Speaker 1: 0:00

You know, there are certain situations where you know you're like you know how to learn something, you know what you need to study in order to to master it. Well, like patience, like there's not one thing that you can do to like to gain patience, and what it is, you know. It's just like I feel, like it's experiences, you know, and that's what, in turn, is the currency of patience.

Speaker 1: 0:29

Absolutely yeah that was fire yes, it feels good to be here in Baltimore, in the watermelon room, and we are here. The Respecting Perspectives podcast is live and direct and direct, and I have one of my best friends and truly an inspiring person who do I have tell him, tell him who you are and, uh, you know what you're, uh, what you're doing, doing here, how'd you get here? Give me some, give me something um, my name is Michael Morstein.

Speaker 2: 1:27

I guess when you ask me what I'm doing or how I got here, my mind first thinks of, I guess how do I know you? And that is through the Baltimore music scene and the Baltimore art community. I currently curate something called Prism Prism Baltimore and we throw events that are basically music and art, cross genres and cross cultural to help build bridges within the community, help build actual community and, yeah, just make life cooler, because, you know, life is hard as hell for a lot of us, you know. So we need to do things to bring us all together and provide joy to people you know and ourselves.

Speaker 1: 2:11

Let me tell you something. You are definitely one of the original keepers of the cool I'm not lying, Like I heard that term before and there were a few people who came to mind and the keepers of the cool dude, I'm telling you like never heard the term.

Speaker 1: 2:31

Well, let me here here it is. You know it really. It you're able to take all the things that you've learned in your life and turn them into something that is from the heart and meaningful, and you can tell that the way that you move and the way that you interact with people is extremely genuine. And you know, I just want our listeners to know that me and Mike have been friends for a long time and I really value the friendship that we have and I'm excited to have you here.

Speaker 2: 3:12

Word up yeah, word up man.

Speaker 1: 3:14

Yeah, dude, is there anything you know specifically that gosh, you know you feel like you'd like to bring to the uh, to the forefront or or. I mean because we've had many conversations in the past like you know, like week or two, and it's like that's the coolest part about all this is like you know where we can end up in in a conversation and and it's brought some really awesome topics and and and uh insights, and I'd love some of yours, dude um, well, I guess, like I'm willing to conversate whichever way the conversation flows, um, if you ask me I think your question was um, what are some things I want to bring to the forefront, I guess?

Speaker 1: 3:55

and I.

Speaker 2: 3:56

I guess that would be be yourself. Um, always follow what's in your heart, um, whatever your intuition is, or that gut feeling is that you feel inside, uh, listen to it and even even test it out.

Speaker 2: 4:08

You know what I mean, if you don't believe it um, just test it out, follow it, follow it certain times and think to yourself all right, I'm gonna see how this goes. If it doesn't go well, mark it down that it didn't go well. If it does go well, mark that down and see that. You might see at least. At least that I found that more often than not, when you listen to it, things work out, and a lot of times when you don't you know, things may not work out so well.

Speaker 2: 4:31

And then I would add in what goes on top of that is never stop believing in yourself or anything that you want to do, just like you know we've known each other for a few years and I remember when I would run into you at parties and events around town and you would talk about things you had in mind.

Speaker 2: 4:47

None of this existed yet. And now here you are and this is like a real fire setup. It's a real dope podcast, thank you. Dope concept respecting perspectives, which I think is something that's integral if we want to have a better world or a better society. That's integral if we want to have a better world or a better society is if all of us can start respecting each other's perspectives a little bit more, especially the ones that we don't agree with or don't understand. So yeah, always be yourself. You never know what's possible. Look at Andrew right here. He's got a dope podcast going. His music's sounding great and a few years ago it was something I heard him talk about and now it's all here.

Speaker 1: 5:32

So right back in the day I I think I remember meeting you. I was always the one in the back of the room freestyling, you know, just like you know and uh, but but that was just, that was practice.

Speaker 1: 5:39

You know, I was in the back of the room just just practicing and, uh, being able to freestyle was one of the things that really like helped me, just helped me like break the ice. You know, it's easy to remember. We were talking the other day about starting a conversation and what it takes to do that, and, uh, how some people are more comfortable, you know, with, with, with, with doing. You know starting a conversation as opposed to you know the one, to, I guess you could say finish the conversation. But it makes you think about you know what that icebreaker is going to be. You know it can be something as small as you know, just like a physical attribute or something. Or you know something as large as, like, you know the setting that you're in. You know, just like a physical attribute or something. Or you know something as large as, like, you know the setting that you're in. You know. But it's really cool to think about that and like, when you think of respecting perspectives, what does that make you think?

Speaker 2: 6:43

Just like you know, like first, I mean first I go to like culture, or you know, people from different ethnicities, backgrounds, that have different lifestyles that might think the other person is crazy for how they're living. Or politics is that's probably like the big one, the obvious one, where we seem to have this two-sided dichotomy, where both sides just refuse to respect the other side's perspective and whether that's justified or not, I'm not here to judge that, but it's clearly left us in a position where the two sides do not respect one another.

Speaker 2: 7:21

And there's no way we can really move forward. Imagine, like you and someone in your life that you want to have a relationship with and I don't mean that in any kind of romantic way or anything. You just want to know this person, be friends, acquaintances, work at the same business, whatever it is, you just have to have. You want to have a working relationship because you're going to be around this person. Yeah, and imagine if you and this person just refuse to sit at the same table, refuse to compromise, refuse to act like that, though right.

Speaker 1: 8:07

There's usually like a mishap or something, to where then they're like right, right.

Speaker 2: 8:15

People are justified in what they're feeling Exactly, and that's what makes it so challenging. I'm not saying it's easy. I'll also be the first to say that sometimes I need to take that advice. You know what I mean. Sometimes I find myself sometimes not respecting a perspective that I'd be like, oh man, how can they see things that way? That's ridiculous, you know, and therefore I might act in a way that doesn't show respect towards that, or maybe I don't feel that in my heart, or whatever. But then when I think about it, I'm like well, to what ends does that lead me? To what outcome? And ultimately, it's like sometimes your wisdom is ahead of your behavioral patterns or your trained way of thinking and stuff, and so, for me, sometimes I find myself not doing it, even though when I reflect upon it I'm like, yeah, that's actually the goal. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2: 9:07

We got to respect everybody from where they're at, and I get like things have happened that cause us to feel strongly one way or the other about things, but most people caught up in that have not done anything to one another. It's just their perspectives that people feel threatened by, and so I think when we get down to that, we have to say, hey, has this person actually harmed me, or do they just believe things that I don't agree with? And if the person hasn't harmed me, hasn't harmed my family, hasn't harmed my friends, maybe I should extend an olive branch, and if we could do that, not just as individuals but as a collective, hopefully we could see a better world, a better society, and I guess what that leads to is a more what's the word? I'm looking for Accountable government, because it's harder to hold those in power accountable when we're down here fighting with one another.

Speaker 1: 10:04

Oh, man, that know a certain structure right that's in place and trying to understand, you know the levels of it and where you land. And then, like, understanding that you know it shouldn't be levels, you know we should all be able to coexist, you know, at the same level, right At some point Now we've already, you know, structured and built these, you know these layers, layers, so it's like we're trying to I think you personally, you know find where I fit in to that, you know groove and how I can help, like the people around me, thrive, not just, not just like be happy, but thrive. And I think the difference between that is like being happy with your current situation but knowing that you, taking certain action with your life, can, can, can, can, you know, lead it to a full, you know, a full span of just um, you know you're, you're really just in the moment, as much as possible and taking, taking advantage of of opportunities. Right, and sometimes I can, I can sorry, I get lost sometimes and I'm like I'm trying to get the you know an idea out and I got a new one that's coming in. You know you got a download from over here and I'm like, but it would sit with you just really is getting me, you know, getting things ticking and it's, uh, it's cool to kind of, you know, think about those things.

Speaker 1: 11:53

Word, word, word.

Speaker 2: 11:54

Yeah, well, we can. We can go in any direction in the conversation. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1: 12:11

So if at any time you're Like, oh, I got this new, take it over here, just run with it. You know, man, you know there was something that I talked to you about before and I think it's something I really like to build on, and it was the fact that, like mostly, I would say, I guess my generation okay, I have been fortunate enough to have had lived half of my life with a cell phone and then hopefully, you know, or before, without half of my life without a cell phone. You know, evenly, yeah, and you know it makes you think about. You know, where do you see moments of opportunity for artists to kind of use technology in order to, you know, help them either build their brand or um, let's see here, um, cause you just seem really, you know, you seem really in touch with the people around you through social media and whatnot. You do a really good job of staying tapped in. How do you do that?

Speaker 2: 13:26

dude. Well, I guess it's a roundabout question. So the technology obviously helps me stay tapped in. Being online, being on social media, seeing what everybody's doing, just staying connected to as many people as possible that's inspiring to me. So that's just how I stay tapped in and I just I go out. You know what I mean. If there's things I hear about that, I'm able to get to a lot of things around town surprisingly, so there's a lot of things around town that are free. There's a lot of things around town that are cheap, so there's a lot of things around town that are free.

Speaker 2: 14:00

There's a lot of things around town that are cheap and if you hear about them and you're off work, just take the extra time that you might have had to relax and just go down to these events and you know you'll start to get tapped in, because there'll be people there that may not even be a part of that event. They're just in the audience, just like you, and you talk to somebody about whatever and they end up telling you about something that they're doing and you're like, oh wow, I learned about a whole nother thing that's going on in baltimore just because I went to this one thing. So get out and go as many things as possible. Technology definitely can help do that. Um, technology can also be used to kind of hold that back as well. So it's a lot about, um, what technology you use and how the technology is being used by the companies that use them, and it's also how you use the technology yourself.

Speaker 1: 14:45

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2: 14:47

But I like what you said about half our lives on one side. I like to call that like we're living on the analog, the digital bridge. You know what I mean. Where we started life, analog and the digital still existed, but the theme of life was still analog, and now it seems like the theme is becoming digital fast. You know, you don't have to be. The earth is still the earth. You know, nature is still everywhere, all around you. It's not hard to unplug. It's just that so much of our culture is adapting now to the digital world. So, culturally speaking, we're culturally in the digital age.

Speaker 1: 15:28

I feel like yeah, I would agree.

Speaker 2: 15:30

Even though as a species we're not and we never really.

Speaker 1: 15:32

I don't believe we ever really yeah can be or have to be.

Speaker 2: 15:35

But culturally we are there now and yeah, ai, you know that's a whole thing. But culturally we are there now and yeah, ai, you know that's a whole thing. I like to think that a lot of artists I know are mad about AI. I'll say that. But as far as, like, disabilities or people with, like, maybe, certain mental health conditions, I think AI could be good. You know people that maybe don't get out the house a lot some people are People that maybe don't get out of the house a lot.

Speaker 1: 16:00

How so Some?

Speaker 2: 16:00

people are isolated at home, can't get out, and the online, technological, the online world can become like a world, a whole immersive world, for them, and so not everybody's able to do all the things that we do, and so for people like that.

Speaker 1: 16:15

I think it can be very positive.

Speaker 2: 16:17

that I think is positive, I think it can be very positive. But yeah, as far as art goes, a lot of artists they definitely seem to be mad about. Like you know, you hear Jay-Z verse over some other beat, or, like you know, you want your flyer made for a show and you get it from the AI now in five seconds, versus having an artist from the community.

Speaker 2: 16:39

So it is posing problems as well, as everything in life can be a problem or or a benefit you know, and so again, it's it's how you use it, what you use, but also how you know they use it as well oh for sure, that's a.

Speaker 1: 16:55

That's a good point when, when you think about that, there's so many different stories, right, there's like your story and there's my story, there's your story and then there's our story. You know that many different movies, you know, or storylines of books are being written. You know, right now, when you think about like 8 billion, you know people in the world, you know, do you think like do you think we were supposed to be this many people? Do you think there was supposed to be this many people? Do you think there was only supposed to be like a certain amount of people? Or like?

Speaker 2: 17:44

I have no clue. I have no clue how many people were supposed to be here, but I also know the earth is really big and so you know, 8 billion sounds like a very big number when we hear that number but, like if you were to look up how many deer are on the earth and like deer live in every continent so if you look up, how many deer are on the earth? I don't know what that number would be.

Speaker 2: 18:06

I would assume billions as well okay um, and I I have heard before that like you could cram eight billion of us in the state of texas. They say, really I don't know how much room there would be for us to walk around still, but like they say that you could do that and so I I don't, you know. Maybe there'll be 20 billion of us one day, maybe maybe you know who knows that's.

Speaker 2: 18:28

You just really did put that into perspective for me, though, like you really like, took the amount of people like by, like you know mass, or like you know, I think I think the problem with that is we talk about resources, and not just resources for us, but resources for animals, for nature, just to continue thriving, and I believe that the earth is an abundant, very massive thing and that we all come from it. Every being here comes from it, unless maybe not you know what I'm saying. Maybe some of us came from space.

Speaker 1: 19:01

Oh shh, look from up there. Look, there's a camera up there, but it's all still from the universe, you know.

Speaker 2: 19:10

And I believe that it's our relationship to it that's more the problem, if there is a problem, than the amount of people that are here. Like how many cells are in a body, right, you know? Like probably billions you know, billions, and so if there's like 8 billion stories, it's like. That means like the story is made up of 8 billion stories. Yo, and I think that's pretty dope and so like, if you imagine having like a trillion stories which there probably is.

Speaker 2: 19:41

If you, you know, look apart the whole cosmos, then there probably is trillions of stories that comprise, like the great story, this great story.

Speaker 1: 19:50

Right, they were all a part of that.

Speaker 1: 19:51

Yeah, man, dude, I love how you broke that down. One thing that we were talking about was like the Ant-Man concept. You know, and just like the, you know the, the quantum um and right, it really does make you, make you imagine all of the different things that are going on. You know, at the same time, and it's like how can we be as productive as possible in a way that helps the things around you and yourself as you look into the mirror? So I think, in order to help other people though, like you do truly have to figure out how to help yourself, Right, and you know, one of the topics that I like to talk about on this show is self-awareawareness and, uh, you know what are some practices that other people can do in order to make discoveries in self-awareness well, the first thing I would say that someone taught me, uh, many years ago I guess I could, and that is something real easy we can all kind of do, and if you meditate out there, it should be easier.

Speaker 2: 21:26

But even if you don't, it's something easier that we can do. And that is three steps, and that's number one is slow down, number two is breathe and number three is check in with your body. Number two is breathe and number three is check in with your body. And so anytime you feel like I don't know if I'm making the right decision, or should I be doing this, or I don't know what I should be doing, you feel like anxiety about sorry, if I hit the mic. You feel anxiety about a decision, or maybe not even. Maybe you don't have a decision, maybe you aren't doing enough and you're like, should I be doing something? Well, if you have any of uh, confusion or anxiety or whatever, um, just slow down, take a break, whatever you're doing stop doing it.

Speaker 2: 22:05

If you're shopping for groceries, wait till you're done shopping. If you're skateboarding, wait till you're done skateboarding. So hit that ollie and then get done, whatever you're doing, and go sit down on the couch, go sit down on your bed, go sit down in the grass, wherever it is, you sit, and so that's slow down. And number two breathe. Take three deep breaths. And after you take three deep breaths and you try to bring yourself to a centered place, check in with your body?

Speaker 2: 22:41

Ask yourself the question that you were weren't uh inquiring about earlier. And the first reaction that your body gives is most likely your intuitive, uh thought, your intuitive feeling and uh, usually from there. So, like you have a feeling like I gotta pay my bill. And then usually your mind says, but you got three more days, or you have to this date. And you have this conversation inside yourself about, well, okay, well, I'll, well, I'll go Friday and I'll do that. If you just listen to that internal one, you'll never go wrong, is my point. So like, oh, I like that. It's not follow your heart, as in follow your, your wants, and like, oh, my desires. It's like your heart will literally tell you, like you need to check that bill and then we'll look at the calendar I got a few more days, and then something will come up and it'll make us late and it's like, oh, had we listened to the voice inside, it would have accounted for this hiccup that I was about to experience three days down the road.

Speaker 2: 23:30

So, yeah, I think when we do that, that's what I would say help get inside of self-awareness, you know, because it'll get you in touch. And the more you can practice listening to your intuition, like I said, it'll guide you to whatever your version of your highest self is here on earth.

Speaker 1: 23:49

You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 23:50

I believe the universe, god, whatever you want to call it, source brought us all here, and we all have encoded in us whatever it takes to get to grow to where we are. Just like every plant, every animal, they just got to be alive and get sunlight and water and the food they need, and then they grow into whatever they were planted here as a seed to be, and so we're no different, and we just have to have faith in ourselves. You know what I mean? We have to believe in ourselves, trust ourselves, and a lot of us have trouble with that, because the society that we live in, as we all know, is riddled with a lot of hardship that may not be needed for the human experience in my mind.

Speaker 2: 24:32

Create art while we create music. Um, uh, while we're, we create all these things to express ourselves, um as medicine to help us get through.

Speaker 1: 24:46

You know this life that we live in man, let me tell you, uh, music, yeah, music is the medicine for me, man. There's like I've been able to make different songs that give me a particular feeling and I'm like, okay, how can I fill this? Or it just kind of ends up a certain way, you know, just by chance and just experimentation, I guess you could say, but it's really cool to be able to fill that void myself. You know, it gives, it makes me feel like I have some sort of power, you know, and um, Well, the music's magic, and so when people make it, it's a powerful thing.

Speaker 1: 25:50

Yeah, yeah, dude, you would think like Harry Potter's in the yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:57

You kind of become Harry Potter when you start making that Dude.

Speaker 1: 25:59

I'm telling you, man, I'd be in there and I just be. I just had this. Yeah, just I'm able to like channel something. And man, let me tell you, dude, I never really thought that it could get this this deep and like this meaningful. And you know, you're really one of the people that really makes me appreciative of art itself and, at your events, it's PRISM. Is it PRISM with a Z or with an S?

Speaker 2: 26:32

With an S all caps, prism P-R-I-S-M all caps.

Speaker 1: 26:36

Yeah, and his events have been something that really are very eclectic and all different kinds of of sounds, you know. It really shows you that if the idea is, you know, brought out properly, then you don't have to fit any particular mold. It shows that it's all kind of coming from a good place and you should be really proud of the events that you throw. And he has been one of the people who just really kind of helped me understand how the proper events were to be thrown and how to bring a community together. So you should be proud of yourself for for doing that and, uh, I mean, you know how long have you been doing that and what? What inspired, you know, getting so many people you know, together, you know, for the right causes, man.

Speaker 2: 27:47

So this is a short, long story and so basically, like first, I appreciate the condolence. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. But how it worked out, is this Back to that intuition thing I found myself I wouldn't say it was in a rut, but an in-between phase in my life. I was working in an office setting every day, 40 hours a week, and I was just kind of like you know why am I experiencing all this quote-unquote synchronicity and stuff from the universe, whatever woo-woo-woo.

Speaker 1: 28:21

Trying to make sense of it.

Speaker 2: 28:22

You know I was like you know, I was like it has to be for some higher purpose, some better reason I'm looking for. What can I do in life? I'm not feeling fulfilled by pretty much anything in my life at this point, and so I started asking for signs of how I could be used in the best way for the universe, for everybody else, to bring joy and healing to the world, while also making myself happy and healed and fulfilled. How could I bring that feeling to as many people as possible and myself? And you know I remember I'm sitting with some of my friends. We're playing Madden one day and I'm trying to tell them about like probably some crazy conspiracy theory or something at the time and one of my boys is just like man, cut your shit, man. He points to like a bottle of Excedrin. He's like you still eat McDonald's. You still take this for your headaches. Either shut the fuck up and do something about it. That's a good one. He's like I don't want to hear this shit from you. I'm like, damn, I felt him. And again, shit from you. I'm like damn, he, I felt him. Oh, and again, without really much planning, just me being like all right, I gotta find something and and change my life, I gotta.

Speaker 2: 29:27

I run into some people that are like, um, basically doing spiritual activism and without really even knowing I'm. It's a long, even longer story. Yeah, um, but like I just start basically at their at their second event. I show up, I don't know any of them, um, but they invite us all back. Whoever was, there was only like seven or eight people at the time. They invite us all back to some potluck type thing and, um, we do that next thing. I know it's like a meeting for the next one. So I'm feeling both weirded out because I'm like hold up. I thought I was just here to hang out.

Speaker 1: 30:02

Now I'm caught up in some meeting for planning something A lot.

Speaker 2: 30:04

Well, I'm simultaneously like hold up, I was asking the universe for something and these people are literally talking about the same kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 30:11

Like what's in our food.

Speaker 2: 30:13

You know how's our government behaving, like what's really going on in our reality. How can we make the world a better place? The same stuff I would talk to my homies about, that's what they plan in. The same thing I was asking to be. You know how can I be used in a better way? So I stick with it. Fast forward a few months. We have like 20 people coming to each of these talks whatever 30 people coming to each of these talks, and somebody is like the leader of the group, even though we didn't really have a leader this person I considered the one.

Speaker 2: 30:43

They're like why don't we throw a party to give back to everybody that's been coming to these events? Everybody's like cool For the people. They're just like Mike, don't you know a bunch of DJs and musicians and stuff. At the time I literally went 10 years thinking why do I meet all these talented people? Because I don't play music. I don meet all these talented people because I don't play music. I don't make music. Right, I love music, I love art. But I'd always meet really talented people and they'd want to like oh yo, you play this. Hey, oh, you make beats. Hey, yo, you're right. As soon as I'd be like no, you, it would be like this weird vibe, like they expect right like hold up huh and so like I was like why do I meet all these talented people?

Speaker 2: 31:18

and I got no, really nothing. I don't have nothing to do with that. And so when they said that to me, I was like damn, I kind of do. So I reached out to some people and next thing I know that this event comes and they're all like this is your, you did. I'm like whoa, what are you doing? I don't know what I'm doing. I'm even calling them like yo, come help, come help. And they're like you're right. He's like wait a sec. And um, hundreds of people came was really oh wow, that's pretty cool. And uh, it to this day was one of the best vibes I felt at a party in my life.

Speaker 1: 31:52

Still it's a.

Speaker 2: 31:52

Really that's gotta be a good feeling right, yeah and um, that day kind of changed my life. From that one day, nice, I spent a year telling people I'm not a promoter, because they kept you know, know, aren't you the guy that throws shows? I want to go to your shows, I want to play your shows. I'm like I don't throw shows. It was just one show, but after a while I realized that like, okay, the universe is talking, and so it's been about 15 years now from that and I've thrown a little under 100 shows. So it's like it became.

Speaker 1: 32:23

Man, you should be super proud of that. That's really cool.

Speaker 2: 32:25

Yeah, and it's something that I can say I'm actually good at and that I believe in and that I love, and that it brings joy to me, and I see it brings joy to others, and so it's literally what I asked for, and all I had to do was just trust myself to follow into that.

Speaker 1: 32:42

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 32:42

And the universe kind of did the rest. So I'm real blessed, I'm real lucky to be here, um, and uh, yeah, that's that's, that's, that's nice.

Speaker 1: 32:51

I love that man, I love how you got you got deep real quick. You know, kind of painted the picture. You know you had to build the outside and then, uh, you know you had to add some color to it and really help us understand. You know where you're coming from and it's cool to get another piece, you know, of a puzzle, because everybody is just a puzzle, you know, and you know there's certain people that you get, you know that you have the fortunate enough chance to, you know, step out of their comfort zone a little bit and maybe have a conversation or two that maybe they've like been either wanting to have for a while or like have been avoiding, you know, for a while.

Speaker 1: 33:56

Um, there's so many different things that are going on in our head that, like we're trying to understand, and I think talking about some of them if not most of them is is really helpful to everyone because, you know, if you know, there's nothing better than knowing that, knowing like other people are going through the same experience than you and kind of made it to the other side just like you did, you know, and you know that feeling of just like accomplishment my mom on, and like you know if I would have went to her and been like, hey, ma, you know, do you want to be on the podcast? She probably would have been like hell. No, just because you know, um, it's just you have to get to a certain point where you are just like open and vulnerable and I think, as an artist, that's kind of helped me build a tough skin with that and I'm super grateful for that. And I'm super grateful for my mom, you know, hopping on the podcast and doing what she did. Just wanted to express my appreciation for, uh, for you know all of those things, um, and and you know, there was something else I did want to bring up um, you know, when it comes to baltimore hip-hop, you know who? Are there any artists that you either want to like shed some light to or want to? You know? Um, just let know that they're doing, you know, a good job and that they're they're putting putting work in sheesh.

Speaker 2: 35:51

Well that I mean that's always a tough question because, um, you know, again, like this is not rehearsed, I don't, I don't, I'm not on rehearsed interviews, so it's a lot like I'm prepared for these questions and so I'll just type on my head and there's always going to be someone that, uh, that I leave out no, even if I name my own top five favorite artists.

Speaker 1: 36:10

It might be a different top five tomorrow based on what comes to my mind at the time.

Speaker 2: 36:15

Right um but out of Baltimore right now, um I would definitely say um Ill Conscious and J Royale right now come to my mind immediately, simply for the fact that they're both dope, dope, dope emcees. But they're both, you know, getting shows outside of Baltimore. They're not just getting shows in other states and other cities, they're getting shows in Europe, you know what?

Speaker 2: 36:42

I'm saying in other countries and they're doing features and getting features from established artists and legendary hip-hop artists. So those two guys to me are not only doing it big for Baltimore, but doing it big for hip-hop culture in general. But yeah, baltimore has a lot of great hip hop artists.

Speaker 1: 37:06

What about maybe even outside, if not any other more, in Baltimore, maybe just like any artist that maybe has inspired you a little bit more recently?

Speaker 2: 37:20

I would say EZ Jackson is another Baltimore artist. I find his music personally to be inspirational. If you don't know, go listen to Be Great. I found his music inspirational before. Be Great, but go listen to. Be Great by EZ Jackson if you want some inspiration. Nice, real shit. But no, it's a lot, of a lot of Baltimore artists. That's dope. Um, a kid named Raph Alpha can really spit, oh cool, and he'll be on our next event. That, um, by the time this airs, would have already happened.

Speaker 1: 37:55

So, but also when is it though?

Speaker 2: 37:56

just just drop it. November the 1st.

Speaker 1: 37:59

Okay, november the 1st yeah, this should, but maybe we'll show like a snippet or something that'll be a little earlier, to kind of under the rug we're bringing we're lucky to be bringing Blue in Exile from LA oh shit and Fashion from Fresno and they'll be coming through on their Love the Ominous World tour coming through Baltimore.

Speaker 2: 38:22

We'll have three rooms of music going on all night, so it'll be kind of like a rave atmosphere.

Speaker 1: 38:26

Nice.

Speaker 2: 38:27

With hip-hop kind of as the centerpiece.

Speaker 1: 38:29

A little bit of.

Speaker 2: 38:30

But that's kind of what I do with Prism. It's like not to sidetrack, but kind of to answer a question.

Speaker 1: 38:36

No, no. This is a good point. I like where you're going with this.

Speaker 2: 38:39

Earlier you said something about um, you don't have to fit into any box. Oh well, it's like when I first started doing this, it was mostly just dance music, and I saw instantly the power of that, because I was coming from an activist background and I was like, okay, at first I was like I'm not a promoter and I was because, like, I was about activism. But then when I seen it like this is a vehicle that can bring so many people together, I was like what is activism if it's only 20 people that know stuff, sharing the same information with one another? Yeah, you know what I mean. You just got the same group of people going out and doing protests, same group of people hanging out doing you're not reaching the world, you know right.

Speaker 2: 39:14

And so these events were ways to bring lots of people together, and so I saw the power in that and again like not that, I even went after it. It was what I was brought to and I was like, okay, well, this works for me. And I was like this can really help build community. And I found that the dance music was better for that, because when people are rapping or singing, we tend to look right at the stage. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1: 39:37

We don't look at each other.

Speaker 2: 39:38

But when the DJ comes, comes on a real dance party, everybody starts looking at each other. They dance and they talk and whatever they're doing is djs on. There's no, there's not much vocals. So I was like yo. This is powerful for for building relationships in the crowd oh, that's a good point.

Speaker 1: 39:55

I like that, that's cool.

Speaker 2: 39:56

That's what I wanted to see continue. But I was like how do I bring what I love, which is hip-hop, into this so that I can represent of myself while I'm doing this thing? That's for the community if that makes any kind of sense.

Speaker 1: 40:10

Oh, definitely.

Speaker 2: 40:10

I still love the rave, don't get me wrong, but hip hop's just like more what I would— More grounded with it A more deeper connection.

Speaker 2: 40:19

So I'm like, how do I bring that in here? And I was realizing that a lot of the kids in the dance scene still liked a lot of dope hip hop. But if you told them come to a hip hop show, they wouldn't go, because the vibe that they think about when they hear the word hip hop they think it's probably something that they don't really rock with. So I'm like, nah, these people are dope.

Speaker 2: 40:43

If I put them at the top of the party, not in the beginning, when people are still sober, not at the end, when everybody's tired, but I put them right in the middle when everybody because I know this, let's keep it real. All right, we're going to get unfiltered for a second. Let's keep it real. If you're the DJ and you got the prime slot where half your crowd is on molly and they're tripping right, everyone gonna love your set unless you're, unless you suck yeah.

Speaker 1: 41:05

So it's like people go home like yo killed it, yo killed it, yo killed it.

Speaker 2: 41:09

It's because you got the, you got the sweet spot to sit inside. You didn't have to even really kill it. You just had to not fuck it up, you had. It's like. It's like being a quarter. It's like brock purdy on the 49ers last year managed the team. You got so much talent around you just manage the team and you're straight.

Speaker 1: 41:23

That's what happened.

Speaker 2: 41:24

The team should be the one to be able to that's the prime slot in a party, you just got to manage it. Now, if you're Tom Brady painting Manning in the prime slot, well, that's when the real magic happens, like that, and so we want to do that, right. So, anyway, I'm like all right, I'm going to get these rappers that, I think, is seriously dope, that I'm fans of, and we're going to not really interrupt the dance party too much. We're going to give it like 20 minutes of a straight hip hop set at midnight at these parties. And at first, the first few times it happened, the rappers would come over to me and be like are you sure it's not going to fuck the vibe up? And I'm like yo trust me, they're going to act weird at first, but after they hear the way you're rapping, they're going to get drawn in. And it would happen one after another. It would happen one after another Because there's detail and attention.

Speaker 1: 42:11

There's attention to detail Because it's real hip-hop.

Speaker 2: 42:14

Yeah, because when they hear real hip-hop they're like, oh he really spit, oh shit. So now they brought into that. And so now here we are, years later, and that's just like that's how I do Prism. Now you know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 42:27

So now the people that come to Prism, they're not even taking it as a new thing now.

Speaker 2: 42:31

Now they come knowing that's part of the show. So now they're excited. And when there's a rapper on there they never heard of, they're excited because they're like yo, we trust that he's only going to book dope acts. You know what? I mean At least the people that come Dope in the opinion of the people that come to my shows, which is what really kind of does matter, though, right, that's all that counts, right?

Speaker 1: 42:50

Yeah, that's all that matters.

Speaker 2: 42:52

You got to follow what's in you and then what you come to find is there's always more people in the world that feel what you're feeling, that are resonating on the same frequency as you're resonating on, and they're going to be the ones that's drawing to you. And you got to let everybody kind of just get in where they fit in out here, because everybody does have somewhere where they fit in. So, yeah, you know that's all you can go for. It's not a bad thing at all.

Speaker 1: 43:13

Yeah, man, dude, I love that Dude. We got into some really cool stuff. You hear that oh shit, some really cool stuff. You hear that yeah, oh shit. Hello, yeah, is this the younger Michael Morstein? Okay, okay, yeah, actually, perfect time. I'm not. You know, your older self would like to tell you a few things. All right, here you go.

Speaker 2: 43:59

Damn. Get real with me. When they first tell you about Bitcoin back in 2009,. Buy that shit, bro. Buy as much of that shit as possible, bro. You'll be straight. You'll never have to work again.

Speaker 2: 44:14

I don't know where you took that, yeah, other than that, I'll just say keep your head up, it gets better. You're going to do a lot of dope shit, bro, a lot more dope shit than you probably think you're going to do, so it probably doesn't make sense for me to tell you now. But yeah, just trust yourself, believe in yourself, and that's pretty much it. Nice, oh, yeah, and do, and yeah, that's pretty much it.

Speaker 1: 44:38

Nice, oh yeah, and do this podcast with Andrew Cornwall. Yo, I hope you had a pen you were writing all that down. All right, love you, kid, peace man. You know that's it makes you think. Right, you got to kind of get in that space. You're like okay, what have I learned in my entire life here that I can put into a uh conversation, right, man? So I have a few other questions for you here, and what we're going to do is it's called rapid fire and I'm going to ask you, like an either or question, or, like you know, pick, like you know, a topping, you know, on your favorite topping on your pizza, or something like that. Okay, but a little bit more intricate, okay, okay, okay, do you understand the rules? I think so. Okay, all right, all right, here we go. What's one thing you can't live without?

Speaker 2: 45:40

Sushi, god and hip hop.

Speaker 1: 45:42

Oh, right to the point, there you go, it's okay. Okay, any superpower, what would it be?

Speaker 2: 45:50

Flight Teleportation.

Speaker 1: 45:53

Yes, there you go, you go, okay, daytime or nighttime, nighttime, yes for sure.

Speaker 2: 46:01

Favorite kind of flower favorite kind of uh passion.

Speaker 1: 46:06

There you go I love that okay favorite harry potter film or book damn all right.

Speaker 2: 46:13

So I haven't seen all of the harry potter slipping about. It's crazy about a month ago. My girlfriend who loves harry potter is like you haven't seen them all. We need to go through and watch them all, so we started watching them recently.

Speaker 1: 46:25

Okay, um, but I get back to me on that one, when you have to say the first one or the second one, probably for me okay for sure, for sure. All right, what's the most unique instrument?

Speaker 2: 46:39

Damn, the most unique instrument. I probably don't want to know the name of it, but I've seen crazy long stringed instruments, but I wouldn't say they're more unique. I feel like so many things are unique in their own kind of way. For sure, for sure. Yeah, I couldn't name it.

Speaker 1: 46:57

Yeah, we'll skip that one.

Speaker 2: 46:59

There's this stringed instrument that's really long, it's like Japanese, and somebody has one in Baltimore that brought one to a prism.

Speaker 1: 47:08

Damn, that's pretty cool, I thought that was really cool. There you go. I'll go with that. Okay, the long string, the long string. Okay. If you had to listen, or you got to listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Speaker 2: 47:20

sheesh. Well, I would never want to hear that because I think whatever song it was eventually would start to I wouldn't like it. Anything you heard over and over again would suck, but I'm going to answer your question still. I just have to preface it with that, okay it. Preface it with that, okay, um, it would probably be um black star respiration.

Speaker 1: 47:36

Pete rock remix nice featuring black thought oh, there you go, man, that's a good one. Okay, you ready planes, trains or automobiles where?

Speaker 2: 47:48

you planes.

Speaker 1: 47:49

There you go, okay. Favorite color purple nice, okay, what's one? Oh wait, okay, here we go.

Speaker 2: 47:57

Favorite member of the beatles I don't really know too much about each individual member. That sounds crazy because I was watching yellow submarine, the cartoon, as a kid. My parents were into all that kind of stuff. Um, I'm gonna say ringo star, because everybody always say his name is cool.

Speaker 1: 48:13

Right, there you go. Okay, Ringo. Shout out to Ringo. One on the board for him. All right, what is my spirit animal?

Speaker 2: 48:21

Your spirit animal. Oh boy, Sabertooth tiger.

Speaker 1: 48:28

Yes, dog, thank you for that, I feel it. I felt one 50-second sabertooth tiger for a second. All right, you walk into the casino right now. What's the first thing you're playing? But you know, money aside, just the game itself.

Speaker 2: 48:44

So a little, I've never actually been in a casino outside of a slot machine and. I've only done that, I believe, one time, but I would probably say if, with the way the question was asked, blackjack, or go over to the sports betting section and check that out oh, there you go, okay, you ready best.

Speaker 1: 49:02

Duo kobe and shack. There you go right to the point. Okay, favorite pokemon damn man.

Speaker 2: 49:10

See my um. My beatles card is getting pulled, now my nerd card getting pulled come on, charizard, there you go.

Speaker 1: 49:17

All right, all right, all right. Okay, favorite subject in school.

Speaker 2: 49:21

Sheesh, I didn't like any subjects in school, but in college it was philosophy.

Speaker 1: 49:26

Nice. Okay, if you could pick any season all year round, what would it be?

Speaker 2: 49:31

Summer.

Speaker 1: 49:32

Fall, fall. There you go. Oh well, then we're here, man. We're here now. All right. What's one thing you've always wanted to do, but haven't?

Speaker 2: 49:40

yet One thing I've always wanted to do but haven't man Probably go visit somewhere in Asia or Africa? All right yeah.

Speaker 1: 49:51

Okay.

Speaker 2: 49:52

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 49:52

I'm going to try, man, let's help make that happen. Shoot, yeah, but next time you talk to him, hopefully he's been to Asia, all right, all right. If you could spend 24 hours with any celebrity, who would it be?

Speaker 2: 50:06

That's crazy. Um, I guess this. This name just comes to my head right now Jay electronica. There you go.

Speaker 1: 50:10

Yeah, I like the way you took that.

Speaker 2: 50:17

Okay, worst pizza topping Pepperoni or mushrooms. No, mushrooms Take them out.

Speaker 1: 50:21

Mushrooms.

Speaker 2: 50:24

All right, Doritos or Pringles Depends on the flavor. The regular. Doritos or the sour cream and onion Pringles.

Speaker 1: 50:32

Nice.

Speaker 2: 50:38

Okay, spinner's or Spreewell's, spreewell's wells there you go.

Speaker 1: 50:40

Okay, you ready coffee or tea. Um tea, there you go, man. Thank you. That rapid fire section can be a little dicey, you know yeah, that's fun isn't it?

Speaker 1: 50:54

it's pretty cool. I asked, uh, I try and ask everybody, you know, and and I'm I'm trying to change the, the questions up a little bit as we go to uh, let's see here, man, you know, I really appreciate you taking the time to sit with me and go through some, some deep thought here and uh really just have a cool conversation, you know, and uh, luckily, man, we've been able to to do that a lot recently and um, uh, we just went to the toby uh wig we show, um recently and it was uh at the lyric right, the that was at the kenn Center, yeah, the.

Speaker 1: 51:35

Kennedy Center. Man, and it was just, it was so eye-opening and to just be able to understand. You know what an artist can do and like, have that whole orchestra behind you, dude, that's got to feel so powerful. You know how do you feel. You know what did you get from the experience itself?

Speaker 2: 51:58

and I thought it was phenomenal, so I seen. I seen toby live a few times, I think he has one of the best live shows. Uh, in in live music, as far as like um from from just the musical and entertainment value, just a great stage performance, great music, music, choreography. That's unlike whatever you consider typical.

Speaker 2: 52:21

So he's just phenomenal in his own lane with it, and so to see him at Kennedy Center, he didn't have all the dancers and things going on which are more like again, it's more of like a ballet type of thing going on, but what's the word I'm looking for? Interpretive dance, oh for sure.

Speaker 2: 52:41

But yeah, so at the Kennedy Center that was kind of not there because they had this like huge 50 person orchestra or whatever. So that was fire. I just thought that was beautiful. You know, it was beautiful to see hip hop on that-hop on that stage at the Kennedy Center. I don't know if this is why, but I do know that Q-Tip curates the hip-hop, or a lot of the hip-hop, for the Kennedy Center, so maybe his influence is causing that. That's cool. Either way, it's amazing. It's just great because I just love music and I think most of us just love music. It's great because I just love music and I think most of us like, just love music and so you hear classical music and hip-hop, kind of kind of meeting, um, it makes a beautiful sound.

Speaker 1: 53:22

So I just thought that was awesome yeah, man, I I was really blown away by just everything about it and and it and it really helped me. You know it, it put the bar up for, like, where the dreams and the hopes and and and the aspirations can be. You know, like it just takes that bar and it, you know, and it puts it up a little bit higher and I'm, I'm proud, uh, that it does so that that way, once you know you get there, you man, like you, know, he was.

Speaker 1: 53:51

You remember he was taking it in. He was just like he was there to the last second. You know, like people were just clearing out.

Speaker 2: 53:56

Yeah, he was running down the front of the stage doing the high five thing he was like hey I'll put this through the half out that he's running, running by everybody. Yeah, it was definitely a high point man, yeah, it was crazy the limits of where you could go is is on. There's no boundaries. You know what I mean. Like, um, I don't know if you heard the story a few years ago, but they had these B-boys go to the Vatican and break dance for the Pope. This is like a 20-year-old story now.

Speaker 2: 54:18

It's like in the late 90s, I guess. This happened and they asked the Pope what he thought of it and he said, oh, this is a gift from God that he thought was supposed to be shared with the world. And so again, like B-boying is being treated like that. We got Toby, I like that. We got uh uh toby, and I'm sorry if I mispronounce his name uh, wigware and wigway um performing at the kennedy center, khanuk namar has also done it. Um, somebody else did it too recently. I forget who it was, but it's been a few people that have done it at the kennedy center man that's yeah, so look out for, for anybody else who's doing it.

Speaker 2: 54:53

Yeah, check the kennedy center, uh events and uh you'll see hip hop stuff going on there really amazing stuff.

Speaker 1: 54:59

Yeah, awesome man well, dude, you know, uh, I I couldn't have pictured a better conversation and really just grateful for your presence and your clear thought and the way that we're able to, you know, take some small ideas and turn them into some, some big dreams and some big missions. And, man, I gotta, I gotta say, dude, I'm, I'm super appreciative of everything that that you've, that you've done, and the the, the way, the bar that you've set, you know, for other people and promoters and and just musicians and artists themselves you know, to set that, that bar. And do you have any, any last minute thoughts or ideas that you want to to to get out?

Speaker 2: 55:55

I guess, yeah, just, I'm just piggyback off what you just said and kind of just, I guess, yeah, I'm going to just piggyback off what you just said and kind of just, I guess close it out like this. A lot of the conversation we've had is going to mirror what a lot of conversations go on in this space, and that is that there is no limits, there is no highest heights. You can always go higher than whatever the highest is. Just believe in yourself and all that talk, which is the truth and it's really important, and I think we highlight that a lot of times, because that's something we don't believe in. But I also want to say this it's not always about that. Or, as Kanye West said, if I aim for the stars, I might land on the cloud right about that. Or, as kanye west said, if I aim for the stars, I might land on the cloud, right. So just do what you do the way. A butterfly is a butterfly.

Speaker 2: 56:42

a bird flies in the sky a shark swims in the water, you know, I mean a sea lion waddles along, does whatever it does just be, whatever you do, and whether you end up being an artist making, making beautiful music in your home that gets therapeutic for yourself because you have a creative outlet, or you're an artist that makes music for your local musicians, there's local painters, there's local dancers, there's local poets, everything and they're in every town and those people are giving the joy to their town, to their community, to their tribe.

Speaker 2: 57:34

And so if you're blessed enough to be one of those people, never look down on that because you didn't make it famous, so there's no limit to it but at the same time really be present with the blessing that it is just to do anything with it at all.

Speaker 1: 57:52

Man love that.

Speaker 2: 57:53

Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 1: 57:54

Thank you so much for breaking that down and it really did make me appreciative of you know, the people and the family and the friends that I have, and I'm glad that you're one of them, no doubt, brother.

Speaker 2: 58:09

Blessed to know you as well.

Speaker 1: 58:10

Yeah, man, Thanks for being here and for that we have this episode of the respecting perspectives podcast. We'll see y'all on the flip side.