Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author Transcript
Note: This transcript was automatically generated by artificial intelligence (AI) and therefore typos may be present.
Rob McNealy
Today I am really excited because we are talking to zoobi. He is a very popular rapper out of the UK. And he just finished up a lengthy nine week trip to the United States. And he’s kind of an interesting guy. He is not typical of what I think you would think of when you think of a hip hop or rap artist. So like to welcome the show. Zuby, how are you today?
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
I’m very well, thank you. How you doing?
Rob McNealy
Great. I do appreciate taking the time. Are you recovered? Now? It seemed like you had a pretty big whirlwind trip to the US.
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
Yeah, I wouldn’t go as far as saying I’m recovered, but I’d say that I’m recovering.
Rob McNealy
Well, that’s good. Did you have a good time?
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
Yeah, it was amazing. Absolutely incredible trip. life changing. Was that the first time you’ve been to the States? No, I’ve been to the states five times before, but it was my first time going in 10 years. And it was also the first time going for career purposes. So I managed to really make the most of it. I never been out there for Along with the exception of New York City, all the cities that I visited I’d never actually been to before. So that was all brand new.
Rob McNealy
So what did you think? So what did you learn on your trip about American culture head going to all the cities?
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
Well, firstly, I learned that it’s probably easier to view the USA almost like a continent more than just a single country in some ways, because the variances between the states and cities are so big. First of all, you know, you’ve got the different time zones, which you don’t have somewhere like the UK or most other countries, you’ve got different climates, very big range of temperature and different types of weather, range of different laws, cultures, accents, type types of people. Everything is a everything’s pretty different depending on where you go. I mean, even the difference between, you know, going from somewhere like San Francisco to Dallas and then to Atlanta, and then to DC and then to New York. They’re all really different. So I guess I learned, I mean, I already knew that I wouldn’t say I learned it. But I saw just how far an extent the places vary from city to city and state to state. I also learned that a lot of people don’t know who I am, which I didn’t necessarily expect. I had a lot of incidents where I was in, you know, various places in public in the different cities and had people come up to me and recognize me or thank me for my work or very, you know, just say that they like what I do. And that’s, I mean, that’s something I get from time to time in the UK, depending on where I am, because I get people who recognize me for my music, but I’m to be in places that I’d never been to before. And to have that happen. It was it really showed me the impact that I’m having not just locally, but on a on an international level. So that was really, really encouraging. So yeah, those are a couple of things.
Rob McNealy
fame is an interesting thing. I’m not quite famous, but I know a lot of Famous people and and and that rise in getting accustomed to it you know it’s kind of like it’s like from what they’ve told me is you have to like kind of grow into it because you’re not used to it at first I used to live in Ireland I actually studied over there and worked over there you know long time ago probably before you’re born at this point but I was you know it’s kind of interesting you know and I’ve honestly you know, Ireland’s a lot smaller than you know, the republic’s a lot smaller than the UK but it’s like when I tried to explain to my friends that were Irish that had never been to the United States. I said, No offense, this is not me being you know, kind of like this ugly American but your entire country smaller than my state. And we have like 50 more of them in mind. You know, I originally came from Michigan. The Detroit area is where I grew up. I live out Western and Utah now Salt Lake City, Utah, and what you know, and they get like a kind of offended and they said you really don’t understand until you like really come to our country. The United States is not a homogeneous Is coral culture it’s not a homogeneous continent, it is very dirt that’s iconic. But you know what I’m saying? It’s a country and it’s very different all the way around. And I always like to see people’s perspectives that you know, spend time here to see Yo, holy crap. Yeah, it’s not there isn’t just like this one TV stereotypical American thing, right? There’s very, very big differences between the different states and even within a state. On top of that, you know, Texas is very different between, you know, Houston and Dallas. Even people. Yeah, I didn’t I didn’t
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
get to I didn’t make it out to Houston, unfortunately, but I went to Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth.
Rob McNealy
What was your Do you have a favorite or do you want to not say didn’t love the place you go? What was your favorite place?
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
My favorite state would have been Texas, probably. Just in general. But um, I liked most of the cities I visited in terms of like, it depends on what level in terms of opportunities and Just cool stuff happening. Like the most cool stuff happened in Los Angeles, but I would probably not want to live there. For example, I think places like Nashville and Austin and Dallas and Fort Worth are a lot more livable than la than New York and San Francisco. But um, it really depends on what you’re after. I mean, I went there primarily to do a bunch of interviews and add podcast invitations and just opportunities for all the stuff that I do. So I primarily hit some of the major cities I didn’t make it out to all of them. I would certainly like to in the future, but um, yeah, I guess. Asking favorite is is kind of a tricky one. But I did really like Texas there. I just felt like, I like the vibe there. I like the people. I think I’m on that wavelength. In some ways. Texas is one of those places to be honest. I kind of liked it before I’d ever been to it. I know a lot of people from there. I know quite a bit about the state and stuff like that and it always just dropped Me in some way that I didn’t really want to visit because I always seem to, whenever I meet people from Texas, I always seem to like them and get on with them and be on some similar wavelength. So I found the same thing when I was out there for a couple of weeks.
Rob McNealy
Well, I think you hit on something, it’s really interesting that you went and did a lot of interviews, and you got on some really major ones, I mean, Joe Rogan, and some of these other you know, big conservative podcasts and, and that’s one of the things that really intrigued me, you know, about you is, you know, okay, you got this English guy, right. So, usually off the bat, you know, English guys are going to typically be more on the American spectrum, at least politically a little more left leaning, and then, you know, you know, you’re black or person of color, and typically, then that’s also going to be generally by American standards, they tend to lean a little more left, and then you’re in hip hop in rap, and that also tends to be very left leaning, but you’re not.
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
You know, all those things. You said, I don’t even know if that’s really the case.
Rob McNealy
Fair enough.
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
Think that way? I don’t think it’s really the case.
Rob McNealy
It certainly it certainly seems that way.
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
It does seem that way. Yeah, for a lot of reasons. And then it might lean that way in some aspects, but in a lot of other ways. I don’t really think it does. I just think that illusion.
Rob McNealy
And so but the illusions prevalent, it’s out there. So you went on a lot of these really conservative talk shows and, you know, so I guess I just need to get this out there. Are you a republican? I’m not even American. I know. Um, but are you? I bet you would consider yourself a conservative politically, at least on some stuff. Sure.
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
I don’t label myself what people want to label me. I don’t mind. I don’t personally label myself because well for a whole bunch of reasons. Because people have different meanings and interpretations and presumptions that come with certain labels. So I prefer to let anybody else label me if people want to know my certain views on certain things. I’m happy to explain them and express the epistemology behind my thinking and my conclusions. But um, yeah, I’m not I don’t mind being called a conservative, I don’t mind being called libertarian, I probably don’t mind being called a traditional or classical liberal. I mean, depending on who you talk to all these labels can be quite quite different things. I mean, even the definitions between you know, liberal and conservative even between the UK and the US, there’s, there’s quite a bit a bit of a variance. So yeah, I mean, if I were in the USA, I would certainly be more along the lines of Republicans on most issues. But I generally just, you know, from from thing to thing, issue to issue. I, you know, I’m not I’m not sort of totally down one line or the other and I don’t, I don’t believe most people are. I think that’s just kind of the binary thinking and sort of Thinking that can occur when there’s only two sort of viable options, then people seem okay, they need to either totally aligned down this way or totally aligned down that way. But I mean some acid on Joe Rogan, right? I said, it’s funny because we live in a time where people are saying that politics is binary, but gender is a spectrum, right? So yeah, I think the whole idea that it’s either left or right, or red or blue, is, yeah, people talk a lot about social constructs. I do think that’s kind of a genuine social construct. So I certainly lean conservative on some issues. I would also lean certainly in the not in this sort of weird hyper woke progressive, leftist sense, liberal, but in terms of like the normal liberal sense. I’m also a liberal on certain issues. It just depends on what it is and what I think makes sense and what I think is moral and ethical and correct and also what
Rob McNealy
works. You know, I think that’s a good point what works and what doesn’t. I mean, you’re not shy about your political views on anything. In fact, you can be very controversial, you know, things you post on Twitter and things. And I mean, you even reference in conservative icon Jordan Peterson in your music. So you definitely bring politics up. And they tend to be by a lot of people’s standards more right wing at least the United States. Do you think that helps or hurts your career in any way?
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
Seems to have helped. If I’m going by, by the past 365 days, I’d certainly say it’s helped. I mean, I’m not someone whose politics have changed significantly. I mean, I put out my first album in 2006. And even before I was making music, my views have not shifted much I’ve probably shifted on maybe like two or three issues in the past 15 years. And I’m not even someone who I don’t know i a lot of people view me through a political lens. But I think I’m only interested in politics kind of on the high level, the big idea level, I’m not really so interested in it on the party level. So that’s why you won’t see me tweeting a lot about like specific parties or specific politicians or even breaks it and stuff like that. But the nitty gritty of it kind of bores me, but the overarching ideas and ideals that runs alongside culture and morality and psychology, and religion and other stuff that I think is a lot more interesting. And it’s hard to talk about some of those aspects of society and humanity, either as individuals or as groups without it, crossing over into politics, that’s just kind of natural.
Rob McNealy
So from a high level, do you think culture at least Western culture is going the right direction right now? What this whole woke thing and no,
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
it’s No.
Rob McNealy
Why Why do you think?
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
Absolutely not? Not even not as not a smidgen?
Rob McNealy
Where’s it going? Where are we going? I guess that’s the question because I have my own opinions. And I don’t think I disagree with you on that many things, either. But where do you think we’re headed right now with the current state of affairs in the West?
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
Well, I think a lot of people are trying to drive it off a cliff. And, and I think that it’s important for the moderate and sensible people to do that part to contain that. That’s one of the reasons why in the past year, it seems like to a lot of people, it seems like I’ve suddenly become a lot more vocal and outspoken. And that’s why because there comes a stage where you can’t really just sit back and acquiesce and just just watch because the people who are a lot of people who I think are trying to push things in the wrong direction, they’re not going to shut up. They’re very loud. They’re a bold, they’re very vocal. So you need people who are more reasonable and more logical and more rational. Have a better grasp on certain things, or at least an alternative opinion, to also be able to have that conversation and to join up. And if you see something that’s going on out there, whether that’s in your school, your workplace, online offline, and you see something is going in a really bad direction in in either in either way, in any direction, then it’s important to, you know, not just shut up and let it happen, because that’s how bad things take place. Right? So it’s important to sort of balance that out and to make sure that the communication channels stay open. That’s why I love podcasts. That’s why I love being able to have these discussions with people because, you know, as long as people are talking, they’re not they’re not fighting. That’s why I don’t like the idea of censorship. I don’t like the sort of D platforming or the silencing of voices on social media, all that kind of stuff. I mean, that concerns me because all that was going to do is polarize people further People think it’s a solution because it might look like a solution in the short term. But in the long term, I do think that’s going to create far more problems than it’s going to potentially solve. And I don’t think a lot of people have the foresight, nor the understanding of historic history nor human psychology to really get why that’s the case. They think that if you kind of take someone off Twitter that that person no longer exists or their ideas no longer exist and stuff like that. And what is likely to happen in reality is by ostracizing that person and completely excluding them from the conversation. You know, firstly, I’m not sure if that’s moral or or ethical or even legal in some cases, but then, you know, you’re you’re kind of pushing them into the hands of people who are potentially a lot more extreme and would love to get their hands on someone who feels like society or these platforms or whatever has ostracize them. And, you know, I’d rather I’d rather have bad ideas out in the open And then have them hidden in silence. Because if an idea is really bad, or it’s really unethical or it really doesn’t have any support, then you don’t need to fear it being you shouldn’t fear it being voiced. Because as long as you have people who are willing to push back against it, then you can just expose that idea for, for what it is. That’s the way I look at it.
Rob McNealy
Well, they say sunshine is the best disinfectant. You know, and and I don’t know who said that, but I do believe that to be the case. And I think, with this outrage culture and it in the thing is, is, you know, I’m an American, and this outrage culture is getting really scary to me, you know, where we just want to, you know, shut somebody down and take away their rights. And, you know, and, you know, obviously, polls can be a little dubious at times, but, you know, the polls seem to be indicating that a lot of at least on the millennial side, support, you know, getting rid of the First Amendment, and of course, they all hate the Second Amendment, but, And that, to me is just I kind of blamed Government education has been a complete failure. We don’t teach critical thinking we don’t teach, you know, logic and rhetoric and we don’t teach, you know, history. And I think you touched on this a little bit. You know, that gets into a little bit about this anger call. I think it’s almost like our culture has been deliberately the keep stoking this anger in our society right now, at least in the States. This since this last political. The last since Trump came to office over the last couple of years. You know, I’m 47. And so I’ve been through a lot of administrative, you know, changes in presidential campaign elections over my life. And the one thing that we saw that was different, what’s different about the Trump presidency, and I’m not a fan of Trump Personally, I didn’t vote for him. But what I think is interesting is that typically after you have a changing with administration, people are, you know, a little butthurt and disappointed for a week or two. After that election happens. It’s never had, it’s never not been butthurt since he got elected, it’s never died down. It’s Seems like it keeps festering and as much and it’s funny because I think he’s just as a noxious as you know, is that I think he’s completely obnoxious and I can understand why he what he says pisses people off. But if you actually look at what he votes for, and I’m a big believer that I hate politicians, what they say don’t like what they say, Don’t listen to what they say, I look at what they do, what laws do they sign, what power do they actually change and enact? And really from one president to the another, the the really important policies really don’t change very much, but yet the rhetoric around it does. And if you look at what Trump does, he’s not really done anything very much different than the Obama administration. He keeps doubling down on the debt and things like that. Those are the things that I care about what do they actually do? But and so this anger is interesting and a lot of times that anger spills over into culture and and one of the things about what I think is interesting about your music is that you know, your your music isn’t angry. It seems like no, no, not at all. You really push a really positive message, I think in a more of an empowering message, which is kind of different than what a lot of hip hop artists are really doing. And why why do you focus on the positive? Well, I mean, it seems like if so many people in that in this industry in this genre of music are more negative. Why are you a positive guy?
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
Well, because I am a positive guy naturally. And also there’s so much negativity out there that why would I want to contribute to that more? That’s not what people need people need encouragement. People need positivity people need to be feel emboldened and empowered to improve themselves to go after their dreams to be better people for themselves, for their families, for society, everything like that. So why would I want to go and preach murder, death kill, and all this stuff when I can put out a positive message? I mean, I’ve only got so many only got so many words to work within a song So if I can make a song that’s going to make you feel aggressive and want to go in, you know, I don’t wanna make music that people commit drive bys to keep it real. You know, firstly, that doesn’t, that’s not my background, right? I want to make music with people set gym records to I want to make music that people feel inspired to, I don’t know, go out and get a new job or be successful or start a business or whatever it is, man, anything, anything positive even just to just to believe in themselves a little bit more. There’s so much negativity out there in the world, not just in music, but in general, man. There’s so much negativity out there. You turn on the news, you know, the What do they say if it bleeds, it leads, right? news is just constant fear, fear, fear, fear mongering. So I don’t watch the news. I don’t I don’t want to TV. I don’t read newspapers. It’s just negativity, negativity, negativity, fear, fright, like awful stuff, and it never ends. It’s the same even in entertainment in lots of music. Not all music, but in some music And you know, it’s just, yeah, I mean, and life life is a balance. But like I say, there’s so much negative out there already. And I feel that the negative currently outweighs the positive. So, I don’t want to I’m not interested in my legacy being someone who contributed just more negativity into the world. So from the very beginning, I was like, Okay, I’m not gonna, I’m not going to take that path. I’m not going to rap about that song. I’m not going to rap about those topics. I’m not going to put my put profanity in my music. I’m not going to use the N word in my music, all that stuff. I mean, firstly, that’s not who I am in real life, and I’m not going to fabricate to pretend I’m something in my music, that I’m not in reality, you can go back and listen to all my songs over the last 13 years. everything I’m saying is, everything you’ll hear there is consistent with what I’m saying. Now, that’s never that’s never changed. So yeah, I mean, those are the main reasons so a combination of you know, my own background, how I was raised my own personality, my own message, my mission with what I’m trying to achieve with my music. I say my goal is to, I want my words to have a positive impact on over 10 million people. So through through my music, through my interviews through my podcast, public speaking anything I do, I want to be able to die and say cool, you know, there’s 10 million people on earth, or more, who, if you say zoobi to them, they’ll be like, Okay, cool. Yeah, I like that guy, or he had some kind of positive impact or motivation or inspiration in my life. That’s really where my head’s at. That’s what my heart is.
Rob McNealy
So in preparing for this interview, which actually believe it or not, I did. You know, I was listening to some of your songs, right? I wanted to get a feel for it. And I was listening to perseverance and I was listening to glory. And it was I said to my wife, you know, I was listening to she’s like, what are you listening to? I’m like, I’m going to talk to this guy. I want to see what he’s saying. And I’m like, his rap is different. And and it’s funny because I got some and I actually am old school. So I actually have NWA and Eminem and stuff, you know, in my own music library, and I said, his rap Reminds me of like, self help hip hop.
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
No. Yeah.
Rob McNealy
You know, seriously, and I go, this is kind of interesting because it wasn’t like, I got wrapped, I got little kids. And I’m like, I can’t even list them out in rap albums in my house, right? Because I don’t want my kids here and some of that NWA stuff, right? Old. Easy, right? But I said, you know, it’s interesting that, you know, you’re kind of, you’re breaking a mold as far as I can see. I mean, and I’m not going to be I’m not going to try to be as I’m not the super hip hop guy, right? I just, I’m into all sorts of things. But you know, you are breaking a mold. There’s not a lot of hip hop artists that are really kind of focusing on that positive. And you know, I don’t know keeping it pG 13, so to speak. So do you and I respect that right? You are doing something different when I’m talking to you and not try and talk some other guy because I can’t stand a lot of the guys out there that are just mumble rapping around. And and so the question I would have for you, do you think that breaking that mold actually is helping your career or do you think It would hinder it like, has anybody ever come up to you and said, Hey, if you get a little more raw on this thing will sign you and you’ll get bigger? Or do you think that you know you’re going on the path that you want to end with the trajectory that you want? Because you’re breaking a mold?
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
Yeah, man, I’m someone who. I’m not someone who sacrifices, my principles and my ethics for short term gain in anything. That’s just not how I roll. I’m not someone who, who bends to appease other people. You’re asking before about some of my some of my socio political views, you ask about my music with everything. I’m consistent with who I truly am. And if my goal were to just make a lot of money, or simply become famous, or whatever, there’s other things I would be doing if my goal were to maximize my income. I wouldn’t have left a job as a management consultant to become a professional musician independently, right? Whenever Someone says I’m in it from I’m like, Are you insane? Like I would have been, like, you know, I took a huge pay cut to become a full time musician. But in the long term with the way my vision is and with what my goal is, it’s like, yeah, this is the path that I need to I need to walk. And it might take a while for the world to kind of get it. But I’m not going to change my entire message or even my entire genre or type of music or something to whatever might be currently popular on the radio for six months, just to try to win over some people who aren’t really my real fans anyway, I figured by just by being myself, by being true to myself, both in my music outside of my music, on social media or whatever, not everybody’s gonna like it. And I’m happy with not everybody liking what I do or not even liking me that took me you know, a little bit of time to accept and kind of get used to because when you first start out in music, you kind of want everybody to like you, and you don’t want to rock the boat too much because you don’t want unsettled people or polarized people or anything like that, but as I’ve gotten older, as I’ve gotten more experienced as I’ve gained a better understanding of what it is that I myself believe in, and what I’m not willing to compromise on, or waver on or whatever. And as I felt more emboldened to, and felt it more necessary to voice some of that, what’s happened is my audience has grown 1520 x this year, since February, I’ve gained hundreds of thousands of fans just this year. And that came from me just continuing to be authentic. So I haven’t changed. It’s just that you know, it took it took a while for the world to come around to it and for the message to be particularly powerful. Right, a lot of the stuff I say, I think, you know, whether that’s in interviews or that’s on social media or whatever, I think a lot of it would have been considered. I feel the same way. You mentioned Jordan Peterson earlier. I feel the Same way about him. Right? I think a lot of the stuff he says, you know, 15 years ago would have been considered common sense, or maybe a little bit mundane or banal or something. It’s like, yeah, of course, you should clean your room and work on yourself first. But in 2018 2019, these messages have become somewhat lost in modern Western society. So it’s necessary, again, to say some stuff, which may almost seem obvious, and, you know, and seem common sensical. And there are so many people who are afraid to say that stuff, right. And so by someone being willing to stick their neck out and say some of the things that other people aren’t willing to not for the sake of being controversial, or causing problems or just trolling or triggering people or whatever, you know, with an actual reason behind it, then I found a lot of people gravitate to that because a lot of people feel like they can’t speak up or they can’t necessarily articulate things in The way they’d like to be able to one thing i a comment I get a lot now, both in real life and online is people kind of saying, Man, you you say things in a way that I feel or I agree with, but I can’t. I can’t articulate and express them in the way that you are able to. And really that’s what I’m that’s what writing music is even about. Being a songwriter. If you had asked me what makes a good, a good songwriter, or a good rapper, I’d say it’s someone who’s able to articulate things in a way that people relate to and connect with, in a way that most people can. Comedians do the same thing, right? They take stuff that’s I mean, that’s what that’s the funniest comedy when it stuff that you you’ve kind of thought that way when you felt that thing before, but you wouldn’t have been able to put it together in the way that comedian did.
Rob McNealy
It’s funny, I have a really dark sense of humor, very sarcastic, and I’ve actually been I’m looking at doing some funny kind of stand up stuff and some of the stuff my wife just looks at me, she’s like, you can’t say that in public. And I’m like, but they’re all thinking it too. Yeah. You know, and, and I think, you know, they say, you know, you know, tell people the truth, that’s great, but make sure you make them laugh or they’re gonna kill you. Right, you know, and I think that’s where we are right now. And, and, and I’m very, I don’t care anymore where I am. I mean, I say stuff on Twitter that gets me pissed off or people pissed off at me because, you know, I’m, you know, it’s when it goes on on most social issues. I’m very liberal on how I think government should interact with people. But I think personally, I live a very conservative life I just, you know, I’m like friends, I think people if they want to do drugs, do drugs, but on the other hand, I think it’s a bad idea. So I tell my kids not to do drugs, but I don’t think the state being involved with that helps the situation in fact that usually creates more problems and you know, and the one thing that’s interesting like it’s all on assault this election cycle, and I think it’s because so much of the American me is I don’t know straight up communist at this point I don’t know how to define it. But I’m pretty much everybody on the left running for president is communist is all I can see. And I know a lot of and I don’t see that, you know, I read history I just finished a book about the finish war and I just finished a book about called bread famine, which talks about, you know, what happened to Ukraine during the Soviet empire and, and so I read history, right. It’s not like, you know, and and it’s funny in even if you read gulag archipelago, which I definitely if you can get through it. It’s a really enlightening book. Yeah. About a third of the way through Volume One or two.
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
I’ve actually I’ve actually got the, the like, I guess you’d call it abridged version where they’re, they’ve put the whole thing together. So I’m actually listening to it as an audio book.
Rob McNealy
Yeah. And and it’s it’s lengthy, but the length, it’s interesting, because, you know, when I started reading that and listening to the language and how people were You know, basically the recounting of how the propaganda was in the Soviet Union. And then you just turn on CNN, and and listen to any of these people running for office. And it’s literally saying the same thing. And they’re demonizing cool locks. These billionaires are the coolest, but the fact is, when they when they say billionaire, they mean anyone making $200,000 a year. That’s a cool lock. And it’s funny because it’s the same playbook, almost verbatim. It’s not even unique. But we don’t even teach history in this country. So people don’t even know any different that this is all this is just a repeat. It’s a rerun. It’s a
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
do you do you think that people saying it even know that it’s a rerun? I don’t think so.
Rob McNealy
I would say, Well, I would say like the Bernie Sanders type absolutely does because he spent time in the Soviet Union. So I think he probably does. And I think he’s probably a true believer. I think some of the other ones are just, they’re just pawns trying to get power and they’ll say whatever they’re told to say by their handlers. But I think the The thing that kind of scares me right now is that these kids are like, you know, anywhere from you know, 20 to 30 seems to be, you know, they’re just, they’re just espousing this, this communism, this this socialism, and that they’re all victims. And it’s funny and I just say look, I you know, I’m not a billionaire like I’m not a rich Dude, you know, but I can say that if you’re going to blame your life’s failures, it’s not these those fault or it’s not, you know, Bill Gates fault you’re struggling.
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
It’s not they’ve made they’ve made life better for you in fact,
Rob McNealy
uh, yeah, it’s always people on their iPhones on Twitter on their Microsoft computer in their court dynamic, you know, and and part of that just, they’re young. I mean, I get it, but you know, I grew up poor so I know what that looks like and and really in and I just posted a tweet earlier today that talked a little bit like look, I grew up poor, my parents made bad decisions with money. I was raised to be financially illiterate. I didn’t understand personal management, personal finances. And you know, but I never blamed anybody else. I blamed my parents when I was angry and young. But sure, I didn’t blame rich people. I said, You know, I wanted to learn from them because I wanted back then I said, hey, look, I don’t why knew even when I was in high school, I don’t want to have my life like it is right now. And what do I need to do to get better? And I looked for mentors to help me and I looked for books, and I read books on personal finance and small business and, and, and where I am today is a much different, you know, standard of living, though, and I grew up with, and it was because I made it and it was hard. It was hard. And as it’s supposed to be. I think it is I don’t think he I don’t think you’d become strong. Growing up being a victim. I think. In the end, the thing is when people and this is where politicians I think are pretty smart, is that if they make people that are failures, or people that are struggling, and I don’t mean that in a negative way, I mean, everyone fails. I’ve failed more than I’ve been successful in my life, but you got it but going back to your song, perseverance And this one I like that song is that you got to keep getting back up, you got to keep doing it. And, you know, you’re an overnight success, like 15 years in the making. You know what I’m saying? It’s like, it’s like, how many and I’m gonna bet, you know, without even knowing all the stuff you went through how many times were probably people told you why are you quitting your job did me musician, I’m gonna bet you had people like question that decision process. You know, and I’ve had people do the same thing when I wanted to be an entrepreneur, right? It’s like, well, how, you know, how can you just not have a paycheck every week? You know that that and I’m like, Look, you know, I don’t want to be a slave to a paycheck. Sure. Because if you if you get a paycheck, that’s all you’re going to make. Why would you limit yourself?
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
It’s always lonely. I mean, I always feel some kind of bond between artists and entrepreneurs. Because it’s a it’s a lonely path, you know, because that’s only a relatively small percentage of the population. It’s always it’s always going to be a minority and it probably should be. But there are so many things people go through. Whether it’s starting a business, or doing something creative, whether that’s acting, singing, being a rapper, or doing both of them combined as I do, and yeah, there are certain things that are. It’s hard to explain to someone else who isn’t also, or hasn’t also been on that same kind of journey. I mean, it’s just it’s a whole different mentality. The highs are higher, the lows are lower. And just having that ultimate feeling of Yeah, man, this is this is totally on me. I mean, any success I get cool, like I’m taking the I’m taking credit for that. You didn’t make.
Rob McNealy
A friend of mine just got his first Ferrari. Now it’s not even new Ferrari. He was a use Ferrari, but he’s an entrepreneur, him and his wife I’ve known for a long time. They started their business 1516 years ago now. They now currently employ over 60 people they created 60 jobs, they pay a barber minimum wage. And some of the jobs are like entry level non skilled kind of jobs. He just bought his first Ferrari. Like, it wasn’t even that much, you know, considering what a new Ferrari can cost. And it’s funny when he posted pictures of it and I said, Dude, virtual high five, but he was surprised at how many people were negative about that. And we’re like shooting I’m like, Dude, that guy I cuz I help I worked in his store with him. And when he was younger, and they only had one star nine, three retail locations and, and I literally was in there when he was helping putting in his floors, because he’s putting in his own floors for his store. I mean, and you’re like, Dude, this guy worked his ass off 5060 hundred hours a week for like a decade before they really started making money. And now they’ve created jobs for people that wouldn’t have had him otherwise. And now to celebrate he’s got enough money that he can make cash for you know, it’s not even that expensive a car but less than 100 grand. Yeah, and the people is funny and sad at the same time. How many people would shit on that?
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
Yeah, it’s um, it doesn’t surprise me anymore. You know, it does not surprise me. I mean, again, I’ve been doing music since 2006. And one reason I’ve been able to be so resilient, and I guess astute in some ways this year, for people who are kind of seeing me for the first time is, it’s like, this isn’t new. It’s just the volumes gone up. Right? Like I’ve been dealing with, both on the love side and on the hate side, right having people, whether that’s people recognize you in public or want your autograph or hating on you on some internet forum or talking smack on you on YouTube or social media, like I’ve been dealing like, it’s been more this year than ever before. But I’ve had that slow build of over a decade to get used to it. And with what I’ve seen, it’s like, it doesn’t matter. I mean, you’ve got two different types of people you’ve got, you have celebrators and you have haters, and that’s what it is like, you can have someone who, like I love seeing other people succeed. When I see someone else succeed, if I see someone post online, like Yeah, I just did this, whether it’s I just hit a million views on My YouTube channel, I just, I just released my hundredth podcast episode. I just got promoted at work, I just started a business Whatever. I’m in there, congratulations, man, well done like love it love it. It inspires me. I’m like awesome. Other people are succeeding, you have other people. And I don’t even know what the split is the other this might even be the majority, who see someone else have some kind of success or some sign of looking like success. And their immediate emotional reaction is not the thing well done for that person. If they can do it, I can do it. Their thought is either jealousy or envy, or a feeling that somehow by that person succeeding, instead of taking it as inspiration, this is coming back to that whole billionaire thing, right? It comes from this idea of, you know, you have people who think that life is zero sum, so by someone else succeeding, they then can’t succeed, whereas it’s the opposite like people aren’t. People are not poor because billionaires exists like people have this idea. And it’s a it’s a, it’s a scarily prevalent idea because people don’t understand economics, that people are poor, because the billionaires are just hoarding all the wealth, right? There’s just X amount of money in the world and the nonsense, these people are just hoarding it, and so no one else can get it. And so all we need to do is like, take it off them by force or whatever. And it’s like, no, that’s not how it works, right? Bill Gates having a billion dollars, takes nothing away from me. In fact, quite the opposite, right. Like, there’s nothing stopping me from also earning you know, if I if I were capable of and I had the right idea, whatever, I can also earn a billion dollars. But you know, it’s not it’s not like having Okay, you can only have this many and it’s going to stop. So people don’t understand that the pie is always growing. And so as a result of that, I think that I mean, it might be some kind of primal instincts because some things I guess are zero so if you’ve got a certain amount of food, okay to say an actual pipe people talk about piece of the pie if you have an actual pie You have eight people, and someone literally does eat half of it, then you’ve only got half left for the other seven people. So like, that’s like, Hey, man, that’s not cool. But that’s not how the economy or money or success
Rob McNealy
because other people can make size of theirs.
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
Exactly. Exactly. You can keep making pies. Yeah,
Rob McNealy
so I was gonna say, you know, one of the things I think that a lot of people miss, and the zero sum game kind of thing is that there’s a there’s an infinite resource that no one ever talks about. And that’s human creativity and ingenuity is unlimited. We can solve most of our problems. And you know what, you don’t even need most people to really be focused on that I have this kind of magic number mind brain that, you know, my experience is 3% of anybody as the one that’s doing everything, you know, 3% of the big creators 3% of the big thinkers 3% of the ones that are really changing the world. 97% are along for the ride typically, but You bet. So to me, I don’t even care if 97% I care about helping those 3% make all the difference. And the difference is the infinite creativity. I just saw a little clip from Bezos, like he’s the the late phases and Bill Gates are the big bad guys did your because politicians are kind of pulling them out. Right. But it was interesting is it was a clip from 97. Right? And so it was like, Amazon was like three years old. And dude, the guy was smart. Right? And, you know, you go look, and he basically I put a post on my Twitter a couple days ago. And it was like looking at, you know, why he wanted, you know, online store because he saw the trend. He knew that this is going to be a big thing. I want to do internet stuff. He didn’t go into the bookstore because he had a passion for books. He picked the books because it had the most number of titles in one industry that would affect so many other industries. So it was the great place to start. And most people don’t know this, but especially these kids that are all communists and they’re 20 years old. Is that They were a bookstore for like six or seven years. And all they did is books until they, you know, they are not but it was the 90s, early 2000. A lot of people don’t even know that anymore. They’re like, Oh, Amazon’s and everything like, no, they started and got traction in one industry. And then they went to the next industry, they disrupted books and then disrupted music. And most people don’t know that. And so it’s like, but he had a plan. And he’s like, This clip is amazing. You should go take a look at it, because it just says, look, we picked this this and this is why we did this. And it’s like, Dude, that guy didn’t get rich by accident. He didn’t inherit his money. He was freaking smart. And he used the creativity and that was one of the biggest employers on the planet. And and so it’s like, okay, he just didn’t fall into it. And and people who don’t understand these things are ridiculous. But I know we’re getting close on time. You know, I want to hit on one of the things back to this whole concept of perseverance and and being, you know, that overlap between artists and entrepreneurs. You’ve recently released an E book, and it’s called zombies. Strong advice. zoobi Guide for fitness for everybody. So tell me a little bit of what made you write a book? And then tell me a little bit about what it what it’s about.
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
Yeah, sure. So I’ve been training for actually longer than I’ve been been rapping, I’ve been going to the gym since I was like 15 years old, started off not really knowing what I was doing and then stumbling my way along and really working out what I was doing. Maybe when I was my 919 or so or my early 20s and making good progress, you know, getting stronger, improving my physique, honing, my diet, everything like that. And I wanted to basically write a book that would be a simple and concise guide to what people need to know about mindset, nutrition and training. So for it’s primarily aimed at beginner to intermediate level, whether people want to build muscle, burn fat, gain, weight, lose weight, eat better, feel better, trained better. So it’s a it’s a relatively short book. It’s under 100 pages. And I wanted to just lay it out in simple layman’s terms of this is what you need to know and do away with the stuff that you don’t need to know. There’s so much confusing, conflicting information and misinformation out there. And nutrition and training are two topics, which are actually relatively simple once you really understand the basics. So I wanted to lay out the basics for people in a way that they can really understand it, and take that and essentially run with it for life. It’s the book that I wish someone had given me when I was 15. And just said, Look, just read this, understand these principles. Don’t get sucked into all the nonsense and do this. And if you’re consistent with it, and you work hard, you will achieve whatever goal you are aiming at in terms of your physique and your health and your strength and so on. So that’s really what strong advice is. So I put it out there as an E book initially, and you know, sold sold well. And then lots of people started asking me for physical copies. So I did a physical run in August, which sold out in a couple of weeks time. So those All went and now as we record this, we’re approaching Christmas in seven weeks. So I’m currently doing the next pre order for the physical books. And I’ve also recorded the audiobook version when I was in Nashville. And there will be an audiobook version coming as well. In the next couple of weeks. I narrated it myself. I’m a rapper, so I figured I had to. So yeah, so it’ll be available on ebook, physical and audio book. So yeah, that is strong advice, newbies guide to fitness for everybody.
Rob McNealy
Where can I get the book?
Zuby Udezue – Rapper and Author
The book is available on my website, Team zoobi.com. And if you go to if you wanted to get the physical copy right now the best place to look is just if you go on my Twitter at zoobi music zUv why music, then? I’ve currently got the physical book preorder available there. I will put it on my website as well. That’s a good reminder. But I’m at the moment for the E book. Yeah, Team zoobi calm and the physical. You can get that via the link on my Twitter.
Rob McNealy
Zuby have had a really great conversation with you today and I do appreciate your time and you know, I’ve really enjoyed your message and I think what you’re putting out there is really good positive stuff and I want you to keep up with it, man, you’re doing some really killer stuff. I appreciate it man. Thank you.