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Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.

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Speaker 2: I'm your host Coley Wick, and today.

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Speaker 1: We have very special guest author, filmmaker, musician Nick Brooks

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Speaker 1: in the building.

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Speaker 2: How are you doing.

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Speaker 3: I'm doing well. Thanks for having me excited to make

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Speaker 3: some roto.

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Speaker 2: I felt like a radio host.

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Speaker 1: If you don't know Nick Brooks, he has this is

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Speaker 1: a novel called Promised Boys. And then you have Up

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Speaker 1: and Smoke that's coming out in May. You have an

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Speaker 1: album that's dropping accompanying the book in May. And then

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Speaker 1: I did read somewhere and you could dispel the rumor

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Speaker 1: or not, but I did read that this was also

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Speaker 1: picked up by Promised Boys, was picked up by Netflix.

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Speaker 3: It was Obama's and produced.

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Speaker 1: That's what I wanted to highlight, and produced by the OBA.

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Speaker 1: So this is a really big deal. I want to

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Speaker 1: cover all that. I want to cover all those moments.

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Speaker 1: But before we get into a Nick, you gotta tell

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Speaker 1: me what you're gonna be cooking me for breakfast today.

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Speaker 3: Man, you got a great breakfast coming up. This is hotel,

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Speaker 3: something I was introduced to in college. It's essentially just

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Speaker 3: ground meat, turkey, beef, whatever, melted cheese, and tomatoes.

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Speaker 1: Awesome, very simple, very easy. I love me a broke

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Speaker 1: dish because the broker, the story broker, the dish, the

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Speaker 1: real of the story, the better the story. That's what

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Speaker 1: I've learned on this shed. Anytime I get a dish

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Speaker 1: that has a million ingredients, you already know the story

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Speaker 1: ain't gonna be.

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Speaker 2: So go ahead, start whipping me up my breakfast.

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Speaker 3: Okay, okay.

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Speaker 2: And while you're.

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Speaker 1: Whipping up this breakfast, you can't go ahead and take

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Speaker 1: me back to what was going on during.

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Speaker 2: The roteal days. Wait, yeah, you already went through the grees.

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Speaker 3: Go ahead, yeah, the hotel days. I'll take you back.

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Speaker 3: Like I said, I was introduce to Rotel in college

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Speaker 3: and I'm from DC. Initially went to school in Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma,

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Speaker 3: so it was a huge culture shock. The way I

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Speaker 3: got there is because, like you mentioned, I'm a musician

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Speaker 3: and I was rapping. I was in a group and

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Speaker 3: then we were trying to figure out what we were

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Speaker 3: gonna do, and was trying to get out of the city,

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Speaker 3: trying to get out of DC. And I got into

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Speaker 3: the school did I get into? I got in North

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Speaker 3: Carolina and t and I wanted to go to Hampton,

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Speaker 3: didn't get into Hamptons and my man who was rapping

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Speaker 3: with he got into He got into Hampton, but not

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Speaker 3: North Carolina, and so it was like, okay, that's not

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Speaker 3: gonna work. And then suddenly we got a.

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Speaker 2: Visit Fumus because wanted to stay together.

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Speaker 3: Because we was rapping, and we was like, okay, it's

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Speaker 3: one of those things. Like my mom, she was a nurse,

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Speaker 3: she was real practical. Same thing with his family. He's like, oh,

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Speaker 3: you got to go to college. So he was like, okay,

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Speaker 3: we'll go to college, but once we get there, we're

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Speaker 3: gonna still make this rap thing work. And a recruiter

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Speaker 3: came to our school talking about the school Oklahoma University,

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Speaker 3: which I had never heard of, and I think probably

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Speaker 3: at that point I don't even know if I had

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Speaker 3: been on a plane, and they took us out there

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Speaker 3: to visit the school. It was an amazing experience. It

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Speaker 3: was great, and turns out we both got in and

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Speaker 3: we was like, we're gonna go to Oklahoma, and so anyway,

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Speaker 3: that's how because people always ask me, like, Oklahoma's random

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Speaker 3: from DC, but that's how we got in. That was

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Speaker 3: the school we got into, and we wanted to go.

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Speaker 3: We wanted to make music.

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Speaker 2: And were childhood friends.

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Speaker 3: Childhood friends. Yeah, it's my god brother.

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Speaker 1: So I'm sure your parents were very at ease knowing

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Speaker 1: that they sent the set.

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Speaker 3: For sure, for sure, for sure, for sure they were.

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Speaker 3: And I've always been a very independent Like I was

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Speaker 3: super independent. My mom remarried at like when I was

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Speaker 3: like nine, and she had three daughters, so like she

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Speaker 3: had a lot going on. So I was always independent.

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Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, with her, with my stuff. If I

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Speaker 3: was just doing my own thing. I started working at

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Speaker 3: thirteen type shit. I was always on my own. So

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Speaker 3: it's funny because my little sisters, they all went to

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Speaker 3: school right My mom didn't want them to go nowhere.

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Speaker 3: They all right around DC. But for me, she would like,

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Speaker 3: wherever you're gonna go, you know what I mean, which

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Speaker 3: was fine. I ended up it turned out okay. But

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Speaker 3: so yeah, we ended up in Oklahoma and I met

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Speaker 3: and I started to meet different people. That's a good

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Speaker 3: thing about college. I do think some of it is

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Speaker 3: a little bit of a sham, but you meet people

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Speaker 3: from all over the place, you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 3: I got to meet people from the South, I got

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Speaker 3: meet a lot of people from Texas primarily, And so

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Speaker 3: I'm in school and Rotel. Of course, you in college.

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Speaker 3: Nobody has money in college from when I ended up

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Speaker 3: having to train for the Howard which I'll get to,

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Speaker 3: and those kids had a little bit of money. But

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Speaker 3: we're in college and trying to figure out, just trying

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Speaker 3: to figure it out, and we get introduced to this

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Speaker 3: this It was two dishes that people made a lot.

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Speaker 3: It was in Rotel. That's where it started. And now

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Speaker 3: you know what, I actually know what the first time

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Speaker 3: I had it. The first time I had I was

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Speaker 3: at a kickback and it was out. I tried it.

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Speaker 3: It was amazing, and it's like, yo, what is this?

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Speaker 3: I just never had it? And it was like, it's

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Speaker 3: called rotel, And so they told us it's just cheese, meat, tomatoes,

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Speaker 3: and boom.

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Speaker 2: You get and then the crazy on the tomatoes. It's

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Speaker 2: called rotel.

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Speaker 3: It really but I didn't notice that.

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Speaker 2: Today.

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Speaker 3: I had never I never realized.

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Speaker 2: That maybe that's why they called it.

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Speaker 3: Of course, of course I never realized that it's got

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Speaker 3: to be right. It's too much of a coincidence. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: But of course, like you said, how you just realized

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Speaker 3: that today. It took me a while to realize that too.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, so it's like, okay, cool with it. That's

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Speaker 3: essentially where it started. It's like I was at a

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Speaker 3: kickback in college in Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, of all places,

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Speaker 3: and it's the first time I had this dish and

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Speaker 3: it was amazing, and I made it. We probably made

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Speaker 3: it once a week and it would last us the

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Speaker 3: whole week. You know what I'm saying. Make it will

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Speaker 3: make it every probably every Monday, last us the whole

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Speaker 3: week through the weekend any parties. It's also a great

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Speaker 3: drunk food, you know what I'm saying, because it's the meat,

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Speaker 3: it's the chips. You could do it for snack, do

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Speaker 3: it for dinner. It's good when you're drinking. Like, it's

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Speaker 3: just versatile. It's cheap, that's the main thing. It's cheap.

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Speaker 3: So it's just a versatile meal, easy to pack up,

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Speaker 3: easy to take, easy to store, you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 3: So that's where rotel started.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so you're in college, you're with your wrap mats.

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Speaker 2: Yes, what are you going to school for?

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Speaker 3: So at the time, I was going to school for nursing. Again,

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Speaker 3: if you remember, my mom was in there. She was

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Speaker 3: the most scesful person I knew, you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 3: She my dad worked on the railroad, and then my

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Speaker 3: grandfather Will I spend a lot of time with if

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Speaker 3: he was a pastor. So these was really as far

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Speaker 3: as adults like these, my mom was the most selfriend cool.

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Speaker 3: Maybe I'd be a nurse, which I would have made

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Speaker 3: a terrible nurse because I don't like people all that much,

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Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. But I ended up going

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Speaker 3: into so yeah, I was doing nursing.

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Speaker 2: And your mom was probably happy to hear that too.

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Speaker 3: Again, security and she's practical. She And here's the other thing,

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Speaker 3: it's all my mom knew for real, like she because

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Speaker 3: that's just happened to be what she went to school for.

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Speaker 3: I don't even think she really had too much of

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Speaker 3: a concept of all the possible possibilities, you know what

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Speaker 3: I'm saying. That's something that again, when you like from

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Speaker 3: the city like DC, is like you're not always thinking

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Speaker 3: about the possibilities. You're thinking about what's easy, was practical,

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Speaker 3: and that's what she was on, and that's that's what

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Speaker 3: she wanted me to be on, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 3: But I was creative, you know what I'm saying. So

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Speaker 3: I just did nursing because again that's just what I

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Speaker 3: knew was and so that's what I That's what I

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Speaker 3: initially was majoring in.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so you're where did the ships come in? You

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Speaker 1: realize in the middle of class that you didn't like

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Speaker 1: your classmates.

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Speaker 2: You said you were no.

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Speaker 3: So what happened was, so I was doing like I said,

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Speaker 3: I was doing nursing, but we still was trying to rap.

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Speaker 3: And so what we were doing was we were rapping.

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Speaker 3: We were doing a lot of college shows. We both players.

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Speaker 3: Was in fraternities, so we're doing step shows, We're doing

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Speaker 3: college shows, were on the radio all the time, doing

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Speaker 3: features with people in the city, like making music videos.

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Speaker 3: We was buzzing in this region. And so what happened

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Speaker 3: was I got a call one day from actually another

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Speaker 3: nursing students funny enough, and she was like, yo, like

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Speaker 3: I got something to tell you. Don't tell nobody. I

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Speaker 3: saw your video and I want you to know that

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Speaker 3: Kanye West is my cousin. So of course I'm like, okay,

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Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. Like at that time, cap

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Speaker 3: wasn't a word.

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Speaker 1: But it's Okay, cap, right, but tell me more if

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Speaker 1: I would even thought cap because why she didn't want

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Speaker 1: to tell you. Okay, so go ahead, but I'm interested.

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Speaker 1: I want to hear this phone call.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the first thought I had was like bullshit.

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Speaker 3: And it's one of those things when you're a artist

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Speaker 3: and you're trying to be an audist, you know what

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Speaker 3: I'm saying that or people always giving false promises, you

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Speaker 3: know how it is. Anyway, I'm like cat, but tell

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Speaker 3: me more. So, Kanye's my cousin his family. He's actually

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Speaker 3: from Oklahoma, his family from Oklahoma, and we're all still

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Speaker 3: pretty much here and he's working on a new album.

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Speaker 3: And I sent your video your latest real It was

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Speaker 3: a song called Robot that was doing pretty well. It

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Speaker 3: was on the radio, dollar we made a video to it.

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Speaker 3: She said, I sent you a video Robot to one

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Speaker 3: of our other cousins, this guy named Tony Williams. Now,

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Speaker 3: I don't know if you're familiar with Tony Williams, but

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Speaker 3: world famous Tony Williams is like somebody who still works

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Speaker 3: with Kaye's to this day. Is Kanye's cousin. He sings

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Speaker 3: on if you listen to college drop out. All the

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Speaker 3: vocals are tony or let registration. All the vocals are tony.

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Speaker 3: This is it was a pretty big deal at this time.

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Speaker 3: So I'm like again, all right, now it's starting to

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Speaker 3: make sense. Right, so I'm like, okay, put us in touch.

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Speaker 3: Then you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 2: So she said, she said it. He liked it.

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Speaker 3: She said he liked it. She said he liked it.

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Speaker 3: They're working on a new album. They're working on his

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Speaker 3: first album, Good music Play is also working on an

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Speaker 3: album which I later learned what I'll tell you what

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Speaker 3: album I later learned it was. So I sent it

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Speaker 3: to him or I was like, yo, connect this and

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Speaker 3: we'll see what happens. Because again I'm not just happens.

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Speaker 3: You run into people who make these promises and you

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Speaker 3: get disappointed. And again, mind you, at this time, I'm

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Speaker 3: skipping a few things. But I was accepted to you

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Speaker 3: on the academic probation, meaning like I had to maintain

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Speaker 3: a certain GPA. Right, I've already played semester players. I

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Speaker 3: got a point to GPS, so I had to exactly.

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Speaker 3: So I had to go to to pay some bills,

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Speaker 3: so I had to go to summer school and all

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Speaker 3: types of I'm just laying some foundations so you just understand.

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Speaker 3: And we're also doing all this music. I'm not really

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Speaker 3: focused on nursing for real. I'm only doing nursing because

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Speaker 3: I'm just have to be in college. I get a

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Speaker 3: call a number I don't recognize. Hello, Yo, it's Tony right.

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Speaker 3: So Tony Williams caused me, and I'm like, oh shit,

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Speaker 3: all right.

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Speaker 2: So it's becoming less cat.

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Speaker 3: It is becoming a budget less cats. I'm like, oh,

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Speaker 3: what's up? What's up? You saw your video, heard a

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Speaker 3: few of y'all records, heard y'all been doing your thing.

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Speaker 3: I want to take you to our studio in Oklahoma City.

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Speaker 3: It's called Diamond Studio. So boom and now so now out.

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Speaker 3: We're hitting the home and he's heard some bruhs. Bro,

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Speaker 3: we need to ride to Oklahoma City. So we go

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Speaker 3: to Oklahoma City meet Tony and it's incredible. So he's

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Speaker 3: giving us the rundown. It really is him. He got

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Speaker 3: on his the Jesus the Good Music chain, he got

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Speaker 3: on the Jesus piece and everything, and we are huge

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Speaker 3: eyes because we were like, what the fuck is going on?

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Speaker 3: This is because just when we just came from DC

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Speaker 3: to fucking Oklahoma thinking like and hear and that were

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Speaker 3: bumping into good music. That's crazy, right, it just feels

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Speaker 3: so kiss me. So we're there. We So what ends

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Speaker 3: up happening is we end up working with Tony on

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Speaker 3: a bunch of songs for his first album. We write

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Speaker 3: two songs for him for his and this is a

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Speaker 3: project's coming out on Good Music, and he ends up

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Speaker 3: doing a song for us for one of our like

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Speaker 3: a mixtape we were doing at the time, Average Joe's,

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Speaker 3: and so as we building, he starts to say, Okay,

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Speaker 3: you know what, I never forget this. It was one

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Speaker 3: session that we went to Nate was in the booth,

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Speaker 3: I think, and Tony took off his chain. It was

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Speaker 3: a song that Tony was fucking. He was like, oh,

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Speaker 3: this is hard. He took off his chain, the good

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Speaker 3: Music chain, and you put it on me. He was like, yo,

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Speaker 3: y'all better get just get ready, now, just get you this,

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Speaker 3: get used to wearing this. I'm like, bro, this is crazy,

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Speaker 3: and he's yo. We're in Hawaii right now recording the

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Speaker 3: album My Beautiful Dog Twist the Fantasy.

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Speaker 2: So I'm like, favorite record.

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Speaker 3: But so at the time of course, I'm like, I

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Speaker 3: don't know what that is, but yes, get us to

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Speaker 3: Hawaii's all want to take you to Hawaii, introduce you,

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Speaker 3: like I think this is I think this is a match.

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Speaker 3: And then around this time, Big Sean has just signed. Right,

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Speaker 3: he has been signed for a little bit. Sean was

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Speaker 3: probably there like my key artist at the time. Right,

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Speaker 3: he don't want to get y'all on the song with Sean,

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Speaker 3: Big Sean all of this right, So again we're like,

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Speaker 3: oh my god, this is crazy. So this is all happening,

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Speaker 3: and I'm getting I'm slipping further and further in my

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Speaker 3: schoolwork because again I'm thinking, it don't matter anyway. I'm

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Speaker 3: about to get signed. I'm about to leave like this

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Speaker 3: don't even you know what I'm saying. I don't even

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Speaker 3: need to be here.

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Speaker 1: I made it.

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Speaker 3: And so it's time to put out Tony's project. Like

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Speaker 3: he's getting this project the joint that we wrote wrote

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Speaker 3: them records for. I'm time to put it out or

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Speaker 3: getting ready to put it out, and he's hitting me

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Speaker 3: and he's yo, he needed something like the vocals were

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Speaker 3: off for. Basically, he needed the engineer to send him something. Right,

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Speaker 3: I'm in I'm trying to focus. I'm on academic probation,

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Speaker 3: and so he keeps calling me, and I step out

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Speaker 3: of class and I a little bit, snap a little bit,

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Speaker 3: and I'm clas d d D D dah, And I

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Speaker 3: never forget the worst he said to me. We had

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Speaker 3: a long conversation, but the worst he said to me,

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Speaker 3: he was like because basically, I was like, Yo, that's

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Speaker 3: your engineer, Like you hit me, Like, just hit your engineer.

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Speaker 3: And he was like, Yo, in life, if you're going

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Speaker 3: to do something, you gotta be all in one and

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Speaker 3: then two if you want to If you're trying to

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Speaker 3: do something, you need to make sure that you don't

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Speaker 3: want doing it. Like you can't rely on somebody else

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Speaker 3: to do something for you, you know what I mean, when

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Speaker 3: it's an opportunity. That's called when you get an opportunity. Basically,

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Speaker 3: don't rely on somebody else to follow through an opportunity

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Speaker 3: for it. You need to be there to follow through

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Speaker 3: on yourself. And he hung up and he never spoke again.

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Speaker 3: He never stopped answering our calls, stopped answering our emails.

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Speaker 3: I was hitting up the engineer Chris Cutter at the

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Speaker 3: Diamond studios, couldn't get in touch with nobody. And I

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Speaker 3: always learned a few things from that, Like one it

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Speaker 3: was like one I had, it was ego, right is

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Speaker 3: to be honest, I felt like in that conversation when

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Speaker 3: he had first hit me, he was like screaming on

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Speaker 3: me a little bit, you know what I'm saying. So

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Speaker 3: I it was ego. It was all ego. And it

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Speaker 3: was also those lessons that Tony said, you gotta if

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Speaker 3: you want something done, you gotta make sure you there

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Speaker 3: to do it by yourself or do it for yourself.

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Speaker 3: And if you're gonna be in something, you gotta be

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Speaker 3: ten toes in. And my boy is so crazy because

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Speaker 3: my boy Nate, he was confused. He's like, Yo, why

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Speaker 3: this nigga not hitting us back. I just told Nate

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Speaker 3: that story maybe six months ago.

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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, you was playing like.

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Speaker 3: You didn't well up, but you didn't. To be honest,

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Speaker 3: it all clicked and I was like, I don't think

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Speaker 3: at the time, I was ready to say, damn, just

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Speaker 3: from that one conversation, he's just gonna stop sucking with us,

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Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. I don't. I don't know

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Speaker 3: if that was like the thought. So I don't think.

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Speaker 3: I definitely wasn't trying to lie in and be like

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Speaker 3: oh shit. But but when it all did click in

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Speaker 3: and I really okay, I took accountability for maybe the

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Speaker 3: way I responded in that moment. I was like, okay,

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Speaker 3: it makes sense. I was just I got I'm just

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Speaker 3: to him. I'm probably just a young nigger. He just

336
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Speaker 3: be like, who you talking to? Like that? So anyway,

337
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Speaker 3: but I just told that story then Nate six months ago,

338
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Speaker 3: and he was like, damn, bro, you should have just

339
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Speaker 3: because here's the other lesson I learned. You should have

340
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Speaker 3: just asked for help. Because I was in the group.

341
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Speaker 3: I was like taking on the leadership role, right, so

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Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm getting all the stuff printed, I'm the

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Speaker 3: one going to the rate like it's a lot on me.

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Speaker 3: So it's probably also just stress. And everybody responds to

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Speaker 3: stressed differently, especially at certain phases in their life, certain

346
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Speaker 3: phases of their career. And I think the way I responded,

347
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Speaker 3: I was probably stressed. Whatever. But another lesson I learned,

348
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Speaker 3: and even this is just Nate telling me this role.

349
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Speaker 3: You should have just asked me for help. You should

350
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Speaker 3: have just told me yo, Tony need this. I can't

351
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Speaker 3: get to it right now. Can you just handle it?

352
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Speaker 3: And he was like, I would have just handled it,

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Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. So anyway, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 2: Did you end up finishing school?

355
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Speaker 3: Okay, So all of that happened, all that sacrifice, and

356
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Speaker 3: then at the end of the semester, I get a

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Speaker 3: letter from you saying I can no longer say I

358
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Speaker 3: have to go. And so again, this is my this

359
00:14:49,320 --> 00:14:51,840
Speaker 3: is everything, this is our whole. Basically, this is the

360
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Speaker 3: moment where it's funny because this is where their meals started.

361
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Speaker 3: But this is like when my rap career back, the

362
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Speaker 3: first phase of it ended because I got a letter

363
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Speaker 3: saying you because of your grades or whatever, like you

364
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Speaker 3: can no longer continue unless you change a major start

365
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Speaker 3: all over, you know what I'm saying, which at that

366
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Speaker 3: point I was there for three years. So what you're

367
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Speaker 3: telling me, I gotta literally And are.

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Speaker 1: You telling your mom all this news? You're keeping it

369
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Speaker 1: all yeah, like come on, let's have common sense.

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Speaker 3: Come yeah, yeah, I'm keeping it up. But again, and

371
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Speaker 3: this is why I was just trying to lay the

372
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Speaker 3: felt I was real. I'm always been independent. It's not

373
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Speaker 3: like my mom. I was paying my tuition or nothing

374
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Speaker 3: like I had. I worked two jobs, you know what

375
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Speaker 3: I'm saying while I was in school. On top of

376
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Speaker 3: doing the music and making money doing music, I was working,

377
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Speaker 3: which is another reason probably why my grades wasn't.

378
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Speaker 1: You're juggling a lot, make it man.

379
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Speaker 3: So I'm still Jamaica. I work hell of jobs now

380
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Speaker 3: but all day, you know what I'm saying. But so anyway,

381
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Speaker 3: they got that letter, told my boy I gotta go,

382
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Speaker 3: and that was that, you know what I'm saying that

383
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Speaker 3: that that was the end, the beginning and end. We

384
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Speaker 3: had really tried to pursue RAP for all of those

385
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Speaker 3: three years, and yeah, it went up in the ball

386
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Speaker 3: of flames, as they say, Hold I turned this one down,

387
00:15:58,840 --> 00:16:00,760
Speaker 3: this one, Yeah, there we go. So yeah, after all

388
00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:03,960
Speaker 3: of that, but here's the thing. So that happened, and

389
00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:06,320
Speaker 3: again how things just work out. My mom happened to

390
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Speaker 3: be a nurse at Howard's Student Health Center. So I

391
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Speaker 3: did tell her. Of course, I'm like, yo, I don't

392
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Speaker 3: think I'm gonna stay here.

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Speaker 1: I was.

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Speaker 3: I don't think. I was like yo, I don't think

395
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Speaker 3: this is what I was. I don't think I'm gonna

396
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Speaker 3: stay here because the tuition's going up and I don't

397
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Speaker 3: know if I can cover it. And so she was like, look,

398
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Speaker 3: I work here at Howard. I've been here for two

399
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Speaker 3: years now. If an employee works at Howard for two years,

400
00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:31,920
Speaker 3: the children can go to Howard for free. So she

401
00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:33,400
Speaker 3: was like, if you want, you can come finish here.

402
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Speaker 3: And so what I did was I told her. I

403
00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:37,960
Speaker 3: was like, I don't know if I get in. You

404
00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:39,400
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying. Can you help me? And so

405
00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:41,200
Speaker 3: she talked to the She was like, I know the

406
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Speaker 3: people in the nursing department. So I had to transfer

407
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Speaker 3: to Howard under as a nursing student. The dean of

408
00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:48,520
Speaker 3: nursing saw my transcripts was like, Crystal, I'll accept him in.

409
00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:50,040
Speaker 3: But when he come in, he got to change his major.

410
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Speaker 3: So I got into Howard, got to go to for free,

411
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Speaker 3: and was able to change my major and just do

412
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Speaker 3: another two years psychology psychology.

413
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Speaker 2: So I ended up graduating, getting closer to the novel land.

414
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sorry if minueis tell.

415
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Speaker 2: Me you no, it's good. I'm trying to.

416
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Speaker 1: So I got the musician. I feel like the promise

417
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Speaker 1: Boys is coming soon, right.

418
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Speaker 3: It's just around the corner because I can skip over

419
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Speaker 3: a lot here. So when I get to Howard, basically

420
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Speaker 3: the music's done. I'm focusing now on what I'm gonna

421
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Speaker 3: do for my career.

422
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Speaker 2: And your boys stayed back and he.

423
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Speaker 3: Stayed in Oklahoma. Yeah he's still out there. He's in Dallas,

424
00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:22,760
Speaker 3: Texas now. But so now I'm at Howard and now

425
00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:24,480
Speaker 3: it's time to focus and really lock in. Fuck, So

426
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Speaker 3: what I'm gonna do. So what I ended up getting

427
00:17:26,440 --> 00:17:28,280
Speaker 3: into with education, I did a program at the college

428
00:17:28,320 --> 00:17:31,159
Speaker 3: called Teach for America, started teaching in DC, and I

429
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Speaker 3: got put in. I got placed in the kindergarten classroom.

430
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Speaker 3: While I was at Howard, I was teaching the middle

431
00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:37,240
Speaker 3: of high school boys, which is a lot of what

432
00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:39,440
Speaker 3: Promised Boys like. A lot of what I pulled from

433
00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:42,320
Speaker 3: that experience is in Promise boys. But after school, I

434
00:17:42,359 --> 00:17:45,800
Speaker 3: started teaching, and I was teaching kindergarten at first, and

435
00:17:45,840 --> 00:17:48,639
Speaker 3: I quickly realized, again me being Jamaican, as you call it,

436
00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:50,720
Speaker 3: I didn't say and that you said it. But again

437
00:17:50,760 --> 00:17:53,879
Speaker 3: I'm hustling, right, I'm like, Okay, I'm teaching. I'm reading

438
00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:56,280
Speaker 3: these kids these books that are very easy to write.

439
00:17:56,480 --> 00:17:58,080
Speaker 3: The dog jumps, the dog runs.

440
00:17:58,200 --> 00:17:59,640
Speaker 2: That's how I feel. What I read to my daughter

441
00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:00,760
Speaker 2: right now, who wrote this.

442
00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:02,600
Speaker 3: It's like I could write this though, I could write

443
00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:03,800
Speaker 3: this book. And so that's what I started doing. I

444
00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:06,960
Speaker 3: started writing children's books, and I started finding pictures online

445
00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:09,200
Speaker 3: and match the words that I was writing. And my kids,

446
00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:11,800
Speaker 3: my students, was taking to the books so much that

447
00:18:11,920 --> 00:18:14,080
Speaker 3: in the principal so she's like, yo, like we should

448
00:18:14,119 --> 00:18:16,199
Speaker 3: pitch this to the whole child network. And so I

449
00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:18,280
Speaker 3: pitched a children's book series to the Titter Network and

450
00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:20,359
Speaker 3: before I know what, they gave me a check to

451
00:18:20,359 --> 00:18:22,280
Speaker 3: put my books in all of their schools across the country.

452
00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:24,480
Speaker 3: My children's books. Yeah, so that was the That was

453
00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:27,240
Speaker 3: like the first entry into and so get me being

454
00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:29,400
Speaker 3: a hustle, I'm like, oh shit, that was Yeah.

455
00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:33,320
Speaker 1: You can never as an entrepreneur tastes one drip of blood. Yeah,

456
00:18:33,359 --> 00:18:38,400
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, like, Oh, that's possibility.

457
00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:40,520
Speaker 3: Exactly, there's something over here.

458
00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:42,360
Speaker 2: So I'm getting excited, you know what I'm saying.

459
00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:46,120
Speaker 3: So that's what I So that happened and I'm like, oh, yeah,

460
00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:48,359
Speaker 3: let's run this up. And so I started writing children's

461
00:18:48,359 --> 00:18:50,280
Speaker 3: book and while I was in Tea for America. They

462
00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:52,560
Speaker 3: also had me get a master's in curriculum and instruction.

463
00:18:52,680 --> 00:18:56,720
Speaker 3: So I doubled down and write a curriculum manual to

464
00:18:56,760 --> 00:18:58,800
Speaker 3: go along with the books, and I started consulting. I

465
00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:01,120
Speaker 3: started selling the books in the curriculum to schools all

466
00:19:01,119 --> 00:19:04,240
Speaker 3: across the country. Texas, Alabama, California. It's going crazy.

467
00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:07,080
Speaker 2: You you the gangs, the kindergarten teachers.

468
00:19:07,160 --> 00:19:07,359
Speaker 3: I was.

469
00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:10,960
Speaker 2: She was like, I'm not just taking this teacher.

470
00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:14,960
Speaker 3: Salary's they gotta pay teachers more. That's really what it is.

471
00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:16,760
Speaker 3: They gotta pay teachers more. That's a whole other conversation.

472
00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:19,399
Speaker 3: But so I'm doing that. I'm doing that. I'm doing that.

473
00:19:19,600 --> 00:19:20,480
Speaker 2: It's really brilliant.

474
00:19:20,520 --> 00:19:22,359
Speaker 1: Actually, if you think about to put it together, a

475
00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:23,520
Speaker 1: curriculum with the.

476
00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:26,080
Speaker 3: Kids with a little black girl on the front. You

477
00:19:26,119 --> 00:19:27,360
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying, year is this?

478
00:19:27,359 --> 00:19:28,520
Speaker 2: This is before COVID.

479
00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:31,159
Speaker 3: Oh for sure, this is twenty I was doing this

480
00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:32,080
Speaker 3: like twenty fifteen.

481
00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:34,560
Speaker 1: And the only reason why I want to highlight that

482
00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:37,520
Speaker 1: is because during COVID there was this big spike in

483
00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:41,040
Speaker 1: supporting black businesses. Oh what you were able to accomplish

484
00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:44,919
Speaker 1: at the timing that you were able to accomplish, I

485
00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:47,800
Speaker 1: would say would be considered a really big fea for sure.

486
00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:49,760
Speaker 3: No, I appreciate that now. It was definitely ahead of

487
00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:51,240
Speaker 3: his time, ahead of his time. For short.

488
00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:53,479
Speaker 1: Shout outs to you for thinking outside the box and

489
00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:55,840
Speaker 1: even taking the initiative to write the books for the kids.

490
00:19:55,880 --> 00:19:58,600
Speaker 1: It showed that you really cared about the kids, for sure,

491
00:19:58,680 --> 00:20:01,880
Speaker 1: because even I'm not gonna lie, I've been low key

492
00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:04,679
Speaker 1: writing some kids books because some of the kid's books

493
00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:07,520
Speaker 1: sucks so bad. Yeah, I'm like, can we at least

494
00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:11,640
Speaker 1: have an underlying message and story? I want to hear

495
00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:15,320
Speaker 1: the hero's journey but with the three letter words. But yeah,

496
00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:18,280
Speaker 1: I agree because I used to think Doctor Zeus was great,

497
00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:21,800
Speaker 1: and then I got kids and a daughter, and I said, oh.

498
00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:24,600
Speaker 3: I was wondering eating this.

499
00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:27,600
Speaker 2: Sense, you know, And.

500
00:20:29,280 --> 00:20:30,960
Speaker 1: And I don't even want to take us off track

501
00:20:31,040 --> 00:20:33,439
Speaker 1: too much, but Baby Shark happens to be one of

502
00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:36,000
Speaker 1: those songs where it's like the deer ran away with

503
00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:40,320
Speaker 1: the lion or whatever. You're like, why what, what sense

504
00:20:40,359 --> 00:20:43,080
Speaker 1: does this lie even make? One day she's gonna grow

505
00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:45,399
Speaker 1: up and go The dere and the lion are not friends.

506
00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:49,040
Speaker 1: The needs there like you know what I'm saying, See

507
00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:52,399
Speaker 1: these things and you're like, why even make up this lie?

508
00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:55,199
Speaker 3: It doesn't make sense? And that's what I'm.

509
00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:56,600
Speaker 1: Glad you saw it and you solved the problem and

510
00:20:56,680 --> 00:20:57,879
Speaker 1: you got your hands thirty.

511
00:20:57,960 --> 00:20:59,520
Speaker 3: I was just about to say something because I go

512
00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:02,640
Speaker 3: around to like colleges and and stuff all the time.

513
00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:04,680
Speaker 3: It's something I always say, is it's the four p's.

514
00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:08,040
Speaker 3: It's passion, it's purpose, it's prosperity, and then it's proficiency,

515
00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:09,520
Speaker 3: which is what are you good at? What are you

516
00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:11,520
Speaker 3: talent to that? What are you passionate about me? I'm

517
00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:15,080
Speaker 3: passionate about writing, I'm passionate about storytelling. Purpose, These kids

518
00:21:15,119 --> 00:21:17,520
Speaker 3: need books with characters that look like them. Prosperity again,

519
00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:20,600
Speaker 3: I'm thinking, like, okay, all of these is one hundred

520
00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:23,000
Speaker 3: books in this class, it's five classrooms in the school.

521
00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:24,640
Speaker 3: If I'm writing, you know what I'm saying, booming, that's

522
00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:27,320
Speaker 3: money there. And then proficiency. I'm good at writing because

523
00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:30,760
Speaker 3: I spent all of my formative years writing lyrics. So

524
00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:32,760
Speaker 3: I put so that's when I approach it is I'm

525
00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:35,680
Speaker 3: putting these four piece together. Like wherever those intersect, I

526
00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:38,320
Speaker 3: think is where you're gonna find your niche. So anyway,

527
00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:41,879
Speaker 3: so I did all of that. But now even though

528
00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:43,720
Speaker 3: I'm writing the Chordan's book, because once I wrote books

529
00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:45,399
Speaker 3: in the curriculum, it's kind now I'm just selling right

530
00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:48,800
Speaker 3: now my salesman. And I'm also very much in education,

531
00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:51,480
Speaker 3: which is still not necessarily my bag. I want to

532
00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:54,399
Speaker 3: be an artist. I want to so anyway, So that's

533
00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:56,080
Speaker 3: how I got into books. That's the taket stuff. It's

534
00:21:56,080 --> 00:21:58,159
Speaker 3: going to come back. Then I saw a movie. I

535
00:21:58,160 --> 00:21:59,480
Speaker 3: saw a movie called Foodville Station.

536
00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:01,680
Speaker 2: I remember in that movie, and I'll tell you why

537
00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:04,200
Speaker 2: I remember. Yeah, you already know what I'm about to say.

538
00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:10,159
Speaker 3: Tell me m b Oh, my goodness, you don't know.

539
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:14,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, that has been my crush forever since that movie. No,

540
00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:15,480
Speaker 2: I've like Michael B.

541
00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:17,760
Speaker 1: Jordan shout outs to the true ones that really had

542
00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:19,720
Speaker 1: a crush on him since he was on I think

543
00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:21,560
Speaker 1: it was All My Children or one of those soap

544
00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:23,359
Speaker 1: opera shows from the Wired days.

545
00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:25,879
Speaker 3: I knew he was also in this movie called Chronicle.

546
00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:27,600
Speaker 3: Some people know that movie Chronicle.

547
00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:30,600
Speaker 1: I don't know all his movies, yeah, because I like

548
00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:35,040
Speaker 1: him more for his looks than But alright, let's stay.

549
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:40,640
Speaker 3: On top of and so I guess it's like maybe

550
00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:42,840
Speaker 3: twenty sixteen or so. So anyway, it hit me so hard.

551
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:45,320
Speaker 3: It's about Oscar Grant and around this time is when

552
00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:48,240
Speaker 3: a lot of the you Got Trade my Mad Mike

553
00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:51,000
Speaker 3: shit was just happening. It's still happening right all the time, man,

554
00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:53,639
Speaker 3: and so it really hit me. But this movie particularly

555
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:55,840
Speaker 3: hit me. And it's like, yo, who made this? And

556
00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:57,600
Speaker 3: so I went to look up the filmmaking. Of course

557
00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:00,480
Speaker 3: I come across this guy, Ryan Cooger, cool and the

558
00:23:00,520 --> 00:23:03,080
Speaker 3: way he spoke. I was watching his interviews and everything,

559
00:23:03,119 --> 00:23:06,200
Speaker 3: and it's like something about him like I connected to

560
00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:08,119
Speaker 3: and just knowing his background, how he was like, yo,

561
00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:09,879
Speaker 3: I didn't come from making films. I came I was

562
00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:12,680
Speaker 3: an athlete, college athlete. Again, it just connected with me,

563
00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:14,399
Speaker 3: I was. It made me feel like, it made me

564
00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:17,080
Speaker 3: basically made me feel like, oh shit, like it's possible,

565
00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:18,959
Speaker 3: like I could become a filmmaker. Like I've always been

566
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:21,680
Speaker 3: a huge movie buff. So I was like, Okay, maybe

567
00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:23,320
Speaker 3: that's a thing. Maybe I could be a filmmaker, right,

568
00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:26,080
Speaker 3: maybe I could write stories. And so anyway I heard

569
00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:28,600
Speaker 3: he went to the school USC which is supposed to

570
00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:30,399
Speaker 3: be the best film school in the world. So I'm like,

571
00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:31,760
Speaker 3: all right, Bell, I just go to USC too.

572
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:33,720
Speaker 2: Then was cracking up these degrees.

573
00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:36,639
Speaker 3: Boy bruh, I got Yeah, I went from a point

574
00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:38,960
Speaker 3: to nine to hold in. Yeah, I'm about to go.

575
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:40,480
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go back and get I'm gonna get my

576
00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:44,119
Speaker 3: doctorate soon. But yeah, so I make my first you

577
00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:45,520
Speaker 3: gotta make a movie to get an se. I made

578
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:48,200
Speaker 3: my first movie. It did surprisingly well. It was featured

579
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:50,360
Speaker 3: in place in four thirty Under thirty all of this stuff.

580
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:52,359
Speaker 3: Not only did I end up getting in the sc

581
00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:54,160
Speaker 3: but I got a full ride from George Lucas.

582
00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:55,920
Speaker 2: But you had to do the film before you even

583
00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:56,240
Speaker 2: get in.

584
00:23:56,359 --> 00:23:58,000
Speaker 3: Yes, you got to make a five minute film before

585
00:23:58,000 --> 00:23:58,560
Speaker 3: you even get in.

586
00:23:58,680 --> 00:23:59,080
Speaker 2: Jesus.

587
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:01,600
Speaker 3: Yeah. But it again, like you said earlier, when things

588
00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:03,359
Speaker 3: when you know when something's going well, you lean in.

589
00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:05,640
Speaker 3: So when I got in and got the scholarship and everything,

590
00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:08,080
Speaker 3: and read my letter from George Lucas and all of this,

591
00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:10,600
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, Okay, there's something here, and so I

592
00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:13,200
Speaker 3: go to SC. I make a bunch of more movies,

593
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:15,720
Speaker 3: write a bunch of scripts. I actually real quick before

594
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:17,800
Speaker 3: because this is about to take us into to present day.

595
00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:19,680
Speaker 3: But while I was at SC, I got to work

596
00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:21,600
Speaker 3: for Lebron James. So I worked over at spring Hill

597
00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:24,920
Speaker 3: when I was there, while we were making Space Jam,

598
00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:27,560
Speaker 3: which of course one of the producers on Space Jam

599
00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:28,600
Speaker 3: is Ryan Coogler.

600
00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:31,320
Speaker 2: Okay, and so get real close to Ryan.

601
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:33,280
Speaker 3: So this is the thing, is like, now I'm looking

602
00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:34,719
Speaker 3: at the signs too. You know what I'm saying. Now

603
00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:36,320
Speaker 3: I'm driving him around on the w B lot. This

604
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:37,920
Speaker 3: the same guy that I saw his interview You know

605
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:39,280
Speaker 3: what I'm saying four years ago that made me even

606
00:24:39,280 --> 00:24:41,320
Speaker 3: want to become a filmmaker. Now I'm driving him around

607
00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:42,680
Speaker 3: on the w B lot. You know what I'm saying,

608
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:44,960
Speaker 3: Like it's it's crazy. So anyway, so I did that

609
00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:48,280
Speaker 3: while I was at SC, write scripts, made some movies,

610
00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:51,880
Speaker 3: all did pretty well, and then I graduated from SC

611
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:54,600
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty. Of course, twenty twenty Boom, Pandemic hits,

612
00:24:55,359 --> 00:25:00,800
Speaker 3: Everything go crazy right KOs madness said, la man, it

613
00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:03,560
Speaker 3: is what the fuck is going on? And that happens.

614
00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:08,040
Speaker 3: And again in retrospect, particularly when you like talk through

615
00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:09,679
Speaker 3: these type of things, you had these little realizations. But

616
00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:12,640
Speaker 3: like for me, my whole thing was like all right,

617
00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:15,600
Speaker 3: I gotta write, like I just want to write now.

618
00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:17,280
Speaker 3: I know there was like probably just anxieties, yo, I

619
00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:18,840
Speaker 3: gotta just you know what I'm saying, just my brain

620
00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:22,119
Speaker 3: trying to do something. But I started writing every single

621
00:25:22,359 --> 00:25:25,280
Speaker 3: day pretty much all day, all day. So twenty twenty,

622
00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:25,760
Speaker 3: I'm doing that.

623
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:28,280
Speaker 2: How are you supporting yourself through the pandemic?

624
00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:29,320
Speaker 3: Shit? The government?

625
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:33,760
Speaker 1: Oh you're doing the unemployment checks like the highest paid unemployment.

626
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:39,120
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I didn't unemployment.

627
00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:41,399
Speaker 3: Man, you should have? Should you should? I tell everybody

628
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:42,720
Speaker 3: they get a chance to eat off the government, do

629
00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:43,679
Speaker 3: it because they gonna get off you.

630
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:47,240
Speaker 1: Back, and we're gonna make that a little clip, you know.

631
00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:49,440
Speaker 3: What I'm saying. So yeah, So I'm writing every day

632
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:53,480
Speaker 3: and twenty twenty one comes around. I ended up getting

633
00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:56,280
Speaker 3: a gig working on Mandalorian, which is again because my

634
00:25:56,320 --> 00:25:58,240
Speaker 3: stage name is ben Kenobe, so it's which I pulled

635
00:25:58,280 --> 00:25:59,760
Speaker 3: from Star Wars. So all of this is George Lucas

636
00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:02,360
Speaker 3: Kalla ship and working on Mandalorians all just cool shit.

637
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:05,639
Speaker 3: While I'm working on Mandalorian, a lot of that writing

638
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:07,959
Speaker 3: idea started to pay off. I sold my first book series.

639
00:26:08,280 --> 00:26:10,680
Speaker 3: The first one was Ethan Fairmont. It was a middle

640
00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:15,120
Speaker 3: grade series. The second one was Promise Boys. Right now.

641
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:18,720
Speaker 3: Promise Boys was really unique because Promise Boys was the

642
00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:22,119
Speaker 3: biggest publishing deal for young adult debut author ever. It

643
00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:24,199
Speaker 3: was like a huge publishing deal. And the way I

644
00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:27,160
Speaker 3: got into that was basically, I was writing a bunch

645
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:28,080
Speaker 3: of scripts a.

646
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:32,359
Speaker 1: Huge publishing deal for Breakthrough but not and I like

647
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:35,120
Speaker 1: to ask this, not with the category black at.

648
00:26:35,119 --> 00:26:38,080
Speaker 3: It, no, no, but young adult though young.

649
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:43,000
Speaker 1: Adult no that, but that makes a difference another incredible feed. Yes,

650
00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:45,040
Speaker 1: So that's bigger than just micro.

651
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:48,520
Speaker 3: Targ for sure, especially coming from like self publishing, my

652
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:50,440
Speaker 3: own you know what I'm saying, my own Chorgre's books

653
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:52,560
Speaker 3: all fucking Vista print or whatever I with Lulu or

654
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,600
Speaker 3: something I was using. But yeah, so the book goes crazy,

655
00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:58,680
Speaker 3: like really crazy. I never forget. It was interesting because

656
00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:03,200
Speaker 3: when the announcement was made about the book on set

657
00:27:03,280 --> 00:27:05,640
Speaker 3: on Mandalorian, I was an assistant to one of the EPs,

658
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:08,159
Speaker 3: one of the showrunners, and so when you're in the

659
00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:10,000
Speaker 3: you have a certain kind of role. But when the

660
00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:12,240
Speaker 3: news came and about the deal and the size of

661
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:14,840
Speaker 3: the deal, it was just interesting how I never forget

662
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:16,760
Speaker 3: just how I felt like dynamic started to change about

663
00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:18,480
Speaker 3: how people were looking at me on set. It was

664
00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:21,959
Speaker 3: just interesting. But that's Hollywood, and so that happens. And then,

665
00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:23,919
Speaker 3: of course, because of the size of the deal, it

666
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:25,800
Speaker 3: goes on to be sold as a TV show.

667
00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:28,480
Speaker 1: I told myself I wasn't gonna whole bad questions, but

668
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:29,439
Speaker 1: go ahead, go ahead.

669
00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:30,280
Speaker 2: How much?

670
00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:31,800
Speaker 1: What was the size of the deal? Can you wreak

671
00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:32,120
Speaker 1: it down?

672
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:35,680
Speaker 3: Please? It was a seven figured deal. There's a seven

673
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:39,000
Speaker 3: figured deal, and I think, man, I'll leave it that.

674
00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:42,960
Speaker 3: It was a little over m yeah, in a quarter

675
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:43,520
Speaker 3: or something like that.

676
00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:48,200
Speaker 1: Okay, And you got the call to get this deal. Okay, set, yep,

677
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:51,960
Speaker 1: we're gonna rewind. So you get the deal. How exactly

678
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:55,280
Speaker 1: did you end up coming pitching and getting into this position?

679
00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:58,160
Speaker 3: Okay? So while all of that writing I was doing,

680
00:27:58,240 --> 00:27:59,720
Speaker 3: I wrote a script. Me and my co writer. We

681
00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:02,680
Speaker 3: wrote a script. And my core writer is also a novelist,

682
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:04,119
Speaker 3: and so I think this is probably done by the way.

683
00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:06,040
Speaker 3: I think I can probably mix this. Yeah, go ahead then,

684
00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:08,439
Speaker 3: and he's a novelist, and so we wrote the script.

685
00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:10,119
Speaker 3: This is not gonna taste good. I can tell.

686
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:12,760
Speaker 1: You, you know what, your story is really good?

687
00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:16,320
Speaker 2: So it's okay, I'm just going to eat there you.

688
00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:17,920
Speaker 3: Go, please do. I don't want to make you sick.

689
00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:20,119
Speaker 3: So he's a novelist. So we're writing scripts, and I

690
00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:22,840
Speaker 3: came across this property, this IP, and Hollywood loves IP,

691
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:24,800
Speaker 3: and I get it in some cases some type of cases,

692
00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:26,840
Speaker 3: I don't. But I came across this property, this old comic,

693
00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:29,639
Speaker 3: it's the first black comic book ever happens to be

694
00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:32,240
Speaker 3: in public domain. And so we wrote a script based

695
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:34,240
Speaker 3: on that, and we sent it to his agent to

696
00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:36,600
Speaker 3: figure out. Before we knew it was in public domain,

697
00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:37,480
Speaker 3: it was just trying to get some clarity.

698
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:38,760
Speaker 2: What does that mean? Public domain?

699
00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:41,600
Speaker 3: It basically means anybody can use it for free. You know,

700
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:43,760
Speaker 3: typically you got a license or you gotta pay somebody.

701
00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:45,600
Speaker 2: How does it end up in public domain?

702
00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:49,080
Speaker 3: It's typically if basically time period if it comes out

703
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:51,640
Speaker 3: before I forget the exact year, but it's a certain

704
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:53,160
Speaker 3: time period if it comes out, if it came out

705
00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:55,200
Speaker 3: at a certain point, anything that comes out a lot

706
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:56,520
Speaker 3: of people don't know. A lot of Disney shit is

707
00:28:56,560 --> 00:28:58,920
Speaker 3: public domain. Little Mermaid is actually public domain. Like me

708
00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:01,520
Speaker 3: and you can write a Little Mermaid, but the freak out.

709
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:03,360
Speaker 3: I'm not kidding. We can't use like some of the

710
00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:05,360
Speaker 3: same elements that Disney had put into their stuff. But

711
00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:08,200
Speaker 3: the concept of Little Mermaid or I think also Jungle Book,

712
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:10,000
Speaker 3: a lot of it is public domains. So anyway, public

713
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:13,400
Speaker 3: domain means you can use it for free. Essentially, that's

714
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:14,760
Speaker 3: the short, shortes short.

715
00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:17,400
Speaker 2: But you can't use the characters. Stop visiting with your mic.

716
00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:18,880
Speaker 3: Oh my fault. I even realized that was the mic

717
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:19,400
Speaker 3: my fault.

718
00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:20,400
Speaker 2: What is this thing?

719
00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:23,120
Speaker 3: Yeah? No, you can use as long as it's not

720
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:26,840
Speaker 3: a character invented by Disney, right, or a character invented

721
00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:27,360
Speaker 3: by whatever.

722
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:30,040
Speaker 2: So you can use like the synopsis of the book.

723
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 3: Or exactly the basic premise, the basic premise you can use. Yeah,

724
00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:37,600
Speaker 3: so we can. Yeah, we could go write the Laddin.

725
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:39,280
Speaker 3: We can write in a Latin book if we wanted to.

726
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:42,560
Speaker 1: Okay, so you so you see this black comic.

727
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:44,480
Speaker 3: Which is great because then yeah, so I see this

728
00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:46,000
Speaker 3: black comic is in a public man like huh. I

729
00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:47,880
Speaker 3: got an idea, And again I love mysteries and it's

730
00:29:47,880 --> 00:29:49,600
Speaker 3: about a detective. I love that type of ship. The

731
00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:50,960
Speaker 3: first book I really read that got me in the

732
00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:53,120
Speaker 3: reading was a guy named Walter Mosley, who did Devil

733
00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:56,160
Speaker 3: in the Blue Dress. But anyway, so we did that,

734
00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:58,560
Speaker 3: we send it to this agent to see to inquire

735
00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:01,280
Speaker 3: about the rights before we learned it was in public domain,

736
00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:05,560
Speaker 3: and she was so interested in the voice of the script.

737
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:07,840
Speaker 3: And so she asked her client who I was working with,

738
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:10,560
Speaker 3: who did you write this with? Because it's a black character.

739
00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:13,360
Speaker 3: My co writer is white, and she I think she understood.

740
00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:14,720
Speaker 2: Like your writer a guy or girl?

741
00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:17,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so yo, who did you write this with?

742
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:21,239
Speaker 3: And so he told her about me, and she is

743
00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:24,960
Speaker 3: a more established book agent. So that's how the whole

744
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 3: thing came about. It's like she had me meet with

745
00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:28,600
Speaker 3: another one of her clients and we talked about some

746
00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:30,360
Speaker 3: ideas and they pitched me a couple of ideas and

747
00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:32,600
Speaker 3: asked me and see, this is why I gave that

748
00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:36,280
Speaker 3: all of that context, because they were already trying to

749
00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:39,920
Speaker 3: crack a mystery set in all boys school. So when

750
00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:42,840
Speaker 3: I tell you I worked with all boys, it was

751
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:44,280
Speaker 3: like when they heard my story and they heard that

752
00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:46,160
Speaker 3: I love, They're like, oh shit, you are the guy

753
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 3: for me. So anyways, that's how writing the book came about.

754
00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:51,520
Speaker 3: And then from there it was pretty traditional. I wrote

755
00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:53,680
Speaker 3: the book, did a treatment, and then they just took

756
00:30:53,680 --> 00:30:55,400
Speaker 3: it out. They took it out to town and people

757
00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:56,880
Speaker 3: just went crazy over it was a bit and wool.

758
00:30:56,920 --> 00:30:58,760
Speaker 3: So that's how it all came about. And look at me,

759
00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:00,280
Speaker 3: I watched it.

760
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 1: Definitely looks like it's going to be a dishmade by man.

761
00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:07,520
Speaker 3: It is that. But so that's how that happened.

762
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:09,560
Speaker 2: Right, Should he pour some water in it or something?

763
00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:13,040
Speaker 1: I feel like you should add Is that what it's supposed.

764
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:13,080
Speaker 2: To look like?

765
00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:14,200
Speaker 3: No, not really.

766
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:16,360
Speaker 2: I think if you add water or something to it.

767
00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:19,200
Speaker 3: Okay, maybe I had a little bit of water. Shut

768
00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:22,760
Speaker 3: So we just saying thank you, thank you. Someone looks stupid.

769
00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 1: You can never look so just you talking it makes

770
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:28,760
Speaker 1: it impossible stupid.

771
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:36,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's the deal right again. Because of the

772
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:39,560
Speaker 3: size of the deal, it goes on to be sold Netflix, Obama,

773
00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:43,200
Speaker 3: all of the cool headline stuff, and it sounds really cool.

774
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:46,040
Speaker 3: Only that, so I think we ended up wrapping up

775
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:49,040
Speaker 3: the deal in the end of twenty twenty two. Twenty

776
00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:52,959
Speaker 3: twenty three comes and we are stating up the room

777
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:54,960
Speaker 3: to write the show. But now Hollywood goes on strike.

778
00:31:55,720 --> 00:31:56,720
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that's right.

779
00:31:57,160 --> 00:31:58,920
Speaker 3: Oh my god, you know what I'm saying. So I'm

780
00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:00,440
Speaker 3: thinking I'm about to get my big I'm about to

781
00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:01,960
Speaker 3: write my first show. I was about to go crazy

782
00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:05,400
Speaker 3: boom right or straight and so at this time. So

783
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:09,800
Speaker 3: now I'm like, all right, So now TV stopped. And

784
00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:11,920
Speaker 3: by the way, in this amount of time, we also

785
00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:14,040
Speaker 3: sold another TV show, a separate one that I could

786
00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:16,320
Speaker 3: go on all these different tangents. But we sold another

787
00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:18,480
Speaker 3: TV show to c W. But again that one's just

788
00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:19,880
Speaker 3: stopped too, put halt to everything.

789
00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:24,800
Speaker 1: And again me and the show was picked up was

790
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:28,120
Speaker 1: just stuck. And that's a risky thing because I've heard

791
00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 1: stories getting picked up and then something like this happens

792
00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:35,240
Speaker 1: and then it just goes done. I know this because

793
00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:37,120
Speaker 1: Nick Cannon told us he bought a house and ended

794
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:40,360
Speaker 1: up basically broke again off of a deal that got

795
00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:41,520
Speaker 1: picked dropped.

796
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:44,360
Speaker 3: Yep, that's what happens, right, And this is what and

797
00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 3: this is what we're worried about at the time. And

798
00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:49,280
Speaker 3: so that's happening. Our shows are done. I'm like, okay, fuck,

799
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:50,840
Speaker 3: what's going on with Hollywood? Is it going to be TV?

800
00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:53,000
Speaker 3: Is it gonna be movies? So I started writing my

801
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:55,600
Speaker 3: next again. I start writing my next book, which is

802
00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:58,360
Speaker 3: up Big Smoke. So this is twenty twenty three.

803
00:32:58,360 --> 00:33:00,640
Speaker 2: I start righting, So Promise Boys is out, probably the

804
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:01,040
Speaker 2: book is out.

805
00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:02,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, it come out TV.

806
00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:05,120
Speaker 1: The TV on the Promised Boys is on hold.

807
00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:05,800
Speaker 3: It's on hold.

808
00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:09,360
Speaker 2: Okay, now you're like on to the next on them

809
00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:11,040
Speaker 2: up in Smoke and Smoke.

810
00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:13,239
Speaker 1: Okay, Before we get to Up and Smoke, can we

811
00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:16,200
Speaker 1: talk about the Obama's getting involved with the Obama production

812
00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:18,400
Speaker 1: company get involved. We cannot skip over that.

813
00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:20,800
Speaker 2: That's huge. Yeah, So take me back to what was

814
00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:21,960
Speaker 2: going on during that time.

815
00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:25,080
Speaker 3: So this is around again. This is like towards the

816
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:28,480
Speaker 3: end of twenty twenty two. Much like the book, the

817
00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:31,040
Speaker 3: bidding war going on. You meeting with all these different publishers,

818
00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:33,640
Speaker 3: similarly the show all these different publish or all these

819
00:33:33,680 --> 00:33:35,840
Speaker 3: different production companies production pods.

820
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:37,520
Speaker 2: And are you getting in front of them because of

821
00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:38,240
Speaker 2: the booking agent.

822
00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:42,120
Speaker 3: I'm getting in front of them because really because of

823
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:44,040
Speaker 3: the size of the book deal everybody. So it was

824
00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:45,920
Speaker 3: a big article, right, So of course again it's that's

825
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:47,520
Speaker 3: the Hollywood things. Like it was hot in this one

826
00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:49,240
Speaker 3: moment and so we shout.

827
00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:50,680
Speaker 1: Us to all the publishers out there that make sure

828
00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:51,040
Speaker 1: that you.

829
00:33:51,080 --> 00:33:53,840
Speaker 3: Know what I'm saying. Shout out to Mai my publishers

830
00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:57,680
Speaker 3: over at McMillan and Morgan. And then so at that time, yeah,

831
00:33:57,720 --> 00:33:59,840
Speaker 3: they it was a big article about the size of

832
00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:03,640
Speaker 3: the you. And so because of that, all of the

833
00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:05,880
Speaker 3: production companies are like, yo, who is this? How do

834
00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:08,080
Speaker 3: we And then of course the article is like emerging filmmaker,

835
00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:11,160
Speaker 3: big deals. So now they're like, oh, not just an author, filmmaker,

836
00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:13,759
Speaker 3: oh usc oh George Lucas koala, Oh you know what

837
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:15,080
Speaker 3: I'm saying, A bff, you know what I'm saying. All

838
00:34:15,120 --> 00:34:17,480
Speaker 3: of these things start to just line up. So all

839
00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:20,080
Speaker 3: of these publishers or all of these production companies excuse me,

840
00:34:20,520 --> 00:34:24,279
Speaker 3: are wanting to meet. And so of course we met

841
00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:26,799
Speaker 3: with some I'm trying to I'm also in this, in

842
00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:28,160
Speaker 3: this fame, trying to think like what I can't say,

843
00:34:28,239 --> 00:34:29,600
Speaker 3: what I can't say, But there were there were some

844
00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:32,200
Speaker 3: people that I was hoping, there were some other a

845
00:34:32,200 --> 00:34:35,520
Speaker 3: lot of people that we met with, and there was

846
00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:37,440
Speaker 3: probably two people at the top on my list. It

847
00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:39,799
Speaker 3: was I think I can say this, It was the Obamas,

848
00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:42,759
Speaker 3: and then it was Jay Z And so these are

849
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:44,360
Speaker 3: the two. So I'm meeting with all these productions and

850
00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:48,160
Speaker 3: I'm like, yo, all right, this is an Obama whole,

851
00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:51,880
Speaker 3: Obama whole. Like these are like our dads, you know

852
00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:53,640
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, these are both our dads.

853
00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:58,560
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness of all things, I did not expect

854
00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:02,280
Speaker 1: you to say, oh, Pama or jay Z. I promise

855
00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:05,400
Speaker 1: you I would have been doing that same dance and

856
00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 1: I would have been saying.

857
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:09,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it was something I would have because they're

858
00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 3: both first families. Ear to ear, Yeah, yeah.

859
00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:15,239
Speaker 1: The heights of happiness. I don't know how you even

860
00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:17,040
Speaker 1: keep your feet on the ground because you try not

861
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:18,279
Speaker 1: to get your hopes up to it.

862
00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:22,080
Speaker 3: All right, Yeah, they both first fans you got hold

863
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:26,960
Speaker 3: of and B and then you got pro for Yeah.

864
00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:30,440
Speaker 3: I'm just like these are too. These are just iconic blackness.

865
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:34,480
Speaker 3: And so anyway, so it's like long story short, Higher

866
00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 3: Ground and also just coming to call Temple Hill, which

867
00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:40,440
Speaker 3: has a lot of adaptation, particularly hya they coming out

868
00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:41,160
Speaker 3: on top.

869
00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:43,920
Speaker 1: And yeah, and they came out on top. Because I

870
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:45,480
Speaker 1: have to know what was the deal breaker.

871
00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:47,560
Speaker 3: There was a few different things. One at the time,

872
00:35:47,680 --> 00:35:52,600
Speaker 3: Higher Ground had a deal with Netflix, so it's like cool,

873
00:35:52,760 --> 00:35:57,239
Speaker 3: like this is really cool, I think. Also, again I'm

874
00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:00,200
Speaker 3: just trying to choose my words the right way. I

875
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:03,880
Speaker 3: think it's like just thinking about who do because then

876
00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:05,279
Speaker 3: you got to consider who do you feel like move

877
00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:07,880
Speaker 3: the needle at a particular place more more? You know

878
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:09,000
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, You think like.

879
00:36:08,920 --> 00:36:10,080
Speaker 2: A pure businessman.

880
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:12,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're like, which has the most leverage in the

881
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:16,360
Speaker 1: game exactly if you move the names aside, which resume

882
00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:18,400
Speaker 1: clears out exactly?

883
00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:20,200
Speaker 2: And I can imagine, to.

884
00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:23,200
Speaker 3: Be quite transparent, there was a lot of other players

885
00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:25,560
Speaker 3: in this. It's not this is just Nick Brooks's thing, right,

886
00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:28,520
Speaker 3: there's a lot of the players. Is the the agency, Like,

887
00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:30,440
Speaker 3: there's people who put this whole package together, a lot

888
00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:33,840
Speaker 3: of other players, some of which like got nicer watches

889
00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:35,440
Speaker 3: than me, you know what I'm saying. So it's like

890
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:38,160
Speaker 3: there's a lot of it's a lot of it's a

891
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:39,400
Speaker 3: lot of cooks.

892
00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:41,040
Speaker 2: I'm going to use that, you know.

893
00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:44,200
Speaker 3: So it's not just because I might have said hole

894
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:46,200
Speaker 3: to be honest, but it's a lot. It's a lot

895
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:49,640
Speaker 3: going on. So yeah, so that happens. But then again

896
00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:51,960
Speaker 3: we get to so yeah, so new're high ground, Timple Hill,

897
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:54,560
Speaker 3: We're at Netflix, that's what they're I want to say, overall,

898
00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:57,920
Speaker 3: I think they had overall there at that time, and yeah, boom,

899
00:36:57,960 --> 00:36:59,640
Speaker 3: that was that. So I'm like, cool, I'm about to

900
00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:02,120
Speaker 3: be I'm about to have a TV show. Shit, I

901
00:37:02,160 --> 00:37:04,319
Speaker 3: might direct the pilot, like I'm going crazy in my head.

902
00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:06,279
Speaker 3: But then twenty twenty three rolls around and it's like

903
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:07,560
Speaker 3: the industry shuts down again.

904
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:08,640
Speaker 1: Yeah I remember that.

905
00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:10,640
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, And it's like now everybody's out,

906
00:37:10,640 --> 00:37:13,279
Speaker 3: people again, losing jobs, executives getting cut left and right,

907
00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:17,520
Speaker 3: and now we're like, yeah, so now what is it?

908
00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:19,200
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, which again is why Okay,

909
00:37:19,239 --> 00:37:22,600
Speaker 3: I go back into my just like how because one

910
00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:25,320
Speaker 3: thing I skipped over is when twenty twenty happened, I

911
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:27,600
Speaker 3: didn't only start writing books again. I started making music again,

912
00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:29,920
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, And so that was helping me.

913
00:37:29,960 --> 00:37:31,359
Speaker 3: I had got a few salt like I did music

914
00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:32,680
Speaker 3: for I had a song on like a Clone tip

915
00:37:32,719 --> 00:37:35,239
Speaker 3: ro big Netflix movie shout out to Joel, and I

916
00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:37,840
Speaker 3: was putting out EPs and so I was doing little things.

917
00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:39,440
Speaker 3: But then the TV stuff started to take off on

918
00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:42,960
Speaker 3: like boom, But then Pandemic or then the strike everything

919
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 3: clops again. So now I'm back and let me go

920
00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:47,319
Speaker 3: right again, make music again, you know what I mean.

921
00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:49,160
Speaker 3: So it's just like you know what I'm saying, jump rope.

922
00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:50,080
Speaker 3: So before you.

923
00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:52,560
Speaker 1: Get into music, let's sit down. Come sit with me.

924
00:37:53,200 --> 00:37:54,439
Speaker 1: Do you want to serve us up?

925
00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:55,000
Speaker 3: Yeah?

926
00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:57,399
Speaker 2: I guess I played us up. We're gonna eat your

927
00:37:57,640 --> 00:37:59,959
Speaker 2: your rotale. Yeah, cheers.

928
00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:06,399
Speaker 3: Oh it ain't too bad. Real, What did you think?

929
00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:08,200
Speaker 3: You know what?

930
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:14,120
Speaker 2: I thought it was gonna be salty because you were

931
00:38:14,120 --> 00:38:17,560
Speaker 2: going in on that. He was going in on that. Lorries,

932
00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:21,040
Speaker 2: I said, boy, at the heavens, please, but no, it's great.

933
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:27,520
Speaker 2: Oh you were killed us. You ain't gonna take just

934
00:38:27,560 --> 00:38:28,080
Speaker 2: one bite.

935
00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:30,279
Speaker 3: It's actually.

936
00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:32,480
Speaker 2: Like that. It's pretty good.

937
00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:33,520
Speaker 3: That's a pretty good.

938
00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:35,040
Speaker 2: I know this is a crunchy meal guys for all

939
00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:37,279
Speaker 2: your listeners, but it's good.

940
00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:43,759
Speaker 3: S r M whatever, right R.

941
00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:47,160
Speaker 1: I saw this girl on the one of those channels

942
00:38:47,719 --> 00:38:51,359
Speaker 1: and she was slurping, and I was like, looked at

943
00:38:51,360 --> 00:38:53,680
Speaker 1: her views and I said, damn, I could totally be

944
00:38:53,719 --> 00:38:54,280
Speaker 1: a slurper.

945
00:38:54,360 --> 00:38:55,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, I could totally.

946
00:38:55,800 --> 00:38:57,040
Speaker 3: You can make money off anything now.

947
00:38:57,520 --> 00:38:59,960
Speaker 1: And I was watching her eating and the only thing

948
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:01,879
Speaker 1: against me the most on those videos is like where

949
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:03,120
Speaker 1: they buy their.

950
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:04,840
Speaker 3: Food.

951
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:07,640
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm like, where did you find this gigantic crab?

952
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:11,160
Speaker 1: Like what story is selling these?

953
00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:14,640
Speaker 2: But take me back to you being and you're getting

954
00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:15,400
Speaker 2: back into music.

955
00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:20,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, like I said, Yeah, when twenty happened, I didn't

956
00:39:20,960 --> 00:39:23,200
Speaker 3: just start writing every day. I started making music again

957
00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:26,440
Speaker 3: just again or release as an artist, as a musician,

958
00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:28,319
Speaker 3: just this is what I love to do, not thinking

959
00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:30,760
Speaker 3: anything of it. And then I'll put out.

960
00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:33,280
Speaker 2: My first project and this is solo homie from.

961
00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:36,040
Speaker 3: Solo, So this is my first Yeah, this is now

962
00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:38,880
Speaker 3: just been Kenobi solo artists and yeah, I would to

963
00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:40,520
Speaker 3: be honest, I was just doing it for fun. It's

964
00:39:40,560 --> 00:39:44,000
Speaker 3: really nothing to report other than because and this is

965
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:46,000
Speaker 3: why I just like doing stuff like and people again people,

966
00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:48,040
Speaker 3: when people ask me about my story and my journey,

967
00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:51,800
Speaker 3: I always mentioned, like one, just doing just put yourself

968
00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:53,440
Speaker 3: out there, but also just being flexible like and a

969
00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:56,320
Speaker 3: lot of these points when there was an obstacle or

970
00:39:56,320 --> 00:39:58,719
Speaker 3: a barrier, it's just about how you pivot. That's what

971
00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:00,600
Speaker 3: I call it. The pivot. What's your pivot? The art

972
00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:03,000
Speaker 3: of the pivot, what's your pivot? Yeah, So when that happened.

973
00:40:03,040 --> 00:40:05,040
Speaker 3: I just I was making music. But because I was

974
00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:06,360
Speaker 3: making this is what I was gonna say. Because I

975
00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:09,320
Speaker 3: was making music, I caught the attention of a director

976
00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:11,239
Speaker 3: who I actually had met at spring Hill when who

977
00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:13,640
Speaker 3: was writing on Space Down. His name is Joelle Taylor.

978
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:16,200
Speaker 3: Just a brilliant guy. He's also the director of They

979
00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:19,120
Speaker 3: Clone Tyrone. But he heard my music just because we

980
00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:20,560
Speaker 3: had tapped in when I was working from when I

981
00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:22,160
Speaker 3: was working at spring Hill. He was like, Yo, you're

982
00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:24,319
Speaker 3: actually really dope. Like I want you to work on

983
00:40:25,239 --> 00:40:27,400
Speaker 3: the soundtrack for They Clone Tyrone. So now all of

984
00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:28,880
Speaker 3: a sudden, oh the soundtrack.

985
00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:30,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, a really big check.

986
00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:32,480
Speaker 3: So you know, I got invited to the writers camp

987
00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:34,680
Speaker 3: to work on the soundtrack. I did about and again

988
00:40:34,719 --> 00:40:36,680
Speaker 3: this is one of those moments where you think, oh shit,

989
00:40:36,920 --> 00:40:40,320
Speaker 3: Like by this time, I'm jaded, so I don't nothing

990
00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:41,920
Speaker 3: excite me, to be honest, nothing excites me.

991
00:40:41,880 --> 00:40:44,600
Speaker 2: Really, you know what I'm saying in a different way.

992
00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:46,520
Speaker 3: Oh no, just like as far as like thinking oh

993
00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:47,880
Speaker 3: this is my big break, you know what I mean?

994
00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:52,240
Speaker 3: That is just not your numb now yeah it doesn't.

995
00:40:52,360 --> 00:40:53,240
Speaker 3: It's just it's like whatever.

996
00:40:54,160 --> 00:40:56,799
Speaker 1: But at this point, all your endeavors are leading to

997
00:40:57,040 --> 00:40:59,480
Speaker 1: a life that is more stable or do you feel

998
00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:02,360
Speaker 1: like it's still rocky in your finances.

999
00:41:02,840 --> 00:41:07,000
Speaker 3: It's definitely stable, it's just not what I envision or

1000
00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:08,440
Speaker 3: what I want. You know what I'm saying. I have

1001
00:41:08,480 --> 00:41:11,560
Speaker 3: a really big dream both, so it's certainly stable, but

1002
00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:13,000
Speaker 3: it's just yeah, it's just I'm not where I want

1003
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:13,160
Speaker 3: to be.

1004
00:41:15,239 --> 00:41:19,040
Speaker 1: Now you're doing the music for the soundtrack, are you

1005
00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:20,880
Speaker 1: starting to work up on.

1006
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:21,560
Speaker 2: Up and smoke?

1007
00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:24,200
Speaker 3: At this time? I'm focusing on the music, thinking that's

1008
00:41:24,239 --> 00:41:27,200
Speaker 3: gonna pop. And of course, all the songs I worked

1009
00:41:27,200 --> 00:41:28,880
Speaker 3: on at the writers camp, none of them got picked

1010
00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:32,440
Speaker 3: for the soundtrack. Yes, exactly, see, and that's what I'm saying.

1011
00:41:32,440 --> 00:41:35,200
Speaker 2: It's like that, you know, that's where God, you're jaded

1012
00:41:35,239 --> 00:41:35,799
Speaker 2: at that point, you.

1013
00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:36,920
Speaker 3: Know what I'm saying, because it imagine I was like,

1014
00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:39,040
Speaker 3: oh my god, I'm about to But here's the cool thing,

1015
00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:41,440
Speaker 3: because again, because of my relationship with Joelle, he actually

1016
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:44,200
Speaker 3: hit me and was like, Yo, do you have anything

1017
00:41:44,239 --> 00:41:47,080
Speaker 3: from your own catalog that we can use? And so

1018
00:41:47,120 --> 00:41:49,320
Speaker 3: again this is why it's so important to just do stuff,

1019
00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:51,359
Speaker 3: because had I not just started making music, I would

1020
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:52,560
Speaker 3: have my answer would have been no, I just would

1021
00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:54,239
Speaker 3: have been shut out of luck. But because I had

1022
00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:56,200
Speaker 3: been making music, I seen him a few tracks on

1023
00:41:56,200 --> 00:41:58,960
Speaker 3: my own and one actually got selected. So I ended

1024
00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:01,000
Speaker 3: up did having a song in the movie. So again

1025
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:04,400
Speaker 3: it's just how you move. But anyway, so now I'm

1026
00:42:04,440 --> 00:42:06,120
Speaker 3: doing that, right. This is all leading us back up

1027
00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:11,440
Speaker 3: to twenty twenty three write a Strike. So now, because

1028
00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:13,319
Speaker 3: the TV show's not going and we had, like I said,

1029
00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:14,560
Speaker 3: we had two shows that I thought I was going

1030
00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:17,680
Speaker 3: to be consuming my time. Because that all stopped, I'm

1031
00:42:17,719 --> 00:42:19,759
Speaker 3: now writing Up in Smoke. So twenty twenty three, I

1032
00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:23,040
Speaker 3: start writing Up in Smoke. I did the first fifteen pages,

1033
00:42:23,120 --> 00:42:25,799
Speaker 3: then the first thirty pages, then the first fifty pages.

1034
00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:27,160
Speaker 3: I was like, yoah, fuck with this, and I sent

1035
00:42:27,200 --> 00:42:30,280
Speaker 3: it off to my editor at McMillan, who edited Promise Boys,

1036
00:42:30,320 --> 00:42:31,960
Speaker 3: and he was like, Yo, this is really great. We

1037
00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:34,640
Speaker 3: want it. And so then I had another publishing deal, right,

1038
00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:36,520
Speaker 3: So I sold Up in Smoke in twenty twenty three

1039
00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:37,400
Speaker 3: to McMillan.

1040
00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:39,920
Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, and that's your second book to that's.

1041
00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:43,080
Speaker 3: My second young adult novel. It'll be my fifth novel.

1042
00:42:43,320 --> 00:42:45,200
Speaker 3: Wow yeah, it'll be my fifth novel.

1043
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:48,840
Speaker 2: Under them no fifth in general exactly.

1044
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:52,040
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, but yes, my second one with them with McMillan, Wow, yeah,

1045
00:42:52,040 --> 00:42:54,239
Speaker 3: I smoke and so this is all twenty twenty three.

1046
00:42:54,960 --> 00:42:56,640
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, boom up in smoke. That's gonna be

1047
00:42:56,640 --> 00:42:59,000
Speaker 3: my next one. But I'm also again, because I'm not

1048
00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:02,279
Speaker 3: doing the shows, the TV shows, I'm like going back

1049
00:43:02,280 --> 00:43:04,840
Speaker 3: to the music, and so I'm making music, and it

1050
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:09,640
Speaker 3: dawned on me it'd be a really cool idea. Another

1051
00:43:09,680 --> 00:43:11,840
Speaker 3: thing I do is like multiple POV. So Promise Boys

1052
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:15,359
Speaker 3: is three boys, he's three protagonists. Is that what means

1053
00:43:15,640 --> 00:43:16,360
Speaker 3: points of view.

1054
00:43:16,400 --> 00:43:19,960
Speaker 2: Points of view POV? Yeah, three different points.

1055
00:43:19,719 --> 00:43:21,840
Speaker 3: Of view, three different like I don't ever seen like

1056
00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:25,600
Speaker 3: vantage point or what's some other ones. It's a ton

1057
00:43:25,640 --> 00:43:28,080
Speaker 3: of them that like rotate these or what's the one

1058
00:43:28,239 --> 00:43:32,200
Speaker 3: I think fiction.

1059
00:43:33,239 --> 00:43:35,000
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is a good example of POV,

1060
00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:37,600
Speaker 1: but where the five boys the way they wrote that

1061
00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:40,520
Speaker 1: script where the five boys, we're in the park, Yes,

1062
00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:43,640
Speaker 1: when they see us, when they see yeah, yeah, I

1063
00:43:43,640 --> 00:43:45,399
Speaker 1: thought that that was really a great one.

1064
00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:47,440
Speaker 3: It's really cool that you pulled that out because when

1065
00:43:47,440 --> 00:43:49,560
Speaker 3: they see us was actually somewhat of a count for

1066
00:43:49,600 --> 00:43:52,080
Speaker 3: Promise Boys. Particularly the TV show. So yeah, yeah, you're

1067
00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:53,440
Speaker 3: totally right. Yeah, when they see us.

1068
00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:55,120
Speaker 2: So that's a good example of POV.

1069
00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:57,760
Speaker 3: That's a good example of of multiple POV.

1070
00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:01,280
Speaker 1: So you try to write with three po and minimum

1071
00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:01,960
Speaker 1: of three just.

1072
00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:05,560
Speaker 3: Multiple just in general. It's not it's no number, no minimum,

1073
00:44:05,600 --> 00:44:10,480
Speaker 3: just it's just particularly for mystery. It helps hide secrets

1074
00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:12,720
Speaker 3: and clues like for mysteries and makes it more compelling.

1075
00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:15,000
Speaker 3: You take a movie like knoves Out, We're the classic

1076
00:44:15,080 --> 00:44:16,840
Speaker 3: is clue. You have all of these different people with

1077
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:19,719
Speaker 3: all their own povs. They all see things differently, they

1078
00:44:19,760 --> 00:44:21,759
Speaker 3: all have secrets, they all are hiding things from each other.

1079
00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:25,720
Speaker 3: That just helps create like a compelling space for mystery.

1080
00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:28,400
Speaker 3: So that's why it's cool to do it, and particularly

1081
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:31,040
Speaker 3: in pros and novel form. So Promised Boys is three

1082
00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:34,440
Speaker 3: POV's Up and Smoke is two Cooper and Monique. But

1083
00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:36,719
Speaker 3: I thought it'd be really cool to include a third

1084
00:44:36,719 --> 00:44:38,600
Speaker 3: POV in the form of a rap album and have

1085
00:44:38,719 --> 00:44:40,680
Speaker 3: the rap album have clues to the murder in the book.

1086
00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:43,359
Speaker 1: Okay, oh, so that's so Up in Smoke and your

1087
00:44:43,400 --> 00:44:44,280
Speaker 1: album go together.

1088
00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:45,560
Speaker 2: It's a package deal.

1089
00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:46,480
Speaker 3: It's a package deal.

1090
00:44:46,560 --> 00:44:49,560
Speaker 1: And so when you purchase Up and Smoke, does the

1091
00:44:49,560 --> 00:44:52,160
Speaker 1: book come with a downloadable.

1092
00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:55,120
Speaker 3: Not necessarily, but we are doing We're doing certain things.

1093
00:44:55,120 --> 00:44:57,440
Speaker 3: So for example, we're doing a pre order campaign right now.

1094
00:44:57,440 --> 00:44:59,520
Speaker 3: If you pre order Up and Smoke now, you will

1095
00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:03,000
Speaker 3: get a free you'll get a track, you'll get unreleased

1096
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:03,720
Speaker 3: tracked from the album.

1097
00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:06,040
Speaker 1: Okay, you know, and then that will point to a

1098
00:45:06,080 --> 00:45:07,360
Speaker 1: clue in the book exactly.

1099
00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:08,359
Speaker 2: I like it.

1100
00:45:08,440 --> 00:45:09,040
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1101
00:45:09,120 --> 00:45:12,000
Speaker 1: I was out somewhere in Texas and I saw a

1102
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:14,480
Speaker 1: bunch of people following each other with their phones out

1103
00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:17,080
Speaker 1: and I saw I was like, he must be chasing

1104
00:45:17,160 --> 00:45:20,319
Speaker 1: up Pokemon. So I feel like when they read Up

1105
00:45:20,360 --> 00:45:23,279
Speaker 1: and Smoke, it's like a similar engagement where if they

1106
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:25,000
Speaker 1: listen to it they can.

1107
00:45:25,040 --> 00:45:28,279
Speaker 2: Figure it all out, stuff out. That's pretty amazing. Yeah,

1108
00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:29,239
Speaker 2: I think, very hard to do.

1109
00:45:29,400 --> 00:45:32,760
Speaker 3: It's a lot of writing. It's fourteen tracks on the album,

1110
00:45:32,719 --> 00:45:34,560
Speaker 3: so hell a lot of writing. And it's just a

1111
00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:37,440
Speaker 3: cool idea. And like my whole thing Promised Boys are similar.

1112
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:39,720
Speaker 3: Is like I want to pull in what the industry

1113
00:45:39,719 --> 00:45:42,839
Speaker 3: will call like reluctant readers or edit reluctant readers, kids

1114
00:45:42,840 --> 00:45:44,880
Speaker 3: who just don't typically pick up a book. And I

1115
00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:46,960
Speaker 3: get Again, I get asked a lot like what makes

1116
00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:49,520
Speaker 3: like why don't kids read it? Or are there books

1117
00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:51,480
Speaker 3: for all kids? Of course they're all like the only

1118
00:45:51,520 --> 00:45:53,040
Speaker 3: reason why a kid is not reading book is because

1119
00:45:53,040 --> 00:45:54,600
Speaker 3: they haven't found the right book. And so I like

1120
00:45:54,600 --> 00:45:57,400
Speaker 3: to write books. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, I

1121
00:45:57,400 --> 00:46:00,480
Speaker 3: like to write books that feature again that I'm from DC.

1122
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:03,240
Speaker 3: I grew up in DC, and so I write books

1123
00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:06,280
Speaker 3: that I know kids who growing up in DC would

1124
00:46:06,320 --> 00:46:08,560
Speaker 3: respond to. I'm putting things in the book that either

1125
00:46:08,600 --> 00:46:11,160
Speaker 3: I've experienced, our friends have experienced, or kids that I've

1126
00:46:11,160 --> 00:46:13,040
Speaker 3: taught have experience. I used to coach Little League football,

1127
00:46:13,040 --> 00:46:14,560
Speaker 3: Like I know these kids. I know these young men.

1128
00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:16,480
Speaker 3: So I'm trying to write books for them for real,

1129
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:20,840
Speaker 3: and it is working. I have gotten calls from grown

1130
00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:23,520
Speaker 3: men who have been like bro, like my fifteen year

1131
00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:25,560
Speaker 3: old son is reading because of you. Thank you. You

1132
00:46:25,600 --> 00:46:27,399
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying. So I say that to say,

1133
00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:29,120
Speaker 3: it's like for me, putting the album with the book

1134
00:46:29,280 --> 00:46:32,160
Speaker 3: is another way of like, how do I engage? How

1135
00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:34,560
Speaker 3: do I engage? How do I make this interactive? How

1136
00:46:34,560 --> 00:46:36,799
Speaker 3: do I open up? How do I connect both dots?

1137
00:46:36,800 --> 00:46:38,400
Speaker 3: How do I connect people? To my music. How do

1138
00:46:38,440 --> 00:46:40,080
Speaker 3: I connect people to my books? On both fans?

1139
00:46:40,239 --> 00:46:42,040
Speaker 1: And that's what I was about to say next. I'm

1140
00:46:42,080 --> 00:46:47,080
Speaker 1: a huge jay Z fan. Yes, gigantic, gigantic. There's a

1141
00:46:47,080 --> 00:46:48,399
Speaker 1: painting of jay Z in.

1142
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:51,719
Speaker 2: Yes about that when I was like twenty four and

1143
00:46:51,760 --> 00:46:52,319
Speaker 2: had a shift here.

1144
00:46:52,360 --> 00:46:55,200
Speaker 1: But I brought up jay Z because if you were

1145
00:46:55,200 --> 00:46:58,200
Speaker 1: to say, if you're out there listening and you want

1146
00:46:58,200 --> 00:47:00,520
Speaker 1: to say, Okay, I'm not necessarily ready to read up

1147
00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:03,760
Speaker 1: and smoke, but you buy the album, then after listening

1148
00:47:03,800 --> 00:47:05,600
Speaker 1: to the album you made, you're gonna want want to

1149
00:47:05,640 --> 00:47:08,080
Speaker 1: read the book. And I only reference that to Jay

1150
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:10,520
Speaker 1: because a lot of times if you even get a

1151
00:47:10,719 --> 00:47:12,800
Speaker 1: micro nugget of what was going on and he was

1152
00:47:12,800 --> 00:47:14,440
Speaker 1: writing record, you're like, oh my god, that's what I

1153
00:47:14,520 --> 00:47:16,799
Speaker 1: was having in There is some parallel. So I like

1154
00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:19,640
Speaker 1: that you did try the music route, because, especially in

1155
00:47:19,680 --> 00:47:22,799
Speaker 1: the black and brown market, we definitely find I think

1156
00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:26,120
Speaker 1: find our relatability more in music than yes books for

1157
00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:29,040
Speaker 1: whatever reason. But yeah, I like that they could either

1158
00:47:29,080 --> 00:47:30,759
Speaker 1: pick the music, yeah, or the book.

1159
00:47:30,840 --> 00:47:31,800
Speaker 2: And you tell me the reason.

1160
00:47:31,920 --> 00:47:36,359
Speaker 3: The reason is because in music and when you say

1161
00:47:36,360 --> 00:47:38,840
Speaker 3: black and brown and you know it's also from particularly

1162
00:47:39,040 --> 00:47:44,760
Speaker 3: particular neighborhoods, often lower social economic status neighborhoods. The music

1163
00:47:45,160 --> 00:47:47,120
Speaker 3: calls to exactly our day to day life, what'll be

1164
00:47:47,160 --> 00:47:50,480
Speaker 3: going through. It's familiar, and I think sometimes with books,

1165
00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:53,279
Speaker 3: people are not empowered to write those same things. I

1166
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:55,879
Speaker 3: think it's I'll give you an example for me, something

1167
00:47:55,920 --> 00:47:58,160
Speaker 3: I hear from my purpose I didn't necessarily hear from

1168
00:47:58,200 --> 00:48:00,040
Speaker 3: my publisher. But sometimes what they imply is that that

1169
00:48:01,080 --> 00:48:04,520
Speaker 3: black boys don't read, and the reason is because we're

1170
00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:06,560
Speaker 3: not writing books like Promise Boys, or we're not writing

1171
00:48:06,560 --> 00:48:08,000
Speaker 3: books like Up and Smoke. It's like a chicken in

1172
00:48:08,000 --> 00:48:09,520
Speaker 3: the egg. The reason people aren't writing those books is

1173
00:48:09,560 --> 00:48:11,480
Speaker 3: because publishers are not publishing them. You know what I means, Like,

1174
00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:14,120
Speaker 3: the reason the kids are not reading again goes back

1175
00:48:14,120 --> 00:48:16,480
Speaker 3: because they don't have the books that are familiar to them.

1176
00:48:16,480 --> 00:48:17,759
Speaker 3: So when you say it's like, for whatever reason, we

1177
00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:20,560
Speaker 3: relate more to the music, because well, people are making

1178
00:48:20,560 --> 00:48:23,520
Speaker 3: familiar music. People are not necessarily writing familiar books for

1179
00:48:23,680 --> 00:48:25,080
Speaker 3: all types of people. You know what I'm saying from

1180
00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:28,040
Speaker 3: all these places that we come from, and hopefully that's

1181
00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:29,759
Speaker 3: what I'm trying to do with Promise Boys, Up and

1182
00:48:29,760 --> 00:48:31,520
Speaker 3: smoke and all the things that I do.

1183
00:48:31,840 --> 00:48:34,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you do a really great job of

1184
00:48:34,160 --> 00:48:36,680
Speaker 1: also letting your light shine and allowing others to do

1185
00:48:36,760 --> 00:48:37,080
Speaker 1: the same.

1186
00:48:37,280 --> 00:48:38,800
Speaker 2: I think what can be said.

1187
00:48:38,640 --> 00:48:42,000
Speaker 1: To a company what you just said is like seeing

1188
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:46,120
Speaker 1: a young black author have a huge writing deal, someone

1189
00:48:46,160 --> 00:48:49,319
Speaker 1: that also started in music, something that they can look

1190
00:48:49,320 --> 00:48:50,799
Speaker 1: at and say, oh, I can do it. I had

1191
00:48:50,800 --> 00:48:53,600
Speaker 1: an interview previously where the guy said he wanted to

1192
00:48:53,640 --> 00:48:57,320
Speaker 1: be a kindergarten teacher because he only had one black

1193
00:48:57,400 --> 00:49:00,560
Speaker 1: male kindergarten teacher in the school. So he was just

1194
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:03,640
Speaker 1: like that one guy had such a huge impact. So

1195
00:49:03,680 --> 00:49:05,680
Speaker 1: it is a chicken in the egg situation that a

1196
00:49:05,680 --> 00:49:08,799
Speaker 1: lot of opportunities weren't given to us for such a

1197
00:49:08,840 --> 00:49:11,440
Speaker 1: long time. And the fact that you can go on

1198
00:49:11,520 --> 00:49:14,320
Speaker 1: camera and someone, whether it's one person or two people

1199
00:49:14,400 --> 00:49:17,040
Speaker 1: or five million people, hear this interview and say, wait

1200
00:49:17,080 --> 00:49:19,799
Speaker 1: a minute, I can be like him, or like how

1201
00:49:19,880 --> 00:49:22,880
Speaker 1: Ryan Coogler had inspired you. Wait a minute, that one

1202
00:49:22,880 --> 00:49:24,839
Speaker 1: interview at the right time.

1203
00:49:25,360 --> 00:49:26,160
Speaker 2: So kudos to you.

1204
00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:29,960
Speaker 3: All the young kids who like kids who rap you

1205
00:49:30,040 --> 00:49:31,880
Speaker 3: can write books and you just don't know they can

1206
00:49:31,920 --> 00:49:32,160
Speaker 3: do it.

1207
00:49:32,280 --> 00:49:34,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of people don't even think I had enough.

1208
00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:38,960
Speaker 1: I love the idea of having authors because it switches up. Originally,

1209
00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:40,360
Speaker 1: when we were going to do the interview, I was like,

1210
00:49:40,400 --> 00:49:42,239
Speaker 1: I'm going to stay away from the music because it's

1211
00:49:42,440 --> 00:49:46,600
Speaker 1: to me, has become like the standard stereotype. But to

1212
00:49:46,600 --> 00:49:50,160
Speaker 1: say a best selling author who has had so many

1213
00:49:50,160 --> 00:49:52,680
Speaker 1: pivots and relatability, it's a beautiful story, and I see

1214
00:49:52,680 --> 00:49:55,120
Speaker 1: why the book and the music are tied together in

1215
00:49:55,160 --> 00:49:57,920
Speaker 1: your mission. But I really appreciate what you've done here,

1216
00:49:58,680 --> 00:50:01,439
Speaker 1: and your cooking is not too bad. I was only

1217
00:50:01,520 --> 00:50:03,799
Speaker 1: choosing not to eat at all, guys, because I didn't

1218
00:50:03,800 --> 00:50:06,359
Speaker 1: want to chew in the ears. But look at to

1219
00:50:06,400 --> 00:50:08,799
Speaker 1: that camera and tell everybody where they could keep up

1220
00:50:08,840 --> 00:50:09,600
Speaker 1: with everything.

1221
00:50:09,800 --> 00:50:11,799
Speaker 3: Nick Brooks, Ye, yeah, you can find me at my

1222
00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:15,040
Speaker 3: website just benickbooks dot com, t G and I see

1223
00:50:15,080 --> 00:50:18,960
Speaker 3: kb r o ks dot com. Find your Instagram Official Nickbrooks,

1224
00:50:19,560 --> 00:50:22,200
Speaker 3: TikTok Official Nick Brooks. You could google Nick Brooks.

1225
00:50:22,840 --> 00:50:25,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's very he's very Google Google.

1226
00:50:25,440 --> 00:50:27,719
Speaker 3: You can google Nick Brooks.

1227
00:50:27,440 --> 00:50:29,520
Speaker 2: And then up in smoke drops.

1228
00:50:29,880 --> 00:50:30,080
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1229
00:50:30,120 --> 00:50:34,439
Speaker 1: May six, So you guys, by the by the time

1230
00:50:34,520 --> 00:50:37,080
Speaker 1: this interview drops, the books, we'll try to make sure

1231
00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:38,680
Speaker 1: it releases around the same week.

1232
00:50:38,760 --> 00:50:39,160
Speaker 3: There we go.

1233
00:50:39,239 --> 00:50:41,239
Speaker 2: That'll be the goal we shoot for me. There we go,

1234
00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:44,160
Speaker 2: so we can help push the promotion.

1235
00:50:44,320 --> 00:50:44,799
Speaker 3: Let's do it.

1236
00:50:44,880 --> 00:50:47,279
Speaker 1: But yeah, guys, and then also right now out on

1237
00:50:47,360 --> 00:50:48,560
Speaker 1: shelves is promised.

1238
00:50:48,600 --> 00:50:51,560
Speaker 2: Boys. I am not a huge fiction reader, but I

1239
00:50:51,600 --> 00:50:52,719
Speaker 2: will be reading this book.

1240
00:50:52,800 --> 00:50:57,200
Speaker 1: Guys, there we go, so it looks let me know

1241
00:50:57,400 --> 00:50:59,759
Speaker 1: what you think. Yes, and I'm into thrillers, so I

1242
00:50:59,840 --> 00:51:02,120
Speaker 1: know I'm gonna do this book even though it ends

1243
00:51:02,120 --> 00:51:02,600
Speaker 1: in murder.

1244
00:51:02,880 --> 00:51:05,440
Speaker 3: And you can pre order Up and Smoke Lamb. So

1245
00:51:05,520 --> 00:51:07,240
Speaker 3: if you go to the website.

1246
00:51:07,480 --> 00:51:09,480
Speaker 1: And you can order the music first. If you don't

1247
00:51:09,560 --> 00:51:13,399
Speaker 1: order the buck getro vice versa. Remember that, guys. All right,

1248
00:51:13,440 --> 00:51:21,239
Speaker 1: thanks for tuning in. Peace out, y'all. Peace for more

1249
00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:24,480
Speaker 1: eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect, visit

1250
00:51:24,560 --> 00:51:27,920
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

1251
00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:29,080
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.