WEBVTT - MK Asante Interview 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:09.760 Real celebrity join the morning. Everybody is DJ Envy Angela, Ye, 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:12.399 Charlomagne the guy we are the Breakfast Club got a 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:14.680 special guest author in the building with us this morning. 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.079 That's right, my man, M k Asante. M k Asante. 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:20.279 Now I read this guy's book about two three weeks. 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:21.920 Going to funny because I had the book sitting up 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:24.480 here for the longest a long time. It's called Buck, 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:26.560 But I don't know what made me decide to read 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:29.160 it a couple of weeks ago, and I really enjoyed it. 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:30.680 So I'm like, yeo, we gotta have this guy up 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:34.159 here to talk about his book. Buck. Well, explain to 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:35.720 us what Bucks. I didn't get a chance to read it. 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:37.840 I don't I don't really have much time to read. 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:42.960 You know, I got four kids, right, he talks, He's 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:45.879 talking about me over there. Tell us about Buck. All right, Well, 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:48.120 first of all, it's really an honor to be here. 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:49.920 I watch you guys all the time, so you know 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:54.000 what I'm saying. Much love, um d riding broke whatever 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:02.760 ding his book? Well, yeah, you read the book and 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:04.240 you you were thirsty, so you know what I mean. 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:06.080 I had to come Yeah, exactly you know when you 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:09.040 show interests that means thirsty these days. But you know, um, 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:10.880 I'm just happy to be here. But you know, Buck 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.240 is about the graceful survival against impossible circumstances. You know, 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:16.040 It's like what I'm from Philly, you know what I mean, 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:19.880 young buck, buck, wild, Buck, shots bucktown, slave buck, black Buck, 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.319 make buck buck now buck encompasses all of those things. 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:26.000 I chose the title because it really my life. It's 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:28.039 a coming of age memoir. It's my story. It's my 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:31.800 journey growing up through Philly, navigating my education, my very 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:36.880 informal education, miseducation, re education, self education, street education, the 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:39.800 difference in the distance between school and education. That was 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:42.120 all me. And so it's it's about that journey. It's 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:44.560 about my family, it's about my community. It's about how 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:46.840 I became. You know, I was someone who got kicked 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:49.080 out of every school I went to, Wow and then 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:53.760 and then ended up being the youngest tenure professor in 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:57.000 the country, you know what I mean. I'm thirty two now, 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:00.560 but it looked nineteen. But when I became professor, I 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:02.560 was twenty. I was twenty three, and I got tenue 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:04.040 when I was twenty six, you know what I mean. 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:05.920 So I've been at academia for a while, and um, 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:07.880 so it's about my journey. I tell us about this 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:10.840 journey a little bit. So you're from Philadelphia, you uh, 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:13.280 Charlemagne would say you got kicked out of every school. 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:15.119 So you were young thug, you know what I mean. 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:19.400 Shout out. Shout out to all the kids that you 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:21.960 know are being overlooked right now, Shout out to all 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:24.679 the kids that are are labeled bad because there really 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.360 were no I was. I wasn't selling dope, okay, but 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.040 but there are, there are. There is some some drugs 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:34.760 selling that goes on in the book. As a child, Um, 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:36.760 in my life, you know, I think I was just 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.400 rebell I was rebellious. I was rebelling against everything, you 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:41.079 know what I mean. Um, I think first of all, 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:44.200 the school system, right, it's it's it's redundant, it's boring, 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:47.639 you know, wrote memorization, regurgitation. I wasn't actually learning anything 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.239 in school. Plus my family situation was kind of crazy. 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:52.639 My brother he was locked up, my mom. I read 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:56.359 about mental health issues. My mom was institutionalized. She had 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.120 severe depressions, suicidal. So my mom was in and out 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:03.320 the institutions, you know what I'm saying, and so split Yeah, exactly, 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:05.200 you know what I mean. So all these things kind 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:07.640 of created a perfect storm. Plus we had the corner 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:09.160 boys on my block, you know what I'm saying. They 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:11.600 were always out there and they introduced me to everything, 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:12.640 you know what i mean. So by the time I 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:15.079 was fourteen, it was on you know what i mean, 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:17.519 like everything you could imagine everything you don't want your 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.040 child to, your four kids, everything you don't want them 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.119 to do. I was doing, you know what I'm saying. So, Um, 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:25.600 I know your brother, your brother is locked up. It's 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:27.160 two questions. I don't want to ask you about them. Yeah, 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:29.560 it is your brother out now Yeah, my brother is 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:32.880 is definitely out. What's up? Ouzi out? Big Ouzi too? 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:34.600 That's that's my heroes. Well, he has to change his 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:38.480 name from how many names? How many years did he do? 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:41.080 Like he? I mean, he was you know, he was 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:43.720 in and out, in and out, you know what I'm saying. Um, 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:45.800 But when he was in Arizona, which is for most 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.040 of the book, he was. The book takes place between 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:50.320 the ages of thirteen and eighteen, UM, and so he 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:52.120 was like locked up for most of that time when 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:54.720 I was when I was coming, he shot somebody. No, 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:56.400 no hit in the book. He definitely was in jail 0:03:56.440 --> 0:04:00.520 point zone. No, no, I remember the book. Ye. Now, 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:03.920 he didn't shoot anybody, you know what I'm saying something. No, 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.160 he didn't beat anybody else, but he did beat other 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:09.000 people locked that he didn't get locked. What was he 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:12.600 locked up for? Arizona? In Arizona, it was a situation 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:17.360 with a young girl. And he was young himself. What 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.360 I'm saying, um, but he was young himself. He was seventeen, 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:22.720 the girl was like fourteen. He didn't know she was white. 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:26.480 He's black obviously, and her she was a runaway. Her 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:28.800 parents found out, and it was just you know, he 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:30.600 got he got put in the system. So what what 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:32.919 got you straight? You know from being on the corner 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:35.480 with the d boys and being so rebellious. What got 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:37.400 you to fix up? I mean there was a couple 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:39.000 of factors. Man. I saw it first of all. I 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.160 saw what that life where that life takes you, you you 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:42.680 know what I mean, whether it was my brother, whether 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:44.479 it was my one of my best friends. I'm here 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:46.599 who got murdered while I was there? You know, a 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:48.520 lot of things kind of shaped me. But also the 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:50.720 blank page. Man, that's what this book really is about. 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.840 It's about finding your purpose. That blank page saved me. 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:57.320 America enraged me. Then that trick paid me new slaves, 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:00.640 old slavery. Grandma told me streets far from holy. Now 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:04.839 I'm lonely my homies bodies is holy. So basically, the 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:07.039 blank page saved me. That blank piece of paper in 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:08.520 front of me the first time I gotta create a 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:10.560 write in assignment, the first time I was able to 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:14.440 express myself. Things started flowing and I gripped a pen 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:17.320 and something shot down my spine and set me straight up. 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:19.479 You know, the pen was heavy, like it was made 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.680 of stone, and that first class man, that first time 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:24.880 I was able to express myself. It changed my life 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:27.120 because then I from writing, I started reading. I wanted 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:28.120 to be a good writer, so I had to be 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:30.160 a good reader. And when I started reading, I had 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:33.640 an epiphany, like, oh, now I realized why reading was 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:36.479 illegal for slaves back in the day. Because I realized 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:38.839 that we think in words we sub vocalize, so the 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:41.239 more words we know, the more things we can think about. 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:44.440 And so for me, reading became connected to my liberation 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:46.760 and helps you. It helps you transcend your circumstances because 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:48.120 they always seeing andy thing you want to hire from 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:49.880 a black person, put it in a book, you know 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:52.320 what I'm saying. Yeah, then we just gotta, we just gotta, 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:54.520 we just gotta give ourselves access to it. Now, you 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.600 said something earlier about the curriculum of most schools, you know, 0:05:57.640 --> 0:05:59.839 and you said it it's boring and and kids don't 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:01.599 get it. And I agree with that. And I'm a 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.320 big definitely with my kids where I want to show 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:06.080 them life like I like to take them out. I 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:08.200 like them to teach it, to teach them what a 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:11.120 mortgage is and how to invest money because I think 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:13.200 with that they learned more and it's more interesting in 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:15.960 real life. And I hated school. I didn't get it, 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:19.800 I didn't understand it. I wasn't into it. So you know, 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:22.680 during school, I always dreamed of what I wanted to do, 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:24.920 whether it was music, whether it was play ball or 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:27.840 whatever it was. Now you also said you're a professor. Yes, 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:30.160 Now explain to us how you teach. What makes you 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:32.880 different than all of the things you said you disliked. Okay, 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:35.480 that's what's up. Well, I'm a professor at Morgan State University, 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:37.800 which is in Baltimore. Manling you one thing about Morgan stay, 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:40.400 I'm gonnay. Why didn't go okay? When I went for them? 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:42.120 When I went to Morgan State to check it out, 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:46.120 to go on a tour, they're playing dice. It was 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:50.440 too no. They were playing dice on the actual dorm steps. 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:52.440 And my dad was like, you're not gonna go ahead. 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:54.360 It's black queens. And I wound up going to Hampton. 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:56.400 It was between Morgan and Hampton, and I wound him 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:58.440 going ahead. He would push your tea with selling bricks 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:03.400 to coke, closed the guide, playing put the telling wait 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:12.600 out to school. You didn't want to go there? Well, 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:14.040 you know what Morgan is is it's right in the 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:15.440 heart of Baltimore, you know what I mean. That's one 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:16.680 of the reasons why I love it and one of 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:18.160 the reasons why I teach their you know what I mean, 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:20.640 because of it's right in the community. You know. But 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:23.440 as a professor, Man, you know, I bring that experiential 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:25.440 learning that you were talking about, you know, we bring 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:27.400 real things in the class. So I teach creative writing, 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:29.520 I teach film, and my whole thing is, you know, 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:31.960 I found my voice, I found my purpose. And I'm right. 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:33.600 This is my fourth book actually, you know what I mean. 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:36.000 So yeah, this is my fourth so you know what 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:37.600 what and this is the it's the only one that's 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:38.920 on the best seller list, you know what I mean. 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:41.280 So this is kind of my most recognized booth. But 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:43.440 you know, I've been writing for a while. So my 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:45.680 whole thing is helping other people find their voice, you 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:47.160 know what I mean. So I work with students all 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:49.840 the time to help them cultivate their own voices so 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:52.000 that they can express themselves, you know, in the way 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:53.960 that it different me because this stuff saved my life 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:58.160 man reading writing, Um, yeah, you know what I mean. 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:00.200 And what we and you know what we did was 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:02.360 so crazy about this project is I didn't want to 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:04.080 stop it just the book. You know, I got the 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:06.840 Sundance Film Fellowship to write the movie, so I'm working 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:08.960 on the movie. But then what we did was we 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:11.720 decided to do something completely different, which was to create 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:14.600 a soundtrack for the book. So we created an original 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.240 soundtrack with original music. That's why he keeps busting out 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:20.400 in the rhymes. Yeah yeah, but how do we get 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:23.880 more of us to be professors because nowaday being a professor, 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:25.440 being a teacher's not cool. You know what I mean. 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.880 It's a rapper, it's a it's a DJ, it's a 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:32.079 basketball player. We don't really I don't really see young 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:37.120 African American professors, and if I do, they're usually teaching jim. Yeah, Jim. Yeah, 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:39.640 you know what I'm saying. I mean that's you're right. 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:42.080 I mean, you're right, you're right. You me. I went 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:44.520 to a couple of high schools to speak, and a 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:48.520 lot of the African American teachers were doing jim or 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:50.599 what they're called physical education. Yeah, a lot of the 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:52.559 Spanish teacher, I'm scaring it's a lot of Spanish teachers 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:54.559 were doing guess what well I mean or what I mean. 0:08:54.640 --> 0:09:00.920 Rappers and DJs have a have a dope market cool 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:02.760 you know, but this whatever, what do you speak? What 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:08.160 do you teach Spanish? You know? Yeah? But you know, 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:11.120 like the thing is, um, I think rappers and DJs 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:13.319 have dope marketing plans, and I think in a lot 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:16.160 of ways for academia, for professors, I am part of 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:18.079 the new marketing plan. I am the new model. I 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:20.160 think that a lot of times. And that's why I travel. 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:23.199 I've been over forty countries. I travel all around this country, 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:25.800 and I want young people to see me. That's why 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:28.600 I wrote a memoir, not a novel, not something made up, 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.240 a memoir. I want them to see me. Well, I 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:34.760 got a soundtrack to you know what I'm saying. Oh yeah, 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:36.680 the only professor passing out the mix tape for the 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:38.640 last that class. That's actually one of my class. I 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:40.400 teach a hip hop class where we look at the 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:42.720 social political issues that affect hip hop, that hip hop 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:44.360 was birth from. We look at the evolution of it, 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:46.040 we look at the culture of it. We really study it, 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:48.760 you know, analytically. But you know, one of the things 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:50.640 I try to do, man is to let them see me. 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:52.640 So if they could see what a professor could look like, 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:54.480 you know what I mean. It doesn't have to be 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:58.160 some you know, um, some archaic thing that they have 0:09:58.240 --> 0:09:59.920 in their mind. It could be something new, It could 0:09:59.920 --> 0:10:02.440 be something fresh. Your professor could be a rapper, you 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:04.120 know what I mean. Your professor could be a rapper 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:06.359 and could be a writer, and could be a filmmaker, 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:08.480 and could you know, we I think we live in 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:12.240 a world now where we're out. We're out of these boxes, man, Like, 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:15.360 you have to be multidimensional in this in this currency, 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:17.600 in this environment. And so I think part of it, 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:20.320 how do we get more you guys having me on? 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:22.440 You know what I'm saying. That's that's part of it, 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:24.440 you know what I'm saying, because they see like wow, 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:26.720 Like there's so many people, young people that I've come 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:30.079 in contact with, who I've changed their whole model, the 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:32.679 whole blueprint because they're like, oh, wow, you could do that, 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:34.079 and you could do I didn't even know I could 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:36.640 do that and have access to these things and have 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:38.640 the resources and take care of my family and be 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:40.680 able to do all these you know. So it's really 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:42.840 like showing them. That's the thing. I think our whole 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:46.320 generation is about visuals, right Instagram, So we have to 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:50.440 show right when you show, it makes it resonates. And 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:52.360 I think right now, you know, people will probably say, well, 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:53.800 he don't look like a professor, with a question you 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:56.040 should be asking is what does a professor look like? Exactly? 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:57.800 But you know what, but that's what most people think 0:10:57.840 --> 0:10:59.240 that I was thinking to myself when he was said 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:00.880 he was a professor. I was like, damn, does he 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:03.480 wear that T shirt and hat in class? Yeah? I 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:05.360 think it would be dope, but definitely, But it was 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:07.400 exactly how I dressed in class. You could ask all 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:12.200 my students. I come in fitted, snapbacks, tims, whatever, because 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:13.960 that's that's who I am, you know what I'm saying. 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:16.720 And just you know, when you become whatever profession you are, 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:18.520 it doesn't mean you take away who you are and 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:20.880 your core essence. Because at the end of the day, 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:25.280 that rebellious thirteen fourteen fifteen, sixteen year old that stole me, right, 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:27.319 you know what I mean? And so what I've done 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:29.520 in a lot of ways is and that's what Buck 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:32.240 really is about, that whole notion of Buck. Now I 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:34.640 become a lot smarter. You know. I used to be, 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:36.360 I think, a rebel without a cause, and now I'm 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:38.160 a rebel with a purpose and a cause, you know 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.640 what I mean. So the rebellion is still there. You know, 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:42.679 I was in Baltimore. I was out there with him, 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:46.400 you know what I'm saying, Like, that's part of my Yeah, 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:48.040 I live in Baltimore and I live in Chapel Hill 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:49.800 in North Carolina. What did you see out there as 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:52.080 you were down there for the Baltimore rides because you brown, 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.040 you blew up from cause. The reason I say that is, 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:59.080 you know me and Charlemagne. Charlemagne believe he doesn't agree 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:03.040 what he said. He stands with what I believe. You 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:05.560 can't keep pushing somebody expect somebody not to push back. 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:07.840 I may not agree with the riots, but understand why 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:09.400 that happened. And I feel like a lot of times 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:11.520 when we when we get those riots, we hurt ourselves. 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:13.880 In the loan room, we heard our own community. We 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:16.439 heard the stores and the places that we shot at 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:19.960 that we you know, own or purchase or have to 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.120 do with it. I think we kind of hurt ourselves 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:23.800 at the end of the day, you know, you know, 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:25.520 at the end of the day, I hate to see 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.280 us get arrested and get felonies on our record. And 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:29.720 then when we try to get a job, we can't 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:33.400 because of a mistake or something that we did, foolishness 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:35.719 or that we shouldn't have done. But the problem is 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:38.920 they can't get jobs right now anywhere regardless of that seat. 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:42.040 What we saw in Baltimore was like we saw the 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:46.640 crazy what happens when you underfund the school system. Right, 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:50.880 when you invest in the prison industrial complex, right, when 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:53.760 your schools are criminal, when you don't invest in the neighborhoods. 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:56.000 We saw all these things coming out, and so we 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:59.920 got destitute poverty in Baltimore, right, we got under development, 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.720 We got, like I said, an educational system that takes 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:05.640 money million, hundreds of millions out the school system every 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:08.800 year and they put that money into prison industrial complex. Right. 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:12.040 And so we see now the illustration of what happens 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:13.959 when you do that to a community, when the community 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:17.040 is constantly beat and beat and beat and oppressed and 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:20.079 oppressed and oppressed. We see what happens. And so I'm 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:22.240 actually surprised that it doesn't happen more often, you know, 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:24.600 but every city in America has the potential to do that. 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:29.400 We tore up our communities, but it's not communities we 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:33.040 don't really, we don't own that we shot. It's where 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:35.600 we we do the next time over, you know what 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:37.199 we're not gonna be welcome to the next time over. 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:39.480 And a lot of people can't drive it. But it 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:41.840 seems like the things that they care about was they 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:44.360 cared about them Baltimore orials. In that game, they made 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:46.440 sure that stadium would say, oh yeah, and you really 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:48.920 got a chance to see the classism in Baltimore and 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:51.960 in America with with the I don't even car riots, 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:54.840 I carm rebellions. And I feel like these peaceful protest 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:57.680 I feel like these rebellions have been happening since sixteen nineteen, 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:00.280 since black folks basically got here in America. Has been 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:03.080 If you look at the history, it's cyclical. Every ten 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:06.319 fifteen years, you see these huge what they call riots, 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:08.840 what I call rebellions in the urban cities in America, 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:11.360 and they always are related to race. And this is historically. 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:13.480 You can go back to the eighteenth century, nineteenth century. 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:16.360 You see these same things happening. Whether it's Miami or 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:19.640 Philly or Cleveland or Detroit or la or Watts or 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.160 you know, Baltimore, it's always the same thing Newark, right 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:26.240 and so um. You know, for me, it's it's a 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:28.720 continuation of that, you know what I mean. And you 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.200 saw the classism because if you went to the harbor, 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:34.440 you saw a whole different story like they had. That's 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:36.640 when you saw the big guns, you know what I'm saying, 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:39.680 the tanks and all of that. And you know, you 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:42.920 you you know, whole foods. Nah, none of that happened 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:45.400 in the whole They were protecting all of that, you 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:47.400 know what I mean. So you know, they value we 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:50.960 realize in the society that property is more valued valued 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:55.360 than people life. Because they're talking about violence in Baltimore 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:58.920 with the protesters, but actually the only violence really that 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:03.400 we saw violence against Freddy Gray's. The media can make 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:06.680 it seem like it's so bad to write. How about 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:08.360 make it make it seem like it's so bad for 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:10.960 police to kill to kill and all black men, I'll 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:13.520 just kill people period all the time. And we just 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:18.000 saw in Wisconsin he just you know, no charges, right Robinson? 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:24.240 Ye ye Robinson. Now just a quick little segment um 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:26.600 the girl needed in the book. Yeah, are you still 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:29.200 smashing that? You just you just kind of let that 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:32.600 go in the book. I just want to know. I'm like, 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:35.400 what happened to get married? You know? I mean, I 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.120 gotta say, you know, like any any brother out there 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:40.600 that's doing this thing, shout out to the queen that's 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:42.720 holding him down or you know, because that that's so 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:45.400 important for me when I was young. This is bookaus 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:46.920 a coming of age. So this is between the age 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:48.800 of thirteen eighteen. When I was young, there was a 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:51.520 girl named nia Um and she really helped me down. 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.920 She actually helped deter me away from some of the negativity. 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:57.800 She asked questions, She questioned me, you know what I mean, 0:15:57.840 --> 0:15:59.640 in ways that I hadn't really been questioned, you know, 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:02.280 what are you doing? Like she really she showed me 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:05.520 a different side, and I always appreciate that about her. 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:08.360 We're not together, you know what I'm saying. That was 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:10.080 a long time, but you got your life together and 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:12.960 didn't go back to get her. I found I found 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:16.760 somebody else later on, and like she found somebody else too. 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:18.280 She's good. We're both good, you know what I mean. 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:22.000 We're still I still my friend. She's a psychologist and 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:24.640 she's for the Navy, and she's doing her thing. How'd 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:26.320 your mom doing, Because you know the book you talk 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:28.440 about your mom's mental health issues. Yeah. What I do 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:30.440 in the book is I interspersed my mom's journal. I 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:32.400 used to read my mom's diary back in the day. 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:34.480 We didn't talk a lot. She's still alive. Yeah, my 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:36.600 mom's still alive, and so I used to read her journal. 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:39.120 And in the book, I actually put her actual journal 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:42.680 entries in the book. So yeah, yeah, yeah. In fact, 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.160 my mom it was her idea because she struggled so 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:48.920 bad with severe mental health issues. She felt like the 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.400 black community, we don't talk about depression and stuff enough, 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:53.640 you know what I mean. So she said, because she 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:56.680 talks about depression, suicide, all this stuff in her journal entries, 0:16:56.800 --> 0:16:58.200 and she said, you know, when I was writing my book, 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:00.600 she was like, you should use it because even though 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:02.680 it's personal and I don't want like I don't want 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:04.919 the world to know all my problems. He said, it 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:07.320 might be helpful in starting a dialogue and creating a 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:09.080 conversation because a lot of times were just like, oh, 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:10.840 it's all good, it's all good, but it's really not 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.119 all good, and we self medicate, but we don't really 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:16.120 Like when I first started understanding about what mental health 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:19.080 issues are, like all the different I realized that every 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:22.480 single person I grew up with has a mental health issue. 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.600 Absolutely everybody on the block. Yes, when you just pull 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:28.760 out a gun and start shooting something that is clearly wrong, 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:30.639 that it's clear and you know, we might be like 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:35.800 yo school crazy man, Yo, Scoopy Wilding, but school really yeah, 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.760 like he really start using the clinical terms stoops, really, bipolar, 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:46.080 really psychopathic, really a sociopath you start doing. Yeah, so 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:48.880 my mom is doing a lot better now. I realized 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:50.480