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Speaker 1: So when we would talk to folks, I would ask us, so,

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Speaker 1: what's your next move?

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Speaker 2: What's your next plan?

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Speaker 1: You know, understanding it's a business and the moment that

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Speaker 1: the numbers go down, the metrics go down, Uh, they'll

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Speaker 1: remind you that it's a business, business, a business.

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Speaker 3: What if I told you there was more to the

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Speaker 3: story behind game changing events? Get ready for my new podcast,

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Speaker 3: That Moment with Damon John will jump into the personal

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Speaker 3: stories of some of the most influential people on the planet,

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Speaker 3: from business mobiles and celebrities to athletes and artists.

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Speaker 4: So I'm sitting here today with a very special friend

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Speaker 4: and buddy that I respect, Sway Callaway and you whether

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Speaker 4: thank you, Damon, thank you brother for being here. Of course, Sway,

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Speaker 4: as you may or may not know, is amazing broadcaster

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Speaker 4: and you may have seen him everything from MTV to

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Speaker 4: I heard him of course on Cyrus Exam and things

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Speaker 4: of that nature. But my team and I only had

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Speaker 4: a good idea. Why don't I actually interview Sway?

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Speaker 2: Ah? No, who told you that was a good idea though? Uh? Millennials,

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Speaker 2: one of.

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Speaker 4: The millennials around myself with a bunch of malimium models. Okay,

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Speaker 4: have you been interviewed before, I'm sure.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been asked a lot of questions before, but

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Speaker 1: not I've been an interview But you know, it's it's

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Speaker 1: see what you will?

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Speaker 2: You do this? Well? Living is.

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Speaker 1: Kind of control the narrative, right, you know when someone

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Speaker 1: is interviewing you. So I very seldom let my hair down,

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Speaker 1: so to speak, you know, in the interview, as I

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Speaker 1: would with you if you asked.

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Speaker 2: Me a question. Definitely definitely appreciate that. Yeah, so good.

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Speaker 4: So I'm going to ask you a couple of questions

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Speaker 4: that I think that maybe I've been curious about. So

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Speaker 4: a lot of people may or may not know your history.

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Speaker 4: Can you tell me just a little bit about where

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Speaker 4: you started and.

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Speaker 2: You know, before becoming a that's a broadcast. Yeah, I.

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Speaker 1: Don't speak a lot about the history. In high school,

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Speaker 1: I met my partner, DJ king Tech who and he

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Speaker 1: and I both were just fans of music.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 1: I grew up playing instruments. I played the saxophone and

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Speaker 1: played the clarinet. I played the bass clarinet. He just

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Speaker 1: grew up a music lover and got into the boy

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Speaker 1: coaching and used to break dance in the Oakland Bay area.

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Speaker 1: I'm from Oakland. He was from Hayward. We had a

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Speaker 1: mutual friend who introduced us. Friend I grew up running

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Speaker 1: track with and he grew up dancing with. And that

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Speaker 1: friend took a different path after he introduced us. He

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Speaker 1: went more of a street path, you know, he went

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Speaker 1: into the streets basically, you know, which left two strangers

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Speaker 1: who had a single idea of becoming a rap group.

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Speaker 1: And like anyone else who was in high school, you know,

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Speaker 1: ll was somebody we idolized, and you know, you know

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Speaker 1: whom d and all these guys. But we were from

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Speaker 1: the Bay and we started making music. The way we

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Speaker 1: did it is we saved up money and bought equipment.

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Speaker 1: One of the first keyboards we bought was from shot

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Speaker 1: G from Digital Underground. One of the first drum sequences

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Speaker 1: we bought Digital Underground and had money be Tupac Shakur

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Speaker 1: for Fear DJ fues in it, and we started making

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Speaker 1: this music. I didn't sound like a guy from Oakland,

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Speaker 1: you know, at that time you had too shortened others

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Speaker 1: coming from Oakland. I was more of a guy who

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Speaker 1: was trying to flip syllables, you know, Big Daddy Kane

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Speaker 1: with somebody I liked, and so it took us a

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Speaker 1: long time to really kind of find a home at home.

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Speaker 1: And we had a lot of doors slammed on our faces.

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Speaker 1: We were shopping record deals, and when we came to

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Speaker 1: New York where the most of the business was, I

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Speaker 1: was from Oakland. I didn't sound like a New York

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Speaker 1: MC and we were told you'll never make it.

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Speaker 2: You'll never make it, you know.

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Speaker 1: And so we came home and tried to figure out

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Speaker 1: what how can we get our music out if nobody's

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Speaker 1: going to give.

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Speaker 2: Us a chance.

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Speaker 1: And San Francisco State, you know, when we were in

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Speaker 1: the high school, off of these extra extended curriculum courses

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Speaker 1: on the law aspects of the music business. And it

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Speaker 1: was taught by a guy by the name of Ralph

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Speaker 1: Tajan who was an attorney, active attorney in the music business.

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Speaker 1: And all you had to do was pay a little

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Speaker 1: bit of money you could take these courses. So I

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Speaker 1: didn't know where it would lead me, but I went

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Speaker 1: and took this course, and in the process, this attorney

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Speaker 1: started breaking down, well, this is how distribution works, all right,

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Speaker 1: this is how marketing works. This is our promo system.

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Speaker 1: He broke down the system and he created. He showed

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Speaker 1: us the infrastructure on how record labels do their business,

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Speaker 1: and my partner Tech and I were like, man, well,

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Speaker 1: look if we can't get anybody else to do it

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Speaker 1: for us. He was working at Domino's. I was working

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Speaker 1: at place called quick Ways, a burger joint exclusive to Oakland.

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Speaker 1: Let's save up our money and do it ourselves. And

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Speaker 1: we saved up money, and we worked out of his studio,

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Speaker 1: sixteen track studio and called Artevire's his guy name, and

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Speaker 1: he Earnest. He was the engineer, and he ended up

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Speaker 1: allowing us to come to utilize the studio. We didn't

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Speaker 1: have enough money to pay them, so we worked in

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Speaker 1: this studio and with the time, he compensated us with

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Speaker 1: time instead of in money. And from there we were

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Speaker 1: able to make our first demo tape and then create

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Speaker 1: our first lacquer that we were able to burn vinyl with.

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Speaker 1: With this company called Rainbow Records, which is independent, we

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Speaker 1: made cassette tapes. We made a minimum amount of cassette tapes,

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Speaker 1: We made a minimum amount of vinyl.

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Speaker 2: And we wanted CDs.

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Speaker 1: Was still kind of like a veath technology back there,

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Speaker 1: you know, so we were put those things out to

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Speaker 1: see what would happen, and people would respond.

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Speaker 4: What year was that.

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Speaker 1: This was eighty nine, eighty nine, about eighty eight, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And we put it out to see how people will react.

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Speaker 1: And immediately we start doing these things. Well I didn't

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Speaker 1: know what a assignment deal was, you know. And we

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Speaker 1: would go to these stores and say, yeah, man, just

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Speaker 1: leave it here, come back in thirty days.

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Speaker 4: And we'll pay you will we seld Really that's how

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Speaker 4: it works.

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Speaker 1: So we'll leave fifty cassettes there in thirty days, you know,

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Speaker 1: thirty of them will sell and they would pay us

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Speaker 1: partial payments. It's like, well, but you're not going to

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Speaker 1: pay for the whole thirty Well if you if you

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Speaker 1: reshow for us with more product, then we'll pay you

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Speaker 1: for the first back. And then and there I started

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Speaker 1: learning about the inner workings of the music business.

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Speaker 2: Really.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, if you keep feeding the system, the system will

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Speaker 1: keep feeding you, right, okay. And so we went back

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Speaker 1: and pressed up a bunch of the same product, but

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Speaker 1: we pressed up a lot more, but it didn't sell.

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Speaker 2: Like the little bit did you know.

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Speaker 4: So it was like one inventory in the market had.

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Speaker 1: More inventory in the market. But it was and moving

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Speaker 1: and we were like, how do we get it to move?

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Speaker 1: And we'll go back to the retailers and they'll say, well,

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Speaker 1: you didn't sell as much.

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Speaker 2: Do you have anything new?

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Speaker 1: All right, man, we got another group we could, you know,

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Speaker 1: bring you that. And so we just got into this

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Speaker 1: circle of finance, you know, meet demand, product, you know,

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Speaker 1: product finance, this whole circle. And but it was a

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Speaker 1: learning process that we took from it.

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Speaker 2: Uh.

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Speaker 1: We eventually, because of that move we made started creating

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Speaker 1: a buzz in northern California. The same person who taught

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Speaker 1: that class at San Francisco State. We went back to

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Speaker 1: his now, Ralph Tajohn. He's in the book The Hit Men,

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Speaker 1: an industry music industry book that because A it's a

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Speaker 1: it's a legendary. But that's a legendary. And somebody's in music.

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Speaker 1: They don't know that book. They got a bigger problem.

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Speaker 1: They should know that book.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: Ralph is one of the key characters in that book.

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Speaker 1: And he took it to he took our product with

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Speaker 1: the track record or a proof of concept if you will,

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Speaker 1: all right, you know, to a guy by the name

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Speaker 1: of Irving Azoff who had just kicked off this new

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Speaker 1: label called Giant Warner Brothers and Irving Azoff. I don't

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Speaker 1: know if he knew the music or cared about the music,

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Speaker 1: but they saw the numbers, you know, what we were

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Speaker 1: doing independently in the bay. He was like, wow, well

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Speaker 1: these guys are doing this on their own, what will

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Speaker 1: they do with us. Different experience though, when we signed

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Speaker 1: with the major label, because there was so many moving

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Speaker 1: variables that we didn't know about, and budgets were being

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Speaker 1: thrown around the place and we had no control over

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Speaker 1: the budgets, and people were hired on our budget that

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Speaker 1: we never even heard of and paid on our budget

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Speaker 1: that we had we would have to pay back in

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Speaker 1: our recruitment.

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Speaker 2: But taught us another level about the business.

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Speaker 4: Well well let me let me let me ask you something.

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Speaker 4: You know, many people would have said, man, I don't

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Speaker 4: have any money the against studio equipment.

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Speaker 2: So you did that.

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Speaker 4: Then you go to New York and everybody tells, you know,

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Speaker 4: it can't happen, And they would say, well, listen, we

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Speaker 4: just went to the home hip hop, right and all right,

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Speaker 4: I guess we're done.

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Speaker 2: All right.

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Speaker 4: Then somebody would said, well, you know, we want to

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Speaker 4: do our own stuff, but we don't have enough hours

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Speaker 4: to you know, money to buy hours in the studio.

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Speaker 4: So you go and leverage your time and you find

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Speaker 4: that and then somebody would say, well, the still is

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Speaker 4: not going to buy it from us, Well who are?

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Speaker 2: We'll stop.

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Speaker 4: So what was in it for the studio owner was?

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Speaker 4: I guess he gets some really uh inexpensive labor because

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Speaker 4: I'm sure, yeah, you got you got hours putting in.

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Speaker 4: You know, we're not quantifiable in a sense. The store

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Speaker 4: owner is, I have to pay for this. I had

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Speaker 4: to pay for this. I had to pay for this.

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Speaker 4: That's an expenditure. But if this is in my store already,

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Speaker 4: I don't have to pay for it. Everything I make

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Speaker 4: I can keep and I don't don't have to pay it.

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Speaker 4: By don't you use it? So it's an advantage to me.

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Speaker 4: What gave you that mentality to understand how to leverage

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Speaker 4: what's in it for the person you're leveraging you with?

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Speaker 2: That's a great question.

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Speaker 1: You know you mentioned something earlier about education and teachers

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Speaker 1: being our greatest natural resource in this country. And if

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Speaker 1: it's a kid who's being taught about history and Christopher

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Speaker 1: Columbus Shore, we should all know our history, they'll be

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Speaker 1: excited about that. But if it's someone over here on

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Speaker 1: the other side making you a business offer your innate

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Speaker 1: response or impults, we all kind.

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Speaker 2: Of gravitate towards that.

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Speaker 1: I was gravitating towards the opportunity to learn how this

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Speaker 1: business works. And I was willing to take the loss

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Speaker 1: of two steps to gain that information that can help

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Speaker 1: me grow five steps.

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Speaker 2: And so it was that.

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Speaker 1: And then the second thing was this intangible feeling that

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Speaker 1: I know New York is the mecca.

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Speaker 4: But they really don't know what they have in front

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Speaker 4: of them.

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Speaker 2: They don't know who we are.

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Speaker 1: They don't and I bet if we could show people

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Speaker 1: who we are, the regional boundaries and all of that

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Speaker 1: stuff won't make a difference. We believed in ourselves so

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Speaker 1: much that when people told us no, we didn't think

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Speaker 1: we would whack. We just thought, damn, they don't get it.

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Speaker 2: Well.

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Speaker 4: But you also went ahead and took a course that

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Speaker 4: was available for you. And the course wasn't on how

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Speaker 4: to play instruments, was it? Or was it wasn't on

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Speaker 4: how to operate this keyboard. It was on the business

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Speaker 4: of music.

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Speaker 2: So you know, that's.

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Speaker 4: Generally rare when somebody is a creative and they're an

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Speaker 4: artist and they want to go out and create art.

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Speaker 4: It's almost like a painter going to take the business

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Speaker 4: of selling artwork. Was it because your desire was to

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Speaker 4: participate in this world of hip hop in whatever form?

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Speaker 4: Was it I don't want to get screwed when I

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Speaker 4: get to this level.

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Speaker 2: Or was it.

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Speaker 4: Something else? It was both of It was all of

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Speaker 4: those things.

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Speaker 1: It was the desire to be in this world by

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Speaker 1: any means, you know, it was what appealed to me.

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Speaker 1: I loved what what the culture stands for, what it

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Speaker 1: provided for us, a voice representation when we had a

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Speaker 1: lack thereof.

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Speaker 2: It was exciting.

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Speaker 1: I didn't see myself going your typical path of going

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Speaker 1: to college and graduating and taking some job and uh

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Speaker 1: some you know that.

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Speaker 2: I didn't really want to be in.

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Speaker 1: Number one number two being from Oakland. So in Oakland

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Speaker 1: we grow up with a hustler's mentality, and we know

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Speaker 1: that preparation is the best protection. Information to me is

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Speaker 1: the most valuable thing you have at your disposal when

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Speaker 1: you don't have money, and so I wanted to obtain

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Speaker 1: that information because the business wasn't letting me in. So

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Speaker 1: I wanted to learn about the business that wasn't letting

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Speaker 1: me in. Find a door I go open for myself,

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Speaker 1: get in anyway, and in the process, you're always gonna

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Speaker 1: get jerked, you know.

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Speaker 2: In the music business, sure, but it's you're always gonna

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Speaker 2: get fucked.

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Speaker 1: But I didn't want to get gang banged, so, you know,

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Speaker 1: So that information helped us get there. But to your point,

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Speaker 1: it did stifle to create a process from your you know.

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Speaker 1: And I understood too that I needed to adjust myself

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Speaker 1: in this process in order to stare asset in it.

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Speaker 1: This was before we got to radio and we were

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Speaker 1: still artists. But the more I learned about the business,

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Speaker 1: the more I wanted to kind of protect the art,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean, and be that person to

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Speaker 1: put the art out.

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Speaker 4: I mean, I think that's one thing that a lot

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Speaker 4: of people don't realize. So whether it's whether it's selling

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Speaker 4: music or there it's real estate, people don't realize that

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Speaker 4: no matter what, in every transaction, somebody makes money. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: no matter what people think, Well that the building I

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Speaker 4: bought it, it wasn't no good. So well so then

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Speaker 4: the bankruptcy attorney made of the auctionneer made the money

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Speaker 4: or whatever the case is, or somebody got it for

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Speaker 4: cheap costs and flipped it. But no matter what, every transaction,

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Speaker 4: somebody makes money. And a lot of times in let's say, in.

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Speaker 2: The mu using business.

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Speaker 4: You know, if you get to know the business and

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Speaker 4: whatever business people are they're listening to us, they need

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Speaker 4: to understand that there are forces moving in certain ways

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Speaker 4: that will profit all of success, mediocre, theft or just failure.

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Speaker 4: And as you get to know those aspects of the business,

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Speaker 4: people think they only need to know one aspect of business,

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Speaker 4: and business is something that I'm still learning, right, So

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Speaker 4: you're learning now this business. You go to you know,

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Speaker 4: Warner and you start to find out a lot of

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Speaker 4: people getting checks that should or shouldn't. A lot of

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Speaker 4: things happened. What's going on with your success as a

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Speaker 4: as an artist?

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Speaker 1: As an artist? It was interesting, it was you know,

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Speaker 1: when we signed the Warner Brothers, we we had a

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Speaker 1: song that started doing really well in Northern California called

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Speaker 1: follow for Now and and this is at the tell

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Speaker 1: end of us be an artist belongs to us at

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Speaker 1: that time, you know, you know, the song was doing well,

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Speaker 1: was circulating all over Northern California's gravitating towards the Midwest,

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Speaker 1: and but the album wasn't doing well, you know what

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Speaker 1: I mean. And back then, you know, you didn't get

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Speaker 1: no second chances. And one of the things we did,

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Speaker 1: you know, we traveled. I remember coming to Philadelphia on

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Speaker 1: the tour and we were had a performance right under

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Speaker 1: the stairs where Rocky Balboa ran up the well side along.

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Speaker 1: We were at the bottom of the stairs.

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Speaker 2: Well.

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Speaker 1: Some radio station that played that supported our song, and

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Speaker 1: we're like, in Philadelphia, people know us in Philadelphia. The

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Speaker 1: ain't no sway of tech arm Philadelphia.

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Speaker 4: Wow.

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Speaker 1: So I'm performing, We're doing the song and we were

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Speaker 1: really great with showmanship. And afterwards we were going to

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Speaker 1: leave and a.

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Speaker 4: Bunch of a group of kids hung out and was like, hey.

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Speaker 2: Man, can we get your autoground?

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Speaker 4: And we were like, wow, you even know who we are,

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Speaker 4: That's why we're here, man.

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Speaker 2: They play a song on the radio. Yeah man, cool man,

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Speaker 2: Yeah man.

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Speaker 1: And I'm signing autographs, yeah man, and Philly man, you

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Speaker 1: know we got you know, we got the cheese steaks

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Speaker 1: and you know we'll off from the West side. Well

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Speaker 1: over here we got this that and I'm learning about

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Speaker 1: as people are talking I'm asking about the city. Hum, okay,

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Speaker 1: great man, thank you man. I stayed out there an

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Speaker 1: extra hour. All those people just man, we love you man. Congratulations.

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Speaker 1: Could you know, wish you the best? Every city we

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Speaker 1: did that in. At the end of the show, I

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Speaker 1: start doing that same thing. So I'm learning about these

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Speaker 1: cities and I don't know how it benefits. Fast forward,

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Speaker 1: my partner can check into the DJ contest. I enter

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Speaker 1: a rap battle because he wanted to get more music

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Speaker 1: played on the radio, and the winner of the DJ

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Speaker 1: contest got forty minutes to mix. The winner of the

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Speaker 1: rap battle got a song played on the station in

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Speaker 1: the local station. We both won each contest, so they

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Speaker 1: played our song on the station, so it gave us

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Speaker 1: more exposure. The forty minute mix he did ended up

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Speaker 1: kind of revolutionizing how Bay Area program radio, which eventually

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Speaker 1: revolutionized what we know today as rap on mainstream radio.

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Speaker 1: You had the legends here in New York that were

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Speaker 1: doing a lot of night shows and had rap programs,

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Speaker 1: whether it was Rap Attack or whatever it was, but

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Speaker 1: general consensus and mainstream radio P one stations programmers were

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Speaker 1: not playing rap in regular day parts in the afternoon drive,

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Speaker 1: in midday and that mix we did was at night time,

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Speaker 1: but it got so popular that they never had to

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Speaker 1: kind of call out response that they received from somebody

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Speaker 1: doing a forty minute mix. And we approached the program

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Speaker 1: director and say, instead of us doing this forty minute mix,

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Speaker 1: give us a two hour show. And in this show,

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Speaker 1: we'll call it the wake Up Shows double untonso to

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Speaker 1: be at nighttime, but we want to wake people up

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Speaker 1: to information about culture, lifestyle, politics, everything that Source magazine

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Speaker 1: became in the beginning with what this show was it

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Speaker 1: and it got it got really popular, you know, and

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Speaker 1: at that point I was making my transition from being

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Speaker 1: an artists in front of the mic rapping to being

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Speaker 1: a broadcaster in front of the mike talking.

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Speaker 4: But what made you want to do that? You know,

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Speaker 4: many of us know the book Who Moved My Cheese?

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Speaker 4: And you know this Hyman Hall, the ones who keep saying, no,

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Speaker 4: the cheese is going to come back, the cheese is

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Speaker 4: going to come back, And artists, many of them say,

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Speaker 4: you know, the cheese is gonna come back. One more hit,

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Speaker 4: one more hit, and they actually me say, I'm not

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Speaker 4: going to be the guy interviewing people.

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Speaker 2: I should be interviewed.

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Speaker 4: I I My mama told me, I can say, right,

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Speaker 4: what was the need to say? I can do that,

378
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Speaker 4: and maybe I'm not as good or the rapper or

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Speaker 4: managers don't want to be involved on that side of

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Speaker 4: the business. What gave you that, either guts or fear

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Speaker 4: or whatever it was.

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Speaker 1: Well, all these things were happening, but you know, at

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Speaker 1: any given two weeks, everything could have felt apart. So

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Speaker 1: it was a sense of survival in this. I learned

385
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Speaker 1: that what I enjoyed most about being on stage rapping

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Speaker 1: is communicating with people and generating a response from folks.

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Speaker 1: And I didn't think as a rapper that I could

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Speaker 1: see myself excelling any further, you know, unless I put

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Speaker 1: everything else down and put all my energy into that.

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Speaker 1: And by that time we started producing other groups and

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Speaker 1: putting them out independently, and I really enjoyed overseeing projects

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Speaker 1: and being a part of the creative process in that way,

393
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Speaker 1: and I started to enjoy it as much as I

394
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Speaker 1: did being in front of the mic. And then I

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Speaker 1: started to enjoy it more because it was a sense

396
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Speaker 1: of pride in knowing that we were autonomous and how

397
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Speaker 1: we were releasing all these independent artists. And even though

398
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Speaker 1: we weren't selling as much as major artists may have been.

399
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Speaker 1: It was ours. And when that opportunity came to get

400
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Speaker 1: on the mic and do this mix show and do

401
00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:24,880
Speaker 1: this radio show, I realized that, man, now the reach

402
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Speaker 1: is even broader, you know, And I'm still really doing

403
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Speaker 1: the same thing, but I'm doing it in the form

404
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Speaker 1: of a broadcaster. I didn't study journalism or anything like that,

405
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Speaker 1: but I was able to adjust. But what happened was

406
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Speaker 1: the same thing. Thirst I had to learn about, Well,

407
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Speaker 1: how does distribution and all this stiff stuff work. I

408
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Speaker 1: wanted to learn about radio. So how does radio work? Like,

409
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Speaker 1: how do songs get played? How do radio personalities get big?

410
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Speaker 1: Who are the biggest radio personalities at that time? Was

411
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Speaker 1: a guy named John London who did our morning show.

412
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Speaker 1: Howard Stern had broadcast in the Bay. There's a guy

413
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Speaker 1: named Rick Chase, a woman name were Now. And one

414
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Speaker 1: of the things that they all had in common was

415
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Speaker 1: they had empathy on the mic for for the audience,

416
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Speaker 1: you know, or at least they portrayed it right right,

417
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Speaker 1: you know what I mean, like they faked it well

418
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Speaker 1: enough or you thought, man, this to man, these are

419
00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:24,959
Speaker 1: they really get where we are? Where we're coming from, right,

420
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Speaker 1: I didn't have to fake it all right, So I

421
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Speaker 1: didn't have proper training. So when we spoke, we spoke

422
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Speaker 1: directly to our audience. We didn't speak broadcasters back then.

423
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Speaker 1: Was hey, welcome to the soul and you know, it

424
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Speaker 1: was like, okay, what's up?

425
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Speaker 2: All right?

426
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Speaker 1: So man hawja, we go to man, this is what happened,

427
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Speaker 1: this is what took place in my day. You could

428
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Speaker 1: relate to that man, call us up, and this is

429
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Speaker 1: what we're going to do.

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Speaker 4: And as we go through this, and I know you

431
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Speaker 4: have a limit of time, and I'm not gonna take

432
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Speaker 4: up too much more of your time because there's a

433
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Speaker 4: lot of people that watch information like this and they said, well,

434
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Speaker 4: how does that apply to me? But if you look

435
00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:02,680
Speaker 4: at the fund and mentals of business, it's nobody ever

436
00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:05,760
Speaker 4: has to buy anything from your meaning they don't have

437
00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:07,560
Speaker 4: to listen to your radio station, they don't have to

438
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:09,879
Speaker 4: like your YouTube channel, follow you on whatever, buy your

439
00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:14,320
Speaker 4: shirt of lotion. But that every day person, what you're

440
00:23:14,320 --> 00:23:16,400
Speaker 4: doing for your customer, no matter how you perceive them,

441
00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:20,719
Speaker 4: is you take You're curing a pain that they have.

442
00:23:21,640 --> 00:23:26,159
Speaker 4: And when you look at empathy, people are feeling like

443
00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:28,840
Speaker 4: the world is so negative. And whether it's how a

444
00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:31,400
Speaker 4: Stern or one of the people that you were talking about,

445
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:35,520
Speaker 4: they're there to yell at their subjects, but they have

446
00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:39,560
Speaker 4: empathy for their audience, right, And it's still going to

447
00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:42,199
Speaker 4: be the fundamentals of business, no matter what are you

448
00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:45,360
Speaker 4: doing for those individuals out there, and the empathy, whether

449
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:47,560
Speaker 4: you're selling them a shirt. They may say I don't

450
00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:50,040
Speaker 4: feel good unless I'm wearing a brand, right, Or they

451
00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:52,560
Speaker 4: may say I don't feel warm or whatever case is,

452
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:54,080
Speaker 4: you know what, Or I feel bad when I spend

453
00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:55,879
Speaker 4: eighty dollars and it's only worth three, so cells me

454
00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:57,840
Speaker 4: for three because I can throw it away. Whatever it is,

455
00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:02,399
Speaker 4: the fundamentals are you you're so a pain or something

456
00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:06,200
Speaker 4: that hurts them. And now you have a show going

457
00:24:06,600 --> 00:24:11,440
Speaker 4: and it's a it's a local show, right.

458
00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:12,840
Speaker 2: Just in San Francisco at that time.

459
00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:16,760
Speaker 4: Yeah, Then all of a sudden, I start to see you,

460
00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:21,960
Speaker 4: yeah on MTV other places. How did that come on?

461
00:24:22,800 --> 00:24:23,800
Speaker 2: What a local show?

462
00:24:27,040 --> 00:24:28,719
Speaker 1: The reason why I told you about when I went

463
00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:33,640
Speaker 1: on tour, I started really communicating with the audience. When

464
00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:36,560
Speaker 1: I got on radio. I remembered that, you know, and

465
00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:43,480
Speaker 1: I remember you know, things that were personal. Connecting with

466
00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:47,080
Speaker 1: things that were personal with people, while we delivered information

467
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:52,000
Speaker 1: that people weren't privy to. Information is a great product,

468
00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:55,960
Speaker 1: you know. There's we seek information every single day on

469
00:24:56,000 --> 00:25:00,600
Speaker 1: our phones, so we love consuming information. At that time,

470
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:03,000
Speaker 1: we didn't have these devices.

471
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:04,760
Speaker 2: So I honed in.

472
00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:06,960
Speaker 4: On that, like, well, let me feed folks.

473
00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:08,119
Speaker 2: I got this power.

474
00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:12,359
Speaker 1: We're on this mic, and that's all we ever wanted

475
00:25:12,359 --> 00:25:16,320
Speaker 1: to do always, but it's important that I feed myself

476
00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:20,600
Speaker 1: to learn about how I could take those next affordable

477
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:22,080
Speaker 1: steps and what we're.

478
00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:22,400
Speaker 2: Trying to do.

479
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,520
Speaker 1: And what I saw was a void in many cities

480
00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:28,879
Speaker 1: around the country, maybe not New York. New York is

481
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:32,359
Speaker 1: its own special place, but people didn't have shows like this,

482
00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:36,919
Speaker 1: you know. And so we approached clear Channel, which was

483
00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:39,120
Speaker 1: the corporation that owned it before I think that now

484
00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:43,600
Speaker 1: iHeart if I'm not mistaken, and said, hey man, we

485
00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:48,160
Speaker 1: want to syndicate this show, and we got a sister

486
00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:51,360
Speaker 1: station in La ninety two point three to Beat at

487
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:55,480
Speaker 1: that time was the biggest station coming from the West coast,

488
00:25:56,600 --> 00:25:58,879
Speaker 1: so we want to be in San Francisco in ninety

489
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:00,919
Speaker 1: two point three to Beat, and we also got a

490
00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:04,239
Speaker 1: sister station in Philadelphia, which was Power ninety nine at

491
00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:08,239
Speaker 1: that time, and we have a following in Philadelphia, so

492
00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:09,880
Speaker 1: how can we syndicate this show here?

493
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:13,119
Speaker 2: And initially we didn't.

494
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:17,840
Speaker 1: Get a response from the company, and eventually I had

495
00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:40,320
Speaker 1: to approach another broadcast company, And eventually I had to

496
00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:45,359
Speaker 1: approach another broadcast company who was the competition in the

497
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:48,600
Speaker 1: main market LA and said, listen, all these things we're

498
00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:52,040
Speaker 1: doing in northern California, everything at Jock's in southern California

499
00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:55,000
Speaker 1: are kind of emulating, comes from the source. We want

500
00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:58,199
Speaker 1: to expand, and we created a bid and war, you know,

501
00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:03,800
Speaker 1: and eventually the company kept us. From there, we start

502
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:06,440
Speaker 1: picking up more and more stations, and eventually we became

503
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:12,080
Speaker 1: syndicated on four different continents and twenty nine different stations

504
00:27:12,119 --> 00:27:17,480
Speaker 1: around the country and in other places. Seeing the power

505
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:19,320
Speaker 1: of that reach gave us a lot of power in

506
00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:21,760
Speaker 1: the music business, because if you want to break a record,

507
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:24,359
Speaker 1: got to go to you. We gotta come to sway

508
00:27:24,359 --> 00:27:30,439
Speaker 1: in Tech. And when you guys first began Foobu, you know,

509
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:32,280
Speaker 1: and y'all would coming to the West coast, and he

510
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:34,600
Speaker 1: was coming on the radio station promoting y'all had t

511
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:37,560
Speaker 1: shirts and were we actually were doing giveaways, you know,

512
00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:39,000
Speaker 1: in LA.

513
00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:41,040
Speaker 2: For that reason.

514
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:44,600
Speaker 1: But I saw the power in that and still with

515
00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:47,760
Speaker 1: the idea we want to protect the art. We focused

516
00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:50,600
Speaker 1: on a lot of artists who didn't have mainstream appeal

517
00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:53,360
Speaker 1: and didn't have a big machine behind them and gave

518
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:55,920
Speaker 1: them a lot of exposure. Artists like at that time,

519
00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:59,639
Speaker 1: you know, the Fouji's or nis or you know, before

520
00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:04,160
Speaker 1: they beat these household names, and we would do concerts.

521
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:08,640
Speaker 1: We would create that experience. You were talking about how

522
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:12,560
Speaker 1: millennials today would prefer to pay for an experience than

523
00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:16,080
Speaker 1: a product, and we would create an experience in these

524
00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:19,560
Speaker 1: concerts that we would do, and the experience would incorporate

525
00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:22,720
Speaker 1: all the elements of hip hop. All of these things

526
00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:25,320
Speaker 1: were taking place in the nineties. You know, we even

527
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:27,639
Speaker 1: dabbled the merchandise and lost a lot, got it.

528
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:29,399
Speaker 4: But I mean, that's some of the good points that

529
00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:30,919
Speaker 4: I want to also touch on. You know, as you

530
00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:33,680
Speaker 4: tell your story, and I often we're too close to it,

531
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:35,639
Speaker 4: and whether it's people who are watching us in this

532
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:40,120
Speaker 4: room or watching us on these cameras, everybody has at

533
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:42,120
Speaker 4: a certain point during that because it sounded like that

534
00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:45,120
Speaker 4: may have expanded ten years, right or whatever, But how

535
00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:48,360
Speaker 4: are you paying yourself? And how many times did you say, man,

536
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:50,880
Speaker 4: I need to go get a regular job again, or

537
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:54,120
Speaker 4: this is never going to go anywhere, or there's one

538
00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:59,040
Speaker 4: hundred different hosts in different markets and they're gonna get syndicated,

539
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:02,400
Speaker 4: and you start second see yourself and maybe the love

540
00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:04,560
Speaker 4: of your life is second guessing you, and your mother

541
00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:06,640
Speaker 4: and father and parents, even though they may support you.

542
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:09,680
Speaker 4: How many times did you want to give up or

543
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:12,440
Speaker 4: did you just say it doesn't matter, I'm not going

544
00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:13,000
Speaker 4: to give up.

545
00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:19,160
Speaker 1: I was never going to give up, but I was

546
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:23,320
Speaker 1: scared that I was scared I was never going to

547
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 1: get in. At one point, you know, it was we

548
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:29,040
Speaker 1: were trying a whole lot of things that weren't working.

549
00:29:29,160 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 2: I'm telling you the things that, of course, and that's

550
00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:33,280
Speaker 2: I think that's a lot.

551
00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:35,840
Speaker 4: Because all of a sudden, we you know, we then

552
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:38,200
Speaker 4: start to see your MTV and where you are today,

553
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:41,520
Speaker 4: and I have maybe like one or two other questions

554
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:43,360
Speaker 4: gonna find as fast that we could talk for hours

555
00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:46,680
Speaker 4: on this. After you've gotten to that point in life,

556
00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:51,520
Speaker 4: you then started to interview everybody in the world, and

557
00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:54,600
Speaker 4: there's reasons and fundamentals of why people make it, and

558
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:57,880
Speaker 4: the same in the other area why people don't make it.

559
00:29:58,440 --> 00:30:03,120
Speaker 4: You'll see stars, athletes, politicians. Can you tell me one

560
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:06,160
Speaker 4: of the or two or three of the four reasons

561
00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:10,520
Speaker 4: why the people that have come through your door have

562
00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:14,520
Speaker 4: not made it after they came through your door? Can

563
00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:17,160
Speaker 4: you tell me some of the mistakes you see people

564
00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:21,520
Speaker 4: make that are detrimental to them, and they didn't realize

565
00:30:21,520 --> 00:30:22,960
Speaker 4: they're doing it at the time they do it.

566
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:28,480
Speaker 1: What I found what people who who only thought about

567
00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:34,080
Speaker 1: today and didn't think about tomorrow, or they didn't have

568
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:38,240
Speaker 1: a plan, so they were living in a hype of

569
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:41,560
Speaker 1: the day, and in the process, it didn't feel like

570
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:44,000
Speaker 1: they were paying attention to the things that got them

571
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:46,520
Speaker 1: there in the first place. You know, they were forgetting

572
00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:48,880
Speaker 1: the fundamentally, they were forgetting the fundamentals forget.

573
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:51,160
Speaker 4: They weren't advancing and expecting change.

574
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:55,560
Speaker 1: They were so happy what was happening now that some

575
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:59,120
Speaker 1: of them, especially in the nineties, thought, man, they didn't

576
00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:02,280
Speaker 1: think that this does last, This might not last forever,

577
00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:04,440
Speaker 1: this might not even last for a few months or

578
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:08,080
Speaker 1: half a year. And so when we would talk to folks,

579
00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:10,040
Speaker 1: I would ask us so what's your next move, what's

580
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:10,760
Speaker 1: your next plan?

581
00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:12,160
Speaker 2: What you mean.

582
00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:16,280
Speaker 4: Is that because they didn't have like minded people around them?

583
00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:21,640
Speaker 4: Is it because you know, they just weren't intelligent enough

584
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:24,640
Speaker 4: to do that, you think, or maybe they were discovered

585
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:27,080
Speaker 4: overnight and they never had the foundation. I mean, I'm

586
00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:34,280
Speaker 4: curious because artists can really experience hyper growth, not necessarily

587
00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:37,040
Speaker 4: due to our work. Usually it is or talent, but

588
00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:39,320
Speaker 4: when you have an entire machine that picks up a

589
00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:41,040
Speaker 4: record goals I like this, I could sell it all

590
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:44,720
Speaker 4: around the world. Then sometimes you never went through that course.

591
00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:47,239
Speaker 4: You never took affordable step and step back. You went

592
00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:50,240
Speaker 4: from here to there, so you knowing everything. I think

593
00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:54,000
Speaker 4: it's well the nuances of the music business. A lot

594
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,760
Speaker 4: of dudes egos got inflated and probably didn't feel like

595
00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:00,840
Speaker 4: a lot of them thought it would never end, like

596
00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:05,680
Speaker 4: I'm never gonna stink, I'm never gonna be whack. Secondly,

597
00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:08,800
Speaker 4: to your point, a lot of folks will coddled in.

598
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:10,160
Speaker 2: Through the music business.

599
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:12,320
Speaker 1: So you know, it's the gift and the curse, just

600
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:15,440
Speaker 1: you know, when you know, we work our whole lives

601
00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:17,560
Speaker 1: to get signed to these major record companies, and then

602
00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:19,400
Speaker 1: you get signed to them, and then they start handling

603
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:24,160
Speaker 1: everything for you, you know, and and and you know

604
00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:26,479
Speaker 1: understanding it's a business. It's like you think it's just

605
00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:30,360
Speaker 1: going to be this ongoing relations business, show business. And

606
00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:34,440
Speaker 1: the moment that the numbers go down, the metrics go down, uh,

607
00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:37,400
Speaker 1: they'll remind you that it's a business. And then you're

608
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,000
Speaker 1: kind of out on your out, out on your butt,

609
00:32:40,080 --> 00:32:41,440
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, You're out of luck and

610
00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:45,640
Speaker 1: you haven't taken the proper steps to plan for what's next.

611
00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:49,840
Speaker 4: And I agree going through the system because even as

612
00:32:49,840 --> 00:32:52,080
Speaker 4: you equate that to artists who they had a whole

613
00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:55,360
Speaker 4: machine behind them, or like we talk about in the book,

614
00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:59,480
Speaker 4: as athletes may they've been they practiced being the best

615
00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:03,320
Speaker 4: physical specimen from ten years old to twenty two years old.

616
00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:05,760
Speaker 4: They have a very specific skill set. Now all of

617
00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:07,680
Speaker 4: a sudden, they have one hundred million dollars, but they

618
00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:10,800
Speaker 4: try to utilize that tool, but they don't have a

619
00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:15,080
Speaker 4: skill set in how money or business works. And then

620
00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:17,480
Speaker 4: over sixty five percent of them a bankrupt three years

621
00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:20,040
Speaker 4: outside of the league, or a lot of winners when

622
00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:22,360
Speaker 4: you do that, and that's why I think that, and

623
00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:24,080
Speaker 4: that's why I wanted to get to because you're a

624
00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:27,160
Speaker 4: hustle to grind, rise and grind. The purpose of that

625
00:33:27,560 --> 00:33:30,680
Speaker 4: process is to make sure you learn it also when you.

626
00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:34,800
Speaker 1: Do have it where you again and I learned early

627
00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:38,840
Speaker 1: on I had to adjust, you know, because the MC

628
00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:40,760
Speaker 1: thing was great and I had it for a moment.

629
00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:44,640
Speaker 1: But I want to work in the business and sustain

630
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:48,360
Speaker 1: have a sustainable livelihood through this culture, and so I

631
00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:52,000
Speaker 1: constantly adjust it as the times adjust it. But I

632
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:55,040
Speaker 1: followed my same rules in that process. So becoming a

633
00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:58,440
Speaker 1: radio broadcaster, I put the same energy into that as

634
00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:01,240
Speaker 1: I did trying to be an as I did trying

635
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:04,680
Speaker 1: to learn the business and everything else.

636
00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:06,520
Speaker 2: So all of those.

637
00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 1: Things built this brand equity for me and keeen Tech

638
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:13,839
Speaker 1: throughout the nineties. So MTV approached me three times to

639
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:15,320
Speaker 1: come work for them, and I was like, what do

640
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:18,480
Speaker 1: I need to work for MTV for? We had the

641
00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:21,360
Speaker 1: biggest show in the country at that time, was the

642
00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:26,759
Speaker 1: first one syndicated of its kind that large. That's how

643
00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:30,399
Speaker 1: you and I actually met. We had concert tours going.

644
00:34:31,239 --> 00:34:33,840
Speaker 1: We felt at merchandise. We tried to do some clothes

645
00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:38,799
Speaker 1: and everything. Yeah, we got we got beat up in that. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

646
00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:41,759
Speaker 1: you can't try to, all right, and we continue to

647
00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:45,359
Speaker 1: move product, you know, music, and we always deal well

648
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:50,520
Speaker 1: with that. By the time MTV came, our main flagshipt

649
00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:52,959
Speaker 1: station at that time was ninety two point three to beat.

650
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:57,400
Speaker 1: It just got bought out by another radio conglomerate. The

651
00:34:57,440 --> 00:35:00,000
Speaker 1: program director at that time wanted us to change our

652
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:02,640
Speaker 1: formula and how we programmed the show and play only

653
00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:06,560
Speaker 1: mainstream artists. We explained to him that that would compromise

654
00:35:06,640 --> 00:35:08,880
Speaker 1: the integrity of the show and what's made it so

655
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:14,400
Speaker 1: successful throughout the years. They gave us oldtimatum, either you

656
00:35:14,520 --> 00:35:16,920
Speaker 1: do this or you have to leave this company. If

657
00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:19,759
Speaker 1: you left that station, then you would lose your syndication,

658
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:24,520
Speaker 1: and it was important to us, and we left the

659
00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:28,440
Speaker 1: station and we start slowly losing the syndication. So by

660
00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:33,400
Speaker 1: the fourth time MTV call William, Yeah, man, it sounds

661
00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:35,799
Speaker 1: like a plan. I'll come out there and we'll get tried.

662
00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:38,279
Speaker 4: And we all know how it ended up with the

663
00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:40,560
Speaker 4: fact that you and I here and we've been through

664
00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:42,400
Speaker 4: a lot, and it's very hard to be a broadcast.

665
00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:44,719
Speaker 4: I had one last question, even very gracious with your time,

666
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:48,000
Speaker 4: I gotta ask you a question. If somebody was talking

667
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:51,480
Speaker 4: to the younger Sway when you were fifteen or eighteen

668
00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:54,680
Speaker 4: or even ten, and they laid out every single thing

669
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:57,359
Speaker 4: you had to do to get to this position where

670
00:35:57,400 --> 00:36:00,440
Speaker 4: you are in life, and they later it all out.

671
00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:04,239
Speaker 4: Would you say, yes, I wanted to do that, or

672
00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:06,040
Speaker 4: would you say that's too much.

673
00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:12,719
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with she's damn the youngest Sway it

674
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:15,319
Speaker 1: was probably a lot braver and more courageous than the

675
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:20,560
Speaker 1: one you're looking at today. And the young Sway believed

676
00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:25,200
Speaker 1: that I always had to believe. We grew up our

677
00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:29,080
Speaker 1: welfare man and my mother and my family put installed

678
00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:32,080
Speaker 1: in us to believe that even though you're walking to

679
00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:34,120
Speaker 1: school on your socket is hanging out in the rain,

680
00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:37,040
Speaker 1: and your brother's wearing the same shirt he's been wearing

681
00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:39,200
Speaker 1: three days straight. And you know, we didn't wash the

682
00:36:39,239 --> 00:36:42,560
Speaker 1: clothes because we can't afford to wash clothes. And your

683
00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:45,160
Speaker 1: sister we got to dress her nice because she's a girl.

684
00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:48,279
Speaker 1: But y'all, you know, if the free lunch don't come

685
00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:51,080
Speaker 1: on time, y'all not gonna eat at school. With all

686
00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:54,200
Speaker 1: these things that was happening in Oakland at that time,

687
00:36:54,239 --> 00:36:58,760
Speaker 1: in the seventies and in our lives. I always felt

688
00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:02,920
Speaker 1: like I had an advantage on anybody I came up against,

689
00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:04,480
Speaker 1: anybody who.

690
00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:06,520
Speaker 2: Was in my class role. It was the confidence. It

691
00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:08,520
Speaker 2: was confidence and that was.

692
00:37:08,560 --> 00:37:10,680
Speaker 4: Stilled by your parents, by your family.

693
00:37:10,600 --> 00:37:12,080
Speaker 2: Family parents in Oakland.

694
00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:15,960
Speaker 4: Well, thank you, man, I pretty really value.

695
00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:17,800
Speaker 1: Thank you man. I was fun talking about me for

696
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:20,879
Speaker 1: good job man, trying to take my job.

697
00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:23,040
Speaker 2: I'm good.

698
00:37:23,040 --> 00:37:27,120
Speaker 4: I'll make a third Okay, all right? That moment with

699
00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:31,280
Speaker 4: Damon John is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network.

700
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:34,960
Speaker 4: For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit

701
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:39,520
Speaker 4: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

702
00:37:39,680 --> 00:37:43,759
Speaker 4: your favorite show and don't forget to subscribe to and

703
00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:47,000
Speaker 4: rate the show. And of course you can all connect

704
00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:49,320
Speaker 4: with me on any of my social media platforms. At

705
00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:53,480
Speaker 4: the Shark, Damon spelled like Raymond, but what a d