Hey guys! Remember the podcast we did for five years straight where all of your favorites would stop by our apartment for a 90-minute deep dive conversation? Well, the pandemic brought that to an end... as we're sure you noticed! But ever since then, we've been quietly and dutifully at work on a larger concept - an elevation of A Waste of Time... called The Blog Era. It's a fascinating look into how the music superstars of today were put on by a small group of kids behind keyboards. This 10-part docu-style audio series - which traces the rollercoaster ride of 2007-2012, when hip-hop met ..read more

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we get on the phone with our best friend, musical partner and third creative partner in ItsTheReal, Greg Mayo! Greg discusses growing up in a creative household, the son of a painter mother and a touring musician father (who played with, among others, Hall & Oates, Foreigner, Aerosmith and Peter Frampton, most famously on Frampton Comes Alive), how he initially shunned his musical side to focus on baseball, what it meant when his parents divorced, how listening to ONYX, Cypress Hill and LL Cool J informed his rhythmic thinking, how being compet ..read more

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal we welcome back podcaster, businesswoman and NYT best-selling co-author of Big Friendship, our friend Aminatou Sow! With Amina on the phone, we discuss the expectations when signing a book contract, the relationship between authors and the publisher's editor, the benefits of bringing on an additional editor, who exactly Ann and Amina wrote their memoir for, what they learned about friendship overall and specifically in a quarantine, and the feelings that come with presenting art to the public. We talk about Trump's disastrous response to COVID-19, h ..read more

In this special episode of A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we speak with Yusuf Abdul-Qadir, Director at the New York Civil Liberties Union, who recently went viral, thanks to his powerful message about police policies, spending and officer accountability concerning his hometown of Syracuse, NY. We speak about bringing meaningful change to the local level, the national level and the transnational level, how a message is disseminated and the role media should play, and whether Syracuse's current leadership can be trusted with enacting forward movement. Yusuf discusses growing up the younge ..read more

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal we're celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Rick Ross' classic album Teflon Don by reliving the making-of with Rozay and his collaborators Jadakiss, Styles P, Lex Luger, Spiff TV and Chris Atlas as well as analysis from The New York Times pop critic Jon Caramanica! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information ..read more

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal we call up our friend Sheek Louch, the Silverback Gorilla, 1/3 of The LOX and 1/4 of 2 Jews & 2 Black Dudes Review the Movies for a super dope and meaningful conversation about Bad Boy, Ruff Ryders, D-Block, Yonkers, Harlem, The Hamptons, Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliott, Puffy, Biggie, DMX, Swizz, Suge, Heavy D, Carl Thomas, The Neptunes, The LOX's group projects and solo deals, the joys of fatherhood, growing up in YO, working at Burger King, working the street corners, playing football, breakdancing, watching his mother get a masters degree and i ..read more

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we call down to Atlanta to connect back with the premier mix engineer in the business, the multi Grammy Award-winning Leslie Brathwaite! Leslie, who would go on to be the trusted man behind the boards for Beyoncé, Pharrell, Jay-Z, Outkast, TLC, Madonna, Lil Uzi Vert, Jack Harlow, Rick Ross, Jeezy, Cash Money, Monica, and so many more talks about growing up in the U.S. Virgin Islands, falling in love with music by deep-diving into his father's record collection, the three months his mother wouldn't speak to him because he was he was focused on study ..read more

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal we call our longtime friend and VP of Promotions at Atlantic Records Sam Crespo to discuss growing up in The Bronx in the 80s, falling in love with illustrations and music, traveling all around New York City to be a part of the hip-hop, metal and punk scenes, going to college and briefly studying to be an accountant, a professor's advice that changed his career path and ultimately his life, starting in the music business in Relativity Records' warehouse, moving into their sales office, meeting fellow Bronx native/Puerto Rican/hip-hop head Fat Joe, m ..read more

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, it was only right to celebrate episode 310 by getting on the phone with Los Angeles' own, the Grammy Award-winning and Academy Award-holding director and storyteller Calmatic! Cal, a new father, talks about where his heart, soul and being are at after the last two weeks, where his mind's been since Nipsey Hussle's tragic passing last year, and what kind of hope he has for his son's generation in America. Cal takes us through growing up in Inglewood, his love for the West Coast, his obsession with baseball and his dreams of playing college ball, how ..read more

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we call up our friend Bun B to listen. Bun speaks on his experiences in Minneapolis protesting the murder of George Floyd, his time in Houston spent alongside the Floyd family, the courage, compassion and leadership that Stephen Jackson has shown, living everyday with your head on a swivel, fighting for the younger generations, the duty to speak up, what allies mean in this day and age, and so much more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information ..read more