XZIBIT: It’s the Lasagna Ganja Podcast. I am Mr. X to the Z, XZIBIT.

Tammy: And I’m your girl Tammy, a.k.a. The Cannabis Cutie.

XZIBIT: And one of my people is in the building. We got Problem in here.

Jason: Yeah, come on! Hey Tam!

XZIBIT: For those who are listening, we had a gigantic-ass joint just a while ago. This thing looked like a fire extinguisher.

Jason: It’s working, too.

XZIBIT: It’s working.

So there’s a lot to talk about. Tell us a little bit about your journey. How did you get started and what was happening in that environment?

Jason: I didn’t want to be poor. That was one reason I got started.

I knew I couldn’t work at a regular job. I just didn’t like listening to people. And I had kids early.

XZIBIT: How early is that?

Jason: I was 19. Once I saw what child support was, I was like, “Hold the fuck up. I gotta figure this out.”

And I just got forced into music accidentally. Started playing this game called Music Generator and started making beats on it.

Then someone heard those beats. And music just started grabbing me.

I bumped into Terrance Martin. He took a liking to me. Brought me to Kurupt. He took a liking to me. Brought me to Snoop.

XZIBIT: One thing I remember about Problem is that his outfits were always on point. His shit was matching from the top of the hat all the way to the shoes.

Jason: My thing was always-let’s stay neat, let’s stay fresh. That’s crazy that you picked up on that.

XZIBIT: How important is it to be from Compton? What does that mean as an artist?

Jason: It’s the most important thing for me. It’s the Mo Town of West Coast rap. It’s the Bronx. It started in Compton with Dre, Suge, and everything that came out of there.

For some, I think being from Compton is both a gift and a curse. Because for some, you’re going against the monsters—the hall of fame and everything that’s based around Compton.

But for me, it’s like gold. When you travel around the world and tell people you’re from Compton, they look at you like you’re some kind of alien. For me, it’s a badge of honor.

Some people like to hide that they are from there. That’s crazy.

But I had the benefit of getting embraced by my predecessors. There’s nothing better.

XZIBIT: When you started working around the Ego Trip album and meeting all of us, what was that like for you?

In California, if you don’t know, the subculture of rap is deeply rooted in gang culture. And in that gang culture, there is a pecking order and everybody doesn’t necessarily get along.

As an artist, It can seem counterproductive to be in that environment. But for some reason the ecosystem works there. You just know where you can and can’t go.

That being said, you eventually evolve into your own thing. Because on the West Coast, if you knock on a door so long and you don’t get in, you have to take the long road and build your own thing.

Which was Diamond Lane.

What was the philosophy and execution in bringing Diamond Lane to life?

Jason: I think it was very important for me to join up with a crew of guys who all believed in one thing and made it where I didn’t have to attach myself to ‘gang brands.’

I didn’t gang bang. I just grew up with a lot of the guys everybody was scared of.

I’ve always been a straight shooter. I don’t have a problem telling people no, but I can do it respectfully. I think a lot of people on the West Coast respect that.

XZIBIT: You reminded me of something. I hate when people I don’t know come up and talk to me about something and then say, “Now how do I get in touch with you? Can I get your number?”

No!

Jason: No!

XZIBIT: I’ll give you an email.

Jason: It’s a case by case scenario. I can pick the vibe of the people I want to give my information to.

Some people I’ll give my instagram to. If it’s someone I think I want to talk to, I’ll give them my number or my email.

But still-if you’re calling and I don’t want to answer, I’m not! I got kids and shit that I got to really fuck with. Everybody else is really optional.

XZIBIT: What was the ultimate high and the ultimate low from Diamond Lane? Where is Diamond Lane now?

Jason: Diamond Lane is still pushing and moving. We got Airplane James right now.

The ultimate high would be when we had our own record. Our own song. We didn’t put any big name features on it.

That was like the shaken soda can. It popped.

I’d say the low is that we got successful too fast. We were in existence a year and by the next year, I was top 3 over from California, which is hard as fuck to do.

XZIBIT: Music has always been a big part of your life. Like me, you diversify.

Tell us about Coffee and Kush.

Jason: It’s a brand that started through the pandemic.

I was drinking coffee and smoking weed every morning and decided to monetize it.

The fact that it still has a name is a win for me. I have to understand that this is not music. Music—I can make happen fast.

XZIBIT: What is Coffee and Kush?

Jason: Coffee and Kush is more of a lifestyle brand than a coffee brand or a kush brand. It’s about the balance both those things create when put together.

I’ve noticed as somebody who’s had a turned up life, I still needed a little zap in the morning.

But I still needed to smoke weed, too. But the coffee would keep me at this speed where I was zeroed in and focused enough for writing music or films.

But the fact that the brand is still here, and I gave myself a 5 to 7 year window to monetize on it, makes me super excited.

XZIBIT: You’ve got a bunch of stuff. There’s a mug that has an actual weed pipe connected as the handle. There’s also flower. And then there was a food truck idea.

Jason: Yeah, we had the Coffee and Kush truck where you could grab your cannabis and your coffee from the same truck.

We were out for about 40 days and then they changed the law on me.

You used to be able to put the weed license on a leased truck. You have to own the trucks now.

But I will say that we had no crime. We were in the green those last three weeks. So stay tuned, you may see more.

And Compton Coffee was created just because the banking was so hard with it being called Coffee and Kush.

When we did a Coffee and Kush coffee brand, people thought it had weed in it, so it made us have to really think.

The brand is just going to expand until we can do what we want to do in cannabis.

XZIBIT: So even though it started with Coffee and Kush, it evolved into just a coffee brand?

Jason: Yeah. On the bags, you’ll see ‘powered by Coffee and Kush.’

Tammy: Too much red tape to do both.

Jason: It seemed like every time the bank would have a problem. They were like, “Well this could be coming from cannabis.”

We changed it to ‘Coffee and K,’ and they were like, “Well we know what the K was.”

Tammy: Pro tip to anyone out there watching, when you form an LLC, keep the names cannabis, kush, weed, marijuana, or anything that alludes to cannabis out of it.

My LLC no longer has cannabis in it. I learned the hard way. But I still operate as the Cannabis Cutie, so everybody knows. But it’s just underneath the umbrella of my LLC.

Jason: We went through that a lot. We did CBD Coffee first. We could never keep it going.

XZIBIT: Well they have credit unions now that make it a little easier to do banking.

Jason: Well I removed myself from the cannabis side of it for the last year and a half because I want to make sure whomever I partner with this time is ready and equipped to handle the plant the way I want to handle it.

XZIBIT: So you don’t want to touch the plant?

Jason: I want someone to touch the plant for me.

I want to be the person who makes sure it’s the right type of flower that goes in the bag or that it’s the right kind of flower to blend with the coffee.

It’s going to take a really heavy kush to smoke with the coffee. I’m not looking to have the most popular weed. I want this for the people who smoke weed and drink coffee.

Tammy: Did you guys hear the news about the banking situation for the cannabis industry?

The Senate Banking Committee passed the SAFE Banking Act. This has happened 7 times before.

It will go to the Senate floor. If it passes the Senate, it will go to the House. With the House, it could be dead-on-arrival because the House is Republican and they don’t usually vote these things in.

But if it does pass, then the next step is to go to the President’s desk to be signed into law.

So there is a possibility that, by the end of the year, we could see cannabis banking legalized.

But, if you’ve been paying attention, our House and Senate are kind of at war.

XZIBIT: Yeah, they’re blood and crippin’ over there.

How did you get the name Problem? And why did you change to your government name, Jason Martin?

Jason: The name ‘Problem’ came from hoopin’. My boy used to see me at the court and say that I would give people problems. So that’s where my name came from.

And then when I started rapping, I needed a street name and I figured I’d roll with it.

As far as why I changed to Jason Martin…age, time, and I’ve just gotten more intentional about when my name is being mentioned.

I don’t want people to hear ‘Problem’ and have to learn who I am backwards instead of forwards.

But then for my family—I love my name, I love my family. A family name should be something said loudly and everywhere.

XZIBIT: So you got new music coming?

Jason: Yeah. I got a new album. A Compton Story.

XZIBIT: How are you dropping that?

Jason: So right now, the film A Compton Story is out. The success with that convinced me that I had to deliver some music with it.

So I had a ton of music that I’ve been sitting on. I had to do something crazy with it. So I decided we could drop a double CD/DVD a week before streaming.

XZIBIT: The album is called A Compton Story and there’s a film by the same name.

What’s the film about?

Jason: The film is just one wild day with me. My days are so random. I talk and deal with so many different people.

So the first half is me waking up with this idea that I want to go buy a Lamborghini. And then this crazy shit happens on the way.

XZBIT: What do you think of ageism in hip hop? What do you say to people who claim it is a young man’s sport?

Jason: That’s why I don’t listen to people.

We are just celebrating the 50th year of hip hop. We might be the youngest genre of successful music ever.

You can’t say what it is until you’ve seen it for 100 or 200 years. We’re telling hip hop what it is right now. We’re just now writing the rules.

I’m second generation West Coast. The third generation is just getting established.

How can we tell what hip hop is? We’re so early. We’re babies in hip hop.

Look at the Temptations. They tore it up until they passed away.

XZIBIT: You know, there’s more than 6 seats in hip hop. We don’t have to fight over these. There’s plenty of room for people to grow into legacy artists.

Jason: I think they’ve made a mockery of the sport. They’ve devalued it in a way.

We started to charge too much. So any time something gets too expensive for people to pay for, they try to water it down.

Hip hop sells everything. Snoop selling Coronas, knowing he doesn’t drink, tells me everything I need to know.

There’s no ageism, man. Stay here. Just don’t be weak. There should be some ‘weakism.’

Tammy: When you look at the influence of hip hop on cannabis, if you want to get people out to the polls to vote about something, get people to rap about it. Make it cool.

Snoop made it cool. He made it less dangerous. He made it less of a taboo.

I guess I’m just so confused as to why there is always an old school versus new school thing happening in hip hop.

Jason: I think that happens in life. They teach us this competitive sports type thing.

Tammy: We see that in cannabis, too. One of the best ways to take out your competition in the cannabis industry is to get their page shut down.

Jason: What type of fucking weirdo shit is that?

XZIBIT: It’s just petty.

Tammy: In the cannabis industry, we have to remember that we have one common enemy. That needs to be the focus.

Jason: That’s not snitching, though? Getting somebody’s page taken down?

XZIBIT: It’s just a pain in the ass.

Jason: You’re calling the authorities to get my shit taken down.

Tammy: Well it’s not the law. It’s the ‘Instagram Gods.’

XZIBIT: There’s not a lot of places that you can promote freely to the cannabis community.

When your page gets shut down, it just puts a monkey wrench in things. You can still get it done—lots of elbow grease. But it’s so much easier when you have a direct line to your audience.

You have a podcast as well?

Jason: It’s not a podcast. It’s a fucking show!

XZIBIT: It’s a fucking show!?

Tammy: But you have mics like a podcast would?

Jason: Any time you see me, a mic, and a camera, it’s a show!

Nah, it’s called “Coffee Talk.” It’s with my brothers, Marv and Brad. And shout out to CoCreate Studios.

We’re about 26 episodes now. It’s dope to do it with my dawgs. Never seen them on camera before, so watching them grow is great.

XZIBIT: Why’d you want to do a podcast and what is Coffee Talk about?

Jason: I didn’t want to do this at all. They’d been trying to get me to do this for 3 years.

I would do my coffee and kush every morning, live, during the pandemic.

My boy Marv was like, “We have to put this on a show.”

I started it and fell in love with it. We shoot twice a week. I swear my days are better after we shoot because I get to talk with some like-minded guys.

We make uncomfortable conversations come through.

XZIBIT: Give me an example.

Jason: One of the producers brought up the parent that came into a classroom and snatched the Pride flag off of the map in history class.

We played the tape and spoke about it. It’s a diverse room. We touch it all. It’s very uncut.

XZIBIT: Where can we find it?

Jason: On Youtube right now. I think we just started a Patreon page.

XZIBIT: What’s going on with you personally?

Jason: You know what? I’m actually cool.

My daughter graduated from college.

XZIBIT: How many kids do you have?

Jason: SIX!

Tammy: Why’d you say it like that???

Jason: 1 boy, 5 girls. Queens!

I had 5 of those children pre-fame. I don’t know what was wrong with those ladies!

I like that my friends have been doing things. I feel like my circle is coming into its own.

XZIBIT: There was a lot of heavy shit going on in the late 90s, early 2000s, that really affected people inside and outside the industry, especially on the West Coast.

Today’s generation, though, isn’t dealing with the same issues. I see them with a different set of issues.

I feel like the biggest obstacle they have now is being accepted for being original.

They have a different type of fear that didn’t exist with us. We didn’t have a problem being and sounding different.

Now it’s like they want to fit into this box because they feel like this box is the only way to be successful.

If I could speak to that generation, I’d tell them to be who they are unapologetically. Strive for longevity.

Do that rather than building super big, super fast, and then no one remembering you.

Jason: There’s nobody here because they love to create. That’s the problem.

They started looking for a place where they get their money fast.

XZIBIT: I hate it when rappers come up to me and say, “I’ve only been rapping for 6 months!”

I don’t wanna fucking hear that!

It doesn’t have to take forever, but it takes at least 10,000 hours to be good at something. Give me some effort.

Jason: We, on the West Coast, don’t move the culture anymore.

We used to. When we did something, everybody else did it. Hence the gang banging all over the world.

XZIBIT: People want to fit in. Attention is the new drug. It’s harmful, though. It stunts their growth.

I want somebody to break the tide. I want somebody to know that they can step out on faith and not fit in because that’s what is going to make your sound live for a long time.

Jason: To me, the shit doesn’t sound expensive anymore. Doesn’t sound like time and effort were put into it.

XZIBIT: I love seeing my young brothers and sisters put together their ideas and, like alchemy, bring things to life.

To see E-40 and the way he diversified his career. And you’ve done the same thing with Coffee and Kush. Coffee Talk. A Compton Story. All of these things lend themselves to your work ethic.

I commend you.

Jason: I appreciate you. I appreciate you helping me. I come in here in a very vulnerable state. I don’t get to do that much. It’s healthy for me to have someone like you.

XZIBIT: We got Jason Martin, formerly known as Problem. It’s the Lasagna Ganja Podcast. Where can they find you, Problem?

Jason: problem354 everything.

XZIBIT: Even on TikTok! It’s the Lasagna Ganja Podcast, it’s going down. Bang!