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Spottie WiFi Talks Helping Snoop Dogg & Death Row, Rapping w/ Jim Jones & Bun B And His Brand Of Rap
Apr 26, 2024
Spottie WiFi Talks Helping Snoop Dogg & Death Row, Rapping w/ Jim Jones & Bun B And His Brand Of Rap
Chuck "Jigsaw" Creekemur talks to rapper Spottie WiFi and he explains his unique brand of Hip-Hop that delves heavily into Web 3 and Crypto. He's known as Hip-Hop's first CryptoPunk. But there is more to him. Snoop Dogg, Bun B and Jim Jones have come into the unique world he's created. Check him out here, exclusively.
Interviewer: @ChuckCreekmur
Location: WonWorld Studios
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0:00
What's up world, it's Spotty Wifi, the best, only crypto punk rapper alive here with all
0:15
hip hop. Get in tune. What's going on everybody? It's your man Chuck Creekmer, aka Jigsaw, and we are here with Spotty Wifi and he has
0:24
a new album out called The King's Alpha. How you doing? I'm great, bro
0:29
It's great to be here. Thank you. Finally, I'm glad we finally could make this happen
0:33
You know, I've been talking to some of your people for quite some time and you have quite
0:38
a reputation even online and social media. So I'm glad to have you here at One World
0:44
So let's talk about the album, The King's Alpha. What's the album title mean
0:50
And I feel like you're giving us something that your normal rapper wouldn't give us
0:57
Okay, yeah. I come from crypto and that's sort of where I kind of grew up in terms of my income and
1:10
my rap, my content is very crypto oriented. So alpha just means you got a way to get some money
1:17
You have some early news, you're early to something, this is the alpha
1:20
So The King's Alpha is my alpha, meaning there's a lot of scams out there, there's a lot of
1:26
nonsense, but if I'm telling you something, it's real. And that's what The King's Alpha is to me and to my fans
1:32
So this album is basically like a stepping stone because I did a concept album in 2021
1:40
about this character, Spotty Wifi in the metaverse, a rapper living his whole life in the metaverse
1:47
And it was very niche, very nerdy, but it did well. Like we got some good press, it sold well and it attracted a lot of attention
1:54
So now with this album, we're bringing that character into the real world
1:58
So we got some dope features, Snoop Dogg, Bun B, Jim Jones
2:03
And so that's why it's The King's Alpha. We're letting the world know, if you're in tune with what I'm doing, you're early to
2:09
something and that's The King's Alpha. Gotcha. So what's the difference between you and the character
2:15
Okay, so the character, Spotty Wifi, there's a whole backstory. I have a comic book coming out
2:24
In the metaverse, he's a blue collar guy. He goes around fixing people's internet, which is very important in the metaverse
2:32
And he's always been overlooked. He's always been like, people sleep on him, people hate on him
2:38
And so we have those parallels, we have those similarities because I was doing music years
2:42
ago and it was never really working out for me. I had success, but not like financial success
2:50
So Spotty Wifi, the character, the online persona, he has a chip on his shoulder
2:57
He's got a Napoleon complex. He's on now and he's not going to let you forget and he's not going to let you put him
3:04
to the side. And so in some ways we have that in common, but Spotty lets me use a voice that's in character
3:13
where I can talk some shit in a way that is spotty
3:17
Right, right. Yeah, I was listening to the project and some of the previous songs and things and I was
3:23
like, is he educating or is he flexing? And I wasn't sure
3:29
So what do you say to that? It's both, you know, it's really both
3:34
You know, rappers have been rapping about money since they've been rapping
3:39
You know, I believe in crypto. I believe like it's the future
3:44
And so it is a flex, but it's also educational. I remember growing up listening to rap
3:49
I didn't always understand everything a rapper was talking about. I would go to school after a song came out and I'll be asking my friends, like, what
3:57
does this mean? What does that mean? And so if I can get somebody to be curious about something or Google something that I'm
4:02
talking about that's going to help them make some money, then that's dope to me
4:07
You know, we have a song with Jim Jones called Buy the Dips and it's a fun song
4:13
It's dope. But if you were really listening to it, like it could help you for real
4:18
It's funny. I was listening and I was like, yo, is he talking about buying dipset
4:21
What's he talking about? I'm just talking about like when the price goes down on something, that's a dip
4:28
And that's when you want to buy. When the price goes up on something, that's when you want to sell
4:33
And it sounds simple, but people mess that up all the time. And that's really what the song is about. Right
4:39
Now, what about, you know, Snoop Dogg? He said you inspired him
4:43
How did you inspire him? So I put out this concept album back in twenty twenty one and I basically took this character
4:52
I bought an NFT. The NFT is is a little character, eight bit Nintendo looking character
5:00
And that's what inspired me to to create the character Spotty Wi-Fi
5:04
And that's what I built the album around. And I created a album that you could buy as an NFT
5:12
And it sold two hundred thousand dollars worth of sales in 60 seconds
5:18
And then I get royalties when people trade it online, when people resell it online
5:23
And I you know, that's like the amount of revenue that an artist would expect to get
5:26
if they had like 50 million streams on Spotify. I had like five thousand streams on Spotify at that time, you know
5:33
So I was able to go direct to consumer, direct to fans, cut out the middlemen, no label
5:39
no tick tock dance, no manager, just me. Right. And so I think that's why I know that's what caught Snoop's attention and the attention
5:47
of his team. And so that's why now you see him on Instagram repping his board, you know, making music
5:54
with his board. His board has a character named Dr. Bombay or has a name Dr. Bombay
5:59
So I think that's what inspired him. And you know, through that, I got to know his team and kind of talk to them about what
6:08
worked for me, what might work for them. And they've been crushing it, just running with it
6:12
Yeah. Did you do something with Death Row, the label? What did you do with them
6:17
Yeah, they did. They've done some mixtapes and some other some other like music things in in NFTs
6:24
and Web3. So I went out and visited Death Row the week of the Super Bowl when Snoop
6:29
was performing at the Super Bowl and twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two
6:34
And so, yeah, we did a few songs together with some of the Death Row artists
6:37
I think I have like three songs on on the first NFT mixtape they did
6:42
And then, you know, Snoop blessed me and and and is on the new album that I have, The
6:48
Kings Alpha. Yeah, I was a little mad at you then because I was like, man, I can't get
6:52
to these out these songs easy. You know, I think Lady of Rage was on one of them, I believe, if I'm not mistaken
6:58
But what makes you take this approach now to music rather than keeping it as an NFT
7:06
or in? Well, so from the beginning, I like to put all my music on Spotify and Apple Music
7:14
Tidal, SoundCloud, YouTube, even if it's an NFT, right, even from the beginning in
7:19
twenty twenty one. And the thing about those platforms is all you can do is listen to
7:26
the music there. OK, that's all you can do. You have an MP3 that you can listen to
7:32
But if if I'm selling you an NFT, I'm giving you more than the ability to listen to
7:36
the music. I'm usually giving you the ability to remix the song or put the song in
7:44
your podcast, your TV show, your video game, your advertisement, whatever, at least my
7:49
vocals, even if I don't own the beat, you know. And then I do events, you know, if I throw a show, usually I'm going to give early
7:56
access to the tickets to the people that have my NFTs. I've done vinyl records and other merch that you can get for free or exclusive if you
8:05
have the NFTs. So I don't see it as competition. I don't see like Spotify and streaming platforms as competition with my NFTs
8:13
I see it as marketing. Like I make music so that people can hear it
8:16
You know, how was it working with, you know, Jim Jones and Bun B
8:22
You know, I'm sure I don't know if you were in the studio together or I'm sure there
8:26
was some kind of conversation or whatever. Man, those guys are amazing
8:30
You know, Bun, we did our song together like in late 2021, like right after my debut
8:38
album came out and our relationship has developed. He's but he's become a mentor to me, a really great friend
8:45
And, you know, he's just a stand up guy, as everybody knows. He's been around, you know, and he's just a solid guy
8:52
We got a lot of things that beyond music that we're starting to think about now in terms
8:57
of how we can think about the metaverse. Obviously, he's doing a lot of things with the Trillburgers and everything
9:04
He's just, you know, he's a special dude in terms of his thought process
9:09
And Jim, you know, Jim's incredible. We met at a Web 3 event, a conference about a year ago where we were speaking together
9:18
on a panel and we were sitting next to each other just like this. And, you know, just afterwards we exchanged info and I had a I had the song by the Dips
9:25
with the open verse and he hopped on it. We were able to knock out a music video over the holidays when I was in New York
9:32
And it's just amazing, man, because these guys like they really believe in what I'm
9:37
doing. They believe in Web 3. And so they've been super supportive and visionaries, you know, because everybody doesn't
9:44
always see the vision, but they saw it early. Yeah. What's the biggest misconception about Web 3 and
9:55
And like hip hop or just Web 3 in general. Well, I think Web 3 is kind of a buzzword, you know, people people think of crypto, they
10:06
think of scams, they think of FTX and and and that's that's a terrible reputation to
10:13
have a terrible thing for people to think of first. And really, it's just a technology
10:18
It's a new technology that allows you to do things without a middleman to be as simple
10:25
as possible. The point of cryptocurrency, the point of Bitcoin, is that I can send you
10:31
money and I don't need a bank standing in between us to count the beans and make sure
10:36
that I sent you the amount of money that I sent you. The the cryptocurrency, the block chain just does it
10:42
It it authenticates that I'm sending you what I'm sending you. Right. And so when you're talking about distributing, distributing music on the
10:52
block chain, it offers those same benefits. I don't need a middleman
10:56
I don't need a record. Record labels are banks a lot of the time, except they have higher
11:02
interest rates than most banks. Right. And so that's what I see as like the misconception
11:08
There are bad actors. There are people that are going to use any new technology for good
11:14
And there are people that are going to use it for bad. But unfortunately, that one bad apple can ruin everybody's perception of a whole
11:22
technology. You know, so that's that's the issue right now. One time I was looking at Rick Ross on Instagram and he looks directly in the camera
11:31
and he says, you know, something like, you crypto people, where is it at
11:38
You know, you know, he's really like taunting folks that are into crypto
11:44
What did you see that? Yeah, I saw that. What did you think of that? You know, I just thought it was like kind of a boomer mentality, like much love to Rick
11:54
Ross. I love his music. But, you know, it's it's like it's a young generation out here who are who
12:03
Young people, you don't have to explain them that something digital can be valuable
12:08
Right. There's there. They're getting their parents credit card and buying skins on Fortnite, you know
12:13
buying things in roadblocks already. You know, like they don't need they don't need us to explain how something digital
12:21
can be valuable. Now, if if you're a little older, I'm a little older, I'm a little older, too
12:28
Right. I understand how somebody might think if I can't touch it, it's not real
12:33
You know, if I can't if I can't put it in my living room or drive it or whatever, like
12:38
it's not real and that's not valuable. But I think it's just I think it's just inevitable
12:43
And it's just a generational divide, you know, to me. Yeah. Yeah. Um. What do you think is the future, the future music wise and technology, too
12:54
I mean, we're in a weird, transformative space right now, and it's look it's like
13:00
accelerated, you know, back in the day. And I mean, when I say back in the day, I mean, less than 20 years ago, things would
13:06
change every couple of years, maybe five, maybe less. Now it seems like it's every week or something
13:15
What do you what do you think about the landscape now and the future? I think you're right, like I feel like it's like a hockey stick, like things start to
13:23
accelerate and then all of a sudden it just goes real fast. You know, I think we're there now
13:27
I think A.I. is crazy. That's something everybody's talking about right now
13:31
You know, using artificial intelligence to recreate an artist's voice, making songs
13:36
with grimes, you know, using her voice and she doesn't even have to record it, which is dope. I think that's dope
13:42
That's revolutionary, by the way. Yeah. The thought behind it. And I think like you can resist it, but it's only going to cost you in the end
13:51
Like it's inevitable. You can't you can't fight evolution and technology. But what I really think is interesting is like to me is there's a whole generation of
14:02
people that have never bought music right now. Young people, there's a lot of us, a lot of people that have never bought music
14:11
definitely never bought music before listening to it. You know, we used to go to record stores and you'll buy an album because you like the
14:19
artwork. You'll buy an album because you like the track list, the credits, the liner
14:25
notes, and you never heard it. You might have heard a song on the radio, but you never heard the other nine songs
14:29
You put it here in the car on the ride home for the first time. And so I think gamification, that's like to me, that's like gamification
14:39
It's like I'm putting a quarter in the gumball machine. I don't know what flavor I'm going to get
14:43
I'll figure out if I like it when I get it. And I think that's what technology is going to bring back
14:49
I think obviously video gaming is huge. You know, gaming is the biggest form of entertainment
14:54
It makes it makes music and film and Hollywood look like peanuts
14:59
You know, so I think that intersection is really interesting and how people discover
15:05
music. We're so used to getting spoon fed music from an algorithm
15:09
On Spotify or wherever else that music exploration and discovery is pretty boring
15:15
And I think I think gamification is going to change that and blockchain is going to
15:19
change that. Yeah. OK, now let's talk about let's talk hip hop a little bit
15:24
So give us your top five dead or alive. If you want, if you want us to put a spin on it, top five progressive rappers, right
15:35
I.E., those that embraced technology or forward thinking this or what have you
15:43
Man, I'm probably going to keep it more general, you know, so my top five is, you
15:48
know, Nas Nas is on top for sure. I got to have Jay in there
15:54
You did a whole I think that was you. You did a rap. Allow me to reintroduce myself
15:58
That was you, right? Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah, I kind of bit some bars and made them a little little personalized
16:06
Thank you, bro. Appreciate that. But I got Nas and Jay in there for sure
16:10
I'm from the Midwest, so I got to put Kanye in there
16:14
OK, I think I got to put Lupe in there. And and I'm putting Snoop in there
16:23
OK, dope. What do you think about hip hop and technology now
16:29
We've always been early adopters from like sampling it to Serato to the Internet
16:37
You know, I remember early on, Chuck D was way ahead of the game
16:42
Cannabis was way ahead of the game. And later on, Joe Biden
16:46
I mean, Joe Biden and I got into a full blown argument one time right on stage in
16:51
front of an audience where we were just saying he was like, I was first the first
16:56
rapper on the Internet. And I was like, no, no, no, you weren't. No, you weren't. And that carried on for about five minutes
17:04
But what do you think about sort of where we are now
17:10
I don't want to say anything negative, but I feel like the adoption is different now
17:15
than previously. Adoption of technology by rappers, you mean? You know, yeah, I mean, I see hip hop as like it's always been about innovation, you
17:29
know, using turntables for purposes they weren't intended, you know, and break loops
17:34
and things like that and making something beautiful out of out of something that
17:40
nobody saw coming, you know. So I think I think hip hop is still at the cutting edge
17:45
You know, rap is big and in in Web3, you know. So is EDM. I think I think like
17:53
A lot of musicians write like studio musicians, producers of other genres, they
17:59
look down on hip hop, they look down on EDM because you don't need a drummer and a
18:05
guitar, guitarist and a bass player like you could make music on your laptop, you
18:10
know, and some people look down on that. But I think that gives us an advantage when it comes to adopting technology, because
18:16
we are we're naturally embracing technology just in terms of how we make our music
18:21
you know. So, yeah, I don't I don't know. I mean, I think like it's all I think it's always going to be like that
18:28
I think hip hop is always going to going to have that advantage where and also we
18:33
have we were we're asked to be more resourceful. You know what I mean? Like
18:40
It costs less to make to be a hip hop producer than to be like a conductor of an
18:46
orchestra. You know what I mean? You have to grow up in a certain environment and have certain resources to be exposed to different things
18:52
And so I think we're just more resourceful. We're used to technology. And so we're always going to have that at the cutting edge
18:58
So I don't know if I could say that it's different now. I just think it shows up in different ways
19:04
Do you think that's why A.I. is more like hip hop's kind of more susceptible to to
19:09
A.I. than rock or. I do. I totally do. Like the same producers that are used to making music on their laptop
19:19
It makes sense to me that they'll be the first ones to say, let me see what New York
19:24
state of mind sounds like if Biggie was rapping it, you know, like I would expect that
19:29
before I would expect, you know, a composer or, you know, maybe a jazz musician or
19:35
whatever, you know, because it's a lot of what we do is in the box is in the computer
19:39
Yeah. Is there a downside to technology, in your opinion? Yeah, I mean, as it becomes easier for everybody to make music, you know, like like
19:50
we see now and now it's so easy for everybody to distribute their music and have it be
19:54
everywhere, then it can become more difficult to like identify the music that you're
20:03
really going to love and that's going to have staying power and be timeless music
20:08
But I think the I think the benefits outweigh the negatives because we just have more to
20:14
choose from, you know. Yeah, definitely. So what's next for you? What do you got? I mean, obviously, I have this album
20:21
It's just, you know, hot off the presses and everything. But I always get I always get the impression that you're, you know, thinking about other
20:28
things. Absolutely. So I got the comic book coming out later this year
20:33
We're really going to tell the story and the lore of like how Spotty goes from the
20:38
metaverse to the real world. So that's going to be super dope
20:41
I have another album coming out in the second half of the year
20:45
That album is not about crypto. It's not about Web3 at all
20:49
Lyrically, it's just a fun party album. I did a song with my guy, DJ Malski, who's based out in L.A
20:55
That song is called Do You Get It? It's on this album, The King's Alpha
20:59
But we had such a good time making that song and felt so good about our experience in the
21:05
studio together that we just ran off like another 10 or 12 songs. And so we have that whole album locked and loaded and going to start putting out music
21:12
from that this summer. And that's just a party album. So I'm excited because I want to I want to I pride myself on being a versatile artist
21:21
I don't like my album. Every song to sound the same. And I don't want every album to sound the same either
21:27
So a lot more music and a lot more content coming from you this year
21:31
What do you do in your off time when you're not creating music
21:37
Well, when I'm not creating music, man, I'm I've been really like right now is a really
21:43
interesting time in crypto. I just been I've been focused on like watching the market and trying to make my money work
21:49
for me right now. You know, we have it's an interesting time because the crypto prices, they're a lot lower
21:56
than they were a year and a half ago. So to me, it's like by the dips is what I'm saying, like buy low, sell high
22:04
So like the last two weeks, there's a there's a new crypto that is completely like taken
22:09
over my whole life called Pepe. I've just if you're watching, check out Pepe
22:13
I've just been I've just been like trying to trying to set myself up for success and
22:18
make make money, man. That's pretty much it when I'm not when I'm not doing music
22:22
And that's why a lot of my music is about crypto. Right. Who do you want to work with next
22:27
Do you have anybody in mind or anybody who reached out? Well, I definitely would love to work with more artists in other genres
22:37
You know, I definitely want to do something with Grimes voice like we talked about in
22:41
AI. I just haven't had time to really experiment with it yet
22:47
I want to work with like all types of artists. You know, my favorite band is the Strokes
22:52
If they ever see this, I would love to do something with them. You know, as I said, Nas is my goat
22:58
He's also super educated on crypto. He was an early investor in Coinbase
23:03
He's crypto Scarface. So if the universe ever ever puts us on a song together, I'll probably retire after
23:10
that, you know. But yes, a lot of a lot of artists and and not just rap, you know
23:16
Yeah. Do you consider yourself a pioneer? Yes. In this space. Yeah. Respectfully and humbly
23:23
Yes, I do. I do. I mean, I think there's a lot of things that I'm doing that
23:29
Nobody did before, and some people understand it and appreciate it. Most people don't yet, but I think they will in time, they'll look back and they'll be
23:40
like, oh, yeah, Spotty did that. Yeah. Back then, you know, and the beautiful thing about what I'm doing is because I'm
23:48
going direct to fans, direct to consumer. I don't need everybody to get it
23:53
Yeah. I don't need millions of people to love what I'm doing or to buy my music
23:57
I'm a big fan or supporter of the thousand fan theory. If you're an artist out there, you need a thousand fans
24:05
If you have a thousand fans that want to spend one hundred dollars supporting what
24:09
you're doing every year. Guess what? You're a six figure artist. You can eat off that
24:14
You know, you might not be living lavish or whatever, but you can eat. And that's that's what I'm on right now, which is dope because it allows me to make
24:21
what I want to make. I'm not I don't go into the studio and say, oh, let me make something that'll sound
24:26
like it can fit here and rap caviar play. I don't care about any of that
24:30
None of that matter. Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music. They need millions of users and they call them that
24:40
They call them users. As an artist, I don't need millions of users
24:45
I need a thousand fans or a thousand supporters. And that's it. And well, yeah, I want to say thank you for coming here to one
24:52
where I was a pleasure and an honor, actually. I mean, I really like different things
24:58
Hip hop is very crowded and I hate algorithms. You know, I really purposely I'm on, you know, a platform of choice
25:07
I won't name it here, but I've just deliberately listened to. Really, what I like, actually, you know what I mean, which is weird to say because
25:17
it doesn't serve me what I like, it thinks it's serving me what I like, but it's
25:21
not. It's serving me more of like the same over and over and over
25:27
So I'm getting more adjusted to manipulating it to work for me
25:31
But but at the end of the day, you know, hip hop, it's not stale, but it can feel
25:36
stale because of the way we're we're given our music. So I just want to say, man, I appreciate you and what you're doing
25:44
And really, the educational component is pretty dope, too. You know, I'm here. So I'll be honest
25:49
You know, I was into crypto when everybody else was into crypto. And I was like, I put money on so I lose some money or it doesn't do what I think it
25:56
should do. I'm like, oh, God, I can't I can't, you know, keep throwing money at it
26:01
But hearing you talk about it makes it less scary and less weird
26:08
And, you know, and I recognize the languages that I used to listen to
26:13
And I'm like, OK, maybe, maybe let me let me just stick the toe back in the in the
26:20
pool and see what we got going on here. I love to hear that, man
26:24
I love it. Do your own research, man. Look into this because it is the future
26:29
Like like banks buy Bitcoin. Yeah. Countries buy Bitcoin and Ethereum, you know
26:35
So like they're not doing it because it's going away. They're doing it because it's here to stay, you know
26:41
And if you're interested in it, my advice would just be don't put money into it that
26:46
you're going to be shook if the price goes down. Don't put your rent money in there
26:50
Don't put don't put your school clothes money or your grocery money in there
26:54
If you have money that you can afford to lose, put it in there and you'll you'll learn a
26:59
lot just by doing that, just by saying I'm going to put one hundred dollars in here and
27:03
just watch it. Yeah. Tell me about your name. What made you pick the name Spotty WiFi
27:09
I don't even know Spotty WiFi exists anymore. Oh, it definitely exists, especially on the plane, bro
27:16
But so it started with a crypto punk. So a crypto punk is one of the first OG NFTs ever in history
27:26
They came out in twenty seventeen and it's ten thousand little characters, little eight
27:30
bit Nintendo looking characters. So I bought one of these in February twenty twenty one
27:36
I spent about forty thousand dollars on it. And my crypto punk has spots on his face
27:43
So that actually makes him really rare. Like it's a trait that makes him very rare
27:50
But people sleep on this trait because people don't want the crypto punk with spots on his
27:53
face. But I just saw it as like, oh, it's on. It's underpriced
27:57
It's on discount. So I bought this crypto punk. I was not planning to do any music with it
28:02
I wasn't thinking about it like that. It was just an investment. I saw people like Mark Cuban talking about crypto punks
28:07
And it turned out to be a good investment. Now you can't get one for like under one hundred grand
28:12
Right. And some have sold for millions. But anyways, I started getting people following me on Twitter and stuff just because I
28:20
had this crypto punk all of a sudden. And that's when I decided, you know, I'm going to do something with music because people
28:26
are in tune with what I'm doing right now. And so as I was thinking about the name for this character, you know, this I was inspired
28:34
by the gorillas. Right. I was I was inspired by MF Doom. I was inspired by Slim Shady, anybody that ever had an alter ego in music
28:41
And I started calling him Spotty Pippin. And then eventually I was like, no, no, no, no
28:46
That's that's his legal name. His name is Spotty Pippin, but his stage name is Spotty Wi-Fi because it's just playing
28:53
on the idea that, you know, he wouldn't exist. I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing if it wasn't for technology, you know
28:59
So it's like the Wi-Fi is like, OK, he's high tech, but he's also a rapper, a struggling
29:03
rapper. So he's Spotty Wi-Fi, you know. Yeah, thanks a lot, man
29:09
Love, bro. Thank you. Definitely salute
#Entertainment Industry
#Urban & Hip-Hop
#Urban & Hip-Hop