Speaker 1: Piece to the planet. I go by the name of
Speaker 1: Charlemagne the God. Now maybe you know, maybe you don't,
Speaker 1: but I have partnered with iHeartRadio to launch a brand
Speaker 1: new network called The Black Effect. All right, podcast network,
Speaker 1: the place where black coaches celebrated in black voices are heard.
Speaker 1: One of the shows that you know, I love, I
Speaker 1: was a fan of before we even partnered with each
Speaker 1: other is My Man. Matt Barns and Stephen Jackson, collectively
Speaker 1: known is All a Smoke. Okay, All the Smokers, a
Speaker 1: podcast that talks about basketball, but really they just talk
Speaker 1: about life. Man. And you know, Matt Barns and Stephen Jackson,
Speaker 1: they don't bite their tongue for nobody. Some people call
Speaker 1: them out spoken, some people call them controversial. I just
Speaker 1: call them two real black men, all right, two real
Speaker 1: men of color. I write, two real individuals period. All Right,
Speaker 1: Matt Barns and Stephen Jackson. I've been on the show
Speaker 1: and that felt surreal for me because I'm such a
Speaker 1: fan of the show man. But just to be able
Speaker 1: to say those are my partners, and you know they
Speaker 1: rocket with the Black Effect, that means more than you
Speaker 1: would ever know. Man. So in the second you'll get
Speaker 1: to hear an episode I appeared on for the show,
Speaker 1: and if you like it, I hope you'll go on
Speaker 1: All the Smoke in your podcast listening app and subscribe
Speaker 1: so you never missed an episode. Welcome back, season two,
Speaker 1: All the Smoke from our beautiful New York location. Excited
Speaker 1: about today's guest, someone I really look up to in
Speaker 1: this space, one of the strongest black voices to me
Speaker 1: in the country, Charlotte Magne Matt, Thank you, bro, Thank
Speaker 1: you for having me. Man. You know, I love All
Speaker 1: the Smoke. I love when I get this opportunity to
Speaker 1: actually be on shows that I actually listen. Yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: get into how we're really working together later, but let's
Speaker 1: just let's get into it. Man. The climate of America
Speaker 1: is on the brink of changing. I think it's it's
Speaker 1: finally reared. It's naked head and people are starting to
Speaker 1: realize that there's some real issues here. What did you
Speaker 1: just thought of where we're at as a society right now?
Speaker 1: I think weever we're at, it's no going back. I'm
Speaker 1: one of them who have first voted in O eight
Speaker 1: when President Obama, you know, in the White House, and
Speaker 1: I'm beyonest. I only voted for him because he was black.
Speaker 1: It was Blacknie was cool, he had the culture, you know.
Speaker 1: But I think right now a lot of us are
Speaker 1: more politically sophisticated, and we understand that you have to
Speaker 1: have the right people in the office to make certain
Speaker 1: things happen, you know. And I think those rose colored
Speaker 1: glasses that we all wore when Barack was in the
Speaker 1: White House, that's over. Like, I don't care if it's
Speaker 1: Joe Biden's into the Harris, whoever's in there. We're not
Speaker 1: just gonna be in love with them because they're in there,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. That's not where the change
Speaker 1: comes to change comes is continuing to push once they
Speaker 1: get in the White House. So I think wherever we're
Speaker 1: at in this country, there's no going back because both
Speaker 1: sides have been exposed right like we've been to it's
Speaker 1: not all sweet and not The other side definitely knows
Speaker 1: it's not all sweet. But then we also know that
Speaker 1: there's a whole other side it talking about what are
Speaker 1: you all this shit? You're talking about? What they're talking about.
Speaker 1: That's what trips me out is we've been able to
Speaker 1: wake some people up and heighten their senses and step
Speaker 1: outside of themselves and be vulnerable to trying to understand
Speaker 1: the pain that the black community goes through. But there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people that feel like we're crazy for
Speaker 1: even addressing this and what are we talking about it?
Speaker 1: And it's all bullshit? Why why would they want to
Speaker 1: relinquish that kind of power? Right? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: They got power, they got privileged, Why would they want
Speaker 1: to relinquish it. We're definitely gonna have to fight for that, right.
Speaker 1: I kind of honestly like we're gonna be in this
Speaker 1: spot until Indian and Black bood have a fingerprint on
Speaker 1: the constitution of how this country's actually ran, because the
Speaker 1: president only can do so much, right, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And then again, I don't believe in voting
Speaker 1: for the lesser evil evil. It's evil, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And if we understand that the system is
Speaker 1: built for us to be in this position, is still
Speaker 1: fighting to this day that we have to have us
Speaker 1: say so how it's ran, and that's really the only
Speaker 1: way we're gonna stop this shit, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Because a lot of times, like I said, we vote
Speaker 1: for people that we don't even that happy histories of
Speaker 1: hating us. Absolutely, you know what I'm saying, So what
Speaker 1: kind of what kind of situation is that? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm so we vote for somebody who we know hate us.
Speaker 1: They don't make no sense the way I kind of
Speaker 1: look at that situation though, And since well, since we're
Speaker 1: here now, I think as the black community, we ask
Speaker 1: people to understand and try to grow if you were
Speaker 1: a certain way. So at the first thing everyone points
Speaker 1: out is Biden's tracker, And by no mean am I
Speaker 1: justifying anything. That's just kind of just the way I
Speaker 1: kind of look at it. We look at his track record,
Speaker 1: and he could definitely say he was against the black community. Yeah,
Speaker 1: eighty six eighty six mandatory minimum senting saying eighty eight
Speaker 1: crack laws and you got more time for crackton Code
Speaker 1: ninety four crime bill like yeah, so you can definitely.
Speaker 1: So for him to say anything other to me, I
Speaker 1: just you're right, I made a mistake. That's what I
Speaker 1: want to hear. That's it. And then to me, But
Speaker 1: like I said, so, the way I'm looking at his tracker,
Speaker 1: he's quick, and look at your tracker getting ship. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be honest with you. But to me, it's just like,
Speaker 1: can he possibly change? Can he possibly see through a
Speaker 1: different lens? Did being with brought for that amount of
Speaker 1: time rub off on him? So we're looking at someone
Speaker 1: who can possibly have changed where he came from. On
Speaker 1: the other hand, we know who this other, who the
Speaker 1: current president is, what he's about, what is makeup is,
Speaker 1: who is base is. So to me, it's just like
Speaker 1: people say the lesser two evils, and I would agree
Speaker 1: to an extent. But I'm looking at someone who can
Speaker 1: possibly have changed, and if he's in office, he's gonna
Speaker 1: have to prove that he changed, because we realize he
Speaker 1: realized he could be gone after one tournament if he's
Speaker 1: able to make it. Or are we picking someone who
Speaker 1: we know who he is? Yeah, I don't even look
Speaker 1: at Joe Biden as a change agent. I look at
Speaker 1: him as a pathway to change. And I honestly feel
Speaker 1: like keeping the seat one old white male leadership that
Speaker 1: ain't the pathway to change. The more old white male
Speaker 1: leadership is in his position, know what I mean? From
Speaker 1: the inception of how this country was put together, it
Speaker 1: was built for this old white male patriarchy. And everybody
Speaker 1: else was considered secondary fourth. So I don't look at
Speaker 1: either one of them as change agents. I definitely don't
Speaker 1: look at Biden as a change as definitely don't look
Speaker 1: at Trumps the change ad. But I think Biden is
Speaker 1: a pathway to change, right, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And it like you say talking about forgiving, let me
Speaker 1: go back to that, because you know how they do us.
Speaker 1: We could be on TV, that's right, all the stuff
Speaker 1: we're doing right now, that's right. We got a great show,
Speaker 1: all the stuff I'm doing in the community. As soon
Speaker 1: as I get on seeing then the person they do
Speaker 1: is talk about the brawl. That's right, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. But they want to, but they want to
Speaker 1: don't work like that. That's that's why I personally don't
Speaker 1: give a fuck about criticizing and Joe Biden. Like you
Speaker 1: shouldn't criticize Joe Biden. You're gonna ruin his chances after
Speaker 1: all that? Like why can't I not critique him, call
Speaker 1: out his flaws, call out his record, and still vote
Speaker 1: for him? Right? Like what kind of world do we
Speaker 1: live in? One posted this shy Just be quiet, That's
Speaker 1: what that's literally, he's like, you're telling people to shut
Speaker 1: up and vote the way people tell athletes to shut
Speaker 1: up and dream. Like. I'm not gonna shut up and vote.
Speaker 1: I'm a vote based off my interest and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: call out the things I don't like. And if you
Speaker 1: put some things on the table that I do, like, hey,
Speaker 1: I rock with that. And you're saying, forget this person.
Speaker 1: But you got a cousin that took two dollars from you,
Speaker 1: that you that you grew up with your whole life
Speaker 1: between forgating me one time. Ain't forgating me still two
Speaker 1: dollars everything a little bit to the social justice movement,
Speaker 1: you know. I kind of feel like when Kobe passed,
Speaker 1: it was it's been a domino effective negative things to
Speaker 1: happen since then. We before life ain't been the same, right,
Speaker 1: I ain't gone. I feel like there was a bitching
Speaker 1: the matrix after that. She had just been going like Dawn.
Speaker 1: It's a great point, you know. So we get to
Speaker 1: the pandemic, and then we get to the George Floyd situation, which,
Speaker 1: you know, my man right here was was front and
Speaker 1: the biggest or if not the biggest so testing in
Speaker 1: the history of our country. What was your take from
Speaker 1: from all that. When that George Floyd video hit, man,
Speaker 1: I remember exactly why I was at because I was
Speaker 1: trying to avoid it, and the reason I was trying
Speaker 1: to avoid it because I think, sometimes, man, we passed,
Speaker 1: We just passed trauma amongst each other. You know, you
Speaker 1: be on social media and it's another video of the
Speaker 1: video of this person, the video of that person. It's
Speaker 1: just like, damn, who were trying to prove we know
Speaker 1: what's going to get in our country, Like, yeah, the
Speaker 1: other side need to see that. And I remember my
Speaker 1: homegirl called me. It was actually it was difficly had
Speaker 1: she called me and we was on the phone and
Speaker 1: she was telling me about it and she was crying,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, I'm trying to avoid it. And
Speaker 1: as I'm watching CNN, the video pops up, so I
Speaker 1: was forced to look at it. And I think that
Speaker 1: the reason that video was so impactful is because of
Speaker 1: that exact reason. A lot of us that know what's
Speaker 1: going on, we can avoid it. A lot of white
Speaker 1: people can definitely avoid it because that ain't even that
Speaker 1: world at all. But when we were forced to be
Speaker 1: still because of that coronavirus, and we sitting at home
Speaker 1: and we got to watch that eight minutes and forty
Speaker 1: six seconds. Man, when I saw that, my immediate thought
Speaker 1: was I felt defeated. And the reason I felt defeated
Speaker 1: because I'm like, man, if this this black man can
Speaker 1: be out in broad daylight, this cops kneeling on his neck.
Speaker 1: I'm watching all the other brothers and sisters around just
Speaker 1: feeling hopeless, you know what I mean, not knowing what
Speaker 1: to do in that moment. I know they want to help,
Speaker 1: I know they want to react, but they don't want
Speaker 1: to end up there. It's just like I felt defeated.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what do what? What do we do? And
Speaker 1: then when I saw everybody start tannh it up and
Speaker 1: burnish it down, I'm like, what's the what other reaction
Speaker 1: did you expect from people? Like? It's only but so
Speaker 1: much yea, a community of people can take. Especially in
Speaker 1: the city wars been going on, a lot of people
Speaker 1: didn't even know that. Well, I say, when the George
Speaker 1: Floyd situational hit. Unfortunately, when we've, like you said, we've
Speaker 1: become so immune to it. We see police brutality, it's
Speaker 1: it's a shot and kill. We saw for nearly nine minutes,
Speaker 1: a man suffer and vague and plead and called for
Speaker 1: his dead mom. You know what I mean, Like, I
Speaker 1: think that having to see, like you said, having to
Speaker 1: see that because the world was still, is the reason
Speaker 1: that the light came on. And some people said. But
Speaker 1: then at the same time, instantly he did this and
Speaker 1: his his past as this, and he he was he
Speaker 1: was resisting, and he was doing all this and he
Speaker 1: you know, he had underlying, Like I mean, even the
Speaker 1: corner came out and gave you know, a bullshit, you know,
Speaker 1: an autopsy results. So it's crazy that even when we
Speaker 1: when it's on your face in front of your children,
Speaker 1: to your grandmother and everyone can see it, you still
Speaker 1: try to deny shit. Yeah, it was the lack of empathy.
Speaker 1: For me, it was just the lack of empathy of
Speaker 1: watching that that that that devil have his knee on
Speaker 1: on the brother's neck. And no, you mean to tell
Speaker 1: me not one other officers had the empathy to be like, yo, seconds,
Speaker 1: god damn, not one until you've seen the other interview,
Speaker 1: I mean, the other view where they're going outside of
Speaker 1: quite all of them. It's like, yo, what faith are
Speaker 1: we supposed to have? Is black people in this system,
Speaker 1: like seriously, like that, I don't can't remember the young
Speaker 1: lady neighbor when she said they should be lucky. Black
Speaker 1: people just want equality and not revenge. That is a
Speaker 1: very powerful statement to meet because it's the truth, Like
Speaker 1: we should all just be tearing this shit up based
Speaker 1: off the history that we based off what we've gone
Speaker 1: through in this country. And then the first thing they
Speaker 1: want to point out is the fact that things are
Speaker 1: getting torn up, but they never want to talk about, like, well,
Speaker 1: why is it getting torn up? Why are they doing
Speaker 1: They're just there were just wild animals. That's the way
Speaker 1: they want to pay us an act. But let's address
Speaker 1: why they're frustrated, why they're Why did Kentucky board up
Speaker 1: the downtown before they gave the result of the cops
Speaker 1: because it wasn't because they knew. Why did they tell
Speaker 1: the cops not to go on vacation and stay like
Speaker 1: because they knew they weren't going to serve justice, Like,
Speaker 1: let's look at the root issue of why this other
Speaker 1: shit is happening. I loved it too though, because it
Speaker 1: activated so many people in our community, like of all colors. Man,
Speaker 1: when I saw Stephen and Trey and Tamika at that
Speaker 1: press conference. Man, I'm just like, wow, you know, and
Speaker 1: I know that it was people telling you to stand down.
Speaker 1: They're like, oh, Steven, you're good. You got pild of
Speaker 1: dollars what you care for? But what was that like? Though?
Speaker 1: But they said they I mean, you know, I didn't
Speaker 1: pay no attention to it, you know how I am.
Speaker 1: You know, I've always been my brother's keeople, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And like I said, that's the closest
Speaker 1: person I can said of my twin ever in my life.
Speaker 1: You know, even though he wasn't real brothers, but I
Speaker 1: did with him what I do for any one of
Speaker 1: my brothers. You know what I'm saying. If it costs
Speaker 1: me to go stand up and use my voice and
Speaker 1: my status to speak up for justice place for anybody,
Speaker 1: you know, I was gonna do it, head up chests.
Speaker 1: But what was it like for you? You've been a
Speaker 1: leader in locker rooms and on the floor, But what
Speaker 1: to like being a leader or a culture for a
Speaker 1: movement for something that was the country has never seen,
Speaker 1: the world has never seen. I just leave with my heart, bro,
Speaker 1: just try to do what I know is right. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, I treat everybody the same. I
Speaker 1: don't have a history of racism. I don't have a
Speaker 1: history of hate towards nobody. So I walk in high
Speaker 1: I talk it. You know what I mean. I wear
Speaker 1: my emotions on my sleeve and what you see is
Speaker 1: what you get with me. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I know I don't have all the answers. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I know, just like we talked about,
Speaker 1: I might not see what I'm fighting for, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, But as long as I have, I
Speaker 1: know I had a hand in it. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I know I'm living up my death is
Speaker 1: gonna be worthy. How do you feel even though you
Speaker 1: are doing what's right, you're met with so much pushback, resistance,
Speaker 1: death threats, Like how does that? Because I'm sure you've
Speaker 1: probably faced it. Europe very vocal in space, especially on
Speaker 1: social media. I get them so much. It's just like, okay,
Speaker 1: you want to see me that I can literally tweet
Speaker 1: out thank you God for blessing me with another day
Speaker 1: of life, and somebody be like I was praying you
Speaker 1: die literally every day, right. But what they don't know
Speaker 1: is when they do stuff like that, you're just showing
Speaker 1: how much you die inside, be showing how your life is.
Speaker 1: And I'm powerful, we are, And then that they see,
Speaker 1: like Tournament said, why would they ever want to give
Speaker 1: that away? Because they see us. They've done everything they
Speaker 1: possibly can to keep a whole community, a whole set
Speaker 1: of people down. We continue to climb the ladder. But
Speaker 1: that's gonna be divine though. I always say that, like
Speaker 1: when I'll be speaking about black privilege, right and no
Speaker 1: people hear me say that. It's like, oh, I don't
Speaker 1: know this thing as black privilege, but I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about something systemic. I'm talking about something spiritual. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. I really do feel like it's
Speaker 1: a privilege and I honored to be in this black skin.
Speaker 1: And I feel like where they're power line systemically, all
Speaker 1: power lies spiritually. And I feel like that's why things
Speaker 1: are shifting that because for I'm not gonna say for
Speaker 1: the first time, but for the first time in probably
Speaker 1: a long time, it's a collected mindset of black people
Speaker 1: saying no, something has to change, and they're putting energy
Speaker 1: towards that and speaking it into the universe and it's
Speaker 1: just like things are literally shifting around us systemically. Now
Speaker 1: we're getting the chance to really get like some some
Speaker 1: systemic change happening. So I think it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day when this year is old,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna look back and be like that was
Speaker 1: the that was the year. That was the cat change.
Speaker 1: You know, I faced a lot of kickback personally because
Speaker 1: I'm biracial. You know, my mom is Italian, my dad
Speaker 1: is black, and people are like, well, how are you
Speaker 1: so this isn't that Because I've seen the good and
Speaker 1: bad on both sides. I've got it. I was growing up.
Speaker 1: I was never white enough, I was never black enough.
Speaker 1: So I've seen the good side and bad side from
Speaker 1: both sides. But there was an incident in high school
Speaker 1: that KKK came in nearly damn near burned my high
Speaker 1: school down. And that's when I realized, like, no matter
Speaker 1: how proud I am to be a biracial like, I'm
Speaker 1: looked at as a black man. I never knew he was.
Speaker 1: If you mean his daddy, you were like, yeah, you nigga,
Speaker 1: you meet his daddy, bros. Daddy the change two fifteen
Speaker 1: in the morning that's how purple he is. Yeah, people
Speaker 1: don't understand, like, what are you talking about your half white?
Speaker 1: I'm just say you're right, and I'm very proud to
Speaker 1: be that. But in this world you're not as a
Speaker 1: biracial person, you don't get a choice. They make it
Speaker 1: for you. Like Obama's biracial, But what is he our
Speaker 1: first black president? You know what I mean? So if
Speaker 1: you could have drop a drop of black in you,
Speaker 1: that's what you are. And people have a hard time
Speaker 1: even from the black side. You know you ain't black,
Speaker 1: all right, you got me, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So it's just like it's there's a lot of inter
Speaker 1: battles amongst the bigger battles that need to kind of
Speaker 1: decease and understand men, if we come together as black
Speaker 1: and brown and then all of our other allies throughout
Speaker 1: the rainbow of colors, we can really make a change.
Speaker 1: But that's the only way we're gonna do it. It's
Speaker 1: not just going to be basketball in the bubble. It's
Speaker 1: not just going to be celebrities. It's gonna take all
Speaker 1: of us together to change something we didn't create in
Speaker 1: the first place. Do you feel like a sense of
Speaker 1: privilege me, yeah, never never never have people. Well, you're rich,
Speaker 1: but people are like you, like you said earlier, like Jack,
Speaker 1: stand down, you're rich like people. That's the first you
Speaker 1: got money. You don't feel like when we came from
Speaker 1: this this movie. We came from foodstances, we came from
Speaker 1: sharing bedrooms, we came from moving. I came from drugs
Speaker 1: and drug abuse and violence and you know all that
Speaker 1: kind of ship. I mean privilege from the white side
Speaker 1: though the police because I never said I wouldn't say privilege.
Speaker 1: I get lucky because I played basketball sometimes, so they'll
Speaker 1: recognize that side. But as far as just nah, because
Speaker 1: regular every day life, A police always can't tell that
Speaker 1: you right, half white. He don't don't care, don't give
Speaker 1: a fuck if you telling them that. He probably like,
Speaker 1: we got somebody here on drugs right now? Can you
Speaker 1: sit more backup? Police? What do you feel like the
Speaker 1: NBA's role has been in the bubble and did you
Speaker 1: kind of like the idea of them going back or
Speaker 1: did you think they shouldn't. I like the idea And
Speaker 1: tell Stephen made me think twice about it when you
Speaker 1: say I was all for it. I know Stephen saying
Speaker 1: man they don't need to come back. We need to
Speaker 1: you know, this is a chance to get some real change.
Speaker 1: And I was like, damn. So that was a whole
Speaker 1: other conversation that started. Should they go back, they not
Speaker 1: go back, and um, I felt like they should have
Speaker 1: went back because I knew eventually the news cameras were
Speaker 1: gonna go away from the protest right, and being I
Speaker 1: knew the news cameras were gonna go away, we needed
Speaker 1: those brothers on that stage to do it exactly what
Speaker 1: I mean, to keep that conversation going. They did, Lebron did,
Speaker 1: and I heard you said. I think it was the
Speaker 1: first episode of all this smoke where you was talking
Speaker 1: about how the little known players they didn't have a voice.
Speaker 1: We wouldn't heard, we wouldn't hurdle exactly. But now when
Speaker 1: they speak at that bubbles the NBA logo, And that
Speaker 1: was my only pushing in. Jack and I, you know,
Speaker 1: agreed to disagree, and most saw points on most sides
Speaker 1: because we were on opposite spectrums. Like I thought, just
Speaker 1: what you said, like, their voice is much stronger, it's
Speaker 1: gonna resonate, it's gonna go around the world. When they
Speaker 1: have the NBA logo, behind it. Individually, We're gonna hear Lebron,
Speaker 1: We're gonna hear CP. But do we hear docs plea?
Speaker 1: Do we hear George Hills plea? Do we hear Fred
Speaker 1: van Pleep? Like we don't hear these other Please? If
Speaker 1: we're not together in that bubble, what do you feel
Speaker 1: like now that we're coming to an end to keep
Speaker 1: the momentum going that the NBA and particularly can do
Speaker 1: to keep this message going. I don't, to be honest
Speaker 1: with you, I'm not sure outside of like real donations
Speaker 1: into the black community. Like I saw the number that
Speaker 1: they put up. I think it was like three that
Speaker 1: ain't ship for the NBA then thirty owners, Like that's
Speaker 1: my thing is I just I think the owners should
Speaker 1: step up because, to be honest with you, a lot
Speaker 1: of these owners are on the exact opposite side of
Speaker 1: where their players stand, the exact opposite side. And when
Speaker 1: you're an owner, you're a billionaire. You have these connections
Speaker 1: to be able to start conversations, open up dialogues in
Speaker 1: whatever political avenue you're in, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So I just think it's more of because a lot
Speaker 1: of them didn't want to talk there are some that
Speaker 1: went out of their way to talk. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of coaches that went out of their way to talk,
Speaker 1: but a lot of them sat on there, kept their
Speaker 1: mouth shutting, sat on their hands, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So to me, it's more about align with your players.
Speaker 1: Understand what your players are talking about, even if you
Speaker 1: may not completely agree, but just have this conversation. And
Speaker 1: we need the owners and players to come more together.
Speaker 1: And you hit on the head. Three hundred million sounds
Speaker 1: like a lot to the average people, but over ten
Speaker 1: years and well, if you think about these owners are
Speaker 1: playing each you know, they're two star players over three
Speaker 1: hundred million, you know what I mean. So it's not
Speaker 1: for thirty people to come up. It's that wasn't I
Speaker 1: think it's a great start, but I think it's not enough,
Speaker 1: and we have to continue to keep pressure on them
Speaker 1: because they're you know, their arenas are in these predominantly
Speaker 1: poor cities, and you know, people have to budget a
Speaker 1: whole month's salary to go to a game and take
Speaker 1: a family and to get food and to buy you know,
Speaker 1: merchandise and that kind of stuff. So like I like
Speaker 1: Robert Smith's two percent planning where he wanted all of
Speaker 1: these top corporations to put two percent of their net
Speaker 1: income into black owned banks because then the black owned
Speaker 1: banks could take care of basically of the community people want.
Speaker 1: They get loans and house loans, whatever it is. That
Speaker 1: that's something that NBA should commit to because a lot
Speaker 1: of these problems that we have in these communities can
Speaker 1: be fixed by people with money. Film gotta wait on government,
Speaker 1: so they should be talking. And I also think the
Speaker 1: NBA needs something kind of like the NFL has with
Speaker 1: the Inspire Change thing, you know what I mean, Like, uh,
Speaker 1: the thing Rock Nation them is heading like they need
Speaker 1: somebody to dictate where that money goes to the brothers
Speaker 1: that's already on the ground doing things. And it's not
Speaker 1: necessarily a big name some of these big name corporations
Speaker 1: just sucking money away and it's not we don't have nope,
Speaker 1: but get in touch. You should have it, like a
Speaker 1: city leader in every city that you trust, or some
Speaker 1: kind of liaison that tells you, like, you know, that
Speaker 1: group of there's really doing something for that that group
Speaker 1: of there's this, So let's allocate let's through them three million,
Speaker 1: Let's throw them seven you know what I mean To
Speaker 1: really know where the money is because until you're walking,
Speaker 1: because every neighborhood is different. Houston's problems, in Atlanta's problems
Speaker 1: are different than the problems in sacrament in Oakland, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So you have to be in
Speaker 1: tune with who's in these cities to see which programs
Speaker 1: best fit and best work in these cities. But there
Speaker 1: needs to be transparency on where this money is definitely going.
Speaker 1: I thought the NBA did a great job of keeping
Speaker 1: the players safe first and foremost, with being in the
Speaker 1: bubble and being tested and doing a great job at that.
Speaker 1: And then you see this administration reckless, maskless, calling it
Speaker 1: a hoax, making fun of whatever, and now the president
Speaker 1: has it like what kind of irony? I don't I
Speaker 1: don't think that's irony. I think he earned it. I
Speaker 1: think I think he earned it, and he got exactly
Speaker 1: what he deserved. Like if you're gonna throw your middle
Speaker 1: finger to something and act like it doesn't exist, that's
Speaker 1: usually the thing that points you right in your face.
Speaker 1: And that's what happened with COVID. And what did he
Speaker 1: say when he got the number of how many people?
Speaker 1: Does it is? What it is? Is? What it is,
Speaker 1: so you can'tnot feel bad for people feeling like that
Speaker 1: towards him. No, I'm not. I'm the type of person
Speaker 1: I don't wish death on nobody. I don't wish death
Speaker 1: on him at all. But I don't even believe he
Speaker 1: really got the ship. He would have to die in
Speaker 1: order to be believe that he got it. I'm being
Speaker 1: honest with you. Because it's October. We got that whole
Speaker 1: October surprise thing going on, and you saw someone tweeted
Speaker 1: maybe two weeks ago, this is gonna be I posted
Speaker 1: it the other day. Since this is gonna be Trump's
Speaker 1: October surprises, He's gonna be sick, and he's gonna dominate
Speaker 1: the headlines for two weeks on how hard he's working
Speaker 1: with these fake pictures of him working and scribbling his
Speaker 1: name on it. Polutely like. The gimmicks are incredible. And
Speaker 1: it might be a cash out plan, right if he
Speaker 1: know that he leaving in in November, he know he
Speaker 1: getting voted out, he might have an investment into the
Speaker 1: pharmaceutical company, and he's out there telling people he's taking
Speaker 1: these experimental cocktails. I saw the stock shoot up for
Speaker 1: UM someone the r leach. It's someone I can't remember
Speaker 1: the name of the pharmaceutical company, but it's shot up
Speaker 1: two percent after he told everybody he took this experimental cocktail,
Speaker 1: and they from Queen's He from queens, the people, the
Speaker 1: founders of the company. I don't know. That's just how
Speaker 1: I be thinking. He's always had a mean hustle to me,
Speaker 1: before this presidency and before he kind of showed his
Speaker 1: head or whatever hand he's had to play to get
Speaker 1: to where he's at. He's always had a mean He
Speaker 1: hasn't always won, but he's always been a mean, hustling
Speaker 1: business happy trying to benefit. He got a motive in
Speaker 1: everything he's doing. Bro. I mean, it's what role would
Speaker 1: you like to see the black community play, um, not
Speaker 1: only amongst us coming together, but on the federal level
Speaker 1: and the state level of power. We need more black
Speaker 1: people wanting to be a part of that system. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Because even though I think the
Speaker 1: whole system needed to be overhauled, everything, I think they
Speaker 1: need to start over. We need to write a whole
Speaker 1: new constitution, a whole new Bill of rights, everything, because
Speaker 1: we were not at that table when those things were
Speaker 1: initially written. But until we can do that. We got
Speaker 1: to have people that are in these positions of power,
Speaker 1: and we have to empower them in order to be
Speaker 1: able to give them the strength they need to stand
Speaker 1: up to that system. Because what happens is a lot
Speaker 1: of us getting those positions and we just go along
Speaker 1: to get along. You know what I'm saying, We're just
Speaker 1: trying to rock the boat too much. It's just like, so,
Speaker 1: what's what's the point of you being there? We don't
Speaker 1: need black faces, you know, in those spaces just because
Speaker 1: I want you in there because you care about our interest.
Speaker 1: So I would encourage. Like when I see Scarface running
Speaker 1: for political officers in Houston, I like that. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: want to do something like that. Yeah, I know you
Speaker 1: want to run from man. I want to see Killer
Speaker 1: Mike getting the polost. I want to see people that
Speaker 1: I know have our interests at heart get involved. Now,
Speaker 1: a lot of us might be scared because we know
Speaker 1: the background checks is crazy, but who cares. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying sounds crazy too, absolutely, So I just
Speaker 1: want to see more of us in those positions of power,
Speaker 1: and I want them to know that we got their
Speaker 1: back and we're empowering them to really show up as
Speaker 1: they full self. That's really the biggest thing. Right, You're right,
Speaker 1: because that's been our biggest problem. We're scared to get
Speaker 1: behind our brother and even though we know any going
Speaker 1: in direction, we're scared to get behind it because we
Speaker 1: want to lead instead of just following him and get
Speaker 1: a team player. That's our biggest problem. I always say,
Speaker 1: you can get you can get way more done when
Speaker 1: you stop worrying about who get the credit for it, right,
Speaker 1: I mean that's what That's a doc rivers thing. Be
Speaker 1: a star in your role. I mean everyone has a
Speaker 1: role to play. We can all we all have a
Speaker 1: role to playing together. You know who the leaders are
Speaker 1: like and I see to me, Tomka Mallory is my leader. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you have to, you have to call yourself the leader.
Speaker 1: You're probably not the bride, not the leading one. That's
Speaker 1: like if you have to give yourself a nickname, my nigga,
Speaker 1: that's not really your nickname. You know your name. I'm right,
Speaker 1: someone else because you're so doping. What you're doing is
Speaker 1: how you're supposed to be a leader or how you
Speaker 1: get these nicknames. So anyway, so how do we get
Speaker 1: to this point? You're upbringing your parents Jehovah Witness. You're
Speaker 1: dad was from from Jehovah to practicing Islam. Um, what
Speaker 1: was that like growing up in a situation like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, when you're a kid, you don't
Speaker 1: really have no say it no matter. You know. My
Speaker 1: grandmother's Baptist mom and Jehovah Witness. My mom said get up,
Speaker 1: and there's time to go to the Kingdom. All this
Speaker 1: time to go to the Kingdom Hall. When my dad
Speaker 1: gets this fellowship from the Kingdom Hall, he gets into
Speaker 1: Islam and he hands me the autobiography of Malcolm X.
Speaker 1: I read the Autobiography of Malcolm X when he hands
Speaker 1: Messed to the Black Man by Alijah Muhammad. I Messed
Speaker 1: to the Black Man by Ali Muhammad. When he tells
Speaker 1: me to sit down and you're gonna watch these speeches
Speaker 1: from Donovan and flu Back Grun. I sai down and
Speaker 1: I watched those speeches. It's really just about what sticks
Speaker 1: with you as you get older than what I realized
Speaker 1: is a little bit, a little bit of all of it.
Speaker 1: The stuff that jehoa Witness has taught, it's stuck with me.
Speaker 1: You know, it's stuff for the holidays, my wife and
Speaker 1: kids love the holiday, so we definitely do Christmas. But
Speaker 1: being a Muslim Islam, like all of that stuff sticks.
Speaker 1: I don't really consider myself anything. But there's a little
Speaker 1: bit of everything, a little bit of all of them.
Speaker 1: If you got to re learn yourself, you gotta reteach
Speaker 1: yourself too. A lot of stuff that I was tart
Speaker 1: as a kid, I don't believe now because as a
Speaker 1: as a as a man adult, I understand stuff differently.
Speaker 1: You know. It's a lot of stuff was told in
Speaker 1: a point of view, but it's a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: is told you as a kid to really to put
Speaker 1: a band aid over some shit and not really give
Speaker 1: you the full understanding. But as you come adult that
Speaker 1: some of those things you don't believe you understand now.
Speaker 1: I heard you say I don't even know what show
Speaker 1: was if we're just talking off air. Blat the weed
Speaker 1: in my heart that you've learned more in this this
Speaker 1: last six eight months than you remember learning your whole life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like educated yourself in and made the effort because I
Speaker 1: want to know what I'm talking about. You know, I
Speaker 1: ain't never talked to you about going back to school
Speaker 1: and get my history degree. You know what. I'm in
Speaker 1: the process of doing that because it sparked when when
Speaker 1: Brod died. It sparks something God put me in a
Speaker 1: position out at the naxt for like I always say,
Speaker 1: but it sparks something maybe that was supposed to happen.
Speaker 1: And my heart is in the right place. So everything
Speaker 1: that I'm trying to do, I want to know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, being educated about what I'm saying. I
Speaker 1: feel the same way. I just know that I'm never
Speaker 1: gonna be as smart as some people like you hit
Speaker 1: Michael Leric Dyson talk Oh yeah, no killing mic talk like,
Speaker 1: hey man, they just got it. I just I just
Speaker 1: wanted words. Yeah. To me, my thing is just knowing
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. I can't be you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Some people are blessed to be educated and
Speaker 1: be able to just spit that like some of these
Speaker 1: routes like jay Z is just very intelligent. They could
Speaker 1: just put it out there. I just want to have
Speaker 1: a proper understanding of things right. And even when we
Speaker 1: go back talking about religion, I remember when I started
Speaker 1: doing personal Bible study with one of the Brothers of
Speaker 1: the Kingdom. While he would come to my mom has
Speaker 1: to do personal study with me, and as I started
Speaker 1: to read the Bible for myself, a lot of it
Speaker 1: just didn't make sense. Like I said, Adam was first man,
Speaker 1: even the first woman. They had Kane, they had Able,
Speaker 1: Kane kills Able and goes off and finds a wife.
Speaker 1: There's only four people on the planet. But you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, And it's just like I remember, I
Speaker 1: remember reading Deuteronomy fourteen eight, and I think Deuteronomy fourteen
Speaker 1: they said you should not touch the flesh of a
Speaker 1: dead pig, nonetheless eat it. I remember asking the brother
Speaker 1: about that, because from the South, we love polk. He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: if you prey over the food, you know, it's cool,
Speaker 1: it's good. I'm like, but Bible also said don't have
Speaker 1: sex before marriage, So if I prey over the pussy before,
Speaker 1: he couldn't explain that. He did the park though I
Speaker 1: never understood. It's really both. But as a team, you
Speaker 1: got in your fair share of trouble selling drugs, witness
Speaker 1: to shooting, got arrested, had to go to jail, and
Speaker 1: you sat down for forty one days. Charlemagne had that pack. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know what it was. I was in
Speaker 1: high school getting in so much trouble, right, and like
Speaker 1: my dad was my dad. My dad is a street dude,
Speaker 1: Like he comes from that. Like you know, my dad
Speaker 1: had his bouts with alcohol and cocaine, but he also
Speaker 1: was a guy that was good with his hands. So
Speaker 1: he had his construction business as well, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So he had kind of like that balance.
Speaker 1: But he knew that the lifestyle I was living. He
Speaker 1: would always say, you gonna end up in jail, dead
Speaker 1: or broke, sitting under the tree. That was his thing
Speaker 1: to me. And so when I started getting in so
Speaker 1: much trouble in school, I got kicked out of two
Speaker 1: high schools, Like I kicked out of Berkeley High School.
Speaker 1: And month what kind of trouble was it? Though? Like disruption, man,
Speaker 1: I mean you're in class. Yeah, you're cutting up in class, class,
Speaker 1: clowns fighting, just doing dumb shit, this dumb kid shit.
Speaker 1: And so then they transfer me to Scraffild because that's
Speaker 1: what my mom went to school. And it's just like
Speaker 1: that was around sixteen seventeen. And then you start dabbling
Speaker 1: into other things. You know, you see your boys selling weeds,
Speaker 1: you see your boys selling a little dope, and you're like,
Speaker 1: let me get into that, you know, and then I'm
Speaker 1: just a guy who hung around those guys for a
Speaker 1: while before I got involved. But the first time I
Speaker 1: went to jail, one of my homeboys shot at somebody,
Speaker 1: and you know that whole no snitching thing. So when
Speaker 1: they come to pick us up, like all right, so
Speaker 1: everybody everybody got hit with a it was an assault,
Speaker 1: and Batty would attempt to kill charge everybody got everybody
Speaker 1: where you're at that age, I think sixteen seventeen, because
Speaker 1: they came and got me from high school and I
Speaker 1: was either repeating tenth grade. I think I'd repeating ten grade,
Speaker 1: so therefore be in eleventh grade, so they were looking
Speaker 1: at level grade class. I was the ninth grade, the
Speaker 1: tick grade. It looks like I was repeating. Once I
Speaker 1: got the hospital was all bad. I felt. I felt
Speaker 1: ninth grade. They went to summer school, pass went to tenth.
Speaker 1: They fell tenth and when I feel temp, I think
Speaker 1: my pops was like, nah, you're staying in tenth. I
Speaker 1: FoST to graduated ninety six. I graduated ninety eight, and
Speaker 1: they with me, Yeah, I'm just regular, Yeah, Jack said,
Speaker 1: he checked out in like tenth grade. Two. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I really checked out. I really checked You didn't graduate school, Yeah, graduated,
Speaker 1: but I checked out the way before that, years before,
Speaker 1: and you were playing ball. It was all about who Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was all about who ball and puss. The teachers
Speaker 1: was cool with it though, they yeah, that was cool
Speaker 1: with it back then. Now I ain't telling know you
Speaker 1: they was part of the playing back then. They're rocking
Speaker 1: with it. They want to see you making right now.
Speaker 1: They got their own motives. What was the path that
Speaker 1: got you going into radio? How did you know that
Speaker 1: was your calling? Or did it happen you wanted it?
Speaker 1: How did it? Honestly, man, ray yeo was the first
Speaker 1: thing that I ever did in my life that felt
Speaker 1: constructive and positive because before that, like I was running
Speaker 1: the streets the first time. You know, when you first
Speaker 1: get out jail, you got to get a job, right.
Speaker 1: So I worked it industrial, a Couci company is like
Speaker 1: a warehouse. Got fired from there. Two weeks that I
Speaker 1: worked in a flower guard and I worked there for
Speaker 1: a week. That that shit with modern day slavery. It
Speaker 1: was like me and a bunch of Mexicans out there
Speaker 1: and I'm like this ain't for me, Like so I
Speaker 1: quit that after a week. And then I don't see
Speaker 1: bother day slavery. That that's I hate when people compare
Speaker 1: things to slavery. But it was, it was a few,
Speaker 1: it wasn't for me. Then I worked at a clothing
Speaker 1: store called Demo in the mall, remember dem Ye, And
Speaker 1: then I did tell the marketing. So I was the
Speaker 1: guy that would call your house and try to sell
Speaker 1: you tencds for a penny. So, and I worked at
Speaker 1: taco about at one point my sister fired me after
Speaker 1: two weeks. But I'm saying all that to say I
Speaker 1: wanted to do anything exself with being in the street, right,
Speaker 1: That's it. I did not want to be in a
Speaker 1: pretty much two weeks after two weeks, he was a manager.
Speaker 1: She was the manager. She hired me in five minutes.
Speaker 1: How much free talk about the get during that time
Speaker 1: too much? That's why that's talking about high school. But
Speaker 1: that's why. I just wanted to do something positive. And
Speaker 1: I remember reading this acronym for peace and it was
Speaker 1: positive energy activated constant elevation. So I knew, as long
Speaker 1: as I'm out here doing something positive, things with growth,
Speaker 1: things of growth, things of growth. And then, like most
Speaker 1: dudes in the hood. I wanted to rap. I'm clearly
Speaker 1: too short to want to play ball. So it's just
Speaker 1: like the people who I saw on TV that was
Speaker 1: successful that looked like me were usually in rap or athletic.
Speaker 1: I started picking up the pen and writing, and I
Speaker 1: remember being in this recording studio. I met this guy
Speaker 1: named Willie will and he did local radio as the
Speaker 1: UNINITYU Jams and Charleston. I just asked him, I said,
Speaker 1: yaw'd you getting the radio? He's like, I went done.
Speaker 1: Then I got an internship. I'm like, yo, it's that easy.
Speaker 1: He was like, yeah, this is nineteen ninety eight and
Speaker 1: Charleston psychrolantic, So I ain't had to be in college
Speaker 1: and none of that. And so that's what I did.
Speaker 1: I went done then, and I got an internship. And
Speaker 1: like just being in that environment, like the radio, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, watching artists come in and out
Speaker 1: and being a contract and stuff. I'm like, this is
Speaker 1: what I wanted to That's it, this is what I
Speaker 1: want to do. When did you come to New York?
Speaker 1: Two thousand and six came to me up for the
Speaker 1: first well not the first time I had been in
Speaker 1: New York, once before, so I did't. I didn't get
Speaker 1: on a plane until I was like twenty one years old,
Speaker 1: twenty two years I don't remember when that was. I
Speaker 1: remember I came up here because my people's Never So
Speaker 1: Deep records, doctor Robert Evans, his son Blessed. They had
Speaker 1: a studio, I mean a record labe because Never was
Speaker 1: so Deep. So they was up here mixing records. And
Speaker 1: I flew up here with them for one weekend, but
Speaker 1: then to live up here. I came here in two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, and that's because Wendy Williams and her
Speaker 1: husband they were looking for a co host. I didn't
Speaker 1: even know, and I happened to be up here with
Speaker 1: them for a party and she invited me on her
Speaker 1: show and I was on her show for like twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five minute and literally that night they was offering
Speaker 1: me her co host slot. But it was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we can't pay you, we can give you a place
Speaker 1: to stay. I'm like, shit, I'm making eight thousand an
Speaker 1: hour in Columbia, so I Carolina right now, I might
Speaker 1: as well make that move in New York and see
Speaker 1: what happens. And that's what I did. I worked with
Speaker 1: her for a year and a half for free. It
Speaker 1: was the best and worst time in my life. Learned
Speaker 1: a lot from her, just because she's such she's such
Speaker 1: a great radio personality, such a great media personality. But
Speaker 1: I also learned how not to treat people when you
Speaker 1: are in that position that they were in. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I always say that was the best
Speaker 1: and the worst experience of my life because, yeah, they
Speaker 1: were terrible to people. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Well,
Speaker 1: you hear that. I wondered because I don't know and
Speaker 1: I don't like to judge, but you hear that about
Speaker 1: Ellen and how she had to do a whole of
Speaker 1: makeshift with her crew behind the scenes because people said
Speaker 1: they weren't treated right. So it's that that that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff used to fly under the radar, but that's
Speaker 1: not flying no more, and it's a good position to
Speaker 1: be in no Oka. Once you call somebody like Ellen out,
Speaker 1: the only apology is changed behavior. So now her staff
Speaker 1: probably getting car service. Can I help you? You need
Speaker 1: some rolls, pedals being thrown on the floor, they walk,
Speaker 1: all types of stuff, because that's the only way that
Speaker 1: she can rectify prove it. So you had a learning
Speaker 1: experience with Wendy, which counterproted you a few years later
Speaker 1: into the breakfast club. How did that whole how did
Speaker 1: you and jin and be come together? Well? I got
Speaker 1: fired from Wendy November of two thousand and eight. That
Speaker 1: was just because like the economy was in the tilet
Speaker 1: so like everybody was getting fired like that. I got
Speaker 1: fired on November second. And the reason I remember that
Speaker 1: President Black Obama became president of elect on November third,
Speaker 1: so I fired on him a second They fired like
Speaker 1: thirty people. So I was cool with that, even though
Speaker 1: I had too much pride to go collect unemployment, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. My wife was working at the time,
Speaker 1: so she was holding it down with the bills and stuff.
Speaker 1: And then my daughter, my first daughter, was born Junior
Speaker 1: that year, so I was just to stay at home
Speaker 1: that And then I got put on the radio in
Speaker 1: Philly like around maya, two thousand and nine, and so
Speaker 1: I worked in Philly for like eight to nine months
Speaker 1: and got fired again. And that time I went home.
Speaker 1: I was like, man, I said, this city from me.
Speaker 1: I'm going back to South Carolina. We all packed up, me,
Speaker 1: my now wife, my first daughter. We went back to Cycline.
Speaker 1: I stayed there for a year, but prior to that,
Speaker 1: I always had kept in touch with my man g Spen,
Speaker 1: you know. And g Spen was the assistant program director
Speaker 1: that Pole one on five at the time, and he
Speaker 1: he was the one that kind of like he had
Speaker 1: bought Envy in. He had me on the radar and
Speaker 1: that he was telling on Cadillac Jack, who was another
Speaker 1: mentor of mine, just about us constantly. And so it
Speaker 1: literally meant I was in New York for the summer
Speaker 1: once and that the summer Old nine. I remember hitting
Speaker 1: up Gemen like, y'a, I'm in town. He was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: come to the station right now. So I went to
Speaker 1: the station. And when I went to the station, he
Speaker 1: was like, Yo, my, my, my boss, Cadillac Jack. He's
Speaker 1: been in here watching your videos all morning. Because me
Speaker 1: and Duvall was doing the little Duvalls doing the Hood
Speaker 1: State of the Union, which was like a web series
Speaker 1: that we would do. We just talk about topics, you know,
Speaker 1: this before podcasts, and that's what we was doing, and
Speaker 1: Cadillac was like, yo, man, you know. We had this
Speaker 1: whole conversation. He actually asked me about Wendy's husband because
Speaker 1: I had had a meeting with him before and when
Speaker 1: They's husband was with me, and when, unbeknownst to me,
Speaker 1: when we had left the meeting, everybody that worked in
Speaker 1: that building was like, Yo, you cannot hire Charlotte Magne.
Speaker 1: If when They's husband is his manager, that guy is
Speaker 1: bad news. Right. So I remember him saying to me,
Speaker 1: is that still managing? I said no? He said why.
Speaker 1: I said, because when I pray to God to take
Speaker 1: negativity out of my life, he's not swinging at things,
Speaker 1: He's swinging at people that of the embodiment of that negativity.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, he was like oh. And then he
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, how long can you wait for this job?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, for this whenever the opportunity presents it.
Speaker 1: So and then like I think we started November that
Speaker 1: year that was two thousand and ten years. Ten years
Speaker 1: tap now right, yeah, next month, next month will be
Speaker 1: ten years, yeah or whatever they say. I don't know
Speaker 1: what i'saying, Yeah, November November ten years Who was some
Speaker 1: of the most memorable terviewed you guy from the beginning
Speaker 1: of the current man. That's that's such a broad question
Speaker 1: because I really sat down in front of people that
Speaker 1: I never thought I'd be sitting down, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, when you I'm doing radio twenty two years
Speaker 1: when I sit back and I think about when I
Speaker 1: first started. You know, I've sat down with Senator Clinton.
Speaker 1: Sen Hillary Clinton and Senator sat down with Donalman Minsterwards
Speaker 1: Fiercon quite a few times. I sat down with Dick Gregory,
Speaker 1: you know, Angela Baskett like stuff like that freached me out,
Speaker 1: Like I ask Angela basket like, I don't know how
Speaker 1: everybody else feel about her, but me, I'm like, yo.
Speaker 1: I sat there with Magic Johnson, like I get I
Speaker 1: got to ask Magic about catching h like you know
Speaker 1: what i mean, Like and asking him a question of
Speaker 1: that I've always thought about, Like when you first got it,
Speaker 1: did you think about every little woman that you've been
Speaker 1: with throughout your whole life and be like, damn, I
Speaker 1: bet you it was the young lady Sacramento And he
Speaker 1: was like, hell, yeah, you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 1: it's just like but it's just like those conversations. I
Speaker 1: never thought I'd be able to ask the stuff I've
Speaker 1: always thought about with people to them, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So it's just like, man, I don't. I
Speaker 1: can't sit here and say which one is more memorable,
Speaker 1: because sitting down with Lorenz State is memorable to me,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like sitting down with me
Speaker 1: along is memorable to me. This is memorable, sitting down
Speaker 1: with a vice president Joe Biden, any of those ones
Speaker 1: that go viral, like you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: all of these people mean something to me in various ways.
Speaker 1: Was there a person or a time you felt kind
Speaker 1: of like, damn, I just interviewed so and so, like
Speaker 1: I feel like I've made it now? Was there a
Speaker 1: time like that light came on? When did you feel
Speaker 1: like you had made it? Nah? No, Nah, I still
Speaker 1: now because you know, we live in such a fast
Speaker 1: paced world. You're only as good as your last conference.
Speaker 1: So it's just like I'm supposed to just sit back
Speaker 1: and be cool. Because Hillary Clinton talked about hot sauce,
Speaker 1: It's like, nah, what's next? And then literally, you know
Speaker 1: what's so crazy? That week that that Hillary Clinton hot
Speaker 1: sauce thing was Monday. That Friday was bird Man put
Speaker 1: some respect on Monday. So it's just like that's the
Speaker 1: way it moves. It moves just that fast, Like Hillary
Speaker 1: be your biggest interview on the Monday. Literally that was
Speaker 1: our biggest interview ever on a Monday, and then Friday. No,
Speaker 1: this is really your biggest in like numbers wise, analytical
Speaker 1: analytic wise, this is your biggest interview ever. So it's
Speaker 1: just like, I don't know, I don't never feel like
Speaker 1: I've I've made it, haven't. I haven't got to Definitely
Speaker 1: I did get to a place of worthy. I got
Speaker 1: to that place last and symbol you know, me just
Speaker 1: feeling like I'm worthy, like not dealing with imposter s
Speaker 1: and drone, like I'm right where I'm supposed to be
Speaker 1: because God wants me to be here. But I never
Speaker 1: felt like, you know, I've made it. Who are some
Speaker 1: of the people you looked up to in this space
Speaker 1: or who have actually mentored you in this space? Oh? Man,
Speaker 1: so many? I mean from Afar, people like Pete Green.
Speaker 1: You know, Pete Green was dope. You know, there's a
Speaker 1: movie called Talk to Me Class and like pet is
Speaker 1: like pd is what I think every black radio personality
Speaker 1: should be, you know, and he reminded me so much
Speaker 1: of me because he didn't have no formal training, Like
Speaker 1: he was a voice in jail, you know, like That's
Speaker 1: how he basically got discovered and ended up getting put
Speaker 1: on the radio. You know. So it's just like him
Speaker 1: the time Joiners of the world, because when it comes
Speaker 1: to the business of radio, those are the brothers that
Speaker 1: figured it out early. You know, they figured out that
Speaker 1: ownership part of it of it early. You know, Steve Harvey,
Speaker 1: Doug Banks, you know, Swaying, Big Boy, Are Martinez, Wendy Williams,
Speaker 1: and the beauty of it. These are people, some of
Speaker 1: these people I've actually gotten a chance to get game
Speaker 1: from right, you know, like I want cent for three Agie.
Speaker 1: I talked to Angie Martinez now often. You know Big Boy,
Speaker 1: he works at iHeart like me and him have conversation.
Speaker 1: Suey has always giving me games. So it's just like
Speaker 1: I learned from all of them, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: because they all paved the way for me to even
Speaker 1: be doing what I'm doing. You mentioned ownership, which I love. Um,
Speaker 1: you've recently teamed up with iHeart uh and created Black Effect.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us what that's about? Yeah, the Black
Speaker 1: Effect podcast network. Man, It's like, um, the audio business
Speaker 1: is booming, you know, and I've been with Breakfast Club
Speaker 1: for ten years. But I've been doing my own podcast,
Speaker 1: The Brilliant Idiots for like six years, you know, so
Speaker 1: I had a ten percent ownership stake in a podcast
Speaker 1: network called Loudspeaker. You know, so I've been watching, you know,
Speaker 1: just the inner workings of the podcast game from that
Speaker 1: perspective for a long time. And then you know, when
Speaker 1: you sit back and you start seeing Bill Simmons on
Speaker 1: what he's doing with the ringer, and you see what
Speaker 1: Gimblet is doing, and you see what anchor is doing,
Speaker 1: you see what Barstool is doing. You sit back and
Speaker 1: me like, well, why there's no black network like that?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? You got these networks that
Speaker 1: have black shows, but was the network that's like majority
Speaker 1: on black and it's really paying attention to what's going
Speaker 1: on in our coach and really knows the voices that
Speaker 1: needs to be you know, amplified. It's just like, let me,
Speaker 1: let me build that. So that's where my mind has
Speaker 1: been for like the past three or four years. And
Speaker 1: I knew my my contract was up in the symbol.
Speaker 1: I think I put myself in a position to where
Speaker 1: they would want to negotiate with me. You know, I
Speaker 1: think I got a little bit of that didn't cause
Speaker 1: it Black left reach, you know. So I was like, look, man,
Speaker 1: you know I don't want to be talented, like you know,
Speaker 1: you already know. I'm in this podcast space. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm going to take this somewhere, so let's figure it out,
Speaker 1: you know. And it was with it, it was it
Speaker 1: was not no hesitation, like literally no hesitation. So we
Speaker 1: created this whole old other company called the Black Effect
Speaker 1: Podcast Network. I'm a majority owner of it, you know,
Speaker 1: along with I Heart, And it's enabling me to use
Speaker 1: their resources and their finances to invest in us. And
Speaker 1: I love it too because, like we said, with the
Speaker 1: allocation of the NBA money, they need to be able
Speaker 1: to work with pillars in those communities. Absolutely, you're a
Speaker 1: pillar of our communities. Like you said, You're able to
Speaker 1: use I Heearts resources and all the amazing ship that
Speaker 1: comes with our heart to help focus on us and
Speaker 1: help grow us. And you know, I'm excited to obviously
Speaker 1: having all the Smoke as a partner. Man. I'm happy
Speaker 1: at y'all partner. I remember I remember when they hit
Speaker 1: hit me and it was like, yo, we might have
Speaker 1: a chance of partner with all the Smokes I'm like
Speaker 1: do it. I'm like, I'm like, do it. Give them
Speaker 1: whatever they want, you know what I mean. And it
Speaker 1: was like, say, think black leverage because y'all got numbers.
Speaker 1: They know, like they can't front on y'all. They can't
Speaker 1: tell y'all what they think y'all should get. There's a
Speaker 1: there's a marketing value and you either got to meet
Speaker 1: that at don't we know we were We appreciate it, man,
Speaker 1: Look like I said, we obviously showtime shout out Showtime.
Speaker 1: So yeah, no, I heartened Black Effect. We're proud to
Speaker 1: be a part of that family too. You know, you
Speaker 1: and I talk once a week on just strategizing and
Speaker 1: how can That was the first thing I told when
Speaker 1: I when I went got over that, I was like, bro,
Speaker 1: I want to help you really grow this shit. Like
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not just a talking head on a
Speaker 1: podcast like less. Like they put someone in control now
Speaker 1: that really has a post for our culture. So that
Speaker 1: made me excite, Like they gave me hope, like okay,
Speaker 1: here we come. And what I hit him the other day,
Speaker 1: I was like, what do you think about a black barstool?
Speaker 1: And He's like, shit, that's what we're trying to Now
Speaker 1: that's what you just said. That the whole time you
Speaker 1: called him the black Death Simmons, Simmons deal Simmons. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I told me about the cash out, like Bill did.
Speaker 1: I told I told Madam, like, Yo, that's what I see.
Speaker 1: All the smoke eventually beating. He wants us to give
Speaker 1: us a little let me tell him, and I want
Speaker 1: to see all the smoke, have all the smoke need
Speaker 1: just it's network where they're just rolling out those voices
Speaker 1: and sports that are like y'all, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like there's it, and only y'all know that. Only Matt
Speaker 1: and Steven know who those other boys are that are
Speaker 1: like y'all, those guys that are cut from that cloth. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: Like that's that's that's why this show works. Plenty sports
Speaker 1: guys have gotten together and done shows. We ain't never
Speaker 1: seen sports from a real nigga perspective, right, And that's
Speaker 1: just the truth to the rep. I've also liked that
Speaker 1: you've been for a while, Like you said, you've had
Speaker 1: your podcast, You've dabbled in MTV reproductions. Uh, you have
Speaker 1: the emerging Hollywood on YouTube. One thing that I thought
Speaker 1: was really dope though, because you've we've been hearing your
Speaker 1: growth and in your evolution as as not only a
Speaker 1: black man but a businessman as well. But one thing
Speaker 1: that touched me was the the the Wi Fi situation
Speaker 1: that you provided was it was it in Columbia. Yeah,
Speaker 1: talk to us about that because that ship, just like
Speaker 1: that was so dope. Yeah, change my man, man, Stephen Benjamin.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying to Steve Benjamin black Man,
Speaker 1: Columbia Socroline. That's why local politics is so important because
Speaker 1: I can't pick up the phone and get to the president,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But I'm from South Carolina.
Speaker 1: I've lived in Columbia and my wife went to the
Speaker 1: University of South Carolina. I can pick up the phone
Speaker 1: and hit my man, Steven. It's just a matter of like, yo, Steve,
Speaker 1: what does the city need right now? Because I usually
Speaker 1: do a book bag drive every year, and I've been
Speaker 1: doing that for years at my hometown Amongst Corner, but
Speaker 1: that just didn't feel right this year. So I just
Speaker 1: reached out to Steve and he was like, man, that's
Speaker 1: so I'm so happy you hit me. And he introduced
Speaker 1: me to this company called Ignite Cities and basically what
Speaker 1: Ignite Cities is doing is making sure that people have
Speaker 1: WiFi in these various areas, you know. And it was
Speaker 1: just like, Yo, this is how much it's gonna cost,
Speaker 1: and they can make it happen. I'm like, that's easy,
Speaker 1: you know. So now that I did it, it got
Speaker 1: it gets the ball rolling on the city because now
Speaker 1: the city look kind of crazy like our citizens. I'll
Speaker 1: do us. So now the next round they gotta handle that.
Speaker 1: So it's just like, you know, that's why I don't
Speaker 1: really like to talk about things like that. But I
Speaker 1: realized it's just like why people start right, people stunting.
Speaker 1: They get inspired. You see somebody with a car that
Speaker 1: you want, you damn I want that. You see somebody
Speaker 1: with a chain, I'm like, well I want to do
Speaker 1: that now. Like I said, the fact that I saw
Speaker 1: you do that, I was going to ask you how
Speaker 1: because I want to get to the poor. Like people
Speaker 1: don't understand, like we're in a new I mean, I
Speaker 1: have kids and we're on online school and that ship
Speaker 1: is terrible. But I couldn't imagine if my kids couldn't
Speaker 1: get online and get their schoolwork done. You know what
Speaker 1: you said you saw some kids trying to take Wi
Speaker 1: Fi from Taco Bell. Yeah, they're sitting right next to
Speaker 1: Taco Bell. Yeah. It was an article I read and
Speaker 1: it was these kids. It was literally doing that homework.
Speaker 1: And Steven had already Steven already told me about him ansament.
Speaker 1: So when when I read that article and I and
Speaker 1: he told me, I was a man, we gotta do
Speaker 1: this asap. Right, let's let's get this. I need to Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to do that in Sacramento too, So I
Speaker 1: need to get that infom gonna gonna talk how important
Speaker 1: has it been for you in your journey? Like I said,
Speaker 1: I just saying your praises, but how important has it
Speaker 1: been for you to empower the black voice not only
Speaker 1: in your space, but in the athletic space and the
Speaker 1: politics space and the unity space. That's all I care about.
Speaker 1: Like if I was an NBA player, I would definitely
Speaker 1: want to lead the league and assist more than scoring points.
Speaker 1: Like that's all I care about. Like literally, like I've
Speaker 1: always regardless of what platform I was on, whether it
Speaker 1: was Breakfast Club, whether it was my podcast, whether it
Speaker 1: was the shows I was doing on Viacom, like uncommon
Speaker 1: sense like I always want to give everybody else an opportunity,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Because I feel like that's
Speaker 1: how you live forever. Right, Eventually your star is gonna burnout.
Speaker 1: Eventually people will get tired and seeing you front and
Speaker 1: center all the time. So what keeps you alive? Who
Speaker 1: you opened the door for? When I look at guys
Speaker 1: like jay Z, Like, look at the all the fruit
Speaker 1: off jay Z's tree, Well, I mean no Rihanna and
Speaker 1: Kanye Yeah, Jay Cole, people like another person who got
Speaker 1: the fruit from a tree, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like I want to be that, Like you want to
Speaker 1: be that guy that you empowered space though too, you're
Speaker 1: doing it in the new space, and music has been
Speaker 1: that They've had their struggles, don't get me wrong, and
Speaker 1: they've been able to do it. But you're in this
Speaker 1: multimedia space that has has been and still is dominated
Speaker 1: by a certain culture. So I just want to do
Speaker 1: it for the things that I know I'm good at,
Speaker 1: Like I'm good in the audio space, I'm good in
Speaker 1: the book world, you know what I'm saying. So being
Speaker 1: that I'm good in those spaces, I can provide opportunities
Speaker 1: in those spaces. Right, let's what's up. That's my fun.
Speaker 1: Interview has been going. That's probably to me, this has
Speaker 1: been the most smooth interview we've done. Just on been
Speaker 1: it's flowing, even slid in a couple of questions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's still in it. Um, we're coming to the end
Speaker 1: and ship went by quick as fuck. Um. Top five
Speaker 1: hip hop albums in your mind before you start, Good
Speaker 1: Trouble eight songs. I'm dropping on George blad birthday. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna send it to your earl though. Good Trouble. Okay,
Speaker 1: who I know you got trade on that, but just
Speaker 1: me on that. Oh all right, okay, okay, self pluck.
Speaker 1: That's all. We gotta show. Top five either we can
Speaker 1: do We can either do albums or we can do artists.
Speaker 1: It's easy for me to do artists. Let's do artists.
Speaker 1: And I really do have a top out of top seven.
Speaker 1: My top seven is jay Z number one. He probably
Speaker 1: he probably means the most ghost Face is my favorite
Speaker 1: rapper of all time, but jay Z is probably the
Speaker 1: most important rapper of of of of all time to me,
Speaker 1: right then, Scarface, love Face, t I Jeez, Killer, Mike
Speaker 1: in in Nas. That's that's my that's my top seven
Speaker 1: that I can go listen to any of the albums
Speaker 1: at any given time and be be contents my top
Speaker 1: five or seven. With the top five or seven, I'm
Speaker 1: going Park jay Z, Face Nas, bund b Yeah one
Speaker 1: Cole one Cole. We forget about Bunn only because he
Speaker 1: was part of a group like your name if I
Speaker 1: name groups, Yeah, I'm putting u g K. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. But we forget about how cold Bunn is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got pot, I got Big, I got Jay, I
Speaker 1: got snoot God Nip about to say you got as
Speaker 1: much you listen to Nip Bro. You gotta love yours.
Speaker 1: I love I love that man. That that that that
Speaker 1: that legacy. That's what you call a stolen legacy. So
Speaker 1: fast see, I see I gotten. My brother always puts
Speaker 1: me on the music. So when I was coming to
Speaker 1: LA in two thousand and nine ten, He's like, you
Speaker 1: gotta listen to Nick, Like he's just he's your fun
Speaker 1: with him. So I started listening to his ship and
Speaker 1: instantly fell in love. And then I came to the
Speaker 1: Lakers the next season, so I hit dude on a
Speaker 1: d M and he hit me right back. I'm like, YO,
Speaker 1: need to the Lakers. You know when Ucla come to
Speaker 1: a game, came to a game and just hit it
Speaker 1: off with him. I mean, Jenny went down to Earth
Speaker 1: and and I've seen him evolved from when he was
Speaker 1: riding around a little show and I'd be falling them
Speaker 1: to two shows and we'd be upstairs. I'll be with
Speaker 1: a bunch of sixties upstairs on the Lakers smoking weed.
Speaker 1: Like is that Matt marsh from the Lakers back they're
Speaker 1: smoking with you know what I mean. So to be
Speaker 1: able to see his elevation from when I when I
Speaker 1: when I learned them on him in O nine to
Speaker 1: what he left us with, like he said that was
Speaker 1: a star shot down early I met. I'm saying with
Speaker 1: my homegirl, deVie Brown. She was doing radio in La
Speaker 1: on Cadis when I used to go out there. She
Speaker 1: used to put me on all the new rappers. So
Speaker 1: it was Kendrick, it was Nipsey, it was Glasses Malone,
Speaker 1: Bishop Lunt, and I remember hearing that bullets Ain got
Speaker 1: no Name. I was like, God, co right, damn for
Speaker 1: his evolution to the content in which he wrapped it,
Speaker 1: he rapped about his evolvement to and his evolution and
Speaker 1: she was heard it through every project Shaw Mailbox Money
Speaker 1: up until Victory Lap and that was what to think about.
Speaker 1: That was his first album though, yeah, History Lap was
Speaker 1: his first. I mean he obviously he has if you
Speaker 1: know his history, he's got his history. But that was
Speaker 1: just his That was number one and it was called
Speaker 1: Victory Laps. Like, think about that, your first debut album
Speaker 1: on the mer label, which ends up being your last
Speaker 1: album is called Victory Lap Like. It's almost like some foreshadows,
Speaker 1: some poh like many he said, they said he two
Speaker 1: pockets generation. We got to ask him a question that
Speaker 1: we didn't we getting asked our guess, so, who do
Speaker 1: you think should be on our show next? But when
Speaker 1: you answer that question, you gotta be somebody that you
Speaker 1: can help us get on here everybody? You know he
Speaker 1: said jay Z about jay Z on all the smoke
Speaker 1: will be fired everybody. I want to see Shack on
Speaker 1: him with some reason. I just tapped in with Shaq Shack.
Speaker 1: Even motherfucking Hollywood, Inness, bro, we hit you last week.
Speaker 1: You said he was coming, then Jack hitching and he
Speaker 1: said he was coming. Then you disappeared to start doing
Speaker 1: all these motherfucking commercials. I just talked to him last week.
Speaker 1: Though he gave me his new number. He said it's on.
Speaker 1: He said, as soon as the playoffs over. Playoffs are
Speaker 1: about to be over shot. And we know you you
Speaker 1: know you got to go to all these banks and
Speaker 1: make all these deposits because you're getting all this money,
Speaker 1: but you know, just making a time for us. Man.
Speaker 1: You know why I want to see Shack on here,
Speaker 1: because Shaq got he got some real nigga. He's suppressing
Speaker 1: oh Man, But it's only because yeah, yeah, yeah, But
Speaker 1: I think if he gets around, y'all will ye. He
Speaker 1: was one of the craziest teams. I can't wait to
Speaker 1: talk about man, the ship he used to do in
Speaker 1: the locker room. If he talks about it, it's gonna
Speaker 1: blow people away. That motherfucker was a seven foot two,
Speaker 1: three hundred and sixty pound kid like media funny as mother.
Speaker 1: That's the inside info that y'all have that people don't have.
Speaker 1: He was in the locker room with Shack doing so
Speaker 1: the conversations are different. That's why even if you watch
Speaker 1: the show like Drink Champs with Nori, right, no reason
Speaker 1: Nori can talk to these guys the way he does
Speaker 1: Roll with him inside information. That's what they are saying
Speaker 1: with us, because we've been there, we felt every emotion
Speaker 1: we've been you know what I mean? So I like
Speaker 1: that shot. Five dinner guests that are alive, Oh Man,
Speaker 1: Um Donabole, Elijah Muhammad, Martin Luther King, Junior, Pop Nip
Speaker 1: and who my Angelo. Considering the climate we're in right now,
Speaker 1: one book you would recommend for people to read Message
Speaker 1: well for black people or just in general. I tell everybody, man,
Speaker 1: you've got to if you've never read a Message to
Speaker 1: the Black Man Biologih Muhammad, that's an amazing book for
Speaker 1: every black man on this planet to read, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, because there's so many different life lessons
Speaker 1: that we can apply to what's going on now, from
Speaker 1: police to politics, to diet to you know, mental health, mindfulness, everything.
Speaker 1: It's like an honorable ALTI Muhammad was was eighty years
Speaker 1: ahead of everybody when he wrote that book. On the
Speaker 1: flip side, people who are trying to align with us,
Speaker 1: a book you would recommend for them to read or
Speaker 1: understand us honestly, to understand us man, I think the
Speaker 1: autobiography of Malcolm X and the reason I say the
Speaker 1: autography of Malcolm X is because you see what happens
Speaker 1: when a black man is put in a certain environment, right,
Speaker 1: but you also see what happens when a black person
Speaker 1: has provided an opportunity. Because I always say, the greatest
Speaker 1: book about growth and evolution that I've ever read in
Speaker 1: my life is the autobiography of Malcolm X. Malcolm Little
Speaker 1: going to Malcolm X. And I think that's what one
Speaker 1: thing people don't understand about the Nation of Islam. They
Speaker 1: provide that opportunity for black people that America's not, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. They provide those tools and those
Speaker 1: resources for black people that America is not. And that's
Speaker 1: how you can get a Malcolm Little to turn into
Speaker 1: a Malcolm X. That's why you can get a cascious
Speaker 1: Clay to turn to a Muhammad Ali, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So it's just like I think that if
Speaker 1: white people read that book, they would understand that black
Speaker 1: people aren't inherently evil, you know what I mean. This
Speaker 1: system put us in a fucked up position, and in
Speaker 1: order for this system the really atone for its sins,
Speaker 1: it's got to provide things for us to get us out.
Speaker 1: And since we know that's not gonna happen. We're gonna
Speaker 1: have to do it ourselves straight up. Last question, who
Speaker 1: is your one figure you look up to that all
Speaker 1: lives a lot? Oh that's jay Z for sure. Definitely
Speaker 1: good question. Explain yours and then I Z jay Z
Speaker 1: for me because and you're so crazy. When I when
Speaker 1: I first listened to jay Z, I didn't. I didn't
Speaker 1: like jay Z only because, like you know, I come
Speaker 1: from the South. I was into like the gritty, grimy stuff.
Speaker 1: So it was just like, let dude was talking about
Speaker 1: so much money and all that big Willie tall. It
Speaker 1: was like, I don't want to hear that. But the
Speaker 1: reason I look up to him is because it's just
Speaker 1: like watching his evolution from coming in the game as
Speaker 1: a rapper entrepreneur. But the things he used to talk
Speaker 1: about to all to always, when I say always, always
Speaker 1: showing us where he's at in his life. If you
Speaker 1: listen to every jay Z album, you could tell exactly
Speaker 1: what he was at in his life. He went from
Speaker 1: the player who was kicking girls out at sticks in
Speaker 1: the morning to now being the husband, family man, going
Speaker 1: to therapy. And if you've ever had the pleasure of
Speaker 1: just being up at rock Nation. It's just like, that's
Speaker 1: what you would want your company to look like. This
Speaker 1: his family and it's his long time friends. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: really like the blueprint, you know, and the way he
Speaker 1: just quiet lee shows up for his people all the time,
Speaker 1: like and it has been doing it for years. Were
Speaker 1: just getting hipped to all of the things that that
Speaker 1: that he's done. But it's just like when I look
Speaker 1: at him, he's just a good representation of what I
Speaker 1: think a black man is. Like. You know, you you
Speaker 1: dealt the worst hand you make, you make the you
Speaker 1: make the best of that hand you would dealt become
Speaker 1: a billionaire, but you take your your people with you
Speaker 1: every step of the way. The people that are willing
Speaker 1: to grow what you doing the one that I will grow.
Speaker 1: It ain't meant for everybody, but the ones that are
Speaker 1: that are willing to grow with you, and they're supposed
Speaker 1: to be there, they still with you. And he represents
Speaker 1: that that to me. Jack, to answer your question, I
Speaker 1: guess I look at it different. Um. You know, to
Speaker 1: be able to play as long as I play in
Speaker 1: the NBA, my transition into this space, there's people I
Speaker 1: look up to. So he's one of them. Um, Stephen A.
Speaker 1: Smith is one of them. Michael Strahan, who is to
Speaker 1: me the ultimate because he was able to cross from
Speaker 1: professional athlete to sports but then to mainstream media too,
Speaker 1: And that's what I really want to do. Like I
Speaker 1: love sports, but I want to transition into like real
Speaker 1: um life. And then Kevin Fraser, Kevin Kevin Is. Kevin's
Speaker 1: helped me in this space. You told me one, I
Speaker 1: didn't know I could need more. Yeah, but Jack surprised me.
Speaker 1: I wasn't ready for my own question. Who's yours? I
Speaker 1: think the only person I look up to as my
Speaker 1: little brother. But it's simple fact that I wanted to
Speaker 1: be that guy that day to one woman through high school,
Speaker 1: had kids by working one family, doing everything to write,
Speaker 1: so I got kids all over the place. Y know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, that's only because you're allergic to column
Speaker 1: So that's not really that. That's not what it was.
Speaker 1: That's not what it was. But uh but seriously, though, Nah,
Speaker 1: I honestly look up to my little brother because he's
Speaker 1: done everything the right way. Obviously he wanted my life.
Speaker 1: He wanted to play basketball, but it didn't work out
Speaker 1: for him. But his life and the way the man
Speaker 1: he is and how he takes care of our whole
Speaker 1: family when anybody called, he there for him. That's the
Speaker 1: that's the man. I really want to shout out to
Speaker 1: Stamp Barley and not twins, got twins and Junior. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's crazy you say that about because it's it's guys
Speaker 1: that I've I'm totally faithful to my wife. Now, I've
Speaker 1: been faithful for four years since I told twenty and sixty.
Speaker 1: But hello, you've been with her. I like it, though
Speaker 1: it's a change. You got to start somewhere a date
Speaker 1: with Jack that is real. It's like, Yo, we do
Speaker 1: look up to these guys that are faithful today women
Speaker 1: yea early on. You know what I'm saying, Like I
Speaker 1: didn't had that kind of discipline because you know how
Speaker 1: tough it is. You know how tough it is. Like
Speaker 1: I didn't fire anybody, the kids, because I've never been
Speaker 1: perfect when it comes to that. That's that's so hard though,
Speaker 1: that's another good Well. I just I just think he
Speaker 1: understood what he wanted with his life at a young age,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like being saying, my grandmother,
Speaker 1: my grandfather been together for so long. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying my mom, you know, she really just dedicated.
Speaker 1: I like to us, it's certain things that triggered him
Speaker 1: to do things the right way. He was around me,
Speaker 1: He's seen me doing all that stuff, he's seen women
Speaker 1: around me. He was just so focused on doing things
Speaker 1: the right way, and that's what I wanted, but I
Speaker 1: was distracted by other ship. Yeah, I didn't want to
Speaker 1: do my household the way my father and I love
Speaker 1: my pops, you know what I'm saying. But I didn't
Speaker 1: want to do my household the way I saw him
Speaker 1: do his house. You know what I'm saying. He got
Speaker 1: caught with his digging the dirt. He's still with the
Speaker 1: same woman, so clearly that was meant to be right.
Speaker 1: But my mom got divorced and then that kind of,
Speaker 1: like to me, messed the family up, right, So I
Speaker 1: didn't want to do that in my house. You know. Well,
Speaker 1: that's a wrap, Charlotte bay Man. We appreciate your time.
Speaker 1: They've been waiting on that, man. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: That's a wrap. All the Smoke You can find this
Speaker 1: on Showtime Basketball, YouTube and the iHeart Family Black Effects Yes,
Speaker 1: and All the Smoke Network coming soon. You shout out Snoop,
Speaker 1: This is all a smoke. A production of The Black
Speaker 1: Effect and Our Heart Radio in partnership with Showtime