Speaker 1: Welcome to that moment with Damon John and I am
Speaker 1: Damon John, and today we are going to get into
Speaker 1: it with the legendary Iced team.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it. Man.
Speaker 1: When you found out your album now is being blocked
Speaker 1: by Warner how was the initial reaction.
Speaker 2: Tell me about the initial reaction. What do you mean
Speaker 2: with the cop Killer record?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know I know that they weren't going
Speaker 1: to put out anymore. You know, you worked hard on
Speaker 1: that on that album, and you know they just said
Speaker 1: we're not going to back this anymore. And I know that's.
Speaker 2: That's not how it happened day. It didn't happen like that. All.
Speaker 3: We made this song called cop Killer, I was on
Speaker 3: Sire Warner Brothers, and the record came out and it
Speaker 3: did phenomenal. The album came out of when gold Warner
Speaker 3: Brothers was really excited about it. You know, we actually
Speaker 3: had a party for the success of the record, and
Speaker 3: then we got hit by the Fraternal Order of Police
Speaker 3: out of Austin, Texas that said cop Killer was the
Speaker 3: cause of this problems or drama. Really, the police were
Speaker 3: under siege, just like they're under siege now, and somebody
Speaker 3: smart said, why don't we just push the narrative at
Speaker 3: Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers put out this record. Now, they
Speaker 3: couldn't really get mad at me because I'm a black
Speaker 3: man and I'm making, you know, noise about the corruption
Speaker 3: We've been dealing with our whole life. But they were like,
Speaker 3: Warner Brothers, big corporation, how can you allow this man
Speaker 3: this platform. But Warner Brothers stood, stayed down with me.
Speaker 3: Jeral Levin, who was ahead of time, Warner wrote a
Speaker 3: big letter to the Washington I mean, to the to
Speaker 3: Wall Street Journal, and they backed me. They backed me
Speaker 3: as much as they could. It hit them in the
Speaker 3: stock you know, stock prices started to drive and what
Speaker 3: the problem was.
Speaker 2: What I was saying. They understood. But they're a white corporation.
Speaker 2: They're a corporation. They're part of the system. So now
Speaker 2: this is challenging them and their stockholders.
Speaker 3: Now you got to remember, at the time, Warner Brothers
Speaker 3: had myself, They had Prince, they had Slayer, they had
Speaker 3: Sam Kinniston, they had Andrew Dice Clay, they had the
Speaker 3: Ghetto Boys, they had a lot of controversial edgy artists.
Speaker 3: Madonna and Warner knew that as soon as they allowed
Speaker 3: them to censor me. It was going to be a problem.
Speaker 3: And I went into a meeting with Lenny Warnaker and
Speaker 3: Moe Austin and they broke it down to me. There
Speaker 3: was a big corporate table in front of me, and
Speaker 3: they said, I see this is it. You're an artist
Speaker 3: on Warner Brothers. And the guy put a quarter on
Speaker 3: the table. He said, to see the size of this quarter.
Speaker 3: This is how big Warner music is compared to Time Warner.
Speaker 3: We're so you're a dot on that small quarter and
Speaker 3: what you're doing is it's hurting the entire thing. So
Speaker 3: I was like, damn, you know, and I just kind
Speaker 3: of felt some kind of way like they're doing everything
Speaker 3: they could to support me. So what happened was the
Speaker 3: next album I was putting out was a rap album
Speaker 3: which was called Home Invasion. And when I went in
Speaker 3: there to do that record, when I turned it in,
Speaker 3: they had me come in and they had every word
Speaker 3: on the record written out in big letters on a board.
Speaker 3: They were going through every little thing and there was
Speaker 3: some there was some sketchy lyrics in there. I had
Speaker 3: a lyrics said I don't give a fuck about a
Speaker 3: cop or a g man. They all talk shit they're
Speaker 3: breast smelling like semen. I catch them in that alley
Speaker 3: all alone, put them in the prone pop pop pop
Speaker 3: to the dome. So they like, you're killing cops again, right,
Speaker 3: But I'm like this gangster rap right. So it was
Speaker 3: so they were so uptight, Dame that I eventually just said,
Speaker 3: you know what, let me go.
Speaker 2: I asked for the release.
Speaker 3: I said, it's kind of like me and you are
Speaker 3: in business, and I'm like, my politics is messing with
Speaker 3: your money.
Speaker 2: But we friends. Let me go. Man, I'm no.
Speaker 3: Hard feelings, and I never had a hard feeling with
Speaker 3: Warner Brothers.
Speaker 2: And what Warner Brothers did that was very cool.
Speaker 3: The Home Invasion album was about a half a million
Speaker 3: dollar album to make.
Speaker 2: They gave it to me. They never recouped it.
Speaker 3: They just said here, good luck Ice, because you got
Speaker 3: to remember, for so many years, like ten years, I
Speaker 3: was the number one rapper on that label.
Speaker 2: They loved me.
Speaker 3: They you know, I had done nothing but bring them
Speaker 3: golden platinum records, six consecutive golden platinum records, so they.
Speaker 2: Couldn't turn on me like that.
Speaker 3: But I got them in a sticky situation, and that's
Speaker 3: what happened. A lot of people didn't understand the source
Speaker 3: magazine went after me. He said, I folded. Chuck d
Speaker 3: said the best. He said, those that are don't in
Speaker 3: the wars shouldn't comment on the battles. You have no
Speaker 3: idea what was really going on behind the scene.
Speaker 2: But that was it. But Warner never really did Low.
Speaker 2: They didn't do Low. They was just a bad situation.
Speaker 1: History is proven, or history is reflected only the times
Speaker 1: that large corporations or any company turned their back on people.
Speaker 2: I mean, we do see.
Speaker 1: Nike will stand on the side of what they believe
Speaker 1: is right, even when somebody's kneeling. They'll stand on that side,
Speaker 1: and we can use them. But I don't think I've
Speaker 1: ever heard of a music label, especially a label that
Speaker 1: wasn't backed by like, let's say, a young person hip
Speaker 1: like you, right like you. I've heard of Jimmy I
Speaker 1: Bean backing you know, and and having somebody's back. I've
Speaker 1: heard of a couple of people, and I never heard
Speaker 1: of something like a Warner backing you and that that's
Speaker 1: that's that's really rare.
Speaker 2: So you know what it was name, I don't think
Speaker 2: they were backing me as much as they.
Speaker 1: Was back in the back in the principle overall, Yeah,
Speaker 1: once they censor you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And if you notice at the end of it, there
Speaker 3: was no more Warner Music at some point. The last
Speaker 3: thing was when death Row was trying to get involved
Speaker 3: and Ted Turner came in and shut that whole ship down.
Speaker 3: But nah, they they pretty much all the edgy groups
Speaker 3: left Warner Brothers at that time. Uh, and they knew that.
Speaker 3: They explained that to me, they like, it's bigger than you.
Speaker 1: It's where you go after that, though, you know what,
Speaker 1: because I'm trying to find at that moment, that moment
Speaker 1: you're saying you were you were you were, you were
Speaker 1: doing well on there ten years in you would already well,
Speaker 1: we'll get to the origin of when you decided to
Speaker 1: put that gangster rap on an actual album and.
Speaker 2: Go out there.
Speaker 1: But where did you Where did you go right after that?
Speaker 1: What were your options that moment when you were like,
Speaker 1: let me go. Did you already think, I listen, I'm
Speaker 1: getting my guys in the sticky situation, I have other opportunity.
Speaker 1: Did you feel like were you, being, of course courted
Speaker 1: by other people or was it like I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: do the ship myself. Like, what was that moment in
Speaker 1: your life?
Speaker 3: It was it was nerve wrecking man, because you know
Speaker 3: we I was red hot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3: Uh. The cop Killer record, even though it was it
Speaker 3: was in trouble, it went, it sold a million records.
Speaker 3: Every record up to that point ic T was either
Speaker 3: gold or platinum. So I wasn't on a downstroke. But
Speaker 3: I was just like kind of like an out, like
Speaker 3: people were afraid to touch me, you know. And I
Speaker 3: basically went over to Priority Priority. Brian Turner over Priority
Speaker 3: was familiar with the funk because he had put out NWA,
Speaker 3: so he was not afraid of it. He was like,
Speaker 3: let's do it. We'll do the Home and I did
Speaker 3: two albums at Priority was this I can't even tell
Speaker 3: you the year. I know that cop Killer shit hit
Speaker 3: in ninety two, so it was probably ninety three ninety four,
Speaker 3: trying to drop another record. But Brian Turner put out
Speaker 3: the Home Invasion album, then he put out the Return
Speaker 3: of the Real album, and then later on he put
Speaker 3: out the Gangs Rap album. So I went over the
Speaker 3: Priority because they were like not as big a corporation
Speaker 3: and they didn't give a fuck.
Speaker 2: And then body.
Speaker 3: Count went over to Virgin, because Virgin is a British
Speaker 3: own company, and they didn't really give a fuck about
Speaker 3: American politics.
Speaker 2: They were just like fuck it. You know, that's that's
Speaker 2: Richard Branson in them. Yeah, he was already a rebel himself.
Speaker 2: He was already down there in trouble for himself. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's time, right right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know what, if you're moving records, it's
Speaker 3: not going to be a problem to find a home.
Speaker 2: I remember we went.
Speaker 3: Over to UH when we went to when I went
Speaker 3: to Virgin, I went over there with my ball. I
Speaker 3: let my balls hang like they were like. We were like,
Speaker 3: what do we want for the record? I said, I
Speaker 3: need a million up front. I need a million dollars
Speaker 3: up front. I said, don't offer me three hundred thousand.
Speaker 3: I got to watch the cost three hundred thousand. Let's
Speaker 3: let's talk some numbers. I said, give me the equivalent
Speaker 3: of the album going platinum up front.
Speaker 2: And if you don't think the record's going to go platinum,
Speaker 2: why are we here? Why are we here?
Speaker 3: I need to be someplace that knows you can move
Speaker 3: a million records, because I've done it before. And they
Speaker 3: leaned back in the chair and wrote to check, so,
Speaker 3: you know, and now that was my first really you know, me,
Speaker 3: me being able to negotiate because my one idea was
Speaker 3: always in a slow increment because I'd signed, you know,
Speaker 3: a long term contract.
Speaker 2: Now I'm a free agent.
Speaker 3: So and in them days, getting a million dollars for
Speaker 3: a record up front.
Speaker 2: Was big, right, big. Now these kids are getting twenty millions.
Speaker 2: But that was big.
Speaker 1: Let's let's let's let's wind it back, because I want
Speaker 1: to know when when you were frustrated and you know nothing,
Speaker 1: you know you you you know, we're boys. I know
Speaker 1: these served this country. I know that also you you
Speaker 1: you was a bad guy. You know, you were doing
Speaker 1: what you had to do when you decided at that
Speaker 1: moment to create your first single, your first song. Can
Speaker 1: I can I ask you what was going through your
Speaker 1: head around that time?
Speaker 2: What were the records that were motivating you at that time?
Speaker 1: Because you know me, when I was coming up, it
Speaker 1: was a it was a rising to the top by
Speaker 1: Kenny Burke, or it was public enemy, fear of you know,
Speaker 1: you know, fear of a black planet and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and I, oh, no, rock him paid in full. I'm
Speaker 1: driving my car going, I'm gonna get paid in full, right,
Speaker 1: What were the songs of that time when you were
Speaker 1: first coming up and you were like this is this
Speaker 1: is in whatever you were doing, you was on the
Speaker 1: car to go go and do something that we don't
Speaker 1: agree upon now, or you was heading to the studio
Speaker 1: and you were just you were frustrated or excited. What
Speaker 1: was the songs that you remember at that time at
Speaker 1: that moment for the most part.
Speaker 3: Well, I first started hearing rap when I was in
Speaker 3: the Army, and you know, I went out of high school.
Speaker 3: I went in the Army and there were New York
Speaker 3: kids there from and they had the tapes you know before.
Speaker 3: So I was hearing Flash and I was hearing Trench
Speaker 3: with three and all that on cassette tapes. And when
Speaker 3: Sugar Hill Gang came out, I was like, I could
Speaker 3: do that, you know, I could do that because I'd
Speaker 3: been saying raps for the gang bangers in the streets.
Speaker 2: I knew how to rhyme, so to speak.
Speaker 3: And when I came back from the Army, my tension
Speaker 3: was to be a DJ like Uncle Jam's Army and.
Speaker 2: You know, do that. But I got more attention rapping.
Speaker 2: But it was like.
Speaker 3: Curtis, Blow, Furious Five, the groups that were out there,
Speaker 3: and then the first real superstar rap groups like Run
Speaker 3: DMC and people like that that came out. Ll of
Speaker 3: course he came out before me, and those were like
Speaker 3: the targets, you know, and like everybody talking about the
Speaker 3: LL beef with Ice, well that was because he was
Speaker 3: the best, and he was a solo artist, and I
Speaker 3: was a solo artist. So you have to go after
Speaker 3: the man. You have to go after him, you know.
Speaker 3: The only way to be the man is to challenge
Speaker 3: the man, you know.
Speaker 2: So I was.
Speaker 3: Rapping like that, like a battle rapper like that kind
Speaker 3: of rap was my first style.
Speaker 1: But you took it to another level though, you know,
Speaker 1: because I grew up, thank God, with them, and I remember,
Speaker 1: and I remember clearly, I will you know, I was
Speaker 1: a roadie on on the tours, and I was on
Speaker 1: that or pushing around speakers and trying to hang out
Speaker 1: with people, and I was on that tour with LL
Speaker 1: and and Fat Boys and Rock Kim and all that,
Speaker 1: and I'd be very honest.
Speaker 2: At that time, some.
Speaker 1: Of the rappers were a little disrespectful when they got
Speaker 1: out of New York because New York they thought that
Speaker 1: it was only New York.
Speaker 2: The world was New York. So they would see people that.
Speaker 1: Look a little different with Jerry curls and and other stuff,
Speaker 1: and they'll be disrespectful, like yo, Jerry curl, put your
Speaker 1: hands in the air. And then I remember we got
Speaker 1: to Detroit and there was a whole bunch of Jerry
Speaker 1: Curle doers from LA and they would call n w
Speaker 1: A and we ain't know much about them, but these
Speaker 1: guys that the police were throwing boss of them.
Speaker 2: They were throwing boss the police.
Speaker 1: They had they had, they had machine guns, they had
Speaker 1: ouzzies with them and all kinds of stuff. And I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, those Jerry Curle people with the mechanic
Speaker 1: suits on, I'm afraid of them.
Speaker 2: You know, because the.
Speaker 1: Rappers in New York, I mean, you know, they were
Speaker 1: talking a little bit of stuff like yo, you know,
Speaker 1: like it wasn't violence, it wasn't fight back. It was
Speaker 1: kind of like a public enemy said fight back. But
Speaker 1: it was kind of like the very much of Black Panthers.
Speaker 1: You know, it was like we are you know, we
Speaker 1: are going to uh, we're gonna police our own community.
Speaker 1: But your rap was, you know, we're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 1: police the police the way they're policing us.
Speaker 2: And what gave you that drive.
Speaker 1: To be able to be that vocal Because out of
Speaker 1: all the rappers you were talking about, maybe the earlier days,
Speaker 1: sugar Hill Gang was very pop. Maybe the message was
Speaker 1: the one that was frustrating, where he was talking about
Speaker 1: people pissling on the rail stations, just don't care. You
Speaker 1: know what gave you that that anger or that that
Speaker 1: ability to say, I'm gonna I'm gonna vocalize the streets
Speaker 1: and in a way that very few people have and
Speaker 1: I don't care it.
Speaker 3: Really, it really comes from not coming from a hip
Speaker 3: hop background, Like you know, like growing up in La
Speaker 3: it's a gang culture, so you understand gangs and you
Speaker 3: understand low riding, and you understand how we had what
Speaker 3: the Cali look was.
Speaker 2: You did.
Speaker 3: So when I first started to rap, of course, I
Speaker 3: was trying to rap like New York rappers.
Speaker 2: But then I heard Schooley d out of Out of Philly.
Speaker 3: He did a song called PSK where he sung about
Speaker 3: the park Side Killers, and I'm like, he's rapping about
Speaker 3: a gang, and I was like, that's okay, And at
Speaker 3: that point, that's when I turned That was the pivotal
Speaker 3: moment in my career where I'm like, oh, they like
Speaker 3: that shit, right. And so six in the morning, what
Speaker 3: they call the first gangster rap record really is not
Speaker 3: the first gangster rap record is PSK.
Speaker 2: And then six in the Morning.
Speaker 3: I even snatched Schooli's Cadence when he said PSK, we
Speaker 3: making that green. People always say, what the hell does
Speaker 3: that mean? I said, six in the police at my
Speaker 3: door fresh year. I'ven jack the Cadence, But I took
Speaker 3: you on a ride through La you know, hitting crensyaw
Speaker 3: first time anybody ever heard the street crenchyaw, rolling a
Speaker 3: blazer with a Louis Vauton interior and getting jacked by
Speaker 3: the police and going to jail and coming out and
Speaker 3: that record hit Dame, that shit hit and I was like, yo,
Speaker 3: and it hitting the Bay first. It hitting the Bay
Speaker 3: because I got a call to do a show at
Speaker 3: the Fillmore West, a very famous venue, and I said, Okay,
Speaker 3: I'll do it. They called me back three days later
Speaker 3: said we want you to do a show at the
Speaker 3: Fillmore West. I'm like, I booked that. They go, No,
Speaker 3: that sold out. I'm like word And once I you know,
Speaker 3: sometimes you got to find your identity. Another thing that
Speaker 3: helped me find my identity was Russell Simmons.
Speaker 2: I was trying to be New York.
Speaker 3: I'm trying the dress, I got the spikes on early
Speaker 3: like Mellie and I'm trying to rappers had to look.
Speaker 3: And I was at a show with Russell in La
Speaker 3: and they just called me on the stage. And that
Speaker 3: day I had on my street clothes, I had on Fela,
Speaker 3: I had k Swiss on, you know, my perm and
Speaker 3: I went upstage wrapped and when I came up to stage,
Speaker 3: Russell's like, that's your look, trying to look like New York.
Speaker 3: You gotta look like La nigga. You were an La nigga.
Speaker 3: You gotta rep the coast. And then I started to
Speaker 3: evolve into just being a LA player. And early my
Speaker 3: first two albums I didn't even rep gangster. It was
Speaker 3: more like the player, the hustler. But when Nwa came
Speaker 3: out and ice Cube said straight out of Cumpton, crazy
Speaker 3: motherfucker named ice Cube from the gang called niggas with attitudes,
Speaker 3: the press called it gangster. Yeah, So I said, well,
Speaker 3: if it's gangster rap, I got two albums out already
Speaker 3: then I'm the original gangst So that's where the og
Speaker 3: shit came from me reclaiming like, okay, this is what
Speaker 3: we're doing. Then yeah, let's make it clear. And you
Speaker 3: know it's it's just really reflecting what you see versus
Speaker 3: rocking the party. Like you know, when I tried to
Speaker 3: write the party, it didn't work. You know, when I
Speaker 3: started talking about the street shit, I reached a large
Speaker 3: audience and it was really my perspective at the moment.
Speaker 3: So earlier Ice Team music is a lot more negative
Speaker 3: as before I started to evolve as as a man,
Speaker 3: I was kind of like right off the block. Just
Speaker 3: imagine if you took a kid right out of any Borough,
Speaker 3: Queens or whatever in the projects. He's hustling, and if
Speaker 3: you put him in a studio and whatever he said
Speaker 3: happened to Ron. That's real raw gangster rap. You see
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. It's just magically at Ron and he
Speaker 3: told his story. That's what we were doing right out
Speaker 3: the gate.
Speaker 1: Let me go to that gangs of mentality though, because
Speaker 1: you know, we can't help what we came from, and
Speaker 1: that gang's mentality it seemed to have served you in
Speaker 1: various different ways that you used it in the form,
Speaker 1: and I always said, everybody, there's only two people to
Speaker 1: get the ultimate pass snoop and iced tea. You can
Speaker 1: get a a star on the Walker Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: and curse everybody out at the same time, you know,
Speaker 1: by getting and giving love to obviously the people in
Speaker 1: the audience. But if you reflect on it, there's a
Speaker 1: certain way you can think about gangs and stuff. You
Speaker 1: can think about it that don't ever cross the line.
Speaker 1: Don't disrespect me because this is all I have is
Speaker 1: a reputation, and I'm gonna have to defend that reputation
Speaker 1: because if I allow you to do that, well, then
Speaker 1: everybody's gonna do it. Oh, it's a mentality of Listen,
Speaker 1: I know you got dirty with me. Wanna I know
Speaker 1: you've got a bigger priority, and you know I don't
Speaker 1: think that. I don't think I want to take you
Speaker 1: down that path kind of like you know you walking
Speaker 1: down the block. Listen, a little homie, I did this
Speaker 1: dirt by myself. Don't worry about it. I know you cool,
Speaker 1: you ready, but I ain't gonna do that to you
Speaker 1: or when you and I, you know, we're kind of
Speaker 1: hanging out and chilling on our own.
Speaker 2: And you're like, listen.
Speaker 1: I always talk to Dick Wolf and I be like, listen, man,
Speaker 1: just tell me what it is, and I'm good.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: We I've had a good fortune of going for me
Speaker 1: to cop killer, the longest run a cop on television,
Speaker 1: and the TV and everything is changing. I got you,
Speaker 1: you got me, I got you. Don't stress it that
Speaker 1: you have a form of dedication from a gangster way,
Speaker 1: but also you brought the form of But I'm not
Speaker 1: going to bring you down that path. I mean you
Speaker 1: just let me know what it is and we good
Speaker 1: when we walk in you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: So that is c It's a code, man, It's a
Speaker 3: code that you know. I was raised around a lot
Speaker 3: of OG's older than me, and you know it's a code.
Speaker 2: Man. It's like, yo, man, I got this. I did it.
Speaker 2: It's my shit. Let me handle my shit.
Speaker 3: You know, like people talking about snitching, Yo, if I
Speaker 3: did it, I did it, I'll handle I could carry
Speaker 3: my weight. When I was going through the cop killing shit,
Speaker 3: I wasn't pointing at other rappers. Why would look at them?
Speaker 3: They they're saying stuff too. I'm like, I handled my business.
Speaker 3: But you know, you gotta have a little gangster to
Speaker 3: survive in this business because the way that businesses, they'll
Speaker 3: fuck you.
Speaker 2: They'll fuck you with the with the soft touch, you know.
Speaker 3: They and they will also challenge anything they think won't
Speaker 3: fight back. They will definitely you have as as a businessman,
Speaker 3: you got to be like, I know my shit, don't
Speaker 3: blame me, don't play me. A lot of time when
Speaker 3: I'm doing contracts with people and they're like, well, what
Speaker 3: do you want in the contract, I'm like, why don't
Speaker 3: you just send me one? Let me see what how
Speaker 3: you feel about me. Let me see your offer. And
Speaker 3: I don't know whether you're a fuck boy or you
Speaker 3: really down with it. Like I can read, I can
Speaker 3: read how you feel. You know, give me the offer.
Speaker 3: I'm waiting to see how how valuable you think I
Speaker 3: really am. So a lot of times, man, you know
Speaker 3: this attitude now now my personality, this gangster shit, it's
Speaker 3: not really who I am. I had, you know, fifty
Speaker 3: Cents said it best. It's not how my mama raised me.
Speaker 3: Is how the hood made all right. So you come
Speaker 3: into this business world real soft and thinking everything's good.
Speaker 3: They're gonna fuck you, They're gonna fuck you. They're gonna
Speaker 3: find everything you don't know and take advantage of it.
Speaker 3: It's like if you're doing a record deal, they go, Okay,
Speaker 3: you're international merchandise.
Speaker 2: You know what do you go? Huh? They go fucking
Speaker 2: right there? You know, right there, right there? Oh, what
Speaker 2: we got to Now? They go publishing? What about that?
Speaker 2: Hunh fucking mind. They're not gonna explain to you what
Speaker 2: you're publishing. They're gonna hit you every place. You don't
Speaker 2: think they don't think you know. But my boy used
Speaker 2: to say, they're been fucking us long enough, we should
Speaker 2: not a fuck nerve.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's I think it's just the streets
Speaker 3: translate to business very well.
Speaker 2: Well, can I can? I?
Speaker 1: You know, because a lot of a lot of people
Speaker 1: are going to be trying to move their career. Every
Speaker 1: every day, somebody the fairy getting cancel or whatever. But
Speaker 1: let me add, when is that not work for you?
Speaker 2: You know this mentality and if you ever said I
Speaker 2: went too hard or I didn't know what I didn't know,
Speaker 2: I mean, can you do you?
Speaker 1: Can you recall any times or that moment when you say,
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe I should have gave them another chance.
Speaker 1: But I had I had developed such a hard shell
Speaker 1: that they weren't trying to fuck me, but I thought
Speaker 1: they were. I mean, or or or listen, somebody could
Speaker 1: have been trying to fuck you and you regretted it
Speaker 1: at the time, you reflect and seeing what they did
Speaker 1: to other peopleeople after.
Speaker 2: You and they will you were like, yeah, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: you know not really, I'm very smooth. I'm very smooth
Speaker 2: when I deal with people.
Speaker 3: It's always a soft touch, and I make sure that
Speaker 3: people around me have a soft touch. That's the biggest problem.
Speaker 3: My crew, like the guys I got working for me,
Speaker 3: they not as seasoned in this as I am. So
Speaker 3: you know, even this the way you know a lot
Speaker 3: of brothers, the way they talk people like they're extorting me.
Speaker 2: No, no, ask them for the money you owe them.
Speaker 2: That's all.
Speaker 3: But that there, I have to like work with my
Speaker 3: guys like, look, man, you can't you're scary, like you know,
Speaker 3: don't be like that. But nah, I mean, nah, I've
Speaker 3: learned a lot. I've been in a lot of rooms
Speaker 3: with people I've dealt with, you know, big heavyweight executives.
Speaker 2: And they're gangster, you know, they they're the way they
Speaker 2: handle business.
Speaker 3: Like I always say, like in business, the trick is,
Speaker 3: like me and Dick Wolf's relatelationship, is we make the deal.
Speaker 2: I stick to the deal. That's it.
Speaker 3: There's a moment when we get to negotiate, we go
Speaker 3: back and forth. Now I think I'm worth this iced
Speaker 3: I can get Brad Pitt for that. Come on, man,
Speaker 3: well come on man, this, that and the third. Come on,
Speaker 3: I'm the only black man on the show. I might
Speaker 3: throw the race card in there. I'm trying to get
Speaker 3: paid right.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 3: But then after we come to that negotiation and it's done,
Speaker 3: I stick to the deal, and so does he. That's gangster.
Speaker 3: I don't come back halfway in the middle of the
Speaker 3: contract one that no no, no.
Speaker 2: No no. So he knows.
Speaker 3: Once I told you, Dick Wolf said, iced tea is
Speaker 3: the least pain in my ass, the best compliment I
Speaker 3: ever got, because you know, when you have employees, the
Speaker 3: person who's the least pain is your favorite person. You know,
Speaker 3: the one that's always coming with problems and ideas and
Speaker 3: book man, come on, man, you really close to the ads.
Speaker 3: You think you're doing a lot, but you're really about
Speaker 3: to get fired. Because you're driving me fucking crazy. So
Speaker 3: you know, my boy, one of my other boys, said,
Speaker 3: the only thing gangs about ice, he really is he
Speaker 3: does not back up. Well hmmm, I like that. I
Speaker 3: don't back up well. So in other words, everything's cool
Speaker 3: until you tell me what I better do. Then naw,
Speaker 3: because like you said, once I allow at, I might
Speaker 3: as well let you do whatever you want to me.
Speaker 2: I might as well let you move in my house.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, Like, there's got to be
Speaker 3: a point where and you got one too where you're like, nah,
Speaker 3: now not nah, now you're going to cross the line.
Speaker 2: Nah. And you know, other than that, I'm fair game.
Speaker 2: I'm play game fair Well.
Speaker 1: You know, your your history is coming up as a
Speaker 1: as a really vocal music artist, embarrassed, and you know,
Speaker 1: I don't really know what the real deal is.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know I've been told your pimp told
Speaker 2: you this that.
Speaker 1: And then you you you change your lifestyle, it alters
Speaker 1: a little bit, and you you know, our wives of
Speaker 1: friends and you change would be just becoming a new
Speaker 1: dad again, taking that path, beautiful white, very dedicated dad.
Speaker 1: What was that moment when you you said, I don't
Speaker 1: know I feel like change.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know you didn't change immediately.
Speaker 1: You were ready for change to be the guy that
Speaker 1: we know now very beloved as a father or husband
Speaker 1: of various other things and no longer.
Speaker 2: I mean your gangster at hard.
Speaker 1: So it's very hard to explain Ice, but that moment
Speaker 1: of being calm in your career, you know, going on
Speaker 1: and being an actor, but the meantime being on stage
Speaker 1: your shirt off, doing heavy metals and ship over here,
Speaker 1: and then you know, being on the player's ball, which
Speaker 1: I think that's my favorite role of Ice, being on
Speaker 1: the player's ball.
Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, when when did you.
Speaker 1: Get that form of like being just really comfortable whatever
Speaker 1: you did and being a dedicated dad because I know,
Speaker 1: I know the story when you know, so when you
Speaker 1: decided to to you know, to be that person with Coco,
Speaker 1: I know you gave her the phone and and said
Speaker 1: any any any young lady call you answer this and
Speaker 1: you know what you say it better than I do.
Speaker 1: What was that that moment when you gave her the
Speaker 1: phone and said boom?
Speaker 3: Well, like like like this has been a long transformation,
Speaker 3: you know. So the first transformation was leaving the streets
Speaker 3: when I started making music, and I got a little famous.
Speaker 3: I just said, man, I'm done. I can't break the
Speaker 3: law no more because you know, now all eyes are
Speaker 3: on me and I don't want to get any of
Speaker 3: you guys in trouble.
Speaker 2: But how about you thinking not keeping it real?
Speaker 1: I mean, we just we're just seeing what happened to
Speaker 1: Gunner and all these dudes who they were making all
Speaker 1: this money. But you know now they got Rico chargers
Speaker 1: and they probably going to jail until you know, I
Speaker 1: don't until aliens come down start rapping it.
Speaker 2: Well, there's a difference between fame and infamy. When you're infamous,
Speaker 2: you don't nobody knows your name. You like low key,
Speaker 2: and like I said, if everybody in the street knows
Speaker 2: your name, so did the cops.
Speaker 3: So I had been able to duck them. And when
Speaker 3: I decided and finally start making a little record money,
Speaker 3: of course I went broke. But that was a career
Speaker 3: change I made because now I'm doing interviews, I'm meeting people.
Speaker 3: You can't do that and go out and break the law.
Speaker 3: And my other book, I had this chapter called Too
Speaker 3: Famous to Steal, where I went to do something and
Speaker 3: steal something.
Speaker 2: Some kids came out of the house and wanted autographs.
Speaker 2: I'm like, what the wait a minute, what hold on?
Speaker 2: You went to steal what? You was already famous and
Speaker 2: you were trying to steal something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you know, you don't really get no
Speaker 3: bread to your first, second, third album. So I had
Speaker 3: a Porsche and I was trying to get a part
Speaker 3: Porsche and my boys just stole a Porsche and I
Speaker 3: didn't want to pay for it, and they was full
Speaker 3: of shit about getting the part I needed. I'm like,
Speaker 3: where's the motherfuck car at where's the car? I'll go
Speaker 3: get it.
Speaker 2: Fuck that.
Speaker 3: So I got a ratchet set, I got my boys.
Speaker 3: I walked through this apartment building. I walked through this
Speaker 3: apartment building. I pulled a car cover off the car.
Speaker 3: I'm in the car, still in the park. Part probably
Speaker 3: costs like a thousand dollars. I could have paid for it.
Speaker 2: I was just it I wanted.
Speaker 3: Plus I was showing my niggas I knew I was
Speaker 3: still good with my ship. But when I get in
Speaker 3: the car, all these little kids come walking out the
Speaker 3: motherfucking house and they're.
Speaker 2: Like, I see oh shp. So now their mothers and
Speaker 2: stuff come out, and I'm taking.
Speaker 3: Pictures in front of a G in front of a
Speaker 3: G t A. I'm standing there taking pictures because they
Speaker 3: saw me in breaking and some ship and yeah, it's
Speaker 3: funny now. So then after they all left, they thought
Speaker 3: that was my car. I had to call the home.
Speaker 3: He's like, Yo, this car can't be here in the morning.
Speaker 3: Move this fucking car. But yeah, that's a chapter one
Speaker 3: of my books called too Famous to Steal. But long
Speaker 3: story short, now made just transition. I'm going through all
Speaker 3: this music and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: I left my I was with my ex Darlene for
Speaker 2: like fifteen years, never got married, and when I came
Speaker 2: to New York, we broke up. You know, usually when
Speaker 2: you break up with a woman, you really broke up
Speaker 2: a year or so earlier.
Speaker 3: So we were together, but we weren't really living like that,
Speaker 3: you know, and finalized. When I came to New York
Speaker 3: to do law and order, it was like, okay, might
Speaker 3: as well stop playing this charade out for my son.
Speaker 2: Let's just cut it off. So now I was single
Speaker 2: out here for a couple of years. Didn't dig it.
Speaker 2: I didn't dig it.
Speaker 3: Because you know, it's just a it's an illusion, you know,
Speaker 3: it's always when you got your girl on your arm,
Speaker 3: all the girls are fine. As soon as she gets
Speaker 3: off your arm, these bitches changed. They transform into all
Speaker 3: kinds of other scary looking things.
Speaker 2: You know. It's just something about being single. It's not
Speaker 2: it's fun. It's a weird warp. So when you're young,
Speaker 2: it's cool because you'll fuck anything.
Speaker 3: But when you're older and you refine your taste, you know,
Speaker 3: you ain't gonna see that shit you want walking around
Speaker 3: by yourself.
Speaker 1: It's just not I think, you know, I think that
Speaker 1: is a greeting call. When you're young, you'd fuck anything,
Speaker 1: you know. I think you should write cars. Young, you
Speaker 1: fuck anything. When you get a little older, you ain't
Speaker 1: gonna see the ship you want to fuck.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I think that's pretty. You know you should write greeting cars.
Speaker 1: I think that's that moment. But let's go, let's go
Speaker 1: into let's go further in your taste. Yeah, you refine
Speaker 1: your taste. So I met Coco.
Speaker 3: Now, when I was going after Coco, I was watching
Speaker 3: a lot of.
Speaker 2: The Osbourne's.
Speaker 3: Ozzie and Sharon, and I was looking like, would Ozzie
Speaker 3: have a mansion if it wasn't for sharing Osbourne, Like,
Speaker 3: this woman is running all the tours, running all his business.
Speaker 2: Doesn't even seem like Ozzie would know how to pay
Speaker 2: a phone bill.
Speaker 3: Ozzie is something different, right, But he's wealthy because you
Speaker 3: got a woman to hold it together. So me personally,
Speaker 3: I could get money for crossing t's and dynay's.
Speaker 2: It's not my thing. It's not many artists things.
Speaker 3: That's why artists have business managers, because you know you
Speaker 3: my business manager. You send me in a studio, Da
Speaker 3: da da da dah, Send me over here, send me
Speaker 3: over there. I will get money, But somebody gotta pay
Speaker 3: the taxes. Somebody gotta you know, that ain't what we
Speaker 3: want to do. We just want to make the money.
Speaker 3: So I told when I met Coco, she was fine.
Speaker 3: I was like, told her, I said, yo, I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm not really just trying to get another number in
Speaker 3: my phone. I'm really trying to find somebody that wants
Speaker 3: to ride. And she dug the flyness of me.
Speaker 2: She was a chick. When I met her. I had
Speaker 2: on a red snake skin suit, so she was like, ooh,
Speaker 2: that's fly. See some girls some girls want soft niggas
Speaker 2: and some girls want real niggas.
Speaker 3: You know, they don't a soft nigga. They like, I'm
Speaker 3: not even into you. You ain't got no base in
Speaker 3: your voice. Some women want to man man.
Speaker 2: So she was like.
Speaker 3: Coke, Yeah, like put me in my place. You I
Speaker 3: like that shit. You know what I'm saying. You know,
Speaker 3: some chicks I don't know. They emasculate niggas, but that's different.
Speaker 3: They won't even fuck with us. They to day is
Speaker 3: already know that nigga Ice is too managed. Funny story,
Speaker 3: Whoopy Goldberg was talking about Coco one day and she said, yeah,
Speaker 3: Coco that she's a dope sister, and they go sister,
Speaker 3: They said, uh, Whoop, you know Coco's wife. She said,
Speaker 3: Coco been dealing for twenty years with Ice teased managed ass.
Speaker 2: She's a She's an honorary sister, that nigga.
Speaker 3: So anyway, when we got together, I was just like, Yo,
Speaker 3: are we gonna do this?
Speaker 2: Are we are?
Speaker 3: We are we gonna do this as a couple And
Speaker 3: she was like, I'm down. So I had a phone
Speaker 3: at the time, and I'm like, here, take it. Start
Speaker 3: answering the calls, and anybody that calls up, just say
Speaker 3: who you are and take the message.
Speaker 2: At that time. Yeah, I was out in the street,
Speaker 2: but I didn't have no chicks that could lay claim
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 3: They were just chicks, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 3: when they got the call, she's like, Hey, what's up
Speaker 3: is this? I no, this is Coco. Oh okay, Well,
Speaker 3: maybe they might hang up, maybe they might tell her
Speaker 3: to leave a message.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I got the message. It was such and such.
Speaker 3: But you know, when you out in the streets and
Speaker 3: you you're a player, that girl is calling from Atlanta.
Speaker 3: She ain't talked to you in a year. She's just
Speaker 3: checking in. You know, we're going to Miami. Y're gonna
Speaker 3: be into Miami.
Speaker 2: You know that bullshit? I don't know if you're talking about. Yeah. Right.
Speaker 3: So anyway, Coco cleared the house in a beautiful way.
Speaker 3: But then she would also take messages from my niggas.
Speaker 3: So I would get messages like this from her. She's like, uh, baby,
Speaker 3: uh trigger said he left some bullets and come on.
Speaker 3: Or the funny thing is like they would call and
Speaker 3: it would be like.
Speaker 2: This, yo, yo, what's good? What's that? What's here? She'd
Speaker 2: be like, oh, this is Coco. Same nigga, Hey, Coco.
Speaker 3: What's the same Nigga's voice would change when he would
Speaker 3: talk to her.
Speaker 2: So you know, it's been good. Now we've been together
Speaker 2: twenty two going on twenty three years. It's good man.
Speaker 2: And uh, it was a smart move. You know, it
Speaker 2: was a smart move for me. You know, it's dating scene.
Speaker 3: Anybody knows out there it's toxic and it's full of
Speaker 3: land mines. And uh, you know, I got the fuck
Speaker 3: off the field for I called a body. Did you
Speaker 3: find balance?
Speaker 1: And that's interesting because she show she's she's one of
Speaker 1: the as you would say, I say too, she's one
Speaker 1: of the nicest people you'll ever meet, right, and.
Speaker 2: She's not trying to be this trying She's just who
Speaker 2: she is. And did you find that that kind of
Speaker 2: friends change your perspective? One thing? You know, not really.
Speaker 3: I never really dated a white girl before, you know,
Speaker 3: so my thing was like, you know, I've been around
Speaker 3: white girls, I work with them and stuff, but as
Speaker 3: far as actually being like in love and all that,
Speaker 3: that was different for me.
Speaker 2: But you know, I always say I'm a player. I
Speaker 2: don't really care.
Speaker 3: You know, if a Martian bitch dropped down and was
Speaker 3: saying the right shit, I'd be fucking green pussy right now,
Speaker 3: there you go.
Speaker 2: You like Captain Kirk because Captain Captain Kirk.
Speaker 3: Would would do it with anybody, bang everything in the universe.
Speaker 3: My partner, my pimp, Buddy Rich, said, man, you just
Speaker 3: look for a bitch. You could understand what the fuck
Speaker 3: you be talking about. You just need somebody could comprehend. Boom,
Speaker 3: that's you needed comprehension, my nigga. So I was like, no,
Speaker 3: Coco was dope. But I think I always say this,
Speaker 3: and I say this in a weird kind of way, but.
Speaker 2: Coke and I are.
Speaker 3: Like like like like the exact same thing, but turn
Speaker 3: into a woman and a male. So think of it
Speaker 3: like this, right, Okay, uh, if my gangster was feminine,
Speaker 3: it would be sexy, right. A woman's power is sexy,
Speaker 3: being sexy, not being like a man. She would be sexy, right,
Speaker 3: So that would result probably in a big titty blonde
Speaker 3: right that. And her gangster is male, it would be
Speaker 3: a nigga a gangster. So it's it's like we're very
Speaker 3: alpha of each of each side of the spectrum. You
Speaker 3: feel me like she's an alpha alpha woman, I'm an
Speaker 3: alpha male. And also I think that like you and
Speaker 3: your wife. The trick is, you have to find someone
Speaker 3: who matches your energy. Now, if I go out by myself,
Speaker 3: I spin the room when I walk in.
Speaker 2: That's iced tea. That's iced tea.
Speaker 3: Well, she spends it too, she spends it on her own.
Speaker 3: So there for we we have equal power and we
Speaker 3: are a good couple. If I'm with a chick that
Speaker 3: doesn't have that same energy, my energy intimidates her, like
Speaker 3: why you got to take pictures with all the people?
Speaker 2: Why you got why you got it that.
Speaker 3: If my wife is with a weaker nigga, he like,
Speaker 3: why you gotta wear that?
Speaker 2: You gotta you look too.
Speaker 3: You know, you're dracking too much attention, So you gotta
Speaker 3: have a Both people have to be very confident in
Speaker 3: who they are, just like you and your wife.
Speaker 2: You know who you are. She knows who she is.
Speaker 2: And that's why, y'all.
Speaker 3: You know, we both dealt with chicks that are insecure,
Speaker 3: and we both dealt with you know, so it's it
Speaker 3: was a lucky lick, you know. And I was in
Speaker 3: my forties when I met her, so you know, I've
Speaker 3: done everything a nigga could do. I remember I told
Speaker 3: my boy, I said Yo, I'm thinking about getting married
Speaker 3: to Coco. It's like, Nigga, you didna have more sex
Speaker 3: than a football team. Nigga, you have time to bring
Speaker 3: bring that shit home to shit down, Like what are
Speaker 3: you trying? What are you trying to do?
Speaker 2: And I'm very happy and now with my daughter.
Speaker 3: Our daughter is about the same age.
Speaker 2: I quote Muhammad Ali.
Speaker 3: He says, when a man has a child in the
Speaker 3: second half of his life, after he turns fifty, it's
Speaker 3: like it resets it. It's like it resets his life.
Speaker 3: It made me want to live forever. It made me
Speaker 3: create new goals. Because you got bread, you can start
Speaker 3: slowing down. But now not that new baby. That new baby,
Speaker 3: and it's the best gift I could ever get. I
Speaker 3: see how much you love your daughter. I think the
Speaker 3: difference with Chanelle and my other kids is I'm very
Speaker 3: conscious of this baby. Like I had my daughter when
Speaker 3: I was in high school. I was ripping and running,
Speaker 3: so it was presence over presents. I wasn't there. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, same way my son. My son, Ice happened
Speaker 3: right when I was becoming Ice Tea. You know, I
Speaker 3: had never been famous before. This was a whole new thing.
Speaker 3: So I'm distracted by that just becoming.
Speaker 2: Chanelle. I'm comfortable. I'm in a cruise pattern.
Speaker 3: I was there when Coco was pregnant, I went to
Speaker 3: the hospital, and she now still sleeps into bed with us,
Speaker 3: you know. So I'm so much more connected to her
Speaker 3: than my other kids. But it's been a beautiful.
Speaker 1: Thing, you know, I really I took away a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff here, a lot of a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of gifts, really, and there's a
Speaker 1: lot of things that a lot of hitting gems in there.
Speaker 1: And obviously, I mean I never thought of a when
Speaker 1: you think of gangs of being a big titty blonde,
Speaker 1: you know. Okay, yeah, I get it, though, I get it,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, because that that could be
Speaker 1: gangs and big titty blonde, big titty brunette.
Speaker 2: Big titty whatever, little titty whatever. I mean.
Speaker 1: You know, Barbara Corkran always says you an got big
Speaker 1: titties put up put with with pigtails.
Speaker 2: You know. So, But.
Speaker 1: I gotta say, you know, when you when you when
Speaker 1: you talk about young ice and you're advising a lot
Speaker 1: of the younger people coming up now who look at
Speaker 1: you and you you pretty much have done in your terms.
Speaker 2: It hasn't been easy.
Speaker 1: A lot of people were against you, and it wasn't
Speaker 1: really done before. Of what you've accomplished in regards of
Speaker 1: being very true to your your.
Speaker 2: Upbringing, what would you say? What what is your go to.
Speaker 1: In that moment when you have to make critical decisions
Speaker 1: and you say do you trust your gut? Do you say,
Speaker 1: I go back to these cold you know? What is
Speaker 1: your kind of your thing that leads you back to
Speaker 1: the fundamentals of ice And no matter what, he's not
Speaker 1: gonna break these And I don't give a shit if
Speaker 1: I lose everything, I'm not gonna go against this.
Speaker 2: I never I would never betray my friends, you know.
Speaker 2: I would never. You know. I'm not that guy you
Speaker 2: know and the only person that can betray you with
Speaker 2: somebody that you trust, you know, so I wouldn't. I'm
Speaker 2: not that guy. I don't know, you know.
Speaker 3: I run into lots of issues. I like to sleep
Speaker 3: on stuff, you know. I like to like if something
Speaker 3: is difficult to me to answer, I'm like, give me
Speaker 3: some time, let me think on it. A lot of
Speaker 3: times I'll wake up the next day. I was noticing
Speaker 3: a lot of times things we stress off. Sometimes you
Speaker 3: just need to make the phone call and just get
Speaker 3: that out of the way, like just that postponing it.
Speaker 2: That anxiety of.
Speaker 3: It isn't usually as big as the actual issue once
Speaker 3: you get to the people and you talk and get
Speaker 3: that over with. But I just really, I just don't
Speaker 3: fuck with bad energy no more. You know, I know
Speaker 3: what bad energy is. I know when you're out to
Speaker 3: do wrong and you're out to do bad things.
Speaker 2: I just don't do that no more. I don't even
Speaker 2: entertain it.
Speaker 1: Do you entertain people around you who are not putting
Speaker 1: the energy towards you, but you hear them they talking
Speaker 1: about other people.
Speaker 2: They all got there. So what happened?
Speaker 1: Because sometimes as family, sometimes people who you know, I
Speaker 1: tend to cut people off after years and I look
Speaker 1: at the list, you know, at the end of the year,
Speaker 1: and I go, this person's not a good friend to themselves,
Speaker 1: They're never going to be a good friend to me.
Speaker 1: Or maybe I don't mess with them and there's something
Speaker 1: wrong with me. But whatever it is, I can't change.
Speaker 1: I don't like them, and I just I just kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, I let them know where we're at. Though,
Speaker 1: I let them know, Hey, I can't mess with you
Speaker 1: on this level or that level. I tell him I'm
Speaker 1: clear because I don't want to be. I don't want
Speaker 1: I don't want no misunderstandings. What do you do about
Speaker 1: the people around here to do that?
Speaker 2: But they're not.
Speaker 1: They never do it to you. Managers, lawyers, friends, called colleagues.
Speaker 2: They say, if you can't change some of your friends,
Speaker 2: you have to change some of your friends.
Speaker 3: So I, I don't know. Pretty much, I got my
Speaker 3: shit down to a skeleton crew. I'll keep it one hundred.
Speaker 3: I got it down to a skeleton crew. I got
Speaker 3: a very very few people that I really fuck with
Speaker 3: to where you know, I'm gonna return their phone calls
Speaker 3: if they call me. I just don't fuck with people
Speaker 3: like that. Like a lot of one of my homies
Speaker 3: was like, Ice is your friend? Yeah, as Ice ever
Speaker 3: called you? Has he ever called you? Did you ever
Speaker 3: pill on the phone? He's like, hey, man, how you doing?
Speaker 2: Okay? Think about that for a minute, right, Like how
Speaker 2: does he call you? I don't think.
Speaker 3: My dad used to tell me if you can count
Speaker 3: your friends on your hand, it's a big thing.
Speaker 2: It's very it's very rare that.
Speaker 3: You have people that you really let into your real world,
Speaker 3: like you know, like I know, grim's your man, I
Speaker 3: know certain people, those are people that are inside. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but those people that are inside are the ones that
Speaker 3: can hurt you the most. That they go less because
Speaker 3: they have the access. So you just have to be
Speaker 3: very cautious. I don't know, Dan, you know, you're right.
Speaker 3: I think it's your gut. I think by now your
Speaker 3: gut is very seasoned and you can feel it, and
Speaker 3: you just try to learn from your mistakes. You make mistakes,
Speaker 3: and you like, I mean, you know, I didn't even
Speaker 3: doing business. I just did a business deal with some
Speaker 3: people and they came in and they act like they
Speaker 3: had a lot of money, and then halfway through the
Speaker 3: deal they ain't had no money.
Speaker 2: And I was like, I was like, we can't even
Speaker 2: assume them.
Speaker 3: They broke And so I told my partner, we cannot
Speaker 3: deal with broke mo fuckers, Like before we start, we
Speaker 3: have to make sure they can handle what they claim
Speaker 3: and they can hear.
Speaker 2: So these are lessons. These are lessons.
Speaker 3: But you know, I don't know, man, I don't know
Speaker 3: what makes me tick at this moment. I just really
Speaker 3: just try to like keep it positive, to keep you know.
Speaker 3: You know, my thing is I've never counted on anybody
Speaker 3: other's health, hustle. I think that's my success thing is
Speaker 3: I've never counted on anyone.
Speaker 2: Else but me.
Speaker 3: And that's the scary part of it is. Right now,
Speaker 3: I'm trying to get into other businesses. I'm trying to
Speaker 3: get you know, we're starting a dispensary. I'm trying to
Speaker 3: find things that generate money other than myself, because what
Speaker 3: if something does happen to me and I physically can't
Speaker 3: get it, you know, But I have to learn about
Speaker 3: those things because I've always been the money person that
Speaker 3: generated the money.
Speaker 2: And yeah, man, I just I don't know.
Speaker 3: Man, it's hard to say. Man, I think you just
Speaker 3: have a code. You have a it's really your character.
Speaker 3: It's like, what is your character? It's your character a
Speaker 3: good person or your character a shady person or a
Speaker 3: slick person. And you know, I don't got no ops,
Speaker 3: I don't got nobody after me. I don't have no
Speaker 3: no negative energy like that. I don't want that shit.
Speaker 3: It ain't worth it, He's not.
Speaker 2: Really you know.
Speaker 1: I think I can vocalize it as well. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I agree with so much of what you've said.
Speaker 1: But this is about you and me trying to go
Speaker 1: down that rabbit hole with you and get that thought
Speaker 1: process if you going. But I think it's the same thing,
Speaker 1: you know, after you've been through so much, all these
Speaker 1: deals and people that come to you when it's a rush, right,
Speaker 1: it was always a rush. Hey, Cannas is hot this year,
Speaker 1: let's get it home.
Speaker 2: Slow down. So oh hey cryptos hot, this is you.
Speaker 2: Come on, come on, I need you to sign this.
Speaker 1: I need you to do this, like you know, And
Speaker 1: if there's so much of a rush and you can't
Speaker 1: go home and think about it, then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: why was it so much of a rush? Also, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's not necessarily the deals that you you
Speaker 1: don't do that hold you up. The deals you do
Speaker 1: because you get into the deals of these people that
Speaker 1: don't have money. Because it's funny, right, a lot of
Speaker 1: people will come to you, me and the people listening
Speaker 1: right now, and they go, oh, we're doing all this,
Speaker 1: we're doing all that, we're doing that, but we ain't
Speaker 1: got no money for you because we want to why
Speaker 1: everybody else got picky, why everybody else got paid? What
Speaker 1: are you you're doing? All this and that, you know.
Speaker 1: You know, I like to do they go. You know,
Speaker 1: I was gonna take this over to ditty. I was
Speaker 1: gonna take this leap. I'm gonna take to you for no, no,
Speaker 1: no no, take it to them, take it to them.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: But I think I think that, I think it. What
Speaker 1: it really boiled down to is your gut, you know, because.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah.
Speaker 3: One thing I like to say also with me is
Speaker 3: that I hold friendships, dear. You know, so I'm friends
Speaker 3: with you. I'm friends with doctor Dre. But I'm like, say,
Speaker 3: Dre Dray, But I never talked to Dre about music,
Speaker 3: right m you know you're on Shark Tank. I've never
Speaker 3: talked you about money. I never we don't talk about it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: So I get around somebody like you know Jamon John,
Speaker 3: Oh shit, you should get him that. I'm like, Look, see,
Speaker 3: that's why you can't be his friend, because you know
Speaker 3: that's not what he does. You know, if you're friends
Speaker 3: with somebody like Dre, you want he wants you to
Speaker 3: come over and play Xbox and leave like that.
Speaker 2: Just be his friend. You know. If something generically happens,
Speaker 2: that's great.
Speaker 3: But you know, I like people for who they are,
Speaker 3: you know, and just have friendships.
Speaker 2: And that's hard in this business because everybody's angling.
Speaker 3: You know, your boy will come over and at the
Speaker 3: end of the night, after you done had fun drank,
Speaker 3: here comes a pitch you like this, what this whole
Speaker 3: thing was about? This pitch you got for me? Like,
Speaker 3: come on, man, take it easy.
Speaker 2: I don't know. It's different. Different people see things different ways,
Speaker 2: you know, and so.
Speaker 3: I I see things my way, and you know, I
Speaker 3: always say, I think, at the end of the day, Dame,
Speaker 3: what really matters to me is my legacy, not the money,
Speaker 3: not none of this shit. Because when you're gone, you're
Speaker 3: just gonna give the money to people who gonna fuck
Speaker 3: it off because they didn't have the acremen to get
Speaker 3: it in the first place. So it doesn't mean they're
Speaker 3: gonna have the acremen to hold it. They're gonna fuck
Speaker 3: it off. So you know, the only thing that really
Speaker 3: you leave is your reputation. And if you are a
Speaker 3: great man, when people meet your daughter or your wife,
Speaker 3: they go, oh, that's Dami John's people.
Speaker 2: Okay, let them through. Like my son is in La
Speaker 2: this nigga telling me, oh, I got juice.
Speaker 3: You got juice. How the fuck you got juice? You
Speaker 3: telling them you little ice and they letting you through
Speaker 3: the ropes. That's your daddy's juice, you got, you know.
Speaker 3: But my daughter's in Atlanta. When she says who she is,
Speaker 3: people treat her like a little queen or princess. That's
Speaker 3: what's important to me, my legacy. If I leave here
Speaker 3: as a great man or a good man, then everyone
Speaker 3: else gets to live off of that, not the money.
Speaker 2: It's my rep at the end of the day.
Speaker 3: Our legacies is more important because that's what our families
Speaker 3: are going to live off of. That's what you know,
Speaker 3: your your wife, your kids, and on and on and on.
Speaker 3: And we just had to be careful because they try
Speaker 3: to scandalize you or do something ruin that.
Speaker 2: And that's more important to me than anything else.
Speaker 3: So you know, I've just got to be careful and
Speaker 3: cautious because they hate to see, you know, especially black men,
Speaker 3: become successful and pull it off and leave, you know,
Speaker 3: on a good note, you know, And that's what my
Speaker 3: thing is about, you know. So I'm very careful and
Speaker 3: trying to stay you know, straight, So my kids and
Speaker 3: my wife and anybody who represents me.
Speaker 2: Can be proud.
Speaker 1: Right well, Listen, man, I always learned something new when
Speaker 1: we hang out. And I love the fact of going
Speaker 1: down this kind of history path, of that moment, the
Speaker 1: moment that you know, you realize that you were famous
Speaker 1: and you couldn't no longer live the life that you
Speaker 1: will even even though you didn't have necessarily money, the
Speaker 1: moment that you have to deal with with the decision
Speaker 1: of facing Warner and or you were going through the
Speaker 1: moment of you know, meeting your your wife and changing
Speaker 1: your life and moving New.
Speaker 2: York and you know, moving away from her.
Speaker 1: You know who you're with, So a lot of decisions
Speaker 1: have to be made in your life, man, And I'm
Speaker 1: glad you took the moment today to share it with us.
Speaker 2: And you always inspired me.
Speaker 1: A lot of times you're just telling me things that
Speaker 1: I didn't know if I did the right thing or
Speaker 1: anybody else felt like like I feel, you know, as
Speaker 1: I'm still trying to learn and grow. So I appreciate
Speaker 1: you spending time with me, man, and thank you for being.
Speaker 2: On that moment.
Speaker 3: Hey, Hey, you know what, oh, at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, Man, you know what I learned is that
Speaker 3: it's always going to be you, just on you by yourself.
Speaker 3: There's not a group of people to help you when
Speaker 3: shit goes wrong, It's going to be on you. And
Speaker 3: in closing, I try to tell everybody, nobody wakes up.
Speaker 2: In the morning with your dream. Whatever you want to do.
Speaker 3: You could think you got partners, but nobody wakes up
Speaker 3: thinking about what you want. And the only way it's
Speaker 3: gonna happen is that you do it. Because I could
Speaker 3: be on the sidelines. I'm helping you, but I don't
Speaker 3: wake up with your dream. That's your dream, all right,
Speaker 3: that's sure, Thank you brother.
Speaker 2: All Right, Pete Dame, I've talked to you soon.
Speaker 1: All right, you gotta think, all right, And this has
Speaker 1: been that Moment with Damon John. That Moment with Damon
Speaker 1: John is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
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Speaker 1: You can all connect with me on any social media
Speaker 1: platform at the show daymon as in Raymond with a
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