WEBVTT - Sit Downs with the Stand Ups with Aron Gadson 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:07.480 What's up. Family's your girl to meeke A d Mallory 0:00:07.840 --> 0:00:12.280 and it's general and we are your hosts of Street Politicians, 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:17.959 The Place Where and Politics Me my son Living. I 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:22.079 just want to say at the oddsset of this today's 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:25.360 show that I'm very, very very proud to see you 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:30.680 really just kind of like spreading your wings and grabbing 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:34.560 your destiny as they would say, you know, just trying 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:38.320 to do the things and accomplish the things that you've 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:42.320 set out to do. You've been talking about trying to 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:46.559 you know, bring to the forefront and and some of 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:50.040 them already in the forefront, but really to bring conversations 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:54.120 around people who really have had to endure like hard, 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:58.320 difficult circumstances, whether it be based upon their choice choices 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:03.360 or whether they got called up, whether they are wrongfully charged, convicted, 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:05.520 and things like that. But you wanted to talk to 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:09.320 people who are you know, folks that we respect, and 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:13.120 you have been saying you wanted to create this brand 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:16.000 sit down with the stand ups, and you've done it, 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.640 and you know you are sort of in the very 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:24.040 beginning stages of day viewing your project, and I just 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:26.200 wanted to say I'm proud of what you're doing, and 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.680 we we the people would like to know what this 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:33.440 is and why you created. Sit Down with the stand Ups, 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:36.280 which is going to be today will be the first 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:38.679 episode of it. Really. I mean, you did in another 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:43.200 interview with your brother, you're you're one of your mentor 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:47.920 dear friend tone you did an interview some months back, 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:49.840 but this one is going to really be like the 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:55.080 debut of your project. So tell us about it. Well, 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:58.120 first of all, thank you. You know, it's been something 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:01.480 that I wanted to do for a long time, you know, 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:06.240 being formally incarcerated and you know, and dealing with the stigma. 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:08.240 You know, when I came home, there was the stigma 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:10.760 of you know, you know, you're just somebody had been 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:12.960 in jail. You know, not I can do anything, you know, 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:16.480 resipivism rate to hide people going back and forth to jail, 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:19.960 you know, and you have this pretty much scarlet letter 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:22.919 on you, you know, the f and the felony. So 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:27.920 I wanted to talk to people who I've known who've 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:31.360 been incarcerated, who had to go through those hardships, whether 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:35.320 it been through poor choices, some have been incarcerated for 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:38.840 things they didn't do. You know, but all of them 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:44.400 have utilized whatever time and you know circumstances and came 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:48.960 home and had very very strong impacts and been successful. 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:51.520 And I wanted to highlight that. I don't think those 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:53.600 things that talked about it is enough. I think if 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:58.359 we start to highlight individuals who've you know, been rehabilitated 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:02.040 and actually took the time to learn from mistakes made, 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.720 you know, and actually came out in society and being productive, 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:10.359 I think it would give people who who actually are 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:13.080 released and give them faith so that they don't have 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.560 to return to prison. And then it will actually give 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:19.240 society a different view. You know, at any given time, 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:22.320 you can lose your freedom, you know, So it's not when. 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:24.800 It's not about falling down, it's how you get back up. 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:28.919 So sit down with the stand ups, sit down conversations 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.160 with people I consider to be stand up individual And 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:34.800 today it's gonna be our first episode. Like you said, 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:37.080 it's not really our first episode because I did interview 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:40.640 my man Tone in the early stages, which is another 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:43.040 dope interview that you should go check out. It is 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:46.720 on my YouTube page, my son general, go check that out. 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:52.400 But this is our first interview, you know, that we did, 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:56.680 like underneath the guys of just sit down with real 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:01.880 professionally and had it all structured. So gonna interview my 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:05.720 guy Aron, our friends, you know, our brother a, you 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:09.400 know who overcame a lot of things from a young 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:12.240 age man being in the streets to now being a 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:16.520 successful entrepreneur, you know, and just all around good individuals. 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.280 So this interview, it's dope. We got a lot more 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.400 coming up, but this is gonna be our first interview 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:24.839 man sit down with the stand ups. Shout out to 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:28.080 Aron for you know, sitting down and giving me this 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:31.560 information and giving me your story and pouring into this. 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:35.320 So I look forward to it. It's a it's a 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:39.159 long time coming. But the people that we're going to 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:40.920 be interviewing, and it's gonna be people that are going 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:43.240 to motivate you. You know. It's not gonna be just 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:45.440 a bunch of bullshit and who you got beef with 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:47.840 and why you don't like this person and negativity not. 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:51.360 It's gonna be about people, real people going through real 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:54.400 struggles and overcoming those struggles and coming out on top. 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:58.479 Well that's we definitely need more of that. So I'm 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:00.719 all in, let's check it out, sit down with the 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:26.040 stand ups, Aaron, let's go. So today I have a 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:29.200 very special guest, someone that I call a friend, a comrade, 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:32.360 you know, a stand up individuals, because this is what 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:34.880 it is, sit down with the stand ups. You know, 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:38.240 I created this podcast and he's actually our first official 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:42.240 guests of this podcast in our new studio. You know, 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.320 Tone was the first official first guest, but this is 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:49.680 the first official guest on the podcast, you know. And 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:52.880 he's somebody that I respect, someone that I've watched, you know, 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:56.919 since he's been back into society. Just continue to move, 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.240 you know, in a and what I say, respectful man, 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:04.400 you know what I'm saying, with integrity, the carriage itself, 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:08.080 with integrity, somebody I respect. Man. So I would like 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:17.080 to introduce my guests today, my brother Big a Man. First, man, 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:19.719 I'm great. I want to say thank you for allowing 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:22.080 me to come on and because anybody can't come here, 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:26.120 you know. So that's why I created this podcast, because 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:30.839 I was tired of watching podcasts with people interview people 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:35.200 who don't have integrity, you know, who've never been battle tests, 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:37.800 who haven't been through anything, who haven't you know what 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:40.440 I'm saying, who who really don't deserve to be interviewed. 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:42.960 So it's like what I say to myself, if if 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:47.320 you see that's something that's missing created, don't complain, you know, 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:49.800 activate so you know, sit down with the stairs ups 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:52.320 was a birth childer that especially, And I want to 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:57.799 interview brothers and sistors, you know, who have overcome, especially 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:01.560 going to prison, you know, because they're this stigma around 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:04.359 prison about you know, you're a criminal and you're the 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.200 worst scum of the earth, and you know you can't 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:09.840 succeed afterwards. You got to go back to the same 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:13.000 negativity and the bullshit that got you in prison, and 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:15.960 you know, and so I want to interview in highlight 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:20.320 brothers and sisters like yourself who dispel that myth. You know, 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:23.720 so thank you, thank you for being I thank you. Um. 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:27.320 Just to add to that, I don't I don't think 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:31.960 that anything I do is uh abnormal. I just have 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:34.880 a mission in my mind that I want to do 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:38.360 better than I did previously, you know, my last efforts. 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.320 And you know, I go about it that way, and 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:44.160 you know, and you carry yourself properly. Man. You know, 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:48.119 there's so many people that I see who who give 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:52.200 you know, brothers who are formerly incarcerated this bad stigma, 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:54.120 you know, because those are the only people they want 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.040 to interview. They want to interview the people that want 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:58.240 to talk about, Oh, I was this in jail when 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:01.520 I was dad and always highlighting negativity. So this show 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.320 is not We don't want to focus on all the negatives. Yes, 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:06.640 we want to get in to the reality of what 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:09.720 you would to jail for, you know, all of those realities, 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:12.440 but we want to highlight what you've done since you've 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:15.040 been out, and how you're moving on trajectory of what 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:18.120 success looks like, and how other brothers and sisters like 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.720 yourself who come back into society can go on that 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:24.200 right track and can do things positively and can be 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.640 extremely successful. Okay, you know what I'm saying. So so 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:33.080 with that said, you know, um, a lot of people 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:35.400 know your story, but a lot of people don't write. 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:37.040 You know what I'm saying. But if you're from Harlem, 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:39.319 then you know you know what I'm saying. It is 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:42.520 a household name Ayrong, that's a that's Aral. You know, UM, 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:49.720 tell me about like young Aral. I was young abral school, 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:52.800 Like what was how are you? I was just having 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:56.840 this conversation with fab every day, and I was explaining 0:08:56.920 --> 0:09:00.319 to him. I said, dang, I was looking at other 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:04.000 people high school yearbook pictures and I realized, I don't 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:08.959 even have a high school yearbook picture. Wow, I didn't 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:11.120 make it to high school. And that in that frame, 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:14.040 I went to high school and visiting mode, like I 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:16.640 went there to hang out from time to time, but 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:20.880 school was like a form of thought for me at 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:25.440 that point. I had my mindset on hustling. I probably 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:28.280 was out there since I was twelve years old, and 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:32.040 when by the time I got to high school, it 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.800 was just for fun. And I didn't value an education 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.959 to that degree at that time. And I did in 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:41.240 a way and I didn't at the same time. So 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:44.920 just to elaborate on that, I just say this, I 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:48.720 wanted to graduate, but I didn't want my hustle to 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:52.600 be stagnated by the schedule of school, so I ended 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:55.240 up putting school on the back burner to pursue my 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.400 I've never heard it put that way. You wanted to hustle. 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:01.600 I mean, you wanted to graduate, but you didn't want 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:05.760 graduation to stagnate the hustle. You didn't want it to 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:08.439 interfere with the time. So I was moving up at 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:11.160 the time. And so so when did you saw the hustle? 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:14.960 What did you say? So I gave it a try. 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.760 Dude gave me some weed when I was eleven years old. 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.440 Funny story. You know, before I got a chance to 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:25.880 sell it, I put it under the bed in my 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:28.400 room or whatever. It must have had a smell that 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:31.240 I didn't realize. It was a little more potent than 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.240 I realized at the time. My moms might have found 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:37.520 the joint. It disappeared. I never got confronted, I never 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:41.760 got asked. Wise in here gone. So I would dude 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:43.760 a little change. He was on my back, like I 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:48.000 told him, stacks, but his little few hundred. I guess 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:50.920 he needed it. So I was. I was my first 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:54.240 loss in life. So you took your first loss with 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:56.920 some weed. You don't know where it went, but you 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:00.280 know it was gone. It was gone. I got this too. 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:03.319 I had a partner, so he was two years older 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:04.599 than me. He didn't have to go to school. I 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:10.000 was still in elementary school. He had the um the 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.880 ability to cut school already. I used to still try 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:14.960 to keep up with the school schedule at that point, 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:17.319 so he was selling more than me, you know, and 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:20.280 quit our little partnership. Made us have a little fistfight, 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:24.840 but we end up being friends again later on. Okay, 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:27.520 so you went from weed and then after the weed, 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:31.840 what happened? So after the week we we graduate, go 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:37.959 to junior high school and my cousins and my friends 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.360 they had this morning shift for this guy whatever, and 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:44.080 I wanted to go. I thought I thought I could. 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:46.000 I thought I was a little smarter than them. I 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:49.480 thought I was sharper than them. So, um, I wanted 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:52.040 I needed money. I thought I needed money in my pocket. 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:57.000 D Dad. At that time, it was like an unspoken 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:00.320 request in my household that you produce something. And then 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:03.640 when you do produce, I was given like a certain 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:06.360 amount of rope after that to be a grown up 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:10.440 at least for a couple of hours. No beatings, no, 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:15.400 no no chastise, no, no, just no confrontation. Because I 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:19.520 contributed to the overall welfare of the household and did by, 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:23.760 I was deemed important at that time, so it inspired 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:26.959 me to try to go out there and get more. So, um, 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:32.160 that was the that was the fastest way and a 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:35.280 yield of results. Every day. So I was I was 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:38.200 into that. So it started out of twelve and then 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.480 you went to junior high school and then when she 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:44.640 went to the next level of what we was, Oh 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:47.199 it was the cracks then, yeah, now it was cracks 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:52.880 um crack was already fever pitch um. It's ninety one. 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:58.920 I got exposure, so the spot was clicking. All I 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:00.560 had to do is just sit there and pass him 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:04.640 out or had deuces back then, I don't know that 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:07.800 was you had to be outside und you had to 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.240 be the ruces was the thing, right, he had to 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:13.959 talk bout deuces grad cat joints. Right, dudies to give 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.160 me two thousand packs at the at the beginning of 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.600 the school day and I'll be finished by three. Then 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:22.800 I'll go about my business. At that point, you just 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:24.439 wasn't going to school. I ain't go to school the 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:26.920 whole seventh grade year, the whole sound grade year. That's 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:28.480 so that was like when you was like, all right, 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:31.840 this is this is clicking. The block is clicking as lucrative, 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:35.600 I'm now I'm being seen as a man in the household. 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.360 I'm bringing in and I got to defend my mom. 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:42.800 She didn't advise she didn't bother me, but when the 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:44.800 school crawled and was like, yo, he didn't come the 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.840 whole year, she was upset. So then we had our 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:50.760 little beef and I'm like, look, man, you can't do 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:53.640 this and it ain't both of them ain't gonna happen. Yeah, 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:57.080 but I ain't gonna get no beatings though. Yeah I'm 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.959 out here. Were just like I'm grown beat me. I 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:04.000 hear you mad, but it ain't really much nobody. I'm 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:06.360 telling growing ups to kind of pipe down. I mean, 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:09.080 I got you stand over there, and so I couldn't 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:11.400 come home and get a beating. I mean it kind 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:13.760 of it's an oxymoor around to me at that point. 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.680 So it was it was time to kind of either 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:20.600 figure out how to become fully a man or like 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:26.600 start listening again. So, you know, I just progress um 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:29.920 as my little money came in. So did you go 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:33.200 to high school at all? Yes? So I was embarrassed 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:35.760 because I was an on a road kid in elementary school. 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:37.440 I was I was on a road out and I 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:39.440 don't want to, you know, give the impression that I 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.440 was some arch criminal at at twelve years old. It 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:47.720 wasn't that it was a it was a dabbling of sorts, 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:50.680 but it managed to take up that whole school year. 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:55.080 I get left back. I'm embarrassed. So that's a feel, 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:59.560 right right. I go to school the next year, and 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:02.920 it's the principle assured me like, if if you, you know, 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:06.640 apply yourself and come to school, give me the grades 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:09.960 you need, I'll skip you. So that was my motivation. 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:13.720 I didn't want want to be left behind. So that yeah, 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:16.400 I kind of applied myself and I got back on 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:20.440 the ball with school and went to high school in time. 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:24.200 Get the high school as a whole different energy, who different, 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:28.520 everybody fly, all of them super seniors is already they 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:30.920 in power. So I'm like, all right, now I got 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:35.320 to keep up again. So I get back out there 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:40.280 and now I'm in the mix. And before long, um, 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:45.800 I found myself in little troubles, uh little robbery there 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:49.800 and another one here. And then Judge Judy sent me 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:54.360 to dfy Judge Judy, Judge Judy. Wow, so Judy said, 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:57.720 so using dy at what age? And so the first 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:01.920 robbery charge came at twelve, and then the second one 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:06.320 at thirteen fourteen something something to that effect, and she 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:10.240 sent me upstate at thirteen, so he was in Dr 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:14.480 Foil fourteen. So at fourteen years in dry came home 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:18.160 from darfour at what time ninety five, ninety six? Oh yeah, 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:23.040 I'm coming coming into ninety six and then I get back. 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:27.320 I don't know if I immediately started hospital. Yeah. Shit, 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:31.240 So I met my father at fifteen years old. So 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:33.800 you never met your father prior to being fifteen. I 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:37.240 never met my father. Wow, I never met him. Um, 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:39.320 so you just was the man of the household. So 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:42.360 that's I had a brother. He was the man until 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:44.840 he left. You know, he went outside. He was outside 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:50.200 early and uh, it got to the point where when 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:54.760 he was going then it transitioned obviously. But now it's 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.920 my time and I'm getting I'm coming home from the 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.640 DFOY what have you. And when I got home, I 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.399 got presented with a challenge even go to high school 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:09.960 or um, you know, get some money. So my father, 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:12.800 being as though I met him at fifteen, yeah, like 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.680 certain amount of time of back child support to pay 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:21.800 back to his situation because the people identified him, so 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:26.720 he hold the system some back child support. I somehow 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.720 checked the mailbox one day and it was check for 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:32.520 three thousand and then I get excited, Oh, hey, vow, 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:35.680 let's go cash his check or whatever, and she like, oh, 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:37.960 that's my money. I'm like, naa, na na, I need 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:39.760 this one. I'm so you got the rest of them, 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:42.280 but I want to hold on to this one. So 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:45.800 I went and took fifteen hundred or to sixty two, 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.359 and then the other fifteen hundred I basically spent in 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:52.600 the Nordicle store on seventy second in Columbus. I don't 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:54.760 know if you remember that one. Yeah, that was that 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:59.480 was That was the spot did. Yeah. At first I 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:01.320 went to Brand and Ice came back from death while 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:05.760 I went to King. So this is ninety six. Yeah, 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:08.680 so I graduated in ninety four. So you can't back back. 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:15.400 He loo than me blow so that you wouldn't got 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.280 you sixty two. You ain't turned back since right right, 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:21.720 I went out there. I kicked the ass. What I'm saying, 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:24.080 my high shoo was crazy. I ain't lead a spot 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:27.400 and I'm saying I was out out and then um 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:32.520 the opportunity to go down South Camp. So that September comes. 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:35.800 I don't know what what inspired us going to the fight, 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:40.000 but we went to see Mike Tyson versus Bruce selling 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:43.800 and fight in the Tupac We had the table. It 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:47.479 was a crazy, crazy time and um hip hop history, 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:51.240 but overall I was a big fan of Tupac anyway, 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:54.640 so it was a big deal. That trip itself opened 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:57.320 my eyes to a lot of what it really looked 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:00.800 like when you start doing really good. That was like 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:05.360 a commercial of source for ambition or you know, um 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.040 just wanting to be bigger than I was at the time. 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:12.320 So at that point when I got back from Vegas, um, 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:14.359 you know, sad trip, being as though he got shot 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:18.480 or whatever. I went to Dominican Republic the same week, 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:23.320 went out there on my I can't say Frank Lucas 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:27.840 dreams because you know, yeah, right, disrespected dude or whatever. 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.840 But so I went out there with an ambition again 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:33.040 like I you're gonna find him. People know what I'm saying, 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:35.879 and get it. Get a shaken to Mexico. No, No, 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.440 we went to my man had a guy out there 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.760 that was a good friend of his and he got 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:45.440 deported or whatever. So he's still supposed to that knew 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.880 something about something. And then by the time we get 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:52.960 it back and that presented itself and it was on. 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:58.320 So what year was this still ninety six right, so 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:01.400 that was September. Then going into that the later part 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:05.480 of ninety six is was like the blooming stage for me, right, 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:07.800 and then ninety seven I was, I was. It was 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:10.720 on like Donkey Kong, So that was kind of my 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:17.639 my time right there. So um, but like everything I 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:20.600 did good, then I did dad, and I did good again. 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:24.159 Didn't right up and down? I tell you know, I 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:28.760 always used to tell people, man, you know, it's and 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.560 everything's up and down right, and and a lot of 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:33.800 times when people glorify the streets and they talk about 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:36.280 the streets, they make it seem like it's just yo, 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.359 we just got a bunch money, and so you the 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:41.680 risk don't really be worth the reward, right, you know 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:43.360 what I say. You don't think that now. But when 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:45.640 you're young, you're just like, oh, you know what I'm saying. 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:47.719 You don't think it at that time. You just running around, 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:50.560 You're just trying to you see, I've got money, right, 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:53.000 I got girls, I got the clothes, I got everything 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:56.280 I want. Right. But then when you realize, you know, 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:59.000 when you look back on it, you started saying, damn, 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:01.720 this really wasn't work. It's like, this is three four 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:05.960 or five year thing that I lost ten twenty. It 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:08.600 don't really be balancing out. So this was what you 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:14.000 at ninety six, you went to Yah turned it up. 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.600 So so what was going on in between that time 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:21.359 between like what was going on from ninety six to 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:24.680 like two thousand, right, So let's let's let's be clear 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:29.560 about the facts. At A ninety six, my main my 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:32.320 main desire was to have an impact on my household. 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:37.240 That was your main. So basically you hustled, like a 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:39.720 jay Z said of desperation, like we're not gonna be poor, 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:42.200 Like I'm not gonna be poor. It wasn't And even 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:44.199 if we're gonna be poor, we're gonna be poor and 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:46.680 comfortable at the same time, right, because it's going to 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:50.480 be to eat. Right, that level of whose big time 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:55.320 and who's doing okay and whose little dude? Like that's 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:58.040 relative at the time. You you you hustle from where 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:00.200 you are, right, It's some dudes that never get past 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:02.200 one hundred twenty five grams and they feel like they're 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:05.720 the ship I'm saying. So I can't necessarily say that 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:08.080 I knew what level I wanted to be on. But 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:10.800 I had an idea. I've seen the movies. I know 0:22:10.880 --> 0:22:13.640 what breaks on breaks look, I heard a rich part 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:16.639 in them. So I heard the stories. I know what 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:21.119 the what the shot supposed to look like, from this 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:23.040 dude that did a little bit to that dude that 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:26.120 did a lot of bit. So you know, they provided 0:22:26.160 --> 0:22:29.919 the blueprint, if you will, and you had to have 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:35.280 an appropriate level of audacity at that point to kind 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:39.320 of following those steps. Um, and if you jumped out 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:41.560 there in the streets, you you have to know the names. 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:45.439 You know, the names that that give you the energy 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:48.520 to go forth, the guy Fishers and all of these 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:51.760 names like that that came before you and then you 0:22:51.760 --> 0:22:54.480 want to leave your mark. But more important to me, 0:22:55.680 --> 0:23:00.119 that's the thing I noticed. You know a lot of 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:04.200 people hustlers in Hallow because it's hustling became famous in 0:23:04.320 --> 0:23:08.960 Hallan right, So it's like just the ambiance of what 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:11.480 hustling was like you go to one fifty fifth Street 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:15.639 and you see you and you're from the pun so 0:23:15.760 --> 0:23:18.280 you go there and you see cars, you see change, 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:21.760 you see all And that was the thing that the 0:23:21.960 --> 0:23:25.800 low that that just pulled most of the people from 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:28.320 Hallman right there. It made it worse. But going to 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:32.000 Willie Burgers, you everybody pulling up in the biggest car 0:23:32.080 --> 0:23:35.440 is the biggest change. The girls is around the car. 0:23:35.600 --> 0:23:38.040 You like, Nah, it's no way. I'm not doing this, man, 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:40.440 there's no way. I'm just gonna be kids out here 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:43.359 with nothing and this is happening right. So that and 0:23:43.440 --> 0:23:46.400 that's the thing. You have Recca Park, you have rooftop 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:48.760 over there, Crush the street from Recca Park, it was 0:23:48.800 --> 0:23:50.679 a Gamblett by the crust the street from that that 0:23:50.880 --> 0:23:53.719 everybody used to come to. So all of the names 0:23:53.800 --> 0:23:57.040 from here to Queen's Dudes, the Brooklyn dudes, that everybody 0:23:57.080 --> 0:24:02.360 that was getting money from whatever area came to my neighborhood. Now, 0:24:02.480 --> 0:24:06.360 once again, I'm a little too young to be relevant. However, 0:24:07.760 --> 0:24:10.879 I'm I'm noticing. I'm watching. I see who's who, I 0:24:10.920 --> 0:24:16.040 see how they carry theirself, and those examples become year motivation. 0:24:16.200 --> 0:24:20.080 Those examples become a part of your yr psyche, and 0:24:20.440 --> 0:24:25.560 you start mimicking. So I took the necessary steps, and 0:24:25.760 --> 0:24:28.920 I took some moves from him, and that dude moves 0:24:28.960 --> 0:24:30.960 look good. And I borrowed a little bit from him, 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:35.040 and I created my own, my own. I say that 0:24:35.119 --> 0:24:37.520 all the time. I say a lot of us our 0:24:37.600 --> 0:24:40.280 only vision of success was the drug dealer, right, you 0:24:40.320 --> 0:24:42.200 know what I'm saying. I didn't live next to the doctor. 0:24:42.280 --> 0:24:44.560 There was no lawyers there, there was none of that. 0:24:44.600 --> 0:24:46.760 It was just the drug dealer. Right. So he had 0:24:46.800 --> 0:24:49.160 the girl, I won, he had the car one it. Yeah, 0:24:49.400 --> 0:24:51.720 everybody respected him. So it's like, yo, that's who I 0:24:51.760 --> 0:24:55.520 want to be. So you know, in essence, we're pretty 0:24:55.600 --> 0:24:59.240 much groomed into that because you only can be what 0:24:59.320 --> 0:25:02.240 you see, you know. So you was just basically was 0:25:02.280 --> 0:25:05.520 a product of your environment, you know. And and then 0:25:05.600 --> 0:25:09.439 Nate nature, especially of man strong man. You want to 0:25:09.440 --> 0:25:11.160 compete and you want to be the best at it. 0:25:11.560 --> 0:25:13.480 You know what I'm saying. If you if you involved 0:25:13.480 --> 0:25:15.680 in anything, I'm gonna be the best at it. And 0:25:15.880 --> 0:25:19.600 you know, hustling was like a sport, especially in the nineties, 0:25:19.680 --> 0:25:22.240 late eighties and nineties or way through to like the two. 0:25:22.359 --> 0:25:26.720 It was a sport, especially in our area, like from Hallom, 0:25:26.760 --> 0:25:29.040 the Bronks, like that was the sport. Like especially you 0:25:29.080 --> 0:25:31.680 went down to Hallom and he was like, nah, dudes 0:25:31.680 --> 0:25:33.920 was getting too much money? Man, Like I used to 0:25:33.960 --> 0:25:37.840 go to King. Niggas was coming to King pocketing. The 0:25:37.880 --> 0:25:40.879 locker room was again, it was like a casino. You 0:25:41.000 --> 0:25:43.400 understand I'm saying. The gym was a casino. Nigga was coming. 0:25:43.920 --> 0:25:46.479 I'm in ninth grade and niggas got five ten thousand 0:25:46.480 --> 0:25:50.040 dollars in their pocket. I'm like, how was this happened? 0:25:50.640 --> 0:25:53.199 You know? So they got mom moms, north faces, they 0:25:53.240 --> 0:25:56.760 got every They're going right to the north close. So 0:25:56.760 --> 0:25:59.159 so you like, you know what I'm saying. If you 0:25:59.640 --> 0:26:03.080 it's hard for you to not fall into that. Lord, yeah, 0:26:03.160 --> 0:26:05.000 you know what I'm saying. And then and then especially 0:26:05.040 --> 0:26:07.959 when you come from when you ain't got it right, 0:26:08.080 --> 0:26:09.280 you know what I'm saying. It's not like you we 0:26:09.480 --> 0:26:12.040 privileged and we had good homes and she was good 0:26:12.040 --> 0:26:15.320 for us. You're like, nah, I'm just not knocked, gonna 0:26:15.359 --> 0:26:18.240 have nothing and they got all this and I've got none. 0:26:18.240 --> 0:26:19.800 It's not like you, like, I'm doing good. You know 0:26:19.800 --> 0:26:23.639 what I'm got. So you like, you start out basically, 0:26:23.880 --> 0:26:26.359 like you said, trying to make sure your home is 0:26:26.359 --> 0:26:28.680 taking kid of trying to do that, and then after 0:26:28.720 --> 0:26:31.639 that you're like, well I did that, now I can 0:26:31.880 --> 0:26:34.000 Now I can go into the next arena, so you 0:26:34.000 --> 0:26:38.080 just move up and on. So from ninety six in 0:26:38.119 --> 0:26:40.800 the two thousands, so that that was around that was 0:26:40.840 --> 0:26:45.879 when all of them like hip hop was right, you 0:26:45.920 --> 0:26:47.680 know what I'm saying. That's when the whole hip hop 0:26:47.760 --> 0:26:52.439 so like affiliations to hip hop, Like what was Abra 0:26:52.600 --> 0:26:55.280 hun doing in like the hip hop error in that era. 0:26:55.600 --> 0:26:59.720 So before before that, the hall of hip Hop scene. 0:27:00.119 --> 0:27:03.359 And I'm not speaking the dougie freshman era because obviously 0:27:03.400 --> 0:27:06.320 they had their own school mood and all of them people. 0:27:07.600 --> 0:27:11.240 And I was there in Roca when rock him, did 0:27:11.600 --> 0:27:14.600 I know joke. I was in RockA Park, sitting there, 0:27:14.680 --> 0:27:17.119 playing in the park when they came in set up 0:27:17.160 --> 0:27:20.520 the cameras. I'm like, oh shoot, look at Flavor like 0:27:20.840 --> 0:27:22.520 it was a big deal of me at this time. 0:27:22.720 --> 0:27:26.280 I'm a kid. I loved it. I mean and looking 0:27:26.280 --> 0:27:28.600 at rooftop wall was like my favorite thing. I used 0:27:28.600 --> 0:27:30.320 to actually go to the park just to stand in 0:27:30.359 --> 0:27:31.960 a crosse the street and look at the wall. It was. 0:27:32.040 --> 0:27:36.240 It was littered with graffiti. Um it had the advertisement 0:27:36.280 --> 0:27:40.720 of Brucey B and m Busy B. So I used 0:27:40.720 --> 0:27:44.760 to draw off that wall like just trying to mimic 0:27:44.800 --> 0:27:48.720 the letter pattern and it was a big deal. So 0:27:48.800 --> 0:27:53.520 the whole culture always influenced some of our moves and 0:27:54.080 --> 0:27:58.600 the things that we aspired to um and you know, 0:27:58.840 --> 0:28:01.800 not to go back again. But that's why I do 0:28:02.000 --> 0:28:08.480 love the culture, because it gave us a sense of imagination, 0:28:08.520 --> 0:28:12.359 if you will. And the drug dealers, for what it's worth, 0:28:12.800 --> 0:28:15.199 those were the first guys that showed the kind of 0:28:15.280 --> 0:28:20.680 heart that that was a new feeling for us. We've 0:28:20.720 --> 0:28:23.720 seen housing men. We didn't see doctors and lawyers because 0:28:23.720 --> 0:28:26.240 that they wasn't in our neighborhoods. We see housing, then 0:28:26.320 --> 0:28:29.439 we see the the janitor, we see the people that 0:28:30.440 --> 0:28:32.880 you know, and we respect these men as grown men 0:28:33.200 --> 0:28:38.240 and provide us for their family. But the drug dealers 0:28:38.240 --> 0:28:42.280 gave us a sense of importance. Everything they touched on 0:28:42.360 --> 0:28:47.520 a daily was affected by they knew found wealth. Sure 0:28:47.560 --> 0:28:49.920 they had the girls in the clothes, but more importantly, 0:28:50.200 --> 0:28:52.880 if somebody needed something for school, if somebody needed to 0:28:52.920 --> 0:28:56.920 bill paid, they was given that to people in not 0:28:57.120 --> 0:29:00.760 having to think about, you know, the expenditure, it was nothing, 0:29:01.000 --> 0:29:05.720 especially with the rate of inflation at that time, and 0:29:06.000 --> 0:29:08.960 it was it was a low expenditure for them to 0:29:09.480 --> 0:29:11.840 have a big impact on your house. Providing your mom 0:29:11.960 --> 0:29:15.280 just got a eviction note that month and somebody gave 0:29:15.280 --> 0:29:17.560 a three hundred dollars, it was still a big deal. 0:29:18.600 --> 0:29:24.640 So all right, back to moving forward, These these um 0:29:25.080 --> 0:29:28.560 efforts on a behalf became some of the things that 0:29:28.600 --> 0:29:30.800 I wanted to do. I wanted to be impactful on 0:29:30.840 --> 0:29:33.000 the people that I loved, so I wanted to make 0:29:33.040 --> 0:29:36.240 sure that if they needed I had it. And I 0:29:36.320 --> 0:29:38.840 didn't really see that, you know, going to get a 0:29:38.920 --> 0:29:42.160 ninety nine or five job. I never had a job 0:29:42.200 --> 0:29:45.080 in my life, so not a traditional job, so um, 0:29:45.880 --> 0:29:47.840 it never was a part of my psyche. I always 0:29:47.880 --> 0:29:50.280 felt like I would have to go outside and get it. 0:29:51.200 --> 0:29:55.240 So wow. So and that's what I say all the time. 0:29:55.880 --> 0:30:02.160 You know, the mind state that team with the nineties 0:30:02.200 --> 0:30:07.760 and eighties era of hustling, it wasn't about negativity, and 0:30:07.760 --> 0:30:11.320 it wasn't It wasn't it wasn't criminology to us, right, 0:30:11.480 --> 0:30:14.680 it was survival, right, it was I wanted to do 0:30:14.760 --> 0:30:18.120 good for my community, like we wasn't. We didn't hustle 0:30:18.240 --> 0:30:19.840 just to flossh on each other and say I got 0:30:19.880 --> 0:30:22.560 more than you. Most of the drug dealers and the hustlers. 0:30:23.120 --> 0:30:25.760 You know, we're taking care of the community like you 0:30:25.760 --> 0:30:28.280 could go. They was paying rent like kids. They was 0:30:28.960 --> 0:30:30.960 like I remember the drug dealers in my hood when 0:30:30.960 --> 0:30:33.720 I was playing basketball early. They was paying for me 0:30:33.760 --> 0:30:36.000 to go to camps. There's buying me sneakers. There's like, Noah, 0:30:36.000 --> 0:30:37.880 we don't want you in the streets. You know. They 0:30:37.960 --> 0:30:40.400 was doing all the black parties, giving out all the stuff. 0:30:40.680 --> 0:30:44.760 So it was like this robin hood since you know 0:30:44.760 --> 0:30:46.920 what I'm saying. We wanted all of us wanted to 0:30:46.960 --> 0:30:48.840 be the person in the hood that took care of 0:30:48.840 --> 0:30:51.120 the hood and was the person that you can come to, 0:30:51.360 --> 0:30:54.200 you know, because we didn't. We didn't want nobody suffering, 0:30:54.520 --> 0:30:56.720 you know. So it was a different mind stake, you 0:30:56.760 --> 0:30:59.000 know what I'm saying. And although we realized we was 0:30:59.040 --> 0:31:01.400 doing wrong, you know what I'm saying, we felt like 0:31:01.440 --> 0:31:04.480 we was doing wrong for the right reasons, you know. 0:31:04.520 --> 0:31:07.200 And it wasn't it wasn't just we're trying to hurt it. 0:31:07.280 --> 0:31:09.440 We just want to do negative certain No, it was 0:31:09.840 --> 0:31:12.240 I'm not trying to be broke. I know these young 0:31:12.320 --> 0:31:13.760 kids ain't trying to be bro I want to make 0:31:13.760 --> 0:31:16.880 sure everybody in this community got something, and b got something, 0:31:16.880 --> 0:31:18.840 then they got something. I want to be the person 0:31:18.880 --> 0:31:21.000 that I know that they can come to and get 0:31:21.080 --> 0:31:23.800 something from me, you know. And that's still and and 0:31:23.880 --> 0:31:29.040 a lot of people don't understand it's not criminal mentality, 0:31:29.160 --> 0:31:33.240 right because I still I still base a lot of 0:31:33.280 --> 0:31:36.160 the principles that I live off of the streets. You 0:31:36.160 --> 0:31:39.280 know what I'm saying. It's not the crime, its integrity, 0:31:39.680 --> 0:31:41.760 right as levels of integrity. So they're like, yo, you 0:31:41.800 --> 0:31:44.480 can't be gangster but woke, and I'm like wow, because 0:31:44.920 --> 0:31:48.960 the gang the principles of what I called gangster is manhood, 0:31:49.040 --> 0:31:52.400 protecting women, you know, make sure that the children is safe. 0:31:52.520 --> 0:31:55.600 All of these principles that I got from the streets 0:31:55.600 --> 0:31:58.400 that I didn't learn from nowhere else, nobody. I didn't have, 0:31:58.480 --> 0:32:01.640 no you know, no school of you know that they 0:32:01.680 --> 0:32:03.560 taught you how to be a boy, and all that 0:32:03.640 --> 0:32:05.760 I learned what I learned from the streets, and I 0:32:05.800 --> 0:32:10.520 applied that now as a civilian as as somebody who's not. 0:32:10.800 --> 0:32:12.920 And I apply all of those things, and those things 0:32:13.000 --> 0:32:16.080 make me great in every aspect of life that I 0:32:16.160 --> 0:32:18.800 live now, you know what I'm saying. So when I'm 0:32:18.800 --> 0:32:21.040 listening to you. We all had the same things, we 0:32:21.120 --> 0:32:24.080 all had the same mentalities, you know, and we was 0:32:24.120 --> 0:32:26.880 never just And that's what that's what I want to, like, 0:32:27.360 --> 0:32:30.360 try to dispel a lot of people who commit crime. 0:32:30.520 --> 0:32:33.120 It's not criminals, right, you know what I'm saying. You 0:32:33.120 --> 0:32:35.680 you you you're trying to some people that just enjoy 0:32:35.760 --> 0:32:37.880 committing crown. They're like, y'all want to do negative shit. 0:32:38.000 --> 0:32:39.920 That's just who I am. But there's a lot of 0:32:40.000 --> 0:32:43.120 us that was like, yo, I'm not gonna be broke. See, 0:32:43.160 --> 0:32:48.600 I'm confused about the mission of today's young US. But 0:32:48.760 --> 0:32:51.120 before I could speak on number because I didn't need 0:32:51.120 --> 0:32:53.880 to answer the question on with the ninety six ever 0:32:53.960 --> 0:32:57.800 asking me that. But let's not take for granted the 0:32:58.240 --> 0:33:02.480 mob era either. That that model led to the rich 0:33:02.600 --> 0:33:06.040 porters and them, and I mean, let's even to the 0:33:06.160 --> 0:33:10.240 nicky bonds and them of that era. They were direct 0:33:11.760 --> 0:33:15.880 beneficiaries of that model that they set, and then that 0:33:15.920 --> 0:33:18.239 one trickled down to the riches and them, Then they 0:33:18.320 --> 0:33:21.160 trickled down to us, and then so on and so forth. 0:33:21.200 --> 0:33:25.600 But as it kept going, one was to level the 0:33:25.720 --> 0:33:27.600 play and feel love, to have and to have not. 0:33:28.360 --> 0:33:31.800 The next one became, oh, it's our time, we're going 0:33:31.880 --> 0:33:34.040 for broke and we're gonna try to change the whole 0:33:34.120 --> 0:33:37.400 dynamics of the culture. At that point, we don't know 0:33:37.560 --> 0:33:41.280 nothing else, right, since these drugs is like newly introduced 0:33:41.280 --> 0:33:43.920 to the community. I'm and I don't want to speak 0:33:44.160 --> 0:33:47.080 in factual terms because one I was too young, right, 0:33:47.240 --> 0:33:50.560 But I just want to give my my opinion of 0:33:50.600 --> 0:33:53.959 it is when these guys came out with the idea 0:33:54.000 --> 0:34:00.720 of let's gather all of these resources and moneys to 0:34:00.760 --> 0:34:03.240 buy the community and pay for this and make sure 0:34:03.320 --> 0:34:07.240 we good and make sure they're good. The end result 0:34:07.560 --> 0:34:10.520 that the powers that be didn't care that happened to 0:34:10.560 --> 0:34:13.120 the community. I don't think they've seen it going that 0:34:13.239 --> 0:34:16.839 far at the beginning of it. By the time it 0:34:16.880 --> 0:34:19.279 got to us, and it was just a matter of 0:34:19.880 --> 0:34:22.520 I was already fucked up. We can't do nothing to 0:34:22.560 --> 0:34:25.960 make it worse or better. Just get what you can 0:34:26.200 --> 0:34:29.080 and try to do good from there. So it still 0:34:29.160 --> 0:34:32.080 was an objective to kind of do good from bad. 0:34:33.800 --> 0:34:38.960 Now it's more of an attention seeking thing and more 0:34:39.000 --> 0:34:42.960 of a I just want to look good. But I 0:34:43.000 --> 0:34:46.360 guess we all get lost in that in that journey, 0:34:46.400 --> 0:34:49.480 because we all ended up buying shit we didn't need. 0:34:50.160 --> 0:34:52.080 We all ended up with a chain or two that 0:34:52.200 --> 0:34:55.319 wasn't necessary, or car that that had nothing to do 0:34:55.360 --> 0:34:59.440 with the overall objective. So we all get blinded by 0:34:59.640 --> 0:35:04.080 you know, I agreed and get lost that ninety six 0:35:04.160 --> 0:35:08.200 to two thousand and era, it was a exciting time. 0:35:08.719 --> 0:35:11.399 The kids. You want to be a kid, you want 0:35:11.400 --> 0:35:17.279 to have fun. You see the young rappers that you 0:35:17.320 --> 0:35:19.560 know might be a little seasoned now, but at that 0:35:19.680 --> 0:35:24.480 time when their gals and digging in the crates and 0:35:24.480 --> 0:35:27.480 the Bronx and all of these guys were still young 0:35:27.640 --> 0:35:32.480 enough to have a direct impact one on how our 0:35:32.960 --> 0:35:38.600 youth was fueled by the music and stuff. It was fire, 0:35:38.640 --> 0:35:41.360 It was great. I loved every second of it. M 0:35:41.600 --> 0:35:45.880 jay Z and them came nahs and they was killing boutang. 0:35:46.640 --> 0:35:50.200 It created this energy that you can make it you 0:35:50.280 --> 0:35:53.520 got fun. It could be a glorious time, and I 0:35:53.640 --> 0:35:56.480 was all for it. I was outside every day all day. 0:35:56.520 --> 0:35:59.120 Nobody went home. I don't think, but not that I 0:35:59.200 --> 0:36:01.920 was a person that enjoyed hanging outside. But I was 0:36:01.960 --> 0:36:06.120 a person that enjoyed the energy of the error so 0:36:08.080 --> 0:36:11.160 I was on the road a lot down South, hustling. 0:36:11.960 --> 0:36:15.040 Every every time I went to UM, I tried to 0:36:15.040 --> 0:36:19.040 make my impression. Felt I wanted to constantly get to 0:36:19.080 --> 0:36:21.560 the levels that I wanted to be at. But UM 0:36:22.960 --> 0:36:28.080 that that error in itself was special because it gave 0:36:29.200 --> 0:36:33.279 true beginnings of wealth to people that didn't get a 0:36:33.360 --> 0:36:37.840 chance to have it no other way. UM kids that 0:36:37.880 --> 0:36:40.719 wouldn't have made it would have nine to five, but 0:36:40.960 --> 0:36:43.799 they ended up benefit enough. The jerkory that happened to 0:36:43.880 --> 0:36:48.240 the first wave of rappers, so it was new money. 0:36:48.440 --> 0:36:51.640 Then the street dudes was in competition with them. They 0:36:51.719 --> 0:36:54.680 was in competition with us, and it just was a 0:36:54.719 --> 0:36:57.960 hell of a time, like witnessing it all that if 0:36:58.000 --> 0:36:59.840 you was there, if he was present at that time, 0:37:00.320 --> 0:37:02.040 I was because I was. That was kind of like 0:37:02.080 --> 0:37:04.400 the error where I got into it, you know what 0:37:04.400 --> 0:37:09.319 I'm saying. So like I was a big big girl fan, 0:37:09.440 --> 0:37:11.759 you know what I'm saying. I remember just listening to 0:37:11.920 --> 0:37:14.960 Big Elm stressing Poppito, like yo, this is probably the 0:37:14.960 --> 0:37:17.719 best rapper ever. You know what I'm saying. I had 0:37:17.840 --> 0:37:22.759 his him and jay Z's freestyle like that was that 0:37:22.840 --> 0:37:24.799 was the model for me. Like I listened to that 0:37:25.120 --> 0:37:27.840 so much. I used to be like, right, I gotta 0:37:28.360 --> 0:37:32.200 like these like I never forget that that freestyle, Like 0:37:32.200 --> 0:37:33.640 I used to listen to it all the time. My 0:37:33.640 --> 0:37:36.040 little cassette tape and I taped it and ship the 0:37:36.080 --> 0:37:38.400 ship popped and then I taped it back together with 0:37:38.480 --> 0:37:41.239 the nail polish and all of that, you know what 0:37:41.280 --> 0:37:44.640 I'm saying. So that was that error. You know what 0:37:44.680 --> 0:37:46.880 I'm saying. That was that error of music. So you 0:37:47.040 --> 0:37:51.160 and you was shining like in the ever when when, 0:37:51.280 --> 0:37:54.280 especially when New York and Hall of Hip Hop was shot, 0:37:54.440 --> 0:37:56.520 right you know, so it was like so big hell 0:37:56.760 --> 0:37:58.920 you know big el Yes. So what was like your 0:37:58.960 --> 0:38:02.799 relationship with el al is a man that was a 0:38:02.800 --> 0:38:08.000 good guy, All was funny, il was talented, al was 0:38:08.719 --> 0:38:13.440 he was a leader um and and how many people 0:38:13.600 --> 0:38:17.480 benefited off Alice example, he kind of opened the door. 0:38:17.920 --> 0:38:20.440 Of course, you have to have your own level of talent, 0:38:20.560 --> 0:38:24.440 you have to have your own drive. But um Alice 0:38:24.600 --> 0:38:28.520 present led people to say fuck that, I'm ready too. 0:38:29.200 --> 0:38:31.600 So all of the dope runs Mace came up with, 0:38:31.800 --> 0:38:34.480 all of the fires Camp came up with. It was 0:38:34.520 --> 0:38:38.200 a direct result of all being l at the right 0:38:38.200 --> 0:38:41.319 time in Niles, right, So they both got to Columbia Deal. 0:38:41.360 --> 0:38:43.399 I'm in junior high school. They got to Columbia Deal. 0:38:44.239 --> 0:38:46.960 Even though that wasn't a time where I should have 0:38:47.000 --> 0:38:49.120 been noticing what was going on, it was it was 0:38:49.160 --> 0:38:52.080 big news to the neighborhood, like, oh, they got the deals, 0:38:52.600 --> 0:38:55.200 and we're like, damn, that's dope, I'm saying. So everybody 0:38:55.280 --> 0:38:59.040 kind of won the round, right. I was shocked. Could 0:38:59.040 --> 0:39:07.600 you used to write you? I had barushuns, so nah, 0:39:07.640 --> 0:39:13.120 I definitely, um, it's somebody out there. With my squeaky voice, 0:39:13.560 --> 0:39:17.920 say somebody, somebody got out. I promise is somebody room 0:39:18.239 --> 0:39:20.520 is a tape somewhere. You're supposed to be one of 0:39:20.560 --> 0:39:22.560 the children of the corn I promise you. I'm so 0:39:22.640 --> 0:39:25.480 heavy to tape players are gone so they could never 0:39:25.560 --> 0:39:30.719 get those, you know. So I definitely enjoyed the art form. Man, 0:39:30.800 --> 0:39:34.040 I was crazy and graffiti. I thought music was the ship. 0:39:34.680 --> 0:39:38.200 But I hustle. I hustle more than I had the 0:39:39.320 --> 0:39:41.520 desire to sit in the studio. I promise you, I 0:39:41.640 --> 0:39:46.160 hustle all day Like I didn't, I probably would have 0:39:46.239 --> 0:39:49.080 still been laughing at a nigger that was rapping because 0:39:49.160 --> 0:39:53.279 that's when the money was transitioning. The street money still 0:39:53.360 --> 0:39:56.040 was better than the wrapper money at that time and 0:39:57.080 --> 0:39:59.680 before the street, the rappers wanted to be like the 0:39:59.719 --> 0:40:03.080 hustle right that the superstars didn't make it, make it yet, 0:40:03.160 --> 0:40:07.239 Biggie and them just started right. But then Biggie early right, 0:40:07.280 --> 0:40:14.040 so to that, to that, and trust, everybody had aspirations 0:40:14.040 --> 0:40:17.480 to look as good as rock him. Cougie rapped like 0:40:17.520 --> 0:40:21.120 I'm not I'm not down playing how good they looked 0:40:21.200 --> 0:40:25.200 when the lights were on, But it wasn't. It wasn't. 0:40:25.239 --> 0:40:27.279 It was a level of money right when you you 0:40:27.360 --> 0:40:29.399 hear the rapper you hit big l L and them 0:40:29.400 --> 0:40:32.239 talking about the street dudes had the money, like you 0:40:32.239 --> 0:40:34.280 know what I'm saying. Like when I was talking to Tune, 0:40:34.320 --> 0:40:37.719 he was like, man, we was coming through helicopters and 0:40:37.800 --> 0:40:39.920 them wanted to be around like they all of the 0:40:40.000 --> 0:40:42.440 rappers wanted to be around that. We had real, real money. 0:40:42.520 --> 0:40:44.560 Me being stuck on them corners. I watched all of that. 0:40:44.640 --> 0:40:47.360 I promise you man, it was. It was. It was 0:40:47.360 --> 0:40:50.399 a hell of the site because these were young men, 0:40:51.040 --> 0:40:55.239 teenagers coming out of teenage years into young adulthood and 0:40:55.640 --> 0:41:00.120 they had the glow of youth. They had to adascity. 0:41:00.400 --> 0:41:03.879 I don't give a fuck. But more importantly, nobody knew 0:41:03.920 --> 0:41:06.400 they worth yet. You didn't know you weren't supposed to 0:41:06.440 --> 0:41:10.319 die in yet twenties. You didn't know that at the 0:41:10.400 --> 0:41:12.480 end of all of this drug dealing, it's going to 0:41:12.560 --> 0:41:18.959 be a lit of people destroyed a community that once 0:41:19.000 --> 0:41:21.839 we're standing strong, it's going to be burnt out shell 0:41:21.920 --> 0:41:24.839 of a building. Now, some of that was aimed. Some 0:41:24.920 --> 0:41:27.720 of it was, you know, the people that was higher 0:41:27.719 --> 0:41:30.280 than us wanting to building the buildings to be burnt 0:41:30.320 --> 0:41:34.120 down for gentrification purposes that we couldn't see yet we 0:41:34.120 --> 0:41:36.440 don't we don't know what we don't know, right, but 0:41:37.400 --> 0:41:40.600 our contribution to the to the to the destruction of 0:41:40.640 --> 0:41:45.040 the community can't be discounted. So but at the time 0:41:45.080 --> 0:41:47.560 when they first came out, man, I tell you, like, 0:41:48.239 --> 0:41:52.960 these were stars into making, because these guys embody all 0:41:53.000 --> 0:41:57.640 of the characteristics that we love and leaders and it 0:41:57.760 --> 0:42:01.279 were tough, they were handsome where they were fly and 0:42:02.000 --> 0:42:07.840 that inspired people right, and it gave so much content 0:42:07.920 --> 0:42:11.840 for music. Right, So everybody had to have this story 0:42:11.920 --> 0:42:16.000 of who did what win and how it felt when 0:42:16.000 --> 0:42:18.799 he did this, and when that shot such a such 0:42:19.520 --> 0:42:23.480 what happened next? So me standing there all day on 0:42:23.520 --> 0:42:26.080 these street corners, I got a chance to witness. I 0:42:26.120 --> 0:42:28.719 don't want to say my level of participation in those 0:42:28.760 --> 0:42:33.120 things sometimes, but I was there, hashtag I was there, 0:42:33.200 --> 0:42:35.600 so I remember. So when I'm sitting here thinking about L, 0:42:35.680 --> 0:42:39.239 like L was that he was demand like EL was 0:42:39.280 --> 0:42:43.040 one of my favorite rappers. So I remember Freestan. I 0:42:43.040 --> 0:42:46.640 remember Mace brought me to forty of and I got 0:42:46.640 --> 0:42:48.560 out me and L was rapping, and he was like, yo, 0:42:48.600 --> 0:42:50.759 the secret rap right, you know what I'm saying. Then 0:42:51.520 --> 0:42:53.360 Primo talks about it all the time. We was in 0:42:53.440 --> 0:42:56.880 Forest Projects and it was me him, Party RD A 0:42:57.120 --> 0:43:01.879 gum show was there. Um I think Fat Joe was there, 0:43:02.160 --> 0:43:04.080 Domon did. Was a bunch of us just out and 0:43:04.160 --> 0:43:06.000 for us right, and we had one of the best 0:43:06.040 --> 0:43:08.680 ciphers and Primo love He's like, yo, it was you 0:43:09.040 --> 0:43:12.200 El party Arty. I was just going in right, God 0:43:12.200 --> 0:43:16.400 blessed dead party of Gards. So when El passed away, like, 0:43:16.880 --> 0:43:20.680 how was that? First of all? That that was a 0:43:20.760 --> 0:43:26.640 sad time. Um Al was at chair. If improv was 0:43:26.640 --> 0:43:30.480 was was a real thing. For a rapper. He was 0:43:30.520 --> 0:43:33.640 the improv king, right he was. He was a comedian 0:43:34.160 --> 0:43:38.160 without being paid for it. So the girl come up 0:43:38.200 --> 0:43:41.719 one day, she said, Oh, I ain't impressed by none 0:43:41.760 --> 0:43:43.400 of y'all. I don't even ask where to dude if 0:43:43.400 --> 0:43:47.040 he got eight inch eight inches it better? He said, 0:43:47.239 --> 0:43:50.840 eight inches, Charlie, I ain't cutting my dick for nobody 0:43:53.200 --> 0:43:56.759 making laugh by accident, Like he's gonna he's gonna he 0:43:56.920 --> 0:44:01.839 knocked a dude out one day. Whoop. So he's like, yeah, 0:44:01.920 --> 0:44:04.799 I'm gonna start shooting it. Next his brother said, whoa, whoa, 0:44:04.800 --> 0:44:09.839 whoa got stabbed somebody first? Your kids skip over the yeah, 0:44:09.880 --> 0:44:12.680 like your kids just run around shooting people like So, 0:44:13.320 --> 0:44:16.000 even though some of the stuff is once again it 0:44:16.080 --> 0:44:21.200 was destruct it was hilarious in real time because we 0:44:21.360 --> 0:44:25.120 identified with what we thought was tough right where we 0:44:25.160 --> 0:44:29.120 where we, where we laughed at probably wasn't funny do 0:44:29.200 --> 0:44:31.800 you look at it in retrospect, But at that time 0:44:31.920 --> 0:44:34.720 it was hilarious because it was meant to be a joke. 0:44:35.200 --> 0:44:39.440 And even if nobody wanted to Ella be violent, everybody 0:44:39.480 --> 0:44:41.960 want to Ella express his art. Nobody wanted him to 0:44:42.560 --> 0:44:46.239 be in the streets and do stuff. Now, if the 0:44:46.440 --> 0:44:51.520 street life ended up touching all by proximity, then that 0:44:51.520 --> 0:44:55.799 that's the that's the sad part, right, because his art 0:44:55.960 --> 0:44:59.759 helped him help him escape, then the proximity of the 0:45:00.000 --> 0:45:03.359 good gets back on you and you could die from it. 0:45:03.920 --> 0:45:08.520 And and nobody foresees that kind of outcome when he's 0:45:08.560 --> 0:45:11.839 not a bad person in totality. So you look at 0:45:11.880 --> 0:45:16.160 the bin of l He's a rapper's he said his rhymes. 0:45:16.480 --> 0:45:18.960 He hung out with girls, he liked the gamble, he 0:45:19.040 --> 0:45:21.920 wanted a party. He'd make you laugh all day and 0:45:21.960 --> 0:45:26.320 then you can make one little mistake and you'd be dead. 0:45:27.600 --> 0:45:30.760 And that and that's the part people can't foresee about 0:45:30.800 --> 0:45:34.920 the street life that if I could tell anybody, yo, man, 0:45:34.960 --> 0:45:38.960 you might want to reconsider that lifestyle. Because even though 0:45:39.000 --> 0:45:40.920 that dude is tough enough to go to jail, and 0:45:41.000 --> 0:45:44.680 that dude right there is tough enough to kill if 0:45:44.760 --> 0:45:48.080 he do this this kind of lifestyle, that end result 0:45:48.160 --> 0:45:51.320 to his journey is going to be deaf for jail. 0:45:51.400 --> 0:45:56.279 And we didn't Yeah, we didn't even foresee that that 0:45:56.360 --> 0:46:00.080 might mean something to the four kids he had, It 0:46:00.160 --> 0:46:03.919 might mean a lot. His absence might mean so much 0:46:04.000 --> 0:46:07.640 to those four kids that's left behind that we would 0:46:07.719 --> 0:46:10.560 beg him not to go on that journey. But we didn't. 0:46:10.920 --> 0:46:14.000 We didn't know we was that valuable yet it was 0:46:14.040 --> 0:46:18.240 too young to know we was that valuable. That's crazy 0:46:18.560 --> 0:46:20.400 and it's real. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. And 0:46:20.640 --> 0:46:23.799 that's why when I'm having conversations with kids, I talk 0:46:23.880 --> 0:46:25.719 to them like me and you talking like the same 0:46:25.760 --> 0:46:28.080 way we're talking because we've been through a lot of shit. 0:46:28.200 --> 0:46:30.560 So I'm not I'm not sitting there like, don't do this, 0:46:30.680 --> 0:46:32.960 you know, I'm like, listen, I know what you I 0:46:33.080 --> 0:46:35.600 know exactly what you're thinking. Because I was young at 0:46:35.640 --> 0:46:37.840 that I wanted this, I wanted that, but this is 0:46:37.880 --> 0:46:40.440 the reality that comes right. So now if you're willing 0:46:40.480 --> 0:46:43.359 to do because understanding sharks in the water. Now, if 0:46:43.360 --> 0:46:45.759 you want to jump in the I'm advising you not 0:46:45.840 --> 0:46:48.839 too right with this. Understand when you're jumping there, you're 0:46:48.840 --> 0:46:50.960 gonna have to deal with those sharks. You know what 0:46:50.960 --> 0:46:53.680 I'm And I'm having real conversations with I'm not talking 0:46:54.200 --> 0:46:56.480 from where I am now. I'm talking to you from 0:46:56.480 --> 0:46:58.680 where I was when you was. Because when I have 0:46:58.760 --> 0:47:01.200 conversation with them, I'd be like, Ye, what would somebody 0:47:01.280 --> 0:47:03.080 have had to say to me when I was fifteen 0:47:03.880 --> 0:47:07.439 to change my mind's stick? Because in fifteen six, I'm like, man, 0:47:07.560 --> 0:47:09.719 you your old niggas don't know what you're talking about. 0:47:09.719 --> 0:47:12.680 I know, look we outside you ain't even So I'm like, 0:47:12.719 --> 0:47:14.799 how would you have had to approach me for me 0:47:14.840 --> 0:47:18.000 to even pay attention to you? First? You gotta look away. First, 0:47:18.000 --> 0:47:20.080 I gotta feel like you know what I'm saying, you 0:47:20.080 --> 0:47:22.640 look like something. And then if you got a level 0:47:22.680 --> 0:47:24.600 of respect around, I'm gonna give you a little bit 0:47:24.600 --> 0:47:26.480 of it. You know what I'm saying. And then you 0:47:26.520 --> 0:47:30.000 gotta talk to me like you understand what's going on. 0:47:30.160 --> 0:47:32.479 You can't come from me from a hierarchy. You can't 0:47:32.480 --> 0:47:34.680 come to me like you talking down to me, like 0:47:34.719 --> 0:47:37.480 you know more than me. I don't know. I'm asking 0:47:37.480 --> 0:47:39.759 you questions. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. That's how 0:47:39.760 --> 0:47:41.360 I talk to you. Now. You know so what you 0:47:41.400 --> 0:47:44.200 think is gonna happen? So what tell me what your 0:47:44.200 --> 0:47:46.359 plan is? You know what I'm saying. So, because when 0:47:46.360 --> 0:47:48.680 you start hearing your plan and the ship don't make 0:47:48.719 --> 0:47:51.640 sense to you, then you start reconsidering I don't got 0:47:51.640 --> 0:47:53.440 to tell you something, just want to ask you. And 0:47:53.480 --> 0:47:56.239 as you start answering your own questions, you start coming 0:47:56.280 --> 0:47:58.479 up with your own solutions. You know what I'm saying. 0:47:58.520 --> 0:48:01.239 So that's that's the way that I deal with them now. No, 0:48:01.360 --> 0:48:05.680 but as for you from twelve right so twenty six, 0:48:05.719 --> 0:48:08.120 you didn't do like real major time, none of that 0:48:08.200 --> 0:48:14.320 in between. So remember did you spatfor joint? They showed 0:48:14.320 --> 0:48:18.000 me all kind of love. You know, it's like a 0:48:18.040 --> 0:48:20.160 spafor as a holding place. It's not a meant to 0:48:20.200 --> 0:48:26.040 do a bid. So my my, my process of uh, 0:48:26.640 --> 0:48:29.719 it was everything was like a fake trial and juvenile court. 0:48:29.800 --> 0:48:32.880 So dude came and said I told the kids to 0:48:32.960 --> 0:48:35.879 rob them and that was it. He sent me up there. 0:48:36.280 --> 0:48:40.200 So I didn't the funny part about these you didn't 0:48:40.200 --> 0:48:42.719 even do this, man. That's what it always gets you 0:48:42.760 --> 0:48:46.560 for the shit you don't do. Man, both of the 0:48:46.640 --> 0:48:49.640 little juven Now, the first one is I'm at school, 0:48:49.719 --> 0:48:52.480 I'm just minding my business. But I hungered all of 0:48:52.520 --> 0:48:55.600 the kids to do the negative shit. Man. I wish 0:48:55.640 --> 0:48:57.719 I could say your names. Y'all was bad kids, and 0:48:57.800 --> 0:49:02.840 I promise you I should tell your name. And no, no, 0:49:03.200 --> 0:49:05.839 never you know that, you know that did my job. 0:49:05.920 --> 0:49:08.680 Y'all don't do that. So no, but um I hung 0:49:08.760 --> 0:49:12.359 with all the kids. That was terrible. Right. So once 0:49:12.440 --> 0:49:16.399 again these kids don't know what's they cause they think 0:49:16.440 --> 0:49:19.720 that they following a pat enough people that they thought 0:49:21.080 --> 0:49:27.520 was real. Dudes. We had this concept of what little 0:49:27.600 --> 0:49:30.280 gangsters supposed to do, and dear boy, they was following 0:49:30.320 --> 0:49:35.960 that mode. Um so they run around robbing kids after lunchtime. 0:49:35.960 --> 0:49:39.359 And I'm not saying I never. So this is why, right, 0:49:39.440 --> 0:49:43.600 it was you gonna blame me because you've been with before, 0:49:43.960 --> 0:49:45.880 but she wasn't with the bush on this day, this 0:49:46.000 --> 0:49:48.600 particular day, I'm standing a crush the street. They run 0:49:48.680 --> 0:49:51.000 up on a kid, I don't have nothing to do 0:49:51.040 --> 0:49:52.799 it like they know, I know he'd be with them. 0:49:52.840 --> 0:49:56.160 He definitely. They came in my classroom and said it's 0:49:56.200 --> 0:50:01.000 on you. I said, really, man's you don't get away 0:50:01.000 --> 0:50:03.680 with a couple, right, That's how That's how I always 0:50:04.000 --> 0:50:09.320 the next one in my hood. Dude come in the hood, 0:50:10.560 --> 0:50:13.799 a man like yo, I get him like, don't do that. 0:50:15.719 --> 0:50:21.040 Get don't do that. He robs dude, dude, he ends 0:50:21.080 --> 0:50:24.439 up hitting do it upside his head dude come out 0:50:25.160 --> 0:50:29.960 from his stupor try to kind of. I got a 0:50:30.000 --> 0:50:32.759 two piece of pop pool just to get him off me, Like, 0:50:32.800 --> 0:50:35.120 why are you grabbing me? Family, like, talk to me. 0:50:36.719 --> 0:50:38.680 Next thing, you know, the police have my mother door. 0:50:39.480 --> 0:50:44.200 She likes, look at you. Right. So um, once again 0:50:44.320 --> 0:50:51.960 that proximity to stupidity because like and um, you know, 0:50:53.320 --> 0:50:55.960 they asked me who did it? I'm like, r come on, 0:50:56.120 --> 0:50:59.040 I'm playing a lot right, So right, so they sent 0:50:59.160 --> 0:51:01.040 me up there and that's that's the end of that story. 0:51:01.120 --> 0:51:05.319 But UM, I think it's a big thing to know, 0:51:05.800 --> 0:51:07.920 and that's why you got to watch your company. But 0:51:08.080 --> 0:51:12.120 more importantly, UM, you gotta know why you outside. So 0:51:12.800 --> 0:51:15.680 if we had the guys that I'm sure we had, 0:51:15.719 --> 0:51:17.640 everybody said yo yo, sure you know it's deaf a 0:51:17.719 --> 0:51:22.319 jail at the end of this heard that before. What 0:51:22.520 --> 0:51:27.000 we never had in abundance was the alternatives or the 0:51:27.280 --> 0:51:30.440 why the risk is worth it until you get this building. 0:51:31.080 --> 0:51:35.160 And you can't deviate from this mission of getting the 0:51:35.200 --> 0:51:38.520 building before you start buying them as ship put your 0:51:38.560 --> 0:51:42.400 life in jeopardy. So and that's what the MARV dudes 0:51:42.440 --> 0:51:47.960 did in in in successful ways. They they got to construction, 0:51:48.200 --> 0:51:52.200 their kids through college, the old lawyers, and they're different 0:51:52.239 --> 0:51:55.360 that they changed that, they change the trajectory of the 0:51:55.480 --> 0:51:58.880 whole you know, the whole bloodline that wasn't memphi Us. 0:51:59.080 --> 0:52:02.240 So we followed. The thing is, we talk about crime 0:52:02.239 --> 0:52:04.919 and all these things. America is built on crime, every 0:52:05.680 --> 0:52:08.239 every aspect of America. If you look at you look 0:52:08.400 --> 0:52:12.400 throughout history, they colonized, they took this, they did this, 0:52:12.520 --> 0:52:16.040 they built that, and then they called whatever they wanted. Okay, 0:52:16.040 --> 0:52:18.080 this is legal. We're gonna do it this way. It's 0:52:18.160 --> 0:52:20.560 legal for us, even though you might not like it, 0:52:20.600 --> 0:52:23.440 but we're gonna make it legal because it fits. It's 0:52:23.520 --> 0:52:26.040 the farman that our agenda, you know what I'm saying. 0:52:26.040 --> 0:52:28.759 And that's what happened in the hood. We didn't have that, 0:52:29.200 --> 0:52:30.600 you know what I'm saying. We had lemons and we 0:52:30.640 --> 0:52:33.560 made lemonade saying. So we had to say. I tell 0:52:33.560 --> 0:52:35.440 people all the time, you you mad at the drug deal, 0:52:35.480 --> 0:52:37.799 but you ain't mad at the pharmacy. You ain't mad 0:52:37.840 --> 0:52:40.960 at CVS. You ain't mad at farmer. That's where the 0:52:41.040 --> 0:52:43.560 drugs come from. You married the little dude on the 0:52:43.600 --> 0:52:45.319 corner that's trying to figure out how he gonna sell 0:52:45.360 --> 0:52:47.680 his food. But the nigga that's making billions of dollars, 0:52:48.280 --> 0:52:51.040 that's selling the same exact shit that you're talking about, 0:52:51.560 --> 0:52:53.920 the worst people in the world, where you're not saying 0:52:53.960 --> 0:52:56.799 nothing about you know what I'm saying. So you know, 0:52:57.680 --> 0:53:03.520 just understanding that we just tried to figure out America, 0:53:03.760 --> 0:53:05.319 how we was gonna get a piece of the pile, 0:53:05.400 --> 0:53:07.839 How are we gonna get a piece of the American dream? 0:53:08.200 --> 0:53:10.840 And as we grew we realized that it wasn't designed 0:53:10.880 --> 0:53:13.319 for us. It was never designed for us to get 0:53:13.400 --> 0:53:17.320 that and not that way. Somebody had to be the 0:53:17.400 --> 0:53:19.960 fall guy, you know, So we we learned and we 0:53:20.080 --> 0:53:24.000 evolved our way of thinking. There's so much either over 0:53:24.080 --> 0:53:30.000 glorification of the wrong shit or villainizing the right shit, 0:53:30.400 --> 0:53:33.120 right because at the end of the day, you you're 0:53:33.239 --> 0:53:37.879 punishing or you're mad at individuals figured out a way 0:53:37.920 --> 0:53:40.880 out of nothing. They picked up saying and say, Yo, 0:53:41.200 --> 0:53:43.600 we're gonna make this shit into brick somehow, and you 0:53:43.760 --> 0:53:46.000 mad at them because they didn't do it the conventional way, 0:53:46.120 --> 0:53:48.239 or they didn't do it the legal way, because there 0:53:48.360 --> 0:53:50.520 was there was no way to do it the legal way. 0:53:51.040 --> 0:53:52.879 The way they get They had to figure out we're 0:53:52.880 --> 0:53:55.000 gonna put this ship this way. They saying, we can't 0:53:55.040 --> 0:53:56.919 get no fire from over here. We gotta go steal 0:53:57.000 --> 0:53:58.919 some fire. We gotta do this shit, but we gotta 0:53:58.960 --> 0:54:00.800 build us a house. You know what I'm saying, You 0:54:00.920 --> 0:54:03.080 can't get mad in the nigga is saying, I want 0:54:03.120 --> 0:54:04.919 a house like everybody else got a house. I don't 0:54:04.920 --> 0:54:06.799 want to be out in the cold. I don't want 0:54:06.800 --> 0:54:09.919 to be freezing. So they get villainized. Oh, y'all soul 0:54:10.080 --> 0:54:13.000 drugs and y'all. Y'all killed the era. And at the 0:54:13.120 --> 0:54:16.560 end of the day, they the motivation in the hustle 0:54:16.560 --> 0:54:18.840 because a lot of people took the same hustle that 0:54:19.000 --> 0:54:21.720 Jay had. And it wasn't just streets. It was niggas 0:54:21.760 --> 0:54:23.879 that went into the boardrooms and niggas that went into 0:54:24.400 --> 0:54:26.719 the you know, to corporate and had the mind state 0:54:26.800 --> 0:54:29.160 that Jay had, Like listen, you're not jerking me. We're 0:54:29.160 --> 0:54:33.880 gonna get this money. We're gonna do this. So you 0:54:34.040 --> 0:54:39.960 needed that inspiration, all of these this inspirations, so you 0:54:40.120 --> 0:54:42.719 needed or everyone they part. You know what I'm saying, 0:54:42.760 --> 0:54:45.440 So I want I want to dispel myths like you're 0:54:45.480 --> 0:54:49.400 not gonna You're not going to just pigeonholed. You know 0:54:49.760 --> 0:54:52.800 people who have done illegal things to be in criminals 0:54:52.840 --> 0:54:56.400 and negative. No, Yes, the acts have been wrong. We 0:54:56.640 --> 0:54:59.920 right our wrongs. We realized if we had better situation, 0:55:00.360 --> 0:55:02.040 if we if we knew better, we probably would have 0:55:02.080 --> 0:55:03.800 did way better. You know what I'm saying. But the 0:55:03.920 --> 0:55:08.400 reality is this is what we were given. We gotta 0:55:09.040 --> 0:55:13.120 taken a consideration. Initially it was a party drug. This 0:55:13.360 --> 0:55:17.040 was a an introduction to a good time for people 0:55:17.160 --> 0:55:20.680 that ended up a bad time. So when when all 0:55:20.760 --> 0:55:25.080 of this money is being generated, nobody sees that end result. Sure, 0:55:25.400 --> 0:55:28.000 it was propaganda to say don't do this because it's 0:55:28.080 --> 0:55:30.759 leading to this, just like it's propaganda to say we 0:55:30.840 --> 0:55:33.759 should help the people on fitting on now. Right, So 0:55:34.200 --> 0:55:39.320 that that that new level of concern that that's hidden society, 0:55:39.760 --> 0:55:43.560 it wasn't there before, right, that's for rehabilitation, because it 0:55:43.640 --> 0:55:47.200 wasn't even a reality that we understood on us. Now 0:55:47.320 --> 0:55:49.720 this new drug is being given out by the powers 0:55:49.800 --> 0:55:52.600 that be there by it got to be an accident 0:55:52.680 --> 0:55:56.520 that this is happening. So for us, it was they 0:55:57.440 --> 0:56:00.359 are criminals and they need to be destroyed. And even 0:56:00.440 --> 0:56:04.040 our leaders fell into that, you know, um frame of reference, 0:56:04.120 --> 0:56:07.719 like yeah, kill them all like it was and it 0:56:07.840 --> 0:56:11.720 was a it was a direct attack right on our community. 0:56:11.800 --> 0:56:15.480 And I've seen an interview that Wrangel did and they 0:56:15.719 --> 0:56:19.800 they they voiced that pinion like it was a good idea. 0:56:19.840 --> 0:56:22.360 At the time, we thought it was the best approach 0:56:22.480 --> 0:56:26.480 to you know what. We um, the epademic after that 0:56:26.680 --> 0:56:30.480 moment should be handed because that's because that's what they 0:56:30.520 --> 0:56:33.239 were being taught, right because a generation prior to that, 0:56:33.360 --> 0:56:36.160 they never seen that. They just wanted the streets clean. 0:56:36.280 --> 0:56:38.719 There's like people, these people oh d and this and 0:56:38.800 --> 0:56:40.800 that they need to go to jail. You know what 0:56:40.800 --> 0:56:42.719 I'm saying, as you you get older, you don't want 0:56:42.800 --> 0:56:46.160 your civilian your citizen, you pay your taxes, you don't 0:56:46.160 --> 0:56:48.080 want to walk in your whole way and see none 0:56:48.080 --> 0:56:49.600 of this show you just trying to feel what y'all 0:56:49.640 --> 0:56:51.680 need to do to My grandmother was saying, send them 0:56:51.680 --> 0:56:54.759 all a jail, like everybody needs to go to jail. 0:56:54.800 --> 0:57:00.040 You're young. You're young, dudes now scared me? Yeah, you 0:57:00.120 --> 0:57:03.960 know what I'm saying up there like this, I don't know, 0:57:04.080 --> 0:57:07.040 I think some of these guys need to go to right, 0:57:07.160 --> 0:57:09.400 but I'm watching dudes, I would say that, like yo, 0:57:09.800 --> 0:57:12.680 you you you. I'm like, nah, I don't want but 0:57:12.800 --> 0:57:16.400 I can't do that product, so I will go is 0:57:16.440 --> 0:57:25.600 to try to redirect them. What happened that ultimately got 0:57:25.680 --> 0:57:32.880 you locked up? Me? Um, So what happens is if 0:57:32.920 --> 0:57:36.160 you become a person that manages to make money, that's 0:57:36.200 --> 0:57:40.200 when to get interesting, life get harder. Everybody's gonna look 0:57:40.240 --> 0:57:46.160 to you for guidance. Could be yeah, old that oldest 0:57:46.240 --> 0:57:52.480 member of your family got an emergency, and that emergence 0:57:52.560 --> 0:57:56.920 emergency becomes your emergency. You start to believe that you 0:57:57.160 --> 0:58:00.200 were sent here to be this kind of sacrifice. You 0:58:00.400 --> 0:58:03.760 you give yourself permission to be the sacrifice. So now, 0:58:04.800 --> 0:58:09.480 even if you had intent on doing good, being everybody's 0:58:10.040 --> 0:58:15.280 go to becomes your your main priority. Because one, you 0:58:15.360 --> 0:58:18.440 don't know your self worth. That part is so key 0:58:18.640 --> 0:58:21.840 to knowing what you're supposed to be saying yes too, 0:58:21.920 --> 0:58:24.520 and what you are supposed to be saying no too. 0:58:24.640 --> 0:58:27.120 If a request of me came and it was so 0:58:27.320 --> 0:58:30.240 strong that I had to consider it, I would then 0:58:30.440 --> 0:58:33.640 make a consideration to do wrong again to make sure 0:58:33.680 --> 0:58:36.160 that go right for them. So they need their money 0:58:36.200 --> 0:58:39.600 for their business, and this one needs money for college. 0:58:39.640 --> 0:58:42.800 And I'm gonna be like, well, you're supposed to be 0:58:42.920 --> 0:58:44.640 in college, and you're supposed to have a business, and 0:58:44.680 --> 0:58:47.080 I'm supposed to die because I already made these decisions. 0:58:47.160 --> 0:58:49.720 And just like that, you could be that close to 0:58:50.280 --> 0:58:53.840 transition and then take a step back and try to 0:58:53.960 --> 0:58:57.080 do something again that it might be at a detriment 0:58:57.160 --> 0:59:02.200 to your your good health and well being. Described like 0:59:02.360 --> 0:59:04.880 the day you went to jail, Like what happened? All right? 0:59:04.960 --> 0:59:08.920 So first I went to jail. It's funny, not funny. 0:59:09.040 --> 0:59:14.200 Nothing's funny. Nothing's funny. So I get a phone call. 0:59:14.800 --> 0:59:19.439 You just finished up some bundles. My man um people 0:59:19.560 --> 0:59:23.440 wasn't around, so I didn't really play with round that much. 0:59:23.520 --> 0:59:28.080 But in this particular occasion, my man ain't have nothing, 0:59:28.120 --> 0:59:30.400 and he asked me make a phone call. I made 0:59:30.400 --> 0:59:36.000 a phone call and got some ship phone cool, give 0:59:36.040 --> 0:59:38.720 me the little change. I breeze off, go to my 0:59:38.840 --> 0:59:42.320 block chilling. I get a distress call, like, yo, man, 0:59:42.400 --> 0:59:44.960 these dudes is a circling the block. Whatever. I'm like, 0:59:45.000 --> 0:59:48.479 oh yeah, all right, let me um, let me double 0:59:48.520 --> 0:59:50.920 back and get the drink real quick jump in the 0:59:51.000 --> 0:59:54.640 car cruising down to his block. I see this girl 0:59:55.280 --> 0:59:57.880 that you know, Uh, she used to be at an 0:59:57.880 --> 1:00:00.680 apartment that out. If all goes wrong that day, I 1:00:00.840 --> 1:00:03.000 might run in this apartment if if I just so 1:00:03.200 --> 1:00:06.840 happened to do something that's beyond my normal action. Right, 1:00:07.000 --> 1:00:14.000 So cool, jump out the car and I'm telling her, yo, 1:00:14.920 --> 1:00:17.320 I have this door open case I come back over 1:00:17.400 --> 1:00:19.480 here and hurry. You know, I ain't explain it to 1:00:19.560 --> 1:00:21.200 her why the door need to be open, but I 1:00:21.360 --> 1:00:25.920 might need to shoot up here. As I'm speaking to her, 1:00:26.760 --> 1:00:30.080 DTS is running at me. I'm like, oh, before long, 1:00:30.440 --> 1:00:34.520 I kind of brush one so hard that he fell. 1:00:35.040 --> 1:00:37.200 I one jumped on me. They jumped me, grabbed the 1:00:37.280 --> 1:00:39.120 gun like they knew it was there. I don't know 1:00:39.240 --> 1:00:42.200 how they was that good, but they grabbed the gun like, oh, 1:00:42.280 --> 1:00:45.240 he got the gun, so they they took gun or whatever. 1:00:45.400 --> 1:00:48.440 I got locked up, No proud, I wasn't that heavy 1:00:48.520 --> 1:00:51.640 or nothing to really be fighting. The three didn't, so whatever. 1:00:51.960 --> 1:00:56.840 So I get locked up with the gun and my 1:00:57.000 --> 1:00:59.760 men get shot. So the dude that I was going 1:00:59.800 --> 1:01:04.040 to save I didn't go save him. He ends up 1:01:04.040 --> 1:01:09.200 getting shot three times and he lived, but he got 1:01:09.280 --> 1:01:15.080 shot and I get out, I go back to get 1:01:15.200 --> 1:01:18.720 my property, and the detectives come like, yeah, we saved 1:01:18.800 --> 1:01:22.200 your life, man, Like really how so? Like yeah, we 1:01:22.280 --> 1:01:25.120 know where you was going. I'm like really, where was 1:01:25.160 --> 1:01:28.120 that going? Or he was going to see dude? I'm 1:01:28.200 --> 1:01:33.080 like yeah nah, like yeah, he said. Now think about 1:01:33.080 --> 1:01:36.600 it this way. You could have made it there, shot somebody, 1:01:36.680 --> 1:01:39.120 killed somebody and we would have had to catch you. 1:01:39.840 --> 1:01:42.680 Or you could have got shot with him and possibly died. 1:01:44.920 --> 1:01:47.880 You don't never view things in that and that reality 1:01:47.960 --> 1:01:50.840 and just the plane's common sense of it, because when 1:01:50.880 --> 1:01:53.800 you end it, shit, we don't deal with common sense. 1:01:54.080 --> 1:01:56.640 You don't really be that common. Sometimes it don't be 1:01:56.720 --> 1:02:00.600 that common. And even if it's that plane, it's just 1:02:00.800 --> 1:02:04.360 not real, not real. The only thing is real is 1:02:04.440 --> 1:02:07.760 what you said you could do, no matter how ill shape, 1:02:07.800 --> 1:02:10.520 whether or not you know, um, I meant good to 1:02:10.600 --> 1:02:15.320 save my men. A problem happened because of our chosen lifestyle. 1:02:15.440 --> 1:02:18.600 It raised the probability of us getting hurt or our 1:02:18.680 --> 1:02:24.600 lives being effectively destroyed as a byproduct of our decision making. 1:02:24.920 --> 1:02:28.520 You got out with the came on. The police said 1:02:29.200 --> 1:02:32.960 told you they pretty much saved you. That's I'm bare, right, 1:02:33.040 --> 1:02:38.360 That's I'm bare and crazy. I had the fast fastest 1:02:38.520 --> 1:02:40.800 process to go back to jail like you could think of. 1:02:41.440 --> 1:02:44.520 So I'm trying to prolong it as long as possible. 1:02:44.640 --> 1:02:47.919 But they like, man, you want to go straight to trial. 1:02:48.440 --> 1:02:50.480 So you know, dudes be on down for like a 1:02:50.640 --> 1:02:54.280 year or two minds like four months. Like yo, I 1:02:54.280 --> 1:02:56.040 don't want to go to shoal Yeah, I want to rate. 1:02:56.600 --> 1:03:00.160 So I get there trying to um get extension. Is 1:03:00.160 --> 1:03:05.720 they not? Not? Not? So get in there and I lose. 1:03:06.200 --> 1:03:10.160 I go to trial for attempt to use in a possession. 1:03:10.760 --> 1:03:13.280 I beat the attempt to use, lose to the possession. 1:03:16.000 --> 1:03:18.280 Just telling my lawyer, he's like, oh, he need to 1:03:18.800 --> 1:03:20.680 go home and get his family if fears no, no, 1:03:20.760 --> 1:03:23.680 he's gonna jel ady. And this is a this is 1:03:23.720 --> 1:03:27.280 a result of the detective saying that, you know, I 1:03:27.680 --> 1:03:30.560 really intended on using the gun. They think they know me, 1:03:30.960 --> 1:03:34.480 you know, YadA, YadA YadA. And I'm like, tell my 1:03:34.600 --> 1:03:38.280 lawyer like, well that's cross for a pill yanna. They said, 1:03:38.320 --> 1:03:40.560 he said, well a pillot, but here being jail in 1:03:40.600 --> 1:03:44.720 the meantime, whatever, let me go and finish this thing up. 1:03:45.240 --> 1:03:48.280 So I end up getting the two flat. I thought 1:03:48.280 --> 1:03:50.400 I beat the attempt to use, So I get a 1:03:50.480 --> 1:03:55.120 two flat, come home a little early for work release. 1:03:56.480 --> 1:03:59.760 Now this is where it gets interesting. I have to 1:03:59.840 --> 1:04:01.920 make a decision on what's gonna happen with the rest 1:04:01.960 --> 1:04:04.400 of my life now right now I get home. I 1:04:04.560 --> 1:04:09.040 have every intent on being a janitor. Like I'm I'm 1:04:09.040 --> 1:04:11.000 not gonna be a janitor, but I don't know. I 1:04:11.080 --> 1:04:13.080 don't want to. I don't know what job I'm gonna get. 1:04:13.080 --> 1:04:16.080 I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm not going 1:04:16.120 --> 1:04:18.560 in the streets. It's quiet for the street. I'm cool 1:04:19.000 --> 1:04:23.520 slotwle skid skid dude was cool now my jail. Stay 1:04:23.920 --> 1:04:28.120 smooth than ice like I have. I ain't have. I 1:04:28.240 --> 1:04:30.640 had a half a fight through argument like I ain't 1:04:30.680 --> 1:04:34.240 really have to throw no blows, worked out, chill read 1:04:34.320 --> 1:04:37.000 my books, stayed out the way like you know, trouble 1:04:37.040 --> 1:04:39.800 finds you when't you look for it. Right, So, um, 1:04:39.960 --> 1:04:42.400 I ain't do nothing super flamboyant in there. I just was. 1:04:42.560 --> 1:04:47.720 I was just chuck chill out, so get out. I'm like, 1:04:47.840 --> 1:04:51.920 all right, my main thing is to stay stay super positive. 1:04:52.040 --> 1:04:54.520 You know, I'm gonna go get a job and start 1:04:54.560 --> 1:04:56.960 a new life. Man, I got my daughter because said 1:04:57.000 --> 1:05:00.360 I left for a little while. And that was no 1:05:00.560 --> 1:05:05.160 no for me, because in my book, a good father 1:05:05.720 --> 1:05:10.080 is there to be a father, right, a good father anyway, Um, 1:05:11.240 --> 1:05:13.040 and I wanted to be a good father. I wanted 1:05:13.120 --> 1:05:15.400 to be dad. I wanted to be um all of 1:05:15.480 --> 1:05:20.560 the positive attributes that come with fatherhood. I let my 1:05:20.760 --> 1:05:24.240 friends that I love because I love, man, some of 1:05:24.360 --> 1:05:26.560 my friends I love more than my family members. And 1:05:26.800 --> 1:05:29.880 and now I mean no disrespect to my family members. 1:05:31.400 --> 1:05:34.440 It's a different bar that you you you share with 1:05:34.560 --> 1:05:37.160 some of these guys that that allow you to make 1:05:37.400 --> 1:05:41.960 decisions that might be kunter productive to your overall benefit. 1:05:42.640 --> 1:05:48.520 And um, not not naming but that show I named 1:05:48.640 --> 1:05:51.320 name one about who talked me into it. But I 1:05:51.440 --> 1:05:55.600 think I think I did anyway. Legit though this statue 1:05:55.680 --> 1:06:01.880 limitation stuff like that, but it's legit. Respect Um tell 1:06:02.000 --> 1:06:06.600 my man, he yo, hey, we gotta know, get get 1:06:06.680 --> 1:06:10.080 back into it for a second. I'm saying, just do something. 1:06:10.320 --> 1:06:14.000 So after a while I'll succumbed to the pressure. One 1:06:14.200 --> 1:06:17.880 out of what I what I felt like was obligation 1:06:17.960 --> 1:06:21.200 to my friendships, and then two I could have used 1:06:21.200 --> 1:06:24.960 the extra money, right, but I make the decision to 1:06:25.080 --> 1:06:31.000 go back. I go back. And then from our few joints, 1:06:31.160 --> 1:06:34.040 we started doing too many joints. We had, you know, 1:06:34.320 --> 1:06:37.040 so many sales that we ain't never even have enough joints. 1:06:37.120 --> 1:06:41.560 So it's getting a lot, but it wasn't even it 1:06:41.680 --> 1:06:45.040 wasn't even enough. I'm supply didn't even message. The demand 1:06:45.360 --> 1:06:48.320 was way bigger than the demand was always bigger than 1:06:48.360 --> 1:06:52.520 the supply, and we made a lot of money in 1:06:52.600 --> 1:06:56.200 a short period of time. But when I came home 1:06:56.280 --> 1:07:00.560 from jail, I was already under investigation, basically because some 1:07:00.840 --> 1:07:04.200 dudes and the Bronx. No defects to the front. No no, no, no, 1:07:04.480 --> 1:07:08.680 no distraction now, no disrespect to the Bronx. All right, 1:07:08.800 --> 1:07:12.040 come on, now, I work with me. Now, some dudes 1:07:12.040 --> 1:07:15.560 in the Bronx they found theirself in in a gym 1:07:16.520 --> 1:07:18.800 and they put my name in No dude named Aron, 1:07:18.880 --> 1:07:22.400 he only sell keys. That was the tagline in my paperwork, 1:07:22.520 --> 1:07:28.040 like Aroun only sell keys. And investigation started from there. 1:07:28.360 --> 1:07:31.400 So initially I wasn't even doing shit. By the time 1:07:31.480 --> 1:07:34.480 they was looking to get me or something. Then I started, 1:07:35.080 --> 1:07:38.800 and then when when when when they heated up and 1:07:38.880 --> 1:07:42.400 they got all of this extra survailance going from bugs 1:07:42.440 --> 1:07:45.880 in my car to just following me everywhere hours already 1:07:45.960 --> 1:07:49.840 quit So it was like I was in under investigation 1:07:49.960 --> 1:07:53.080 before I started. Then I quit before they got all 1:07:53.120 --> 1:07:57.680 of the technology involved to kind of wrap the case up. 1:07:58.680 --> 1:08:03.440 So um and that time frame, I just I went 1:08:03.560 --> 1:08:06.480 as hard as I could because now my mind state 1:08:06.720 --> 1:08:09.040 was all right, I'm gonna do the last favor for 1:08:09.160 --> 1:08:13.080 my friends or my brothers, if you will, and I'm 1:08:13.120 --> 1:08:16.160 gonna make enough money to actually do some of the 1:08:16.240 --> 1:08:19.320 plans that I had in mind all along, and that 1:08:19.680 --> 1:08:25.040 that was my you know, objective. And then they got you. 1:08:25.200 --> 1:08:27.759 Then they got me. When I get locked up, they 1:08:27.840 --> 1:08:31.240 came right at me like, yo, a rong, we know you. 1:08:31.479 --> 1:08:34.559 You was hitting everybody with work and um a lot 1:08:34.640 --> 1:08:37.160 of trouble man, and uh, you need to go ahead 1:08:37.200 --> 1:08:42.479 and cooperate right that big seat immediately right. So I'm like, 1:08:44.320 --> 1:08:46.240 you know, I don't, I don't even know what you're 1:08:46.240 --> 1:08:49.479 talking about. Like that shit, that's not for me. Cool, 1:08:51.120 --> 1:08:54.920 get inside. They they they come back again like, look, man, 1:08:55.000 --> 1:08:56.920 let's have me and A know me and know what 1:08:56.920 --> 1:09:01.200 I'm saying, don't got nothing nothing for you guys all 1:09:01.240 --> 1:09:04.160 in all of the discovery comes. I look at the 1:09:04.240 --> 1:09:07.839 discovery as a bunch of phone calls. Forty thousand phone calls. 1:09:07.960 --> 1:09:12.360 It's a bunch of evidence. But I'm like, where's mine, Like, 1:09:12.479 --> 1:09:18.400 y'all see a lot of evidence. But I phone call. 1:09:19.240 --> 1:09:21.519 Drugs on the Ain't no drugs on the table, Ain't 1:09:21.520 --> 1:09:23.920 no money on the table. Is nothing. I'm like, oh nah, 1:09:24.200 --> 1:09:26.479 ain't no way. I'm taking those twenty years that they're 1:09:26.479 --> 1:09:30.760 offering me Like it ain't no way. So I'm like, yo, man, 1:09:30.840 --> 1:09:33.240 I'm going to try out. Hey. The next thing was yo, 1:09:33.360 --> 1:09:36.280 he bugged out, like yo. You know, when the people 1:09:36.360 --> 1:09:40.320 get you, they go. And I'm in agreement to an 1:09:40.360 --> 1:09:45.559 extent because let's I've started businesses at that point, had 1:09:45.640 --> 1:09:49.320 some group homes down south, invested in a couple other 1:09:49.400 --> 1:09:52.600 people businesses. I had some things that was positive that 1:09:52.920 --> 1:09:55.840 that could speak for me. And I was using birthardale 1:09:55.920 --> 1:10:00.400 as as as you know accounting, so good old head 1:10:00.560 --> 1:10:03.360 right he was he was shot with the stuff. Um, 1:10:04.640 --> 1:10:10.400 so I wasn't that nervous. But what happened was I 1:10:11.280 --> 1:10:13.519 spoke to my lawyer candidly, and I'm like, I know 1:10:13.640 --> 1:10:15.639 what's going to happen. You know, I'm a young black kid, 1:10:15.760 --> 1:10:17.880 and this is gonna look like a young black men 1:10:17.960 --> 1:10:21.320 are selling drugs. Like this is gonna be the the 1:10:21.600 --> 1:10:25.080 push of the whole narrative, right, you got so many 1:10:25.160 --> 1:10:28.280 people hanging around me that we're selling drugs. Is not 1:10:28.360 --> 1:10:31.280 going to be that easy to say. I was number ten, 1:10:31.720 --> 1:10:34.880 you know what I mean. Like, and more importantly, they 1:10:34.960 --> 1:10:37.000 made me the light, the leader of these guys, so 1:10:38.200 --> 1:10:41.720 I'm the head of the case in my lawyer like, look, 1:10:41.880 --> 1:10:45.479 you you got property and money in the bank and 1:10:45.960 --> 1:10:49.640 they don't or not enough of or you know, I 1:10:49.720 --> 1:10:51.479 can't speak to what they had, and I don't know 1:10:51.800 --> 1:10:55.080 to that extent, but it just doesn't seem like right. 1:10:55.120 --> 1:10:57.479 He like, Yo, it seems right. It was not enough 1:10:57.600 --> 1:11:02.320 businesses and enough things speaking, or this whole picture to 1:11:02.800 --> 1:11:07.240 allow you to get out of it unscathed. And I'm like, no, 1:11:07.400 --> 1:11:09.280 that makes sense to me, and I'm willing to take 1:11:09.320 --> 1:11:12.080 the time just not what they're offering because it don't 1:11:12.120 --> 1:11:14.599 make sense. So what's on the table versus what they 1:11:14.640 --> 1:11:16.400 want to give me? So I was willing to go 1:11:16.479 --> 1:11:18.720 to trial, because I wasn't going to sign my name 1:11:18.800 --> 1:11:21.200 to a paper to act for twenty years for not 1:11:21.360 --> 1:11:24.920 twenty years worth of evidence. So my decision to go 1:11:25.000 --> 1:11:27.240 to trial was like, man, fuck that, I'm with it, 1:11:27.439 --> 1:11:31.000 Like we just got to I'm at the blow of course, 1:11:31.439 --> 1:11:34.800 and they sent me in there screaming based on the 1:11:36.920 --> 1:11:39.160 extra five I might have got or the extra ten, 1:11:39.479 --> 1:11:41.320 but I was going to sign a twenty inches to 1:11:41.360 --> 1:11:43.360 be said, I was still been in there, I would 1:11:43.360 --> 1:11:45.240 have been chilling. I probably would have just been getting 1:11:45.240 --> 1:11:47.400 out now to have been getting out now. So um, 1:11:48.800 --> 1:11:51.400 at the end of the day, we got three days 1:11:51.479 --> 1:11:55.040 from trial and the journey, and there was the same 1:11:55.120 --> 1:11:58.840 difference even though it was a pre trial situation. You know, 1:11:59.640 --> 1:12:03.160 it was a lot of people that liked me and 1:12:03.240 --> 1:12:04.720 what I'm saying, I'm bumped to tell a lot of people. 1:12:04.760 --> 1:12:06.759 I know. I had a few co defendants in the building, 1:12:06.840 --> 1:12:10.240 and there was a smooth situation. We all just had 1:12:10.280 --> 1:12:12.800 to focus on that case to gather all of the 1:12:13.640 --> 1:12:19.599 evidence we could to fight the case accordingly. Now, after 1:12:19.680 --> 1:12:23.680 the cop out, I go to the prison. Oh so 1:12:23.960 --> 1:12:27.120 three days before trial, coming to offer hey, man, tell 1:12:27.200 --> 1:12:31.760 your client one one eighty eight he don't argue down, 1:12:32.120 --> 1:12:33.960 we won't argue up. Let the judge do what the 1:12:34.040 --> 1:12:39.680 judge gonna do. The guidelines became advisory, so in the 1:12:39.800 --> 1:12:42.559 federal system, it was a time where you got sentenced 1:12:42.600 --> 1:12:45.960 according to your guidelines, So meaning if you got the 1:12:46.840 --> 1:12:50.800 mandatory minimum of ten years and excuse me, and your 1:12:50.880 --> 1:12:55.840 guidelines came back to one sixty eight to two ten, 1:12:56.479 --> 1:12:58.519 that would be like basically, you're gonna be landing on 1:12:58.640 --> 1:13:02.720 fifteen years and better. And I landed on that like 1:13:03.160 --> 1:13:05.680 at a point and I'm like, so you're saying, if 1:13:05.720 --> 1:13:08.000 I cop out right and the judge gave me two 1:13:08.120 --> 1:13:12.439 hundred months, I'm stuck with that. He's like yeah, like yeah, now, 1:13:12.439 --> 1:13:15.800 I'm cool on that. Mom, we're gonna still go. Now 1:13:15.880 --> 1:13:18.120 you taking that three days before trial it came with 1:13:18.200 --> 1:13:21.280 that one fifty one to one eighty eight. I'm like, well, shoot, 1:13:21.520 --> 1:13:24.439 twelve and a half years. I got three in already. 1:13:24.479 --> 1:13:27.360 That shit easy, Like this this I knocked this over, 1:13:27.479 --> 1:13:30.880 even though when they read the months off and in 1:13:31.200 --> 1:13:33.040 the courtroom, my mother and them and they're like, what 1:13:33.200 --> 1:13:37.600 what what's that? What's one thirty Yeah? Wait yeah, Like 1:13:38.240 --> 1:13:40.800 so I'm like, yeah, said the judge like, yeah, you 1:13:40.840 --> 1:13:43.760 don't deserve one fifty one and break it down or 1:13:43.800 --> 1:13:46.439 one thirty one. She didn't say shit, but want of 1:13:46.479 --> 1:13:49.000 them break it down and one thirty one. And you know, 1:13:49.720 --> 1:13:52.120 I recommend you get the drug program because I don't 1:13:52.200 --> 1:13:54.680 let them know. I sniffed coke and smoke weed and 1:13:55.160 --> 1:13:57.400 even though I've never been high in my life, that 1:13:57.640 --> 1:13:59.840 was the That was the best part of the you know, 1:14:00.120 --> 1:14:02.120 how to get out of a little early via drug 1:14:02.240 --> 1:14:06.920 program and that was it. That was my journey. Um, 1:14:07.640 --> 1:14:10.000 and I got in the system. So when you got 1:14:10.080 --> 1:14:13.479 in the system, right, yeah, you know you've already been 1:14:13.520 --> 1:14:16.040 trying to transition out of the game. So when you 1:14:16.120 --> 1:14:18.840 got in the system, you had one hundred thirty one months, 1:14:19.080 --> 1:14:21.880 right to sit down and what was that time like 1:14:22.000 --> 1:14:23.639 for you? Like what did you do with your mind? 1:14:23.680 --> 1:14:26.519 What did you prepare yourself? What did you say to yourself? 1:14:26.560 --> 1:14:31.080 What what was your process? It's like being outside, right, 1:14:31.280 --> 1:14:36.479 except nobody's going nowhere, So that level of camaraderie, it 1:14:36.640 --> 1:14:41.360 kind of intensifies because to the same person every day, 1:14:41.560 --> 1:14:45.120 every same good days, every day. It's not no days 1:14:45.160 --> 1:14:48.360 that you have to share your your ups, your downs, 1:14:48.880 --> 1:14:53.320 your aspirations. Yeah, your your failures, your weaknesses. You're sharing 1:14:53.400 --> 1:14:56.680 it with these people constantly. The ones you you you 1:14:56.800 --> 1:14:59.840 attract to, the ones that you you form a common bond. 1:15:00.280 --> 1:15:03.560 My journey started off in the law library. So a 1:15:03.800 --> 1:15:07.800 guy that was very intelligent pumps into me early on 1:15:08.120 --> 1:15:13.719 during my process. He was fighting a forty eight case. 1:15:13.800 --> 1:15:15.400 I didn't have an a forty eight case out of 1:15:15.400 --> 1:15:18.280 a forty one B one d A and that's a 1:15:19.520 --> 1:15:23.880 five a kilo or more conspiracy. But initially I was 1:15:24.000 --> 1:15:26.720 charged with one hundred fifty kilos and more. But by 1:15:26.800 --> 1:15:28.720 the time I copped out, I copped out to a 1:15:28.760 --> 1:15:36.960 flat fifty keys. The dude is on his case every day. 1:15:37.479 --> 1:15:40.680 He's transcribing all the phone calls. He's reading through all 1:15:40.720 --> 1:15:45.600 of these after David's made by the US attorney that 1:15:46.240 --> 1:15:50.960 could dispel some kind of mistake on when they apply 1:15:51.160 --> 1:15:53.840 for this application or this than the third. So I'm 1:15:53.920 --> 1:15:56.519 going through the same process he's going through in real time. 1:15:57.080 --> 1:15:59.639 All of my pre troyout time was based on trying 1:15:59.680 --> 1:16:02.519 to get out. Yeah, I ain't do this, I han't 1:16:02.600 --> 1:16:05.000 underdo this. I look at the always eight different people 1:16:05.560 --> 1:16:07.840 selling the drugs. It ain't even me. Yah, they're bugging 1:16:07.960 --> 1:16:10.600 like I'm going through the hope, which was true. But 1:16:11.840 --> 1:16:14.080 in order to argue all of these facts, you one, 1:16:14.120 --> 1:16:17.640 you're gonna have to be in trial. Two, you have 1:16:17.760 --> 1:16:22.080 to be able to defend yourself without hurting anybody else. 1:16:22.760 --> 1:16:26.040 It's so many things that are coming to play while 1:16:26.200 --> 1:16:31.960 trying to keep it real right. So at some point, um, 1:16:33.200 --> 1:16:36.479 my best friend got subpoened and my lawyer office got 1:16:36.560 --> 1:16:41.559 subpoened because they gave me the job. When I got 1:16:41.640 --> 1:16:45.080 on work release and they following me, they like when 1:16:45.120 --> 1:16:47.840 you went to the office, It's like they somebody got 1:16:47.920 --> 1:16:51.960 to answer some of these questions. So I didn't want 1:16:52.000 --> 1:16:54.800 to put nobody through these these things, these changes and 1:16:55.320 --> 1:17:00.800 over my my stupidity. So um, that being that when 1:17:00.840 --> 1:17:03.400 I took the cop out, I felt relieved that it 1:17:03.439 --> 1:17:08.040 would alleviate them from any further scrutiny, if you will. Now, 1:17:09.080 --> 1:17:12.880 my process of fighting that case was that, so my 1:17:13.120 --> 1:17:17.519 mind was already I'm conditioned to stay so far out 1:17:17.560 --> 1:17:19.920 the way that I'm not worried about what's gonna happen 1:17:19.920 --> 1:17:22.120 when I get on the pound. I know that I'm 1:17:22.160 --> 1:17:27.080 gonna be in my books, preparing for tomorrow and working 1:17:27.200 --> 1:17:32.680 out and staying poised. I'm eating raw vegetables until they 1:17:32.760 --> 1:17:36.040 cut the common field off. I'm bowl of oatmeal for 1:17:36.120 --> 1:17:38.240 hard to help. Like I wanted to get out as 1:17:38.360 --> 1:17:40.519 young as I went in, Like that was the mission. 1:17:40.600 --> 1:17:43.120 Like if I could get out with a semblance of youth, 1:17:43.520 --> 1:17:46.680 I feel good, Like I'm know happy to say I 1:17:46.840 --> 1:17:49.120 came out without a gray hair at that time, I'm saying. So. 1:17:50.200 --> 1:17:52.600 Then I bumped in the older guys that'd been in 1:17:52.720 --> 1:17:57.280 jest since nineteen eighty eight, nineteen eighty two and eight, 1:17:57.360 --> 1:18:01.439 telling me you won, you won. That's how I came 1:18:01.560 --> 1:18:04.240 up with the with the title for the book, you 1:18:04.400 --> 1:18:08.000 won Man. You came in young, You're going out young. 1:18:09.280 --> 1:18:13.000 You won, man, I said, Man, already wont huh? So 1:18:13.240 --> 1:18:16.479 I'm like, right, fine, you know I took that, you know, 1:18:17.439 --> 1:18:21.679 as gospel, because these guys get up with the strength 1:18:22.120 --> 1:18:26.320 every day to prepare for tomorrow that wasn't promised to them. 1:18:26.600 --> 1:18:30.760 They had life sentences, yet they got up every day 1:18:30.840 --> 1:18:33.240 as if it was getting out the day after that. 1:18:34.200 --> 1:18:37.559 And I'm like, shit, if they're gonna be that prepared 1:18:37.600 --> 1:18:42.200 to get out, definitely right what I'm actually I know 1:18:42.360 --> 1:18:45.920 I'm getting out I had this new sense of worth 1:18:46.040 --> 1:18:49.200 for myself. So when I when I found out I 1:18:49.280 --> 1:18:53.320 had a different goal in mind for my life, it 1:18:53.560 --> 1:18:56.719 made me focus on that goal more. And you said 1:18:57.080 --> 1:19:00.400 you stay secluded away from even in it is you 1:19:00.560 --> 1:19:02.720 once in Maya that probably was like yo, what's up? 1:19:03.080 --> 1:19:05.080 And you're like nah, because we didn't even know on 1:19:05.160 --> 1:19:07.840 the same wavelength. Like I'm trying to do and you're 1:19:07.880 --> 1:19:10.640 trying to do is different. No disrespect, disrespect you know, 1:19:11.200 --> 1:19:13.559 but I'm just over here with minds. At that point 1:19:13.640 --> 1:19:15.360 when you was in jail, did you realize did you 1:19:15.439 --> 1:19:19.240 make up your mind that I don't care who I love, 1:19:20.960 --> 1:19:24.240 I can't put myself in jeopardy to help them. Do 1:19:24.320 --> 1:19:26.920 you realize? Because that's that's what when I listened to 1:19:27.040 --> 1:19:28.920 your story, That's what it was about, your love for 1:19:29.040 --> 1:19:32.000 everybody else and you feeling obligated to make sure that 1:19:32.120 --> 1:19:34.640 you provided and did things for them. So when you 1:19:34.800 --> 1:19:37.760 got into that situation, you did you make up your 1:19:37.800 --> 1:19:41.360 mind that that wasn't happening no more? Yes, that was 1:19:41.640 --> 1:19:46.479 That was the biggest part of my transition. I knew 1:19:46.560 --> 1:19:48.559 that I was still gonna love some of these people. 1:19:48.840 --> 1:19:52.719 You're still kind of based some of your your journey 1:19:52.800 --> 1:19:58.320 with these people and extremes. We lived by extremes. Everything 1:19:58.479 --> 1:20:01.800 was life or death. All of our relationships, if you 1:20:01.920 --> 1:20:06.120 look back on most street guys, all of the relationships 1:20:06.200 --> 1:20:09.200 you make a life of death friendships. So these are 1:20:09.240 --> 1:20:12.799 the things that you got to take into consideration sometimes 1:20:12.880 --> 1:20:17.080 like how much how much do you love your life? 1:20:18.120 --> 1:20:21.280 And how much new information did you gather that's going 1:20:21.320 --> 1:20:26.280 to help you say no to put in your your 1:20:26.479 --> 1:20:32.439 livelihood at in jeopardy. So cool, I'm sturdy now and 1:20:32.680 --> 1:20:36.240 and now I'm using the term sturdy as if it 1:20:36.360 --> 1:20:38.720 don't mean that you a push over. It means that 1:20:39.040 --> 1:20:43.439 you're you're not a pushover mentally. So that form of 1:20:43.640 --> 1:20:48.880 manipulation or that form of limited thinking and beliefs that 1:20:49.080 --> 1:20:51.960 will allow you to make a decision against yourself and 1:20:52.080 --> 1:20:55.000 your family and all of the positive things you could 1:20:55.760 --> 1:20:58.960 be given back to the community as a result of 1:20:59.040 --> 1:21:02.320 your journey. You can't just say no to that. These 1:21:02.360 --> 1:21:06.280 are big time things. That's what make gangsters. This is 1:21:06.320 --> 1:21:11.639 what make gangsters. Gangsters don't necessarily put destruction in your 1:21:11.680 --> 1:21:14.160 hands and say go for it. They're supposed to be 1:21:14.280 --> 1:21:17.559 the ones making a better way for everybody. So now 1:21:17.920 --> 1:21:20.760 I don't I don't use the word gangster lightly if 1:21:21.000 --> 1:21:23.360 it's a such thing. If I could associate myself with 1:21:23.920 --> 1:21:28.200 whatever my definition a gangster is. It means that I 1:21:28.280 --> 1:21:30.880 want to build on something positive. I want to I 1:21:30.960 --> 1:21:34.840 want to be the one that say, yo, kid, I 1:21:34.920 --> 1:21:36.640 see you got a hell of a knockout punch, and 1:21:37.080 --> 1:21:38.840 you think that I gotta lead to you having a 1:21:38.920 --> 1:21:43.160 hell of a trigger finger. You don't need that. If 1:21:43.240 --> 1:21:46.800 you that tough, read this book. Don't let nobody push 1:21:46.840 --> 1:21:50.800 you over in negotiations when you go to talk about 1:21:50.800 --> 1:21:54.760 your contract. So I had aart too, but my jel 1:21:54.840 --> 1:21:58.280 and have aart, so did bye. I skip that, But 1:21:58.720 --> 1:22:01.559 in the fans they had to another version of a RT. 1:22:01.840 --> 1:22:05.400 But I get in there and I used to ask people, 1:22:05.479 --> 1:22:09.720 I'm like, yo, and these are sturdy guys that the 1:22:09.880 --> 1:22:15.080 realists are the realists. And I'm like, what if you 1:22:15.280 --> 1:22:18.720 found out everything that you learned in life that's far 1:22:19.120 --> 1:22:22.920 was wrong. What if all of the principles and stuff 1:22:23.000 --> 1:22:25.920 we stood on and found out they was wrong? What 1:22:26.120 --> 1:22:28.280 we have the power to go back and address them 1:22:30.000 --> 1:22:32.519 where we where we have the kind of the same 1:22:32.720 --> 1:22:35.200 energy to go back and find new answers that we 1:22:35.320 --> 1:22:38.920 had when following some of these suggestions. And that's what 1:22:39.120 --> 1:22:41.000 I and I used to get pushed back. It used 1:22:41.000 --> 1:22:42.720 to be, you know what I'm saying, be like, yo, 1:22:42.880 --> 1:22:46.320 every everything I did for my people wouldn't I'm saying. 1:22:46.360 --> 1:22:48.760 That's how I'm like, Yo, I can't knock that, but 1:22:48.840 --> 1:22:54.599 I'm agin hypothetically that you have sudden benefited from everything 1:22:54.680 --> 1:22:57.640 you did. Because my daughter used to ask me to 1:22:57.680 --> 1:23:00.160 put it asleep and it was quiet for that. I 1:23:00.320 --> 1:23:01.960 used to be like that. It can't right now, and 1:23:02.720 --> 1:23:05.639 my relationship with her is strained to this day because 1:23:05.640 --> 1:23:09.519 we don't understand each other. So every time, it's every 1:23:09.560 --> 1:23:11.240 time we say we're doing it for our family, and 1:23:11.320 --> 1:23:13.920 you're doing it for this when you're not there, you 1:23:14.040 --> 1:23:17.759 can't do shit for your family. That absence has created 1:23:17.880 --> 1:23:21.960 such a divide and our understanding that if it's something really, 1:23:22.080 --> 1:23:26.559 really miniscule, could destray our whole thread because the thread 1:23:26.640 --> 1:23:30.519 is so thin. And that is a result of my 1:23:30.680 --> 1:23:34.960 decision making in my journey, no matter how much I 1:23:35.080 --> 1:23:39.240 meant well, So that has to be that has to hurt, 1:23:39.360 --> 1:23:43.720 like knowing that it hurts. My daughter needs support, she 1:23:43.880 --> 1:23:49.160 needs she needs rescuing, she needs you can't even give 1:23:49.200 --> 1:23:52.400 her in full capacity because the relationship is not strong 1:23:52.640 --> 1:23:54.599 enough to even be able to give it to her 1:23:54.680 --> 1:23:58.280 like you want to. I'll try to make amends for 1:24:00.360 --> 1:24:04.639 my original journey to this journey. Now, do that mean 1:24:04.720 --> 1:24:07.320 we're gonna have a good relationship because I'm trying. No, 1:24:07.600 --> 1:24:10.680 it don't mean that, But it don't stop me from 1:24:10.800 --> 1:24:14.000 continuing to give it to somebody else that might be 1:24:14.280 --> 1:24:17.280 more agreeable to hear in it at this time. So 1:24:17.400 --> 1:24:20.000 I'm gonna keep practicing. I'm gonna keep saying the good 1:24:20.040 --> 1:24:23.000 things to people that might be more agreeable to the 1:24:23.080 --> 1:24:26.559 message today, and then some of those things might get 1:24:26.600 --> 1:24:29.840 to what was what was your mind state when you 1:24:29.960 --> 1:24:33.680 got back into society? How how was your transition? Like 1:24:33.840 --> 1:24:36.600 what did you find yourself doing differently? What did you 1:24:37.080 --> 1:24:39.400 what was you What did you say like, all right, 1:24:39.760 --> 1:24:41.120 this is what i'm gonna do. Did you have or 1:24:41.160 --> 1:24:43.679 did you have a plan? Did you have one plan 1:24:43.800 --> 1:24:45.680 like yo, this is what I'm doing And did you 1:24:45.760 --> 1:24:47.920 follow it out or did you get out here and 1:24:48.000 --> 1:24:50.560 then started figuring out what you want to do? Like 1:24:50.680 --> 1:24:54.000 what was the p Well, there's no way it's no way. 1:24:54.120 --> 1:25:01.799 Looking at this resume, no smuch job, no job. Who's 1:25:01.840 --> 1:25:05.519 gonna hire me? It's nobody. This is quiet for that. 1:25:05.680 --> 1:25:09.439 It's nobody gonna hire it. This two time felon with 1:25:09.680 --> 1:25:14.719 no job history, no work history. So I said, okay, 1:25:15.240 --> 1:25:17.040 me understanding that, and I don't want to work for 1:25:17.080 --> 1:25:20.120 nobody anyway. That wasn't like that was one of my ambitions. 1:25:21.040 --> 1:25:23.439 But I'm like, well, if I want to be, you know, 1:25:23.520 --> 1:25:25.840 a part of an industry and a culture that that 1:25:26.479 --> 1:25:30.000 that did help shape me, it behooves me to use 1:25:30.120 --> 1:25:34.120 my best attributes. My pencil was always fairly decent and drawing. 1:25:34.800 --> 1:25:37.080 I thought I had a sense of style that you know, 1:25:37.320 --> 1:25:42.400 could at least fight to look cool. And I used 1:25:42.439 --> 1:25:44.439 those things to say, all right, this would be one 1:25:44.560 --> 1:25:48.200 business that I could I could I could build. Initially, 1:25:48.840 --> 1:25:52.160 I came home and uh y Indian man DC greeted 1:25:52.240 --> 1:25:54.639 me with the YO, what's up? Man? Like we're gonna 1:25:54.680 --> 1:25:58.639 do out of that? I'm like, well, shoot, let's get 1:25:58.720 --> 1:26:02.880 man DC situated. He you know, you guys are celebrities 1:26:02.920 --> 1:26:04.880 and I'm not a celebrity. I don't even want to 1:26:04.920 --> 1:26:07.800 be a celebrity. I just want to be helpful to 1:26:07.920 --> 1:26:12.640 excuse me to your journey and let me see what 1:26:12.720 --> 1:26:14.640 I could do to be a part of that. So 1:26:15.200 --> 1:26:18.599 they share, they they roll indexes with me and said, 1:26:18.720 --> 1:26:21.320 broll figure it out. Whatever it is that you want 1:26:21.360 --> 1:26:24.160 to do, you know you you kill it, you eat it, 1:26:24.360 --> 1:26:26.000 like you know what I'm saying. So I'm like, I 1:26:26.040 --> 1:26:30.040 thought that was a good challenge, and I started trying 1:26:30.080 --> 1:26:32.640 to think of things that I could fit or be 1:26:32.760 --> 1:26:38.200 a part of. And that led me to um saying, 1:26:38.240 --> 1:26:43.960 all right, like clothing, I'm I'm fairly good in music, 1:26:44.080 --> 1:26:47.519 to help somebody else get to somebody that they want to, 1:26:47.760 --> 1:26:53.200 you know, be a part of. And also if opportunities 1:26:53.240 --> 1:26:58.679 should come in the movie, feel I could apply whatever 1:26:58.920 --> 1:27:02.479 little change I get my hands onto being a part 1:27:02.520 --> 1:27:05.320 of the production. So it was so many ways I 1:27:05.479 --> 1:27:09.439 was trying to fit, and so I did some of all. 1:27:10.640 --> 1:27:12.840 And I don't even know if I had enough resources 1:27:12.920 --> 1:27:15.040 for that, which I'm sure I did not have enough. 1:27:15.080 --> 1:27:18.719 I look at me, No, I didn't have enough resources. 1:27:18.800 --> 1:27:23.080 So but you you just you go fight, you fight, 1:27:23.320 --> 1:27:26.360 and you you figure it out. Like small victories add 1:27:26.479 --> 1:27:32.200 up and those seeds make trees. And after a while 1:27:32.840 --> 1:27:37.200 people were qual a genius when something clicks and it 1:27:38.080 --> 1:27:42.600 just went through the natural progression of maturity, right and 1:27:43.880 --> 1:27:48.360 people say, yo, kid is a hustler. But no, it 1:27:48.600 --> 1:27:53.439 was hard like and I'm watching what I say because 1:27:53.760 --> 1:27:57.920 some people could take this offensively as a community, we don't. 1:27:58.479 --> 1:28:00.840 We don't like to make stuff more. We think that 1:28:01.320 --> 1:28:06.360 soon closed as a as a job description is meaning 1:28:06.360 --> 1:28:09.240 you and we want to be the person directing people 1:28:09.280 --> 1:28:12.640 to do this' the boss, right. So I had to 1:28:12.760 --> 1:28:15.120 go all the way to La to be a part 1:28:15.160 --> 1:28:17.920 of the community that didn't look down on that that 1:28:18.240 --> 1:28:22.479 level of service. So I couldn't find many black people. 1:28:22.560 --> 1:28:25.640 I ain't even gonna hold you, couldn't just didn't know 1:28:25.680 --> 1:28:28.240 where they was at, couldn't find them. A lot of 1:28:28.320 --> 1:28:34.599 people I ran into were Mexicans. Now Mexicans, they work 1:28:34.680 --> 1:28:36.559 with you. Now it was supposed to be a little 1:28:36.640 --> 1:28:42.080 racial divide. I have no I have no um experience 1:28:42.160 --> 1:28:47.280 with that. I mean outside of jail, jail segregated everything said, 1:28:47.400 --> 1:28:50.040 and I still was super cool the Mexicans, yeah, right 1:28:50.400 --> 1:28:54.639 right right. But out there in LA I was hung 1:28:54.760 --> 1:28:58.880 with one guy in particular. He showed me everything from 1:28:59.360 --> 1:29:04.360 cutting and selling to the whole process of m constructing 1:29:04.400 --> 1:29:09.320 a garment. So I used these. Now these skills, they're 1:29:09.600 --> 1:29:13.599 very usable skills, but they're also it was a way 1:29:13.640 --> 1:29:16.759 of making a business. So I could not only do minds, 1:29:16.800 --> 1:29:18.840 but I could do for others shoe. I ended up 1:29:18.840 --> 1:29:20.320 doing it for others more than I was doing it 1:29:20.400 --> 1:29:24.000 for myself. So, especially when the pandemic came in, because 1:29:24.600 --> 1:29:27.800 more people needed that service because so many positive world 1:29:27.880 --> 1:29:32.280 wasn't available to them. It made me money. Actually it 1:29:32.439 --> 1:29:37.639 was crazy, but um yeah, so me me sitting down 1:29:37.720 --> 1:29:40.800 there going that's a level of going to school. It. No, 1:29:41.000 --> 1:29:44.720 I didn't get a certificate. I sat down and learn. 1:29:45.720 --> 1:29:48.320 And my people was like, yo, eat bugging like it's 1:29:48.360 --> 1:29:51.080 just hanging around and got some all machines and shit 1:29:51.240 --> 1:29:56.040 like heat bugging for real. But people can't always see, right, 1:29:56.960 --> 1:29:59.800 you can't listen. I'm getting to this fashion. You know, 1:30:00.000 --> 1:30:03.040 I'm saying, I know a little thing about movies. I'm 1:30:03.120 --> 1:30:06.040 just figure out how I can dibble and dabbling that right, 1:30:06.280 --> 1:30:08.760 You got your book, right, you know what I'm saying 1:30:08.880 --> 1:30:11.439 that it's dope book. Thank you. You know what I'm saying. 1:30:11.880 --> 1:30:14.280 Guy's clothing Like I still ain't got my hat. But 1:30:14.320 --> 1:30:18.160 it's cool. Don't worry. But you know what I'm saying. 1:30:18.200 --> 1:30:21.080 You've got guys and you in the movie that you 1:30:21.320 --> 1:30:25.120 have you you're an investor in the It is actually 1:30:25.479 --> 1:30:29.040 a really great project. No, well callaway, I'm directed. He 1:30:29.960 --> 1:30:33.080 did a great job. I'm happy to be a part 1:30:33.120 --> 1:30:37.160 of it. And when it when it is, people will 1:30:37.200 --> 1:30:43.320 see some humor, um live story and it just changes 1:30:43.360 --> 1:30:45.760 the narrative of or shoot him up, bang bang, because 1:30:45.800 --> 1:30:48.880 that's not all we we are, right, so we could 1:30:48.880 --> 1:30:50.840 get to that. I know a bunch of those stories too. 1:30:50.960 --> 1:30:55.000 But I love love like it's Yeah, it resonates with me, 1:30:55.160 --> 1:30:57.560 so you know, I wanted to be a part of 1:30:57.680 --> 1:31:03.000 that kind of movement also. And as you said about 1:31:03.040 --> 1:31:05.800 the book, I have another book in the works that 1:31:06.040 --> 1:31:10.000 um I think it's gonna be a nice sequel, if 1:31:10.080 --> 1:31:13.840 not sequel, but a nice continuation to um, you already won, 1:31:15.240 --> 1:31:17.680 Now you already won. I didn't want to do I 1:31:17.840 --> 1:31:22.439 kept being nagged by a lady named Donna. Well I 1:31:22.560 --> 1:31:24.960 call him Monique, So Monique, she stayed on my back. 1:31:26.080 --> 1:31:30.800 Monique says, listen around. You have to put yourself out there, 1:31:30.960 --> 1:31:33.519 and Dada that you got a lot of talent. I'm like, naw, 1:31:33.560 --> 1:31:37.000 I'm behind the scene, you know. Through her persuasion, I said, 1:31:37.000 --> 1:31:38.840 all right, well, I might have to put a little 1:31:38.920 --> 1:31:41.320 leg out there because I don't have the benefit of 1:31:42.000 --> 1:31:47.000 being around such um, you know, being by myself at 1:31:47.080 --> 1:31:49.800 this point um in the journey, I didn't have the 1:31:49.920 --> 1:31:53.920 benefit of being attached to such a power source that 1:31:54.880 --> 1:31:58.000 I was able to right right, I had to put 1:31:58.000 --> 1:32:02.400 a little leg out there. And so it made me 1:32:02.479 --> 1:32:05.240 write the book. And you know, I thought that, you know, 1:32:05.439 --> 1:32:07.760 use some of the things that happened in my life, 1:32:07.920 --> 1:32:12.080 or just common phrases that people used in my neighborhood 1:32:12.120 --> 1:32:14.320 that might seem like a one liner, but it meant 1:32:14.439 --> 1:32:17.840 so much more. So I used that as inspiration to 1:32:17.960 --> 1:32:20.720 write the first book. But I have so much more 1:32:20.760 --> 1:32:23.360 to share that, you know, I hope that people enjoy 1:32:23.520 --> 1:32:29.520 going forward. There's this stigma that you know, when you incarcerated, 1:32:30.439 --> 1:32:33.400 that you just don't have a chance. You know what 1:32:33.439 --> 1:32:36.680 I'm saying. You're negative, you know you when you Chi 1:32:36.960 --> 1:32:39.160 like used to go to look for jobs and they said, 1:32:39.200 --> 1:32:41.680 were you ever incarcerated? Though? We definitely don't want to 1:32:41.720 --> 1:32:44.960 do him right, right, and you defy that stigma you 1:32:45.000 --> 1:32:48.280 know what I'm saying. You an individual who most of 1:32:48.400 --> 1:32:51.960 his life was taught things. You know, we glorified things 1:32:52.040 --> 1:32:54.920 that we thought was right, but we realized that it 1:32:54.960 --> 1:32:56.720 was a dead end, you know what I'm saying. And 1:32:57.200 --> 1:32:59.519 you tried to transition as you grow. You know what 1:32:59.520 --> 1:33:04.640 I'm saying, Youth is we sometimes we just so oblivious 1:33:04.880 --> 1:33:08.000 to realities and our youth and we just move off 1:33:08.200 --> 1:33:10.960 energy without even any level of wisdom, you know what 1:33:11.000 --> 1:33:14.479 I'm saying. And you've seen you show the process of growing. 1:33:15.240 --> 1:33:17.360 You know, each step he was like, damn, I need 1:33:17.400 --> 1:33:19.880 to get out of this. First you you inspire like 1:33:19.960 --> 1:33:21.360 I just want to be the biggest drug that I 1:33:21.400 --> 1:33:23.920 want to and then he was like this shit ain't nothing, 1:33:24.520 --> 1:33:28.280 Like I'm trying to transition. And then you know, ultimately, unfortunately, 1:33:28.479 --> 1:33:30.559 you know, you had to sit down and you had 1:33:30.600 --> 1:33:33.240 to regather and you had to restructure your mindset, and 1:33:33.320 --> 1:33:37.120 then you came back out here. You show different, you 1:33:37.120 --> 1:33:39.160 know what I'm saying saying, and I know that you 1:33:39.320 --> 1:33:41.240 destined for more and more success and you could you 1:33:41.400 --> 1:33:44.080 constantly keep growing. So I just want to celebrate that, 1:33:44.600 --> 1:33:47.160 you know, and I want people to hear your story 1:33:47.360 --> 1:33:51.360 because Aaron is a person. Aaron is a legend. You 1:33:51.400 --> 1:33:53.800 know what I'm saying, the legendary and you know what 1:33:53.840 --> 1:33:55.800 I'm saying, But a lot of people don't know the full, 1:33:56.520 --> 1:33:58.719 you know, scope of your story. And I just wanted 1:33:59.080 --> 1:34:01.599 people to sit down here. You one of those people 1:34:01.640 --> 1:34:05.519 that I believe that somebody's gonna hear, some young boy 1:34:05.640 --> 1:34:08.880 who's on the trajectory, it's gonna hear and be like, damn, 1:34:09.560 --> 1:34:13.000 that sounds like me. So I appreciate you. I'm motivated 1:34:13.080 --> 1:34:15.160 by you. You know. I want to interview people that 1:34:15.320 --> 1:34:18.240 motivate me. You know what I'm saying, I just trendy 1:34:18.479 --> 1:34:21.280 or only this, and I want to interview people that 1:34:21.720 --> 1:34:24.400 most people may not even know that have done things 1:34:24.479 --> 1:34:27.160 that motivate you know what I'm saying, add to this, 1:34:27.400 --> 1:34:31.600 just you, king king, So I thank you for the 1:34:31.720 --> 1:34:37.639 legend tag. I never give myself I supposed, I don't 1:34:37.680 --> 1:34:41.400 even play with the word. I think that the thing 1:34:41.520 --> 1:34:44.320 that you do with your opportunity to me makes your 1:34:44.479 --> 1:34:49.080 legend so much to close out before I consider myself. 1:34:49.439 --> 1:34:53.280 You're saying, this is what stand up individuals do. They acknowledge, 1:34:53.960 --> 1:34:57.000 they hold themselves accountable. You know, it was so much 1:34:57.040 --> 1:35:00.559 self accountability here, like you, every time you you did well, 1:35:00.560 --> 1:35:02.760 I got to hold myself account Well I did it. 1:35:02.840 --> 1:35:05.439 You ain't blame nobody else. Well I did this wrong, 1:35:05.479 --> 1:35:07.360 and I did this and I had to deal with this, 1:35:07.439 --> 1:35:10.160 and I'm gonna sit and I you know, it's always 1:35:10.240 --> 1:35:12.360 on the eye, and that's what stand up individuals do. 1:35:12.560 --> 1:35:16.080 So you know in that regard for me, it's legendary. 1:35:16.120 --> 1:35:19.000 And the fact that anywhere that you go, for the 1:35:19.080 --> 1:35:21.200 most part, if it's a stand up individual, they know 1:35:21.320 --> 1:35:23.600 egg you know what I'm saying, and they know that 1:35:23.760 --> 1:35:25.679 he carries itself it is, they're gonna have the same 1:35:26.160 --> 1:35:28.439 story every time you talk about it's gonna on nine. 1:35:28.479 --> 1:35:30.920 I say, hey, he's official. He's a stand up dude here, 1:35:30.920 --> 1:35:32.760 a good dude, you know what I'm saying. Like that, 1:35:33.400 --> 1:35:36.320 when that when your name circulates throughout the world and 1:35:36.439 --> 1:35:39.160 that's what they say about you everywhere, nine of the 1:35:39.200 --> 1:35:41.000 ten is probably one person that's just mad at you 1:35:41.120 --> 1:35:42.920 for something because you probably had something to do with 1:35:42.960 --> 1:35:44.920 his girlfriend or something. But you know what I'm saying, 1:35:44.960 --> 1:35:48.720 We know that probably child that was your childish ambitious 1:35:48.720 --> 1:35:51.680 But for the most part, that's what they're gonna say. Man, 1:35:52.040 --> 1:35:54.479 make sure that you tune in with a Ron. He's 1:35:54.520 --> 1:35:57.559 on Instagram, He's doing a lot of things. Make sure 1:35:57.600 --> 1:36:02.080 that you follow him paid ten into his journey, young kids, 1:36:02.439 --> 1:36:05.360 listen to his story. Hope that it can motivate you 1:36:06.000 --> 1:36:08.560 and it can deter you from certain things. You know, 1:36:08.720 --> 1:36:11.040 this is about education. We want you to hear the 1:36:11.160 --> 1:36:14.200 realities of our stories in our life and our trials 1:36:14.240 --> 1:36:17.880 and tribulations, and take that and don't make the same 1:36:17.960 --> 1:36:21.840 mistakes we've made, you know, Please, our job is to 1:36:22.000 --> 1:36:24.920 circum help you circumvent those mistakes. I say it all 1:36:24.920 --> 1:36:27.400 the time to my young boys. I'm a cheat sheet 1:36:27.439 --> 1:36:29.680 through life, you know. And if you just if you 1:36:29.800 --> 1:36:31.840 just take this sheet and you listen to what I'm saying, 1:36:31.880 --> 1:36:33.840 you ain't goin to make the mistakes I make, you 1:36:33.960 --> 1:36:36.720 can get to where I'm at now with I'm making 1:36:36.760 --> 1:36:40.559 none of the mistakes. So tune into the next episode 1:36:41.120 --> 1:36:43.439 sit Down with with the stand Ups, shout out to 1:36:43.560 --> 1:36:48.280 my boy, hey love. You can't listen to Street Politicians 1:36:48.360 --> 1:36:52.120 on the Black Effect Network on iHeartRadio and catch us 1:36:52.160 --> 1:36:54.920 every single Wednesday for the video version of Street Politicians. 1:36:54.960 --> 1:36:56.200 Well I Women Dot TV