No, no no, you’re absolutely right. But I wanted to ask, like, you guys have been holding these camps where you teach kids everything from music production to archery, to help give them a sense of worth. And 40, I know you have these mobile studios you’ve been working on. Tell me about those and what your aim is with creating them.
40: One day I stopped by Masaryk-Cown—an old community centre which had a studio I used to work at—and I spoke to one of the program directors, and was like, “Look, I want to build a studio in the community centre. Where is it?” And they’re just like, “Oh, it’s been gone for years. We just don’t have any space; all our rooms are full.” I was like, “I’ll drop 20 grand right now and build you a studio,” and they’re like, nah. I was so stunned. One of the big problems about studios in community centres is things get damaged, things get unplugged, stuff gets stolen, stuff gets broken.
And so it hit me after I built my first mobile studio case (MSC) to take on the Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour. Bad Bunny saw my case, and I’m there with him and his manager, and I’m fixing up some vocals and edits for him before we go out on stage. Bunny suddenly starts cursing in Spanish at Noah, his manager. I’m sitting there, like, “Yo Noah, is everything good? Everything I’m doing is OK, right?” He’s like, “No, everything’s perfect.” And then we walk away and I’m like, “Noah, what was that?” He’s like, “Oh, [Bunny] was just really angry—he was asking me, ‘Where do I get that studio? And how come I don’t have one? What is this? This thing’s incredible. I need one.’” And at that moment, I was like, ‘Oh, these things are pretty cool, aren’t they?’
[Laughs.] Amazing.
And so I toured 100 cities with it, and when we got back, the thing was still functioning perfectly. Nothing had fallen out, no cable was missing, everything was there. It all folds up into a box, you can put a lock on it. It shuts, done. You can’t steal nothing. You can’t break nothing. I’m like, ‘Man, if I can ship this thing around the world in boats, trucks, and planes, it can definitely handle a community centre.’
So now that evolves into Suzanna, my sister, helping with the programming and the assets inside the case, all the tools from financial literacy to support of all different kinds for youth who probably haven’t seen that type of information in school…. And the case is top of the line. It’s the same equipment I use in my studio facility, the same equipment I make records with, produce records with, mix records with—the same speakers, the same software, the same hardware, everything.
That’s so dope. Sounds legit. And so what’s the next step with these MSCs? How will you get kids involved with them?
40: My next ambition is to build enough of them and distribute them across the city so that every community centre, every community has one. Now you’ve got some synergy between the youth. They all have something in common. Maybe this guy from this neighborhood can go help over here in that neighborhood because something broke, but they all know how to use it. Also, you can interconnect the studios’ audio, so they can be sharing things with each other. A vocal can be laid from this community centre directly to this community centre, case to case, at a distance. You know, obviously traveling between certain communities can be problematic. This is a way they can have a connection without physically having to share a space and put their own safety at jeopardy.
I’m sure a lot of people are wondering this: What does The Boy think about the Justice Fund? What are Drake’s thoughts on what you guys are doing? Will he be getting involved?
40: I mean, look, I’ll just answer that and say Drake’s one of my best friends, my business partner, and he proudly supports me and all of my endeavors in this space…. You know, Drake does a lot of community work in this city that he is not in front of; nobody knows where he’s giving money or what he’s done—and that’s the way he likes it. I’m very proud of him for operating that way within the city. People can be critical of him, but that’s fine. They don’t know what we’re trying to do, or what he’s trying to do. And I support him by making quiet moves, and he’s going to support me in the work that we’re doing. He’s been vocal about that already. And as this moves forward and takes shape of what exactly it’s going to be, you’ll see him standing there with me to support us on this journey.