CONSTANT ELEVATION | R-Mean

INTERVIEW @KBTindal PHOTO @PAIGE_CRAIG_PHOTO

The God MC, Rakim said on “I Know You Got Soul,” Constant elevation causes expansion,” and the Armenian MC, R-Mean exemplifies those words. Back in 2019, after briefly meeting this Armenian brother and seeing him perform at Chris Webby's Raw Thoughts Tour at The Mint in LA, I decided to ask him for an interview. And what transpired between us was a collective of questions and answers that turned out to become almost a 9,000-word interview entitled Deeper Than Rap. It enlightened me about this man's persona, and his path to being an elite MC while carrying the torch for the forefathers that came before him in the MC space of the culture. It showed me a lot about his quest to consistently bring awareness to his people and the Armenian genocide that took place in 1915, where 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered in their Anotolian homeland, which is now known as Turkey. Not only is he a student of hip-hop culture raised on the greats like Nas, Eminem and Wu Tang, Gangstarr, KRS-ONE but he also holds a doctorate from UCLA, and he's a pharmacist that owns pharmacies. He owns a clothing store, and a clothing line called the Pentagon LA. His newest project MEAN (Manifest Everything Avoid Negativity), is produced entirely by the legendary Scott Storch. It boasts a slew of features from Nas to Offset, Quavo, YG, Method Man, Jeremih, French Montana, and more. He is one of the most dedicated craftsmen in hip hop, and today we tap in with the one and only, R-Mean.

Validated: You know, of course, it's been a minute since we spoke, man. The last interview we did was really deep. It was the first time I got to kick it with you and just get a little bit of insight into who you are. You've been cooking up this project Mean for a while, why did you decide to title it MEAN?

R-Mean: Once I started working on this project with Scott Storch, first of all, when I had the opportunity to work with him, I felt I knew this was a real opportunity for me to elevate my music, you know what I'm saying? Because I always felt I was always nice as an MC. I always had joints. I had some really dope projects, but I knew this was an opportunity to elevate to the next level because of that production, I felt I was always missing the right sound and the right production, you know what I mean? So once we started working and I started realizing like yo, this man Scott Storch can do it all at the highest level, you know what I'm saying? Of course, he's known as a hitmaker and that's what he always wants to do. He wants to make hits, but he also delivered on all the hip-hop joints and the type of shit that I'm really into, the introspective, the storytelling, and all that. So, once we were kind of deep into the project, I felt like it was a real representation of me as far as I'm doing the real me, the deep personal joints and all that, the lyrical joints. But then I also got like slappers, like real bangers, you know what I mean. Previously in my career, I never was able to get to this level. And I feel like mainly it comes back to the production. And of course, some of those features helped. So, I wanted to make it autobiographical and everybody calls me Mean, you know what I'm saying? So I didn't want to overthink this one. I felt this is almost like a reintroduction or introduction of me to the people so let's keep it simple and just call it MEAN. But of course, the lyricist in me still had to take it, one step further. And I made it an acronym, and it stands for Manifest Everything, Avoid Negativity. Meaning, it's two parts to that. Avoiding negativity has been the key to a lot of great things happening to me in my life. Cutting out the negative energy. But manifesting everything is like yo, I manifested this project. It's a massive project for an independent artist like me, to have someone like Nas on there that was like a real manifestation and so on, you know what I'm saying? So that's kind of how the title came about.

Validated: You did a mixtape a long time ago, and I heard you tell this story briefly, but I want you to just tell me so our readers can get the vibe off of it. You did a mix tape a while back, I believe it was titled Nas and Em. You did a song called “Letter to the King,” where you spoke to Nas and Em in the verses. How did the link-up between you and Nas happen? And in the end, what was it finally like to get the God to feature on the song “Cradle of the Devil.”

R-Mean: It's crazy, bro. Surreal experience. I'm a huge Nas fan for as long as I can remember, he's always been my favorite rapper. As you said, I did a mixtape. Kind of my two biggest influences. I always call on Nas and Em but of course there's more. So one day I was like yo, let me just do a mixtape rapping on their beats. Just to MC and I wanted to do it just out of love. This was like 2016, Not a lot was going on in my career. I was kind of in front of a brick wall, so I was like let me just do what I love. And I put that together. At the last minute on the last song I decided to add, like an actual tribute, the other songs were just rapping on the beats. So the song is called “Letter to the King,” as you said, first verse, I'm talking to Nas, second verse, I'm talking to Em and I come from that cloth of giving props and acknowledging Forefathers and the Legends, you know what I'm saying? So, that's kind of the type of artist I am too. So, I just did that and I put it out and that song specifically got a lot of love, just online all the blogs picked it up and stuff like 2 Dope Boyz. So, then we went out and shot a little video for it, went to Queensbridge, then went to Detroit for the second verse, and we put it out. And that was that, and a good like three years of some change later. NAS happens to walk into Cookies on Melrose, Cookies, the dispensary out here in LA, shout out to the Berner and everybody. So, I linked with Berner, really through his partners my brothers Alex and Mike that are partners in the Cookies brand, as well as a lot of other cannabis brands. It is in West Hollywood so a lot of celebrities and artists and people like that come over there, but nobody expects Nas to just walk in, you know what I'm saying? On a random day, Nas just walks in as a customer. And my man Alex is over there and he welcomes him. And mind you, in the beginning, I've been trying to get this song to Nas but I don't have any connections, no ties to him whatsoever. I'm trying to follow people that are part of his team. I tried it all, but none of it worked. So, again, years later, he walks into Cookies and my man, Alex is there, so he welcomes him and he's like yo, with all due respect, there's this one song you need to hear. And he said Nas was mad cool about it, so he let him hear the song “Letter to the King.” I don't know if any of this is happening. So, out of nowhere, I get a FaceTime from Alex's phone, and I pick up and it's Nas holding the phone, you know what I'm saying? He's like what's up bro? I just heard that song. And I'm like what song? Like in that moment, it didn't even click, because again, it was three years old. I had just started working with Scott Scotch. I thought maybe they played him some of my new shit. I didn't know, you know what I mean? He's like the one you did for Eminem. And then, I'm like, “oh, word. I'm so happy you finally heard it.”  He's like, “nah that did something to me right now.” And he's pointing at his chest and then we just chopped it up a little bit, told him that I just started working on this project with Scott Storch, and like yo I'm going to give my math to your man over here. Let's stay connected. Three days later, he came to the studio at Scott Storch's house and we did the whole song together on the spot. You know what I mean? Crazy story. And I always say that was the happiest day of my life, specifically, because I was in the studio with Nas, but also because the song came out so incredible, as far as what I always wanted to do with him, you know what I'm saying? It was like exactly what I had always imagined, Scott Storch, he creates the beat on the spot. It's not like I had a record ready for him to jump on. Usually, when you have a feature, you make the song, you know it's fire, and then you hit up the big feature and try to get him on it, with him it was like I had nothing ready. And it happened so fast. So, we had to deliver on the spot. So, Scott Storch was in top form. Our visions aligned, everything aligned, and the song came out crazy.

Validated: That's a crazy story. you put it in the air, you did everything you could do to make it happen and out of nowhere, it happened like that. That's organic.

R-Mean: The most unexpected way, you know what I'm saying? Even after he hit me up, I still didn't think that meant he was going to work with you. Because how many unsigned or upcoming artists do you know that have a song with Nas? Only the ones that signed to him. There have been a few people, but only big artists. It's crazy. It's special. I feel blessed. So, peace to the God.

Validated: I know you are working on trying to get that Em feature.

R-Mean: That is another person that I don't have any connections to like that. There have been some talks years ago with him, but Nah, I have no idea. That's another thing. I just put it out in the universe. But of course, that's one of the next goals as far as collaborations go, so hopefully. 

Validated: So, I know you dropped “Yalla Habibi” a while back with French Montana. You dropped “King James” with Jeremih a while back as well. What made you want to go with one cohesive sound with Scott Storch for the production of the whole album?

R-Mean: It just started as me doing one song with him. And then I was like man, this dude, I feel like he's the one for me. Like I said earlier, I was always kind of looking for that, working with random producers is cool. And right now I feel like I have a good team of like a couple in-house producers that kind of match the Scott Storch sound, but I felt he was the one, but, he's not cheap and I didn't have that relationship yet at that time. So, I kind of left it alone. And then through my business partners in the cannabis world, we kind of got reintroduced a couple of years after the first time I worked with him and they were like yo, like we don't want to just come and buy a beat off you. Like this is our guy, you know what I mean? In the Armenian community, I've been known and I've been getting a lot of support for many years now. So, they were really like yo, our people got his back. We want to work. And we worked it out. And it started from doing a couple of songs to doing a whole project. And it's just so cohesive when you have one, obviously a producer at that level, but just when you have one producer to curate the sound right. It just feels more like a project, you know what I'm saying? And, we started working right before the pandemic, so then the pandemic hit and we stopped and it took a while before we started again. And so it's been a few years in the making and that's why, I was sitting on a few songs for a while already, so I let “King James” go first. It was killing it a couple of years ago when we won the championship when it was in the bubble and stuff. And I'm like yo, there's no better time. I got to drop this song right now. And then last year we dropped the joint with French. I was trying to roll out the album last year, but a few things held it up again. So, after I dropped that single, we held back again. And then now finally was the right time to drop the full project. I just added them as bonus tracks on the album.

Validated: Definitely. Well, let me say, the project is loaded with dope joints. People got to go, check the project out. It's called MEAN, it's on all platforms right now. “Triumph” is a dope intro. Of course “Candle of the Devil” with Nas. “TBS” with Offset and DB Bantino. “Downfall,” and “Sativa Mamacita” with Angel Hill, “Barkley” with YG. “Yessir” features Quavo, “Lonely Day,” “Overnight” and “Circus” with Method Man and Kabaka Pyramid. Now those are all dope tracks, so I'm giving you your accolades there, but I want to say that the elements of you paying homage on the entire project, like Big and AZ and Jay and Pac, Eminem, those are just dope, the little innuendos and the bars and all that kind of stuff. What I wanted to talk about though are my two favorite joints. So, the first one that I love is H.O.P.E Featuring Haben. Is that how you pronounce it?

R-Mean: Some people call her Hoben, and then some say Haben. She’s like, both works. She is a singer-songwriter that one of my producer homies by the name of Wicks has been working with for a long time and there is this song that I have written for a while but I had like a different girl on the hook and she wanted to redo it and there was no time and all that. So, last minute I was like yo, I need the right singer for this hook. And he connected me with her and together we wrote that hook and I feels like we took it from here to here, (Raises hand to show levels). She nailed it. And then I added that second verse last minute too, literally a week before I turned the album in. because that was about the homie that had just passed away.

Validated: I was going to say that, you talked about a family member's addiction and you talked about losing somebody that was a fan that became a personal friend and a family member, to Cancer. I'm sorry for your loss on that, first and foremost. I know that the song had to be extremely therapeutic for you, right? And I know how it feels sometimes to be an introvert on most days and kind of stay in that little bubble that we create for ourselves. What was the process for you making that song and how did it feel after you got it all out of yourself and the track was done?

R-Mean: Yeah, it was a process, so this song was kind of made in like segments. So, I came up with the concept of just doing a song called “H.O.P.E.” and making it an acronym, again, calling it Hold On Pain Ends. So obviously it had to be inspirational, but at the same time, it had to be heart-wrenching. I felt like I could hit people in the chest with this if it's done right. So, I took the concept to Scott Storch and he created the beat and the first verse, which is the story about addiction in my family, like you said, that was my main vision for the song. At first, it was basically about addiction, depression, trauma, things like that. So, that’s what the song was. And like a couple of weeks before, we were turning in the album, we were just listening to the whole thing and my manager was like yo, I feel like this one verse is not enough. This song could be it if you go even deeper. You talking about people that are alive, but they are kind of dead. Then he started naming all kinds of friends of ours that have passed away. And then I'm like nah, it should just be about the one friend that just passed away. Let's have that verse. Because as you said, he was like a fan, a real fan from a very young age, and used to come to all my shows. His name is Joshua. He was only 10 years old and he would come with his moms and with his aunts, and at every show for the last 10 years, 10 plus years they were there. So, I have seen him grow up and we became friends and then recently we heard he had a brain tumor and he passed away. So, the family asked me to perform at the funeral and I mentioned that in the song too. But I ended up not doing it, but, and then they asked me maybe you could do a song or something and I'm like let me live with it and fell it out. I don't like to force these types of things. And then when that idea came to me, I'm saying that to say, I know the family already gave me that blessing before I even did this song but I don't want to talk about something if the family doesn't want that, you know? But they had already asked me. And then bro, writing and recording that verse was a struggle. But that song has been getting so much feedback. It's a really special song for sure.

I feel like one of my main strengths as an artist is that I can do the slappers, I can do punchlines, and wordplay all day. But when you can hit someone's heart, like when you can make people relate to your pain, that's really what the strength of music is. And as you said, it was therapy for me to make it. And I also know that it's therapy for others to listen to it. So, it's like a two-way street. That's why music is so powerful.

Validated: My other favorite joint is “The Rising Sun.” The Big and the AZ scratches are crazy. Scott did his thing on that. You said, "So who the fuck is this? The pharmacist with crooked teeth / with lyrics that give light to people that look deceased / Not here to freedom fight / but I speak on my people's plight / I'm here to crucify my demons like I'm Jesus Christ." Hard ass bars right there first of all, how important was it for you to show yourself unapologetically on the cover of the album, the huge smile, the perfect imperfections that we all have? How important was that for you to do that for yourself and also for your fans?

R-Mean: Yeah, that's really what it was, bro. Once I realized, I think I got to call this album MEAN and it's just me. Kodo was like, like yo, if it's called Mean, I need you to smile on the cover. I need you to do that. He's like let's give them you. I'm a happy person at this point. I smile. I don't try to be tough. So, let's convey that and let's convey the flaws. So, we went for it. And that kind of became a thing like why not put it in the bars also. At that point, while I wrote that verse, I already had the cover done, so I already knew. And even the pharmacist thing, it's like I'm trying to tell my complete story here. I'm different than the average rapper. I'm Armenian, I was born in LA but I was raised in Amsterdam. There are a lot of influences from different cultures, this immigrant way of upbringing is you go to college, you go to be a doctor or a lawyer. That's what was ingrained in my brain as a kid from my mom. So, that's what I did. I came back to LA when I was 18, I was doing music, but the whole time I'm going to school and I'm trying to juggle both, and eventually, you realized like, yo, if I want to do this music thing, I got to go all in. I kind of left the pharmacy thing alone, but I got the license and everything, so now I have side businesses. But yeah, I feel like it's important to put all that in the bars. And even the part about talking about my people's plight. I've been talking about, like you mentioned earlier, the Armenian genocide and the history of my people because I'm kind of the first one in my background to do this hip-hop thing at this level and be on these platforms and I got to represent, and it is just a hip-hop thing to do. Hip-hop is the voice of the streets, the voice of the people. So, me coming in, I got to tell the story of my people and I got to be just true to who I am and not try to be nobody else. So, I'm not acting like I'm a freedom fighter, but I got to talk about my people's plight. 

Validated: Absolutely. That leads me right to the next question, how is the Open Wounds movement going, and what kind of strides have you made in the last few years, especially when we were in the pandemic and stuff like that, bringing more awareness to the people about the Armenian genocide? Like what's new on that forefront?

R-Mean: At this point, this year was the 10th anniversary of when we dropped a song called Open Wounds and we did these t-shirts with it that said our wounds are still open. And basically, it kind of started spreading like wildfire the first couple of years. And that's when our community became the biggest thing. But then we started reaching out to all the artists and just people we knew as influencers and trying to give them the shirt and ask them to post it or at least take pictures with it. And we got everybody from Method Man to Game to Cardi B to Post Malone to DMX, rest in Peace. The list goes on. It really kind of became a tool to like raise awareness and it became a very recognizable logo. The way we have written our wounds are still open, in our community a lot of people get it tatted. And then what was the most important thing is people from other communities started reaching out to me like yo, we relate, it might not be the same story, maybe not a genocide, but struggles like genocide, right? Like a lot of people from different backgrounds went through different types of things like that. So, it just became a very powerful tool too and it's really about crimes against humanity, you know? And every year in April is the commemoration of the Armenian genocide. So, especially out here, here in LA there's always a lot of protests and things like that going on. And, I'm still very much participating and doing my thing, but at the same time I kind of made the mark and now it's all digital. So I talk about it a lot when I go on platforms, people ask me about it and this is kind of how I'm continuing to raise awareness. Of course, the gear and the shirts are still there. It's a nonprofit organization. So, we do like small scholarships and donate money and things like that. But a lot of the groundwork of us grinding and getting the message out has been done at this point for whatever reach I had. 

Validated: So, you own a pharmacy now, or do you own multiple pharmacies?

R-Mean: I own two right now.

Validated: Was that like you just finally saying, let me put this degree to work, and then also be able to help the community with it.

R-Mean: That's really what it was because I came out of school and I started working at CVS and then Rite Aid and I hated my life, to be honest, but for the first time in my life, I was making some decent money, but, after a few months you kind of used to that level of money and it's okay, it's cool, but I want to do music. And like slowly I started realizing, so I stepped away from it for a while and then a few years back, me just as an artist, I've been known in this community for a minute, so it's a lot of just Armenian people and different industries that reach out to me and are like yo, how can we support? We fuck with you. Even my partners in the cannabis game. That's how it works. That's how it happened. If I get sponsorships and things like that, people got my back and I'm super appreciative. So kind of in a way like that I met the guys that are my partners in the pharmacy game, they're like yo, “we know you are a pharmacist. We own multiple pharmacies. If you want to partner up, you ain't got to do much, but we'll use your license,” and I'm basically what's called the PIC Pharmacist In Charge. You're a manager. So, I go in maybe once a week. If I'm in town, I make sure everything's cool, you know what I mean? But I'm not there running the day-to-day, they’re handling it for me. So, okay, we got like a retail pharmacy and then now what's called a closed-door pharmacy, both in Tarzana, California. Closed-door pharmacies supply facilities like nursing homes, rehab centers, and things like that. It's not like you walk in with a prescription, you know what I mean? It's closed to the people. So, it's been good, man. I can't complain.

Validated: That's good. And you also got the Pentagon LA store. Tell the people about that.

R-Mean: Pentagon LA, the best way to compare it is like The Marathon, you know what I mean? Rest in peace, Nipsey, my whole journey is a marathon and has been a slow and steady rise over many years. And, when you are independent and you coming up, you got to find other ways to bring in income to feed this music. So, we started selling merch and we have this whole LA line. because I did a song called “Lost Angels” with The Game, and that became kind of like my first big song. And we made jumpsuits and things like that. And that started taking off. So, first, it was online, then we had like a kiosk at a mall, and then eventually we graduated to like having our store. It's in the city of Glendale, which is like in the valley in LA. And it's like a creative space too. So we have like my recording studio and office is in the back. We have a content creation studio where we shoot visuals and then we have the actual store. And just recently we partnered up with this company named Classics and we brought in sneakers. So, now we got like Jordan's and Yeezy's and all that too. So, just a different type of expanding the business. But our labels are called Pentagon Records and the store is called the Pentagon LA and hopefully, we'll have a Pentagon, New York in the future and Pentagon stores in different cities. That's kind of the vision behind it.

Validated: I heard you on Sway and you were talking about the fact that you've been "him" in your community for a minute now, a long minute. What do you think you need to do to t get to the next level? Because a lot of people still see you as a new artist, but you've been grinding for over a decade, man, and putting in the work. So, what do you think you need to do to get to that next level?

R-Mean: I feel like I have music that can compete on a worldwide level now. Years ago I thought I had it too, but when I look back now, I'm okay, I understand that shit wasn't knocking in the way, the mainstream is knocking. The production might have not been, even my delivery, I've grown so much as an artist and as a songwriter. I have always been a dope spitter, but it was kind of appealing to the type of music I was making. I'm still very much the same type of music, but it's just bigger and better if that makes any sense. So honestly, bro, what it takes at this point, I don't know. I feel like everything is there. So, at this point it's just consistency and you know keeping it going. Because we are in an era of a quick short attention span and a quick turnaround, right? So people just want to have it more and more no matter what you give them. So, with this album, I feel like it's the beginning of a whole new chapter for me. I feel like everything I dropped before this, again, there were some fire joints, you'll probably find a lot of dope music in my catalog, but nothing is at the level that this project is on, hopefully, I can keep delivering this level of music and content and keep going. And of course, the relationships I have built, there are a lot of things I was missing when I came up when I was young. I'm in a community where nobody has ever done this, I didn't have any guidance. I had no idea what I was doing. I had nobody in the industry and hip hop, nothing. So, for me to go from that to where I'm at now, where I have all these types of names on my album, all based on real relationships, where I'm on platforms like Sway or talking to people like yourself or on LA Leakers, you know what I mean? All these big platforms where it's all built off relationships and just putting in all these years of work. But now I got relationships, so now we got to just keep building. 

Validated: Who is the one artist or person or producer that pushes you to step your pen game up the most when you're in the studio?

R-Mean: That's a good question, bro. I don't know if there's one at this point, you know what I'm saying? It's more like me just studying the game. I've always been a student of the game. and that hasn't stopped. I consume, and I listen to everything that comes out. Not everything, but you know what I mean, and especially obviously I'm into lyricism and I'm into real rap. So, when the real spitters drop, I'm studying and I'm trying to outdo them. I compete with them, without them knowing who I even am. So that's really what pushes me, you know what I'm saying? And I listen to my shit a lot too. I listen to my old shit and I'm like damn! It was nice. I could tell I was hungry, I was young. So, yeah, that's where I get my inspiration, not like one person. The team is very critical, you know what I'm saying? I always kind of create music and then I specifically go to my man Kodo, like I play it for him when I feel it's ready, to receive that criticism because he's always going to nitpick and say, this can be better. This verse can be better. You know what I mean? So yeah, the team is critical, but I'm kind of at a level where I push myself, you know what I mean?

Validated: I know you were a student of the craft and the culture. I remember in our last interview you talked about how your introduction was through a family member or a friend that told you to listen to these five different artists, 

R-Mean: Yep. Real shit.

Validated: Yeah. Who were those five artists again?

R-Mean: So, I'm just like a kid. And we had like an older family friend who used to come by. His mom was best friends with my mom, so I want to say he was probably like 20 or in his twenties when I'm like 10 or something. And he saw that I'm really into music and kind of into rap, but I didn't know what's what and he sat me down. He's like, well if you're going to listen to rap music, you got to listen to the real, you know what I'm saying? First, he played me Gangstarr Hard to Earn. That was the number one. That was the first because he was like a DJ premier, like a Gangstarr head. And this is in the Netherlands in Amsterdam. That was the first, so the list was Gangstarr then it was Nas Illmatic. It was 36 Chambers by Wu. It was Midnight Marauders by A Tribe Called Quest,  Return of the Boom Bap by KRS One. And then I believe the fifth one was Jeru the Damaja, The Sun Rises In The East. That was my introduction to hip-hop.

Validated: That's crazy. Yeah.

R-Mean: So, I fell in love with it and I kind of took it from there.

Validated: So that set the bar for you early, you know what I mean?

R-Mean: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I discovered everyone, the Tupacs and Biggies, and Snoop. I discovered all that after those, you know what I mean? Even though mainstream wise they were bigger. Like I learned about these five before I learned from anyone else. 

Validated: Coming to the States, as an immigrant and having a background where your family tells you that you have to go to school, you have to do X, Y, Z and you chose to do music. What was one of your biggest obstacles when you first got started?

R-Mean: Just nobody's being supportive, bro. Nobody, like well, my pops passed when I was one, so I grew up with my mom and my brother. My brother's very opposite so my mom, everybody, uncles, cousins, like nobody got what I'm trying to do. And down to even a lot of friends, you know what I'm saying? Because again, like I came from a community where there are no Armenian rappers. and also I've been doing this for a decade plus. So, today I feel like hip-hop is a little bit more accepting of everyone. There are people like DJ Khaled and French Montana people that kind of look like me, right? But at this time, there's nothing like that. And even if there are white rappers, it's like Eminem. Well, white rappers, white people don't consider us white. We are obviously white, but if you ask white people, Middle Easterners are not white. My whole childhood growing up in the Netherlands was fighting white kids because they called us foreigners. Society is set up like that, especially in Europe, even more than out here. So, I kind of didn't fit in anywhere. So, that was it, like not having any guidance and not having any support and constantly being pulled away, and constantly being told that you're wasting your time. And sometimes that gets to you, like I was watching the Kanye Genius documentary, and what stood out to me is like how supportive his mom was. Like there was a scene where his mom was rapping his verse to him, and I was just mind-blown. like, like wow. Imagine having that kind of support in your home. Like your mom is like quoting your lyrics. Like my mom doesn't understand a single word I'm saying. She speaks English, but raps, like she doesn't get it. I come from a whole different family. I was watching a new Tupac, Dear Mama documentary with his mom. So, it's just like I come from such a different culture where there was a lot of fighting against everyone around me. Leave me alone, let me just do what I love. Do you know what I'm saying?

Validated: Yes, absolutely. I was reading this book by this guy named Chris Wilson, it's called The Master Plan. And it was basically about his story. He did 16 years in prison and he had this master plan of when he came home of exactly what he was going to do to be successful. And he always talked about having a positive delusion, right? And that's kind of like what you had, you had a positive delusion, like against all odds, I'm going to make this happen, you know?

R-Mean: Hundred percent bro. And yeah, that's so real. I like that, positive delusion. I never heard it put like that, but being delusional is a thing that I've been saying lately too. Like even just this album if a few years ago, I told you that this Armenian rapper's going to have independently this album produced by Scott Storch, with Nas on there, all these other features on there. People would look at you like, yeah, sure buddy. Are you crazy? So, yeah, you got to be delusional, you know what I mean? And yeah, the odds are against you, but that doesn't mean it's not possible if you want it. Don't get me wrong, I still got a long way to go, you know what I'm saying? But I'm already at a level where people are saying okay, we see what you were saying all these years. 

Validated: People are starting to see the vision for real. What does hip-hop mean to you?

R-Mean: Man, hip-hop is probably the most powerful force to bring people together. It's been kind of like what raised me and what allowed me to find myself. I told you earlier that my pops passed when I was young. I never really had a father figure. And I learned so much from hip-hop just about how to be a man. Certain things have value, just standing up for yourself, keeping it real, things like that. As a kid, rappers and hip-hop made such a huge impact on me. It just guided me through my whole life. So in one word, hip-hop is everything. It's my way of life. It's how I think, how I wake up. It's everything, bro. It's the most powerful culture that brought everybody together. That's just undeniable.

Instagram: @RMean