Club Shay Shay - Killer Mike Part 1

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Steph Curry.

Aisha Curry.

I apologize for my statement being misconstrued.

I was just stoned up trying to make a joke out of it.

What's something that it wasn't my damn business, like my wife said?

Steph did something that all us brothers with women should do, and that's stand up and defend.

No matter if somebody step on a foot, no matter if they did it or not, man, check and say, hey, man, you didn't say excuse me.

So let me say again, Aisha, Steph, excuse me.

I apologize deeply.

And I'm searching for your address so I may send y'all some of this Paloma.

Y'all Y'all may make more love, make beautiful lights near babies.

Sacrifice, hustle, paid the price.

Want a slice, got to roll the dice.

That's why, all my life, I've been grinding all my life.

All my life, been grinding all my life.

Sacrifice, hustle, paid the price.

Want a slice, got to roll the dice.

That's why, all my life, I've been grinding all my life.

Hello, welcome to another episode of Club Shay Shay.

I am your host, Shannon Sharp.

I'm also the proprietor of Club Shay Shay.

Stopping by for conversation and a drink today is a four-time Grammy Award-winning rapper, an Emmy Award-winning host, the ultimate hyphen, a rapper, actor, outspoken social activist, celebrated cultural commentator, and an entrepreneur.

He's an advocate for the disenfranchised, a frequent public speaker on politics, race, and equality.

He's earned the first ever Billboard Changemaker Award, an influential figure, a respected artist, a decorated veteran MC, an elite wordsmith, a hit maker, an Atlanta icon.

He's hip-hop royalty.

Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Killer Mike.

Oh, no.

I appreciate that, man.

Better, I appreciate you, man.

Thank you.

We've been trying to make this happen for a minute.

I understand that you're very busy, but you took time out of your schedule today to grace my audience with an opportunity to hear you, and I appreciate that.

Man, I appreciate you.

And let me say, man, let me start by saying congratulations to you and Sterling, man, being the first brothers of that gold coding.

Now, man, it's going to be many to come, many after, but boy, only one first.

Only one first.

And you and your brother, Ben, as a Georgia boy, y'all been heroes of mine a very long time.

I appreciate that, sir.

Man, I got my own Kanyak killer, Mike.

I don't know you, but I want to celebrate you.

I got to celebrate.

I mean, a Grammy Award winner, you've been at this thing for a minute, and we're going to talk about this during the interview, but you got your flowers.

Yeah, they might have not came when you wanted them to come, but they came.

They came.

You got them.

Hey, let me tell you what's cool, man.

Is I

only drink about four or five times a year.

What is one type of hate?

And I got a Paloma remix that me and my guy made.

Me and LP, I'm one half of Run the Jewels.

We made out of a Mezcal and grapefruit juice.

Why don't you try it out?

Tell me if you like it.

So, but what is it?

What is this?

Give it a sip.

I don't know what I'm for you drinking.

I know I taste grapefruit.

You taste grapefruit?

Yeah.

Well, it's a mezcal in there, too.

The smokier, heavier taste is a mezcal.

Yeah.

Comes out of Mexico.

His wife's grandmother, his wife would bring him Mezcal from Mexico.

He fell in love with it.

And it chased that yak pretty good.

You're going to have a party that night, man.

You got to be meeting.

Oh, man.

There we go.

Come on, man.

Do something with me, man.

Don't act like that.

But you try to do something for too something.

There we go.

I don't know how this gonna go after this one, man.

It started well.

Mike, we got to get right into it.

Yeah.

You got into a little verbal, not, I mean.

Oh, no, stop.

Hold on, stop.

Steph Curry.

Aisha Curry.

Boy, my wife cussed me out.

Shake out.

My oldest daughter called me.

My youngest daughter called me.

My homeboys that played in the NBA called me.

And I realized maybe I shouldn't smoke marijuana and get on.

So, Steph, let me say this because I appreciated you checking it because it showed me you have a tremendous amount of respect for me.

I was trying to say to the comedian, go easy on Steph.

And I just typed something stupid.

My homegirl, Tesla Figueroa, man, our political fighter and activist, she said, bro, you don't understand how this could be misread.

And I read it and I said, damn.

So, Step, let me say, man, since my favorite player ever turned me on to you, Kobe Bryant, Kobe being Bryant told me you would have to follow.

You've heard this story before.

You have been my guy.

The only time I don't cheer for you is when you're playing against the Hawks because the Hawks are my guys.

Shouts out to Ice Trey.

But I got to say, first and foremost,

Mrs.

Aisha Curry and her husband, Step, I apologize for my statement being misconstrued.

I was just stoned up trying to make a joke out of it.

What's up,

it wasn't my damn business, like my wife said.

So I'm sorry, y'all.

And see, that's the thing.

Knowing you like I know you, you don't really

delve into other people's affairs.

Hi, man.

Hi.

Stoned, man.

And the boy made a glow, really joke, and I love glow.

And I just giggled a little bit, but I was hitting to the community, you know, don't go so hard on my guy because Steph's McGuire.

But it read wrong.

But I'm going to tell you something, man.

Steph did something that all us brothers with women should do.

And that's stand up and defend.

No matter if somebody step on a foot, no matter if they did it or not, man, check and say, hey, man, you didn't say excuse me.

So let me say again, Aisha, step, excuse me.

I apologize deeply.

And I'm searching for your address so I may send y'all some of this Paloma.

Y'all may make more love, make beautiful, light-skinned babies for us.

Love y'all.

What?

A great transition.

You've been married almost 20 years.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But what people don't know, probably, maybe your closest friends, you and Shay kept it a secret for

39 years.

how did you keep it a secret and why did you keep it a secret well

see man it's it's it's

and the world will ruin some good stuff if they know about it they will yeah they will they'll they'll find rumor lies in your window they'll find reason to get in the way and I wasn't and I wasn't walking a straight path too I was crooked as a clotheshanger but

but that's not the reason I kept it a secret I kept it a secret because she was mine right and I didn't want to share her with gossip sites and opinion.

I didn't want to share her with other people thought about marriage because it's been very non-traditional at times.

I just wanted her to myself.

And in the meanwhile, I had to understand that she as a wife had to share me with the world.

And even though my wife's a very beautiful woman, she's very shy.

She doesn't really look for attention.

That's why.

I couldn't tell.

You probably,

she figured you a homeboy.

She got right to talk with you.

But

I didn't know.

Man, we got met, it was three in the morning.

We in Las Vegas.

A friend of mine who had in a former life been a pimp brought me down.

I wasn't doing my best financially.

He was like, man, I'll bring out a couple of grand to the club.

Just say hello to folks, man.

My man, TD, man, shouts out.

And

at three in the morning, man, it just struck me.

I was like, man, I'm supposed to be married to this woman.

And I remember writing her a note and drawing something on that saying, you know, if you say yes, we can go do it now.

If you say no, I just, I'm going to go figure out something else to do.

And she said yes.

And we got up, got a cab.

It wasn't even Uber name.

We got a cab at three in the morning, went to one of those drive-through chapels.

Really?

The cab guy was our witness.

We got married by some white woman who I'm sure was a witch.

And we started figuring it out.

And

I have been honored to be her husband.

I've been honored to have her as a wife.

I appreciate her greatly because she didn't make me stop going to the blue flame.

She encouraged and went with me.

She encouraged me when I wanted to quit rapping to keep rapping.

She encouraged me when I went into business to think bigger, think better, think better.

And I'm just, I'm proud of her.

Ozzie Osborne

has a God bless the dead when he talks about Sharon.

He has a spiel when he talks about Sharon that says, She's my best friend.

Sometimes I love her.

Sometimes I hate her.

Sometimes I'm envious of her.

And I really felt that because those are the truest feelings sometimes when you're married.

You don't know how you're going to feel about each other that day.

But I know

I made a dedicated choice to her.

And we're in this thing until it's over.

I'm going to take these off before I start crying about her.

When it was very unconventional to start, and she was amenable to it.

But did you guys at any point in time have a traditional wedding where you had the family together?

So that was it.

That was it.

I'm going to tell you how it was.

We were in South Carolina at Hilltire.

Her family, she's from Savannah.

Okay.

But her family, her father came from South Carolina.

They're a huge family, like my mother's side of the family in Tuskegee.

And they love their nieces and nephews and sons and daughters.

So we were on there and she was talking about building on some of the land that the family has down there.

And so I'm like, yeah, man, y'all get us some land.

We'll figure out, you know, how many get her house in there?

Her aunt says, hold up, hold up, hold up.

We ain't going to marry my niece.

I said, excuse me.

I said, when you're going to marry my niece, it's been too long.

You've been dating her.

You've just been having her around.

You'll just have her running around, chasing you on the round.

And I'm just like, excuse me.

I don't understand her.

What she says, you're just going to have my daughter,

I mean, my niece, my niece, following you around, chasing you around the world.

And I started laughing because Aunt Penny is serious.

She reminded me of Aunt Melinda.

She was not playing.

You know what I mean?

She's the one that tells my wife, go cook for your husband.

Go cook.

Your husband don't need to be going out to eat.

eat you go in the kitchen and cook so she's talking there and I'm like auntie we've been married nine years what you been married now and never heard another peep out of her it satisfied her enough to know that I had validated her niece through through marrying her and that's my girl Penny hit me at two in the morning just to ask me how I'm doing is my wife acting right

but Mike you said you knew she was the one after

two weeks

Two weeks

man it was a it was a nurse she was a nurse in school but it was a nurse it was a nurse that lived in the back of her apartments.

The first time I went to her apartment, the nurse, the nurse was, she was shaped like that bottle.

Damn.

That's what I said.

Damn.

And when I pulled up,

I pulled at the apartment.

I said, damn, she lived in the same apartment.

I just drove all the way back to the girl house.

And I told her, I said, you know, I ain't going to be able to.

I ain't going to be able to see you no more.

I said, I met somebody.

They stayed at the front of your apartment.

So you ain't going to see me no more.

I ain't even going to count.

So Shay was then lived in the same apartment.

Yeah.

And you so, you saw.

I had been to the girl house.

I didn't even been to the girl.

And when I pulled up, I'm like, oh, you saw Shay.

Yeah, I'm like, damn, all of them there's no, no, I met her in Daytona.

Okay.

I met her in Daytona back.

Yeah, all her, yep, it's Black Spring Break.

All her friends knew who I was.

And she was at the table eating, acting like she knew who I was.

So I was like, what's wrong with her?

She wanted to be the family hit her head or something.

You know what I'm saying?

So I went up to her plate and I ate something off her plate and she cussed me out.

But like I said, she speaks Geechee.

I ain't understand what you're saying.

I thought you were Jamaican or something.

But she said, man, she said, I was rude and inconsiderate.

I thought too much of myself.

And I'm like, whatever, shut up.

And I pushed on, but I saw her some months later

at an event at Big Boy's house, where the old boom boom room was.

And I saw her walk in.

And she was with,

man, shouts out to her friends, her guy friends who didn't hate.

Shouts out to them.

But she walked in and I just, I was struck.

I was knocked off my feet.

She was, I mean, I mean, she was, she had beautiful skin growing.

She had freckles.

She had been born a natural redhead.

I I didn't know then, but her hair is off-color.

And she got a quirkiness about how she looked.

It was just exotic to me.

I was just like, man, I got to talk to this guy.

I remembered her.

But I was like, man, I got to talk to this girl.

And

she saw me and instantly remembered me and hated me and thought I was arrogant and full of myself.

Thought you didn't change at all.

But the PD of the station, man, was a true friend.

And that he encouraged her to give me a shot.

You know what I mean?

And Camouflage, God Bless the Dead, had died.

And he was a common connector.

She was a friend of his.

He was loosely related to me.

And she told me she had an obituary for me.

And upon trying to get out of there, because there was another girl in the party that I had been with biblically, and I had to get out of that because I was like, if this girl sees me talking to her, this girl's gonna hate.

I was like, I can't have a hate.

Like, I denied knowing this girl another 10 years because the girl had told Shay, oh, yeah, I know Mike.

I was like, I don't know what the hell she's talking about.

10 years I hear that lie, I'm like, nope, I do not know this woman.

You know what I mean?

Because I wanted my chances to stay alive with her.

But when I was leaving, she spoke to me and I told her, I said, man, you need to take me out to dinner.

And, you know, she, again, she thought I was arrogant and full of myself, but I ended up taking her to dinner, but I thought she was just amazing.

Wow, that's an unbelievable story.

She's in the building to the girl that you see, and she lived at the back of the building.

Shay lives in the front of the building.

You see Shay, you're like, yeah, I ain't going to be able to see you now.

I ain't going to be able to do it.

I ain't going to be able to, because I was just playing.

We were having fun.

This other girl, it was something about her.

I knew at the time she's a Gemini.

My sister, when she first met her, said, man, I didn't know if you was in love or just programmed because she acted so much like my grandmother in the way that she treats human beings and people.

She was in nursing school.

She generally cared about people.

With that said, there was a certain amount of standoffishness about her.

So I just wanted to know her more.

And she didn't disappoint.

It'd be two, three in the morning.

Me and my partner's coming home with strokers.

We coming in.

She'd get up in the middle of the night, cook shrimp and rice at Toufai.

She, you know what I mean?

She was like an old lady in a young, fine.

She looked like she was supposed to be stripping, getting some tips.

But

she acted like an old southern woman.

And I just, I fell for it.

And then when I realized how intelligent she was, I said,

I can't let these Atlanta Negroes get this.

They ain't going to know what they're doing.

They ain't going to do it right.

And they ain't going to do it lying.

I'm going to do it right.

Yeah, and I can remember the moment she was like, she was going to go waitress in Jazzy T.

And I said,

I went and thought.

I had to go think.

You went to all the spot.

Yeah, yeah, I got it.

Oh, man.

Magic City South.

Jugas, Magic.

All of them.

But we were supposed to go to,

we used to go, I used to take her to jazzy to have, have a good time and partying.

And man, she said, I'm going to go.

I need some extra money.

I'm going to go, you know, wait till I just start and thought.

I was like, man,

damn, I said, you let that happen.

I said, it's going to go crazy.

Because I had a girl in jazzy teas.

Yeah.

That's why I said, I said, this ain't going to.

I was like, I was like, nah, I got that little bill.

Don't worry about that.

I got it.

Since you didn't have a traditional wedding,

how much do you think someone should spend on a wedding?

They say the average cost is somewhere between $30,000 and $50,000.

So by the time the cake and the cameras and the DJ and you get the building, how much do you think is a good amount of money?

Let's just say for the sake of argument, I don't know if you would do it the same way over again or you would go back or you'd have a traditional wedding.

Maybe Shea would want a traditional wedding.

Let's just say Mike had a quarter bill.

Yeah.

How much would you spend on a wedding?

If she wanted a traditional wedding, she could have one.

But I'll tell you, like with Shea, the way her mind works, she'd go, she'd say, I'm going to take that money, I'm going to go put 20% down on a property and develop something.

So I would encourage young African-Americans in particular, you know, traditional wedding used to be in your mama's or grandmama's backyard

with a very nice dress.

So you would give something for the dress and a tuxedo of sorts or just a suit, but you would put that money into investments.

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something that's going to grow over the next 10, 15 years.

So, you know, it's good when you marry and when you're single to have mentors.

We have a group of marriage mentors and John Hope Bryant and his wife Shay.

And John preaches us, you know,

just economic integrity.

Have some integrity about don't do what you do just for flash, just for show.

So we would honestly, I would say before a traditional marriage, we probably would have invested in something.

And that theory proves true because I remember getting a $60,000 publishing check or a royalty check for rap music and

saying to Shay, you know, what do we want to do with it?

And she was like, well, we should get a rental property.

And it's the first thing, that was the first rental property we bought.

And we've grown our portfolio.

You know, I could have afforded $150,000 Dodge Demon or Portia.

She was like, no, we should buy these apartments.

You've been saying you want apartments.

We bought a part, a set of apartments in the bluff.

So my wife, like an old country woman, has constantly deferred our money into investments.

So maybe when I'm 67 or something, she'll want a traditional wedding and I give her one.

Like my big mama and big daddy in Tuskegee, we have wedding pictures of them, and they are dopes.

They're grown.

I was so funny seeing my big mama in that wig, in that gold dress on, seeing my big daddy dressed up because I had only ever seen him in overalls.

But when they could have done traditional wedding, they bought 40, they bought just under 40 acres in Tuskegee, Alabama.

We still own Atlanta to this day.

And both of their names is on that deed.

It was not just my great-grandfather's N.H.

Blackman, it's Trusella Mackey Blackman, too.

So for me and her, we probably would, you give us $35, $40,000, we're just going to go find another property to buy and invest in.

Wow.

And I would encourage young people to do that.

You said that you knew that that was your soulmate.

How different do you believe your life would have been had you not followed your instincts and say that's my soulmate, let me go.

Well, I think she's my twin flame.

Like, you know, I think more than, I think we the same flame, just sparking different kind of coming in.

I've had a lot of soulmates.

Like, you know, my children's mothers were at the time that they were in my life.

I needed them.

You know, I needed the encouragement.

They needed me.

I've never fallen off from doing my job in terms of co-parenting and being there.

So I've had a lot of people who my soul matched with, but there hadn't been anyone that thought from the same place I thought from and moved in the same way that I moved and they had the same core values and beliefs in the same way.

So how would my life have been different?

Probably would have been more of an addict, probably would have, probably would have wasted more time chasing impulse and

compulsion and bullshit.

Probably would have made a lot more money, but squandered it.

You know what I'm saying?

So I'm glad that I married her because I married, like my grandfather did, a woman I can bring my check home to and the the proper investment is going to get made.

Now, the money I make on the weekend is mine.

You can't tell me what to do with my weekend money.

But all that money that comes from that singing to dance on stage, that gets sent to her and they get taken care of.

You are really an old soul.

Yeah.

Because I was around my grandfather growing up.

And that's how he, but all the old men thought like that.

They worked Monday through Friday.

When they got that check on Friday, they come set that check on the table.

Yeah.

Go do what you're going to do with that marriage.

I don't do what you're going to do.

That's how they thought.

Yeah, it's like Proverbs.

What is it?

Proverbs 31.

When it talks about the type of woman you want to marry, a woman that's going to be a conservative, woman that's going to be saved, a woman that's going to take her time to invest and do things for herself for this other benefit.

You want that because you need a partner.

You know what I'm saying?

You have to have a partner.

And for me,

we have lost the art of partnership.

in our opinion, not even in our actual, but in our opinion.

See, it used to be, you want to break up with your girl, and it'd be like that scene in the Goodfellas.

Your homies sitting around, you got to go home.

I know you like your little side piece and everything, and y'all get back to that, but you gotta go home, right?

You know, no matter what happens.

And I think that we've lost that philosophy, you know, in our community, and it's not good for us because you gotta go home, you gotta take care of home.

I mean, and if you really got a good solid home, I've seen some old men in the country have two homes, you know, to mess around, but both of them homes be stable because one of them women or both of them women.

But they're teaching him to stay in line, to stay.

And I think that we need to get back to that as men.

Shay Shay seems to allow you to be you.

Yeah.

How important is that in a marriage, in a relationship?

Because a lot of times you meet someone and you try to change the very person that you met.

Yeah, yeah.

Shea met you, killer Mike, how you are, but she've allowed you to be that.

How important is that in a relationship, in a marriage?

That's a compromise.

I trim back on some of my, you know, I mean, I have, but with that said, being allowed to be me is what's allowed us to prosper and grow.

And I appreciate that.

And I encourage her to be her i don't want her to simply be michael render killer mike's wife i want shay bigger i want shayna for render to be the biggest best most badass version of herself when you see a project coming like a development properties we do techie homes we're partnered in a company called techie homes that's building miniature neighborhoods for people um that man looked for me for five six years couldn't find me when he finally found me he met my business partner my life partner he met shay and she was the business partner she went out on the construction site she walked the sites, she came back and said, Hey, this is a good investment.

So, for me, it was important because I knew I married somebody who was my equal.

If I'm the tight end, man, I want to know my old linemen doing their thing.

And me and Shay try to work in tandem like that.

And so, I've always attempted to live like that with women I've dated or been with, but it didn't work because they didn't probably have the proper understanding, or it didn't work because they didn't have the proper faith.

I don't mean that from a bad perspective.

My youngest daughter, Mikey, her bio mama, is like, Hey, man, I'm into this working thing.

That entrepreneur thing is too shaky.

I don't know, you know, I need healthcare.

I ate

nine to five.

And her and Shay have an amazing relationship that's benefited my daughter because Mump is going to go to work.

Muffy's going to take care of what Fulton County needs taken care of.

Shay's going to work on these developments.

She's going to take some high risk, but they both pour into my daughter.

And now that my daughter's a freshman at Hampton University, Joe's rewards are pouring back.

So her letting me be me allowed a big mixed family.

You know, you come to our house on Thanksgiving and literally everybody is there.

The kids there, they mama's there, they mama's sisters and brothers there, you know, friends and family that may not have friends and family there, but everybody's welcome.

And that's what I needed that because in order for me to be the type of Michael I am, a kid raised by his grandparents, raised in between parents and we didn't say step parents, but these bonus parents and all these cousins and stuff, you know, we were in Atlanta, but we lived like we was in the country.

All 10 of my niece, all 10 of my cousins, we were all on the living room floor together on palace.

Nobody wants to sleep next to me because I peed in the bed.

They don't know about the palace, though, by the way.

Oh, the palace is the best thing going, man.

If it wasn't, though, if it wasn't for me marrying her, I probably would have had a far more disruptive life.

So I'm appreciative for her, for having the trust in me that I could do it and encouraging me when I thought I could.

All the places that you mentioned, Strokers and Blue Flame, you had the Teves, you go to Dugans, and she seems like, okay, you can do that, but you take her with you.

Yeah, well, if you got a wife who finds a stripper, you want the stripper to see her.

And we get half off on our dancing.

When I go to Madison City without Shay, man, my dance would be $10.

For real, I'm just like, man, you charge me $10, Mike.

You know, it's just the rules.

I get there with Shea.

They'd be like, girl, don't worry about it.

I ain't even worried about no dance at night.

I just wanted to hang with you.

I'd be like, you know what I mean?

You ain't going to give me no break.

I've been spinning with you since my freshman year.

But they like my wife.

A lot of them thought she used to be a stripper.

That was so funny, a dancer.

But we respect the girls.

We love the girls.

We built cool relationships.

A lot of those young women in there aren't just dancing.

They own businesses.

Shea shopped with them a lot for their hair businesses, their clothing businesses.

She's encouraged them to get a real estate license.

Shouts out to our girl D, who went on to get her

nursing practitioner.

I mean, she's a nurse.

She was a practitioner when we met her, but I think she's a full-on nurse.

So you get to see these success stories, too.

And I'm just, I'm damn proud that when I go to the club, if I'm with my wife, I get a discount.

Mike, how hard is it to remain monogamous when you're married?

How hard is it?

I don't know.

I ain't never tried.

No, I'm just

Jay, don't throw anybody with me.

Oh, man,

it was this dancer, man.

I was smitten by the dancer, but I knew I wasn't supposed to be doing all doing.

My old lady didn't like this dancer.

And this dancer, she liked my old lady, but it was a loveful way.

My old lady wasn't interested.

And

I just had too much fun, man.

So I had too much fun at the girl's spot one time.

I got out of there, man.

I got a call.

Hey, man, maybe you should come back, man.

We should run around, too.

I was like, but I am trying to get some cardio in.

Man, I got a call when I got in there, though, say, man, you don't bring your ass out there, girl, house right now.

I'm going to kill both of y'all.

I said, what, man, get out of here.

Stop playing, man.

I ain't even over there, man.

You just seen the truck.

I looked out there.

My wife had my gun

in that driveway pointing at me.

I was like, okay.

Damn, I was like, Henry, and the good fellas, I woke up like, hey, I got in that truck, man.

I scooted on that.

She said, I ain't never seen your fat ass run so fast in my life.

Being monogamous got a lot easier after that.

But

what killed me is she drove straight to my auntie Deborah's house.

My auntie Deborah was the aunt that, you know, encouraged me to read.

My auntie Deborah was my, she was, you know, into Zen and just peacefulness.

Man, I walked in there, man.

My auntie said, man, I've never been so disappointed in you in my life.

Oh, man, I would have rather got shot.

Damn.

I literally would have rather got shot.

Because you had so much respect for Deborah.

Your auntie.

And

to hear in her voice and seeing her eyes,

how disappointed she was.

After that, the rules changed.

After that, I was just like, man, you know, I like you, but you just got to holler at her.

If you can convince her that we like each other enough and you ain't no problem, man, I love to do a twirl in the wind with you, man.

I don't want to get shot and I don't want my auntie Deborah to feel like that again.

So, you know, I would just say, Let Taylor fit your marriage for you.

I can't tell you what monogamy is the best thing for your marriage.

Because when I see some of my Muslim brothers that have three, four wives, all they kids scholarship in the schools.

You know, a lot of my homies have been monogamous.

They got to pay for private school, land for college.

So the dynamics of marriage are more than just who you land with, a monogamy, a non-monogamy.

They're, how do I partner with this person?

Because I know a lot of, I was, we visited, man, we have some dear friends.

They're both attorneys.

Man, Peach and Howard, they're amazing attorneys.

She was already an attorney.

Her husband sold his janitorial business, went on to become an attorney.

They just some of them black folks you'd be proud to brag about.

But they left me in the garage with the husbands one time.

So we down in Tampa and E-Boy City's there.

They got a nice strip club there.

So I'm like, fellas, go to the strip club.

And the guys want to go, oh, you know, it turned into a, it turned into a slave plantation when you said Harriet Club.

Oh, no, I don't know about that boss.

And I was like, man, what's wrong with you?

And I was like, your wife don't go to the club.

I gave his speech.

I mean, this shit was, it was brave, heartworthy.

I'm going to get to me and we going out.

The next day,

Peachy and Shay get me in the kitchen.

They say, oh, Mike?

And Peachy, like a sister to me.

She said, yeah.

I said, yeah.

She said,

The wives have a talk, and they don't really want you.

And Shay comes in and says, Stop talking.

Stop talking.

Shut up.

I said, What are you talking about?

She says, Stop talking to wives' husbands because you're getting them some idea that they can live like us and they can't live like us.

They don't have the same type of marriage we do.

You're right here messing up marriages.

And I was like, Oh my God, I've done told slavery is freedom on the other side.

So, what I realized is Shay and I have a non-traditional marriage in that

I have the ability to speak my mind.

Even if I can't act on every impulse and thought, I can say to my wife, man, I find that girl attractive.

She'll nudge me on the pussy like, man, look at the ass on that one.

So

I have a best friend-like relationship in that way with her.

You mentioned something earlier, just a few minutes ago.

You said your kid's mother.

and Shay have a great relationship.

How important was that for you to make sure your kid's mother had a relationship with your non-wife?

Because a lot of times it's not like that because they feel some type of way that you were with her and not with them.

yeah she's getting benefits that they weren't she ain't got no well i don't know if you had kids at the time but she ain't she ain't went through what you she got us as a package deal she got yeah she got a five for one you know with us we we try it was a package deal you know

so um she was like i remember one of our first days you were going to buy clothes with pony boy you know pony is the one who had the kidney transplant he's down in trade school shots out to pony i talked to my guy this morning so it's three mothers it was four children right um you know with the oldest boy's mother's pretty cool she was pretty calm but the second two she was a little wilder we We was from the same neighborhood.

So it took them a minute to get acclimated to each other, but they did.

And they have a lot of love and reverence for one another.

Like, she's the one that'll call Shay.

Now, like, if he feels like being mun a number, monogamous, we're going to whoop her whole ass.

Like, she that tight.

But I'm just like, I'm like, fat head, please.

Let's not do it.

Let's not whoop no hoes asses today.

And the youngest with Michael, her mother's Anna.

And Anna is an amazing.

My grandfather used to plead with my father.

Biofather, Big Mike, and my mother, Druzella, Denise.

He used to say, get his sisters together.

He has two sisters by you and three sisters by you, which means this boy has five sisters.

No half sisters, no stepsisters.

He has five sisters.

And my parents were so young and impassioned that a lot of times they didn't do right in terms of taking that advice.

Now that my sisters are adults, they know one another, they talk, they congregate, and they all love their brother and their brother all loves them.

And I wanted my children to have that faster.

My children have me on a text chain and they got a whole nother text chain without me about me.

Because even if you don't have the same violent mother and father, biologically y'all are 50 y'all are 50 me that means y'all belong to one another and i need you guys i need to know that one day when i die that those four people that's gonna cry are connected beyond me and i have accomplished that and that is my greatest accomplishment you know besides finding a woman that will be steadfast in that philosophy with me my greatest accomplishment has been in birthing these four individuals and having these four individuals grow up to be a human being when I go in a room and say their name, people speak it in high esteem and away from me.

They keep the same integrity for my family that we've developed over the past 50 60 100 80 years however many time years we've been doing it and they love one another beyond me you know that's awesome you're in business with your wife a lot of people like man you know a keep wife wife yeah the business keep that over here yeah because she knows everything so it's not like You can hide something because she knows she's reading all the documentation also.

She knows where all the money is.

She knows the safe deposit box.

She knows the shoe box, the mackerels and all that.

How,

what led you to do like you know what shay everything i'm gonna open book yeah there it is i mean that's what i saw

you know with betty and willie that's what i saw now again what the the money willie made on the weekend that was his money whatever he made playing tonk driving dumps on the weekend but the money from chattahoochee brick that was the betty and willie collected fund to raise michael lovey and la shonda you know what i mean

so so you know it's one of two things like i got a building I bought I didn't tell her about but she was pissed about it but I knew I wanted the building and I wanted to see if I could do it myself You know what I mean?

And I went and I went and got it.

Got great, got great terms on the loan, got great.

And it's paid off already.

You know, I knew I was going to get it out quick, but I had to see if I could do it myself because of what I had learned just in proxy to her.

And she learned, she teaches.

What she learned about development, she taught me.

I'm running around trying to learn lyrics and learn lines, but she makes sure I understand.

You know, shout out to my man Booker T owner of Tech and Homes and

somebody who's been a part of wisdom on us.

Shouts out, you know, to my man Patrick, who's giving wisdom to us.

Shout out to John Hope Bryan, who's giving wisdom.

Jamie Gertz, who's giving wisdom.

Tony Wrestler, owner of the Hawks, who's giving wisdom.

She takes that information.

We take that information and we aggregate it.

We get it figured out what's going to work best for Mike and Shea.

So having a partner, and me, I told him that if you ever want to leave me for another nigga, just tell him, get introduced to his brotherhoods.

Because you're not getting rid of me.

Like, I'm here.

I'm here to be in.

Yeah, we, yeah, we.

What are we getting her for her birthday, brotherhood?

You know what I mean?

I don't, So

I'm just, I'm locked in with her like that.

And I trust her implicitly.

I woke up exhausted and dehydrated in a hospital.

I had blicked out and didn't even know what was wrong.

I woke up and there she was.

And I went to sleep and I woke up and there she was.

And I went to sleep and I woke up and there she was.

She wouldn't leave my side at the hospital.

She wouldn't leave.

My dad come up.

I got to watch him now.

I'm straight.

She didn't leave till I left.

I remember we left.

We left.

She was smoking a joint playing Kings Kings of Leon.

You know what I mean?

And I just, I appreciated it for that, and I understood the depth of what my grandparents had with that.

You know, every time Willie Burke went fishing, he didn't come back with no fish.

But he came back with the same love and adoration for Betty.

And that's what I saw.

So that's what I emulate, you know, and

I have a partner.

I don't just have a wife.

What happens

when she wants to do a property, you don't agree.

You want to do a property, she doesn't agree.

How do you resolve disagreement?

We just, we talk, we argue.

I mean, we had disagreements that lasted months.

We had philosophies where we still stand on different sides.

You know, you know, for me, man, you know, I practiced Islam for a few years.

I was like, you know, I could technically have four wives.

She's like, nigga, I'm going to move my house.

I hope you're in the hole, be okay.

You know what I mean?

Boy,

shave about it for real.

But I don't have to hide the fact that from a philosophical standpoint, I do think you can have more than one wife.

But

that's a much more freeing relationship than one where I got to sit in the garage and not go to the strip club in Neboy City.

You know what I'm saying?

So for me, I found a partner that I can openly communicate, agree, and disagree with.

And she came with me.

So there are certain things.

My wife told me, man, she said, I want to get a bed and breakfast.

And I was younger.

My career had a little more money at that time.

And I was arrogant.

I'm just like, who the fuck want a bed and breakfast?

I stay in Marriott's, you know,

talking like Pimp C to myself in the mirror.

And what exploded right after that?

Bed and breakfast.

Right in Savannah, Georgia.

And I came back and told her, I said, I'm sorry.

I said, I was wrong.

So when she came back to me and said, I found an industrial building in Savannah, and they're about to build a new police station, some other stuff over there, I didn't question it.

I just signed off on the paperwork, you know,

and that property is worth, I would say, seven to eight times what it was when we bought it.

And I remember going to the property, we bought it from a black woman.

The black woman walked in the room and realized it was a young black couple buying it for her, and she burst into tears crying.

Because she said, I had bought this with my husband, and I wanted the legacy to be people who look like us average.

So I tend to trust that God has favor and grace on us.

And if we'll give ourselves the grace to get through the communication, that we'll reach some type of understanding.

And understanding doesn't always mean agreement.

Great.

But I trust her because I've seen her as a businesswoman.

That same property I tell people about that I bought instead of buying the Dodge Demon is worth just under a million dollars now.

And we haven't touched it.

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It's good to be right.

How do you decide what to invest in?

What to buy?

What to become a part of?

Do you guys brain, excuse me, you guys brainstorm?

You guys sit at the kitchen table, you somewhere, and she's like, you know, Michael, I was thinking about this, or you was like, Shay, hey, I rolled by this area right here, and it seemed like they're going to be developing this.

They're going to be some small, they're going to be family homes of the project.

How do you decide what you guys are going to invest in?

Kevin, like that, like, you know, some people will come to us and say, you know, hey,

as the baby boomers are getting older, these are going to be good investments, retirement communities, homes.

You see, Alonzo Morning just invested in one did an amazing job.

T.I.

knew affordable housing was a big thing in Atlanta, so he built 140-some-art units right at the old Kmart.

He bought the old Kmart and developed those.

So we talked about it all.

We knew that, you know, coming, I look at, man, my heroes were people like the working men that worked at the Longshoremen in Savannah.

The working men that worked at Chattahoochee Brick, like my grandfather.

These men, oftentimes, the things they would buy, like my grandfather never sold his original house.

So he always had a rental property.

That rental property is what allowed him to get an RV, which allowed him to take us on vacation from Lake Winter for Saka to Tampa, Clearwater, St.

Pete.

We got to go all these places because my grandfather made a sound investment.

My grandfather, you know, they had a little stock option here, there, penny stocks he would buy stuff for us.

My grandmother was an investor.

You know, she was a grow-your-own fooder.

You don't have to get everything from the store.

So when me and Shay have an idea, she usually is a better researcher than me.

I do things off good instinct.

You know, it's like, I remember buying my first barbershop.

We were recording rap music and we were living in Brooklyn at the time.

We were living in Williamsburg recording music.

I saw a barbershop on Craig's List.

I just bought it.

And she was like,

I told her, she ain't taught me for two weeks.

And I was like, what?

She was like, you could have just let that damn lease on, but we could have just went and got the lease.

I said, shit.

I ain't never think of it like that.

And she was like, well, you need to think and we need to talk about before we make major moves with money.

I didn't make another major move with money for another probably 15, 16 years, you know, because I understood that the importance of having my partner.

You know, you get Warren Buffett, but a lot of people don't know who Charlie Munger is.

You know, you don't get Dr.

King without having Corella Scott.

You need a partner.

You need a partner.

So for me, I needed someone who thought practically, who was instinctively conservative conservative with a dollar.

And the universe gave me that to her.

What she needed was a dreamer, a believer, and someone who wasn't afraid to think as big as she is.

Because, you know, owning one, two, three, 10, 20 rental properties is one thing.

But when you get into development and she stepped into development, Bankhead Seafood is a restaurant that T.I.

and I bought from a lady named Miss Helen Hart.

It was a hole in the wall.

Great five fish, great shrimp, and the world's best hush puppy.

When we reopened that

business, it opened as a sit-down restaurant.

We've having some repairs done on it now.

We're reopening in a matter of weeks, which I'm very proud about.

But if it wasn't for Shay and Crystal Peterson thinking big, it wouldn't have been developed like that.

But she only could think that big because she's up at night watching YouTube, reading literature, learning.

She's being mentored by people like Booker T, by people like John Hope Bryant.

She is in a constant state of learning.

And that's what I trust.

More than just, okay, I know she did it a couple of times.

She had a real estate license.

was trying to get it.

I trust the fact that she's researched with me.

I trust my gut and I like a good story.

so when you look at the swag shop which i brought for you today because your hair always on point

so we got man we got shampoos we got

well you're gonna love this bump killer if you get razor bumps we got a shaving cream for those brothers that still put razor to their face a lot of

people put yeah so this is you're gonna love this shaving cream yeah we spent two and a half years developing this and we got your beard oil so we got we got this but what i learned by watching my wife is research it i could have went and bought some white label stuff that was made for white folks, that wasn't for our skinner.

But what I went and did was I went and developed formulas specifically for us.

So when I get out the car and I see a Floyd's barbershop across the street, I know that the swag, shave, wash, and groom shop is going to be comparable to a Floyd's one day because I think that there's a cool that black barbershops offer.

And it was for me just about marrying a business model with that cool.

We figured that out with the first barbershop in State Farm Arena.

You can get your haircut, have the same view as the sweets, watch the game.

But then I said, Man, well, I can't grow the company as fast as I'd like to grow it.

COVID happened.

I was supposed to expand about 10 stores by now.

I said, so, in light of that, what can I do?

Talk to Tony Wrestling.

Tony said, You know, Mike, you could go ahead and start rolling out your product.

You don't have to wait.

So, I appreciate Tony for that advice because they put me on a two and a half year campaign to develop and research our own.

We developed and researched our own.

We got some of the best products on the market now.

They're going to be rolling out.

And it's only because I've learned good research habits from my wife.

What are some of the keys to running a successful business?

Oh, man, I haven't been successful in all of them.

So learn your lessons from your failures.

Because with them doves, you got to take some L's.

Y'all, man, you're going to take some L's, man.

And you're going to take them.

Like, we took some L's at Manced C food.

We were too top every on salary at first.

So rather than keep going and keep chugging along, we said, stop.

We put a freeze on it.

We said, we got some infrastructure things we need to fix from Pipe One Late.

Let's fix that.

Let's put a freeze on spending money.

Let's reconfigurate how we do business.

And when we reopen, we'll be a much more streamlined business, much more effective.

But it took me and Tip not having ego.

Our egos had to be put to the side, and me and my friend had to come to the table and talk and say, Well, how are we going to fix this?

And I've been to a couple other restaurants, and this is what I thought.

With this, the first time I thought about doing it, I just thought about white labeling.

The first time I got some product back, I'm saying, this isn't good product.

Let me develop my own thing.

So, you're going to have to be willing to eat some losses before you get a win, and you're going to have to learn from them.

And then, I've been reading Charlie Munger, man, his quotes, his books, and things of that nature.

And Charlie has a real good thing.

He was saying, big part of succeeding is just to keep yourself from doing stupid things.

Like, you know, sometimes, man,

this ain't a winning play.

So why run it?

Don't run the play if it's not a winner.

Try to avoid the stupidity that's already in you.

And that way, even if your intelligence don't save you, your non-stupidness will.

So I've tried to do a good job in growing up in business and learning from my mistakes early.

You got to know when to cut the rope early, you know what I mean?

When it's too much weight to let it go.

And you got to do things you're naturally passionate about.

L loves Mezcal, my rap partner.

So when it came time to develop an alcohol, I'm not much of an alcohol drinker.

I like marijuana.

I leaned on his expertise of MezCal.

I leaned on what he thought.

And then when it came time to will align it like this, well, just every average person, when it came time for me to taste it, I'm like, oh, I like this.

We understood that together we had put together something.

You got a marijuana line coming out?

I did, and I didn't like it.

I like.

I didn't hate it, but I didn't like the marijuana business from a corporate structure.

I believe marijuana should be ran by the people who put their time in federal prison.

I believe marijuana should be ran by the people who grow on the top of the mountains in Jamaica.

I believe marijuana should be ran by the people who were outlaws 20 years ago.

I don't think marijuana should be ran in a corporate way.

I don't think marijuana should have to sit in a warehouse two, three months before it hits the public.

So I'm not a big fan of that business in the same way I was.

I'm a bigger fan of like where we're from.

People make their own corn liquor.

I like corn liquor better than I like buying liquor out the store sometimes.

You mentioned Bankhead Seafood.

It's a staple.

Yeah.

And I remember hearing that it was potentially going out of business.

And I remember you and Tip.

Yeah.

Like, I was like, damn.

It was almost like you and Tip, like, man, this is a staple.

We can't let this thing go.

That's how we felt.

Like,

I don't know if we'll ever have 100 makehead seafoods.

I don't know.

But what I know is that one that we dedicated ourselves to, for anybody who ever said a disparaging remark, don't you worry, buddy.

We will be back on your ass open in a few weeks.

And you can come on out, eat with us, and talk all that shit.

But we're going to eat these hush puppies and laugh at you because we have a mission.

We the same little nappy head boys that sold dope up and down that street.

We the same little nappy head boys that played for them parks around that around the corner.

We the same little nappy head boys that went to Frederick Douglass High School under Dr.

Samuel Hill and he believed in us.

We the same little boys that William Murray, you know, my art teacher who told us to be a be a businessman, we the same little boys he's still proud of.

So I feel indebted to my community and those children in the community that are right next door, the organization called Paul Kids that helps kids after school get their reading in, have clean clothes, the supplies they need.

I feel indebted to my community, whether it's Carrier Heights and Grove Parks or the Old Bourne homes, to show them an example of you can.

You know, to show them that you can, you must, you will.

And the biggest way we can do that is by keeping that restaurant and those recipes alive.

We got better seating now.

You got a rooftop.

You can smoke your cigars on the rooftop if you want to and look out at Bankhead.

So you expanded it.

Yes, yes, we did.

That's why I say Shea developed it.

We tore down the old building.

We had to keep one legacy wall.

It is now a full sit-down restaurant on the inside and we have a rooftop in which you can see the sun set every day.

Wow.

It's an absolutely gorgeous building.

And I'm very proud of Shay and Crystal for putting it together.

We've now brought on a woman named Shanika who has ran four five

restaurants and clubs.

She helped us understand what we were doing wrong and getting it right.

Rest in peace to OG Mike who had helped tip with Trap City.

He just died, but he gave us some valuable advice.

Brother Walid, whose family started the Fish Supreme franchise down there and his dad was a part of the Olympics in terms of

feeding the Olympians in 96.

We've had a lot of good people around us to help us and i sincerely appreciate it and um i i just know i know we're going to be successful because we not no quitters you know what i was wondering how difficult is it um and maybe it's not as difficult as it would appear to like to take advice you're like because a lot of times you're like man i bro i know i know it i know i know i know i know what i did wrong i know what i'm doing bro How difficult is it, like you said, you and Tip swallowed your ego?

But how difficult is that, Mike?

Because you've had success in other areas.

And so when somebody tries to tell you something, you're like, well, you're not successful.

So why am I going to?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'd have had that.

I'd have had that.

Listen, man,

it's hard.

It's hard not to get in your own way.

And even if you feel like you know, listening don't cost you nothing.

Right.

But not listening might

cost you everything.

You know what I'm saying?

But listening don't cost you nothing.

I can listen.

You know, I've had better advice on not becoming an addict by addicts than I have by people who've been non-addicts.

This is what I'm saying.

I've had better advice from addicts on how not to become an addict than I've had for non-addicts because addicts understand addiction.

They can see it in you early.

You know, fat boy, your ego getting too big, you're liking that too much.

You're going to mess around.

You're going to lose everything at the crib because you're hanging in the club too much.

You know,

you have to take advice.

I remember, you know, I remember

my grandfather would say, you know, the world gonna learn you, boy.

And man, when you hear that, you like, oh my God, he tired of talking to me.

When your grandparents say you're in the self, hey, man, the world going to learn you.

Or the world can learn you better than I can.

That means I pour.

The world will teach you.

Hey,

and they didn't say teach.

They said learn.

Because you're going to learn the lesson.

You're going to learn that lesson.

When you're sitting there on your ass, broke as a joke.

You can't call.

You ain't got nobody to call because ain't nobody going to answer that phone to speak.

Man, you know, man, oh man, the world and learning sign.

I get it now.

So for me, it's my ego oftentimes wants to jump up.

I like to argue.

I love the way to argue.

But I'm going to go sit by myself and I'm going to think through what you're saying because I appreciate you even caring enough to impart any wisdom.

You know, even if your wisdom is doubt, you know, I can accept it.

Because, like I told you, if I said, when we come back now, I said, I've saved all them, all the messages, what people said, this is where we mess up, this is where we're going.

I said, now I'm going to let them know this is what we fixed.

Now, I expect to see your ass in here buying some fish.

Don't give me no advice.

Don't come by no fish, no hush fuckers.

Yeah, we're trying to be the new Carrie Hilliers.

We're trying to play.

Okay, you know what I'm careful?

Yeah.

Man, that fried a fried chicken to the woo, Lord.

Finance, Finance, Lois, how did Shay help you when you're at your absolute lowest?

And really, the only person you could turn to was probably her?

Yeah, man, it is so, you know,

she was talking to one of my ex-girlfriend from high school.

We had lived together, and she said, she had told Shay, she said, I remember a time where, you know, I thought we couldn't pay rent.

I thought we was on our ass broke.

She said, Mike started laughing and walked to the closet and pulled out a few thousand dollars and said, girl, we never broke.

I'm always be a saver.

so even from my time from running around in the streets you know trying to be a half-ass drug dealer and shit my mother taught me denise taught me the importance of conserving of having something and tuck and then hide you know my my

you got to so instinctively i'm like that but with that said there can be times where as a man you allow yourself to be stretched too thin all four of your kids need something at one time you know um with my businesses i got i like old cars too much so i tend to tend to buy too many old cars and with that business with certain businesses, I put so much passion into, that passion oftentimes leads to a cash deficit.

That's why I empathize and sympathize on people be saying, hey, man, you know, I get dame.

You know, I shit.

Sometimes we need to pour so much of y'all money to it.

This bosses be broke.

You know, it can get like that.

But to have a woman.

that you have invested in and that has made the proper investments with your investment.

When I bought her her grandmother's house that she grew up in, she didn't just take that house and try to flip that house.

She put the house together, put that house up as a, as a house for rent.

So at the end of the year, no matter what happened, she knows she had these many thousands of dollars off that rent.

When I bought a house off one of my comedian homeboys and he taught me about Pad Split and we started using Pad Split, I don't ask her about that money.

I just know, man, there's been times I've been tight and I needed 50, 60, 70,000.

And she said, well, shit, I got it.

I'm just like, well, you get it.

You got another husband?

And

she said, no, nigga, you bought me them two houses.

And this is this is what I saved off this.

Just make sure you pay me back.

And I get out there, sing and dance.

And after the show, she called the counsel and said, now send me my money back.

Mike, what's the brokest you've ever been?

Oh, man, I've been so broke.

I laid in a room for two years, depressed.

And

I had got a truck, and it got repoed.

And

it was under Mikey's mom's name.

And it broke my heart because it was under somebody else's name.

And I could have did it under my name.

I only spent a few hundred dollars more, and it just would have affected me, but it affected her.

I felt so guilty about that.

I don't think she was.

Yeah, messing up her credit.

Like you was doing that?

Now you'd have put, how you gonna put the truck in some of your kids now?

You know, you mess people up.

Doing that dope boy shit.

Dumb.

But I tell you this,

when I got back on my feet, she ain't paid a call no since.

You know what I'm saying?

And I deeply appreciate her for being patient with me.

But the brokers I ever been, man, was, you know,

man, I remember paying,

I remember paying child support and then getting a child support order the next week.

I literally paid 900 bucks the next week or so, well, we're going to hit you with a child support order anyway.

But for two years, I was on my ass.

And if it hadn't been for the encouragement for Shea, if it hadn't been for people like TB booking me on the Chitlin circuit, if it hadn't been for me getting with SMC Records at the time, and my manager was currently working with them at the time, now

my manager works with me.

If it hadn't been for all these people believing in me, Master DJ Swift, Outcast DJ, giving me a price to record at a discounted rate, I wouldn't have been able to do I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind as a series.

That was meant, I Pledge Allegiance.

The Grind meant getting rich independently.

And I had to do that.

I had to understand the record business from the trunk up, from digging out my trunk, having fat beats hit me and say, this is how many you sold this month, because that way I put a value on money that I didn't have before.

You know what I mean?

So the broker's album being,

I didn't have transportation and I was famous.

The broker's album being is I couldn't afford a $5 dance in the flame.

Girls that gave me dance on charity and said, it's going to be all right, big dog.

You don't spit enough.

You good for it.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

We got you, big dog.

You got some grace today.

You tried to file bankruptcy.

You too broke to file bankruptcy?

Yeah, I was.

You know, the bank worksher was a cap, though.

I did that to piss my baby mama off.

Damn it.

Yeah, yeah.

I was like, heffer.

You know what I mean?

I didn't gave this money.

You going to hit me with the order?

But her mama was afraid that I was going to be a typical guy.

So her mama pressed her into doing something.

And I got pissed because I went.

And the lawyer was a white boy.

Her lawyer, and he brought a black intern in with him.

And I said, you know, and, you know, black were better.

I said, that cracker trying to shame me.

And I really was offended by it.

So then I went to my white woman lawyer.

I said, we filed a bankruptcy.

Scared the shit out of their ass.

Then they called it off.

Well, we sat down and we talked and we figured it out.

Because I love my kids.

I'm not going to have my kids go without you.

You don't want them to be at hardship.

But let's work.

Let's talk this way.

And we did.

And we did.

And I have a wonderful relationship with her.

I have a run relationship with all three of them.

But, you know, it was just like, man, when you're on your ass, sometimes you just got to admit I'm on your ass.

Cause people are going to see you and still think you're doing good.

You know what I mean, but but the Air Force ones weren't clean.

I'll just clean them every night like I did in our little boy.

You know what I mean?

They weren't gonna do that.

They weren't doing

the same one.

Same one, baby.

You know what I mean?

But but I but I appreciate the grace that they gave me because after we after we got past that rough moment and sat down and talked it out, we got to sort it out.

But that's the thing though, Mike.

You go back and you look back, you're like, man, there's a lot of things that we could have done differently.

We could have just talked.

Instead of reacting, you reacted.

I reacted.

We're young.

I'm high-strung.

strung you high strong i'm not gonna let you one up me you're not gonna let you one up me and we find ourselves in a spot where we could have just sat down and talked and we could have saved because ain't nobody really get rich but the lawyers but the lawyers got paid the lawyers got paid that was it the lawyers got paid man man i'd have paid hey hey boy

partner boy they got his own firm come on man that's all but but but i appreciate understanding and learning that way.

I often tell my kids, when I try to impart something on you and my niece and nephews, I'm imparting it on you from a place of where I have failed.

I don't think you're going to fail.

I'm just telling you where I failed.

And I don't want to see, I see that, I see further down the road because I've made that.

I'd have been further down the road.

That's all.

That's all.

And the word E40 said, I've been your age.

You've never been mine.

Hey, well, that's an old folk.

And you put the guardrails up where there could potentially be a problem.

I put guardrails up there so you won't have those problems.

Just listen.

Like people intentionally, they get this wrong.

God bless the black bourgeoisie.

I went to Morehouse, greatest black college for men in the world.

I understand the concept of the Jackson Jills, and I get what higher education will do for us.

But don't forget Tuskegee University was built with the hands of the students who went there.

The students who went on to become doctors, lawyers, engineers made the bricks that formed the buildings.

I just spoke at Tuskegee

a few weeks ago, and I got a chance to see the bricks and see the thumbprints in them.

And I want to remind people that You know, our young men, if they aren't going to go to college, they need to be going to seek trade.

So I said something publicly.

I said, if a young man you know between say let's say ages 14 24 is to get a girl pregnant that girl is going to receive wick or some type of government underwriting the funding i said let's make it so that the boys don't owe that first two years back now people tried to make it like interpreted like you want to take girls um you know the government assistant again i'm like no dummy i would like to add i would like to say if the girls are going to get this government assistant let's require it that the boys have to go to some type of trade school

so within that 18 to 24 months while she's being assisted by government this child is being allowed to be nurtured in terms of food, clothing, shelter, let's make it so that these little boys have a place to go get educated.

Because what we need is educated fathers along with these educated mothers.

Our girls are going to school that post-high school, they're going to school.

I don't care if this is to be a nurse tech or to be a full-on doctor.

They're going to school.

Our girls still understand the power of education.

We need to make so the United States government underwrite our boys.

That first, whether it's be 18 months, 24 months, you got to go get a trade, young man.

And if you get this trade, then we're not going to charge you back them two years, that first two years because they're going to get their money now they're going to get their money but if you got but if you got you know my friend man i remember he did he got his passport he could have went through the roof but that was after years of being a dad and having to go through the court system and not being allowed to travel so i want to see us as a people whether y'all married or not i like it so if you get married and you get a trade you get a bonus you get a lower interest loan or wherever you want a house right but i think that as black people we're going to have to sit down with one another outside of government and government resources and we're going to have to come up with some new terms and conditions for what to do once these babies get pregnant, because it's both pregnant, the boy and the girl, these families are going to have to start getting together and say, Well, what's the plan for them so that we don't do it again with the next generation and we get to stabilize?

Because had it not been for my grandparents, had it not been for your grandparents, we wouldn't have the opportunity to create what people, you know, the catch word, generational wealth, right?

Which is really just the ability to take care of yourself, post my part.

And when I get out of here, I want to make sure you can take care of yourself and the kids that are coming out.

Wow,

you spent 500,000 of your own money on your Grammy award-winning album.

Yeah,

And Shay wasn't too happy about that.

Nah.

At a quarter million dollars, she hit me and said, nigga, what the?

She was like,

what do you keep taking this big money out for?

And I was like, man, I got a dream.

I gave her the, I got a dream.

She was Dr.

King, you had a dream.

She was like, a quarter million dollars?

I was like, yeah, man.

And we're going to have to probably spend a little more because Deion, no ID, lives in L.A., so we're going to have to go out there.

So, yeah, man,

I did.

And I was proud to have done it.

But had I known what I know now,

I wouldn't have spent that much money.

I would have, you know, shouts out to cubs like you, A and Artist.

Shouts out to Will, my manager and business partner.

I wouldn't have, you know, I wouldn't have been so free with it, but I needed to do it because the gamble paid off.

I walked away with three Grammys, walked away, walked out of getting locked up after Grammys, walked out a folk hero.

Well, I walked in a musician, so it's paid off, you know.

And then, when it came around this time, the rec company was calling me, said, Hey, we got some money to give you to record another record.

We don't even want you to spend your money, we got some money for you.

He's like, Okay, so it was daddy plus.

So I was like, Okay, I got you.

This is really a partnership.

But it, but I'll tell you a time that I understood how important her mind was to me, and that was when my attorney, not my attorney, my accountant called me and said, Hey, man,

I don't know if Shay's getting ready to divorce you or,

but I mean, she's taking out like 80 grand and I'm just like

80 grand

I mean but she's done it several times and I'm like he's a small like he's a small Jewish guy man and he gets a little nervous and asks him I'm just like Robert Timps just calm down man um I said I'll talk to her I'll see what it's about and she said that

he talked too goddamn

I was trying to surprise you I've been developing these houses and she had developed a few of our properties that were then on the market of course for rent and he was he was a he was a

for a while for a few days around there.

But you appreciate it because he was like, hey, hey, she, she, but but, but I knew that, I knew that she wasn't a squanderer.

Now, she could spend three hours in everything, the same store, right?

And buy this, buy, buy that shit out.

So, you know, we land in London, she going to the mall.

We land in LA, she going to the mall.

But she is a woman that is constantly thinking of ways to invest in turn of the dollar.

And I appreciate that about it.

So I've trusted her, and I appreciate her for trusting me in terms of Michael, because Michael really was a gamble.

Spending a half million dollars on your own money money is not what you should be doing.

You know what I mean?

So

what did you learn from that?

I learned that once you prove to the record company that I'm willing to do it myself and I can do it, they're a lot more free-flowing on the other side with the budget because they know you've already took the gamble and invested in yourself.

They know how much your investment based on the prior investment, they know how much a return they can expect on this investment.

So they're going to not only invest in you, they're going to invest in you and bump you up some because they want to further the investment.

They want you to grow.

You got a lot of criticism because you beat some heavy hitters that night yeah you got a lot of criticism like ah man that they record what that did they weren't better than travis cotton they weren't better than this shout out to travis shouts out to nobs yeah shout out to metro

yeah i saw i'd have lost i'd have lost

that's it that's it you know that's it they put travis in a position where they they tried to get him to diss me he came with some light bars it was cute you know i appreciated it that shit was funny but this the same kid that i had saw at south by southwest and i remember telling sway like, don't try to push him to be no freestyle artist on it.

This kid is just good.

He's entertaining.

I like Travis Scott.

I take my kids to see him.

He's entertaining as shit.

I like the comic book-like

imagery he has.

I like him a lot.

But, you know, with that said, like, I'm an MC.

Right.

Like, I'm not here to play with you.

I'm sure there's a lot of people you love

in the league.

But when Denver played them, when Baltimore played them, hey, man, I'm here to win.

I doubt that.

Yeah, if you're a Travis Scott band and one of the ones that are disparaging me, I don't give a a damn, nigga.

I walked down.

I still got him grabbing.

I wake up every day because,

you know, what you going to do?

You know what I mean?

Nigga came out rap me.

And that's just what it is.

But that's not to say I'm not entertained.

I don't like him.

That's just to say when the game is on, I'm going to win.

I don't care how old I am.

I don't care how many gray hairs I got.

This is all I ever wanted to do.

So I'm not going to feel bad about being a winner because I put 500 grand of my own money into it.

I've given my life since I was nine years old to this.

You know what I mean?

I've given 40 years of my life, over 40 years of my life to this.

So I can't feel bad about when you get it.

Cause when you ask God for something, be prepared for everything that comes with it.

Right.

When you ask God, God, I want to be a winner, you know next year they're going to come for you harder.

When you win a Super Bowl, boy, the hardest thing to overcome, I would imagine, is laziness.

Yes.

Because, man, I don't want.

I want to chill.

I don't want to do like Jerry Rice on run them hills.

I don't want to be, I don't want to be like Shannon and get out there and condition myself.

Yeah.

So my thing is with everything I asked for to come with the win, I got.

Right.

And with that, I accept it all and I appreciate it.

So when I get back in the studio and work my ass off for the next 120 days, when I come out on the other side, I'm coming back to whoop ass again.

I don't give a shit who's in the category.

Do you are, I think Kai had said something on the stream.

You ever talked to Kai?

I have not talked to Kai.

I think we may have passed each other at a wrestling event.

I may have said hello.

You may have said hello.

But I don't, I mean, I bet you no nigga know who I am now.

I know who you are.

Congratulations, too, on that.

I think it's Time magazine cover.

Congratulations, Kai.

Yeah.

Congratulations.

You are unbelievable.

Yeah.

I'm cheering for all you niggas.

Even your little niggas don't like me.

I'm cheering for you niggas because I don't want you in Fulton County begging nobody for nothing.

Being nobody's girlfriend.

You know what I mean?

So, you know, I don't give a shit.

Uh-oh.

I don't give a damn how you feel.

Right.

Cause I got mine.

Right.

The old people you say something to say, I got mine.

You got to get yours.

Got to get yours.

Yeah, so I'm good.

Everything I've ever wanted, I got.

I got a wife shaped like a strip.

I got off fast, muscle cars.

I got some German cars in there.

My house paid for.

My warehouses and buildings paid for.

I can sit back, take a month off, and live off the rents that I charge people.

I am rich.

I'm rich as I ever been.

I'm fine.

I'm not Jay-Z rich, not billionaire rich, but boy, for old country boy.

Oh, man.

You got more than you ever thought you had.

Oh, boy, everything.

But

only thing I'm missing now is a couple hundred acres somewhere in West Georgia, my own lake, and a compound for my sisters to live on with me.

And that's soon coming.

So y'all, no matter what you say about me, what you try to do or throw at me, I don't give a damn.

It don't matter to me.

I'm good.

The Barbs were mad at you.

Not Nikki, but the Barbs, which is Nikki fan.

I love Nikki, too.

She might be.

daughter why would they i mean it's not i didn't even know they were mad because my daughter's a barb a naya so she she she protect me i think she my advocacy my advocate on on on clubhouse or whatever for that but i i want to say man i i think it's a bit of an insult to call her one of the best female mcs nikki is just one of the best mcs in the world so right just shouts out to nikki love you the delt girl you you absolutely amazing

but that night

This is the highest you've ever been musically.

Yeah.

And something happened.

Yeah.

Walk us through because you're like, you're in the A, we're in the highest.

Yeah.

Gradually, you nominated for all these awards.

You don't know.

And when people's like, hey, I'm just glad I'm nominated.

I don't care if I win or not.

That's a lie.

Good job.

You didn't count.

You nominated you.

You were counting.

You win.

That's like I play in the game.

Well, I'm just at the Super Bowl.

If I don't win, I'm okay.

Nah, bro.

I'm trying to win this game.

Because I don't know if and when I'll ever get it.

Absolutely.

You're so high.

And then that unfortunate incident happened.

Can you walk us through that night?

Well, I mean, we were told to go places by different people, but we didn't have one person just to walk us through.

I think now that they do it differently now,

but we kind of got dropped off at a ticketing place.

We showed our tickets, we went through.

It was alleged that somebody with me didn't have a ticket, but we were ticketed.

My publicist was walking me to the red carpet.

It was raining outside, so we were trying to walk it through.

We were told we couldn't go.

We didn't understand what was happening.

Next thing you know, we were being told that we were going to be detained.

We were detained.

And

I'm headed to jail.

By the time they get me, I'm in the holding cell.

Now, my wife had wanted, she had wanted to bring the kids out.

I was like, nah, for whatever reason, I don't want to bring the kids out.

Wow.

What I didn't know is the next day, my son would receive an emergency kidney out of nowhere.

He has a rare blood type.

So I don't know.

He had been bumped up on the kidney donor list, but we didn't know he had one coming.

So I was glad.

God has a plan.

And God can remain anonymous through what seems to be a series of unfortunate unfortunate events.

So I'm sitting there in the holding cell, and I'm like, man, ain't this some bullshit?

And the people who love me, because the cops were kind enough to let me keep my phone, were hitting me with encouragement.

People like my mayor Dickens down in Atlanta, former mayor Keisha Lance bottoms, Kasim Reed, were hitting Mayor Karen Bass out in L.A.

There's a policeman on night duty.

I forget his name, Mayberry or something.

He's telling them to bring him on in.

By the time they got me brought in, they had received 1,500 phone calls on some Malc Mex shit.

Like they're about to do a protest on your police station.

Like these people are coming down here for Mike.

I don't think you guys know who you arrested.

They had to move me to another detainment center.

It scared them so.

But as I'm sitting there kind of by myself, I just started thanking God.

And I just say, man, you know, I appreciate you putting me in this place of peace and quiet because everything is so wild and disturbing.

I knew I could win, but I didn't know I was going to sweep.

So thank you, Lord.

I knew I could get back to this mountaintop, but I didn't know what was going to be on this album thank you lord i just started being thankful i was like daniel and linesy and i was like jonah in the belly of the whale because i felt like it was something that god needed me to understand in that moment to make me not get too arrogant not too full of myself you know not to be an i told you so and i can remember when i when i checked out i can remember the black guard and and i and i had i had had mexican policemen pretty much around me um one white guy and and they weren't very talkative too for me they weren't they weren't rude or unkind but they weren't they weren't engaging And it ain't like Atlanta.

You get a lot of Atlanta police.

You know, nigga, I went to school with you, nigga, down.

Yeah, yeah, go.

But he said, now, Mike, we don't want to see you come back.

I said, you ain't got to worry about that.

He said, good.

And I walked out, and it was like a movie.

I saw.

Shea standing in the rain.

I saw my lawyer, Elliot, standing in the rain.

Will was in the car in the rain.

It was just like, it was like the end of a movie.

And I thought that was the very end of the movie, that this beautiful romantic set of me, this woman who I love, my lawyer, you know, the people who care about me there.

And then I woke up the next morning after having, because I still went out and partied.

I still went out and partied with Tom, Tom Wiley,

and

Ryan and his son, and Tom Wiley, who discovered Tupac.

He owns the parent company, the long-term company I'm partnering with.

Man, we still went out and had a great time.

I think it was Peterson Automotive Museum and had a great night.

Oh man, it was a great night.

Jesus Christ.

And the next morning, I woke up to a call from Pony Boy's mom saying, hey, you got to get back to Atlanta.

You got to get back now.

And I was like, what's wrong?

What's wrong?

She was like, Pony's getting his kidney.

She was like, he's getting a kidney.

And that was truly the end of the movie for me.

And I just thank God even harder.

You know, I thank God for everybody that had been a part of making that album with me.

Everybody that had sat up at the studio with me to encourage me.

Everybody that just gave me Rico Wade, God bless them.

He's gone now.

I remember Rico walking in the room with Ray Murray saying, you know,

this album got to be as cohesive as the chronic, and it got to be southern.

And he just left.

And I was like, well, that's a hell of a thing to say to somebody.

You know what I'm saying?

I was like, that's the chronic.

You know what I'm saying?

But we managed to do it.

And it was only because of the people that believed in me.

It was because of the men and women that believed me, the people that truly loved me that believed in me.

It was because of the ex-girlfriends that believed in me.

It was because of my wife that believed in me.

It was because of my kids that believed in me.

If I wouldn't have had all that belief poured into me, I don't know what I would have done.

So, in that moment, that night, that night, that troublesome, like I tell people, they locked up a rapper, but when they let me out, I was a folk hero.

When we went to the Whopper House, we got home, standing ovations.

We went to Spond Division, standing ovation.

When we went to everywhere we went, it was standing ovations because the city told me, Man, we felt like we won.

And I said, Because we did.

Wow.

When you heard

the categories, and

Killer Mike, yes,

Travis Scott.

Drake.

You hear all these names called.

And the winner is

Killer Mike.

Yeah.

At first time was exciting.

I was like, oh, my God, this is crazy.

This is amazing.

I got one.

Got one.

So

I'm not leaving empty handed.

Like Denzel said, I'm leaving with something.

I'm leaving with something.

But I walked back and they said, hold on, Mike, don't walk back to your chair.

Noticing when I went up there the first time, I asked Shaya, I said, where Shaya was, my wife at.

They said, I said, don't go back.

They said, no, hold on.

I said, oh, shit, I'm going to win a number.

And I went back out when they called my name again.

I'm just like, nigga,

oh, shit.

I don't want twos.

When I got off again, because I asked the shit again, she still didn't come down.

I asked, when I left, they said, hold on.

And that's when I realized, oh, shit, I just swept.

They said, don't go nowhere yet.

And that's when I knew I was going to win three.

And when I looked up and seen Will going crazy, Paul, YT, Cuz, Lightyear on the stage, my wife coming up in that short dress with them heels on and comes.

I was like, I was like, it truly was a moment.

And everybody in the house that night who had love for me, I appreciated.

There were people that you just didn't even see that just gave a fuck and showed love.

And I just appreciated you all.

Wow.

You got Dre.

I mean, Dre hadn't really done anything.

Yeah, stacks.

How'd you get stacks on this album?

I invited him.

I was at No ID studio and I invited him just to come through.

Dre and Big Boy matter to me a lot.

Like,

I have a podcast called Conversate with Killer Mike.

I got to get you on there, too.

And we talked, I had a conversation with C-bone, who at one time was my, you know, like

your friend and arch rival at the same time.

Because Seabone was very loyal and dedicated to big and seeing what Big Boy wanted to see happen.

And Dre and Big at the time, Dre had decided, I'm going to leave rap and I'm going to pursue acting, pursue fashion.

And at the time, the crew felt,

and I said a word abandoned, but there's no malice on it.

It's just that that's how we felt.

We felt like our leader, him and Big Boy are our leaders.

You know,

like in lieu of Rico being gone now, Ray, who was a very, very quiet member of Organized Noise, he had to become more vocal.

Ray has always been like, Yoda, quiet in the far.

But Ray is our leader.

Sleepy Brown's our leader.

So that was like one half of our leadership left.

to pursue what you should do, pursue your soul's desire and calling.

But it just went into anarchy.

And so getting an opportunity to be in a room with Dre as no longer just teacher and student, not only just leader and follower, but equals, getting a chance to be in a room with him and let him hear what was Michael at the time and say, I think I may have something that you like, man, it was overwhelming because all I ever wanted to do was make him and Big Boy proud.

I wanted to make him and Big Boy and a woman named Regina Davenport, who now works with brother David Banner.

She was their A ⁇ R at Aquimini.

If it had not been for those three people, my life would have went drastically different.

If it hadn't been for Nasilo Reddick, you know, whose mother was a school teacher and father of Bonzo Reddick, mother of Betty, and father Bonzo's a famous lawyer

in Savannah, he was best friends with big boy.

If it hadn't been for these people encouraging me, allowing me in, then where would I be?

So, you know, I just want to manage it like I forever do, man.

I always, I tell Dre, man, damn, man, you be forgetting to mention me in interviews.

You have to mention me, Big dog.

We're trying to sell a record, but I never forget to mention Big and Dre because I appreciate them so much.

They give me an opportunity to change my life.

And as I grew older and matured, I understood what a difficult task Big Boy took on.

And then losing his partner.

you know, and not losing his friend, his brother, but his partner in Ryan, because his partner in Ryan had other things, his soul sought other things to see.

But he was forced to now hold it down alone and by himself.

And I remember years later just calling Big out of nowhere one night, just saying, man, I understand.

And I apologize.

I deeply apologize for the way I acted, you know, when everything was falling apart and you were trying to hold it together.

I deeply apologize because I see as a leader, what you go, man, he says, see, I told you, boy.

You know?

So I thank Big and thank Trey, you know.

Do you think they'll ever make music again together?

I don't think about it.

Because I'm an outcast fan.

I get frustrated.

I want to yell at the sky, too.

You know, I understand that.

But I'm glad that every few years they pop out on the stage together.

And I think that music is better for it.

They're receiving their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame sometime the next couple months between, I think, October and November.

I'm going to be proud to be in the audience watching that happen.

Just like I was proud to watch you in Sterling, man, walk on that stage, get those gold coats.

I think that they don't owe the world nothing, but should they want to give the world something, we gladly.

We surely appreciate it.

Oh, we surely appreciate it.

You won your first graduate with them in 03.

Yep, I did.

Yep, on a song called The Whole World.

Yeah.

I lit that shit up, too.

And and I learned the importance of work ethic then.

I wanted to go out to the club.

All the other guys were going out, I think, to the gentleman's club.

Yeah.

They were going out too.

And I remember Big Boy stopping me, saying, Hey, maybe you want to stay here and check out.

Because it was supposed to be another single off that album that was going to be the lead single.

And Big said, I think you need to stay, you know, and try to do something on this hit.

So, Big Boy, man, I got to say, has always been an encourager and always been someone I wanted to emulate in terms of being a good businessman, a good provider, the cornerstone of his family.

I just, I just, he's he's somebody that doesn't get the praise and accolades he deserves because he's, because he's quiet, right?

About it and he doesn't, he doesn't throw his tail around.

But man, if people threw his tail around, a lot of y'all would be shamed.

That boy bank account on swole, man.

You know, you know, a rich buy house in a rich neighborhood.

Say, man, I'm thinking I'm buying this next old neighborhood house.

I don't really want no neighbor.

I said, God damn.

Around and did it.

Is it true future was a part of the the dungeon family?

Yeah, future is it used to be called mehead when he was rapping with the DF Second Generation.

And G-Rock, I think, nicknamed him Future.

And

he's Rico's cousin, and he's an amazing artist.

He's Dre's current favorite rapper.

And

Atlanta, it belongs to him.

They love him.

And

he gave the word.

Future to me is like...

a futuristic rendition of the blues.

When you listen to his music, a lot of times you listen to things that are sad and painful to hear, but he make them sound like, man, it's the most exciting thing in the world.

So shout outs out to Future.

And I really appreciate him and Dre, because after Dre gave me the record, we had to figure out how to make it a record.

Dre had a verse, you know, him and I think Blake, I've been getting a young man, Sam, I think Blake.

They had it, and then No ID came in.

And then DJ Paul came in, and it just went crazy.

But I appreciate Future because I know Future got a lot of shit to do.

You know,

Future got a lot of hits to be on.

But Future came out of nowhere, man, and sent me that verse, man.

And I just appreciate him and Stax for doing that.

So, Future, I ain't seen you in a long time, but thank you.

You know, I sincerely appreciate you, brother.

When he was in the second generation, did you know he would like be what he's become?

No, I didn't because I was so, I was too, too busy clawing at not falling off myself.

You know what I mean?

Like, the big record company didn't have much faith in me.

You know, Columbia Records is a company.

The people who worked there didn't have faith in Killer Mike.

They remember telling you, big black guy, you can't be named Killer Mike yet.

You know, you get a band come out a few years later called the Killers, and everybody gets behind them.

You know what I mean?

So, for me, I was too busy clawing, but I knew that Rico understood talent.

And I knew that the guys, I knew he could wrap his ass off.

I knew G-Rock and C.

Smooth were dope as hell.

You know, Bullet Ball was dope.

I knew that the guys that Rick had put together for Second Generation were dope guys.

So I never doubted him.

But it was when I saw him, he did a record.

I'm forgetting who it was featured with, but the kid literally chopped future out the video.

Whoever was doing it was chopping future out.

And that was a gun family.

I got pissed.

I'm like, man, that's how I got the f ⁇ y'all doing this.

You know, it was, I think it was racks on racks on racks.

It might have been that, but I knew then, I was like, oh, they're trying to hold Shawty back.

Oh, Shawty gonna do it.

And the next thing you know, Shawty did it.

I can't even remember the other artist's name.

That's not an insult to him.

But I just said that was the moment that I knew when I seen another company try to kind of excuse him or get him.

Oh, I said, oh, he got, he got what he takes.

And he's not, he's not letting us, he's not let us down, man.

He's done the city proud.

You also got Dave Chappelle to appear on the album.

That's my guy.

How'd you get Dave to peer on the album?

I just asked him because, because, man, I went to, I I ended up befriending Dave because I've always thought he was hype, intelligent, funny as hell.

And it's crazy to like him and Ryan Davis are two of the most and Paul Mooney.

You know, so Paul Mooney, of course, God bless the dead.

Dave is the current legendary Ryan Davis, who I think is going to be an absolute goat too.

I like intelligent funny.

You know what I mean?

I like all funnies, but there's something about intelligent funny.

And Dave, man, I remember asking Dave, you know, he gave me this speech after one of his shows.

Like, you need to run for governor.

And I'm like, I don't.

i want some money like you and he and he gave me this speech about how

i don't care if you go to script clubs i don't care if you smoke weed we care that we can trust you right that people have implicit faith in you

and you and you have to honor that by doing something so i called him and said dave you do something on the album and i sent it to him and he sent back that monologue and i was like oh

and then people tried to get pissed about the monologue y'all dare you compare being a black man or being a rapper to storming the beaches of volcano when i think to to myself, how many 18 and 19 year old boys in the Army and not don't know what the f their life is going?

Stepping out on that beach is as scary as stepping off that curb sometimes.

You don't know what you're doing, which direction to go, what's going on around you.

And I say, man,

what a pitiful way to

hate a metaphor by trying to hate on Dave Chappelle, who's intelligent, who gets it.

And I appreciate him telling me to run because I ain't stopped running since, man.

Thank you, Dave.

When was the first time you met Dave?

First time I met Dave, Dave had me on the show, the Chappelle show.

First season, when everybody was like, your name's f ⁇ ing Killer Mike.

We're not Buffy.

Killer Mike.

And Dave was like, I'll book him.

and had me come to a boxing gym in Brooklyn.

And me and my man, G.G.

McGee, who just got his ex in the Nation of Islam, shouts out to G.

Gerard X now, man.

I'm very proud of you.

We went up there, man, and we performed action.

And Dave was jumping around.

He was skinny as a prick.

And

I have been a fan of since then, but in the the last four years, really built a solid friendship with him.

You took him to the flame.

Took him to the flame.

And Bill Maher.

And that's how we toured together.

At the end of the night, he puts his arm around me and says, Mike,

we should go on tour.

And I was like, don't play with me.

I have my white folks call your white folks in the morning.

We'll get this shit together.

And the next morning, I called my white folks.

They spent days, white folks already called us.

You guys were going on tour.

Wow.

And it happened.

That's how it happened.

And the flame.

I owe a lot to the flame.

Shouts out to Michael and Jackie Cato.

The food good at this flame?

No, the food is the best at the point.

Let me tell you, so let me give y'all this: man.

Atlanta is one of the places where not only do you have black strip clubs, they're black-owned.

So when you start talking about Club Rain, now I think rebranded Folly.

She started to my Peaches.

She started to my Magic City.

Started talking about the Flame.

You're talking

with

Candy Lane with two chains.

Shouts out to Dre over there.

Those are clubs that are.

Folly's reopened?

Yeah.

Well, Folly's name is now Rain over on Moreland, which used to be...

Yep, now they're used to be be on what you call them too

highway.

Yeah, yeah, but but it's gone now.

So that one had to close, so I think that they're just doing a licensing deal.

Oh, okay.

But but

I don't know why I knew that.

Yeah, but

these yeah, these places got great got great food.

So if you want the best wings, you know, a lot of people are going to tell you Magic City.

And I love Magic City wings, but you know, I'm from the west side.

Yeah.

But the west side wings at that flame wife.

I'm going to have to check the flame.

And they got to, yeah, you got to let me tell you.

We got to do, I'm going to tell you the secret.

Day Shield.

They show.

They shield.

Day Shield.

Okay.

Day Shield got all natural bodies, and them girls got their girl.

They got

the food.

That's all I want.

That's all.

Oh, oh, respect.

Respect.

We're going to go for the food.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Jordan got the schedule.

Let's do it.

This concludes the first half of my conversation.

Part two is also posted, and you can access it to whichever podcast platform you just listen to.

Part one on.

Just simply go back to Club Shether profile, and I'll see you there.