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I cant remember when I met the guys fromChillin Island.
You quickly get absorbed into their world of elaborate New York City lore, outerwear, and deadpanned absurdism.
Really,Chillin Islandis a state of mind.
Howd you get a show?
Alec Despot Reinstein:You have to have incredible adventures.
Eventually someone shows up, and theyre like, I gotta film this.
Aleksey Lakutis Weintraub:An old witch gives you a secret key.
We did a comedy version of it.
There was a reality-TV version.
Ashok Dapwell Kondabolu:Fishing With Dons, if you will.
Youre key points in a game of six degrees of separation in New York culture.
Despot:I met Josh through my very good friend Sebo.
I couldnt tell you exactly when I met Josh or why or how.
Fun fact, though: The Safdie brothers are originally from Forest Hills, where Im from.
They moved to Manhattan when they were very young.
Lex is also from my neighborhood but moved to Manhattan.
I wouldve guessed that you were born and raised on the Upper West Side.
Despot:Lex is, technically, absolutely from the Upper West Side.
Lakutis:I dont count as Queens.
I moved when I was, like, 5.
Despot:We dont claim him.
Lakutis:Zabars, baby.
Was it important to make it feel like a natural extension of the original series?
Lakutis:That was the most important thing because the magic of it is our rapport.
We thought it would be cool to hang out somewhere beautiful but still act the same.
Despot:Our interview style is us yelling at each other and talking over each other.
Then, if the guest feels brave, they can take a stab at jump in.
Lakutis:If they happen to have a certain secret key.
I couldnt always tell whether youd met the guests prior to filming.
They seemed unprepared for the wilderness experience except for Young Thug, unflappable in the cowboy outfit.
He seemed relaxed in the wilderness.
Despot:He was having a great time.
I dont know if there is any prepping for being on this show.
Its different for us every time too.
I dont know whats gonna happen.
Theres nowhere to go, like a hostage situation.
Basically, we capture famous people and hold them hostage in weird locations around the world.
Lakutis:Nobody tells them what theyre about to do.
The wilderness is disarming.
When you get outside, really outside, you have to mean business.
Lakutis:Everything is 100 percent real, Craig.
I want to know the truth about theGrape Ape I mean the Skunk Ape from the Lil Yachty episode.
Despot:Youre high on weed, arent you?
Never heard of it.
Lakutis:Its legal now, baby!
You could say you smoke weed all the time.
You dont really spell out what locations you visited.
When I watch your show Im going,Where are we?
What animal is that?
What is that rock formation called?But thats not the point at all.
Lakutis:We went out of our way not to do that.
Thats already every show.
I dont like that [suspenseful voice] Here we are in whatever the Amazon … Fuck that.
Your show touches on this wild dichotomy where most rappers love animals but not necessarily nature.
Despot:I mean, I would argue that I dont like it, either.
Why would you wanna do that?
Lakutis:Nobodys really trying to make rappers do stuff like that.
Theyre trying to make em comfortable or whatever.
We take em out of that.
Despot:To get free things.
You never looked totally out of sorts because you were dressed well on every occasion.
Despot:I wore a lot of clothes Ive had since I was in seventh or eighth grade.
Thats how I always dressed.
I have clothes that are designed for wilderness adventures.
In New York City in the 90s, you had to dress like you were going on an expedition.
Despot:It was a store downtown called Tents & Trails that was very easy to steal from.
Thats where half the wardrobe for the show came from.
Special thanks to Tents & Trails, who are now closed because I stole everything.
Lakutis:Yeah, I remember folding my spiral notebook into my North Face backpack.
Despot:My first North Face purchase was just a black bubble.
I got it at Jimmy Jazz on Main.
I had to call my dad and be like, You gotta come get us.
Dap:When that Jimmy Jazz on Main Street closed, I went there.
It was my sophomore or junior year.
Barely anything left on the shelves.
I turned around and Noreaga walked in, looked around, made a piss-smell face, and walked out.
I turned to my boy Mike and he was like, Yo, that was Nore!
Despot:I havent met Nore many times despite living a few blocks away from him.
One time I was standing outside of the candy store everyone always stood outside on 108th and 63rd.
He was already a famous rapper by then.
He rolled up in, like, six Escalades.
Pulled up in the presidential cavalcade.
Despot:To buy dutches!
Lakutis:They tried to rob me for my North Face backpack.
What was the one everybody had?
They tried to rob me for my Hot Shot!
That was the most expensive North Face thing I had.
I couldnt afford the bubble.
I got beat up, but I didnt give them that Hot Shot.
Fights outside school were always events.
Despot:I used to fight outside my school a lot.
It had nothing to do with me, but I was like,Whatever.
He was on the ground, and I was jumping on his head.
My brother looked horrified.
I felt really bad.
Scotts alive and well.
Lakutis:His gait is a little iffy.
Dap:But he a good dude.
Lakutis:Really good heart.
Despot:I didnt jump on that.
So, the geoduck fromChillin Island how did it taste?
Despot:Honestly tastes like a clam.
You know, clams dont have that much of a taste.
They taste a little bit like bad breath maybe.
Lakutis:I was not with that.
I thought you were gonna get sick or something.
I learned about those onBizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern.
He was like, I used to be the ill crackhead in New York.
I would rob you in the street.
Id do anything for crack.
You gotta just go for it.
Lakutis:Hell eat the Band-Aid.
Something lightweight terrifying happens in every episode.
What was the scariest thing during filming?
Despot:We flipped over a fuckin vehicle and Dap almost died because he didnt have his seatbelt on.
Dap:I was, like, two inches from having my head severed by a pole.
I had to be like, Nah, its TV, man.
Dont worry about it.
I questioned whether certain stuff was staged, but I knew that happened.
Despot:It was my fault.
Lakutis:I dont think it was your fault.
You took on a lot of guilt behind that.
Despot:A guy told me to flip the switch to four-wheel drive.
And apparently that was the wrong thing to do.
Lakutis:I feel like that was a psyop.
We were set up.
Dap:It was our last go-round.
Despot:The guy was like, Flip the switch.
Thatll make it easier.
I was like, Okay.
Flipped the switch and then we died.
What about the guy who fell off the boat during your fishing trip?
Despot:He was a safety guy, like a medic.
And he fucked up and fell off the boat.
I thought he was gonna get chopped up by the motor.
He lost his phone.
His phone is in the bottom of the ocean, poor guy.
Lakutis:Nores calling it right now.
Props to Nore for staying in the conversation.
Despot:Nores a famous podcaster.
I like his interviews.
Nore gets people to say stuff they had not intended to say.
Youve been doingChillin Islandin one form or another for over a decade.
How do you keep that going and keep growing it every year?
Lakutis:Were really good friends and we fucking hate each other and we all want to die.
And that part stays consistent throughout.
Despot, where is thealbum?
Despot:The album is at the bottom of the ocean next to the medics cell phone.
Maybe the showisthe album.
Its scored by Evan Mast, who makes all my beats.
And its a love letter to hip-hop.
The show has a great score.
Despot:Evan is a genius.
Hes having a renaissance now and producing for everybody.
Hes doing a lot of Kanye stuff now.
Lakutis:Great guy, great job.
Dap:Hes reborn, if you will.
Despot:He produced the Kids See Ghosts songReborn.That was Daps joke.
Something I like aboutChillinon HBO is that I cant always pin down exactly what kind of show it is.
Sometimes its an interview thing, and sometimes its a nature show.
Sometimes its a drug show, but it can be this absurdist humor thing, too.
It can be all of that at the same time.
Despot:Thats what hanging out is like.
You dont hang out with an agenda.
What was Ski Mask the Slump God playing on Nintendo Switch during the peyote ritual?
Despot:It was some street-basketball game.
I kept looking over.
Lakutis:They haveStreet Hoopon Switch, and its fire.
Despot:He said mushrooms are like the bass and acid is the electric guitar.
That was really good.
He seemed very comfortable in a wilderness scenario, him and Thug.
Despot:Its possible, but I dont know.
He was having trouble with that hill.
I was impressed when Young Thug didnt so much as blink when the torch came out.
Despot:Hes a very calm person.
I think hes very well adjusted.
Almost burned my face off.
Was it Lil Teccas people?
Despot:That was when we were with Yachty.
Lil Tecca has that New York thing.
We like flat ground, respectfully.
I would entertain the boat but I would be trying to get out of there, too.
Despot:I didnt want to be on that fuckin boat.
Lakutis:We were on that boat, bro, for like two days.
No food on the boat.
Prop food we had to eat.
I never experienced that.
Lakutis:Yeah,thatswhy.
Dap:And it was Earthquake fromSmoking That Shitby KMD.
Despot:And I let him in, and we hung out in my room for a while.
What new local rap are you playing?
Despot:RXK Nephew.
Lakutis:Lot of RXK Nephew and Rx Papi in the car.
Despot:Hes the best rapper, right?
That Papi and Gud album is sick.
Those guys are the best.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
