Speaker 1: What's up, y'all. I'm your girl to meet A D.
Speaker 1: Mallory and it's your boy my son in general, and
Speaker 1: welcome to Street Politicians, the place where the streets and
Speaker 1: politics meet. We're covering all types of issues, New week,
Speaker 1: new show, new issues, lots happening, the same old authentic
Speaker 1: you and me. You know, keeping it real, you know
Speaker 1: how we do it. Real is red baby. Real is
Speaker 1: definitely rare, and there's a lot happening as always across
Speaker 1: the nation. People are dealing with holidays, they're dealing with COVID,
Speaker 1: they're dealing with a new administration, um, and just our
Speaker 1: regular everyday issues that we're gonna be talking about all
Speaker 1: of that, all of it, all of it. So that
Speaker 1: brings me to my thought of the day. That was
Speaker 1: kind of cool, right, I thought of the day? You
Speaker 1: like that, Right, it's something. It's a nice little listen.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm trying to say. Everything that has to
Speaker 1: do with something that's Brandon and you know that's dope.
Speaker 1: I usually have some type of input. I'm just saying.
Speaker 1: I'm just well, look, you know, you know, with this
Speaker 1: holiday situation, everybody's buying everything and we're encouraging people to
Speaker 1: buy black. I struggle with this one issue. Are we
Speaker 1: just buying black and not worrying about black excellence? Like
Speaker 1: is it okay for us to support businesses and not
Speaker 1: require of them that they be excellent in the ways
Speaker 1: in which they operate? I mean, I think I think
Speaker 1: that's a good question. But I think there has to
Speaker 1: be a real conversation about what we call excellence and
Speaker 1: whether we hold them to a standard of somebody who
Speaker 1: has a million dollar company who has, you know, resources
Speaker 1: that they don't have, or whether we walk into a
Speaker 1: place that we know it's owned by somebody black and
Speaker 1: understand that they might not have those resources and we
Speaker 1: can push them to that. We can you know, we
Speaker 1: can elevate them and say hey, give them tips and
Speaker 1: say hey, or invest in it, you know, invest in
Speaker 1: that that company or that organization and say, I see
Speaker 1: what you're doing, it could be better if you did this.
Speaker 1: I'm wanting to invest in that. You know. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of times, you know, we we we hold
Speaker 1: our people to a stand it. We don't hold nobody
Speaker 1: else too. We don't ask where is the money going
Speaker 1: and what did you do with this? So why am
Speaker 1: I invested in that we go. We we support other
Speaker 1: organizations and other you know, ethnicities without any level of scrutiny.
Speaker 1: You know, so of course we want we h But
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about is something dealer. So what do
Speaker 1: you talk Even within our organization until freedom, we had
Speaker 1: a bit which you told us, don't start selling merchandise
Speaker 1: until you can actually push out the orders, because you
Speaker 1: were saying, I've experienced this, I had trial and error.
Speaker 1: I know how much of a job it is. And
Speaker 1: we on the road in Kentucky and Georgia and all
Speaker 1: these other places, and we're not able to sit still
Speaker 1: and focus on this job. Now we've hired a person
Speaker 1: who is going to man who is managing it and
Speaker 1: doing a really good job of getting all of the
Speaker 1: orders out and all of that. So we figured it out.
Speaker 1: And so there is a trial and error part, but
Speaker 1: we recognized that there was a problem and we are
Speaker 1: rectifying it. And by the way, we're rectifying it, and
Speaker 1: we hired someone that we hope to make enough money
Speaker 1: to be able to pay them. So we're doing like
Speaker 1: the the three card Molly game right now. We really
Speaker 1: got the salary in the bank, but we think them
Speaker 1: are Randice will sell enough to be able to pay
Speaker 1: this person, right, that's the deal. So I get you.
Speaker 1: The resources are not there to just open up the
Speaker 1: Amacy's or you know whatever and sell our clothes, our
Speaker 1: our our merchandise and and all of our branded until
Speaker 1: freedom stuff. But there is something to be said about
Speaker 1: one people who don't want to change. They think it
Speaker 1: should already find the way it is. And they use
Speaker 1: that excuse my son that well, we don't have the
Speaker 1: same money that everybody else has. It's not so what.
Speaker 1: It still should be customer service. This thing should still
Speaker 1: be clean, your facility should be clean, You should be
Speaker 1: on time. That's another big problem, especially for somebody like me.
Speaker 1: When you're talking about hair and you know the services
Speaker 1: that we need. People complain all the time, well you
Speaker 1: should go to black owned businesses and I do my
Speaker 1: hair style. It's you know, all of them, and they
Speaker 1: and because I'm so busy, and because they are business
Speaker 1: people themselves, they understand the importance of getting me in
Speaker 1: and out of coming to the house or meeting me
Speaker 1: on the side of the road, and you know, whatever
Speaker 1: they have to do. But I have worked with people
Speaker 1: who are chronically late, who are chronically just disrespectful. They
Speaker 1: act like they're paying you to do a service for you,
Speaker 1: and I'm challenged with on my social media and other things.
Speaker 1: I never want to talk about this issue because I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to hurt black business. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: there has to be somebody to call our attention and
Speaker 1: we've got to raise the level of excellence with how
Speaker 1: we put products in the world. Well, I think for me,
Speaker 1: I understand exactly what you're saying, and I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that we should expect less from black people who are
Speaker 1: in business. What I'm saying is you have to look
Speaker 1: at the individual. You have to look at the organization.
Speaker 1: You have to look at the company, and you're able
Speaker 1: to tell while they have more recoil since they'd probably
Speaker 1: be bigger, you know, probably when you looked at even
Speaker 1: with the Nipsey Hustle's brand, right, he had never sold
Speaker 1: as many things. So when he passed away, the organization
Speaker 1: took months to get people their thing because they weren't capable.
Speaker 1: It wasn't that they were just you know, they were
Speaker 1: um incompetent exactly, It's just that they weren't They didn't
Speaker 1: have the bandwidth to actually supply the orders, so they
Speaker 1: it was something new. So when you look at things
Speaker 1: in that aspect, cool, I'm saying if you if you
Speaker 1: have somebody who who does your head that you give
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars to on a regular basis and they're
Speaker 1: constantly late, that means that that person is just not professional.
Speaker 1: The individual is not professional. So no, but you can't
Speaker 1: say that no, because that means if you make if
Speaker 1: I tell you say, hey, you know, I know that
Speaker 1: you're a little busy sometimes this and that, but I
Speaker 1: have a schedule, you know, and and it's customary when
Speaker 1: you're a customer that you reach out and give somebody
Speaker 1: a courtesy and I'm not gonna make it on time.
Speaker 1: Or you're honest about this. When you said a day
Speaker 1: and you said it's that, that's that's professionalism, you understand.
Speaker 1: I'm saying, so you it's nothing wrong with expecting a
Speaker 1: level of professionalism and understanding and and and coming to
Speaker 1: a mutual agreement about somebody who are you're paying your
Speaker 1: money to. You know, of course you will want. But
Speaker 1: the thing is, I'm not saying that because that one
Speaker 1: black person doesn't fit, you're gonna say, well, I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna go back to the to the the regular. Do
Speaker 1: you know the people who have been doing whatever for
Speaker 1: me because it was this way, No, find you another
Speaker 1: black person that's professional because they are professional Black people
Speaker 1: that do it. So if if we're saying buy black,
Speaker 1: find you a professional black, don't just support any black
Speaker 1: business that doesn't, you know, fit up to your standards
Speaker 1: because they don't want to, or they're not cable or
Speaker 1: doing things like I'm not gonna buy I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: buy less quality something from black person because they're black.
Speaker 1: No I will. I would support a movie, a company
Speaker 1: that's on the upbroads that's growing, and I see the potentially.
Speaker 1: You know, if you know me, you know I've been
Speaker 1: through many different hairstylists, makeup artists, regular style clothing stylists,
Speaker 1: nail technicians like, I've been through many and I continuously
Speaker 1: support black people. I am really grateful that at this
Speaker 1: point I found a team of individuals that really they
Speaker 1: first of all, they want to see me win. So
Speaker 1: that makes a big difference, right, they want to see
Speaker 1: me win, and so they're showing up knowing that they
Speaker 1: are a part of this movement that we're in and
Speaker 1: their job is to help me be a little bit
Speaker 1: more comfortable and look better. So I have to say
Speaker 1: that about my team because they are the bomb. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, what I find, to
Speaker 1: your point about less quality, it's the people who have them.
Speaker 1: They know how to do hair really well. They don't
Speaker 1: want that, don't want to show up on time. They're
Speaker 1: the ones that have an attitude that they are the
Speaker 1: star of the of the chair, like it's not you
Speaker 1: are supposed to be working for people, you know where
Speaker 1: else I've had issues black contractors and by the way,
Speaker 1: I found many trash contractors, and I'm talking about contractors,
Speaker 1: not I'm talking about like for your home, for renovations
Speaker 1: or whatever, construction workers. I have found that there's like
Speaker 1: some issues there, especially with women hiring car dealership car dealers,
Speaker 1: like you just get treated unprofessionally. Well, I understand what
Speaker 1: you're saying, but I think it happens with white when
Speaker 1: black women hire white men to do the same thing,
Speaker 1: they treat you unprofessionally. So well, But but it's it's
Speaker 1: a different Yeah, that's true. And I'm not gonna say white.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying other I'm saying, well, not just what
Speaker 1: I'm saying outside of the black race, because I've going
Speaker 1: I'm going to get services outside of black race and
Speaker 1: felt like somebody just then they'll ask you, you shure
Speaker 1: you can afford this? They ask you question, so you
Speaker 1: so you gotta acts? What is it? What professionalism are
Speaker 1: you looking for? Are you are you comfortable with being
Speaker 1: marginalized or treated like you're not even supposed to be there?
Speaker 1: Buy somebody that's not your race, or you want to
Speaker 1: deal with some of the level of inconfidence to where
Speaker 1: you know they're not doing certain things that you want
Speaker 1: to do this because you know me, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: deal with any that's everybody that I spent my money with.
Speaker 1: It's it's pretty much like the worst. You just want
Speaker 1: to hide your face because she'll sit there and the
Speaker 1: civil War is not clean, and the ladies walking by
Speaker 1: don't don't not hear her the first time because she says,
Speaker 1: excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. This this civil is
Speaker 1: not she know she does it's not it's very it's
Speaker 1: just the octaves. It's very raised. Excuse me, excuse me,
Speaker 1: excuse me. This civil war is not clean. And this
Speaker 1: table is not clear, and the table is not clo.
Speaker 1: I don't understand what it's not. But the thing is
Speaker 1: this now and then she'll eat the food and say
Speaker 1: this food what I'm not gonna take it back with?
Speaker 1: The food was cold? You know, I asked for a
Speaker 1: certain thing. It didn't get that. But don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: Or did you say you know what? I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to I'm trying to help them be great. And then
Speaker 1: she'll she'll get something and like, no, I don't. This
Speaker 1: is not done properly. I asked you for I asked
Speaker 1: you for a drink and I said no salt, and
Speaker 1: it tastes like you poured it back in and with
Speaker 1: the salt on it. I don't want you to pour
Speaker 1: it back in with the salt on it. I wanted
Speaker 1: to have no salt. I want a new drink. I
Speaker 1: don't want this one poured into like everyone, this is
Speaker 1: what she does, but I don't. But what a good
Speaker 1: point that you made is that I do not ask
Speaker 1: for a discount or that just because I didn't love it,
Speaker 1: that I now don't want to pay. I don't do that.
Speaker 1: I just tell them listen, I ate the food, or
Speaker 1: I did you know I participated I partake or whatever,
Speaker 1: but I don't appreciate these things that happened, and hopefully
Speaker 1: they will make changes and sometimes I go back. But see,
Speaker 1: I learned the service business, specifically from going to Sylvia's
Speaker 1: restaurant in Harlem since I was a kid. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying it's perfect. Nothing is perfect, okay, because my son
Speaker 1: was a bus boy there and I used to have
Speaker 1: to get on him like, uh, move it, move it.
Speaker 1: But he knows how hard he worked and how much
Speaker 1: they worked towards excellence. Sylvia the owner of the restaurant,
Speaker 1: God let rest her soul. And you know, the family
Speaker 1: runs and operates every single level of the business, from
Speaker 1: the chefs to the administration to the event planning and
Speaker 1: all of that. I learned from them. One touch and
Speaker 1: feel your customers. Miss Sylvia, as I said, God rest
Speaker 1: her soul. She used to go to every single table
Speaker 1: in that restaurant herself, not the manager, not the whomever.
Speaker 1: She went and walked around and made sure that people
Speaker 1: were good at the tables, touching field, talk to them,
Speaker 1: how did you like it? It wasn't hot? Oh no,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna eat that. And it's not hot we
Speaker 1: put throwing that out, we're getting you something else. Her
Speaker 1: children learned that, and her all her grandchildren, which you know,
Speaker 1: there are many of my three GW cousins and they
Speaker 1: love you and love us and and and and and
Speaker 1: his family. When you go there as a cousin who
Speaker 1: might be coming from out of town, and you think
Speaker 1: you're gonna sit down at the bar, when they get busy,
Speaker 1: they get up from eating with their own friends. They
Speaker 1: could be in a meeting doing something that is not
Speaker 1: working for the restaurant. They're not all on the payroll.
Speaker 1: They get up, they start moving tables, busting things down,
Speaker 1: taking care of business, because that's how they were trained
Speaker 1: that the only way this business will sustain itself. Where
Speaker 1: they have now purchased half the block, more than half
Speaker 1: the block, um is because we all have to participate
Speaker 1: in the excellence, the movement for excellence for the black
Speaker 1: rais And that's what I want to see. I appreciate that,
Speaker 1: and I agree, but you know, and it started with
Speaker 1: no money, no resources. She was frying chicken in a
Speaker 1: with a little a little counter. I think I think
Speaker 1: that's a loss art. You know, I think customer service
Speaker 1: is really a loss or a lot of most people
Speaker 1: are so frustrated that they have a job. Most people
Speaker 1: aren't working in professions and in places where they actually
Speaker 1: enjoy doing it, so they're mad that they there. You
Speaker 1: walk up to me like, okay, what you want? You know,
Speaker 1: there's no trying to I think when she started her business,
Speaker 1: it was her passion, you know, it was her love.
Speaker 1: She like, this is my I'm gonna cook my food.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have my people in here. So it's different,
Speaker 1: and I think we have to get back to that.
Speaker 1: You know, we have to expect excellence. We want people
Speaker 1: to get into jobs that they enjoy, that they love doing.
Speaker 1: You know, customer service is very important if you have
Speaker 1: a service business, Customer service is very important. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to explain to you. They just don't do good because
Speaker 1: it's the worst thing nobody wants to do Jenkie business.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to you say you're gonna do something, you
Speaker 1: don't do it, or you don't call they gotta call
Speaker 1: you a thousand times. It's not done properly. Like, I
Speaker 1: just want to get back to us doing business properly.
Speaker 1: There was a time where you can expect that if
Speaker 1: somebody said they was gonna do something. They did it.
Speaker 1: So let's get back to good customer service, good business,
Speaker 1: good business. I'm telling you that's a that is like
Speaker 1: that should be a movement by itself and doing good business.
Speaker 1: You can learn, We all can learn, we all can
Speaker 1: do better. I know for me, I certainly am learning
Speaker 1: and growing and the experience. And you know, I do
Speaker 1: not like mess associated with my name and the issue
Speaker 1: that we have with the until freedom merch taught me
Speaker 1: a lesson of one. Sometimes we might want to listen
Speaker 1: to my song. It's all knows what he's talking. Mom
Speaker 1: might know a little bit about a little I mean,
Speaker 1: I know a thing too, about a thing or two.
Speaker 1: It taught me is the whole which we know that
Speaker 1: preparation is key, and so being prepared preparation prevents poor performance. Okay,
Speaker 1: well that's good. What else is going on the streets
Speaker 1: is talking, always talking. I tell you every week the
Speaker 1: streets talk to damn much. That's the fact. That's why
Speaker 1: so many people going to jail. And that brings me
Speaker 1: into the streets talking because it's too much talking, so scamming,
Speaker 1: you know, holidays, people trying to figure out how they're
Speaker 1: gonna get PS five, you know, they're trying to get
Speaker 1: the new jacket, you know, the new fashion. Kids want
Speaker 1: all types of toys, and a lot of people are
Speaker 1: focusing on scamming. It's a it's a new thing. It's
Speaker 1: like a trend. You know, somebody knows somebody to get
Speaker 1: it for cheap, that to swipe it if you give
Speaker 1: them this and that, you know, and I'm hoping that
Speaker 1: our kids understand that this right here, it's one of
Speaker 1: the biggest ways that they get you. You know, this
Speaker 1: is this is why I say that poverty is violence,
Speaker 1: you know, because when you don't have you try to
Speaker 1: figure out ways to cut corners, and you get caught
Speaker 1: up in certain things. And what we do through this
Speaker 1: holiday season. You know, if you out here scamming, it's
Speaker 1: going about three or four months, you're gonna be in
Speaker 1: the prison. Sw It's real dangerous because first of all,
Speaker 1: you're we're talking about the holiday season. But actually this
Speaker 1: scamming issue has been going on for a little bit longer,
Speaker 1: which is throughout this whole time when with the with
Speaker 1: those the loans, the the stimulus money. I know that
Speaker 1: there have been people applying for unemployment that that actually
Speaker 1: didn't have a job. I seen more money in the
Speaker 1: hood than I've ever seen. And that's why some people
Speaker 1: were like, oh, we like Trump. They don't know it
Speaker 1: takes Congress to actually help, you know it, to get
Speaker 1: to put a stimulus package forward. Um. And of course
Speaker 1: other branches of government and the president and all those
Speaker 1: individuals have to come together and agree on it. But
Speaker 1: the president Donald Trump, did not give us a dime. Okay,
Speaker 1: it doesn't work like that. Um. But anyway, that's I
Speaker 1: digress from that. The point of the matter is that
Speaker 1: I see it too. Write like I'm not gonna sit
Speaker 1: here and act like we don't see people moving around
Speaker 1: with things that and no job because this pandemic there's
Speaker 1: not even now there's some folks who just came up
Speaker 1: because their ideas, Um, you know, some of their innovative
Speaker 1: strategies to make money have actually worked. And I remember
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the pandemic, I saw this post
Speaker 1: that said, um, this pandemic will will make this pandemic
Speaker 1: will show you who can make it and who's broken
Speaker 1: basically who couldn't make it right, um, And it basically
Speaker 1: was talking even more in the post about how people
Speaker 1: with innovative ideas would be able to make a lot
Speaker 1: of money during this time, and those people who might
Speaker 1: have had popping businesses that don't know how to pivot right,
Speaker 1: they will You'll see them their business will decline. And
Speaker 1: that's true one the struggle of this moment. You see
Speaker 1: so many businesses. I mean, it is so heartbreaking. We
Speaker 1: have been away living in Kentucky, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: even there in Louisville businesses boarded up, you know, struggling.
Speaker 1: They're saying that at least in New York, the businesses
Speaker 1: won't even reopen. When we came back to New York
Speaker 1: and I just had to like run downtown for something.
Speaker 1: I was looking around, like what everything It's like, yo,
Speaker 1: things are closed and and and some of the places,
Speaker 1: like you're talking about delis and restaurants that are long
Speaker 1: standing like they are, they've become staples. Everybody goes to
Speaker 1: these um these establishments, and to have them closing down
Speaker 1: because of a pandemic. But not even just a pandemic.
Speaker 1: It was the Trump demmick because of the way in
Speaker 1: which the pandemic was actually being handled and still today
Speaker 1: not being handled exactly. You know, somebody said, I saw
Speaker 1: you know, you know Instagram is like um, like the news.
Speaker 1: But I saw someone say say that who was it?
Speaker 1: It was somebody important to us. That there has not
Speaker 1: even been a day of mourning that this administration has organized,
Speaker 1: like when almost three hundred thousand people died the president
Speaker 1: of the United States. It's supposed to stop everything and
Speaker 1: and and have people come together to pray and mourn
Speaker 1: those who have lost who we have lost. But that
Speaker 1: would take leadership, you know, that would take a double
Speaker 1: of understanding of presidential is m you know, you know,
Speaker 1: I create my work presidential ism, you know, which which
Speaker 1: the president? Because is it just leadership or do you
Speaker 1: have to have a heart all those things? You know?
Speaker 1: But even if but my thing is this, even if
Speaker 1: you don't have a heart, you have a common sense
Speaker 1: to know, if I really want to have a being
Speaker 1: a leader, then I would have to, you know, let
Speaker 1: the people believe, you know, even just fake even if
Speaker 1: you was faking and you don't even need to heart
Speaker 1: fake it because you understand it's the right thing to do,
Speaker 1: even if you didn't even agree to say, you know what,
Speaker 1: these people people are dying. Let's show that we actually care.
Speaker 1: Let's have a dead morning, let's you know, let's let's
Speaker 1: celebrate the families who lost. Let's, you know, console the
Speaker 1: families who look this this president has never had and
Speaker 1: he doesn't have he doesn't have common sense, he doesn't
Speaker 1: have reasonable discernment. There's so many things that Trump lacks
Speaker 1: that I don't even We're not going because you know,
Speaker 1: he doesn't want to even. He doesn't want people to
Speaker 1: escape that the pandemic exists. That's the real thing. It's
Speaker 1: like trying to ignore it. Yes, there, but it's not
Speaker 1: that important, and so we're not going to talk about it.
Speaker 1: But again, all of these folks have died, and we
Speaker 1: as a country, we as a nation, have not paused
Speaker 1: to acknowledge and support people lost their mother, their father,
Speaker 1: their kids, people lost three and the whole families in
Speaker 1: one family likes it's terrible and you know, it's just terrible.
Speaker 1: So with that being said, the streets better know that
Speaker 1: in a few months, to your point, the indictment is
Speaker 1: coming down. I see him all the time. We've been
Speaker 1: seeing them, you know, like damn, my boycatting over got
Speaker 1: caught up in an indictment. Her g herbal caught up
Speaker 1: in indictment for actually supposedly swiping credit cards allegedly, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's like, this is what happens. You know, these
Speaker 1: the system is strategic. You know, they're not giving you
Speaker 1: anything for freedom. Boy, you're out there, you're scamming. You're
Speaker 1: running in these clubs and you're buying bottles and you
Speaker 1: you're going into these these establishments and you think you're
Speaker 1: getting over. You know, they're just building up a jacket
Speaker 1: for you. Man, they're building up your foul and they're
Speaker 1: letting you think you're getting away. And then what happens
Speaker 1: is when things open back up, the fans got fresh
Speaker 1: cases they're looking for, and they need new people in themselves,
Speaker 1: and they're coming to get you because your fingerprint is
Speaker 1: all over the world and you're scamming. To me, it's
Speaker 1: the scary, Like, I don't understand scamming, crimsing the camp.
Speaker 1: You have a digital fingerprint. You understand. If you're literally
Speaker 1: leaving your face, you leave it. And if you're saying
Speaker 1: I ain't doing somebody else to do now you you
Speaker 1: you think somebody else, they're gonna tell on you that
Speaker 1: your t gave me this. This is it doesn't make sense, man,
Speaker 1: I think common sense ain't comments so much, man, I'm
Speaker 1: just saying, Look, be smart, man, don't get something that's
Speaker 1: gonna get you. They say all the time, trouble is
Speaker 1: the easiest thing to get into and the hardest thing
Speaker 1: to get out of. So a set of scamming being entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: figure out how to get multiple streams of income, create
Speaker 1: something different. You know what I'm saying. The same energy
Speaker 1: that you put into doing something illegal that's gonna probably
Speaker 1: end you in prison, put that same energy into doing
Speaker 1: something positive that is legal. You know. I I realized
Speaker 1: being in the streets that when I was doing negative
Speaker 1: things and I was putting all of this energy into negativity.
Speaker 1: When I decided to switch and put that same energy
Speaker 1: into something that I didn't have to run from the
Speaker 1: police and I didn't have to worry about whether somebody
Speaker 1: was gonna rest me or knock on my door, I
Speaker 1: got even more results. You know, and our next guests
Speaker 1: is a classic example of that. You know Mr bad
Speaker 1: Boy bad Boy turned entrepreneurial tech. You know, he's in
Speaker 1: can and he's in so many different things. Man like,
Speaker 1: he's like a young mogul Man. You know, watching Ray
Speaker 1: J over the years, from sex tapes to beefs with
Speaker 1: this one too, you know, his multiple relationships, relationships, multiple entanglements, man,
Speaker 1: and just watching him navigate through that, being entertained by him,
Speaker 1: to see him grow into this entrepreneur that you know
Speaker 1: it's doing all this big stuff in tech is just
Speaker 1: is motivational, you know, and it shows us where we
Speaker 1: can come from. Man. So I hope a lot of
Speaker 1: young kids pay attention because you can make money. You
Speaker 1: can money. Listen when you realize that. I was having
Speaker 1: this conversation yesterday and I was like, yo, when you
Speaker 1: realize how easy it is to make money when you
Speaker 1: focus on the right thing. And I think in our
Speaker 1: communities were always taught that the only way to make
Speaker 1: money was pretty much three especially in marginalized communities, like
Speaker 1: three ways. You had to be into some crumbs and
Speaker 1: some drugs. You had to be a rapper, or you
Speaker 1: had to play a sport. You know, everybody else too hard.
Speaker 1: You've seen mother going to world and you didn't want
Speaker 1: to do that. But when you start to realize how
Speaker 1: many different things and ways that you can make money,
Speaker 1: it is, it's I open it. It just gives you
Speaker 1: breath of life. And that's why we have our brother
Speaker 1: Ray j joining US is joining us today. Before we
Speaker 1: go to the next segment and have our special guests joint,
Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break for our sponsors. So
Speaker 1: I don't really celebrate Christmas, but it's Christmas. And one
Speaker 1: thing I will say is that more businesses are investing
Speaker 1: in this idea of the Black Lives Matter movement right now,
Speaker 1: it's not nearly enough. Um, we won't claim it as
Speaker 1: being some type of victory just throwing a few million,
Speaker 1: few foul in dollars at the problem. There has to
Speaker 1: actually be a commitment and the companies have to change.
Speaker 1: If Black lives matter, it needs to matter from your
Speaker 1: corporate boardroom all the way down to how people are
Speaker 1: being treated treated um, you know, on the floor actually
Speaker 1: producing your product or working in your stores. And so
Speaker 1: there's a lot of work that still has to be
Speaker 1: done there. And I don't think that we have returned
Speaker 1: to a space where it's time for us to start
Speaker 1: spending this one point for trillion dollars that black people
Speaker 1: spend every year without some real demands for our money. However, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, people still gonna buy Christmas gifts. That's the
Speaker 1: bottom line. People got kids and kids, you know, for me, like,
Speaker 1: I personally don't celebrate Christmas because you know, understanding the
Speaker 1: history of it, and you know, and one of the
Speaker 1: things that we we said at the march was, you know,
Speaker 1: we want to take Christmas back from Stata close to
Speaker 1: give it back to Christlike we didn't say that that
Speaker 1: a maze using amazing spoken word that you did. It
Speaker 1: was was it? This was the speech. It was the
Speaker 1: speech spoken word in the spoken word fashion form. Right. Um,
Speaker 1: And you said that let's take the Santa Claus out
Speaker 1: of Christmas and give it back to christ right and so,
Speaker 1: but still people are buying gifts and so if you're
Speaker 1: gonna buy black black black, black black, that's why we're
Speaker 1: on the Black effect world. So our next guest is
Speaker 1: someone who has been a real true advocate for black entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: In fact, when we were with him recently, uh, he
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, you know, I can get into the
Speaker 1: political discussion all day, but I also want to talk
Speaker 1: about black banks, black business where we can really focus
Speaker 1: on economic development and how that plays a role in
Speaker 1: addressing the concerns that our communities have because we need
Speaker 1: to be self sustainable, right, we need to be self
Speaker 1: sustained um and uh and And I think one of
Speaker 1: the ways is to continue to increase our you know,
Speaker 1: continue to use our buying power um as an opportunity,
Speaker 1: not just taking money away, but is acknowledging that. You know,
Speaker 1: what we don't do is acknowledge our buy we utilize
Speaker 1: because we all go out and buy anything with the
Speaker 1: number one consumers in the world, and we trillions of
Speaker 1: dollars that we spend, especially during these holidays, you know.
Speaker 1: So if we start to redirect that money back into
Speaker 1: our communities and make sure that we are making sure
Speaker 1: that people that look like us, that come from our
Speaker 1: exact same realities, you know, are benefiting from our spending,
Speaker 1: then at that point we can change our reality. Because
Speaker 1: I always say that poverty is violence. You know, the
Speaker 1: number one cause of violence for me is poverty. The
Speaker 1: number one cause of anything that's negatively affecting Black people
Speaker 1: comes from poverty. So we can't we can't be comfortable
Speaker 1: with poverty. I was having a conversation other than some people.
Speaker 1: Some person said that we've gotten comfortable with the struggle,
Speaker 1: and we we we we only embraced the struggle in poverty,
Speaker 1: you know, And it's it's a it's a mentality that
Speaker 1: we because we struggled so long that we've embraced it,
Speaker 1: and you know, we try to make, we try to
Speaker 1: make it's not cool, and we don't believe it, and
Speaker 1: we don't believe in at all. Poverty is not okay.
Speaker 1: It is violence. It's definitely violence. And I kind of
Speaker 1: went off, you know, we just kind of drifted off
Speaker 1: into our critical analysis of this whole issue about UH
Speaker 1: spending money during this holiday season. And let's just clarify.
Speaker 1: I love Christmas. I do. I love christ obviously, and
Speaker 1: I'm a Christian um and it has my my The
Speaker 1: fact that I don't celebrate Christmas has absolutely nothing to
Speaker 1: do with me being sort of like against I think
Speaker 1: that I think. I think for us, it's not really
Speaker 1: celebrate just we don't tradition exactly. We celebrated, but we don't.
Speaker 1: We don't believe in having to spend all of our money.
Speaker 1: The commercialization of Christmas. Christmas, that's what I don't participate in.
Speaker 1: And we went off, you know, into a lot and
Speaker 1: did not bring um on our guests. I'm so happy
Speaker 1: to have today. And if you are going to spend money,
Speaker 1: like we said by Black spended with our own people.
Speaker 1: We don't have to run out and get our headsets
Speaker 1: and all of that, all of our tech equipment from Apple,
Speaker 1: which is great. We we support Apple too, but they
Speaker 1: are actually black brands who are putting out products that
Speaker 1: are just as good. One of them is by our
Speaker 1: brother ray J, who was with us right now and
Speaker 1: Raycon is his product that is actually doing really really well.
Speaker 1: So again, during this Christmas season, let's by black and
Speaker 1: support our own family. What's up, ray J? Sub baby Man,
Speaker 1: that's love. I appreciate that, y'all. Thank you all for
Speaker 1: having me. Man, that's a blessing to let people know
Speaker 1: that and let people know about the company. So thank
Speaker 1: you for that. Yes, sir, so give us let us know.
Speaker 1: You know, you called the crossover from TV and music
Speaker 1: into tech entrepreneurship, like that's that's something that we have
Speaker 1: to celebrate. You know, you started as a personality and
Speaker 1: then understanding how everybody else is getting rich, how everybody
Speaker 1: else other you know, cultures are getting rich and you
Speaker 1: tapped into that. Explain to the process. How did you
Speaker 1: get into the field of getting into tech? Well, um,
Speaker 1: well I started and I started just kind of running
Speaker 1: my own company when I was when I was uh,
Speaker 1: went on for my second album, Radiation. The first album
Speaker 1: was with Atlantic Records, and I had a song called
Speaker 1: Wait a Minute, um with Little Kim that was like
Speaker 1: my first big record. But I started to kind of
Speaker 1: figure out how to run my own business and create
Speaker 1: my own template through marketing from just being turned down
Speaker 1: a lot man the labels, you know, dropping and and
Speaker 1: you know, just kind of being out there just alone,
Speaker 1: and and then you know you kind of like ask
Speaker 1: God for help and then your mom, my, mom and
Speaker 1: dad let me brass some money and um, and that's
Speaker 1: when I made the album Radiation, and so I really
Speaker 1: just went guns blazing with that and I found out
Speaker 1: how to create my own template through music, and um,
Speaker 1: eventually it was it wasn't it wasn't giving me the
Speaker 1: return that I wanted. I was spending a lot of
Speaker 1: time doing music and putting all my soul and all
Speaker 1: my pain and passion into the music, but the return
Speaker 1: was kind of not It wasn't enough for the time.
Speaker 1: So I just said, man, it's gotta be another way.
Speaker 1: I felt like there was something else out there. And
Speaker 1: then that's when we started venturing into tech and got
Speaker 1: into the scooting bike, and then UM eventually sold that
Speaker 1: company to a Canadian company UM named Luke Great Company
Speaker 1: Schooling Bikes trading right now on the t sx V
Speaker 1: and on the OTC and UM and then I just
Speaker 1: went in the recon Man. I needed a product that
Speaker 1: I felt people could afford. I felt it was it
Speaker 1: was a wide open lane. You know, Drake kind of
Speaker 1: dominated on the ear on the headphone side, but the
Speaker 1: earbuds is just something new. It's something new, it was
Speaker 1: something you know, it was on the cutting edge of
Speaker 1: being successful. So we just took a dive at it.
Speaker 1: And and three years later, Man, we were scaling every year,
Speaker 1: heavy heavy. We just did UM we did over four
Speaker 1: million in sales in the past four days, over the
Speaker 1: over the Black Friday, Cyber Monday weekend. And I'm not
Speaker 1: scaled for x from last year. So we've been you know,
Speaker 1: everything's been moving, man, God is good. We still got
Speaker 1: a long way to go. When we when we first
Speaker 1: had this conversation a couple of weeks ago, and you
Speaker 1: were talking, we wanted to talk about politics, and you said, Yo,
Speaker 1: I want to sit down and talk about politics, but
Speaker 1: I want to talk about having black banks like let's
Speaker 1: talk about the finances and how those are the things
Speaker 1: that we really need to focus on. Like, so we
Speaker 1: need to definitely tap in. I mean, I think it's
Speaker 1: something important. I think everything that we're doing is right,
Speaker 1: from raising awareness to to march into to uh, you know,
Speaker 1: really just really trying to make sure that we get
Speaker 1: what we deserve, um, but also in the financial department
Speaker 1: to like I mean, I don't I don't even think
Speaker 1: there's like four or five actual black families that own
Speaker 1: a bank in America. I think there's like maybe fourteen
Speaker 1: minorities total total, and I might have the number like wrong,
Speaker 1: but it's around in that area. But we don't own banks,
Speaker 1: you know, and I think we should focus on owning banks,
Speaker 1: being bank owners also you know, uh, being stronger in stocks, um,
Speaker 1: just to being more educated. I think if people knew
Speaker 1: what this stuff was and how simple certain things are
Speaker 1: and it's not so complicated, I think people will dive
Speaker 1: in and start using their skills and what they're good
Speaker 1: at in different in different sectors of the world. You know,
Speaker 1: it's sports is cool, and gaming is great too, um,
Speaker 1: but coding is is great. I Mean, it's just so
Speaker 1: many different things people can do in the tech business
Speaker 1: or um, you know, even in real estate. I just
Speaker 1: think we need to we need to be educated more
Speaker 1: every day on our financial side of things, not just
Speaker 1: not just you know, I mean it's I can't say
Speaker 1: not just because you know what what's happening to us
Speaker 1: is is extremely wrong. And I think at us, changing
Speaker 1: the narrative on that is is up first, but we've
Speaker 1: got to get that done. But also there has to
Speaker 1: be an open mind to to make sure our financial
Speaker 1: structure is in play. I'm not just hearing oh, ray
Speaker 1: J has a great earbuds, but I'm hearing business. I'm
Speaker 1: hearing employees. I'm hearing the sustainability of our communities based
Speaker 1: upon UM this this revenue driving that you're doing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's important. It's important to put people in play,
Speaker 1: Like I got all of my team and play and
Speaker 1: most of my right hands are all on payroll from
Speaker 1: from my company's UM and then you know, you've got
Speaker 1: health benefits, You've got all these extra things that come
Speaker 1: with it. So you know, I definitely want to make
Speaker 1: sure that I tap into to the people that I
Speaker 1: know are creative. That that is, you know, it's just
Speaker 1: in my culture hands down, because it's I try to
Speaker 1: tell people, like people love us, right, they love us
Speaker 1: in tech, Like, you know, you don't have to come
Speaker 1: into meeting with a suit on. Come in with a
Speaker 1: white T shirt on, sweats and some flip loops and
Speaker 1: a great idea. That's all you need, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, And speak the way you speak, Hit them
Speaker 1: with the slang, hit them with the if you want
Speaker 1: to at the end of it, at the end of
Speaker 1: the pitch. They love that, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Because as long as the product is good and you
Speaker 1: being yourself and you can lose, you know, you can't
Speaker 1: lose being yourself. What is the conversation? What is the
Speaker 1: movement that we all sit down and come up with
Speaker 1: a collective plan to change the things that we see
Speaker 1: that a wrong, Like Okay, we all need to own
Speaker 1: we need to own a black bank. What is the process?
Speaker 1: What is the steps that we need to do. We
Speaker 1: need to own black banks. We need to get everybody
Speaker 1: into tech. We need to start focusing on coding. Like,
Speaker 1: what do you think that's gonna take for us to
Speaker 1: get to that stage? I think I think we we
Speaker 1: gotta we gotta speak it out kind of like how
Speaker 1: we protest, you know. And I think it's gotta be
Speaker 1: it's gotta be a movement, you know, and they got
Speaker 1: to know that there's something you know, positive gonna come
Speaker 1: out of the movement, you know. And I think if
Speaker 1: you just if people are are understanding that, Like if
Speaker 1: you're going in Instagram and you have two hundred, two
Speaker 1: hundred people or a hundred people in your Instagram, A
Speaker 1: hundred people, that's a lot of people. Like people go,
Speaker 1: you only got a hundred a hundred people in your house.
Speaker 1: You can't happen, right, a hundred people getting together and
Speaker 1: marching or moving or programming or putting something. People here
Speaker 1: every day a hundred times of the three hundred, just
Speaker 1: the people that we talked to every day online, you
Speaker 1: can create these movements and you can even create the
Speaker 1: blockchains with just the three hundred people inside of you know,
Speaker 1: your Instagram following right, and then create businesses through these
Speaker 1: through these power plays of two hundreds and three hundred people. Um,
Speaker 1: I just think the numbers are there. I think people
Speaker 1: just have to use the numbers that they have, whether
Speaker 1: it's ten, where's fifty, and try to under us all
Speaker 1: up and come up with a plan. So when we
Speaker 1: all say go, we go together. And when we off,
Speaker 1: we know that's the most important. No, when we say no,
Speaker 1: it's no. We can't say no. We're gonna say no,
Speaker 1: and then a couple of people say no, gotta you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, it's got to be complete and
Speaker 1: if not, you know, I just think that there's just
Speaker 1: a lot of work we gotta do until it's there.
Speaker 1: It might not happen this year, not happen next year,
Speaker 1: but as long as we keep showing them the way
Speaker 1: and doing stuff like what we're doing to open the door,
Speaker 1: you know, it's inevitable. What about music, are you are
Speaker 1: you retired and you just into tech? Or are we
Speaker 1: gonna get a RAJ album soon? You know? So? So
Speaker 1: I um, so I look at everything as numbers now right.
Speaker 1: So I put out the album Radiation with one wish.
Speaker 1: Um it just sold over. I think five thousand albums now, Um,
Speaker 1: it's gold. And so what I did was I want
Speaker 1: to scale that album. So I put out another album
Speaker 1: called Radiation X is what I'm releasing top of the year.
Speaker 1: It has new all new songs, all new new beats
Speaker 1: on one wish melody all the classic songs we redid them,
Speaker 1: made them just epic, like two thousand and twenty one
Speaker 1: versions and Radiation X the anniversary album would be out
Speaker 1: top of the year. All Right, well, I'm gonna need
Speaker 1: I'm gonna need. I'm gonna need a feature from you.
Speaker 1: Listen whatever you're doing for the holidays with the charity.
Speaker 1: I was serious when we were in um in Arizona,
Speaker 1: like I want to, we want to, we want to
Speaker 1: support it. Ray Con wants to help, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So whatever, whatever, whatever we gotta put in
Speaker 1: to make sure that we we did our thing, let
Speaker 1: me know and we get off. You know you're gonna
Speaker 1: make sure we get your investment. Man. You know I
Speaker 1: have to ask this one question, right because what I
Speaker 1: love about you and I think I sort of share
Speaker 1: this same attitude that you know, we're not just one dimensional.
Speaker 1: You talked about that we got a lot of things
Speaker 1: going on. But now someone would people would say, why
Speaker 1: be on love and hip hop if you are doing
Speaker 1: all these other great things and making money, like you're
Speaker 1: not hurting for money. We know that. Well I'm happy.
Speaker 1: That's and that's one of the best questions anybody has
Speaker 1: ever asked me. Nobody's ever asked me this question here politicians,
Speaker 1: and it's it's one of the best questions. The reason
Speaker 1: why is because I freaking love it. Like when you
Speaker 1: when you we'll listen when you break the ice, and
Speaker 1: like we started this reality show so like we we
Speaker 1: we were in the beginning, in the forefront of breaking
Speaker 1: the ice and loving. Hip hop has been number one
Speaker 1: since day one. Love for the Love of Jen number one,
Speaker 1: Brandy and ray J Family Business, Batgirls All Start Battle.
Speaker 1: I mean I could keep going right. This is what
Speaker 1: I love to do. When you watch you in this show,
Speaker 1: you it's such a comfort zone. You understand like you look,
Speaker 1: you always in the same comfort zone. You don't look rattled,
Speaker 1: you don't look and you don't look like you're doing it.
Speaker 1: I got my rattling. People were gonna talk about I
Speaker 1: love reality. I love reality. I was able to produce
Speaker 1: four new shows on a new network called Zous Network
Speaker 1: v H one via comm y'all know, y'all got first Party.
Speaker 1: I love y'all. I would never do nothing wrong, but
Speaker 1: Zeus Network, we got it. We just did the Bad
Speaker 1: Girls All Start I mean, the Bad Girls franchise. We
Speaker 1: did one more chance, with a chance, we did the
Speaker 1: conversation with me and Princess Mexica and Hazel a one
Speaker 1: in Lyrica. Now we've got three more crazy ones coming. Um.
Speaker 1: So producing shows and and and putting them on the board.
Speaker 1: That's what we do, you know what I mean. Um,
Speaker 1: And that's what I love to do. That's a hobby
Speaker 1: of mine. It's just fun. We appreciate the education today. Um,
Speaker 1: what you're talking about is exactly where we need to go,
Speaker 1: especially with young black boys. Um. And and of course,
Speaker 1: you know, young women in tech is an issue that
Speaker 1: has to be addressed. But our boys were watching them,
Speaker 1: We're losing them on the streets, people being killed. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, our young kids not really knowing what to do,
Speaker 1: and especially in this moment when the pandemic has caused
Speaker 1: so many of you know, our kids to have to
Speaker 1: go in their homes. They don't necessarily have the touch
Speaker 1: and feel of being in an environment that and it's
Speaker 1: not even like the school was doing that much form
Speaker 1: in the first place, because a lot of them were
Speaker 1: already being lost. But definitely now and so how we
Speaker 1: bring these messages to these young kids, that's something that
Speaker 1: we need to focus on. Because they had the future.
Speaker 1: They're the way. And we appreciate you so much for
Speaker 1: coming to street politicians today. Next time you come back,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about your new um the relationship show
Speaker 1: that we've heard about, and try to figure out what's
Speaker 1: going on with your love life. Love life is pray
Speaker 1: for it. But I want to ask one more question
Speaker 1: before we go, because they just cut me off. But
Speaker 1: I just want to know before you leave. Before you leave,
Speaker 1: I know you've got things. He got time for us. First,
Speaker 1: give me my song. Big deal out here. Everybody look
Speaker 1: up to y'all out here. Everybody when we look up
Speaker 1: to well, we appreciate that. Now y'all a big deal
Speaker 1: out here for really you're doing great things, big positive thing. Man. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you. But I want to know this, do you
Speaker 1: have like any regrets throughout your career, Like when you
Speaker 1: look back and you see things because a lot of
Speaker 1: people say, no, everything made me better, So I don't
Speaker 1: regret anything. Do you feel like it's anything throughout your
Speaker 1: career that's happened that as to macgrets, Man, I went
Speaker 1: through some great depressions, Um, some dark ones, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean just the decisions I made, like I felt like,
Speaker 1: you know, when you make a plan, and I learned
Speaker 1: this over time, when it's the plan, stick to the plan,
Speaker 1: because um, you know, after every first single I would release,
Speaker 1: you would see I kind of stalled and nothing kind
Speaker 1: of happened. That was because I made I always change
Speaker 1: the plan. I think it right, like like the last
Speaker 1: three days of it. So with Wait a Minute, I
Speaker 1: was supposed to come out with a song called out
Speaker 1: the Ghetto. For Real wanted me to come out with
Speaker 1: smash record classic. It gave the album a balance, but
Speaker 1: I wanted to stay turned up, and that decision wasn't right,
Speaker 1: and so the whole album crumble. Um. And even with
Speaker 1: one wish, I had one wish, we were at the top,
Speaker 1: right there where we needed to be. The next song
Speaker 1: was Melody. I decided to go with what I need
Speaker 1: at the final seconds and it didn't work out right.
Speaker 1: And those two decisions kind of like messed me up
Speaker 1: inside because you gotta you saw everybody else continue to
Speaker 1: sword and just because I was stubborn and I didn't
Speaker 1: listen and I didn't want to give myself a balance
Speaker 1: where I had to turn top song and you had
Speaker 1: the song with substance you know, that's very important. I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't get that at the time, and I felt hard,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And so now looking back
Speaker 1: at that, I know that being cool and trying to
Speaker 1: be you know, with streets or making sure the homies
Speaker 1: think you call all that ship don't matter. It don't
Speaker 1: matter at all because they don't even think about that.
Speaker 1: They want to get out. They want to just positive things.
Speaker 1: They want to go out and be and be positive.
Speaker 1: So I think just those things, I regret it, you know,
Speaker 1: I regret it. The fabulous fight, you know, and then
Speaker 1: it turned into being like an epic moment. I inducted
Speaker 1: them into the Hall of Fame. So it's just, you know,
Speaker 1: certain things bother you at a certain time and then
Speaker 1: later it evolves into something for positive. But I do
Speaker 1: have to regrets. But I'm happy that God got me
Speaker 1: here today and it made me stronger. But over time
Speaker 1: I regret it. Dope, Man, I appreciate that's that's young boys.
Speaker 1: That's a testimony, man, when you hear that's what evolution
Speaker 1: looks like. When you understand and you could be turned up, Bam,
Speaker 1: you could still be turned up and do tech. You
Speaker 1: could do all this tech turned up like they like it.
Speaker 1: Get out there and be yourself. Go out there and
Speaker 1: find a heck business. Go out there and look at
Speaker 1: some of these products online. They whole sale products. They
Speaker 1: they're they're they're they're white labels. So you can take
Speaker 1: a bike that's online and buy a hostel and put
Speaker 1: your name on it. It show bite, you know, look
Speaker 1: up white label products that you can just slap your
Speaker 1: name on. Start with that and then grows. You know,
Speaker 1: we appreciate you, King man, thanks for all the jewels.
Speaker 1: You know, we'll continue to do your thing. Man, We're
Speaker 1: gonna see you in this forms list next year. You know,
Speaker 1: we told me. But let'sten um and then let's talk.
Speaker 1: Let's talk y'all, hit me, hit my line, and then
Speaker 1: let's figure out how I can be a part of
Speaker 1: all this stuff going on giving back to the community
Speaker 1: this this this month. Don't don't worry. We got you.
Speaker 1: We're definitely gonna follow up with that. I appreciate you, love,
Speaker 1: thank you man. Salute to vocal y'all, God bless you.
Speaker 1: All right, all right, see before we go to the
Speaker 1: next segment and have our special guests joint, we're gonna
Speaker 1: take a quick break for our sponsors, so you know,
Speaker 1: our local activists our my definite special time of the
Speaker 1: entire show for me. For me, it just means a
Speaker 1: lot that we bring people on every single show and
Speaker 1: allow them to talk about the things that's happening in
Speaker 1: their communities, things that they're working on. But you know,
Speaker 1: in this particular situation, although she wears the hat of
Speaker 1: being an activist extraordinaire, extraordinary, but she is a candidate
Speaker 1: extraordinaire right now for city council in Queens, New York.
Speaker 1: Is that is our dear sister, dear sister Nantasha Williams
Speaker 1: a K. What's happening, Queen? Nothing much? Thank you all
Speaker 1: so much for gearing this platform. I think that's one
Speaker 1: of the things that I admire about you all so much,
Speaker 1: is that you're not selfish about what you do. You're
Speaker 1: always willing to reach out and and bring people along
Speaker 1: your journey. So I just appreciate y'all and love y'all
Speaker 1: for giving me this platform and sharing sharing this. So
Speaker 1: you ran before, tell us about that experience all that happened, um,
Speaker 1: and why I do it again? Yeah? Yeah, I ran before,
Speaker 1: And you know, it's it's only now that I realized
Speaker 1: how much uh naive I was, how much I was
Speaker 1: really a junior candidate, still wet behind the years, UM,
Speaker 1: because I feel so much more mature in align this
Speaker 1: go around, and I ran the first time because I
Speaker 1: still had that same passion and fire to play a
Speaker 1: role in our decision making, because as you said, I
Speaker 1: I believe I like to be the connector UM, and
Speaker 1: I think that activism and people who are on the
Speaker 1: front lines are extremely important, and it is my goal
Speaker 1: to connect that UM fire and that energy to places
Speaker 1: of power, like that's just my thing. I feel like
Speaker 1: I was sort of born to do that, and so
Speaker 1: having that experience UM, having those connections, I wanted to
Speaker 1: leverage that and leverage my experience in all me to
Speaker 1: really shape change UM. Different type of change, not what
Speaker 1: we're used to. And it was an opportunity uh the
Speaker 1: woman UM that simply momor had passed away in the seat,
Speaker 1: and so I decided to run. I quickly realized how
Speaker 1: much I was a government operative and not a political operative,
Speaker 1: because those are two different things UM. And I did
Speaker 1: not obviously get the seat, but I lost. I like
Speaker 1: the less than one percent of the vote. And I
Speaker 1: don't you guys how many votes? How many votes? Because
Speaker 1: you know it's like two hundred and like fifty something
Speaker 1: less than votes was made the difference. So this idea
Speaker 1: that voting doesn't matter and my vote doesn't count, it's
Speaker 1: not true because in your situation, if three hundred more
Speaker 1: people would have gone to the polls, you would have won.
Speaker 1: I really believe in divine um alignment. And you know
Speaker 1: it wasn't my time. I was went on, as you know, Tamika,
Speaker 1: to work with you on the women's mattress is amazing.
Speaker 1: I met so many people and I was able to
Speaker 1: grow as a leader, UM, double down on my own
Speaker 1: advocacy and learn things UM, develop be more mature UM.
Speaker 1: And so I'm I'm happy uh to have had those experiences.
Speaker 1: And I wouldn't have had those experiences if I would
Speaker 1: have won UM. And so here I am again running
Speaker 1: for office. It's an open seat in the twenty seven
Speaker 1: council district, which is in Southeast Queens. It covers Cambria Heights,
Speaker 1: Queens Village, Hollis, Saint Alban's, parts of Jamaica and parts
Speaker 1: of Springfield Gardens. And again I still have that same passion.
Speaker 1: But at the core of why I really want to
Speaker 1: run for offices because I think people need to believe
Speaker 1: that change is possible, UM. And I think we're seeing
Speaker 1: that if you look at what has transpired over the
Speaker 1: last couple of months. But we need people in office
Speaker 1: that understand, um, what is happening on the grounds and
Speaker 1: that are really gonna push a Bowl's agenda and work
Speaker 1: with all people to do that. I believe in the
Speaker 1: inside outside game, UM, And so I'm just excited to
Speaker 1: bring a different energy and to inspire and educate people
Speaker 1: to be more involved. Like you said, it's ive of
Speaker 1: to go out and protests, as I love to support protesting,
Speaker 1: but after we protest, or in between protests, and like,
Speaker 1: let's figure out who is in a position of power,
Speaker 1: um to really make those changes we want to see. Fantash,
Speaker 1: I do believe that you will, that you can and
Speaker 1: will win. UM. I know one thing that if people
Speaker 1: want to see folks like you, a person who is
Speaker 1: an activist and organizing, as you said, a government operator
Speaker 1: or operative, somebody who understands the ends and out of
Speaker 1: government and can apply a strategy that includes the streets.
Speaker 1: In the dialogue, you know, and make sure that you
Speaker 1: take the radical vision of community and bring it to
Speaker 1: government offices. When we that's what we say we want,
Speaker 1: and when we see someone like you who has all
Speaker 1: of those great things operating at once, we should fund it.
Speaker 1: We should make sure that we support you, not justin rhetoric,
Speaker 1: not justin words, but that we support you financially. So
Speaker 1: you said that the max out is how much. So
Speaker 1: the city has a really good program. It's matching funds.
Speaker 1: So for every dollar that UM someone in New York gives,
Speaker 1: the city gives eight dollars um. The maximum and individual
Speaker 1: can give it's a thousand dollars. My fund raising goals
Speaker 1: for January one is to raise fifty dollars UM and
Speaker 1: I need to meet that goal and I'm working really
Speaker 1: hard to do that. So, yes, any support you can
Speaker 1: give monetarily is greatly greatly appreciated. If you somebody gives
Speaker 1: you a thousand dollars and they're gonna give you eight thousand,
Speaker 1: so to be nine thlls, there's no there's the one
Speaker 1: caveat about that. So mam right, they'll only match up
Speaker 1: to a hundred and seventy five dollars, Okay, but the
Speaker 1: max out still is a thousand, So at least people
Speaker 1: should try to give you about a hundred and seven
Speaker 1: five dollars because you will get eight times the matching
Speaker 1: funds for a one hundred and seventy five dollar donation.
Speaker 1: People can give from anywhere around the country. This idea
Speaker 1: of local people running for office in different cities is
Speaker 1: a movement that needs to be connected, like we should
Speaker 1: be funding people. I give money all over the country
Speaker 1: to people who are not in my community. Of course,
Speaker 1: you know, with certain types of budgets, people can only
Speaker 1: give twenty thirty dollars to the person that's actually in
Speaker 1: their community, and that's important as well. But if we
Speaker 1: are able to give outside of our communities to people
Speaker 1: running in different parts of the country, what we're doing
Speaker 1: is like it's like we're putting a team in place
Speaker 1: across the nation that can come with new ideas and
Speaker 1: new energy. So I'm definitely gonna max out. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make Max Max, I'm gonna make my son Max. But
Speaker 1: you but it's name Nan. I ain't gonna give my
Speaker 1: money to anybody. This is Nan Nan you and you
Speaker 1: can check out my web page for more information. It's
Speaker 1: www dot Nantasha dot com and it's Natasha dot com
Speaker 1: on all social media platforms. You heard her, go to
Speaker 1: the website. There you go, City counsel in Queen's Queen,
Speaker 1: take care of Natasha. We love you, I love me
Speaker 1: more and by Natasha's dope. Natasha is awesome man and
Speaker 1: the more that you if you listen, go follow her.
Speaker 1: She put her website up there. Donate thousand U sei
Speaker 1: five so they can match it. You know, we can't.
Speaker 1: We can't complain if we don't activate, like our sister
Speaker 1: Leslie Woman another one of our dope sister says, don't complain. Activate.
Speaker 1: So you know we got a support Nanta. But Nantasha,
Speaker 1: she's a great leader. Nantasha is gonna go out. She's
Speaker 1: going to go forward in life doing really big things.
Speaker 1: And I have to say that when people see me
Speaker 1: right and they say they celebrate me, and they go,
Speaker 1: oh to Mick Mallory, you know whatever, you're doing amazing things.
Speaker 1: There's a team of individuals that helped to hold me up.
Speaker 1: And Nantasha is one of those people that when I'm
Speaker 1: in the clutch one and two, when I'm in difficult situations,
Speaker 1: I can depend on Nantosha to help me with the
Speaker 1: strategic plan because she is a strategist, and so I
Speaker 1: hope people support her. I know we will be supporting her.
Speaker 1: And that money is important. When you run for office.
Speaker 1: It's about money and votes. That's it, bottom line, money
Speaker 1: and votes. And we need to make sure that she
Speaker 1: gets the money and then also the money the money
Speaker 1: brings me to model. Get it. I don't get it.
Speaker 1: I don't get it. And now we're in the holidays,
Speaker 1: right yeah, and we independent we have a pandemic. Why
Speaker 1: spend a bunch of money on close all types of vehicle,
Speaker 1: all these things when we can't even go nowhere. We
Speaker 1: can't go nowhere, and you can't afford it, you can't,
Speaker 1: you know, I like I never, for the life of me,
Speaker 1: I always try to figure out why after the holidays
Speaker 1: people go into debt. You know what I'm saying. You
Speaker 1: don't board thousands of dollars worth of stuff and you
Speaker 1: don't got no money to pay your rent. People like
Speaker 1: y'all need to borro rent money. How are you borrowing
Speaker 1: rip money? I'm not gonna lie after you just spent
Speaker 1: thousand dollars on a bunch of stuff that you don't
Speaker 1: even need and can't really use, Like I really just
Speaker 1: don't get it. What this is a real thing, like
Speaker 1: listen man, But there are lots of deals. There's a lot,
Speaker 1: there's lots of sales right now, deals and so it's
Speaker 1: not a deal. You can't afford it back outside, but
Speaker 1: you can't afford this stuff now. It's like like when
Speaker 1: during the pandemic, at the very very beginning, I was
Speaker 1: sitting in my house and a lightbulb went off, thing,
Speaker 1: why don't you go check the websites and see what
Speaker 1: they're doing on sheets and bedding and towels and all
Speaker 1: of that. It was dirt cheap, Like I was able
Speaker 1: to get the high quality, top of the line stuff
Speaker 1: that I would never pay for. Comforters that cost five
Speaker 1: I was able to get them for like a hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: But what if you couldn't afford that. Obviously they can't
Speaker 1: afford it, know they're buying it, and then they're acting
Speaker 1: you can they well they got a strategy. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a strategy that I can't afford it, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: buy it anywhere. But it's not the best strategy. It's
Speaker 1: like you're playing to lose. You're like you're practicing, like
Speaker 1: you're practice and we're gonna lose by thirty. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, We're going y'all going into the game
Speaker 1: knowing that you can't afford something, knowing that you shouldn't
Speaker 1: be but it's still doing it. It's like the weirdest
Speaker 1: mind state. Man. I just really don't get it. It's
Speaker 1: a deal. You gotta get the deals while they had,
Speaker 1: But it's not a deal if you can't afford it.
Speaker 1: It's only a deal if it's something that is within
Speaker 1: your price range and you can afford things. Do not
Speaker 1: buy shoes clothes and you can't pay your rent or
Speaker 1: you're gonna make sure your lights and guys get cut off.
Speaker 1: It don't make sense, no, because you could just borrow
Speaker 1: the money from you and then you got the bag
Speaker 1: and the rent. No, it's not a smart but all
Speaker 1: I'm saying just to be transparent. There was a time
Speaker 1: in my life when but I didn't I didn't have
Speaker 1: to borrow lots of money, but I still got to
Speaker 1: the point where I was like really struggling and stressing.
Speaker 1: But I was cute, but I kept my lights on.
Speaker 1: I did. Now I grew out of that cut and
Speaker 1: b I grew out of that, out of that big
Speaker 1: time now. I mean I just purchased stock for the
Speaker 1: first time in my life. A few days ago. Was
Speaker 1: Angela Ye who was like, Sis, you know, I'm seeing
Speaker 1: that you've got some deals and some things that's coming in.
Speaker 1: We need to focus on what we're gonna invest in.
Speaker 1: And for her, she does a lot of real estate, um,
Speaker 1: so you know, and shout out to our sis yee um,
Speaker 1: you know, and she was like, you know, we could
Speaker 1: think about some projects that we can work on together. Specifically,
Speaker 1: she's in Michigan doing a lot of great work. And
Speaker 1: Vy told me the same thing. Come to the classes.
Speaker 1: He tells us all the time, you know, participated in
Speaker 1: the classes. J Morrison, you're getting these classes, um nineteen keys.
Speaker 1: And then my cousin Kim Abney from Atlanta, who works
Speaker 1: in the tech space and also does a lot of
Speaker 1: trading and business in the stock area. You know, he's
Speaker 1: he started really trying to encourage me to get in,
Speaker 1: and so he suggested that I read one of Warren
Speaker 1: Buffet's Warren Buffett knew his article that he just he did,
Speaker 1: you know, uh uh uh an article about his investments
Speaker 1: and what he just recently purchased and why why he
Speaker 1: thought these particular companies were companies that he should support.
Speaker 1: And so I read it and I made some decisions
Speaker 1: and I bought my first shares of stock. So this
Speaker 1: is where I'm spending my money now. It makes sense,
Speaker 1: you know, That's what I did. I brought my first
Speaker 1: year is also you know, and we have to be
Speaker 1: a lot more intelligent, especially with our money. Like you know,
Speaker 1: we can't. We are never going to obtain wealth if
Speaker 1: we're spending more than we actually have. That's you know,
Speaker 1: if your outcome is more to your income, it doesn't
Speaker 1: it don't really make sense, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And you know, and also teach it to our young children,
Speaker 1: teaching generational wealth, teaching how to a quiet wealth and
Speaker 1: keep it. It's not what you make, is how much
Speaker 1: you keep, you know, And that's what we gotta be
Speaker 1: intentional about. So that brings us to the clothes Another
Speaker 1: great great episode. Man shout out to Everybody's number one
Speaker 1: number one a better podcast. I was on episode Fat
Speaker 1: Joe's show one day, right and he was like, He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is the best show in the world. This is
Speaker 1: the nothing one show in the world. There's nothing better
Speaker 1: than it. If you don't if you're not on this show,
Speaker 1: you're on no show. And I was like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: like he had because he's speaking in too. Listen to me.
Speaker 1: When you believe in what you're doing and you pour
Speaker 1: into once again, shout out to Fat Joe for this
Speaker 1: show because he had me too. But he loves what
Speaker 1: he does. You know what saying, Joe. The day that
Speaker 1: you was on Fat Joe's show, the police literally were
Speaker 1: chasing us in contact and you were running while doing
Speaker 1: the interview, trying to make it to the safe house,
Speaker 1: which was the church so we wouldn't get arrested before
Speaker 1: the That definitely happen, you know. So that brings me
Speaker 1: back to what I was saying, is that you believe
Speaker 1: in what you do, you know, and you talk about
Speaker 1: it like it's the best. You know. I know a
Speaker 1: lot of people who got hired for positions that they
Speaker 1: never knew nothing about, but they walked in and he
Speaker 1: was so confident in themselves. Does somebody say, you know,
Speaker 1: let me take a chance with you. You know, So
Speaker 1: that's a that's a lesson for the young. The youth
Speaker 1: out there, man, Believe in yourself, believe in your craft,
Speaker 1: believe in anything that you put your mind to that
Speaker 1: you can accomplish. So once again, so we're not gonna
Speaker 1: always agree. I'm not gonna always be right, She's not
Speaker 1: gonna always be wrong, whatever, but we will always be
Speaker 1: authentic facts. So listen, if you want to hear something
Speaker 1: on Street Politicians, You've got topics, you got feedback. We
Speaker 1: already know we're the greatest show in the world. You
Speaker 1: really got to tell us, but we don't mind you
Speaker 1: telling us. If you got some negative, you got some Hey,
Speaker 1: we don't know how you can hate on this because
Speaker 1: this is actually the best show that you're ever gonna
Speaker 1: see or here in the world. But we want to
Speaker 1: hear your feedback. So pashtag Street Politicians. Let us know
Speaker 1: what you feel, let us know what you're thinking. For
Speaker 1: new and all episodes, you can tune into I Woman
Speaker 1: TV or listen every single Wednesday to the Black Effect
Speaker 1: Network on I Heart Radio one Son. That's how we
Speaker 1: own