good evening from los angeles. i'm tavis smiley. tonight a conversation with rapper lodgy. he is one of the top streaming artists in the world. he just released his latest project called everybody and marks the highest opening week of his career. the project has a unique could be concept and some surprising collaborations. rapper lodgy coming up in just a moment.

very quietly become one of the brightest young stars in hip hop. he is one of the top 25 streaming artists in the world with one billion stream. he joins us to talk about "everybody" which has a unique concept and surprising guest collaborations. before our conversation though, take a look at some of the video for the song "black spiderman." ♪ i just want to be free no stereotypes ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ your fans, of course, know your bi-racial makeup. there is of course, drake, there is jay cole, there are a bunch of folks that come to mind. but to my mind, i think this is the first time you actually talked about it in this way. >> yeah. and i'm probably the first

bi-racial rapper who looks white as hell. so, yeah. it's not me. because i'm comfortable with who i am. i think sometimes like, you know, i think, you know, i heard things within the community of hip hop, he is always talking about being black and white. he is talking about being bi-racial. why he is always talking about it? i'm not always talking about it. this is the first time i ever discussed it on an album. it's when i go and interviewed and they're like what it is like being a white rapper? to me, it's like well i'm black and white. i'm bi-racial. i make it a statement to say like this is who i am because i'm proud of who i am. you know? and is because of that people are like he's pushing the whole bi-racial thing top of. what it is like being a white rapper, it's great and three years went by and then it comes out my dad is black, what are you ashamed? >> you can't win no matter what you do. >> you can't win no matter what

you do. i take your point. but how have you become comfortable with the skin that you are in? >> nice. that's -- a lot of footwear. >> that's pretty cool. >> i'll leave the rhyming you to. but there are a lot of folks though who into adulthood, i know some of them, who still have not come to terms with who they really are? >> i think it's because we focus individually on how society perceives us. it's like our per senception of we're perceived. that affects how we act and mature as individuals. so for me, growing up in my household and being a student of peace love and positivity which is my whole thing, i had to look inward. it's almost like when someone tells you you're so sure of something, you're having a conversation or a bet and you're so sure and then you're wrong. it's, you know, you have to be able to go, damn i was wrong and shake that person's hand and learn from it to be able to

mature. i had to look in the mirror and say this is me. you know, whether people like me or not this is who i'm going to be. yeah, i rap and i'm married and look at how i look and i represent peace and love. you know, that's a lot -- those things don't necessarily -- aren't necessarily praised in the mainstream media that is hip hop or whatever you want to call rap today. which i dhi s bs. i is found on love and being who you truly r i'm persecuted every day for being myself. but i'd rather be hated for who i am than loved for who i'm not. >> you're the star though. you said a moment ago that got my attention which is that it takes a certain level of honesty and authenticity to admit that you were wrong, to look at yourself and acknowledge. that we live in a world

increasingly you understand where people don't do that. from the president of the country on down. >> yeah. it's not even a statement. it's more of a clalg to people. but people don't want to accept that -- >> yeah. be wrong. learn. it's all good. but honestly, i think that comes from open mindedness. you know? my whole thing is like every day, you know, i'm out there and i say always, always, peace, love, positivity. that's what this album is about. that's why it's called "everybody". the fight for equality of every man, woman, child, regardless of the race, age, color, religion. it is my job, you know, to be that voice. and so, yeah, i think it's like you just got to be you and you have to learn and it's okay. it's okay to fall and get back up. it's almost like -- what's that saying, the reason the master is the master and the student is the student is because the master has failed even more times than the student has ever

tried. and for the master to say i have failed and, you know, stand tall and say i have failed, s. is a deal. when it come to the masters of society sh it's about always being right or always being perfect rather than admitting their own defeat at times. >> three or four time now you have given us your montra, peace, love, positivity. but knowing your back story as i do, those three things could have been bitterness, resentment and anger. >> yeah. >> they weren't. >> they aren't. tell me a bit about your back story and how it turned out to be about peace, love, and positivity and not three other characteristics? >> i think -- man, just kind of getting into it like growing up. both of my parents were addicted to alcohol and narcotics. my father specifically did crack cocaine. he is 62 years old now. he's been clean for a few years and doing well now. back then he wasn't a part of my life. having a black father and white mother, the father wasn't there,

being raised by my mother. my brothers and sisters from other black men that my mother had them with, it was like a weird kind of place to grow up in my household specifically and seeing like my brothers in the streets and selling crack and hustling and getting locked up and shooting and, you know, guns and doing all this crazy stuff. and i, you know, i held guns. i run around with knives. i got in fights and done dumb things. i'm so happy i've never done anything that haunts me. i have never taken anybody's life, thank god. i never done anything that i look in the mirror and i'm truly ashamed of. i mean i've done -- everybody's done stuff they're not proud of. i'm really happy it never went there. so kind of having to fight through all that, you know, domestic violence and abuse and seeing my mother beaten by men and, you know, blood on the kitchen floor and my sisters being sexually assaulted and raped. my mother included and my mother

dealing with bipolar and anxiety. just so crazy. i don't know. but i saw all of it. saw it all. i saw it as a child. and in my mind every time i saw it, it's like don't do that. that's the way not to be. don't hit a woman, love a woman. nurture a woman. don't yell, you know, do your best to -- >> how did you know not to do that? you know most people end up emulating the behavior. >> of course. >> how did you know? what is this moral compass come from? >> i don't know, man. that's the thing where like people ask me. that common sense and god or whatever it may be, the energy of the universe. i just -- i don't know. i felt bad. like bs you know, i see that and i was just like, like that's why i feel i always tell my stylist, i'm so basic. like i just come basic. everything about me is basic. it's like just easy to be myself. just be you. so i think as a child, like, that was me. it was me to not want to hurt a woman or force a woman to do

something or, you know, i don't know, man. i don't know. to me it makes sense. you know what it comes down to? it's just that mentality. for example, a few years ago when i first started, man, to be completely honest with you, there are people that would say hurtful things like, you know, you're a cracker. you're gay, stupid, this, and just hurtful things to try to tear me down. i never understood. i asked myself, how could somebody hate me, right? i'm not trying to be like -- i'm just being honest. how you could hate me? peace, love, positivity. came from nothing. social security, welfare, section will 8 household and i made it. i can't believe it. it's incredible. i'm hear to wave the flag for toerve say we can all truly do. this and then there are people like shut up. you're stupid, this, that, you're whack and your muse sick terrible. i would trouble myself, why do people hate me? and then it clicked. it was like i don't understand why people hate me because i'm not hater man. i'm a lover.

and that's the mentality i have. i don't have a hater mentality. i don't look at things and try to dissect them in a negative way and talk about what could be better. i talk about the things that i enjoy or love first. >> a couple things you said that i want to unpack. one of them is this notion of people listening to your music and saying it's whack. yeah. >> there may be some of that you're getting because of the way you look. >> for sure. >> and there may be people that don't like your sound. you think we all have to be open to critics. i got them. you got them. we all have critics. the question is how did you get comfortable with your musical stylings when there were people telling you legitimately or illegitimately that you're whack? >> i love that. what a great question. >> it's just perseverance. it's knowing like -- so the biggest thing that you have to understand is, like -- or i had to understand is i don't make music for people that don't like it. right? like you don't do this show for the like oh, i don't

agree that or this and that. you don't have to grechlt we don't have to argue about it. so for me when i really came to the realization about acceptance. when i stopped to look for acceptance in others, when i stapd going on twitter to see people go oh, you're great. i know i'm great. i know i'm good. i know i'm talented. i know i'm special. just like people watching, that's a real thing. once i knew that and could tell myself that, that's when i truly found that balance. so for me, now that's not even where my mind is when it comes to an album like this. i didn't make the music stylistically for someone that's not going to enjoy it. if you don't like it, that's cool. you're not invited to this party. the millions of people aren't world who are are here. i'm so happy. that's who i made the music for. the thing i was most scared about is the subject matter to discuss a lot of the things. i never talked about this ever before. i never talked about it. i was just scared. scared out of my mind. i discussed things politically like i never done before.

race, mental health, suicide, anxiety. so many things. it was very scary. i'm glad i did it. my buddy jordan is over there right now. i have people that love me and care about me from my wife and best friends to push me and support me to do something i was scared to do. >> you mentioned this word earlier, i want to go there. so let's go there now. talk to me about the track anxiety zbhch anxiety. >> oh, man. anxiety -- all right, so last year -- i'm trying to think about how to, like, not sound a certain way. this year, let's put it this way. this year i paid a million dollars in taxes. that just goes to show you how great last year was. i had a great year. but at the same time, i was -- i was unhappeny. i was the moef unhappy i had ever been in my life. the reason was, there is a few reasons. first onecy was working myself to the ground. i was not enjoying the moment. i wasn't in the moment. and i'll never forget. i mean literally, constantly working, working, no time for myself. i was standing in line.

it was 2015. i was standing in tlin see "star wars" with my wife in hollywood downtown. and i start having this crazy physical feeling like i was going to fanlt. i never really had this feeling before. i mean i felt like my soul was leaving my body. i was freaking out. i felt like i needed to throw up. lo and behold, i ended up finding myself in a hospital bed later. and i didn't know what was going on. the doctor tells me, it's anxiety. i'm like this isn't anxiety. i'm feeling like i have no idea what is going on. ever since then i was experiencing derealization. derealization is the sense of being out of one's body all the time. and what i later come to realize is actually hyper anlization of reality and real time, what that means is basically, you're just overanalyzing every moment that you perceive in real time which sounds wild. but it exists. i didn't know what it was. i thought i had like a disease or there was something going on

with my brain or dying. i didn't realize it was anxiety. and so this term like driving -- you're driving me crazy is a real thing. like i almost drove myself to the brink of insanity. and i didn't even know why. why am i doing it? why am i, you know, doing meet and greets when i'm meeting 100 people every day three hours before a show and then i'm doing a soundtrack -- or a sound check and performing for two hours a night and thent off day isn't really an off dashgs it's traveling on a bus for 18 hours and over and over and over. last year nine straight months on the road away from my wife, dogs, home. i say all this to say i didn't understand what i was. i had to craziest anxiety. i was having dark thoughts about death, not killing myself, nothing like. that but i'm mortal. i hope i'm not going on too much. but i had all these realizations. and they were all negative things. once i ate better, once i said no i'm not going to do that show or no i have to postpone this tour for me, my anxiety began to

get better and better and better. and that song, that's what it's b the first half is a very beautiful voice from my friend lucy rose and then the second half is when anxiety hits you and comes n i'm going to get up in your mind and make you feel like dime right now. i'm never giving, i have to let everybody know i'm in their mind right now. so it was just a culmination of a year of hell for me that i put into a song. >> take away from that experience was what? >> life's awesome. stop overthinking it. just enjoy the moment. and make time. balance yourself. that's why i got this tattoo. it says balance yourself. this says happy wife, happy life. and this one says balance yourself. those are the only tattoos i have. >> those two things go together. >> that's real. >> you think about it. they go together. >> let me go tlchl i'm following you. you're moving so fast. i love. this. >> cool. >> i've lost count. i'm pretty good at. this i lost count at six as the

number of time you referenced your wife including happy wife. >> hey. >> happy life. >> yeah. >> so here's the parallel for me. maybe even a disconnect until you explain it for me. which is how you come out of that family environment where all hell was breaking loose growing up and at such a young age you find yourself married and in a marriage that you apparently happy in and you love your wife and she's gorgeous. i've seen photos. >> that helps. >> yeah. but i guess what i'm getting at is you could have gone the other way given those -- >> of course. >> how did this -- the short answer is you felt somebody and fell in love w i get. that talk o to me at a deeper level about how you end up in such a stable family environment when you came out the exact opposite. >> maybe because deep down wnt depth of my mind, that's something i had auld searched for and lived for.

monogamy and, you know, not being a womanizer and not seeing, you know, from seeing the things that i d maybe deep down i was looking for a good woman deep down. i want to be a great father. so maybe that's just been the goal this whole time. i'm like having this realization on the couch with you right now. the real thing. i never really thought about it. but wow, look at. this i got married at 25. i'm 27 now. my wife, she's only 24. you know, like we were both very young. but we knew what we wanted. and people are like you're too young. why are you getting married? that's a real thing. nobody should ever rush anything. we didn't rush anything. we were happy. not content. we were happy to be with each other. and there's hard times, man in any relationship. i believe that communication is the biggest thing as long as you can truly communicate with someone whether it's, you know, your spouse or your business partner, friend and transparency, and being honest. you have to be honest. it really works. i don't know. i'm just in love.

she's bad and, you know, she's fine. that's what that means out there. and she's a great person. honestly, i'm going to be 100%. i've never been -- i've never been so tracted to a woman before i met her. and that's me. you have to wake up next to the person for the rest of your life. no matter what may happen or whatever, i love her. but for me, i got the whole package. and that's what it s it's really funny, man. when i was single, i'd rap about girls just for fun. you rap about girls. what's up, tina? whatever. en that and that. and just having fun. but it's really cool now to have that like rapper as thetic within my music except i'm talking about my wife. that's cool. i like it. >> not that you or i or any of would ever encourage kids to drop out of high school, but how does all this enlightenment -- and i'm not trying to kiss your behind, i'm asking seriously, where did this enlighten ment and understanding come from? what do you watch, read, listen to? for a kid that didn't finish high school this is pretty impressive.

>> yeah. and one thing i will say, i believe education is extremely important. unfortunately, my system and where i was failed me and then also my home was just -- and naz no excuse. you know, i remember actually went back my high school had me come back and speak to the kids. and that was really weird. and they were like -- they handed me the mike before i talk to the kid. whatever you do, don't say you didn't graduate. i'm like okay. severi everything is going fine and they say how come you didn't graduate? and i look at my old counsellor and i'm like, damn. >> moment of truth. >> and i was just like i didn't graduate because of all the things that was going on in my household. i didn't graduate because at that point in my life i didn't have people there to push me and guide me and, you know, work me to get that education. and i was like there are so many people here that have loving parents and guardian that's are

pushing them. and there are so many people here as well that don't and that are still getting your education. you're stronger than i was. everyone applauded those people. that's how i feel about that. so i think -- and another thing is don't be lazy. so when i was 17 years old and unfortunately, you know, i wasn't in high school. i got two jobs that i worked in the morning and the evening. and then i would go home -- >> what were they? >> i had all types of jobs. at that specific time, jiffy lube. i was changing oil. and then in the evening i worked at a flower shop. >> there you go. but, yeah, then i would come home and record. so i would write and write and write and record myself and work on myself. i was work og thn craft. i say that if at 17 years old i can live on my own, work two jobs and still follow my dreams like then just chill. you can finish high school and do what you love. i think -- i don't know, what push med to get to where i am today. it is others.

others, man. you know, sure, i read some books. i'm much more visual person. think and grow rich and just the true secret of this kind of unspoken thing. it's exactly like i was -- there's a language of success. and when i was explaining about haters, right, i don't understand why people hate. i'm not a hater. it's also like go get it go. do it. you have tonight what success more than the next breath to attain the goals you want in life, just in general. and so i feel -- a lot of people go well, you noi, i would do it but -- and that's it right there. i'd go to school but i can't. or, you know, unfortunately like my mother is sick and i have to be there. i get it. this is the part of life. but if you want it, you have to do it. because i think the worst thing

in the world is looking back in your elder years being filled with regret. >> speaking of success, if there is one thing that indicates that you are on your way, it is other giants in the rap game put their information on your project. you have great collaborations. >> i'm blessed. >> i mean, the names just -- >> yeah. >> it's a secret. i won't tell you who some of them r but it's just, i mean, just say a word about the collaborations on this. >> i waited. i never had features on an album. i wanted to wait. i have killer mike. i have chuck from public enemy, no id rapping. incredible grammy winning producer for jay z and kanye west and so many others rapping for the first time in 20 years on this album.

>> that is a funny part. >> that's the craziest part. >> the astro physicist is on your list. >> the funny thing is, he's playing the role of god. >> one thing i would like to say to wrap all this up, this album say concept album. the pitch of the concept is this guy adam is walking home from work where he gets hit by a car and dies, wakes up in a white void talking to a man who turns out to be god. which tells him that not only has he just died, but that he's about to be reincarnated. and not only he is about to be reincarnated, he has been reincarnated, so many times that every human being that ever existed and he lived in the shoes of every man, woman, child, race, religion and creed and he can be taken into the next existence. on every song where i am not discussing my race which i never done before, i am rapping from one of the lives this man adam lived in the 21st century. >> bam. that's how you close the show. that is what the project is. i've heard this thing from top to bottom.

it is a powerful and beautiful and poin yanlt and insightful piece of work. it is called "everybody" by logic. honored to have you on this program, man. first time. hopefully not your last. >> this is my first talk show. >> see. i feel honored. >> this is crazy. >> i've done this a few times now. we put a fuel people on here. >> it's pretty tight. >> kanye came here years ago. nobody heard of him. spalding came here years ago. >> hopefully you'll let me come back. >> let you? what you doing tomorrow? thank you so much. >> good to see you, man. that's our show tonight. thanks for watching. as always, keep the faith.

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