Speaker 1: Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
Speaker 1: I'm your host Colen Witt, and today we have very
Speaker 1: special guests in the building, recording artists actor. Most of
Speaker 1: us all know you from your multi platinum selling group
Speaker 1: B two K. Yes, ma'am, it is an honor to
Speaker 1: have you here today.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I appreciate you having me.
Speaker 1: Tell me what you're gonna have me eating today.
Speaker 2: All right, so today we're gonna take the famous Freedo
Speaker 2: Lai bag, Fredo's original corn chips, and we're gonna pop
Speaker 2: in a pot some hornmale chili. Okay, We're gonna heat
Speaker 2: that joint up, and then we're gonna melt some cheese
Speaker 2: in there and we're gonna pour it into the Friedo bag.
Speaker 2: We're gonna mix it up, and we're gonna have chili
Speaker 2: cheese fritos.
Speaker 1: This sounds really dope. I've never ever had this, So
Speaker 1: I was you heard me. I was really excited. I
Speaker 1: was like, wait, what, Yeah, that's what we're gonna go with.
Speaker 1: This sounds like something you'd eat like after school.
Speaker 2: Yo. So the way this came about was I used
Speaker 2: to me and my friends after school, we would always
Speaker 2: go to West Chuster Park so and just playball. It
Speaker 2: was an open gym there, so of course, you know,
Speaker 2: we didn't have no money. As kids, we have like
Speaker 2: some change in our pocket. And the ice cream trunk
Speaker 2: used to pull up and he would have these small
Speaker 2: bags of free thos and chili and cheese that he made.
Speaker 2: He would just dump a little bit in there and
Speaker 2: give us a plastic spoon. We mix it up like
Speaker 2: not your us.
Speaker 1: Oh so that's how okay, okay, I didn't even know that.
Speaker 1: I wonder if all the ice cream trugs so that
Speaker 1: I feel like in La that happens. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: know about New.
Speaker 2: York, but then you know, it transferred over to us.
Speaker 2: Leaving middle school to high school and stopping at seven eleven,
Speaker 2: getting the bag of Friedo's, opening it in the store
Speaker 2: and then hitting it with the chili and cheese instead
Speaker 2: of doing nacho chips, because then you get more chips
Speaker 2: in the bag, you know, so then you could get fancy.
Speaker 1: You're like kind of big too, Yeah.
Speaker 2: You could get fancy after seven elevens through some jalapenos
Speaker 2: on there too, you know what I'm saying. And then
Speaker 2: they just charged you like a dollar for the Chilian cheese.
Speaker 1: Oh really, okay, I thought you guys were like kind
Speaker 1: of sneaking it.
Speaker 2: I mean yeah, it was the initial thing, you know.
Speaker 1: Then they were like, no, kids, you're gonna pay a dollar. Okay,
Speaker 1: we'll go ahead and whip up this chili.
Speaker 2: Start.
Speaker 1: What do you call this, Freddy Freedom?
Speaker 2: My name is the Freedo Bang.
Speaker 1: The Freedo Bang.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, because you whip Freedo up with little shebang,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. So it's the Freedo Bang. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Teachers.
Speaker 2: Teachers were gonna pop open this can of chili right now.
Speaker 1: You don't add any seasoning or anything.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you really want to get fancy like that.
Speaker 2: But we're talking about being broke. So when you broke,
Speaker 2: you ain't got no seasons, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: You gotta work with what you got.
Speaker 1: How'd you find the can of chili? How'd you get
Speaker 1: onto that?
Speaker 2: Well, it was down the street from my house. I
Speaker 2: stayed on Slosson and uh it was a grocery store
Speaker 2: down the street called the Bootle Market. It's still there
Speaker 2: in the Booto Market. This was the chili they gave us.
Speaker 2: You know what, I'm saying, this is our options chili.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna take a little bit of this water.
Speaker 1: And you're fron You're an l A native, right, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Well I was born in New Orleans, so
Speaker 2: I got got creole winding. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I could really throw down. We was really cooking, and
Speaker 2: we wasn't no no broke. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I can make some real real fire up in here.
Speaker 1: But so if you didn't have to cook a broke
Speaker 1: this what dish could I expect from a good Like
Speaker 1: if you were trying to impress me, like, what would
Speaker 1: you do to what meal would you cook for me?
Speaker 2: Well? First I would ask do you are.
Speaker 1: You allergic to anything?
Speaker 2: Nothing? Okay? Do you like spicy food?
Speaker 1: Not really?
Speaker 2: Not really okay? So I would probably bless you with like.
Speaker 1: Some bless you are you in the kitchen?
Speaker 2: Okay? I would bless you with some chicken and shrimp
Speaker 2: pasta jumbalie.
Speaker 1: How long would that take you to cook?
Speaker 2: I'm quick, so I probably fixed that up in like
Speaker 2: an hour.
Speaker 1: No way, damn. We should have had a special addition
Speaker 1: for you. So take me back to what was going
Speaker 1: on during this era, like take me all the way
Speaker 1: there so I could be there with you during this
Speaker 1: broke here in middle school? High school? What's going on?
Speaker 2: Say mostly middle school? High school is early be two
Speaker 2: k you know, so I was on the road at
Speaker 2: that time. But high middle school, you know, I would
Speaker 2: catch the bus home. Like I said, I stayed right
Speaker 2: there off Slusson in like over heal, so right there.
Speaker 2: I mean we used to have Ye's Cafe, I mean
Speaker 2: Ye's Chinese restaurant. We had Sachi's karaoke, Tariokey chicken bowls,
Speaker 2: we had another little Mexican restaurant right there.
Speaker 1: But you know, what was your home life was like?
Speaker 1: Was it like a single mom? Two parents house, single mom?
Speaker 1: And then what did your mom do she like as
Speaker 1: far as work and how did she support y'all?
Speaker 2: She canceled counseled at a junior college West Los Angeles
Speaker 2: community House. She's a counselor up there. Well she was.
Speaker 2: She retired. But man, I got so many kids that
Speaker 2: used to see me and would be like, yo, your
Speaker 2: little fizz, And I'm like, yeah, they will be like, man,
Speaker 2: I know your mom, Like he helped me through school.
Speaker 2: Tell miss Frederick, I said, thank you like, Yeah, so
Speaker 2: I used to be like, man, my mom's more famous
Speaker 2: in the hood than me, because literally, like everybody that
Speaker 2: knew me knew my mom. Everybody was going to that school.
Speaker 2: See what was bubbling warm? Okay, that's like you know,
Speaker 2: what's heating up? See that little smoke coming off of it.
Speaker 1: So the kids in school they would call you a
Speaker 1: little fits. So your name was little Fitz.
Speaker 2: Before I got the name in the group.
Speaker 1: But you're saying, after you was superstar B two K,
Speaker 1: they were still coming up to you about your mom. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2: Yes, Still to this day, I'll see people like, man,
Speaker 2: your mom helped me through school. Man, if it wasn't
Speaker 2: for her, I wouldn't have went to this school and
Speaker 2: started working here. Yeah, she put a lot of.
Speaker 1: People on like, so she was like very inspiring.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she was a counselor. Then she became head of
Speaker 2: a transfer center, so she started helping kids figure out,
Speaker 2: you know, all the credits and everything they needed to
Speaker 2: get to their desire university.
Speaker 1: Wow. And then did you have sip? It was just
Speaker 1: you my older sister. Okay, So did you guys grow
Speaker 1: up with her busy busy? Because a lot of single moms.
Speaker 1: I'm hearing that like barely.
Speaker 2: My older sister, she's seven years older, so she played
Speaker 2: a big role in my life most of the time.
Speaker 2: I can remember in elementary school my mom was working
Speaker 2: graen yard shift for some computer computer company, and uh,
Speaker 2: it would be me and my sister. I would come home.
Speaker 2: Times have changed, man, I would come home from the
Speaker 2: bus in the second grade by myself wow, and do stuff.
Speaker 1: Like this really, Like, so you learned learn how to
Speaker 1: cook like simple meals early, yeah, super early, second grade ten?
Speaker 2: How old is it was making all of that super early?
Speaker 2: But like I said, my family was from New Orleans,
Speaker 2: so I had an uncle who showed me how to
Speaker 2: chop up green onions. Take some uh some hot sausage
Speaker 2: cut up, put some a couple of empowdered garlic powder,
Speaker 2: some garlic clothes. Cut those up and put it in
Speaker 2: the in the noodles, and that'd be tasting like a
Speaker 2: whole different. It ain't regular top raman. You know.
Speaker 1: That's how you did your raman.
Speaker 2: What crack, what fire man?
Speaker 1: We should have had you a damn You could do
Speaker 1: your own eating while broke special So you started with
Speaker 1: B two K kind of early So take me through, Like,
Speaker 1: I guess how that transition happened from being raising a
Speaker 1: single mom, you know, household with an older sibling that's
Speaker 1: seven years older to you, kind of getting signed right
Speaker 1: out of high school or I'm guessing during high school.
Speaker 2: In high school during our ninth grade year actually ninth grade?
Speaker 1: Yeah, what were you doing as a kid?
Speaker 2: I didn't finish the full ninth grade year. I checked
Speaker 2: out and started doing independent studies.
Speaker 1: So what were you doing that led to a record
Speaker 1: deal on the ninth grade? I have to know what
Speaker 1: you were doing when your mom wasn't watching you.
Speaker 3: Well, we were being rehearsal a lot, you know, as
Speaker 3: a group, we were together in studio sessions, rehearsals mostly
Speaker 3: mostly rehearsal and.
Speaker 2: Performing for different labels.
Speaker 1: So while you were a little kid, though, but who
Speaker 1: was helping you guide you when you're a little kid,
Speaker 1: Like obviously you didn't Just like how I need to
Speaker 1: know how this group came together because I'm so lost.
Speaker 1: You were so young?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was young. I was eight years old when
Speaker 2: I joined the group.
Speaker 1: Was it like you and your friends?
Speaker 2: It was me actually, uh, friend of mine still to
Speaker 2: this day, Jane Aiko's older brother, his name Jahi. He
Speaker 2: was in the group. It was me and him were
Speaker 2: more of the original like first two. We went through
Speaker 2: a lot of different members until it got to me, Jahi,
Speaker 2: this other guy Trey, and Bull and Rats and that
Speaker 2: group got split up because Sony wanted to sign us,
Speaker 2: but they wanted to sign just us three with another
Speaker 2: member and take the other two Jahi and Trey and
Speaker 2: put them in another group, which became Final Four.
Speaker 1: But how did you guys get in front of the
Speaker 1: labels at that age?
Speaker 2: We had management that was that had originally put the
Speaker 2: group together, you know, was finding all the members. A
Speaker 2: lady by the name Akisha Gamble and choreographer Dave Scott.
Speaker 2: They found us in all different places. I was at
Speaker 2: a Black HICs Black Expo downtown LA and my mom
Speaker 2: took me down there as a kid, and there was
Speaker 2: this group on stage and I was looking at him.
Speaker 2: I was really into ABC Criss Cross at that and
Speaker 2: they had on like the big jerseys and the baggy jeans,
Speaker 2: and I was like, oh, they looked tight. And then
Speaker 2: we walked off and this lady came chasing behind my mom.
Speaker 2: She's excuse me, your son is so adorable. What's his name?
Speaker 2: She started talking to me and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm Drew and she was like, do you sing a
Speaker 2: rapp And I'm like, yeah, I rap and she's like,
Speaker 2: oh okay, and my mom's looking like you rap? What's
Speaker 2: going on? So she called my mom uh later on
Speaker 2: that week and invited me over to one of the
Speaker 2: group members' houses what happened to be Jahiaiko's older brother
Speaker 2: and audition. I rapped and they liked it. They put
Speaker 2: me in a group. I was hey, wow, and yeah,
Speaker 2: we just from that point we got a lot of
Speaker 2: working you know, learning how to be an artist, rehearsals,
Speaker 2: media training, and from there the group just kept developing.
Speaker 2: Different members would come in and out, you know, things
Speaker 2: weren't happening in the time spend that certain parents were
Speaker 2: looking forward to happen for their kids, so they would
Speaker 2: take them out the group. We find a replacement, and
Speaker 2: that's how it all like formed to the five members
Speaker 2: and then split to B two K and final four.
Speaker 1: Okay, and then what was your mom's thoughts during this
Speaker 1: whole process? Oh?
Speaker 2: My mom was like, yo, like, don't have your heart
Speaker 2: set on this, you know, she wanted me to finish
Speaker 2: school and live a normal life, you know, live a
Speaker 2: normal grow up in the normal how normal kids do.
Speaker 2: She didn't really see it. Between the four of us,
Speaker 2: we had an idea on what this was really going
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 1: Like you were you personally were really invested.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all four of us four, you know, we were
Speaker 2: destined on getting in to where we saw ourselves. And
Speaker 2: I was being the biggest group in America.
Speaker 1: So and you saw that from a young age. And
Speaker 1: did you tell your mom that?
Speaker 2: Yep? And she wanted to take me out the group
Speaker 2: at a time and I was like, no, not not, Nope,
Speaker 2: this is happening. And she was like, but you don't
Speaker 2: want to give up on your you know, I want
Speaker 2: to play basketball. I wanted to do the you know,
Speaker 2: sports things. She just felt bad. She was like, I
Speaker 2: don't want to you know, discourage you or anything, but
Speaker 2: I still want you to have your you know, your childhood.
Speaker 2: Like prom he didn't come in graduating from high school.
Speaker 2: So when it happened, I just promised her that I
Speaker 2: would finish school. So I finished high school. I graduated
Speaker 2: from independent studies, but I graduated, got my degree, and
Speaker 2: it just worked. It worked. How I've seen it.
Speaker 1: But did you ever end up going to like prom
Speaker 1: and all the high schools?
Speaker 2: So we did an MTV prom or something, but it
Speaker 2: wasn't like a real problem.
Speaker 1: Okay, do you feel like, looking back that you missed
Speaker 1: out or.
Speaker 2: Not that I missed out because I got to experience.
Speaker 1: With, oh watch out that bad boys hot.
Speaker 2: Okay, I got to experience with you know, nine percent
Speaker 2: of the world.
Speaker 1: So I'm sure you were touring at a very baby age, right.
Speaker 2: So no, I don't regret it. But you know, now
Speaker 2: that I'm like, my on is here, I'm like, nah,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't let him do this, you know, I wouldn't
Speaker 2: do entertainment unless it just was God sent for him
Speaker 2: to do it. But I want him to have that
Speaker 2: normal child life, you know.
Speaker 1: So you kind of see now that you're a parent,
Speaker 1: like what your mom's perspective was.
Speaker 2: Sure, Wow, you don't ever see it as a kid,
Speaker 2: you know. Yeah, So this this this chili cheese ready ready?
Speaker 1: So I opened the bag. So guys, just so you
Speaker 1: listeners are listening, he heated up the chili in the
Speaker 1: pot through some shredded cheese on top. We're opening the
Speaker 1: bag of Fredo's I've never had this, so this is going.
Speaker 1: It's very hot, and he's pouring it directly from the
Speaker 1: pot into the bag. He looks like a professional, like
Speaker 1: he's been doing this his whole life.
Speaker 2: Step five. You know what I'm saying, Take that blinky
Speaker 2: right there at them an up, got your fork right
Speaker 2: there ready, yep, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're feeling in a
Speaker 2: bag right there. You know it's oh yeah, that's that.
Speaker 2: That's that nikki right there. So when you get about here,
Speaker 2: you're gonna like start like, all right, I need some more,
Speaker 2: and then you can put more if you're not. If not,
Speaker 2: if you're done, you know, you can go back to it.
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, and we'll let you all see that.
Speaker 1: That looks really gooey and messy, and all right, here
Speaker 1: we go. I got my first I mean this, this
Speaker 1: looks crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, get ready, because you know, I don't know what
Speaker 2: this is doing to the stomach these days, saying as
Speaker 2: an adult, this might not agree with me. This is
Speaker 2: eating while broke.
Speaker 1: We got the bags rolled back just the way business
Speaker 1: teaching me how to do this. So I got it
Speaker 1: on my fork right here, steaming hot.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, let me get a little bit with you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Here we go for the taste test.
Speaker 2: Come on and we go.
Speaker 1: Oh there we go, ready one the three. Listen, How
Speaker 1: you still don't do this?
Speaker 2: How I still don't? You can't do this every day? Now?
Speaker 2: You know I'm not in.
Speaker 1: My age, no, no, but you know what the texture
Speaker 1: on this this is. This is awesome. The texture from
Speaker 1: the crunch and then the Melsey gooey and the hotness
Speaker 1: this is. I don't know why I didn't know about this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have to put you all on man, this
Speaker 2: is that got real, l A.
Speaker 1: I would be eating this every day, you feel me?
Speaker 1: All right, guys, I'm gonna stop eating in your ears,
Speaker 1: but this is I would kill this. This would be
Speaker 1: my everyday snack as a kid. That's highly addictive, really good.
Speaker 1: And by the way, this meal was like three dollars
Speaker 1: I think, like seriously, like three or four dollars cheap,
Speaker 1: like for multiple servings, Like it's like maybe five. But
Speaker 1: this is an amazing Yeah.
Speaker 2: Like you know, if my son is having a sleepover
Speaker 2: and his boys is over, they want a snack, I
Speaker 2: can get the little bags of the free doos make
Speaker 2: this bit yep and they're like, this is.
Speaker 1: Fire you like daddy other year off.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, you know, I got all the snacks.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you, this is a great snack. This
Speaker 1: is a great I don't even know appetizers, Like this
Speaker 1: is amazing. So now your your story is so unique
Speaker 1: because you're young and you literally went to the Promised Land,
Speaker 1: which was pretty impressive. So you're eight years old, you're
Speaker 1: you know, you end up signing in the ninth grade,
Speaker 1: So like let's talk about the signing day and what
Speaker 1: was going on in your life, like what your schedule
Speaker 1: was looking like, what your home life was looking like, Well,
Speaker 1: your pockets were looking like before the deal.
Speaker 2: So in high school, ninth grade at the time, I
Speaker 2: started school kindergarten at four years old, so in ninth
Speaker 2: grade I was thirteen. I was super young. My schedule
Speaker 2: was a normal kids school schedule. I played for the
Speaker 2: football team at the time, I was trying out for
Speaker 2: the basketball team. I made the team but didn't ever
Speaker 2: get to go to the first practice because I had
Speaker 2: to check out before then.
Speaker 1: Okay, but your schedule also included like rehearsals and trainings, right.
Speaker 2: Not as much while school was going on. More so
Speaker 2: on the weekends because yeah, we were in school. We
Speaker 2: hadn't checked out your ship. But prior to ninth grade
Speaker 2: starting and that summer, prior to ninth grade, we were
Speaker 2: together all the time.
Speaker 1: Did you guys go to the same high school?
Speaker 2: None of us.
Speaker 1: Now, did you tell your friends at school or your
Speaker 1: pears at school that you were doing this when they
Speaker 1: support it?
Speaker 2: When I came, I cause I went to Bishop Montgomery,
Speaker 2: so it was a Catholic school. We had uniforms. So
Speaker 2: I came to school one day in regular clothes. I
Speaker 2: was checking out and everybody was like, where are you going?
Speaker 2: Where you go? I was like, yeah, I'm leaving. I'm
Speaker 2: about to be famous. Like all right, what are you
Speaker 2: talking about. I'm like, yeah, I'm checking out. I'm about
Speaker 2: to be famous. So I just got a deal. No,
Speaker 2: I'm trying to be real cool. I used to wear
Speaker 2: a fake rolex with a tape on it holding it
Speaker 2: together and stuff, so it was fun, you know. I
Speaker 2: just I remember that though going there, and then we
Speaker 2: started to do like magazine covers and stuff like when
Speaker 2: word up was out, So then all of my peers
Speaker 2: and everybody at school was like, yo, you really are famous,
Speaker 2: Like you in this group. So they had a homecoming
Speaker 2: that year, a homecoming dance, and my boy that went
Speaker 2: to school with me, he made me a fake ID
Speaker 2: for Bishop and I went to the homecoming dance. And
Speaker 2: when I went there, it was like everybody was like, yo,
Speaker 2: oh my god, he's here. Like I was like, I
Speaker 2: remember that that was my highlight high school moment, Like yeah,
Speaker 2: it felt like I had was like prom king or
Speaker 2: something like, you know, everybody was just all lies on
Speaker 2: me at the school dance.
Speaker 1: That has been pretty incredible feeling now as because that
Speaker 1: was the first time and the only reason why I'm
Speaker 1: trying to find this out was that the first time
Speaker 1: this is before you're really really be two K. So
Speaker 1: this is like a the snippet of what your life
Speaker 1: is about to becoming.
Speaker 2: And you liked it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, So then what's the next milestone like between
Speaker 1: you being signed now you know you're getting these interviews,
Speaker 1: your people are starting, you're starting to get all this
Speaker 1: pr behind you, Like, what's the next milestone before before money,
Speaker 1: like more of the fame, Like what was that next transition?
Speaker 1: Like when did you realize Like, oh.
Speaker 2: Shit, I would think it was when we first heard
Speaker 2: our song on the radio. We were in New York
Speaker 2: and like Times Square and we were about to do
Speaker 2: one on six in Park for the first time.
Speaker 1: That's a big show at the time, I would have
Speaker 1: been and that's it was the car the song playing
Speaker 1: in the.
Speaker 2: Radio and on the radio in the car.
Speaker 1: It wasn't the one on six in Park.
Speaker 2: What And because it was like, Yo, we're actually on
Speaker 2: the radio. You know. That's like now it's like we
Speaker 2: got streaming absence and stuff, so it's not like anybody
Speaker 2: can go put that song on the app and you
Speaker 2: can hear it. Back then, to have your song on
Speaker 2: the radio, it was like you made it. You was like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, there the world is listening to us
Speaker 2: right now on the radio, you know. So that was
Speaker 2: just a big, a big accomplishment and the milestone for
Speaker 2: us for sure.
Speaker 1: Okay, and then the song what was the song at
Speaker 1: the time, because I know all your songs pretty much
Speaker 1: just blew up. I just remember beat Too Gay everywhere
Speaker 1: it was uh huh, okay, yeah, Tricky Stewart. So your
Speaker 1: songs playing on the radio, you're doing these interviews, you're
Speaker 1: no longer in school, you're still in high school, and
Speaker 1: your mom is she on the road with you or
Speaker 1: she letting you.
Speaker 2: No, we're on the road with road management, but she's
Speaker 2: calling you know, I'm making sure I do my parts.
Speaker 2: My mom was before she got the counseling job, she
Speaker 2: was a substitute teacher. She would sub in at different schools.
Speaker 2: So I never got a break like to just say,
Speaker 2: fuck it, I ain't doing homework today. What I'm saying
Speaker 2: it was like, did you do your work? What is it?
Speaker 2: Let me see it. So it was like, you know,
Speaker 2: school had to be done, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1: And then what are your pockets looking like during this
Speaker 1: rise to success?
Speaker 2: Well, we got our little advancement, which wasn't crazy. You know,
Speaker 2: most of it had to go into a trust account
Speaker 2: because we weren't eighteen, so I couldn't spend it like that.
Speaker 2: And I think the first little money I had, I
Speaker 2: might have had like five grand to really touch and
Speaker 2: I think I spent it all in the mall. In
Speaker 2: like two weeks, it was gone, those shoes, just everything
Speaker 2: you wanted. You know. It was like I got money, Now, two.
Speaker 1: Weeks it was gone. Did your mom know you blewing?
Speaker 1: In two weeks?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Nah? No, See, my mom gave me access to really
Speaker 2: control my own money, the money I could touch, you know.
Speaker 1: Oh, so she didn't touch it at all, she let it.
Speaker 1: Oh that's nice. A lot of parents don't do that.
Speaker 2: Nah. Nah. And sometimes I'd be like, I wish you
Speaker 2: would have took all my fucking money.
Speaker 1: Well, you know what, Now when you handle your money,
Speaker 1: do you handle it different?
Speaker 2: Because especially because I have a kid, you know, I
Speaker 2: always have to put something to the side for him.
Speaker 2: So when you know, whenever he's eighteen or something happened,
Speaker 2: you know, he's he's good.
Speaker 1: He's so don't caring. Yeah, yeah, I know that. Like
Speaker 1: now I feel way more parental responsibility after having a kid.
Speaker 1: I'm like, first of all, school tuition, priority over everything, okay,
Speaker 1: number one thing, you know. And now I'm like, okay
Speaker 1: for future, you know, generational wealth, house, whatever, you know. Trust.
Speaker 1: But luckily with social media, now I feel like, even
Speaker 1: if you're not really the genius at parenting, like social
Speaker 1: media will have like a thirty second snippet on how
Speaker 1: you should be operating, you know, right, how you should
Speaker 1: be handling your house and your real estate and your
Speaker 1: bank accounts for your kids. And if you say this,
Speaker 1: you see those snippets online.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well all the time, all the time.
Speaker 1: All right, So back to your story. So you you
Speaker 1: get your five thousand, that's your first taste of money
Speaker 1: while being popular. Right, then what's the next monthslone? Like,
Speaker 1: when do you do you blow up and actually have
Speaker 1: money a lot of money at the same time.
Speaker 2: No, because like we were still under eighteen. So, like
Speaker 2: I said, majority, I know, my money was going into
Speaker 2: a trust account, you know where I couldn't touch it
Speaker 2: till I was eighteen. However, really your parents worked, it
Speaker 2: was how you was you see your money. So I
Speaker 2: was maybe seeing only ten percent of my money.
Speaker 1: That I was getting good job, Mom, I was good.
Speaker 2: I wasn't seeing a lot.
Speaker 1: So but then what happened when you turned eighteen?
Speaker 2: I ain't got my crib, pay my car off, the
Speaker 2: responsible stuff I should do at eighteen, you know. But
Speaker 2: then from there it was like figuring it all out
Speaker 2: again because I wasn't doing the nine to five. I
Speaker 2: did check back into school because Mom she was still
Speaker 2: at the junior college. So I was like, I think
Speaker 2: I was maybe like twenty four and I checked back
Speaker 2: into school for like a year.
Speaker 1: But where was B two K when you were twenty four,
Speaker 1: like I was.
Speaker 2: We were broken up before we turned eighteen. We broke up,
Speaker 2: oh before you before I turned eighteen. Yeah, we broke
Speaker 2: up when I was seventeen.
Speaker 1: Really, but so when we was watching you on TV
Speaker 1: and all that, you was a little kid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was from thirteen to seventeen.
Speaker 1: What it's so weird because I think maybe because I
Speaker 1: was younger, I felt like maybe you were older or something.
Speaker 2: No, thirteen to seventeen, and then love and Hip Hop
Speaker 2: came about twenty fourteen. By that time, I was going
Speaker 2: on thirty.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, so you're in the so the band gets dismembered,
Speaker 1: you go back to regular life. But is regular life
Speaker 1: normal for someone that is a super star? Well no, yeah,
Speaker 1: So tell me how that was that transition tough.
Speaker 2: I would say not. I didn't. It wasn't tough for
Speaker 2: me because I'm an introvert. I already don't like to
Speaker 2: be out, so I'd rather stay in the house. So
Speaker 2: I was just very secluded most of the time. It
Speaker 2: wasn't until I had my son when I was twenty
Speaker 2: four that I like started to step out again. And
Speaker 2: you know, I have to play the parent roles. So
Speaker 2: now I'm meeting other kids, parents and talking and being
Speaker 2: more social and out. So that's what got me out
Speaker 2: of like Michelle was having my son.
Speaker 1: But when the band justmembered, did you say you're gonna
Speaker 1: stay in music or did you say we tried?
Speaker 2: I tried, but it was just so much politics and
Speaker 2: people that we were dealing with that keeping certain things
Speaker 2: in place to where we couldn't really do much. So
Speaker 2: I tried to do what I could, but yeah, it
Speaker 2: wasn't much.
Speaker 1: Did you end up trying to get a job or open, No.
Speaker 2: I was never going to get a job.
Speaker 1: That was never good.
Speaker 2: I was not a Nope. I'm like, no, I'm fizzed.
Speaker 2: I'm not getting no job. I'm gonna figure it out.
Speaker 1: What did your mom say when you were saying that, She.
Speaker 2: Just told me keep going. She pushed the dream.
Speaker 1: You know, how did you survive? I guess from now
Speaker 1: from that point, I mean before loving hip hop.
Speaker 2: So before hip hop so eighteen to twenty four when
Speaker 2: I was eighteen. Now you're about to get a breakthrough
Speaker 2: story nobody ever really got. That's what I.
Speaker 1: Help me, help me, help you help me, but help me, Yes,
Speaker 1: tell me.
Speaker 2: I did some. I did some smart things, you know,
Speaker 2: win my money. But prior in those years, I started
Speaker 2: a business. I had a cannabis dispensary. I had dispensaries,
Speaker 2: uh that whole time and even past that time. Uh,
Speaker 2: but yeah, that was my main source of income. I
Speaker 2: had met a guy who really knew the business inside
Speaker 2: and out, and we were neighbors, and I had a
Speaker 2: little bit of money, and I was like, yo, I
Speaker 2: smoked at the time, still do. And I was like, yo,
Speaker 2: I want to start one of these, Like what like
Speaker 2: what is this? And he started showing me the ropes
Speaker 2: and everything. So we opened one together. It was just ye,
Speaker 2: this was two thousand and six. I opened my first shop.
Speaker 2: It was downtown to lay me and him. We had
Speaker 2: that one for about a year and maybe two years,
Speaker 2: and then opened another and another And you.
Speaker 1: Guys were you guys? Was he a part black too?
Speaker 2: Or was it was a Jewish guy?
Speaker 1: Oh, Jewish guy. I was gonna say. Because the cannabis industry,
Speaker 1: there's rumors on the street that it's notorious a little
Speaker 1: bit slanted away from the blacks, like to get their
Speaker 1: licensing and being able.
Speaker 2: To know the stories that came in place, like you
Speaker 2: have the it's a license that's available for people who
Speaker 2: have been to jail for selling marijuana or traffic in marijuana.
Speaker 2: Yeah that I forget what it's called. Man, it's been.
Speaker 1: So long, but there is there is a system that
Speaker 1: helps to get them, Okay. Yeah, because I remember thinking
Speaker 1: at some point, like, man, you got to think of
Speaker 1: how many people are doing this before it became legal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all their experience and to my situations for sure,
Speaker 2: because you know, I mean it came out in what
Speaker 2: two thousand and twelve, one shop I have for like,
Speaker 2: I had it for like three four years. It was
Speaker 2: on Robertson. It was called Little Amsterdam. Sold it to
Speaker 2: these other guys and they never took It's part of
Speaker 2: my fault. I never got the least out of my name.
Speaker 2: So when the city came down on them and raided
Speaker 2: them and everything came back on me because the building
Speaker 2: was in my name.
Speaker 1: Oh wow.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it was all on TMZ and everything. Little
Speaker 2: Fizz caught selling marijuana. I'm like Jesus Christy, Yeah, but yeah,
Speaker 2: that was that was mainly what I was doing for.
Speaker 1: So you were on and you were you weren't just
Speaker 1: an investor like you were hands on yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. People will see me in the shops like, bro,
Speaker 2: what you're doing in here? Yoh you the plug? I'm no, man,
Speaker 2: it's a business. They didn't see it like that back then.
Speaker 2: Like now you see it and you see it and
Speaker 2: you respect it as a real business. You know. Back
Speaker 2: then it was like everybody felt like I was just trapping.
Speaker 2: But I'm like, man, I'm putting money into this, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. Like I went and got sellers,
Speaker 2: promounced things with my name, wanting that let you know
Speaker 2: I was really doing it, you know, aside from not
Speaker 2: being able to have a business license per se. But
Speaker 2: I was still trying to do it as legal as
Speaker 2: I could. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And is there a reason why the life expectancy on
Speaker 1: those business was To me, they sound a little short
Speaker 1: because it's like you said, one year or four.
Speaker 2: Years, or because at that time it had no federal guidelines.
Speaker 2: It was legal with state but not federally. So once
Speaker 2: you got too big, like I remember when a shop
Speaker 2: I had downtown got so big, I got a letter
Speaker 2: from the US attorney telling me to close or they
Speaker 2: were going to send the DA and in two weeks
Speaker 2: to raise me.
Speaker 1: What so I thought, But I thought it's still not
Speaker 1: legal on a federal level because I heard that that's
Speaker 1: why those shops can't have bank accounts.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, so many loopholes in it. Now I'm out
Speaker 2: of it.
Speaker 1: Now, Okay, what made you end up closing up shop?
Speaker 1: And then I have to know anytime an entrepreneur walks
Speaker 1: away from a business or industry, you have to wonder,
Speaker 1: like what happened?
Speaker 2: It was time and I think, you know, God put
Speaker 2: certain things in place for me to see and say,
Speaker 2: you know it's time to move on. You're not the
Speaker 2: answer you're looking for.
Speaker 1: No, I would say this. Okay, a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't know this. I may have said it on the
Speaker 1: show a couple of times, but other guests that have
Speaker 1: participated in this activity. But during the pandemic, I was
Speaker 1: like freaking out and my business. I have a corporate
Speaker 1: events company, and my business it was a pandemic. It
Speaker 1: got annihilated in minutes, like it was like end of
Speaker 1: my business instantly. And so I saw a lot of
Speaker 1: the people Weed was like selling like crazy. So I
Speaker 1: invested in Weed and then it was like going good.
Speaker 1: And then we took a little bit of a legal turn,
Speaker 1: and then I was like oh that a legal urn
Speaker 1: may not so I try to pull out and I
Speaker 1: still ended up losing a lot of money. I lost
Speaker 1: a crazy amount of money, but most of it was
Speaker 1: the profit that I was profit. I was just like
Speaker 1: kind of letting it set so I didn't personally lose
Speaker 1: as much as I lost my games. But it was
Speaker 1: going good. And then it took like I said, it
Speaker 1: took a little legal, illegal turn and then I was like, uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't think and it ended up
Speaker 1: not ending well. I ended up losing all my money.
Speaker 1: So just so you know, I've played and I got
Speaker 1: out and that was my lesson. And let me tell
Speaker 1: you something. The other people didn't get out as soon
Speaker 1: as me and I promised you they was done for
Speaker 1: good after that. They was like, I'm never touching that
Speaker 1: industry cause it's very there's rules, and then it's so
Speaker 1: easy to like fracture it or whatever. It just gets
Speaker 1: a little. Yeah. So that's why I was out. But
Speaker 1: I was only in for like probably like a year.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I was quick, man.
Speaker 1: I was nervous the whole time. And I was like investor,
Speaker 1: way back here, way back here.
Speaker 2: So imagine being hands on over ten years.
Speaker 1: Well, I will tell you this. The stuff I was doing.
Speaker 1: I can say this because nobody's ever gonna but some
Speaker 1: of the stuff I was doing was a little illegal.
Speaker 1: But during the pandemic, I would fly look over at
Speaker 1: the cameras like do you want to say that? I
Speaker 1: would fly money, not over over on the airplanes or whatever.
Speaker 1: But now I you know, I travel. When I had
Speaker 1: a baby, I realized when you travel with breast milk,
Speaker 1: they test everything. And I realized later like that was
Speaker 1: very dangerous to fly with money, because you know weed,
Speaker 1: money has like we smell.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was during I promise that people don't know
Speaker 4: me know that.
Speaker 1: I was like, yo, I'm getting on this plane and
Speaker 1: I would you know, I would be nervous as hell.
Speaker 1: But I never flew with like nothing crazy like one
Speaker 1: hundred k, but it was it was still enough to
Speaker 1: be like, you know. But then I had a baby
Speaker 1: and I realized that I was an idiot because with
Speaker 1: a baby, they like test your breastmoke. They're like all
Speaker 1: like swabbing everything, swabbing the child. I'm like, yo, only
Speaker 1: they knew like before the breast smoke, you know, and
Speaker 1: if they would have done that, I would have, we
Speaker 1: would not be sitting here right now. But yeah, no,
Speaker 1: that's why I got out, just so you know, sideon
Speaker 1: all right, So anyways, you do this business, you exit
Speaker 1: the last oh.
Speaker 2: For the minorities and the people that do want to
Speaker 2: try to get in. It's called social equity license. Oh
Speaker 2: really yeah, social equity license. So if you look into it,
Speaker 2: you can you know, I don't know if they're still
Speaker 2: doing no more, if they're still available to apply for it,
Speaker 2: but that's what it was.
Speaker 1: So if you have like a beard to entry, you
Speaker 1: can go there and they'll help you get the license.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you gotta go down to the city City Hall.
Speaker 1: Social equity license. Thanks for remembering that. So after your
Speaker 1: entrepreneurial thing is that when hip hop, love and hip
Speaker 1: hop enters the scene.
Speaker 2: When what love and hip hop enters is when what
Speaker 2: you said.
Speaker 1: When you're exiting, because you said there was no space where.
Speaker 2: You were still still there.
Speaker 1: Oh you were still there.
Speaker 2: I didn't. I didn't fully get out till twenty eighteen,
Speaker 2: and I had a whole case.
Speaker 1: So that was right before the pandemic. Yeah you said
Speaker 1: you had a whole what case?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have my lawyers and everybody did a great
Speaker 2: job at keeping that, you know, keeping that off off
Speaker 2: the news and blogs, because I really did that was
Speaker 2: I was. I was in court the whole time I
Speaker 2: was on tour, the reunion tour. Oh really, yeah, yeah
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, so B two Kate was back. So you
Speaker 1: were investing in these business, You were doing this business,
Speaker 1: but you ended up going back to beat You guys
Speaker 1: reunited for the.
Speaker 2: Were reunited in twenty nineteen. So summer eighteen is when
Speaker 2: I had my whole situation happened, and twenty nineteen is
Speaker 2: when I started going to court for it. And I
Speaker 2: was in court for like a year.
Speaker 1: Ok.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So every time I'm on stage, I'm like, am
Speaker 2: I going to jail tomorrow? Hold on?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 2: So my dad's move is like faint, like this might
Speaker 2: be my last show.
Speaker 1: But and you weren't a dad at the time yet, right.
Speaker 2: Yes you were, Yeah, my son was nine years old.
Speaker 1: You were really like stressed, yeah during the reunion. But
Speaker 1: you're now at this point, you're also generating money from
Speaker 1: the tour, and I'm sure that's going to.
Speaker 2: Court court yep, yep, lowyer all that.
Speaker 1: Dang, So what are your pockets looking like during that era.
Speaker 2: Still good, Still good. Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know
Speaker 2: I had a lot going on from TV, the shops.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you're also good at managing money at
Speaker 1: this point.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So I wouldn't say I would like, I
Speaker 2: have never really.
Speaker 1: Went broke after after that age. You never went broke.
Speaker 2: Again after sh I never really went bro thank god.
Speaker 2: But no, I mean there's there's still struggles, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, there's still struggles, and there's there's just
Speaker 2: like you said, it's being smart. It's knowing when to
Speaker 2: to start trimming down, you know, trimming the fact. You know,
Speaker 2: if there's bills that are over here that are necessarily
Speaker 2: you got to cut them off. You know, can't go
Speaker 2: out to go to eat at mass Stros every weekend,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, You got to scale back,
Speaker 2: cook at home, you know what I mean. So it's
Speaker 2: just all about being conscious of where you are, you know,
Speaker 2: and where you can go, you know, not living beyond
Speaker 2: your means. So I would say in the group, you know,
Speaker 2: we did a lot of that to where if it
Speaker 2: wasn't for me having money put up like I did
Speaker 2: in my trust, you know, I could have been back
Speaker 2: out here broke like that not knowing where to go
Speaker 2: or being able to take the risk that I've taken.
Speaker 1: So were you the youngest member in the group. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's hard sometimes when you're that young
Speaker 1: and you get exposed to money. I feel like there
Speaker 1: could be a double edged sword where you end up
Speaker 1: never really understanding how money works because you're used to
Speaker 1: it coming and then maybe disappearing and coming, and it's
Speaker 1: in lump sums versus like little.
Speaker 2: Well see, my mindset was I was getting the little
Speaker 2: increments and all the money was going in the trust.
Speaker 2: Then the group broke up and it was broken up
Speaker 2: for a few months and my trust open. Now it
Speaker 2: was okay, I have money, but I don't have this group.
Speaker 2: So what am I going to do? I have to invest.
Speaker 2: I have to make my money work for me. So
Speaker 2: that that's when the conversation came with my neighbor and
Speaker 2: what we're doing with the shop, and can we open it?
Speaker 2: Can I get in? Can I be an investor? How
Speaker 2: does that look? What do I need to do? So
Speaker 2: it worked out for me.
Speaker 1: Very smart, very intuitive, natural entrepreneur.
Speaker 2: I would say thank you.
Speaker 1: So during so the twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, you have
Speaker 1: the reunion. Take me to the next milestone in your life.
Speaker 2: The next milestone would be, uh, coming off tour. It
Speaker 2: was funny because it's like, now I'm done with the
Speaker 2: whole cannabis business, right, and I'm coming off tour and
Speaker 2: I'm still in court. And after I would say maybe
Speaker 2: six months of being off the road, I had my
Speaker 2: sentencing and I got off with no jail time, gratefully,
Speaker 2: but I had probation and some work release, which is
Speaker 2: like community service, but like you know, working on the
Speaker 2: size of the freeway, chopping free. You had gotten island
Speaker 2: sweeping saying yeah, nice time doing that. So after that,
Speaker 2: once I was free of that and just had to
Speaker 2: deal with probation, I was figuring out, you know what's next.
Speaker 2: Obviously Loving hip Hop wasn't going on anymore? Oh said
Speaker 2: the pandemic.
Speaker 1: Okay, but you were at that point you had already
Speaker 1: taped it. You had taped at least one season of it.
Speaker 2: Of Love and Love and hip Hop started twenty fourteen. Oh,
Speaker 2: so you were all I had done seven seasons of
Speaker 2: Love and Hi. So in twenty twenty, when the pandemic
Speaker 2: was going on, twenty yeah, twenty twenty the pandemic was happening.
Speaker 2: I was trying to figure it out, but you know,
Speaker 2: everybody was in the house. So I just started kind
Speaker 2: of diving into everything from trying to figure out how
Speaker 2: to produce shows, acting more. I ended up filming a
Speaker 2: movie which is actually coming out next month, November twenty second.
Speaker 2: It's called Run Nixon. It'll be in AMC theaters.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I've seen it on your social media. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so Run Nixon.
Speaker 2: I did the movie, started acting more, learning how to produce.
Speaker 2: I actually produced on the movie as well. And I
Speaker 2: was still doing music here and there, filling it out
Speaker 2: more of like a hobby. And then I opened a restaurant.
Speaker 2: I had the opportunity to get to open a restaurant.
Speaker 1: This is before the pandemic.
Speaker 2: This is during the pandemic.
Speaker 1: During the pandemic. Yeah, oh my gosh, take me to that.
Speaker 2: So I a friend of mine, my lawyer, a friend
Speaker 2: of my lawyers had a restaurant. He had multiple restaurant
Speaker 2: and being at the pandemic had happened, he didn't want
Speaker 2: to close them all, but he had to trim down.
Speaker 2: So it was an opportunity for me to take over
Speaker 2: one of the restaurants, which I did. I rebranded it
Speaker 2: called it Druze Louisiana French Quarters. It was in Westwood,
Speaker 2: beautiful location, right by UCLA.
Speaker 1: And.
Speaker 2: I just kind of jumped in it, you know, Like
Speaker 2: I said, it was during the pandemic, so I jumped
Speaker 2: in it, like let's just see what it does. And
Speaker 2: early I had a lot of people coming in, but
Speaker 2: of course it slows down. It's a restaurant, you gotta like,
Speaker 2: it's so many different things that go into a restaurant
Speaker 2: with marketing and getting people to come in from Yelp reviews,
Speaker 2: and it's just a whole lot. So I'm going through
Speaker 2: it and trying to figure out how to make turnover
Speaker 2: a profit. Of course, in restaurant businesses, it doesn't happen
Speaker 2: like that. It takes at least a year or two to.
Speaker 1: Break even wow, or will even create that stability of
Speaker 1: understanding that flow.
Speaker 2: Right, And so my brain and working how it works
Speaker 2: like very fast and always trying to figure out the
Speaker 2: next idea or the next move to keep it going.
Speaker 2: When I opened the restaurant and I put the restaurant
Speaker 2: on grub Hub, uber each door Dash, I started seeing
Speaker 2: it like one of my dispensaries. So with the dispensaries,
Speaker 2: I would always promote and put my shops on weed Maps.
Speaker 2: Weed Maps is a website or an app that gives
Speaker 2: all the patients and customers access to where each of
Speaker 2: the shops are. And so how it works is you'll
Speaker 2: go to a certain region in your state and it'll
Speaker 2: show you all the shops in that region, and it's
Speaker 2: like a list. It looks like grub Hub or uber
Speaker 2: eats or door Dash. So when I'm on this and
Speaker 2: I got my restaurant on there, I said, I wonder
Speaker 2: if I could do something different with this. And at
Speaker 2: the time, I had seen something called ghost kitchens where
Speaker 2: people would create these virtual restaurants and only post it
Speaker 2: on grub Hub or uber Eats, and you would be
Speaker 2: able to order it through that, but you couldn't go
Speaker 2: to a physical location.
Speaker 1: Oh, I didn't even know that.
Speaker 2: So when I seen that, I said, that's how I
Speaker 2: do it. So I basically created five virtual restaurants. One
Speaker 2: was called La Soul Tacos. I had Trus Louisiana, of course,
Speaker 2: which was the actual standing restaurant. I had Maxwell's Polish Dogs.
Speaker 2: I had Veggie Buns, which was all vegetarian food, and
Speaker 2: then I had, uh, what was the last one?
Speaker 1: And you came up with all this on your own.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and damn what was the other restaurant? It was
Speaker 2: one more restaurant I had, Oh, uh, go Wings, now
Speaker 2: Wings stop go Wings. So I had those five restaurants
Speaker 2: and I had them all on grub Hub, door Dash,
Speaker 2: Uber Eats. Uh, what's the other one? Grubhub, door Dash,
Speaker 2: Uber eats, and.
Speaker 1: Door Dash.
Speaker 2: I said, door Dash, grub Hub, uber eats, and it's
Speaker 2: one more.
Speaker 1: Basically all the food apps.
Speaker 2: So I took all the food apps. I put all
Speaker 2: my restaurants.
Speaker 1: And these are all ghosts most of them. All four
Speaker 1: of them are ghost.
Speaker 2: Kitchens except one. So now not only are you going
Speaker 2: to these apps to order food, you're ordering from five
Speaker 2: of my restaurants. So now I'm not banking on one restaurant.
Speaker 2: I'm banking on on five different ones with five different.
Speaker 1: Foods, and then five different ghostly one location, but one location,
Speaker 1: but the ghost location could be anywhere, right, I mean
Speaker 1: like when they pull it up on the map, are
Speaker 1: they is it close to their house?
Speaker 2: The ghost location gives you an address to pick for
Speaker 2: the delivery drivers to pick the food up. They would
Speaker 2: come to Drus Louisiana.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: So instead of banking on Drews Louisiana to do what
Speaker 2: I needed to do, Now I'm getting five calls for
Speaker 2: this restaurant, twenty for this one, fifteen for this one.
Speaker 2: And it got to be so much that I overwhelmed myself.
Speaker 2: And now I'm in there helping the cooks cook myself. No. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, bro, I didn't sign up for this.
Speaker 2: Like it's a great ideas, doing what it's supposed to do,
Speaker 2: but this is a lot of work. I'm going to
Speaker 2: the restaurant depot buying, running out of this sour cream
Speaker 2: might about to be about to expire. And I got
Speaker 2: health department coming tomorrow, and I got to have everything
Speaker 2: in it in there with no expiration dates, all good
Speaker 2: expiration dates. I got to make sure the meats are frozen,
Speaker 2: the fishes frozen, it's in the freezer. This part, like,
Speaker 2: it was a lot to deal with. And I'm doing
Speaker 2: it do loo with a few employees. So building it up,
Speaker 2: building it up. It's getting better. But then the pandemic
Speaker 2: hit back again. We had the second rise and I
Speaker 2: was in the UCLA Health Building and they came down
Speaker 2: and were like, got to shut down the food in here. Why, Well,
Speaker 2: one thing was for sure, I didn't feel it. I
Speaker 2: felt a certain way about getting a vaccine, and a
Speaker 2: lot of my employees didn't want to get it. So
Speaker 2: being that we weren't vaccinated, they're like, y'all got to
Speaker 2: get out this building.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, but what an amazing Okay, I just have
Speaker 1: to highlight this pivot because my favorite person the interview
Speaker 1: on this show is entrepreneurs. Believe it or not, If
Speaker 1: choose between celebrities, influence and entrepreneurs, I'm all, I'm all
Speaker 1: about entrepreneurs. But your pivot game being hinted like taking
Speaker 1: over this business but figuring out a way to create
Speaker 1: more business and market it was simply outstandingly genius. Like
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take that and make it into a clip
Speaker 1: and send it to like, you know, hopefully restaurants everybody
Speaker 1: takes games because that is the most genius innovative thing
Speaker 1: I've ever heard. And even when you pay attention to
Speaker 1: the way, you didn't, I gotta highlight this. You chose
Speaker 1: different types of food, you chose wings, you chose veggies,
Speaker 1: Like you covered all the basics of and did you
Speaker 1: actually think about that, Like, yeah, covering all the that
Speaker 1: is because.
Speaker 2: Not everybody sea food, not everybody eats veggie food, not
Speaker 2: everybody's not impressed with your own works like this.
Speaker 1: But were you not sitting there, like I would have
Speaker 1: been called like, yess not much of a g I
Speaker 1: n look what I did, Like, you don't do that?
Speaker 2: No, I do that.
Speaker 1: If I have a simple hack and I feel like
Speaker 1: I like somehow crack the cold on geniusness, I would
Speaker 1: be texting all my friends like, yo, you'll never guess
Speaker 1: what I was able to accomplish. And you didn't do that,
Speaker 1: That's amazing. I'm the opposite. I wasn't fucking Billboard of
Speaker 1: the Year.
Speaker 2: I'd be right, my circles real small. And then it's
Speaker 2: like if my boys hit me and it's like, yo, man,
Speaker 2: what you're doing with this? This is super dope? Can
Speaker 2: I get in? I'm always yeah, come on.
Speaker 1: Wow, let's do it. But that was that. It was
Speaker 1: probably the most dopest pivot game I've ever seen. And
Speaker 1: it was during the pandemic. You really had to think
Speaker 1: out of the box. Some people will quit, believe it
Speaker 1: or not, a lot of people will quit under that
Speaker 1: type of pressure, and a lot of people wouldn't be
Speaker 1: running around, you know, trying to find the sour cream
Speaker 1: or whatever. So kudos to you. You're so extreme entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: so exciting. I did not know that about you. So
Speaker 1: I'm really more hyped right now. But that's cool, all right,
Speaker 1: So take so keep going with your story.
Speaker 2: Man, there's so many things after that. I had a
Speaker 2: home that I bought in in Porter Ranch, and I
Speaker 2: leased it out because I was running everything. Like with
Speaker 2: the restaurants, we ended up closing that down, and at
Speaker 2: that time, I have my home, I'm helping my mom's
Speaker 2: with her home, and now I have to figure out
Speaker 2: ways to scale down, trim back. So I leased out
Speaker 2: my house, got something a little smaller, and I was
Speaker 2: in a space of trying to figure out what was next.
Speaker 2: So I, like I said, during the pandemic, besides the
Speaker 2: restaurant and music and film, I was also learning to produce.
Speaker 2: So I wanted to figure out a way to produce
Speaker 2: a show, but one that made sense, and I wanted
Speaker 2: to do something that involved my son because now my
Speaker 2: son is older and he's controlling my life.
Speaker 1: So what do you mean, scare me? Tell me, what
Speaker 1: does that mean?
Speaker 2: Every day? Of course, there's school, but then after school
Speaker 2: there's basketball practice, after practice or before basketball practice, there's
Speaker 2: basketball training, after training, nurse practice. Then we're back home.
Speaker 2: Then we're homework and study, then dinner, cooking dinner.
Speaker 5: And then I'm like a single dad, right, Me and
Speaker 5: a mom are joint joint custody. So mostly every other week,
Speaker 5: you know, he's with me, but I'm the dad and
Speaker 5: he's in puberty stage, so he's with me, now, you
Speaker 5: know what I mean, Like, yeah, you can go.
Speaker 2: Mom wants to see you. You want to see mom,
Speaker 2: hang out, go y'all, do y'all thing. You know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. I'm never gonna not let you see your mother.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. You always see your mom,
Speaker 2: but in these crucial stages, you need to be with me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know. So every day from the type of school
Speaker 2: he goes to a prep school. I drop him off
Speaker 2: at the gym in the morning. They train for three hours,
Speaker 2: then they get busted to school in the sprinter van
Speaker 2: and they have lunch. Then they do school for three hours,
Speaker 2: no homework. After that we're training. After training, he has
Speaker 2: practiced two times a week after that, it's games on
Speaker 2: the weekend tournaments.
Speaker 1: He's definitely controlling your life, is him? Just to backtrack
Speaker 1: a little bit, I know we talked about your mom.
Speaker 2: You are very.
Speaker 1: Much even when you watch love and Half Hop, but
Speaker 1: you see your very vested dad. Is there? What is
Speaker 1: your relationship with your dad? Is there a reason why
Speaker 1: you're I'm not saying all men aren't vested, but I'm no,
Speaker 1: it's definitely noticeable.
Speaker 2: Well, I didn't meet my father until I was thirteen,
Speaker 2: so I always had this thing where I had a
Speaker 2: vision of what a father looked like and what I
Speaker 2: wanted my father to be like. And I made a
Speaker 2: promise to myself, you know, if I ever have a
Speaker 2: kid or something, he's never going to experience what I
Speaker 2: experienced growing up in wanting and trying to imagine what
Speaker 2: it's like to have a father in his life. So
Speaker 2: when he got here, I just I was already setting stone,
Speaker 2: like this is my son, you know, regardless, Like I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be there no matter what. I'll go broke, I'll
Speaker 2: eat while I broke, as long as I'm in his life,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. So trying to figure it
Speaker 2: out what's next, And like I said, everything is basketball.
Speaker 2: I'm in the gym with him twenty four to seven,
Speaker 2: so I'm noticing. One night I'm telling him, YO, turn
Speaker 2: TV off, go to bed. So I walk in this
Speaker 2: room he was sleep and I go to turn the
Speaker 2: TV off, and it was this YouTube show he watches.
Speaker 2: And all these shows he watches on YouTube are based
Speaker 2: on basketball, from a channel called Overtime, Elite, to Ball,
Speaker 2: his Life, to Switch Cultures, just everything you can think
Speaker 2: of basketball related he's watching. But this particular night, he
Speaker 2: has on a show on Overtime called Fear Nothing. It's
Speaker 2: a show based on Mikey Williams's journey from high school
Speaker 2: basketball to wherever he's going, and he watches this. He
Speaker 2: watched the show a whole lot at this time, and
Speaker 2: I looked at it and I had to Things just
Speaker 2: hit my brain and I said, that's it. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: I said, that's it. That's what I need. That's what
Speaker 2: I need to produce a show doing youth high school
Speaker 2: basketball that doesn't just highlight one player, but highlights all
Speaker 2: of the kids and gives it like a sports center
Speaker 2: fit to where they could watch this and feel like
Speaker 2: I might be on here tonight. Yeah, because they don't
Speaker 2: have that. So I created this show called Youth Got Game.
Speaker 1: Youth Got Game and they can get it on YouTuber.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so our first episode is be coming out
Speaker 2: in the next month or so.
Speaker 1: Okay, But.
Speaker 2: Got into that and started networking, got the right people
Speaker 2: on the team, and now we'll be hosting like all
Speaker 2: the top Nike tournaments. Wow, all the So it's like
Speaker 2: May Hoops camps will be hosting those.
Speaker 1: Is your son really turns like crowd and excited about
Speaker 1: what you were able to do? Just it's kind of
Speaker 1: like he inspired this, right, So does he say it
Speaker 1: or does he talk about it or not?
Speaker 2: Really, he's just focused on playing the game. You want
Speaker 2: to see hisself on the show. He knows that with me,
Speaker 2: he's gonna have to work really hard and do what
Speaker 2: he's supposed to do. It's not gonna just be oh,
Speaker 2: you're and my son, I'm putting you on. So it's
Speaker 2: more of a challenge.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I put him up to the challenge. He accepted it,
Speaker 2: you know, So you got to put in the work.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: But yeah, so put together that show. We got a
Speaker 2: couple of big things coming up for us. We're doing
Speaker 2: a camp in Charlotte with this company, cyber Athletics.
Speaker 1: You're doing a basketball client camp camp.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll be hosting it our podcast.
Speaker 1: Wait, the show is a podcast, and I guess I'm
Speaker 1: kind of visioning like reality slash.
Speaker 2: It's a live podcast.
Speaker 1: It's a live podcast.
Speaker 2: Okay, got it. And we have guests on the show,
Speaker 2: you know, from younger athletes, to coaches, to referees to
Speaker 2: professional past and future and players.
Speaker 1: I love it. Yeah, that's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2: So that's that's what I've been on now. And in
Speaker 2: the process of that, I actually took on a team.
Speaker 2: I created a travel team from my son because we
Speaker 2: were doing all these games and we were with a
Speaker 2: couple programs that I felt like could be doing more
Speaker 2: and not necessarily be much as much of a money grab.
Speaker 2: So I ended up starting my own team and got
Speaker 2: all my son's friends who I know could really hoop,
Speaker 2: and one of my friends who coaches high school basketball,
Speaker 2: and put them all together. We started a team East
Speaker 2: West Prospects, and we went this summer and smashed through
Speaker 2: all the tournaments, won all of them that we joined, literally,
Speaker 2: and I had a bunch of sixth graders turning seventh
Speaker 2: graders who played against eighth and ninth graders and we
Speaker 2: were winning everything. Wo. So that started happening. I started
Speaker 2: getting calls from like top program directors from Compton Magic
Speaker 2: or why not these are programs ran by These are
Speaker 2: top programs that were put together that are sponsored by
Speaker 2: like Adidas and Nike and NBA players, Like why not
Speaker 2: its Russell Westbrook program. Compton Magic is a staple in LA,
Speaker 2: has been around since I was a kid, you know,
Speaker 2: And they have players who've come from their programs to
Speaker 2: play professional basketball. We're in the NBA today. So all
Speaker 2: these programs are calling me now trying to combine.
Speaker 1: And when to get behind East West.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow. So one of my friends and I knew
Speaker 2: since I was like seventeen eighteen, he's cousins with Paul
Speaker 2: George and he runs the program for Paul George Elite,
Speaker 2: and we had talked and we was like, yo, man,
Speaker 2: and I want you to bring your boy, Like how
Speaker 2: much it's gonna cost me to get your boy back
Speaker 2: over here? Talking about my son? And I'm like, man,
Speaker 2: let's you know, let's have a conversation. Let's talk and
Speaker 2: see what we can come up with. Basically, he gave
Speaker 2: me the keys to run the seventh grade program at
Speaker 2: Paul George Leaks. So now we're sponsored by Nike, playing
Speaker 2: on all the top platforms.
Speaker 1: So, but does your son leave your East West team.
Speaker 2: To So East West is now Paul George.
Speaker 1: Okay, So now it's official. So you guys have been
Speaker 1: accepted as an official under that umbrella. Yep, okay, So
Speaker 1: son is still on the team. Damn, I want to
Speaker 1: watch these games. He got me hyped.
Speaker 2: So yep, we did that, and you know, constantly filming
Speaker 2: on them as well, highlighting now and then.
Speaker 1: Is it hard to get all those parental clearances or
Speaker 1: is it like everyone you you built such a good
Speaker 1: rapport with everybody that everyone just sign and releases. As
Speaker 1: for what, oh, I thought you're you highlight the kids
Speaker 1: on the show.
Speaker 2: I will if they're doing they thing, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, But that anybody can be highlighted, it does.
Speaker 2: I don't need parental Oh I don't know. Highlight somebody's
Speaker 2: kid that's doing what they should be doing on the court.
Speaker 2: You know, that's just giving them more exposure. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: we're not charging you know for that, Like this is Hey,
Speaker 2: if I think you're hot, you're doing what you need
Speaker 2: to do, you look good on the court, and you eating. Yeah,
Speaker 2: let's highlight you, you know what I mean, Like a
Speaker 2: lot of kids put in a lot of work in
Speaker 2: basketball that we don't see, you know, from the kid
Speaker 2: that doesn't have the travel team, that plays at the
Speaker 2: park and he's there every single day and might be
Speaker 2: there by himself, and and he just played one game
Speaker 2: in a recreation league and might put up fifty points
Speaker 2: and you'll never hear about it. But now you're watching,
Speaker 2: you've got game and you'll see it.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: You know, like we're diving in deep from everywhere across
Speaker 2: them everything.
Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, okay, So you're even getting the ones that
Speaker 1: like can't afford to be in the clinics. I love that.
Speaker 1: And then I know you're thinking about opening your own
Speaker 1: clinic down the road.
Speaker 2: Right as far as like camps, yeah, camps, Yeah, we'll
Speaker 2: probably do something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely see that in your future.
Speaker 2: It's definitely gonna.
Speaker 1: So what's the next milestones for you after that? Because
Speaker 1: I think we're current, right, you brought me so.
Speaker 2: Now that's where we are, and some more exciting things.
Speaker 2: Putting together a podcast along with Bug and Rats.
Speaker 1: What Yeah, yeah, yeah, where got you guys should come
Speaker 1: here and take you. Yeah, I'll take care of you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll let you. I'll let you see when we
Speaker 2: when we when we dropped the teaser on.
Speaker 1: Okay, oh you guys already started recording it and everything
Speaker 1: unless you see, I'm gonna call like you don't tell
Speaker 1: me enough he called. I think calls me almost once
Speaker 1: a day now, I'm not even gonna lie, it's probably
Speaker 1: five times a day.
Speaker 2: Man. I talked to I talked to him and Book
Speaker 2: every single day, you know. And they've been on their
Speaker 2: journeys as well, right as it's super smart networking and
Speaker 2: tied into a lot of different things that brings so
Speaker 2: much value to what we're doing.
Speaker 1: And he's also done the I feel like he's also
Speaker 1: been teaching me a little. I mean, I'm not good
Speaker 1: at it. But he also worked on his mental health
Speaker 1: and he'll be like dropping like like smart gems. I mean,
Speaker 1: i'd be like I wish I was like that. He'd
Speaker 1: be like, you can be like that. Well I'm not
Speaker 1: there yet, but you know, but yeah, he's worked on
Speaker 1: his mental health too, which I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't talk about working on that.
Speaker 2: In addition, that's really big of him, man, I salute
Speaker 2: him for that. Sure, he's doing really good. And you know,
Speaker 2: and Bug is still working in films doing films. So
Speaker 2: us all coming together and creating what we put together,
Speaker 2: it's pretty dope.
Speaker 1: So it's like, B two K coming back. Should we
Speaker 1: be anticipating because you're talking to.
Speaker 2: Lines, we're gonna see some you Okay.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, I'm pretty sure your fan base is still
Speaker 1: rock solid and loyal and uh, they're gonna be anticipating
Speaker 1: in the days to see the reunion for sure.
Speaker 2: For sure.
Speaker 1: Bless you, bless you? Now, how can everybody keep up
Speaker 1: with you? We could talk directly to this camera. How
Speaker 1: can everybody keep up with everything you have going on?
Speaker 1: And then break down the youth You got game, youth
Speaker 1: got game everything individually?
Speaker 2: No, for sure? Well, first and foremost, you can you know,
Speaker 2: check out my instagram air fizzle, same with the threads
Speaker 2: air Fizzle.
Speaker 1: It's Ai R Fizzle.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fi z z o. Check out my movie coming
Speaker 2: to AMC theaters November twenty second run Nixon. I'm really
Speaker 2: excited about that. I think y'all are really gonna.
Speaker 1: Enjoy that, And what's run Nixon about?
Speaker 2: I'm a single five Well, no, I'm sorry. I'm a
Speaker 2: father of a ten year old boy who has a
Speaker 2: heart condition. His mother is a stripper and one day
Speaker 2: she drops him off to his game. I get there.
Speaker 2: He plays basketball. I get there and he has a
Speaker 2: heart attack on the court. He's suffering from forget what
Speaker 2: the heart disease is called, but basically he needs a
Speaker 2: heart transplant immediately or he won't survive, and our insurance
Speaker 2: doesn't cover it. So his mother takes matters into her
Speaker 2: own hands and robs a drug dealer from the strip
Speaker 2: club she works at.
Speaker 1: Oh wow.
Speaker 2: He gets home, he puts clues together, figures out who
Speaker 2: did it and why, and he kidnaps our son and
Speaker 2: I have to figure out how to get him back.
Speaker 1: Oh this sounds crazy intense. We gotta see this movie
Speaker 1: in theater and then what else can we look forward
Speaker 1: to it?
Speaker 2: And then look forward to seeing you know me my
Speaker 2: boy CJ. Y'all can follow him on Instagram Coach CJ
Speaker 2: Underscore twenty three. We'll be highlighting all these kids. Man,
Speaker 2: youth Got Game. Check out Youthgot Game dot com. You've
Speaker 2: got game Instagram page. Yeah, it's gonna be crazy, man.
Speaker 2: You might be the next kid on youth. Got game,
Speaker 2: you never know. I yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, Well, thank you for feeding me. I
Speaker 1: can finally finish this bag Frido without tuning in your ears.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes.
Speaker 1: Piece for more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The
Speaker 1: Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.