Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what's up, good people. I'm to make a d.
Speaker 1: Mallory and it's your boy my son in general, and
Speaker 1: we are your host of street politicians, the place where
Speaker 1: the streets and politics me. What's up? So you got
Speaker 1: your little until Freedom swag because we said, hey, we
Speaker 1: wear everybody up. Yeah, and then we got to support
Speaker 1: our own. Man. This is our brand, Until Freedom is
Speaker 1: our organization is our brand. So you know we're always
Speaker 1: supporting everybody else and wearing everybody else's garments. We decided
Speaker 1: we're gonna be until Freedom Today. Some of our some
Speaker 1: people send us a lot of nice things being gladdened
Speaker 1: me and they hook us up every week, but this
Speaker 1: time it was you know important. It's the until Freedom
Speaker 1: for me. It's the until Freedom for me too. And
Speaker 1: it's the last um week of Black History Month, and
Speaker 1: so celebrating your own, supporting your own people who are
Speaker 1: watching listening. If you want to support our organization Until Freedom,
Speaker 1: you can go to until freedom dot com purchase a sweatsuit,
Speaker 1: all types of sweat We got what you need. We
Speaker 1: definitely do. And this is just two examples of I'm
Speaker 1: I'm wearing the deluscious red today and also good quality sweatsuits.
Speaker 1: We pride ourselves and making sure that anything that we
Speaker 1: sell we would actually wear. Hopefully you guys will support us.
Speaker 1: So what's going on. There's a lot happening. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's another episode every week. We've been having some incredible
Speaker 1: individuals on talking about a lot of great things. You know,
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of favorites for me, but I
Speaker 1: think Hill Harper was definitely one of the you know,
Speaker 1: h Hill was. It was. It was. It was a
Speaker 1: cumbination of things. It was, you know, it was. It
Speaker 1: was a tear jerker. Then we had a little couple
Speaker 1: of moments where we smiled and laughed, you know, especially
Speaker 1: since you know I knew him Lord, I knew him
Speaker 1: from his first movie before it was even in the bio.
Speaker 1: You all confirmed that. I want to be able to
Speaker 1: say that you're you know, fibbing, but I can't. It's true.
Speaker 1: But he was. He was a good guy and you know,
Speaker 1: his personality is one that I would see you connecting with, yeah,
Speaker 1: because you know it's authentic, Like that's what it is
Speaker 1: for us. It's just like I connect with authentic. It's
Speaker 1: so many different people that I have relationships and friendships
Speaker 1: with that people don't know. You know, I wouldn't. I
Speaker 1: have so many different kind of friends and they the
Speaker 1: only common denominating all of them is just that they're
Speaker 1: authentic and they comfortable being who they are. So, you know,
Speaker 1: Hill is definitely one of those guys. Man so to
Speaker 1: him relationships people we have relationships with. You know, one
Speaker 1: group of people that I find myself always super duper
Speaker 1: engaged with is elderly folks Like I love my elders.
Speaker 1: I love the core Master's berries and the Hazel Dukes
Speaker 1: and others. Um. I spend a lot of time talking
Speaker 1: to them, and you know, I feel like, especially as
Speaker 1: we're celebrating back Black history, there is so much, such
Speaker 1: a wealth of knowledge out there from our elders that
Speaker 1: we can gain from learning about our past so that
Speaker 1: we understand one at the moments that what we're experiencing
Speaker 1: right now, it's not new. The only thing that's new
Speaker 1: is the approach that we will take to address these issues.
Speaker 1: And a lot of times that's a remix of things
Speaker 1: that happened in the past. Um. But you know, it
Speaker 1: also I think informs us when you have strong relationships
Speaker 1: with with elders, it informs our path forward, and it
Speaker 1: helps you to sort of ground yourself in a foundation
Speaker 1: so you're not feeling like you're creating. I hate to
Speaker 1: hear people say, oh, this is the first time that
Speaker 1: you know, we never now it's not what they say,
Speaker 1: nothing new under the sun. And so it's black history.
Speaker 1: I would say for this week, as folks, and and
Speaker 1: black history is every month. Black History is every day.
Speaker 1: But I would say that don't don't just relegate us
Speaker 1: to know one month now and not the shortest month
Speaker 1: of the year. But I would say to parents, um,
Speaker 1: that this is a good time to take your children
Speaker 1: around elders, even you learning from people who have been
Speaker 1: a part of these struggles and have you know, and
Speaker 1: and of course you got your grandparents and your immediate family,
Speaker 1: but I'm talking about staples in the community, other people
Speaker 1: that you could talk to them, get education. You gotta
Speaker 1: have that, Like that's one of our mantras that we
Speaker 1: stand on the shoulders of our elders. We say that
Speaker 1: all the time, we stand on the shoulders of giants,
Speaker 1: and we're just paying our path forward. You know. One
Speaker 1: of the things you always say is that it's just
Speaker 1: we are responsible for winning our own freedom. Well, Harry,
Speaker 1: I mean not Harriet Um corrector Scott King King said that.
Speaker 1: So when you say that all the time, I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's right, and that's what and that's what we did.
Speaker 1: We borrowed from our elders, and we just gotta be
Speaker 1: you know, I don't understand a lot of this culture
Speaker 1: in this generation. They have a problem with elders, right,
Speaker 1: They have a problem with given credit to the elders.
Speaker 1: They want to be like, oh, you're too old, and
Speaker 1: and it's a privilege to be old, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like, it's a privilege to actually have accomplished
Speaker 1: things and you know, grown and have wisdom, you know.
Speaker 1: And I always looked at like you said, I always
Speaker 1: have the utmost respect for my elders. I used to
Speaker 1: sit at the feet of my elders and just listen,
Speaker 1: Like you know, when Bellefonte talks to us, we just
Speaker 1: sit there and just taken. When Corus Masses Barry is
Speaker 1: talking to us, and we just sit there and listen
Speaker 1: to what she says, you know. You know. So speaking
Speaker 1: of Harry Belafonte, it's his birthday, birthday and celebration that's
Speaker 1: happening shout out Mr Ben years old. I mean, and
Speaker 1: it's like, like you said, it's a privilege to get
Speaker 1: old because based upon Mr Bee's life and everything that
Speaker 1: he has done and how he's been so much so
Speaker 1: engaged in the movement, he could have been gone just
Speaker 1: like Martin Luther, King, Malcolm X and so many others,
Speaker 1: and he, you know, has has lasted and also has
Speaker 1: been such an inspiration to so many younger activists who
Speaker 1: who have come up sort of behind him. And I
Speaker 1: always tell people with money, because you know, we are
Speaker 1: always talking the folks who have the resources, but they'll say, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I can't necessarily be out there on the
Speaker 1: front lines with you, but I'm trying to figure out
Speaker 1: what can I do. And I think you know, for one,
Speaker 1: Jay Z certainly is one who is trying to follow
Speaker 1: in Harry Belafonte's footsteps in terms of funding organizers and
Speaker 1: organizations that are doing great work. Um And and you know,
Speaker 1: that's the suggestion for us all if we want to
Speaker 1: borrow uh some of the wisdom, leadership and some of
Speaker 1: the skills of our elders and want to make some
Speaker 1: commitments during Black History Months, it's a good time to
Speaker 1: say that I am going to begin sending ten fifteen
Speaker 1: dollars buying until freedom sweat suit. Uh, send another grassroots
Speaker 1: organization some resources to help them to be able to
Speaker 1: continue to do their work. And so you know, those
Speaker 1: commitments are important. I don't think that Black History months
Speaker 1: to just be about us studying things and reading back
Speaker 1: over that's that's It's about creating good. But it's yeah,
Speaker 1: it's about like, now, what's your commitment. We've learned, we
Speaker 1: understand now how you're gonna jump in, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: we have black history, we have Black present, and then
Speaker 1: we got Black future, and we have if you in
Speaker 1: black presents, you supposed to be creating for the future
Speaker 1: and creating history. You know, I'm playing it for it
Speaker 1: like um. One of the things I want to talk
Speaker 1: about is the the originator of We said, you know,
Speaker 1: going forward, Someone in your comments was asking about February thirteen,
Speaker 1: which is the day before Valentine's Day, and they were
Speaker 1: explaining that the thirteen is has been called Black Love
Speaker 1: Day and talking about black folks who actually created um
Speaker 1: that day and and sort of a holiday of its own.
Speaker 1: And we said, going forward, when we talk about holidays,
Speaker 1: we want to get text for how these holidays came exactly.
Speaker 1: And Krter G Woodson, who created who started with Black
Speaker 1: History Week? You know, he decided to create a Blast
Speaker 1: History Week in eighteen sixteen, which carried over and eventually
Speaker 1: led to you know, the foundation for Black History Months.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people because people in my comments,
Speaker 1: I don't want to that pagan holiday, there was a
Speaker 1: white man, so to know, a white man didn't start.
Speaker 1: Carter g Woodson started. But I think you were talking
Speaker 1: about I think they were talking about the actual one.
Speaker 1: It was actually implement they were talking. They were talking
Speaker 1: about you know, I forgot which president was that took
Speaker 1: the Black History Week and then extended it into the month.
Speaker 1: But if the foundation was set by Carter G. Woodson
Speaker 1: who created Black History, right, let's get let's know a
Speaker 1: little thing before you start talking about stuff that's really
Speaker 1: it's really important to note. I mean, there's been so
Speaker 1: many contributions, and you know, as we were talking about
Speaker 1: supporting activists and leaders, I was having a conversation um
Speaker 1: this week with a loved one who said, after watching
Speaker 1: the documentary that was done on My life, which is
Speaker 1: currently on Stars, Um, it's not my life it's actually
Speaker 1: a part of my life, a time period in my life.
Speaker 1: It's on Stars. It's called This is Personal. Uh, folks
Speaker 1: can check it out. And as she was watching it, um,
Speaker 1: she said, you know, I realized you have a real,
Speaker 1: real job, and I see what it is that you do.
Speaker 1: And I thought to myself, Wow, there's so many people
Speaker 1: who don't really understand what we do. And so it
Speaker 1: made me think of my thought of today, because that's
Speaker 1: what I do. I think and I come up with
Speaker 1: my thought of the day. And that is why don't
Speaker 1: people understand that being an activist and an organizer, it
Speaker 1: is a full time job. If not like a lifestyle,
Speaker 1: it's a real job. People think that it's just like
Speaker 1: what you do. I know, I'm an activist literally have
Speaker 1: to apply work all day every day, and it's a life.
Speaker 1: Like you said, it's a full time, lifetime job. You
Speaker 1: don't get to sleep and say, yo, you know I'm
Speaker 1: working for nine or five. I ain't doing nothing after
Speaker 1: five o'clock. You know, because somebody is killed every minute
Speaker 1: of the day, you know, some young black man or
Speaker 1: some young poor person from you know, um, Compromised communities
Speaker 1: are being abused and the civil rights are being violated
Speaker 1: every day, so we have to be on call all
Speaker 1: the time. We have to get up and go to
Speaker 1: somebody else's city or somebody else's state. We have to
Speaker 1: go bring attention to these things at all times, so
Speaker 1: our job never stops. And I think people take it
Speaker 1: for granted. Even even your own family take sit for granted.
Speaker 1: They don't see. They see, they see the moments, right,
Speaker 1: they see the news clip, they see the video, they
Speaker 1: see the people reposting the thing, and they say, that's
Speaker 1: something that happened for thirty seconds one. But they don't
Speaker 1: realize the work that's going in to this clip that
Speaker 1: you've seen and realized, the planning and organizing and how
Speaker 1: you have this and you and put in your life
Speaker 1: on the line. A lot of people just don't really
Speaker 1: see it that way. You know, Yes they don't, and
Speaker 1: you know, and I and I act. She was speaking
Speaker 1: to me. I was reflecting on how often I have
Speaker 1: heard from people, wow, you know, what you do looks
Speaker 1: fun or you know, and we make it fun because
Speaker 1: you have to. If you're on the road for six days,
Speaker 1: seven days. No one wants to be in a situation
Speaker 1: where every moment of it is traumatizing, so you have
Speaker 1: to actually build in it's living in your purpose. When
Speaker 1: your purpose, you know, you when you live in your purpose,
Speaker 1: you never work one day. So I think, because this
Speaker 1: is what we ordained to do, this is our purpose,
Speaker 1: we make it seem like it's fun. Right. We're able
Speaker 1: to smile when we should be crying. You know, we're
Speaker 1: able to see the glasses have full and continue to
Speaker 1: persevere and move through times. Even after we don't cry
Speaker 1: for six hours. The seventh hour, we might say, yo,
Speaker 1: let's hug and laugh about something, and onebody, somebody tells
Speaker 1: a joke. You know, we're sitting around eating together and
Speaker 1: and just live in family and community. So we figure
Speaker 1: out a way because it's our purpose. But it's definitely
Speaker 1: a job, and it's a lot and and and you know,
Speaker 1: building relationships with people who are traumatized as well, that
Speaker 1: takes a lot of work. You know, when we are
Speaker 1: in places like Louisville, Kentucky, it takes us awhile days
Speaker 1: to re kindle and ignite the fire among the groups
Speaker 1: that we're working with. Doesn't mean that they're not doing
Speaker 1: their own thing all the time, but each time that
Speaker 1: we come back, it's kind of like, Okay, where do
Speaker 1: we start again? How do we continue to work together?
Speaker 1: And we have to actually put time and effort into
Speaker 1: building those relationships and making sure that there is trust
Speaker 1: and that's it, and that takes work on both sides,
Speaker 1: on you know, from from our side and from the
Speaker 1: individuals that we're working with. We also support families. I
Speaker 1: can't tell you the amount of families that we talked
Speaker 1: to all day every day, supporting them financially, supporting their
Speaker 1: fundraises and events and other things that they're doing. It
Speaker 1: takes a lot of work to accomplish what we do
Speaker 1: and knowing and understanding because I guess the next criticism
Speaker 1: from people is like, yeah, well, how you know we're
Speaker 1: not what are we getting done? And I say all
Speaker 1: the time, none of us have actually been able to
Speaker 1: get us free, Like not what you're doing, not what
Speaker 1: what I'm doing. We're all working towards a goal and
Speaker 1: we're fighting and standing alongside one another. And just because
Speaker 1: you don't see me in a you know, in scrubs
Speaker 1: going into a hospital, doesn't mean that I'm not working
Speaker 1: on the sickness that is happening within our communities and
Speaker 1: my scrubs may not look like, you know, my sister's
Speaker 1: uniform as a nurse, but my scrubs look like and
Speaker 1: Until Freedom sweatsuits. So that for me, um is you know,
Speaker 1: my thought of the day. As I said, it was
Speaker 1: deeply um not so much troubling. But when when she
Speaker 1: said it to me, I realized that this is someone
Speaker 1: who's known me my whole life, and she's saying, wow,
Speaker 1: like you really have a real serious job. So imagine
Speaker 1: what other people are thinking that are not really around,
Speaker 1: and all they do is listen to people telling us,
Speaker 1: or you know, the folks on the in the media.
Speaker 1: Let God bless if you watch Fox News where they
Speaker 1: tell you that every we're all poverty pampers and oh ye,
Speaker 1: Swiss suits. We're not suppo to sell Swiss suits. We're
Speaker 1: not supposed to get contributes. We're not supposed to have nothing.
Speaker 1: We're supposed to just go outside on the front lines,
Speaker 1: risk your life, can't take care of your family, just
Speaker 1: be starving and hungry. I was listening to somebody say
Speaker 1: last night that um, Martin Luther King died with so
Speaker 1: much money and he was taking money from people, and
Speaker 1: I'm just watching I've had I've had people tell me,
Speaker 1: you know, I worked forever now for a long time,
Speaker 1: fourteen years and and and was a part of National
Speaker 1: Action Network since before that. And I would hear people say, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, he takes money from the families, and he's
Speaker 1: you know, and and and and that's how he, you know,
Speaker 1: wears his suits or whatever the families and their settlement checks.
Speaker 1: I literally was there, right, like, come up with another
Speaker 1: criticism about all of us, and you can find one,
Speaker 1: but that is a bow faced lie. I was there,
Speaker 1: And if anything, he literally worked that nan during the
Speaker 1: week and then on the weekends he would go out
Speaker 1: and preach so he can make money, so that to
Speaker 1: help us make payroll and also to be able to
Speaker 1: give families resources because most of the time the families
Speaker 1: that we we are dealing with, these are individuals who
Speaker 1: are who come from really impoverished circumstances. Right, That's why
Speaker 1: it happens to them because they live in certain hoods,
Speaker 1: they're dealing with certain things. And these individuals, now that
Speaker 1: you're working with them, they might need a suit to
Speaker 1: be able to go to court. They may need that.
Speaker 1: People people are in regular life, right, So you meet
Speaker 1: a family and their loved one was killed Tuesday Saturday,
Speaker 1: they still trying to figure out how to get the
Speaker 1: rent because the rent was already due. And the rent
Speaker 1: man doesn't say, well, now that your loved one has
Speaker 1: been killed and you're in the middle of a big
Speaker 1: you know, uh situation, They don't say, well, you don't
Speaker 1: gotta pay me. You still have to come up with
Speaker 1: that money. And sometimes you got to help to do that.
Speaker 1: If you claim to be a leader, you're working with people,
Speaker 1: you have to be able to find solutions. How many funerals,
Speaker 1: How many funerals? How many funerals have we paid for
Speaker 1: or help to pay for for individuals, people that folks
Speaker 1: don't even know, people it locked up in prisons, who've died,
Speaker 1: people children. Absolutely, So anyway, that bottom line is it's
Speaker 1: a full time and a lifestyle. And the lifestyle so
Speaker 1: the streets is talking. Streets are always talking. The streets
Speaker 1: is talking, And what the streets are talking about today
Speaker 1: is Russia. Limba, he died. He died, you know, and
Speaker 1: people don't a lot of people don't care. No, I'm
Speaker 1: just being honest. I think I think you know. There
Speaker 1: was a tweet, Yeah, he put out a tweet right
Speaker 1: the gist of it was Rus died. So for those
Speaker 1: of you who don't know who Russia Limbaugh is, he's
Speaker 1: a conservative pundit and you know he's radio host and racist.
Speaker 1: Well he's not racist now because he's deceased. But and
Speaker 1: a lot of people feel like so yeah, well you
Speaker 1: know I think that um Shaun King wrote this tweet,
Speaker 1: and this is important, right, he says, Russia Limbaugh attacked
Speaker 1: me on air for years, did the same too many
Speaker 1: people I care about. We never mentioned his name, but
Speaker 1: he was obsessed with us and abused us for profit.
Speaker 1: He was a lifelong racist, sexist, bigot. And now he's dead,
Speaker 1: that's all right. And you know, when I saw that tweet,
Speaker 1: I was really like, Okay, that's everything I want to
Speaker 1: say summed up in one I My um experience and
Speaker 1: and understanding of Russia Limball extends far right, even beyond
Speaker 1: this current movement, this current momentum. I know how much
Speaker 1: of his rhetoric and his political stance has been detrimental,
Speaker 1: dangerous for communities of color. Um, of course for the
Speaker 1: black community, but certainly, like sometimes I think Russia Limbaugh
Speaker 1: was was a little bit too racist even for Fox
Speaker 1: News and that's hard to That's hard because he you know,
Speaker 1: had to go on satellite radio so he could really
Speaker 1: kick it. And the previous president, who we shall not name,
Speaker 1: I try. I'm working so hard on not saying his name.
Speaker 1: Just gave him right before leaving office a medal of honor. Uh.
Speaker 1: And this is a man who was divisive, as Sean said,
Speaker 1: he attacked leaders, activists, organizes every day. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: he just was was not a good person. And I think,
Speaker 1: very similar to when John McCain died, that we have
Speaker 1: to tell the truth about people when they die. We
Speaker 1: can't recreate, like you know, history in order to honor
Speaker 1: folks just because they died. And I know that in
Speaker 1: birth and death those are two times when we try
Speaker 1: to see the positive. But if someone lives their life
Speaker 1: raising hell and and and actually causing harm to communities,
Speaker 1: we need to tell that truth. And I think that
Speaker 1: was the point of what Sean was saying. It's like,
Speaker 1: let's not sit here and start talking about Oh, he
Speaker 1: was an American radio host and you know he broke
Speaker 1: this record and he did. You can talk about those things,
Speaker 1: but make sure that it's not an isolation of saying that.
Speaker 1: He also was a racist and a bigot, and again
Speaker 1: that his rhetoric and his own organizing was harmful to
Speaker 1: a lot of people, uh, individually and collectively. I mean
Speaker 1: he literally was the sounding board for forty five and
Speaker 1: his racism. Yeah, he's somebody that I didn't really pay
Speaker 1: a lot of attention to write. But when I did
Speaker 1: hear him, it was always something negative. You know, there
Speaker 1: was never anything positive that you know, had to do
Speaker 1: with us, especially as organizers in communities of color, you know,
Speaker 1: in despair. He never said anything that was like okay.
Speaker 1: You know, there are some people on Foxes that might
Speaker 1: have an opinion that I kind of understand. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: don't think Russia Limbo Limbo ever said anything that you know,
Speaker 1: that I agree with. So when we look at these tweets,
Speaker 1: is it okay? Is it okay that we say, yo,
Speaker 1: you're dead and we don't care, you know, Is it okay?
Speaker 1: Is that is that crash l I don't think it's
Speaker 1: a lack of that. I don't think it's a lack
Speaker 1: of class. I think that we as black people are
Speaker 1: so loving and caring and that's something that I don't
Speaker 1: want us to lose, right, you know, our our Big
Speaker 1: Mama's um and Big Papas taught us that we are
Speaker 1: always to show grace even when someone has done something harmful,
Speaker 1: that it's our job to be the to take the
Speaker 1: higher road. And so I guess it's one of those
Speaker 1: things where they say, if you're not gonna say anything
Speaker 1: positive or if you're not gonna put it in the
Speaker 1: proper context, the way I feel, Sean has don't say
Speaker 1: anything at all, because sometimes your silence is also uh
Speaker 1: it is your silence is deafening, right, people can hear it.
Speaker 1: So I think that's that's one part. But as I said,
Speaker 1: the same thing happened with John McCain. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is an individual who, um, you know, towards the end
Speaker 1: of his life he obviously began to understand the importance
Speaker 1: of his legacy and started trying to do things to
Speaker 1: be more progressive as a Republican UM. But prior to
Speaker 1: for many many years, like he didn't support Dr King
Speaker 1: having a special holiday, he stood against all the progressive
Speaker 1: policies that were that that people were working really hard
Speaker 1: to get done during you know, civil rights error. At
Speaker 1: least after that once he became a legislator, and you
Speaker 1: can't just ignore that. And you can't say that just
Speaker 1: because he served the country that now once he passes away,
Speaker 1: we're going to glorify and just forget about all the
Speaker 1: other things. And by the way, there are people who
Speaker 1: are mean, evil, they do a lot of crazy things
Speaker 1: and all of that. But there are people who are
Speaker 1: in positions of power and have major megaphones at their disposal,
Speaker 1: and those individuals you have to tell the truth. So
Speaker 1: I think telling the truth and saying I don't care
Speaker 1: that a man died are probably two different things. And
Speaker 1: Big Mama probably won't like us saying I don't care.
Speaker 1: Your emotions and how you express your feelings is none
Speaker 1: of someone else's business, right. You don't get to tell
Speaker 1: me that I have to wish someone well or I
Speaker 1: have to wish someone to rest in peace. You don't
Speaker 1: get to tell me to have to be silent about
Speaker 1: my pain that you caused harm to me that really
Speaker 1: affected me in a way. Because you can listen when
Speaker 1: you listen to Sean King, and if you know Shaun
Speaker 1: King and you understand the amount of you know, threat
Speaker 1: death threats and things that he has received as a
Speaker 1: result of the things that rush Limbau has done like
Speaker 1: him has done. So when he expresses those sentiments, he
Speaker 1: he has every right too because why those people were alive,
Speaker 1: they were actually working to take his life from him,
Speaker 1: or at least to set him up exactly. They were
Speaker 1: putting him in a position to where his life was
Speaker 1: uncomfortable or to where he could actually lose his life.
Speaker 1: So when you, when you are death, you are a
Speaker 1: detriment to my life, in my survival, and then you
Speaker 1: lose your life, I'm actually feel okay, I feel like
Speaker 1: I have an opportunity to live longer thw because you're
Speaker 1: one less threat that I have to deal with. So
Speaker 1: people have to you have to acknowledge that everyone is
Speaker 1: not gonna be pain. They're not gonna feel sorry, they're
Speaker 1: not gonna rest in peace, They're not gonna say that.
Speaker 1: Some people are going to be relieved that people who
Speaker 1: have harmed them, who have threatened their lives are gone.
Speaker 1: Well I guess, I mean, I guess I agree with
Speaker 1: you because I feel like, I mean, you know, I
Speaker 1: still I'm called to my higher moral conscious, But I
Speaker 1: also understand that when the when the slave master died,
Speaker 1: the slaves were the reds. They rejoiced because again they
Speaker 1: didn't have to take. That's one last one less lashing
Speaker 1: that they had to actually deal with. So I guess
Speaker 1: it's something that we have to reconcile within ourselves or
Speaker 1: maybe not. People just got to do better. We don't
Speaker 1: worry about. I don't like there are enough. There are
Speaker 1: seventy five or maybe almost eighty million people out here
Speaker 1: who they all together, So there's enough folks that will
Speaker 1: praise and honor and uplift Rush Limbaugh, but it probably
Speaker 1: won't be so this episode today, we're focusing a lot
Speaker 1: on mass incarceration. It just happened that the last week
Speaker 1: in Black History Month, we're focusing on individuals who have
Speaker 1: served their time but are still dealing with the I
Speaker 1: don't know, I guess insidual effects, but you know, still
Speaker 1: dealing with the grip that the system has on you
Speaker 1: if it can catch you right, if it can if
Speaker 1: it can suck you in um. And again, these are,
Speaker 1: you know, not individuals, And I think what makes these
Speaker 1: conversations so real is it's not individuals that didn't commit
Speaker 1: their crimes or people who haven't admitted to being a
Speaker 1: minister society at some point. Right, But when you start
Speaker 1: talking about folks serving thirty forty years or twenty five
Speaker 1: years and then still having to deal with long probation
Speaker 1: times and you know, parole times. You have to always
Speaker 1: educate me probation, parole, get it right to mika Um similar,
Speaker 1: very similar, you know, having having still an overseer, right, Um.
Speaker 1: You know, those things I think have to be challenged.
Speaker 1: And just as we are able to forgive or to
Speaker 1: set aside what some of our legislators, leaders and other
Speaker 1: individuals that are revered, just like we're able to do that,
Speaker 1: I think we also have to live in the spirit
Speaker 1: of reconciliation, of rehabilitation with people who are locked up
Speaker 1: in prisons across this country. And so um. You know,
Speaker 1: today we're focusing on what more can be done to
Speaker 1: help free some of these people. And I the two
Speaker 1: guests that we have are powerful guests. First, we're gonna
Speaker 1: start out our friends, you know what I'm saying, Our friends.
Speaker 1: We're gonna start out with you know, a brother who
Speaker 1: I've grown to call a brother, you know, and he's
Speaker 1: such a powerful, dynamic speaker. He speaks energy into anybody
Speaker 1: that he speaks to. He he's overcome so many obstacles,
Speaker 1: you know, after serving a twenty years sentence in prisons
Speaker 1: and coming home and he's only been home four years,
Speaker 1: and he hit the ground running and he came home
Speaker 1: and immediately, Oh, he would tell you himself. He had
Speaker 1: a cell phone, you know, he was actually got locked
Speaker 1: up with herself. But I'll let him explain that to you.
Speaker 1: But he came home and utilized that cell phone. He
Speaker 1: went to corners and he did motivational speeches. Is he
Speaker 1: did push ups, he sold his merchandise, He made everything
Speaker 1: go viral. He constantly was speaking into the camera. He
Speaker 1: did some of the craziest things and people was like,
Speaker 1: what are you doing out here? Well, are you crazy?
Speaker 1: But Willow had a plan, you know, and he's it's
Speaker 1: such a motivation to see him now with his own
Speaker 1: podcast man and being a motivational speaker. He got to
Speaker 1: ted talks that he's already done, you know, and just
Speaker 1: watching him living his purpose and not killing and his
Speaker 1: whole thing is not caring what you think about, you know,
Speaker 1: because those were things that led to his incarceration. So
Speaker 1: I'm definitely, you know, happy and honored to be interviewing
Speaker 1: my brother Willow. So the one thing you didn't say
Speaker 1: about Willow is that he's a comedian most definitely, And
Speaker 1: that's one of my favorite things about my brother. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's obviously doing incredible work, as you said, but them jokes,
Speaker 1: wallow them jokes hilarious. This is what it is. Are
Speaker 1: should be in my own room, sneaking my own room.
Speaker 1: Rest in peace, Muga weeps. He died not too long ago.
Speaker 1: And I used to be in his room when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, and he used to have the eight
Speaker 1: tracks of Red Fox and uh Fire and all that
Speaker 1: stuff by Centennial Nigger, all the type of join. So
Speaker 1: they say stuff that was funny, but it was funny,
Speaker 1: but they was they was telling us some real stuff.
Speaker 1: And one thing about us as black people, especially where
Speaker 1: we at now, We're only gonna listen to people if
Speaker 1: it's funny. Off, it's cool. If you're going social media,
Speaker 1: if if you don't have one the Gucci Louis Bliss
Speaker 1: got none of that. And the jury and you could
Speaker 1: be telling somebody how to do something. You could just
Speaker 1: be you're in a regular suit. You're trying to show
Speaker 1: somebody how to do real estate or credit. You're done.
Speaker 1: Nobody want to hear that. Ship. Oh I realized that
Speaker 1: I said, Okay, y'all like to laugh. I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: you I'm gonna get you all some information. It's it's
Speaker 1: like it's like it's like us sitting in candy, you
Speaker 1: know how. You know how when a baby be sitting
Speaker 1: there crying, don't we eat? As soon as you do
Speaker 1: the airplane with the spoon, you gotta you gotta do
Speaker 1: the airplane with the grown ass. In our community, man,
Speaker 1: they don't want to hear because nothing is cool but
Speaker 1: some ship that got that's outside of yourself. Everything in
Speaker 1: the black community, everything that is outside of yourself, that's cool. Ship.
Speaker 1: Oh oh you gotta. Oh you got a gun, that's cool?
Speaker 1: Are you tough? Oh you got on Louis Vatan. Oh
Speaker 1: you cool? You tough? Oh you're driving a billy? Oh
Speaker 1: you cool. I can listen to you that we don't
Speaker 1: even listen to what we think is uh things. If
Speaker 1: you got things, you ain't got no things. They gonna
Speaker 1: listen to you unless you make them laugh. And that's
Speaker 1: why we appreciate you. Man. I was like, that's what
Speaker 1: I said. I was like, yeah, Wilo is so comfortable
Speaker 1: being him and that's why the main things that he
Speaker 1: talks about. Man, you was telling us you know, are
Speaker 1: you well? You was telling me yesterday when we had
Speaker 1: spokes that today is your anniversary. You've been home for
Speaker 1: four years. Oh yeah, I walked out of prison February
Speaker 1: a team two seventeen. I mean years you spent in prison. Years.
Speaker 1: Want to talk about that journey? How did you get there?
Speaker 1: I got there because when I was young, uh, and
Speaker 1: I used to sit on the step. My brother was
Speaker 1: already in the street game. My neighbor, my old was
Speaker 1: my old head, Jermain Big Main in them. He was
Speaker 1: in the street game, and they all my brother homies
Speaker 1: was already the street game. But it was times when
Speaker 1: I used to sit on the step. I'll be out
Speaker 1: playing with my friends and I see the most beautifulest
Speaker 1: girl in our neighborhood. Right the most I'm telling about
Speaker 1: all the fly girls. They never deal with. The dudes
Speaker 1: that was working a day, they never deal with. They
Speaker 1: only need the dudes that was coming to pick them up.
Speaker 1: Had business and wrope chains on and on. So it
Speaker 1: was an education taking place. Then it's like listen, man,
Speaker 1: if you don't get that, you're not getting hurt. And
Speaker 1: if and if and if you're not cool. You ain't
Speaker 1: got shipped coming in the ghetto. The ghetto was based
Speaker 1: off for acceptance and the only way you're gonna get accepted.
Speaker 1: And if you've got things, if you ain't got things
Speaker 1: you've done, you ain't got a chance out here. And
Speaker 1: it goes all the way to now we're talking about
Speaker 1: we're talking about the eighties for me when I was
Speaker 1: a kid, but it's like even up to now, you've
Speaker 1: got grown answer delts. Just like they you got people
Speaker 1: that's in their thirties and forties chasing acceptings out here
Speaker 1: on social media. So it's like that was the education
Speaker 1: that was being put down in the streets. And uh,
Speaker 1: a woman that was like an eye of myne named Jill.
Speaker 1: She was a I'm talking about the prostitute, right, And
Speaker 1: we used to always sit there. She used to talk
Speaker 1: to me all the time. And the only reasons she
Speaker 1: became like my street aunt because I was bad. I
Speaker 1: used always throw rocks and cars. I'll be custom, you've
Speaker 1: been something, I think all that crazy ship. So she
Speaker 1: was I was like nine, so she was like clear
Speaker 1: she was and she told me, she was like you're
Speaker 1: gonna You're gonna be in trouble and they're gonna tell
Speaker 1: on you. I just like why, because she's like, you're
Speaker 1: always doing something they're not. They just around, they run
Speaker 1: with you, but they don't. You're the one I always
Speaker 1: see they throwing rocks and doing dumbs and custom pep uh.
Speaker 1: So she used to sit me down. And the way
Speaker 1: she got me to really sit down and listen, she
Speaker 1: bought me a cheese steak. She's like, you want some meat. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she brought me to cheese. So I sit there and
Speaker 1: be talking to her, and sometimes she would get to
Speaker 1: go away and be and white boy. Somebody pull up
Speaker 1: one of doctors from getting the card, come back whatever.
Speaker 1: But she told me something. She said, uh, she said,
Speaker 1: we could troll this whole thing out here women. I said,
Speaker 1: why you said that? She said, everything y'all do is
Speaker 1: about us, you mean? And when I grew up there
Speaker 1: understand that. And I was talking to so. I was
Speaker 1: talking to some sisters in the salon not too long ago,
Speaker 1: and he was just talking about some yeah because my son.
Speaker 1: I don't want my son to do this. I don't
Speaker 1: want this to do this, I said, y'all, I said,
Speaker 1: that's up to y'all. When y'all do when y'all have
Speaker 1: a meeting, the women have a meeting in the community.
Speaker 1: And I'm not putting the sole in y'all, but I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you, when y'all have a meeting in the
Speaker 1: community and y'all really start talking to understand the power
Speaker 1: that y'all have, then y'all, then things could change in
Speaker 1: the hood. She said, what you mean, She said, you
Speaker 1: don't want your son to grow up and be a
Speaker 1: street nigga, real nigg or whatever these things. But the
Speaker 1: dudes you talk to is getting money niggers. M you
Speaker 1: don't want, you don't want your your son is going
Speaker 1: to do this to the third but you're not You're
Speaker 1: not talking. Dude, you talked to a nigger at work
Speaker 1: at the uh Verazing. You don't talk to nobody at
Speaker 1: work at the the the water company ever, dude ain't fly.
Speaker 1: So it's this thing that's going on, this communication, this
Speaker 1: non verbal communication that's going on because in our community,
Speaker 1: we first listen with our eyes, then we listen with
Speaker 1: our ears. So we're seeing this ship go down. And
Speaker 1: even now when you look on Instagram, if you're if
Speaker 1: you're a young kid right now, you're going on Instagram
Speaker 1: and you see all these women and what's name that
Speaker 1: look beautiful. They got the bodies got what's name. They're
Speaker 1: not fucking with you don't only see them with balls
Speaker 1: as rappers. Are got a bunch of chains on the ship.
Speaker 1: So it's an education and that what was going on
Speaker 1: back then. And I was like, funk that, I gotta
Speaker 1: give me some money. I gotta go ahead, Rob and
Speaker 1: still give me some. I gotta put this sogo to
Speaker 1: tiny and feel like sweatsuits on the ship. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I did. Fuck. Listen, let me tell you something I
Speaker 1: was so. I was so instant tuitional lies to it
Speaker 1: that when I got locked up and I went to
Speaker 1: the courts, I immediately told my public defender or quarter
Speaker 1: point hold on, we're not I told him before we're gon,
Speaker 1: We're not going in there arguing, and none of that
Speaker 1: should get me a deal right now on the course,
Speaker 1: so I can get the funk back out here, because
Speaker 1: I know they got me doing whatever that ship is.
Speaker 1: People are gonna come to court on me, whatever it
Speaker 1: might be, the police and all that ship. So listen,
Speaker 1: that was my whole thing. I was listening. I'm taking
Speaker 1: I'm pleading guilty. I'm not even dealing with this ship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I always used to plead guilty. I wasn't going to understand.
Speaker 1: I first got of locked up at eleven. I got
Speaker 1: locked up June thirty of nineteen ninety. I was eleven,
Speaker 1: and I got locked the next Saturday, and and then
Speaker 1: by September nineteen night they sent me away for a year.
Speaker 1: I did a year in the juven of facility, came
Speaker 1: on Coult. Another case went back for another year, came
Speaker 1: on Coult, another case went back. I spent five years
Speaker 1: and then out the juvenile system. And it was like,
Speaker 1: you know, you get to a point where it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I can sit there and do a bit. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go up there and get a home pass. When I
Speaker 1: get on the home pass, do what I ever gotta do.
Speaker 1: So it was just I normalized that ship because when
Speaker 1: I was young, I've seen love what I thought was love.
Speaker 1: And the love that I've seen was when I used
Speaker 1: to see the old heads from my neighborhood come on
Speaker 1: from prison and just like just like paid it for
Speaker 1: the movie, remember when paid before, but they come old
Speaker 1: he got he right there. Maybe then they got to
Speaker 1: change he at the mind I'm like, oh, that's love.
Speaker 1: So so Jim, so Jill was just a part of
Speaker 1: the part of your story and the journey. That's a
Speaker 1: part of being loved. So I became institutionalized the Weirds
Speaker 1: though that ship didn't even matter to me. It was like,
Speaker 1: all right, fuck it, Oh, I gotta go to a
Speaker 1: blue another bit. All right, I know we already know
Speaker 1: what type of time they're gonna give me. They I
Speaker 1: didn't already went to these four juvene I was at least,
Speaker 1: so now they're gonna send me to this one just
Speaker 1: then the third and I get in there. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: you know, we think we need to go to get
Speaker 1: him to the programs he went to before. He didn't
Speaker 1: go to. He need to go to this program. I
Speaker 1: used to tell the law's with the second because I
Speaker 1: was already in the system so much. You know, I
Speaker 1: think that they're getting there. Okay, well we don't even
Speaker 1: have to do nothing today. He played guilty, and if
Speaker 1: the public defendant didn't do what you need, I'm staying
Speaker 1: right up to the court. Yeah, and I'm guilty. I'm
Speaker 1: guilty because I was like, it was like, what are
Speaker 1: you doing? Man? I know I'm going down because I
Speaker 1: already got a jacket. I'm going down. So my whole thing,
Speaker 1: like y'all, I don't want to waste the taxpayers money.
Speaker 1: You know. I'm just I call it reaction. I got.
Speaker 1: I caught a street relapse. Please, So I want to
Speaker 1: ask you this. I want to ask you this, Well,
Speaker 1: when did your mind state change? Like? What? What? Because
Speaker 1: you seem like this was you had accepted it. This
Speaker 1: is what I am. I'm locked up and do my time.
Speaker 1: What did it take? At what point did your mind
Speaker 1: frame change? Listen? When I was in the penitentiary, right,
Speaker 1: I woke up one day it was how to ship
Speaker 1: like that the new the Waltz was sweating in the
Speaker 1: cell and anybody in the yard. I go to the Saint,
Speaker 1: splash my face and ship and I connected with the
Speaker 1: conscious and I always had I was growing up in
Speaker 1: the ghet and I was always doing street ship. But
Speaker 1: I always had a consciousness and I would always had
Speaker 1: these conversations with self after I did the dumb ship,
Speaker 1: like yo, man, we had to pistol whip so and
Speaker 1: so we had to do so and so we had
Speaker 1: I was always so the conscious. When I was in
Speaker 1: the cell, woke up I said, yo, man, I was
Speaker 1: living a whole fucking life that that really wasn't me. Man,
Speaker 1: I had out of shots. I could have done other ship.
Speaker 1: I was smarter than this. So you you you accepted.
Speaker 1: I accepted the responsibility like yo, I ain't never my
Speaker 1: individualism because I wanted to be a part of the
Speaker 1: vibe in the scene out here. So the whole time,
Speaker 1: just like you, you know, you ain't no dumb motherfucker.
Speaker 1: You were smart. You said to yourself, like certain the
Speaker 1: ship that you've done, You're like, damn, that was I
Speaker 1: was above that. But it was environmental reaction. And a
Speaker 1: lot of times we don't understand that our environment it
Speaker 1: dictate the pace of where we're going at man. And
Speaker 1: that's how I got into the street game because the
Speaker 1: environment told me this was cool, like you gotta do
Speaker 1: this in order to be accepted. So but when I
Speaker 1: was in that cell and I woke up, I said,
Speaker 1: oh man, I'm gonna sell. I'm in fucking jail for
Speaker 1: for being somebody that I'm not a hundred percent meaning
Speaker 1: I'm in jail. And I got this conscious and I
Speaker 1: always had this conscious like I'm doing some ship that
Speaker 1: wasn't crazy. We don't have to do that while we
Speaker 1: do this this that. So I'm like, yo, man, what
Speaker 1: the funk I got? And then I started bracing my
Speaker 1: individualism and I said, yo, I gotta tap into who
Speaker 1: the funk I am? I got? Because I looked up
Speaker 1: and I'm walking to penitentiary. I'm in new Yard. I'm
Speaker 1: you know, old hit over here and been here for
Speaker 1: thirty years, over head over here, and been here for
Speaker 1: twenty years, over height over here and been here for
Speaker 1: fifty years. I'm like, oh no, that's just just my route.
Speaker 1: If I keep coming back, I'm done. I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: career criminal status and I'm finished the funk off. But
Speaker 1: I'm like I always was to dude and my crew.
Speaker 1: That was funny, that was outgoing, and I always knew
Speaker 1: a bunch of people because I was always in juvenificilities
Speaker 1: and when I come out, it was people from all
Speaker 1: different part of the city. They used to be in
Speaker 1: this place for me, and I was a dude that
Speaker 1: and we all together. I was a dude that would
Speaker 1: talk to other people from other neighborhoods. I always was
Speaker 1: an outgoing person with dudes like no while just think,
Speaker 1: you know, know funk out of here and I know
Speaker 1: dudeys and jail together. I was always that dude. Even
Speaker 1: on the street you wanted something, I didn't. I wasn't
Speaker 1: no drug that I was. I was a Robbert. So
Speaker 1: if you wanted something, it was like, oh yeah, my man,
Speaker 1: he got the weed, or you need some weed. I
Speaker 1: gotta connect, you need some dope, I gotta connect. I
Speaker 1: will always plug people and I will always connect people together.
Speaker 1: I was out going first. I never was an angry person.
Speaker 1: I wasn't mad at nobody. That wasn't a hater. I
Speaker 1: just want to do that. Was young, out here living life,
Speaker 1: and I was always funny. I was always talking ship.
Speaker 1: I was always a talker. So let me let me
Speaker 1: ask you this question. Right listening to what you're saying,
Speaker 1: it sounds like there was an accountability mission that you
Speaker 1: went on even from the beginning, like you said, very young,
Speaker 1: you were like, I committed the crime, let me do
Speaker 1: my time. So you were conscious of the fact that
Speaker 1: you had to be held accountable for your actions. And
Speaker 1: then you had the light switch go on that we're
Speaker 1: always talking about. We're always trying to figure out when
Speaker 1: does the light switch go off that people are able
Speaker 1: to go from being sort of a minister society to
Speaker 1: actually doing what's right. Those things happen. Then you came
Speaker 1: home and began to help other individuals. And I mean,
Speaker 1: I know for sure, I send my son, especially when
Speaker 1: I'm having a hard time communicating with him, I send
Speaker 1: him your videos. I sent him of course my song's
Speaker 1: videos trade the true different ones, so that he could
Speaker 1: get some knowledge from from you guys. So you began
Speaker 1: to help transform other lives. Now you're in another process
Speaker 1: of trying to get off of parole right and and
Speaker 1: now I think I'm understanding that they want you to
Speaker 1: be on parole to your sixty eight years old. You're
Speaker 1: two thousand forty eight, and it's like, uh, without a doubt,
Speaker 1: that's gonna happen. I'm in the process of that ship.
Speaker 1: Now I've been this year, ready to get going to school.
Speaker 1: It's going to happen. It was just that, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, This nineteen and a half to two
Speaker 1: years together with two different sentences ran together because of Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: I don't know how New York is, but in Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: you got a minimum in a maxim if they give
Speaker 1: you a ten of twenty That means you gotta do
Speaker 1: tending and tim more out. That's what I'm saying. You
Speaker 1: told twenty years, but you gotta do tending and walked off,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean. So it was like I just
Speaker 1: was sitting back like damn, that'sh it crazy. And it
Speaker 1: was like I was just on some real ship a
Speaker 1: couple of people that I know, a couple of a
Speaker 1: couple of a couple of my elders. I was out
Speaker 1: here just living so much. They was like, yoh funk
Speaker 1: that we what what? When I told him, they couldn't
Speaker 1: believe it. That's like you you're throwing a ready because
Speaker 1: some people thought I didn't even think I was on
Speaker 1: parad the way I moved. I'm so fluid. I ain't.
Speaker 1: I ain't complaining. I'm just out here living my life
Speaker 1: because I'm like, man, I gotta live right now. I ain't.
Speaker 1: I was in jail all the time because I'm always
Speaker 1: living like this. I'm forty one beforety two this year.
Speaker 1: I'm like, ship, uh, there's a possibility that fifty years,
Speaker 1: that fifty years, there's a fifty of my life is
Speaker 1: already going maybe sixty. I don't. I can't. I don't know.
Speaker 1: So I gotta max this ship out and I gotta
Speaker 1: live a day like it's my last. So I'm just living.
Speaker 1: And then I get any conversation with a couple of
Speaker 1: guys that's in you know, community, the positions, the political
Speaker 1: positions in our sitting there, like what I tell me,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna maybe like oh the whole and there was
Speaker 1: day was more mad and I was I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm alway. And then they had to see me that
Speaker 1: like no while, because I'm just like it might have
Speaker 1: been a part of me from yesterday's that was like,
Speaker 1: I'm just I ain't worry about it because I ain't
Speaker 1: doing ship. But it's the possibility of it. Ain't gotta
Speaker 1: be you wilder. You gotta have a dickcade paroles that
Speaker 1: pulled the trigger on you and get you back and
Speaker 1: the joint for no reason because they jealous of your success,
Speaker 1: damn you right, And then they said, okay, let's and
Speaker 1: then the petition went up. You know already it's only
Speaker 1: been up probably like not even a week, hundred fifty
Speaker 1: thousand signatures. But other people in the other places that's
Speaker 1: politicians is on to day. So it's ready to happen.
Speaker 1: But it's like you know, um. One thing I was
Speaker 1: gonna say was this one of the reasons that I
Speaker 1: thought about my when I was young, I had people
Speaker 1: that was in my life, Grandmama, different people, owed, some
Speaker 1: older guys in the community that was always trying to
Speaker 1: give me right. But one thing that that that the
Speaker 1: reason they couldn't. They couldn't They couldn't get into me
Speaker 1: my mind because they was outnumbered. But there was too
Speaker 1: many people in the street. So I said, Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna bring I'm gonna grab your attention on social media.
Speaker 1: And what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna show you all
Speaker 1: some ship that y'all never seen. I'm gonna make it
Speaker 1: popular to do right. And you still could be cool,
Speaker 1: you still could be thorough. Um, you still could be righteous.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna show you all a different lane of
Speaker 1: what right is. And And that was my whole mission
Speaker 1: on social was to show these dudes, damn look at
Speaker 1: while up all right? Not just as Wildow telling me this,
Speaker 1: you know, this cast too much to be a criminal.
Speaker 1: He breaking it down, his journey, he telling us the stories,
Speaker 1: he shared it with us. He's making his laugh and
Speaker 1: he's given it to us. But shit, he's saying, gotta
Speaker 1: be right because the dudes that I respect, which is
Speaker 1: these big rappers respect wild I see him. I said,
Speaker 1: So that's how you break it down to a young cat,
Speaker 1: because when when when you're a young dude and you
Speaker 1: sitting at your house and your mother or something, they
Speaker 1: like this all day only there they're on YouTube all day,
Speaker 1: and I know that I got a battle with some
Speaker 1: some rap video. They might see what a dude got
Speaker 1: a thousand guns in that motherfucker. They got all these
Speaker 1: views and people and kids saying he cool. I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm cool. I'm gonna sure you what cool is? I'm cool?
Speaker 1: Dah mean? And you get in a position where it's
Speaker 1: though I hadn't been able to do things since I've
Speaker 1: been home to show y'all. Not just being righteous is cool,
Speaker 1: Not just doing right is cool. I'm able to. I
Speaker 1: made a shipload of money off of being right outside
Speaker 1: establishing the infrastructure within the podcast space and advertisement and
Speaker 1: speaking engagement and books, and so it's like, bro, like okay,
Speaker 1: Like I told my one young boy, yeah, man, but
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be you know, I'm a real nick
Speaker 1: I said, I said listen, And I didn't want to
Speaker 1: do it, but I had to do it to him.
Speaker 1: I said, listen, young as I know your father, you
Speaker 1: know me. I noticed in the third you know you're
Speaker 1: you're real in the street. You're doing your thing. It's
Speaker 1: done through, but all your real niggas is broke. You
Speaker 1: look homie, I said, you're living with a woman. Dog.
Speaker 1: I take care of women and my family. You're living
Speaker 1: with a woman. Bro. I I'll take care of ship.
Speaker 1: People called, I said, bro, I wear Dada sweatpants all
Speaker 1: the time. I said, bro, I'm dying for somebody from
Speaker 1: from my family, grandmam and son call me and say
Speaker 1: they need something. I'm done saying I may may anybody
Speaker 1: what you need? What right here here go. I'll be
Speaker 1: begging for them to beg me to say something to me.
Speaker 1: I'll be done because I don't do it for me.
Speaker 1: I'm not doing it to go and buy by Lamborghinis
Speaker 1: and I get all, I said, great credit school money.
Speaker 1: It's not I do this for y'all. I'm put my
Speaker 1: dad swet who's on my hoodie on anything. I'm gonna mission.
Speaker 1: And I want to say that's real because when we
Speaker 1: were we ran into Philly, you know, we was in
Speaker 1: Philly doing the State of Emergency tour. And while we
Speaker 1: was we met him at um Philly Freeway's son's funeral
Speaker 1: and he just ran up on us and gave us
Speaker 1: a thousand dollars about food. Good. No, you ain't gonna
Speaker 1: paid for no food while you're here. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. It's just genuine love, just real, you know.
Speaker 1: And it was just love, man. So I just want
Speaker 1: to say thank you that my thing is like this, Bro,
Speaker 1: I can't take this money with me. I may I
Speaker 1: put myself in a position to be able to have
Speaker 1: to be able to create, like I say, the movies
Speaker 1: I make the day, Gonna secure the futures of the
Speaker 1: family members I won't be living to meet. That structure
Speaker 1: is already put in place, and I continue to add
Speaker 1: value to that. So if I expire, they're gonna be.
Speaker 1: But it's about like this, And I don't think people
Speaker 1: get this. You've got all these people in place that's
Speaker 1: making money, have it wherever, Athletes, entertainment don't know nobody,
Speaker 1: oh nobody, nothing. But when you got people that's out
Speaker 1: here that's fighting for your freedom, that's fighting for the
Speaker 1: people that the world forgot about. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Why not try to show them some type of support
Speaker 1: in anyway it ain't got and I'll be telling people
Speaker 1: it could be a repost, it could be a donation. Bro. Bro,
Speaker 1: if you you'll be to share. If you ain't got
Speaker 1: that much money to get five hours, don't need something
Speaker 1: because you got people that might get cute out here. Motherfucker. Listen.
Speaker 1: See this is what people don't understand. And I'm not
Speaker 1: saying this in a bad way. It's a it's motherfucker's
Speaker 1: out there that will kill y'all because you're pushing and
Speaker 1: you're trying to push the agender for us to have
Speaker 1: a better life out here. It's my like life fences
Speaker 1: they salute, We salute the soldiers when they're going to
Speaker 1: fight for American freedom. Are we can't salute black people
Speaker 1: that's trying to fight for our freedom and fight for
Speaker 1: us like, like, listen, it's two thousand and one, you
Speaker 1: mean it's to me, we gotta be out here arguing still, Yeah,
Speaker 1: for you treat human beings like human beings, bro, man,
Speaker 1: we can sit it all. We need you, We need
Speaker 1: you we love you. Follow. I need to know the petition.
Speaker 1: How do people go? So I know you said you
Speaker 1: got the link. Make my bio go seven follow. We're
Speaker 1: going to make sure that folks can watch. Right now,
Speaker 1: you gotta go watch him and gillies Man dollars worth
Speaker 1: the game. Shout out to my brother. You gotta go
Speaker 1: see where's Willow where he interviews all of the artists
Speaker 1: like Willow is outside you if you just gotta, you
Speaker 1: gotta go watch Willows page. Every day he's gonna push
Speaker 1: up to the rain, he and the snow. Today he
Speaker 1: had his little his little two step he was doing.
Speaker 1: But I want to make sure that we have the
Speaker 1: two podcasts come together Street Politicians and your podcasts also,
Speaker 1: so I could argue with Gilly because you know me
Speaker 1: and Gilly some days. But I love Guilly though, but
Speaker 1: I'll be mad. He's still running around trying to tell
Speaker 1: people beat me in that battle. So we definitely gotta
Speaker 1: we gotta we gotta fix that. We gotta fix that.
Speaker 1: We love you so much. You keep doing your work
Speaker 1: and stay strong, hit you up, be safe. I can
Speaker 1: definitely talk to Willow all day. I do every time
Speaker 1: we're on the phone. For an hour or two hours,
Speaker 1: you know, because we have so much in common. We
Speaker 1: have the same like compass morally, like we want the
Speaker 1: same things. And it's hard to find people that's that's driven,
Speaker 1: that's find your purpose. Like he's just so comfortable in him.
Speaker 1: Authenticity is what it is, man, So shut up to
Speaker 1: your authenticity. Man, Now, that's what it is. I don't
Speaker 1: need a new word. Somebody else needs a new world.
Speaker 1: I got my My word is authentic. I'm not mad
Speaker 1: at that. But while he's a good dude, um, And
Speaker 1: I think, you know, again black history, like all of
Speaker 1: us take different routes to get to our purpose, and
Speaker 1: sometimes we have to go through real hard things, like
Speaker 1: real hard ship, right, Like you know, he did some
Speaker 1: hard time. He went through a lot, and he probably,
Speaker 1: as he said, he probably hurt people, hurt his family.
Speaker 1: But now he's a man in his family who's able
Speaker 1: to take care of folks, and he's changing the lives
Speaker 1: of so many others. And I think that's what matters.
Speaker 1: And we need to reward those who figure it out
Speaker 1: and get it right. They say the struggle has created
Speaker 1: more leaders and people of success than privilege has ever
Speaker 1: And you know, and that brings us to our change
Speaker 1: maker spotlight, my favorite, you know, one of one of
Speaker 1: a friend, friend of the family, friend of the rule.
Speaker 1: People are gonna start saying that we favor our friends
Speaker 1: on this, and we do, we do, we do. You know,
Speaker 1: that's why we gotta show. We gotta show so we
Speaker 1: can bring our friends like that's what everybody else do.
Speaker 1: Black people gotta be attentional about helping their friends and
Speaker 1: their families because anybody else is doing that. So I
Speaker 1: proudly say that another one of our friends that we
Speaker 1: want to bring the change maker spotlight. You know a
Speaker 1: brother who I've met in the struggle, you know, on
Speaker 1: the grounds grassroots. You know whose father he actually begin
Speaker 1: being an advocate and the activists because his father has
Speaker 1: been incarcerated for over thirty or two years at this point.
Speaker 1: Um he is. He works with them children of incarcerated parents.
Speaker 1: He's one of the champions behind that. He's done so
Speaker 1: much work in the communities to end mass incarceration. A
Speaker 1: brother that I call a friend, you know, he's definitely
Speaker 1: a very strong influence in the community. Brother Tony Lewis Jr.
Speaker 1: I don't thank thank you so much for joining street politicians,
Speaker 1: And you know, I was gonna say, in in light
Speaker 1: of the whole conversation around friends, it's that we keep
Speaker 1: good company and most of the people that we work
Speaker 1: with our folks who are really on the ground. And
Speaker 1: if you go to d C and you don't hear
Speaker 1: about Tony Lewis, if you say you're going to d
Speaker 1: C to do good work, grassroots work, and you don't
Speaker 1: hear about Tony Lewis, you haven't heard about anybody, because, um,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody is saying your name. People are always
Speaker 1: praising your work. And I'm particularly always just so um
Speaker 1: when I'm in your presence. The level of humbleness that
Speaker 1: you show, um but yet still being a giant is amazing.
Speaker 1: And so I'm glad to have you with us today
Speaker 1: as our change maker. This is my favorite segment where
Speaker 1: we get to highlight people I've worked with for a
Speaker 1: long time. But I know that even though we do
Speaker 1: have moments that are you know, really good, and we
Speaker 1: smile and we laugh and and we have positive moments,
Speaker 1: still when your father is incarcerated and I've watched the
Speaker 1: journey on your social media where you take pictures with him,
Speaker 1: and you know, watch you guys grow up together if
Speaker 1: you will, you know, I know that that's still a
Speaker 1: burden that's on you. And so please tell us. I mean,
Speaker 1: first of all, you don't even have to start there.
Speaker 1: You can start wherever you want. Just tell us what's
Speaker 1: going on, what's the news, and also what is you know,
Speaker 1: how can we help you in your quest to get
Speaker 1: your father free as well? First, I thank you for
Speaker 1: having me. I really appreciate that my both of you guys.
Speaker 1: Salute to all that you do for us, right um
Speaker 1: uh and and and I'm very humble by just being
Speaker 1: able to be in your friend circle, um and to
Speaker 1: you know, collaborate with you guys. In the times that
Speaker 1: I've been able to do that, um, you know, I
Speaker 1: I've continued to fight, um for economic stability for black
Speaker 1: people and in my city, um, you know, violence interruption,
Speaker 1: he's of the homicide and DC of black people, of
Speaker 1: the people that are incosperated to black people. Uh. So
Speaker 1: my fight against master in consperation and for children when
Speaker 1: incosperrated parents. It's not just about my personal uh in
Speaker 1: action with those topics, but more my my city as
Speaker 1: a whole and black people from my city. Uh. And
Speaker 1: so as you guys alluded to. You know, I've been
Speaker 1: in this fight with my dad for thirty two years.
Speaker 1: I was born on nine years old when he went away.
Speaker 1: I'll be forty one in May, right, Um. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, particularly with this administration, Uh, the president that
Speaker 1: was so heavy handed in the Crime Bill, which you know,
Speaker 1: UH did the crack this versus powder cocaine disparity hundred
Speaker 1: and one disparity that really ran up massive consperration in
Speaker 1: the on the federal side. U States also followed that,
Speaker 1: so it had a national impact. And then obviously people
Speaker 1: hear more about the ninety four Crime Bill, which we
Speaker 1: know was supposed to target violence. Uh, it did things
Speaker 1: like put a lot of money and intervention. Uh in prevention. Uh,
Speaker 1: it put some bands on the salt weapons, but also
Speaker 1: put like nine point seven billion dollars into prisons. Uh.
Speaker 1: It also militarized the police departments. So I think President
Speaker 1: Body has personal interests in writing wrongs that he played
Speaker 1: such a parton during this campaign. He may mention that
Speaker 1: they made their wrong decisions right. Uh. And so a
Speaker 1: lot of the reforms that we've seen in the last
Speaker 1: couple of years under the Obama administration and under the
Speaker 1: Trump administration with the First Step ACTUH really stopped at
Speaker 1: you know, a point of being able to do what
Speaker 1: it really should have done, and even in the good steps,
Speaker 1: and then it gave a lot of judicial discrestion. And
Speaker 1: so it's a lot of people that um should be
Speaker 1: eligible for relief, um, but the judge can still say no.
Speaker 1: And we need to rectify that. And so I hope
Speaker 1: that this administration in the first hundred days can use
Speaker 1: the clinency power that the President has to reunite families
Speaker 1: all across the United States, particularly black and brown families
Speaker 1: that we know I disproportionately represent in the in the
Speaker 1: federal prison. Syst your father has been incarcerated for thirty
Speaker 1: two years, Yeah, sir, And what kind of crime does
Speaker 1: he have? A violent has a non valient drug offense,
Speaker 1: his role as a leader and in a drug conspiracy
Speaker 1: here in d c Um that happened he went to
Speaker 1: jail April fifteen, nineteen eighty nine. Um. My my position
Speaker 1: has never been in my father was innocent, My father
Speaker 1: was not in his right, but that those Drake Coney
Speaker 1: and since and my father got sentenced today is no
Speaker 1: way he gets life without grow So that's his sentence, right,
Speaker 1: that's a slow destincy. If nothing changes, he will die
Speaker 1: in prison. UM, and and and and sort of the
Speaker 1: on top of that, it was like twenty nine people
Speaker 1: in their case and everybody's home except for his co defendant,
Speaker 1: his partner, UM, who is in with his protection. So
Speaker 1: my father has not got any type of relief UM
Speaker 1: during his thirty two years. My saw y'all and Tomika
Speaker 1: y'all know the work that I do in the city.
Speaker 1: My father has, you know, not only advised me throughout
Speaker 1: my life becoming the man that I am and steer
Speaker 1: me away from the street, but more importantly, we've we've
Speaker 1: collaborated to help thousands of you know, young men and
Speaker 1: women UM, and then particularly people that are inconsperrated with him.
Speaker 1: You know, I helped them when they returned to the
Speaker 1: community to stabilize good jobs, etcetera, etcetera, And we're helping
Speaker 1: their children. UM. I've actually went to the prison and
Speaker 1: filmed a p s A with my father. I don't
Speaker 1: think there's anybody there in the country they can say
Speaker 1: they went into a federal prison and shout at p
Speaker 1: s A to steer young people away from from taking
Speaker 1: you know, steps in the path that he took. Um,
Speaker 1: he's done a lot of redemptive and restorative acts around
Speaker 1: you know g d s and or helping other inmates
Speaker 1: with g DS and making positive choices, and the list
Speaker 1: just goes on and on. He's had like one shot
Speaker 1: since he's been incosperrated. Right, he's been a model prisoner
Speaker 1: all the things. He's been a leader, he's been somebody
Speaker 1: that the administration leans on to bring peace when and
Speaker 1: has issues at the prison. You know. Uh, So there's
Speaker 1: been a lot of things that he's done to make
Speaker 1: amends for his decision. And my father had never been
Speaker 1: the prison prior to. Right he walked into jail at
Speaker 1: twenty six years old. Right, he'll be fifty nine in October.
Speaker 1: And we've seen a lot of people that's been in
Speaker 1: a long time get compassionate release. My father is too
Speaker 1: young and too healthy, you know. According right to he's
Speaker 1: in f CR Cumberland, which is in Maryland. The first
Speaker 1: fourteen years he was in Long Park, California, and uh
Speaker 1: for the last nineteen he's been in in in Cumberland,
Speaker 1: which is in Maryland, which is a two hour drive
Speaker 1: from here, which is UH you know, that's that's a
Speaker 1: good thing. But you know, because of coronavirus, we haven't
Speaker 1: seen him in like a year, and now he's a
Speaker 1: grandfather to not to mention, you know, I think that's girl. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. And you know the traumatic part about death
Speaker 1: for me is, you know, in order for that relationship,
Speaker 1: I gotta take them. That was my biggest fear. I
Speaker 1: never wanted to take them inside of prison, but I
Speaker 1: had to. And so I'm watching me all over again, right,
Speaker 1: I'm having to answer the questions from my babies that
Speaker 1: I asked my mother, my grandmother when I was coming up,
Speaker 1: you know, when when my father, when Daddy coming home.
Speaker 1: And then they're asking me when Pap Pap coming home? Right, um,
Speaker 1: and and and so that's something I gotta go through
Speaker 1: and deal with. That's a that's just another layer to this, uh,
Speaker 1: this gift that keeps giving in the worst way. Yeah. Man,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's so you know, it's so contradictory to
Speaker 1: what prison is supposed to be. You know, you know,
Speaker 1: outside of murder and you know, rape and and those
Speaker 1: type of crimes, it's supposed to be about rehabilitation. Even then,
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be and then and those and and
Speaker 1: then even those people, they have people who commit those
Speaker 1: acts that actually come home. Yeah, and I believe in
Speaker 1: redemption right in my work, right, but I do more
Speaker 1: than any things helped me. And when returning from the conspiration,
Speaker 1: I've helped thousands of people over my career, right, twenty
Speaker 1: years I've been in this and I've set across from
Speaker 1: child molesters, rapist murderers, right, consistently consistent freedom, right. That's
Speaker 1: that I'm trying to help, not really offended. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to help to stabilize and you know, uh, do the
Speaker 1: right thing. My father, I'm saying, my father can't get
Speaker 1: a chance, you know. So I don't make judgment on
Speaker 1: what people they paid their debt. And that's the thing
Speaker 1: like when we talk even with this administration that I've
Speaker 1: heard a lot of talk about in the death penalty, right,
Speaker 1: but how do you what do you do about life
Speaker 1: without parole? What can a person selling knock cottage. We're
Speaker 1: not taking away from the from the impact that had
Speaker 1: in our community, but when you think about that from
Speaker 1: the lands, if you lose your entire life, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the data has come out even about brain
Speaker 1: development that you know, not until twenty five. You know,
Speaker 1: my father was jail at twenty six going on twenty seven.
Speaker 1: But my point is his career as a drug dealers
Speaker 1: started in his youth, right and and and he's paid
Speaker 1: his death and and it's not just about him, but
Speaker 1: it's many thousands men in the federal prisoning system that
Speaker 1: fall into that same exact category. They went to prison young,
Speaker 1: they've paid their debt, and they should be giving another opportunity. Oh,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, you mentioned um that he's too healthy,
Speaker 1: young and healthy and and and I know you smiled
Speaker 1: when you said it, but I'm wondering if that really
Speaker 1: has something to do with him being held. Do you
Speaker 1: find that people who are more senior and that are
Speaker 1: you don't have different ailments or what have you? That
Speaker 1: the system just in this moment, yes, when when I'm
Speaker 1: talking about during the pandemic, uh yeah, during COVID, you know,
Speaker 1: uh BOP has taken steps to grant compassion released to
Speaker 1: certain inmates, and that's sort of they wanted to get
Speaker 1: the elderly, the people that the most at risk, of
Speaker 1: people that have pre existent conditions, and so UM at
Speaker 1: least get people on home confinement. Uh. And some people
Speaker 1: just got compassionate release, and there's a lot of people
Speaker 1: who should have been. Really he's honestly, but this was
Speaker 1: an opportunity and I'm I'm and I'm happy to see that, right,
Speaker 1: people like guy fishing, people like uh, my sister and
Speaker 1: me underweel her dad came home and that's a beautiful thing. Um,
Speaker 1: they were reunited with their families. And really these are
Speaker 1: the type of things. Yeah. Yeah, she's like an activist, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: she's we got us now. Yeah, it's amazing, it's amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so she she her her pops came home, um, and
Speaker 1: and there's things like that. But when without compassionate release,
Speaker 1: those men had, you know, life without parole. You gotta
Speaker 1: really think about that. What is how is that even
Speaker 1: a sentence for somebody that did not you know, ain't
Speaker 1: convicted of you know, uh, multiple homicide, right like you
Speaker 1: know so so and you spoke about that. Uh my son,
Speaker 1: it's you mentioned too about that. We're talking about rehabilitation
Speaker 1: and this country has not. It's become completely pune there
Speaker 1: and even I mentioned the First Step Act, one of
Speaker 1: the things that was supposed to actually expand vocational educational
Speaker 1: development throughout the federal prison system, and that has not happened.
Speaker 1: And I hope that this administration can also uh work
Speaker 1: on that. That's super vital because even when people return
Speaker 1: to the community, they're going through doing all this time,
Speaker 1: and they're coming out of these prisons with with with
Speaker 1: without skill sets that's gonna allow them to be competitive
Speaker 1: and and you know, that's that's tragic. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, that's that's a travesty. Uh. And so the
Speaker 1: collateral damage that the six Bill did, the ninety four
Speaker 1: bill d mandatory minimum sentence and um, the collateral damage
Speaker 1: that it's caused in our communities particularly right is really immeasurable,
Speaker 1: and it needs to be real steps towards repair. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, on one end is about releasing people, but
Speaker 1: on the other end is about changing the dynamics and
Speaker 1: creating uh culture of redemption for many women that have
Speaker 1: been previously consprated. So you know, for me just hearing
Speaker 1: this story, it's I hear these stories. Wait, we hear
Speaker 1: these stories way too much. Man. So what what is
Speaker 1: it that we can do, you know to try to
Speaker 1: um petition to help your father? Like, what is the steps.
Speaker 1: How do we follow you? What do you need us
Speaker 1: to contribute to, you know, to try to get your
Speaker 1: father home and so so first things first, you know,
Speaker 1: follow me on that on Instagram, Twitter at Mr Tony
Speaker 1: Lewis Jr. Mr Tony Lewis Jr. UM. The a c
Speaker 1: l U has a petition currently afford to push the
Speaker 1: president to use his clinacy powers and honestly not to
Speaker 1: wait until he's going out the door four years from now.
Speaker 1: We need this now, right, people been waiting too long.
Speaker 1: But on April ten, I'm doing a free Tony Lewis
Speaker 1: rally and the Black Lives Matter Plaza, which is essentially
Speaker 1: in front of the White House here in d C. UM.
Speaker 1: I want everybody to show up, and we also have
Speaker 1: the capacity for people to participate virtually. UM. But this
Speaker 1: rally is gonna be pushing this administration to write his wrongs, UM,
Speaker 1: to reunite families, and to to to really you know,
Speaker 1: set an example for also what states should do, because
Speaker 1: you know, in d C, you know my my my
Speaker 1: father's case and in d C we we we deal
Speaker 1: with the federal prison system. But this same type of
Speaker 1: action should be taken by governors across this country, right, uh,
Speaker 1: in terms of state inconserration. So I really hope this
Speaker 1: can morph into, um, a real push nationally, um for
Speaker 1: people that have been inconcerated, you know, over twenty thirty years,
Speaker 1: particularly for drug offenses, to be let out and then
Speaker 1: not be no long drawing out process. You have to
Speaker 1: go before all these judges like let the people go,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, they paid their debts and
Speaker 1: and I think President Obama in his last year of
Speaker 1: the eight years, uh second term, he was trying to
Speaker 1: what is it. What do y'all say, grant clemency, but
Speaker 1: it's pardoning? Is that the same? Yeah? Or combia computations
Speaker 1: or connusation, That's the word I was looking for. He
Speaker 1: was trying to commute the sentences of thousands. He was
Speaker 1: trying he actually did, but he was trying to He
Speaker 1: was trying to make retroactive law to actually free the
Speaker 1: people who were victims I mean, who were incarcerated for
Speaker 1: non violent and drug abuses. Right. He did, He started
Speaker 1: he started doing and he actually, um, he actually commuted
Speaker 1: the most sentences in history of any president. But what
Speaker 1: he was trying to do specifically was, as you said,
Speaker 1: focus on a particular category and then get people free
Speaker 1: who fit into that category and low level thing. Right,
Speaker 1: he was dealing with a Republican. He tried to present
Speaker 1: something that the other side of the hour support, right,
Speaker 1: and we running We run into that a lot, you know,
Speaker 1: And so he set up the clinicy piece. He ran
Speaker 1: it through the Justice department. You know what was problematic
Speaker 1: with that sometimes too, and some of the Justice Department
Speaker 1: higher ups they made their bones on cases like myad cases. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they were familiar, so like oh no, you know so,
Speaker 1: so so how do you classify who's worthy of redemption?
Speaker 1: You know? So so you say, okay, the king pain,
Speaker 1: he shouldn't get a break, but the guy who was
Speaker 1: quote unquote working for him should or the woman who
Speaker 1: was quote quote unquote working for him or her should
Speaker 1: get a break. And I think that was probably matter.
Speaker 1: That's why you left thousands of people who probably would qualify,
Speaker 1: who had done more time than the people who got released,
Speaker 1: still languaging in prison. And so that was a but
Speaker 1: that was a great start, right that Seed was planning.
Speaker 1: So now that's why it's time for this administration to
Speaker 1: come in. You know, look at what went wrong with
Speaker 1: that process and and also if if it's anything that
Speaker 1: we can pull away from the last administration, and I
Speaker 1: think it's important to say, is that how you exude
Speaker 1: power right, how you go alone and utilize your power.
Speaker 1: One of the learned that we learned that from the
Speaker 1: forty five and them we have we actually we have
Speaker 1: to wrap up. And I think Tony, what you're saying
Speaker 1: is a hundred percent true. That you know the way
Speaker 1: in which the past administration ran their operation. They knew
Speaker 1: who their audience was, um, they knew who their people were,
Speaker 1: and they were going to, as you said, be intentional
Speaker 1: about taking care of their own We're not suggesting that
Speaker 1: there be identical behavior, but certainly the courageousness to go
Speaker 1: in and say these people have been wrong, we have
Speaker 1: to right the wrongs, and there's enough accountability to go around.
Speaker 1: It's not just Joe Biden, it's also Kamala Harris. It's
Speaker 1: also a number of other individuals who are within the
Speaker 1: administration at this time. So I certainly a support what
Speaker 1: you're saying. And I think that while they're in the process,
Speaker 1: while they're feeling executive order is and they're signing everything
Speaker 1: up to Wazoo signed something that we're free our brothers
Speaker 1: and sisters who have been locked up far too long
Speaker 1: and have not gotten an opportunity to have a second
Speaker 1: chance at life. And certainly I have to say, which
Speaker 1: I support your father a hundred percent um, that there
Speaker 1: are many women, too, many women who are locked up
Speaker 1: because they were in a relationship with someone, uh, they
Speaker 1: had proximity to something, and because they weren't willing to
Speaker 1: either to you know, talk about it, or they just
Speaker 1: got caught up in the web and they're doing thirty
Speaker 1: forty years and that needs to change as well. Absolutely, absolutely, well,
Speaker 1: we appreciate you, brother man. We wish we could talk
Speaker 1: to you long, but we definitely need you to go.
Speaker 1: Follow Tony Lewis Jr. On Instagram follow sign the petition.
Speaker 1: Mr Tony Lewis Junior on Instagram signed a petition support
Speaker 1: this brother. You know, let's get your father freeman, and
Speaker 1: let's start the trend. Let's get your father free, and
Speaker 1: then let's start freeing all of those who have been
Speaker 1: in jail for the majority of life for non violent
Speaker 1: drug offenses. Yeah. Absolutely, I appreciate you both. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thanks Tony. We're gonna have you. Yes, keep doing the work. Baby,
Speaker 1: you know what else we gonna do? That's right? Free
Speaker 1: to guys, Free to guys. Where did free to guys
Speaker 1: come from? You gotta tell everyone. I mean, free to
Speaker 1: guys is a term that we all used, like when
Speaker 1: we want to get guys free. But we we intentionally
Speaker 1: used it in Louisville. You know, Louisville eight seven was
Speaker 1: the first you know, batch of individuals who they were.
Speaker 1: It was the first group of people, batch of individuals
Speaker 1: called a batch of individuals who participated in civil disobedience
Speaker 1: for Brianna Taylor. You know, no, no, they were the
Speaker 1: first group. You know, you have to be careful because
Speaker 1: Louisville people will watch us to say, other folks have
Speaker 1: been arrested, like four people I think. Okay. It was
Speaker 1: the first group that until freedom, that until freedom organized
Speaker 1: to be arrested for Brianna Taylor. And it was about
Speaker 1: twenty two males men and that you know, that um
Speaker 1: batch of individuals. And we that was we said to
Speaker 1: ourselves while we was in the cell. You know, we
Speaker 1: kept saying free to gods. So that was our that
Speaker 1: was our little slogan, free to guys. But you know,
Speaker 1: shout out to Tony Lewis Julian definitely. Man. I met
Speaker 1: the guy on the ground and like you said, he's
Speaker 1: a humble spirit, but he works hard. He's well respected
Speaker 1: in his community and UM and he handles businessman And
Speaker 1: it's crazy when you do the work he's been doing
Speaker 1: for over twenty years and you're able to support everybody
Speaker 1: and still sitting in jail for thirty over thirty two
Speaker 1: years for a non violent crime. So you know, let's
Speaker 1: support Tony Lewis Jr. And keep doing the work whether
Speaker 1: we see you. You know what, I don't get what
Speaker 1: don't you get today, sir? Just talking about inconceerration since
Speaker 1: we're focusing on incarceration. I don't get why people are encouraging,
Speaker 1: especially these young people to do things that are detrimental
Speaker 1: to their freedom in their survival. You know, we like
Speaker 1: you ever having this conversation. You know, over the last
Speaker 1: week there's been a situation with Meek Mills and somebody
Speaker 1: that I won't even speak about, you know, and you
Speaker 1: know his name, and he had with the guy and
Speaker 1: the guy jumps out with his camera, cursing and screaming
Speaker 1: with his security guards, pulling the stunt we call this
Speaker 1: day room. We call it dayroom in the hood. It's
Speaker 1: like day room. You know, when you you're pulling the stunt,
Speaker 1: you got your security, some of them are police officers
Speaker 1: and they're holding you back. But you're the one that
Speaker 1: initiating it. But you got your security holding you back
Speaker 1: while you screaming curse. And this man is coming out
Speaker 1: of club. You know, he's all just just got off
Speaker 1: of probation, as he's been on probation for eleven plus years,
Speaker 1: just was in jail for you know, about eighteen months,
Speaker 1: you know, spending doing a sentence. And now he comes
Speaker 1: home and you're trying to trick him off the streets,
Speaker 1: and people like, yo, you should have did this. You
Speaker 1: should have did this. I would have did this. I
Speaker 1: would have heard him boom boom. You gotta do this.
Speaker 1: And what I'm saying so you you're encouraging a millionaire.
Speaker 1: He just started own Reform, the organization that's getting people
Speaker 1: out of prison. You're encouraging this man to engage with
Speaker 1: somebody who's nothing more than a troll, who has already
Speaker 1: showed you he has no moral compass, no principle. He
Speaker 1: would do anything for a viral moment this is all
Speaker 1: he would do. You know, he's already showed you his
Speaker 1: willingness to cooperate with the police and put people in prison.
Speaker 1: You're encouraging this man to actually engage that person and
Speaker 1: forfeit his power in his position to somebody like that.
Speaker 1: And I don't understand the mind state of some of
Speaker 1: the people who would tell you these things. You know,
Speaker 1: there are people that you see that supposedly have followings
Speaker 1: and have some level of credibility and communities and respect,
Speaker 1: who are actually saying that this needs to happen or
Speaker 1: you need to do that now. I don't care what
Speaker 1: you got. You just throw it all away. I don't
Speaker 1: care if it's on his own. And I don't understand
Speaker 1: the mindster, because what you're doing is you're influencing these babies.
Speaker 1: These babies are paying attention to you. You know, these
Speaker 1: quote unquote O g s got kids watching them, and
Speaker 1: they're saying, yeah, it's I don't kid man, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: risk everything for that. If he says something to me
Speaker 1: he called me a name, you know, he gonna dictate
Speaker 1: my whole life. I will to throw it all away
Speaker 1: for that. You can't say nothing to me because when
Speaker 1: I see you's on site, don't care. The police, they
Speaker 1: don't care what's going on. I'm popping off and this
Speaker 1: is a mindster and I I've never been stupid, you know,
Speaker 1: And I feel like it's a crash Dumby mentality. Right.
Speaker 1: It's like you're just driving straight into the wall and
Speaker 1: you're saying, I don't care, I'm just gonna run into
Speaker 1: the wall. And I don't understand. I really just don't
Speaker 1: get it. I want somebody to try to make me
Speaker 1: understand how you actually contrive that thought. How do you
Speaker 1: rationalize that at some level of intelligence or any end
Speaker 1: of it, to the level of intelligence that can rationalize that.
Speaker 1: Please help me? Do you get it? I mean, I
Speaker 1: think that the Internet is a very very powerful drug
Speaker 1: that everyone is trying to figure out how they can
Speaker 1: get their one hit wonder um And you know, I
Speaker 1: think that's one part of it. When I watched that video,
Speaker 1: I was I could see how Meek was not not
Speaker 1: that he was like I'm back and down, but he
Speaker 1: just was like what is exactly is happening? And like
Speaker 1: who's trying to get me? Who's trying to set me up?
Speaker 1: Like why is this happening? Right now, like let and
Speaker 1: you could see him thinking about his move like if
Speaker 1: I do this, then this, If I make this move,
Speaker 1: then this, These things can happen um and and that's
Speaker 1: an unfortunate situation to being in general, but certainly certainly
Speaker 1: for anyone to encourage the wrong move. There's definitely people that,
Speaker 1: you know, our young people don't need to be they
Speaker 1: don't know it's dangerous because me, for one, I say
Speaker 1: gangs and people, you know, they call it a hypocritical,
Speaker 1: hypocritical statement. How you gangster? What you woke? No gangster
Speaker 1: means I will whip your ass if you jefferize my life, right,
Speaker 1: if you are coming to harm me, I will whip
Speaker 1: your ass. But in that situation that you know, but
Speaker 1: why I mean, I guess that then we have to
Speaker 1: start pushing ourselves. And I'm really struggling with the thoughts
Speaker 1: around this because I could also see where there are
Speaker 1: some folks who will say, well, you know, if if
Speaker 1: me um is you know, making statements about people, that
Speaker 1: you have to be prepared for people to comment and approach.
Speaker 1: That's and I think and I think that's true. I
Speaker 1: think that's true. But I also know that there was
Speaker 1: a time where people would like really be serious about
Speaker 1: a fight, like serious about a fight, like you know,
Speaker 1: we're meeting up, we gotta do what we gotta do,
Speaker 1: but not trying to create a stunting or a cloud
Speaker 1: chasing monment. And it's just very dangerous in general because
Speaker 1: what I saw, I'm be honest, I told you I saw,
Speaker 1: you know, I could see Meek's head like turning in
Speaker 1: him thinking. But the other thing I saw was a
Speaker 1: lot of men whose families would be in jeopardy if
Speaker 1: they don't make it home because somebody starts shooting, or
Speaker 1: you know, they get arrested for abusing another person or whatever.
Speaker 1: So it's like responsible, we have the child, and I
Speaker 1: think and I think that comes with wisdom. Right. He's
Speaker 1: been associated with a couple of things that I didn't
Speaker 1: think was smart. You know, the situation with Safari, which
Speaker 1: was alleged, you know, the situation that happened with Quentin,
Speaker 1: which was alleged, you know, and they utilize those things.
Speaker 1: When he went to his bastion hearing that, they came
Speaker 1: and said, hey, they got video of this and they're
Speaker 1: showing this, and those were things that were detrimental to
Speaker 1: his freedom. And when you realize that right after you
Speaker 1: do what you're young, you're dumb. You have nobody's giving you,
Speaker 1: you know, the knowledge when you start. The best teacher
Speaker 1: is your own experience. So for you to experience that,
Speaker 1: understand that, damn, I actually sat in jail for months
Speaker 1: behind some ship that really didn't make much sense. Right,
Speaker 1: And then you come into that same situation again with
Speaker 1: somebody that ain't even a threat at all, right, that
Speaker 1: it doesn't even deserve any energy. He's not a threat
Speaker 1: to you, it's no threat to your person, he ain't
Speaker 1: swing a punch. He's actually yelling and screaming behind security guards.
Speaker 1: And you say it, said, why do I have to
Speaker 1: engage with somebody like this is no threat to me?
Speaker 1: And people are are trying to impose some level of
Speaker 1: rule that if you say so, and I get it,
Speaker 1: if you say something, you should be held account of,
Speaker 1: you should be willing to deal with the consequences. But
Speaker 1: the consequence is if the consequences as you yelling and
Speaker 1: screaming at me security what because I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: a threat, You're not threaten in my life, You're not
Speaker 1: a threat of my my physical being. There's no physical
Speaker 1: harm that can come to me from you yelling with
Speaker 1: your camera. The only harm can come to me with
Speaker 1: your camera is me doing something to you, and that's it.
Speaker 1: There's no other harm to me. So you know, that's
Speaker 1: just my take on. I mean, there's a lot of uh,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of ill will out here. And I
Speaker 1: see also again in this situation. I don't know everything,
Speaker 1: but I can tell there's a lot of East Coast
Speaker 1: West Coast energy people who just don't like me. People
Speaker 1: who you know, obviously feel um that the other individual
Speaker 1: who you say, we can't say his name on the show,
Speaker 1: um that you know that people know like what he's done.
Speaker 1: And so I think you have a lot of people who,
Speaker 1: on both sides of defense, are um just to to
Speaker 1: see people commit violent acts. And that's that's something that
Speaker 1: I believe we've been experienced since since we were kids
Speaker 1: and beyond folks who are champing up right, and they
Speaker 1: amped it up because they want to see they want
Speaker 1: to see a violent situation happen. And you know, so
Speaker 1: long as they're not the ones that have to deal
Speaker 1: with the consequences, is fine with them. But these are
Speaker 1: young kids, um, and you know, hopefully this situation doesn't
Speaker 1: turn into a thing where it goes on and on,
Speaker 1: and you know, and and and then and social media
Speaker 1: sort of bullies them into meeting up again or having
Speaker 1: another incident take place. I just hope. I just want
Speaker 1: to tell my young kingsmen, do not allow anybody to
Speaker 1: trick you off of your route, to trick you out
Speaker 1: of your greatness, to trick you out of your freedom,
Speaker 1: to trick you out of your life for stupidity. You
Speaker 1: do not have to prove anything to anyone. You do
Speaker 1: not owe anything to anybody but yourself and your family.
Speaker 1: Protect yourself at all courts. But don't be no damn
Speaker 1: crash to me. I hear that, so on that we're
Speaker 1: on that note and said, you know, we could drop
Speaker 1: the mic after that. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: So listen, we appreciate y'all. We want to say thank
Speaker 1: you for making us number one. Were number one, Yes,
Speaker 1: go look it up with number oneous hilarious. You got
Speaker 1: to speak that thing into existence baby making us. Actually
Speaker 1: we were on the Apple podcast Top one hundred list
Speaker 1: people like number eighty seven, and now we just number
Speaker 1: We just number one man, not like on the Apple podcast.
Speaker 1: But you're saying that's that's where we are. We don't
Speaker 1: recognize that. Listen to me, sometimes everybody is slow. People
Speaker 1: are usually slow. The Greatness we number one. Man. We
Speaker 1: just want to say thank you for making us number
Speaker 1: one because listen, I'm not gonna always be right man,
Speaker 1: Tamika is not gonna always be wrong, but we guarantee
Speaker 1: y'all that we will both always be peace. Peace. Thanks
Speaker 1: for joining street politicians number one baby, that's how we
Speaker 1: own it.