Teddy Bear Fresh

Metaphor Feat. Tunji Ige

Today on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, for Day 11 of the&nbsp;#12DaysOfPodcasts, we welcome Jersey's own Brandon Jinx Jenkins back to the Upper West Side for a conversation that creatives need to hear!


#295: The Return of Brandon Jinx Jenkins

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome Atlantic Records VP of A&R and Artist Development Riggs Morales to the Upper West Side! Riggs discusses growing up in Washington Heights, a kid in love with comic books, riding the subways to avoid school, a terrible hustler with a great work ethic, who had an interest in the music business, but no way in, and the&nbsp;break he caught when he met the legendary hip-hop writer Bonz Malone. We talk about how he got on at The Source, writing Ma$e's first cover story, buying photos from a young Lenny S and young Johnny Nunez, where he was when Suge Knight took the stage at the 1995 Source Awards, and choosing David Banner, Juelz Santana and most famously, Eminem, for the Unsigned Hype column. Riggs reminisces on his time as an A&amp;R for Shady Records during their dominant&nbsp;years, putting together the 8 Mile soundtrack with Em, seeing what a genius mind 50 Cent is from the moment he signed, and what Paul Rosenberg was like with hair. Riggs gets into how he decided to move on from Shady, how he hoped to grow as an executive, who he could rely on for advice in that time, why he chose to work at Atlantic, his contributions to projects with Wiz Khalifa, Travie McCoy and O.T. Genesis, and his dream of one day working with Phil Collins. We also break down how he closed the Hamilton Mixtape deal with Lin-Manuel Miranda, bringing Busta Rhymes to a preview of the play, how the experience has changed his life, the most important promise he made and kept with Lin, and what the upcoming feature film In The Heights means to a Washington Heights native like Riggs. All that, plus the lessons he learned from his parents, the heartfelt words&nbsp;HeadQCourterz left him with as they grew up, being early on Razor scooters, meeting George Lucas, the crazy list of artists he worked toward signing as an exec, and so much more!&nbsp;

#299: Riggs Morales

Now we're podding! This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome our friend and co-host of the Joe Budden Podcast, Joe Budden, back to the Upper West Side for a deep and dope conversation about patience, determination, vision and happiness.


#300: The Return of Joe Budden

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome legendary photographer Jonathan Mannion to the Upper West Side for a deep, hilarious and very meaningful conversation!


#301: Jonathan Mannion

For Episode 14 of 2 Jews and 2 Black Dudes Review the Movies, Eric, Jeff, Styles, Sheek and special guest Tony Moxberg got together on the Upper West Side to discuss the 1993&nbsp;fantasy comedy Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray. There's never been a review show as fun as this - listen and let us know what you think!


#14: Groundhog Day

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome Russ to the Upper West Side for the wide-ranging, thoughtful and personal conversation you've been waiting for!


#302: Russ

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome Toronto's own singer-songwriter Jessie Reyez to the Upper West Side for a wide-ranging, thoughtful and personal conversation. We discussed everything from meeting Rihanna and Beyonce and Frank Ocean, to being mentored by King Louie, to driving through the Bath Salt District every day, to what The Weeknd and strippers have to do with her career, to her asshole years as a teenager, to when she recognized the goodness of her parents, to what she's done to make up for past ways, and so much more!


#303: Jessie Reyez

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal we welcome Philly's own Cory Townes to Upper West Side to discuss his decade-long creative journey to becoming a working, thriving and happy DJ. Cory talks everything from Gremlins to seafood cheesesteaks, working in sneaker stores to working in the Apple store, designing clothes to hosting parties, writing in his own voice to writing in Cliff Paul's, meeting siblings to meeting A$AP Mob, watching How to Make It in America to watching his father, the world famous DJ Jazzy Jeff, losing his way to finding his passion, and so much more!


#304: Cory Townes

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome our friend Jadakiss back from a five-year solo-podcast hiatus for a deep, hilarious and very meaningful conversation about the life of Icepic Jay Jackson, how one evolves after losing a loved one, the pain he put into his new album Ignatius, the facts he spits on his records, what made him grow his hair back, why he wants to sell some of his most exclusive shoes, the blind spot in his movie catalog, why it's so important to find the right dentist, what he appreciates about Rick Ross, his issues with the Grammys and how he expects us to help him get a nomination, and much more!


#306: The Return of Jadakiss

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome Queens' own Grafh to the Upper West Side! Celebrating the release of his latest collaboration with DJ Green Lantern, The Oracle 3, Grafh talks growing up in the rough environs of Jamaica, Queens, an only child living with his mother, the unthinkable realities of his father entering his life as a teenager and leaving just as quick. We discuss his talents in music and sports, and the steps he took toward a career in medicine, obsessing over Royce da 5'9 and Eminem's rhymes on Stretch &amp; Bobbito, going to St. John's until his campus talent show performance caught the attention of Busta Rhymes, and music took full control. We get into his early work with 88-Keys, DJ Clark Kent's encouragement to rap for days, and Kanye's guidance in focusing his storytelling to 16-bar phrases. Grafh breaks down his time at Sony, at Roc-a-Fella, at Def Jam and at Koch, his working relationship with Chaz at Black Hand Entertainment, how he was too headstrong to truly succeed in his twenties,  how he never completely left the streets behind, and the epiphany he had in on a work trip through Virginia that allowed him to totally reset. We discuss his friendships with Bun B and Royce, almost signing to Scarface, writing music for J.Lo and LL Cool J, spitting straight heat for over a dozen years, happily watching the pendulum swing back to lyricism, and much more!


#307: Grafh

Brothers Eric and Jeff Rosenthal, collectively known as ItsTheReal, have flooded the internet with viral sketch comedy videos, longform podcast episodes, and develop TV shows. In working with everyone from Stevie Wonder to Cam'ron, from Jojo to Pete Wentz, from Slaughterhouse to J.Cole, they've racked up millions of views, hundreds of thousands of followers, and a great number of ridiculous stories along the way.

Most notably, ItsTheReal has a rap career which led them to perform at Bonnaroo, sell out NYC's famed SOB's in February 2017, get featured on the front page of the New York Times arts section, and partner with EMPIRE (Big Baby Dram, Fat Joe & Remy Ma, Anderson.Paak) to release their highly anticipated debut album, Teddy Bear Fresh. 

Teddy Bear Fresh features production by Greg Mayo and appearances by Curren$y, Bun B, Smoke DZA, Michael Christmas, Tunji Ige, Jazz Cartier and more!

Metaphor Feat. Tunji Ige

ItsTheReal

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