[music]

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It from WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. Now it is time for a listening party and it may be the last for artist Lyrics Born but don't worry, he has something else up his sleeve. In 1997, Lyrics Born debuted as one half of the alternative rap duo Latryx alongside his partner Lateef the Truthspeaker with their project, cleverly titled The Album.

Then in 2003, he launched a solo career with the album Later That Day, which Rolling Stone recently named one of the 200 greatest hip-hop albums of all time. Now, 27 years later, the self-proclaimed funkiest rapper alive is releasing his final LP. It's called Goodbye Sticky Rice. The 10-track album features songs filled with witty bars and infectious grooves, including tracks titled Girls, What Dreams Are Made Of, and Take It 2 Far. Let's take a listen to Take It 2 Far Monkey

[MUSIC - Lyrics Born: Take It 2 Far]

Funkiest rapper alive

Let's go

I smoke, I drank

I'm supposed to quit, but I can't

Imma take it too far

Imma take it too far

Imma take it too far

Imma take it too far

I tried

I lied

I'm the highest star in the sky

Imma take it too far

Imma take it too far

Take it way too far

Imma take it too far

When they say I'm the best

Baby, they ain't lied

Certified vet from The Bay like Draymond

We ain't the same cloth

They soft like rayon

Talk down on the boy?

That's a hate crime

If I don't feel seen

I see my way out

No time for Ray Charles

Need M's like eight mile

Alison Stewart: You said the Bay Area legend dives deeper into personal and cultural reflections with this album offering listeners a thoughtful and highly textured musical experience. Now remember what I said about him having something else up his sleeve, he has a cooking show Dinner in Place. Joining me now for an All Of It listening party rapper and producer Lyrics Born. Welcome.

Lyrics Born: Thank you. Pleasure.

Alison Stewart: Oh gosh, so good to have you here. Where'd the title come from? Goodbye, Sticky Rice.

Lyrics Born: Well, the title was originally just Sticky Rice, but then I just decided, "You know what? I'm out of here."

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: Wait, when did you decide this would be your last album?

Lyrics Born: I'd been coming up on this decision for a long time. I made my debut as a professional in 1993 with my first 12-inch single. I don't know if people remember that. Way back in the 1900s.

Alison Stewart: [laughs]

Lyrics Born: AD.

Alison Stewart: Sorry I was born in the 1900s. I get you. I feel you.

Lyrics Born: I know. That's what my son calls. He calls it the 1900s AD. He throws the AD in there, which makes it sound even older.

Alison Stewart: Hey, you know what? I'm going to ask you for a second. We are getting some weird feedback and our listeners are probably wondering what that is. Let's listen to the first track from the album and see if we can figure it out. I'll meet you on the other side. Okay?

Lyrics Born: Sounds good. Thank you.

[MUSIC - Lyrics Born: What Dreams Are Made Of]

We are shooting stars

That’s what dreams are made of

That’s what dreams are made of

That’s what dreams are made of

We are shooting stars

That’s what dreams are made of

That’s what dreams are made of

6am we ain’t never going home

Blaze it up

Come on fire it up

We got the funkiest rapper alive with us

I want lots of love

I want not to judge

And if my brother fall down

I’mma prop him up

And if something from our past keep poppin’ up

Remember who you are

Not what you was

I ain’t trying to live my life anonymous

We want our flowеrs now

Not posthumous

I like my flower loud inside my blunt

Plump likе the trunk on snuffalopagus

Humpin’ like a hungry hippopotamus

Horny like rhinoceroses nostrils

Gimme that stuff that funky stuff

Girl, sweet and sticky like jamocha almond fudge

Down your tongue

Deep inside your lungs

I come to funk y’all face down bottoms up

We are shooting stars

That’s what dreams are made of

That’s what dreams are made of

That’s what dreams are made of

We are shooting stars

That’s what dreams are made of

That’s what dreams are made of

7am we ain’t never going home

Trilly Wonka with the golden bars

Baby head bobbin’ mane

Like a quarter horse

Feel the groove down your legs like some corduroys

Po’ up toast the boy with the golden voice

Alison Stewart: That's What the Dreams Are Made Of from Goodbye, Sticky Rice. Why did you decide to start the album with that song?

Lyrics Born: It's a kickoff song. I don't know. Certain songs, they just sound like they should kick the party off, and that was it. It just seem like the most obvious, logical song to start the album off with.

Alison Stewart: How did the process of creating this album feel different from your past work? You're up to your 16th album, your eighth solo album. What was the process like that was different?

Lyrics Born: Oh, I really wanted this to feel like a going away party, and so I approached it that way. A lot of it was inspired by the pre-hip-hop music that I grew up listening to like in elementary school. Honestly, a lot of sort of like the good time '80s sophisticated boogie funk that got me through childhood but also got me through the pandemic as well. I really wanted to pay tribute in a very full and cohesive way to that era, but also celebrate this era, which is me saying bye-bye. [laughs]

Alison Stewart: What falls under the heading of boogie funk? What kind of artists?

Lyrics Born: It ranges everything from Con Funk Shun to certain eras of Prince and The Time, Steve Arrington, Slave, that sort of like '80s danceable kind of post-disco but like pre-hip-hop R&B.

Alison Stewart: It was kind of stuck-- Our connection wasn't great before, but you did say this was going to be your last album, your going away album. What made you come to that decision? What made you decide like, "You know what? This is it. This is good?"

Lyrics Born: Well, it's been interesting. This is my 31st year as a professional. I made my first record as a teenager in 1993 and I felt like it was time. I have other things on my plate at the moment and I'm such a Virgo that if I don't give everything my full attention, I tend not to give it my full attention. I just wanted to make sure that I didn't have other things competing for my creative attention. I knew that I wouldn't be able to do other things well if I continue to chop away at this in the same way.

Music is a very-- it's a very all consuming pursuit if you really want to do it well and you really want to approach it with integrity, like I like to think of it. I do. I just knew that I would not succeed at anything else if I didn't approach those things with the same level of intensity.

Alison Stewart: We're talking to rapper and producer Lyrics Born. His most recent album is titled Goodbye, Sticky Rice. We're having a listening party for this final album. A lot of the songs we've been listening to and others on the album feature your wife. You've made music together for 30-plus years. How did your collaborative relationship begin?

Lyrics Born: Well, I met her when I was a college DJ at KDVS when we were both students at UC Davis in California. She was a volunteer. As soon as I saw her I was like, "Oh wow." I pursued her for about a year and a half. As she will famously tell you, she avoided me for about a year and a half. Finally, I don't know, because I'm a stubborn Japanese man, I think that we eventually connected, and then the very first time we connected musically was in the studio. I recorded a song called Balcony Beach in 1996, and that was probably my first "hit." I think we've been recording together ever since. I can honestly say I've made my best music with her.

Alison Stewart: Aside from her being a lovely lady, which I'm sure, what unique attributes does she bring to an album as a collaborator?

Lyrics Born: Well, she's just very, very, very good. She's a classically trained singer. She really understands music. She can nail parts within one take. I rarely have to record more than once or twice. I think beyond that, the intangibles are that we just have this artistic shorthand and just from knowing each other and very well, obviously, for many, many years.

We're around each other so much. She knows what my interests are. She knows kind of what my artistic lean is and take and vice versa. I can throw references at her and she can throw references at me. Again, we just have that unspoken understanding, that shorthand of our tastes and our preferences when it comes to music.

Alison Stewart: I'm going to ask you to pronounce her name because I don't want to mess it up.

Lyrics Born: Joyo Velarde.

Alison Stewart: All right, we're going to listen to a track featuring Joyo Velarde. This is It Might Not Be Love.

[MUSIC - Lyrics Born: It Might Not Be Love]

It might not be love

It might not be love

But it’s something

It might not be love

It might not be love

But it’s something

It might not be love

It might not be love

But it’s something between us baby

I need your company and touch

Face to face

Comforting and plush

Loveseat in the club

Drinks, space

Anything we dream up

No one can see us

Raise the vibration

So serene, lush

This is how it go between us

The chase, the pace

The dopamine rush

Rope it off

Rope it off

Our own private corner in the restaurant

I said

Rope it off

Rope it off

Just you and me

Tell them close it off

I said

Rope it off

Rope it off

Our own quiet corner in the restaurant

Opal on your neck like a distant star

Open shirt

Vintage silk Saint Laurent

It might not be love

It might not be love

But it’s something

It might not be love

It might not be love

But it’s something

It might not be love

It might not be love

But it’s something

It might not be love

It might not be love

But it’s something between us baby

It might not be love

It might not be love

But it’s something

It might not be love

It might not be love

But it’s something

It might not be love

It might not be love

But it’s something

It might not be love

It might not be love

But it’s something between us baby

Alison Stewart: We're talking to rapper and producer Lyrics Born about his most recent album, Goodbye, Sticky Rice. Now, according to the Internet, and you know the Internet, so correct me if I'm wrong, your stage name was originally Asia Born, but you changed it to Lyrics Born.

Lyrics Born: Yes. Yes. That's right. Like I said, my debut single was 1993 as Asia Born. You got to understand we're talking early '90s when I came out. Coming from where I came from, it's not unusual to be an Asian man in hip-hop, in the arts, rapping, producing. It was rough when I started to tour and I really got my-- I'm not going to use the word, but I got it handed to me in the press.

There was a lot of-

Alison Stewart: Interesting.

Lyrics Born: -racial slurs being thrown around and I'd heard that pretty much my whole life and I didn't need to hear that anymore. It really felt-- It was difficult being isolated and singled out in that way, especially when you feel like you're already artistically out on an island and just this desire that I think most people, especially people of color have where you really want to be evaluated by your merits.

Lyrics Born was always kind of a nickname. When we did the next record, when I recorded with Blackalicious on their debut EP, I was listed as Lyrics Born and it's just stuck ever since.

Alison Stewart: When you're doing your last album, you go back and you think about what is you were trying to accomplish as you were a young person. When you first started out your rapping style, how would you describe it and how have you evolved since then?

Lyrics Born: My stepfather was a woodworker. He started off making custom furniture one-of-one for people. At that time he didn't really make a whole lot of money, but everything, he made all these bespoke kind of if you wanted a twin bed made out of walnut, "Cool. I got you. Give me about six months and here we come." By the end of his career, he embraced the technology that was available and he started mass producing, and still in a very small boutique way, but he was mass-producing other products that were wood.

He branched out, he got better at it and he got more efficient. I kind of likened my career to that path. That was the trajectory that I was on. It was like when I first started making songs and albums, it took me a really, really long time. I turned over every rock and tried to evaluate every little move and decision. As time goes on and you gain more experience and you embrace technology and tools and so forth, you learn to trust yourself more. You just become more prolific and more versatile. I think that's one of the things that I prided myself on. I've been able to evolve and embrace new methods.

Alison Stewart: You still in the Bay Area?

Lyrics Born: Yes. Yes. I split time between Berkeley, California, and my hometown in LA.

Alison Stewart: What role did the Bay Area play in the album style?

Lyrics Born: Well, I think as I said before, it wasn't unusual, and it's still not unusual to be an Asian man in this business and just be involved in hip-hop and the arts. I think that from day one, right away, most importantly, that aspect of Bay Area culture, I felt emboldened and without even knowing it, to pursue this line of work, this lifestyle. I think as I got older and I started to tour, I really began to realize how special that actually was and that actually is.

Bay Area culture is not something that you really see anywhere else. You just don't have this kind of mix of thought and politics and culture and history and awareness and interest. You just don't have that in other places, definitely not in the country. I've toured quite a bit extensively over the course of my career, and I can honestly say you just really don't have that elsewhere in the world. I've been very fortunate. I honestly don't think my story could have happened anywhere else.

Alison Stewart: My guest is rapper and producer Lyrics Born. The most recent album is called Goodbye, Sticky Rice. We're having a listening party. Let's listen to another song. This is titled Shades of Jade. What's this about?

Lyrics Born: Shades of Jade. Shades of Jade, it's kind of about my personal experience. I take some time away from the party of the album, and I'm just able to talk about some of the things that I deal with day to day, emotionally.

Alison Stewart: Here's Shades of Jade.

[MUSIC - Lyrics Born: Shades of Jade]

LB, baby

LB, baby

Now people don’t know all this

But behind the performances and those poems I spit

All the showmanship and those cold ass fits

I struggle with extreme loneliness

Overtures and bids

To connect with folks go unnoticed and miss

I try holdin’ it in

Play close to the vest

When I scroll through my phone

I notice all my closest friends

Disappeared Like the ocean mist

The light along the coast

It grows so dim

How do I cope with it?

All those cliche ways you can think of

Drink up

One cup, 2 cups, 13 cups

Link up with people beneath my frequency

My inner circle got inner circles

Got inner circles like a tree trunk

The thirst to be perfect, be worthy, be enough

It’s hard to keep up

I just keep adding beads on the string til I’m freed up

And one day I’m healed up

Pain and uncertainty are free but

Peace takes effort and we ain’t guaranteed love

Shades of jade

Cloudy or clear

Beads on a string

Keep adding on

Keep adding on

First of mother[censored] could nary be me

Know how I know?

I can barely be me

Pretty as I am

Witty as I am

Some can’t embrace what ethnicity I am

Not everybody ready to mentally expand

Get beyond whatever barrier they in

Alison Stewart: You're listening to music from Lyrics Born. All right, so you have a whole expansion of your career. You've been acting, you've been in Sorry to Bother You with Boots Riley, Always Be My Maybe with Ali Wong. How does the creative process of acting compare to your performance as a musician?

Lyrics Born: To me, they're all facets of the same jewel. It's just with acting, with songwriting, rapping, performing, cooking, Dinner in Place, again, it's all just different sides of the same coin, in my opinion. You just use a different part of your brain in a way. It's all related in the sense that every time you go out on a limb creatively, you're trying to show up as that person, whatever message that you're trying to convey. It's all an aspect of performance, in my opinion.

Acting has helped me be a better musician, but also being a musician has helped me be a better actor because I can access those emotions, and I can access those experiences. When you're in touch with those layers of yourself, the more access that you have and the more practice that you have. In my case, the more disciplines I'm involved in, I found that I have more access and I have more ability to show up in those ways.

Alison Stewart: Well, people know they can see you on your YouTube series, Dinner in Place. Is there going to be a season 5?

Lyrics Born: Wow, there sure is. I haven't been able to talk about it because it's just been, well, for one reason, we've been focused on the album, but for another, there's just so many really, really big and newsworthy things that have happened with Dinner in Place over the past four years. It's all going to culminate in season 5. We're going to announce it very, very soon. We're going into pre-production shortly and I think it's really going to blow people away. I'm so proud of how far we've come.

Alison Stewart: We got a text from someone who says, "I've been a fan of Lyrics Born for years and just wanted to share my appreciation of a member of a local hip-hop community. He's very inspirational to me." There you go.

Lyrics Born: That's beautiful. Thank you. Whoever that was, thank you for that random text.

Alison Stewart: My guest has been Lyrics Born. The album is called Goodbye, Sticky Rice. Thank you for your time today. It was Jason. Jason from Brooklyn. Goodbye. Well, nice talking to you.

Lyrics Born: My pleasure. Thank you. Likewise. Thank you.

Alison Stewart: We're going to go out on Can We Still Be Friends?

[MUSIC - Lyrics Born: Can We Still Be Friends?]

Can we still be friends?

Is it possible

Logical

I got to know

Baby, can we still be friends?

Or is it over, over?

I mean like over, over?

Baby

I prayed about it

God said "Let her go"

I said "I’ll think about it"

Nah, I’m trying to get her home

Remember the promise, we made back in Colorado?

We said we’d always stay solid, irregardless

If we cuffin’ or whether we just platonic

And that’s a promise

Imma honor til they drop the coffin

She got me way outta pocket

Burning palo santo

I ain’t forgotten

Don’t wanna say Sayonara

I’m the guy that she was safe and soft with

Beat it like an omelet

Eat it like chocolate

Alison Stewart: Tomorrow on the show, we'll speak with Jim Gaffigan and Jude Law. That is All Of It for today. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening and I appreciate you. I will meet you back here tomorrow.

[MUSIC - Lyrics Born: Can We Still Be Friends?]

Boo, it's me

We still patnas?

Can we still be friends?

Is it possible

Logical

I got to know

Baby, can we still be friends?

Or is it over, over?

I mean like over, over?

Baby

She happy now?

She ever think about me now?

Baby help me out

It feel like you tappin’ out

This really happening now?

Or is it my attachment style, acting wild?

Feelings echo through this empty house

I’m here alone

Hopin’ you miss--