The song, "50 Years," is a kind of cautionary tale about creating generational division where it does not exist, emphasizing and interpolating the classic KRS-ONE line "50 years down the line, you can start this... cause we'll be them old school artists"

Today, David Kelly is a lawyer who joined the Golden State Warriors as general counsel in 2011, and has since risen to become vice president "responsible for all legal matters... and oversees many key projects and initiatives on both the business and basketball sides of the company," according to the NBAs' website.

Kelly is a smart dude who got his BA from Morehouse, and his JD from the University of Illinois College of Law. He is also a father, a husband, and as Cap D — of the groundbreaking '90s Chicago Hip-Hop duo, All Natural — helped to define a sound and style that was signature to the city. A mix of soulful, thought-provoking lyrics mixed with a confident bravado that became a blueprint for how the city would rhyme thereafter.

Cap D is, arguably, a TOP 5 lyricist in a city known for its pen game and has remained active putting out solo and crew records for the last twenty years. Meanwhile David Kelly has been working hard to create an indelible mark on the franchise and league, while helping the franchise to three NBA championship rings (and maybe a fourth, forthcoming?)

Rock The Bells was able to connect with this Hip-Hop ambassador, lawyer, emcee and entrepreneur, who shies away from the word mogul, to talk about the news of the team's brand-new production company, Golden State Entertainment.

Rock the Bells: This feels monumental, an NBA franchise launching an entertainment group. I would imagine this is something you've been devising for a long time?

David Kelly: You know it. It's been something I've been kicking around and discussing internally for a couple of years. We are thinking differently about what it is we already do, which is create content and tell stories. Often those stories are about people of color. We tell them on the court, and we tell them to sell tickets and secure sponsorships and drive revenue, but we wanted to start thinking about using that same muscle to tell those same sorts of stories in a deeper way, where the story lives as itself. So when you think about an NBA team and you think about music, specifically Hip-Hop, we are already in this world and have a brand recognized in this space, so can we do some interesting things that are still consistent with telling interesting stories that otherwise wouldn't be told.  

RTB: This is not your first time running a label. Family Tree and All Natural, was a Native Tongue-like collective with a Chicago edge, lyrically dexterous and always profound and worldly. You put out incredible projects that opened an indie lane in the city and region and as an emcee and label owner you created pathways for others to tell their own stories. How did your experience back in Chicago enable you to create the space for others here with Golden State Entertainment, moving from emcee to mogul?

DK: (Laughing) I would push back on the mogul word. But I was having a conversation with Rhymefest a couple of weeks ago and was just like, "Man, so much of what we are trying to build we have already been doing for the past two decades." We are just at a different place in our lives, hopefully wiser. The industry's changed, music's changed in a number of ways, but I think there's a way for us to continue to tell the stories we want to tell and create pathways for younger folks to step into their light, in ways we couldn't have done twenty years ago. That's the vision. Tell stories, create opportunities, build a platform and brand. This is a startup company, in so many ways. It's attached to a global brand, but it's a startup company and I want to approach it with that level of humility and devotion to the work it's gonna take. We are building alongside some of the best in the game, but we are still building. 

RTB: Right. So what is the relationship between Golden State Entertainment and the team, the Golden State Warriors? Will we eventually see a Jordan Poole mixtape? 

DK: It's a separate company, but we are both owned by the same parent company. It's as if you took an independent film company, an indie record label and aligned them with a team. There are NBA restrictions that do not allow us to do certain things, like our ability to do the Jordan Poole mixtape, most likely (laughs). But the brand and what the brand speaks to and what the brand means, is the platform. We want to be close enough to the brand, but we also want to make sure we are building something that stands alone. Something that is good and unique. I never want to use (The Warriors) as a crutch. We are aligned but we are our own separate company. 

RTB: About a month ago, the company's first single, "Wheels Up", dropped, featuring international mega-star BamBam, the Thai rapper who's part of the South Korean boy band, Got 7. The track is arena ready and has a verse from Mayzin, who you signed to the label? How did this collab come together?

DK: Mayzin was the first artist we signed. I wanted to make sure we had someone younger than me, someone up and coming, who has tremendous range, and is based in the Bay Area. The BamBam project kind of epitomizes what we are doing. We signed an agreement with BamBam to be an ambassador for Golden State Entertainment and the Golden State Warriors. We did some co-branded merch with him. He did some All-Star Game tweeting and then GSE released a song and he performed it at half time of home game. Mayzin is on the song, so that's an example of how all the synergies can work together between GSE and the team.

I got connected and interested in Mayzin's music through DJ D Sharp, the DJ for the Golden State Warriors. They did a project about a year and half ago and I asked him to connect me with some cats who he thinks are good to work with and have a lot of potential. Mayzin was at the top of his list. So I went and checked his music out, and I'm an emcee, I heard lyrics, but I didn't hear somebody trying to sound overly lyrical or old school. He's got range in terms of his ability to sing, so he's very now but he's got depth to him. I won't say I saw myself in him, but if I were that age or if he was around during my era, we would've kicked it. 

RTB: So you have a newer artist signed to the label and also, reportedly, you signed MC JUICE, who is a kind Hip-Hop myth and legend and one of the greatest freestyle emcees the culture has ever heard, who famously defeated Eminem at Scribble Jam in '97 and went on to amaze the underground on Sway and King Tech's The Wake Up Show and produce a number of memorable and important records with the Molemen in Chicago in the late '90s and early aughts.

DK: Right. We are trying to build this thing and I want to align with people I know and trust. People who are family. And that's JUICE. I want to use this platform to give opportunities to young people who are up and coming but also use it as an opportunity to remind people of where this thing started and came from. And with JUICE, you have the best in terms of being a freestyle emcee but not limited to a being freestyle emcee. He's just so good at something. It's like Steph Curry is so good at shooting, you forget about his handles. And JUCIE is such a good freestyle emcee, you forget he's not limited to that. I want to make sure that I'm giving light to people I know deserve it. So the album is a JUICE and All Natural album produced by Georgia Anne Muldrow.

RTB: *Writers note: (This is where the fan in me kinda lost my shit. I was surprised and amped to hear this incredible trio was creating anything, much less an entire project which means, as listeners, we will get more of the camaraderie between JUICE and Cap D, that's featured on the 2001 Chicago anthem, Ill Advisory AND this is the first I'm hearing that David Kelly will pull off his Clark Kent to superman on a whole album over the genre-defying anomaly Georgia Anne Muldrow's production!!!! I eventually got my shit together to ask....) So, yeah, um, how soon can we hear it?

DK: We are looking at a July release date. Yeah, (he says cooly, knowing he is sitting on history) it's ready to go. We are planning some visuals for it and it's dope. I don't think it's what people would expect from JUICE or from me. But it's also what you would expect. There are some surprises. And it's just the two of us throughout the whole album. 

RTB: You have also signed another Chicago emcee, Rhymefest... 

DK: It's funny you said we have (in JUICE) one of the dopest freestylers... now we got two. And one of the greatest writers. His fingerprints, his literal pen ink, are on some of the greatest songs written. But people have not heard the definitive Rhymefest album. And he deserves that. People haven' t heard the definitive JUICE album and it's a shame. These guys are just as sharp as they always were. I heard some stuff 'Fest had been working on and I was like, "Bruh, how can we support this?" It's not like sports, necessarily, when your knees go, and you can't ball anymore. And there are differences between the 20 year-old cat and the 40 year-old cat, but it's not like they can't be on the same court together. 

RTB: I'm thinking about the platforms that are trying to bridge that gap between Hip-Hop's generations. Spaces like Verzuz, Drink Champs, shit, Rock the Bells, come to mind, but I'm unaware of a label that is running in both lanes. Why is GSE intentionally trying to build that bridge between these audiences?   

RTB: I can speculate and have some theories, but why is there such an intimacy between hoopers and rappers? Each speaks of wanting to be like the other. 

DK: If you think about the ways to make it out of situations or to express yourself within a situation, if you think of things specifically that Black men have created, though not limited to Black men, culturally, the impact we've had, you think music and sports, and specifically basketball. It's not limited to that, but it's always been intertwined. It's always been a marriage. For me, when I was fifteen I wanted to play in the NBA, and I wanted to be an emcee. Decades ago. And I'm not alone. There are so many cats and that's what we do. We ball. We write rhymes. We work on beats. And the fact that these two worlds have never really been brought together in a real authentic way, not in a gimmicky one-off corporate scheming type of way, is one of the reasons I wanted to start with artists who I know have superstar potential but also, have some underdog in them. Artists who are a little overlooked. And that's where I want to build from, rather than do a quick collab with the hottest artist out and that's all we do. Because the connection between sports and music is deep and thus far has only been treated at a surface level. For whatever reasons, and we can get into what those reasons might be, but this ain't going to be that. 

RTB: Does this prohibit you from signing Damian Lillard or other serious emcee/hoopers?

DK: (laughs) Yeah, I think NBA rules prevent us from that sort of thing which is a shame because he's an emcee. He can rap. 

RTB: You wear a lot of hats and now are taking on one more. As a fan, I'm excited that it will be an investment in the arts including your own. What is the future vision for Golden State Entertainment?

DK: It's a label but we are also into the film side. The larger vision is that stories that would not have been told, get told. Those stories can be documentaries. Those stories can be scripted shows. Those stories can be albums. But content creators that are great and have something to say that benefits people that otherwise may have been overlooked or stories that wouldn't have been greenlit, get that chance, and are profitable doing it. That's the reason, the vision, and that's the goal. And I want to make sure I keep that front and center.