Speaker 1: What's your family. It's your girl to meet A D.
Speaker 1: Mallory and your boy my son in general, and we
Speaker 1: are your hosts of street politicians, the place with the
Speaker 1: streets and politics. Me it's going on, my son. Oh man,
Speaker 1: I'm blessing Holly Favored. You know, I had a long
Speaker 1: weekend my young King Cameron. It was his eleventh birthday,
Speaker 1: so he had me doing everything from doing I fly
Speaker 1: where I was flying, and then I went to six
Speaker 1: Flags and he had me on every roller coast in
Speaker 1: the world. So you know, my body is a little tired, ain't.
Speaker 1: I ain't young, young whipper snapper like I used to be,
Speaker 1: but you know I had to be there with him
Speaker 1: and celebrate that. So your body wear, your body body
Speaker 1: is weary, but the heart of the mine is strong. Man.
Speaker 1: I've been today, you know. I woke up today and
Speaker 1: I was just going through the news and I've seen
Speaker 1: something with two people actually no one who's like a
Speaker 1: brother to me and another one who is um somebody
Speaker 1: that I saw love This lady is This lady is
Speaker 1: the vocabulary police. I'm not because I'm not that great
Speaker 1: at it, but you know, but you you seem to
Speaker 1: be great when it come to me each other. I saw,
Speaker 1: you know, I saw something and it news today and
Speaker 1: it was with my boy Mace and five Year Farming,
Speaker 1: who was you know, a young brother that i've I
Speaker 1: like and I met and you know, we got a
Speaker 1: good relationship with and it was this conflict. I haven't
Speaker 1: read everything through it, but I've seen five Year had
Speaker 1: an interview on Willow and Gillies men not Worth the
Speaker 1: Game podcast shout out to them, and he was talking
Speaker 1: how Mace gave him a five thousand dollar events when
Speaker 1: he signed him. And then I see now that makes
Speaker 1: has come up there and he gave his point where
Speaker 1: I didn't really get to see his point of view,
Speaker 1: but you know, just I was just reading some of
Speaker 1: the comments, just based off what people were saying, you know,
Speaker 1: and even when when while on Gilly was like, what
Speaker 1: he don't give you five thousand hollars, that's crazy, like
Speaker 1: you know, and I was just and I had a perspective,
Speaker 1: you know, because I personally was signed and I had
Speaker 1: a similar situation, not five thousand dollars, but you know,
Speaker 1: when people find out what you're signed for, what your
Speaker 1: deal is, you know, people always be always it's not
Speaker 1: it wasn't worth it. You worth more and this, you know.
Speaker 1: And and as I understand the business more and more
Speaker 1: and I look into it, you know, I didn't know
Speaker 1: who five year for him was, you know, I didn't
Speaker 1: when whenever May signed him. He wasn't this person that
Speaker 1: we know now we don't. You know, he got this
Speaker 1: dope music. He's a dope artist, but he wasn't. He
Speaker 1: wasn't five year for him at that time. It makes
Speaker 1: seeing something in him, you know. He he looked and said,
Speaker 1: let dude is talented. And at the time, um, you know,
Speaker 1: even five year four and admitted itself and say, yo,
Speaker 1: that five DoD dollars was hitting. At that time, I
Speaker 1: don't have nothing. My man was like, yo, you bumming,
Speaker 1: you need to file. So Fabio felt that he was
Speaker 1: worth that was enough to sign a deal with Mace.
Speaker 1: You know. He didn't coherce him into anything. He said, Yo,
Speaker 1: I see talent in you, and this is what I
Speaker 1: got to give. And the man accepted it. He didn't
Speaker 1: jerk on me. He did said, having to give you
Speaker 1: this and didn't give you this. You know, maybe Fabrio
Speaker 1: wasn't as skilled at the business. Maybe the people we
Speaker 1: had around him, wasn't as skilled with the business. He
Speaker 1: didn't understand what he was signing. But what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say is I don't see where Maze did anything dirty. Now,
Speaker 1: if he signed them for five dozen dollars and said
Speaker 1: on all your rights on your publishing, oh, your mass
Speaker 1: is knowing that even if we do get somewhere, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna own all the stuff from you, and you know,
Speaker 1: then I think that's that has to be renegotiate that point.
Speaker 1: You know, you should never own anybody's masses and one
Speaker 1: things like it's just no way like. So those those
Speaker 1: are issues that I see. But when you initially signed
Speaker 1: an artist, man, you know, I've I've been one of
Speaker 1: those artists you know, and shout out to my man Tone.
Speaker 1: Tone did good business with me, And there's people trying
Speaker 1: to cause confusion with that. But I was like, yo,
Speaker 1: I didn't have nothing. He took me off the street,
Speaker 1: pulled me, and you know, show introduced me to certain
Speaker 1: people until we actually got a deal. You know, I
Speaker 1: was a dude in the hood, starving, trying to figure
Speaker 1: it out. You know. So a lot of people have
Speaker 1: this perspective that you know, you're supposed to give somebody
Speaker 1: a million dollars. A dude, they're just rapping that. You
Speaker 1: just see talented. I'm sure that he had to pay
Speaker 1: studio time for them to make music, you know. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm just giving my perspective. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: sure you had to pay studio time to make music.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they probably got music that hasn't been released.
Speaker 1: But in the times that he's signed up, whatever the
Speaker 1: situation was, five Yeo got hot, you know, and his
Speaker 1: career took off. So I don't know all the particulars,
Speaker 1: but I know when people looking at five thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: oh that's all he gave you, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I agree with that. It was a few years. It was.
Speaker 1: It was the years, like probably a year or something
Speaker 1: before five Yeo got signed, you know, and five was
Speaker 1: like when we did an interview with five Yeo. I
Speaker 1: remember five Yeo saying he was homeless. There was a
Speaker 1: time he was homeless. I remember him literally saying that.
Speaker 1: So for somebody who was homeless, and somebody invest five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars out of their pocket to give to you
Speaker 1: and then provide opportunities for you to make music, because
Speaker 1: they see a level of talent you and say, okay, well,
Speaker 1: when you get a deal, I need a percentage of it.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I don't see where that's
Speaker 1: doing bad business if I offer you, says he's saying.
Speaker 1: I guess. I mean, I've seen it. I saw a
Speaker 1: line several um you know post, but I didn't like
Speaker 1: get into the details. But do you know if he
Speaker 1: feels like he was cheated or well, at first I didn't.
Speaker 1: I don't think he felt like he was cheating. I
Speaker 1: don't know, you know, because I don't. I don't do
Speaker 1: the gossip, and I'm not trying to cause be between
Speaker 1: two black men. You know, I know there's online discussion.
Speaker 1: When he was telling Gillian Wallow it, he didn't sound
Speaker 1: like he was angry. He sound like, you know, not
Speaker 1: the decision he said. You know, he didn't sound angry.
Speaker 1: But did I heard another thing after mass which I'm
Speaker 1: probably watched Maze's video later on to see the full
Speaker 1: you know, conversation that he had about it. And then
Speaker 1: somebody put a clip of I think five year talking
Speaker 1: to Mason's and how much money you invested in my career?
Speaker 1: How much money you invested in me and then Mason,
Speaker 1: wait and about how much I invested in you? It's
Speaker 1: something about what happened. I don't remember the exact thing,
Speaker 1: but it sounds like they was having like a debate
Speaker 1: and you so, so it sounds like there's some confused
Speaker 1: some level of confusion. But I'm just saying overall people's
Speaker 1: perspective making it seem like five thousand dollars was nothing
Speaker 1: and he should you know, he's supposed to do more
Speaker 1: for him. And I'm just saying at that time, first
Speaker 1: of all, nobody knows what makes has. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Mass You know, nobody knows how much makes
Speaker 1: money makes has, So they're making that assumption based on
Speaker 1: what I don't know. And then they're not paying attention
Speaker 1: to the fact that somebody is taking a chance a
Speaker 1: risk when they invest in your advancement is just if
Speaker 1: you get something, you pay me back. That's all it is,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So if if if i'm
Speaker 1: I see talented you, and if you actually have talent
Speaker 1: and we get somewhere, then you pay me back my
Speaker 1: my investment, and then we we work from a level
Speaker 1: of percentages. So you know, like once again, I don't
Speaker 1: know if he negotiated taking his publishing or his masters
Speaker 1: and all of that. But people being mad that all
Speaker 1: he got was five thousand dollars when he was actually
Speaker 1: somebody that none of us actually new to me. It's
Speaker 1: a little crazy, you know. That's that's if somebody welcome
Speaker 1: to me and say, yo, I think you're dope. Man,
Speaker 1: I heard you do something, and I'm just gonna give
Speaker 1: you five thousand dollars for something that I think you're
Speaker 1: gonna do later. Most of us gonna take it if
Speaker 1: we ain't got nothing, unless we already built the brand
Speaker 1: for ourselves. Then you know, listen, my I've already built
Speaker 1: this brand, so I'm worth this. So you gotta You
Speaker 1: only can negotiate what you're worth, and when you have to,
Speaker 1: you have to negotiate what you believe you were. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you should. I don't know. I mean I
Speaker 1: think I see both sides, and I love it for
Speaker 1: you to you know, let me know, like, what was
Speaker 1: the what is the point of all of this? Because
Speaker 1: you know, five thousand dollars, While it is certainly something
Speaker 1: when you have nothing, it also might be the five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars you need to pass up because there's a larger,
Speaker 1: uh you know, offer coming and you are you already
Speaker 1: tying yourself into something that is not really up to
Speaker 1: the standard of of who you are and what your
Speaker 1: potential is. Because there is a such thing as investing
Speaker 1: in potential, right And I'm not saying five thousand dollars isn't.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying there is a such thing as investing
Speaker 1: in potential. So it would be good to know and
Speaker 1: understand both perspectives, you know, in terms of where they
Speaker 1: were and and you know, and how five ye old
Speaker 1: feels about the situation. I too, um as we see
Speaker 1: him and pass in several places, he seems to be
Speaker 1: a really really nice guy who was like really just
Speaker 1: you know, sort of to himself and trying to figure
Speaker 1: out things. He's very talented and we know that. So
Speaker 1: I'm sure that you know, if he had to do
Speaker 1: it all over again, he probably would be more educated.
Speaker 1: You have different people around to help him. But when
Speaker 1: somebody takes a chance on you, um, you know, there
Speaker 1: is there is that there is people. There are people
Speaker 1: out here who um, you know, might not have a
Speaker 1: lot or may not be willing to even give a lot,
Speaker 1: but the small steps help you to build towards the
Speaker 1: bigger thing. So I don't know, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: I'm sure that you will get all of the little
Speaker 1: menial details because it is something that's important, um, you know,
Speaker 1: and how they deal with it or how it all
Speaker 1: shapes up. It's very important for this generation that's watching
Speaker 1: how black men interact with one another, especially with conversations
Speaker 1: about money, where people feel they have either been or
Speaker 1: you know, whatever they've been taking advantage of or they haven't,
Speaker 1: and just you know what that looks like, and that
Speaker 1: is I think how we deal with conflict resolution isn't
Speaker 1: being able to have these conversations. So that's my perspective.
Speaker 1: It makes sense. I just I just want people right
Speaker 1: not to be so quick too. It's like beyond Beyonce
Speaker 1: said her first contract, you know, she only got fifty dollars,
Speaker 1: and people, well, you only got fifty. Now you have Beyonce.
Speaker 1: She wasn't Beyonce then, right, So we're having a conversation
Speaker 1: about the five year on now you know, in comparison
Speaker 1: of who he was then not taking anything from me.
Speaker 1: Obviously was talented and somebody seeing that, you know, but
Speaker 1: a lot of times as an up and coming artist.
Speaker 1: I remember me not having nothing, and when they came whatever,
Speaker 1: the little twenty some thousands on events they gave me,
Speaker 1: and I was like, yes, you know, I couldn't wait,
Speaker 1: you know, and and other people got way more than me.
Speaker 1: But at that time, that's what I believed that was worth.
Speaker 1: I needed it. I believe that was worth moving. You know,
Speaker 1: in handsight, I probably would have said not let me wait.
Speaker 1: Because handsight and handsight, I realized how much I'm worth.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I realized just forward. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I realized when my potential was a lot of people
Speaker 1: invest in potential that you don't know is there, and
Speaker 1: that in itself is a skill set, right, and it's
Speaker 1: supposed to be compensated for because when people invest in
Speaker 1: you prior to you even realizing who you are, it
Speaker 1: gives you a level at extra level of confidence to
Speaker 1: actually go to the next level because people have that
Speaker 1: will belief in you. So don't we can't overlook those things, man,
Speaker 1: don't overlook those people who see something in you before
Speaker 1: you actually see something new, because those people value I agree.
Speaker 1: I agree. Well, other things are happening in the news, um,
Speaker 1: you know, Uh, one story that really stuck out and
Speaker 1: I hear a lot of people talking about it this week.
Speaker 1: But it's an interesting story where in Kenley, North Carolina, Uh,
Speaker 1: the new city manager, her name is Justine Jones, as
Speaker 1: a black woman who just became the city manager. And
Speaker 1: I guess over the last two months, all of the
Speaker 1: members of the police force have resigned. Um it's all.
Speaker 1: I mean, it says entire police force resigns. But it's like,
Speaker 1: what does that mean, because you know, uh, entires and
Speaker 1: tires and tire and anyway, they say entire, so that
Speaker 1: means everybody resigned. Um. And the chief, the chief of
Speaker 1: police is saying he wrote a Facebook post talking about,
Speaker 1: you know how she is creating a hostile environment for
Speaker 1: the officers and that it's her fault that all of
Speaker 1: these officers have resigned. And so, you know, it's interesting
Speaker 1: because I don't know her. You don't know her, and
Speaker 1: I am not going to assume that every black person,
Speaker 1: every black woman, every anybody is right or does everything
Speaker 1: properly or she could be evil, nasty, room crazy or
Speaker 1: let's not say crazy, wrong word, but she could have
Speaker 1: issues all of that, right, and we don't know because
Speaker 1: we're not there and would make people feel hostile. But
Speaker 1: what we do know, we know this. We don't know
Speaker 1: who she is and what she may or may not
Speaker 1: have done, But what we definitely know is how officers
Speaker 1: want a spot autonomy and do not want accountability for
Speaker 1: their actions. So when a black so, it sounds to me,
Speaker 1: you know, but again we don't know, but it sounds
Speaker 1: to me like a black woman became city manager, which
Speaker 1: means she's supposed to manage the city and police departments
Speaker 1: somehow think they are separate and apart entity and that
Speaker 1: they can just work on their own and not have
Speaker 1: any accountability measures for the things that go on. And
Speaker 1: she probably said no. As city manager, policing is a
Speaker 1: part of it. There's gonna be rules, regulations, budgets, checking
Speaker 1: the money, where the money is going, how it's being used,
Speaker 1: what's happening in terms of quotas and datas and all
Speaker 1: of that stuff. Data um, And I bet you they
Speaker 1: said this is how we're gonna We're gonna protest by
Speaker 1: all of us walking out. Me. If I was talking
Speaker 1: to the system, I would say, hey, bye bye. Now
Speaker 1: it's time for us to rebuild a department with people
Speaker 1: who want and understand what accountability looks like. That's my opinion.
Speaker 1: But again, we don't know. Yeah, we don't know what
Speaker 1: it just sounds. It doesn't make much sense to me
Speaker 1: that a whole department will decide that they're gonna quit
Speaker 1: when a black woman gets in office, like so every
Speaker 1: she's just completely focused into doing something wrong to all
Speaker 1: of your to the point where nobody wants to work,
Speaker 1: you know, And we've we've seen these type of activities
Speaker 1: in the past, you know, when black people are put
Speaker 1: in positions of power, you know, and and the white
Speaker 1: supremacist mind state says that I don't have to listen
Speaker 1: to this black person. You know, I'm not letting this woman.
Speaker 1: Black women tell me what to do. I've been doing
Speaker 1: a certain way, and you know, they probably didn't want
Speaker 1: hunting office to begin, you know, so's it seems like that.
Speaker 1: But once again, like you said, we don't know all
Speaker 1: the particulars. But it's just unfortunate that these situations just
Speaker 1: look so for Millia, you know, and we all we
Speaker 1: constantly have to deal with situations like this, you know,
Speaker 1: So people, people, this is a thing cops resigned and
Speaker 1: turning their backs on the mayor, you know, all of
Speaker 1: that because they feel like they have been challenged for
Speaker 1: behavior that is abusive. It's offensive, it's abusive, it's criminal,
Speaker 1: and they do not like or want anybody to come
Speaker 1: into place and call them out publicly about it and
Speaker 1: also for people to um create again accountability measures right
Speaker 1: and in the city manager looks at budgets, looks at
Speaker 1: the money, and that's a definite no no because once
Speaker 1: you start looking, but the money is not just money
Speaker 1: in and of itself, it's money attached to uh, it's
Speaker 1: money attached to performance. So what exactly is half a name?
Speaker 1: You're using all of this money, you're doing all of
Speaker 1: these things, but what are some of the other issues
Speaker 1: and concerns? Can you be less militarized? Can you respond
Speaker 1: differently in situations where there should be de escalation? Mental health?
Speaker 1: But what happened? So it's gonna be interesting to really
Speaker 1: read and focus and follow up on what has taken place, um,
Speaker 1: you know, in that situation. But my thing is based
Speaker 1: upon what I think I know. Again, we don't know,
Speaker 1: but what I think I know. Justine Jones, a black
Speaker 1: female city manager, is probably about her business and these
Speaker 1: people who are primarily primarily. We know that that's the
Speaker 1: case all across the country, whether you black, white, whatever
Speaker 1: you may be, is primarily male. And I can and
Speaker 1: I and I can say with no hesitation that I
Speaker 1: bet this police to apartment in North Carolina, Kenley, North
Speaker 1: Carolina is heavily populated with white men in the police department,
Speaker 1: and they're not gonna listen to any woman, and especially
Speaker 1: not a black woman. That's what I think. But sounds
Speaker 1: about That's what I think. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: because it sounds about white. So also in the Bronx,
Speaker 1: we've all followed the story of Junior has been several
Speaker 1: years now since Junior was murdered in a horrific scene
Speaker 1: um where the bodega owner didn't help him when he
Speaker 1: ran in after being chased down by how many men
Speaker 1: was involved in that many it was a lot like
Speaker 1: maybe six six people or whatever, and the bodega owner
Speaker 1: closed the door or something has been closed. No, no no,
Speaker 1: I mean that day, at that day, Yep, he kicked
Speaker 1: Junior out and enclosed it or kicked him off the store,
Speaker 1: picked him out of closed the door and these men
Speaker 1: um were able to attack Junior. They beat him they
Speaker 1: stabbed him, right, stabbed him, beat him. Uh and he
Speaker 1: had to take himself to the hospital when he died. Um.
Speaker 1: Terrible fifteen years old, I think so fifteen or sixteen,
Speaker 1: very young kid, not a grown man. He died in
Speaker 1: a very very horrific way. His family just was heart
Speaker 1: wrenching watching it. And over time there's been trials and
Speaker 1: there's been different things happening. Um. And now he definitely
Speaker 1: was fifteen years old. Um. And now there are two
Speaker 1: people who have been convicted of murder. Uh and and
Speaker 1: and they should be they should absolutely be. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: we call it justice, but really justice is more is
Speaker 1: junior not be in a trapped situation where people would
Speaker 1: even his life. It's just more accountability. You didn't actual justice, man,
Speaker 1: because it's just lives lost family members, mothers losing their child.
Speaker 1: I'd say all the time, when when we kill each other,
Speaker 1: you know, we lose two lives, the person who's been
Speaker 1: killed in the person who did the killing, because that
Speaker 1: person's lives life will never be normal again if he's
Speaker 1: not in prison for the rest of his life. So
Speaker 1: it's just a lot. Yeah, No, it's it's it's it's really, really,
Speaker 1: really really painful. UM. And then the last thing is
Speaker 1: a story that is now developing. UM. I feel like
Speaker 1: someone said to me today. In fact, it was Linda.
Speaker 1: She wrote it on our chat for the co founders
Speaker 1: of Until Freedom, how are we supposed to keep up
Speaker 1: with this ship? That is exactly what she said. Now
Speaker 1: you have this young lady, Brianna Greer Um who was
Speaker 1: she's she's a diagnosed schizophrenic. Her family she was having
Speaker 1: an episode. Her mom called the police, she called nine
Speaker 1: won one. They came. Um, there's video when you see
Speaker 1: them carrying her. You know she's in an episode, fully
Speaker 1: in her you know, crying and probably uh uh, you know,
Speaker 1: crying and unable to follow whatever directions she's being given.
Speaker 1: So they had to grab her and drag her and
Speaker 1: they put her into the police car. And I'm not
Speaker 1: talking about what her family said, or what attorney Ben Crump,
Speaker 1: who was now her attorney, or what attorney Gerald Griggs
Speaker 1: from Georgia said. I'm not talking about what my son
Speaker 1: and Tamika said. I'm talking about the Georgian Bureau of Investigations.
Speaker 1: They said she was put in the car with no
Speaker 1: seatbelt and the door was not closed complete she flew
Speaker 1: out of the car, hit her head, and six days
Speaker 1: after being in a coma, she died. This is the
Speaker 1: mother of three year old twins. Now I know there
Speaker 1: is an idiot somewhere saying, well, she should have complied,
Speaker 1: she shouldn't have done this, or she shouldn't brought The
Speaker 1: bottom line is that having a mental health problem should
Speaker 1: not be a sentence of death. Not to mention, we're
Speaker 1: still talking about Randy Cocks in Connecticut, where he was
Speaker 1: arrested over a dispute where someone said they didn't The
Speaker 1: person he was in the dispute with never says he
Speaker 1: pulls a gun out on me. That never happened. But
Speaker 1: as he's in the dispute, someone else sees a weapon
Speaker 1: on him. They called to say these people are into it,
Speaker 1: which again this person never said they felt threatened to
Speaker 1: any of that. But this the cops said, Okay, this
Speaker 1: other person pulled to say they saw a gun, so
Speaker 1: they arrest him. He is he was in the process
Speaker 1: at that time of um uh. He was like managing,
Speaker 1: if you will, a street like a uh what is
Speaker 1: that called? Um block party for someone else who had
Speaker 1: been killed. And he's like the head guy of this right.
Speaker 1: So he's out there managing things. He had the street
Speaker 1: blocked off so that people wouldn't drive down it, and
Speaker 1: someone pulls up and decide they're gonna go through anyway,
Speaker 1: and that's where the dispute started. Its other individual calls
Speaker 1: to report that they think they see a weapon. So
Speaker 1: the police came, they picked him up, they arrested him,
Speaker 1: and while he's in the car, he's in there with
Speaker 1: no seatbelt on, handcuffed, sliding back and forth in the
Speaker 1: patty wagon and you know, we know there's no room
Speaker 1: that you can't do anything. It's nothing you could do.
Speaker 1: He falls to the side, hits his head, breaks his neck,
Speaker 1: his back, other ailments, and he's now paralyzed. So this
Speaker 1: is like, lend this point, how much of this ship?
Speaker 1: How do we keep up with this ship? Because now
Speaker 1: it is it appears to me that they are intentionally
Speaker 1: not putting the seatbelt on and either leaving doors open
Speaker 1: or creating rough ride when we call it the Freddy
Speaker 1: Gray rough ride situation to deal with people who they
Speaker 1: feel are unruly, angry or whatever. Right, because we see
Speaker 1: in the video that Randy is like kicking the thing.
Speaker 1: He's mad, he's cursing and they know, how do they
Speaker 1: know how to deal with that? But what do you
Speaker 1: do when your schizophrenic and you don't even have ability
Speaker 1: in this moment to reason normally because you are going
Speaker 1: through a manic moment. But this is this is where
Speaker 1: you know, we talked about the law changes, and we
Speaker 1: talk about qualified immunity, and we're talking about why these
Speaker 1: things are important, right because if the police are constantly
Speaker 1: able to utilize they didn't know or they fail threatened,
Speaker 1: and you know, those things are grounds for them not
Speaker 1: to be prosecuted or not really be held accountable. Right,
Speaker 1: then then why do you have to know? Why do
Speaker 1: you have to do things right? Right? If if I'm
Speaker 1: on a job and i don't really have any expectations
Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna be held accountable whatever happens, they'll
Speaker 1: put me on desk for a second, You'll take it
Speaker 1: out of the you know, the public's money and pay people,
Speaker 1: and it will be all I don't know, real accountability
Speaker 1: for me. I could constantly continue to be negligent, to
Speaker 1: be you know, not do my job properly, to to
Speaker 1: to be purposely purposely do things that are negligent, you know,
Speaker 1: and there's no accountability. So when we look at these situations,
Speaker 1: if officers knew that, listen, if something happens to this
Speaker 1: over to the right here, it's totally on me. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be charged, They're gonna take the money out of
Speaker 1: my check. My family is not gonna be able to
Speaker 1: survive the level of carefulness that they will utilize. You
Speaker 1: know that the professionalism that would be utiful utilized every
Speaker 1: time would be way different. Officers don't really have any
Speaker 1: accountability for anything, and they don't here. And I would
Speaker 1: add to what you just said that the other piece
Speaker 1: is when we say defunding the police, this is what
Speaker 1: we're talking about. We're not saying demolished police departments in
Speaker 1: every city and don't have police. What we're saying is
Speaker 1: there's a funding imbalance. There is no reason. And this
Speaker 1: gets me into my thought of the day too, why
Speaker 1: the police even need to respond to a schizophrenic attack
Speaker 1: or or moment whatever you you know, I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't know the appropriate term. I'm sure there is one. Um,
Speaker 1: there's no reason why officer with a gun and a page,
Speaker 1: which is the car, which is even more stressful to
Speaker 1: a person who's already having a psychological moment of of
Speaker 1: of of of outbursts. Right, they're already going through something.
Speaker 1: The last thing you wanna do is escalate the tension, right,
Speaker 1: and so the right the appropriate things should be that
Speaker 1: officers arrived with someone who is specifically trained to deal
Speaker 1: with mental health issues, and that the officer is there
Speaker 1: to protect. Of course that in that expert. Of course
Speaker 1: that expert needs to be protected. I would never say
Speaker 1: just send you know, people into anybody's house unprotected. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't even say that. But the officers should be secondary,
Speaker 1: very slow to engage, and it should be someone there
Speaker 1: who has the ability to talk them down, work within
Speaker 1: the situation that's happening, and help to get this this
Speaker 1: this individual to feel comfortable enough that they will look say,
Speaker 1: should be the first thing we focus on, and it's not,
Speaker 1: and it's about punitive, it's about all of those things.
Speaker 1: And and that's why police shouldn't be sent to these
Speaker 1: situations alone, especially so absolutely the dead Brianna's mother says
Speaker 1: something that and we're talking about Brianna grit because you know,
Speaker 1: we're still fighting for justice for Brianna Taylor. That's right.
Speaker 1: But Brianna's mother says, I feel so bad, like it's
Speaker 1: my fault because I called the police and I should
Speaker 1: never have called. My thought of the day is that
Speaker 1: there is a serious, serious disconnect that has to be
Speaker 1: addressed between our seniors. Some of our our our most
Speaker 1: valuable and it's our pride, our our our prize possession.
Speaker 1: The elderly people in our community, right, these are it's
Speaker 1: just like our babies. Our seniors and our elders need
Speaker 1: to be protected and loved on and and and they
Speaker 1: meet all the beautiful things that life can give because
Speaker 1: they gave us life and they have maintained and fought
Speaker 1: and been through so much for us to be here.
Speaker 1: There is a serious disconnect between that generation and our
Speaker 1: generation where it is rare that if your loved one
Speaker 1: is having some type of problem or attack or whatever,
Speaker 1: meet you and me and most people that that are
Speaker 1: our age. We're not calling the police. We're not suggesting
Speaker 1: that we're not picking up the phone to call No
Speaker 1: One one for most things unless we absolutely feel like
Speaker 1: there is nothing else that can be done. But our seniors,
Speaker 1: right they have been trained because of how just society
Speaker 1: says the only way to deal with our issues a
Speaker 1: lot of times is through law enforcement. So when you
Speaker 1: feel like you don't your back is up against the wall.
Speaker 1: It's like, we gotta we believe. They believe the right thing.
Speaker 1: This is there's nothing wrong with how they think. Right.
Speaker 1: They believe that the people they pay, who are supposed
Speaker 1: to be an authority, should come and solve the problem.
Speaker 1: And they don't expect that their loved one is going
Speaker 1: to be killed. They don't even even when they say
Speaker 1: ray ray and them is down the street and something's
Speaker 1: going on over there and I feel nervous. They do
Speaker 1: not want you to come here kill. They want you
Speaker 1: to come get him, figure it out. What they But
Speaker 1: where we are having a disconnect is that what our
Speaker 1: people need to understand is that nine times I'll attend,
Speaker 1: these people are not coming to help. They're not coming
Speaker 1: to add to solve, to provide resource because they don't
Speaker 1: have because because they don't have the skill set right
Speaker 1: because when they come to our community care but appear
Speaker 1: exactly that there's a level of empathy and compassion that
Speaker 1: is not present in the police. When they come to
Speaker 1: our communities, they've already been taught that our communities are dangerous.
Speaker 1: You have to be on You don't have to be
Speaker 1: aware that everything is next. So they come there with
Speaker 1: a level of adrenaline level, a level of fear, you know,
Speaker 1: a level of anger pre all those things that automatically
Speaker 1: incites more of a confusion. Right, So if I'm just
Speaker 1: arguing with my brother and the police come on, like
Speaker 1: what is going what's going on? Put your hands like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we just talk. What are you talking about now? The aggression?
Speaker 1: You didn't come and say, hey, what's going on? Man?
Speaker 1: What seems to be the problem here? Just let's just
Speaker 1: calm down. They don't come with that. They come with
Speaker 1: this level aggression. They're pulling out their guns, they're pushing
Speaker 1: people away who actually are trying to defuse situations and
Speaker 1: telling them to get out the way and all that,
Speaker 1: and then it's causing more confused because you don't put
Speaker 1: somebody's brother or mother and now it's an issue between
Speaker 1: that person now. Is so they haven't been given the
Speaker 1: proper understanding of even how to de escalate most of
Speaker 1: these most of these officers do not have the escalation
Speaker 1: skill set. Not just a training, it has to be
Speaker 1: a will, right. A lot of these officers in two
Speaker 1: police that have a position. They don't want to have
Speaker 1: a position of protect and serve. They don't think they
Speaker 1: serve you. They think they're above you. So they come
Speaker 1: to your community with this level of energy that they're
Speaker 1: in charge. They get if they called for ice whel
Speaker 1: and you're looking at you and you're looking them back,
Speaker 1: and they come out and want to prove to you
Speaker 1: that they're tough on you. There's a lot of these
Speaker 1: these machismo offices, right, So we have to understand that
Speaker 1: in our communities. We have to understand that. And that's
Speaker 1: why we can't create that right and and and so
Speaker 1: that is like a part of a larger dialogue which
Speaker 1: we should really be unpacking as well. Uh, you know
Speaker 1: in the next few weeks, um is this issue around
Speaker 1: the shootings, the violence we just talked about Junior. Those
Speaker 1: types of incidents make our elderly nervous. It makes them scared,
Speaker 1: and they should by the way the videos have been
Speaker 1: Remember we went through at the beginning of the year,
Speaker 1: several videos coming out of men taking robbing, knocking people down, uh,
Speaker 1: hurting elderly people, pushing people trying to run in their home,
Speaker 1: and it was like every day that stuff probably hasn't stopped.
Speaker 1: It may have calmed down in some places now that
Speaker 1: people are sort of getting back to work and things
Speaker 1: are moving, but still there are there are incidents happening
Speaker 1: every day. People are nervous, They are afraid. They should
Speaker 1: not have to be fighting in their community. They should
Speaker 1: have to be walking through their communities looking over their
Speaker 1: shoulders because some of these young punks, these these these
Speaker 1: these they absolutely need their asses with They need people
Speaker 1: to really pull their codtails. And what we have to
Speaker 1: do is make sure that folks know that in many
Speaker 1: places around this country there are anti violence, prevention and
Speaker 1: interruption specialists that you can call that will help figure
Speaker 1: out what is wrong, what's going on with people, what
Speaker 1: is his cities? And people from your community that you
Speaker 1: actually know that you're seeing and you know that you
Speaker 1: don't probably don't know that that's what they do, but
Speaker 1: they're actual people in your community who are credible messengers,
Speaker 1: who you actually respect, who you've seen grown, and some
Speaker 1: of them you've seen change from being one of the
Speaker 1: agitudes to being able to, you know, deflate any situation.
Speaker 1: So I think we's it's our job, you know. And
Speaker 1: I've been having this conversation with our mayor, with all
Speaker 1: of the you know, the crisis management system is what
Speaker 1: they've called. And how do we amplify that message? How
Speaker 1: do we make sure that it's publicized that people are
Speaker 1: doing this work, so that our elderly says, oh, you
Speaker 1: know what, I could call these people? Who? Who? Who
Speaker 1: does that in my community? Right? Who? How do we
Speaker 1: identify with those people who? Do I connect? What's the
Speaker 1: number for those people when I see situations you know,
Speaker 1: or have situations in our community? Right? So we we
Speaker 1: pishous support this, yeh, the police because at the and
Speaker 1: the day, it makes your job easier. You ain't gonna
Speaker 1: go over there deal with right where you ain't gonna
Speaker 1: intensionally have to hurt nobody. You don't have to get
Speaker 1: into situation that you're not even skilled to deal with, right,
Speaker 1: or even want to deal with. So you should be calling, hey,
Speaker 1: they've got a situation over there. You guys handle that
Speaker 1: and let us know if you need our assistance. Right,
Speaker 1: That's the way the liaison system should work between the
Speaker 1: crisis management system and the police. Yeah. Absolutely, so that
Speaker 1: these are things that we have to make sure we
Speaker 1: and I'm now committed that we have to get into
Speaker 1: the places where are elderly and our seniors are because
Speaker 1: we have we have been so narrowly focused on really
Speaker 1: important work of of getting into the hearts and minds
Speaker 1: of the Keyshas and the ray Rays and the pupils
Speaker 1: and the neat meets and all of the people in
Speaker 1: the community. And that is awesome, and we have to
Speaker 1: continue to do that work because that is the demographic
Speaker 1: that we have until freedom and our organization, that is
Speaker 1: our demo, right, that's what we work with. But now
Speaker 1: what we realize that in order to help that group,
Speaker 1: we also have to educate and work with our elderly
Speaker 1: community so that they know there are other resources and
Speaker 1: so they are not part of Crime Bill nineteen ninety four,
Speaker 1: because that's what's happening right now. They're trying to pass
Speaker 1: Crime Bill nine two point oh, which means that the
Speaker 1: same crime bill that was I was dealing with violence
Speaker 1: and drugs and all of that that put a bunch
Speaker 1: of people in prison in ninety four that we all
Speaker 1: you know, there's always people talking about Bill Clinton and
Speaker 1: Joe Biden's um their role in that super Predators, which
Speaker 1: Hillary Hillary Clinton said, those have been top of the
Speaker 1: mind in terms of the election um for president and
Speaker 1: just the conversation in general. Well, it also is happening
Speaker 1: right now. And again, the that the excuse that has
Speaker 1: used most times when you're talking to people who voted
Speaker 1: for that bill is that the pastors and the seniors
Speaker 1: that they were asking for something to be done and
Speaker 1: they supported the crime bill. And that's because it's out
Speaker 1: of fear. And so we cannot repeat these same things
Speaker 1: when we know our history teaches us that more law enforcement,
Speaker 1: more cops, and more money for police. It's never been
Speaker 1: the solution. If it was. If it were the solution,
Speaker 1: we wouldn't be in the situation game right now because
Speaker 1: they have money. So here we go again with one
Speaker 1: of our friends, and um, it's a friend that that
Speaker 1: he's not just offering. This is our brother that we
Speaker 1: are talking with today. I love this new format that
Speaker 1: my son has us doing for the show. He decided
Speaker 1: that after a few years of us doing street Politicians,
Speaker 1: that he wanted to shake up the program and a
Speaker 1: little bit and really get to know more about each person.
Speaker 1: And the people were interviewing their personal lives, their stories,
Speaker 1: how they got to wear are in addition to them
Speaker 1: talking about our topic of the day. UM, but this
Speaker 1: particular person, we've been on a journey with him for
Speaker 1: the last several years as family. And you guys know
Speaker 1: that one of the big things about street politicians is
Speaker 1: that we always have good friends that are out here
Speaker 1: doing great things in society that we're able to talk
Speaker 1: with and hopefully UM share something that you all don't
Speaker 1: know about them, and so forth. Today. Uh, our brother
Speaker 1: that's joining us is a TV personality, a serial entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: They're buying up so much stuff, a whole new world
Speaker 1: of investing and having restaurants and businesses. UM, the father
Speaker 1: of four children who I call my nieces and nephews.
Speaker 1: Very very dear to me to watch him as a father,
Speaker 1: UH be there with his family and very very for it.
Speaker 1: Probably the most important thing that he does every day
Speaker 1: is deal with my crazy sister, Yandy Smith Harris, who
Speaker 1: is his beautiful wife. Thank you for joining three politicians,
Speaker 1: min d C. Thank you for having me, Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you to me. I appreciate this opportunity. Listen, man,
Speaker 1: you know, you know I just recently heard that you
Speaker 1: just got off parole. So congratulations, probation. Thank you. Think
Speaker 1: it's pretty much the same thing, right, So yeah, put
Speaker 1: in for early requesting. They let me off all three
Speaker 1: and a half years early. Wow, I know that feeling.
Speaker 1: It feels like things just lift off your shoulder. Man.
Speaker 1: They got as I feel like a new man that
Speaker 1: I don't have to send an email that actual permission,
Speaker 1: cannot go somewhere or leave out the country. So now
Speaker 1: it's time to really explore life and see what's out there.
Speaker 1: As far as um traveling. You know, one of my
Speaker 1: dreams were to uh travel outside the country and go
Speaker 1: to a lot of places that you know, I never
Speaker 1: thought was possible. Wow, that I didn't know about the earth.
Speaker 1: I knew you were released from probation, but I didn't
Speaker 1: know that you submitted for early release. That I didn't
Speaker 1: even know that that was possible. So that's amazing. That
Speaker 1: must be a testament to how you've been living your
Speaker 1: life since being released. That basically the system understood that like,
Speaker 1: this is not the guy that we need to be
Speaker 1: worried about, because it's very clear that you are a
Speaker 1: family man, a businessman. You're living your life in a
Speaker 1: certain way. Uh, and it's what it's supposed to happen. Right.
Speaker 1: We have hardships, track challenges, trials, especially coming up young,
Speaker 1: run up in the hood. Shit happens, and then we're
Speaker 1: supposed to grow into adulthood and ask it. What is
Speaker 1: the Bible quotes is when I was a man a child,
Speaker 1: I did childish things. But when I became a man,
Speaker 1: I to do man things. And that's that's what I
Speaker 1: see from you to that, thank you, thank you. I
Speaker 1: appreciate that, son d C. Now, I know you hate
Speaker 1: interviews because I know you hate interviews, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, And and you hate public. You hate being public,
Speaker 1: like you know what I'm saying that, So I know
Speaker 1: that the word hate. He doesn't really, he doesn't really,
Speaker 1: he doesn't really like it, you understand I'm saying. I prefer,
Speaker 1: I prefer if I can to be behind the scenes. Um,
Speaker 1: I really don't like being in front of the camera.
Speaker 1: But I embrace it now just because I see that
Speaker 1: we all currlate to each other. You know, we all
Speaker 1: sent share the similar the same story, and my story
Speaker 1: may help someone else out and you know, make them
Speaker 1: navigate and find a way to overcome it. So I
Speaker 1: embrace it. But I'm not the one that running jump
Speaker 1: in front of the camera. But you catch me, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm gonna talk, I'm gonna open up and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna share. But how was that process getting like front
Speaker 1: of me? Getting Like when I first heard that she
Speaker 1: was gonna be in the show, I was like, this
Speaker 1: is does I know this is a process for him
Speaker 1: because I know he don't even like knowing you for years,
Speaker 1: knowing when you always the person in the cut just
Speaker 1: you know, people know who you are, but you never
Speaker 1: was trying to get attention. You was always a person
Speaker 1: who got attention and never tried to get it. So
Speaker 1: how was that process for you? Just getting on TV?
Speaker 1: What was that process like for you? So the first
Speaker 1: time I was offered to be on TV, I decline
Speaker 1: because I just I didn't. I didn't think I was
Speaker 1: made or cut out for TV. You know, I knew
Speaker 1: that you had to give up your privacy. I mean
Speaker 1: people will be in your business, and um, you know,
Speaker 1: first I wasn't living right and I just wasn't ready
Speaker 1: for that attention. You know. Um, I prefer to not
Speaker 1: be talked about. I prefer to be able to eat
Speaker 1: in peace and and just have have that that that
Speaker 1: mental space. Now people worried about what I what I'm doing. Um,
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of like, you know how like
Speaker 1: being in the streets we get money quietly. You know,
Speaker 1: we really didn't know how to do it out and
Speaker 1: the open in front of everybody. Everything was like them
Speaker 1: in my in my case behind closed doors. So that's
Speaker 1: how it was like moving, you know, in silence. So
Speaker 1: you know, when they were talking TV, I was like,
Speaker 1: that's just putting the spotlight on us. So I didn't
Speaker 1: know how to function. Mm hmm. That's a Frank Lucas
Speaker 1: mindset right, right. So you know you have yan Dy,
Speaker 1: you have Mona, you have all of them keep saying
Speaker 1: you know, at one point you have to try something new,
Speaker 1: you have to transition, you have to you know, you know,
Speaker 1: they just kept convincing me, convincing me that you know
Speaker 1: can I just said, hey, what the hell? You know,
Speaker 1: it's something new, that's that's why not give the try
Speaker 1: After a while, So you were the cameras were in
Speaker 1: your house, but you was not on the show at
Speaker 1: some point, so you was like running around on corners
Speaker 1: and being out the way while the candy right, and
Speaker 1: I know you was like, hell, no, it's way too
Speaker 1: many people because we did we did a lot of
Speaker 1: the season before this one with you guys, and it
Speaker 1: was too much for me. And I'm used to cameras
Speaker 1: and it was just too much. It's just so many people.
Speaker 1: They're telling you, you know, well, we know you don't
Speaker 1: feel like if we know you need a nap, we
Speaker 1: know you're tired, but we really really really really need
Speaker 1: to come to your house and sit there with you,
Speaker 1: and we really need you to just do stuff, living
Speaker 1: your life, talk to your kids. Nobody wants to talk
Speaker 1: to their kids in front of the camera, Like why.
Speaker 1: I remember when I one time, like the very first time,
Speaker 1: I was going away, um, and it was cameras in
Speaker 1: my house and I pulled my son in the room
Speaker 1: and closed the door on the cameras and UM doing
Speaker 1: behind that door. Uh me. I was actually trying to
Speaker 1: tell my son I was going away, but I was
Speaker 1: like crying, and I remember, Um, the camera guy was
Speaker 1: like oh in the producer was like, oh, man, come on,
Speaker 1: please share this with them, and I was like, white,
Speaker 1: share this with y'all. No, no, you can't. You can't
Speaker 1: see me crying, like you can't see me this vulnerable,
Speaker 1: Like I'm not ready for that, and they did a
Speaker 1: little convincing and and I just said, you know what, Um,
Speaker 1: I did it, you know. And that's one of the
Speaker 1: scenes that a lot of people I remember and hold
Speaker 1: daily to the hospital because it was it was real.
Speaker 1: It resonates man, And that's one thing about you that
Speaker 1: I've always said, Um, this is a very authentic person
Speaker 1: and relatable. So when I watched you, it gave because
Speaker 1: prior to you, you know, and then Pat it was
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm not I would never It's just
Speaker 1: not something that I could even relate to. So watching
Speaker 1: brothers that I respect that moving to certain man and
Speaker 1: have certain ethics and codes that I bye bye doing
Speaker 1: it the right way, even when he was being vulnerable.
Speaker 1: It just didn't look like it was bullshit. You understand
Speaker 1: I'm saying it was. You can tell it was authentic.
Speaker 1: And every time I've seen you on the show, I
Speaker 1: knew it was authentic. But a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: know that prior to level hip hop that you was
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, that you have businesses, you had studios, Like, like,
Speaker 1: what what businesses did you have prior to even being
Speaker 1: all so so I pretty much tried everything UM, I
Speaker 1: had car service business, like I had Cadillac trucks, UM,
Speaker 1: some convergent vans and UM. I remember I used to
Speaker 1: have contracts with the record labels for artists when they
Speaker 1: come in town. I tried to car service thing. For
Speaker 1: a while, I had a studio. I was managing Vado,
Speaker 1: and the main thing of having the studio I was
Speaker 1: looking for artists and I wanted to have a home
Speaker 1: for artists. I I haven't. I wasn't even charging people
Speaker 1: at that time. I just wanted people to work. So
Speaker 1: I tell him to come to the studio and just
Speaker 1: make to stay home and record and hopefully I'll, you know,
Speaker 1: I'll find the next the next thing, you know. And
Speaker 1: I was dipping and dabbing in real the state. But
Speaker 1: you know, I was all over the place. I was
Speaker 1: all over the place trying to flip a turn of
Speaker 1: dollar the same way I am now. I think I'm
Speaker 1: a little more over the place because my wife have
Speaker 1: she won't let me sit down. She won't let me rest,
Speaker 1: even even though you know, we're not like super rich
Speaker 1: and that, but we we don't have to, you know,
Speaker 1: we can we can sit down for a little while.
Speaker 1: But she she she just don't stop. I'll be wanting
Speaker 1: to just you know, take care of kids and take
Speaker 1: a few days off. She she works in her sleep,
Speaker 1: So I think that that makes me want to go
Speaker 1: hard to to just to see how work. I think
Speaker 1: it'd be like I gotta I can't be sleep, I
Speaker 1: gotta keep up, you know. So it's it's like, that's
Speaker 1: what having a black woman, a strong black woman, that's
Speaker 1: what it looks like for black men. It always has,
Speaker 1: you know, That's how I roll. It's to really charge
Speaker 1: the machine constantly, keep you going and keep you on
Speaker 1: and like you know, knowing your value and your worth
Speaker 1: and you know, to help you um keep leading and
Speaker 1: I and we're gonna talk about the dynamics of you
Speaker 1: and Andy also, but I do think that I've watched
Speaker 1: you grow even and how you support her in business,
Speaker 1: because then you are such a behind the scenes and
Speaker 1: she is such a in front of the everything in
Speaker 1: running her mouth ideas, do you see us with the commercials?
Speaker 1: And I see y'all. I mean, she's a lot. She's
Speaker 1: a big, big, big personality. And so I know when
Speaker 1: she starts businesses, you're doing the usual mendces you quiet,
Speaker 1: You're like I'm you know, I'm gonna come, but I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna say too much. This is your thing. I
Speaker 1: don't want to be too and then she's like, hell no,
Speaker 1: Like I know I started these businesses. I know I
Speaker 1: didn't ask anybody whether they wanted to. I know I
Speaker 1: didn't get anybody's input. But now I expect that the
Speaker 1: whole fair Emily has in charge of keeping the business
Speaker 1: is going. And I have watched you grow into being
Speaker 1: like now on, yell, I gotta know all the products.
Speaker 1: I gotta be able to sell and speak to and
Speaker 1: because that's what it's supposed to be about, right right, yeah,
Speaker 1: listen any anything I don't know about the products and
Speaker 1: he's definitely uh taking time teach me, and she showed me. Um.
Speaker 1: I remember when I first came home and she introduced
Speaker 1: me to the product. I didn't know if it really
Speaker 1: worked for real, for real, and she was like, just
Speaker 1: try it, right, just try it, because I thought it
Speaker 1: was like a gimmick. Right, I'm like, you know, but
Speaker 1: then it actually worked and then I got hooked. And
Speaker 1: then she just you know, taught me about skincare that
Speaker 1: you know, I used to wash my face with dove soap.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't know the difference between uh serum
Speaker 1: and Clinton Clinton. I didn't. I don't. I don't know
Speaker 1: what I washed, washed my face and out the door, like,
Speaker 1: But now I know, and I'm you know, I'm taking
Speaker 1: better care of my skin and being my taking teaching
Speaker 1: our kids to do the same thing, and also able
Speaker 1: to teach people how to do it, you know, especially men,
Speaker 1: you know, because I'm pretty sure there's a lot of
Speaker 1: men like myself that just washed their face and gold
Speaker 1: with the same soap they washed their body. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what I mean. That's what I was actually in your
Speaker 1: house when you were away and we she made me
Speaker 1: do a commercial and she was like, Mike, what do
Speaker 1: you watch your face with? I'm like, I watched my
Speaker 1: face with silver water like regularly. She's like what I'm like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what most black men do. That's that's what we
Speaker 1: was taught. We ain't have no little serums and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. And she walked me through it and listen,
Speaker 1: you won't do this today, you know. So ever since then,
Speaker 1: I've been a lot more so thanks to my sister
Speaker 1: and for making me take more pride in my skin. Kid.
Speaker 1: But what I want to know right it's being formally concerated,
Speaker 1: you know, I know at that time, like you you
Speaker 1: expressed how he was telling your son that she was
Speaker 1: going away and you was vulnerable and you was crying
Speaker 1: because I know that feeling, you know, as you sat
Speaker 1: in that cell and you sat away from your family,
Speaker 1: Like what was the mind state like re entering society
Speaker 1: when you when you came, Like what did you say
Speaker 1: to yourself? You're away from your family, away from your wife,
Speaker 1: You're away from all these things? Like what did you
Speaker 1: say to yourself to keep going and to motivate you
Speaker 1: when you got back out here? I think I had
Speaker 1: I had time to myself to reflect on the decisions
Speaker 1: I made, you know, to my whole life, you know,
Speaker 1: from from the beginning, you know, um, just all of
Speaker 1: bad decisions I made, all of if what I could
Speaker 1: get over if I had the opportunity. And after I
Speaker 1: got past that, you know, I was just trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how a plan and how can I be
Speaker 1: a better version of me and so I can be
Speaker 1: a better virgin, you know, a father to my son,
Speaker 1: a husband to my wife, and a better son to
Speaker 1: my mom, and better brother to my brothers. You know,
Speaker 1: I just I just wanted to be a better me.
Speaker 1: You know, So after after reflecting on the decisions I made,
Speaker 1: you know that that was my main focus because I
Speaker 1: started seeing that, you know, the things I put first, UM,
Speaker 1: where I put love at that shouldn't have been loved
Speaker 1: UM as far as like materialistic things and and and
Speaker 1: partying and you know, just just in just in general.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to make sure that when I came home,
Speaker 1: you know, I had I can execute a plan. Um.
Speaker 1: I could be more involved in my kid's life. I
Speaker 1: could be a better husband, I could be a better brother.
Speaker 1: And you know, I could open up more. I don't
Speaker 1: have to be so closed, you know, I can. I
Speaker 1: can I speak more. I can tell people how I feel.
Speaker 1: I don't have you know, I was so close. You know.
Speaker 1: We were taught not to express emotions and keep them
Speaker 1: locked in and hold them, you know. And I wore
Speaker 1: a good poker face, you know. I learned how to
Speaker 1: smile when I really want to frown. You know. Um,
Speaker 1: I wore a good mass. You know, I did it, really,
Speaker 1: I did it majority of my life. And sometimes it's
Speaker 1: such a habit that I do it now. And I
Speaker 1: catch it and I try to communicate because I'm smiling
Speaker 1: and I'm really piste off. But I learned to say that, Yo, listen,
Speaker 1: I don't really like that. This is what me. This
Speaker 1: is how it made me feel and able to work
Speaker 1: through situations and and um move past it. And because
Speaker 1: of that, I'm able to have great relationships. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: That's so powerful, because I was when we decided that
Speaker 1: we wanted you to be our guests. My son he
Speaker 1: called me up, he said, Yo, I want to do
Speaker 1: in DCS. And what we do with every guest is
Speaker 1: we talked to each other about how we feel about
Speaker 1: the individuals, so we know what direction we're gonna take
Speaker 1: in the in the interviews, and you know, we traveled
Speaker 1: all the time. My son and I and a bunch
Speaker 1: of us are always together and I I've never been
Speaker 1: around people this much that are formally incarcerating as much
Speaker 1: as we do now that this is the work that
Speaker 1: we're very much engaged in, and there is very they're
Speaker 1: very similar um characteristics, if you will, or things that
Speaker 1: I think all of you guys do, and that's one
Speaker 1: of them. The whole like you know, laughing when you're
Speaker 1: really not happy but trying not to lose it, you know,
Speaker 1: on people like always trying to maintain a level of like,
Speaker 1: let me not engage in anything, because I could go
Speaker 1: from here to here real fast. So I don't want to.
Speaker 1: I don't want to even get into conflict. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to and I'm and here, i am, I'm over there,
Speaker 1: like tell him, Mike, y'all say nothing, but man if yo,
Speaker 1: I'm trying not to let that. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: want that side of me to come out. Also, the
Speaker 1: quiet space, like you have to We all know, Linda, myself,
Speaker 1: all of us know we have to leave my son
Speaker 1: sometimes alone and let him just have his quiet space
Speaker 1: for thought because he goes into these moments when he
Speaker 1: has to be able to recall read, especially after we've
Speaker 1: annoyed him all day. Because imagine Dandy and out of reason,
Speaker 1: why are we so close, because we're very similar and
Speaker 1: Linda also, we always got something to say. We're telling
Speaker 1: you what to do, how to do it? Pull your
Speaker 1: pants up? This ain't right, what's wrong with your skin?
Speaker 1: Your hands ain't right? You gotta say it like this,
Speaker 1: this work. We were annoying, We know that, but it's
Speaker 1: all for a good a good cause. However, y'all need space,
Speaker 1: and so I just want to say that I identify
Speaker 1: now that those of us who want to be good
Speaker 1: allies to return and citizens also have to understand that
Speaker 1: there are certain things that take time to develop out
Speaker 1: of them. But I don't know if my son, you've
Speaker 1: been out for a long time, and I don't know
Speaker 1: if you have you have developed out of those things.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's it's it's a space like you
Speaker 1: know it's and it's your sanity like you you develop
Speaker 1: it from being incarcerated, right, because the moves that you're
Speaker 1: make incarcerated and culture your life certain people. You gotta
Speaker 1: watch things. You gotta be very observative, You gotta see
Speaker 1: everything that's going on. You gotta say less because the
Speaker 1: more you say, the more people feel like they know you,
Speaker 1: they get comfortable with you. It puts you in a
Speaker 1: position to where you might have to do something to somebody.
Speaker 1: So and it's similar in these streets, and it's similar
Speaker 1: just in every business. A lot of people that they
Speaker 1: say things and do things, and there's a level of
Speaker 1: energy that I know, in different forms they might not survive, right,
Speaker 1: But I understand that so me evolving into this space,
Speaker 1: I need to take time for myself. I need time
Speaker 1: to unpack, I need time to think about things because
Speaker 1: a lot going on, you know, and I'm a very
Speaker 1: meticulous and calculative person. I like that. I don't like
Speaker 1: to make a lot of mistakes. I don't like to
Speaker 1: say things that I don't know about. I don't like to,
Speaker 1: you know, just be speaking just for the sake of talking.
Speaker 1: So I found myself like secluded a lot, you know,
Speaker 1: and like Mandec said, I understand what my story can
Speaker 1: mean to somebody else. So I've become more of a
Speaker 1: public figure. I made myself public, but like when we
Speaker 1: first the working each other, I never was really public.
Speaker 1: I would tell you stuff and be like, yo, y'all
Speaker 1: need to do this, this and that. You're like you
Speaker 1: do it. I'm like, nah, I know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: but I don't want all the public stuff, so you know,
Speaker 1: it comes. That's That's one of the things that I say,
Speaker 1: Like when you women incarcerated, you become a lot more introverted.
Speaker 1: Even if you're not, you can be, but it gives you,
Speaker 1: like you need certain times just a quiet and in sanctuary.
Speaker 1: M HM. So you got out earlier than was expected, right, Um, no,
Speaker 1: I tried to put an emotion to get out earlier,
Speaker 1: but it was it was denied. But I was released
Speaker 1: to the halfway house. So I had nine months halfway house.
Speaker 1: So that's what you know. That's people usually get non
Speaker 1: months to a year. Some people get six months, but
Speaker 1: unfortunate I was, I got no months. So what was
Speaker 1: that like the halfway house? I don't I'm not really
Speaker 1: had many conversations with people about that period. Um, the
Speaker 1: halfway house as people getting reintegrated back to society and um,
Speaker 1: some people don't have nowhere to stay and and and
Speaker 1: it gives them a couple of hours out to go
Speaker 1: find a job and and you know, um, and you know,
Speaker 1: just to get on their feet. But for some people
Speaker 1: like myself, if you have somewhere to go, then you know,
Speaker 1: they don't want to just throw you out there and
Speaker 1: you be stranded and don't have you know, lack of opportunities,
Speaker 1: don't have nowhere to stay, and then you can start
Speaker 1: committing crimes again. So they gives a little bit out
Speaker 1: of time. See what you can handle. M hmm. But
Speaker 1: you guys had a mansion. Yeah, so they kicked me out.
Speaker 1: As soon as I got there, they kicked me out.
Speaker 1: You know, they said that I was getting special treatment.
Speaker 1: And you know, you know, listen put like this, I
Speaker 1: was blessed to be able to not have a stressful
Speaker 1: bid right that my kids was to I didn't care. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I was okay financially. The only thing that
Speaker 1: was worrying is that was missing moments in my family life.
Speaker 1: That's the only thing that that this causing stress. But
Speaker 1: other than that, you know, it wasn't for me. It
Speaker 1: was a learning process, right, I got to learn me
Speaker 1: and um, you know that was important because I was
Speaker 1: I was living fast and no time, I wouldn't go
Speaker 1: to prison where I would have been, you know, and
Speaker 1: and and focus on how can I make myself for
Speaker 1: a better person. So I remember in one of the
Speaker 1: reunion episodes, and it was another powerful moment, you know,
Speaker 1: when you was talking about how you felt like you
Speaker 1: was groomed to be a drug deal. Yeah, absolutely absolutely
Speaker 1: that was. And a lot of people, you know, like
Speaker 1: I say all the time, I have conversation with people,
Speaker 1: and I said, the first vision of success I've ever
Speaker 1: seen was a drug deal. I didn't see no lawyer.
Speaker 1: I didn't see nothing. The person who had to call
Speaker 1: wanted the money, year I wanted the girl to respect.
Speaker 1: I wanted was a drug dealer. So that's that was
Speaker 1: my image of what success was. So that's what I
Speaker 1: wanted to be. So explain when you when you said that,
Speaker 1: What was you thinking when you said it? So when
Speaker 1: I when I was thinking, like when I was young,
Speaker 1: and I take you back to like I was six
Speaker 1: years old, like pretty much not able to comprehend um,
Speaker 1: real good. I remember someone in my family used to
Speaker 1: take me down to Soho in the village and they
Speaker 1: used to give me a which I learned later was
Speaker 1: a pack of drugs and put it in my tell
Speaker 1: me put it in my dip my underwear, brother and
Speaker 1: play the video games. And in every like thirty or
Speaker 1: forty minutes, she said, ask me for it. And I
Speaker 1: never knew what it was until I told my mom
Speaker 1: and my mom uh baby father, and the end up
Speaker 1: getting into a fight because I I overheard him saying
Speaker 1: he gave my son drugs. So later on, you know
Speaker 1: that same person, uh you know was was was coaching
Speaker 1: and golden me to become a drug dog, you know. Um.
Speaker 1: And then he and then what happened. It was when
Speaker 1: you know, my mother, my mother, baby father left and
Speaker 1: then my mother had her situation. There was no one
Speaker 1: around to protect me, so I had to defend for myself.
Speaker 1: And those were real vulnerable moments that you know, I
Speaker 1: needed to make money, I needed to eat, I needed
Speaker 1: I needed, I needed sneakers, you know, I needed. I
Speaker 1: just needed things and I had no where to get
Speaker 1: it from. So that person really was like, well, you know,
Speaker 1: you do this, you do that, and you just watching
Speaker 1: and observing, and then I just took off from there.
Speaker 1: M hm wow. Yeah, I mean I think that's with
Speaker 1: so many things, like we think of that only what
Speaker 1: we're listening to you. That's obviously a really harsh situation
Speaker 1: and an example of like destruction and whatever. But it's
Speaker 1: the same with women and how we learned to use
Speaker 1: our body right for whatever we need. Right. We're taught
Speaker 1: by other women from a very very young age. And
Speaker 1: it's not but it's not like they're giving you something
Speaker 1: to you know, and making you sell yourself, but they're
Speaker 1: showing you that when you do certain things with your
Speaker 1: body and you act certain ways, that that will help
Speaker 1: you get things that you want, and it only turns
Speaker 1: into a worse you know, people behaving in very promiscuous
Speaker 1: ways later on life. So the way in which we
Speaker 1: train our children and I watch you guys insulate your
Speaker 1: kids very much, um, you know, to keep them from
Speaker 1: these influences, these outside influences. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: people out here who don't have the resources you have.
Speaker 1: You know, they don't have the resources we have. My
Speaker 1: son is the same insulating as children as much as possible.
Speaker 1: People don't have that. You're living in the projects right now,
Speaker 1: or living in any community that is marginalized and disadvantage,
Speaker 1: and you've got a parent may be locked up, maybe
Speaker 1: not even you know, maybe deceased. You've got a mother
Speaker 1: who is you know, working two jobs, maybe whatever she's
Speaker 1: got to do, because two jobs could be a whole
Speaker 1: lot of different things to mean that she's going to
Speaker 1: the hospital and whatever. She could be going to the
Speaker 1: stripper pole at night and doing something else in the daytime,
Speaker 1: trying to survive. What are you The people that are
Speaker 1: catching those kids are folks that have that. That's all
Speaker 1: they know, you know what I'm saying. So this is
Speaker 1: why breaking the cycle is so important and why It's
Speaker 1: so important for the two of you and others like
Speaker 1: y'all to do this work of telling your story because
Speaker 1: then people will see, oh, wait a minute, that's what
Speaker 1: this looks like. You know, I need to insulate and
Speaker 1: protect our kids. So and let me move on to
Speaker 1: another question. You know, I'm the one on here that
Speaker 1: runs my mouth. Um, coming back home, you're coming back
Speaker 1: to a different end, right, not the same woman that
Speaker 1: you left. She's now years later. How long were you
Speaker 1: did you do? Four years? The four years of a
Speaker 1: lot happening. Four years, she's grown, she's become even a
Speaker 1: bigger personality. She's found social justice in this time period
Speaker 1: that she's now full fledged into fighting for justice and causes.
Speaker 1: How do you feel returning into this this new situation
Speaker 1: with your new wife And the beginning, it was scary
Speaker 1: because I'll watch what, you know, what the police do
Speaker 1: to protests. You know, there's you know, most of the
Speaker 1: time they get valent with them, you know, especially black protesters,
Speaker 1: you know. So it's it was me being scared for
Speaker 1: her safety, you know. And I understand the call she's
Speaker 1: fighting for, but but I'm I'm looking at it from
Speaker 1: a point of view like we need, you know, me
Speaker 1: and these kids, we need you. You know, I'm not
Speaker 1: I sacrifice anything, but I can't sacrifice losing you, you know.
Speaker 1: So I sacrificed myself. I sade adricee my freedom. I
Speaker 1: sacrifice anything, but that's something I can't sacrifice. So her
Speaker 1: safety for me was number one, you know. And um
Speaker 1: and after that, you know, just talking to her and
Speaker 1: and going out there with her and understanding the cause.
Speaker 1: Then you know, then I became less worried, and I
Speaker 1: in the bigger picture, and I knew she was in
Speaker 1: certain instance, she was safe, you know, I knew that
Speaker 1: y'all was safe, and I felt then I felt better
Speaker 1: about that, and you know I did. The only thing
Speaker 1: I could say is because she got a strong will
Speaker 1: is the supporter, because this is something I can't even stop,
Speaker 1: you know, in in in it would be easier for
Speaker 1: me to support it than go against her, you know.
Speaker 1: So watching you know, I'd like to talk about just
Speaker 1: the public thing, because I know it's tough, right, So
Speaker 1: watching your relationship with your mother and your wife publicly,
Speaker 1: right and seeing that play out in the public, and
Speaker 1: it's crazy because we have so much similarities. Right. I
Speaker 1: watched your relationship my mother. God blessed them. My mother passed,
Speaker 1: I mean your mother. My mother passed a few months ago,
Speaker 1: and we had like a similar relationship, like right, Like
Speaker 1: she was more like my daughter sometimes than actually my mother. Right.
Speaker 1: So I'm watching you and your mother go through these
Speaker 1: things where that's not, that's not that's the same relationship
Speaker 1: of me and my mother. That's what I'm saying. I'm
Speaker 1: watching I'm literally watching it, and I'm like, you, this
Speaker 1: is the same way that my mother looks at me,
Speaker 1: like I'm like, I have to do everything for her.
Speaker 1: Then she gives me this guilt trip and all of
Speaker 1: these things. Even when she's wrong, I'm still wrong. Right.
Speaker 1: So I'm I'm watching this play out and I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I met your mother when we was on the reunion.
Speaker 1: So and she's a beautiful a I've seen her all
Speaker 1: the time. She's a dope. First, watching that relationship play
Speaker 1: out and watching the play out between You've got two
Speaker 1: strong women that you both love and it is playing
Speaker 1: out a tic like, how is that dynamic? I mean
Speaker 1: it's hard, right because um, I'm my mom's protector, right,
Speaker 1: so she feels like she's losing me and she's not
Speaker 1: coming first, and she feels like she should be coming
Speaker 1: first before anybody and everything. And I feel like she
Speaker 1: has a husband, you know, and she had a household
Speaker 1: and in the in the in the family outside of me.
Speaker 1: Now is my time, you know, And and you know,
Speaker 1: I have to, just like her husband, put her first.
Speaker 1: I have to put my wife first. But still that
Speaker 1: doesn't take away to love I have for her because
Speaker 1: I'm her protector and provided to as well. But this
Speaker 1: is my household over there, and try to mess up
Speaker 1: your household. Please don't do that to me, you know. So.
Speaker 1: But it's the fact that I know, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say this, you know, I know it's not my wife, right,
Speaker 1: and I just know that the insecurities up and what
Speaker 1: my mom's going through. Um, not to say it's her evil,
Speaker 1: because you know she's gonna be watching it, so you
Speaker 1: know it's not her evil. But I know sometimes when
Speaker 1: you just love strong, it's gonna you're gonna crash. It hurts.
Speaker 1: It hurts. I mean, we all go through it. It's
Speaker 1: it's it's just a natural thing, especially for a mother.
Speaker 1: Because here I am, I have a son. He's swinging three,
Speaker 1: they're they're having a baby, and I'm very all in
Speaker 1: stuff and giving my opinion, and what generally works is
Speaker 1: they just let me do whatever I want to do.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants They just like, do you however you want
Speaker 1: to do it. It's fine, But I'm I try my
Speaker 1: best not to be disrespectful because at that point then
Speaker 1: people starting and by the way, my grands child's mother
Speaker 1: is very strong. She's very strong. She's not gonna just
Speaker 1: let me talk to her any kind of way. It's
Speaker 1: just not gonna happen. So you know, it's it's a
Speaker 1: it's a real personality thing. And that's why I was
Speaker 1: asking you about as Yandy is now you know she's
Speaker 1: she she and not saying that she was soft spoken before,
Speaker 1: but she certainly has had a realization of her power
Speaker 1: over the last several years. And now here you come
Speaker 1: back and it's like, all right, wait a minute, we
Speaker 1: do I want things to be this way in my household.
Speaker 1: That had to be an adjustment your mama. Why it's
Speaker 1: a lot going on here. Yeah, so you know a
Speaker 1: lot of I came home right not fully understanding you know,
Speaker 1: all the things you know I left and for so
Speaker 1: many years I was like, I had this. I'm the
Speaker 1: man in the house. You know this, these these, this
Speaker 1: is what we're doing, this is how we're doing it.
Speaker 1: But I come her man, yeah, he's all over the place,
Speaker 1: and it's like, all right, you know, um, okay, let's
Speaker 1: go down. Number one is I don't like this place
Speaker 1: we live in. So we were moving and she looked
Speaker 1: at me, but I like this place. I did this
Speaker 1: place nice. Now I don't like it. But why And
Speaker 1: then she I was like, I want to move to Atlanta.
Speaker 1: She's like, but I want to stay here. I said,
Speaker 1: I want to move. Um, I had to sit down
Speaker 1: and explain the reasons why you no. I so I
Speaker 1: couldn't just say I want to move. I had to listen,
Speaker 1: these are the reasons why this is these, these are
Speaker 1: the things that's important, and I just think that would
Speaker 1: be good fie family. And then she understood and then
Speaker 1: it works out. But before I went I would just
Speaker 1: say no, this is what it is, this is what
Speaker 1: we're doing, this would doing. So now I learned to
Speaker 1: take my time and uh, like the reason behind you know,
Speaker 1: my actions or what I want to do. It's it's
Speaker 1: a process of being more of a partnership than being
Speaker 1: afore when you, yo, this is what we're doing a
Speaker 1: movie movement, and then understanding you you have a powerful
Speaker 1: black woman who in her rank is a boss. So
Speaker 1: now you can't look at and and and look, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know I'm gonna get all that. So you know,
Speaker 1: so I gotta, I gotta, I gotta gotta meeting with bosses.
Speaker 1: And now it ain't like, Yo, now we're doing this.
Speaker 1: Now you're sitting there with the bosses playing and look,
Speaker 1: this is why the best move for us to make.
Speaker 1: So now it's it's sanctioned on both sides. So I
Speaker 1: know it's a lot, man, I know it's a lot.
Speaker 1: You've got a black woman strong. Black marriage is a
Speaker 1: tough thing. How is like, I know it's up, and
Speaker 1: you got a public marriage, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So I know that's a transition, you know. And I'm
Speaker 1: watching y'all. But I love the way that you'll transparent.
Speaker 1: At times, you get on Instagram, y'all might have an
Speaker 1: argument and you'd be like nah, and you're debating back
Speaker 1: and forth, and you allow the world to see that
Speaker 1: because I think for me, there's a lot of people
Speaker 1: that think certain things about relationships and marriages, and most
Speaker 1: people only show the good parts, right, They don't show
Speaker 1: the work that comes into it, the constant things that
Speaker 1: you gotta do. Like what is that like? Um? I
Speaker 1: think it's a balance, you know, just creating a balance.
Speaker 1: And I think that marriage is something that we constantly
Speaker 1: gotta work at, you know, um, for for us, for
Speaker 1: our children, for our family, you know. And and as
Speaker 1: sometimes it feels like there's a lot of pressure, you know, um,
Speaker 1: just because there's a lot. There's a lot going on,
Speaker 1: Like she got things she want to do, and I've
Speaker 1: got things I want to do. Then we have the
Speaker 1: children and responsibilities. We got to share it, and we crash.
Speaker 1: You know, we used to crash a lot. We don't
Speaker 1: crash as much now because we just learned communication is
Speaker 1: the key to success in our relationship. So we were
Speaker 1: always going to have to take time and not answer
Speaker 1: the phone and just talk and and and that's that's
Speaker 1: what's important. That's what help us get through. Just talk.
Speaker 1: Just you don't answer, I don't answer these are issues.
Speaker 1: How what's the solution? M It's like a dance, right,
Speaker 1: And that's what they say. I mean, my parents always
Speaker 1: say that love is waning. It goes up and it
Speaker 1: goes down. You'll be in love and out of love
Speaker 1: in relationships, but you have to have respect. And there
Speaker 1: are other just very fundamental things that help you restore love,
Speaker 1: you know. And and the communication piece, I think it's
Speaker 1: so important, but I don't know what I'm talking about
Speaker 1: because I ain't got a man, period, So how about that. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it is really really good to have had you on
Speaker 1: here to speak from. We don't people. I've never seen
Speaker 1: even dcs being interviewed, so this is a yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's listen. Listen. I rememb gonna love. I was about
Speaker 1: to say, do you got to do this today? But now,
Speaker 1: but I'm happy, um for this opportunity. And plus I
Speaker 1: just feel like I'm talking to my family, So I
Speaker 1: really don't recognize this as an interview. Um, this is
Speaker 1: just a regular conversation to me, basically just telling y'all
Speaker 1: things that we already know. But you know, no, I
Speaker 1: learned things I learned. Oh yeah, I learned that. I
Speaker 1: learned about the early release I didn't know or the
Speaker 1: early release. Um, I learned about a lot of things.
Speaker 1: I also have more of a perspective because I this.
Speaker 1: You know, Yandy is like one of my best, my
Speaker 1: closest friends, and I can see, I know when you
Speaker 1: first came home, there was a struggle she was, she
Speaker 1: was going through things. You know, you could tell she
Speaker 1: was all like frustrated at times. Y'all were going through things,
Speaker 1: and I can see the happiness that she has now
Speaker 1: is shining through, and that generally comes from peace in
Speaker 1: your home, right like shining through the way that she
Speaker 1: She wasn't like I would all her to talk about
Speaker 1: work in the past, and she was there, but if
Speaker 1: you could tell something's going on now, she's like here,
Speaker 1: I got creative ideas, you know, fresh concepts, and that
Speaker 1: comes from you having a settled mindset. And usually as women,
Speaker 1: y'all gonna say I'm crazy and no no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: this and that. But usually when we have stability with
Speaker 1: our partner and somebody who is not stressing us out
Speaker 1: and making us lose our edges, and as this new thing,
Speaker 1: they're saying that I love that Nick Cannon has started
Speaker 1: messing with our pH balance because you're bringing me tricks
Speaker 1: these problems that she got going on. We're usually pretty
Speaker 1: happy and we could do dope ship but when those
Speaker 1: things are off, we can't we're not functioning at the
Speaker 1: highest level right right. And plus you know, one of
Speaker 1: my one of my rules a long time ago is
Speaker 1: that I told you and don't bring gossip into the household.
Speaker 1: I don't care about who's with who. I don't care
Speaker 1: about no one else business, I don't care about who's
Speaker 1: making money. I think that takes away from the relationship.
Speaker 1: You know. Um just you know, you know how people
Speaker 1: say pull pullot talk. There's a lot of stuff that
Speaker 1: we can talk about and other people business and focus
Speaker 1: more on our household and what we need to accomplish
Speaker 1: and be worrying about other people that they don't even know,
Speaker 1: you know, and and we have no we can't help,
Speaker 1: we can't do nothing. I just you know, I think
Speaker 1: that too helped us a lot to as well. And
Speaker 1: then also I think one of the keys, like you said, Pillow,
Speaker 1: is also other people's opinions what you're going through, right,
Speaker 1: and when you when you get outside opinions of people
Speaker 1: that have opinion of your relationship, right, and they've got
Speaker 1: nothing to do with it, Like I don't care about
Speaker 1: what somebody thinks about with me or you or what
Speaker 1: we're doing right when we when you allow those things
Speaker 1: to start festering, it causes confusion. And then most of
Speaker 1: the time people come from a perspective were they're actually
Speaker 1: doing worse than you are their relationships and don't even
Speaker 1: have it. They don't need Most of people don't even
Speaker 1: have a relationship right, and they take a they could
Speaker 1: take a fifteen minute clip of a real on Instagram
Speaker 1: or a picture and they saw telling you. They they'd
Speaker 1: tell you they'd set that picture and tell you, oh,
Speaker 1: he doesn't blink one time. If you, if you have,
Speaker 1: if you, if you want to, you know, they just
Speaker 1: for one picture and tell you, oh, he don't want
Speaker 1: to be with her. She this, and she's that and
Speaker 1: she's this. So you you can't really let these people
Speaker 1: opinion affect your household because you'll be single, just like
Speaker 1: don't no, you know, no dispect to the single people,
Speaker 1: but you can't have people. Yeah, but that's my choice.
Speaker 1: It is it is by choice. But also I have
Speaker 1: to speak up for the single people. I'm single by
Speaker 1: choice because I've been through life and I've seen enough
Speaker 1: ships to know what is what will work for me
Speaker 1: and what won't work for me, And I also can
Speaker 1: look at other people's situation and know off the bat
Speaker 1: that right there, it's not gonna work. When if I
Speaker 1: if I if I need a couple, because I have
Speaker 1: a family member actually who just is constantly yelling and
Speaker 1: talking crazy to her husband, like they just they talk
Speaker 1: crazy to each other, but she SAIDs things to him
Speaker 1: in front of other people that is just not good.
Speaker 1: And I already know he's gonna find somewhere to go
Speaker 1: to deal with that, right because he's not gonna just
Speaker 1: they and they get drunk. It's just not a good situation.
Speaker 1: Y'all actually know these people, but whatever they get drunk
Speaker 1: and they did, it's not a good situation. So I
Speaker 1: don't I agree that you have to be real careful
Speaker 1: about people's opinions entering your relationship or people's gossip or whatever.
Speaker 1: But there's also something to be said about people's experiences
Speaker 1: and if they actually love and care for you, it
Speaker 1: is their response ability to tell you when they see
Speaker 1: you doing something that's destructive or not taking care of yourself.
Speaker 1: Because women have always had to sit down other women,
Speaker 1: whether they single, married, divorce, whatever it is, and say, sister,
Speaker 1: you're playing yourself or these are the things you need
Speaker 1: to do. The problem that I think exists. And my
Speaker 1: son and I argue about this all the time. Sometimes
Speaker 1: he's agrees. Most times we argue about men don't do
Speaker 1: that enough. There are not enough men calling other men
Speaker 1: to the table to say, I've seen these things and
Speaker 1: it's not cool. You got you can't me and you
Speaker 1: can't You got this wife with a brand new baby
Speaker 1: at home and every night you in the street with me.
Speaker 1: That's it ain't cool. Who's helping her? You know? I
Speaker 1: know some men thatta do that? Right I have. I'm
Speaker 1: fortunate to have a few married friends, right and um
Speaker 1: they was they just they would you know, give me.
Speaker 1: Point is they have like been married for twenty years
Speaker 1: and a long time. And I asked me questions, how
Speaker 1: do you like, how do you stay happy for twenty years?
Speaker 1: Because at some point we you know, we want to
Speaker 1: kill each other, you know, and trying to you know,
Speaker 1: find a way to keep this thing going. And they
Speaker 1: quick to give me advice. You know, I have I can,
Speaker 1: I can call them any second, and they just say, listen,
Speaker 1: it's the small things that count, you know. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not about big gifts, It's not about um, you know,
Speaker 1: being a you know, not saying super affectionate. It's just
Speaker 1: about just sometimes just calling calling your wife and say
Speaker 1: you're the baddest thing I ever had, you know, making
Speaker 1: a day. It's just the smallest thing account and they
Speaker 1: actually work m and then and then then they was
Speaker 1: the one that called me out like, man, you're bugging
Speaker 1: you don't you don't leave flowers and this and do that.
Speaker 1: And I'm like no, like no, I don't. But I'm
Speaker 1: getting better, you know. But lucky for me having been
Speaker 1: around married men that understand you know, certain things that
Speaker 1: you that you do. You know, I mean I haven't
Speaker 1: grown up and seen these rows of an example, and
Speaker 1: oh you know I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. I
Speaker 1: haven't been my first one and I've been to. I
Speaker 1: think it's probably his minds. And I don't really know
Speaker 1: people that's that I grew up with that's married like not.
Speaker 1: I could probably count on one hand so that I've
Speaker 1: never seen that. It's very very very powerful. Listen. I
Speaker 1: just want to say, man, I'm proud of you brother.
Speaker 1: Just watching you involve into who you are today. You know,
Speaker 1: it's inspirational to me. Man. And I know It's a
Speaker 1: lot of people who come from where we come from,
Speaker 1: comfort where you come from, who look at you and say, wow,
Speaker 1: I know men DC's I know what he's been through
Speaker 1: and if he can do this, I can do it.
Speaker 1: I just want you before you leave here. I's some
Speaker 1: young kids in all of the many projects, you know,
Speaker 1: dealing with a lot of stuff. He don't know how
Speaker 1: he's gonna make it out. He don't know if he's
Speaker 1: gonna survive. He's forced to hustle all these things, and
Speaker 1: he looks up to you. I want you to give
Speaker 1: him some words that you would say to him that
Speaker 1: were motivated m I would say, don't be scared to
Speaker 1: try new things right you know, um, just whether you
Speaker 1: fell or used to see, just trying, you know. Um
Speaker 1: if if if things get rough, you know, just look
Speaker 1: around and if possibly changes, try to change the circle.
Speaker 1: You know. Um, that's important, you know, try to try
Speaker 1: to be around people that that's not gonna laugh at
Speaker 1: you for doing something new or going a different direction.
Speaker 1: People may not believe in you, long as you believe
Speaker 1: in yourself, because that's important. You know. People gonna tell
Speaker 1: your ideas and in't gonna work, or you're not going
Speaker 1: to succeed. Don't pay that in my mind, you know.
Speaker 1: So I love that. I love that black men need
Speaker 1: to be told constantly try new things. That is a
Speaker 1: very powerful statement to black men, because some black men
Speaker 1: don't want to travel, right because they just don't know.
Speaker 1: They don't know what outside of this little area, what
Speaker 1: that means. They don't feel what is the word competent
Speaker 1: or well spoken enough or well cultured enough. Then in
Speaker 1: the community, you've got a lot of young men who
Speaker 1: were like, all I know is the block. That's all
Speaker 1: I know, and I know is cell drugs. Maybe a
Speaker 1: little job. But being an entrepreneur, knowing that I I
Speaker 1: kind of know what type of joystick I want, right,
Speaker 1: I know where the thumb ain't right and this and
Speaker 1: that maybe I can actually create this because I'm a
Speaker 1: creative person. But nobody has ever to told them that
Speaker 1: they could do that and and become like, you know,
Speaker 1: the new game console, you know, developer. So telling young
Speaker 1: black men it can't be passed over quickly. It's not
Speaker 1: like a little statement, try something different, try something new.
Speaker 1: I think that's a movement all by itself, right, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. What is the name of the restaurant because
Speaker 1: that Creeps Cres is that at the underground downtown Atlanta
Speaker 1: right this weekend, So I'm coming make sure you hit me.
Speaker 1: I'll be here but later then Dancing Creates. That was
Speaker 1: this supposed to start as like like desserts and whatnot.
Speaker 1: And now after me and Andy went to the Maudi's
Speaker 1: right on um and Um she had she had these
Speaker 1: creeps and we noticed it was in a huge creep
Speaker 1: community in a you know, and she was like, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe we should get some creepes in Atlanta. And then
Speaker 1: we just started out pretty much as an idea and
Speaker 1: we turned that idea into reality. It's beautiful, diferent right,
Speaker 1: sounding different, right, We're trying new things, always trying new things.
Speaker 1: Man folk stuff, anything you try, it is going to
Speaker 1: be anything outside normal. What black people do with it.
Speaker 1: Whatever the box they put us in, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: white folks stuff. They're gonna say. Now then they start saying,
Speaker 1: you have money, that's white folks stuff, or if you
Speaker 1: could teach, that's white white folks stuff, right, you know,
Speaker 1: well give me all the white folks stuff, because yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear it, so I guess, right,
Speaker 1: Thank you all right, bet that's always inspired to see
Speaker 1: my brother man men DC is very humble, quiet, I know,
Speaker 1: men DC's men DC is y'all know the TVs made
Speaker 1: like they got one little glimpse of it when you
Speaker 1: know he had gotten to the fight with with um
Speaker 1: Yetty's cousin trainer. You know they've seen that little thing
Speaker 1: that you know he got another side. But men DC
Speaker 1: has just grown. Man, he's evolved into somebody that you
Speaker 1: know is it's just and you can see that he's
Speaker 1: very intentional about being better, right, And that's what I
Speaker 1: say about a lot of people like that, that we
Speaker 1: don't get that most of the people who have been incarcerated,
Speaker 1: who committed crimes in our communities, they're not bad people.
Speaker 1: They didn't want to commit crimes. There was a level
Speaker 1: of desperation, there was a level of hopelessness that we
Speaker 1: all felt and we felt that was the way to
Speaker 1: get out of it. But to our core, we were
Speaker 1: all good people. A lot of I know a lot
Speaker 1: of good people. And you know a lot of people
Speaker 1: say there's no no on amongst Steve's and I believe that,
Speaker 1: but their honor amongst honorable people who feel the need
Speaker 1: to commit a crime. See, that's a different thing. You
Speaker 1: can be an honorable person and feel like you need
Speaker 1: to commit crimes to survive. If you're just a thief
Speaker 1: and and that's just your nature, then there's no honor.
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of people in the streets who
Speaker 1: who commit crimes, who engage in illegal activities, who are
Speaker 1: honorable individuals, And if you give them different opportunities and
Speaker 1: put them in in circumstances and situations where they don't
Speaker 1: have to commit those problems, they will definitely not do it.
Speaker 1: And you know, and I think and DCS is a
Speaker 1: testament to what you can do when you're given the opportunities,
Speaker 1: when you evolve, when you come home and you you
Speaker 1: you see the ers in your ways and you realize
Speaker 1: how it affects the people you love and your family,
Speaker 1: and it takes you out of you know, situations that
Speaker 1: you can be prospering. And you know, so I just
Speaker 1: want to salute them, man, salute them. A awesome guy.
Speaker 1: I'm happy. I'm proud of them, but I'm I'm I'm
Speaker 1: proud of him. I'm proud of them, but I am
Speaker 1: most passionately happy for my sister because I know that
Speaker 1: having a strong man, strong black man ain't nothing like it.
Speaker 1: Shout up wants to get shout out to men d
Speaker 1: c's excellent interview. I hope people tune in and make
Speaker 1: sure you look go to Dancing Creeps right underground. Make
Speaker 1: sure story. I love that when he said when he
Speaker 1: first came on, he thought it was a gimmick, like
Speaker 1: his mindset is a certain way, right, and he's growing
Speaker 1: out of that. But there was a time and he liked,
Speaker 1: everything is a hustle, everything is a gimmick, skin kid, like,
Speaker 1: that's white people stuff we don't create, you know, damn.
Speaker 1: And then he found out it actually works. And I
Speaker 1: know several people who use Yell skincare. The only reason
Speaker 1: why I can't say, oh, I use it every day
Speaker 1: is because my German tality put me on something eleven
Speaker 1: years ago that works. And when you have something that works,
Speaker 1: more than likely, you know you're not gonna just change
Speaker 1: because your friend came out with something else, Like that's
Speaker 1: just not how it works. Um. But I have been
Speaker 1: a big supporter of Yell, and several people that I
Speaker 1: turned onto the product love it and they use it. Listen,
Speaker 1: I do it. I make sure I'm a scale, I'm
Speaker 1: a um zell skinning care for ye yell, I am
Speaker 1: a yell and skinning care fonetic. You know, so that
Speaker 1: brings me to my I don't get it. This is
Speaker 1: some of the weirdest ship of it. Like we keep
Speaker 1: constantly seeing weirdowship. Right. So, over a dozen female inmates
Speaker 1: were raped, assaulted, and harassed in an Indiana jail after
Speaker 1: corrections officer so keys to their sale to the male
Speaker 1: prisoners for a thousand dollars. Like, how in the hell
Speaker 1: did he think that was gonna work? Like what was
Speaker 1: going through his mind? Like like it's some sick ship.
Speaker 1: It's like it really is some sick things like some
Speaker 1: of the things that we see, like you so keys
Speaker 1: to the inmates. So they were just running into the sales.
Speaker 1: Twenty eight women found lawsuits. Like here's the thing that
Speaker 1: I wanted to say, do you know what the biggest
Speaker 1: problem is? But what he did, what he got money
Speaker 1: for it, That's what got him in trumble because I
Speaker 1: can tell you right now keys are being passed around
Speaker 1: for free, and it's been going on for decades, however
Speaker 1: long incarceration has been going on. I was I was
Speaker 1: in the print, Well, you know what the jail I
Speaker 1: was in. There was no females in the prison. So
Speaker 1: for most for the most part, the males and the
Speaker 1: females are not in the same prison. So I don't
Speaker 1: even know. I don't even know the dynamic that this
Speaker 1: prison has to where uh inmate male inmate can get
Speaker 1: to the part of the jail anything with the female
Speaker 1: is to get into a cell and and doing anything.
Speaker 1: I don't even understand. I didn't see it saying only
Speaker 1: other incarcerated individuals were going in to male inmates them
Speaker 1: them too, how Okay, So my thing is this, how
Speaker 1: so look who else was coming into jail. But the
Speaker 1: point I'm making to you, my son, is it had
Speaker 1: to be facilitated, which means that I'm not talking about outsiders.
Speaker 1: It could be staff, kitchen staff, it could be other
Speaker 1: specifically bill inmates. Okay, So then that means that somebody
Speaker 1: was allowing them. It's a it's called an enterprise, right,
Speaker 1: this is tried. Somebody was. It wasn't just him, it
Speaker 1: had to be it is. It's two of them, is
Speaker 1: Jamie and David. So they must have been running a racket,
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. So all I'm explaining to you
Speaker 1: is that the only reason why you're reading this and
Speaker 1: it's an issue is because money was involved and these
Speaker 1: women decided to sue. We have a friend, a very
Speaker 1: close friend who is a motivational speaker that is powerful
Speaker 1: and incredible, who was imprisoned for several years, a woman
Speaker 1: who tells the story of how the CEOs came into
Speaker 1: their cell. Her and another woman that was in there
Speaker 1: and has sex with them regularly and especially made sure
Speaker 1: that they got fallacio whenever they wanted it from these
Speaker 1: And they were young, Okay, they were not thirty and
Speaker 1: forty whatever years old. They were young, Okay, So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna listen. I'm not saying that those things happen that.
Speaker 1: I'm just explaining to you that the only thing that
Speaker 1: makes this rise to being worthy of discussion, which is
Speaker 1: always should be worthy discussion, is that they got paid.
Speaker 1: Because it's not just what I'm trying to say. There's
Speaker 1: a dynamic. I'm not just told because it makes and
Speaker 1: officers have had relationship incarcerated individuals definitely. You know, prisoners
Speaker 1: and and officers have always had those things. There's it's
Speaker 1: always happened. I know that I know that for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but we're not talking about that because, by the way,
Speaker 1: because by the way, that sounds like the slave master
Speaker 1: and the enslaved individual relations every now and then. I'm
Speaker 1: sure there's CEOs that sleep with with prisoners, as you said,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, sure, but in a lot of cases, as
Speaker 1: it relates to the way in incarcerated individuals, they don't
Speaker 1: want to do it. I'm not saying they want to
Speaker 1: do it. I'm not saying I'm not saying that's not
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that the dynamic of an officer being
Speaker 1: able to have access to herself is not new. That's
Speaker 1: something that mostly an officer the size and he's on
Speaker 1: the gallery, he can open the ceiling running and do
Speaker 1: whatever he wants to and even if she don't want it,
Speaker 1: he can do that. But what it would take for
Speaker 1: another inmate to get from another wing of a jail
Speaker 1: to go into the female's wing raper didn't get back,
Speaker 1: and nobody seem like this ship had to be a
Speaker 1: real They had to be running something because it's so
Speaker 1: many officers in between the different sections of a jail
Speaker 1: where women are held in a man jail, that it
Speaker 1: had to be. This ship had it is more than
Speaker 1: just these two people that was involved in this situation. No,
Speaker 1: I'm sure. But even in that, even in the scenario
Speaker 1: that you described where officer could go in the cell
Speaker 1: and do whatever they want, there's still many eyeballs turning
Speaker 1: away from that because the cameras are showing you going
Speaker 1: in and out of the cell. It's not like there's cameras.
Speaker 1: That's what are you talking about in the in the
Speaker 1: you're telling me that in the jail down these halls
Speaker 1: and corridors there it ain't no, it ain't no. I
Speaker 1: don't know if now, but there was not one no,
Speaker 1: not one camera sing sing inside the blocks, not not one.
Speaker 1: That isn't that's crazy, that's but but I would hope
Speaker 1: that there is a way to be able to see
Speaker 1: and monitor. Right, the control room is supposed to see
Speaker 1: what is going on. The only thing in control room
Speaker 1: sees is like the doors that you go through to
Speaker 1: get to the cell blocks. But there's no cameras inside
Speaker 1: the cell blocks. Mm hmm. Well, how does that help
Speaker 1: a woman or a man or anybody that's being assaulted,
Speaker 1: Because basically, if that's how they know, they would have
Speaker 1: been This couldn't happen if they had cameras inside the
Speaker 1: cell box, because if the camera would have courted all
Speaker 1: the time, so and nobody, the controller ain't gonna be like, yo,
Speaker 1: I'm involved in man. That is all types of federal charges.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't necessarily I don't agree with that. I think
Speaker 1: that everybody you. I think if you're an officer who
Speaker 1: was doing something with an h incarcerated person, there's a
Speaker 1: couple of people that's know something about you going in there.
Speaker 1: Ain right, you're going there often there's some energy, there's
Speaker 1: something that is going to bring cause people to see,
Speaker 1: but they don't want to see because nobody wants to
Speaker 1: be the one to be the whistle blower, to tell
Speaker 1: the story, to do the thing, and to have to
Speaker 1: be a part of what now becomes snitching or whatever.
Speaker 1: On your the colleague right. And someone said to me,
Speaker 1: you know, have many correction officers in my family. And
Speaker 1: someone said to me one day that it is you
Speaker 1: don't when you go behind the gates, right, when you
Speaker 1: going behind these don't you know what they say? No,
Speaker 1: two doors open at the same time. So when you
Speaker 1: step into the jail, you become just as much of
Speaker 1: a prisoner as the prisoners, because anything can happen and
Speaker 1: people don't have your back in the midst of a situation,
Speaker 1: you could die. So it's it's it's real. That is
Speaker 1: really sad, like that these women were being assaulted by
Speaker 1: men who just had access to them and nobody protected them.
Speaker 1: That's sick. That's unbelievable. Mhm. Well that brings us to
Speaker 1: the end of another episode of Street Politicians. Shout out
Speaker 1: to our guests, men, d cs. You know, I'm glad
Speaker 1: he's being released off probation because I know what that's like,
Speaker 1: early released three and a half years that he could
Speaker 1: have still been doing and he led him off early. Man.
Speaker 1: Just seeing him continue to prosper being a father, entrepreneur, businessman,
Speaker 1: and just somebody who who I see as a role model,
Speaker 1: somebody who has evolved from the trenches from where we
Speaker 1: come from that young kids can look at and say
Speaker 1: it's possible. Man. So shout out to him and um,
Speaker 1: if you have any topics that you want us to
Speaker 1: talk about, send them to Street Politicians so we can
Speaker 1: get your topics on. If you have any you know, ideas,
Speaker 1: if you have any yes, you want us to interview anything,
Speaker 1: let us know a Street Politicians on Instagram, d m
Speaker 1: U s and we'll we'll it. Will definitely work on
Speaker 1: getting that done, so once again, we love you. Mary
Speaker 1: is not gonna always be wrong my song It's not
Speaker 1: gonna always be right, but we were both all ways,
Speaker 1: and I may always be authentic. Listen to Street Politicians
Speaker 1: on the Black Effect Network on I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: catch us every single Wednesday for the video version of
Speaker 1: Street Politicians or I Women Dot Tv