Hey, this is 6LACK, and I would like to walk you through what a really good morning looks like to me.
I think that my ideal day and morning kind of starts with the night before. A majority of, like, how I've written in the last couple of years has been: I will maybe start working around a time that's

not too late at night. Say, like, around 7? You know, something like that. You know, I give myself the space to really, like, be at home and recording. Like, move through as many sounds as I need to move through until I find something that inspires me.
I work until I'm sleepy. I go to sleep pretty early. If I'm not, like, really deep into something, I go to sleep early.

If my girl isn't there, I don't sleep in my room at all. So I'll lay down on the couch in the studio. And by the time I wake up, it's usually between, like, 5:00 and 7:00 AM.
And that's also another really, like, keen time where I just love to work, when nobody’s up.
For whatever reason, during those hours it’s the most quiet.

Nobody's texting. Nobody's tweeting. Nobody's posting. It's just quiet hours, and I think that I have the most space to think.
I might do, like, a quick stretch. I might make a smoothie or have some tea. Journaling. Sometimes I would just kind of sit and meditate on, like, how

I want my day to go. 
If I feel like specifically today, I need to work on my throat chakra and communication, then I'll turn on the sound bath specifically for that. Prepare something warm on the stove—quick little bone broth or something that I can just, like, have, and not have to go in on breakfast, and start working.
Got enough food in my body. I got a little bit of a stretch

in. I, you know, sat with my body for a second and checked in. And now it's still really, really early. And I'm about to work.
And by the time it's 12:00 PM or 11:00 AM, I’d have already, like, pumped out at least three songs or three ideas. So I'm feeling really accomplished by the time it's noon. And then from there, I can decide what I want to do with the rest of my day.
That's my ideal day. Take care of yourself in the morning. Get a head

start. And then you really can determine, like, what you want to do because you woke up and then took care of business, like, early.

6LACK walks us through an ideal morning for him. 

Good Morning 

Hey, this is 6LACK, and I want to talk about what it means to protect your space and, like, create the world that you want around you.
There was one time where somebody was in the studio, who isn't normally in studio.

And I remember, like, I was in the middle of recording a verse—like, the beat’s on, I'm in a groove and just, like, trying shit out. And all of a sudden, I just hear the fucking talk back button.
It means, like, the music dims at that moment because they've just pressed a button and all you hear is the microphone at the music board. And he's like, “Yo, try it like this—(hums).”
And I immediately stopped. And every, everybody who knew me held their

fucking breath because they were like, ‘No, he didn't just stop him from recording.’
We're not at the part where we're sharing ideas. This is me doing my thing. You're not an actual member of, of this shit. Like, we do this consistently together. You're a guest. Guests do not come in the studio and push fucking buttons in the middle of people recording.
I told him he had to go and that he wasn’t welcome in any of my sessions ever again.

If there's anything that I can do better, I'm open to hearing it. It just depends on who you are. But work with people you love so that those conversations can be easier conversations.
Don't press buttons when you're just not the button presser. Like, if my engineer pressed a button, we already built that relationship.

I think that when you work with people you love, that respect is automatically there so it's not—we're not here to, to, like, cut each other down or to say, like, “I don't know that you're amazing.” Like, we're here to work on something together because we both respect each other. You got to respect people's processes and you got to know people, like, to just be in there, mashing buttons, like, “Yo, try this out!” I'm just like, “What the fuck? Who is that?”

The best way you can, like, communicate that an idea, like, isn't the best idea to somebody that you're writing or working with is simply by saying just that or, you know, being like, ‘I like this part of what you did, but maybe for this part, like, let's go a different way.’ Like, there's always another word, another melody, a better way that you can, like, get something across.

So that was a moment for sure. My fucking jaw dropped. And now I gotta tell somebody to get out in the nicest way I can because you just don't do that, bro. Just don't do it.

6LACK offers advice on protecting your space and establishing boundaries.

Don't Press Buttons

Hey, this is 6LACK. Songwriter, rapper, singer, recording artist. And when I am feeling like I need to take a step back from everything, the first thing I do is unplug from my phone, tune out any kind of, like, external disturbance, and figure out, like, all the ways in which I haven't paid attention to myself.

So if it's just acknowledging my body and stretching, if it's yoga, if it's meditation, sound bath, if it's eating healthy, those are some of the things I do when I really need to tune out everything and get back to myself.
Because there's nothing that I could ever expect to do efficiently if I'm not paying the most attention to myself.

The most recent experience I have with, like, not feeling like I was fully myself was definitely during the pandemic. I think a lot of people went through a similar thing where we kind of got forced into a space of, like, having to sit with ourselves and having to figure out, like, how to live with it.
For me, you know, it was knowing, like, I spent so much time doing one thing, which was music, and putting, like, all my eggs into one basket and tricking myself into believing, like, this is just who I've become and this

is my life. And having to, like, hit pause on that and really just, like, acknowledge that I’m a multi-purpose being and I can't ever thrive creatively if I'm not feeding myself in every single way I can feed myself.
It was really difficult for me to admit that I wasn't paying attention to myself at first, but that was just what the

honest truth was. It was: When is the last time that you took it upon yourself to pick up a book and read it? When is the last time that you consistently did, you know, a meditation for at least seven days in a row? Don't be embarrassed to say it. It just hasn't happened in a very long time. What's the last practice or religion or, like, story that you read that, like, fed you in some kind of way? 
Those things got you to where you are. Those sparked your creativity to even be what it was. The only

reason why work isn't working right now is because you stopped working in all the other ways.
For anyone who is feeling, like, scattered or disconnected from themselves, ask yourself: Am I honoring myself? And if you can't just say the word ‘yes,’ then you just have some work to do. Hold

yourself accountable. And just know that once you do that, everything will be smooth.

6LACK delivers guidance on how to take a step back from everything.

Step Back

Hey, this is 6LACK, and I would like to try and direct you on how to slide into DMs respectfully.
The very first time that I DM-ed my current partner, I was very respectful. “What's your email, ma'am?” M-a-apostrophe-a-M-question mark. No emojis, no tongues,

no heart eyes, no winks, no silly shit. You don't have to fuckin’ take it there. You don't gotta, like, literally show your cards all in the first quarter. Just: “What's your email, ma'am?”
I wanted to send her some music. I wanted to get her opinion on something. And that was the most respectful way to open the conversation—by literally making it very clear that I want to communicate on a different level.

I shot her an email after she sent her email—you know, she sent her email back. No emojis, no extra things. Ain’t necessary. Like, just an email. You know, she listened. She told me, “You sound really dope, bro.” Ha. “Bro.”
From there, you know, it was just kind of talking about our own music situations and just staying in touch, that’s it. You know, just letting each other know, like, “I'll be here. If you ever need anything, I'll be here.”

From there, I was pretty consistent. You know, it was kinda just me checking in. I would say something random on a random ass night, like, “Goodnight, ma'am. Rest well. Great day ahead.” Simple. No emojis, no winks. I don't want nothin’. I'm just letting you know that I see you. Have a good day.
And eventually, one of my good night’s got responded back to with the, you know, “Night, night.” Cool. Smiley face, for the first time. And that I was all I

needed. 
For anybody out there, if you have someone that you are naturally attracted to or you want to, like, form some kind of connection with, the best thing that you can do is really just take it easy and give yourself the… the grace and give them the grace to, like, choose what kind of relationship

you want.
I think that it's natural for humans to see each other in certain kinds of ways, but we all have to be mature enough to provide someone with the option versus forcing what you want on them so… you know, don't want anything extra. Just go into it wanting a relationship because we all are here to serve each other in, like, different purposes other than just being together.
So if you can know that going into a conversation, then I think that most

people will respect that. And if you end up being anything after that, then that's just the icing on the cake. Don't force it. Just be cool.

6LACK shares his insight on how to respectfully slide into someone’s DMs.

Slide in the DMs Respectfully

In a world where everybody needs something, what is the line between being generous and enabling dependency?
I would say that that line is drawn at how you feel

when you're, like, in the act of giving or doing something for somebody. You know, if you can do or give without a second thought, if you can do or give and the outweighing thought is that you feel really content and for sure like, about what you're doing, then that's fine. It's being generous.
Dependency, I think, is a completely different thing because it drains you and it makes you feel like people are becoming, like, an inconvenience

and it makes you feel like you are putting someone else's needs over yours. It makes you feel like you're putting yourself in a position to have to, like, work harder or come back from something or make something back.
When people aren't taking that responsibility to step up in their own lives, to handle what they have to handle, and they're putting, like, their responsibilities on you, I think that's when you can kind of decipher things as being selfish on their end and not being considerate of the fact that just because you can

doesn't mean that you have to. And just because you want to occasionally doesn't mean that you have to whenever they call you. It's a decision that is solely up to you. You have to decide for yourself what you want to do, what you don't want to do. And stand on that and you see who wants to stick around.
Obviously, everybody has bills and rent to make and, like, every now and then, like,

people need a little bit extra help.
Being where I am in my life, like, I've been blessed enough to be able to help in certain situations but, you know, one thing I would have to, like, notice and point out and stop is whenever I felt like I was somebody’s last resort too many times.
It’s like,

if I was not doing what I was doing, would you just be on the streets? You know, why do I have to be the cushion or the safety net for you every time? You know, if my cushion or safety net runs out for myself, then I can't call you. And I wouldn't call you. I would more than likely try and figure it out for myself first.
Those have been recurring moments in my life, whether it was family or friends, where I've had to, like, put my foot

down and just be like, “Listen, this many times is enough for me.” I can say, “After this, I need six months. That's all I have for you right now.”
In those moments, you see how people feel, what they say, what they feel entitled to, or, you know, what they manage to make happen on their own. And you just have to remember that if you don't do that in situations with people like that, then they will always continuously just come back and never really figure out that much for themselves.

All love, you know, all respect, and all honesty. Like, I know that people go through a lot of things. And I—and I know that when you end up in a position where you can do for people, like, you want to naturally. But you just have to know when to stop.

6LACK discusses how to find the line between generosity and enabling dependency.

Saying No

What up, this is 6LACK. I want to talk about the first example of transformation and evolution that I experienced as a kid and how I got my idea of how I want to live from a cartoon called Dragonball Z.

You cannot see me but I'm about to draw for the first time in... first time in ages, it feels like.
I remember art class. I remember drawing a lot. I remember that being, like, a form of peace, and being in that state of having to focus on something quietly for minutes and

hours at a time was really, really, really healing at an early age. Like, I loved to draw what I saw on TV—if it was Dragonball Z. I loved to draw anything that I could look at if it was a portrait of something, someone. I liked to just draw with things next to me. I remember showing things to my mom and her being like, “You didn't draw that.” And then I would just bust out crying ‘cause, like, “What the fuck, bro? I just poured my heart into this paper and you don't even believe me. Please believe me.”

I think I'm gonna just play it safe and draw a word.
I think that I resonated with Dragonball Z, the show, and drawing it so much because it was the first thing that I saw on TV that, like, showed me what it was to really work hard at something and become another form and get better and get stronger, and I thought that was really cool.
I’m watching people go in one way, go into

this chamber, do a whole bunch of exercise and then working out and fighting and preparing and meditating, and then next thing you know, they come out and they got gold hair and they can fly.
It just made me literally want to stand in my living room and ball up my fist and scream to the top of my lungs until my hair turned blond. I was like, ‘Shit’s going to work if I just focus really hard. Like, I'm going to evolve into Super Saiyan too.’

And then obviously, you know, it didn't really happen that way.
I would say right now in my life that I might be at Super Saiyan… 3. There's levels to it. When the hair was really, really long. Like, I remember that moment of seeing that for the first time—it was the coolest shit ever. The most memorable, like, besides Super Saiyan for the

first time, the most memorable is Super Saiyan 3 because just like, look, like—this form is crazy. Like, I've never seen a form like this ever again, and nobody else has ever seen this form so everybody's just jaw-dropped. ‘Oh shit, he got long gold hair. How did he grow hair in three seconds?’
Super Saiyan 5 for me, I would honestly say… I'm probably, like, 40

years old. No, like, 40-something—I’m in my prime prime, like my wine prime.
You know, musically, I have maybe done what I consider to be, like, most of my best work or all of my best work. I’ve made it to this level. Super Saiyan 5.
Here is to

not being a visual artist because as of right now, it's looking slim. 
For anyone who has not watched Dragonball Z, I would like to reference the Senzu Bean. The Senzu Bean is this magical bean that you can take in moments where you've gotten beat to a fucking pulp. Your arm is out the socket, your eye is lower than the other eye,

your blood dripping down your nose, and there’s nothing left in you, and you pull out this magic bean and you chew it, and all of a sudden your strength is restored and you are ready to save the day.  
I think that a lot of the times there have been moments in my life where I feel like I'm really, really exhausted and there's not that much that I have to offer or give, but in those moments, I just, like, acknowledge the fact that if I am given a situation, if I'm

given an opportunity, if I'm in a position, it's because it's a position that I'm actually capable of handling and, you know, fighting my way out of. So, no matter how hard you think it is, no matter how much you feel like you can't, there's just no such thing as not being able to see it through. No matter what the result is, you can see it through. 
Being one form of yourself and then practicing hard as fuck to get to the next stage has been the main thing that I talk about in my life today. So it just makes sense that that was my

favorite thing to watch and draw as a kid.
So reach in your pocket, grab that Senzu Bean, pop your arm back in the socket, and all is well.
Stomach’s back growling again. I need a snack break.

6LACK talks about the first experience of transformation that he experienced as a child from the show “Dragonball Z.”

Going Super Saiyan

Hey, what up? It’s 6LACK. I'm here today to talk to you. Before I do, I just want to take a second to breathe. And if you’d like to join me, then you can just clear some space. Turn off some extra noises around you. You don't have to do that much. Just take a second.

Before we go into this experience, into this conversation, into this amazing thing that I'm doing with Mindset, I just want to take a second to acknowledge myself, acknowledge my health, acknowledge being here today and just take a second to check in with my body before I even say a word. So if you're working, if you're thinking about a million

things, and if anything starts to creep in while you're taking a second to check in with yourself, just calmly push it out. And focus on breathing. Alright.

Anytime I get an opportunity to organize my thoughts in my life, it helps me out. Journaling or, you know, talking to a therapist or talking to a friend. This is just another form of doing the same exact kind of work. This is a really, really honest expression of everything in my life up until this point, and what I want to do for myself moving forward.

It's been really nice to get it out and to have it permanently, and to hear how it sounds and to let family and friends listen to it and to have people love me, hate me, you know, get upset with me, like, whatever. I'm all for it.

I'm just aware that, right now, my life is just about sharing.Like, if I want to write the best song, if I want to make the best product, if I want to give the best feeling, like, it’s something that I have to create with other people. Like, I've built something that takes more than just my thoughts to, like, craft.
I think that you'll learn that we are alike in a bunch of ways. We have similar thoughts. We go through similar trials. We have similar heartbreaks.

Yeah. That's why I'm here today.My spirits are really high because I know that what I say and what I do in this will be something that helps you have a better idea of who I am, and possibly helps you have a better idea of who you are.My name is 6LACK. Welcome to my Mindset.

6LACK introduces his Mindset and takes listeners on a brief grounding and meditative exercise.

Intro

This episode is about my most recent ceremony with plant medicine, letting go of old pieces of you, acknowledging pieces that are still a part of you, and being open to new things. 
Episode 1: A Symphony of Purg— (laughs)
Episode 1: A Symphony of Purging

My mind is a cave, for sure. A lot of, you know, my processing and problem solving and working is done, like, in the privacy of my own brain. My process has always been

in the dark by myself, in the room by myself, in the studio alone. It goes back to childhood. It goes back to, like, not really having that many external outlets.
The way in which I've created in the last few years has just made it so that I got the

vulnerable tag and award just slapped on me, like, “He is vulnerable. He is honest. He is open. He is emotional.” You know, having people reassure me that I don't have to work on that because I just do it.
I constantly relied on music to be the solution. It was just—if you pushed through, it was cool. If you make a song about it, you'll be straight. If you take it on tour, everything will be all fine and then you just move onto the next story after that.
But, at the end of every

album cycle, it was not like I really solved anything.
You know, when you get to the pandemic, you know, initially, I'm thinking that all I have to do is literally show up and power through and make some crazy songs and everything will start rolling eventually and then I'll feel good to go.
And I remember being in a studio, before I even, like,

had words to what the problem was, I remember talking to my friend—his name's Childish Major—I just remember being like, “Something is fucking wrong, bro.” I'm just like, “I'm not doing this the way that I'm supposed to be doing it. Something's wrong with me. And I—I just don't know how to put it into words yet.”
But if I'm feeling a little bit uncomfortable about my process, that just means I need to grow.
I got invited to a circle

by my girl, B, and for me, it was kind of one of those things where I was just, like, if I ever get invited to experience aya, then I'll go and I'll see what it's about. 
I went into it feeling, like, really weirdly excited and prepared, and I didn't want to know too much. I didn't want, like, anybody else's experience to, like, control what I was going to experience or affect it in any kind of way. I just wanted to go in, blank slate, and I

knew that it was meant for the sole purpose of, like, helping me so, that's all I really needed to know. It was like, I'm going to get to do a lot of, like, internal work.
The place was, like, a land that was preserved specifically for this use—the ceremony. And we planned to be there for two nights.

The drive up there was super beautiful and scenic. You get to see the beautiful side of California, for sure. But you also get to see, like, how dried out it is right now and, like, what's really going on, like, as far as these farms. And so, you know, I got to just ride through California and look at all these, like, different spaces and wonder, like, ‘Damn, I wonder how much water we have to waste to keep these things alive over here.’ And, ‘I wonder how much of this, like, actually used to be green and got burned

away.’ Like, you know, you can't help but just wonder which generation is gonna have to, like, really pay for it.
We get there and basically everybody's just unloading. It's, like, a camping trip basically. We just set up our little tent in an area that was, like, under a tree.
We

had already, like, knew not to eat. It was just water and tea. When you're doing a ceremony like this, you just don't want to have anything in your body that you don't need to have there, you know? So given the chance that you have to—I don't know—throw up, you don't want to be throwing up, like, a five-course meal with gravy and mashed potatoes and chicken and bones and shit.
I got to, like, walk around and talk to a lot of people before we started ceremony.

You know, I, in my personal life, like, I've never gotten this kind of practice. Like, I've never experienced close family communication, vulnerability, honest, open eye contact. You know, I can tell for a lot of people, it's either they're normal or they've had a lot of practice doing it, but I think it was really important for me to just, like, acknowledge that this isn't what I'm used to.

You start to just, like, set the scene for the night. You set up your bed for the space, like, around the fire, outside. And the space outside is a circle of, like, 50 people. And you are pretty much, like, elbows width away from, like, your neighbor. And I think the point and purpose of that, too, is, like, you want to leave that experience, you

know, feeling like you gained something from it, even if it's new friendship.
We started at, like, 10:00 PM. You know, you just see everybody, like, running to their spaces. You know, it was made very clear that all the healing that we need to do is done in the circle.You just make sure your space is your space and you're sitting down because the next thing that is about to happen is you

are about to be introduced to the person who's going to help guide and direct this experience for you, which is a shaman from the Amazon who doesn't speak English and he came all this way with his wife to sing and pray and help you.
You know, initially, I didn't, like, see him walking around or anything. But the second that I did, his presence was, like, a really, really, really big headdress. And

you could tell from then on, it was, like, ‘Oh, like, this is going to impact me for the rest of my life. Like, whatever happens, the second he starts to speak is about to change my life.’
Him and his wife were really, really beautiful people and, you know, everything that they wore, the way that their voices complemented each other… You don't even know necessarily, like,

the language that they speak, but you can still understand it. So by the time the person next to him translates what he's saying, you're basically just like, ‘Yeah. Exactly this.’ That’s what I felt.
And they had ran through, like, the intro, where it comes from, how it, you know, not necessarily, like, respected. So they're kind of living in the shadows with this work that they've been practicing their whole entire lives that has proven to help in a bunch of different ways.
To get

the introduction is so that you can have a different level of respect and go into this the right way.
After the intro, the songs begin. 
And the songs are really intentional prayers. Like I said, it's not in English, so you don't know what's being said, but

you can feel what's being said. Like, I haven't had church consistently in a very long time, and I know that music, like, drove the feeling that I felt when I was in church. No matter what else was going on, like, music was the best part about church for me.
It holds, like, a specific space to where it touches you in a way that, like, sometimes words don't really get there. It just felt like my first church experience in a very long time. And yeah, you line up for a cup of

this plant medicine that is made to change the rest of your night and the rest of your life.
By the time the first song was, like, officially finished is the moment where everybody's already taken their dose. The taste is something that you will never forget because it is not nasty, but it's very, very specific, and the moment that you have it,

I guarantee if you ever smell it again in any form, you will get triggered. I can, like, feel it in my nose right now as I talk about it.
Your body literally runs the show 24/7 everyday. You're always walking, talking, moving, tapping, twitching, feeling. So, you know, in a moment where you start to feel, like, that is being turned down, I think the only thing that can naturally happen is, whatever's going on in your head,

whatever's going on in your heart, your spirit, like, that starts to turn up. And you're like, ‘I'm outta here. Like, I’m—I'm not… I'm not regular right now.’
The second that it actually, like, hits your body and starts to, like, set in,

I think that my thoughts started to, like, organize and that was when I just, like, started to line up my life in a timeline and go from the very beginning and acknowledge, like, each moment in my life that I felt I needed to acknowledge that I haven't fully acknowledged—from childhood to adulthood, from parents’ divorce, to something in school, to a fight, you know, with my brother, to my grandmother dying, to my cousin dying. Like, I wanted to go down the line and

acknowledge and forgive and remember and forget, and just do as much as I could because I know that my energy has been very apathetic for a very long time in my life. So how do I go back and take care of those things? How do I get to being born again? Like, how do I get to feeling like my slate is clean? How do I get to feel—to feeling like I've taken this weight off of myself? Like, what do I need to do in order to feel that? That's what I want to feel.

That's what I want to focus on. And that's what I did.
You have moments where, in that moment, I feel like I have to honor my body and say, ‘I need to ball up in, like, fetal position because this space is what makes me the most comfortable right now.’ And, you know, you kind of are in and out of it.
The shaman and his

wife—they sang the entire night. They sang beautifully the entire night. They sang in one rhythm the entire night. And I finally reached the part where I was just, like, getting rid of different pieces of me that I just didn't think served me anymore. And I remember being like, ‘I don't want that. I don't want this. I don't need that.’ And then also was just like, ‘And I don't want to be nauseous anymore.’ The second I said, “I don't want to be nauseous anymore,” it was like, “I don't want to be—bleh. Blehhh.”

That's just the physical form of, you know, cleansing yourself in that moment.
I don't even like throwing up, but it felt so great. And by the time I was finished, I felt so at peace. Like, I sat up and I was like, ‘Oh my God, like, the nausea has gone and the medicine is the only thing that's left. Like, I can just, like, experience this now.’
From then, I think I just, like, concluded all of my work.

You see, the sky is still, like, really, really dark and stars are really, really bright. And you can see, like, the grids in the sky and it's crazy ridiculous visual. And then the sky goes from, you know, black to, like, really dark blue and you're like, ‘Okay, like, something's changing.’ And then you close your eyes and then you open ‘em and it's pastel blue outside. And you're like, ‘Oh shit. This is, like, beautiful. This is really, really crazy.’ And that's the night.

I feel like I started my morning with a new body, a new brain, a new heart, a new spirit, and I was just like, ‘Wow. Whatever I asked for in the beginning is exactly what I got.’ I made it through the whole entire night. I just sat here all night. I laid here all night. They sang all night. I listened to

people purge all night. I did a lot of work on myself all night. And when you come out of it, you feel like I've done so much work on myself that I can't believe that it even took getting to this point to realize that there was that much that needed to get done.
I was happy. I was light. And I got to share, you know, my experience with the people around me who officially, like, were family.

I know that that was the most perfect way that this could’ve been. Like, I needed the support of the people around me, even if we, like—we're not talking to each other, but you know that whatever's going on next to you or a few people down from you is, like, it's for the better. Like, these people are literally doing tons of work, like, in their bodies, in their head, in their spirits.

Once you do that work, it's just a new level of responsibility that you have for yourself. It's literally, like, somebody telling you right from wrong or giving you, like, the instructions to build something. And if I choose to do anything opposite of this in my life from here on out, I'm making a very conscious decision to not do the right thing or not say the right thing or not reference what I just went through.

I've noticed myself saying things that are thoughts that, you know, normally I would just keep to myself and just saying ‘em out loud. Like, if I miss my daughter, I say it out loud. If I am feeling tired and stressed from, like, having a slow week of recording, I say it out loud. If I'm feeling insecure about what the next chapter of my creative life is going to be, I talk about it with my partner.

I can only speak for me. Like, it's been really, really beneficial for me. It's been really healing and helpful for me.
I would say if you are, you know, on a path to healing and you are curious

about, like, any kind of natural medicines or any kind of, like, ceremonies that are just, like, built for your wellness, that the same rules apply to that, that apply to anything else, like, smoking weed, drinking, doing, like, any kind of anything—like, you need to have the right intention going into it. You need to have the right people around you to be able to do it. You need to be in the right setting to be able to do it.

If you take care of all of those things and you do things with intention, the right people, right setting, then you will literally be able to handle more things than you can ever imagine.

6LACK takes us through his experience with a healing ceremony and discusses the importance of doing internal work on ourselves. 

Symphony of Purging

In this episode, I will give a little bit more background information on the city I was born in: Baltimore, Maryland.
A city that hasn't gotten that much shine in a lot of my storytelling because of my limited experience there. So I'll go back to where I was born, how I grew up, what I remember.
Episode 2: People Choose These Blues

I was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Dad, mom, born in Baltimore. Grandparents, all born in Baltimore. Cousins, uncles… Nobody really ventured out to, like, travel the world or do anything. It was:

You are born here. You grow up here. You hustle here. You settle in and accept your life for what it is.
The earliest memory I have that I feel is really significant is my first birthday. I do slightly remember just being, like, the baby of the family and being, like, the center of everyone's, like, focus in that moment. I remember my Mickey Mouse cake. I

remember, you know, everyone kind of gathering, like, it was almost like a Thanksgiving-style situation. Like, everybody's here. Yeah, I just remember, like, being on my mom's hip and being really, like, close to her.
My dad, you know, when I was a kid, he was already deep into his rapping. He was around people who did music a lot. Naturally. I just got bit by the bug, I guess?
I remember,

like, being in the studio with him. We were in his friend's crib. My dad was recording. I had to be no older than 4. And I did the intro to the song, and at the beginning of the song, you just hear a baby voice come on and a real introspective hip hop beat and just hear a toddler just like, “When I grow up, I'm gonna believe in God and I’m gonna believe in myself. I'm gonna be somebody… That’s what I’m talking about.”

That was pretty much my first bar ever. 
And somewhere in the song too I said, “People choose these blues.” Like, you decide what you go through and you decide, like, how you come out of it.
I don't know what 4-year-old me thought that meant but I, for sure, was saying it like I knew what it meant. It was, “People choose these blues.” Like, y'all gotta get yourselves together.
And that was the very

first song that I ever recorded in my life.
Growing up in Baltimore as a kid is different than growing up, like, anywhere else.
You see a lot going on around you, but you're really, really young so you don't necessarily, like, have to experience it in a bad way. You just get to be a kid and you get to be told to, like, ‘go

inside at a certain time’ and to ‘not, like, go there. Don't go there.’
The way that the homes are set up in Baltimore is basically row homes, townhomes. They're all connected. Your next door neighbor—you see ‘em as soon as you open your door.
We lived around, like, Fox Street. West 28th Street.

I remember our playground didn't really have, like, playground things. It was just, like, blocks and little objects that you could, like, walk up and run down and jump on but it wasn't, like, swing set, slide, shit like that.
Crates for basketball goals, for sure. Bust the bottom out of the milk cartons and you nail it up to the light pole. And that was a basketball goal. 
The Wire’s

a really, really accurate depiction of how Baltimore is in certain areas, as far as, like, how drugs hit a community. It's not a exaggeration at all.
And it's not to say, like, the whole entire city is that, but you will definitely find yourself in that setting if you hang around the wrong people or make the wrong turn. The Wire did a really great job of painting a picture of, you know, very specific things that my mom didn't want us to have to go through.

You have to, like, be really mindful of your setting and, like, what's around you because it can be as simple as, like, giving a kid an idea or giving a kid an option or giving a kid a tool. But if that's just not what's going on, then it's just not what's happening.
I think that if you grew up in Baltimore and you know it for what it is, you love it and you respect it. But it isn't the most, like, supportive place. It isn't a place

where you see, like, a lot of people break out. It isn't even a place where you can, like, feel safe you know, majority of the time.
She just wanted something different for us. She felt like we would have a better shot at whatever it is that we wanted to do and she wanted to do in Atlanta.
It was a move that she was willing to make, regardless of if my dad was ready to go or not. Like, he had his old family in Baltimore the same way that she did, but her head was in a space of, ‘I'm just not raising my kids

here. So to hell with everybody else. I'm taking my kids and we're going away.’
And I think that he kind of just, like, had to take a little bit to finally come to Atlanta and join us. It wasn't too long after, but she, for sure, was like, ‘I'm not waiting.’

She left first. My dad eventually came down not too long after. I can't remember how long he was actually in the house. I remember, like, going through a time period in life where it was being communicated that, “Okay, like, you know that things aren't working out with me and your dad. We're going to get a divorce.” And from then on, my dad lived wherever he lived and I lived with my mom.

I'm grateful to, like, have a mom that respects herself enough to just want to do for herself.
She was bent on making sure that she could take care of herself and take care of us. Maybe she might lose a job for a second, or maybe she might need to, like, switch jobs. She ended up in tough positions a lot of times, and I could see that. But, you know, she did what she had to do so that at the very least,

we could eat.
During that time in my life, like, we just weren't talking as much as we should've been talking. My mom was, sometimes—I mean, I said it to her—would be like, “You are a yeller.” She can project, that's for sure. It's not like she was… abusive or overly angry or anything but that was just, like, her way of expressing herself. Like, she learned that from her mom expressing

herself the same exact kind of way where it's just, like, if something isn't right, you yell and it gets done.
How my mom was with confrontation made me take, like, the opposite approach to it.

Naturally, it just kind of became a part of, I guess, like, what I consider my personality. It was just like, I don't want confrontation, like, in that kind of way. I want to cut all the fat off of, like, what I'm trying to express and figure out, like, how to do it that way.
Third grade, my grades went from all A's to my first C. Something around there switched for me, and that was around the

time that they were going through whatever they were going through too. But I just started to develop, like, apathy about anything that slipped away from me.
I watched myself not turn in, like, assignments because I just didn't feel like it all of a sudden. I would just kind of let things happen how they happen.
Whatever it was going through my head at that point, it just wasn't able to come out.
My mom and dad are going through something and I'm not expressing it in the form of, like,

being a crying child. You know, I'm just kind of internally taking it and saying, ‘I don't care’ or ‘it doesn't matter.’ You know, them getting a divorce is something that I just shrug off, and later on in life, I see like, ‘Oh, that you know, that whole entire process leading up to that divorce, it did affect you. Like, you were a kid. And prior to that, you only got to experience what it was for them to be together. And

when you saw it, like, starting to downtrend, you didn't talk about it. You know, you didn't express your discomfort. You just said, ‘It's cool.’’
There were, for sure, times where I could've, like, taken an extra moment to talk to my mom or taken an extra moment to talk to my dad or taken an extra moment to, like, connect with my brother and sister. Like, people just kind of attributed it to, “That's—that’s just Ricky. That's just, like—that's how he is now.

Like, he's quiet. He's shy. He be chilling.”
It just wasn't a really expressive, warm type of, like, growing up.
I didn't even have access to all of the family that I left in Baltimore so at this point, I'm the big brother and I have two siblings under me, and my mom works, and at some point she's a single mom. So all those things kind of land me in the place to where I'm literally shaping up to become an adult pretty early.
I just started to develop this attitude and this

energy that was just: I'm the man of the crib.
I never really could land a real job in the beginning. So, you know, if it was stealing, then cool. Like, maybe on Wednesdays, I just felt like going up to Kroger and walking out with a couple of things I didn't pay for. If it was earning my money through a carwash, I earn a couple dollars—do it that way. At a very early age, I just wanted to make sure I could, like, hold my own.
I don't want to bother

her. I want to make sure I can, like, take care of them and teach them what I can teach them. And my relationship with my dad is not bad, but it's just distant. He's there. I'm here. I’ll see him when I see him.
He was still rapping, like, throughout my whole entire childhood. His music became

his ministry. Like, “I want to rap in service of God, and it might not be cool and it might not make a lot of money, but this is my calling. It's way easier to just be like, “Give me the whip. Give me the chain. Let me say a couple of ‘bitches,’ ‘hoes.’ And like—and that's easy. I can do that all day. To do the hard work and settle for, like, less and have to, like, really, really fight to survive is

not something that a lot of people are willing to sign up for.”
Deep down, I just knew that whatever I do, I have to do it with purpose because I'm watching him do the same thing.
To me, it's really interesting how the experiences that you have as a child, like, actually start to dictate and shape who you are or who you think you are as a person.
I think that I had

kind of, like, boxed myself in, into thinking, like, whatever I had become comfortable with was my personality and was who I was supposed to be for my whole life.
And, you know, when you are affected by things that are just really, really, like, potent moments, at that young of age, you believe that ‘this is who I am’ or ‘this is who I was born to be’ or ‘this is who I'm always gonna be.’

So when you go through things like parents’ divorce, it's almost like I watched myself start to create who I was based off of, like, the things that were happening around me. And it took a very, very, very long time in my life and a whole lot of, like, different experiences for me to finally, like, shake that and realize, like, ‘That was survival mode and it helped you get through

a certain time period in your life for sure. It was helpful. It was a part of you, but it's just not definitive of who you are.’
(music)

People choose these blues. I was speaking at four years old to the fact that what we go through—how we decide to come out of it—is something that we choose. I found the song recently, and those words still apply.

6LACK opens up about his upbringing in Baltimore and the experiences in his childhood that shaped him - from his introduction to music to his parent's divorce. 

People Choose These Blues

On this episode, I'll cover a good portion of the near-death experiences that I've had—the close calls that I’ve had. Really, really intense brushes with moments where I felt like I could not have lived to see the next day. And I did.
Episode 3: Close Encounters with Death
Growing up in my

neighborhood, Quail Ridge—it's like, we lived, like, East Atlanta, but we moved, like, further East Atlanta until we finally got to the east side.
Every part of the way, like, where we moved, I got more into gang culture and, like, hanging around people that were in gangs.
It's hard to describe but around that time, like, that was the biggest and most, like, prominent sense of, like, brotherhood, partnership, family, hanging with people, like, that you kicked it with

every single day.
A day outside was basically hopping between, like, three or four neighborhoods. And we were coming from a swimming pool of this, like, townhouse neighborhood, and we were walking down the hill. We walked down this hill every day.
And basically, I remember a car coming down the hill and I remember the car, like, shooting up in the air. We heard a gunshot. We look up, we see the

car driving down, we're like, “Oh shit.” There's nowhere to run except into the trees.
My brother's with me. And then we had, like, a neighborhood of kids with us, ranging from ages 6 to, like, 17 or something like that. It was literally babies, teenagers.
I was the oldest person there so for the most part, I was responsible for making sure that

everybody's kid got home safe.
None of us had anything to do with whatever was coming our way. Like, this was random. Had nothing to do with, like, a beef. Just sometimes in that neighborhood, if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time and somebody's bored enough, then you just gotta take off.
As we're taking off through the trees, I remember, like, coaching myself through that moment, and I remember, like, my brother running ahead of me. I remember,

like, keeping an eye out for him. I remember, like, looking for the kids that were around me that were younger than him. I remember, like, trying to push everybody to just “keep running straight. Keep running straight. Don't look back.”
And then I remember the moment of, like, looking back. And I saw, whoever the guy was, like, he was already out the car. He was standing, like, where we entered the trees and he was pointing his gun into the woods. His hand is already extended. His finger is close to the trigger if it's not on a trigger, and he's pointing right in our direction.

I feel like in those moments, I get very, very quick flashes of just like, ‘I can die right here. Like, this could most definitely be it.’ It's the fastest thought, and then it exits, like, as quick as it enters. It's like, ‘Hell nah, I gotta get the fuck on.’
My brother had already, like—he was still running straight. I'm making sure everybody else is straight. A little boy stopped in front of me. He probably was, like, the youngest of

everybody. He had to be ‘cause he was tiny tiny. And I remember him looking back in the direction that I was just looking in, and I just put my foot into his back. Like, “You got to go. You have to go.”
He, like, went forward down into, like, a little ditch, got up, kept moving. From there, I knew, like, all I had to do is just bust a sprint.
Unless his aim is on some John Wick shit, like, it's too many trees. 
He fired one time. Like, as he was actually aiming into the trees.

Didn't hit anything—didn't hit anything near me. And everybody kept running forward. I saw everybody, like, come up ahead of me on a tennis court.
And… I don't—I don't know how we end up, like, being okay and, like, calm and having a regular day after that but it was literally just like, “Oh shit, bro, that was close, like, what the fuck?”
It ain't no police report being filed. There is no investigation. There is no, like,

figuring out anything. It's literally: We send the babies home and keep your mouth closed and that's it. And just everybody went back to the crib.
That was just, like, one moment of having to oversee a moment that potentially could, like, affect my life, could affect my brother's life, could affect the people around me's lives, and I

just have to be somewhat of a levelhead in this situation and not panic.
Most times, like, in situations like that, I was by myself.
I used to walk to Wendover late at night to see my friend Brianna. I remember, like, the same exact street but on the opposite side, walking down on the hill, middle of the night, and I was almost at my house. 
This time I was by myself.

All I have to do is make it past the point where this fence ends and then I can see the front of my apartment building from there. 
During that time in my life too, I knew if you see brake lights in the corner of your eyes, for the most part, you need to haul ass. You need to run. 
Car passes me in my peripherals—I see the brake lights. Already know what this is.

Guy hopped out. Gun immediately in my face. I guess he was trying to run my pockets. It just—it never made sense to me because I never had anything to give anyway so it was just like, what the fuck are you possibly going to get from this right now?
However he addressed me in that moment, it was like he wanted me to believe that we had a grievance of some kind, and I was just looking at him, like, “I don't know you. We don't go to the same school. We not the same age. We have nothing

to do with each other.” But his energy was just, like, on some, like, “Yeah. What's up?”
I remember thinking once again, like, ‘Here we go. This shit could be it. If I make the wrong move, say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing, he's going to shoot me.’
I just remember thinking of, like, ‘What can I say to just slightly throw him off—just, like, to stall him for a quick second?’ He ain't even got to believe me. I just need him to be like, ‘Huh? What the fuck?’ So that I can break and I can run.

What do I do? 
And I just remember being like, “I got kids.” And then… and then I took off running. 
And I remember looking behind me as I was running and he still had, like, his gun aimed at my back. And I was just like, ‘Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.’ As soon as I hit the part where, like, the fence ended, I just, like, cut right as sharp as I could cut right.
Past the mailboxes. Front steps

of my building is right there, straight into my house. Closed the door, went inside, laid on the couch, and went to sleep.
After that thing, it became, like, my mission to never be, like, caught off guard like that ever again. It's just, like—from now on. I'm gonna have homies around me that, like, that have my back.

If I was more vocal with my mom about just, like, all the different experiences that I had in that neighborhood, then she for sure would have, like, moved us out quicker.
We might not have had the most expressive relationship during that time, but there is no way that she wasn't gonna, like, protect us. If I would’ve gave her even a portion of what I went through, you know, while she was working or while she was asleep or anything,

she would have, for sure, figured her way out immediately.
There were times where some shit would go down and there would be physical evidence. I just got beat to a fucking pulp in some kind of way—like, my face is not the same face I left home with. And we’d just make up a story on the spot.

I got a story. LJ was just, like, one of the older kids in the neighborhood. Like, if something went wrong in the neighborhood, that was somebody you could tap and at least be like, “Hey, you know, so-and-so stole my bike.”
He was like one of those people to where, you know, you see the older ones and you kind of follow after them and take after them, or just, like, look up to, to how they are, who they are. He was

soft-spoken in a way, but not afraid of conflict. 
This was just a day at the park where I was chilling with him, one of my friends. We had the longest day of all time. It was filled with fucking fights. Like, fights were popping up like it was a fucking contest. You just walking down the street and somebody like, “The fuck?” And you just like, “The fuck?” And next thing you know, it's just hands throwing everywhere—tour aunt, your cousin, your brother, your sister, like,

everybody's fighting. 
We come back to my friend’s house. And my brother, my sister, and, like, some other little siblings were all there. And when we walk inside, they're like, “Yo, some people just broke in here.” They then told us how they look. Came inside. Didn't do anything to the kids, but just took shit. Dipped off. 
We are livid because we just, like—these are the babies, bro. Like, they just had to experience something

with some grown ass people.
So from then, we just walking around the neighborhood, like, “Who?”
And at some point we're coming down the hill and this group of people are coming up the hill. And it was already established that, ‘Y'all know exactly who we are. We know exactly who you are. And by the time we get in the same space, it's a fight.’
It was me versus whatever random boy was in front of me. My aunt—she was, like, two years older than me.

My aunt fightin’ whatever girl was in front of her. My brother fightin’ whatever little boy was in front of him.
Kids’ bodies flying everywhere. Cars just tryna drive past but couldn't get past. And I'm pretty sure it looked sillier than what it—it felt crazy. It felt like an all out war. It felt like some Sparta shit. But we end up, like, I guess, exhausting all of our energy in that fight, and everybody, like, goes their separate ways, talking shit, walking down the street. We felt like we got the best of them, and everything finally, like, cooled out

towards the nighttime.
We just goin’ through the whole shit, cooling out, recapping the day. And I remember a car pulling up to, like, right in front of the steps, and LJ went to go talk.
He was, like, leaning in the car for a couple of minutes and we're just, like, chilling inside the breezeway. I could feel that something was, like, a little bit weird, but nothing, like, too loud was being shouted. It just felt, like, a little bit awkward ‘cause of the time of the night

it was, and the fact that we just didn't recognize the car.
But he feels safe enough to lean in the car to talk. If he's doing that, then it's clearly somebody he, like, knows or trusts. We just—like, we're talking amongst each other while he was talking in the car, and then we just remember, like, loud gun, gunshots going off. 
You know, as soon as we heard 'em, we just immediately ran. Didn't even, like, think. The door's, like, right there, by the steps, ran in the house, closed the door, “what the fuck?” You know,

panting, breathing. And then it hits everybody at the same time. Like, “oh shit.”
So we come outside and his body's, like, laying on the steps.
I remember just, like, people from all parts of the neighborhood coming outside at the same time. And I remember people screaming and crying. I remember, like, everybody's parents, like, eventually all making their way down the street.

We didn't know that much about, like, if somebody can be revived or when they're dead or anything like that, but… I feel like we, for sure, knew in that moment, like, it wasn't—he's got a chance, wait for the ambulance. It was— he— I think he's dead.
He was 18, max.
Everything started to hit me at once.

I remember, you know, like, seeing him around the neighborhood and how he was with everybody and knowing that, at the end of the day, like, no matter how good of a person you think you are, no matter how good of a purpose you think you have, no matter how protected you think you are, like, anything can happen.
I feel like I, I was operating from a space to where I felt like no matter what, I was covered—like, no matter what situation happens, like, I'm always going to come out on the other side in some kind of way because,

I don't know, like, I'm a good person. Like, whatever reasons I can concoct to just feel like I was indestructible in some kind of way, like, that happening in that moment and that close was just, like, ‘Nah, bro, like, actually no amount of, of hanging with a certain crew. No amount of doing missions, hitting licks, stealing stuff. No amount of feeling like I was protected by my brothers who was a part of the same clique.’ Like, none of that—like, all of that shit was immediately erased and I started from scratch.

Our parents, like, wrangled us up and was just like, “It's time to go home.” My mom, for sure, was… she was done. It was like, “We're moving. We will not be here anymore. Y'all won't be here anymore.”

I think that experiencing, like, a few near-death situations and, like, separating myself from it made me feel so, like, that part of life was at least, you know, removed, and I think that I kind of forgot for a second that, you know, sometimes shit just goes horribly wrong in a moment.

Once I moved out of my bad neighborhood to a new place, danger found itself in a new form. And I just wasn't actually choosing the wrong thing. I just was in the wrong places.
It's like, if you go to the club every weekend in a place where there are a lot of aggressive people around, then it was an 8 in 10 chance that

there's going to be a shootout at the end of the night.
You know the kind of music that they're playing. You know how it hypes people up. If a song comes on and it literally says, “Shoot. Let me get 'em, shoot. Let me get 'em, shoot. Let me get 'em, shoot. Let me get 'em, shoot out. Ayyy. Shoot out. Ayyy.” And everybody's just dancing, having the fucking time of their life ‘cause it's a dance that goes with every song. But at some point you have to literally just be conscious of what you're speaking.

During that time, the culture was—it was a super aggressive Atlanta culture. Like, cliques were a thing. Like, if you go to dance, then you go to duck. It was fun but it was—it was risky.
The next time that I actually had to, like, face any kind of near death experience is 2014.
We were leaving a Denzel Curry show.

And it was late at night, and I remember, like, we had the option of, like, “Do we just get a hotel and, like, everybody crash? Or dolike, is somebody down to drive?” And I think that we all felt that we needed to stay ‘cause we were just tired from the day, but somebody volunteered to drive. 
That's a moment of not being, like, fully aware of, like, how to speak up in a moment where it's just common sense. It's

just, like, if we're sleepy, don't drive.
The beginning of the drive was super normal. Super quiet. Everyone who said they were sleepy for sure was knocked out.
I don't sleep in a easy way so for whatever reason, like, in the middle of the drive that night, I remember opening my eyes, and I could tell that his

posture just wasn't, like—it just wasn't secure. Like, his posture seemed kind of, like, relaxed. And I remember the car drifting a little bit to the right… until I realized that he was just asleep.
Then I think in that same moment, the person who was in the passenger seat might've woken up, obviously scared, but just like, “Yo, what the fuck? Like, what are you doing?”
I realized what was going on. He realized what was going on,

and the driver, like, I guess, was startled from just, like, falling asleep and waking up and realizing that we were veering, he, like, yanked the wheel to the left.
If I had to guess how fast we were going in that moment, I would say at least 70, over 70.
He hit the left wall, and when he hit the left wall, he yanked the wheel back to the right as hard as he could. And once he yanked the wheel to the right, from there, we started spinning. And I remember just thinking in my head, if the car is

spinning this fast, then the only thing that could possibly happen when this spin is over is that we're going to flip.
I remember grabbing the little handle and just being, like, “All you gotta do is hold on. You’re gonna spin really, really, really fast. After you spin, the car's gonna tilt. It's gonna flip a few times.” I held onto that handle. I tightened my stomach as hard as I could. I grabbed whatever I could grab and I just literally just, like, locked up. I remember everybody, like, screaming, yelling, crying, trying to grab control of the car.

Boom, one.
Boom, two.
Boom, three. 
And finally, like, the car lands in a ditch upside down. 
I was completely, weirdly okay. Like, I—I just remember thinking during the whole process, like, ‘There is no fucking way that you die in this car accident specifically. Like, you don't know everything. You're not all-seeing. You can't predict

shit. But I don't feel like I'm supposed to be dying today. Like, I got shit to do. All I have to do is just, like, trust myself, brace myself, and walk out of here.’
I remember just, like, exhaling and, you know, I was, like, at that point sitting on my, like, my neck, almost upside down so my shoulders are pinned up against, like, the back of the car. And I just kind of roll over on my right side and the windows already bust out 'cause everything was fucking bust out.

One by one, everybody, like, came out. Everybody's still conscious. Some of them were, like, sitting on the ground, some of them standing with their hands over their heads, some of us crying.
And I just remember being like, ‘Whew. That was fuckin’ close, bro.’ Like, we could’ve been fucked up just off of hitting the wall alone. We could’ve been fucked up off of, like, hitting the ground the first time

that the car flipped.
And, for whatever reason, we were all able to exit that car for the most part on our own, happy that, like, we can still look at each other and also, like, know that we made a fucking mistake doing this, and never in my life will it ever, ever, ever, ever, ever happen again, in no form. A parent, a friend—no one is getting behind the

wheel while they're, like, tired or drunk or high or anything, like, it's just not going down because I've been in enough car accidents before then to, like, get the hint that you don't even have to be that for something to go wrong. But if you add that to the equation, that's a sure way for everything to go downhill.
There for sure is a parallel between, like, what I experienced growing up in my house, what I experienced growing up

outside, and that car crash. The car accident was the most traumatic and the most, like, effective one of them all. 
I think that the best thing that you can ever do while you're here is, like, really, really tap in and really, really be present to the small things that could, like, have really big effects. Really, like, cherishing and honoring, like, your life.
Pay attention. Know when you're not listening to yourself

and fix that, because any version of not listening to yourself has some kind of consequence.

After surviving multiple near-death experiences, including being shot at and a near-fatal car accident, 6LACK learned the importance of being present and cherishing every moment of life. 

Close Encounters with Death

In this episode, I’ll talk about my daughter, Syx, and how she's been a driving force behind a lot of my creative inspiration. 
Episode 4: Beautiful Black Child

So it was June 2016 when I found out I was going to be a father, and immediately I had thoughts of, like, resistance and thoughts of inadequacy and thoughts of insecurity and thoughts of guilt. And I had to really sit in those thoughts for a few weeks before I came out

of it and accepted, like, my role and my responsibility. 
You know, remembering who you are in a moment that feels really, really scary or feels really overwhelming is easier said than done. But I remember, like, being young, and even though I didn't know that much about relationships, I did have a bit of a mantra in the back of my head where if you're grown enough to do something, then you're literally grown enough to take care of it.

I don't know, it was just, like, this, this just is my story. Like, and I have to own it. This is my story. Like, I can't shy away from the fact that, you know, because this isn't the way that, like, I thought that it would be, or because this is unexpected, that this somehow, like, messes up anything or changes anything. It was just, like, this is literally just a part of what you have to own.
And

at that point, you know, it's not really about you.
And also in addition to that, like, you just know what kind of person you're trying to become right now. And you know how much, like, that's rooted in love and you know how much that’s rooted in self-growth and you know how much you have to offer, like, outside of money for a kid and you know how much you've learned from your own experiences to be able to give somebody the opposite of everything that you've had to experience.
The second that I

came to those terms was the second that I actually was able to step up. 
Letting everybody know, like, my mom, my dad, my brother and sister, even, like, telling Bianca, like, she was still my friend during the time, like, that was the

biggest hurdle for me to, like—to be able to say it out loud and to own it and really, like, step into my moment of just, like, being an adult, being a man, being a father. Just saying it and accepting it—everything else that I needed to click into place, I clicked right into place. 
My creativity started to flow. My confidence started to show in my songs. I didn't have a problem finishing the album or even thinking about what the album was gonna be. It was, like, I

already know the theme. I know it's about everything that I've been through up until this point, including this kid that's on the way.
So, like, I opened up the intro song, “Never Know,” by literally saying ‘I got a baby on the way. I think about it every day.’
There's no doubt that how I opened up that project, for sure, set the tone. This is the introduction to my fucking diary and my life and my struggles and my

thought process. 
People, for sure, have come up to me right after the album came out where it's just like, “Bro, like… I got a kid on the way right now and I have to figure my shit out or I got my shit together and I got a job or dadada… like, I got a baby on the way. I think about it every day.”
You know, people sing that line like it's their line.

Syx is four years old right now. She'll be five years old in February. February 19th. And I think that, like, what surprises me the most about her is, like, every time I go back to Atlanta, at this point, it's almost, like, she's had, like, a software update and I'm just, like, catching up to whatever, like, the new sentence is or the new phrase is.

I think the most recent time that I spoke to her, I could tell, like, she had a long day ‘cause it was, like, the end of the day. And she was just kinda, like, laying there on the phone and I'm just, like, trying to connect with my kid and she's just like, “I just want to chill.” And I was just like, “Ohh wow.”
I was like, “That's kinda rude but, you know, I hope you have a good night. I'll talk to you later. I'll be there in a couple of days. And, yeah. You know, hope you get to chill. My bad. My bad.”

But yeah, no, that’s—I think that, like, her little software updates are what surprised me the most. Like, the last time before that it was, we were in the middle of, like, drinking something outside, eating smoothies, and she was like, “Oh, refreshing.” And I just looked at her like, “Bro, where are you getting these three syllable words?”
You know, she loves her space, for sure. That was one of the first things that I, like, I learned about her early on. I was just like, “Hey bro, that's kinda, like… that's kinda like me.” But she's also very, very, very loving and very affectionate at the

same time. Like, whenever she's in the mood, you know, she'll—she can look at me just with her big eyes and smile and say, “You're my best friend.” Or, “Papa, I love you.” 
I do know that she really appreciates music and she appreciates songs. I know that I played her a lot of the songs that I made for her as I was just, like, making songs along the way. So some of them ended up being, like, her bedtime songs and she was really, really—like, she’s actually super able to

identify my voice. Like, if it comes on the radio or somebody else plays it, like, it's almost split. And that was before she could formulate full sentences too. Like, it was as soon as she would hear my voice on the song, she'd be like, “That's Papa.”
And even to this day, like, if I play her some unreleased music, she's immediately—she looks at me, like, ‘Oh, it’s that—it’s that new shit.’
We talk about, like, how it's okay to feel certain things and how, “You know, like, I understand you're

6LACK opens up about his journey into fatherhood and his daughter Syx's impact on his life.  

6LACK

Intro

Symphony of Purging

People Choose These Blues

Close Encounters with Death

Beautiful Black Child

Shake the Guilt

A Beautiful Trip

Two Kinds of Water

I Believe In Me More Than I Believe in You

21 Questions with 6LACK

Collection Highlights

6LACK x Mindset

My Mindset

Gallery

You might also like these artists

Become a Mindset Member

What's included:

Annual Membership, $/month

What our listeners are saying

Introduction

Episode 1

Episode 4