#45 - Ashtin Larold: Making Music; Facing Anxiety & Depression; Racism & Police Debate

Ashtin Larold is a singer, rapper, songwriter, and recording artist. He initially rose to prominence in September 2015–after his YouTube video, "White Kid Kills it in High School Rap Battle," went viral. Today, his original music has millions of streams across Apple & Spotify. - Ashtin's Music - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5IEv10kDPVFB23d7kXUZbn Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/ashtin-larold/1128030427 ***TIMESTAMPS*** 4:31 - How Julian found Ashtin’s music back in 2019; Ashtin’s music influences; “Gatekeepers” in rap; The Jordan - LeBron comparison example & the problem with comparisons 23:09 - Music is an art while sports is a “score”; Criticism vs. conviction; The wild backstory of Ashtin’s Famous Freestyle Rap Battle (“White Kid Kills It In Freestyle Rap Battle”) that put him on the map. 34:48 - Ashtin’s transition to melodic music; T-Pain & Autotune; “Finding your sound”; How Ashtin is influenced by whatever he’s listening to heavily at a given time 43:00 - How Ashtin’s dealt with panic attacks, anxiety, and depression; Ashtin’s struggles with contemplating suicide; Ashtin’s early days of experimenting with different drugs 58:13 - Ashtin tells the story of when both of his lungs collapsed and he refused anesthesia during surgery 1:05:05 - Dealing with suicidal thoughts; Mental pain can be worse than physical pain; Ashtin talks about facing his lowest moments and how he got through them 1:17:39 - How Ashtin has handled the Covid 19 Pandemic; Revisiting TRENDIFIER #38 - Grant Wiley; The importance of self care maintenance and showing your emotions 1:30:30 - Ashtin talks about his Mom & his Friend Group; What Ashtin’s other aspirations before music were; “If you’re not living an interesting life, you can’t make interesting art” 1:44:06 - The problem with the “starving artists” myth; Artists & depression / suicide / sadness patterns; Ashtin’s wish to “spend time being happy”; getting rid of negative influences in life 2:01:18 - Why this podcast is a true conversation; The critical importance of an artist’s personality and likability; 2nd Amendment and gun discussion; Debating society's attitudes toward Covid; “The Answer to many hard issues often lies in the middle.” 2:14:26 - Why Ashtin does not like the police system; Not knowing what it’s like to be a black person or a police officer; Ashtin tells a funny fake-burglary story from his teenage years that led to a run in with cops 2:28:54 - Why Ashtin believes the police force has rampant racism; The problem with police unions; “Vocal Minorities”; The issue with “Blue Lives Matter” 2:47:10 - The problem with the US Justice System; “The 13th” Documentary (Netflix); Malcolm Gladwell’s bail experiment from his book, “Talking To Strangers”; “We tal