Club Shay Shay - Killer Mike Part 2
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Speaker 1 What a matchup we got, y'all.
Speaker 2 This is that classic HBCU vibe.
Speaker 4 Non-stop action.
Speaker 5 The band is rocking and the crowd lick.
Speaker 6 Chants echo.
Speaker 7 Drum beating.
Speaker 8 Everybody showing that school pride.
Speaker 6 Game like this?
Speaker 10 Yeah, it calls for an ice-cold Coca-Cola.
Speaker 12 Ah, crisp and refreshing.
Speaker 13 That's a game changer right there.
Speaker 11 Mmm, yeah.
Speaker 2 That taste always hits the right note, just like a band at halftime.
Speaker 15 And just like that, we're back at it.
Speaker 19 Passionate fans, school colors everywhere, and an ice cold Coca-Cola, that's a winning combo.
Speaker 24 No matter the sport, no matter the yard, everybody knows.
Speaker 11 Fan work is thirsty work.
Speaker 27 So grab a Coca-Cola and keep that HBCU pride going.
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Speaker 11 Thank you for coming back. Part two is underway.
Speaker 11 Would you consider,
Speaker 11 because you're so versed, because you're so well-read, because you know the history of this country and you understand what our people are going through, would you ever consider running for political office?
Speaker 11 Yeah, but
Speaker 11
I got to get real. You got to get some more paper, though.
Yeah, real talk. Y'all want to be unbribable.
Yeah. see, a lot of our folks get caught up because they're poor.
Yeah, you know what I mean?
Speaker 11 What I mean is when you're poor, is when you like, if you look at white politicians, they're doctors, they're lawyers, they're engineers, they're people that understand the economy and finance.
Speaker 11
So they are above, they are above certain levels of bribery. Man, some of my folks get caught taking $3,700 for a goddamn youth league team or some shit.
And you be like, God damn that, bro.
Speaker 11
You're too intelligent. We ain't need to lose you for it.
So for me, it's important that I have a certain amount of stability. So when I get at about $22, $23 million, you see me pop up.
Speaker 11 I'll run for something local, hyper local, you know what I mean? So
Speaker 11 I want to service my community.
Speaker 11 But right now, the best thing I can do to service my community is be as strong individuals as I can, take care of this women and children, you know, take care of my sisters, take care of my nieces, nephews.
Speaker 11 And once we as a family get stable, you know,
Speaker 11
I want to be the Kennedys. You know, I want to be, I want to, I've seen the King family.
I've seen the King family keep the integrity. I've seen the King family make good investments.
Speaker 11 I've seen Bernice and Dexter, God bless bless the dead, and Yolanda, God bless the dead, and Martin III do solid investments in our community. And so I want to be that.
Speaker 11
I don't want to be pandering. I remember Bernie Sanders, I met with the OG one time in D.C., me King, and Nina Turner met, and, you know, I think it was Eddie Gawk, too.
But
Speaker 11
Bernie said, you used to come to D.C. to make a change and go back home and say, this is the change we've made.
Now we've just become a political fundraising.
Speaker 11 And I didn't like the idea of that. That's not what I want to to be a part of.
Speaker 11 You had young Thug on the album also. Yeah, shout out to Thug.
Speaker 11 Let me ask you this. What do you feel about, I don't get this, why would all of a sudden they release those jail, those recorded jailhouse calls?
Speaker 11 I mean, as a consorted effort to keep black people out of power. As Thug matured, I saw him mature as a human being.
Speaker 11 As he matured, past, you young, you got ego. I remember sitting with him, and this is before he ever went to jail, got released, him saying, man, I can't feel no way about Lucci.
Speaker 11
He take too good a care of his mom and his children, so I don't want to see nothing happening to him. Now, he's saying, this is we recording run.
This is not after he's been in jail.
Speaker 11
And I've seen him say it, post that. I talked to Lucci and heard Lucy say, man, I don't have no problem with Thug.
I don't want no issue. I'm just trying to make money, take care of my family.
Speaker 11
I think at the core, we all want the same things. But our pride and ego is a lot of times.
Fuel is added to a fire because of the people around us, because of beats and stuff we don't have.
Speaker 11 And my hope for a thug and Lucci, my hope for all these young men that are coming up in Atlanta is for them to take time to be mentored by the black men and women that over the last 60 years have shaped and formed that community.
Speaker 11 Because what you don't understand is a lot of time our behavior is an embarrassment to them and it loses them political equity and real equity and money. Atlanta is Atlanta and it's a special place.
Speaker 11 I feel like Atlanta should be treated by black people like Mecca is to Muslims, right? You have economic opportunity thanks to Maynard Jackson.
Speaker 11 You have economic opportunity on 10 and international because of people like Andy Young.
Speaker 11 You have economic opportunity because of Shirley Franklin, Bill Campbell, Keisha Lance Bottoms, Kassine Reed, Mayor Dickens. You have economic opportunity.
Speaker 11 Your reputation and the reputation you bring that city could possibly ruin it if you're too thuggish, you're too ruggish, you're too outlandish,
Speaker 11 you're too bare-bones, minimum bullshit, and especially violence. Violence is not good for money.
Speaker 11 Violence is not good for bringing new hotels, for bringing new tours, bringing new conferences, bringing Super Bowl, FIFA, Major League Baseball is not good.
Speaker 11 So when we, as the entertainment and athlete class, we have two choices. We can take the low road and do the typical bullshit and be the top of the street.
Speaker 11 And we all know where that ends up, jail or early funeral, or we could be the youngest and the mentees of the business class and the social class and say, hey, this is how we can make the city better.
Speaker 11 We could take our cues from the people on the streets organizing. We can take our cues from the people
Speaker 11
who are in those big suites organizing, making it work. Like Andy built a dome with no public money.
He was a pension planner out of California.
Speaker 11 So he was able to build our city and not have to overtax you, out tax you. Keisha Lands Bottoms put a furlough on anybody building that would take the taxes up on legacy residents.
Speaker 11
These people have made the right investments. So we need to consult with the Keisha Lands Bottoms and Michael Thurmos.
We need to say, what can we do to be better?
Speaker 11 Because if we don't, we're going to lose a city for our people that generates so much money and so much economic economic opportunity.
Speaker 11 And we don't understand that because we used nobody paying us attention. We used to nobody caring about us.
Speaker 11 We think that because public school teachers didn't pay attention to us like we want to, nobody else sees us. Well, the students paying attention to you, and we owe those students an opportunity.
Speaker 11 So I would say in Atlanta, keep rapping, keep making money, keep slamming basketballs, keep scoring touchdowns, keep getting home runs, but keep your ass in front of a YouTube with John Hope Bryant.
Speaker 11 Keep your ass in front of when Stokely Carmichael or Kwame Toure spoke at UGA.
Speaker 11 Go look at those old tapes and you will understand we have a greater greater responsibility than just the flash of right now. We have a greater responsibility than just the winning of right now.
Speaker 11 Our responsibility should be to plant a tree that we'll never get to enjoy the shade of, that these two, three, four generations down will get an opportunity to say, like I can say about Alonzo Herney, who started the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, because he started a barbershop.
Speaker 11 He had a barbershop that serviced all white men, but it was all black barbers. He heard about the insurance game, life insurance game, which you just learned about now.
Speaker 11
He heard about that, started selling black people life insurance. Magic Johnson recently acquired that company.
When I asked Magic Johnson, why did you acquire the Atlanta Life Insurance Company?
Speaker 11
He said, I saw this interview with Killer Mike. And that's the unique thing about you as an Atlanta.
As an Atlantan, you get to live your history. Your black history don't just happen in February.
Speaker 11
Your black history is happening every day. And your black ass has a responsibility.
And part of that responsibility is to rise above the streets.
Speaker 11 You got an opportunity to rise above the streets and become somebody because you have kids that are coming after you that look up to you that admire you and they need to know that opportunity is there.
Speaker 11 Atlanta ain't been no champion city because we got no funky ass reality show programs or some been singing and dancing since 1990. This is 124 years of excellence you're looking at.
Speaker 11 Book T Washington, W.E. Du Bois had the Atlanta conferences here in what, 1904, 1905.
Speaker 11
Alonzo Herney had been there since 1900. So you have a social responsibility.
John Wesley Dobbs was the mayor of Black Atlanta before there was a, his grandson became the mayor of all Atlanta.
Speaker 11
We have a responsibility. We have that responsibility in Savannah.
We have that responsibility in Macon. We have that responsibility in Athens, Augusta, and Columbus Columbus too.
Speaker 11
And if we don't hold true to our responsibilities, it's nobody's fault. Like Mr.
John told me down the street from my barbershop on Edgewood Avenue.
Speaker 11 He said, hey, they're going to come along and tell you that white folks bought this neighborhood up and Jacob and Took Plus. And that's a goddamn lie.
Speaker 11 He said the kids thought they were better than all the stores their parents owned and bought. And they sold it and they sold it for too cheap.
Speaker 11 So I'm telling my athletes and my rappers out there, we have a responsibility. And our responsibility is to learn to do good business and become businessmen and women.
Speaker 11 You wrote a letter for YFM and Lucci. Yes.
Speaker 11 Why'd you do it? What made you do that? Because it's the right thing to do. That brother is better on the streets with his mom and his children and people.
Speaker 11 I remember getting a call from some very powerful people and they said, hey, man,
Speaker 11 we called you and T.I.
Speaker 11 And we're telling you to call Lucci because I know you have a relationship with Drew Finley, his lawyer. And I know you have some relationship with him.
Speaker 11
And although it wasn't a very deep, a long relationship, Drew is my guy. Love his lawyer.
Have grown to love and respect the hell out of Brian Steele, who defended Thug.
Speaker 11 I consider both of them friends now, and I talk to them more often than not. But I got that call.
Speaker 11 It said, hey, man, we want you to call Lucha and tell him if there's any bullshit, tell him it's time to cut the bullshit. Tip got the call and said, hey, man, call Thug.
Speaker 11
Tell him if there's any bullshit, it's time to cut the bullshit. Me and Tip both did what we actually do.
We made the calls. We both got the same reply.
Speaker 11
I was like, oh, man, hey, man, I don't even know what you're talking about. You know, big homie, little homie talks.
So the little homie, man, I don't know what you're talking about, you know?
Speaker 11 And the next thing you know, all hell broke loose and everybody went to jail. Got snatched.
Speaker 11 Because you guys who think that you run the streets, God bless our souls, because I've been one of them guys, we don't run shit.
Speaker 11 The black political class in the Southeast runs us with an absolute hand.
Speaker 11 And if you get in the way of that money, if you get in the way of that port money of Savannah, if you get in the way of that peaches and cotton money or that tobacco money in the Carolinas, if you get in the way of that airport money in Atlanta, they got somewhere to sit your ass down for a few years.
Speaker 11 And if you have a reputation, they've been ruining each other's reputation in politics so long, you don't think they know how to ruin our reputation?
Speaker 11 You understand what I'm saying?
Speaker 11 So I just want to tell the athletes and the entertainers to take yourself more seriously than the homies around you take you because they want you to be the top of the streets.
Speaker 11 And I'm telling you, you could be the top of the sweets if you play it right. Wow.
Speaker 11
You are a great peacemaker. You can sit down and somebody might have been arguing for years and years and years, and you can bring them together.
Your voice is soothing.
Speaker 11 You just have a way with words and people gravitate towards you, Mike.
Speaker 11 You think you can sit down and get Thug and Gunner back together? I don't know if I can get Thug and Gunner back together because I don't have that relationship with them.
Speaker 11 But I do know a guy named Troop. God bless the dead.
Speaker 11 And I love Troop because Troop was a big homie to an entire neighborhood. And before he was ever even known as a big homie to that neighborhood, he saved one of my cousins' life.
Speaker 11
Troop was a gambler instinctively. He gambled.
him and him and um a lot of athletes he made a lot of money off athletes he never have to touch a field right
Speaker 11 and um what i do know is that
Speaker 11 is that troop had the respect of a lot of people and it wasn't based on violence it was based on the fact that he in a gambling house could get you out that gambling house without getting your head knocked off because he could help everybody understand that hey man you're gonna win something you're gonna lose some yeah so next time when you win it ain't nobody gonna put no hands on you tonight you can't put your hands on them so if i had an opportunity to say anything to Gunnar Thug, I'll remind them because they're so young of a guy named Art.
Speaker 11 Art was in a gang, I believe the gang was I Refuse.
Speaker 11 And he remember, I remember watching the news with Art sitting in a hotel room as they busted these guys and the guys were getting locked up and everybody looked at Art, man, he a snitch, he a rat.
Speaker 11 And
Speaker 11 I saw Art go serve time and then I got a message in my Facebook one time from a guy named Art who said, I need you to help me help some young men.
Speaker 11 And I remember how turned off I was about it at first. Like, man,
Speaker 11
you the guy that sent in the neighborhood. I remember how the big homies felt about you.
But I remember how many big homies had used and abused us, had took advantage of us, paid us a dollar
Speaker 11
on $100 when we should have been getting $10 on $100. And I thought about what that man must have went through.
And he got out of jail and his job became helping and saving young men.
Speaker 11
And I said, well, I owe him. And I got to do something for him.
So art is do a favor for me. I saw art change and evolve.
You know, that's what I saw.
Speaker 11 So I would just encourage them brothers to change and evolve and show an example that we can get past whatever. Whatever our differences are.
Speaker 11 Whatever our differences are, we can get past them.
Speaker 11 And if we choose to do that, see, when America lands in Afghanistan, they get the tribal leaders together and they say, hey, now we need y'all to stop doing it.
Speaker 11
So we need y'all to come up with a peace agreement. When we go into other countries, that's the first thing that we do.
If America really wanted gang violence to end, Jeff Ford would be free.
Speaker 11 Larry Hu will be free. They would have been free 30 years ago and they would have been organizing.
Speaker 11 You know, if America really wanted this shit to stop, you know, there's somebody, man, right now in this city, I don't know if he's going to do jail time or not. You know, his name was Big U.
Speaker 11 They got their brother locked up and they got him, you know, some pretty serious charges. But the guy I saw,
Speaker 11
the guy I saw wasn't bullying people. Me and Tip said it.
We said, well, he never asked us for anything, never forced our hands.
Speaker 11 He never asked us for anything but our presence in front of the little boys that he was mentoring. He told me, Mike, you know, money will flood in when the violence is high.
Speaker 11 And when we get violence to come down, the money dries up and then the money dries up goes the police force and then it rises back up again then money comes back our way so a lot of this is just a part of a system that perpetuates it so i just i'm highly suspect of our people when they get locked up.
Speaker 11 I'm highly suspect of a system that has an incentive to keep us in slavery because incarceration is slavery.
Speaker 11
And I would just encourage every young man out there to do what Amina Matthews and Gary Davis. Gary Davis has the next level boys academy in Atlanta.
Amina Amina Matthews is Jeff Ford's daughter.
Speaker 11 And they get young men together at a table and they moderate and mediate conversations. So I get to say to you, this is what you did to offend me.
Speaker 11 I believe the Jewish people, there's somebody Jewish in the room, let me know. Is it Rosh Hashanah, where you get together and you ask each one another's forgiveness?
Speaker 11 And the person has the option to forgive or not forgive or wait till the next year. We need to develop systems like that in our community where we can sit down and say, man, I know I did you're wrong.
Speaker 11 And I'm asking that you forgive me. And give each other an opportunity to give each other grace.
Speaker 11 Because at the end of the day, you know, most of us in the Southeast are Christian of some sort, and we follow this guy named Jesus as an ultimate character.
Speaker 11 And when you look at who was the last person that he saved, that he cared about was a prisoner, a self-confessed thief, somebody had took something from somebody, somebody that was loaded, somebody nobody cared about.
Speaker 11
Christ gave that person grace. That's the person who went to and send it to heaven with him.
So for me, I would just say we need to learn to give each other grace.
Speaker 11
We need to give ourselves some grace. We need to be real leaders amongst our crews and tell our crews, hey man, that beef we had, that beef got to go.
Because nut dead.
Speaker 11
We don't need another dead man. Troop dead.
We don't need another dead man. We've lost too many good people.
Trouble dead. We don't need another dead man.
Speaker 11 You know, so we need to figure out a way to get at a table together to discuss, to forget, to forgive, and then move on in unity because it's better for our people if we do. That's all.
Speaker 11
Kendrick put you on the Pimple Butterfly. He mentioned you in Pimple Butterfly.
Yeah, he did. He did.
Speaker 11
I mean, because at the time, that was Kendrick's biggest. Yeah.
Oh, man, I appreciate him. I just, man, man, thank you, Kayda.
I appreciate you.
Speaker 11 You can, you know, from a stylistic standpoint, you can overtly hear the Dungeon Family influence on him, and it's just amazing. And I'm glad somebody was paying attention to DF like I was.
Speaker 11 I'm glad to have been mentioned by him. But boy, I could use a feature.
Speaker 11 So if you're at home thinking about it, K-Dot, man,
Speaker 11
I love getting, you know, shit. And that's for his whole crew.
Al, you know,
Speaker 11
schoolboy, just amazing. What TD is baby was able to do was amazing.
But K-Lot, I would,
Speaker 11
I love it. You work with Cube, work with Hove.
I mean, what, what, because, man, I don't song.
Speaker 1 What a matchup we got, y'all.
Speaker 2 This is that classic HBCU vibe.
Speaker 4 Non-stop action.
Speaker 5 The band is rocking and the crowd lick.
Speaker 6 Chance echo, drum beat.
Speaker 8 Everybody showing that school pride.
Speaker 10 Game like this, yeah, it calls for an ice-cold Coca-Cola.
Speaker 12 Ah, crisp and refreshing.
Speaker 13 That's a game changer right there.
Speaker 11 Mmm, yeah.
Speaker 2 That taste always hits the right note, just like the band at halftime.
Speaker 15 And just like that, we're back at it.
Speaker 18 Passionate fans, school colors everywhere, and an ice-cold Coca-Cola?
Speaker 21 That's a winning combo.
Speaker 24 No matter the sport, no matter the yard, everybody knows.
Speaker 22 Fan work is thirsty work.
Speaker 27 So grab a Coca-Cola and keep that HBCU pride going.
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Speaker 11
Sometimes, me personally, I don't think you get to get the love and the respect that he deserves. Oh, man.
I'm a student.
Speaker 11 Oh, man.
Speaker 11 Oh, man. He ain't lost a step.
Speaker 11 Oh, man. He the one.
Speaker 11 Pimmy, man. Ice Cube and Scarface, I'm a direct student of them.
Speaker 11
You've been hearing them on music. I'm a direct.
But that boy, O'Shea Jackson Sr. Man, oh, man.
That man don't play everything he has become.
Speaker 11 You know, I remember reading the Rolling Stone article where his parents made him go to draft school in Arizona. They were like, hey, rap shit, cool, but you're going to have an education.
Speaker 11 He's always been proud to be brilliant. He's always used his imagination to give you a world that you might not have known, but he brought you into.
Speaker 11 Whether it was NWA or whether later, America's Most Wanted, death certificate, kill at will. He's always taken you beyond where you thought he could go.
Speaker 11 When he showed you you could laugh in movies like Friday, one, two, when he gave you you new when he popped up as an actor cube has shown me since i was 12 years old that all possibilities are possible when you see killer mike going on now a television show you know the the the lowdown when you see me next to ethan hawk i'm unafraid i'm informed by ethan on this is how you pull it off but unafraid because i saw my idol do it i saw cube do it so i know i can do it i'm unafraid to do business with people who don't look like me because i've seen cube do it with priority records i've seen him do it with hollywood i've seen him be a black man.
Speaker 11
Stand up. I've seen him be married to one black woman, create these black children.
I just shot a scene with OSHA Jackson Jr. Just did a scene in a movie with him.
Speaker 11
And I said, first of all, trippy, you look so much like your dad. You know what I'm saying? I scraped the f ⁇ up there.
I'm going to tell you.
Speaker 11 But I thanked him for sharing his family, for sharing his dad with the world. Because your dad has been an uncle, has been a father-like figure, has been a big homie to so many of us.
Speaker 11 So, man, when it comes to Ice Cube, I just want to tell kids, hip-hop's finally 51, 52 years old. It's finally old enough enough for you to go back on a nostalgia run.
Speaker 11 Make him a part of that nostalgia run. Make Ice Cube a part of that.
Speaker 11 Make E40 a part of that.
Speaker 11 Make Scarface, who is my personal GOAT, a part of that. You know, the ghetto boys,
Speaker 11 you have to know where you're being to know where you're going. Or else is somebody to resell you something you already did and give it a new name.
Speaker 11 You know, rock and roll did not look like Elvis, and ain't no disrespect to Elvis, but he wasn't no Chuck Berry or Lil Richard.
Speaker 11 Was it?
Speaker 11 Ho.
Speaker 11
Ho. That's my guy, man.
I mean, we hear this. He might be coming out with music.
I talked to Talk Bleak said, man, that ain't where his head is right now.
Speaker 11
He ain't in that mindset. He's a businessman.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's where his head's at.
You think Hove
Speaker 11
going to give us something? I don't know. I think when you're an artist, I think you never stop.
Like, I walk around the house just mumbling to myself. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 11
So I don't think he ever stops. I think Hove got raps in there.
He never stops. And as an artist, he sees the world in an artful way.
Just me and me channeling that in a different way.
Speaker 11
Like I look at no ID. No ID has been taking more pictures and making more beats now.
You know what I'm saying? And there's an art to business.
Speaker 11 Like I remember, so we got Mayor Bill Campbell in Atlanta,
Speaker 11 black mayor from the Carolinas, but he understands the Atlanta way.
Speaker 11
The Atlanta way is you create opportunity on the private and equity side for black business people who are going to do the job right. Correct.
What other city would have told Magic Johnson,
Speaker 11 who had been involved in scandal, you know, with acquiring HIV, but then becoming a staunch advocate for everyone being tested and all,
Speaker 11 had been, you know, basically treated badly toward his last days in the NBA by all the players and stuff. How they handle him.
Speaker 11
And then Smagic at some point had to figure out what to do and how to do it. And he figured out.
Business brought him to some degree the same satisfaction of athleticism.
Speaker 11 Exactly. So in my mind, Jay-Z has made business his art
Speaker 11 in some capacity. So he wants to master that in the same way he mastered bars and flows.
Speaker 11 I saw Magic Johnson come to Atlanta, and I saw Starbucks want to get in Southwest Atlanta and they did it with Magic Johnson. I saw TGI Fridays get in Southwest Atlanta with Magic Johnson.
Speaker 11 AMC Theaters get in there with Magic Johnson.
Speaker 11 I saw Magic Johnson completely become a businessman by way of doing business in Atlanta and then coming back 30 years later now to own the Atlanta Life Insurance Company.
Speaker 11
So for me, I cheer for Hove in that capacity because it's not only Hove, Nas has learned how to become a business person. Absolutely.
Big Boy has learned how to become a business person.
Speaker 11 My man, Chameleonaire, has learned how to become a business person.
Speaker 11 And there's nothing wrong with that because when we lose that element, when we lose these people, what we're losing is people who give other people like us an opportunity. So I cheer for Hove.
Speaker 11 I would love another Hove album, but if you never give me another one, if you just give me some guest verses,
Speaker 11
you know, we can live, but I would like to see him succeed more, not less. And I would like to see Kareem succeed.
And I would like to see Dame succeed. And Dean Wa.
You know what I mean?
Speaker 11 I'd like to see Dallas Austin and Jermaine Dupree, Brian Michael Copps
Speaker 11 keep succeeding because if we don't have these mega men of sorts, then you never get people like me.
Speaker 11 I'm a small business person, you know, but but I'm invigorated when I see my brothers win huge and big.
Speaker 11 And I know this isn't small business to some people, but it's small business compared to the billionaires. I think I have a hundred million dollar company here.
Speaker 11 But would I dare to think like that if it hadn't been for Jay? Would I dare to think like that if it hadn't been for brands like Outcast?
Speaker 11 Would I dare to think like that if it wouldn't have been for people like Yeezy taking over the world? Would I dare to think?
Speaker 11 So I'm inspired by that because as I have grown into a stronger, more competent rapper, I've also learned to do better business.
Speaker 11 And, you know, my businesses are small businesses, but they're ones I believe in and they're brands I see growing. I want this to be a hundred million dollar company.
Speaker 11
I want Bankhead Seafood to be a destination point. I want you to land in Atlanta, get off at Bankhead Highway, stop by the Blue Flame, then come to Bankhead Seafood.
You know, come see us, man.
Speaker 11
T.I. Yeah, that's my friend.
You know, T.I. for a minute.
That's my brother man. You in business together.
Speaker 11
I mean, hey, the side kid, I mean, he called himself the king of the South, and I can't say that I disagree with him. He is, man.
But when you talk to Atlanta rappers, you got to mention him.
Speaker 11
Some shape, form, or fashion. Yeah, absolutely.
How did you and T.I. meet? Man, KP, who's a Dundee family member, and DJ Toon,
Speaker 11 they found the kid and they developed him.
Speaker 11 I mean, when I remember walking in the gentleman's club, seeing the kids with Cartier frames, he used to have a gold toothpick on, and I never understood how his hat stayed on his head. Yeah.
Speaker 11 He used to wear it like that.
Speaker 11
He was like one of them old men in the South who owned the gas station. They might call player.
You know, they oversee player, man. But he was such a player.
He was such a player, man, at a young age.
Speaker 11
He was, I'm five years old and tips, so if he's 19, I'm what, 24? But such a player, man. So confident.
You know what I mean? He was, he reminded me of my cousin, Jimmy, you know, my cousin, man.
Speaker 11 And I just,
Speaker 11
I knew I rap, though. So I never was intimidated.
So when we would get in rooms together, people asked us to do versus rap, whatever, I was, I was,
Speaker 11
it's like watching, it's like watching on a football field, your boy get it off. Oh, man, your boy might play defense, but he got it off.
Oh, man, I got to get it off. I got to get it off.
Speaker 11 Now, I just seen my dog do it. And that's how I feel around him and in drop particular.
Speaker 11 Like, when you talk about the west side, man, you're talking about from patterns and flows who people are emulating. You're talking about...
Speaker 11 tip you're talking about drop in terms of just lyricism man so i i really i really am grateful to be his brother and his friend in business in music and beyond because i truly love him as though we blood
Speaker 11 you dropped your debut album the same day 50 dropped get rich or die trying
Speaker 11 fifth whoop everybody ass that year man he was an ass whooping machine i got a lot of love for fifth man i tell him every time i see him he let me when i was when i was on my when i was on the down fifth i think i made maybe 10 grand for a show i had to go to europe yale was always kind to me shouts out to buck and and banks too.
Speaker 11
But Philip let me open for a show and I made some money. I really appreciate it because I really need it at the time.
But let me tell you something, boy.
Speaker 11
You kicked everybody's ass. Oh, man, you whooped so much ass.
I just remember looking at the billboard charts just looking at myself fall like, damn. And every week you sell a quarter me.
Speaker 11
Boom, boom, boom. But what I really love about it is I still went gold.
And I was proud for that, but I learned to don't confine yourself to gold and platinum.
Speaker 11
Don't confine yourself to what's good enough. Because that's what I was going to ask you.
I was going to ask why didn't you get discouraged? You could like, man, man,
Speaker 11
this man did came out, he jumped out of the box, did 10 million, he diamond. Here I am.
I'm gold, which is good. But that ain't.
Speaker 11
Because you got drafted 192 in the seventh round. Yep.
And you're in the Hall of Fame. Yep.
And you got a ring. Yeah, that's why.
Because you don't, because all I need is the opportunity.
Speaker 11
You went to Savannah State. Correct.
You didn't go to UGA. Nope.
You didn't go to Georgia Tech. You went to Savannah State.
You go to Balma. You know, Tennessee.
You went to Savannah State.
Speaker 11
So, in other words, you're like, you know what? I'm not judging my success by somebody somebody else's. I'm Michael.
I'm here. I'm here, baby.
Y'all let me in. I'm going to stick around for a while.
Speaker 11 See, when y'all asked God for
Speaker 11
a long career, I didn't understand the perils that came with it. I just know I asked Lord, I said, I want a career like Bun B.
I want a career like Scarface.
Speaker 11 But I didn't understand that a 20-year career, you're going to take some ups, you're going to take some downs.
Speaker 11
You know, I didn't understand that the highs and lows. And you're going to learn as much in the valley as you enjoy seeing the peak.
So I'm thankful.
Speaker 11 I'm thankful to still be in a room and have 50 Cent acknowledge me and acknowledge him and me again. Say, hey, man, thank you for that show years ago.
Speaker 11 You You don't know it kept me going another couple months. I really appreciate that.
Speaker 11 I'm thankful to watch you because his first attempts at doing film and television didn't just take right off, but I saw him not quit. So I learned from him, you know, as much.
Speaker 11
And I'm just a student, man, and I'm an appreciator of, you know, even people who I might not agree with, might not agree with me. I still appreciate you.
I still learn from you.
Speaker 11 But fifth, man, that year, I just got to say, man, you whooped ass.
Speaker 11 You whooped ass, bubble. And shouts out to you, Dre and M, you know.
Speaker 11
Independent. Oh, and I got to give shouts to the game, too.
Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that game was early in my career, man.
He was on the West Coast. Gang's one of the best rappers ever.
And he,
Speaker 11 I never forget, they had Vibe Magazine
Speaker 11
had us do like a call one of your homeboys who wrap up and tell them you just got a flat tire. You an hour crop tire.
I said, gang, man, I'm out here on such and such.
Speaker 11
I'm in a, I forgot what street neighborhood I said. I'm in.
I said, man, but I'm fucked up. He was on his way to buy Bentley.
He told whoever, he said, hey, man, stop the car.
Speaker 11
He said, kills, don't get out of the car, man. Turn around for the come get you now.
I was saying, no, no, we just joking. We just joking.
But I got to appreciate the game, too.
Speaker 11
It was as a member of Gene Unit. He was definitely a friend and just won the Raw.
Gene Unit just had a Trump type crew name. So shouts out.
Major versus Independent. Yeah.
Speaker 11 I hear Stephanie Mills, I think she's going on tour with Patty LaBelle, Shaka Khan.
Speaker 11
Somebody saw that show. They told me about it.
And they asked Stephanie Mills, and she said, she said,
Speaker 11 if I know, if I knew then what I know now, I would do it independently. She said, because basically a major record company, they're marketing.
Speaker 11
But I know what I'm worth. I know what I want to sell.
If I sell this, mean I get that. If I sell that, mean I get this.
Speaker 11
Break down. You've been at this thing three decades.
Yeah. Break it down.
Major record label, independent. Pros, cons for both.
Well, I mean, a major label, man, you're in a major record.
Speaker 11
You got an engine. Yep, and they really believe in you going a major way.
But man, I'm in the NFL. I don't give a damn if I'm playing for the New York Times or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Speaker 11
I'm in the NFL. I'm in the NFL.
I'm in the NFL, baby.
Speaker 11 So I have had a better relationship working as an indie with
Speaker 11 a smaller indie that's backed by a major and Loma Vista, being able to work with Loma Vista, who's parented by Concord.
Speaker 11 Now that I understand fully who I am, now that me and Will have been through the pure independence of SMC, now that I turned down a major in Virgin when Jermaine was ahead over there, and I've been on a major with Columbia and Electoral before, I think I found a middle ground in where I'm independent enough to know when I need some major help.
Speaker 11 you know, so, and I think that that really is it because if you can go through the roof, you're going to need some extra fuel on that fire, and that's what they help you, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 11 But Andy Young said to me, I don't understand why you young guys don't just buy a house you can afford, get a couple of nice cars, but I know you like nice cars, and just be satisfied.
Speaker 11 Beyond major or independent, one of the best things you could do, and I've encouraged a lot of artists and athletes to do this, is find you a house in the South.
Speaker 11
Find you a house in Atlanta, Savannah, Nashville, Chattanooga, Charlotte. Find you a house.
Send your mama, your baby mama, whoever there, and buy it outright. And you don't need every car.
Speaker 11
Get you a couple. You want something fancy? Get you a couple German cars or whatever.
Get you a pickup truck, get you one German car, and just stack everything for the first five, four, five years.
Speaker 11
Put your money in the SP's 500s. Don't try to get too small.
Somebody, you know that.
Speaker 11
When you grew up like we grew up, man, all we dreamed, that's my car. Yeah, I dreamed of having that.
When I saw
Speaker 11 Miami Vice, when I saw them wearing Versace and I saw Rolex and Ferrari, man, I but we gotta have what you gotta do what get you one Rolex, you don't need four,
Speaker 11
mate. So your boy got the Ferrari, you got the Porsche, you get what you gotta do.
Hey, man, I can drive your arrow today. Yeah, let me hold that Porsche, dog.
Don't nobody know.
Speaker 11 The girls at the club ain't gonna know.
Speaker 11 So I'm just here to say, man, I'm here to say, man, you gotta stay tough, you gotta tight, man. The most successful drug dealers I saw live like working dudes.
Speaker 11 The most successful ones I saw, the ones that managed to escape the the game, like you look at, you look at my neighborhood,
Speaker 11 a guy like my man Rod.
Speaker 11 If you didn't catch Roy before, seven o'clock, after seven, you wouldn't catch him because he had a job.
Speaker 11 Never went to jail, came pinned out, ended up doing well for himself, got out the gang.
Speaker 11 But man,
Speaker 11 he lived like a regular guy. If you manage living modestly for long enough, man, you're going to have an abundance.
Speaker 11 So again, if you and your homeboys, if you 18, right, you ain't got a bunch, but you and three of your cousins, y'all go to trade school.
Speaker 11 One learn carpentry, one learn flooring, one learn, everybody learn something, go buy y'all a quadruplex together. Live in one or two of them and rent the other two out.
Speaker 11
And then repeat process till you can buy another and another and another. Then you can do it.
Instead of saying, well, I got a car, well, man, shit, I bought a Chevelle.
Speaker 11 My brother bought, what's the name? If I want to drive with cousins, I just get my brother cousin to drive. We have to start doing these little tricks because...
Speaker 11 We talk about immigrants doing these tricks. Now, your grandparents did these tricks.
Speaker 11
My big mama and big daddy lived on land. My big daddy's sister T-Suite lived at the top of their land in a house.
In the next five years, I'm going to have a compound.
Speaker 11 What me and all my sisters got housed on the same compound? We're not going to sell the houses we got.
Speaker 11 Those houses are going to go to my nieces, my nephews, somebody they're going to be in a trust so they can't wake up and do no stupid shit like selling one day. But that's what you do.
Speaker 11
That's what you do. Repeat what made people in your family successful.
Everybody got that one conservative bad auntie or uncle who do it the right way. So that's who we need to start emulating.
Speaker 11 I love Miami Vice, but that wasn't Don Johnson Farrar.
Speaker 11 He just got the drive.
Speaker 11
Act, it seems to be you've been bit by the acting bug now. Yeah.
I mean, I saw your, I mean, I saw
Speaker 11
my favorite show, Ozark. Yeah, man.
Oh, man.
Speaker 11
Man. Oh, man.
Man, and you've been, you're in this movie now with the series with Ether the Hall. Yeah.
Speaker 11 When did you get the acting bug?
Speaker 11
I mean, I've been acting out my whole life. You know, I've got to acting my way out a few tickets.
I acting like I wanted that woman. How would she pull that pistol off me?
Speaker 11 but
Speaker 11 um
Speaker 11 it's just it's just creative and it's just my imagination i remember acting like miami vice scenes when i was a kid right i um laura lenny i met on the plane she used to be on a show called a big sea where she put a woman who was dying of cancer and her what her last days were like it was a very uplifting show i met her my wife says i do this all the time i introduced myself to people on the plane i learned that when i flew to dayton when i was a kid you you sit down and you say you know, and it used to be in a plane.
Speaker 11
You didn't put your luggage right above you. You put your luggage across me so you can see your luggage.
Right. So I still doubt it.
I still do that. And then I introduced myself.
Hey, I'm Michael.
Speaker 11
I was like, hey, Lord, I watch your show. My wife loves it and whatnot.
And we just kept in contact. So she's always been an encourager of.
Speaker 11 Omar Dorsey, a friend of mine, has always been an encourager of. Ethan, when I met him on Bill Maher's show,
Speaker 11
called me out to do Good Lord Burr, just a big part. But he saw something in me that I wanted.
I wanted to kind of act, you know, you figure out what else you knew.
Speaker 11
Because as an artist, you're compelled to do other things. But Sterling, who wrote the show, who wrote Reservation Dogs, and just is a brilliant writer.
And
Speaker 11
he and Ethan thought I might be good for this part. Reservoir Dogs.
Yeah. No, not Reservoir, Reservation Dogs.
Reservation Dogs.
Speaker 11
Reservation Dogs was a series about kids who were growing up on Indian Reservations. Okay.
Yeah, Reservoir Dogs was written by Tarantino, who's a favorite director of mine.
Speaker 11 Oh, Hateful Late is one of the most amazing movies ever.
Speaker 11 But they had collaborated on episodes, right? And they thought I'd be perfect to play this character.
Speaker 11
And I was nervous as shit. Ethan gave me one of them pep talks, like, hey, man, you're made for this, buddy.
Right. You know, he gave me one of your white friend pep talks.
Hey, buddy,
Speaker 11 what do you mean? You're made for this. And
Speaker 11 I tried out and I got the part. And then I got called back, saying, You're going to be in a few more episodes.
Speaker 11 And the next thing you know, oh shit, I'm really acting. And
Speaker 11 acting is about using the live imagination to tell a grander truth. And
Speaker 11 I think I'm kind of made for that.
Speaker 11 You've been at this speaking about politics and race and understanding. And I think
Speaker 11 Lyndon Johnson had a quote 60 years.
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Speaker 8 Everybody's showing that school pride.
Speaker 10 Game like this, yeah, it calls for an ice-cold Coca-Cola.
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Speaker 11 All rights reserved.
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Speaker 11
Yeah, yeah. He said, if you can convince the lowest white man that he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket.
He won't know.
Speaker 11
He said, if you give him somebody to look down on, he'll empty his pockets for you. There you go.
At the time that Dr.
Speaker 11 King was in Mississippi trying to help workers organize, the Klan was at its height trying to fight against blacks having the ability to organize and be on jobs with them.
Speaker 11 The lowest paid white man in the country was in Mississippi.
Speaker 11 When me and Bernie Sanders went to Alabama a few years ago to try to help them unionizing Amazon, you know, you can just know Alabama for as far as it could be, it isn't as far as it could be because there's something that's holding it down.
Speaker 11 I just want to say to my brothers and sisters in the South of the working class, it doesn't matter to me which color you are, doesn't matter to me who you're like in terms of a national figure speaking on social issues.
Speaker 11 I need you to understand that the same people that invented the word invented the word cracker, and they meant for you and crackers to stay on the bottom. Because there's a rich class in the South.
Speaker 11 There's what they call a planner class, a master class of people, and they own Georgia and Tennessee and the Carolinas, Florida, the Mississippi, all up through Arkansas.
Speaker 11 They own it, and they ruled it with an iron fist.
Speaker 11 And if we don't start to understand, more like Fred Hampton understood, that we truly need a rainbow coalition of workers pushing forward in this country on each other's behalf, then we're going to stay separate, we're going to stay unequal, and we're all going to stay without.
Speaker 11 How have they been able to convince
Speaker 11 one group
Speaker 11 to vote against their own best interest
Speaker 11 and to look down on the other group
Speaker 11 when you're in the same boat? Well, the oligarchs have always done it. Because
Speaker 11 you get the thing that a trailer parks different from the projects. No, it's both set aside for people who are poor.
Speaker 11 That's it.
Speaker 11 We have to understand
Speaker 11 that at some point, race is just an economic tool used under this particular system of capitalism to keep us in fighting so that we never get greater gains.
Speaker 11 I believe there's a more compassionate version of capitalism.
Speaker 11 I believe that there's a version where free trade and labor will work, where a working man can grow his own food and sell his food to his neighbor, and that's not outlawed by the state.
Speaker 11 Again, I believe in being able to brew your own whiskey. I don't think you should have to have a tax stamp on your whiskey.
Speaker 11
So when I hear about somebody like Popeye Sutton, you know, who's a white man, who's a bootlegger up in Tennessee, rather than serve federal time. He killed himself.
He said, I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 11
I'm not going to bow to these oligarchs. He becomes a hero of mine.
And the same way that John Brown's a hero of mine.
Speaker 11 So for me, I think that we need to look outside of our own culture, our own race, our own class for other people that we admire and that we agree with too.
Speaker 11
Because that way, you know, the possibility of better is in other people as well. And you start to form union.
You start to form collaboration.
Speaker 11 You start to form coalitions in which the best interests of everyone is served.
Speaker 11 And I believe that, in particular, in the working class in the South, that we have a duty and an obligation to, just like we worked in fields, to have an opportunity to work other things that will work better for all of us.
Speaker 11
Did you always feel like this? Because you caught a lot of criticism because you went and sat down with Dio. No, no, I sat down with Kemp, Governor Kemp.
Governor Kimp.
Speaker 11 And you got a lot of, like, man, Mike, why are you sitting down with him? Because
Speaker 11
he's my governor. And you say, look, I'm going to sit down with the man because it might be an opportunity before I can help people that look like me.
Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 11 And when you see when he passed the arm, when he
Speaker 11 reinstated the Hope Scholarship, he added trades to it too. Yeah, the Hope Scholarship used to exclusively be for intellectuals.
Speaker 11
You know, if you're going to college, you know, go to Spanish State, going to UGAs, or you go to Hope Scholarship. But our boys and girls who wanted to go to trade school were left out.
He added that.
Speaker 11
Well, I was an asshole about trades. I was picking them, poking them.
He put me in touch with the head of trades. I talked to him, but I still was calling him back.
Speaker 11 Governor, I think we need to do this.
Speaker 11 So if you are politically unengaged, you are a fool.
Speaker 11 I'm going to just tell you that. No matter who wins,
Speaker 11 no matter who I campaign for, the day after, I'm going to congratulate the winner and say, okay, well, we're going to do to make Georgia a better state. How can I help you?
Speaker 11 So no matter who ends up being governor, if it's Keisha Lance Bottoms, if it's Michael Thurman, if it's one of the people who won from the other side, I have to.
Speaker 11 I'm required to, like my grandmother said, you do this because it's what you're supposed to do. You know, you're supposed to have a political voice.
Speaker 11 Whether it's your city council, whether it's your county commissioner, whether it's your mayor, whether it's your governor, your congressman, your senators, you better make sure you do that because what you don't want to be is without voice.
Speaker 11
So a lot of people that criticize me, they aren't even Georgians. If you're on a Georgian, I'm not even going to fuck with you.
You don't even worry about what you're going to do. Yeah,
Speaker 11
fuck out your votes you thinking about. You're a minority where you live at.
Right. Yeah.
You listen to no goddamn minority. We make up 35% of the state in Georgia.
Speaker 11 We may go just under 50% in Atlanta. What am I going to listen to you for?
Speaker 11
You don't even know what it feels like to be the majority. You don't know what it is to see a black city council.
You don't know what it is to only have known black marriage.
Speaker 11
You got so goddamn happy about Obama, you could appeased yourself. I ain't never known nothing but black leadership.
That's it. My guy.
Speaker 11 Baby Jackson, and then good luck trying to get another with it. Yeah, that's all I'm saying.
Speaker 11 So I don't have the capacity to tolerate some of the shit y'all be talking because y'all don't know what y'all talking about. Again, all my heroes and enemies look like me.
Speaker 11 All my heroes and enemies, what I was growing up, look like me. I grew up in an all-black neighborhood.
Speaker 11 My neighborhood wasn't a form of Fair Street Bottom or Buttermilk Bottom, which were real neighborhoods in Atlanta. I didn't grow up in the bluff.
Speaker 11
I ended up buying apartments in the bluff as the bluff is re, and the bluff's only two miles from the dome. As the bluff is changing, I'm a part of that change.
I grew up in the Carl Your Heights.
Speaker 11 I I grew up in where these working class people, 900 square foot houses, grew up white with the Russells, who were the biggest black developers in the nation at the time. That's who I grew up with.
Speaker 11 I grew up with the people that built the Fulner County Stadium in the dome.
Speaker 11 So, nigga, you can't tell me nothing impossible because I could ride my bike three streets back and see a black house with an indoor pool, tennis court, and basketball court.
Speaker 11
So, the fuck you going to tell me? Nigga, you talking about your imagination. I'm talking about some shit I've seen for real.
You know what I mean? So, I don't listen to y'all Negroes.
Speaker 11 Just know when you write that kind of shit, I giggle, I roll over my big old bed, my $11,000 bed.
Speaker 11 i get up you know that my wife got for four thousand dollars you know what i'm saying i wake up and i yawn i look at y'all like man y'all don't know what y'all talking about because you ain't never seen nothing that's why that's why you tend to only think it's an impossibility it can't possibly happen because you've never seen it your grandfather didn't tell you about jack johnson so you didn't know you could whoop no ass you didn't you didn't know who tiger flowers is tiger flowers middleweight champion they call him the deacon out of georgia on the mansion right there in dixie hills So when you walk by the fire station, you get to read about this man.
Speaker 11
You never stop to read, nigga. You don't know what the f ⁇ you're talking about.
I read The Wretched Nerd. I read Franz Fanon.
Speaker 11 I read all these books. But I also read why should White Guy Always Have All the Fun.
Speaker 11
I've also read some Thomas Soul. I also read some Walt T.
Williams. So I read enough to take a look from here, to take a look from there, and to form my own.
Speaker 11
If you only read and are instructed by you read, you're just a clone. You know, I read that nigga book.
He read that book.
Speaker 11 He ain't do nothing but quote a bunch of other people to tell me what I can't do.
Speaker 11 Shut up. I'm out here doing it.
Speaker 11
You professor. Professor, what they say.
They say those who can do, do.
Speaker 11 Those who can do, those that can't teach.
Speaker 11 And those who can't and don't know how to teach teachers.
Speaker 11 Talk to me about DEI.
Speaker 11
That becomes, you know, I've heard a lot of. Diversity, equity, inclusion.
Yes. I mean, I think if you can get it, get it.
But if you can't, no, just understand you can't and make away.
Speaker 11 I think DEI is best served when politically we put the pressure. There are federal grants and loans that should be given to you that aren't given to you right now.
Speaker 11 That don't have nothing to do with just overt DI programs because let's say DEI programs work for white women too. They work for immigrant populations.
Speaker 11
They got a chance to jump ahead of you and things of that nature. But my thing is whatever you can make work, work.
So if DEI is working, work it.
Speaker 11
But if it ain't working, you got to find something else to work. But work it.
What works better than DEI is having politicians that understand the need for it. George Wallace was a white politician.
Speaker 11 George Wallace was a van who essentially said segregation down forever. George Wallace got shot and then getting shot, he saw Jesus.
Speaker 11
He must have saw Jesus was black. Because after that, his administration was blacker than any other administration before or after.
So you didn't have to tell him about D.I.
Speaker 11 because he all of a sudden understood once being shot, oh shit, I need to change my ways and models and thinking. Black people coming out of slavery were the most skilled workforce in this nation.
Speaker 11
And they understood capitalism. They understood business in a way that other people didn't.
If they didn't, they wouldn't have been able to build things like the landlife insurance company.
Speaker 11
If they didn't, the blacksmith wouldn't have been able to say the master. Well, boss, he won't call a master no more.
Well, boss, you know, I can do the work, it's going to cost you now.
Speaker 11 We understood capitalism when we were still slaves. So I used to wonder how when they would say, well, how does a family buy their freedom?
Speaker 11 Well, they rented their own self-out on Fridays, I mean, on Sundays, because every landowner wasn't a slave owner.
Speaker 11
You had some people that were just middle class, were working class, that were poor class. They didn't have the ability to have an extra seven hands.
So those people would then say, hey,
Speaker 11 if your guy lets you work for me on Sunday, I need you on Sunday.
Speaker 11 You go negotiate a price, then you pay your master out 60%, you keep it 40%, you save until you bought your own freedom, bought your wife, freedom, bought your children, freedom.
Speaker 11 So it's not like you don't understand capitalism, but the question becomes: how are you going to make it work for you?
Speaker 11 How are you going to make sure that the gas stations you go to are owned by you? How are you going to make sure that the dollar is turning in your community beyond your church? You've done it before.
Speaker 11 I don't have all the answers, but I do know that the guy who does my HVAC lives in the same neighborhood as T.I.
Speaker 11 You know, I do know that. I know he makes as much money doing HVAC as we make singing and goddamn dancing.
Speaker 11 And we have the opportunity to use our minds in this country to advance ourselves in a way that other black folks globally are not. And we should take advantage of that.
Speaker 11 And now the companies that don't want to play fair, punish their ass. Punish their ass by not supporting them.
Speaker 11
I like what Jamal Bryan has done, right or wrong, showing Target, hey man, I can knock you down a quarter. I like what T.I.
did with Gucci.
Speaker 11
When T.I. said, hey, man, we're going to knock Gucci down a quarter.
They work. Now, Gucci was smart.
They went and got Simone Sanders. They said, hey, Simone, we need you.
Speaker 11
We need you in that pretty haircut. And your mom, we give you some purse.
We give you some money. But T.I.
showed their ass. He bumped their ass down.
And
Speaker 11
they had to haze. They had to tighten up.
So it ain't nothing wrong with showing companies they have to tighten up. You know, ain't nothing wrong with that.
Freedom of speech.
Speaker 11 We saw what happened with Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaker 11 I guess they didn't agree with the marks that he made about Charlie Kirk, who tragically lost his life at a rally in Utah. And they took him off the air.
Speaker 11
I think one of the biggest Sinclair said, we're not going to put him back on. But ABC Disney has reinstated him.
Yeah, he should be.
Speaker 11
Where are we headed with this, Mike? A scary place. Freedom of speech.
If you don't believe in freedoms of speech for those you vehemently disagree with, you don't believe in freedom of speech.
Speaker 11 And what scared me most about freedom of speech, I think Noam Chomsky said that, but what scares me most about freedom of speech is everybody only want it for their side. Yes.
Speaker 11
And I'm pro freedom of speech for all sides. Eric Nielsen wrote a book called Wrap on Trial.
I wrote the foreword for it.
Speaker 11 But we're figuring out maybe putting together a tour of some sort because we have to get back in this country to having hard conversations with one another. And that requires freedom of speech.
Speaker 11 It requires that I'm going to listen to something I may not like that will make me uncomfortable. But in listening to that, I'm going to learn or impart a wisdom or that goes both ways.
Speaker 11
We have reciprocity, but that's what makes this republic different. That's what makes this republic great.
Hey, man, I got no problems against Europe.
Speaker 11 They got some cool museums and old shit over there. They got some nice food a couple places, but I do not like hate speech laws
Speaker 11
the United Kingdom. Like, how you gonna give me a hate speech law? You ain't gave me my artifacts from Africa back yet.
Shit, you're gonna make it so I can't even say I want my shit back.
Speaker 11 You know what I mean? So I would warn Americans against any restrictions on your First Amendment. Because that restricts you from protesting police officers.
Speaker 11 That restricts you from congregating religiously. It restricts you from policing and talking down on politicians you may not agree with.
Speaker 11
It restricts you from public assembly. So I'm going to just say, I'd rather have the uncomfortable conversations where we disagree.
That's it. That's it.
Speaker 11
James Baldwin. Say we can disagree and still love you as long as your disagreement isn't draped in my lack of humanity.
Come on, man. Come on, man.
That's him. That's him, man.
James, man, that man.
Speaker 11 I mean, some of the stuff that he said, you, and like, you know, when our grandparents used to talk to us, Mike,
Speaker 11
I didn't didn't know at the time what they were actually saying. It was when I got much older, because they talked in parables.
They talked in phrases. They didn't come out and say, don't do this.
Speaker 11 You know, my grandfather used to say, boy, don't make me chew this food twice. I'm like, you're going to chew it more than that.
Speaker 11
But he was saying, don't make him repeat himself. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Because they wanted to raise thinkers.
Speaker 11
They wanted you to understand that this thing that resting between your ears is a tool for you to use. Not be used by it.
Don't be used by anxiety. Don't be used by pressure.
Speaker 11
Don't be used by overthinking. Use this tool to look at the problem and solve the problem.
And once I've solved the problem once, I don't need to keep revisiting the problem, trying to save it twice.
Speaker 11 My grandfather, man, I'm talking about, he would tell me, well, what is they learning you in school?
Speaker 11 And what I realized is over the last 60 years, public schools hadn't learned us as much as we should be learning because they're not truly trying to raise thinkers.
Speaker 11 They're trying to raise people that go along with the program.
Speaker 11
You got people now that tell you what you can and can't say, and they've never read the Bill of Rights. They've never read the United States Constitution.
It's a beautiful document in its aspiration.
Speaker 11 Doesn't mean we've always lived up to it, but in its aspiration. You know,
Speaker 11 there's a brother man,
Speaker 11 brother named Chad.
Speaker 11 I like the brother.
Speaker 11
He's a plumber. I like him because he's a tradesman, but he's an intellectual.
But this brother's been going on a terrible rant about Dr. King.
Speaker 11
He's probably going to put this up on a clip, and I hope he do. But I'm saying it's unfair.
I support your right to say anything you want to say.
Speaker 11
He's very much against Marxism and communism, but he's taking some low blows to me in talking about Dr. King.
And I say, I wonder who's funding my brother. He's a black man.
Speaker 11 And the reason I say that is, because you can talk about Dr. King being an alleged perverter, having orgies, things of that nature, having multiple women.
Speaker 11
But we aren't talking about our founding fathers as sex traffickers. Benjamin Franklin had a 13-year-old girl, black girl.
Oh, they were in love. No, they weren't.
Speaker 11 He was sexually assaulting that girl. She was his property.
Speaker 11 George Washington owned 300 human beings and I'm sure took advantage. I sit here right now as a product of Crawford Long's family.
Speaker 11 Someone in Crawford Long's family had sex with someone that was owned or enslaved, which led to the Long family out of North Georgia, Michael Render's mother's maternal family, and I'm related to Crawford Long, the man who invented anesthesia for the battlefield for the Civil War.
Speaker 11 I'm here because of a rape.
Speaker 11 And if you're going to criticize Dr. King and you don't find time to criticize the so many white men that founded our country, then that tells me that somebody's paying you to do what you're doing.
Speaker 11 And although I support your ability, I support your rights to do that, I'm saying that we got to play the game fair, Bubba. We got to play the game fair.
Speaker 11 And we got to say, oftentimes, great men fall short of the glory of God, but that don't mean they can't be redeemed. And that does not mean that dream isn't a redeeming thing.
Speaker 11
Because I didn't know Dr. King, but I knew everybody who knew him.
I knew Hosea Williams. I know Andy Young.
I knew Joseph Lowry. I knew James Orange.
Speaker 11 And what I know is these men are stoic in terms of the way they live their life.
Speaker 11 And as young men, who might, who knows how wild they may have been, but I know that as they've got older, the wisdom that they gave us as young men and the wisdom that they gave us now is priceless.
Speaker 11 So, as a man, I'm gonna fall short and I'm gonna make some mistakes. Right, my wife might show up at 357 one day, but
Speaker 11 I guarantee you after I talked to my auntie Deborah,
Speaker 11 I tightened up. You know what I mean? So, I just want to encourage us to say, While we are defending that First Amendment, let's make sure that we're looking at the rules fair for everyone.
Speaker 11
What are some of the changes? I'm going to make you president. You president of the United States.
I'm going to give you, you got four years. Yeah.
Speaker 11 What you going to do? Create a reparations plan that's going to get African Americans proper education and trades and intellectual education.
Speaker 11 It's going to get African Americans proper financial education. It's going to give them land grants and the ability to own the land of their ancestors along, particularly in the Southeast.
Speaker 11 54% of African Americans live in the Southeast. I think that 54% of the investment should be there.
Speaker 11 I think that there should be a heavy investment in terms of making sure that that class of people is brought up because when the African American economy and the community is doing better, this whole country does better.
Speaker 11 I would make a pathway toward legal citizenship easier. I would create bilingual classes very early so that we can communicate to one another.
Speaker 11
I would return trades to high schools on the federal level. I would support that.
I would guarantee trades programs in high schools. I also would guarantee minority businesses,
Speaker 11 construction, like the Ali construction company down in Georgia, that they can get more federal grants.
Speaker 11 These are the construction company I'm telling you about now, is the ones who build all the furniture in the Delta VIP lounge, black company. I would make sure that we have a vested interest.
Speaker 11 I would make sure that public school returns to the greatness of what public schools was in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, meaning physical education is important, artistic and music education is important, and your reading, writing, and arithmetic is important.
Speaker 11 I try to say, why were we so effective in public education, even all through college in the 50s and 60s, and where did we feel off from? I would take debt out of college.
Speaker 11 I would forgive all college debt. I would make state schools more open to state kids again.
Speaker 11 I would start to support older people in a way that they would be engaged. I would make the retirement age earlier instead of later.
Speaker 11 And those that did have that didn't have the option of retiring, I would give them some type of government subsidized job where they could help, whether it be voting booths or librarians or something.
Speaker 11 So, those are some of the things I would do because I believe when you have a society that can take care of themselves, that can make money and turn a dollar, it creates a more effective society than not.
Speaker 11 Wow.
Speaker 11 Upbringing.
Speaker 11
Your mom had you at 16. Yeah.
You were raised by your grandparents.
Speaker 11
Talk to me about this. I mean, you've heard different, like, women can raise men, but they need a...
What is it? Where are you on this black?
Speaker 1 What a matchup we got, y'all.
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Speaker 5 The band is rocking and the crowd lit.
Speaker 6 Chants echo.
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Speaker 8 Everybody's showing that school pride.
Speaker 6 Game like this?
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Speaker 27 So grab a Coca-Cola and keep that HBCU pride going.
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Speaker 11
Women raising black boys. Man, I'm going to say it take a village.
I like the village concept. That's how it was when we were.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like everybody was your pair.
Speaker 11
Got the Miss Ophelia might say. The lady down the street can be.
If you back it up,
Speaker 11
I'm going to tell you. I'm going to tell you.
Grandma, Miss Ophelia. Hey, boy.
Boy. Yes, ma'am.
Where you going? The candy lady. Your mama know where you're going? Yes, ma'am.
Hold on.
Speaker 11 She'll go in another room and call. Betty.
Speaker 11 Betty,
Speaker 11
this boy, you had a fat one. He going down there to the candy lady.
If you tell him he can eat some candy, okay. Well, I guess you can go on there.
And while you're gone, make sure you bring me.
Speaker 11 And I'm just like,
Speaker 11 like, damn, Miss it's okay. You could have just asked me to bring you.
Speaker 11
You know what I mean? So it's like, I believe in the village concept. I remember, man, Denise, getting on me so bad one time.
And she said, I'm sorry. You know, Denise is my mommy.
Speaker 11
I said, she said, I'm sorry. I got to be so hard on you, but you're the only son I got.
I don't get a second chance.
Speaker 11
You know, my grandmother told Shay one time, she said, she said, she said, he was so bad. She said, I hate I had to beat him so much, but he was so bad.
And what she really meant is I was adventurous.
Speaker 11
I was curious. I was terrible at times.
You know, but she knew that if I didn't impart a certain amount of discipline on this boy, he was gonna go wild. Yes, my grandfather only spanked me once.
Speaker 11 Shit, he had me cry.
Speaker 11 And my grandfather.
Speaker 11 I didn't expect it from my guy, man. But he was so loving.
Speaker 11 And I realized him not having a father, having to drop out of school in the third grade, having to work in a sawmill at nine years old to support his sisters and his mother.
Speaker 11 He understood how to be a father because he had been robbed of that opportunity himself. So he was the best to me and my sisters.
Speaker 11 I come in in the bedroom sometimes, and because my grandfather was, you know, real yellow with the curly hair, my sisters had borets in his hair.
Speaker 11
He's just sitting there on the bed, looking at the Braves gang, letting them do whatever they want to do. Because he understood that this is bigger than how I'm perceived.
And you know, anybody.
Speaker 11 So when it came time for me to have to put on my sister prom dress while my grandma hemmed it, I'm standing there, my buddies looking at the window, laughing at me. I'm like, nigga, I don't care.
Speaker 11
This is my sister. I got to do this for my little sister.
So for me,
Speaker 11 I take the village approach, which means mothers.
Speaker 11 You're going to have to allow your young man, if his father is absent via you all don't get along or God forbid, death or prison or something, you're going to have to allow the other men that you trust, not just a guy you're dating or you might know, but the guy who's dating you who says, I'm in with you now, I'm in with you to raise this boy.
Speaker 11 You're going to have to give him, you're going to have to give him some authority over that boy. If he has an uncle, your brother, you're going to have to get some authority over that boy.
Speaker 11 You're going to have to get that boy in things like Next Level Boys Academy that garris davis runs like bear strong which bear um from the neighborhood down in college park you're gonna have to give up because mothering is an it's an authoritarian it's an absolute i'm your mother i made the sacrifice for you god sent you through me and we and we're indebted to that until we not and then we get wild i had a call from a friend of mine yesterday she's like mike i just don't know what to do these boys they were in regular school i took them out he in alternate school now i found out he's not going alternate school and she say i'm fearing the worst down i'm just gonna have to put him out i said well well, let's first sit down.
Speaker 11
Let's have a talk with him. Let's get him with Gary Davis.
Let's have a talk with him at next level. And let's just say, hey, you know, as a mom, I'm so frustrated now.
Speaker 11
I don't know what to do with you. I'm about to put you out.
And I don't want to put you out, but you're not holding up your end of the bargain.
Speaker 11 See, it used to be understood in our community, your bargain was that I brought you a diploma. No matter what happened, your sacrifice requires me to bring you a high school diploma.
Speaker 11 You're sure your grandparents said
Speaker 11 that was it, right? Right? So for me, we have to start to set these regulations back up. And women, Lord knows I love you to death.
Speaker 11 But man, if the government divorced you tomorrow, you wouldn't have nothing but us.
Speaker 11
See, because the government could divorce you tomorrow, they've shown you that. They fired the ones that worked for them.
It won't be so long before they tighten it up on welfare.
Speaker 11
And I'm not saying every black woman's on welfare because more white people are on welfare. Absolutely.
They call it snap. They give it a whole new cool name and shit.
Speaker 11
Snap of the heels. They change the name.
Your ass at the EBT. I seen a white man, some goddamn closet, the goddamn EBT going like
Speaker 11
you get in the way of that too. You know what I mean? So for me, we better start turning inward toward each other.
And we better start figuring out how to save these young men from themselves.
Speaker 11 And that discipline can happen from the village. And I think that we have to return to a village-minded concept.
Speaker 11 Mike,
Speaker 11
when did this happen that we became so envious of one another? Like, Mike got it. Man, I don't know why he got it.
I don't know why he bought that car. I don't know why he's doing so well.
Speaker 11 When did that, Mike,
Speaker 11 it wasn't like that.
Speaker 11
Maybe I didn't see it. Maybe everybody was like us.
Nobody had any more than anybody else.
Speaker 11 So they couldn't say why he had such and such because they didn't have no running water or no indoor plumbing either. You act like the people who own you.
Speaker 11 We've become too American. You know, Americans will sell you a dream of
Speaker 11 rugged individualism and having more through hard work, but they don't tell you how much they cooperate behind your back. Them state senators in Georgia cooperated.
Speaker 11 And that's why they got the financial and physical advantage over so many people,
Speaker 11
poor, black, and white, underneath them. We have to learn that cooperation is going to be the way again.
Envy doesn't bring you, envy comparison is a thief of joy. Oh man, I was so happy.
Speaker 11
We used to be in Tuskegee the first few days I'm down there. I'm like, we ain't got no goddamn video games.
We ain't got no, we can just want TV.
Speaker 11
Man, by the third, fourth day, you'd have forgot all that exists because you just on a farm with your cousins. Yep.
Hanging out. You free all day.
Yep.
Speaker 11
You know, running outside with shorts and no shirt on. Just running.
And there's a freedom in that. So
Speaker 11 I think that I'm going to say that a lot of the people, most of the people that are telling you how great their life is on Instagram are lying and capping and flexing.
Speaker 11 Decide what makes you happy and really, really just decide what makes you happy and aim toward that. And man, stop comparing yourself to other people.
Speaker 11 Stop comparing yourself because you ain't had to suffer the suffering they've had to suffer. You don't know what they went through.
Speaker 11
Boy, I heard that so many times in my life. You don't know what they had to do to get it.
You know, go listen to that song Jezebel by Sade. Yep.
Speaker 11 You know, when she talks about a new dress that that woman is wearing and, boy, you never know what she had to do to get it. Oh, bad.
Speaker 11 Looks like a princess in her new dress. Come on, man.
Speaker 11 How did you get that? Do you really want to know? She said. Do you really want to know? That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 11 Everybody got something to say bad about a dancer because they ain't never been forced to dance. But them girls get up there, they do their jobs, man.
Speaker 11
But man, them same girls that be at church, same girls start their businesses. So don't envy.
Don't envy. Envy is a thief of joy.
I almost felt myself envy a friend one time.
Speaker 11
I checked myself so quick, I literally had to go in the bathroom and talk to myself. Like, what's wrong with you? Wow.
This is your friend. Yeah.
Like, what's wrong with you? You know what I mean?
Speaker 11
Like, I had to have a talk with myself, but that evil never got back in my ear again. Right.
You know. Mike, you had a relationship with your grandmother, like I had with mine.
Yeah.
Speaker 11
And I remember when my grandmother was about to leave, and I remember coming back in the room, and I held her my arm, and I said, Granny, I got it. Yeah.
I said, you don't have to worry about mama.
Speaker 11
You don't have to worry about spanking Libby. I got it.
I said, you done your job.
Speaker 11 I said, you can go now in peace.
Speaker 11 And probably a week later, she was gone. But she just needed me to reassure her
Speaker 11 that her baby could hold it down.
Speaker 11 Because now
Speaker 11 I'm in charge.
Speaker 11 Your grandmother passed in your arms. Yeah, I'm a girl, man.
Speaker 11 What, I mean,
Speaker 11 because I slept with my grandmother until I was 15, Mike. Yeah, come on, man.
Speaker 11
I was going to be a sophomore in high school, and I'm sleeping in the bed. When my grandfather died, I slept with my grandmother.
My brother slept with my grandfather. My grandfather died in 77.
Speaker 11
I didn't get out of the bed with my grandmother until 83. Yeah, man.
Yeah.
Speaker 11 So what she meant and to see
Speaker 11 the woman that you love so much that poured everything into you
Speaker 11
and the life just leaves. Man, this girl had been trying to get me to believe in the Lord my whole life.
Not that I didn't believe. I just had questions.
Speaker 11
Just like, man. Because you've been an inquisitive kid.
Yeah, I'm just like, man, I don't really get it. You know what I'm saying? Like,
Speaker 11
and I remember remember we was at Shelter and Arms, man. Shouts out to that organization and that Take Care.
My daughter, Mikey, went there. Now she's freshman in Hampton.
Speaker 11 They're having a Black History Month because
Speaker 11 she died
Speaker 11 in a leap year on the last day. And
Speaker 11
the guy told us he had to park down and walk up. I said, mommy, you sure? I said I could dry you up.
No, no, I'm fine walking. And we walked, we got about halfway up the hill, man.
Speaker 11
She thought her name was too plain. It was Betty with an IE.
So I called her Beatrice. I said, that fancy enough for you beat right i said beat
Speaker 11 i'll take you she said no i don't walk and we walked and we got about halfway up the hill but we had just had an argument
Speaker 11 i picked up and i'm taking her down there and her mother had gotten married and her mother
Speaker 11 was married to a solid dude you know he was kind of dude coach football and um he had actually coached my youngest son pony and he was involved in
Speaker 11
and kids in the community. So I liked him enough.
I told him, you know, if we going to both father this child, we have to have have a relationship.
Speaker 11 You know, he ain't gonna just get to be over my daughter and we don't talk.
Speaker 11 We got to chop it up. You my friend now, both, you know.
Speaker 11 I asked my grandma, I see,
Speaker 11 why are you talking to me about
Speaker 11 being married? You know what I mean? She said, well, I've been thinking. I'm like, what you been thinking?
Speaker 11 Why don't you just let him adopt her? I mean, you got three other kids.
Speaker 11 I've lost my goddamn mind.
Speaker 11
I lost my motherfucking mind. I said shit to my grandma.
I said, what the f ⁇ you talking about?
Speaker 11 I'm talking to the woman that rapes that used to beat my ass with switches i'm like what like what do you i finally figured my life out i finally got stable i've gotten married i have i have i can take care of i can do this now and um after i went on a rent she said something she never said she my grandmother she did something wrong out of bed she said i beg your pardon you know i beg your pardon But she said, I hurt your feelings.
Speaker 11
I said, yeah, mama, and I'm damn near crying. I said, what are you going to say something like that for? I said, mother, her name's Michael.
The f ⁇ another f ⁇ gonna raise Michael.
Speaker 11 You know what I mean? I'm looking like, I'm gonna let another,
Speaker 11 her name can't be nothing but Michael Render.
Speaker 11 She said, I'm sorry.
Speaker 11 And we rode there and the guy instructed us, we had to walk up. And when she got up the hill, she looked at me
Speaker 11 and she looked past me and she seen something.
Speaker 11 And I just couldn't take my eyes off her, but I knew I was witnessing in that moment something.
Speaker 11
And when she seen something, she smiled. And she looked back at me, and she smiled, and she put her arms around me, and she was gone.
I was by myself.
Speaker 11
I was in the presence. It was that quick.
It was that quick. I was in the presence.
But that moment of my
Speaker 11 spirit, my mother, because my grandmother raised me, I was in that moment with her. and with our Creator.
Speaker 11 And then she looked at me and it was as though she said, I've done my job.
Speaker 11 I've done my job and I'm gone. And I remember
Speaker 11 attempting CPR on her.
Speaker 11 And then it was just like the spirit that came over me and just said, I got her.
Speaker 11
She's gone. And since that day, I have not stopped working.
Since that day, blessings have not stopped pouring in. Since that day, and that day made me a believer that I am here for a purpose.
Speaker 11 I don't know that purpose, but I know I have one. I know I'm on a journey set forth by a righteous and divine being.
Speaker 11 And man, I tell you what, the utter absurdity of having a mother that's only 16 years older than you, my mother told me in the funeral car, as we're going to the grave site, she spazzed on me, on my uncle, who's autistic, on everybody.
Speaker 11
Me and Shay in the car, she's like, that shit went down. You got to be with my mom once you die.
And I was like, I don't want the f ⁇ ing job.
Speaker 11 something Denise was used to be cursing like I didn't want the job like
Speaker 11 she said it ain't there you think that's your mama I'm your mama
Speaker 11 and one day I'm gonna be gone and you gonna realize that and god damn it she died on me
Speaker 11 she died on me like six seven years later
Speaker 11 And when she died on me, it hit me that
Speaker 11 my mother at 16 years old made a decision like the woman in the parable of Solomon when they came before two women said this is my child and Solomon said well cut them in half and give each half and the one who was really the mother said no nope I give this child to you because it'll be better raised and that's when I realized man I'm so blessed I'm so blessed my my grandmother was such a good mother to me.
Speaker 11 She was such an impression that I had, I found a woman and married a woman that was just like her. She was, her and my grandfather gave the second half of their life up to raise me.
Speaker 11
So you compliment my intelligence. You complimenting them.
You compliment an illiterate man from Edenton, Georgia, who would sit me in his lap and say, read to me.
Speaker 11 You compliment a girl from a big family that owned land in Tuskegee that said, I'm going to take these kids and show them that it isn't about material stuff, but it's about what's in your head and your heart.
Speaker 11 You took that, but a 16-year-old girl said that i'm gonna allow my mama to raise this baby because he don't have a better shot oh man that's when i really realized like
Speaker 11 oh man i realized that that that god favors me and my mother was a part of that favoring because as much as a mother as my grandmother was the choice to give me up to her by my mother is probably the most important decision that's ever been made for me and i i wish you know the crae got me here tip on a song that i'll call headphones and if my mother really did have headphones right now in heaven, I'd just tell her, thank you.
Speaker 11 Just thank you so much. I tell people that same story.
Speaker 11 My grandmother, my mom
Speaker 11 sending my brother, my sister, and myself to my grandmother.
Speaker 11 And my grandmother raising my mom's three
Speaker 11 and loving my mom's three more than she loved her own.
Speaker 11 I say, sometimes the best decision, it doesn't involve you.
Speaker 11 Man,
Speaker 11 and people don't understand. Sometimes you can only under, sometimes
Speaker 11 things can only be seen through the eyes that have cried. Yep.
Speaker 11
I know this story because I lived it. Amen.
You know my story because you lived it. Amen.
Amen. And you have a greater appreciation
Speaker 11 because there ain't no question in my mind. Your grandmother loved you more than she loved her own kid.
Speaker 11
And that's why your mom said what she said. Boy.
Boy.
Speaker 11 I get it. I understand.
Speaker 11 That's all I wish I could. I understand.
Speaker 11
What's next with Killerman? I don't know. I just know God got somewhere for me to go.
It's my job to be dressed and showered and ready.
Speaker 11 You know,
Speaker 11 I know that I have things to fulfill with people I love that I made promises to. I know that ultimately my promise is to the person I look in the mirror and I say, I'm going to do this for you.
Speaker 11 I know that Shay and I have somewhere to go and grow. I know my children, I got to make sure they can take care of themselves before I get out of here.
Speaker 11
I pray that I'm around to see grandchildren and great-grands. So I'm 25 more pounds down.
I'm out the 300 club. So that's the immediate goal.
What'd you try to get down to? I was up the family 420.
Speaker 11 What? I'm down to 325 now. So
Speaker 11
you're going to get on the three. You know me? I'm getting on the three.
That's the goal. Get on the three.
Tighten up. Like my girl said.
Shay, you got to start cooking, Shay. You see cooking.
Speaker 11 But I
Speaker 11
help a brother out. No, I'll give you this.
In the immediate, I want y'all drinking this because this is really good. And Ellen, I worked hard.
Speaker 11 In the immediate, I want y'all to listen to me on Conversate because I'm talking about some real things. In the immediate, I'm going to put up a newsletter soon and a place about this.
Speaker 11
I want y'all to, if you can't get to the swag shop, get some products. In the immediate, I'm going to keep truth-telling.
I'm going to keep, I'm about to go in. We're about to make another Michael.
Speaker 11
If Elle is in Amsterdam and he calls me and says, hey, man, I got all the beasts from Running Jewels 5. I'll fly to Amsterdam and we'll get that done.
But I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing.
Speaker 11 And ultimately, it's what my grandmother said. I'm going to keep doing good and I'm going to keep doing what I'm supposed to do.
Speaker 11 Kill a mic, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 11
I appreciate that. That was excellent.
Absolutely. That was excellent.
Speaker 11
Sacrifice, hustle, paid the price. One a slice.
Got the roll of dice. That's why.
All my life. I've been grinding all my life.
Speaker 11 All my life, been grinding all my life.
Speaker 11
Sacrifice, hustle, paid the price. Want a slice.
Got the roll of dice. That's why.
All my life. I've been grinding all my life.
Speaker 1 What a matchup we got, y'all.
Speaker 3 This is that classic HBCU vibe.
Speaker 6 Non-stop action, the band is rocking and the crowd lick, chants echo, drum beating, everybody showing that school pride. Game like this?
Speaker 10 Yeah, it calls for an ice-cold Coca-Cola.
Speaker 12 Ah, crisp and refreshing.
Speaker 13 That's a game changer right there.
Speaker 11 Mmm, yeah.
Speaker 2 That taste always hits the right note, just like the band at halftime.
Speaker 15 And just like that, we're back out.
Speaker 18 Passionate fans, school colors everywhere, and an ice cold Coca-Cola?
Speaker 21 That's a winning combo.
Speaker 24 No matter the sport, no matter the yard, everybody knows.
Speaker 11 Fan work is thirsty work.
Speaker 27 So grab a Coca-Cola and keep that HBCU pride going.
Speaker 34 Did you know Microsoft has officially ended support for Windows 10?
Speaker 36 Upgrade to Windows 11 with an LG Gram laptop.
Speaker 37 Voted PC Mag's Reader's Choice Top Laptop Brand for 2025.
Speaker 39 Thin and ultra lightweight, the LG Gram keeps you productive anywhere.
Speaker 40 and Windows 11 gives you access to free security updates and ongoing feature upgrades.
Speaker 43 Visit lgusa.com slash iHeart for great seasonal savings on LG Gram laptops with Windows 11.
Speaker 32 PC Mag Reader's Choice used with permission.
Speaker 11 All rights reserved.
Speaker 45 Season 2 of Unrivaled Basketball is here and the talent is unreal.
Speaker 46 Paige Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plum, Brianna Stewart, and more are back to redefine the game.
Speaker 44 Unrivaled Basketball, season two sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5th on TNT, True TV, and HBO Max.
Speaker 51 Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously.
Speaker 57 On Public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI.
Speaker 61 It all starts with your prompt.
Speaker 64 From renewable energy companies with high-free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work.
Speaker 68 It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one-of-a-kind index, and lets you backtest it against the S ⁇ P 500.
Speaker 70 Then you can invest in a few clicks.
Speaker 33 Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's.
Speaker 65 Go to public.com slash podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio.
Speaker 76 That's public.com slash podcast.
Speaker 64 Paid for by Public Investing.
Speaker 78 Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc., member FINRA SIPC.
Speaker 79 Advisory Services by Public Advisors LLC.
Speaker 77 SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool.
Speaker 81 Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice.
Speaker 62 Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures.
Speaker 82 Ready for seven days of discovery? For the first time, South by Southwest brings innovation, film and TV, and music together. Running concurrently across Austin, March 12th through 18th.
Speaker 82 Experience bold storytelling, groundbreaking ideas, and live performances that define what's next. The most unexpected discoveries happen when creative worlds collide at South by Southwest.
Speaker 82 Start planning your adventure and register today at sxsw.com/slash iHeart.