All right. Hi, everyone. Bigthony Raptano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you're doing well.

We're about to embark on a different video for this channel, one where I come on here and tell you that I have collaborated officially, artistically, with one of the greatest rappers of all time, Yuno Miles.

Yeah, he just hit me up one day out of the blue and asked me if I would be interested in taking part in a new song that he was working on, either rapping on it, singing on it. I don't know, whatever. He didn't really give me a whole lot of stipulations or rules or expectations in terms of what I should do.

Either way, I agreed. He sent me the beat. It had this fun, summery, throwback, Ghost Town DJs type of groove that's really popular right now. I think a lot of these recent tunes borrowing from this energy are great. I grew up on that song and a few others like it, so it was a bit of a nostalgic thing for me. Hopping onto a track in this vein was pretty fun.

Yeah, the collab happened. He also asked me to shoot a part of a music video for it as well, which I did on a bridge under his instruction. That's actually maybe the clearest instruction he gave me for the entire thing, like shoot the video on a bridge. I was like, "Sure, cool. Let me just do that." But outside of that, I pretty much had free rein, and I figured for the rest of this what I could do is essentially deliver a little lyrical genius-style breakdown of it all.

All right, here we are. Let's start with the first bar of my verse.

"Can I visit your place, cook something up while you put on your face?"

Obviously, the Miles song is about being invited over to somebody's place. So I tried to do my best to fit into that theme, paint a larger picture around it, and pull from some personal experiences, too. Rap what you know. I mean, that's what they say.

I thought the opening question there was a pretty valid one. You obviously want to be invited in. You don't want to barge in. You don't want to force your way in. Consent is important at all levels. It's going to feel best, and it's going to feel comfiest if you are a wanted guest. You want to be cool, you want to be cool. You want to be chill. You want to be respectful. So love going over somebody's place.

However, also love going out, having a good time. Whenever I've gone over somebody's place in the past, sometimes it's usually to stop in real quick before we head out somewhere else. Maybe when that happens, they're still getting ready. And what are you supposed to do while you're sitting there while they're doing their thing, just like, jerk around and sit there like a freaking bump on a log?

Why not spend that idle time doing something cool doing something sexy, cook up a meal, cook some food for everybody. Consistently, from what I've seen in statistics, as well as from my own personal experience, women love a guy who can cook. If you can cook something that actually tastes pretty good, a sensible, level-headed person will go crazy for that.

"We can hit a museum, we could see a Monet // Gonna laugh and swoon over all that you say, bae"

Okay. Also, in my experience, first date trips, second date trips, even like, 500th-date trips, art museum visits, museum visits are peak. They're chill, they're cool, they're casual, they're neat. You get to look at art, you get to talk the whole time, get a lot of conversation going. Communication is key.

I thought I would name-drop an artist. I think Monet is a name that works well into rhymes. If you're at an art museum that has some Monet in it, you're probably at a decent one. But I don't know, even if you're not, looking at some art, talking about some art together as you're chilling in the museum. It's a good vibe.

Also, "Going to laugh and swoon over all that you say, bae." Communication is key, like I said earlier, but it's also a two-way street. You want to be listening as much as you're talking. When the other person is saying something interesting or funny, or cute. You want to react, you want to laugh. You want to show them that you're enjoying their personality and their presence and appreciating their thoughts.

A lot of guys, when they're thinking about going on dates, they're stressing about, Am I talking enough? Am I funny? Am I interesting? And while, yeah, that is true, you don't want to be a boring piece of crap. What's also very important on a date is not that you just put on a show, but make it clear, too, that you find the other person interesting.

And not even just on a physical level at the point where you are going out on a date that much may already be obvious. By listening to the things this person is saying and engaging and you're also showing them that you're interested in who they are as a person. And again, that's vital. That's important. People want to be appreciated on multiple levels.

Okay, next line.

"But then afterwards, I want to leave you with a lack of words // Talk you through what I do, I'm a podcaster"

Okay, obviously, we're not at the museum anymore. No, the setting has changed. We're back at the place. And what are we doing? I'm not getting too specific, but whatever you are doing, I'm definitely speaking to an ambition here of leaving the person speechless.

That doesn't mean that there isn't a clear and significant communication going on. You're not just going in and ignoring everything the person says or desires or asks for or makes clear. In fact, you may want to be having a lot of conversation before we get to this stage just to gauge what the person's boundaries are, so on and so forth, the things that they find the most hot, et cetera, et cetera.

But with that being said, I know personally, I'm a talker, I'm a yapper. I've been known to talk through it. You know what? Liking yourself to a podcaster in that sense may be the least sexy thing ever, but I was more trying to be funny with that line.

All right.

"You'll be telling all your girls about my staminer."

Yeah, I was trying to rhyme there. I was definitely like, first album, Kanye-ing, 2000 Southern hip-hopping with that, like a little bit of a... How do I want to put it? Curving or slurring that word a little bit in that way and turning his stamina into a staminer. Yeah, I was channeling that. I'm sorry. It's the maybe whitest thing that's going to come out of my mouth during this verse. Believe me.

Either way, there are a lot of guys who are worried about and questioning their performance in the bedroom. But something that's important to know is that women and men are really not all that different in terms of the things and topics they talk about within their tightly-knit social groups.

And a telltale sign of whether or not you're actually doing a good job is whether or not the person you're seeing will tell their friends about it. And if the friend group is catching wind, I mean, it's pretty easy to tell. So I don't know. I wouldn't say it's going to happen in every single case, but it's a sign to look out for.

"Did I sta-mmer? // Just soft launched, Instagrammer // Ex vague-posts how he misses her"

Okay, so taking all of these lines in totality. I've been in situations or have known people who have soft-launched a boyfriend or they've posted on their page or whatever. Oh, I'm holding hands with a person. I'm on a date here. I'm not going to show you who they are, what they look like, so on and so forth. But I'm going to show you me holding this person's hand.

Sometimes when that happens, the ex of this person who is still following them on whatever social media platform it is, they'll start crashing the fuck out. They're not going to @ the person or anything, but they themselves will begin to post to, I don't know, Instagram stories or something, just be like, "Oh, man, I miss you so bad. Oh, my God. I didn't know how good I had it."

When that happens, just laugh. Don't take it too seriously. Don't go over the edge or anything like that. It's not that serious. It's just a funny thing that people do when they're catching feelings over the fact that maybe the person that they used to be with has moved on with their lives. It's just kind of the natural order of things with some individuals that are very insecure and self-conscious. But it is a funny thing that you may or may not observe at some point in your life. It is what it is.

"Toes curled up, make your vision blur."

I feel like there's a lot of talk generally in popular music and hip hop when it comes to how good the sex is that you're having. Sometimes that's just put in a way that is very plain and boring and just not really that creative. I was borrowing from two different things there. Personally, when I see people describing wild types of sex on the internet as a joke on social media, the idea of the toes curling up, I've always thought was very funny.

Personally, I'm not much of a foot guy. I don't know. I'm not really paying attention much to what the feet are doing. If I've been in a situation or scenario where someone's toes were curled, I'm not sure. I don't know. But when you've seen those endless series of descriptions when it's on the washing machine, on the sink, on the kitchen counter, on the this, on that, toes curling, breath this, da, da, da. It's like those types of descriptions. The toes curling has always stood out to me. It's just very funny.

Okay, but the thing is in my verse, a lot of these things I'm talking about are maybe future things that may be happening down the road. It's a bit of a flash-forward type of moment, which is why I bring things back to the start at the end of the verse.

"For now, we're still at your place // Sign a form, you can sit on my face."

Some people don't really know what they're doing. You got to have a sign, a something, like a tap, a message, an agreed-upon signal just to be like, "Hey, you know what? Go easy, or Don't kill me." You don't want to get waterboarded by the booty, which is why you might want to have somebody sign something beforehand. So if there's a wrongful death, you could take legal action.

"Don't agree, but I still like your taste // Eatin' so good that I got to say grace."

Final two lines of the verse. "Don't agree, but I still like your taste." Obviously, a bit of a double entendre there. You're tasting, but then also, well, there's a lot of people who know me for music reviews and music taste, and I don't always agree with other people. That's fine. That's life. We could disagree, but I could still enjoy the fact that you enjoy certain things.

I think there's a lot of people that presume either romantically or platonically as well, that if they get to know me or make any connection with me, that they've got to be really embarrassed or hold close to the chest what their favorite albums or artists are and that thing, and the stuff that they will voice liking and enjoying around me will be very carefully, methodically chosen and planned out out of fear that I'm going to be super judgmental. "Oh, my God, I can't tell Anthony that I love Taylor Swift. He'll hate me." And honestly, I'm just so not like that.

Not only is that just so annoying and tiresome and just a really stupid way to approach friendships and relationships, just generally speaking, but also on top of that for me personally, analyzing music and analyzing people's music tastes is work. I don't want to be on a date or sleeping with somebody and be on the clock at the same time. I keep work at home. I keep work in the workspace.

Yeah, obviously, it's something I enjoy doing. It's something I have a passion for, but it's still my job. It's not something I'm just out here wanting to do casually for fun outside of maybe some moments here and there where I'm in a friend group or with people who I know very personally or I'm very close with, and we are both voluntarily agreeing to have a bit of a music debate, or maybe some new album has just come out that we're both aware of. Like, "Oh, what did you think of it?" That thing. I'm not out here trying to challenge people or corner people or make people feel uncomfortable about what some of their favorite artists are.

So yeah, I may not agree that maybe your favorite band is the best band all time. But as long as you're passionate about it and you really dive into their music in a very deep way and you have a profound understanding of what they do and what makes them special to you, I find that interesting. I feel like there's too many people out there who just obsess over the idea of being in a relationship or meeting somebody who they agree with on everything in terms of what their favorite music or what their favorite artists are.

I will agree, there are definitely boundaries. I don't think I could be with somebody who maybe Tom MacDonald is their favorite artist of all time. But I feel like the reason that would be is maybe over more like personal value stuff, which I mean, when it comes to a functional relationship, that thing is important. You should most definitely have shared personal values with the people who you plan to have in your life in a regular, close, intimate fashion.

But yeah, continuing with the eating theme here. "Eatin' so good that I got to say grace." I mean, what else do you say before a meal? You're praying at the altar. Thank you. Thank you, Lord, for this bounty I'm about to receive.

That's it. Went over the verse. Thoughts on the verse. Shout out to Yuno Miles for having me on, allowing me to make some musical magic on this new track where we are going back to someone's place. The song and all that is linked down below so you can hear it for yourself, of course, of course.

Anthony Fantano, verse, collab, forever.