Jae Millz came up during the peak of the Young Money days, memories and moments that will forever hold a dear place in his heart.
While he played an integral part as part of the crew lead by Lil Wayne, let’s not forget his talents as a true spitter and battle rapper. The New York native hails from Harlem and brings that East Coast rawness in all his raps, shifting his focus on his own artistry which includes his new podcast.
Beyond the music, Millz recently started his Loud Opinions podcast where he touches on all the recent events and happenings in the world. Not only does he act as a host showcasing his distinct personality, but he edits all the footage on his own — taking the initiative to teach himself and learn from watching Youtube videos.
The independent rapper also unleashed his new mixtape titled Potent Music 5, released on 4/20. While music is his biggest passion, cannabis comes in as a close second. While his lady’s at work, he spends his time in his home studio and homeschooling his kids: a 7-year-old and a 14-year-old. Each morning consists of waking up, making breakfast (cutting up strawberries), and helping them with both morning work and homework.
AllHipHop caught up with Millz, who’s determined to separate his name from the Young Money imprint while pushing his own ventures and projects. Read below as we discuss the premise of Loud Opinions, his deal with EMPIRE, epic stories from the Young Money days with Lil Wayne, and more!
AllHipHop: How you holding up in quarantine?
Jae Millz: I record myself so I have a studio inside my crib, I have the laptop, mic, all that. When my daughter’s there, she’s like “daddy, can you put Alvin on again? Can you put PJ Masks on?” What I do is I go to Netflix, put Boss Baby on and let it play. It’ll play 19 episodes and she will not bother me. She’s 7 so she’s into puzzles, Play Doh, paint. We’ll take a ride down to Marina Del Rey, Dockweiler Beach, Venice. I take my daughter but she can’t understand why we can’t go to the sand and the water, so that’s frustrating. She’s like “daddy I want to go somewhere.” There’s nowhere to go. The quarantine is what made me make the podcast.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBE4mEdHw7H
AllHipHop: How did your new podcast Loud Opinions come about?
Jae Millz: Loud Opinions podcast with me and my boy Lenox Hughes. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I started one in 2017 called Potent Hour, did one episode and scrapped it. It wasn’t the look. It was me, one perspective. I was in my boys’ studio, someone else was recording it. I had to depend on other people still. Once I realized if I invest in a microphone and podcast kit from Amazon, I know how to record the vocals. I just need somewhere to film. My boy had moved into a new crib with his girl, cool we can use your crib. We can do this in the living room.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBMRcJLHFOE
If we do this every week, I don’t want it to be a bill. If we’re not making any money, it’s a bill. But I don’t spend any money either. We both have iPhones, I have a DJI camera to get the main shot with both of us. Use his camera to get his perspective, my camera to get my perspective. I go to YouTube, look up how to edit multi-cam footage. Now I edit the whole podcast, record it in GarageBand, upload to Anchor. Anchor sends it to Spotify, Apple Music, all that. I do all of that myself. It’s self therapy during quarantine, gives you something to do. Once a week I’ll record, next day I’ll edit it.
AllHipHop: What’s the premise of the podcast?
Jae Millz: I’m a supreme pothead. Other day I smoked 7 blunts before my girl got off of work, that’s insane.
AllHipHop: You’re still smoking blunts?
Jae Millz: Yes, unfortunately. I had a tumor removed in my throat, so it’s a surprise I still even smoke anything. I do have to stop smoking blunts. My voice was messed up in 2014, before I had my surgery. “For the Win,” No Chill mixtape, “The Virgo Mixtape,” you wouldn’t even want to listen to me. I remember Dave East said “you don’t like Dutches, you’re addicted to the tobacco. You’re getting high off the Dutch and the weed, that’s the high you like. That’s why you don’t like papers.”
AllHipHop: After having a tumor lasered out of your throat, you still smoke Dutch Masters?”
Jae Millz: I tried papers, but it burned too fast. Back to the podcast, I’m a supreme stoner and I wanted to do something that’s me. Loud for the weed, Loud because I’m talkative, Loud because I always think I’m right. Some people think if you say something louder, that makes you right. I’m not that person, these are my Loud Opinions. I may not agree with you, you may not agree with me, but I can agree to disagree. It’s cool if you don’t agree with anything I say, as long as it doesn’t change our relationship. These are my views.
AllHipHop: What topics do you cover?
Jae Millz: I try not to get too political, but I try to stay with what’s current. Of course I have to talk about Black Lives Matter and George Floyd, but I also like to talk about the 30 for 30’s on ESPN. Dennis Rodman, Lance Armstrong, Bruce Lee, etc. I try to talk about regular things. Ex) people telling you their business without you thinking they’ll tell you their business. People working jobs they hate, they doing it because they know where they want to be. The President’s address being 1600 Black Lives Matter Plaza, the irony of that. He wanted to put people in cages, now he has fences around the White House. We’re talking about all the VERZUZ, who we want to see like Fab and Jada, Ashanti and Keyshia Cole. I did a segment on an episode called the P### Star Hall of Filth. I know all the p### stars, that’s my thing.
AllHipHop: How does your girl feel about it?
Jae Millz: I was on “I just want to f##k every girl in the world” when we got together. I was on “Dick Pleaser” with Lil Wayne. All of that was before I got with her, so she understands. A lot of us are branching off into other things like Tory Lanez with Quarantine Radio. It’s going to be interesting to see who sticks with what they created during quarantine after it’s over. I watched Gunna perform at a house in the hills and Youtube paid for it. Young Thug came out, they had a band in the background. You could tell that they did it during the looting, you could see a bunch of s##t on fire from the drone shots.
Who paid for it? It’s going so many different places now. Interesting to see when Kendrick’s album comes out, Drake’s album, Cole’s album. Even though I’m a rapper, I have a lot of views and opinions on s##t. I’ve been in the game for 20 years, I got my first deal 20 years ago so I know more than it might seem. You wouldn’t know s##t about me until you sit down and talk to me. I hate being in the mix. I hate going to pool parties, birthday parties.
AllHipHop: How’s your journey been with EMPIRE?
Jae Millz: When we did the deal with EMPIRE, I didn’t take any money. I know that sounds crazy but we can never owe EMPIRE a dime because I didn’t take any money upfront. I wanted distribution, let’s put it out. I like my splits, we did 80/20. If you didn’t give me any money upfront, I could sell 500 copies and still don’t owe anybody anything.
AllHipHop: Have you been tapped into Young Money radio?
Jae Millz: I like Young Money Radio, I wish Wayne would’ve started that a long time ago. That’s a chapter in my story, I didn’t cover my Young Money tattoo [shows hands]. I was with Young Money for almost a decade. With everything going on, it’s a lot more s##t Wayne could be doing that doesn’t even have to do with him rapping on a microphone. He’s a superstar icon. If you ask Uzi or any of the new artists who they looked up to, they all gon’ say Wayne. Wayne needs to float off that. Wayne holds music hostage, he’s in the studio every day for at least 13 hours. We go in there at 12 at night, he leaves at 12 the next day. Where’s the music at?
AllHipHop: He dropped the Carter III 12 years ago today!
Jae Millz: I got with Young Money right before Carter III. I remember he used to play “Lollipop,” like “this going to be my new single.” That’s the craziest Wayne song, he used to play it so much. He’s coming from court when he had that case in Phoenix, he’s playing it on the bus. I said “play ‘Lollipop’ again.” He took the CD out, gave it to me. He said “you can have that. We don’t really ride on the bus listening to ‘Lollipop’ man, you listen to that on your own time.” I went back to Harlem, loaded it onto my Xbox 360 and I cracked a CD. I didn’t want one of my friends to come over, mess around and steal it. His song gets leaked? I got with Young Money 2 weeks ago.
AllHipHop: You really cracked the CD?
Jae Millz: I had already put It on my Xbox. If you’re going to steal Lil Wayne’s single, you had to steal my Xbox out of my house. A couple nights before on the tour bus, I asked Wayne how much did he think he’s going to sell in the first week? On my daughter’s soul, he said 250K or 300K. At that time, that’s good. Mary J. Blige was selling 600K the first week. Kanye and 50 when they clashed, Kanye had Graduation, people were selling a lot of records. That album came out, he did 1 million records on Carter III. That album went Platinum the first week. Carter IV did too.
AllHipHop: I love asking Lil Wayne fans what their favorite Carter is.
Jae Millz: Carter I is when I start respecting him as a lyricist more.
AllHipHop: What’s your favorite song on Carter III?
Jae Millz: I used to like “Misunderstood.” I was in the studio thinking “this gon’ be a big record, the sample and everything.” I like the intro “3 Peat,” that was the change in Lil Wayne. I’ve been listening to Wayne since he’s a young rapper. We’re the same age. When you think of Snoop, you think of Dr. Dre productions. You think of Biggie, you think of Puffy. When you think of Wayne, you think of Mannie Fresh. “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” “Bling Bling.” People don’t realize Carter II was the first Lil Wayne album with no Mannie Fresh. Carter II: “Shooter” with Robin Thicke. None of those songs would’ve sounded like that if Mannie Fresh did them.
AllHipHop: What happened?
Jae Millz: That’s around the time Birdman wasn’t really messing with Mannie Fresh, so they started letting Wayne be free. He’s getting beats with Heatmakerz, The Runners, Cool & Dre. Jim Jonsin did “Lollipop.” Carter II, Wayne was still spitting fast. Carter III was “Comfortable,” “Mrs. Officer.” Everything was a single and if it wasn’t, it could’ve been. Carter III is his best album.
AllHipHop: What are your fondest memories of Young Money?
Jae Millz: Everybody grew into young men. Young Money was college for me. It was college for Tyga, me, Drake. When Drake came around, he’s coming from Degrassi being a ghostwriter for people. We’re on a flight one day, Drake told me he used to write for Dr. Dre. I’m like “you know Dr. Dre?” He has a chip on his shoulder because people know he’s dope, but they’re trying to give him this TV guy s##t. “Oh, you’re the guy from Degrassi.” Nah, he’s nice. One time we’re in the studio, he wanted to get a tattoo. Wayne stopped him like “nah, you be you. You don’t have to do what we do, that’s what makes you dope because you’re nothing like anybody else around here.”
AllHipHop: How’d Lil Wayne influence your career?
Jae Millz: There’s always more to do, I get that from Wayne. Me coming to the studio being like “man I’m tired,” Wayne turns around looking at me like “what you tired for? What you do all day?” He’s on stage for 45 minutes last night, he brought me out for 5. He’s not lying. We all still won. At the end of the day, I’m a Platinum artist. I know that may sound crazy, but I have plaques. Last time I checked, everybody on that Dreamville album are Grammy-nominated artists.
AllHipHop: What do you want fans to get from Potent Music 5?
Jae Millz: I’ve been doing the Potent Music series for a decade. I created this on some stoner s##t. 10 Years ago, stoner rap was big. Wiz, Curren$y, people were catching onto Berner and Cookies. I’m a heavy stoner, my fans know that. Potent Music is feeding my fans, music for them to burn to. Nothing too deep. I like f##king with the samples and talking my s##t. I like series. Over here I’m up to Potent Music 5, but over here I’m up to Virgo Mixtape 7. People’s attention span is short nowadays. if you don’t stay in their face, they’ll forget you.
If you don’t like it, don’t listen do it. That’s the beauty of this era, it’s all in your phone. You don’t have to go to the store. I don’t have the pressure of selling records. I’m not pressed for money. I don’t like owing people. I’m good, my bills are paid. I don’t want anything. As someone who’s been in the game for 20 years, I don’t need you to do anything but put it out. I record it myself, I edit myself, got the whole Pro Tools setup. I shoot my own videos, direct and edit my videos. I don’t want a big major deal because I know what comes along with that.