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Speaker 1: Real celebrity join the morning. Everybody is DJ Envy Angela, Ye,

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Speaker 1: Charlomagne the guy we are the Breakfast Club got a

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Speaker 1: special guest author in the building with us this morning.

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Speaker 1: That's right, my man, M k Asante. M k Asante.

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Speaker 1: Now I read this guy's book about two three weeks.

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Speaker 1: Going to funny because I had the book sitting up

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Speaker 1: here for the longest a long time. It's called Buck,

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Speaker 1: But I don't know what made me decide to read

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Speaker 1: it a couple of weeks ago, and I really enjoyed it.

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Speaker 1: So I'm like, yeo, we gotta have this guy up

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Speaker 1: here to talk about his book. Buck. Well, explain to

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Speaker 1: us what Bucks. I didn't get a chance to read it.

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Speaker 1: I don't I don't really have much time to read.

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Speaker 1: You know, I got four kids, right, he talks, He's

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Speaker 1: talking about me over there. Tell us about Buck. All right, Well,

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Speaker 1: first of all, it's really an honor to be here.

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Speaker 1: I watch you guys all the time, so you know

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Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Much love, um d riding broke whatever

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Speaker 1: ding his book? Well, yeah, you read the book and

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Speaker 1: you you were thirsty, so you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: I had to come Yeah, exactly you know when you

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Speaker 1: show interests that means thirsty these days. But you know, um,

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Speaker 1: I'm just happy to be here. But you know, Buck

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Speaker 1: is about the graceful survival against impossible circumstances. You know,

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Speaker 1: It's like what I'm from Philly, you know what I mean,

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Speaker 1: young buck, buck, wild, Buck, shots bucktown, slave buck, black Buck,

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Speaker 1: make buck buck now buck encompasses all of those things.

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Speaker 1: I chose the title because it really my life. It's

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Speaker 1: a coming of age memoir. It's my story. It's my

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Speaker 1: journey growing up through Philly, navigating my education, my very

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Speaker 1: informal education, miseducation, re education, self education, street education, the

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Speaker 1: difference in the distance between school and education. That was

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Speaker 1: all me. And so it's it's about that journey. It's

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Speaker 1: about my family, it's about my community. It's about how

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Speaker 1: I became. You know, I was someone who got kicked

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Speaker 1: out of every school I went to, Wow and then

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Speaker 1: and then ended up being the youngest tenure professor in

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Speaker 1: the country, you know what I mean. I'm thirty two now,

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Speaker 1: but it looked nineteen. But when I became professor, I

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Speaker 1: was twenty. I was twenty three, and I got tenue

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Speaker 1: when I was twenty six, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: So I've been at academia for a while, and um,

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Speaker 1: so it's about my journey. I tell us about this

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Speaker 1: journey a little bit. So you're from Philadelphia, you uh,

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Speaker 1: Charlemagne would say you got kicked out of every school.

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Speaker 1: So you were young thug, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: Shout out. Shout out to all the kids that you

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Speaker 1: know are being overlooked right now, Shout out to all

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Speaker 1: the kids that are are labeled bad because there really

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Speaker 1: were no I was. I wasn't selling dope, okay, but

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Speaker 1: but there are, there are. There is some some drugs

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Speaker 1: selling that goes on in the book. As a child, Um,

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Speaker 1: in my life, you know, I think I was just

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Speaker 1: rebell I was rebellious. I was rebelling against everything, you

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Speaker 1: know what I mean. Um, I think first of all,

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Speaker 1: the school system, right, it's it's it's redundant, it's boring,

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Speaker 1: you know, wrote memorization, regurgitation. I wasn't actually learning anything

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Speaker 1: in school. Plus my family situation was kind of crazy.

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Speaker 1: My brother he was locked up, my mom. I read

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Speaker 1: about mental health issues. My mom was institutionalized. She had

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Speaker 1: severe depressions, suicidal. So my mom was in and out

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Speaker 1: the institutions, you know what I'm saying, and so split Yeah, exactly,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So all these things kind

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Speaker 1: of created a perfect storm. Plus we had the corner

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Speaker 1: boys on my block, you know what I'm saying. They

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Speaker 1: were always out there and they introduced me to everything,

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Speaker 1: you know what i mean. So by the time I

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Speaker 1: was fourteen, it was on you know what i mean,

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Speaker 1: like everything you could imagine everything you don't want your

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Speaker 1: child to, your four kids, everything you don't want them

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Speaker 1: to do. I was doing, you know what I'm saying. So, Um,

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Speaker 1: I know your brother, your brother is locked up. It's

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Speaker 1: two questions. I don't want to ask you about them. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it is your brother out now Yeah, my brother is

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Speaker 1: is definitely out. What's up? Ouzi out? Big Ouzi too?

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Speaker 1: That's that's my heroes. Well, he has to change his

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Speaker 1: name from how many names? How many years did he do?

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Speaker 1: Like he? I mean, he was you know, he was

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Speaker 1: in and out, in and out, you know what I'm saying. Um,

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Speaker 1: But when he was in Arizona, which is for most

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Speaker 1: of the book, he was. The book takes place between

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Speaker 1: the ages of thirteen and eighteen, UM, and so he

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Speaker 1: was like locked up for most of that time when

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Speaker 1: I was when I was coming, he shot somebody. No,

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Speaker 1: no hit in the book. He definitely was in jail

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Speaker 1: point zone. No, no, I remember the book. Ye. Now,

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Speaker 1: he didn't shoot anybody, you know what I'm saying something. No,

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Speaker 1: he didn't beat anybody else, but he did beat other

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Speaker 1: people locked that he didn't get locked. What was he

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Speaker 1: locked up for? Arizona? In Arizona, it was a situation

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Speaker 1: with a young girl. And he was young himself. What

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Speaker 1: I'm saying, um, but he was young himself. He was seventeen,

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Speaker 1: the girl was like fourteen. He didn't know she was white.

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Speaker 1: He's black obviously, and her she was a runaway. Her

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Speaker 1: parents found out, and it was just you know, he

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Speaker 1: got he got put in the system. So what what

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Speaker 1: got you straight? You know from being on the corner

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Speaker 1: with the d boys and being so rebellious. What got

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Speaker 1: you to fix up? I mean there was a couple

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Speaker 1: of factors. Man. I saw it first of all. I

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Speaker 1: saw what that life where that life takes you, you you

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Speaker 1: know what I mean, whether it was my brother, whether

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Speaker 1: it was my one of my best friends. I'm here

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Speaker 1: who got murdered while I was there? You know, a

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Speaker 1: lot of things kind of shaped me. But also the

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Speaker 1: blank page. Man, that's what this book really is about.

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Speaker 1: It's about finding your purpose. That blank page saved me.

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Speaker 1: America enraged me. Then that trick paid me new slaves,

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Speaker 1: old slavery. Grandma told me streets far from holy. Now

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Speaker 1: I'm lonely my homies bodies is holy. So basically, the

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Speaker 1: blank page saved me. That blank piece of paper in

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Speaker 1: front of me the first time I gotta create a

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Speaker 1: write in assignment, the first time I was able to

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Speaker 1: express myself. Things started flowing and I gripped a pen

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Speaker 1: and something shot down my spine and set me straight up.

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Speaker 1: You know, the pen was heavy, like it was made

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Speaker 1: of stone, and that first class man, that first time

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Speaker 1: I was able to express myself. It changed my life

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Speaker 1: because then I from writing, I started reading. I wanted

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Speaker 1: to be a good writer, so I had to be

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Speaker 1: a good reader. And when I started reading, I had

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Speaker 1: an epiphany, like, oh, now I realized why reading was

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Speaker 1: illegal for slaves back in the day. Because I realized

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Speaker 1: that we think in words we sub vocalize, so the

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Speaker 1: more words we know, the more things we can think about.

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Speaker 1: And so for me, reading became connected to my liberation

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Speaker 1: and helps you. It helps you transcend your circumstances because

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Speaker 1: they always seeing andy thing you want to hire from

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Speaker 1: a black person, put it in a book, you know

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Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Yeah, then we just gotta, we just gotta,

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Speaker 1: we just gotta give ourselves access to it. Now, you

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Speaker 1: said something earlier about the curriculum of most schools, you know,

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Speaker 1: and you said it it's boring and and kids don't

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Speaker 1: get it. And I agree with that. And I'm a

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Speaker 1: big definitely with my kids where I want to show

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Speaker 1: them life like I like to take them out. I

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Speaker 1: like them to teach it, to teach them what a

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Speaker 1: mortgage is and how to invest money because I think

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Speaker 1: with that they learned more and it's more interesting in

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Speaker 1: real life. And I hated school. I didn't get it,

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Speaker 1: I didn't understand it. I wasn't into it. So you know,

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Speaker 1: during school, I always dreamed of what I wanted to do,

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Speaker 1: whether it was music, whether it was play ball or

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Speaker 1: whatever it was. Now you also said you're a professor. Yes,

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Speaker 1: Now explain to us how you teach. What makes you

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Speaker 1: different than all of the things you said you disliked. Okay,

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Speaker 1: that's what's up. Well, I'm a professor at Morgan State University,

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Speaker 1: which is in Baltimore. Manling you one thing about Morgan stay,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonnay. Why didn't go okay? When I went for them?

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Speaker 1: When I went to Morgan State to check it out,

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Speaker 1: to go on a tour, they're playing dice. It was

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Speaker 1: too no. They were playing dice on the actual dorm steps.

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Speaker 1: And my dad was like, you're not gonna go ahead.

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Speaker 1: It's black queens. And I wound up going to Hampton.

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Speaker 1: It was between Morgan and Hampton, and I wound him

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Speaker 1: going ahead. He would push your tea with selling bricks

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Speaker 1: to coke, closed the guide, playing put the telling wait

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Speaker 1: out to school. You didn't want to go there? Well,

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Speaker 1: you know what Morgan is is it's right in the

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Speaker 1: heart of Baltimore, you know what I mean. That's one

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Speaker 1: of the reasons why I love it and one of

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Speaker 1: the reasons why I teach their you know what I mean,

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Speaker 1: because of it's right in the community. You know. But

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Speaker 1: as a professor, Man, you know, I bring that experiential

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Speaker 1: learning that you were talking about, you know, we bring

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Speaker 1: real things in the class. So I teach creative writing,

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Speaker 1: I teach film, and my whole thing is, you know,

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Speaker 1: I found my voice, I found my purpose. And I'm right.

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Speaker 1: This is my fourth book actually, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, this is my fourth so you know what

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Speaker 1: what and this is the it's the only one that's

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Speaker 1: on the best seller list, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: So this is kind of my most recognized booth. But

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Speaker 1: you know, I've been writing for a while. So my

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Speaker 1: whole thing is helping other people find their voice, you

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Speaker 1: know what I mean. So I work with students all

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Speaker 1: the time to help them cultivate their own voices so

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Speaker 1: that they can express themselves, you know, in the way

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Speaker 1: that it different me because this stuff saved my life

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Speaker 1: man reading writing, Um, yeah, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: And what we and you know what we did was

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Speaker 1: so crazy about this project is I didn't want to

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Speaker 1: stop it just the book. You know, I got the

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Speaker 1: Sundance Film Fellowship to write the movie, so I'm working

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Speaker 1: on the movie. But then what we did was we

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Speaker 1: decided to do something completely different, which was to create

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Speaker 1: a soundtrack for the book. So we created an original

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Speaker 1: soundtrack with original music. That's why he keeps busting out

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Speaker 1: in the rhymes. Yeah yeah, but how do we get

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Speaker 1: more of us to be professors because nowaday being a professor,

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Speaker 1: being a teacher's not cool. You know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: It's a rapper, it's a it's a DJ, it's a

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Speaker 1: basketball player. We don't really I don't really see young

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Speaker 1: African American professors, and if I do, they're usually teaching jim. Yeah, Jim. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I mean that's you're right.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you're right, you're right. You me. I went

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Speaker 1: to a couple of high schools to speak, and a

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Speaker 1: lot of the African American teachers were doing jim or

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Speaker 1: what they're called physical education. Yeah, a lot of the

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Speaker 1: Spanish teacher, I'm scaring it's a lot of Spanish teachers

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Speaker 1: were doing guess what well I mean or what I mean.

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Speaker 1: Rappers and DJs have a have a dope market cool

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Speaker 1: you know, but this whatever, what do you speak? What

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Speaker 1: do you teach Spanish? You know? Yeah? But you know,

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Speaker 1: like the thing is, um, I think rappers and DJs

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Speaker 1: have dope marketing plans, and I think in a lot

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Speaker 1: of ways for academia, for professors, I am part of

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Speaker 1: the new marketing plan. I am the new model. I

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Speaker 1: think that a lot of times. And that's why I travel.

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Speaker 1: I've been over forty countries. I travel all around this country,

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Speaker 1: and I want young people to see me. That's why

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Speaker 1: I wrote a memoir, not a novel, not something made up,

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Speaker 1: a memoir. I want them to see me. Well, I

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Speaker 1: got a soundtrack to you know what I'm saying. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: the only professor passing out the mix tape for the

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Speaker 1: last that class. That's actually one of my class. I

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Speaker 1: teach a hip hop class where we look at the

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Speaker 1: social political issues that affect hip hop, that hip hop

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Speaker 1: was birth from. We look at the evolution of it,

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Speaker 1: we look at the culture of it. We really study it,

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Speaker 1: you know, analytically. But you know, one of the things

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Speaker 1: I try to do, man is to let them see me.

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Speaker 1: So if they could see what a professor could look like,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It doesn't have to be

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Speaker 1: some you know, um, some archaic thing that they have

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Speaker 1: in their mind. It could be something new, It could

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Speaker 1: be something fresh. Your professor could be a rapper, you

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Speaker 1: know what I mean. Your professor could be a rapper

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Speaker 1: and could be a writer, and could be a filmmaker,

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Speaker 1: and could you know, we I think we live in

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Speaker 1: a world now where we're out. We're out of these boxes, man, Like,

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Speaker 1: you have to be multidimensional in this in this currency,

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Speaker 1: in this environment. And so I think part of it,

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Speaker 1: how do we get more you guys having me on?

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Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. That's that's part of it,

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Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, because they see like wow,

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Speaker 1: Like there's so many people, young people that I've come

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Speaker 1: in contact with, who I've changed their whole model, the

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Speaker 1: whole blueprint because they're like, oh, wow, you could do that,

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Speaker 1: and you could do I didn't even know I could

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Speaker 1: do that and have access to these things and have

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Speaker 1: the resources and take care of my family and be

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Speaker 1: able to do all these you know. So it's really

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Speaker 1: like showing them. That's the thing. I think our whole

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Speaker 1: generation is about visuals, right Instagram, So we have to

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Speaker 1: show right when you show, it makes it resonates. And

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Speaker 1: I think right now, you know, people will probably say, well,

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Speaker 1: he don't look like a professor, with a question you

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Speaker 1: should be asking is what does a professor look like? Exactly?

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Speaker 1: But you know what, but that's what most people think

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Speaker 1: that I was thinking to myself when he was said

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Speaker 1: he was a professor. I was like, damn, does he

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Speaker 1: wear that T shirt and hat in class? Yeah? I

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Speaker 1: think it would be dope, but definitely, But it was

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Speaker 1: exactly how I dressed in class. You could ask all

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Speaker 1: my students. I come in fitted, snapbacks, tims, whatever, because

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Speaker 1: that's that's who I am, you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 1: And just you know, when you become whatever profession you are,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't mean you take away who you are and

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Speaker 1: your core essence. Because at the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: that rebellious thirteen fourteen fifteen, sixteen year old that stole me, right,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean? And so what I've done

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Speaker 1: in a lot of ways is and that's what Buck

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Speaker 1: really is about, that whole notion of Buck. Now I

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Speaker 1: become a lot smarter. You know. I used to be,

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Speaker 1: I think, a rebel without a cause, and now I'm

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Speaker 1: a rebel with a purpose and a cause, you know

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Speaker 1: what I mean. So the rebellion is still there. You know,

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Speaker 1: I was in Baltimore. I was out there with him,

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Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like, that's part of my Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I live in Baltimore and I live in Chapel Hill

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Speaker 1: in North Carolina. What did you see out there as

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Speaker 1: you were down there for the Baltimore rides because you brown,

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Speaker 1: you blew up from cause. The reason I say that is,

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Speaker 1: you know me and Charlemagne. Charlemagne believe he doesn't agree

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Speaker 1: what he said. He stands with what I believe. You

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Speaker 1: can't keep pushing somebody expect somebody not to push back.

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Speaker 1: I may not agree with the riots, but understand why

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Speaker 1: that happened. And I feel like a lot of times

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Speaker 1: when we when we get those riots, we hurt ourselves.

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Speaker 1: In the loan room, we heard our own community. We

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Speaker 1: heard the stores and the places that we shot at

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Speaker 1: that we you know, own or purchase or have to

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Speaker 1: do with it. I think we kind of hurt ourselves

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Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I hate to see

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Speaker 1: us get arrested and get felonies on our record. And

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Speaker 1: then when we try to get a job, we can't

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Speaker 1: because of a mistake or something that we did, foolishness

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Speaker 1: or that we shouldn't have done. But the problem is

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Speaker 1: they can't get jobs right now anywhere regardless of that seat.

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Speaker 1: What we saw in Baltimore was like we saw the

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Speaker 1: crazy what happens when you underfund the school system. Right,

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Speaker 1: when you invest in the prison industrial complex, right, when

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Speaker 1: your schools are criminal, when you don't invest in the neighborhoods.

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Speaker 1: We saw all these things coming out, and so we

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Speaker 1: got destitute poverty in Baltimore, right, we got under development,

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Speaker 1: We got, like I said, an educational system that takes

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Speaker 1: money million, hundreds of millions out the school system every

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Speaker 1: year and they put that money into prison industrial complex. Right.

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Speaker 1: And so we see now the illustration of what happens

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Speaker 1: when you do that to a community, when the community

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Speaker 1: is constantly beat and beat and beat and oppressed and

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Speaker 1: oppressed and oppressed. We see what happens. And so I'm

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Speaker 1: actually surprised that it doesn't happen more often, you know,

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Speaker 1: but every city in America has the potential to do that.

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Speaker 1: We tore up our communities, but it's not communities we

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Speaker 1: don't really, we don't own that we shot. It's where

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Speaker 1: we we do the next time over, you know what

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Speaker 1: we're not gonna be welcome to the next time over.

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Speaker 1: And a lot of people can't drive it. But it

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Speaker 1: seems like the things that they care about was they

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Speaker 1: cared about them Baltimore orials. In that game, they made

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Speaker 1: sure that stadium would say, oh yeah, and you really

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Speaker 1: got a chance to see the classism in Baltimore and

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Speaker 1: in America with with the I don't even car riots,

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Speaker 1: I carm rebellions. And I feel like these peaceful protest

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Speaker 1: I feel like these rebellions have been happening since sixteen nineteen,

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Speaker 1: since black folks basically got here in America. Has been

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Speaker 1: If you look at the history, it's cyclical. Every ten

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Speaker 1: fifteen years, you see these huge what they call riots,

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Speaker 1: what I call rebellions in the urban cities in America,

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Speaker 1: and they always are related to race. And this is historically.

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Speaker 1: You can go back to the eighteenth century, nineteenth century.

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Speaker 1: You see these same things happening. Whether it's Miami or

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Speaker 1: Philly or Cleveland or Detroit or la or Watts or

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Speaker 1: you know, Baltimore, it's always the same thing Newark, right

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Speaker 1: and so um. You know, for me, it's it's a

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Speaker 1: continuation of that, you know what I mean. And you

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Speaker 1: saw the classism because if you went to the harbor,

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Speaker 1: you saw a whole different story like they had. That's

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Speaker 1: when you saw the big guns, you know what I'm saying,

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Speaker 1: the tanks and all of that. And you know, you

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Speaker 1: you you know, whole foods. Nah, none of that happened

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Speaker 1: in the whole They were protecting all of that, you

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Speaker 1: know what I mean. So you know, they value we

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Speaker 1: realize in the society that property is more valued valued

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Speaker 1: than people life. Because they're talking about violence in Baltimore

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Speaker 1: with the protesters, but actually the only violence really that

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Speaker 1: we saw violence against Freddy Gray's. The media can make

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Speaker 1: it seem like it's so bad to write. How about

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Speaker 1: make it make it seem like it's so bad for

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Speaker 1: police to kill to kill and all black men, I'll

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Speaker 1: just kill people period all the time. And we just

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Speaker 1: saw in Wisconsin he just you know, no charges, right Robinson?

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Speaker 1: Ye ye Robinson. Now just a quick little segment um

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Speaker 1: the girl needed in the book. Yeah, are you still

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Speaker 1: smashing that? You just you just kind of let that

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Speaker 1: go in the book. I just want to know. I'm like,

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Speaker 1: what happened to get married? You know? I mean, I

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Speaker 1: gotta say, you know, like any any brother out there

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Speaker 1: that's doing this thing, shout out to the queen that's

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Speaker 1: holding him down or you know, because that that's so

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Speaker 1: important for me when I was young. This is bookaus

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Speaker 1: a coming of age. So this is between the age

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Speaker 1: of thirteen eighteen. When I was young, there was a

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Speaker 1: girl named nia Um and she really helped me down.

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Speaker 1: She actually helped deter me away from some of the negativity.

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Speaker 1: She asked questions, She questioned me, you know what I mean,

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Speaker 1: in ways that I hadn't really been questioned, you know,

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Speaker 1: what are you doing? Like she really she showed me

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Speaker 1: a different side, and I always appreciate that about her.

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Speaker 1: We're not together, you know what I'm saying. That was

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Speaker 1: a long time, but you got your life together and

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Speaker 1: didn't go back to get her. I found I found

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Speaker 1: somebody else later on, and like she found somebody else too.

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Speaker 1: She's good. We're both good, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: We're still I still my friend. She's a psychologist and

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Speaker 1: she's for the Navy, and she's doing her thing. How'd

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Speaker 1: your mom doing, Because you know the book you talk

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Speaker 1: about your mom's mental health issues. Yeah. What I do

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Speaker 1: in the book is I interspersed my mom's journal. I

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Speaker 1: used to read my mom's diary back in the day.

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Speaker 1: We didn't talk a lot. She's still alive. Yeah, my

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Speaker 1: mom's still alive, and so I used to read her journal.

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Speaker 1: And in the book, I actually put her actual journal

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Speaker 1: entries in the book. So yeah, yeah, yeah. In fact,

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Speaker 1: my mom it was her idea because she struggled so

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Speaker 1: bad with severe mental health issues. She felt like the

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Speaker 1: black community, we don't talk about depression and stuff enough,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So she said, because she

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Speaker 1: talks about depression, suicide, all this stuff in her journal entries,

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Speaker 1: and she said, you know, when I was writing my book,

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Speaker 1: she was like, you should use it because even though

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Speaker 1: it's personal and I don't want like I don't want

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Speaker 1: the world to know all my problems. He said, it

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Speaker 1: might be helpful in starting a dialogue and creating a

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Speaker 1: conversation because a lot of times were just like, oh,

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Speaker 1: it's all good, it's all good, but it's really not

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Speaker 1: all good, and we self medicate, but we don't really

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Speaker 1: Like when I first started understanding about what mental health

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Speaker 1: issues are, like all the different I realized that every

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Speaker 1: single person I grew up with has a mental health issue.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely everybody on the block. Yes, when you just pull

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Speaker 1: out a gun and start shooting something that is clearly wrong,

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00:17:28,840 --> 00:17:30,639
Speaker 1: that it's clear and you know, we might be like

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Speaker 1: yo school crazy man, Yo, Scoopy Wilding, but school really yeah,

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Speaker 1: like he really start using the clinical terms stoops, really, bipolar,

399
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Speaker 1: really psychopathic, really a sociopath you start doing. Yeah, so

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Speaker 1: my mom is doing a lot better now. I realized

401
00:17:48,920 --> 00:17:50,480
Speaker 1: that a lot of the things that me and my

402
00:17:50,520 --> 00:17:52,560
Speaker 1: brother were doing just you know, we were wilding out.

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Speaker 1: It kind of affected her. You know, depression is chemical

404
00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:58,120
Speaker 1: and balanced, so it's not just what somebody does. But

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Speaker 1: we were exacerbating the problem by some of the things

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Speaker 1: we were doing, you know what I mean. So my

407
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Speaker 1: mom's doing a lot better now. You know, you think

408
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Speaker 1: your father left her because of the mental health issues

409
00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:10,719
Speaker 1: or did they really just grow apart? Um Man, I

410
00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:13,760
Speaker 1: think like he doesn't really understand mental health. You know,

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Speaker 1: I think some people in our community we still don't

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Speaker 1: really we like just snap out of it, you know

413
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Speaker 1: what I'm saying, But we don't really Yeah, yeah, it's'm

414
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Speaker 1: acting crazy, but we don't really understand. So I don't

415
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Speaker 1: think he understands like the gravity of the situation, you

416
00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:29,320
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Um, you know, it's it's always

417
00:18:29,359 --> 00:18:31,879
Speaker 1: been turbulent my whole life, so right now, you know

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Speaker 1: what I mean, It's it's pretty much we don't really

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Speaker 1: have it's not really popping you gotta be proud of

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Speaker 1: you know, because I mean in a lot of ways.

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Speaker 1: When I see you now and read about how he

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Speaker 1: was in the book, you are him. Yeah to me, yeah,

423
00:18:43,960 --> 00:18:46,680
Speaker 1: well no, I mean pro black, very conscious, you know

424
00:18:46,720 --> 00:18:48,360
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Well, yeah, and that's that's a lot

425
00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:50,280
Speaker 1: to do with my mom too. Like my mom, I mean,

426
00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:52,480
Speaker 1: both of my parents. They I was born in Zimbabwe,

427
00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:54,399
Speaker 1: like my parents. You know how at the end of

428
00:18:54,560 --> 00:18:56,840
Speaker 1: Belly nas is like, yo, we should move to Africa.

429
00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:00,840
Speaker 1: My parents actually did that. My parents are from America.

430
00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:04,359
Speaker 1: They way before Belly decided to move to Africa. They

431
00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:07,000
Speaker 1: change their names. So I was born in Zimbabwe and

432
00:19:07,040 --> 00:19:10,399
Speaker 1: Hori Zimbabwe, you know what I mean, during the revolution,

433
00:19:10,480 --> 00:19:12,200
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And so then they eventually

434
00:19:12,200 --> 00:19:14,040
Speaker 1: moved back, and then I grew up in Philly. You

435
00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:17,200
Speaker 1: know Philly is like from age three on, I was

436
00:19:17,240 --> 00:19:21,320
Speaker 1: in Philly. But so they they both instilled that in me.

437
00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:22,880
Speaker 1: So I always had that, you know what I mean.

438
00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:26,040
Speaker 1: But yeah, you know, I think with me and him,

439
00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:28,480
Speaker 1: I think the thing about life is you never can

440
00:19:28,560 --> 00:19:30,720
Speaker 1: really judge a man until he's in the grave. You

441
00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:32,600
Speaker 1: really don't know how things are gonna happen. I didn't

442
00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:34,119
Speaker 1: know I was gonna be here, and I used to

443
00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:36,320
Speaker 1: see my book right in the back over here. You

444
00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:38,040
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Yeah, I gotta go on there

445
00:19:38,119 --> 00:19:40,359
Speaker 1: one day, man, But you never really know what's gonna

446
00:19:40,359 --> 00:19:42,920
Speaker 1: happen in life. So with that situation, I just try

447
00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:44,520
Speaker 1: to do it day by day, you know what I mean.

448
00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:46,840
Speaker 1: And you know, I think we both with all of

449
00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:49,160
Speaker 1: our parents, we try to be better than they were,

450
00:19:49,200 --> 00:19:51,040
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, And you see their weaknesses,

451
00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:52,760
Speaker 1: you see their strengths, and you try to be better.

452
00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:55,520
Speaker 1: And so that's what I'm trying to do, really doing

453
00:19:55,520 --> 00:19:58,760
Speaker 1: with this soundtrack to Live Quality is doing everything. Man.

454
00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:01,280
Speaker 1: This dude, he's a big part the book, just in

455
00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:03,880
Speaker 1: the sense of when my transformation started to happen as

456
00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:06,400
Speaker 1: a writer, as a thinker, as a person. I started

457
00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:08,680
Speaker 1: that was around the time where Black Star was coming

458
00:20:08,680 --> 00:20:11,320
Speaker 1: out and Raucus, and you know, I was hearing lines

459
00:20:11,359 --> 00:20:13,680
Speaker 1: like at exactly which point do you start to realize

460
00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:16,840
Speaker 1: that life without knowledge is death in disguise or lines

461
00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:19,320
Speaker 1: like these cash drink champagne and toast death in pain,

462
00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:21,080
Speaker 1: like slaves on the ship talking about who got the

463
00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:25,000
Speaker 1: flyers chain? And that like I never heard someone rap

464
00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:26,280
Speaker 1: like that, you know what I mean. I was always

465
00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:29,119
Speaker 1: in the pocket and nas, but he took it to

466
00:20:29,119 --> 00:20:32,159
Speaker 1: another level for me. And so the first song I

467
00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:33,960
Speaker 1: ever did as a as a rap artist, as a

468
00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:36,280
Speaker 1: hip hop artist, was called Gods in the Hood. Raz

469
00:20:36,359 --> 00:20:38,840
Speaker 1: Cass reached out to me to live. Qualley was on

470
00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:41,760
Speaker 1: the track, and that was my first song and we

471
00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:43,679
Speaker 1: killed that John, you know what I'm saying. And so

472
00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:47,439
Speaker 1: from there, me and Qualley developed a relationship. And when

473
00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:48,919
Speaker 1: I told him, I wanted to do the soundtrack and

474
00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:50,480
Speaker 1: send them some of the music I've been working on

475
00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:53,280
Speaker 1: because I've been working on music because really, to me,

476
00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:55,840
Speaker 1: like I want to I want to use all mediums,

477
00:20:55,840 --> 00:20:57,280
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So to me, all of

478
00:20:57,280 --> 00:21:00,000
Speaker 1: these things are languages. Like writing a book that's a language,

479
00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:02,840
Speaker 1: making a movie that's a language, A poem is a language,

480
00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:05,440
Speaker 1: all these different things. Music music is probably the most

481
00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:07,760
Speaker 1: universal language. So when I told him, I sent him

482
00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:11,160
Speaker 1: to music. Um. Actually he was selling the book this

483
00:21:11,200 --> 00:21:13,800
Speaker 1: book on his website quality club dot com. He called

484
00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:15,000
Speaker 1: me one day, was like, Yo, how much is the

485
00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:16,680
Speaker 1: book that I we try to talking about the book.

486
00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:18,600
Speaker 1: I'm like, actually, I got music. I sent him to

487
00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:21,560
Speaker 1: music and he was like, Yo, like I gotta get on.

488
00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:24,160
Speaker 1: It's like whatever. So his company, Javoti Media, is actually

489
00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:28,080
Speaker 1: officially presenting the soundtrack. Um, he's been involved, like I

490
00:21:28,119 --> 00:21:31,520
Speaker 1: mean every day, just you know, building strategic We were

491
00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:33,159
Speaker 1: just in Baltimore. We went to a whole bunch of

492
00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:36,679
Speaker 1: places in Baltimore. He was in the Community Reflection, Eternal barbershop,

493
00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:38,439
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So he's just been a

494
00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:42,240
Speaker 1: big part of like helping me, like shepherding me into

495
00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:44,760
Speaker 1: hip hop, to the musical side of it. I wrote

496
00:21:44,760 --> 00:21:47,200
Speaker 1: a book called It's Bigger Than hip Hop, which is, um,

497
00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:50,600
Speaker 1: you know, used in hundreds of colleges and universities about

498
00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:52,880
Speaker 1: about hip hop and you know, kind of like examining

499
00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:55,359
Speaker 1: the social political aspects of it. But yeah, he's just

500
00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:57,240
Speaker 1: been like he's been a big brother really in this

501
00:21:57,280 --> 00:22:00,320
Speaker 1: whole situation. Bro. We appreciate you joining us, man, Yo,

502
00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:03,240
Speaker 1: I appreciate y'all. Man, this is this is amazing. Man.

503
00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:05,440
Speaker 1: Is it hard enough to smash any of the chicks

504
00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:08,760
Speaker 1: that you're teaching? You know, It's it's not hard, man,

505
00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:12,400
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. This discipline, man, discipline, man,

506
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:17,800
Speaker 1: you even get Man, they can get buck at mcare

507
00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:21,639
Speaker 1: sci dot com, at Quality club dot Com, Amazon, Barnes

508
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:23,919
Speaker 1: and Nobles. It's a it's a best been on the

509
00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:27,639
Speaker 1: best seller list for two years now. Um, it's available

510
00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:30,000
Speaker 1: everywhere anywhere books are sold. Man, you know they can

511
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:33,480
Speaker 1: get the soundtrack Quality club dot Com, mcare Sciente dot

512
00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:38,320
Speaker 1: Com is streaming on dj booth. Um, it's that okay, players,

513
00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:41,560
Speaker 1: This is everywhere, man, but and it's free. And it's

514
00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:46,359
Speaker 1: free and shout out to dupre Miller. Jam Man, you

515
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:50,800
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying My people too. That's MKA and

516
00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:52,560
Speaker 1: Sign is the Breakfast Club. Goodbody