WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.940 Imagine, like, rapping with such relentless, 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:07.480 just unstoppable momentum for 24 straight years. 00:00:07.580 --> 00:00:09.800 Yeah, that's practically unheard of. Right. And 00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:12.359 you become the veritable glue of the entire Los 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:15.099 Angeles underground hip hop scene. A total foundational 00:00:15.099 --> 00:00:18.059 pillar. Exactly. Yeah. So you've built this staggering 00:00:18.059 --> 00:00:21.039 catalog, you've collaborated with everyone, and, 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:24.379 you know, your entire identity is tied to the 00:00:24.379 --> 00:00:27.719 physical, sweaty reality of gripping a microphone 00:00:27.719 --> 00:00:30.879 on a stage. The physical toll of that alone is 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:35.060 it's immense. It is. But then imagine a severe 00:00:35.060 --> 00:00:38.020 medical crisis forces the amputation of your 00:00:38.020 --> 00:00:41.200 leg. Oh, wow. Yeah. Just a complete earth shattering 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:44.280 halt. How do you respond to that level of physical 00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:46.560 and emotional trauma? I mean, most people would 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:49.140 just they'd walk away or they'd retire. Yeah, 00:00:49.140 --> 00:00:52.079 you'd think so. But if you are Alejandro O 'Connor, 00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:54.320 better known as the underground legend to Max, 00:00:54.820 --> 00:00:57.280 you respond by dropping your very next album 00:00:57.280 --> 00:00:59.939 just a year later. That is insane. He titles 00:00:59.939 --> 00:01:03.500 it Lawspital. Wow. It's really one of the most 00:01:03.500 --> 00:01:05.340 striking examples of artistic resilience you 00:01:05.340 --> 00:01:07.859 will ever encounter. We are looking at a career 00:01:07.859 --> 00:01:10.280 that doesn't just span a few trendy years, you 00:01:10.280 --> 00:01:14.579 know. It stretches from 1992 all the way to listed 00:01:14.579 --> 00:01:18.430 projects in 2025. A massive timeline. Welcome, 00:01:18.569 --> 00:01:20.469 everyone. We are so thrilled to have you with 00:01:20.469 --> 00:01:22.670 us today. Yes, welcome. Our mission for this 00:01:22.670 --> 00:01:27.189 deep dive is to explore the fierce creative stamina, 00:01:27.569 --> 00:01:30.769 the sprawling network, and just the profound 00:01:30.769 --> 00:01:33.829 human resilience of Tumex. It's a really incredible 00:01:33.829 --> 00:01:36.450 journey. It is. The sources we are working from 00:01:36.450 --> 00:01:38.530 today, so we've got a comprehensive timeline 00:01:38.530 --> 00:01:41.430 of his life, his massive discography, and his 00:01:41.430 --> 00:01:43.189 career milestones. Right, but we aren't here 00:01:43.189 --> 00:01:45.329 to just read you a list of dates. No, not at 00:01:45.329 --> 00:01:47.920 all. We want to extract the blueprint here. Like, 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:50.540 what does it actually take to build a 30 -plus 00:01:50.540 --> 00:01:53.379 year legacy as a fiercely independent creator? 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:56.000 Exactly. Because this isn't just a story about 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:58.939 a musician making songs. It is a real -time study 00:01:58.939 --> 00:02:01.560 in survival outside the corporate music machine. 00:02:01.739 --> 00:02:03.659 Surviving the machine. I love that. To understand 00:02:03.659 --> 00:02:05.719 that blueprint, you have to understand the environment 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:08.219 that forged him. The mechanics of the independent 00:02:08.219 --> 00:02:10.639 art world are, well, they're entirely different 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:12.280 from the mainstream. Totally different rules. 00:02:12.569 --> 00:02:14.990 Yeah, and Tumex mastered those mechanics better 00:02:14.990 --> 00:02:17.949 than almost anyone. OK, let's unpack this. Because 00:02:17.949 --> 00:02:20.509 to understand the artist, we really have to start 00:02:20.509 --> 00:02:22.650 in the room where he cut his teeth. The proving 00:02:22.650 --> 00:02:25.689 grounds. Exactly. The timeline in our sources 00:02:25.689 --> 00:02:29.210 points us to 1992 at the Good Life Cafe open 00:02:29.210 --> 00:02:32.009 mic nights in South Central Los Angeles. Which 00:02:32.009 --> 00:02:34.270 is legendary in the underground scene. Right. 00:02:34.650 --> 00:02:37.210 The text notes this played a significant role 00:02:37.210 --> 00:02:39.969 in shaping his early career. But we need to, 00:02:39.969 --> 00:02:42.229 like, a picture of what that actually means for 00:02:42.229 --> 00:02:43.930 you listening. Yeah, it wasn't just some casual 00:02:43.930 --> 00:02:48.830 hangout. No. The Good Life Cafe wasn't a cozy 00:02:48.830 --> 00:02:51.389 coffee shop with acoustic guitars. It was a brutal, 00:02:51.650 --> 00:02:54.889 highly competitive musical sparring gym. A total 00:02:54.889 --> 00:02:57.409 gauntlet. You walked in, you grabbed the mic, 00:02:57.629 --> 00:02:59.969 and you either sank or swam based entirely on 00:02:59.969 --> 00:03:02.289 your lyrical dexterity. And the crowd was merciless. 00:03:02.370 --> 00:03:04.370 Oh, completely. They would literally chant, please 00:03:04.370 --> 00:03:06.449 pass the mic to force you off the stage if you 00:03:06.449 --> 00:03:09.680 were weak. Ouch. Yeah, that environment acts 00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:12.560 as a pressure cooker for talent. But what is 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:15.780 equally important is the specific stylistic movement 00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:18.740 worn out of that scene. Right, which eventually 00:03:18.740 --> 00:03:21.099 transitioned into the Project Bloat era. Exactly. 00:03:21.340 --> 00:03:24.139 Project Bloat wasn't just a venue. It was like 00:03:24.139 --> 00:03:26.460 the West Coast's avant -garde laboratory for 00:03:26.460 --> 00:03:29.150 rapid fire, technically complex wrapping. It 00:03:29.150 --> 00:03:31.229 was so different from what was on TV at the time. 00:03:31.590 --> 00:03:34.449 Completely. While mainstream MTV was broadcasting 00:03:34.449 --> 00:03:37.729 the smooth, slower, funk -heavy, gangster rap 00:03:37.729 --> 00:03:40.689 of the early 90s, the artists at the Good Life 00:03:40.689 --> 00:03:43.050 and Project Bloat were experimenting. Doing something 00:03:43.050 --> 00:03:45.830 totally fresh. Yeah, with jazz tempos, complex 00:03:45.830 --> 00:03:49.629 internal rhymes, and just dizzying speed. Furthermore, 00:03:49.889 --> 00:03:52.569 Tumex was a vital part of the Chicano rap scene. 00:03:52.710 --> 00:03:54.550 Which is a huge part of his identity. Right. 00:03:54.909 --> 00:03:57.370 But unlike the mainstream commercialized versions 00:03:57.370 --> 00:04:00.729 of Chicano gangsta rap, his lane was deeply rooted 00:04:00.729 --> 00:04:02.990 in community empowerment. Yeah. It was about 00:04:02.990 --> 00:04:06.050 intricate wordplay and really pushing the boundaries 00:04:06.050 --> 00:04:09.870 of what a Latin hip -hop artist was supposed 00:04:09.870 --> 00:04:12.110 to sound like. Which sets up a really interesting 00:04:12.110 --> 00:04:14.810 tension. Because if you've just survived the 00:04:14.810 --> 00:04:17.470 gauntlet of the Good Life Cafe and you've honed 00:04:17.470 --> 00:04:20.610 this incredibly complex rapid -fire style... 00:04:20.610 --> 00:04:23.189 You're at the top of your game. Right. And you 00:04:23.189 --> 00:04:26.269 are clearly a standout talent. Why share the 00:04:26.269 --> 00:04:29.050 marquee? Ah, that's a good question. Because 00:04:29.050 --> 00:04:32.449 by 1998, instead of launching a massive solo 00:04:32.449 --> 00:04:35.470 campaign, he is releasing the album galleries 00:04:35.470 --> 00:04:37.550 as part of a collective called The Visionaries. 00:04:37.629 --> 00:04:40.850 Yeah. And that exact same year... He drops the 00:04:40.850 --> 00:04:44.170 debut album, Exitos y Mas Exitos, for another 00:04:44.170 --> 00:04:47.209 group he formed of Mexican descent. The output 00:04:47.209 --> 00:04:49.569 is just staggering. Well, he put out a mixtape 00:04:49.569 --> 00:04:51.870 called Unreleased Hits. All in the same window. 00:04:52.170 --> 00:04:55.089 Yeah. So my instinct is that most artists who 00:04:55.089 --> 00:04:57.250 survive a competitive open mic, they want to 00:04:57.250 --> 00:04:59.980 hoard the spotlight. Why immediately dilute your 00:04:59.980 --> 00:05:02.600 brand by joining multiple groups? What's fascinating 00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:05.139 here is that in the underground, isolation is 00:05:05.139 --> 00:05:07.860 the fastest path to obscurity. Oh, interesting. 00:05:07.980 --> 00:05:10.819 Yeah. By embedding himself in multiple collectives, 00:05:11.180 --> 00:05:13.800 Tumex wasn't diluting his grand at all. He was 00:05:13.800 --> 00:05:16.399 multiplying his surface area. Multiplying his 00:05:16.399 --> 00:05:18.459 surface area. I like that. When you rise with 00:05:18.459 --> 00:05:20.980 a collective like the Visionaries, you are pooling 00:05:20.980 --> 00:05:22.860 your resources. You have to remember the physical 00:05:22.860 --> 00:05:25.379 reality of 1998. Right. Pre -internet streaming 00:05:25.379 --> 00:05:28.920 boom. Exactly. Distributing a mixed tape like 00:05:28.920 --> 00:05:31.319 unreleased hits wasn't a matter of, you know, 00:05:31.480 --> 00:05:33.839 uploading a file to a server. You couldn't just 00:05:33.839 --> 00:05:36.980 drop it on Spotify. No, it meant physically duplicating 00:05:36.980 --> 00:05:39.500 cassette tapes, loading them into the trunk of 00:05:39.500 --> 00:05:42.420 a car and handing them out at shows. Such a grind. 00:05:42.939 --> 00:05:45.240 By forming of Mexican descent and joining the 00:05:45.240 --> 00:05:47.860 visionaries, he suddenly had multiple street 00:05:47.860 --> 00:05:50.620 teams, multiple fan bases and multiple avenues 00:05:50.620 --> 00:05:52.680 to sell those physical tapes. That makes total 00:05:52.680 --> 00:05:55.500 sense. He established himself as a foundational 00:05:55.500 --> 00:05:58.500 pillar of a movement. rather than just a solitary 00:05:58.500 --> 00:06:00.800 guy shouting into the void. Exactly. He built 00:06:00.800 --> 00:06:02.980 an infrastructure. You're building an ecosystem 00:06:02.980 --> 00:06:07.319 not just planting a single tree. And that collaborative 00:06:07.319 --> 00:06:10.899 ecosystem building energy clearly became the 00:06:10.899 --> 00:06:13.259 defining workflow of his entire career. Without 00:06:13.259 --> 00:06:15.060 a doubt. Because when we move into the early 00:06:15.060 --> 00:06:18.420 2000s, this collaborative spark ignites an absolute 00:06:18.420 --> 00:06:20.759 explosion of output. Yeah, explosion is the right 00:06:20.759 --> 00:06:23.500 word. The sheer volume of his discography from 00:06:23.500 --> 00:06:27.819 1999 to 2010 is, frankly, staggering. It genuinely 00:06:27.819 --> 00:06:30.040 requires a spreadsheet to track. I believe it. 00:06:30.170 --> 00:06:32.709 He was releasing projects on indie labels like 00:06:32.709 --> 00:06:35.910 Mean Street, Temporary, whatever, Paladin Creative 00:06:35.910 --> 00:06:39.250 Superco up above, and Strange Famous Records. 00:06:39.509 --> 00:06:41.750 Just bouncing everywhere. Yeah, he refused to 00:06:41.750 --> 00:06:44.230 be bottlenecked by the traditional industry timeline 00:06:44.230 --> 00:06:47.209 of like one album every three years. When he 00:06:47.209 --> 00:06:49.189 didn't even tie himself down to one name. Right. 00:06:49.670 --> 00:06:52.629 In 1999, he dropped his first solo album, Fake 00:06:52.629 --> 00:06:54.850 It Till You Make It, but he released it under 00:06:54.850 --> 00:06:57.930 the moniker The Mind Clowders with the producer 00:06:57.930 --> 00:07:01.639 name Mums the Word. Then he's forming groups 00:07:01.639 --> 00:07:04.480 like Song God Sons, Look Daggers with Isaiah 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:07.480 Owens, and a collective called Marder. So many 00:07:07.480 --> 00:07:10.860 aliases. Looking at these monikers, my instinct 00:07:10.860 --> 00:07:13.519 as a consumer is like, this is a marketing nightmare. 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:15.319 From a corporate perspective, yeah. Because if 00:07:15.319 --> 00:07:17.019 I like an artist, I want to find them easily 00:07:17.019 --> 00:07:19.660 on a shelf or a search bar. But I get the sense 00:07:19.660 --> 00:07:21.699 the underground scene treats this more like a 00:07:21.699 --> 00:07:24.540 scavenger hunt. Am I completely off base here? 00:07:24.839 --> 00:07:26.860 You are hitting on the exact psychological difference 00:07:26.860 --> 00:07:29.439 between a mainstream consumer and an underground 00:07:29.439 --> 00:07:32.259 fan. Okay, tell me more. In a major label pop 00:07:32.259 --> 00:07:35.019 context, changing your name and hiding your releases 00:07:35.019 --> 00:07:38.680 is a disaster. The label wants frictionless consumption. 00:07:39.019 --> 00:07:40.959 Right. They want you just clicking by. Exactly. 00:07:41.560 --> 00:07:44.120 But in the underground, that sense of discovery 00:07:44.120 --> 00:07:47.339 is a feature, not a bug. A feature. Yeah. If 00:07:47.339 --> 00:07:49.819 you are a listener trying to build a dub connection 00:07:49.819 --> 00:07:53.019 with an artist's catalog, digging through record 00:07:53.019 --> 00:07:55.779 crates to find that obscure look dagger side 00:07:55.779 --> 00:07:58.720 project is a badge of honor. Like you're part 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:01.779 of an exclusive club. It rewards loyalty. For 00:08:01.779 --> 00:08:04.180 Tumex, it allowed him to compartmentalize his 00:08:04.180 --> 00:08:06.560 creativity. Oh, that makes sense. He could explore 00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:09.720 wildly different sonic landscapes, maybe something 00:08:09.720 --> 00:08:12.319 heavily electronic with look daggers or something 00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:14.860 deeply boom bap with another producer without 00:08:14.860 --> 00:08:17.839 confusing the core expectations of a Tumex solo 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:20.420 album. And the titles of those solo albums are 00:08:20.420 --> 00:08:22.060 a completely different kind of art form too. 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:24.819 Oh, they're brilliant. They are so evocative. 00:08:24.860 --> 00:08:27.399 He's not defaulting to like volume one and volume 00:08:27.399 --> 00:08:31.319 two. Definitely not. In 2001, he releases B -Boys 00:08:31.319 --> 00:08:34.159 and Occupied Mexico. That immediately grounds 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:36.679 you in his Chicano identity and the socioplural 00:08:36.679 --> 00:08:39.480 creality of Los Angeles. It makes a statement 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:42.220 before you even hit play. Then in 2003, we get 00:08:42.220 --> 00:08:44.860 Sweat Lodge Infinite. Also a great title. And 00:08:44.860 --> 00:08:47.139 then what has to be my absolute favorite title 00:08:47.139 --> 00:08:50.940 of his. In 2010, he drops an album called My 00:08:50.940 --> 00:08:53.730 Fan Base Will Destroy You. That specific title 00:08:53.730 --> 00:08:56.629 is a masterpiece of meta -commentary. It really 00:08:56.629 --> 00:08:59.149 is. It shows an incredibly sharp awareness of 00:08:59.149 --> 00:09:01.610 the artist -audience relationship. Which is complicated, 00:09:01.649 --> 00:09:03.850 right? It's very. An underground artist relies 00:09:03.850 --> 00:09:06.409 entirely on their grassroots fan base to pay 00:09:06.409 --> 00:09:09.649 the rent, but that same fan base can be intensely 00:09:09.649 --> 00:09:12.529 possessive and notoriously toxic. Because they 00:09:12.529 --> 00:09:15.230 want to keep the artist authentically underground. 00:09:15.830 --> 00:09:17.750 They get mad if the artist succeeds too much. 00:09:18.230 --> 00:09:20.730 Precisely. Sellout is the worst word in the underground. 00:09:20.809 --> 00:09:23.230 Oh yeah. The fans often demand the artist stay 00:09:23.230 --> 00:09:26.070 exactly the same forever, struggling just enough 00:09:26.070 --> 00:09:28.309 to remain relatable. Which is so unfair to the 00:09:28.309 --> 00:09:31.629 artist. It is. So to name an album, My Fanbase 00:09:31.629 --> 00:09:34.049 Will Destroy You, while releasing it on an indie 00:09:34.049 --> 00:09:38.429 label like Strange Famous, is a perfect wry encapsulation 00:09:38.429 --> 00:09:41.240 of the independent grind. It's so honest. It 00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:44.779 acknowledges the symbiotic yet occasionally parasitic 00:09:44.779 --> 00:09:47.460 nature of underground fame. Here's where it gets 00:09:47.460 --> 00:09:51.740 really interesting because his grind wasn't just 00:09:51.740 --> 00:09:54.679 limited to his own sprawling discography. No, 00:09:54.899 --> 00:09:57.240 it wasn't. If you look at the timeline, the guy 00:09:57.240 --> 00:10:00.740 is essentially the ultimate glue guy of the alternative 00:10:00.740 --> 00:10:02.740 hip hop ecosystem. That's a great way to put 00:10:02.740 --> 00:10:04.740 it. If you look at championship sports teams, 00:10:05.139 --> 00:10:08.779 the glue guy is the player who does the dirty 00:10:08.779 --> 00:10:11.899 work. makes the critical passes, and elevates 00:10:11.899 --> 00:10:14.240 the play of everyone around him. The one who 00:10:14.240 --> 00:10:16.440 holds the locker room together. Exactly. And 00:10:16.440 --> 00:10:18.899 Tumex's guest appearances span three decades. 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:21.980 Three decades of just constant features. We have 00:10:21.980 --> 00:10:25.220 a track listed in 1995 with Keykool and Retmatic, 00:10:25.779 --> 00:10:28.580 all the way to a listed 2025 appearance with 00:10:28.580 --> 00:10:31.240 Sal Crosby and Bonds Reap. The roster of his 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:33.799 collaborators is basically a historical index 00:10:33.799 --> 00:10:35.899 of underground heavyweights. Oh, for sure. Bus 00:10:35.899 --> 00:10:40.279 driver, nobody, gel, Omid, Thavius Beck, Prince 00:10:40.279 --> 00:10:43.480 Poe, Mers. It's an incredible list. But let's 00:10:43.480 --> 00:10:44.879 look at the mechanics of this, because I want 00:10:44.879 --> 00:10:47.500 to understand the W -H -Y and the H -O -W. Today, 00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:50.480 an artist can email a vocal stem across the world 00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:53.080 in four seconds. Right. It's effortless now. 00:10:53.480 --> 00:10:56.500 But in the late 90s and early 2000s, doing a 00:10:56.500 --> 00:10:58.759 guest verse meant physical logistics. Oh, it 00:10:58.759 --> 00:11:01.720 was a massive hassle. You were either mailing 00:11:01.720 --> 00:11:04.480 physical D -Date tapes back and forth, or you 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:06.620 were coordinating schedules to physically sit 00:11:06.620 --> 00:11:09.860 in the same smoky, cramped studio writing and 00:11:09.860 --> 00:11:12.139 recording a cipher together. It requires immense 00:11:12.139 --> 00:11:16.120 time and energy. Exactly. From a pure resource 00:11:16.120 --> 00:11:19.059 management perspective. doesn't an artist risk 00:11:19.059 --> 00:11:21.840 draining their creative well by giving away dozens 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:24.299 of verses to other people's projects? If we connect 00:11:24.299 --> 00:11:27.100 this to the bigger picture, we have to fundamentally 00:11:27.100 --> 00:11:30.179 redefine what currency means for an independent 00:11:30.179 --> 00:11:32.460 creator. Okay, currency. The ultimate takeaway 00:11:32.460 --> 00:11:34.679 here isn't just that Tumex like to make friends, 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:37.789 it's the concept of creative equity. Creative 00:11:37.789 --> 00:11:39.830 equity. Break that down for me. In the mainstream 00:11:39.830 --> 00:11:42.250 corporate economy, currency is strictly capital. 00:11:42.669 --> 00:11:45.129 You guard your assets, you copyright your verses, 00:11:45.370 --> 00:11:47.730 and you hoard your output. Protect what's yours. 00:11:47.830 --> 00:11:50.809 Right. But in the underground economy, your network 00:11:50.809 --> 00:11:53.549 is your record label. Cross -pollination is the 00:11:53.549 --> 00:11:56.629 currency. Oh, wow. Every time Tumec spent the 00:11:56.629 --> 00:11:59.210 physical energy to lay down a verse for bus driver 00:11:59.210 --> 00:12:01.889 Orthavius Beck, he wasn't losing ownership of 00:12:01.889 --> 00:12:04.690 his art. He was buying equity in dozens of different 00:12:04.690 --> 00:12:07.659 fan bases. So when a kid in the Midwest buys 00:12:07.659 --> 00:12:10.340 a Nobody album for the weird glitchy production, 00:12:10.940 --> 00:12:13.960 and suddenly hears two mechs completely obliterate 00:12:13.960 --> 00:12:16.360 a guest verse with his rapid -fire delivery. 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:19.259 That kid is instantly converted. Exactly the 00:12:19.259 --> 00:12:22.120 mechanism. When you blend his specific Chicano 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:24.519 rap delivery with the avant -garde production 00:12:24.519 --> 00:12:27.399 of someone like Gel or Omid, you aren't just 00:12:27.399 --> 00:12:31.039 making a song, you are creating a new sonic intersection. 00:12:31.179 --> 00:12:33.600 You're pulling two worlds together. He wove himself 00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:36.000 so deeply into the fabric of the scene that it 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:38.360 became physically impossible to listen to West 00:12:38.360 --> 00:12:40.919 Coast alternative hip -hop without bumping into 00:12:40.919 --> 00:12:43.480 Tumex. That is wild to think about. The sources 00:12:43.480 --> 00:12:45.759 mention his presence on critical compilations 00:12:45.759 --> 00:12:49.559 like Fat Jack's Cater to the DJ in 1999 and Afterlife 00:12:49.559 --> 00:12:52.120 Records' Declaration of an Independent in 2000. 00:12:52.139 --> 00:12:54.120 That second title really says it all. A Declaration 00:12:54.120 --> 00:12:57.200 of Independence. He survived without MTV or heavy 00:12:57.200 --> 00:12:59.980 radio rotation by making himself utterly indispensable 00:12:59.980 --> 00:13:02.940 to his peers. It's the ultimate compounding network 00:13:02.940 --> 00:13:08.019 effect. And it built a locomotive momentum. unstoppable. 00:13:08.299 --> 00:13:11.580 For 24 years, he is this unstoppable creative 00:13:11.580 --> 00:13:15.000 force, you know, pressing tapes, touring, jumping 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:17.919 on tracks, building equity. Just grinding. But 00:13:17.919 --> 00:13:20.779 that immense physical momentum makes what happens 00:13:20.779 --> 00:13:24.019 next in the timeline so incredibly jarring. Yeah, 00:13:24.539 --> 00:13:27.000 this is the hardest part of the story. In 2016, 00:13:27.639 --> 00:13:30.419 the narrative completely shifts from musical 00:13:30.419 --> 00:13:33.690 output to profound physical and emotional trauma. 00:13:33.909 --> 00:13:37.009 The sources indicate that in 2016, Tumex suffered 00:13:37.009 --> 00:13:39.610 a severe medical crisis stemming from complications 00:13:39.610 --> 00:13:42.629 with diabetes, which tragically resulted in the 00:13:42.629 --> 00:13:44.629 amputation of his right lid. For anyone, that 00:13:44.629 --> 00:13:47.149 is a catastrophic life -altering event. Beyond 00:13:47.149 --> 00:13:49.070 devastating. But think about this specifically 00:13:49.070 --> 00:13:51.850 through the lens of a hip -hop artist. The art 00:13:51.850 --> 00:13:54.370 form is inherently physical. It really is. The 00:13:54.370 --> 00:13:57.110 bravado of an open mic, pacing the stage, hyping 00:13:57.110 --> 00:13:59.889 up a crowd, the grueling physical demands of 00:13:59.889 --> 00:14:02.129 loading gear into a van for an indie tour. It 00:14:02.129 --> 00:14:04.509 demands everything from your body. When your 00:14:04.509 --> 00:14:07.190 entire livelihood and connection to your audience 00:14:07.190 --> 00:14:10.309 is built on that physical, sweaty reality. Yeah. 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:12.799 What happens when your body betrays you? It's 00:14:12.799 --> 00:14:15.840 a crisis of identity, not just health. You would 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:17.919 completely understand if an artist looked at 00:14:17.919 --> 00:14:21.179 a deeply prolific quarter -century career, faced 00:14:21.179 --> 00:14:24.159 an amputation, and just decided to retire. No 00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:26.419 one would have blamed him. You could say, I gave 00:14:26.419 --> 00:14:28.919 you my youth, I gave you my art, I am done. But 00:14:28.919 --> 00:14:31.379 he didn't do that. He took the exact opposite 00:14:31.379 --> 00:14:33.840 route. He returned almost immediately. Just one 00:14:33.840 --> 00:14:36.740 year later. Yeah. In 2017, he drops an album 00:14:36.740 --> 00:14:39.970 titled Lawspital. which, as we noted at the top, 00:14:40.429 --> 00:14:43.950 is a brilliant, slightly dark play on words combining 00:14:43.950 --> 00:14:47.029 loss and hospital. It is an artist choosing not 00:14:47.029 --> 00:14:49.690 to hide the brutal reality of his situation, 00:14:49.850 --> 00:14:53.230 but to immediately process his trauma in public. 00:14:53.509 --> 00:14:56.009 That takes so much courage. When faced with an 00:14:56.009 --> 00:14:58.929 insurmountable physical roadblock, Tumex leaned 00:14:58.929 --> 00:15:00.990 on the very tool he had been sharpening since 00:15:00.990 --> 00:15:04.110 the Good Life Cafe in 1992, his pen. Well, how 00:15:04.110 --> 00:15:06.450 does a trauma like that fundamentally alter the 00:15:06.450 --> 00:15:09.669 DNA of the music? Like, if you are stripped of 00:15:09.669 --> 00:15:12.490 the physical bravado of the stage, does the hip 00:15:12.490 --> 00:15:15.610 hop itself have to change? It inherently transforms 00:15:15.610 --> 00:15:18.389 the music from the external to the fiercely internal. 00:15:19.009 --> 00:15:22.149 Internal. The posturing and the battle rap mentality 00:15:22.149 --> 00:15:24.509 naturally fall away when you are confronting 00:15:24.509 --> 00:15:26.190 your own mortality. Yeah, that stuff doesn't 00:15:26.190 --> 00:15:28.769 matter anymore. You can see this thematic evolution 00:15:28.769 --> 00:15:31.730 continue beautifully in his discography. Look 00:15:31.730 --> 00:15:33.870 at the shift in the album titles. OK, let's compare 00:15:33.870 --> 00:15:36.769 them. In the early 2000s, you had titles like 00:15:36.769 --> 00:15:39.789 B -Boys and Occupied Mexico and Over the Counter 00:15:39.789 --> 00:15:43.100 Culture. Concepts grounded in, like, earthly 00:15:43.100 --> 00:15:46.120 defiance, sociopolitical struggles, and scene 00:15:46.120 --> 00:15:49.759 -based realities. Right. But by 2021, he releases 00:15:49.759 --> 00:15:51.799 an album called Ghost Writing Songs for God. 00:15:52.139 --> 00:15:55.360 Man. Ghost writing songs for God, that is heavy. 00:15:55.480 --> 00:15:58.600 It is an intensely spiritual, deeply reflective 00:15:58.600 --> 00:16:01.840 title. The physical trauma didn't halt his creative 00:16:01.840 --> 00:16:05.120 output. It simply provided a profoundly new stripped 00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:07.740 down perspective from which to write. It forces 00:16:07.740 --> 00:16:10.059 the listener to engage with the artist not just 00:16:10.059 --> 00:16:13.320 as a rapid fire lyrical technician, but as a 00:16:13.320 --> 00:16:16.690 vulnerable human being navigating survival. Exactly. 00:16:17.049 --> 00:16:19.090 And his network was right there to catch him. 00:16:19.309 --> 00:16:21.970 That 2025 guest appearance we talked about earlier 00:16:21.970 --> 00:16:25.110 on the Sal Crosby and Bonds Reb project proves 00:16:25.110 --> 00:16:27.809 it. It's the payoff for all that equity. Even 00:16:27.809 --> 00:16:30.289 after the health crisis, even after the entire 00:16:30.289 --> 00:16:32.730 landscape of the music industry shifted from 00:16:32.730 --> 00:16:34.970 handing out cassette tapes to algorithmic streaming, 00:16:35.990 --> 00:16:38.730 his voice is still demanded. The creative equity 00:16:38.730 --> 00:16:41.009 he bought in the 90s and 2000s is still paying 00:16:41.009 --> 00:16:43.970 dividends decades later. So what does this all 00:16:43.970 --> 00:16:46.610 mean? For you listening right now, whether you 00:16:46.610 --> 00:16:49.330 are an artist trying to find your voice, an entrepreneur 00:16:49.330 --> 00:16:51.409 building a business, or simply someone trying 00:16:51.409 --> 00:16:53.649 to navigate a challenging chapter in your life, 00:16:54.750 --> 00:16:57.110 there is a master class in the Tumex timeline. 00:16:57.289 --> 00:16:59.730 There really is. It teaches us that your network 00:16:59.730 --> 00:17:03.570 is your actual net worth and that cross -pollination 00:17:03.570 --> 00:17:05.829 is always stronger than hoarding the spotlight. 00:17:05.849 --> 00:17:07.890 Without a doubt. It shows us that treating your 00:17:07.890 --> 00:17:10.069 peers as a community rather than competition 00:17:10.069 --> 00:17:12.549 builds a foundation that can sustain you through 00:17:12.549 --> 00:17:15.319 the darkest periods. It's a safety net. And most 00:17:15.319 --> 00:17:18.059 importantly, it demonstrates how to take personal 00:17:18.059 --> 00:17:21.920 adversity, the kind of sudden, shocking trauma 00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:25.019 that could easily shatter a spirit and transmute 00:17:25.019 --> 00:17:28.410 it into honest, enduring art. This raises an 00:17:28.410 --> 00:17:29.950 important question, though. I thought I want 00:17:29.950 --> 00:17:32.250 you to carry with you today. We've spent this 00:17:32.250 --> 00:17:36.130 entire deep dive examining a quintessential underground 00:17:36.130 --> 00:17:39.410 artist, someone who survived by pressing physical 00:17:39.410 --> 00:17:42.509 mixtapes, grinding at open mics, and carefully 00:17:42.509 --> 00:17:45.549 building a collaborative web entirely outside 00:17:45.549 --> 00:17:48.210 the corporate label system. The ultimate indie 00:17:48.210 --> 00:17:50.910 hustle. But in today's hyper connected digital 00:17:50.910 --> 00:17:53.269 age, where literally anyone can record a vocal 00:17:53.269 --> 00:17:55.490 on their phone and upload it to a global audience 00:17:55.490 --> 00:17:58.599 in seconds, Does the underground as Tumex knew 00:17:58.599 --> 00:18:01.900 it in 1992 even exist anymore? Oh wow. Or did 00:18:01.900 --> 00:18:04.200 independent pioneers exactly like him simply 00:18:04.200 --> 00:18:06.960 build the exact digital blueprint that every 00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:09.640 single creator relies on today? That is a fascinating 00:18:09.640 --> 00:18:11.579 question to chew on. Is the underground gone? 00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:13.720 Or is it just the water we're all swimming in 00:18:13.720 --> 00:18:15.029 now? There's something to think about. Think 00:18:15.029 --> 00:18:16.869 about that as you navigate your own creative 00:18:16.869 --> 00:18:18.750 networks today. Thanks for taking this journey 00:18:18.750 --> 00:18:20.890 with us into the sources. We hope it gave you 00:18:20.890 --> 00:18:23.210 a new perspective on what it means to truly build 00:18:23.210 --> 00:18:25.890 a legacy from the ground up. Keep digging, stay 00:18:25.890 --> 00:18:28.250 curious, and we'll catch you on the next deep 00:18:28.250 --> 00:18:28.490 dive.