Speaker 1: M mm hmmm.
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm. Welcome back all the smoke man. This one
Speaker 2: is a long time coming. All this kind of transpired
Speaker 2: from sports first and foremost. Welcome to the show. Ryan
Speaker 2: cooler Man, thank you for your time, bro having Yeah,
Speaker 2: but we go back a little deeper than wrap. You
Speaker 2: know what I mean. You were you You went to
Speaker 2: junior college with my little brother.
Speaker 3: I was in It was in big boy college stage.
Speaker 2: He went to college with my brother. And it was funny.
Speaker 2: I hit him this morning because he was just at
Speaker 2: the house yesterday, but he had to bounce shen't even many. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but he's good. He's in DC doing some some some
Speaker 2: business stuff there with his family. It's like, you got
Speaker 2: these funny stories of Ryan and anything. I could just
Speaker 2: pop on him and he's like, he's like, Bro, to
Speaker 2: be honest with you. He's like, Ryan was the dude
Speaker 2: that set the bar. He said, if Ryan didn't have
Speaker 2: the hand injury, you couldn't tell me that he wasn't
Speaker 2: going pro. And he's like, you were the one that
Speaker 2: was always first in the weight room before practice, after practice.
Speaker 2: You just did all the right shit. You were locked
Speaker 2: into your books. He's like, Ryan didn't really start kicking
Speaker 2: it till after college. Like Ryan during college was really
Speaker 2: locked in. So it kind of makes sense now he's
Speaker 2: like I've never seen he's like the most insane work
Speaker 2: ethic I've ever seen. Because my brother talking about you.
Speaker 2: So it's just like you've been able to transfer, you
Speaker 2: know what. It sparked something in my mind because our
Speaker 2: last conversation with Kobe, he just like, you know, we're
Speaker 2: built for this business shit, Like we take our athlete
Speaker 2: mentality and plug it into this world. Yeah, and it's
Speaker 2: a go. I think you're a perfect example of that.
Speaker 3: Bro. I appreciate you. Giant man, Jason bron He was
Speaker 3: such an incredible player man and a good dude. You
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying. I met you with your older brother.
Speaker 2: That's how we met.
Speaker 3: And I'm a big brother myself. I got two little brothers,
Speaker 3: and just as a representative of you, you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, he held that down for sure. And we
Speaker 3: met at your house. Like I'll never forget, Bro.
Speaker 2: I didn't even know my brother James, Like you know
Speaker 2: that's bro, Like he's been at the house.
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, this is the thing. This was crazy
Speaker 3: because I came in here I just sat down on
Speaker 3: your college because I like furniture and I always have.
Speaker 3: And I remember, I remember Jason used to used to
Speaker 3: look out for your brother, Bro. He used to be
Speaker 3: iced out and and had the nice young you know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. And his locker was next to mine,
Speaker 3: and I never wanted to be in his. I never
Speaker 3: wanted to be in his in his business, you know.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. Because we met, we met
Speaker 3: that season because he was like he was like a
Speaker 3: mill yard transfer, you know what I'm saying. He was
Speaker 3: an incredible player, bro. You know, he had all he
Speaker 3: had all of the intangibles to go with his size
Speaker 3: and leave an ability, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 3: people because because y'all from Sack, we have a lot
Speaker 3: of sacked people around there. The celth which Man's big brother,
Speaker 3: you for me out of the Yeah, I was just
Speaker 3: impressed with him on the field, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Enjoy having somebody here I can up my game, you know,
Speaker 3: because I'm I'm just under five team, you know, so
Speaker 3: I couldn't get that I could jump with say a
Speaker 3: corner was with six one six two. You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying I had to put him down to that.
Speaker 3: So it was nice having somebody with that work, with
Speaker 3: that leaping ability. I can come underneath you feel me.
Speaker 3: So we got to know each other just from from
Speaker 3: the ball. And then one day he's like, hey, bro, leta
Speaker 3: taking We're gonna go to my brother house. Man. He
Speaker 3: gave me, he gave me to go ahead. I can
Speaker 3: take a few of y'all. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, I'm like, back, we get to your house.
Speaker 3: Bread Earlier, I couldn't I couldn't believe what was what
Speaker 3: you had in there. Bro. I squared a guy.
Speaker 2: Bro.
Speaker 3: We pull up and it's and it's a bobcat digging
Speaker 3: off where your basketball courtter is gonna go. And as Jackson,
Speaker 3: I said, bro to y'all, like did the construction team
Speaker 3: leave this year? My brothers we're doing that. I say,
Speaker 3: your brother moved brought a bock cat and he's like, man, yeah,
Speaker 3: Like like I'm just like mind blowing. So niggas get
Speaker 3: that hooping and I'm like, I'm trying to get inside. Broke.
Speaker 3: I'm tired, you know, I' saying like I want to
Speaker 3: lay down, you know, you know, what I'm saying. So
Speaker 3: you let me in and I see the fire train
Speaker 3: of couch. I'm like, bron, can I can I take
Speaker 3: a nap on this? He's like, man, yeah, you good.
Speaker 3: You had the barber the Barbara ad cheering there, you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying. Like, I'm like, I'm like, look,
Speaker 3: I'm like, man, this goes, Bro. I'm looking around to
Speaker 3: see what I'm gonna do when I get on, you know,
Speaker 3: and I lay down, Bro, I never forget I lay down.
Speaker 2: Bro.
Speaker 3: Just when I get comfortable, I hear the door open
Speaker 3: up and it's you. And I'm in there like Goldie locks.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, and like you know and
Speaker 3: uh and you come in and you're looking and I'm like,
Speaker 3: what's uping?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 3: You're like, man, who is you? I'm like, I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm Jason for me? They outside hoop and he's like okay, okay,
Speaker 3: and You're like, man, where you from brom chopping. I'm
Speaker 3: telling you about the front of the band everything, And
Speaker 3: I remember, Bro, you were so you were so kind. Bro.
Speaker 3: You know you need anything to eat? Man, know how
Speaker 3: it is, you know on scholarship and this before the
Speaker 3: n I ls yeah, you know, bro, we ate good,
Speaker 3: but we hooped all day. You came on and watched this.
Speaker 3: Watch this hoop one of my finest memories, bro. You know,
Speaker 3: for for for real and and just seeing it, you know,
Speaker 3: like you don't get the she somebody who made it?
Speaker 3: You know, you know what I'm saying. Who was cautial
Speaker 3: to our age? You feel me like coming up, we'll
Speaker 3: go to the Brian Shaw camp or you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, she Gary or you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: But like and you you as you you look like us,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, And you s you do
Speaker 3: it and do it right there and shot and that
Speaker 3: she was one of my She was one of my
Speaker 3: finest movies. I can't thank you enough for that.
Speaker 2: Now that's dope because I mean, obviously I remember as
Speaker 2: my brothers tell me, then as you tell me. Now
Speaker 2: you know, it becomes more clear. But it's just like
Speaker 2: when when your success started hitting. My brother's like like
Speaker 2: he's dope now, Like you don't even play football no more.
Speaker 2: He does production and one day you guys need to work.
Speaker 2: He's he was already trying to plug you on the
Speaker 2: other side. When I was still playing and then he
Speaker 2: hit me one day. It's like Fruitvale Station. You got
Speaker 2: to see it. So I seen. I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: sh was dope.
Speaker 3: Who is it?
Speaker 2: That's the home you met? It's like what And from
Speaker 2: there it just kind of it took off. So you
Speaker 2: were able to take again that that that focused, that
Speaker 2: mindset from sports and apply it in this field. And
Speaker 2: obviously we've seen the finished product. But what was what
Speaker 2: was the beginning transition?
Speaker 3: Like for you? Such a good question, bro it was
Speaker 3: It was difficult, man. Like It's funny, brou I had.
Speaker 3: I had a homie who uh, who I played football with,
Speaker 3: who was from l A. Was a lot of La
Speaker 3: catch on that team. And I remember when I when
Speaker 3: I realized I wanted to apply that as she you know,
Speaker 3: I went down with him, uh to LA just to
Speaker 3: see it because it's hard for me to It's hard
Speaker 3: for me to jump to something if I can't see
Speaker 3: it first, you know what I'm saying. And I've always
Speaker 3: been like that, man, I had to. I don't know
Speaker 3: if it was like that for you. You was at UCLA.
Speaker 3: It was a history of people going to the lead
Speaker 3: from there. You see it, but it's tough to like say,
Speaker 3: I want to be a filmmaker. I want to go
Speaker 3: to this school, but I ain't never really been in
Speaker 3: LA like that, you know, I never seen the campus
Speaker 3: or nothing. So I had homies that that uh that
Speaker 3: that you know from Los Angeles that let me come
Speaker 3: down there for for a few weeks and stay with
Speaker 3: their family, go visit the campus, and making that decision
Speaker 3: to leave football alone and go you know, full time
Speaker 3: with filmmaking. Bro. It came as a result of an injury,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, Like I tore my hand
Speaker 3: up that last year, so I didn't get to finished
Speaker 3: with Jason. But I came back the next year and
Speaker 3: we were doing seven on seven in the summer and Brough.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna lie to you, but I was having
Speaker 3: like that. I was having like the off season of
Speaker 3: my life. Bro. I was healthy, getting faster, stronger, you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying, Like like, we had a great
Speaker 3: offense and I'm off there with a cat that's trying
Speaker 3: to walk on and he hit me on a post
Speaker 3: on a post route over eager. You know, I'm say,
Speaker 3: I don't think it was his fault, but he but
Speaker 3: he connected with you know, elbow, my my, my, my
Speaker 3: face here, and I broke my cheek bomb and it
Speaker 3: sat me down for like I want to say, two months.
Speaker 3: I couldn't do no football activities. I ended up playing
Speaker 3: that that season, but it was it was two much
Speaker 3: or I couldn't do nothing. I couldn't do anything but
Speaker 3: support the teammates from the sideline. And that was when
Speaker 3: I did my application for film school. That was when
Speaker 3: I was when I didn't have nothing, no excuse, you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying, not to this age twenty one. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm twenty one. Let's change my life. One of the inergy.
Speaker 3: It was like injury that was like a good thing
Speaker 3: to happened to me. Ended up having a good season,
Speaker 3: h but my mind was on that. It was on
Speaker 3: that filmmaking. Bro, you know what I'm saying Like that,
Speaker 3: like that, like that bug had hit and got accepted.
Speaker 3: I think right after we play you see Davis, I
Speaker 3: got the news and then decided I'm going and moved
Speaker 3: to La and Bro, it was hard, man like being
Speaker 3: away from the family, being away from my team, and
Speaker 3: the biggest thing, which which you know, I'm so pleased
Speaker 3: to see you and all the other athletes I admire navigate.
Speaker 3: It was like the loss of my identity navigating that
Speaker 3: because because people are asking me, who are you? What
Speaker 3: you do it? I would always sound a football player
Speaker 3: player that's gone. Now you know, I'm in LA and
Speaker 3: I'm in film school, Like that doesn't translate. You know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, and nobody knows me. You know, you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying, Like like when you know you
Speaker 3: play sports, bro, it's like that's also yeah, yeah, even
Speaker 3: if they don't know you, they know you. You know,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. Now what's gone? And it
Speaker 3: left me feeling feeling pretty empty, Bro, I'm not gonna
Speaker 3: cap like uh so, so I had to you know,
Speaker 3: find a new way of making relationships and working on
Speaker 3: set and realized it was kind of a team structure.
Speaker 3: And that also realized my experience as an athlete and
Speaker 3: that with me to be able to out work anybody
Speaker 3: who I'm mean question you know what I'm saying, Like
Speaker 3: people would complain about about twelve hour days and like,
Speaker 3: you know for us, bro to life, yeah, you're never off,
Speaker 3: you know, you know what I mean? Like I did
Speaker 3: appreciate that aspect of you, you know, and and I
Speaker 3: just I just kind of looked at everything from an
Speaker 3: athletic perspective, like people would talk about, oh man, that
Speaker 3: would bring me in classes. This is the most competitive
Speaker 3: environment you're ever gonna be in. Like I was just like, like, what,
Speaker 3: ain't nobody trying to hit me? Hurt me? You know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. You know, you know the vibe with somebody,
Speaker 3: you know, when you're playing sports, somebody actively trying to
Speaker 3: stop you coming on physically physically. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: You was enforced, bro, So you know you playing games
Speaker 3: with a target on your back, you know, you know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. And you got to go earn money
Speaker 3: for your family. Well that's another version of you that
Speaker 3: that that that would earn stripes if they knock Matt
Speaker 3: Barnes out the game. Let me sit Matt Barnes on
Speaker 3: his ass. That's that's me doing my job right. It's
Speaker 3: none of that in this, you feel me. It's really
Speaker 3: just the time and money, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So I was looking around like I could really I could,
Speaker 3: you know, I could really do something here, you know.
Speaker 3: And it was helpful for me to go straight from
Speaker 3: from from from sports to film once I was able
Speaker 3: to navigate the mental you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 3: then there's so many like filmmakers, we're athletes, bro Like,
Speaker 3: not all of them talk about it, but when you
Speaker 3: when you really when I get with him, I realized, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I realized, all yeah, like Ramel Ross was just the
Speaker 3: Nickel Boys, and he played at Georgetown. You know I'm saying,
Speaker 3: he hooked that Georgetown to Barry Jenkins. You know it
Speaker 3: was a football player in Miami, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: And Terrence Nash play played football in college. You realize
Speaker 3: that there's a lot of crossovers. And I admire y'allro
Speaker 3: because because I'm watching y'all like make this like the
Speaker 3: damn you're a seamless transition. H to the point where
Speaker 3: you know, like Drake got podcast while you're right, it's different,
Speaker 3: like it's it's.
Speaker 2: It's a new time. You know, it's a new time
Speaker 2: because again, you know you came up in there. I'm
Speaker 2: only what four or five years older than you, Like,
Speaker 2: stick to your stick to your job, shut up and
Speaker 2: dribble play for whatever you do, do it and it's
Speaker 2: a time and age now obviously that that doesn't apply.
Speaker 2: I feel like as athletes like it clicks like Okay,
Speaker 2: I can do this as a filmmaker. At what point
Speaker 2: for you did you feel like, Okay, I can make this.
Speaker 2: This this could be my career.
Speaker 3: Man, keep it a hunted bro. It was people. It
Speaker 3: was people shaying it to me.
Speaker 2: Like outside people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, people will watch something that I made and and
Speaker 3: and they would shay, oh man, like man, you got something.
Speaker 3: This is really good because to me, what I was
Speaker 3: making was not good. You know, I'm comparing it to
Speaker 3: what I'm saying when I go to the movies. You
Speaker 3: feel me. But it was also like my football teammates, bro,
Speaker 3: like that was in my first movies, you know, and
Speaker 3: they would get fired up like that was in on it,
Speaker 3: like like your success. Yeah, when I put my application in,
Speaker 3: they was all like, hey man, you hurt back yet
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying that actually say anything yet
Speaker 3: like when you get your you know, like and then
Speaker 3: when I got in, bro, and I'll never forget. But
Speaker 3: they celebrated like we want a championship, you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying. Like like because your brother was it was
Speaker 3: it was a year after your brother had graduated but
Speaker 3: I remember where his locker was. Bro like like like this,
Speaker 3: he's just fine. You know these people become your family,
Speaker 3: you know, you know what I'm saying. And and Bro,
Speaker 3: that the day I got in, Bro, when I told everybody, man,
Speaker 3: you you would have thought, you know, it was it
Speaker 3: was champions. You thought we want everything. And still to
Speaker 3: this day, like I'm finna have a screen in the
Speaker 3: night and it's showing, I'm gonna pull up, you know,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. They got families now, and
Speaker 3: babies and and and the kids watch my movies. You know.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean. All that to say, man
Speaker 3: like to see y'all bro navigate that she could because
Speaker 3: because I was not a big time player, but it
Speaker 3: was one double a school. You know what I'm saying, Bro,
Speaker 3: for for for for NBA player to retire, you know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. The identity crisis that that much, that
Speaker 3: that much caused because I had it when I was
Speaker 3: you know, I was small potatoes compared. You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying to she, y'all like garbage lane, Bro, like
Speaker 3: straight in the media, and how the impact that y'all
Speaker 3: haven't you feel me?
Speaker 2: I was lucky with that to be honest with you
Speaker 2: and just personally speaking. I got to a point where
Speaker 2: we had won a championship in Golden State in seventeen
Speaker 2: and I still had two years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the that's the I'm just real quick, real quick.
Speaker 2: That's the first thing he pointed out of here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, sir, I don't know about that. Yeah, it's different.
Speaker 1: I don't legendary team.
Speaker 3: Hey, I don't know about that.
Speaker 2: They would think that team won a championship. We didn't
Speaker 2: do shit with when the first.
Speaker 3: Hey, we knocked off Darkness it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I mean, you know, to my point, I
Speaker 2: mean I still had two years left on my deal,
Speaker 2: but I think I was ready for what was next.
Speaker 2: You know, I had fifteen years behind me. I wanted
Speaker 2: to be more present in my kids' lives, and I
Speaker 2: was ready to make that jump. So when I made
Speaker 2: that decision to retire, it was like, Okay, what am
Speaker 2: I going to do? I've made some investments that I
Speaker 2: was solid with. I was a big cannabis advocate, so
Speaker 2: I'm going back and forth to the league talking about
Speaker 2: the league, you know, reevaluating their policies, and a friend
Speaker 2: of mine, I was like, you should do media you
Speaker 2: know your world so well spoken, you should try media.
Speaker 2: I was like, no, I don't really fuck with the media,
Speaker 2: Like will change that, change that tone? You know, although
Speaker 2: this to you a girlfriend of mine, a girlfriend of mine,
Speaker 2: you should say, you're so well spoken, you should try it.
Speaker 2: I was like nah, nah nah, And I tried and
Speaker 2: I loved it, and I think the authenticity I played
Speaker 2: with I traveled, you know, I brought that to this
Speaker 2: and I caught lighting in a bottle and was able to,
Speaker 2: you know, thankfully get my hard knocks on ESPN. I'm
Speaker 2: on the Yeah. So I'm transitioning from the league. And
Speaker 2: I was a role player, no mistake, and I wasn't
Speaker 2: no star, didn't try to claim to be a star.
Speaker 2: I was a role player. But I transitioned right to
Speaker 2: like the media giant of ESPN, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: It From there, I'm just like, okay, I can start
Speaker 2: doing this.
Speaker 3: And I remember she bro, because for me, I know
Speaker 3: that that teleor Procter is there. It was different, like
Speaker 3: that teleor Procter is no joke. And then she and
Speaker 3: you shan you handle that, bro. I remember. I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm like, DN, there you go, look at you.
Speaker 2: Yea, was just that transition, Like you said, some people
Speaker 2: get lost in it and and and to be confident
Speaker 2: and and go for what I went for. And you know,
Speaker 2: ship five years later, now you know, I'm proud. It's
Speaker 2: a little one where we got our first building and
Speaker 2: we got our own set, little company, and it's moving
Speaker 2: you come out the gates. Although I know it wasn't
Speaker 2: your first project, it's the first project that the world
Speaker 2: really got to see in Fruitville Station. Why was it
Speaker 2: important for you to base your first project where you
Speaker 2: came from?
Speaker 3: It's a great question, bro. Like I pitched Forrest Whittaker
Speaker 3: three projects, was one of them, and I was the
Speaker 3: one I believed in the most. I was still in
Speaker 3: film school, man. I was literally left class to go
Speaker 3: sit down with his producer, and then left left class
Speaker 3: again and go sit down with him. And I was
Speaker 3: blessed that that, like one of the projects that I
Speaker 3: made while I was in film school, which nobody would
Speaker 3: ever see, it impressed the teacher there, who then remembered
Speaker 3: me years later when when when somebody from Forest Whiticker's
Speaker 3: production company reached out and said, hey, man, is it
Speaker 3: any young filmmakers we should need.
Speaker 2: To know, really, this is after you had already get left.
Speaker 3: I was still It was with the guy he made
Speaker 3: rest in Peach where he passed during the pandemic. His
Speaker 3: name is Jed Dunnenbaum. He taught me my first semester
Speaker 3: when I was at that first semester when I left
Speaker 3: football and went to film school in LA He was
Speaker 3: my directing teacher. And one of the first projects that
Speaker 3: I made in that class, he pulled me to the
Speaker 3: side and was like, hey, man, you got something. He
Speaker 3: was like, how did you think come up with this idea?
Speaker 3: You know? And he and I got close, you know,
Speaker 3: he made a recommendation for me to Forest Whiticker's production company.
Speaker 3: Forest Whicker's production company was run by the woman named
Speaker 3: Nina Yang bon Jovi. She married to one of the
Speaker 3: bon Jovi's. She shat me down and and and you
Speaker 3: know kind of said, hey, well, movies you're trying to make,
Speaker 3: you know, And Frewville was one of the ones that
Speaker 3: I was I was working on, and they they said, hey,
Speaker 3: let's make that one. I had a homie, uh named
Speaker 3: Ephraim Walker, who's a filmmaker now, but he was he
Speaker 3: was a law student as she at the time. He
Speaker 3: went to James Logan in Union City High School, wrestled there,
Speaker 3: went to Howard. I think he wrestled out of Howard.
Speaker 2: Is he fun with Deon Taylor now from Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah bro, yeah so so. So Ephraim was working on
Speaker 3: that case. He was he was interning with John Burst
Speaker 3: and then he started he was working full time for
Speaker 3: them and a guy named Dante Poynter.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: They all in the office in East Oakland, not far
Speaker 3: from my wife was working at the time, and so
Speaker 3: I was, you know, going back and forth from there
Speaker 3: and and you know, getting getting to know John Bursch
Speaker 3: and then got to know the family, and then you know,
Speaker 3: we made made the film. And I think the film's
Speaker 3: impact because it was it was a very low budget
Speaker 3: independent film. But I was able to be very potent
Speaker 3: with that with that money because I knew the world,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. I didn't have to spend
Speaker 3: time researching the world. I was just researching the people,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, And we were able to
Speaker 3: we're able to execute that, uh. And I think that
Speaker 3: knowledge of the Bay Area helped me to make a
Speaker 3: better film about it. You fast forward to Creed, which
Speaker 3: is my next project. You know, I was making a
Speaker 3: movie about a place I didn't know in Philly, So
Speaker 3: I had to do that work to get to know it,
Speaker 3: to get to know the sport of boxing, and to
Speaker 3: get to know that city, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: And it was important to me because you know, I'll
Speaker 3: be I'll be uh, I'll be crushed if we put
Speaker 3: a movie out about a place you know and people say, hey,
Speaker 3: y'all got it wrong that that that would that would
Speaker 3: kill me because you know, people getting good and cali wrong.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, I get us twisted all
Speaker 3: the time. And and a lot of that is is
Speaker 3: media produced. That that's that's that's being done by people
Speaker 3: who know who don't know it from there and you know,
Speaker 3: gott to be from there. But but if you're not,
Speaker 3: you do have to take the time to get to
Speaker 3: know you know, you know what I mean. It was
Speaker 3: a lesson in It was a lesson in like really
Speaker 3: really doing the doing the research.
Speaker 2: Inticity of it. Yeah, your partner in crime, Michael B. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's been by your side since the beginning. How did
Speaker 2: you guys come together as friends and brothers and then
Speaker 2: how did that chemistry translate into Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3: We met through the work. You know, I was looking
Speaker 3: for an actor to Portrayosky Grant Russian. He was the
Speaker 3: guy I thought you could do it. You know. Uh,
Speaker 3: he kind of looked had the appearance, had that had
Speaker 3: the at the age and tangibles. But then when I
Speaker 3: met with him, I saw something special in the man,
Speaker 3: like in mis a former athlete. You know, he grew
Speaker 3: up as a child actor, but he also grew up
Speaker 3: hooping and running track and been jumping he you know,
Speaker 3: So he and I had that had that had that
Speaker 3: athletic shorthand immediately, and I recognized him somebody who was
Speaker 3: who is trying to push himself, pushed the medium, that
Speaker 3: that healthy kind of ambition. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: That that you that you need petitive side. Yeah, bro,
Speaker 3: it's necessary, you know what I'm saying. And he had
Speaker 3: all those things. And then when we started to work together,
Speaker 3: it was a great great chemistry there, bro like and
Speaker 3: in our business brought if I broke you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, you don't fix you.
Speaker 2: I remember vividly when you invited me up to the
Speaker 2: Disney lot, when you were working on Black Panther, and
Speaker 2: we walked around and we just, you know, we keep
Speaker 2: it what we said we talked about, we can keep
Speaker 2: to us. But just looking around, Bro, that was a
Speaker 2: whole nother monster. Yeah, and you're young black man from
Speaker 2: Oakland on Disney's campus, running from building the building, creating
Speaker 2: one of the biggest movies ever. Like when you kind
Speaker 2: of look back. Obviously, as athletes, we don't really look back.
Speaker 3: Until we're trained to keep it going.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, I just know, I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously with the success of that and as you continue
Speaker 2: to grow each project in each film, take us back
Speaker 2: through that time when you were making that in your
Speaker 2: first time on that campus and moving from big room
Speaker 2: to sound stage to this to that. You look at
Speaker 2: this and I'm just like in awe. Like I'm a
Speaker 2: former professional athlete, been around, everyone's seeing the world and
Speaker 2: I'm walking on Disney campus. But you just looking around
Speaker 2: and we're both kind of in awe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it was a special time, bro, Like
Speaker 3: you can't you can't really recreate at that time. It's interesting, bro,
Speaker 3: because I was talking with I was talking with James
Speaker 3: Shamuel and and Hole and they was talking about the
Speaker 3: quality of magic being in the air at certain times,
Speaker 3: you know, and you knowing all he was talking about
Speaker 3: when he when he made a reasonable doubt and the
Speaker 3: fact that Niles was making something like Ellmatic, what was doing,
Speaker 3: what they was doing, Big was making Ready to Die.
Speaker 3: You know, it was it was in the air, That's
Speaker 3: how it was. And Frankly and Los Angeles at that time,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, Jordan has has just made
Speaker 3: Get Out. Ava was on campus, she was making Wrinkle,
Speaker 3: but she was coming off and making making Selma and
Speaker 3: launching that, launching a whole television show. And Dot was
Speaker 3: doing his thing. But with Nip also, you know, you
Speaker 3: got my victory lap dropped right around that time that
Speaker 3: that came out. Crazy Rich Asians came right behind, right
Speaker 3: behind our you know, our film. You know. It was
Speaker 3: it was a time where it kind of felt like
Speaker 3: anything was possible, you know. And yeah, I didn't I
Speaker 3: didn't think much of the fact that we were doing
Speaker 3: what we were doing. Man, I had that cash Man
Speaker 3: with Chaldick and Mike and Lupete and Forrest and Daniel.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. It was, it was It
Speaker 3: was a bunch of people who could, who could, who
Speaker 3: could lead their own movie? That was that was that
Speaker 3: we was kind of bursting at the scene. You know,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, starting Ink, you know, starting
Speaker 3: k Brown in two scenes that movie. You know, you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying in lou with Luvig my composit
Speaker 3: was doing with Childish Gambino. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: That was that was that was going crazy. It was
Speaker 3: all and like I didn't have time to observe exactly
Speaker 3: what was happening because I had so much work to do,
Speaker 3: you know what. But but but it also was like
Speaker 3: a feeling that I was bringing the homies to the
Speaker 3: I was bringing because don't know when I'll imagine it
Speaker 3: might not work and I might not get it again,
Speaker 3: Like look at this, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah that it was done.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: Yeah, With that being said, in the outstanding cast and
Speaker 2: the people you work with, what was your I mean,
Speaker 2: you're fairly still fairly new at this point. Yeah, Like
Speaker 2: what was your kind of mindset in leadership and how
Speaker 2: did you kind of navigate and move pieces to make
Speaker 2: such a special project.
Speaker 3: I don't get that movie without doing Creed and Creed
Speaker 3: had his own element of that, you know, like like
Speaker 3: SEVESTERI Stallan, like who's a legend classic, Yeah, it was
Speaker 3: a legend. And having to earn his respect and the
Speaker 3: producers behind him, you know, Erwin Winkler and Robert Chardoff
Speaker 3: Russian Piece. Uh, you know, these are people who are
Speaker 3: making movies before all will before all was born. Right,
Speaker 3: And I'm talking to Stallone about writing he wrote? He
Speaker 3: wrote every word of every Rocky mogue?
Speaker 2: Did he really?
Speaker 3: I didn't know that every word.
Speaker 2: Really, no co writer.
Speaker 3: Say he wrote them. He wrote them. That's how. That's
Speaker 3: how he wrote. So so so for him that for
Speaker 3: him to give me his blessing, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: And he the type of dude he's not He's not
Speaker 3: giving me his blessing in public. I'm lets me at
Speaker 3: his house when he's saying, all right, man, we're gonna
Speaker 3: you know, we're gonna do this. You know. That was
Speaker 3: his own kind of kind of kind of wait to
Speaker 3: bear and having you know, coming off of that, you know,
Speaker 3: I just got married and uh in sixteen and then
Speaker 3: we was off to go to go to go make
Speaker 3: this movie, bro, and it was it was it was hard.
Speaker 3: I would oftentimes had these moments where people would would say, okay, man.
Speaker 3: It was like it was like with what I had
Speaker 3: was Salon with Kevin Fight he saying, all right, man,
Speaker 3: we're making this. I would meet with Alan Horne, Alan Bergman,
Speaker 3: who was who's over there at the time, and it
Speaker 3: was often I would sit down with agre Bro, who
Speaker 3: you know, a big, big boss. Yeah, like he ran everything,
Speaker 3: like like like, uh, Marl was just like a part
Speaker 3: of it was it was it was like it was
Speaker 3: like a it was like a small line in his
Speaker 3: whole portfolio, you know, you know what I'm saying. Like
Speaker 3: he also ran ESPN and also ran ABC, you know,
Speaker 3: and the meeting with him and him saying, and I
Speaker 3: think y'all got something here. So it would be the checkpoints,
Speaker 3: you know, and the biggest woman.
Speaker 2: Just kind of validations along the way.
Speaker 3: And the biggest woman's child with Childwood was convinced we
Speaker 3: was making the next Star Wars. He would say this,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, Like he was like, man,
Speaker 3: this thing is this is He'll say on set like man,
Speaker 3: it's huge, man, this is big. It's you know, because
Speaker 3: we had like, you know, aircrafts, and he was surprised
Speaker 3: that You're like, man, you got the aircraft. Look at
Speaker 3: this message we're doing. We're doing man, We're doing Star Wars,
Speaker 3: you know, like like so I'm like, man, Chattie tripping,
Speaker 3: but I hear I'm like, man, ship are we?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? And that confidence being spoken
Speaker 3: into me was helpful and just like the reaction from
Speaker 3: from from people like you know, Broad didn't have been there,
Speaker 3: you know, I didn't been a championship basketball game and
Speaker 3: watch you played roll you feel me and then you
Speaker 3: for you to come up there and sit around. I'm
Speaker 3: proud of you. This big like I'm hearing it. I'm
Speaker 3: all right, I could keep I could keep going. It
Speaker 3: helps you, helps you kind of run, you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, to until you get to the to the
Speaker 3: end zone. You know, you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 3: that time was a special time. We didn't know how
Speaker 3: good we had it bro to be honest, we didn't
Speaker 3: know how good I could have. You know, hit Kendrick
Speaker 3: up and he already boom and top. All right, we're
Speaker 3: doing the whole album, you know, you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: like crazy bright hit not for a song. I'm like,
Speaker 3: maybe maybe he'll do a song. He just dropped down.
Speaker 3: I know you're tired on tour. Man, we got a
Speaker 3: whole album for you. Come pull up complition like it was.
Speaker 3: It was just a different time.
Speaker 2: But that speaks to your character. People are willing to
Speaker 2: go out of their way or just really lend. I mean,
Speaker 2: I think it spoke to your character early when you said,
Speaker 2: like when I told the homies it happened like they
Speaker 2: celebrated like we want. I think it speaks to the
Speaker 2: person and the man you are. What was that like
Speaker 2: with Kendrick Obviously he's still front page news for other reasons. Yeah,
Speaker 2: someone like him to be, someone like him to be
Speaker 2: able to be like fuck the song, Yeah, take this whole.
Speaker 3: I mean it was it was. It was incredible. Man.
Speaker 3: And you get used to as as a as a filmmaker.
Speaker 3: You know, we we we music industry adjacent, you know.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, Like there's crossover there, but
Speaker 3: it's it's completely different things. And you know, sometimes the
Speaker 3: relationship can be symbiotic, you know what I'm saying. Every
Speaker 3: once in a while you get the uh the Bodyguard
Speaker 3: album or you know what I'm saying, like or you
Speaker 3: get you know, where you can, yeah Friday or Above
Speaker 3: the Rim or you know, every once in a while
Speaker 3: you get that kind of synergy where where it doesn't
Speaker 3: feel fake.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it both makes sense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it makes sense, you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 3: for me Bro like like like I'm looking for like
Speaker 3: a song generally, you know what I'm saying, Like something
Speaker 3: for that, you know, something for the for the end credits,
Speaker 3: that that we can you know what i mean, you know,
Speaker 3: if the artists can have that moment. You know, I'm
Speaker 3: always thinking about James Bond, you know. You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, like where you know it's gonna be a
Speaker 3: super impactful song. But the Pie in the Sky for
Speaker 3: for me and Louvie always was ever since we first
Speaker 3: started working as it always was like a full blown album,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, Like we've been trying to
Speaker 3: do that since Freuveville. The idea of being able to
Speaker 3: do that with td E Bro and for and for
Speaker 3: Doc at that point to shape I want to do.
Speaker 3: I want to you know, executive produce a whole album.
Speaker 3: You know, That's what that was his appetite at the time,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. He was once again that
Speaker 3: ambition you know, you know what I mean and him
Speaker 3: and him seeing some of the footage, you're saying, yeah,
Speaker 3: this is it. I can I can bring my full
Speaker 3: self to this. You know. It was amazing, bro, But
Speaker 3: it had some complicated conversations because it was a Disney movie.
Speaker 3: Still you feel I.
Speaker 2: Had to go to walk that line.
Speaker 3: But I had to go up in the offices, bro
Speaker 3: and explain you know what I'm saying, like while like
Speaker 3: like you know, while certain languages being.
Speaker 2: But that's important. It's important because they don't have it.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's not their specialty. No, it's not being
Speaker 2: able to you know frids, those gaps. I mean to
Speaker 2: this day, nine times platinum that I went not platin
Speaker 2: nine times and one of his largest streaming songs ever
Speaker 2: two billion streams with the all stars, all the stars,
Speaker 2: excuse me, all the stars.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'll never forget the first time the demo
Speaker 3: that like how big and Shindy none of us do
Speaker 3: things in the vacuum.
Speaker 2: Bro.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, like and and and you
Speaker 3: know I believe in that like now when error like
Speaker 3: like you know what I'm saying like like like you know,
Speaker 3: I'm listening to music. Bro, my wife to Shaid, I
Speaker 3: can tell you what I can tell you where I
Speaker 3: was when you pick the artist. I can tell you
Speaker 3: where I was when the album drop, when and how
Speaker 3: I used it? You know, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Four I am. I don't feel like getting up off
Speaker 3: the bell with my wife. You feel me like I
Speaker 3: get the shot at six I am? And what song
Speaker 3: am I putting on? You know what I mean? They
Speaker 3: get me to get me, to get me pumped up
Speaker 3: and get me going. Man, you don't want championship working
Speaker 3: on to it when you want to?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know your hand absolutely Park now, Yeah, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. It's just absolutely. I mean there's
Speaker 2: always songs and energy that puts you right in the position.
Speaker 3: Yeah, to be able to acknowledge the synergy and put
Speaker 3: it together for the audience. You know what I'm saying here,
Speaker 3: he got a movie coming up. Hear that soundtrack before.
Speaker 3: It's just the prime for what were on before you
Speaker 3: go to the theater. I mean, it's it's It was
Speaker 3: an incredible gift.
Speaker 2: Bro, tell us, tell us a little bit more about
Speaker 2: the genius of your composer.
Speaker 3: Love with he is that, but more than anything. He's
Speaker 3: my friend, bro, you know what I'm saying. We met
Speaker 3: right at that time when I was I have to
Speaker 3: leave football behind come find a new filmmaking family. He
Speaker 3: was one of the first people that I met at
Speaker 3: in film school. He had just moved from Sweden. Funny enough,
Speaker 3: he was living in It was a It was a
Speaker 3: fraternity on frat row that they had been kicked off
Speaker 3: campus for selas the bullshit and doing something crazy. You
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying. If you know she history brother fresh,
Speaker 3: they do all types of shit, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: It was, bro. It was one year a cat got
Speaker 3: called on the roof doing some wild ship was at school.
Speaker 3: But the fact I kicked off off cambus and they
Speaker 3: and they opened up the fry house to students, specifically
Speaker 3: graduate students for that can rent cheap houses. And one
Speaker 3: of my film uh uh school homies was in the class.
Speaker 3: I mean it was. It was was living there and
Speaker 3: I went over to go to go to go visit
Speaker 3: his place. And Louvig was another guy that was living
Speaker 3: there with another composer student. That's how we met. And
Speaker 3: I didn't he didn't have none of his music there.
Speaker 3: And then I just met him as a guy, you know,
Speaker 3: and and and we were talking and and I discovered
Speaker 3: how how incredible he was, you know, letter on and
Speaker 3: he started scoring my projects, my projects. But the thing
Speaker 3: about him, Bro, he went pro first, like before anybody
Speaker 3: like we looked up. He had graduated and he had
Speaker 3: a job, bro where he was assistant a composer on
Speaker 3: a television show. He got his he got his green card, Bro,
Speaker 3: and he was cracking like he was the first one
Speaker 3: to buy a house. He was, he was, he was
Speaker 3: on it because he was that good, you know. And
Speaker 3: then he got he was assisting his composer who was
Speaker 3: working for the Russo brothers Bron. This is before they
Speaker 3: did the Marvel thing. They was doing. It was doing
Speaker 3: television shows. And then they got a show about a
Speaker 3: community college called Community. And they went to Louvig's boss
Speaker 3: and he was too busy because he was he was
Speaker 3: working with Ben Steel doing Tropic Thunder and all that.
Speaker 3: And he said, hey, man, hire my assistant. You know,
Speaker 3: he's incredible to hire him, saying Louvic got his got
Speaker 3: his first show, which is Community, right, So look who's
Speaker 3: in Community, Donald Glover. He's one of he's one of
Speaker 3: the one of the actors in the show. Donald Glover
Speaker 3: meets Louvig tells Louvig, he, bro, I'm a I'm a
Speaker 3: I'm a musician too, you know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 3: you know, you make music. They formed Charlage gambin On.
Speaker 3: Really yeah, they formed Chlarge gambin On. You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying. Movie, making it, making it, making beach, Donald
Speaker 3: rapping on him. Donald links up with another cat named
Speaker 3: fam My Nigeria Homye from South Central you know, you know,
Speaker 3: Fan becomes Donalds, becomes Donald's manager. You know, the whole
Speaker 3: thing blows up, you know, essentially, Like like while right
Speaker 3: around the time that I'm getting ready to make Proveville,
Speaker 3: He's composing television shows, does does it? Does hiss? You know,
Speaker 3: as far as major feature film with me on his
Speaker 3: on his own with Fruville and in Charlege game, you know,
Speaker 3: blows up, you know what I'm saying. So he becomes
Speaker 3: his producer too. Like all at the same time, there's
Speaker 3: not many people like that, dude, bro when it comes
Speaker 3: to when it comes to music.
Speaker 2: From organic regular ship, that's.
Speaker 3: Like yeah, yeah, he asked, that's who he is. As
Speaker 3: a person man, like a real uh incredible individual.
Speaker 2: Bro. What did you learn most and what did you
Speaker 2: enjoy most about Chadwick?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Man, I mean look, I learned most most from Childwick,
Speaker 3: bro patience. I talked about this a lot, man, But
Speaker 3: he was he he was a person who moved at
Speaker 3: his own pace. You know. He was from the South, Uh,
Speaker 3: he was. He was. He was quite older than me
Speaker 3: and Mike, you know, so when we worked with him,
Speaker 3: he had he had not an advanced maturity to him.
Speaker 3: He was also dealing with with with life or death
Speaker 3: circumstances that we did not know, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: So it was heightened. But he changed my life, bro,
Speaker 3: like like like like you know, he was the most
Speaker 3: He was a meditator and then a martial artist, you know,
Speaker 3: and and he was he was extremely in control of
Speaker 3: his ability to focus. You know what I'm saying. When
Speaker 3: you were with him, he wouldn't the type of dude
Speaker 3: to be checking his phone and and to be distracted.
Speaker 3: You know. He was the single most focused person I
Speaker 3: ever met, you know what I'm saying. Like like it
Speaker 3: was looking back on it, it was incredible and it's something
Speaker 3: I aspired to Bro, to be honest, like to be
Speaker 3: able to be that present with people. You know, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. He would take deep breaths if
Speaker 3: you gave him some information, you could I could see him.
Speaker 3: I could see him locking in like like you know
Speaker 3: what I know, you know what I mean? And again
Speaker 3: like a serious, serious martial artist, like he was a
Speaker 3: hooper coming up the athletic mindset. Bro. You know you
Speaker 3: know what I mean? Like you know you know that
Speaker 3: you know that game? Bro? Like like it's a clip, Bro,
Speaker 3: The closest thing I seen in Chad, Bro, Like this,
Speaker 3: this is gonna crack you up. The closest thing I've
Speaker 3: seen in Chad is a clip of Cam Newton, Bro,
Speaker 3: Like you know, he got his, he got his, he
Speaker 3: got his whole thing on online, his networking, and and
Speaker 3: it's a clip going around and him breaking down a
Speaker 3: play call, and and and and you see him listening
Speaker 3: in on another play call, Bro. And you see for
Speaker 3: a split second like he's listening to the play call,
Speaker 3: and he and you seem change, like he becomes unblinking
Speaker 3: you know you know what I'm saying. While he's listening
Speaker 3: to all the plays and he snaps out of Okay,
Speaker 3: So what this is is that like that was chat
Speaker 3: at all times, Bro, like he at all times he
Speaker 3: was he had that he had that focus of like
Speaker 3: a quarterback getting a play call in like the fourth quarter.
Speaker 3: You know, you know what I'm saying. It didn't matter
Speaker 3: who it was. Bro. I got seen him with children, Bro,
Speaker 3: when he was doing charity we're doing charity events. The
Speaker 3: kid will come up to him like, mister bas can't
Speaker 3: get your autograph, you know what I'm saying, And you'll
Speaker 3: see that same level of focus he had that ship
Speaker 3: for everybody, you know what I'm saying. To see a
Speaker 3: guy who was close to our age, who was able,
Speaker 3: who was able to manipulate that you know. You know
Speaker 3: what I mean was that was the biggest thing I
Speaker 3: took from.
Speaker 2: Him, Broe. Deep rest in peace man for sure. Centers different,
Speaker 2: Yeah different. I didn't know what to expect, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. When we got we got a chance
Speaker 2: to see it a couple of weeks ago, we couldn't
Speaker 2: stop talking the whole way home. I mean, we're where
Speaker 2: did that the idea of centers come from? Obviously out
Speaker 2: April eighteenth. Yeah, make sure you check it out. Robert Johnson.
Speaker 2: We did a little studying on him. We dug in
Speaker 2: on that there's some urban legend in him. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: talk to me about the thought processing and you're putting
Speaker 2: that project together.
Speaker 3: It came from from from a lot of different angles, man,
Speaker 3: but the most focused angle level was my relationship with
Speaker 3: my uncle James, uncle James Edmonston. So like, so like, bro,
Speaker 3: where I came up. You know I'm from. I'm from
Speaker 3: essentially two places in the Bay, which is like it's
Speaker 3: like sacrilegious to say where we're from, but it's my reality,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. Like, my whole family's from Oakland,
Speaker 3: and I was born and raised there up up until
Speaker 3: I was about once my wife forget me, and my
Speaker 3: wife is here, but I think I was either ten
Speaker 3: or eleven years old. But in the nineties Oakland was
Speaker 3: getting expensive and they couldn't afford to buy a house
Speaker 3: that was from So right around time I was ten
Speaker 3: or eleven, they bought a house in a city car Richmond,
Speaker 3: which which is you know, give or take ten ten
Speaker 3: fifteen minutes from North Aukland. I was where I was
Speaker 3: living at before, and they and they bought the house
Speaker 3: and they we basically had been there since. You know,
Speaker 3: some my little brothers barely remember Oakland, you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, But for me, it was home, and it
Speaker 3: actually kind of saved me, bro when the funks kicked up,
Speaker 3: when the beefs kicked up, Like my Ouaklean hummies knew
Speaker 3: knew me as having moved to Richmond, and then my
Speaker 3: Richmond homies to this day they considered me from Oakland,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So it kind of saved me from a lot of
Speaker 3: you know, from a lot of from a lot of
Speaker 3: how bad it got, but a lot of my formative years,
Speaker 3: like my like I would say, my humility, you know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, I learned from Richmond. You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying. Oaklands many things that ain't a humble place,
Speaker 3: you know, you know what I'm saying, Like, uh, but
Speaker 3: Richmond is you know, you know what I mean. It's
Speaker 3: a little it's a little like a slightly slower lifestyle,
Speaker 3: but it's also like it's also like arguably more dangerous,
Speaker 3: you know what i mean. Like and my uncle after
Speaker 3: we moved to Richmond, my uncle bought a house like
Speaker 3: like maybe a ten minute walk in Richmond from from
Speaker 3: where he was from. So that was my only other family.
Speaker 3: I was in Richmond, So I used to be out there.
Speaker 3: My parents was cool with me walking to his house.
Speaker 3: And that was when I got old enough to have
Speaker 3: a little bit of independence for me. Like I would
Speaker 3: walk and walk down there to his house to sit
Speaker 3: up under him, you know, just to get off from
Speaker 3: under the under the house and in his thing when
Speaker 3: he was off work, you know. And he was a
Speaker 3: World War two ved and he worked in the steel
Speaker 3: meal and all type of you know, but you know
Speaker 3: he had he had a more chill job in that era.
Speaker 3: And when he got off work, he liked to uh
Speaker 3: either watch or listen to on the radio the San
Speaker 3: Franscot Giants. He would spend blues records on vinyl, and
Speaker 3: he would drink all Taylor whiskey, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: And if the wishy was cold enough and the song
Speaker 3: was good enough, I might get a story about Mississippi,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. And each one of them
Speaker 3: stories was crazy, Like like I thought that my uncle
Speaker 3: was g you know what I mean, from the from
Speaker 3: these stories and like like he had to he had
Speaker 3: to he came to California on the run, you know,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, because he had got into
Speaker 3: it with his with his white boss or something, you know,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, and had to had to
Speaker 3: flee in the middle of the night. And that was
Speaker 3: kind of like my introduction to blues music. I didn't
Speaker 3: think of it as my own. I thought I was
Speaker 3: just my belonging to something that belonged to my uncle,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. And you know, fast forward
Speaker 3: to me getting a football scholarship and then deciding to
Speaker 3: go to film school. You know, these decisions, they took
Speaker 3: me away from my family, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: You know how it is.
Speaker 2: But you're missing a lot of things.
Speaker 3: You know, you're on the road. You miss your birthday,
Speaker 3: you miss a wedding, you know, you know, you missing funerals, right,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. I was in La working
Speaker 3: on Creed especially all the twenty fifteen is with my
Speaker 3: uncle's health took a time for the worst when he
Speaker 3: got diagnosed with turning of cancer and and I'm in
Speaker 3: Philly away from him, and I'm in La finished up
Speaker 3: the movie. When I get to the call that he died,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. And man, bro, it brought
Speaker 3: me down because I felt guilty, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: Like like it's like, man, what is this what is
Speaker 3: this job?
Speaker 2: Bro?
Speaker 3: That's that I'm you know, I'm fucking around with an
Speaker 3: editing software in a computer.
Speaker 2: Bro.
Speaker 3: My uncle is don I'm not even able to be
Speaker 3: there with him, you know what I'm saying, And that
Speaker 3: guilt associated with that, Bro, I missed so much from
Speaker 3: that house, bro, Like like basically everybody from that house
Speaker 3: passed away. Man. Like the only Ogre's left is my
Speaker 3: is my auntie, Auntie Wendy, you know. And I missed.
Speaker 3: I missed all all of the last moments with the
Speaker 3: people because I was because I was pursuing my dream,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, Right, And I would find
Speaker 3: myself playing all blues records when I thought about my mom,
Speaker 3: and I was listening to him in a different ear
Speaker 3: like now that he was gone. Like I'm studying the
Speaker 3: music and getting into it heavy and and sometimes I'm
Speaker 3: listening to it in the dark, and I feel like
Speaker 3: he right there, he right there listening with me, telling
Speaker 3: me about the records and you know you got a game, bro.
Speaker 3: We talked about Nick twenty twenty one. I'm listening to
Speaker 3: a lot of Dolf, you know, he gets murdered, and
Speaker 3: I'm in the South working on at the two. I'm
Speaker 3: seeing cotton farms for the first time in my life
Speaker 3: because I'm in Byron, Georgia. You know what I'm saying, uh,
Speaker 3: And I'm thinking about this thing that happens to us
Speaker 3: as gangster rap fans, that we sadly become a cousom
Speaker 3: to of an artist being monumental and influencing our lives
Speaker 3: and rapping about navigating the same things he navigating, and
Speaker 3: they succumb to it right like like you said, you
Speaker 3: got Park right here on your hand up there. Before
Speaker 3: Park got married, it was a dude named Seagram from
Speaker 3: from the six nine Ville in Oakland. Who's Who's who
Speaker 3: was like the first gangster rapper. You know, Hammry was gangster,
Speaker 3: but he wasn't making gangster rap, right, you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying. But Segrim was making that you feel me
Speaker 3: like you put you put Seagram on And he got
Speaker 3: signed with Jay Prince to rap a lot and he
Speaker 3: got married, you know, basically right when he was getting
Speaker 3: on and then you and then he got part you know,
Speaker 3: and then you got mac dre, you got Johnny Cash,
Speaker 3: you know, you got the Jacker, you got countless young dudes.
Speaker 3: You know you know what I mean. Rest and peace,
Speaker 3: Kenny Cherry, can he clutch the hood? Reci peace? Tightway
Speaker 3: from the ridge? You know what I'm saying. This is
Speaker 3: constant like this, this flood of bodies. You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, that's lost and with Nip and doff. It
Speaker 3: hurts so much because it was my age and I
Speaker 3: thought that they made it out, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: Like I thought that beat, you know, twenty five, twenty seven,
Speaker 3: you know, they rapping luxury rap now about their businesses
Speaker 3: and their kids and then boom boom. You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, Back to back. It put me in a
Speaker 3: mode of of of studying the musician, you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, And and and the type of music that
Speaker 3: was coming out that my uncle listened to. You know,
Speaker 3: I interrogated it, you know what I'm saying. And that
Speaker 3: was really where you know, where the idea came from
Speaker 3: for the movie. It was all of those things and
Speaker 3: coming off of spending so much time making you know,
Speaker 3: two comic book movies in a boxing movie, and you know,
Speaker 3: I wanted to make something original. You know. I was
Speaker 3: really from my soul, you know, and about what I'm
Speaker 3: interested in before it was too late.
Speaker 2: That's interesting because hearing you break it down, you can
Speaker 2: feel it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the movie one hundred definitely in Louvig Bro his father,
Speaker 3: you know, he from Sweden. Bro His father went to
Speaker 3: name him Albert for Albert King. His father was that
Speaker 3: heavy of adulta blues fan, you know what. You know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, And when I researched the music and
Speaker 3: I was like, I really got into like, well, my
Speaker 3: uncle loved it so much, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: I realized that this was this was maybe our country's
Speaker 3: greatest contribution to the arts. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Delta blues music. This music became it became rock and roll,
Speaker 3: it became R and B.
Speaker 2: It became him a different genre.
Speaker 3: It became you know everything that's that's that's cool now
Speaker 3: and has been cool for the last you know, sixty years.
Speaker 3: You know, it started right here with these with these people.
Speaker 3: You know, you know what I mean that concept I
Speaker 3: said this is a massive concept. I gotta shoot this
Speaker 3: on the big cameras. I gotta bring all my homies
Speaker 3: that that that that really are really good at this
Speaker 3: filmmaking thing. I got to bring him to the South
Speaker 3: so we could we could spend six month making this,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. And that's what we did.
Speaker 2: Where did the vampire twists come from?
Speaker 3: I love horror movies. People didn't know that about me,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. I was actually it was
Speaker 3: actually like it was actually your point of shy is
Speaker 3: man when I realized, like I've been making movies over
Speaker 3: ten years and people still don't really know.
Speaker 2: Me, you know what I'm saying. But that's your fault
Speaker 2: not to cut you off. You don't like you don't
Speaker 2: like this. This is not your thing. I mean before
Speaker 2: it wasn't like you don't like that. You like you
Speaker 2: like being behind the.
Speaker 3: Scene like year, like God, God bless you, bro. I
Speaker 3: can feel right right right right.
Speaker 2: That's one thing I always expect, Like you never because
Speaker 2: this is the first like I've been asking you ship
Speaker 2: since I started this ship to sit down, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. And that's just and you're like, it's
Speaker 2: not not right, it's not really It's never really been
Speaker 2: your thing. And I like that you are giving the
Speaker 2: world an opportunity to see this, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: because I got a chance to, you know, get a
Speaker 2: little snapshot of it. And like your mind is like
Speaker 2: the way you think and the way you carry yourself
Speaker 2: is dope. And I'm glad you're opening up to people.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean this project, this project is definitely worthy
Speaker 3: of you, Bro, from my standpoint, like you know, and
Speaker 3: it needs the context, you know what I'm saying. Like
Speaker 3: without without the context, I think it still works, you know,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. But but I think the
Speaker 3: context can deepen it, you know what I mean. I'm thankful, Bro.
Speaker 3: It's you know, look, Bro, I'm a in Frouville. You know,
Speaker 3: I was twenty twenty five, twenty six something like that,
Speaker 3: and Bro was being thrown right through me on Pierce Morgan, Bron.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, Like I'm twenty you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. I had my media training, Bro, I'm fresh.
Speaker 3: I'm fresh at the film school.
Speaker 2: But straight from us, straight from the Bay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm on seeing it. He asked me about gun violence.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying in America, you feel me,
Speaker 3: and there was no all the smoke yeah me for
Speaker 3: me to come shit down. And you know what I'm
Speaker 3: saying with somebody who really uh understands me. You know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, I understand understands my situation when I'm
Speaker 3: navigating right, you know, somebody who understands part more than
Speaker 3: just just the songs he made. You know I'm talking
Speaker 3: about like understand when I say Oakland or Richmond, brom
Speaker 3: not you know that. You know I'm not talking about Virginia.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, like, no, disrespected to Richmond, Virginia.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, like like salute to them,
Speaker 3: but it means something. I I have media outleased like this.
Speaker 3: You know who get it? You know? Following that, yeah,
Speaker 3: you know you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Definitely proud ourselves on that talked to us about was
Speaker 2: it stacking.
Speaker 3: Smoke your smoking stack? Yeah?
Speaker 2: You was able to to clone Michael b What was
Speaker 2: that ship? Was that first? Because I was in that
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie I was in that bitch high I'm.
Speaker 4: Like, yeah you check, yeah my own So what did
Speaker 4: I loved the idea because again, I'm a dad of
Speaker 4: twins similarities but also huge differences.
Speaker 2: So talk to me about identical identical twins.
Speaker 3: Okay, So it's beautiful, bro. Yeah, Auntie Maryland and Auntie Curlying,
Speaker 3: that's my aunties, my mom's older sisters. And they was
Speaker 3: notorious and our neighborhood, you know, identical twins, identical twins
Speaker 3: with the ship and they whipped ash like so so
Speaker 3: so it was it was you know, it was, it
Speaker 3: was you know, I came up under them. So I
Speaker 3: was born into a world that had identical twins. And
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. My mom's sisters, one of
Speaker 3: them was my godmother, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 3: to this day, that house she came to visit. So
Speaker 3: the yellow houses where my Auntie Maryland live right next
Speaker 3: door to the Blue house. When my Auntie Curly leaves,
Speaker 3: they live side by side, Bro, and they're seven years old,
Speaker 3: best friends and worst enemies. Yeah, at the same time.
Speaker 3: Nobody will talk more ship about the other one than
Speaker 3: the No one else can say nothing, Bro. My wife, Bro,
Speaker 3: my wife's first one of her first meetings with them,
Speaker 3: like we was in high school and they drove her
Speaker 3: to uh, they picked her up from my high school
Speaker 3: graduation because we got back together right before we finished
Speaker 3: up high school, right and man, she got off the
Speaker 3: off the car b her ay as big as fifty
Speaker 3: cent pieces. Like, Bro, these two women hate each other,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, because because they argue the
Speaker 3: whole the whole way, but they can't be with all
Speaker 3: each other, you know, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 3: I was born into knowing that dynamic. And I've always been,
Speaker 3: always been sensitative to to to twins. Man, I always
Speaker 3: loved them. But the crazy part about me is I
Speaker 3: also have a phobia of doppelgangers, you know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 3: like you actually call it a little bit of it.
Speaker 3: Because I walked in here today and one of your
Speaker 3: one of your one of your crew.
Speaker 2: Members was was in that room to different space first.
Speaker 3: And and I introduced myself to her. And I came
Speaker 3: in this room and she introduced herself to me again.
Speaker 3: So I was like, I was like, man, stop everything, Bro,
Speaker 3: did I did I? Did I just meet you just
Speaker 3: now or did I not? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: And she was like, oh yeah, I was me and
Speaker 3: I was in the room I'm like, all right, cool,
Speaker 3: you know because my because my worst nightmare is is experience.
Speaker 3: And you know what I'm saying, that doppel ganger so
Speaker 3: so so just I got that on like like comomy
Speaker 3: with them myself and me so so me putting twins
Speaker 3: into the movie was a part of that. You know,
Speaker 3: you know, every neighborhood I come up in, they got
Speaker 3: a set of twins. Everybody knows, you know. And I
Speaker 3: wanted to play on a lot of like the mythology
Speaker 3: you know, you know, what it means to be African American.
Speaker 3: It's also when I was doing my research on the
Speaker 3: subject matter West Africans, like you know, our our lineage
Speaker 3: as African Americans has an interesting relationship with the concept
Speaker 3: of twins. It's a europe but deity to Europe with
Speaker 3: deities that are that are that are identical twins, and
Speaker 3: you know, we over indexing the birth of fraternal twins,
Speaker 3: you know. So it's it's it's it's a real uh
Speaker 3: uh thing, you know what I mean. And I wanted
Speaker 3: to I want to put in there.
Speaker 2: That was what do you hope people take from this project? Then?
Speaker 3: Number one, bro, all people just have a good time
Speaker 3: at the movies like I hope people go. I hope
Speaker 3: people go with their friends and their families, man, take dates,
Speaker 3: you know, you know what I mean, Like like I
Speaker 3: want for me, I want to bring back that that
Speaker 3: cinematic experience, man like, like for everybody, that feeling of
Speaker 3: you know, talking to the screen and yelling and don't
Speaker 3: do it, Yeah, go outside exactly exactly, We're not back,
Speaker 3: you know, you know what I mean. And a lot
Speaker 3: of movies that that that do that. Man. I think
Speaker 3: I think Jordan's there's a phenomenal job of that, you know,
Speaker 3: each time you put something together. But it was for me,
Speaker 3: it was it was it was about making a movie
Speaker 3: that can be experienced with the big audience. And at
Speaker 3: the heart of it, you know, like I said, Bro,
Speaker 3: it's about these people you know who are us? Man?
Speaker 3: They us just just just in the thirties, you know,
Speaker 3: and and and then them you know, through the act
Speaker 3: of them affirming that humanity at a time and when
Speaker 3: when society wasn't trying to let them do that, they
Speaker 3: created this incredible art form and it's culture around you,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. Anytime you go into a
Speaker 3: night club today, still that that's the core. You know
Speaker 3: that started here.
Speaker 2: That's the core.
Speaker 3: You know I started there.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying real quick, I want to
Speaker 2: backput it real quick because you too. So that was
Speaker 2: your auntie's house you took me to. Yeah, so there's
Speaker 2: a big tie to the Black Panthers. Free lunch at
Speaker 2: the school was right across the street.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Shanta Fe Elementary. You first stop sign the first
Speaker 3: stop signing to.
Speaker 2: Briefly briefly running through like what what you showed me that? Yeah?
Speaker 3: So where I'm from and where my family is from.
Speaker 3: Man and my uh my granddaddy who was born in
Speaker 3: Mississippi and moved to Auckland. You know where he built
Speaker 3: the second story of my family's house. It is in
Speaker 3: it's in the Herd North Talk and I'm gonna give
Speaker 3: you the exact crosstreets my family. Yeah there, but but
Speaker 3: it's in the fifties and around Market and on fifty
Speaker 3: fifth in Market, there was an intersection, uh, in the
Speaker 3: in the in the late sixties where a lot of
Speaker 3: a lot of young black children were being hit by
Speaker 3: cars because the traffic situation wasn't set up right and
Speaker 3: they were going to the city to try to get
Speaker 3: them to fix it because there was so many accidents
Speaker 3: in the city. Didn't care, you know, because it was black,
Speaker 3: it was black kids. I was that was across the
Speaker 3: street getting hit. And one of the first major moves
Speaker 3: that the the Finch Minister and UH uh Hu p
Speaker 3: Newton and UH and Chairman Bobby Shield did as found
Speaker 3: the members of the Black Party was they they made
Speaker 3: their own stop sign and they put it up right
Speaker 3: there on fifty fifth and Market. To stop sign still stands.
Speaker 3: There's traffic right there as well now. But that my
Speaker 3: family is from that block. My uncle h Buzz, you know,
Speaker 3: was one of the original Panthers and folks a lot
Speaker 3: of folks don't know that that that western North Oakland
Speaker 3: was kind of like where they you know, the original
Speaker 3: the original stomping grounds in the school that my whole
Speaker 3: family went to. Uh that's essentially you know, across the
Speaker 3: street from that from that called Santa Fe Middle School,
Speaker 3: and I was where you know, you know, we're one
Speaker 3: of the first free lunch programs was carried out for
Speaker 3: children in the community. You know, that's I grew up in.
Speaker 2: No, I appreciate you showing me that was there was
Speaker 2: some history Uh.
Speaker 3: It's heavy over there.
Speaker 2: I enjoy.
Speaker 3: Yeah you can still you can still Finery, Yeah you
Speaker 3: still you can still Philly.
Speaker 2: Man, it's definitely a live Yeah. The depth you go
Speaker 2: for each film and and how you embrace yourself, whether
Speaker 2: it's a community or whatever the situation. The topic is
Speaker 2: football is natural to you. Will we ever see a
Speaker 2: football film?
Speaker 3: Man, God willing bro Absolutely, we need something, absolutely bro
Speaker 3: Like like you know, the time ain't got to be right,
Speaker 3: but yeah, not like the first script I ever put
Speaker 3: the paper was that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and let me be like an assistant coach or something.
Speaker 3: Man, if you're with it, I'm with it. Man. I
Speaker 3: love the link like like it's it's you know, like
Speaker 3: football is so so cinematic, but it's also such a
Speaker 3: regional sport, you know what I'm saying, Like like I
Speaker 3: used to always be jealous of Who because like, you know,
Speaker 3: you got the Olympics, you know, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: like worldwide spork it the spork and travel, man, football
Speaker 3: takes so much equipment and coordination and you know, you
Speaker 3: know it's it's it's it's just starting to travel a
Speaker 3: little bit. But but you know, I don't know if
Speaker 3: it'll ever be like like soccer or who you know,
Speaker 3: it's more like hockey that way, you know. So, but
Speaker 3: you have a lot it. I love to make a
Speaker 3: a football movie. Man tart my hand at.
Speaker 2: It before we get you added, what do you judge?
Speaker 2: What do you base success on it? As far as
Speaker 2: your project.
Speaker 3: Film is an art form and it's a business. You know,
Speaker 3: it's both things at once. Uh. And unfortunately, you know,
Speaker 3: you know, we live in a in a in a
Speaker 3: capitalist system, you know what I'm saying, globally, you know,
Speaker 3: and the business drives you for film, having success in
Speaker 3: that category will will be the most direct dictator of
Speaker 3: whether or not you get to do another one, you know.
Speaker 3: So so obviously you know. And then and those metrics
Speaker 3: are very clearly defined, you know what I'm saying. Uh,
Speaker 3: you know so, so there's that aspect of you. Uh.
Speaker 3: It's also an art form, you know, and I believe
Speaker 3: it's a language, you know, and I like, like many languages,
Speaker 3: you can be conversational any you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Like you meet people who say, yah, I'm I'm conversational
Speaker 3: in Spanish, you know, you know what I'm saying, They
Speaker 3: might not be able to speak with themselves. But that
Speaker 3: can maybe uh speak a little bit and that can
Speaker 3: that can then you meet other people can say I
Speaker 3: can understand it, I can't speak it.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: That that's the global population. The global population can understand
Speaker 3: cinematic language, you know what I'm saying. They might not
Speaker 3: be able to speak it, but they can. They can
Speaker 3: watch a video or watch a movie and take it there,
Speaker 3: take it in and feel the emotions when it's done.
Speaker 3: Will uh I'm I can say myself fluent in it
Speaker 3: like I can. I can speak it, I understand it,
Speaker 3: I can write it, you know what I mean? And
Speaker 3: the judge for me is, can I make a movie
Speaker 3: that entertains people, but they also feel the emotions that
Speaker 3: I'm feeling while I made it? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: If I was sad when I was when I was
Speaker 3: writing writing something about characters, if they watch this in
Speaker 3: their eyes choke up, you know, their eyes tear up.
Speaker 3: I mean, they say, they get a lump in, they
Speaker 3: throat all right, man, That's that's that's success. If if
Speaker 3: I tell a story and after the film roll you know,
Speaker 3: you know, you know, you know, rolls, and they walk out,
Speaker 3: are they still thinking about it. You know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 3: do they find themselves wanting to maybe find a song
Speaker 3: that they heard or find or deeper into subject matter
Speaker 3: and that's that's a form of success. But then the
Speaker 3: pinnacle brot Like, in my opinion, the pinnacle is if
Speaker 3: when I'm when I'm gone from here, it's still with it,
Speaker 3: They're still like that that shit, I'll never know that,
Speaker 3: you know, you know what I'm saying, But you on pace? Yeah, Pa, right,
Speaker 3: quick hitters.
Speaker 2: First thing to come to your mind. Let us know
Speaker 2: outside of you and Mike b who are some other
Speaker 2: famous duos that you respect? And the actor director.
Speaker 3: Was about to trip to the sports p Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: my bad, you said actor actor and director Paul Thomas
Speaker 3: Anderson and Dane Day, Lewis Fike and and then Jil
Speaker 3: Tony Scott and Denzil Derek She and France and Ryan Goslin.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna I'm gonna fucking butcher her name Greta Gerwig
Speaker 3: and Sorr she wrote how you say her Irish net Huh,
Speaker 3: Sorsha Roll Rowland, Chris Nolan and Killian Murphy, Marty and
Speaker 3: Leo Marty and Bob the Nero Edgar Edgar writing and
Speaker 3: Simon Pegg needed the Costant test to Thom Sheen.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you're superstitious, but if you want
Speaker 2: to put the Who's one actor you'd like to work with? Still?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: One album you could listen.
Speaker 3: To our repeat Me against the World.
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm. Your fondest sports memory maybe your top two
Speaker 2: or three favorite sports sports memories.
Speaker 3: One is j v who hitting the game winner against
Speaker 3: San le Andro kicked our eyes like five games in
Speaker 3: a row. Yeah, yeah, yeah, shout out to my hommy,
Speaker 3: Sam Cheetah. Second favorite memory is catching my first touchdown
Speaker 3: in college on u C. Davis on sophomore year. I
Speaker 3: was I was at Davis. Called it in the kind
Speaker 3: of route its post corner, Yeah, the cost corner. It
Speaker 3: was good coverage too. At the top of Homie threaded
Speaker 3: my homie, my homie O. This Amy was on the
Speaker 3: other side. He ran on the other side. This came O.
Speaker 3: This came and met me, celebrated with me. We got
Speaker 3: a picture of that. I think he got that somewhere.
Speaker 3: But that was a good I was a good catch,
Speaker 3: good throw while Ryan letting him. I can't remember the
Speaker 3: corner back. He was buff as fucked though it was.
Speaker 3: It was hard to block the whole game. I can't
Speaker 3: believe I beat him. My last greatest memory was uh,
Speaker 3: I called it well, I tipped. I tipped a hail
Speaker 3: Mary against Northern Colorado my senior year, and my homie
Speaker 3: Tony Washington caught it, uh on the on the back
Speaker 3: line of that he was down five take it back
Speaker 3: to score for It was a hell Mary zero I
Speaker 3: think probably like forty eight yards out. And I was,
Speaker 3: I was the I was the hell of married guy.
Speaker 3: And you know I'm five nine, bro, so like, and
Speaker 3: it was a dB that was I was. That was
Speaker 3: maybe Jason side is like sixty three trimming me the
Speaker 3: whole game, bro. And uh. And we had practiced that
Speaker 3: the hell Mary the day before we got on the plane. Bro.
Speaker 3: And I'll never forget this because I think about this
Speaker 3: all the time. We we we ran to play and
Speaker 3: and and and how that hell mary worked. It's three
Speaker 3: receivers run to the same spot and the quarterback thought
Speaker 3: it was basically we had a jump ball in that
Speaker 3: spot and and that damn practice, Bro. We we all
Speaker 3: got there at the same time because it was on air,
Speaker 3: and it dropped it in front of the three. It's
Speaker 3: nobody caught it because I thought my homie Tony was
Speaker 3: finna get it. He thought I was gonna get it,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. And the other thought that
Speaker 3: thought that one of us was gonna get it. And
Speaker 3: it dropped and we was like damn. And and our
Speaker 3: college bro ripped this bro like he ran in Marshall
Speaker 3: Spurback was his name. He ran in, Bro, and he
Speaker 3: was like, hey, it's just like it same, the same
Speaker 3: for joking around. He's like, look, man, Tony, you go here,
Speaker 3: and he put Tony up front. Ill homie, I can't
Speaker 3: rule it. Might have been, might be mohammie Philip Perry
Speaker 3: from door shey high Uh Like, Peroy, you go here,
Speaker 3: And he said, coogar, you catch it. And he says, man,
Speaker 3: and if you can't, if you can't get two hands
Speaker 3: on it. And Tippy Bro twenty four hours later, Bro,
Speaker 3: he game on the line, Game on the line, Bro,
Speaker 3: And you know it's loud in northern Colorado was cold,
Speaker 3: and they say, man, we running the hell of married Bro.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, all right, And he sat in a quarterback,
Speaker 3: young dude, Bro, it's freshman, he said, Bro. I think
Speaker 3: I can. I think I can get it there in
Speaker 3: the end one man and uh. And then Tony look
Speaker 3: at me. He said, Bro, if you can't catch that motherfucker, tippy, Bro,
Speaker 3: tippy you know what I'm saying. Alrighty bet, and they
Speaker 3: thow that ship up, brought that big giant ass corner
Speaker 3: was shitting right there, Bro, and I jumped and he
Speaker 3: trying to jump smooth too. I got up, Bro, and
Speaker 3: I realized, Bro, I couldn't get two hands on it,
Speaker 3: because you know you can. You know you can always
Speaker 3: jump hard. And I'm a one foot jumper, Bro, so
Speaker 3: you know you always go higher if you jump, if
Speaker 3: you jumping here and here man, Bro, I tipped that ship, Bro,
Speaker 3: and I thought I was finna get it like I
Speaker 3: tipped it, and I'm like, oh, I got to play
Speaker 3: on this, and the big fuck fell on me, Bro,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. So so I'm going down, Bro,
Speaker 3: and I'm watching the ball drop, BRO and my nigga
Speaker 3: Tony slid in bro Brand basket right and he didn't
Speaker 3: know he was in, but looked at him. Bro, and
Speaker 3: I looked up at the ref and the reference looking
Speaker 3: at me dead in the eye. He nodded, like, yeah,
Speaker 3: Bro'm just what you're thinking. Bro, lift their hands up
Speaker 3: bright and I don't remember else. Pandemonium.
Speaker 2: Let's gonna be a part of the movie. Part of
Speaker 2: guarantee that.
Speaker 3: Your part of the pandemonium. Bro. Yeah, last question, yeah,
Speaker 3: m J Kobe Bron.
Speaker 2: What's your order me? Yeah, m J Kobe Bron?
Speaker 3: Am I taking bias of it?
Speaker 2: Take out and put up whatever you want to?
Speaker 3: I mean, look, bro, what am I ranking? Like? What
Speaker 3: in your opinion? Brian? Okay, I'll tell you why. Because
Speaker 3: he did it with social media and it's just the devil. Bro,
Speaker 3: It's just the devil, like cameras everywhere and and and
Speaker 3: him being on the cover of Sports Illustrated when he
Speaker 3: was a teenager. Bro. Like Jordan had to deal with that.
Speaker 3: Kobe had to deal with that too. But but but
Speaker 3: it wasn't as advanced as it is now for him
Speaker 3: to have navigated it. And bruh, none of them had
Speaker 3: to play Steph Bro like like like like like they're like,
Speaker 3: you know, the closest, the closest, The closest inj had
Speaker 3: to Steph was was was Reggie. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: The closest Cob had to deal with Steph was was
Speaker 3: Ray You know what I'm saying, Like like the fact
Speaker 3: that Bron like gott got got you know, got full
Speaker 3: rings in a in the Super Team era. You know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, when Cash is clicking up, you know,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. And even though he participated
Speaker 3: in that, you know what I'm saying, but still and
Speaker 3: in that Steph in that in that Steph like three
Speaker 3: point shot era, you know what I mean, change the game,
Speaker 3: like the fact that he the fact that he was
Speaker 3: able to and also you know, be a be a
Speaker 3: be the be, the story, that heat that he is
Speaker 3: with all this, with all of the mind fuck that
Speaker 3: is the Internet. You know what I'm saying. Mike, we
Speaker 3: just saw Mike when he was playing. You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying. I was was it like he can know
Speaker 3: he could go be, he could go be, he could
Speaker 3: go be who he was off off off camera, and
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, So I got I got.
Speaker 3: You know, it pains me to shay that bro because
Speaker 3: I love I love Mike and I saw that I
Speaker 3: saw the second three people Mike. I didn't see the
Speaker 3: first three p Mike. I was before my time that
Speaker 3: that's just crazy dominating, you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 3: but I caught him like post retirement basically. But in
Speaker 3: terms of like who is a better player, you know what?
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, Like, that's that's impossible to
Speaker 3: different also just like different body types, you know, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean, Like like like like Brian is
Speaker 3: a is an unfair type of specially you guarded, you
Speaker 3: guarded to it to a three, So like you could
Speaker 3: you could tell me who was more who's more difficult
Speaker 3: to guard.
Speaker 2: Difficult for me to guard? Was? I mean, I don't
Speaker 2: get me wrong, Brian is great, but difficult guard code
Speaker 2: because there's more reaction to your mistakes. Yeah, bron is fast, strong,
Speaker 2: and if you're there, it don't matter. He can go
Speaker 2: through you or over you.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But Kobe was more like attacking the foot, attacking a hand, attacking.
Speaker 3: An angle tactician and then once if you.
Speaker 2: Caught up to him, here was shot blew.
Speaker 3: My mind meeting him was how big he was? How
Speaker 3: big he was six six? Yeah, big fucking dude, like
Speaker 3: like like like you know, to be as quick an
Speaker 3: as so Koby was more more tactical. Yeah, absolutely, Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's that's that's that's what's that feel like? Bro have
Speaker 3: it's the best?
Speaker 2: Like I said, I mean my job every night was
Speaker 2: to guard the best.
Speaker 3: Like did you ever guard Ai?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: I didn't have to guard. I don't want them problems.
Speaker 3: Problem brow I think about I think about that, I
Speaker 3: think about cold, I think I think about getting the rings.
Speaker 3: Yeah in the AI.
Speaker 2: Era, Yeah yeah, that was a problem. Have you met him?
Speaker 2: He's little.
Speaker 3: Just over over zoomed. Okay, so person, I seen even person.
Speaker 3: I was in the nose bleed at the All Star
Speaker 3: Game in two thousand and two, two thousand and three
Speaker 3: when it was no nice two thousand two in Oakland
Speaker 3: with the dunk Vins bench stuck in the arm in there.
Speaker 3: That's my scene. And because because because what happened with Ai.
Speaker 3: It was was when Vince was going through the he
Speaker 3: he had his last attempts. People don't people don't talk
Speaker 3: about this, but his last attempt was a free throw dunk,
Speaker 3: and Ai was the first one to walk to the
Speaker 3: He walked, he went on the baseline and walked to
Speaker 3: the free throw line and laid down on his stomach
Speaker 3: to see to see if he could if he could
Speaker 3: if he could witness where his foot was when he jump,
Speaker 3: and when he did that, everybody did it, Like every
Speaker 3: everybody went, everybody went laid down next to him. So
Speaker 3: that was my only time seeing Ai in person. You
Speaker 3: feel me. He that, But that game one he had against.
Speaker 2: Crazy, that was the only game the Lakers lost the
Speaker 2: whole playoffs.
Speaker 3: That's my top sports performance I've ever seen. Bro along
Speaker 3: in there like forty two mom two eyes Bro, when
Speaker 3: he stepped over, when he stepped over to Bro. Oh yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Want to thank you. Bro. It's been dope watching your
Speaker 2: journey and your humility and humbleness and willingness to help
Speaker 2: and still find a time for people and just being
Speaker 2: cold man making great projects. Right, it's dope to see
Speaker 2: you kind of leading away, and we wish you continued
Speaker 2: success and love and blessings. Bro. Appreciate you, man, no doubt.
Speaker 3: Man speaks to the planet.
Speaker 5: I go by the name of Charlamagne to God, and
Speaker 5: guess what. I can't wait to see y'all at the
Speaker 5: third annual Black Effect Podcast Festival.
Speaker 3: That's right with coming back to Atlanta.
Speaker 5: Georgia, Saturday, April twenty sixth at Poeman Yards and it's
Speaker 5: hosted by none other than Decisions, Decisions Man, d B
Speaker 5: and Wheezy.
Speaker 3: Okay, we got the.
Speaker 5: R and B Money Podcast with taking Jay Valentine. You
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Speaker 5: with her next sports podcast and the Trap Nerds podcast,
Speaker 5: with more to be announced. And of course it's bigger
Speaker 5: than podcasts. We're bringing the Black Effect marketplace with black
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