Today on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, Day 5 of the #12DaysOfPodcasts, we welcome music producer, video director, DJ, drum programmer and all around content creator Fafu to the Upper West Side! Fafu discusses growing up in York, Pennsylvania, moving to Minnesota with dreams of finding his place in the live music scene, working odd jobs and taking recording classes, and hanging out at a biker bar on the outskirts of town where the best musicians in the world would congregate. We talk about working as a drum programmer and guitar tech for Prince at Paisley Park, moving to NYC to work with the Blue Man Group, moving to Los Angeles with Randy Jackson offered to create a label, band and production partnership with Fafu, heading to Albany, NY to join Puff Daddy and the Family on the No Way Out Tour, going to the Bahamas to work alongside The Hitmen on various Bad Boy projects, going to Atlanta to finish Puff's Forever album and assist with Mase's Double Up, and going to court to support Puff during the Club New York trial. Fafu shares stories about joining the group Blestenation, shopping a deal around, getting placement in a major motion picture, and what role Paul Rosenberg, Noah Callahan-Bever, Steven Victor and Mr. Morgan played in their career. All that plus working with Harry Fraud, shooting viral videos for Akon and French Montana, helping launch Made in America, how exactly Puff's people got weed into the Bahamas and much, much more! PS: Be sure to check out JeezyShop.com for all things Jeezy: his tour, his merch and his new album, Pressure, available now!

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Today on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, Day 4 of #12DaysOfPodcasts, we welcome radio veteran and host of the Brutally Honest podcast, Karlie Hustle to the Upper West Side! We talk about Karlie's youth in Eugene, Oregon, her early jobs at Kinko's and Applebee's, escaping to Portland after a short stint in college, and how finding her way into the hip-hop scene caught Ebro Darden's attention. Karlie discusses her climb up the radio ladder, starting with moving from a top-25 market to the 75th biggest market, and continuing moving down the West Coast, from Salinas to San Diego to Phoenix, what she learned from each stop about herself and the business, and what led her to into work with foster children and the homeless population. Karlie gets into the call from Ebro asking her to make the move to NYC's Hot 97, programming Hot 97's Who's Next series and Summer Jam Festival Stage, radio wars with Power 105, working with Funkmaster Flex and Angie Martinez, and why she ultimately left. All that, plus bigging up local acts, working with Rapsody and 9th Wonder, working for Beats 1 Radio, how motherhood has changed her perspective, why Kendrick Lamar should still do a Who's Next show at SOB's, and much more! PS: Be sure to check out JeezyShop.com for all things Jeezy: his tour, his merch and his new album, Pressure, available now!

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Today on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, Day 3 of #12DaysOfPodcasts, we welcome Upscale Vandal to the Upper West Side! For all the people who've been dying to know what exactly it is that he does for a living, we finally, finally find out! We talk about growing up in Brooklyn and Queens, to hustling in the streets, to rocking the dopest gear, lacing his car, and brandishing weapons, to getting locked up, to getting advice from the legendary DJ Clark Kent, who set him on the path he continues on to this day. We talk about his work with Pharrell and BBC, his work with Emory Jones and Jay Z and Roc Nation, his hands-on work with brands and style and fashion, and French Montana, Pusha T, J. Balvin and more, all while never selling out, and always maintaining the same cool he had as a kid. PS: Be sure to check out JeezyShop.com for all things Jeezy: his tour, his merch and his new album, Pressure, available on 12.15.07!

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Today on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we invited our friends Naomi Zeichner (Fader, YouTube), Rembert Browne (Grantland, NYMag), Scottie Beam (Hot 97, Revolt, Scottie Feedback, Satori Radio), Phil Chang (the Calvin Klein campaign with Solange, Dev Hynes, A$AP Mob, etc), and Brandon "Jinx" Jenkins (Complex, Pigeons & Planes) to the Upper West Side to discuss the year in music! From artist of the year, ad-lib of the year, best interview of the year, rap album, R&B album, worst hook, best social media account (artist or otherwise), dream collaboration for 2018 and so much more, we cover everything... except music that dropped after December 1st, SO CHILL.Be sure to check out JeezyShop.com for all things Jeezy: his tour, his merch and his new album, Pressure, available on 12.15.07!

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Today on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we celebrate 150 episodes of the podcast (and the beginning of our second annual #12DaysOfPodcasts) by answering all listener-submitted questions, ranging from comments about our work with Max B, to a mention of OG Chase B, to a question from Bun B. Make sure to tune in tomorrow and the following ten days for all new episodes of A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal!Be sure to check out JeezyShop.com for all things Jeezy: his tour, his merch and his new album, Pressure, available on 12.15.07!

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This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome singer, rapper, actress Lizzo to the Upper West Side! Known for her songs Phone and Good as Hell, her EP Coconut Oil, and great performances on MTV, Desus & Mero and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, we discuss how she grew up in Detroit, moved down to the SWAT section of Houston because "the mortgage business" was popping, dropped out of the University of Houston where she had a flute scholarship, moved to Denver where she photographed Cirque du Soleil and refused to speak, tried out for American Idol in Dallas, performing for zero audience as part of an indie progressive band in Houston, moving to Minneapolis and becoming one of Prince's favorite artists, taking a chance and collaborating with Ricky Reed in Los Angeles, and ultimately signing to Atlantic Records. All that, plus Slim Thug, Mike Jones, TV Johnny, John Mayer, Mark Ronson, Owen Wilson, Sanjaya, Puffy, Raising Canes, McCormick and Schmick's, and living her absolute best life.

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This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome comedian/writer/actor Ron Funches, to the Upper West Side! Ron discusses his upbringing in Chicago, moving to Oregon and starting anew, getting fired from Chuck E. Cheese, performing backyard wrestling, starting a family in his early 20's and raising an autistic son, doing open mics and learning to trust his own voice, all while dreaming of a life in entertainment outside of the Northwest. We talk about the comedy scene in Oregon, what he learned as a supporting act, finding management, working with like-minded, good people in comedy, getting hired to write sketches on Kroll Show, and what the festival circuit has to offer. Ron speaks on what Hollywood attitudes are really like, how splits his time between acting and stand-up, working with Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Conan O'Brien, and Larry David, as well as musicians like Bun B, Justin Timberlake, Michael Christmas, getting confused for The Weeknd or Big K.R.I.T. and much, much more!

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This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome The Remix King himself, East Harlem's own DJ Ted Smooth, to the Upper West Side! Ted talks earning his stripes playing whiffleball and basketball on the streets, playing his way into the Little League World Series, growing up in a single mother home, and learning to spin records at an early age thanks to his older brother being the legendary mixtape DJ Rei Double R. Ted discusses coming up in NYC as a performative DJ, learning reggae records early, building up an audience that would follow him from club to club, battling Kool DJ Red Alert, fronting on Kid Capri when he was trying to enter the DJ booth, and how he amazingly beat out Funkmaster Flex for the most desired piece of vinyl in Manhattan. We get into Lumidee's certified banger Uh Oh, how Ted forced Columbia Records' hand when he remixed Beyonce's Love on Top, knowing Jay-Z and Damon Dash and Big Pun and Fat Joe from the club days, working with Fabulous and Jadakiss for the Freddy vs. Jason project, and so much more, and for the first time ever, Ted tells the story behind the infamous One Blood loop!

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This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome Yonkers natives Jadakiss, Styles P and Sheek Louch, together known as The LOX, to the Upper West Side! In this rollicking, blissed-out, and wide-ranging episode, Jada, Styles and Sheek discuss robbing convenience stores on the early Puff Daddy & The Family tours, DMX urinating in front of tourists in Miami, meeting 50 Cent when he was opening on the Ruff Ryders/Cash Money tour, the work that Swizz Beatz put in to become worldwide, how much Biggie appreciated The Lox's lyricism, the work Eve put in in the studio early, the craziness that went down in Las Vegas for Ma$e's video shoot, how Yonkers has changed over the past twenty years, White Party stories, why they signed to Roc Nation, the people who stop through their studio, the movies The LOX love (and the ones they disagree on), how KRS-1 wanted to sign them, all the new music that's on the way, their new EP that's out now #4NoReason, and much, much more!

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This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome our friend Scottie Beam back to the Upper West Side! Scottie talks hanging out at Hot 97 as an elementary school student, being bullied growing up in the Bronx, how her mother taught her to fight back, being scared of moving to New Jersey and starting over. Scottie discusses her theater dreams, quitting her grocery store cashier job in a blaze of glory, cycling through roommates at college, and how Kanye West's music saved her life. Scottie details dropping out of college, joining the Hot 97 street team, getting a job working for Angie Martinez, and becoming a digital personality thanks to Ebro. All that plus stories about Summer Jam, Who's Next, Revolt, Scottie Feedback, tattoos, her sister being left on the side of the road, what she thinks of thirsty IG comments, the US version of The Office, and so much more in this very hilarious and very honest episode!

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