#240: John Monopoly

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we went out to LA to sit down with the legend himself, John Monopoly, to talk about being the at the epicenter of the Chicago music scene for almost thirty years! Known most notably for his work as Kanye West's manager, we talk about his upbringing in Chicago's Johnson family, his early Soul Train memories, going to grade school with Common and No I.D., promoting shows and making beats and getting money in high school, meeting Kanye back in 1990, why he decamped for Atlanta and why he returned home and what Jay Boogie means to the city. We discuss Mnop meeting his cousin Don C and how they took over the night life scene in the Windy City, how they got The Beatnuts to town, the story behind bringing Jay-Z and Foxy Brown to the Chi, and of course, the city's most notorious party celebrating the hottest rapper on the scene, Da Brat. John goes into detail about trying to break the Go Getters and Kanye West records, attending the Mixshow Power Summit, making and maintaining relationships, how Chris Lighty recruited Mnop to work at Violator Management, and what it felt like to leave Chicago for New York. We reminisce on Kanye's chaining day, how he got the news of Kanye's car crash, the initial struggles of Through the Wire on the radio, how Syleena Johnson ended up on All Falls Down, the highs of The College Dropout and The Grammys and ultimately what led to his parting ways with Ye in 2008. We discuss John's work with Valee, Z Money, Virgil Abloh, Hitmaka FKA Young Berg, Dreezy, King Louie, his nephew London on Da Track, Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott, Dirtbag, Cool & Dre, G.O.O.D. Music, Mona Scott, Todd Moscowitz, Puffy, Cam'ron and Jim Jones, his being diagnosed as bipolar, the value in discussing mental health, and much, much more!