True Confidence Comes From Helping Others | Aaron Marino’s Top 10 Rules

We are here at the office. It is Thursday night at— what time is it? Like 8:30? 8:40? 8:40 at night. And a couple weeks ago, maybe about a month ago, I was teaching Jason— this is Jason. Hey, everybody. I was teaching Jason the difference between salsa, merengue, bachata, and kizomba music because that's what I'm usually playing at the office. And he had no idea what all of them were. And so in like half an hour, I quizzed him and taught him about all the different songs, and he's pretty good now at picking them out.

I love it.

And we said after, "Oh, we should have done a video of that because it'd be cool to watch the explanation and the transformation." So we thought since we can't go back on repeat and do that, that Jason, who's a big fan of rap, is going to teach me about 5 different famous rappers and how to identify the difference between them and then quiz me and see how we do. Now, I'm not a huge fan of rap, uh, I like some songs, I know maybe the popular ones, but, uh, it's going to be a challenge, so we'll see. I'm going to sit, I got my peanuts and my water, and we'll see what happens. So who's first?

Actually, okay, so who are the 5? So So the 5 are— I got 3 guys and 2 chicks.

Oh, okay.

Alright, so Nicki Minaj and Rihanna are the 2 chick rappers.

Rihanna raps? See, I didn't even know that.

Jay-Z, Drake, and Kanye. These are really, really big names in the rap world. These ones, they all cross over into pop, so you're gonna hear them on like every radio station. Even rock stations play these.

Okay.

And a lot of people will argue whether or not they're even rap. Okay. But they're big.

Okay.

And they're hip-hop and—

So if I hear a girl, I have a 50% chance at least of getting that right.

Yeah.

There you go.

It's gonna help a lot.

Okay.

I thought it would make it easier.

Good.

I'm just gonna play one song from each of these and point out some of the characteristics.

Okay, what to look for. Alright? Okay.

Alright.

Okay.

So here—

I can't believe you cut M, man.

Evan Carmichael.

Okay, it's a girl, right? 50% chance, right? Okay, so what am I looking for?

So that's Nicki Minaj.

Okay, it didn't sound like Rihanna, so I have a 50%— okay, right.

So you could have got it from process of elimination.

Okay.

And Nicki, she usually has like pretty fast raps. Okay. And like kind of like a twang in her voice.

Okay.

And she has multiple personalities.

Okay.

So she'll do like really weird, really weird things with her voice. Okay.

Is this where we get the demo?

Yeah, I'm gonna do Nicki Minaj.

Right? Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] She's British? She just did it, right? No, she's not British.

Oh, she sounds British. She has a British personality. That's one of her personalities.

Okay, so sound British, Nicki Minaj, okay.

She has like a monster kind of freaky girl personality, then she has like a pop princess Barbie personality.

What's her biggest song?

Probably this one, Super Bass.

Oh, okay. It kind of sounds familiar.

Yeah, that's why.

That's probably really embarrassing that I don't know this.

No, man, you're all entrepreneurs in salsa. That's it. That's all we expect. Okay, so she just did like a voice change if you listen.

She's like, "Hotcakes, baby." Okay, weird stuff.

Rihanna doesn't really do that stuff.

Right, right, right.

If you listen to Rihanna, all her stuff is like really melodic and songy and princessy and beautiful.

I know, I know, I know, uh, What's the one she does the lip curl in the video?

Oh, that's probably a Monster or—

She's like fire, bring a kind of fire. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love doing it. With Eminem, man. Kickflip you cut it.

He's coming.

This is Rihanna? Yeah. Okay.

So can you tell the difference between Rihanna and Nicki?

Yeah. I'm good. Alright. I think I'm pretty good.

Yes.

I'm good with this.

There, that's a good start. We got the chicks taken care of.

Okay.

Alright.

I think this is gonna be a lot easier now. Let's see what happens.

Right, so this is Jay-Z. Um, you can't really pay attention to the beat so much because they all use different beatmakers and producers. Yeah, yeah, I'm up in Brooklyn, man, I'm down in Trump.

New York. This is Jay-Z.

I'm in the Sinatra State.

Who's this?

Is that Rihanna?

No. Beyoncé?

No, I have no idea. It's Alicia Keys.

Oh, it's not Nicki Minaj. She's not on the test. What? Alicia Keys is not on the test. Okay, so, uh, okay, that's J.

If you hear aha, aha, right?

Okay, listen, listen, listen.

Okay, so if you're catching two of that All the time.

Jay-Z with the "Ah-ahs," New York.

Yeah, and if you listen to— he has an accent, right? Like, it's a New York accent. "This traffic goes right next to the Metro, but I'll be old fast, but I'm built to last." Okay, okay. Right, he won't enunciate like— if you listen to Eminem, Eminem will have a totally different delivery and pacing and the way he pronounces his words and stuff.

Okay. So I'm gonna ace this test, man. I'm feeling good.

All right, all right. So here we have a Drake song.

Uh-oh, I know one Drake song. Oh, it's not playing. I should know more. He's from my city, Toronto, but I know one song.

But, but he'll appreciate that you took the time to find out.

This is that— this is the song.

Right now Drake is somewhere being like, man, that Evan Carmichael, that— so much respect.

Okay. So what am I looking for here?

Okay, so Drake's stuff is usually more emotional. Um, it's like— he always has like a lot of feeling in it, like—

Okay.

Like it's sort of like a— you know, I'm not sure how to explain it. You just have to listen sometimes. But there's other things to look for that I can explain. Okay, okay, okay.

So he uses a lot of autotune.

If you listen to his voice, Oh yeah. It's always a little nasally or a little like computerized.

Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, got it.

You feel confident you can tell the difference between Drake and Jay?

Yeah, yeah.

All right, then we'll do Kanye.

Kanye, I don't know. Oh, Gold Digger is the only Kanye West song I know.

Is that him?

No. Oh, okay. This is a rap, right? That's rap. This is such a rude dance. Right.

But if you listen to Kanye, he's like in between Jay and Drake on the like pitch. Okay.

Right?

It's not like way high and like auto-tuned, and he's not low and New Yorkish and whatever.

Okay, okay, okay, okay.

Chicago. Okay. What's up Chicago? And he likes to draw out a lot of his words like— Oh!

Gold Sinnoh?!

Yeah yeah, friends... Friends... Okay, okay. And Kanye is often conversational.

Oh, okay.

Right? Like, when we heard Drake and Jay, they were— you could tell it was like a performance and like he's singing like, like, I know, some grand song.

Okay.

Kanye, um, a lot of times is like telling a story or just like he'll break the, break the, the wall between the performer and the audience.

Okay.

A lot of like, I told— I done told you, or like, that's what, that's what you asked me, or you heard— like a lot of like conversation with the—

okay, the listener. Who has the best grammar? From the 3 guys?

Drake.

Drake. Canadian. Okay, so summarize. Let's see how much you remember. I didn't take any notes. It's all up here. Nicki Minaj, fast, wants to be British. Rihanna, not Nicki Minaj, melodic, slower. Jay-Z, low, New York accent, uh-huh, uh-huh. That's a signature. Hollers. Drake, higher pitch, autotune, most grammatically correct. That's all I remember.

He's really emotional. Emotional, okay, emotional. And, uh, he'll name-drop Toronto a lot.

Okay, listen for Toronto. Good. Kanye, in between on the pitch, conversational, drags out his notes.

All right, okay, those are like really broad—

I got it, I got this, really broad strokes. I got this, I got this. Here we go.

Alright, so first we're gonna do straight up individual songs.

Okay, I'm feeling confident though. Yeah, this is good, man.

Okay, here we go. I think you got it too.

What do we got? What's up? I shouldn't look. I didn't see, I didn't see. I just saw text.

Not advised. Poppy.

That's not the guys. Ah! Oh, Nicki Minaj. Bam! British. Facts. Oh, I've heard this song. I don't know who it is. Wow, he doesn't sound deep, so I'm going Kanye. Next. We'll play some new ones, don't worry. Not Nicki Minaj. Man, nice.

Feeling pretty confident.

Oh, oh, autotune. We got Drake. That was easy, man. Autotune.

Nice.

Drake. It's Drake. Boom! Alright. Jay-Z.

I know this one.

I know this one. It's a hard knock life. I know this one. This is Jay-Z. This is on the radio today. It's a very, very famous song. So this was on the radio this morning. I'm driving my son and he's— the kids here, he's saying they're rabbits. It's like the rabbits are singing. Like, how do you know they're rabbits? Oh, because that's what rabbits sound like. My 4-year-old kid. Oh, Jay-Z.

Uh-huh. Oh, oh, uh-huh, uh-huh. Okay, you got it.

The tells. So he did a song with Rihanna.

Yeah, actually he discovered Rihanna. Okay, I gave her her big shot on stage.

Okay, okay, I've heard this song. I know this song.

You look so happy you recognize it.

Yeah, well, I know, I know the harder stuff is coming. Okay, actually this is pretty good. I think I can nail all of them, man. The, the tells were gold.

All right. Nae's on fire!

The bells were gold. Okay, next. So? Doesn't sound poppy enough for Nicki Minaj, but I'm gonna wait.

Good to hold judgment.

Should I help this guy? Oh, Drake!

Yes!

This is a rap, man. What's happening? Who sings? Who actually sings here?

I want— you gotta be careful with the choruses. They'll screw you up. Name a rapper, the chances of them having someone unique saying the chorus is like 90%.

Oh, this isn't somebody I'm supposed to know? Okay. No, this is just a rap song by those people.

And they've chosen some— this is actually Frank Ocean.

Oh, okay, okay.

Frank Ocean is an amazing singer.

Yeah, okay, I don't know him either.

Maybe that's next.

I was gonna guess Kanye on the free, but okay. It's not Jay-Z. I'm not hearing the autotune. It's storytelling. Kinda. Yeah!

So many views coming in. It's a duet.

Alright. With Frank Ocean and somebody else. Alright, here we go.

You nailed it!

Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, and Rihanna.

Here we go.

It sounds too low beats for Nicki Minaj, so I'm—

Come on, Frank, I'm just spelling it here. You can't feel that?

I'm waiting, I'm on my pressure, man. I'm waiting for the next one. Here we go.

Oh God. Jay-Z. Ye! That's a Jay-Z.

Kanye is like pure process of elimination for me.

You can't tell Kanye?

No. I can tell the other guys, and then, and then if it's not them, it's Kanye.

Oh my God. [FOREIGN] Rihanna?

Yes?

About to find out. It's a really uplifting song though.

I like it, yeah, it's got some punch to it so far. Let's go guys!

Oh, but you nailed that Rihanna call real quick.

Yeah, yeah, well the women are easy. I find it easy, guys. Okay, we'll see. So Nicki Minaj doesn't duet with anybody? I guess we'll see. This is Nicki Minaj. Yeah!

That was a tough one, man.

Just as I said, Nicki Minaj doesn't do well with everybody. Here it comes. So they did it together. That's cool. Oh, that was funny. Okay.

Yeah, um, not a whole lot of Rihanna-Nicki collaborations. That might be the only one.

Okay.

And to hear them side by side is interesting. Okay, because for a minute you weren't even sure if it was still Rihanna.

Yeah, I had to think, well, I haven't heard Rihanna rap yet, right?

Here's the treat.

The treat? Oh, there's like a threesome here. What's happening?

Well, threesome is my kind of treat, but let's not get carried away.

Family channel, Jason. Family channel.

That's how families are started.

Sounds like No Scrubs.

Hey, it does!

Got no scrubs.

Got scrubs, you gotta keep getting 'em up. Wait, you know TLC? Jay-Z? Skim through it, huh? Yeah, but do you listen to music or do you just skim through it?

I just skim through it. I just skim through it.

He's talking to you.

He's talking to me. I didn't even hear him as he said it.

Okay, you were skimming.

I was skimming, I was skimming, I was skimming.

He's calling you out.

He was calling me out.

Well, it doesn't sound like—

it's not Drake. It's either Kanye or it's somebody else.

Oh, it's Eminem!

Yeah, Eminem!

Yes!

Ah, Eminem! He's tricking me, man. You're tricking me.

Give me a high five right now. Oh, he's tricking me.

Good. Closing words?

Closing words?

It's gonna get deep here, watch out.

Yeah, it is gonna get deep.

There's thought process happening right now.

No, because it's important, man.

Okay, here we go.

Look, people are building their businesses. Your audience are building businesses.

Yeah, and this is relevant. Here it comes, here it comes.

To me it is.

No, no, no. He's about to drop some science here.

So I'm big on empire design. I want to coach people, help them to build their empires. And it could start as a tiny business, but it's going to have an impact in the world, right? It's going to have an impact in the market. Evan Carmichael is going to have an impact in the market. Instead of being in a bubble, you want to like have knowledge and power and control over that impact. Like when Jay-Z partners up with a rock group, that's a very strategic move. When he partners up with a sports celebrity, that's a very strategic decision, it's not to be made lightly. And what you do with your business, like if you don't know anything about pop culture, that's an area of the world that's closed off to you. So even if you have like a toe in the water, a foot in the door, it's going to be better. Like before you might not have felt comfortable partnering up with Drake, but maybe now you do. You're like, maybe you're like, I don't know anything, but I took the time to learn, or whatever, right? You have a story. If you sat over dinner with him, you could, you could laugh about this video. But for someone who never ever listened or never even tried, like, it helps to dive into other, other parts of life. And so I might learn salsa. That could be the next video.

Next video.

And now my influence rise.

Next video.

Don't even know. It's important shit.

Alright, there you go. Final words from Jason, J-Rize Fonseca. If you guys like this video, give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, let us know what you think, leave a comment below if you want to see more videos like this. If you want to see Jason learn salsa taught by me, leave a comment below and we'll make that video happen. Thank you guys, we'll see you soon.