there's so many you know things that come and like energies that come on your
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journey that can definitely you know deter you from your mission [ __ ] man he just some You seem like he tapped on you
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now you got you got me and Eric right now okay so explain your demons now
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flipping flipping well you know I I've always been in a position in the industry i I was telling him I I got
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into Leon i got into music playing music playing clarinet playing saxophone my
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brother played drums my sister played the flute you know learning how to read and write music like technically you
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know and then getting into hip-hop we start making music right but I immediately put myself in a position
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where I'm a person you come to right for opportunity you know way before MTV you
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know Sway my partner King Tac Sway and T wake up show the whole nine yeah kel all
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these different radio stations and and you could we're spiritually rooted and
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grounded people right so you can see the matrix exactly you know what I mean you
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can see through the through it and so sometimes I feel I know it's people in my proximity that don't really care
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about me or whatever you know but and so those are the kind of demons I had to deal with as a younger person i'm so
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protected now that it doesn't even It doesn't it don't even scar me or it has
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you know in fact I try to reverse the energy on folks you know and help them see help them see it through a different
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light you know which is why I wanted to have you on the show I appreciate because listening to your music over the
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years I know you got some illumination on you right I know you got and it's the reason why your music the vibrations
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that you are creating are appealing to people across the board where your friend could tell you I'm in the service
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and you got all kind of folks that's tapped into your music and I think you're doing it right because I think
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you're doing it honestly you know and so those are the these songs also resonate
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i know Mud is the one that you know the Freddy Gibbs version the regular version you know the Chris Brown version but it
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was other things that I I was able to tap in that went deeper i appreciate that yeah we needed that hook though we
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need the hook to get everybody into you know it's it's like a fun song to dance to at the club but it's it's nice now
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that like people will get introduced to that and then go on this musical journey with me you know really understand my
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brain more but we need these yins what they call yins now you know whatever but again we need people like you and not
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because you're here man we need that again that we are our conversation is not right right now so if you can give
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any type of conversation where you can get insight to teach somebody something and give them something than they're
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hearing right now is just way better so we need a whole bunch of you to come out yeah I appreciate it i mean I mean
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there's plenty of geniuses out there you know doing their thing these you know the the kind of artists that I'm around
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and that I see so much light in that haven't necessarily had their moment that there's there's there's so many
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amazing models name a few just to give him some props okay just to give him some props all right bet you know
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there's this artist McGee that's not necessarily uh McGee is not necessarily around me
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but I feel like he's one of those artists that's going to be so important to this next generation of music yeah
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McGee he's like like a wonderful artist that I'm like a huge fan of um you know and then even like the guys who are
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working on production with me right now my boy Freaky Rob guitarist but I feel like when he steps into his artist bag
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he's going to change the world on some Jimmyi Hendrick stuff you know you know what I'm saying so um I'm really excited
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for people to see like the world of geniuses around me and and uh I'm going to continue to just like shout them out
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when I can you Then what do you say to the artists that like E and Sway are speaking with and seeing through this
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Beats and Bars series who have been doing music now for 10 years 15 years producers and can't get a break like so
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many of them expressed frustration and they get to a competition like this and they're not going to be picked and they
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feel their dreams feel crushed you know I saw tears you know what what do you say to that person then it's about the
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platform not the trophy i think you know using this moment of exposure i mean
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it's like Jennifer Hudson didn't win the whole thing but she's the one with the talk show like going in you know the
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Oscar the Oscar yes let's get Yeah let's get into it like I mean it's you know
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these competitions are just a really great opportunity for you to gain more exposure um and you never know what kind
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of relationships that can be built you know from that well said i like this guy man i know i know you got other [ __ ] to
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do but I'm in the morning my guy you got a tour
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coming up yeah yeah yep right i listen man i I think first of all I would love to get McGee and who was the other
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artist you said oh yo Freaky Rob you got to meet him freaky Rob his name is Freaky Rob yo listen liam Mut kendrick
28:12
gave him that name kendrick play guitar for Kendrick you know okay well good that's freaky cuz he's like this oh he's
28:19
freaky on the Yeah yeah because they're getting the mut freaky ass rob all right um we you know
28:28
we're doing a lot here at Sirius XM now that you know we're in LA and we got these beautiful studios and I know J1 is
28:35
somebody's a big fan man we would love like come break those those artists with us man
28:40
let's set up something live man we bring an audience in here yeah I like that
28:46
idea i like that idea man we got a fullfledged thing downstairs i got full access for sure let's break Let's break
28:52
some artists man no I'm with it man i'm with it you with that okay we do we got to talk to you good we good okay there
28:59
you go it It's done it's done said it she said it she said it it's done okay we could do that um congratulations on
29:06
Coachella thank you wow congrats yeah that was great right yeah yeah got to pop out there with Tai dollar sign and
29:12
Money Long you know it was a busy weekend y'all got that history together too money loan right yeah so well yeah i
29:19
mean you know both of us being songwriters uh you know she definitely understands my journey in a real way and
29:26
even backstage was giving me so much amazing advice cuz she's going through the whole you know campaign uh now you
29:33
know and uh you know I really appreciate her for sharing her stage a lot of artists don't do that and she had no
29:38
incentive outside of just loving my music and and um respect to her respect to her you and Victoria connected again
29:45
too when she was there right yeah victoria Justice yeah with Victoria Justice well y'all did do you see the past you see the present you see the I
29:52
mean that's my sister that's my sister we've literally traveled the world together i mean at this point we even finished high school together cuz we
29:58
were doing school backstage uh she she's a really close friend of mine um and
30:03
it's so cool like the the first thing we started talking about was how proud uh we were of each other you know it's it's
30:11
such a odd thing to go from spending every day with somebody to then only seeing them maybe once every four years
30:18
or something um but we always like to let each other know like I see you i respect you i'm proud of you you know
30:24
that's like a that's that's a real special part of it all real day one right there e real day one we day ones
30:30
yeah exactly day one okay um well I'm looking forward to the new EP um I'm
30:37
looking forward to um everything you're doing and I'm dead serious about let's let's break those artists man let's give
30:42
them a break here let's break some artist let's lock it in you know I got my new deluxe heel coming really soon um
30:47
some new records with some amazing artists we'll let you know who those artists are very soon but um you know I
30:53
got this record with Hi Bailey and she's such an amazing amazing artist and I'm glad that we could connect cuz she
30:59
really understands you know it's a song called I'd rather be alone so I'd rather be alone so when you guys uh you know get a chance check that out yeah it's
31:05
coming soon check out that you know she been up here be you know before the you know I met her at a YouTube
31:12
uh when she and her sister first started the YouTube before it was being signed i
31:18
met her early her and her father her father used to roll with them and they they're so extremely talented it makes
31:24
sense that you guys got together to work together man i'm really cool with Chloe too so I'm excited to do a record with
31:30
her yeah Khloe's a very nice girl when I was doing when I was um I started off doing the Kanye West album first before
31:36
we went to Italy and did Ta when I got to Italy Tal was there took over my whole [ __ ] i ain't get
31:43
nothing but but you know cuz I started off in LA first i started off the first
31:48
time and all of a sudden I I go bury my mom's i go to Italy i'm like it's 17 Tai
31:53
dollar sign songs i'm like god damn do I got anything so I I started off writing
32:00
with Chloe so me and Chloe would write the songs and then Kanye would come in and then see what he wanted to do the whole n so she was um again those girls
32:08
too in Atlanta was doing all type of stuff at 11 12 13 years old you know
32:14
their dad had them in clubs and everything trying to get famous so I was happy for them man
32:20
anything you want to say in closing brother listen man I really appreciate you for sharing your platform and for
32:25
even like prior to me coming up here just like showing love online everything counts man and I really appreciate it
32:31
yeah man i I had to put out the back call yeah for real i was like we got a sway back
32:38
get this guy up here what we doing you know this is huge man i love it man but
32:43
hey listen leon Thomas man absolutely no doubt no doubt no doubt all day yeah all
32:49
day man day come on man

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