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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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,...

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we make two phone calls to Atlanta legends, chopping it up with Big Boi and Sleepy Brown to discuss their collaborative project The Big Sleepover and their individual journeys from Savannah to A-Town to international funk superstardom, as well as stories about Organized Noize, TLC, Jay-Z, Puff Daddy, Pimp C, George Clinton, Missy Elliott, Jermaine Dupri, Bobby Brown, Ludacris, Bubba Sparxxx, Dr. Dre, Pharrell, Sade, Brick, The Source Awards, The...

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...

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'...

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...

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...

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we phone our friend Styles P The Ghost to discuss his brilliant new album Ghost Your Enthusiasm, our two appearances on the project, his great sense of humor, DMX's witty sense of humor, how he can laugh now at throwing a chair at Puff or not getting on Benjamins, the NYC energy he appreciated at The Tunnel, the differences between Ruff Ryders Studios, D-Block Studios and Daddy's House, the crazy circumstances in which he first met Lil Jon, what...

Today on Episode 51 of Quarantine Radio, we make calls from our Upper West Side apartment, first to Los Angeles to check in on Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig - Ezra talks how his decade-long friendship with Dave-1 of Chromeo took them from the campus of Columbia University to the stage of Staples Center as Grammy award winners, what it was like when Larry David stopped by his internet radio show, how he compares Seinfeld and Curb, how the lockdown has affected his creativity, how fatherhood...

Today on Episode 50 of Quarantine Radio, we make calls from our Upper West Side apartment to Miami to check in on Dipset's Capo Jim Jones - Jimmy talks about his what drives him in his daily workouts, ending his beef with French Montana, helping inmates keep their cells as COVID-19-free as possible, why the streets will live on through and after the pandemic, his nerves about teaching his son how to drive, thinking back on what kind of driver Jim is, where his head's at creatively these days,...

Today on Episode 49 of Quarantine Radio, we make calls from our Upper West Side apartment to check in on super producer TM88, who discusses his and Southside's new single with Future, Young Thug and Moneybagg Yo, his classic work on Gucci Mane's World War mixtape series, his collaborations with Southside, Metro Boomin and Sonny Digital, the surprise of ending up on Drake's album, how Taylor Gang's Will Dzombak picked him up from the airport, what he expects of DJs on the other side of...

Today on Episode 48 of Quarantine Radio we pay tribute to the late legend of music, taste, aspiration and culture, Andre Harrell, with our friends DJ Clark Kent, Naima Cochrane and Jeff Sledge. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today on Episode 47 of Quarantine Radio, we make calls from our Upper West Side apartment to celebrated audio engineers Leslie Brathwaite, Alex Tumay and Anthony Cruz! First we jump on the phone with legendary mix engineer and multiple-Grammy Award winner Leslie Brathwaite to discuss his work with TLC, Beyonce, The Carters, Pharrell, Outkast, Jeezy, Lil Uzi Vert, Jack Harlow, Madonna, Cardi B and more, how he rests his ears and his soul, his relationships with artists and executives, what...

On this Mother's Day edition of ItsTheReal Classic, we revisit our 250th episode of A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, featuring our mom, who through resolve, strength, commitment, curiosity, love and generosity, has made her way through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. We're thrilled - once again! - to share her incredible journey, and know you'll enjoy this milestone episode. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After a week of calling on three friends a day, we wanted to take time to check in on ourselves: Saturdayz with the Indoor Boyz, where we examine the past seven days and over the course of time, see how we progress - or regress - week to week! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today on Episode 46 of Quarantine Radio we make calls from our Upper West Side apartment to check in on the director of ESPN's Michael Jordan documentary The Last Dance, Jason Hehir - we talk about growing up in Newton, Massachusetts mimicking Jordan's moves and listening to Rakim and LL Cool J tapes and all these years later combining those loves on a worldwide stage, how he approached his conversations with MJ and with Isiah Thomas, the philosophies of the documentary's editing team, the...

Today on Episode 45 of Quarantine Radio, we make calls from our Upper West Side apartment to check in on hall of fame producer/writer/performer Larry Wilmore to talk about what The Office means to multiple generations, what roles he's recognized for in public, what he saw in then-novice TV writer Cord Jefferson when he hired him at The Nightly Show, how Hollywood productions might move forward over the next 18 months, how he got his start working for radio disc jockey Rick Dees, who his least...

Today on Episode 44 of Quarantine Radio, we call to the West Coast from our Upper West Side apartment to make a long-awaited catch-up with our friend and super-producer The Alchemist! Al details how his collaboration with Jay-Z and Jay Electronica came to be, his and his brother's longtime friendship with Nipsey Hussle, how Rap Camp is faring these days considering quarantine protocol, whether that whole vibe could have existed if he tried it in NYC, his thoughts on the Verzuz battles and...

Today on Episode 43 of Quarantine Radio we make calls from our Upper West Side apartment to Los Angeles to check in with Fadia Kader, who works in Music Partnerships at Instagram - we discuss her experiences with Swizz and Timbaland's Verzuz series, helping out Babyface and Teddy Riley with the technical side of things, the importance of community in a pre-COVID time as well as the world we're living in now, making bets on artists, cultural gatherings, and most importantly herself in a...

Today on Episode 42 of Quarantine Radio we make calls from our Upper West Side apartment to check in on podcaster/writer/news-breaker Big Wos to talk about how he told the world about Drake's latest release, what the reaction is in his household when David Aldridge shows up in the Michael Jordan documentary The Last Dance, the one celebrity that lives in Wos' neighborhood in the Valley, our favorite Bon Appetit personalities, and so much more! We get on the line with acclaimed basketball and...