Leon Thomas stopped by the Genius office to break down his hit song, “MUTT.” Produced by D. Phelps and Freaky Rob, MUTT serves as the title track of the star’s latest project. On today’s episode of VERIFIED, the Grammy winning artist shares the inspiration behind the song, his top 5 dogs, the journey of learning to be vulnerable, and more!
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00All right, so here's the top five dogs,
00:02according to Leon Thomas.
00:03I'ma be real, you know, my boy Big Sean's a real player.
00:06You know, he's been around.
00:07I seen his vibe.
00:08Drake, for sure.
00:09When I'm thinking about dogs, I think of Bootsy Collins.
00:12He's just a known, you know, player.
00:14Me, I'ma throw myself up there.
00:16And then, Leonardo DiCaprio.
00:19I feel like that man's never been married
00:20and it's like, all right, brother.
00:22All right, let's, let's wrap it up, champ.
00:26I was sitting in my living room
00:28and my dog and my cat were fighting.
00:30My dog is untrained and pretty messy.
00:33I mean, the guy is just a menace.
00:35He was messing around and my cat hit him.
00:37And he had this face that kind of reminded me of myself
00:40when I'm in a relationship
00:41and it's not all the way working out.
00:42I know he has the best intentions,
00:44but he doesn't always do the right thing.
00:46And it felt like, you know what, I need to name,
00:48not just my dog, my cat, my dog, my dog, my dog,
00:52my dog, my dog, my dog, my dog, my dog, my dog, my dog.
00:55It's not just my single mutt, but the album mutt,
00:58because it's just a representation
00:59of trying to figure it out, man.
01:01Trying to do right.
01:03She said, take your time, what's the rush?
01:08I said, baby, I'm a dog, I'm a mutt.
01:13And she said, take your time, what's the rush?
01:18I said, baby, I'm a dog, I'm a mutt.
01:21I'm a dog, I'm a mutt.
01:23If you think about the history of music,
01:25you know, Elvis had like a dog mascot.
01:27Parliament Funkadelics, you know,
01:29they talked about Atomic Dog, Snoop Dogg, you know.
01:33Even Drake, you know, for all the dogs,
01:33dogs have always been infused in the lyrics
01:35of songs for decades,
01:37and I kind of wanted to just try my hand at it.
01:39I thought it would be a good vibe.
01:46It's an amazing bar,
01:47because I mean, I think it's a good play on words.
01:49I can't smoke no Reggie, so pardon my bluntness.
01:51Blunts, Reggie, I mean, it's like, it's pretty cool.
01:54I thought it was really clever,
01:55and shout out to Busy Crook, that was his idea.
01:57I fuck with that.
01:58Being honest is a very important thing in 2024,
02:01and being transparent, communication is important.
02:04Sometimes you gotta just be straight up, no fluff.
02:06And I think that was a good way to say that, you know,
02:08that was a subtext of it all.
02:14I think in the world of social media,
02:15there's so many, you know, beautiful faces
02:17with FaceTune and this and that,
02:19so it's just kind of hard to really trust just that.
02:21You gotta really lock in
02:23and see the inner beauty in somebody.
02:24Having trouble trusting can be something
02:26that you overcome over time.
02:28I think like the more real people
02:30that you put in your life, the easier it is.
02:32But I think living in Hollywood,
02:33there's a lot of people kind of playing a character.
02:36They're not necessarily like their true selves.
02:38They come here from whatever state,
02:40and they might be on complete bullshit.
02:42So I mean, for me, I kind of try to take my steps
02:45when it comes to trusting human beings out here.
02:47You gotta like really take your time.
03:01I think we need a balance in a song
03:03talking about I'm a dog, I'm a mutt.
03:05I'm not trying to promote toxic masculinity here.
03:07You know, I think it's genuinely about understanding
03:10that you can have a bit of both in you.
03:11I was recently talking to a therapist about vulnerability.
03:14It was a couple years ago.
03:15It was actually when I was in a relationship,
03:17and we were doing couples therapy,
03:18and we were just talking about the power
03:20of vulnerability and communication.
03:22I think as men, sometimes we have this guard up.
03:24We're trying to like create this
03:26and paint this facade of strength and no weakness.
03:29But I think it's really important to just kind of
03:31pay homage to the fact that we're all human,
03:34and we're going through things.
03:35And I think the more you communicate,
03:36the better you can learn your person.
03:49This bar was a true story.
03:52I recently moved to this neighborhood in Los Angeles,
03:54and somebody actually broke into my crib
03:56and like was in my living room on my couch.
03:59You know what I'm saying?
04:00My dog was barking.
04:01It's kind of interesting that it connects back to the dog.
04:03My dog's barking. He's going crazy.
04:05I'm like, what, boy?
04:05He's like, he's like Lassie almost.
04:07I'm like, what the fuck?
04:08Like, what's going on?
04:09I go to my living room.
04:10I'm in my drawers in the do-rag,
04:11and there's a grown-ass man on my couch.
04:13I'm not a supporter of the NRA,
04:15but you know, we gotta get a little something for that,
04:18because that's insane.
04:19I felt so naked, literally and figuratively.
04:21Like, what? Get out of my home.
04:26♪ Stay if you want. It's been one of those nights. ♪
04:29♪ One of those nights I ain't had in a minute. ♪
04:32♪ It's been a minute. Had to pop a shroom to recreate the feeling. ♪
04:38♪ But it's never the same as the first time he did it. ♪
04:41♪ First time he did it. ♪
04:43That's one of my favorite bars.
04:44Had to pop a shroom just to recreate the feeling.
04:46I feel like when you're dealing with a new situationship,
04:50it's stronger than any drug.
04:51I've micro-dosed on shrooms for a lot of my last album,
04:54and it was a cool way to go on an internal journey for myself.
04:58So I felt comfortable adding a little shroom bar in there.
05:01Why not?
05:04When I walked into the studio,
05:05I knew exactly what I wanted to say for the hook,
05:07but I had to find verse ideas,
05:10maybe from older songs to fit that concept.
05:12It was a really cool process, very free and fun.
05:16I was in there with my boys, Freaky Rob and D-Phelps.
05:19Busy Crook, he's an amazing, amazing rapper and lyricist.
05:23And we were just really coming up with a good vibe for the track.
05:26So by the time the track was done,
05:28I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the record.
05:29It's almost like a game of Tetris.
05:31You're just trying to fit the blocks,
05:33figure out ways to make even old ideas become brand new.