Speaker 1: Welcome to All the Smoke, a production of The Black
Speaker 1: Effect and our Heart Radio and partnership with Showtime. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to All the Smoke. Good It's it's been good days.
Speaker 1: It's about to get even better. Man, we have the
Speaker 1: legendary ice Cube in the building today. You appreciate you, man, Yeah,
Speaker 1: what's happening in the man? Just you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: just trying to track you down and you know you're busy.
Speaker 1: Man's man, We appreciate your time. Obviously a very difficult
Speaker 1: time for our country, are the world? What is what's
Speaker 1: something you took from? You know, same ship, different toilets.
Speaker 1: It's ugly, you know when you know all the deck
Speaker 1: is stacked against you and and you make it known
Speaker 1: and you pointed out and you make your case and
Speaker 1: nothing changes because you know, same people that that got
Speaker 1: you in this position is the same people that you
Speaker 1: need to make the changes. So it's uh, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Like I said, same ship, different toilets,
Speaker 1: And I know it's extensive, but kind of give us
Speaker 1: the cliff notes with your contract with Black America and
Speaker 1: what what what's that really about? Well, it's just about
Speaker 1: you know, after um, you know, a lot of the protests,
Speaker 1: a lot of people were screaming, really, what needs to
Speaker 1: be done. There's a lot that need to be done.
Speaker 1: And I was, you know, just I couldn't find the
Speaker 1: document that really said, hey, these are all the problems
Speaker 1: right now, and here's some suggestions to move us forward.
Speaker 1: So I said, well, let's you know, yeah, I've tried
Speaker 1: to find the smartest people I know, and UH said,
Speaker 1: let's create this document where the average Joe, anybody can
Speaker 1: look at this and see the wide range of problems
Speaker 1: that need to be solved and get in when you
Speaker 1: fit in. You know, if you feel like you can
Speaker 1: do something on uh, police brutality, jump in there. You
Speaker 1: feel like you could do some of voting rights, jump
Speaker 1: in there, uh banking, venture capitalists, Um, you could just
Speaker 1: jump in where you fit in, because these are the
Speaker 1: wide range of problems. So that was really what the
Speaker 1: Contract with Black America was about. It's just a foundation.
Speaker 1: It's just forever growing document that you know today, if
Speaker 1: you came with a better idea for section four, we
Speaker 1: would we were plug it in and fill it in
Speaker 1: because we want the experts to step up and help
Speaker 1: us perfect this document. So you know, I just wanted
Speaker 1: something that anybody can look at, college kid, grown folks,
Speaker 1: anybody and say, oh, this is why we're in this position.
Speaker 1: It's not just us. It's not just the same own
Speaker 1: narrative that you know, black people can't handle our own affairs,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, that's just not true. It's uh,
Speaker 1: it's systematic. And you know, you would have to be
Speaker 1: blind not to know that since you came on the scene,
Speaker 1: something you've always been about is pro your people. That's
Speaker 1: what you've stood for from day one. So when the
Speaker 1: stuff around the election happened with the Trump team the
Speaker 1: Biden team and you took a lot of heat, it
Speaker 1: bothered me because, like I said, I've been a Fannie
Speaker 1: for since I was young, and the one thing that
Speaker 1: stands out to me the most is you've always been
Speaker 1: for the people. So when that kind of ship hit
Speaker 1: the airwave and the way social media plays with it
Speaker 1: and and does what they do, how did that make
Speaker 1: you feeling? And what actually happened? I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: kind of scary when your history don't matter. You know.
Speaker 1: It's like, no matter how long you've been a stand
Speaker 1: up dude, you know, the minute somebody see something you
Speaker 1: don't like, or you say something somebody don't like, you know,
Speaker 1: they throw your away. But I wasn't really worried about that.
Speaker 1: You know, I knew that once I studied the problem
Speaker 1: that black people are upon in this game. You know,
Speaker 1: we're political football, and people use our emotions and our
Speaker 1: uh passion are our fight for justice to get other
Speaker 1: issues and things solved and and not necessarily our issues
Speaker 1: and our things, but it's always piggybacked or our movements
Speaker 1: are hijacked in ways. So knowing that, I know that
Speaker 1: neither party is the answer totally. It's a problem that
Speaker 1: both parties ate it, and it's a problem that both
Speaker 1: parties gotta solved. You won't. You know, it's not fair
Speaker 1: to put it on one side or the other. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not fair to us. You know, this is a
Speaker 1: an American problem across the board, so it needs to
Speaker 1: be dealt with like that, UM is bipartisan issue. Uh
Speaker 1: So I wasn't gonna let that stop me. You know
Speaker 1: how people feel, you know, I know black people all
Speaker 1: lean Democrat or mostly, So I wasn't gonna let that
Speaker 1: stop me from trying to shake this um. You know,
Speaker 1: like I said, this stalemate of of our progress, you
Speaker 1: know with you know, well, some people promise us the
Speaker 1: world or don't promise us enough and don't deliver. And
Speaker 1: then some people, you know, on the Republican side, I
Speaker 1: feel like they off the hook that they don't. You know,
Speaker 1: that's the Democrat problem to deal with that, and it's
Speaker 1: just not true. No matter who's the president, we're still
Speaker 1: in the same position. So it's it's a thing where
Speaker 1: you know, what I would want us to do as
Speaker 1: a people is to become independent, not to vote independent,
Speaker 1: but to hold our vote and say, okay, Democratic X
Speaker 1: do some for it, you get it, or Republican acts
Speaker 1: do some for it. You get it. But you know,
Speaker 1: this whole you know, the way we've been going is
Speaker 1: just not been working. I kind of compared it to
Speaker 1: to the Jay Z situation when everyone jumped on him
Speaker 1: for working with the with the NFL. But to me,
Speaker 1: if you have a seat at the table, you have
Speaker 1: an actual opportunity to affect the outcome, and no matter
Speaker 1: what situation where like you said, your track record speaks
Speaker 1: for ourselves. So whether whatever situation it is, you're for
Speaker 1: us and you have a voice in the seat at
Speaker 1: the table. So, like I said to me, that bothered me.
Speaker 1: I commend you for a kind of standing because sometimes
Speaker 1: standing for us right or or standing on a strong
Speaker 1: opinion isn't the popular and it ain't easy. But you've
Speaker 1: in dealing with the kind of negativity and hatred your
Speaker 1: whole life, so you're pro at it. But that we
Speaker 1: just want to say we definitely respect you your pace
Speaker 1: because when you and I talked about your playing with
Speaker 1: Black America, we didn't end up bleinking because we both
Speaker 1: got super busy, but definitely proud of it and want
Speaker 1: to continue push forward with the mission. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it's something you can use to this day. You mean,
Speaker 1: anybody can go take a look at it and figure out,
Speaker 1: you know, from their vantage point or from there you know,
Speaker 1: um angle how they can you know, try to solve
Speaker 1: this problem. You know, nobody has the answers because it's
Speaker 1: a it's a complex problem that that sometimes you know,
Speaker 1: creates its own weather. You know, it's like it's a
Speaker 1: it's a it's a bad situation. Pivoting UM lifelong Laker fan,
Speaker 1: UH big big showtime Laker fan, UM champion, Yeah man,
Speaker 1: thank you, you know you made the year worth living
Speaker 1: for real. You know, it's like, you know, until that happened,
Speaker 1: I was like, man, it's got to be the worst ever. So, um,
Speaker 1: you know, the Lakers the Dodgers was you know my
Speaker 1: and I didn't want nobody to play. You know, I
Speaker 1: know people if they watched me on on social media.
Speaker 1: I was like, man, we don't need to play nothing,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. We just need to focus
Speaker 1: on the mission at hand. Um. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, you know, I'm glad they played and
Speaker 1: give people a little bit of relief, man, because you
Speaker 1: know what, what what we've been doing is giving a
Speaker 1: lot of energy to negativity, and the negativity has sucked
Speaker 1: our energy. And we've been giving too much energy to
Speaker 1: the negativity. And we gotta give way more energy to
Speaker 1: positive things. And so you know, that's the reality of it.
Speaker 1: Because whatever effect you gotta, um of reaction, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, it's it's like you you you gotta
Speaker 1: make sure that you know one thing is gonna cause another,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So whatever you got that reaction,
Speaker 1: I actually got a reaction. I get that ship right,
Speaker 1: you know. I went to uh the l a Unified
Speaker 1: school district. So if I'm sucking this up, but but yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, so giving all that energy to the negativity
Speaker 1: to the beasts is making the be strong. Talk to
Speaker 1: us about just when? When when did your journey with
Speaker 1: the Lakers start? Obviously, you know, I'm from California, so
Speaker 1: I grew up even though it's in northern California. Up
Speaker 1: a showtime Magic Johnson Laker fan. What do you mean
Speaker 1: when did it start? It started from the womb, started
Speaker 1: from conception. It was in you. Yeah, man, I mean
Speaker 1: now it was a purple sperm that hit the egg,
Speaker 1: and it's like, when did it start? I don't understand
Speaker 1: that question. I don't remember when I wasn't a Laker fan,
Speaker 1: you know. But you know, seriously, like when I was
Speaker 1: ten years old, my brother sat me down. He was like, yo,
Speaker 1: I want you to watch this, dude. I was just
Speaker 1: getting into basketball because it was just letting me play.
Speaker 1: You know. My backyard was some of the most ferocious
Speaker 1: basketball game. It's like prison ball, you know. So they
Speaker 1: were starting to let me play. I was getting strong
Speaker 1: enough and good enough, and he said, I want you
Speaker 1: to watch this, dude, And we watched. It was my
Speaker 1: first time watching Magic Johnson play Larry Bird in that
Speaker 1: championship game, and you know, I wanted Magic to win,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. He was the cooler dude.
Speaker 1: So you know a few months later he come give
Speaker 1: me from out side, he said, guess who's a Laker.
Speaker 1: No way in the world. I was thinking he was
Speaker 1: gonna say Magic Johnson. So when he said Magic Johnson,
Speaker 1: something just erupted in me, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It was just like I was glued and locked in,
Speaker 1: and then that team going to win the championship. I
Speaker 1: was done. I don't know how you could give me
Speaker 1: back from that. What are some of those early We
Speaker 1: actually had Jenie Busts on the show the other day.
Speaker 1: What are something some of the things you remember from
Speaker 1: that that showtime era and what it meant to the city.
Speaker 1: Before Magic Johnson, it seemed like basketball was like a job.
Speaker 1: It's like everybody was mad, it seemed like, and it
Speaker 1: seemed like this dude brought in like the fun, the
Speaker 1: way we played, the you know, the the point and
Speaker 1: the smiling and like, you know, just the energy felt
Speaker 1: like it felt like our street you know, I grew
Speaker 1: up on a street car van Wick. We had a
Speaker 1: lot of boys on our street. It was very athletic street,
Speaker 1: so we had fun playing. So to see the Lakers
Speaker 1: now having fun playing running at uh showtime fast breaks style,
Speaker 1: it just was electric. Man. You know, it just was
Speaker 1: I was glued to that team. To me, it was
Speaker 1: like and I didn't lived too far from the forum,
Speaker 1: you know, and so just being able to drive past
Speaker 1: that form sometime. You know, I used to drive past
Speaker 1: that the basketball practice and just knowing that that my
Speaker 1: favorite team played right there, you know, it was just, Uh,
Speaker 1: I felt lucky to be you know, in l a
Speaker 1: and a Laker fan at that time, you're part of it.
Speaker 1: Fast forward into the kind of Kobe and Shock era.
Speaker 1: Uh you know, the next great run that the Lakers
Speaker 1: team had. UM thoughts on that team and you know,
Speaker 1: they were able to capture five championships. They probably obviously
Speaker 1: could have captured more if they stayed together. But just
Speaker 1: how amazing was it seeing day in day out Shock
Speaker 1: and Kobe play for your team. I mean seeing them
Speaker 1: at that form, like the form is so intimate. Um,
Speaker 1: you know you could hear my voice yelling at the refs,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So, uh, it was just magical.
Speaker 1: To get shocked, it was like, oh damn. I just
Speaker 1: couldn't believe the Lakers pulled that off. You know, I've
Speaker 1: seen the Lakers pull off stuff, you know, like you
Speaker 1: know Macadoo and you know these players that should be like, damn,
Speaker 1: we got him to make us better. But to get
Speaker 1: shock was like, I guess it's how it felt when
Speaker 1: they got Kareem. You know, I wasn't really hit when
Speaker 1: they got Kareem, but it was. It was remarkable. And
Speaker 1: so I'm there to see Shock and my wife say,
Speaker 1: did you hear about the young kid we got? And
Speaker 1: I'm like nah, And he looks. She's like, we got
Speaker 1: a young kid eighteen. I'm like eighteen. I'm like, is
Speaker 1: he seven foot? Talk? Because if he ain't seven foot,
Speaker 1: and he ain't gonna make it because back then it
Speaker 1: was like you had to be a big to come
Speaker 1: out of high school. And he came in the game
Speaker 1: and uh, he got loosen and dumped. And I just
Speaker 1: told my wife, I said, you know, we ain't never
Speaker 1: had nothing like that, just like we never had nothing
Speaker 1: like that. So I was just on Kovie, you know,
Speaker 1: even though we had Shock. I'm I'm just locked in
Speaker 1: on Kobe and just seeing his progression as a pro
Speaker 1: and I'm yelling, Dale Harris put him in, put it in, Kobe,
Speaker 1: put in. Come yelling, you know what I'm saying, because
Speaker 1: they just keep this kid on the bench. Oh game.
Speaker 1: I'm like, damn, man, come on, neck a gun a gun,
Speaker 1: get him in there. Uh Ship, what's your most memorable
Speaker 1: live performance about Kobe? It got to be to comeback? Um?
Speaker 1: When the seventh game's um. You know, I was in
Speaker 1: the suite with the homey K Mac and we we like,
Speaker 1: how did we how did this happen to us? We
Speaker 1: are there reading the eulogy, like how we're in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, in the fourth quarter, we're losing by fifteen seventeen,
Speaker 1: and we're just looking at each other saying, how did
Speaker 1: this happen? Man? And I'm like, I'm just gonna watch
Speaker 1: the rest of the game. I'm like watching, and you
Speaker 1: know that comeback you start to flow, that momentum switching,
Speaker 1: and I started doing the calculations in my head. I'm like, yo,
Speaker 1: we get this down to this before the five minute mark,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And they just come and
Speaker 1: come and coming, and you know, seeing him do that
Speaker 1: dunk um to cross over live and seeing that that
Speaker 1: you know, explosion. It was crazy. Now I missed the
Speaker 1: eighty one game I was out of I was in
Speaker 1: Cabo with my wife, was in Mexico. We watched it
Speaker 1: on TV. But I'm damn the day we don't go
Speaker 1: go for eighty one. And then I missed his farewell
Speaker 1: game because I'm filming Barbershop three years something in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: and and I can't come to that last farewell game.
Speaker 1: So I missed the sixty point game. But I didn't
Speaker 1: miss nothing else. I didn't miss nothing else. That's big.
Speaker 1: So you co narrated the thirty for thirty Laker Celtics thing.
Speaker 1: The Lakers obviously hung their seventeenth banner. Uh talk to
Speaker 1: us about the experience of being able to do that
Speaker 1: for a team you grew up idolizing. Now you're narrating
Speaker 1: a story for him. Man, this whole life is surreal.
Speaker 1: You know, it's um. We started. We was you know,
Speaker 1: our favorite groups was in you know, Run DMC and
Speaker 1: and all the East Coast groups. We thought those was
Speaker 1: the pros and we was trying to be that and
Speaker 1: so to be able to create our own niche and
Speaker 1: music and become our own you know, celebrities, and then
Speaker 1: get a chance to share stages with run DMC and
Speaker 1: get get a chance to get invited to All Star
Speaker 1: Games and meet your favorite uh you know, athletes, entertainers,
Speaker 1: and then for somebody to come and tell you, look,
Speaker 1: we want you to narrate. You know, this precious rivalry
Speaker 1: that you lived through. I mean in eighty four when
Speaker 1: the Lakers lost to the Celtics, I was this close
Speaker 1: to killing somebody. I was like, I was this close
Speaker 1: to killing somebody because I had never experienced this whole
Speaker 1: Celtics Laker rivalry. You know. My thing was like I
Speaker 1: hate them seventy sixers because they beat us. And you
Speaker 1: know they beat us in eighty two, they beat us
Speaker 1: in eighty three. Where about the Celtics. We got magic,
Speaker 1: we got we got Kareem, we got worthy, you know,
Speaker 1: and so do we ha worthy? We had worthy, I
Speaker 1: don't think. But anyway, my brother when we when he
Speaker 1: was like, yo, We're playing the Celtics, he just got sad.
Speaker 1: He was like, oh damn, I'm like what we could
Speaker 1: beat him? I lived through this, I lived through the sixties.
Speaker 1: We couldn't beat these dudes and and we lost, and
Speaker 1: I just you know, I was crushed. So you know,
Speaker 1: long story short, we finally beat him in eighty five
Speaker 1: and then beat him again in the eighty seven. You know,
Speaker 1: they got us when we were shorthanded, but we beat
Speaker 1: him again. But you know, so I had real feelings,
Speaker 1: real passion for that as a kid crying over these games.
Speaker 1: And to be able to uh put that on wax,
Speaker 1: so to speak, it was just, you know, it was
Speaker 1: just one of those dreams come true moments. Talk to
Speaker 1: us about your upbringing, how you find your path into music.
Speaker 1: I can grow up like everybody else. You know, nothing, um,
Speaker 1: nothing special, you know what I'm saying, But nothing crazy. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, we had a you know, a neighborhood that
Speaker 1: you know, anything could jump off, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You just had to be ready for for everything. You know,
Speaker 1: most of the time it was cool, though, but sometimes
Speaker 1: you had to you know, it could get you know, violent,
Speaker 1: it could get uh crazy, or you know, or it
Speaker 1: would be cool. You know, so you just had to
Speaker 1: be ready for that, and you know, find your pack
Speaker 1: and order. You know, it was a pecking order in
Speaker 1: the hood. You had to knuckle up and figure out
Speaker 1: where you where you fit at. And once you found
Speaker 1: out where you fit at, it was cool. You know,
Speaker 1: you knew, Okay, this dude is in my range, this
Speaker 1: dude is out of my range. I gotta get with
Speaker 1: this one. I might need to go grand my brother
Speaker 1: and we might need to mop him together, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So it was you know, it was
Speaker 1: that kind of neighborhood. You just had to be tougher enough,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So uh, and music came
Speaker 1: because you know, I wanted to be creative, if you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. I wanted to be productive and
Speaker 1: not destructive. I wanted to either play sports or do
Speaker 1: something else, you know what I'm saying. Um, banging it
Speaker 1: didn't really turn me on like something I had to do.
Speaker 1: You know. I just was like, I'm gonna just be
Speaker 1: down for me. Anybody sweat me about where I'm from
Speaker 1: and then you know, I'll go get the homies about that,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna just be down for me. And so
Speaker 1: um That's how I approached it, and it's got it
Speaker 1: it Uh. It led me where I was looking for
Speaker 1: different avenues and then you know, sir James moved down
Speaker 1: the street from me, and his cousin is Dr Dre,
Speaker 1: and so he's the only one on our street with turntables.
Speaker 1: This is Jinks turn tables with you know, he's bringing
Speaker 1: cardboard outside. He's spinning on his head and ship and
Speaker 1: we're like, we know, I just really looking like, what's
Speaker 1: up with this dude? You know, we didn't know about
Speaker 1: breaking and all that ship. But he was graffiti. He
Speaker 1: just was a B boy. You know. He was the
Speaker 1: you know, the hip hop guru on the streets. So
Speaker 1: I started to go down there hang with him because
Speaker 1: I used to go out with his sister. So I
Speaker 1: just go hang with him this UM thirteen fourteen fifteen
Speaker 1: and UM, and people with Trip they'd be like, man,
Speaker 1: why are you coming out to have that weirdo? Man?
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, some dope ship in that room. Man.
Speaker 1: I started rhyming, and and me and him, you know,
Speaker 1: we just started working. He would put on beats. He
Speaker 1: would help me lyme on beat because I didn't have
Speaker 1: no beats. I was just a cappella you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, So help me. Then then Dre came through
Speaker 1: one day and herd me rhyme and Drake, and I
Speaker 1: took me under his wing um because him and James,
Speaker 1: I mean James were always want to compete with him.
Speaker 1: I'm better DJ nig, I'm better, I do be better beats,
Speaker 1: I do better. Everything would be like, come on, man,
Speaker 1: you know, don't stop me out with that. But I
Speaker 1: would be you know, more helpful, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I was like, what y're working on as the wrecking crew?
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. Like we write something, you
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I was like trying trying
Speaker 1: to get in and I wrote something for him and
Speaker 1: it was a hit. We wrote it together, me and Drake.
Speaker 1: It was a hit, and they they had a they
Speaker 1: had slow jam hits like turn Off the Lights and ship,
Speaker 1: but this is actually a hit that was moving that
Speaker 1: they was playing all day on the radio. So he
Speaker 1: trusted me. He started doing mix tapes. He would do
Speaker 1: traffic jams for the radio station. You start doing mixtapes
Speaker 1: for the hood, and he'd be like, I want you
Speaker 1: to wrap on it, but don't worry about what you say.
Speaker 1: Just rap about the ship. That's you know, the wraps
Speaker 1: that you wrap about the ship. That's going on around here?
Speaker 1: Do them wraps? So I'm like, all right, you know
Speaker 1: they got cussing in them. It's like you don't matter,
Speaker 1: don't matter. Before we was thinking, if you cuss Donna
Speaker 1: get on the radio, you know what I'm saying you.
Speaker 1: It was like, you don't do that unless you wanted
Speaker 1: to be Blowfly or Dolomite us some ship, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So he was like, this ain't We
Speaker 1: weren't trying to sell these on the radio, so you
Speaker 1: can cuss on them if you want to. So I
Speaker 1: just started rapping about what was going on in the
Speaker 1: neighborhood and ship I was saying. And then those tapes
Speaker 1: were selling. It was selling fast. And then Easy came
Speaker 1: up on one of those tapes, track Down the Dude
Speaker 1: who got him? Main it was like, who's who doing this?
Speaker 1: It's Dre And you're like Dr Dre. I know Dre.
Speaker 1: So you start coming around us and um, you wanted
Speaker 1: to be in a music business. I wanted to get
Speaker 1: out your dog gag and Dre it was like, uh,
Speaker 1: you have Q right something one of your groups. Because
Speaker 1: he was finding groups. He's finding these like rappers all
Speaker 1: over the city, you know, and like to find a rapper.
Speaker 1: Back then, that ship was like hard. It wasn't easy.
Speaker 1: Everybody wasn't rapping, and if they was, they wasn't good
Speaker 1: enough to put on a record. So, um, I wrote
Speaker 1: a rhyme for him and they didn't like it, and
Speaker 1: then Trey got Easy to do it, and you know
Speaker 1: it's all in the movie, wasn't hood. Yeah, that's how
Speaker 1: I got in. When did you kind of realize that
Speaker 1: this n w A thing you'all was thinking about was
Speaker 1: becoming reality When we went to the studio and started recording,
Speaker 1: you knew you had something immediately. Yeah, because we already
Speaker 1: had hit hits with Easy. He had hit singles with
Speaker 1: the Easy. So when Easy said like I want to
Speaker 1: I want to all star group c n w A.
Speaker 1: It's considered an all star group because we all came
Speaker 1: from I was in a group called c I A
Speaker 1: which was Criminals in Action, but Minso made us change
Speaker 1: it to Crew in Action. Huh how were you whenever?
Speaker 1: I was about seven teen eighteen, and uh he submitted
Speaker 1: to an all star group. You know, he got Easy,
Speaker 1: pulled Dre from Record Crew Pull Youth from c I A.
Speaker 1: And then we started working. And as we're working more
Speaker 1: people start kind of coming around. The Arabian Prince started
Speaker 1: to hang. It was like, well Raby and Prince was
Speaker 1: working really a lot with Uncle James Army, so he
Speaker 1: was like you part of all stars to you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying that. Then uh yeller, the record crew
Speaker 1: had broke up. Dre wasn't really men some with lines
Speaker 1: on them one so Yellow came over with us and
Speaker 1: and it was us. As soon as we did a record,
Speaker 1: I went off to school. We went to uh schooling
Speaker 1: and Phoenix called p I T. Phoenix Institute of Technology,
Speaker 1: and I go off to school. And then they had
Speaker 1: shows because we had a hit record. But I couldn't
Speaker 1: make it to all of them. So brands start coming
Speaker 1: a ruck to cut you out. But what made you
Speaker 1: leave your passion and go to school? Did you think
Speaker 1: it wasn't gonna paying out ship? It was just a passion,
Speaker 1: you know. We was like making tapes with all that
Speaker 1: cussing on them was one thing, but making a record
Speaker 1: with all that cussing on them, it was like, man,
Speaker 1: nobody gonna I ain't gonna play this ship's We're not
Speaker 1: about the big stars from this well, be neighborhood stars.
Speaker 1: We have a couple of people knowing our records through
Speaker 1: the neighborhood probably, But this ship is too hard. Who's
Speaker 1: gonna play this, you know what I'm saying. So we
Speaker 1: just back then, you just figured it was too hard
Speaker 1: for anybody to play but people in the neighborhood. So
Speaker 1: but we was fine with that. We was like, if
Speaker 1: we if we just stars and Compton, Watts, South Central, Inglewood,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, sh we we got a better life
Speaker 1: than we had before we were stars in Compton. And
Speaker 1: you know, so I was like, man, I need to
Speaker 1: have something to fall back on because I ain't about
Speaker 1: to be a professional rapper, not rapping this ship right here.
Speaker 1: So I went off to school and uh it started
Speaker 1: blowing up while I was in school. I got right, well,
Speaker 1: I got a certificate. It was only four years of
Speaker 1: trade school. Yeah, it ain't a university. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: got it. I stayed. I wasn't gonna I wasn't gonna leave,
Speaker 1: even dark wanted to every damn day. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I started this ship, I'm gonna finish it. It's only
Speaker 1: a year. And uh, but man, they would call me
Speaker 1: from the road, nigga, are you crazy? What are you doing? Man?
Speaker 1: I'm doing homework by bad hang up cold be sitting
Speaker 1: there saying, damn. I was so frustrated. One day I
Speaker 1: tore up fund the police. I tore it up, through
Speaker 1: it in the trash because I figured we wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: do it in my homie Phoenix Field. Shout out to
Speaker 1: Phoenix Field. He was like, no, I didn't tear it
Speaker 1: ab I bought it up. He pulled it out and
Speaker 1: he flattened it back out and put it in my notebook.
Speaker 1: I was like, no, that's too good. Yeah, how instrumental
Speaker 1: was easy in all of this? Very instrumental, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. He was, you know, putting up all
Speaker 1: the money for the project, and he was saying, what
Speaker 1: kind of records we need to make? Um, Liza wouldn't
Speaker 1: let us make those kind of records. You know. He
Speaker 1: was like, man, this thing was like nobody want to
Speaker 1: hear about the nigger going to jail, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. That was his biggest thing. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, is he right? I don't know who knows.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm young, I'm seventeen years old. And Easy was like, man,
Speaker 1: these the kind of records I like, So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: put my money behind him, and he's the kind of
Speaker 1: records I'm gonna do. And that's just it. So once
Speaker 1: he kind of let us do our thing, like we
Speaker 1: was harnessed a little bit. Why wasn't in the reckord Crew?
Speaker 1: But I did a record full line Zone and the
Speaker 1: Wrecking Crew, And Lionzo was a good dude, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. He he could have kicked us, you know,
Speaker 1: we was getting on his nerves and ship. He could
Speaker 1: have kicked us out and then leave my artists along,
Speaker 1: like y'all kids, get away from here. But he was
Speaker 1: cool and m and the Easy came around and just
Speaker 1: kind of let us do what we the hardcore hip
Speaker 1: hop that we really wanted to do. So so he
Speaker 1: was a genius and uh, you know, he was just
Speaker 1: a genius at knowing what people wanted. Take us through
Speaker 1: the creation and straight out of conflict. You know, it
Speaker 1: was a fun record to make. Um. You know, you
Speaker 1: had trades undivided attention, you know, to have him um
Speaker 1: very hype and motivated. Is you know, one of the
Speaker 1: best places the artists can find itself in is in
Speaker 1: the in the room with Dre and he's hyped and
Speaker 1: motivated about, you know, making this song what it's supposed
Speaker 1: to be. It's gonna be worked. It ain't gonna be
Speaker 1: just going in wrap the lyrics that come out. He's
Speaker 1: gonna get every phrase and every line perfect. And so
Speaker 1: I knew, like, you know, if I just went to
Speaker 1: the went to the studio with some ideas that you know,
Speaker 1: he may pick a few of them implement him into
Speaker 1: the song on and to see that process too, uh,
Speaker 1: is incredible. So you know, I think it was a
Speaker 1: lot of friendly competition because we was all trying to
Speaker 1: out rhyme each other. DLC doesn't get a lot of
Speaker 1: credit for writing a lot of those those verses. DLC
Speaker 1: the doc he wrote a lot of that of easies
Speaker 1: verses on not only his album, but but on on
Speaker 1: n W A two. So um, we were just all
Speaker 1: trying to I'll do each other, I'll rhyme each other,
Speaker 1: you know, And because Dred tell you straight up like
Speaker 1: if you ain't dope, you're not going on the record.
Speaker 1: And if you listen to the record, it's some records
Speaker 1: that some people on some records and some people like
Speaker 1: and he didn't come with it that day, so you
Speaker 1: know he gave a chance to go back and try
Speaker 1: to make it right. He would take your ass off
Speaker 1: of that record. And that's the worst feeling in the world. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, what's it like working with with Dre? I mean,
Speaker 1: you said you said he kind of took you under
Speaker 1: his arm and kind of taught you as part of
Speaker 1: the game. But what is it like? What? What kind
Speaker 1: of mad scientists he is? He back there? Because I've
Speaker 1: seen someone like Kobe working and with his brain and
Speaker 1: how crazy he is with perfection and being great is
Speaker 1: a similar with Dre. Yeah, you know, at some points
Speaker 1: it's frustrating because you like, this ship is bananas and
Speaker 1: it's not for him yet, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: it's like not quite and he's like what and you
Speaker 1: don't understand. He like, what's wrong my ears? I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, going in the bathroom, you're shaking your ears out.
Speaker 1: You're like, what, I don't hear? This ship is crazy?
Speaker 1: And man, he'll shove that song. You'll never hear it again.
Speaker 1: And you'd be like, man, what about the song we did?
Speaker 1: Oh fool? Or you know that you're still holding on
Speaker 1: to that ship a hit now, right, No, man, we
Speaker 1: gotta do something new, So you know that could be frustrate,
Speaker 1: but when you let them go, they're usually right, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's just I mean, how is it in the
Speaker 1: kitchen with your mama when she cooking Thanksgiving dinner? You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying? You stepped back and trying not
Speaker 1: to get in the fucking way. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1: Like when do we eat? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: That's how it's like, you know, I mean, you're just
Speaker 1: going smelling around, You're seeing you know, all the musicians there,
Speaker 1: and you know it's gonna be hot. You just gotta
Speaker 1: worry about your rhymes and your delivery. So luckily the
Speaker 1: Whobie from from uh Phoenix saved the police. Was there
Speaker 1: any hesitation because at that time, like a song like
Speaker 1: that is just absolutely unheard of. Was there hesitation by
Speaker 1: anyone in the group? Once you present, it was everyone
Speaker 1: really just like let's get this ship. It was hesitation.
Speaker 1: Drey he didn't want to do the song because he
Speaker 1: had an ankle bracelet on and he was doing weekends
Speaker 1: at the county. They was making me. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: fucky man, ain't ain't. So I got to do with
Speaker 1: these fucking shriffes man every weekend, and and I ain't
Speaker 1: going in there with a song like this man, So no,
Speaker 1: So I didn't think it was gonna get made until
Speaker 1: you know, months later, when he was, you know, doing
Speaker 1: the record because we had did some solo records, you know,
Speaker 1: before we did Dope Man, we did Gangster Gangster, so
Speaker 1: he was gonna do another solo record, which was fun Police,
Speaker 1: and he was like, not that one. So um, after
Speaker 1: all that blew over, after he you know kind of
Speaker 1: you know, had the case dismiss or whatever, he was
Speaker 1: down to do it because he didn't have to see
Speaker 1: him every weekend. I was. I wrote the song because
Speaker 1: I was mad he would have to go in on
Speaker 1: the weekends because he was our way into every party
Speaker 1: in the city. You know, I'm like, we were Drake
Speaker 1: n what's up? Go in? You know what? I'm here
Speaker 1: without him? It was like, hey, who who all went?
Speaker 1: We were? We was with Dre last week. It's like
Speaker 1: it ain't it ain't last week. Don't get to the
Speaker 1: back of the line. So our party and was on
Speaker 1: e you know what I'm saying. We was house partying. Like, man,
Speaker 1: this house party ship is dangerous. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: We need to go back to some clubs like skating
Speaker 1: rinks and ship like that, you know, to get straight
Speaker 1: up was getting in free straight out of Copter reached
Speaker 1: platinum level? How big was that? It was incredible, you know,
Speaker 1: just being able to you know, go across the country
Speaker 1: see that see that record like move in a wave
Speaker 1: of underground greatness. You know, it wasn't being blasted on
Speaker 1: every station, but it was moving like it was. And
Speaker 1: so we was proud, and we was proud that the
Speaker 1: groups we had looked up to now was um engaging
Speaker 1: with us on a whole another level. You know, before
Speaker 1: it was like you know what's up? Now it was like, hey,
Speaker 1: y'all that record got it's crazy, you know. So it
Speaker 1: was that kind of interaction with you know, the llls
Speaker 1: of the world, Slick Ricks, Chuck d Flav, Chuck Deeve
Speaker 1: was always cool when we was just opening up. Chuck
Speaker 1: Deeve was cool with us. Button you know back there,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm seeing to be like, that's your crew,
Speaker 1: that our crew, and the mingling was only mingled with
Speaker 1: who you knew and so it was cool too to
Speaker 1: start getting some of the respect and um from the
Speaker 1: groups that we respected. So that's what was amazing about
Speaker 1: it because you could be in the game, you know,
Speaker 1: y'all both NBA players and money is cool rings all right?
Speaker 1: That respect everything. It means more than all that other ship.
Speaker 1: Combine that people don't look at you and be like
Speaker 1: look at suck as you know what I'm saying. People
Speaker 1: look at me like salute for the way you word,
Speaker 1: where you play, um and and who you are. You know,
Speaker 1: that's more important than anything, and a lot of people don't.
Speaker 1: I don't realize that. You know, you lose that respect
Speaker 1: and it's hard to get it back. Can Can you
Speaker 1: imagine the movement you guys had, how you have captivated
Speaker 1: everyone if there was social media back then. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I think it would have been maybe too fast
Speaker 1: to sustain itself, you know what I'm saying. It's like
Speaker 1: I like this the organic way. I like having you know,
Speaker 1: the underground find out about us and they and the
Speaker 1: mainstream is nervous, scared. A few of them have enough
Speaker 1: courage to bump it, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 1: I just liked that energy that you know, it organically
Speaker 1: grew as a movement um and not overnight quick pop.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, because you can burn fast.
Speaker 1: I mean n w A already burnt hot. You know
Speaker 1: it burnt hot. You know what I mean, it's about
Speaker 1: it's about three years off, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: In this over maybe two years of red hot in
Speaker 1: w A, you know what I mean, eight seven eighty
Speaker 1: nine and it's over. It's crazy to think that, but
Speaker 1: the impact you had in that small amount of time
Speaker 1: was really changed to change the game completely. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the family, triers, the branches. It's the roots and
Speaker 1: the branches and you know, Dres Trunk and we all
Speaker 1: the branches off that. So you know that's what that's
Speaker 1: the movement. You know, it's all. It's the whole West
Speaker 1: Coast movement and inter twined together in a way as athletes.
Speaker 1: You know, Jack and I never really kind of got
Speaker 1: to appreciate what we've been through the experiences we had
Speaker 1: until we were done. I mean, you're not done, but
Speaker 1: you're not in it as heavy as you were in
Speaker 1: the past. Do you ever just sit back and think,
Speaker 1: like damn, like we did this? Yep, you know, but
Speaker 1: I did that every step of the way, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, because I didn't want to. You know,
Speaker 1: I want to be present, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be uh taking anything for granted,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So I always, you know,
Speaker 1: just kind of reflect and give thanks, praise for all
Speaker 1: the blessings and and recognize them. No, in real time,
Speaker 1: your relationship with Easy, your reconciliation before his passing. Uh,
Speaker 1: talk to us about that and how important it was
Speaker 1: to reconcile with him before his untimely passing. Man, it
Speaker 1: was very you know, I feel very um, you know,
Speaker 1: satisfied because I was able to do that. Um. I
Speaker 1: think I would be you know, real restless, you know
Speaker 1: about it a little more if if he didn't know
Speaker 1: what he really meant to me. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: outside the bullshit. And I was able to express that
Speaker 1: and we was able to truly get past it. You know,
Speaker 1: sometimes you could say, you know, we squashed this ship, right,
Speaker 1: and it's like, yeah, yeah, all right, yeah, we squashed
Speaker 1: all right. You know, but you ain't about to mess
Speaker 1: with dude ever again, you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 1: but sometimes you can squash it and he really be
Speaker 1: squashed and you just continue like it never even happened. Almost,
Speaker 1: And I knew that I was gonna reach out to him.
Speaker 1: I was gonna work with him if he wanted to,
Speaker 1: if he could put n w A back together and
Speaker 1: get Dre back on, I was gonna work with So,
Speaker 1: you know, I just knew that, you know, um we
Speaker 1: really squashed our beef that day. So it was great
Speaker 1: your departure for m w A. Obviously it was portraying
Speaker 1: the film and you can read about it and we
Speaker 1: know a better. But for those who don't, what was
Speaker 1: your main reason behind leaving n w A. I just
Speaker 1: felt like we wasn't uh the top priority of the management.
Speaker 1: I felt like it was a conflict of interests in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways that you Jerry Helen was so
Speaker 1: close to um O owning and running ruthless with Easy,
Speaker 1: that him being our manager, that he would look out
Speaker 1: for Easy and not really in w A. So that
Speaker 1: was one conflict. And he just proved me right on
Speaker 1: how he was dealing with my business in particular, and
Speaker 1: and he's straight up lied on my mom's you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying He's like, he lied on that for
Speaker 1: no reason. There's no reason to lie. And so as
Speaker 1: a youngster, all the other things you can kind of
Speaker 1: get with. But but but one thing is the starter
Speaker 1: breaks the camel's back. And that was it. And I'm
Speaker 1: like a man that a lie to a dude about
Speaker 1: his own mama, it's not a man to be trusted.
Speaker 1: I didn't trust him. I didn't sign the contracts when
Speaker 1: they was presented, and they ostracized me. And what was
Speaker 1: crazy is like once I left the group, they they
Speaker 1: started to pay me, Like once I had a solo deal,
Speaker 1: they started to pay me. And I didn't understand. And
Speaker 1: I went to my manager, past Charbonnet, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: why why they Yeah, why they're paying me now? It's
Speaker 1: like they caused all this ship. We are fused in
Speaker 1: the streets, We got records against against each other and
Speaker 1: all kind of ship. Like, why they're paying me now?
Speaker 1: He said, because you're right, and um, they don't want
Speaker 1: you to sue. And I said, why didn't just pay
Speaker 1: me when I was in the group. He said, well,
Speaker 1: they would have had to pay everybody else, so they
Speaker 1: rather get you out the way and not have to
Speaker 1: pay for other people, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: some bullshit, dirty games, dirty America. As must wanted the
Speaker 1: album cover, he says, you're the one you're most proud of.
Speaker 1: Why is that? That One's dope? Because it you know,
Speaker 1: it was a new technique you know overland if you
Speaker 1: really look at that, or RT work, and so I
Speaker 1: was just proud of what it stood for, the symbolism
Speaker 1: in it, like, uh, all of Los Angeles is behind me,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? And and or all of
Speaker 1: the countries behind it. It It depends on which way I'm standing,
Speaker 1: you know. You know, if I'm facing I'm facing the West.
Speaker 1: I got the whole country behind me. So I like that, um,
Speaker 1: because you know, that's how we gotta move to to
Speaker 1: to get some kind of justice around here as a unit.
Speaker 1: What goes through the process when you're creating album covers,
Speaker 1: trying to have something that standard test of time, trying
Speaker 1: to have something that when you see it, it explains
Speaker 1: what's in it, like when you see the album that
Speaker 1: the album represents the flavor of the record that's coming there.
Speaker 1: You know, I think it's all art and it has
Speaker 1: to be treated like art or it's not, you know,
Speaker 1: what I mean, either it's art, either entertainment and music,
Speaker 1: or it's not. It's street you know, regular, oh amateur ship.
Speaker 1: You make your acting debut. Uh in Boys in the
Speaker 1: Hood something that I read that you didn't really want
Speaker 1: to do. You didn't want to act? How important or
Speaker 1: how thankful for you that you actually did and how
Speaker 1: impactful do you feel that classic of Boys in the
Speaker 1: Hood is? You know, I didn't want to act because
Speaker 1: I didn't think I was qualified. I thought you had
Speaker 1: to go to Juilliard or some kind of school on
Speaker 1: like like the shoot don't find you know what I'm saying, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I did, like go to one of them schools to
Speaker 1: actually be an actor or you was just bullshit, And
Speaker 1: so I was like, why you want me? You know
Speaker 1: what I mean. I'm like, there's a lot of actors around.
Speaker 1: With John Singleton, he was just an intern at at
Speaker 1: the r Senior Hall show. You know, as I started,
Speaker 1: I'm back there, I'm near to see our Senio because
Speaker 1: I want to give him a piece of my mind
Speaker 1: because he had the two live crew on the show
Speaker 1: and he wouldn't have in w a O. I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: the two live crew, that's some dirty ship. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying here, Like how why you can't have
Speaker 1: us on? But I never got a chance to talk
Speaker 1: to him about it. Instead, I spent it all my
Speaker 1: time talking to this little intern. Singleton was telling me
Speaker 1: that I'm perfect for his movie, you know, and I'm
Speaker 1: like your movie. He's like, yeah, man, I'm a junior.
Speaker 1: I'm a junior at USC, and I got a movie
Speaker 1: that's perfect for you. Like, all right, all right, man.
Speaker 1: I end up seeing him a year later. He runs
Speaker 1: up to me. He said, remember me, And I'm like no,
Speaker 1: he said, are said the Hall Show? Remember the movie
Speaker 1: I told you that she was right for I'm like yeah,
Speaker 1: he said, Man, I'm a senior now at USC, and
Speaker 1: uh i' gonna put you in this movie. It's all right,
Speaker 1: all right, all right, dude, you know whatever, I'll leave
Speaker 1: in w a go solo publicanting. He got a show
Speaker 1: at the Palace out here in Hollywood. I go, dude,
Speaker 1: tap me on the shoulder. It's John Singerton, remember me.
Speaker 1: I remember your ass? Now, what's up? Man? You got
Speaker 1: a movie for me? I know I know what is it?
Speaker 1: What is it? Said? Yeah, No, I just wanna tell
Speaker 1: you about that side all right, all right. So after
Speaker 1: the show, we're in the parking lot and he telling
Speaker 1: me the movie like, damn there. I'm like, what what what?
Speaker 1: You know? I'm ready to leave, and his ride leaves him,
Speaker 1: so he has to ask me for a ride to
Speaker 1: his dorm something like that. Damn damn. But you know,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I want to I want this dude to
Speaker 1: get hurt out here. Sorry, I saw dry. I don't
Speaker 1: hear nothing from him. You know. I dropped him off
Speaker 1: that day. We didn't even exchange numbers. It was just like,
Speaker 1: all right, man, And because I never really believed him.
Speaker 1: And then my manager months later said, um, somebody want
Speaker 1: to put you in a movie. You know. She was
Speaker 1: even surprised, like, somebody want to put you in the movie? Who? What? Huh?
Speaker 1: I forgot all about this dude. You know, months go by,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be the best rapper in the world.
Speaker 1: I ain't thinking about acting at all. He sends the script.
Speaker 1: It's like, yo, you gotta you got an audition. I
Speaker 1: throw the script in the backseat of my car. I
Speaker 1: folded the sides, which are the ship. I gotta practice,
Speaker 1: put that in my pocket and never look at it.
Speaker 1: And I go to the audition. And when I get
Speaker 1: to the audition, it's him sitting there. It's like remember me,
Speaker 1: Like yeah, he said, yeah, I told you I was
Speaker 1: gonna do it. You didn't believe me. I said, man,
Speaker 1: I did not believe. And he said, all right, listen,
Speaker 1: I want you to be dope with Ship. He said,
Speaker 1: you're ready. And I'm like, oh, let me find these
Speaker 1: sides out of my pocket, reading them like I'm reading
Speaker 1: them whacked. I'm whacked. The audition is garbage. He looks
Speaker 1: at me, He's like, man, did you read my script?
Speaker 1: I was like, nope, did you read the size? Like
Speaker 1: you know? He's like, cute, man, Come on, man, he said, look,
Speaker 1: I'll give you one more shot, dude, go home, read
Speaker 1: the whole script, start to finish tonight and then come
Speaker 1: back tomorrow. And once I read it, I'm looking at
Speaker 1: my wife Kim. I'm like, damn, they're doing They're doing
Speaker 1: a movie about our neighborhood. Read this ship. This is
Speaker 1: about how we grew up. So I'm tripping that. I'm like, damn,
Speaker 1: this is movie worthy. I'm looking at it like yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess, so they're doing a movie on it. I
Speaker 1: guess it's movie worthy. Damn nixt care about how we
Speaker 1: grew up. All right, So I go in the next
Speaker 1: day and I kill it. I'm ready, you know, and
Speaker 1: you give me the part of me kind of coached
Speaker 1: me through the movie between him, Uh Lawrence Fishburne you
Speaker 1: know and uh Cuba Goodon Jr. No, they held me
Speaker 1: down on that movie and helped me get through it.
Speaker 1: That's question we asked d on this too. Was your
Speaker 1: curl wet or drive back then? Come on? Now, you
Speaker 1: know I had a dry turl with a wet look ship. Look,
Speaker 1: but it was dry. Yeah. Man, you had to get
Speaker 1: the right you know con you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: He had to get the right you know, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but yeah, but it was dry. It was dry, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So, yeah, I I wouldn't. I wouldn't.
Speaker 1: You know. I used to see dudes dripping. I'll be like, hommy,
Speaker 1: you're giving us a bad name. Yeah, that's because I
Speaker 1: meant my dad in the early eighties, this ship dripped
Speaker 1: like the ear that drip, that's what you're going be
Speaker 1: wiping my neck off all day, like gonna Yeah, the
Speaker 1: white talle around this ship. Yeah, that was just pat
Speaker 1: that ship down a little bit. Man. You ain't gotta
Speaker 1: have you dripping. That's why it ain't got no hair now. Chemicals, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: the chemicals that burn stand out. Some stand up moments
Speaker 1: from the set from John signal to you remember the part,
Speaker 1: you know outside what the dude pull the gun, shoot
Speaker 1: the eight K. We all pull off all that's real?
Speaker 1: Not not not, of course it's a film him shooting
Speaker 1: a gun. But they did not let nobody know it
Speaker 1: was gonna be real gunshots, you know they somebody over Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but it was real. Yeah, yeah, I thought it was.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's a lot of people out there,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, it's sixties out there is
Speaker 1: it's everybody out there watching us film and it's the
Speaker 1: people in the movie. And then John kept saying on
Speaker 1: the bullhorn, when I say bang bang bang bang, everybody
Speaker 1: run like it's a you know, We're like all right,
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, I'm gonna okay when I say bang bang,
Speaker 1: all right, say bang bang bank So we could do this.
Speaker 1: But when it was time to shoot, they pulled out
Speaker 1: a real a K and let it off. Just see
Speaker 1: how everybody reacts. That's real. Everybody. I'm trying. I was
Speaker 1: trying to get out of here. I thought Movie over turned,
Speaker 1: how cold? How could they act that good? With cube
Speaker 1: almost taking that's real, trying to get out of there.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, just movie over dead, somebody killing. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a k for real. And so he got us
Speaker 1: on that one man, you know, you know resetting that scene, bro,
Speaker 1: it was hard to give people to come back still running.
Speaker 1: It's like they're calling you come back, man. We did
Speaker 1: that on purpose? What what we did on there? No wait,
Speaker 1: I'm going to my trailer, No come back, because that
Speaker 1: was in the real time. That could really happen on set.
Speaker 1: Nobody shot movies around there, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It was like it was so many it was. It
Speaker 1: was that element already out there watching us shoot this
Speaker 1: big gass Crunshaw sing like taking over the street. They loved.
Speaker 1: So we didn't know what was gonna happen. We was
Speaker 1: worried about that the whole time. We got threatened, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean when we we went when they
Speaker 1: heard that, we we heard ice cubes supposed to kill
Speaker 1: some bloods in the movie. That it was a problem
Speaker 1: they wanted to, you know, sweat John Singleton, like why
Speaker 1: he killing bloods in the movie? This? That another, It's like, man,
Speaker 1: this is a movie. So um yeah, it was some
Speaker 1: issues because we did it right there in the jungle,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, and right where they be
Speaker 1: and they weren't happy. They weren't happy about it. But
Speaker 1: you know, somebody got paid. I guess they let it happen. Classic.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is your first film, but you get
Speaker 1: the chance to work with a Lawrence Fishburne obviously a
Speaker 1: John Singleton cubid. What was that like for you, kind
Speaker 1: of your introduction into this new space. I was big fans,
Speaker 1: you know. I was a big fan of Lawrence Fishburne,
Speaker 1: you know, from corn Bread Earl in Me. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't say I love that movie. And I was like,
Speaker 1: damn a little boy in Cornbread Earl and Me. He
Speaker 1: was like yep. Then I loved him in Apocalypse now,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I didn't know Cuba Gooden Jr.
Speaker 1: And you know Angela bas said and all those people
Speaker 1: kneed along. I didn't. I didn't know them, but they
Speaker 1: was dope actors. And I was like, they're in the movie,
Speaker 1: so they must be. It must be official, and you
Speaker 1: know we got it. We did a lot of rehearsals
Speaker 1: like improv where you know, I really was able to
Speaker 1: get my feet up under me and get my balance
Speaker 1: on what it takes to to do good acting and
Speaker 1: when it takes to be bad. You know, I may
Speaker 1: have done some bad act in the movies, but now
Speaker 1: he was just showing me the way. You know, how
Speaker 1: did Friday present itself? What kind of sparon was was
Speaker 1: that I wrote that with the homie DJ pooh, Yeah,
Speaker 1: DJ pooh, shout out. We have been big fans of
Speaker 1: Hollywood Shuffle, you know, shout out to Robert Townsend. He's
Speaker 1: a genius. You know. Without Robert Townsend, there is no
Speaker 1: Friday because he shot that movie with a damn credit
Speaker 1: card there there. You know, he showed us like, don't
Speaker 1: wait on Hollywood man, guerrilla that ship if you have
Speaker 1: to and tell your story. So and he had some
Speaker 1: great comedians, you know, uh, I stole John Witherspoon from
Speaker 1: from from Robert Townsend and so we was fans of that.
Speaker 1: We was fans of and Living Color hum and we
Speaker 1: have saw so many movies about how we grew up
Speaker 1: from boys in the hood to Minister Society to South
Speaker 1: Central even Colors was like, damn man, niggas think it's
Speaker 1: Vietnam around here. It's like, is it that bad? I mean,
Speaker 1: we didn't we have fun around here a little bit?
Speaker 1: Like yeah, it's like, let's write a movie about how
Speaker 1: we looked at all this ship instead of how you know,
Speaker 1: we don't want nobody to feel sad for how we
Speaker 1: grew up, you know what I'm saying, Or be like damn,
Speaker 1: you know y'all surprise y'all ain't in prison. So um,
Speaker 1: we just wanted to have fun, you know, have two
Speaker 1: dudes on the porch just tripping off how crazy their
Speaker 1: neighborhood is and m and that's how the ball started
Speaker 1: to roll on. You know what Friday was gonna be about.
Speaker 1: How do you find Chris Tucker. I saw him on
Speaker 1: Deaf Comedy Jam, you know, shout out to Russell Simmons
Speaker 1: him on Deaf Comedy Jam, and I was like, this
Speaker 1: kid is funny as hell. And then he did a
Speaker 1: small little part in the House Party three and I
Speaker 1: was like, kid and play fucked up because they did
Speaker 1: not use this kid enough for this movie. So I
Speaker 1: was like, if I get a movie. I'm I gotta
Speaker 1: find something this dude. And I felt the same way
Speaker 1: about Bernie mac too. Um. And so Friday came up
Speaker 1: and we were gonna raise the money and do it ourselves.
Speaker 1: But then New Line came in and said, you know,
Speaker 1: we want to give you all the money. Call on
Speaker 1: it with y'all. And so it was like cool, you know,
Speaker 1: because it was struggle. It was a struggle to get
Speaker 1: the amount of money we needed to shoot it right.
Speaker 1: So he was happy to have, you know, shout out
Speaker 1: to Bob Shay, you know, uh when the New Line
Speaker 1: knew what they was doing, but shout out to Bob Shay.
Speaker 1: And so they come on and they say, I say,
Speaker 1: I don't want y'all to do the movie because y'all
Speaker 1: gonna mess it up. Y'all don't know what y'all don't
Speaker 1: know what this is. This this is some hood ship
Speaker 1: that I didn't see. Y'all mess up too many movies.
Speaker 1: It was like, we won't touch it, we won't touch it,
Speaker 1: just bring us the finished movie. Basic He's like, okay,
Speaker 1: give us the money. So they said one thing though, Um,
Speaker 1: I had I had DJ Poo playing Smoky me and him,
Speaker 1: and it was like, you've been in movies, Cube, but
Speaker 1: who hasn't, So we need somebody to be smokey. We
Speaker 1: can get pull another part, but smokey is the most
Speaker 1: of the movie. We need it. How about Tommy Davison.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I like Tommy, but we gotta have somebody
Speaker 1: kind of unknown, like you gotta believe he ain't nobody
Speaker 1: but Smokey. I mean, I'm already ice Cube doing a comedy.
Speaker 1: You got to believe I'm Craig. So we need somebody
Speaker 1: you don't know. So I was like, I know this kid,
Speaker 1: Chris Tucker. Everybody was like, who no, no, boom boom boom.
Speaker 1: I was like, y'all just put him in a movie,
Speaker 1: y'all saying no, y'all put him in the house. Party
Speaker 1: three said, let get a dude audition. Fly him out here.
Speaker 1: Let's give him audition. And once we got on that,
Speaker 1: like we auditioned together, it was a rat over like
Speaker 1: told you, told you, but transition obviously you were able
Speaker 1: to make more Friday's losing him, but then picking up
Speaker 1: Mike Epps, like, Mike Guess is my favorite person to
Speaker 1: work with because Mike is what you see is what
Speaker 1: you get. It. It's no act. It's not like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not like he gotta be day day. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's like, damn, it's a real, walking, living data, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Song. You know, I wanted somebody
Speaker 1: to have you know, you can't replace Chris Tucker, but
Speaker 1: I wanted somebody who was, you know, crazy and fun
Speaker 1: and in his own right funny. And so we was
Speaker 1: lucky to get Mike and to have him buy into
Speaker 1: the series. And you know, I've done several movies with Mike.
Speaker 1: We did all about the Benjamin you know, Jakie promoters,
Speaker 1: So you know, I hope to work with him my
Speaker 1: whole career. I hope we just do movies like like
Speaker 1: a Cheeta Chong, like I got a nice, dynamic, poetic justice.
Speaker 1: I heard a story that they came to you first
Speaker 1: to play Janet's love interest and it just wasn't your thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: John had wrote it for me. You know, he was like,
Speaker 1: I just had one part in there that I just
Speaker 1: couldn't get down with. And I was like, John, dude,
Speaker 1: you gotta change this part, and he was I'm not
Speaker 1: changing one word. Just got a damn Oscar nomination for
Speaker 1: my last God damn John. And it was the part
Speaker 1: I'm like, dude, I can't play it. Dude who kicked
Speaker 1: his homie out the car over a chick he just met,
Speaker 1: even if his janet got Damn Jackson. I can't do that.
Speaker 1: That part of I'm not cool with that. I said
Speaker 1: that that ain't the part I want to play. So
Speaker 1: that's crazy picked it up and then it ran with it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, and uh, I think it was better for him,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. He he did a great job,
Speaker 1: you know, and he you know, pockets a movie star anyway,
Speaker 1: so you know he Uh, I went to go see it.
Speaker 1: I liked the movie, you know, I like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: is it true you keep the head from the end? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: got to head. Uh I got to hear on my show,
Speaker 1: I got the head. You know, you've been there for
Speaker 1: a long time. Fight dust that bit off, But yeah,
Speaker 1: he'd be sitting there looking at me. How was the
Speaker 1: transition and how important was it for you to go
Speaker 1: from part of gangster rap creation to making kid movies.
Speaker 1: That crossover has been legendary, and I don't think anyone's
Speaker 1: had such a drastic crossover period than you. You know,
Speaker 1: always was like, you know, you can't and you shouldn't
Speaker 1: judge a book by its covering, you know, you really,
Speaker 1: if you do, you probably uh, you probably miss judging
Speaker 1: and you're probably on your heels if you do. When
Speaker 1: I did Boys in the Hood, you know, people thought,
Speaker 1: why would you do a comedy, Why would you do
Speaker 1: a movie like Friday? You know, you got this lane,
Speaker 1: you know. I was offered Old Dog too in minutes
Speaker 1: really yeah, And I was like, man, I'm I'm like,
Speaker 1: I just played dough Boy and just play Save Line
Speaker 1: and Trespass. I'm not gonna play another the Killer Killer. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, no, man, you know I don't want it.
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm always just like, let's push the envelope. Man,
Speaker 1: you know, don't box me in with nothing. Don't don't
Speaker 1: don't even think about it. If you think you know
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do, you know what I mean, You're wrong.
Speaker 1: So doing Friday, you know, showed okay, I could do comedy,
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm not just stuck with the traumas
Speaker 1: about the hood. And then we did Barbershop. Barbershop was
Speaker 1: a PG thirteen movie and it was Tim's story's first movie,
Speaker 1: and it blew up, you know it was. It was
Speaker 1: a movie that showed that we don't all think the same,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Even though if we come
Speaker 1: from the same neighborhood, that don't mean we think the same.
Speaker 1: So I was like, well, if I could do a
Speaker 1: PG thirteen, can I do a PG? Can I? Can
Speaker 1: I do it for the kids? Because it's crazy when
Speaker 1: you got five even six year old saying I love Friday?
Speaker 1: I'm like, what's your little ass doing watching Friday? You know?
Speaker 1: So I'm like, uh, my fans got kids, now, let
Speaker 1: me um do something for them. Because the worst thing
Speaker 1: in the world too as an artist is if yo,
Speaker 1: fans have to tell their kids who you was, Like
Speaker 1: that dude ice Cube, he used to be the ship.
Speaker 1: So you don't want that. You want the kids to
Speaker 1: know who you are, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: doing that movie, kids know who I am. You know,
Speaker 1: the kids love you know what I'm saying, because they
Speaker 1: love Nick, they love you know, the characton. Are we
Speaker 1: there yet? So it was the attempt to grab the
Speaker 1: next generation with quality. They just don't make movies like
Speaker 1: that for our kids. So to do something I knew
Speaker 1: this movie is gonna standard test of time for the
Speaker 1: youngsters like Friday is for the So it gave every
Speaker 1: age group something to be down with. Yeah, how did
Speaker 1: it straight out of Compton come about? I didn't think
Speaker 1: about making that movie, but I heard they was gonna
Speaker 1: make it. Here we go with new line again. So
Speaker 1: these dudes was gonna make the movie. Jerry Heller's version
Speaker 1: of it from his book. I said, Man, y'all want
Speaker 1: me to really pull that bad out again? I really
Speaker 1: really want to heard somebody up the here. Why would
Speaker 1: y'all do that? Man, y'all gotta do this movie with us.
Speaker 1: We got me Dre, we gotta you know, and um
Speaker 1: Um Tamika who had the rights to the music and stories,
Speaker 1: Like I do the movie with the people that was there.
Speaker 1: Jerry don't know ship. He wasn't there. He came after
Speaker 1: the sauce was made, you know what I mean. He
Speaker 1: came after the dinner was late. So they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right. So they they pushed him off to the
Speaker 1: side start working on my script. We got it all
Speaker 1: the way there, and then they didn't want to spend
Speaker 1: the money to do the movie, like they wanted to
Speaker 1: spend like sevent eighteen million dollars to do Straight out
Speaker 1: of Compton, which is a thirty four million dollar movie.
Speaker 1: So picture that movie done at seventeen million. It's not
Speaker 1: looking as good. It's the quality is not there. It's
Speaker 1: not it's epic. We ended up, you know, thank guy
Speaker 1: for Donna Langley. We ended up getting her to buy
Speaker 1: the movie and take it over to Universal, and she
Speaker 1: did it right and it's huge hit. What was it
Speaker 1: like watching your son play you? Because you just said
Speaker 1: some ship and I'm going back to the movie you
Speaker 1: you sound you and your son sounded exactly same. You're
Speaker 1: talking about Jerry. That energy came back. But I felt
Speaker 1: your son on that ship too. It's amazing for him
Speaker 1: to be able to get the art because a lot
Speaker 1: of people think it's a shooing. I could have just
Speaker 1: gave him the part. But movies it's a process, especially
Speaker 1: the big ones, and this thirty four million dollars up,
Speaker 1: somebody gonna have something to say. So, you know, he
Speaker 1: had the audition, he had to go through the process,
Speaker 1: He had to get approof from the studio. So I
Speaker 1: put him through the ring. You know, I actually thought
Speaker 1: that We're doing so much to this kid, he's gonna
Speaker 1: quit before we even get to the set. And if
Speaker 1: you do that, then nobody got to know about it,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. He got bit by the
Speaker 1: bug because I was I was, you know, sending him
Speaker 1: to trainers to study in l A and New York.
Speaker 1: And I was thinking he was gonna say, I don't
Speaker 1: want to go. Man, why am I doing this? You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. But he was like, I'm with it, man,
Speaker 1: I gotta meet my ma, act and coach, and you know,
Speaker 1: he was getting hyped about it. But I still hadn't
Speaker 1: told Gary Gray, like because he was the first person
Speaker 1: I needed to tell. So pulled Gary aside, said hey, man,
Speaker 1: so I gotta tell you something. He was like, what
Speaker 1: I said, I want my son to play me. Gary
Speaker 1: was like, man, what the fuckque I thought we was
Speaker 1: making a real movie here, man, I said, this is
Speaker 1: a real movie. This is a real movie. Gary, you're
Speaker 1: gonna do to me with John Singleton? Did you're gonna
Speaker 1: do it for my son with John Singleton did for me?
Speaker 1: You're gonna walking through this and he's gonna be great,
Speaker 1: and you ain't gonna find nobody better, and so he
Speaker 1: was like, height, let me see. And then as the
Speaker 1: auditions and all the stuff started coming around and screen
Speaker 1: tests and camera tests, he was like, he housed that ship.
Speaker 1: Ain't can't nobody to do it? Something said when he
Speaker 1: went to the audition and it was other Ice cue there.
Speaker 1: He was mad for you. I gotta do this for
Speaker 1: the family. Family. Legac't let you bozos played my pops.
Speaker 1: Now he's doing his own ship. Yeah. Now he in
Speaker 1: Star Wars. You know, he got this Obi wan Kenobi
Speaker 1: movie he did, uh got Zilla. I mean, he's doing
Speaker 1: big gass movies. And he was a fan of all
Speaker 1: these things. So to be able to part of it,
Speaker 1: to be a part of them, he lived in his
Speaker 1: best life for real. But um, it's a movie he's
Speaker 1: done recently. Oh yeah yeah yeah that's uh yeah, that's
Speaker 1: his movie. Yeah yeah, I gotta give much problems with Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was the man and that I mean he flipped
Speaker 1: it on him. Yeah. I was looking at the moment,
Speaker 1: like what kind of that set it up for a
Speaker 1: part two? Yeah, yeah, he set it up. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: gonna he gonna do part two. It came out and
Speaker 1: with the Part two then the things. Yeah, yeah, he's
Speaker 1: a good actor, man. You know, he ain't just you know,
Speaker 1: he ain't just bullshit. And he got two chops. Speaking
Speaker 1: of his son, you know you got another the sun.
Speaker 1: What's the best part of being the father? Being able
Speaker 1: to teach them the game and the pit falls that's
Speaker 1: out there for him, Being able to put them up
Speaker 1: on as much as this um, you know, the intricate
Speaker 1: workings of this world. Putting them up on that game
Speaker 1: as much as possible. Uh, being there, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Just being there as as being present. You
Speaker 1: know some men are home, but are you present? Just
Speaker 1: being home, being in the in the back room and
Speaker 1: shipped on that game, ain't present? Give them stability, um,
Speaker 1: Making sure they're not you know, some of those same
Speaker 1: o statistics, Um, because of my actions, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So it's just been great to see them
Speaker 1: become you know, respectable grown men. They're just good people.
Speaker 1: And to me, that's the biggest accomplishment is that the
Speaker 1: good people. What's the biggest a piece of advice you've
Speaker 1: given them? You feel, man, it's hard to say that
Speaker 1: because I give them so much, so much advice every
Speaker 1: day you know, just telling them about who they are
Speaker 1: and what they up against is It's some of my
Speaker 1: best moments. You know what I'm saying, because you know,
Speaker 1: my pops from a different area, you know what I'm
Speaker 1: saying in their areas. You know, uh, my own business work.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Hey, k your family and
Speaker 1: stop on the fucking complaining. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: That state philosophy and yeah, and my philosophy is similar
Speaker 1: to that. But it's like, nah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I want to I want to fight the powers that
Speaker 1: be right. How did the concept of the Big Three
Speaker 1: come out? I mean to think what you did and
Speaker 1: obviously you know Jack being right there in the mix.
Speaker 1: Once you got going, I was just I want to
Speaker 1: heard it. I was like, this is gonna be crazy
Speaker 1: if it ever happens. And you made it happen. Talk
Speaker 1: to us about that process. I mean made it happen
Speaker 1: with some great people. I mean Stax was the hard
Speaker 1: and soul all time leading score of ye all time
Speaker 1: leading score in the league when he hung it up,
Speaker 1: and so you know he's gonna be a coach now trilogy,
Speaker 1: but he set the tone. Thank you just being a
Speaker 1: fan saying saying, y'all retire and knowing it. Damn, I
Speaker 1: know they got more gaming. I know it. Like I'm
Speaker 1: not listening to what people are saying. I'm not listening
Speaker 1: to announcers and people who already want to talk about
Speaker 1: his age. Are they want to talk about is how
Speaker 1: old somebody is, And they're not talking about can you
Speaker 1: do it or you can't because you've got young people
Speaker 1: that can't play, right, you got twenty one year old trash,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So it's either you can
Speaker 1: do it or you can't. So seeing dudes retire after
Speaker 1: building up fan base from high school, junior high, college pros,
Speaker 1: like these dudes got twenty years of fans and they
Speaker 1: just poof gone, Like that talent has to be pulled
Speaker 1: somewhere where people can see these guys still play. And
Speaker 1: you know, doing the half court game to me was
Speaker 1: a no brain. There's something we all everybody here probably
Speaker 1: played more three on three than five on fire except y'all.
Speaker 1: But but growing up, that's what you do, and and
Speaker 1: it's a great game. It's it's some of your most
Speaker 1: ferocious games are gonna be three on three nowhere to hide.
Speaker 1: You know, so I said, man, why isn't this elevated
Speaker 1: to the professional level? I would literacy seven footers in
Speaker 1: that paint, banging like that, you know, that would be amazing.
Speaker 1: So that's where it came and came from being a
Speaker 1: fan of the game. I want to see it continue
Speaker 1: for people that you know, spend decade, you know, fifteen
Speaker 1: years watching. You know what I'm saying. I want to
Speaker 1: keep watching until they say it's over, because the NBA
Speaker 1: could tell you it's over just because they just because
Speaker 1: the NBA tell you, so that don't mean it's over.
Speaker 1: It's over when you say it's over. This man right
Speaker 1: here retiring on his own terms, he said, doesn't playing
Speaker 1: pro sports. That don't mean he ain't gonna ball somewhere
Speaker 1: here and there, but pro level done on his terms.
Speaker 1: And the reason I think him for being the heart
Speaker 1: and soul of the Big three because at that combine,
Speaker 1: nobody knew the first By seventeen, nobody knew what kind
Speaker 1: of league is? This is this pick up game, all
Speaker 1: star kind of field. We're just kicking it is this
Speaker 1: go after the chill, just get a check and get
Speaker 1: a couple of shots. Are going to fifty half court.
Speaker 1: This is easy, peasy and stacks. He was like, y'all,
Speaker 1: I ain't got no friends out here. When I touched
Speaker 1: this ball, it's over. Don't come asking for no kind
Speaker 1: of take it easy, stop chilling stuff. I don't want
Speaker 1: to hear that ship. And he walked around everybody like circling.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I want
Speaker 1: to hear. And he got in there and he went
Speaker 1: at him hard, you know, just nothing dirty, just hard
Speaker 1: core playing. And everybody said, man, we gotta bring it.
Speaker 1: You know, I see eyes getting big. He damned it
Speaker 1: was a fight. And then and then you got you
Speaker 1: got Oakley, rick Berry, Charles Oakley stopping a fight. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: we got something. We got up in saying fellas sell us,
Speaker 1: I'm saying, ship, we got something, man. And if he
Speaker 1: didn't do that, who knows what kind of start we
Speaker 1: would have got off to. Who knows if we would
Speaker 1: have actually turn this from a great idea into a
Speaker 1: real league where pride and game is on the line,
Speaker 1: legacy on the line, and people still willing to put
Speaker 1: it out there. That meant a lot to me. You
Speaker 1: can ask my my fiance now, I took a picture
Speaker 1: of that message. I got a mess from him and
Speaker 1: I think it was like late at night and he
Speaker 1: was like, I just want to thank you for what
Speaker 1: you've done for the League's like this league wouldn't be
Speaker 1: the way it is without you. And you know that
Speaker 1: means a lot of to us because I didn't get
Speaker 1: all the props I I deserve as the NBA player,
Speaker 1: so to be a part of a league of professional
Speaker 1: league and to get that from our founder, that meant
Speaker 1: a lot to me. Bro. I'm gonna always give your problem,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. You got car Blanche to
Speaker 1: this league, and we're gonna grow to the league and
Speaker 1: we're all gonna, you know, sit back and think about
Speaker 1: who was there at the beginning. Who dudes didn't have
Speaker 1: to stick they game, legacy next or anything on the
Speaker 1: line for you know, brother, with the idea of trying
Speaker 1: to make it work. I can't make it work by myself.
Speaker 1: I need great athletes to buy into it, take it serious,
Speaker 1: and and play them win. That's all I ask for,
Speaker 1: you know, I'll pay just just come to win and
Speaker 1: not just don't play just to play. Nobody wants see
Speaker 1: that ship. Come to win. Shout out Jeff, Yeah, my man,
Speaker 1: Jeff Kuantans. We thought it just together. We brainstorm for
Speaker 1: a year, argued over rules, um, and you know how
Speaker 1: we was gonna treat the players in the league, and
Speaker 1: and um, it's been a dream come true. We need
Speaker 1: to get all the smokers one of the Big Three sponsors.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, man, please some time basketball. All right, y'all
Speaker 1: got the contract, make it happen. Right, So you guys
Speaker 1: took a hiatus obviously with COVID. Your return and tell
Speaker 1: us about your return this year. Are we back this year? Um? Now,
Speaker 1: we've looked at our sport. You know, the youngsters start
Speaker 1: calling it fireball the way we play, so we've decided
Speaker 1: to lean into that. And you know this is not
Speaker 1: yea grandfather's three on three. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: This is a whole different sports. Like you got boxing
Speaker 1: and you got UFC. You know what I'm saying. You know,
Speaker 1: you got the NBA plays basketball. The Big Three plays
Speaker 1: fireball three and it's a different game and it got
Speaker 1: its own wrinkles that may not be you know, with
Speaker 1: traditional basket goot ball. And we wanted to be able
Speaker 1: to start to make our own superstars. UM, So we're
Speaker 1: getting younger this year. We're letting UH players as young
Speaker 1: as twenty two UH joined the league. And we also
Speaker 1: are having an open tryout, UM, and we'll invite ten
Speaker 1: players to our combine. And Nick, you're getting the combine.
Speaker 1: You got a chance. We're working it out, you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully we can get it up. UM looking at middle
Speaker 1: of May. UM, two different cities will make the announcement
Speaker 1: for the ballers and south there that want to give
Speaker 1: it a shot. And it's gonna be our coaches and
Speaker 1: captains picking who get to go to the combine. But
Speaker 1: ten players will get a chance to compete in the combine.
Speaker 1: And if you get to the combine, you know, stack,
Speaker 1: you might make a team. You might make a team.
Speaker 1: So that's unique, is boards. It gives you know, athletes
Speaker 1: out there who are might not be great, you know
Speaker 1: on the full court NBA level, but might be perfect
Speaker 1: fireball three ballers, you know what I'm saying, Big three ballers.
Speaker 1: So is it gonna be called fireball three now or
Speaker 1: with the name of the game is called fireball three?
Speaker 1: But it's still the league is still the big I
Speaker 1: mean them Frank Nino, Frank Frank he was a Drew
Speaker 1: League legend. Yeah, I mean it never really got a
Speaker 1: chance in the league real life, but through your Big
Speaker 1: Three got an NBA trial. That's what it's all about.
Speaker 1: You know, we're not stopping any of those dreams. You know,
Speaker 1: we want to give these guys a platform where they
Speaker 1: can show, Look, I can play at this level. Just
Speaker 1: give me a chance, Johnson another run in the league. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, and that's what it's all about. You know,
Speaker 1: we welcome that. It gives our league credibility. People think,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't have to just go to the
Speaker 1: G League. I can you know, the Big Three guys
Speaker 1: to games on CBS. You know what I mean. I
Speaker 1: could be seen every Saturday on CBS. Though. You like,
Speaker 1: a lot of basketball players financially and mentally were at
Speaker 1: a place where they had nowhere to go, and that
Speaker 1: Big Three saved a lot of them. I know, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's not opposition to same names, but I know
Speaker 1: a lot of people that then came to me and
Speaker 1: gave me words that should have been directed to you.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, Man, I'm glad this league here. Man,
Speaker 1: you know, have a real conversation because I haven't been around. Man,
Speaker 1: you don't know where it was last week. But this,
Speaker 1: you know, this team rax a week helping me bro
Speaker 1: baby mom. You know what I'm saying. I got a
Speaker 1: lot of players might not say it to you, but
Speaker 1: you're saving lives. That's what it's all about too. Man.
Speaker 1: I look at myself as a you know, a rap.
Speaker 1: I do movies. But if somebody came to me at
Speaker 1: thirty five, thirty six, it's like cute. So for man,
Speaker 1: no more records, no more movies, You're done, you out
Speaker 1: the league? Like, how would that make me feel? You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying? When you know you still got
Speaker 1: more in the tank. You still you know you can
Speaker 1: out wraps all these you know, Yaster is coming up,
Speaker 1: and you know you can still act, you know, with
Speaker 1: the best of them. So you know that, how would
Speaker 1: that make me feel? And I just have that sympathy
Speaker 1: for the athletes that we love, we cherish, we cheer,
Speaker 1: We these are heroes and we let them down at
Speaker 1: the end of the career, at the end of their
Speaker 1: career and treat them like they that they never played
Speaker 1: the game. Man, And it's it's uh, you know, not
Speaker 1: no more. You know you got a home, you can
Speaker 1: come to the Big Three. If you still got game,
Speaker 1: you can make a squad. Come on. I think it
Speaker 1: was perfect, but you know, obviously Jackson NBA ended before
Speaker 1: it should have, you know what I mean. And he
Speaker 1: fought his ask to try to get back and sho
Speaker 1: didn't work. So that to me as a friend, seeing
Speaker 1: him go and do what he did in the Big
Speaker 1: Three and get to leave on his own terms like
Speaker 1: that ship was dope to me. That's what it's all about.
Speaker 1: It's all about knowing I'm and I can watch that
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't care if I touched that ball
Speaker 1: or not, you know what I'm saying. Worst to be
Speaker 1: sitting there with the hitch, thinking, oh man, I wish
Speaker 1: I was out there other league that I know that
Speaker 1: I meet person Stevien Jackson to walk away as a
Speaker 1: leading scored then walking straight into a coaching position, I
Speaker 1: don't know no other league, So you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: That's why that's why I didn't mind giving my all
Speaker 1: to it, because I know from day one the first
Speaker 1: thing he told us, this league gonna only be what
Speaker 1: we make it, you know what I mean? And it was.
Speaker 1: It was a lot of players that didn't understand that
Speaker 1: at the time, you know what I'm saying, But the
Speaker 1: core guys understood that, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 1: it's still like that. We still gotta we still got
Speaker 1: a lot of opposition, a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: people want to only play with the big boys, and
Speaker 1: you know, we like, look, we're coming. We we we're
Speaker 1: some of the most exciting basketball in this summer. And
Speaker 1: you know, it takes everybody takes all hands on deck
Speaker 1: to continue to should to blow this league up straight up.
Speaker 1: Outside of the Lakers, so on teams and players you
Speaker 1: kind of get when you get some time, you like
Speaker 1: to check out man Dame Lily. Love his gag, love
Speaker 1: his attitude. You know, he's what He's what you want,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, He's he's like, y'all you want, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you want nobody in there? Friendly? Friendly? You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. You want? Yeah, you want that, you know, gunfighter,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like I come in and
Speaker 1: seek and destroy, I come in. Yeah. So when I
Speaker 1: see those type of players, you know, they become my
Speaker 1: favorite athletes when they got games over the ones who
Speaker 1: are just you know, nice to everybody and you don't
Speaker 1: know if they care if they win or not. I
Speaker 1: think we got what it takes to repeat if we're healthy.
Speaker 1: It's all about health. Um. But it's cool that these
Speaker 1: youngsters and these new players are getting a chance to
Speaker 1: play without Lebron and in a d and when you know,
Speaker 1: they're showing like yo, we we Lakers too. It ain't
Speaker 1: all about them two players. So I think that's gonna
Speaker 1: help us in the long run. But you know, Brooklyn
Speaker 1: is they look tough, man, they're not stacked up, and
Speaker 1: we'll see. Health is key. How you fell in love
Speaker 1: as you started early, but you fell in love with
Speaker 1: the game in the early eighties. Obviously a very physical,
Speaker 1: defensive minded game. To see what it is from there
Speaker 1: to how it's a hundred thirty games and barely any defense.
Speaker 1: Thoughts on kind of the evolution of the NBA. I
Speaker 1: like a strong competitive game, you know, I like, you know,
Speaker 1: regular season NBA games are okay. Playoff games to me
Speaker 1: is what's what it's all about. You really get to see,
Speaker 1: you know, the neck guys getting down to the nitty
Speaker 1: gritty and giving that extra effort on defense. You know. Um,
Speaker 1: it is, you know strange sometimes because I remember hearing
Speaker 1: like no layups in the playoffs and actually seeing it,
Speaker 1: but it meant that. It meant that like going there
Speaker 1: for layup, man, you better have your gun out, like
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, so to see dudes just
Speaker 1: golide to the rack. You know, nobody really you know,
Speaker 1: challenging hard. Um M. That's why I let certain things
Speaker 1: go on in my league, you know, not I don't
Speaker 1: want hard files at the rim, but I do want,
Speaker 1: um you know, the hand checking and letting guys actually
Speaker 1: play defense and stay in front of a guy. And
Speaker 1: I think that's important. You know, nobody wants to see,
Speaker 1: you know, a hundred fifty point game every every time.
Speaker 1: I recently, the great DMX is hospitalized. You posted the
Speaker 1: studio session with him. Obviously we're alston in our prayers
Speaker 1: to him. How special was he as an artist? I mean,
Speaker 1: he was one of the greatest to ever touched the mike.
Speaker 1: At his height, he was as big as any rapper
Speaker 1: out there, was selling five and six million copies. Um
Speaker 1: I got a chance to work with him early before
Speaker 1: he even like blew up. I think before he even
Speaker 1: had his first might have had one record on the radio.
Speaker 1: Um I was doing a We'll Be Clubbing remix d
Speaker 1: J Clark Kent shout out Clark Kent me. Yeah. He
Speaker 1: was like, all right, you who you want? I can
Speaker 1: get anybody in New York on this who you want?
Speaker 1: And I was like, man, I'm hearing about this young
Speaker 1: kid I heard on radio man named d m X.
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, I know you're talking about He said,
Speaker 1: you want him? I said yeah, he said, all right,
Speaker 1: I get him. He went got d m X. DMX
Speaker 1: was like, man, thank you, thank you for putting me down.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. And then we did the track.
Speaker 1: It was bananas, and I flew him and the rough
Speaker 1: Riders out to shoot the video. You know, I remember
Speaker 1: meeting Eve before she was even a star. You know,
Speaker 1: she was just part of the rough Rider crew, just
Speaker 1: hanging out. So just seeing him blow up and do
Speaker 1: movies and um, and then you know, go through his
Speaker 1: issues and didn't hear his backstory on you know old
Speaker 1: you know, dirty ass, you know, yeah, you know, got
Speaker 1: him hooked on that ship. So um, you know, I still,
Speaker 1: you know, I hope for the best, wish for the best,
Speaker 1: believe he's gonna pull through and be the same old
Speaker 1: d Mex he always been, So I'm playing for him.
Speaker 1: Love and prayers to the family. Rushmore, Yeah you too,
Speaker 1: Short Snooped Doug. Yeah, man, we we gotta you know,
Speaker 1: I did so many dope records, like we got Ship
Speaker 1: in the can. You we argue on which one is
Speaker 1: coming out first, which you know. So it's fun. It's
Speaker 1: fun being a part of something that's you know, building
Speaker 1: and anticipation and and and know that we got good music.
Speaker 1: It's not just you know, hype. So we know we
Speaker 1: got the ship and we know people want it. Now
Speaker 1: it's just about you know, we're doing stuff, getting our
Speaker 1: visuals together, photo shoes, videos. We just want to be
Speaker 1: cocked and loaded before we dropped the bump. I'm going
Speaker 1: to drop a Big Three song. Well, you know, we
Speaker 1: got a song that that I cut together. We did
Speaker 1: this something call locked In. We we didn't cut it
Speaker 1: to the Big Three stuff, so maybe that had a
Speaker 1: hole throughout the whole something up. Now we'll we'll do
Speaker 1: something new. We had forty and Short on the show
Speaker 1: and they were their excitement was they was ready. Yeah man,
Speaker 1: you know everybody it's rejuvenated and excited and we know
Speaker 1: this is an epic project and we laying to do
Speaker 1: you know, multiple records make an appearance. Yeah, he on
Speaker 1: the song. He on one of those songs called I
Speaker 1: think it's called Block Cowboys. So yeah, you know, whenever
Speaker 1: you get the dock on it, you take it to
Speaker 1: another level. If you're going to create the best Big
Speaker 1: Three player from the past or President, who would it be.
Speaker 1: I think a player like you know, Damn Pastor Man.
Speaker 1: Come on, man, too many ballers out there. But you know,
Speaker 1: if you had a game, you know, a person like
Speaker 1: Scottie Pippen who can do it all long. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: he's a damn there a smaller version of your honest
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And yeah, he got that
Speaker 1: that kind of athleticism. I think he would. You know,
Speaker 1: any player like that would be great in the league
Speaker 1: because you gotta have all your skill. You know, anything
Speaker 1: you we get, it's going to shows. You know. It's like,
Speaker 1: that's why some players that did great in the NBA
Speaker 1: didn't do so well in the Big Three because anything
Speaker 1: that you week get, it's gonna be exposed. But I
Speaker 1: loved was. I introduced my twins to it at the time,
Speaker 1: and they want to say they were eight or nine
Speaker 1: and we watched the handful of games, actually watched the
Speaker 1: playoff run, and in the next season they're watching it
Speaker 1: without me. Kids love the Big Three because they played,
Speaker 1: They played three or three when they get to school
Speaker 1: or what I'm saying. There, and our games are fast,
Speaker 1: you know, you can see a big game and an
Speaker 1: hour or less. You know, our games are used about
Speaker 1: thirty five and fifty five minutes per game, so you know,
Speaker 1: you ain't sitting there three hours. And there's no there's
Speaker 1: no garbage minutes because there are no minutes. You got
Speaker 1: to play. You know, your buckets are not you know,
Speaker 1: so everybody played from start to finished without no We're
Speaker 1: about to win this. So I could kick back none
Speaker 1: of that the same team and have uh to thirty
Speaker 1: seven and lose and lose. You know, it's you gotta
Speaker 1: keep playing till you get fifty and more real quick.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm such a huge fan. And this is
Speaker 1: not on the last part, but any Pock stories that
Speaker 1: stand out to you working with him, getting to know him.
Speaker 1: I hung out with him mostly when he was with
Speaker 1: Digital and before he started going solo, and I just
Speaker 1: remember he was a ball of energy. He uh. He
Speaker 1: was just a fun dude to hang around, you know,
Speaker 1: one of those dudes that was like the life of
Speaker 1: the party. You know, you hear him coming a mile away.
Speaker 1: We did a show and somewhere in the Bay Area
Speaker 1: and it's like, I gotta be three in the morning,
Speaker 1: four like everybody done done. Shut it down, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, and party you know, all night and
Speaker 1: shut it down. Park still up, Come knocking on my door.
Speaker 1: You sleep, man, funk that, Get dressed, Get dressed. We're
Speaker 1: going downstairs. Man, we gon keep this going. I'm like, pop, homie,
Speaker 1: I'm tired, Man, I'm tired, Like now, I never get tired.
Speaker 1: He Funck before about twenty minutes at the door, just
Speaker 1: won't leave you. I'm like, man, I ain't going down there, man.
Speaker 1: And then and I just see him just you know,
Speaker 1: like I'm going I'm gonna I'll tell you I was,
Speaker 1: and just bouncing off the walls and I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: this dude is having a ball with this ship. So
Speaker 1: you know, Park was one of those dudes who you know,
Speaker 1: people knew him on one level, but you know, you
Speaker 1: get him one on one and you realize you're dealing
Speaker 1: with a smart and humble dude, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And that's what I remember about him. You know, it
Speaker 1: was like you always I was happy to see him coming,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. With I was around, We
Speaker 1: was we'd be up Echo Sound doing records. Park was
Speaker 1: doing this solo album. I remember he you started driving
Speaker 1: and ship, like man, I wrecked this and wrecked his
Speaker 1: beings two or three times. It's like, man, I didn't
Speaker 1: drive when I was young. We need drive on the
Speaker 1: East coast at all. So I got to West because
Speaker 1: I ain't worried about driving, like, man, don't kill yourself
Speaker 1: in that damn thing. So I just remember him being, uh,
Speaker 1: just a good dude. I was always loving what we
Speaker 1: was doing because he was. He was sitting me like man,
Speaker 1: I do my solo ship, and I want to make records,
Speaker 1: to make them kind of records about the hood, like
Speaker 1: y'all do. Because it's ill where I live. Man, it's
Speaker 1: crazy where I live, and don't nobody know. I need
Speaker 1: to talk to I need to tell people about that ship.
Speaker 1: Like man, I was just encouraging him, like you gotta
Speaker 1: do what you feel or and they ain't gonna you
Speaker 1: ain't gonna be happy with it. But ain't it Ain't
Speaker 1: that crazy? I mean, obviously that's parking. That's a million
Speaker 1: more people. Just the inspiration you gave that everyday person
Speaker 1: that looked like even looked in your neighborhood. The inspiration
Speaker 1: gave him. It's a blessing, you know, because I was
Speaker 1: giving that same inspiration for mother, you know, m c's
Speaker 1: or people that you know showed me the way, you know,
Speaker 1: Iced Tea was a great mentor you know, for young
Speaker 1: MC trying to figure it out because he had went
Speaker 1: through a lot of stuff, um with with with his lyrics,
Speaker 1: and he gave me the best advice any MC ever
Speaker 1: gave me, which was, um, don't wrap it if you
Speaker 1: don't if you can't explain it, like don't don't just
Speaker 1: be rhyme and ship like you know what you're talking about,
Speaker 1: because they're gonna ask you about it. You want to
Speaker 1: know every line. You want to know why you wrote it,
Speaker 1: what it means to you, and so you can intelligently
Speaker 1: explain yourself when they come at your bottom, because they're
Speaker 1: coming at you and you did that, and so that
Speaker 1: was great vice because you know, rapper, you're just trying
Speaker 1: to rhyme, clever ship it slick talk, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, slick talking. But when you start getting into
Speaker 1: the political areas, you have to know what you're doing
Speaker 1: and know what you're saying. You know what you're talking
Speaker 1: about all time. NBA starting five, ice Cube starting five
Speaker 1: all time. Damn that guard. I got magic who Lord?
Speaker 1: But you can do it with Lakers alone? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: probably should. At the two, I got Kobe. At the three,
Speaker 1: you got lebron m at the four, Wow, I gotta
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan mm hmm. At the five, I got shocked.
Speaker 1: It's tough. It's not losing very many, not at all.
Speaker 1: That's when you finish uh five dinner guests that are alive,
Speaker 1: you plus five around the table for dinner. The Hormie
Speaker 1: uh crazy tunes, Rest in peace and um my grandfather
Speaker 1: rest in peace, My grandmother rest in peace. Um John
Speaker 1: Sington Man. I lost a lot of harmes. But for
Speaker 1: people that know people, give me with the spoon. If
Speaker 1: you could pick a guest for us to have on
Speaker 1: all the smoke, who would it be? But you have
Speaker 1: to help us get this guest. That's the party. Y'all
Speaker 1: tell me which one y'all want I mean, I'm doing
Speaker 1: all these names. You've got a lot of names, now,
Speaker 1: um iced tea. You said a lot of people. Now,
Speaker 1: did y'all have Kevin Hard on here? Now? That's that's
Speaker 1: what we need. Kevin Hart, that's what we need. Hey man,
Speaker 1: that's a wrap ice cube. Man. We appreciate your time.
Speaker 1: Y'all got a cabin back, man. You can cast us
Speaker 1: on Showtime Basketball, YouTube and the I Heart platform Black Effects,
Speaker 1: see you next week three. This is all a Smoke,
Speaker 1: a production of The Black Effect and our Heart Radio
Speaker 1: in partnership with Showtime