Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio, Man, I.
Speaker 2: Better make the Central special, right, Okay, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 2: everybody's searching for a hero.
Speaker 3: People need someone to look up Tom.
Speaker 2: No, actually to be Frank, our guest is a true hero.
Speaker 2: There's literally no human being on earth who has not
Speaker 2: heard of our guest. Like, seriously, you don't even need
Speaker 2: to hear my voice anymore. But just for for now,
Speaker 2: these success we can go hip Hop Legend, the first
Speaker 2: hip Hop Grammy winner, Sticom Legend, or one of the
Speaker 2: most beloved important family shows in TV history.
Speaker 4: A Golden Globe winner.
Speaker 5: Yes, oh yeah, that's new. We're new.
Speaker 3: We're now skipping. You didn't think that that was online
Speaker 3: now I'm playing.
Speaker 2: No, But seriously, like, let's let's not take it lightly
Speaker 2: that he has been a premier action hero, one of
Speaker 2: the most highest paid actors. I believe seventeen of his
Speaker 2: films that grows past at least combined eight billion dollars,
Speaker 2: which is nothing to scoff that. You know, when I
Speaker 2: say this man has his own money, I mean he
Speaker 2: has his own money. No, seriously, I swear to God,
Speaker 2: I'll put it this way.
Speaker 3: Steve, you remember my infamous rat story, the.
Speaker 5: One I heard a thousand times.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I can remember it.
Speaker 2: Right, So before before you came in the picture, I
Speaker 2: will say, even his foot even the footnotes of his
Speaker 2: life become other people's highlights. And I mean he invited
Speaker 2: me to the Millennial back in nineteen ninety nine, December
Speaker 2: thirty first.
Speaker 3: I'm sure he doesn't remember about that, Yes, right, exactly.
Speaker 5: Inaugurations.
Speaker 2: Do you know how many times I've told the story
Speaker 2: of Mary Tyler Moore running over Liz Taylor's Wilcha or
Speaker 2: my Jordan or my corns.
Speaker 3: That was my original rat story.
Speaker 5: Anyway, I can.
Speaker 2: I can talk and talk, talk, talk about achievements until
Speaker 2: the counts come home. But literally what hit home for
Speaker 2: me personally was his really brave, rigorous act of complete
Speaker 2: honesty and vulnerability, which is a word you don't often hear,
Speaker 2: especially in the black community. And his book will amongst
Speaker 2: other things that he's achieved. This intro is now ninety
Speaker 2: minutes long, and the show's over. Ladies and gentlemen, please.
Speaker 3: Welcome Bill Smith.
Speaker 5: Bring. Yes, there you go.
Speaker 2: Yes, you're like, wait, have you set up lights in
Speaker 2: your apartment?
Speaker 5: Huh? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Were you set up lights right now here.
Speaker 5: So here's the thing. Here's the thing.
Speaker 6: I took this interview seriously right.
Speaker 7: No, this is the cleanest zoom display I've ever seen
Speaker 7: in my life.
Speaker 3: I'm very ashamed right now.
Speaker 5: I was like, it's my man. You know, he asked
Speaker 5: me to you know, to come on. It's Philly.
Speaker 6: It's all of that. It's like I got to make
Speaker 6: you know, I don't know what he needs, what he
Speaker 6: wants to use, Like I want to be I want
Speaker 6: to represent properly.
Speaker 7: I want to It's just audio, bro, you could have
Speaker 7: been on the couch anyway.
Speaker 2: So actually I want to start off and I'm I'm
Speaker 2: gonna go against format and just sort of make this
Speaker 2: a free round for everyone on the show, all of
Speaker 2: us here.
Speaker 3: Hello, Team Supreme. By the way, let's go anyway.
Speaker 2: So I want to know what did you do this morning?
Speaker 6: Me or Team Supreme tell you.
Speaker 3: I'm just curious what your average warning is like nowadays.
Speaker 6: So I usually I wake up about four am. So
Speaker 6: so like four to six is my private quiet time,
Speaker 6: like no phone, no nothing, I think, I meditate, I read.
Speaker 6: It is like my favorite time of the day that
Speaker 6: there there's very few days I'm not awake at four
Speaker 6: AM and four to six is how I get just
Speaker 6: centered and clear about what I'm going to do in
Speaker 6: the course of a day. And some days I'll go
Speaker 6: I'll go back to sleep from six to seven point
Speaker 6: thirty or something like that and start my day. And
Speaker 6: some days, if I'm energized, I'll get on the treadmill
Speaker 6: at six and.
Speaker 2: Start my day. See, I already feel like I'm doing
Speaker 2: this wrong because no, because Grace told me, like, Grace's
Speaker 2: time is five am. And that's the one promise that
Speaker 2: I sort of like backtracked on, you know, Yes, we'll
Speaker 2: get up together at five a m. And you know,
Speaker 2: and then I went back to my normal ten am routine.
Speaker 5: Ah.
Speaker 6: Man, man, you can't underestimate the power of watching the
Speaker 6: sun rise. There's something that that energizes a human body
Speaker 6: about seeing the sun rise.
Speaker 5: It like wakes you up with it.
Speaker 6: It's like you get in sync with with like how
Speaker 6: the world is moving.
Speaker 4: How long has that been a practice for you, Probably.
Speaker 6: About three years it started happening.
Speaker 5: I'm not a big sleeper. I'm I rarely, if.
Speaker 6: Ever sleep for you know, five hours straight, really, you know, yeah, rarely, rarely,
Speaker 6: you know, I'll sleep for four hours, up for a
Speaker 6: couple hours, and then sleep for three hours three more
Speaker 6: hours like, but very rarely will I sleep. I never
Speaker 6: sleep eight right, I'll sleep a combination of four up
Speaker 6: for a couple hours and then back for four, but
Speaker 6: never eight hours straight.
Speaker 2: Okay, So can I ask you nowhere? That's where I
Speaker 2: have excelled in life. Do you feel like you've slept
Speaker 2: eight hours or more? Do you feel like you wasted
Speaker 2: the day? And I know from reading your book, I
Speaker 2: know that for you, the idea of hard work, performative
Speaker 2: hard work is like job one. So letting the idea
Speaker 2: of that go. I'll give you an example. This Saturday,
Speaker 2: I've never gotten up at two in the afternoon. I
Speaker 2: slept for fifteen hours. Yeah, I've never slept for fifteen
Speaker 2: hours ever. And I didn't even feel tired. I just
Speaker 2: opened my eyes and it's like, wait, it's still in
Speaker 2: the afternoon.
Speaker 5: What the fuck? Yeah? And she let me sleep.
Speaker 3: For fifteen hours, like for you, is sleeping eight hours?
Speaker 2: Like that's a wasted I could have saved world in
Speaker 2: the last hour.
Speaker 6: I used to I used to feel like that. It
Speaker 6: used to feel like, you know, I didn't want to
Speaker 6: be sleep. I always felt like I was Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 6: that was a Quincy Jones joint. You know, boy, you
Speaker 6: have enough time to sleep when you did, you know, so.
Speaker 5: So I prefer like I'll I take naps, right, you know, I'll.
Speaker 6: Lay down for thirty minutes at lunch, you know, and
Speaker 6: you know, get a get a third, and I can
Speaker 6: I'll be refreshed the thirty thirty minute nap at lunch.
Speaker 5: I'm like, really refreshed. But I don't like.
Speaker 6: The feeling of sleeping all the way through in that way.
Speaker 6: But every couple of months, I'll definitely get one of
Speaker 6: those fifteen hour jones. Like you know, if you do
Speaker 6: that every couple of months, i'll get that full day
Speaker 6: where you just shut it down and return that sleep debt.
Speaker 6: But that that four to six practice is a new thing.
Speaker 6: I wouldn't miss that for anything like that up and
Speaker 6: the whole world belongs to me, and it's private and
Speaker 6: it's quiet. It's like that's when I do my best thinking.
Speaker 7: And you're still able to do that while you're taping
Speaker 7: movies and stuff too, while you're shooting.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so usually with a movie, if if I have
Speaker 6: an early call, it works perfectly because I'm up a
Speaker 6: couple hours before anyway, and I'll just continue my day.
Speaker 5: And usually on those.
Speaker 6: Kind of days, I'll sleep at lunch, I take a
Speaker 6: nap at least.
Speaker 8: What does a meditation look like to you? Because we
Speaker 8: talk about meditation a lot on this show.
Speaker 9: What does it mean to you?
Speaker 5: The big thing for me with meditation is no pressure.
Speaker 5: I don't pressure myself to.
Speaker 6: Do anything but just watch my mind to just be
Speaker 6: aware of all of the things that are coming up
Speaker 6: to just notice.
Speaker 5: Damn.
Speaker 6: I hate meditating today, right, and I just I kind
Speaker 6: of I take the time to just notice what's going
Speaker 6: on with my mind.
Speaker 5: I don't wrestle with it. I let it. I let
Speaker 5: it do what it do.
Speaker 3: Baby, do you do trans meditation?
Speaker 5: No, I don't. I don't go that far like I.
Speaker 6: You know I have you know, you read the book,
Speaker 6: so you know I've done ayahuasca and things like that.
Speaker 6: Which is you know it's a form that you know
Speaker 6: for me, that's a form of meditation.
Speaker 9: I didn't read it. Can you just tell me, man, don't.
Speaker 5: Spoil it, you don't.
Speaker 3: I don't want you to spoil it.
Speaker 9: I'm so curious.
Speaker 2: I was gonna I was gonna tell you, Will I
Speaker 2: am what did I hit you the last time? I
Speaker 2: was telling you that I was waiting for this very
Speaker 2: specific I wanted my first ayahuasca journey to be with
Speaker 2: this African couple that.
Speaker 3: That does it.
Speaker 2: And a funny thing happened to them, which is they
Speaker 2: were now.
Speaker 3: Like, you know what's happening.
Speaker 2: This Will Smith book has just come out and suddenly
Speaker 2: we're in the mid So now I.
Speaker 8: Gotta ia, peyote, mushrooms, all family.
Speaker 5: Right, So I ayahuasca is really really different.
Speaker 6: So you know the the the the scene in Black
Speaker 6: Panther right where he goes to ancestral plane. Yet ancestral plane, right,
Speaker 6: So that's the African that's taken from the African version
Speaker 6: of ayahuasca uh Eboga.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: So it is as vivid as they depicted in the movie.
Speaker 6: You you like, actually go meet, see talk to people,
Speaker 6: you come back right like that's the movie is not
Speaker 6: an exaggeration.
Speaker 5: Of what the experience is. Wow. Right.
Speaker 6: The only the only thing that was was uh potentially
Speaker 6: a little bit of of an exaggeration is the directing
Speaker 6: of the experienced.
Speaker 5: The it takes you where it wants to take you.
Speaker 5: You don't get to like pick.
Speaker 6: Maybe at higher levels people can pick, right, but yeah,
Speaker 6: I never got to pick.
Speaker 5: I got dragged right, So what did to drag you into?
Speaker 4: Who did you get to talk to? Did you need
Speaker 4: to talk to any people from your past or whatever?
Speaker 6: My father came to me, you know, So that's what
Speaker 6: I was saying. So I had that experience my father.
Speaker 6: He came to me and showed me where he was living.
Speaker 2: You know, I will say to you laya that sort
Speaker 2: of on that path. I think the lightest version of
Speaker 2: it is, well, there are sound journeys you can take.
Speaker 2: For some people step up from that is sound journeys
Speaker 2: with mushrooms.
Speaker 3: Some people do idahwasta.
Speaker 2: Mike Tyson talks about doing toad, which is even more yeah, yeah, extreme,
Speaker 2: But basically it's almost like you should really be open
Speaker 2: for me at least in trying to heal like a
Speaker 2: lot of the childhood trauma. First of all, I mean
Speaker 2: there's literally no human alive, especially black human that has
Speaker 2: not dealt with trauma, real trauma. And for I think
Speaker 2: for a lot of us, we sort of normalized the trauma,
Speaker 2: like I normalized like, well, yeah, Dad's supposed to be
Speaker 2: your ass until you know, I'm a good personalities. My
Speaker 2: dad beat my ass, and it's only it's really only
Speaker 2: until like maybe a year and a half ago, where
Speaker 2: I just had to settle that, yes, even though my
Speaker 2: dad loved me, that that was the.
Speaker 3: Highest form of the highest form of abuse and really
Speaker 3: like damnit.
Speaker 2: So I mean as a result, right, but that's the thing, like,
Speaker 2: as black people, a lot of what we hold on
Speaker 2: to for how we were reared, it comes from slavery
Speaker 2: and that's sort of the one aspect that we can't
Speaker 2: let go, which for me, at least in reading Will's book,
Speaker 2: the reason why I say, like the vulnerability and the
Speaker 2: honesty is really unprecedented, especially like I really want black
Speaker 2: people and I know, like people are you know, attracted
Speaker 2: to the fact that, like, you know, everything that's happened
Speaker 2: in the last year or so in Will's life, that
Speaker 2: they're coming here for that, like that dirt or whatever.
Speaker 2: And it's really not about that. It's about really coming
Speaker 2: to grips. You guys, remember on past episodes where I
Speaker 2: told you about the laughing song, right, George Johnson, how
Speaker 2: it just hit me that emotions were literally illegal for.
Speaker 3: Three hundred years exactly you couldn't laugh.
Speaker 2: And if you you know the reason why they invented
Speaker 2: the terminology barrels.
Speaker 3: Of laughs was because slaves are built a barrel full
Speaker 3: of water.
Speaker 2: So if you felt yourself about the laugh on the plantation,
Speaker 2: instead of meeting the ire and the anger of.
Speaker 3: The overseer, you would dunk your head in the water
Speaker 3: to suppress the sound. Same for anger. Who you assassin,
Speaker 3: that who you're getting smart with?
Speaker 2: You better not cry if I give you something to
Speaker 2: cry about, like all those things that we attribute to
Speaker 2: black parents, like all that shit came from slavery, so
Speaker 2: we literally could not show emotions it.
Speaker 3: Was illegal or else you faced flashes.
Speaker 2: And as a result, I think the defensive thing that
Speaker 2: we invented, like the same way we invented soul food
Speaker 2: out of the worst food ever, Black people invent it
Speaker 2: cool cool as a defensive mechanism like not showing, not
Speaker 2: showing emotions, not being too affected, holding back, not not
Speaker 2: not drawing, you know what I mean, And as a result,
Speaker 2: it's really damaged us. Like if you really think about,
Speaker 2: the last black person that I saw really on display
Speaker 2: of this vulnerability was the last thirty seconds of She's
Speaker 2: out of my life, like who Will? Who's willing to
Speaker 2: be that open about about their life? And so for me,
Speaker 2: why why did you feel as though now's the time?
Speaker 2: Because when I read this book, I was when I
Speaker 2: was relieved because someone went before me.
Speaker 3: You know, I give them three stooges.
Speaker 2: Where they do the army thing and like who's the
Speaker 2: first to volunteer? And everyone steps backwards and leaves, like seriously,
Speaker 2: like every one in my life's like, yo, we can't
Speaker 2: wait till you stop writing these bullshit as music books
Speaker 2: and really no, no, for real, It's like you know,
Speaker 2: every people were like, yo, no more music books, Like
Speaker 2: tell us some real.
Speaker 3: Shit about your life.
Speaker 2: And literally, when Will's book came out, I felt like, okay,
Speaker 2: maybe it is safe across the street a little bit
Speaker 2: without getting run over. So why did you feel like
Speaker 2: now is the time to really share your story and
Speaker 2: to be as honest and open about it?
Speaker 5: Yeah? I think I'm sure you all have been watching
Speaker 5: me publicly for the for the last thirty years.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, come on, you know, I think first
Speaker 6: and foremost, I can feel the wave coming right, So
Speaker 6: there's a there's a consciousness shift that is happening right now,
Speaker 6: right so, so a.
Speaker 5: Couple of things are happening.
Speaker 6: More people are realizing that there is no happiness to
Speaker 6: be derived from any material conditions that you can put together. Right.
Speaker 6: People are starting to realize that at no matter how
Speaker 6: great your job is, no matter how great your family is,
Speaker 6: no matter no matter how perfectly you cultivate your material conditions,
Speaker 6: they are unsustainable.
Speaker 5: You you have.
Speaker 6: A perfect marriage and family, and then there's a storm
Speaker 6: and three people in your family get killed.
Speaker 5: COVID and shuts down and you lose it. Shuts it down.
Speaker 6: Right, So people are realizing that material circumstances are unsustainable.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: So if that's the case, if it's the case that
Speaker 6: I can lose anything, how can I possibly enjoy my
Speaker 6: time here?
Speaker 5: Right? And more people are waking up slowly to that idea.
Speaker 6: And people are starting to realize that you are the
Speaker 6: only problem you have to solve, right, that your your
Speaker 6: mind and.
Speaker 5: How you are with this world is the answer.
Speaker 6: Right, How to be with your circumstances is the answer,
Speaker 6: not trying to get your circumstances perfect. Right, Okay, So,
Speaker 6: and I'm this is this is the first time I've
Speaker 6: been asked this question this way. So I'm struggling to
Speaker 6: like to to to to say it right. This is
Speaker 6: the first time you've been asked this question in this way.
Speaker 6: So I'm not like I've never been asked a question.
Speaker 6: The answer I want to give, I'm trying to form
Speaker 6: it in my mind right now.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: So, the the the realization that I that I had
Speaker 6: is it doesn't matter so much what happens to me.
Speaker 6: It doesn't matter what happens in my life. It doesn't
Speaker 6: matter what happens with my family, It doesn't matter what
Speaker 6: happens with my career.
Speaker 5: Doesn't matter what happens in my.
Speaker 6: Life as much as it matters how I think about
Speaker 6: what happens to me and how I manage myself in
Speaker 6: interacting what happens to me.
Speaker 5: Right, So, the answer that I realized is you can't
Speaker 5: create loving interactions from unloving behavior. You can't. You can't.
Speaker 5: You can't. You can't.
Speaker 6: You're trying to love and be loved at the deepest
Speaker 6: part of your being. You want to love and be loved.
Speaker 6: You can not create it. If you're scared, if you're angry,
Speaker 6: if you're resentful, if you're hungry and craving, if you're
Speaker 6: holding any of those poisons in your heart. You can't
Speaker 6: create what you want. You can only create the opposite of.
Speaker 3: What you want, right, man, that's careful.
Speaker 6: So all of that to say, I knew that if
Speaker 6: I was going to be happy, I couldn't be scared
Speaker 6: of what people were going to say. That I had
Speaker 6: to thoroughly and comfortably be me just as I am,
Speaker 6: with no fucks given about what anybody thinks or memes.
Speaker 7: So being so to that point, in terms of being
Speaker 7: you and in writing this book, how did you decide
Speaker 7: what to tell and what not to tell? You know
Speaker 7: what I'm saying, and not necessarily in terms of being
Speaker 7: having any shame about any parts of your life, but
Speaker 7: just as an artist having that line of saying, listen,
Speaker 7: these are some parts of myself that I choose to
Speaker 7: keep to myself. And I have the right to own myself,
Speaker 7: you know, so as to not let these things define me.
Speaker 7: You know, how do you decide what was take me
Speaker 7: through the process of deciding how you wanted to tell
Speaker 7: your story?
Speaker 6: So the only thing I was prepared and still am
Speaker 6: prepared to say anything and everything that's true for me,
Speaker 6: because I only get stronger by being vulnerable. I used
Speaker 6: to think I got weaker by being vulnerable. I only
Speaker 6: get stronger by being comfortable to share who and what
Speaker 6: I am freely. The line that I drew is I
Speaker 6: didn't want my words to be weaponized against people I love. Okay,
Speaker 6: so I wanted to tell my story, and the difficulty
Speaker 6: I was having was telling my story without telling Jada's
Speaker 6: story right right to you know, to tell yeah, without
Speaker 6: you know, telling Alfonso's story or telling Jeff's story.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 6: So what I did is when I finished the book,
Speaker 6: I had what I was calling a writer's camp, and
Speaker 6: for two weeks I called everybody that I mentioned in
Speaker 6: the book down to Miami and I read every word
Speaker 6: of the book to all of the people in the
Speaker 6: book so they would know what I was saying about them.
Speaker 6: And then I let them respond and made adjustments and
Speaker 6: and things like that.
Speaker 5: Everybody, Yeah, yeah, it was uh read. It was a
Speaker 5: first Uh well, there there were a couple of people
Speaker 5: who declined.
Speaker 6: Declined, But it was the first time my mother and
Speaker 6: I had ever talked about my father being abusive. We literally,
Speaker 6: I was I was fifty two years old at the time,
Speaker 6: and my mother and I literally never talked about the
Speaker 6: fact that my father beat her up, and her hearing
Speaker 6: me read the chapter was the first time that the
Speaker 6: conversation came up between us, and you know, it was
Speaker 6: it was gut wrenching, but it was deeply purifying.
Speaker 5: And you know, when I was talking about.
Speaker 6: That idea of blocks to love, it's like the fact
Speaker 6: that my mother and I couldn't talk about that there
Speaker 6: was a barrier between us, right, and we loved each other,
Speaker 6: but we weren't really connecting in honesty and authenticity, right,
Speaker 6: So there's always a little bit of a facade because
Speaker 6: we both know we're just not going to talk about it.
Speaker 6: So it just creates a little bit of a barrier.
Speaker 6: And neither one of us wants that. We want to
Speaker 6: love each other wide open and vulnerably, you know. So
Speaker 6: from me, it was cleaning out all of the barriers
Speaker 6: and the blocks that I had to loving the people.
Speaker 5: In my life, you know. And it's and it's those
Speaker 5: traumas make us close our hearts.
Speaker 6: You know, the worst crime you can commit against another
Speaker 6: human being is to assassinate them in your heart.
Speaker 5: And you know, once your heart is.
Speaker 6: Closed to somebody, as nice as you think you're being,
Speaker 6: as cordial as you pretend to be all I said
Speaker 6: was yet, right, but you said it with a closed heart,
Speaker 6: which the person understands clearly that you don't give a
Speaker 6: fuck about them, right, And it's like you can't hide it.
Speaker 7: Right, It's like because you're not you're not showing that
Speaker 7: you're open to seeing them in a different way.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: You'll be surprised how much your heart is closed to
Speaker 6: people you say you love, right, And it's like they
Speaker 6: know it and they can feel it. And sometimes we
Speaker 6: can't feel it. We think if we treat someone nicely
Speaker 6: and respectfully that we're being loving, But if your heart
Speaker 6: is close to them.
Speaker 5: It's not.
Speaker 6: Behind every word is I really don't give a fuck.
Speaker 6: And they hear it, right, They hear it no matter
Speaker 6: what you try to say, and no matter how much
Speaker 6: you try to cover it up.
Speaker 2: All Right, So let me ask you something because I'm
Speaker 2: this is the one this is probably my major downfall
Speaker 2: and the journey I'm in right now, Like I'm literally
Speaker 2: I'm in amazed with my eyes with blinders on. And
Speaker 2: if I could just figure out this one thing, I
Speaker 2: think the world opened. But when I tell you, I
Speaker 2: literally now there's there's a book I just discovered like
Speaker 2: maybe last week called I think it's called the Big Step,
Speaker 2: where the author speaks of how we set limitations for
Speaker 2: ourselves and for me though, I am trying to figure
Speaker 2: out and the problem is I'm trying to figure out
Speaker 2: how to open my heart. And this is the stuff
Speaker 2: I kind of shared on the show before. But yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, like when you when you live, I feel
Speaker 2: like when you live in fight or flight mode, that
Speaker 2: you can either go with your brain or your heart.
Speaker 2: And I found out it was way safer for me
Speaker 2: to go with my brain. Like I got to be
Speaker 2: the smartest guy, I got to be the most achieving guy.
Speaker 2: I gotta be the provider, I gotta be, you know,
Speaker 2: the hero that everyone And I'm currently in a situation
Speaker 2: now where I'm hitting a brick wall because I'm almost
Speaker 2: like the ten man, like I technically don't know the
Speaker 2: first steps in how to open my heart.
Speaker 6: So the fundamental premise is flawed. The fundamental premise that
Speaker 6: you're safer using your.
Speaker 5: Head is wrong. That's not true, right, So.
Speaker 6: You can only make an intellectual mess with that fundamental premise.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: So, going all the way back to the beginning, the
Speaker 6: belief system that has to grow is that the only
Speaker 6: safety is in your well wishing and the authentic care
Speaker 6: and concern for whoever's in front of you. You see
Speaker 6: a samurai kill somebody and then pray over the body
Speaker 6: the samurai, it's not like, you.
Speaker 5: Know, fuck him.
Speaker 6: You know that motherfucker shouldn't have been tripping, right, It's
Speaker 6: like the samurai is prepared to kill. You know that
Speaker 6: that's what they do, but they spend half their lives learning,
Speaker 6: you know, the techniques have killed for the purpose of
Speaker 6: defending people, and then they spend the second half of
Speaker 6: their life learning how to not have to. You absolutely
Speaker 6: positively want to be able to defend people, and you
Speaker 6: want to be able to build, and you want to
Speaker 6: be able to create, and you want to do all
Speaker 6: of that. If you're doing it with your heart closed,
Speaker 6: if you're doing it where you don't give a fuck
Speaker 6: about people, it can't go well. And you and you
Speaker 6: can have all the money and you can do all
Speaker 6: of that.
Speaker 7: People are your greatest resource. Yes, it's like why people
Speaker 7: are your greatest resource.
Speaker 6: When people know that you care, right, they give you
Speaker 6: so much room to make mistakes and stuff like that,
Speaker 6: and your only responsibility is for people to be able
Speaker 6: to see in your eyes that you legitimately care, and
Speaker 6: you might have to make hard decisions, you know, and
Speaker 6: somebody's mind might be so defiled that they can't respond well,
Speaker 6: and you got to go samurai, right, But you don't
Speaker 6: do it joyfully.
Speaker 5: You hate that you had to, you know, cut that off, right,
Speaker 5: you know?
Speaker 2: All right, So let me let me ask you a
Speaker 2: question because for me, like I put myself in almost
Speaker 2: every situation that you spoke about in the book, but
Speaker 2: there's one particular situation that I felt that you handled
Speaker 2: with ease that I otherwise wouldn't have handled. Now only
Speaker 2: starting maybe three years years ago, really not even three
Speaker 2: years ago, like two years ago, I finally decided to
Speaker 2: do something on my own without, you know, the collaborative
Speaker 2: narrative that I do. You know, everything I've done has
Speaker 2: been the collaborative with everything. So I'm thinking that if
Speaker 2: I'm getting a phone call in Detroit and.
Speaker 3: It's Quincy Jones telling me to come out to.
Speaker 2: His birthday party, and you're asked to audition in front
Speaker 2: of all those people at his birthday party, and he
Speaker 2: happens to have your current lawyer still with you, now
Speaker 2: I believe like to, you know, draw the papers and
Speaker 2: make this show happen.
Speaker 3: I would have instantly.
Speaker 2: Not only thought of millions of reasons to say no,
Speaker 2: chances are I'm like, thank you very much, but you know,
Speaker 2: I you know, I have something. I'm going back to
Speaker 2: Detroit to go back to my group and stay with
Speaker 2: my group. And I wouldn't have even gotten the freshman's
Speaker 2: of bel air because I would have instantly, out of obligation,
Speaker 2: chosen that first step in my career, which is just
Speaker 2: a group. And so how did and you, I don't
Speaker 2: know if you just glossed over or whatever, but did
Speaker 2: you realize that that was the first paradigm shift that
Speaker 2: your life is not going to be the same. Like
Speaker 2: once you stepped on that airplane and went back to Detroit,
Speaker 2: how do you explain to Jeff and you know, how
Speaker 2: do you explain to these people that you made a
Speaker 2: life changing decision?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, of course is twenty four hours.
Speaker 6: Well, we were we were in a really desperate financial situation, right,
Speaker 6: so like we we were, you know, we had gone
Speaker 6: from Grammy winners back to one hotel room.
Speaker 2: By the way, I hate how, I really hate how
Speaker 2: you sort of separate yourself from Ann in This Corner, which.
Speaker 3: My favorite record. I'm sorry, that's.
Speaker 6: That's crazy, but yeah, that that one, that one hurt bad.
Speaker 2: I know, I'm not diving you like I feel like.
Speaker 2: And then she bit me was like, that's one of
Speaker 2: my favorite Halloween songs ever.
Speaker 4: But I like and Jeff was on the beat box
Speaker 4: I did with that one.
Speaker 5: Anyway, there was one, there was one or two. Unfortunately
Speaker 5: the public did not concur.
Speaker 2: But it worked out for you because if Quincy and
Speaker 2: Benny don't see that performance of Mike Tyson on our sineo.
Speaker 5: That's true. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: So that album still holds heavy for you because that's
Speaker 2: the moment that changed you know.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but I look back at it, I can see
Speaker 6: I can see the value. Uh, definitely when I when
Speaker 6: I look back.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 6: But to the first question about so, for me, I've
Speaker 6: never been the kind of person that felt like I
Speaker 6: had to.
Speaker 5: Stay with my friends to be loyal.
Speaker 6: I felt like my loyalty was to their growth and expansion.
Speaker 5: My loyalty was y'all got to keep up original lebron
Speaker 5: You're right.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know it's like no, no, no, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 6: what what what was Robin Harris had a joke, what
Speaker 6: was it?
Speaker 5: What was it you're talking about? Rob When you get
Speaker 5: Richard famous, you're gonna change you. God damn right, I'm going.
Speaker 9: I ain't gonna have no change, change right.
Speaker 6: But the idea, the idea is for for me. It's like,
Speaker 6: we got to climb. None none of us loved our childhoods,
Speaker 6: none of us loved what our current situations were at
Speaker 6: the time. Then if that's the case, we gotta climb.
Speaker 6: We got to grind right.
Speaker 5: And it was always painful.
Speaker 6: For me when somebody couldn't keep up, but I would
Speaker 6: much rather keep going and send them some help, then
Speaker 6: slow down and let them pull us all down right, right.
Speaker 6: So I've always felt like a responsibility.
Speaker 5: To my to my squad.
Speaker 6: But we gotta we gotta go right, we gotta climb right.
Speaker 6: And for me at that time, that that meant no drugs.
Speaker 5: Everybody gotta train.
Speaker 6: If you if you want to do something different, you can,
Speaker 6: you just can't do it here, because like we are
Speaker 6: a crew of dreamers and we want to see how
Speaker 6: close to the sun we can get, you know, so
Speaker 6: and and that mentality, you know, you know, Charlie Mack,
Speaker 6: it was so good to see you.
Speaker 8: Charlie and Jeff had at ig conversation mid COVID.
Speaker 9: It's funny.
Speaker 8: I wasn't suppoed to say this, but I kind of
Speaker 8: did call Charlie and gets some some cheating things before we.
Speaker 9: Did this conversation.
Speaker 8: But I wanted you to speak on that friendship between
Speaker 8: y'all three men, because really that was kind of like
Speaker 8: the greatest way to see the three of you. I
Speaker 8: don't think it was no other interview, no big you know, networks,
Speaker 8: y'all three.
Speaker 9: Just busting.
Speaker 4: Charlie Mack first out the limo come people.
Speaker 6: You know, we talked about that in the IG lib
Speaker 6: and I talked about it a little bit in the book.
Speaker 6: It's like Charlie's a dreamer. Charlie's a big giant.
Speaker 9: Dreamer, Thank God for it.
Speaker 5: Right, you know, Jeff is.
Speaker 6: A little more cocooned, right, Like Jeff wants his spot
Speaker 6: and if everybody agrees to go, Jeff is gonna go, right.
Speaker 5: But Jeff climbs in another way. Jeff climbs with talent.
Speaker 6: He spends you know, sixteen hours a day behind his turntable,
Speaker 6: so his climbing was in a different way and you know,
Speaker 6: jayl who's as my manager, is like one of the
Speaker 6: most well read people that I've ever met. We gravitated
Speaker 6: to each other, you know, growing up in Philly, and
Speaker 6: it was like we were doing the stuff that everybody
Speaker 6: else was doing, and we was getting into trouble that
Speaker 6: everybody else was getting into. But we all kind of
Speaker 6: had our eyes on a different a different future for ourselves.
Speaker 6: We all knew we were doing more than this.
Speaker 5: And you know, your friends are critical.
Speaker 6: It's like one bad friend can blow your whole shit
Speaker 6: in one night. Your will.
Speaker 8: Time you gave a speech, I never will forget this.
Speaker 8: Shout outs to your baby sister, Allen, who's a great woman.
Speaker 8: I came to a party you through for when the
Speaker 8: Beckhams came to LA for the first time, and you
Speaker 8: gave a speech about friendship and why it's so important
Speaker 8: to be meticulous about friends. Can you just people need
Speaker 8: to hear that at for a second, because it ain't
Speaker 8: just Arich and the famous everybody.
Speaker 6: It is. You know, there's a couple of quotes I've
Speaker 6: heard around that, and it's it's.
Speaker 5: Attributed to Confucius.
Speaker 6: He says, look look at the five people you spend
Speaker 6: the most time with, and that's who you are.
Speaker 4: That's who you are. Yeah, show me who you're with,
Speaker 4: I'll show you who you are. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: And you know I heard that. I was probably eighteen
Speaker 6: the first time I heard that, and I.
Speaker 5: Was like ooh.
Speaker 6: It was like, okay, well, if that's the case, then
Speaker 6: I want.
Speaker 5: This one, two, three, you know.
Speaker 6: But it's like, who your friends are is is you know,
Speaker 6: one of the most critical decisions, you know, especially as
Speaker 6: a teenager, that's one of the most critical decisions that
Speaker 6: you can make. If the five friends that you associate
Speaker 6: with are straight A students, you're probably gonna learn how
Speaker 6: to be a straight A student. If the five friends
Speaker 6: you associate with carry guns and sell drugs, you're probably
Speaker 6: gonna end up carrying a gun and selling drugs.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: So it's like, you know, human beings are creatures of
Speaker 6: an example, and we fall into those lines of who
Speaker 6: we're with, who you lay down with, who you're who
Speaker 6: you share at bed with is probably the most important
Speaker 6: decision you making your life ever make, you know what
Speaker 6: I mean? Right, So it's like choosing your friends and
Speaker 6: your closest associates is how you fertilize your dreams. Right,
Speaker 6: you can't have a life that's better than your associations,
Speaker 6: Like it's impossible. Your life is a team effort, right,
Speaker 6: so you can't have a better life than your team.
Speaker 2: I got admit when I finished the book that part
Speaker 2: of me felt not quasi deflated, but the fact that
Speaker 2: I made a decision. I made a decision like maybe
Speaker 2: two years ago, that Okay, I'm really gonna concentrate and
Speaker 2: get my thing together. I'm a direct this movie, and
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go hire and hire and.
Speaker 3: Achieve and achieve and earned and achieve and the chief.
Speaker 2: And then I know you told the the last six
Speaker 2: chapters you know is a doozy of the book again,
Speaker 2: no spoiler words, but you know something happens in September
Speaker 2: twenty eleven that sort of changes the whole trajectory of your.
Speaker 3: Life and whatnot.
Speaker 2: And when I read, when I read that you had
Speaker 2: to take you know, like you had to take in
Speaker 2: a total assessment of everything that you were and it
Speaker 2: wasn't about how much you made and how much you
Speaker 2: you know, how many records you broke or whatnot, and
Speaker 2: you kind of had to start all over again. Like
Speaker 2: what I know that that level of achievement and that
Speaker 2: level of fame can be somewhat addicting. Right So, now
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one, ten years after the fact that
Speaker 2: you had that, there's a story you tell about Jada's
Speaker 2: fortieth birthday party in which I kind of feel that's
Speaker 2: that's your paradigm shift to led you to where you.
Speaker 5: Are right now.
Speaker 2: Well, for starters, it's almost like, what are your life
Speaker 2: goals right now?
Speaker 5: Because everything else well.
Speaker 3: More than that, I think he discovered that none of
Speaker 3: that matters.
Speaker 2: And to me, I actually felt like, oh shit, wait
Speaker 2: a minute, like I'm trying to win this Oscar so
Speaker 2: I could do more movies and get more power and
Speaker 2: get more power and get more money and get more
Speaker 2: power money. And then I realized, oh man, that's not
Speaker 2: going to make me happy, because this book is basically
Speaker 2: like a cheat sheet of you know him five years
Speaker 2: and two where I want to be right. So for
Speaker 2: you now, like what is important? Because I know you're
Speaker 2: not saying throw the baby out with the bath water, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: forget my achievements forgetting my career, not at all.
Speaker 3: But what's what's what's the priority now?
Speaker 6: So what happened is all of my climbing and all
Speaker 6: of my achieving and everything that I was trying to
Speaker 6: build is I was trying to fill an internal hole
Speaker 6: with external achievements, right, And it's impossible, right, you can't
Speaker 6: make enough money, you can't have enough sex.
Speaker 5: You know, you can't win enough championships.
Speaker 6: That to fill a traumatic void inside yourself and my
Speaker 6: traumatic void.
Speaker 2: So you're saying that internally at one point you felt like, well, shit,
Speaker 2: I made eight point five billion in movies, like I
Speaker 2: should have did twenty You're.
Speaker 5: Right, and that so that's the carrot on the stick
Speaker 5: that with there there is no end to achieving. There's
Speaker 5: no end.
Speaker 6: It's an infinite there's an infinite amount of money and.
Speaker 5: Beautiful women and yachts and right, you know.
Speaker 6: So what I realize is that what I was trying
Speaker 6: to fill is at the end of the day, I
Speaker 6: didn't like me right, So at the end of the day,
Speaker 6: I didn't feel good about me, and I needed those
Speaker 6: things so I could feel good about me, right, And
Speaker 6: all the way back to being a little boy in
Speaker 6: chapter one is you know, watching my father beat up
Speaker 6: my mother and I.
Speaker 5: Didn't do anything really.
Speaker 6: Got me it really like it really damaged something inside
Speaker 6: of me. You know the the opening line of the book,
Speaker 6: You know that I talk about I've always felt like
Speaker 6: a coward, right, And people would look, well.
Speaker 5: Dude, you did this, and you did that, and you
Speaker 5: did this and all that.
Speaker 6: And none of the extra internal stuff fixes your internal
Speaker 6: impression of yourself.
Speaker 4: That initial wound, that initial wound.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: So the journey for me came down to, well, if
Speaker 6: I don't have all of those things like who am I?
Speaker 6: If people don't clap with my movie, if people don't cheer.
Speaker 5: When I walk in?
Speaker 6: What if people booed when I walked in? Would that
Speaker 6: change who I am?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 6: And I realized that I had given away my self esteem.
Speaker 6: It's supposed to be self esteem, but I had given
Speaker 6: away my self esteem to achievements and to what my
Speaker 6: woman feels about me, to how other people view me
Speaker 6: and what they say about me. And I had trapped
Speaker 6: myself in trying to uphold an image of who I
Speaker 6: was rather than being who who I really was.
Speaker 5: I wasn't comfortable being who.
Speaker 6: I really was because I felt like the world would
Speaker 6: punish me for that. You end up acting in real life,
Speaker 6: you just.
Speaker 5: Pretending, You're just pretending all the time.
Speaker 6: Right, So one of the things for me every time
Speaker 6: I've walked out on the Tonight Show and I hear
Speaker 6: y'all playing, invariably.
Speaker 5: I have a little bit of a little boy.
Speaker 6: In security because the roots are the real Philly group.
Speaker 5: Philly.
Speaker 2: No, don't say this will because literally, no, no, no, no no,
Speaker 2: this is what I have to say, literally when I'm
Speaker 2: in any situation that's fearful.
Speaker 3: Lately it's been giving speeches.
Speaker 2: I hate giving speeches, and the moment, the thing that
Speaker 2: I think about, you're literally the most confident curtain walker
Speaker 2: of the Tonight Show.
Speaker 3: That like, literally when you.
Speaker 2: Like, I know these I know who looks down. There
Speaker 2: are people that run to the couch because they're so insecure.
Speaker 2: There are people look down like You're the first person
Speaker 2: I know that takes a second to walk out. You
Speaker 2: come out like you know, like you're you're you're in
Speaker 2: room in the coliseum, like you're ready to con So literally,
Speaker 2: when I get to my space before before I give
Speaker 2: any speech whatsoever, I think I literally have to vicariously
Speaker 2: do a what Wolve Smith.
Speaker 3: So please don't even tell me someone as like.
Speaker 6: Three time every time I've ever walked out on that show,
Speaker 6: and I hear y'all playing, I cannot do anything but
Speaker 6: get myself to get other to try to look cool.
Speaker 5: For the Roots.
Speaker 3: So you're psyching yourself.
Speaker 9: Wow, big Philly shit, y'all.
Speaker 3: Literally we're literally here.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you always in your poker face, right, So I'm
Speaker 5: looking at you. I'm looking at you, trying to get
Speaker 5: to like and you know, you give me the nod
Speaker 5: and you're right there, and I was like, it's the
Speaker 5: poker face. He's doing the poker face. I can't that.
Speaker 6: The worst one of all was remember the one where
Speaker 6: I did like the five entrances.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's my favorite of all time.
Speaker 6: All I could think was you thought I was the
Speaker 6: corniest motherfucker that has ever walked out on the show.
Speaker 2: This is so funny because in my mind, in my mind,
Speaker 2: I literally right. So, just just to recap for everyone,
Speaker 2: there was a period after if you remember the Michelle
Speaker 2: Bachman incident. Yes, were suddenly they understand that, oh the
Speaker 2: Roots customized walk ons for people. Suddenly people wanted to
Speaker 2: do these epic ass walk ons, like literally, Will Smith
Speaker 2: and Steve Martin all their walk ons are very epic.
Speaker 2: Now that's funny because I felt unworthy. Like when you
Speaker 2: walk out, I felt like a man, we're just dominions
Speaker 2: from West Philly that isn't on his level?
Speaker 9: Can a Philly moment real quick?
Speaker 8: Because well, how does it feel you kind of started
Speaker 8: this wave, I mean outside of Philadelphia international gamble huff,
Speaker 8: but this huge wave of like Philly talent? What does
Speaker 8: it look like? Fast forward? To not just see the roots, right,
Speaker 8: but to see Kevin Hart like Philly is like killing it.
Speaker 9: What does it feel like to be like the kind
Speaker 9: of daddy of all of this?
Speaker 5: You know? And it's so funny because like.
Speaker 6: And and this is this is why working on your
Speaker 6: mind is the only work to do.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 3: We need to talk more.
Speaker 6: Right, So for me, I perceived myself as an outcast.
Speaker 5: From that group, right, that was right? So to me,
Speaker 5: a I I was the real Philly dude.
Speaker 9: But he wasn't from Philly.
Speaker 6: He wasn't from Philly, but he was holding it down.
Speaker 6: Really that was a repping for Philly. A mirror is
Speaker 6: the look of repping for Philly.
Speaker 9: But you to look making it from Philly?
Speaker 5: Right? Yes?
Speaker 7: So, but you know what, but I will say this,
Speaker 7: I will energey as a non Philly person as an
Speaker 7: outsider perspective to give you a little context on that.
Speaker 5: Will.
Speaker 7: I think for you, you just became to like you just
Speaker 7: became to embody like so much other things, Like you
Speaker 7: became bigger than Philly. You became bigger than you know
Speaker 7: what I'm saying in the United States, Like you just
Speaker 7: became Will Smith. It was not no, this is Will
Speaker 7: from Philly. It's just no, this is Will Smith. So
Speaker 7: I think and maybe from the standpoint of you know,
Speaker 7: maybe you may not didn't see that you were getting
Speaker 7: that love, and so it like like you said the
Speaker 7: cool factor quote unquote that a mirror might have had
Speaker 7: or AI might have had. I just think you were
Speaker 7: just in a whole nother stratosphere and people fuck with you.
Speaker 7: I mean we all because even now, like when I
Speaker 7: have conversations about your career and stuff, I'm like, bro
Speaker 7: Independence Day and all that shit. Aside, He's the DJ,
Speaker 7: I'm the rapper that is a classic hip hop album
Speaker 7: like this, Bigga got a legit classic under his belt,
Speaker 7: like don't get it fucked up. And I always wonder,
Speaker 7: did you ever feel that you weren't respected as an MC,
Speaker 7: you know what I'm saying. Once you went so crazy
Speaker 7: and movies and your career, well he took off.
Speaker 3: Wait let me add on to that and let you answer.
Speaker 2: Will I just want to let you know that I
Speaker 2: was one of those listeners you and Jeff had went
Speaker 2: to Das the night that He's the DJ and I'm
Speaker 2: the rapper came out yep, and you had to battle
Speaker 2: with Steady be Man. Listen, Tarik, and I heard that
Speaker 2: munchie Chie line that I don't know there was feeestyle whatever,
Speaker 2: but like that's the first time I heard someone like
Speaker 2: play the dozens and ryme at the same time. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: And he called SETI b like you big munchie Chi
Speaker 2: and that that moment was the first bonding that Tarik
Speaker 2: and I ever had, Like we called each other like
Speaker 2: did you hear that he called him a munchy cheek
Speaker 2: like and it was all over school the next day.
Speaker 2: Like after that, it was almost like you could do
Speaker 2: no wrong, like so there was never a thing like
Speaker 2: oh that boy corny whatever.
Speaker 3: Like literally that battle, I wish I had that on tape.
Speaker 9: But answer the question, but I want to know what.
Speaker 7: Is But yes, yeah, yeah, do you feel you get
Speaker 7: those respects that respect SNMC.
Speaker 5: More now than during during that time.
Speaker 6: I feel like when people look back with with a
Speaker 6: little bit of history, yo, that was kind of that
Speaker 6: was kind of interesting.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he wasn't half bad.
Speaker 6: What it was is Jeff and Ready Rock would body anybody.
Speaker 6: So that's really so I was in between Jeff and
Speaker 6: Ready Rock, so I felt supported in that way, like
Speaker 6: nobody could beat Jeff right and what Ready Rock was
Speaker 6: doing was just you know, he was one of one
Speaker 6: right in terms of beat box, so there was like
Speaker 6: nobody really even to battle him. So I always felt
Speaker 6: like as a crew we would win, Like if people
Speaker 6: wanted to go a head up, I felt like as
Speaker 6: a crew, we would win. But I never felt like
Speaker 6: because the acting came in so quick, I felt like
Speaker 6: I never developed the level of rhyme skill that I
Speaker 6: felt like I could if I had had in it
Speaker 6: to stay in it, you know. And it's like and
Speaker 6: then then I got scared, so I was trying to
Speaker 6: make hit records instead of making what I was feeling, right,
Speaker 6: So I got I got twisted in there in a
Speaker 6: way that that jammed me up.
Speaker 8: But Charlie said that nobody was not even trying to
Speaker 8: battle you on the streets because you was killing it
Speaker 8: so hard and then not to mention the battle and lyrically.
Speaker 9: But then when it came to fisticuffs, you wasn't a
Speaker 9: game neither.
Speaker 5: No, that was unless I had to.
Speaker 6: I had to learn how to fight quick, so you
Speaker 6: know that was That was the one thing that was
Speaker 6: always a surprise to people. It's like I had so
Speaker 6: much you know, anger and resentment build up. I would
Speaker 6: suck upunch somebody quick, right, So I like, I was like,
Speaker 6: just fight me, then fight me then, right.
Speaker 9: People think they know they have no idea. Can I
Speaker 9: ask a random Westbrook question please?
Speaker 8: Because I know we're getting tight with time, But you
Speaker 8: got a couple of my favorite shows that's either coming
Speaker 8: on or on right now.
Speaker 9: I wanted to throw it out real quick.
Speaker 3: I forgot about Will Smith. The business this is.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to get.
Speaker 9: Start with the most random of randoms, which is Cobra Kai.
Speaker 7: Hey, listen, let me tell you something. Let me tell
Speaker 7: you something, brother, Hey, let me tell you something. Man,
Speaker 7: Look Cobra Kai bro even without them to stop, man, listen,
Speaker 7: whole boy.
Speaker 4: When he went to that draw and he.
Speaker 10: Pulled out that god damn ponytail. When Homer pulled that
Speaker 10: scrunching out when he put out the hairtie. I said, boy,
Speaker 10: let's go, let's go. Terry Silver is back. Bro, me
Speaker 10: and my wife, y'all know, I'm not giving those pawmers.
Speaker 4: I mean, he's in the trailer like no. Season four
Speaker 4: Cobra Co was the best one.
Speaker 6: Caleb pink at my brother in law. Yeah, soir, Caleb.
Speaker 6: Caleb is uh, you know, I trained him for about
Speaker 6: five years and now he started his own company. He's producing.
Speaker 6: So he brought in uh Cobra Kai to the to
Speaker 6: the family.
Speaker 5: So yeah, he's Uh.
Speaker 6: They just got nominated. They got nominated for uh SAG Awards.
Speaker 6: Uh last night the Copra guys nominated.
Speaker 9: And eight Babies Dreams Come True.
Speaker 5: Oh my god.
Speaker 4: Yeah, man, that show is fucking great. I love that show.
Speaker 5: Because Caleb brought it in.
Speaker 6: I was like, Cobra Kai the Karate Kids, right, because
Speaker 6: you know, we had done the Karate Kid with Jaden.
Speaker 5: We were already working with the I P.
Speaker 3: I was wondering, are we gonna get.
Speaker 4: Jayden in future seasons of Cobra Ka.
Speaker 5: Can we get.
Speaker 4: We need a need?
Speaker 5: That's a great idea, that's a good question, that's a.
Speaker 4: Really cool got to show them to teach yourself.
Speaker 2: No, right.
Speaker 5: Was brilliant World Earth.
Speaker 8: Welcome to Earth, Welcome to Okay, so from the Earth,
Speaker 8: just finish all the episodes, Brother, Brother Brother. First of all,
Speaker 8: can you break down to the world how National Geographic
Speaker 8: makes that ship look like that?
Speaker 5: Yes, I know you had.
Speaker 2: To be in.
Speaker 9: Me and my boyfriend were like, what in the GoPro
Speaker 9: do they do how?
Speaker 5: I mean know, listen, it looks gorgeous.
Speaker 6: You know there's a company called Newtopia that that Westbrook
Speaker 6: we partnered with, and you know it's just nat Geo
Speaker 6: knows how to do it.
Speaker 5: It's like, you know, they're they're getting us into some.
Speaker 6: Really beautiful places, some places that are untapped.
Speaker 5: It was like that the and they just know how
Speaker 5: to shoot it. I don't even know what they're doing.
Speaker 9: And your honest, I love because we can see your fear.
Speaker 8: So when you circle back on the Fear episode, I
Speaker 8: was like, thank you, because yeah, I was.
Speaker 2: Gonna say if they presented you something that you were like,
Speaker 2: I'm not ready this season, like maybe next.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's one. There's one that we pushed to next year.
Speaker 6: It was a trek to the South Pole and it
Speaker 6: takes nine days, and it's tense, tense all the way
Speaker 6: for nine days to to the South Pole.
Speaker 9: And I was don't want to big you up for
Speaker 9: having so many explorers of color on.
Speaker 6: Yes, yes exactly, but and you know what, that's all
Speaker 6: I'm gonna shout out and that geo and and uh Newtopia.
Speaker 6: You know that that is a part of their demand
Speaker 6: for the show. They like they They are specifically mandating
Speaker 6: that the all of the episodes be representative. So yeah,
Speaker 6: they are the truth and bel Air.
Speaker 5: It is about to be crazy.
Speaker 2: As as evidenced by even though you know the gloves
Speaker 2: have been blacked out. Yeah, are you ready with your
Speaker 2: acceptance speech for the Oscars?
Speaker 5: Hey, man, you can't. You're not supposed to talk about
Speaker 5: that kind of stuff.
Speaker 6: I was, I was talking. I was talking earlier about that.
Speaker 6: Oh for another thing, we had the Women of the Movement.
Speaker 6: Women of the Movement, Yes.
Speaker 2: We have that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, that's uh with jay Z produced that with Jenny. Yeah,
Speaker 6: so that that that's coming out too. But I was
Speaker 6: just talking about the you know, the idea of I'm
Speaker 6: trying to be spiritually above the the desire to win awards.
Speaker 3: That's right, I get it.
Speaker 2: But I told you, but I told you, I predicted
Speaker 2: you did.
Speaker 3: I believe that Beyonce is gonna win that night.
Speaker 5: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 3: I believe that you're gonna win.
Speaker 6: Love it, And I won't say no if they If they,
Speaker 6: I won't be like I.
Speaker 9: Believe it don't matter because the people love you and
Speaker 9: that's what's first.
Speaker 5: So there you go. I love me, which is the
Speaker 5: new thing that I've gotten to.
Speaker 6: It's like I feel good about me with or without
Speaker 6: an Academy award.
Speaker 7: One thing I wanted to ask you, Will that I
Speaker 7: think it would be helpful for a lot of people
Speaker 7: when you talk about just your journey of just you know,
Speaker 7: growing and you know kind of you know, learning to
Speaker 7: love yourself and be happy and everything.
Speaker 4: You know, a lot of people can look and say, well, Will,
Speaker 4: that's easy. And Nigga, you made iron legend. I mean
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7: You got a team, you got therapists, you got chefs,
Speaker 7: you got accounts that you got all that. So to
Speaker 7: someone that's you know, not in your position, what would
Speaker 7: you say? I is just that taking what is step
Speaker 7: one of wanting to just be better and have a
Speaker 7: healthier relationship with yourself?
Speaker 5: What is step one?
Speaker 7: Regardless of money, whatever, what's the first step you can take?
Speaker 6: I think I think the first thing is to take
Speaker 6: an honest look at your life and how much of
Speaker 6: it do you like? Right, Just take a really good
Speaker 6: look at your life, right, because it is a journey.
Speaker 6: You do have to make a journey, and the journey
Speaker 6: is from you know, unpleasant and unwanted circumstances to circumstances
Speaker 6: that you desire, right, and all the learning that you
Speaker 6: will have to do will be on your journey.
Speaker 5: Right. So the first thing is to commit to transformation. Right.
Speaker 5: There's no easy road. There's no easy road you're gonna have.
Speaker 4: Want the work is still yours.
Speaker 6: The work is yours, and the work can be done
Speaker 6: in any circumstance. There's like, you know, my Grandma's used
Speaker 6: to say, God is everywhere, right, so you can find
Speaker 6: it anywhere. You just have to commit to transforming your life.
Speaker 6: First and foremost, you have to decide, you know what
Speaker 6: I'm done, and I'm making a change. And the first
Speaker 6: changes are always going to be really obvious, right, the
Speaker 6: first changes of how you eat, or who you associate with,
Speaker 6: or a job you're doing that makes your fucking stomach hurt, right,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean, It's like the first couple
Speaker 6: of changes are going to be really, really obvious, and
Speaker 6: it's the courage to make the first change, right where
Speaker 6: people of that are in bad relationships, you're you know,
Speaker 6: you're in a bad physical condition, you don't you're you're
Speaker 6: in a neighborhood, you don't like, you're, you're you're doing
Speaker 6: things that you know are hurting yourself. And it's like,
Speaker 6: just the first step, just find that first thing that
Speaker 6: you know, damn well does not need to be in
Speaker 6: your life that you are babysitting the book. Is there
Speaker 6: a book that you recommend there? Well, I mean there's
Speaker 6: there's a couple of things.
Speaker 5: It's really hard.
Speaker 6: I mean, other than Will, I think Will is one
Speaker 6: of the best books on the market right now for
Speaker 6: the transform of your life of everything I read.
Speaker 2: Let me just let our listeners know and for all
Speaker 2: the like nigga, I don't read it whatever, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna let you know what time it is.
Speaker 3: It's weird enough.
Speaker 2: Having written six books myself, I didn't consider myself a reader. However,
Speaker 2: when I started, you know, when the pandemic started and
Speaker 2: I started doing my morning walks versus podcast.
Speaker 5: Man, I've read.
Speaker 2: I've read so many books audiobook style, which is still
Speaker 2: reading like yeah, whatever for you snobs, like you have
Speaker 2: to read it first in order to read a book. Now,
Speaker 2: I believe the way that you should take in Will's book,
Speaker 2: your first thing is I definitely believe that you should
Speaker 2: listen to the audiobook because it's different when it's coming
Speaker 2: from his voice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and not to mention, he Pepper's the.
Speaker 2: Soundtrack that makes it feel like it's a podcast or whatever,
Speaker 2: like there's down effects, re enactments and.
Speaker 3: Him imitating Charlie Mack and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: I feel, and it makes it endearing, especially those last
Speaker 2: six chapters. So fante, I would actually recommend you once
Speaker 2: you listen to that, that'll you know. I think it's
Speaker 2: important that people really taking this book.
Speaker 3: And hear what Will is saying.
Speaker 2: And I don't think it's a hashtag like only rich
Speaker 2: people stuff or whatever likes. It's literally having the will
Speaker 2: to know you want to change, and especially where we
Speaker 2: are now where a lot of us and what I
Speaker 2: mean us hip hop nation, a lot of these cats
Speaker 2: are expiring and they're fifty before they make sixty.
Speaker 3: And I think a lot of that just has to
Speaker 3: do with the will.
Speaker 5: To not.
Speaker 3: Want to move on.
Speaker 2: I think it's one thing that it's like when you
Speaker 2: get past twenty, you're like, Okay, I didn't get shot,
Speaker 2: so now I'm good. And then there's a point where we,
Speaker 2: you know, try to not have a stroke or make
Speaker 2: sure our health is right. Now I'm realizing that sixty
Speaker 2: on is going to be a crazier battle for us
Speaker 2: to have the will to live and.
Speaker 3: All those things.
Speaker 2: So I would actually recommend Will's audiobook first as a
Speaker 2: central reading.
Speaker 8: I was just going to ask the craziest question of all.
Speaker 8: I was just gonna say, hold on, battle Fresh Prince
Speaker 8: and Jazzy Jeff.
Speaker 9: In the versus what.
Speaker 5: We said, who's going to.
Speaker 9: Who's going to battle Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff in
Speaker 9: the versus it was a.
Speaker 5: Job, It's going to battle Jazzy Jeff. Yeah, I was
Speaker 5: like battle.
Speaker 6: I was us having that conversation with somebody the other
Speaker 6: day and somebody was like, you know, y'all, y'all should
Speaker 6: go with.
Speaker 5: L was like l L L L Yeah, I record,
Speaker 5: all right.
Speaker 6: I'm not gonna have me getting bodied by ls.
Speaker 2: You know, you know what I actually think, you know
Speaker 2: what I think your match would be who I would
Speaker 2: I would think that Jessey, Jeff and the Fresh Prince
Speaker 2: versus Naughty by Nature be a good versus.
Speaker 6: Okay, okay, okay, that might be fine.
Speaker 4: I'm mad. I'm not mad.
Speaker 5: I think I think.
Speaker 3: It's evenly matched.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, it's like I think that would be. You
Speaker 5: got like twenty albums, right.
Speaker 3: That boy got Hello and Buster I think are more
Speaker 3: of a match.
Speaker 2: I don't care if they feel if they're outclassed each other,
Speaker 2: but I feel like ll and Buster almost.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 7: I was gonna ask you, Will, do you ever get
Speaker 7: a point in terms of when you talk about like
Speaker 7: always striving, striving and climbing and like build your team
Speaker 7: and keeping them like always wanting to elevate. Do you
Speaker 7: ever get to a point where you just realize, you
Speaker 7: know what, I'm good? Like good ever happen in the
Speaker 7: mind of Will Smith.
Speaker 6: I've looked at the first half of my life. I
Speaker 6: think about it in terms of climbing and collecting, and
Speaker 6: now the second half of my life is going to
Speaker 6: be given away, right, It's going to be giving it back, right,
Speaker 6: So it was, you know, all of the things that
Speaker 6: I gathered through the you know, striving and.
Speaker 5: Climbing, and now my attention is on.
Speaker 6: Developing my heart and developing my mind through giving and relating.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: So part of the discovery for me is my true
Speaker 6: happiness was never going to be achieved through collecting, and
Speaker 6: I'm realizing that the deepest joy that I experience it
Speaker 6: is through giving, right.
Speaker 5: And it was like, that's the the real.
Speaker 6: Magic of love is giving, and it's in helping, it's
Speaker 6: in using what you are to assist someone else to
Speaker 6: become what they were meant to become.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 7: Do you think that's Do you think that's what's kept
Speaker 7: you and Jada together for so long?
Speaker 4: Is that that sounds like a foundational part of y'all? Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, we are. We are full on climbers and seekers.
Speaker 6: We are developing our comprehension of what love is. And
Speaker 6: like everybody wants love, but nobody knows what it actually is. Right,
Speaker 6: So you want something, but you don't you don't know
Speaker 6: what it is, right, And it's like the Marines always
Speaker 6: there's a marine quote. Everybody wants to go to heaven,
Speaker 6: but nobody die, right, and it's like there's a there's
Speaker 6: a certain amount of self reconstruction that has to happen
Speaker 6: in order to have any possibility at love.
Speaker 5: Your life has to be focused.
Speaker 11: On transforming and correcting the false beliefs, the flawed perceptions,
Speaker 11: the poisonous ideas.
Speaker 5: In your mind. Your entire life has.
Speaker 6: To be centered on removing those things in order that
Speaker 6: you can hold the love that you're asking for from
Speaker 6: someone else.
Speaker 5: Gentlemen, it's not.
Speaker 3: As big man.
Speaker 4: Yeah that's big, that's big.
Speaker 3: Let us. Yeah, that's for you. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2: That's it right, Like literally I thought, like, you know, okay,
Speaker 2: Jimmy Jam's episode was six hours, so no, but will
Speaker 2: literally drop so much potent magic in this interview.
Speaker 3: And I really want to thank you for.
Speaker 2: Giving us, uh letting us be the audience, not even
Speaker 2: giving us this audience really.
Speaker 7: Man, seriously, man, and thank you to I mean, I
Speaker 7: can't I have no idea what it would be like
Speaker 7: to have spent you know, the last thirty five years
Speaker 7: of my life is one of the most famous people
Speaker 7: on the fucking planet, you know what I mean. So,
Speaker 7: you know, just for you, we appreciate you just sharing,
Speaker 7: just being so transparent about your journey, and you know,
Speaker 7: you and Jada's like like everything, Like y'all have been
Speaker 7: through shit that would have broke a whole bunch of
Speaker 7: other people, but I understand that y'all live incredible lives,
Speaker 7: and just for you to be so transparent about this man,
Speaker 7: it's really inspiring.
Speaker 4: And we just thank you just for everything, bro, for real,
Speaker 4: and thank.
Speaker 8: You for always coming back to Philly, because I tell
Speaker 8: you doing those weekends he hasn't, but still when he
Speaker 8: was doing them, you was always.
Speaker 9: There, always cleaning up the neighborhoods.
Speaker 5: So thank you. Appreciate y'all, man, thank you, Thank you well.
Speaker 2: On behalf of Layah Sugar, Steve Unpaid, Bill and Fonte
Speaker 2: and myself Well Smith, thank you very much.
Speaker 3: This is Quest Love Supreme. We will see you on
Speaker 3: the next ground.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Must Love Supreme is a production of Iheartened Radio.
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.