Speaker 1: I'm Tamika D.
Speaker 2: Mallory and the Ship Boy my Son in general.
Speaker 1: We are your host of t M I.
Speaker 3: Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, Motivation and.
Speaker 4: Inspiration, New Energy. I'm good, I'm good. I'm a little
Speaker 4: you know, it's been it is, oh.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I'm Black History.
Speaker 4: I mean, everything we've we've been talking about all month
Speaker 4: is about black people, but we certainly need to kind
Speaker 4: of focus on Black History Month.
Speaker 1: And like the I guess the what do we call.
Speaker 4: It, the observance, that's the word.
Speaker 1: It's the observance of it all.
Speaker 4: So we haven't really been able to get to that
Speaker 4: because the country is very, very very different. Interesting, It's
Speaker 4: not so much it is different different.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I struggle with saying that it's different. I think that
Speaker 4: it is worse.
Speaker 2: So if it's worse, it different.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess so, But I still think it was
Speaker 4: pretty bad already. I mean, I just don't I don't know.
Speaker 4: I just feel like we've got to be coming to
Speaker 4: a crashing halt because we're in the we're in a
Speaker 4: we're in when a woman is across the world in
Speaker 4: Pakistan talking about running my money, I.
Speaker 1: Am I don't know.
Speaker 4: But I don't know, but she has now made her
Speaker 4: way to every outlet at least all the blogs are
Speaker 4: covering it.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't think the quote unquote mainstream media is covering it.
Speaker 4: But this woman, it's in my DMS. People send it
Speaker 4: to me like what is going on? But somebody sent
Speaker 4: me something which I don't know if it was her,
Speaker 4: because you know, first Ai, second of all, the way
Speaker 4: that it was positioned, because now other people are creating
Speaker 4: like parodies to this thing and making skits. But it
Speaker 4: looked like a person who looks like her was counting
Speaker 4: money if they paid that late, because it seemed to
Speaker 4: me like there were Pakistani.
Speaker 1: People.
Speaker 2: Know.
Speaker 4: It's no way that folks don't know that the lady
Speaker 4: thought or she met somebody I believe online and he
Speaker 4: must have professed his love for her and told her
Speaker 4: he was going to marry her. And then somehow I
Speaker 4: don't know if he invited her or what happened. I'm
Speaker 4: sure he found out she had little mental health, and
Speaker 4: then he might have a little mental health too. And
Speaker 4: then she traveled from wherever sounds like the USA because
Speaker 4: she sound black as black, and took herself over there
Speaker 4: to Pakistan and talking about she wants her money and
Speaker 4: she's not leaving until she gets her land, and it's
Speaker 4: really a thing.
Speaker 1: But the thing about it is that I said Pakistan Pakistanians.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 4: That is something I need to figure out. How do
Speaker 4: you say the people versus the place? Is it Pakistanians?
Speaker 2: I believe, right?
Speaker 4: Okay, so you would just say Pakistanians. Okay, So the
Speaker 4: Pakistanian people, some of them seem to be entertaining them.
Speaker 1: Dave's having press conferences. People must be bored, hilarious, people must.
Speaker 2: Be and she is.
Speaker 3: Saying now she had to tell people that she's raising
Speaker 3: money so they could send her home. She told people
Speaker 3: to send her money.
Speaker 4: Seemed like she had some If it's her that I
Speaker 4: saw in this, she definitely.
Speaker 3: Raised money, Ain't no question about that. You know, the
Speaker 3: internet love to just give money to crazy people.
Speaker 4: Well, anyway, by the time people see this sho, there
Speaker 4: would have been some updates and I will probably be late,
Speaker 4: like this will probably be old give So that's why
Speaker 4: I'm saying, like, what like every day the world just
Speaker 4: proves how much crazier it can actually get. So I
Speaker 4: guess it's different.
Speaker 2: It's definitely different.
Speaker 4: You're like, I think I was the person, the first
Speaker 4: person to send it to you, because Tiffany Laughton sent
Speaker 4: it to me in the middle of the night. She
Speaker 4: sends me like five videos and she's screaming like, this
Speaker 4: is the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 1: Then I just kept seeing it and seeing it.
Speaker 4: Then that's why I said, let me send it to you,
Speaker 4: and you know whoever else is in our little group.
Speaker 4: Then I sent it to Linda and she just is
Speaker 4: like this this world.
Speaker 1: Then the lady she has his job on.
Speaker 4: She was wearing a hi job, but she had it
Speaker 4: tied like some kind of bothing on this. So I
Speaker 4: just have never seen them wear they're jobs like this.
Speaker 4: It's just it's different.
Speaker 1: It's different. It's different.
Speaker 2: It's very very very much. It is extremely different.
Speaker 4: It is black history, mom, and was She's a part
Speaker 4: of black history.
Speaker 1: And there people listen, this is the last thing I'll
Speaker 1: say about this.
Speaker 4: I've also watched the commentary of a few people who
Speaker 4: are like, bruh, I don't you know. I would never
Speaker 4: do it. It's comical. But the lady is on business.
Speaker 4: She over there, like I needy't to round me my
Speaker 4: land and my money, and if you want me to leave,
Speaker 4: you gotta pay for me to leave, because I came
Speaker 4: over here to marry my husband. And by the way,
Speaker 4: the husband would have been like nineteen years old and
Speaker 4: she's thirty three. Like if that lady, don't go somewhere
Speaker 4: and sit her ass down anyway, what else is up
Speaker 4: her history?
Speaker 3: So look, there's a meme that's been going around for
Speaker 3: a couple of years, and I know I seen it
Speaker 3: yesterday again and it's a reporter talking to I believe
Speaker 3: it's Morgan Freeman, and they talking about black history mon
Speaker 3: and Morgan Freeman says to him, I don't want black history.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: He's like, why should my history be relegated to one month?
Speaker 3: Your history is not relegated to one month, So I
Speaker 3: don't want it. Don't give me no one month of
Speaker 3: my history. And when I thought about it, I understood
Speaker 3: his point of view. But then I was like, but
Speaker 3: we live in America, right in the reality of America
Speaker 3: is that they don't celebrate black.
Speaker 2: History, they don't talk about our history.
Speaker 3: They don't give us the opportunity to actually hone in
Speaker 3: on the great you know, accomplishes, accomplishments and feats that
Speaker 3: our ancestors have made.
Speaker 1: And I kind of.
Speaker 2: Enjoyed Black history one. Look, I get to throw on
Speaker 2: my stuff.
Speaker 1: I get to get yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Mean I get I need to get I get to
Speaker 3: get into it. And you know, I was thinking, what
Speaker 3: do you think about it? Do you think that it's
Speaker 3: a bad thing that they give us black heresy is?
Speaker 3: It doesn't make it seem like our history is less because.
Speaker 4: Of or I mean, we do get the short this month,
Speaker 4: and you know, and I do understand people who say that,
Speaker 4: but I also feel like observances are exactly what they are.
Speaker 1: They're observances.
Speaker 4: So you know, you don't have President's Day being celebrated
Speaker 4: every day.
Speaker 1: You have a day that.
Speaker 4: Is specified for you to focus on presidents, veterans, people you.
Speaker 1: Know who who what do you call it? Memorial?
Speaker 4: Memorial Day is for people who have died in war
Speaker 4: and what have you and you know, and also other
Speaker 4: I think they have kind of expanded it. I know
Speaker 4: we have expanded it to also acknowledging people who are service.
Speaker 1: Workers, people who are you know, who take care of folks.
Speaker 4: And so I mean, I you know, everything has its
Speaker 4: time and I think that that one entire month we
Speaker 4: should really take as much advantage of it as possible,
Speaker 4: especially now when we see there is a attack on
Speaker 4: our history, there's an attack on anything that has to
Speaker 4: do with you know, forcing the world to sit still
Speaker 4: and have to look at, as you said, the accomplishments
Speaker 4: and the fights that we have fought and won. You know,
Speaker 4: there's been a lot that we've contributed to society, and
Speaker 4: if it were not for the fact that there is
Speaker 4: this time that's been set aside, you know, people probably
Speaker 4: wouldn't hear much about us at all. So I see,
Speaker 4: you know, I see, I'm not saying that I don't
Speaker 4: understand how once they put it in February, which happens
Speaker 4: to be the shortest month of the year, then after
Speaker 4: that they may say, well, they don't want to hear
Speaker 4: about it again. But then that's not true because the
Speaker 4: next thing, you know, you got doctor King. Well before
Speaker 4: then you have you know, doctor King's birthday that comes up,
Speaker 4: and I feel like people celebrate doctor King's birthday for
Speaker 4: the entire month January. You know, I hear at least
Speaker 4: at least beginning around the fifteenth, when his actual birthday
Speaker 4: takes place, then they go all the way and then it.
Speaker 2: Goes all the accomplishments.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you know, well, I mean.
Speaker 3: I just I pretty much agree with what you're saying.
Speaker 3: I just when I heard it again, it made me think.
Speaker 3: And it's just the time that we end, you know,
Speaker 3: it's just every time I think about, like you said,
Speaker 3: the d and what we're going through with this.
Speaker 1: Government and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Speaker 3: Diversity, equity and inclusion, you know, and what we're going through,
Speaker 3: you know, like you said, how they're trying to pretty
Speaker 3: much erase our history and to have this month is
Speaker 3: very much important at this time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think before they're getting rid of shit left and.
Speaker 1: Right, and they still don't want this even they don't.
Speaker 3: Even want the government right, Like it's it's.
Speaker 1: An education, which is the other big So they.
Speaker 2: Don't want kids we must celebrated within education either.
Speaker 4: They don't want like remember critical race theory and all
Speaker 4: of that. They want they don't want you to isolate
Speaker 4: and celebrate any particular holidays except for things that have
Speaker 4: to do with white men. I mean seriously, like it's
Speaker 4: just that's what it is. They're saying that they are
Speaker 4: going to especially, as you said, for the federal government,
Speaker 4: which the Department of Education is a part of the
Speaker 4: federal government. Right, they want to end the celebration of
Speaker 4: any particular group.
Speaker 1: It's pretty.
Speaker 4: I think the only way to describe it is just
Speaker 4: to look at the fact that, like the shrides that
Speaker 4: people have made, that's not just black folks. Like I
Speaker 4: think about the Muslim community and how in New York
Speaker 4: the Muslims didn't even have certain days observances for public schools,
Speaker 4: and they fought and fought and fought, and I remember
Speaker 4: when they won, and it was under Deblasio that these
Speaker 4: days became law, like they became chartered in New York
Speaker 4: State and in New York City, I know for sure,
Speaker 4: I don't know about the state. And now there's like
Speaker 4: two or three dates on the calendar that that everybody,
Speaker 4: not just Muslim students of course, but everybody is off
Speaker 4: because they are observing these particular days. So, you know,
Speaker 4: I say all of that to say a lot of
Speaker 4: people have fought to ensure that we live in an
Speaker 4: inclusive society where everybody can be celebrated, and these.
Speaker 1: Folks just don't want to do it anymore. But you
Speaker 1: know it, You have to do it. Well. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's strange.
Speaker 4: I think that they're actually sticking true to their uh,
Speaker 4: their their their existence.
Speaker 3: Their beginning to me is this, how do you think
Speaker 3: that that is going to work? Right, because you've people
Speaker 3: have gotten used to celebrating and being acknowledged and seeing
Speaker 3: themselves and being themselves and coming.
Speaker 4: To you know, I think what they're saying is you
Speaker 4: can celebrate it all you want, but it won't be
Speaker 4: But that's paid.
Speaker 3: That's the first step of it, right, because what you
Speaker 3: do is you take you pretty much take the.
Speaker 1: Knowledge president in February to so President's Day.
Speaker 4: So they still going to take some of our stuff
Speaker 4: too in the month in the same Black History Month.
Speaker 1: That's interesting. I never put that in the contest.
Speaker 3: So that's what I'm saying, Like, if you look at
Speaker 3: if you look at most of the holidays that they're
Speaker 3: a black I mean they are white holidays that celebrate, Yeah,
Speaker 3: they celebrate their their accomplishments.
Speaker 1: They still celebrate in that Columbus Day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So these are these are things that I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So so they think that's just gonna work. You just
Speaker 3: gonna erase the rest of the people here. You're gonna
Speaker 3: take back the Hollids and.
Speaker 4: You're gonna do That's all I want to say.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you what my thought of the day.
Speaker 4: What Actually, it's not my thought of the day, but
Speaker 4: I could make it my thought of the day for today,
Speaker 4: since we are short for time before we have our guests,
Speaker 4: our Black History Month guest, because we focused on Black
Speaker 4: History Month today and not these people politics. Let me
Speaker 4: tell you that we are all, every single one of
Speaker 4: us hypocritical beings. I was listening to Angela Rode talking
Speaker 4: about this on their podcast, Native Lamp Pod, and it's true.
Speaker 4: She was talking about Snoop and his performance at the
Speaker 4: Crypto Ball, and she was, you know, literally saying like,
Speaker 4: I'd rather call my brother on the phone to tell
Speaker 4: him how I feel directly, And she was acknowledging that,
Speaker 4: you know, there are people who probably will feel like, oh,
Speaker 4: you're being hypocritical, because if it was somebody that you
Speaker 4: don't really have a relationship with or whatever, you would
Speaker 4: just say whatever. And I think that's true. I would
Speaker 4: hope that if you're brother sister did something that you
Speaker 4: wouldn't go to the Internet to tell the world about it.
Speaker 1: I would hope.
Speaker 4: But you know, hey, some people say what's good for
Speaker 4: the goose is good for again if they if they
Speaker 4: don't like whoever on the internet, and they don't like
Speaker 4: they mama and they sister, they brothers and cousins, they
Speaker 4: go right on to the Facebook and write it up
Speaker 4: there too. I mean, I guess that's but I understand
Speaker 4: both sides. But I wanted to say that we certainly
Speaker 4: are and we live in contradiction all the time. Like
Speaker 4: hypocritical is probably a negative connotation to that word, so
Speaker 4: I wouldn't necessarily use it, but I just want to,
Speaker 4: you know, state it in a way that most people
Speaker 4: can understand. But I think the the conflicts, right, you know,
Speaker 4: and the complications of life, because I was somewhere a
Speaker 4: couple of evenings ago, and you know, I am, and
Speaker 4: I think you are like this too, which it took
Speaker 4: you some time to get there. So let me put
Speaker 4: your business in the street. But I just don't want
Speaker 4: to hear r Kelly.
Speaker 1: I just don't. That's not on my car.
Speaker 4: My family members know not to play it at holidays,
Speaker 4: and in fact, it is starting to become something that
Speaker 4: I see less and less and less and less that's
Speaker 4: just I don't. I'm it's at the point now where
Speaker 4: no one has to tell the DJ at a.
Speaker 1: Family event or whatever. They just they're just not doing
Speaker 1: it anymore.
Speaker 4: But the other day, I was wherever I was, somewhere anyway,
Speaker 4: restaurant at night, late at night, and they started playing
Speaker 4: some good old R Kelly songs.
Speaker 1: I mean, and I'm just so sorry, like I didn't.
Speaker 1: I forgot.
Speaker 4: I totally forgot. I wasn't even drinking. I totally forgot.
Speaker 4: And the next thing you know, I was just sitting
Speaker 4: up there man in here wish and I was just
Speaker 4: all into it. And I was sitting there thinking to myself, Wow,
Speaker 4: we have to have a lot of grace for one another.
Speaker 1: We have to have a lot of grace for one another, because.
Speaker 3: It's not it's very hard, you know, for people to
Speaker 3: ignore the music and contributions that R Kelly has made.
Speaker 3: Like my whole childhood can be marked by al Kelly songs,
Speaker 3: Like I could tell you every year of my life
Speaker 3: based on R. Kelly song and what I was doing,
Speaker 3: the girl I liked, and the party we went to
Speaker 3: in the song and the first slow jam that you
Speaker 3: got you rubbed the little rub you got like R
Speaker 3: Kelly was that for us in the late eighties early
Speaker 3: wise he was.
Speaker 1: It's just like he was.
Speaker 4: But but I would say that, you know, and and
Speaker 4: I was having this conversation with someone else and they'd
Speaker 4: be like, yeah, but the parents, the parents took their
Speaker 4: kids there and whatever.
Speaker 1: And that's fine.
Speaker 4: I'm not because I believe that that is true, that
Speaker 4: there was some parents that literally took their children to
Speaker 4: him knowing that he something wasn't right. Like I'm never ever, ever,
Speaker 4: ever ever take get my granddaughter and I never did
Speaker 4: it with my son, to take them to somebody and
Speaker 4: a man, woman, whomever else it is, that's not a
Speaker 4: family member or somebody that I trust. And even in
Speaker 4: those situations, we were always taught you don't even trust
Speaker 4: everybody in your family and just leaving my child there
Speaker 4: for days and whatever and not like, no, I'm just
Speaker 4: not ever doing that. So I understand people who say,
Speaker 4: but what about the parents, And I think that those
Speaker 4: parents have to deal with their children, They're gonna have
Speaker 4: to deal with different things. But guess what, I don't
Speaker 4: know them. I don't buy their albums, I don't buy
Speaker 4: their shoes, clothes, don't I don't support them in any way.
Speaker 1: With R.
Speaker 4: Kelly, this is a grown ass man. You're a grown
Speaker 4: ass man. And if a person brings you their child
Speaker 4: and you allegedly allegedly do whatever to them, which you
Speaker 4: know whatever, allegedly do whatever things to them, and.
Speaker 1: You know, then someth's wrong with you.
Speaker 4: You also so the parents and you it doesn't It's
Speaker 4: not like because of the parents then you somehow are
Speaker 4: exampt Yet No, no, no, you also have an issue.
Speaker 4: And I'm not finna be buying maybe, but I know
Speaker 4: I'm not finna be buying the music. I'm not finna
Speaker 4: be two step in. I'm not gonna do none of that.
Speaker 4: I did get me a little twist in the chair
Speaker 4: on a from then eventually I said no, I didn't
Speaker 4: even do that. I just said I'm gonna be very vulnerable.
Speaker 4: I just, you know, I was like, I'm gonna be
Speaker 4: vulnerable and talk about this because you know, I don't want.
Speaker 4: I hate for people to be walking around in the
Speaker 4: world feeling like everything is a zero sum. That's what
Speaker 4: this world makes you believe. It makes you believe that
Speaker 4: if you don't do everything exactly perfectly as they say,
Speaker 4: whoever they is then, or whoever they are, then you
Speaker 4: just have failed. And I don't think that that's right.
Speaker 4: I think we all come short, come up short in
Speaker 4: terms of how we live and the things that we
Speaker 4: do every day.
Speaker 1: And I just wanted to say that, you.
Speaker 4: Know what, I had a moment, but I put myself
Speaker 4: back together.
Speaker 2: I mean, sometimes you have a moment, you snapped out.
Speaker 5: Of it, you know.
Speaker 4: And then there was people in the restaurant and I
Speaker 4: was like, damn, they musn't paying me no attention. But
Speaker 4: I was just thinking to myself, Wow, I really don't
Speaker 4: do our like at all, but today the paparazzi people
Speaker 4: could have caught me, and I look like I'm just
Speaker 4: a hypocrite because.
Speaker 1: I need to.
Speaker 4: Doing the doing it. So yeah, a nission whatever, ANISSI
Speaker 4: let's not give it an.
Speaker 1: I don't do too much, don't do too much. But
Speaker 1: that's it. That's what happened.
Speaker 3: Listen, everybody got our own cross and sins the bed.
Speaker 3: You know, let he who was without sin through the first.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you sound really.
Speaker 2: Religious.
Speaker 1: No, anyway, I'm just gonna let it go.
Speaker 2: So today is another one of our friends.
Speaker 3: We have a guest. It's like a brother of mine's.
Speaker 3: You know, he is a world renowned publisher. He has
Speaker 3: published over one hundred and thirty books in thirteen years.
Speaker 3: He is He has published books from Everybody to our
Speaker 3: friend Yandy to styles p you know, so the list
Speaker 3: goes on and on.
Speaker 2: And he does children's books. This is his specialty.
Speaker 3: He's the publisher of all three of my books, Raising Kings.
Speaker 3: We have I Know My Rights and we have Echoes
Speaker 3: in the Streets. Which is my last book, and currently.
Speaker 4: It's not your last. It is your latest, okay, it
Speaker 4: is my latest last, and your latest.
Speaker 2: It is my latest.
Speaker 3: And he is none other than Hedred McBride, the owner
Speaker 3: of McBride's Stories. How are you doing today, month?
Speaker 5: Brother peace? Brother. We know each other for so long
Speaker 5: and you still say my name.
Speaker 2: I always because I always just call you McBride. That
Speaker 2: was up.
Speaker 5: Everybody everybody calls me McBride. You know, it depends on
Speaker 5: when you met me. But now I'm honored to be
Speaker 5: with you guys, and most most respect to you too.
Speaker 5: And you know, it's just a great journey to be
Speaker 5: here with you. I'm watching everybody. I'm a fan as
Speaker 5: well as a supporter and a brother. So I'm grateful
Speaker 5: to be here.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. It's good to have you.
Speaker 4: It's so funny because every time we talk about you
Speaker 4: on the show, my son is like McBride.
Speaker 1: Every single time.
Speaker 2: I always get his name room, I always say.
Speaker 4: I can't believe you don't know this. Where are you from?
Speaker 4: Where's your family from?
Speaker 1: Your roots?
Speaker 5: Well, my father is from the South, We're from some
Speaker 5: to South Carolina, moved to New York, hallm in the Bronx.
Speaker 5: My mom is from Saint Croix, moved to the Bronx.
Speaker 4: I knew there was somebody that has some Caribbean blood
Speaker 4: running through their their their veins because I don't know
Speaker 4: does blood run through your veins or does blood run
Speaker 4: through your body through your veins?
Speaker 1: So that's how they get it out. They go in
Speaker 1: the van. I just to make sure because sometimes I
Speaker 1: don't be knowing stuff.
Speaker 4: But anyway, but I know Hendrick is absolutely a Caribbean
Speaker 4: inspired name. So that's why I kind of know it
Speaker 4: because I know a lot of men name Hedrick who
Speaker 4: has somebody in their family that comes from the Islands.
Speaker 1: And it's a beautiful name. It's a beautiful name.
Speaker 4: So sometimes people need to be calling you Hedrick and
Speaker 4: not just McBride.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna give Hendrick Saint Croix, you know that.
Speaker 1: So that's what's up.
Speaker 5: I think everything. As a child, Sedric heard it all
Speaker 5: and Drake I heard it all.
Speaker 3: So this so, you know, we're celebrating Black History Month,
Speaker 3: and you know, we wanted to celebrate you because most
Speaker 3: of the books that you have pretty much exuberate black
Speaker 3: history right like they they focus on it. You know,
Speaker 3: most of the authors focus on how we better our communities.
Speaker 3: It shows us in a light that you know, young
Speaker 3: kids get to see black people and brown people and
Speaker 3: the light that is always positive. So what made you
Speaker 3: start writing these books?
Speaker 5: Just that's a great question, that's the million dollar question.
Speaker 5: It started off by being a parent reading to my daughter,
Speaker 5: Scylla McBride. She's sixteen, well she'll be seventeen next week.
Speaker 5: She's sixteen. So I used to read with her nightly basis,
Speaker 5: and I found myself reading books that were not culturally
Speaker 5: relevant to her. I'm reading Cat and Had, I'm reading
Speaker 5: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, just children's books that we all
Speaker 5: grew up on. Like, how can kids in this day
Speaker 5: relate to these books? So I said that they don't
Speaker 5: have any characters that look like us, they don't have
Speaker 5: storylines that look like us. Back in those days, I
Speaker 5: was a younger man, so I'm wearing a Yankee hat
Speaker 5: all the time. So I said, we need representation. And
Speaker 5: that really made me start this journey. And then when
Speaker 5: I started it, it was so many people related to
Speaker 5: it and wanted it, and that's when I kept going.
Speaker 5: And then I'm becoming an educator. I've been a school
Speaker 5: teacher in Brownsville, you know, one of the poorest districts
Speaker 5: in New York City, and I would state test scores
Speaker 5: was so low. I was a fifth grade teacher and
Speaker 5: I was wondering. I said, these kids are so smart,
Speaker 5: why are the test score so low? And kids really
Speaker 5: tell you because the books don't represent us. We don't
Speaker 5: want to read. We're not even interested in reading. If
Speaker 5: you ever picked up a state test booklet, the stuff
Speaker 5: that's in there is not even relatable to the kids.
Speaker 5: So they just check out. You see these scores, and
Speaker 5: this shows that the black and brown, the black Hispanic
Speaker 5: population of scoring so low. It's not because they're not
Speaker 5: smart enough, it's because they're just not interested. It's not
Speaker 5: for them. I pretty much started a crusade, like I
Speaker 5: started a mission, a mission to save our kids, because
Speaker 5: you know the correlation between education and the prison system.
Speaker 1: That's right, That's right, that's right.
Speaker 4: Well, you know what, I appreciate you saying that, and
Speaker 4: I want to simplify it because the way you said
Speaker 4: it was so eloquent, so educated. It's born. That's the
Speaker 4: bottom line is it's boring. Nobody wants to read it.
Speaker 4: And to be quite honest, if you really go back
Speaker 4: once we get a little bit older and we have
Speaker 4: and you get some a level of consciousness and you
Speaker 4: go back and read some of the these stories, it's
Speaker 4: really kind of racist too, like you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: it's like and also for you to be forced as
Speaker 4: a teacher and student and parent to have to read
Speaker 4: some of the material and take that stuff in, which
Speaker 4: is teaching you, you know, Goldilocks, who's a white person
Speaker 4: with certain types of hair, that that's you know, that's
Speaker 4: a pretty woman.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. They're not telling you never
Speaker 1: for tid. They're not telling.
Speaker 4: You anything about people who look like you, and they're
Speaker 4: forcing you to have to like learn this. It's already
Speaker 4: enforcing stereotypes about us that we have issues overcoming later
Speaker 4: on in life. They literally are teaching you in the
Speaker 4: school system that to be light or white is to
Speaker 4: be better than anything else.
Speaker 2: That's a sair.
Speaker 5: It's indirect. It's training us to not have high self esteem,
Speaker 5: not to have goals, just to celebrate others than our selves.
Speaker 5: So our books celebrate us. It makes us feel good
Speaker 5: about ourselves. And even when we were children, our TV shows,
Speaker 5: you know, even if you had a different strokes that
Speaker 5: we loved them. They always had a white rich family
Speaker 5: or Webster or you know, like it just it just
Speaker 5: showed us like it could never just be a black
Speaker 5: family thriving. Now, these were our role models, and we
Speaker 5: were so thirsty to see black people on the show
Speaker 5: that we would attach to it right. Well, that that
Speaker 5: changed the game a different world. These are things that
Speaker 5: changed the game. And this is what we're trying to
Speaker 5: do again because it.
Speaker 3: So for how many years you've been doing you said,
Speaker 3: thirteen years is the first time you started this book.
Speaker 3: Have you seen like the books that you have written
Speaker 3: with other authors, have you seen changed Like do you
Speaker 3: see that when you bring these books to the schools,
Speaker 3: Are you seeing the kids more engaged.
Speaker 5: It is similar to rap music where sometimes our bigger,
Speaker 5: biggest consumers is not even our people, because everybody wants
Speaker 5: to know our culture. They want to know what's going on.
Speaker 5: And not to toot your own horn that I know.
Speaker 5: My rights book that we published together came about during
Speaker 5: the George Floyd, you know, around those times when COVID started,
Speaker 5: and that book to date is my biggest selling book,
Speaker 5: and it has reached so many people. You know, and
Speaker 5: and and you know how organic how that book came about.
Speaker 5: You and I met at a restaurant. I won't say
Speaker 5: the name because they my son and myself of not
Speaker 5: paying our task.
Speaker 2: We met.
Speaker 5: That's where we met.
Speaker 3: I don't know who it was, so, you know, saving
Speaker 3: the world and saving.
Speaker 2: I don't think they knew. I don't think they do.
Speaker 2: They wouldn't know. But yeah, he had.
Speaker 3: He had reached out to me through a mutual friend
Speaker 3: and and she hit me like, yo, do I have
Speaker 3: this publisher. He wants to meet with you. He's interested
Speaker 3: in doing book with you. So I was like, all right,
Speaker 3: hit me up.
Speaker 2: Who was it signed? Hit me up?
Speaker 3: And she did, like, yo, listen, I got he's a
Speaker 3: good friend of mine. I want you to meet.
Speaker 1: And it was a perfect match.
Speaker 2: It was a perfect match.
Speaker 3: And we sat down and he was like, yo, listen,
Speaker 3: I got a perfect idea for you.
Speaker 2: You know, I wasn't really thinking.
Speaker 3: I was thinking about writing my own book and my
Speaker 3: memoir and all these things. And he said, I think
Speaker 3: you should write a book about the first ten amendments
Speaker 3: of the Constitution and just break it down for children.
Speaker 3: And I was just like, I was like, wow, I
Speaker 3: said that really made SI. And He's like, I'm telling you,
Speaker 3: you got a good following.
Speaker 2: People listen to you.
Speaker 3: You know, you're already in that space, you're dealing with kids,
Speaker 3: and you have all of these people following you.
Speaker 2: I think it'd be a dope. I there, And within
Speaker 2: the next week or two weeks, we had the book work.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: We wrote the book and the response from it was
Speaker 3: just like he said, it was amazing.
Speaker 2: People gravitated. We still want to book.
Speaker 1: We still have not.
Speaker 4: Put the type of energy that we could into the book.
Speaker 4: I know y'all have, but I'm saying, like your team,
Speaker 4: we still we've done a little bit, but not even
Speaker 4: as much as we could do that the book could
Speaker 4: be all.
Speaker 1: Over this toll. Yeah, right, we take the book.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're gonna attach ourselves to Tamika's tour because Tamika
Speaker 3: got her book tour and starting next week, so.
Speaker 2: It starts this week.
Speaker 3: So what I'm gonna do is attach myself with our
Speaker 3: books right while she's selling over goad.
Speaker 2: Look, we got book over here, something you can get
Speaker 2: for the kids.
Speaker 1: See what I mean.
Speaker 4: And what I mean by that by saying like we haven't,
Speaker 4: what I mean is that every single day, new opportunities
Speaker 4: come about where people are looking for stuff to for
Speaker 4: their children, like because especially here we are in this
Speaker 4: time when people are feeling really attacked, our rights are
Speaker 4: under attack, and it's a new moment to say to
Speaker 4: emerge and say listen, even though they don't care nothing
Speaker 4: about the Constitution right now, but nonetheless it does exist.
Speaker 4: And our kids need to know. They need to know
Speaker 4: the difference between what we see in front of our
Speaker 4: faces and what people have fought and died, like people
Speaker 4: put blood, sweat and tears to create a society that
Speaker 4: had a level some level of fairness and for you
Speaker 4: to be able to fight, you know, And I think
Speaker 4: one of the things that's a little scary is that
Speaker 4: at one point. Actually, I was having a conversation with
Speaker 4: doctor Bernice King, doctor Martin Luther King Junior's daughter, the
Speaker 4: other day, and she was saying that the scary thing
Speaker 4: is that at one point you at least had the
Speaker 4: courts that you could appeal to as black people for
Speaker 4: some level of protection, and now that's going away. So
Speaker 4: y'all need a part too, because you guys need to
Speaker 4: somehow find a way to talk about where we currently
Speaker 4: stand and how the Constitution is actually being ignored with
Speaker 4: some of the stuff that oh boys doing over there
Speaker 4: over there over there, I'm not I've been calling him
Speaker 4: something that I'm not going to put on this show
Speaker 4: today while McBride is on here, so he don't got
Speaker 4: to go home with that on him.
Speaker 1: But yeah, So anyway, what was the first book you wrote.
Speaker 5: The first book I wrote was Parkville High And I
Speaker 5: used to work for with Developmental Disabilities for people with
Speaker 5: developmental disabilities, and I saw firsthand that they are no
Speaker 5: different than anyone else. So I just wanted to bring
Speaker 5: away to people with disabilities, like just because I have
Speaker 5: a disability, that doesn't mean I'm a regular. I'm not
Speaker 5: a regular person. So that was the first book we
Speaker 5: wrote for kids that attended They all had a different disability,
Speaker 5: but they attended public high school. So it showed people
Speaker 5: to not judge a book by his cover because we're
Speaker 5: all the same. We're all the same.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 4: I love that, And so would you say that of
Speaker 4: all the books you said, my Son is like your
Speaker 4: best selling But what give us some other big collaborations
Speaker 4: that you have on in the McBride stories repertoire.
Speaker 5: So it's so many different feelings and thoughts. Because my
Speaker 5: Metalworld piece, which is roun Our Test a basketball player.
Speaker 5: He's a high school teammate of mine. So he was
Speaker 5: the first influenza slash celebrity to attach himself to McBride's stories.
Speaker 5: And by having that partnership, it was it enabled me
Speaker 5: to attract other celebrities. So guys both know it's always
Speaker 5: a copycat league. Nobody wants to be the first person
Speaker 5: to do something. So he was a risk taker and
Speaker 5: he invested in me and we published books together, and
Speaker 5: that that enabled me to sign Yandy. That enabled me
Speaker 5: to sign a Marvel a Negro, like we have books
Speaker 5: in different languages. You know, it just helps build your resume.
Speaker 5: You need that one person to stamp you. Wow, that's
Speaker 5: metalworld piece. He was on the Lakers. That's when he
Speaker 5: won the championship for the Lakers. You know, he was
Speaker 5: on top of his career, but you know he needed
Speaker 5: like a pr boost and he my high school friend.
Speaker 5: So it was that was like a memorable He had
Speaker 5: books on our books, was on CBS shows, ESPN, like everywhere.
Speaker 5: That was like, what really took me to the next level.
Speaker 5: So I'll always be in debt indebted to him. Just
Speaker 5: saying with my daughter now or she's the reason for
Speaker 5: the company, but she's published five books now you know
Speaker 5: she's still in high school. So just just being able
Speaker 5: to have these valuable partnerships with good people. Yandy is
Speaker 5: a friend of mine from high school days. Like just
Speaker 5: to have these partnerships are so valuable because we were
Speaker 5: helping so many people. But you surrounded by people that
Speaker 5: you you know, respecting and have luck.
Speaker 1: That's that's great.
Speaker 3: What advice would you give a young publisher that wants
Speaker 3: to write books that's looking into What advice would you
Speaker 3: give a young author and a publish that wants to
Speaker 3: do both, Like what would you.
Speaker 5: I would say, don't always focus on yourself and your
Speaker 5: needs because you have to see what the needs are
Speaker 5: of the people. Like sometimes people would write about whatever
Speaker 5: they always wanted to put out, but you have to
Speaker 5: think about what people would want to hear about or
Speaker 5: what's suiting them. So you have to be open minded
Speaker 5: because a lot of like nowadays we're so publishing. You
Speaker 5: can put out anything you can put out of you know,
Speaker 5: a book about making oxtels with your grandmother, but you
Speaker 5: just have to know if it will people receive this,
Speaker 5: is this what people need? Like when my soign and
Speaker 5: myself always collaborate, is never about us. It's always about
Speaker 5: are we providing a solution? And I know everyone doesn't
Speaker 5: right to be so serious, but that's that's the you know,
Speaker 5: that's what we wear on our shoulders because we want
Speaker 5: to change the world. We want to you know, help out.
Speaker 5: So when we collaborate, it's always about what's needed, what
Speaker 5: what do people need to hear? So some people write
Speaker 5: for fun, but you know, we not in that type
Speaker 5: of business were you know, we freedom fighters and and
Speaker 5: I do it a different way. I do it through
Speaker 5: literacy because like people don't know it or not, but
Speaker 5: education is if you're not educated, you already at a disadvantage,
Speaker 5: and we make these books. If you see his raising kings,
Speaker 5: like these books are beautiful, Like people love to look
Speaker 5: at the book.
Speaker 4: Yes, the artwork is amazing. They really should. Yes, artwork
Speaker 4: is amazing.
Speaker 1: It's amazing.
Speaker 5: And he's a rapper, he's you know, he's an author,
Speaker 5: so you know the words are going to sound good
Speaker 5: as well. So it's the same way as a dope
Speaker 5: rap song when you got doctor dre and then you
Speaker 5: got a good lyricist and you make a perfect mix.
Speaker 5: So that's what we're kind of trying to do with
Speaker 5: these books, Like we have perfect illustrations with perfect words,
Speaker 5: Like we're just trying to I don't know, just you know,
Speaker 5: just trying to just trying to help out and just
Speaker 5: trying to save the world, so to speak. Like it's
Speaker 5: crazy to say, but we're trying to save the world.
Speaker 4: So let me ask you two quick things. One is
Speaker 4: you said you mentioned having other additional.
Speaker 1: Languages, So how did that happen? Is it? What other
Speaker 1: languages do you carry?
Speaker 5: Because one thing about black and brown, you could be
Speaker 5: we've been transported all over the world, you know that, sister,
Speaker 5: Like that's how we all got here. Everybody was dropped
Speaker 5: off somewhere. So that partnership with a marl I Negra
Speaker 5: showed me because she's dark, darker than anybody, any of us.
Speaker 5: So she we did her book in Spanish and French
Speaker 5: because people all over the world can relate to somebody
Speaker 5: that looks like her. So we just want to represent everyone.
Speaker 5: We have books in different language, my Song's book and
Speaker 5: this is something like that that he keeps it so
Speaker 5: real because I asked him, I said, you want to
Speaker 5: do it in France, you want to do it in
Speaker 5: English Spanish? He said, I'm from the Bronx McBride. He said,
Speaker 5: I grew up with black and Hispanic people. So there's
Speaker 5: a Spanish version of I know my rights. He didn't
Speaker 5: even want the French because he said, I grew up
Speaker 5: in the Bronx. This is what I grew up with.
Speaker 5: So it's all about representation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 4: My second question is understand like, what would be something
Speaker 4: that you would say you need to help your business
Speaker 4: go to the next level. And the reason why I'm
Speaker 4: asking you that is because right now we're in a
Speaker 4: weird time in the world, especially where a lot of
Speaker 4: corporations are coming under fire for you know, not supporting diversity,
Speaker 4: equity and inclusion. You know, some of them have been
Speaker 4: in their own ways in terms of their relationship to their.
Speaker 1: Employees.
Speaker 4: They have you know, serious violations, human rights violations, and
Speaker 4: people are calling for there to be an exodus, if
Speaker 4: you will, of black folks from these brands target and
Speaker 4: the list goes on and on and on. So my
Speaker 4: question for you is in terms of distribution, like what
Speaker 4: would you be What would be something that if you
Speaker 4: had an aim right now that could come and help you,
Speaker 4: that you think would allow you to get in more
Speaker 4: households into more of the hands of our young people.
Speaker 5: That's a great question. I feel like, and this is
Speaker 5: a debate I have with loved ones and family and friends.
Speaker 5: I like to move a certain way because and my
Speaker 5: song will tell you, we make most of our money
Speaker 5: in schools and organizations, like we like, not in the
Speaker 5: mainstream with everything. So it's like you have to move
Speaker 5: a certain way because I feel like attaching yourself to
Speaker 5: certain companies and organizations you might not be in alignment
Speaker 5: with all of their values. And we see this every day,
Speaker 5: like companies that we trusted for all these years, you know,
Speaker 5: sometime they pop out and they're not in alignment. So
Speaker 5: I like to move this way, Like I don't need
Speaker 5: to be a millionaire yet. I just feel like if
Speaker 5: we're making six figures or so, we just moving how
Speaker 5: we move, because sometimes you have to stay not attached
Speaker 5: to people. And we just saw with a lot of
Speaker 5: the leaders, a lot of the people that just fell.
Speaker 5: These are people like five years ago that we looked
Speaker 5: up to and you know, we would have honored to
Speaker 5: be attached to them. So I feel like, and one
Speaker 5: thing about my son, he always say integrity over income,
Speaker 5: and that's why he's one of my favorite partners. And
Speaker 5: I'm not just saying this because I'm on here, but
Speaker 5: it's like your integrity, if you keep your character and
Speaker 5: you move how you move, you still gonna get what
Speaker 5: you deserve. Like some people would jump out the window
Speaker 5: and partner with a big cup corporation, and then what
Speaker 5: happens if something, you know, something hits the fan. It's like,
Speaker 5: I like to move like this, to be honest, and
Speaker 5: I won't nay names, but I was offered. I've been offered. Please,
Speaker 5: I've been it's thirteen years. I've been offered by a
Speaker 5: lot of major corporations to you know, buy my catalog
Speaker 5: or you know, create caught tunes for me. And then
Speaker 5: I looked into their company and in align with what
Speaker 5: I'm into. So sometime being independent is good.
Speaker 3: But I love that. And that's one thing have you
Speaker 3: looked into. I think because our books I think should
Speaker 3: be cartoons. Like I really been thinking about that. I
Speaker 3: think if we just had a cartoon with our books,
Speaker 3: I think it would take it to the next level.
Speaker 3: So that's something that I think we should look into.
Speaker 3: I think because most all of the books that I've
Speaker 3: seen you wrote, not just my book, but just every
Speaker 3: book that you have written that I know, like with
Speaker 3: other authors, they have a real good substance, and they
Speaker 3: have really good themes.
Speaker 2: You know that some is about bullying, some is about
Speaker 2: being different.
Speaker 3: So it's just so many different you know, I've seen
Speaker 3: the one that you had with Devo and his wife,
Speaker 3: you know, the time Machine, the Black and when they
Speaker 3: traveling through time and they talking about things that happen
Speaker 3: in black and like these.
Speaker 1: These books are necessary in history.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they traveling through the timas and they showing us
Speaker 3: different things in times and it's a dope idea. You know,
Speaker 3: so I think all of these books could be cartoons.
Speaker 3: You know, I think that's I think that should be
Speaker 3: the next thing that you think of. But I want
Speaker 3: to ask this, This is the last question I'm going
Speaker 3: to ask you, like who would you want to do
Speaker 3: a book with?
Speaker 2: Like who have you? What artists?
Speaker 3: So whatever that you look at, it was like, you
Speaker 3: know what, this book right here would be dope. I'm
Speaker 3: not don't tell me the idea because we don't want
Speaker 3: to give away.
Speaker 5: Just being selfish and wanting to give rich overnight. I
Speaker 5: would love Lebron James, I would love Na. So were
Speaker 5: out of here, We out of here. But all in
Speaker 5: terms of I almost did a book with Dick Gregory
Speaker 5: before he passed away. And this was when Bill Cosby
Speaker 5: had got incarcerated. We was just close to doing a
Speaker 5: book with Dick Gregory because I said, you would be
Speaker 5: the grandfather. Like a lot of people, we respect Dick Gregory,
Speaker 5: but these legacies are not carried on. So if I
Speaker 5: would have did a series like he would have been
Speaker 5: the grandfather telling stories, I thought that would have been fired.
Speaker 5: But on a sofa tip, I need a Rihanna, I
Speaker 5: need Lebron, come get me.
Speaker 4: What would you like for your legacy to be in
Speaker 4: the end. And by the way, you when you said,
Speaker 4: I'm not just saying this because my son is sitting
Speaker 4: right here and I just thought of this little joke
Speaker 4: that Hedricks don't lie, Hedricks tell.
Speaker 1: Them the straight truth every time.
Speaker 4: But what would be your like, what's the thing that
Speaker 4: you want to see come from your efforts? Because this
Speaker 4: is not just I would say, it's not just being
Speaker 4: an author and a publisher. You are also this is
Speaker 4: a spiritual journey right anytime we are able to bring
Speaker 4: information to our young people that's different from this mess
Speaker 4: that they receive, their being bombarded with garbage every day.
Speaker 1: And for you to try to cut through because if.
Speaker 4: You made like you know, kind of like popping Who's
Speaker 4: zooming who books, if you made books about fashion and
Speaker 4: you know, fighting and carrying on, you probably could make
Speaker 4: a whole lot of money because there's a big market
Speaker 4: for that.
Speaker 1: But to try to cut.
Speaker 4: Through the noise and bring some level of history and
Speaker 4: stability to our young people that's very spiritual. And it's
Speaker 4: not just young people because I know we know from
Speaker 4: my sons books that families, entire families, they take those
Speaker 4: books they sit down together and they read them together,
Speaker 4: and everybody, especially for I know my rights, everybody was
Speaker 4: getting educated because we heard that many times.
Speaker 3: A lot of times parents would call me and be like, hey, y'all,
Speaker 3: just read the book.
Speaker 2: I didn't even know some of these rights.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: I thought I was getting a book for my son
Speaker 3: or my daughter, and I ended up learning as much
Speaker 3: as they did, right, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 3: that was a blessing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I think that's very spiritual, and you know,
Speaker 4: I hope you see it that way. So what would
Speaker 4: you say in the end, you want your legacy to
Speaker 4: be I want.
Speaker 5: My legacy to be someone who you know, added diversity
Speaker 5: to children's literature, encouraged kids to read during the technology era.
Speaker 5: And you know, I'm from the hood too, So my
Speaker 5: friends call me the black Doctor Seuss. They go to
Speaker 5: the club, they say, my men beat Doctor Seuss. So
Speaker 5: the same way they celebrate Doctor Seus's birthday and all
Speaker 5: that stuff, I would love to be celebrated McBride's stories.
Speaker 5: You know, we change in the face of literature, of
Speaker 5: literacy for our kids, and is in a time where
Speaker 5: it's so needed. Is this is this is a scary
Speaker 5: time with education, and you know, and you know, information
Speaker 5: is presented to kids so quickly we're throwing it down,
Speaker 5: we're giving them the fundamental If you read Raising Kings,
Speaker 5: he broke down every facet of being a young man.
Speaker 5: Like we taking our time with it. So we just
Speaker 5: want to build the fundamentals. We come from the eighties
Speaker 5: and nineties, growing up with fundamentals, right. You know, I
Speaker 5: play basketball, you have to have a left hand right
Speaker 5: hand jump shot. You know, like we welwould come from fundamentals.
Speaker 5: Now everybody's getting things so fast that they don't know
Speaker 5: the fundamentals. So I just want to be that person
Speaker 5: that brought it back to the old school, so to speak,
Speaker 5: and just slow things down. Education doesn't have to be
Speaker 5: over like quick instant. Now you do a book report
Speaker 5: in ten minutes. We used to have to go to
Speaker 5: the library get three books and encyclopedia like it took
Speaker 5: a long time to do that stuff.
Speaker 1: So AI is doing that.
Speaker 4: AI is speeding up, you know, the process and if
Speaker 4: you will of information, which is you know, I think
Speaker 4: that I don't think there's anything wrong with having tools
Speaker 4: to help fine tune something that you have already had
Speaker 4: to do velap. But if you are able to just
Speaker 4: go to a system and say, write me a paper
Speaker 4: about McBride's stories, how many books does he did he do?
Speaker 4: And you know what's the names? And then it just
Speaker 4: pulls up everything and you don't got to do research.
Speaker 4: That's a problem, right right, that's what we are.
Speaker 5: And I wanted to say something. I don't like to
Speaker 5: brag too much. Even though you see my trophies and
Speaker 5: stuff in the back, I see it just to let
Speaker 5: my son know I used to do that. I used
Speaker 5: to do it with sham Garden. But I was just
Speaker 5: hired as a professor at Morgan State, which is my college,
Speaker 5: the English course as Introduction of adolescent literature. And one
Speaker 5: of your books is going to be a textbook at
Speaker 5: Morgan State University in the fall.
Speaker 1: Congratulations, that's black history.
Speaker 2: That's black. We celebrate you, mak history. Keep it going, King.
Speaker 2: We got a lot of work to do.
Speaker 3: Man, you're an amazing person, not just a author, not
Speaker 3: just a publisher, but you're a good person. Like you
Speaker 3: know how you just meet people and his spirit just
Speaker 3: matching mind. You know, I'm a spirit person. Like if
Speaker 3: your energy and your spirit is off, I don't care
Speaker 3: what you got. I don't want to do nothing with you.
Speaker 3: So when I met him, he was very humble, but
Speaker 3: he's still you can tell that he's a man. You
Speaker 3: don't see I'm saying, very humble individual, but he's a man.
Speaker 3: He's honest, He looks you in your eyes. Anything that
Speaker 3: he said to me, he did. And that's all I
Speaker 3: ever asked for. So I salute you, and it's numb,
Speaker 3: but loved brother. We got a lot of work to do.
Speaker 3: Keep being great and we got a lot of work
Speaker 3: to do.
Speaker 1: That's it. That's it. Thank you for joining t in
Speaker 1: my first time. But it won't be the life.
Speaker 2: We're gonna work on Tamika's book soon.
Speaker 3: We're gonna work but children, but we get that.
Speaker 2: We're gonna get that children's But don't worry about We
Speaker 2: gonna this is. This is how we do it.
Speaker 3: We're gonna come with the cover and everything and and
Speaker 3: we're just gonna fill it in.
Speaker 2: You're gonna fill it and watch anybody good. Twenty pages,
Speaker 2: that's what.
Speaker 4: We need on this tour.
Speaker 2: Serious artwork that we come with. We're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 2: get this. Don't listen, let me do the management.
Speaker 5: We just go ahead, got a shameless plug. My song
Speaker 5: is about to drop echoes in the streets. The Newark additions.
Speaker 5: Newark Editions catered to Newark, New Jersey and New York
Speaker 5: all the time, but we want to focus on and
Speaker 5: that's where he does a lot of his work.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, like my song loves Newark. I believe one
Speaker 4: day he may live there.
Speaker 2: So I mean I love Newark because Newark loves me.
Speaker 3: Shout out to Shout out to Key should shoutout to
Speaker 3: shout out to do it all dupre shout out to
Speaker 3: who else?
Speaker 2: I don't want to miss nobody. Who else.
Speaker 1: Ball Cook like, oh yeah, definitely family.
Speaker 3: Shout out to coach T the music teacher over there, West,
Speaker 3: I hi, who we do the program together, so they
Speaker 3: have foret.
Speaker 2: Shout out to feed.
Speaker 3: Shout out to new Direction like all a, it's a
Speaker 3: real ecosystem of people there who really love what they
Speaker 3: do and it's not like fake. They just not give
Speaker 3: me a yes. So that's what I'm saying. So it's
Speaker 3: a real ecosystem and they've embraced me. You know, they
Speaker 3: gave me opportunities act weall Cook said, I said, I
Speaker 3: want to do this program, so I come in do
Speaker 3: whatever you want to do, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: And the music teacher, coach T is like my brother
Speaker 3: in there. And and it's not just a music program.
Speaker 2: What we do.
Speaker 3: It's called from from Drill Music to Hell Music, in
Speaker 3: which we take the whole beats and the concept of
Speaker 3: drill music, but we transform it and there's no spinning.
Speaker 3: Ain't nobody got no ops, ain't nobody shooting nobody, But
Speaker 3: were creating real music of substance, and it's raw music,
Speaker 3: and it still has the elements of the reality of
Speaker 3: which they deal with, but we just not promoting any violence.
Speaker 3: So we're not engaging in violence. And not only do
Speaker 3: we do the music, but it's mentoring that goes along.
Speaker 3: We sit down and we have whole twenty and thirty
Speaker 3: minute conversations and they tell us about why they made
Speaker 3: these music or why they felt like they had to
Speaker 3: talk about this, and what's going on in their real lives,
Speaker 3: and a lot of them don't have nobody that could
Speaker 3: actually have conversations with them, and they open up, and
Speaker 3: you be so surprised to see some of the toughest
Speaker 3: dudes open up telling you about their reality, tell them
Speaker 3: what happened to their parents, tell them how one of
Speaker 3: their friends got killed and shot, and then you start
Speaker 3: tearing back the layers and you start you change, and
Speaker 3: you transforming these kids.
Speaker 2: And that's all I want to do.
Speaker 3: Like I want kids from our communities who don't feel
Speaker 3: like they have opportunities and they don't have people that
Speaker 3: listen to them, to actually have somebody that listens to them,
Speaker 3: that has.
Speaker 2: Been through what they've been through, that has lost.
Speaker 3: Friends and family to the streets, into the prisons, and
Speaker 3: lost them to the graveyard. And I want to be
Speaker 3: able to let them know that we actually care about them.
Speaker 3: So they've given me opportunities to do that in new work,
Speaker 3: and I love that city.
Speaker 1: So that's that it is. Thank you for being here
Speaker 1: with us.
Speaker 5: Good good day, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4: Peace, peace, King, Congratulations, brother man.
Speaker 1: This is what I'm talking about. We're doing you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's slow.
Speaker 4: We're moving slower than other people because we're choosing a
Speaker 4: route that doesn't include foolishness. And some people they're not
Speaker 4: doing foolishness, but they just for whatever reason, have a
Speaker 4: different I don't know what you call it. Like everybody's
Speaker 4: got their own blessing in their own time. Our The
Speaker 4: fact that we spend so much time being like front
Speaker 4: liners puts a little bit of distance between us and
Speaker 4: like the fast paced success, because.
Speaker 3: I don't think I don't think we look for success
Speaker 3: in that way, right, Success for us is actually being
Speaker 3: able to transform, you know, the mind state of where
Speaker 3: we live at, the people that were around, to be
Speaker 3: able to actually get justice, like freedom and just those
Speaker 3: are the things that we look for in success.
Speaker 2: So the rest of the things supposed to come along
Speaker 2: with her.
Speaker 3: Somebody always told me, like, like when you work for accolades,
Speaker 3: they don't come.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: You supposed to work for your heart. You were supposed
Speaker 3: to work from your heart and the accolades to come
Speaker 3: for you. So I think that's what it is for us.
Speaker 3: So you know, it's even though it's a slower route,
Speaker 3: it's more rewarding, it's more earned.
Speaker 2: You know, you you you.
Speaker 3: You feel it Like shout out to Rhapsody, I just
Speaker 3: remember that we never shout her out and she got
Speaker 3: her Grammy Wow. And it's like Rapper is such a
Speaker 3: dope rapper, right, and she's always been a dope rapper.
Speaker 3: But she took and she said in her speech that
Speaker 3: she didn't have to change. You know what I'm saying, like,
Speaker 3: she didn't have to sacrifice and compromise.
Speaker 2: Who she was and what she believed.
Speaker 3: That she just true to herself, to lyricism, to be
Speaker 3: honest to herself and the king.
Speaker 2: And that's what we've done.
Speaker 3: And despite what anybody can tell you, we can go
Speaker 3: to sleep at night knowing that we did is.
Speaker 2: We did this.
Speaker 1: We took, we took the stick around the back.
Speaker 2: And that's it.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: So shout out to Hedrick, Hedrick.
Speaker 1: Hedrick, I know we did.
Speaker 2: I'm just so used to say, I don't know. When
Speaker 2: I see h E, I'd be like he so.
Speaker 3: But now Morgan is the textbook and come on, now,
Speaker 3: come on, now, come on, black history bla.
Speaker 1: Black history making history. I'm really proud of you.
Speaker 4: But that's why I say, because I know what you
Speaker 4: have sacrificed from the day that I met you, and
Speaker 4: I remember meeting someone so intelligent, so creative.
Speaker 1: But very frustrated about just the whole world. And I'm
Speaker 1: may not have had all.
Speaker 4: The pieces, but I did see in you something that
Speaker 4: I was like, Well, the movement needs this, like this
Speaker 4: person and this energy. The movement really truly needed you,
Speaker 4: and so it wasn't even me like I introduced you
Speaker 4: to Carmen Perez and that just like took off on
Speaker 4: its own, and you guys, you know, started going into prisons.
Speaker 4: And then you could tell each year you still were
Speaker 4: frustrated with a lot of things in this in a
Speaker 4: movement space. Obviously we making money in the movement. Still
Speaker 4: today we haven't all the way figured that out. We're
Speaker 4: better than we were, but it's a tough process. But
Speaker 4: I would say that you, I would say that I
Speaker 4: began to watch the layers of the frustration kind of
Speaker 4: shedding as you began to have more accomplishments towards your
Speaker 4: goals and things that you wanted to do to find
Speaker 4: your people, find your tribe. As you've done that, more
Speaker 4: of that frustration of just being like, ain't nobody real.
Speaker 4: Everybody just lied, they say they're gonna do this, they
Speaker 4: don't do it this, and people just full of shit.
Speaker 1: Everybody's a sucker.
Speaker 4: Then you started being like, Okay, I have found people
Speaker 4: that are not those things and people who I can
Speaker 4: build with, and so I think that's really good for you,
Speaker 4: mister McBride is one of those individuals who said he
Speaker 4: was gonna do something, He meant it, he stood by it.
Speaker 4: How many people have we met with and then they
Speaker 4: just all but he said he was gonna do something
Speaker 4: with you and he really did.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's been a man of his word in integrity.
Speaker 3: So shout out to him and shut out to you,
Speaker 3: like you said, for seeing whatever it was in me,
Speaker 3: because it was a lot that I was dealing with
Speaker 3: at that time, fresh home from prison and just trying
Speaker 3: to figure out, and.
Speaker 1: You are really fashionate. I mean it was some years later.
Speaker 3: No, it wasn't really that much years. It was years later,
Speaker 3: but it wasn't. It was because it's about five years,
Speaker 3: five years out of prison when you just ain't it's like,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, you're trying to figure stuff out,
Speaker 3: You're trying to move around.
Speaker 2: It was a lot.
Speaker 3: It was a lot that I was dealing with. But
Speaker 3: I appreciate the opportunities.
Speaker 1: And you did not disappoint.
Speaker 3: That's that's always I always said. But just give me
Speaker 3: the opportunity. And I tell I tell that's what I
Speaker 3: tell the young kids all the time. Be prepared for
Speaker 3: the opportunity, right, people like y'all need this and that
Speaker 3: when you get the opportunity, you have to maximize on it.
Speaker 3: That's one thing that I've I pride myself on. When
Speaker 3: I got on FLEX and I finally got the opportunity,
Speaker 3: I maximized. When I got to the BT. I maximized
Speaker 3: when I got what's called.
Speaker 2: The BT cipher. You are maximized.
Speaker 3: Right when I was on the ten ten fifteen stage
Speaker 3: at the Millionaire, I'm maximized. Like I always said, when
Speaker 3: you get the opportunity, you have to make sure that
Speaker 3: you maximize it.
Speaker 4: So I was gonna I'm laughing because there are two
Speaker 4: people on the internet who to me are like literally hilarious,
Speaker 4: but they are not joking. They serious as a doorknob,
Speaker 4: but they're hilarious. And that's Coach Stormy and.
Speaker 1: Applies.
Speaker 4: And so the other day Coach Stormy posted a video
Speaker 4: of Plies saying, don't call me with no problems. I
Speaker 4: don't care, I don't want to hear it. Don't call
Speaker 4: me complaining about why.
Speaker 1: You can't do it.
Speaker 4: You try, but you can't, but it ain't I don't know,
Speaker 4: he said, I know enough about problems as long as
Speaker 4: there is breath in my body. If you just wake
Speaker 4: me up, I'm gonna figure something out. Every single day,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna figure something out. And Coach Storm is over there,
Speaker 4: like this is what I'm talking about, because you know,
Speaker 4: they're both very intense individuals. But I can see from
Speaker 4: in her situation somebody that came from God knows. I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, her mom passed, watched when she was younger.
Speaker 4: She's been through a lot. She came through poverty, through
Speaker 4: all the streets of Miami, the whole thing, to being
Speaker 4: a stripper and all of that, and now here she
Speaker 4: is not only making money. She's not she's not just
Speaker 4: making money, but she also has made millionaires.
Speaker 1: And I know because I saw them. I was dead.
Speaker 1: I see them, and there are people I love.
Speaker 4: You know, she she's done that, and so she don't
Speaker 4: really want to hear you with your storyline. The bus,
Speaker 4: but I was on my way. I was on my way.
Speaker 4: I'll try to get down there. But then the bus
Speaker 4: broke down. And then when I got off the bus,
Speaker 4: it was cold, it was raining. I had to stand
Speaker 4: under the ship. And then I tried, but I couldn't
Speaker 4: make it.
Speaker 1: I couldn't. I couldn't download the software. I just don't
Speaker 1: nobody want.
Speaker 3: To hear that, bloody don't want to hear it, especially
Speaker 3: not us. And that kind of brings me to my
Speaker 3: I don't get it because I don't get it kind
Speaker 3: of fits into that, right, because the reality of the
Speaker 3: situation is I've been sitting back right with this whole
Speaker 3: d diversity, equity and inclusion. God, we've been just dealing
Speaker 3: with I know you did, but I was just because
Speaker 3: I go on the internet, right, and there are these
Speaker 3: narratives that we have brought into as black people, right,
Speaker 3: that nobody else has brought into. Right when we look
Speaker 3: at when we look at all of the institutions, the opportunities,
Speaker 3: the benefits, the resources, every other group of people benefits
Speaker 3: and capitalizes off of resources in America. Right, if we
Speaker 3: look at if you look at welfare, were not the
Speaker 3: people that get the most welfare.
Speaker 2: We don't capitalize the most off welfare. Right. If you
Speaker 2: look at d.
Speaker 1: We get criminalized for getting well.
Speaker 3: But this is what I'm trying to tell you, Like
Speaker 3: we we we don't benefit the most off welfare. Right,
Speaker 3: White people get more welfare than anybody. Right, Jewish people
Speaker 3: capitalize off the systems where they housing and all of
Speaker 3: those things.
Speaker 2: They capitalize off of that.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 3: The Asians come here and they capitalize off resources they
Speaker 3: come in. The Dominicans, everybody comes.
Speaker 6: Here and get they get they get funded, they get grants,
Speaker 6: everybody gets funded to do something, and nobody calls it
Speaker 6: a handout.
Speaker 3: Black people who were brought here and chained and shackle
Speaker 3: who have did labor for free here, who for four
Speaker 3: hundred years were stripped of everything that they own.
Speaker 1: We.
Speaker 2: Right, but it's all us. But I just want us
Speaker 2: to understand we have we have.
Speaker 3: Martin Luther King said that the best we are the
Speaker 3: only people have who have been who have been enslaved
Speaker 3: on American soil. We are the only people who have
Speaker 3: been stripped of our land, brought here with nothing and
Speaker 3: given absolutely nothing. But somehow they made us believe that
Speaker 3: they shouldn't give us nothing. And if we take something
Speaker 3: from this government that we pretty much built in America,
Speaker 3: that we built, that it's a handout, right like they
Speaker 3: made it to They're telling you they made us. This
Speaker 3: is the craziest, it's the most craziest shit in the world.
Speaker 2: They say, d I what you need something from them?
Speaker 2: For what do you mean they took our shit?
Speaker 3: They literally took everything from us, and they're not even
Speaker 3: giving us one percent of the shit that they owe us.
Speaker 3: And you make it seem like we we there's something
Speaker 3: wrong with us forgetting the shit that they took, like
Speaker 3: it doesn't even make sense. Only black people your only
Speaker 3: black people. You see people pontificating there on the internet.
Speaker 3: We don't need nothing from nobody, but the rich people
Speaker 3: need something from someone. The people that own this land,
Speaker 3: they getting all of the benefits. They getting the free shit,
Speaker 3: they getting the welfare, they getting the Social Security, they
Speaker 3: getting all of the stuff, they get the d I
Speaker 3: they figured the white women's figuring it. I'm gonna go
Speaker 3: and give me this d y'all. I'm gonna get this check.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna put this and make sure my son got it.
Speaker 3: And y'all want us to believe that every.
Speaker 1: Time you get the E.
Speaker 2: But what do you mean you're going, I'm gonna benefit
Speaker 2: of it?
Speaker 3: Right because I understand, I understand that these programs exist. Right,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go get like everybody else said, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: get the food stamps, I'm gonna get this and that,
Speaker 3: and they'll tell us. Oh man, you you want to
Speaker 3: hand out. You're looking for No, I'm not looking for
Speaker 3: a handout. I want to be able to benefit the
Speaker 3: same way everybody else's benefits because I'm gonna build my
Speaker 3: own ship. But they have benefits that we can get
Speaker 3: because these rich people is getting the benefits. They getting
Speaker 3: free housing, they getting They telling their daughter and the wife,
Speaker 3: you don't need to go over there and get that
Speaker 3: free stuff over there.
Speaker 1: They're telling them to get m w B.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the white woman becomes her husband is the construction owner,
Speaker 4: but the white woman will put it in her name
Speaker 4: so that it can be under a minority women business.
Speaker 3: They figured out how to beat the system. It's just
Speaker 3: like what Donald Trump said, y'all created the system. I
Speaker 3: ain't paying taxes because why should I. Y'all got the
Speaker 3: system there, y'all know the same way y'all get. Why
Speaker 3: do black people think that they're not supposed to figure
Speaker 3: out how to benefit off the system. Why do they
Speaker 3: make us believe that we shouldn't be able to capitalize
Speaker 3: off the shit that's there for us to capitalize.
Speaker 2: Why do you make me think that.
Speaker 3: If I tell a young boys growing up in the community,
Speaker 3: he worked hard. He went to school, he did this,
Speaker 3: and he studied, and now he wants to work at
Speaker 3: a job and they have a diversity, equity inclusion. He
Speaker 3: goes there, he's looking.
Speaker 2: For a hand out.
Speaker 3: He studied his whole life to go to that school.
Speaker 3: He studied his whole life to get that job. Everybody
Speaker 3: is not an entrepreneur. Everybody ain't gonna do the same shit.
Speaker 3: So trying to make people feel like they are not
Speaker 3: worthy or they're somehow weaker because they want to be
Speaker 3: able to get the resources that are afforded to them
Speaker 3: in America as black people. It's crazy to me. And
Speaker 3: this is the reason why. This is the reason why
Speaker 3: we're still in the same reason, while we still only
Speaker 3: represent two percent of the wealth, everybody keep having we
Speaker 3: got we got so many people who talk about how
Speaker 3: we can do this, and we need to be doing
Speaker 3: this for own we you know, everybody else is figuring
Speaker 3: out They come in here and they getting the resources
Speaker 3: and they getting three and four stores. Right, we ain't
Speaker 3: figuring out how to get the grants in our community
Speaker 3: because y'all made the people think it's a handout or
Speaker 3: I don't want that. Bottom line is there's a certain
Speaker 3: way that you can save your money. That's the bottom line.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm trying to tell you, because that's what
Speaker 3: they do. They figure out how to save their money.
Speaker 3: They get they get housing, they get welfare, they get
Speaker 3: food stamps, and they make their money and they put
Speaker 3: their check in the draw and they stack it up
Speaker 3: until they're able to buy a house. Like people, this
Speaker 3: is what this is what everybody else is doing. We
Speaker 3: the only one that's not doing it.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't say we don't do it. I think it's
Speaker 4: very and zero you know, zero sum or get absolutes
Speaker 4: we shouldn't do because I don't think that we don't
Speaker 4: do it.
Speaker 2: I think for the most we have nothing.
Speaker 1: But we could.
Speaker 4: We can look at how to take the conscious like
Speaker 4: for instance, in these different places where you have anti
Speaker 4: violence groups and otherwise getting you know that can apply
Speaker 4: for contracts.
Speaker 1: We need to do that.
Speaker 4: We need to get the contracts to do the anti
Speaker 4: violence work or to open up youth services, food services
Speaker 4: and all of that, and not feel bad because we
Speaker 4: got a contract from the city, or even because we
Speaker 4: got food stamps or medicaid or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 4: But I do understand why the stigma has been attached
Speaker 4: to it, not just from us, It's not all just
Speaker 4: black people. There's a stigma that has been attached to
Speaker 4: these things in the world.
Speaker 1: Woah.
Speaker 2: But I'm trying to I hear what you're saying.
Speaker 3: I don't believe that the stigma has been attached to
Speaker 3: it because everybody else is capitalized.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm saying for black people, and it's not only
Speaker 4: us that.
Speaker 3: And that's the problem. They put the stigma on it
Speaker 3: for us. They don't put the stigma on it for
Speaker 3: nobody else. There's nobody else there's stigmatized by that. So
Speaker 3: my thing is, I don't get it. And when we
Speaker 3: wake up and we figure out how do we benefit
Speaker 3: off this system that has benefited us for us for years,
Speaker 3: while we're still doing whatever else we need to be
Speaker 3: doing at the same time for centuries exactly, and while
Speaker 3: we're still building and calculating and then figuring out how we
Speaker 3: build our own business. But we capitalize all of the
Speaker 3: things that's old to us, then we're gonna get a
Speaker 3: lot further. Until then, we're gonna keep having the same
Speaker 3: conversation that we've been having for the last one hundred years.
Speaker 3: I hear that and with that said, that brings us
Speaker 3: to the end of another episode. Shout out to Hendrick
Speaker 3: McBride and McBride's stories. Dope, brother man, keep doing what
Speaker 3: you're doing. Look, my book is now in the HBCU.
Speaker 1: So very happy for you. Happy you deserve that to meet.
Speaker 3: This book is out too, so make sure that you
Speaker 3: go get that. I live to tell the story. It
Speaker 3: is her memoir. It might bring a tears to us,
Speaker 3: because it's bringing tears to a lot of eyes, so
Speaker 3: make sure you get that. So make sure that you
Speaker 3: follow us at TMI Show PC on YouTube and tm
Speaker 3: my Underscore Show on Instagram.
Speaker 2: Please follow us, keep us.
Speaker 3: Being the number one podcast in the world, the number
Speaker 3: one podcast in the world.
Speaker 2: We got this.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna always to me, it's not gonna always
Speaker 3: be wrong, but we will both always and I mean always,
Speaker 3: be authentic.
Speaker 1: Salute.
Speaker 3: That's how we own it.