Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 The, the fathers of gangster rap, they wasn't pointing you to prison in the beginning. They were telling they were painting a picture. Right. They telling the story. They were poetic. They was poetic poets. Yeah. Telling a story. But what started happening, these characters start appearing in real life. One of the characters was a strawberry. Strawberry. Strawberry is the neighborhood host. That's when crack first came. We call 'em crack heads and dope fiend in California. They were st strawberries. The strawberry is the lady who was addicted to crack, who was sell a body for crack for a dime, $10 rock. So guess what, as kids who shouldn't be hearing this, guess what we doing when we get $200? We want to have sex with the older women that looked the good to us. So that's what we was doing. We was becoming perverted. We wasn't probably having sex with them, grown women. They wasn't poor to do them type of things. Huh. But every time, every dollar I got was gone to Mexican Maria. That's why I got a Mexican baby. Now, I was doing that at 13 years old.
Speaker 1 00:01:19 Today,
Speaker 2 00:01:20 I bring to you the chameleon of comedians. The insult of Consulters and the truth teller amongst world misinformation. To be brief, I'll just introduce you once again to my friend, Mr. Charleston White. I hope you enjoy this interview on the T Cast by Uncommon Souls.
Speaker 0 00:01:42 A lot of my friends, uh, I got a section of them that committed murder as children. But then I saw the others who they did nothing but sell drugs and, and, and, and, and, and the missile told that hung over their head was, I don't ever wanna be poor again. So I, I started paying attention. So I sold drugs outta greed. Don't wanna work. Uh, I'm, I'm educated. I can get a job. I know how to do a resume. Uh, I can go borrow some money from my mom and she'll make me write a plan, a promise to pay a promissory note. So I have alternatives to committing crime. I never sold drugs for money. It was more for the lifestyle. Yeah. To be a part of the guys, to be able to wake up, not go to work. Yep. Be a bullshit, lazy motherfucker. But then there were some guys who, uh, they did this because they are never gonna go back to being poor like they was as a kid.
Speaker 2 00:02:40 But there's so many people that have that same sentiment about jail. But, but it's so counterintuitive. But they're also like, man, I'm never going back to jail again. But they still go back to slinging because it's all they know now that other, the other point I get, I do get the, the, the,
Speaker 0 00:02:57 It's, it's, it's we're creatures of habit. Yeah. Right. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's not all, you know, it's all that, you know, that works. Right now, if, if my, if my tooth is hurting, I need it to stop right now. I don't need it to stop next Friday when I get this job. There was times I would have to say, mama, can I borrow some gas money? I don't quit selling weed. When I made my mind up to, to, to just leave crime alone, I was in my mid twenties. My son was six month old. I probably sold a pound or two pounds of weed every day. Good money coming in at that time. Uh, I stopped doing that to go pick up trash with Goodwill on side of the highway. I got $40 a day.
Speaker 2 00:03:49 Right. That's the big drop off though. Right? That's why a lot of people aren't exposed to options that will get them there. Uh, certainly as fast, because you gotta start over. Well,
Speaker 0 00:03:58 For one, I'm picking up trash on side of the highway, and I ain't got clothes to pick up trash in. I got $300 throwback jerseys. So
Speaker 2 00:04:06 What made you do it? What makes, what makes you do it and not someone else do it?
Speaker 0 00:04:10 Uh, I wanted, I've been doing all this for, for an identity. So I started out stealing cars, hanging with the car thief, the, the kids that stole cars that we thought was cool. Uh, then when crack came, uh, you got big Paul Chappelle, big Paul Chappelle was the 18, 19 year old kid that had a lot of dope that could front the 12, 13, and 14 year old kids. Uh, well that's what the other cool kids was doing in the eighth grade. So when we get outta school in, in the eighth grade in Hutchinson, junior high, man, we got a piece of hut right there. The niggas that got to sell dope, man, they got all the cute girls. They buying pizza of hay. What you want? So, but they ain't got nothing but a hundred dollars. But to us at 13, that's a lot of money. Yep. Not only that, Nike Cortez cost 40, $50 at the time so they can go buy their own Nike Cortez, the gangster Nikes. Right? Right. Yep. So you wanna be a part of that. No different than a kid who wanna play football that want to hang out with the star running back. It's no different. You just wanna stand next to him, the cool jock that everybody like. You just wanna be seen shaking his hand, talking to him.
Speaker 2 00:05:18 See, but some people grow up and other people don't. There's still people you go back to, I won't tell you how many high school reunions I've been to, cuz that might date me a little bit. But you go back and there's still people that are surviving on the popularity that they had in school.
Speaker 0 00:05:32 Boy, thanks to social media <laugh>, God, thanks to social media. Uh, they get to go bang some chicks they missed out on because they was popular in school. Right. Honor to realize he's a dish bag. He's worse now than he at work ever was before he lacks them moral capacity of what A man has to be a standup
Speaker 2 00:05:50 Guy. So, so how do you find that out though, at 20 say, or however old you were? So you get to the point where you finally realize, all right, these are douche bags. But I didn't know they were douche bags in eighth grade. Cuz in eighth grade were a bunch of punks. Anyway, who knows?
Speaker 0 00:06:05 I, I didn't, I didn't figure it out. Uh, I remember the first time, uh, my gang buddies from T Y C saw me with a pair of red sweatpants on, I didn't want to indoctrinate my son with just blue. So I wanted my son to be, I didn't want. So I, I, I knew psychologically what that could do. Just he'd wake up his dad in blue. So I was 25, 26 man years old when I first put on red from 15. And I remember going by my, my, my rolling 30 Crip partners and, and, and they looking at me crazy. I've always been a leader. I became a coward that day cuz I lied to them on why I had the red pants on. Mm-hmm. I told 'em I was finna go sco some weed man from this, from this blood nigga. And I, you know, uh, I lied. That was a coward move. But I was just starting to embrace fatherhood. Uh, when the guys called in the middle of the night and they said, come on man. Let's, let's go man. Man, I need you to come ride with me to go over here, man. We go, go to Longview. Uh, I packed my son up one day and this was it. Uh, my cousin was a big time drug dealer.
Speaker 0 00:07:20 Uh, probably sold half the keys in this city. His little brother wanted to be just like him. So they were, he was the little brother was trafficking drugs Longview. And he needed a ride to take a key. Uh, I had just broke up with my baby mother. Uh, I had quit selling weed. I'm getting $40 a day, man, picking up trash on side the highway. And I got a stand in line at the end of the day. Uh, I got guys who's running the bus, uh, they're not too nice. They're picking and choosing. So, uh, it was a lot of obstacles to keep waking up to make this right choice every day. It's a lot of barriers,
Speaker 2 00:08:00 Right? So the job's hard enough and they're making it even harder.
Speaker 0 00:08:03 Uh, on top of that, uh, on top of that, I gotta deal with the shame of being a big time weed man and people riding by saying, same mant, that blue outside the highway. I gotta deal with that shame people seeing me picking up trash on Sha Highway with the goodwill people. I gotta wake up at five o'clock in the morning and go stand down here, uh, downtown by the homeless shelter for the goodwill buses to come pick me up. And I had to catch a ride to do that.
Speaker 2 00:08:33 But you're making my case. How do you transit? How does that
Speaker 0 00:08:35 Transit? I have my mind made up transit. Uh, you, you have to have your mind made up. Once your mind is made up, there's nothing can change it.
Speaker 2 00:08:42 Okay.
Speaker 0 00:08:43 There's no, there's no circumstances. There's no obstacles, there's no trials. There's no tribulation. Once your mind is made up, when you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, it's over with you.
Speaker 2 00:08:55 And a lot of it was your kids.
Speaker 0 00:08:56 You, well, I wanted, all my life, I've been making wrong choices to be somebody to have an identity gangster. So I play gangster for a little while. Somebody end up getting killed, found out. I don't wanna really be gangster. I don't wanna hurt people. So we sold dope. I'm gonna be a hustler. I'm gonna be a crack dealer because the image of the crack dealer was something to be admired being a dope boy. Right. Until you live it. Hell, that's a hell of a title. Yeah. You know? So I wanted that. I wanted that rec because all boys want an identity. That's why we wanna be Superman. We wanna be heman all we wanna be dad. So when we finally get to sneak in the bathroom and stand up on a thing, we get dad clippers and try to shave ourselves. And so because we starting to identify with our father, we start thinking Dad is a hero.
Speaker 0 00:09:46 We don't know nothing outside of his identity. So we wanna be like Dad. That's our identity naturally. So without that, you don't wanna be like mama unless you start wearing her house shoes and putting on a heels stomping through the house. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Well, you most people will say, boy, get out there girl. Shoot, get out your mama's shoes, boy. So we had men around that could correct boys. So, but it was the wrong kind of men. So I never wanted to play in mama's shoes. I always seen the wrong kind of men. Yeah. So that's the identity, because I'm thirsty and every glass I get is, is is muddy water. So I'm gonna drink the muddy water cause I'm thirsty. I'm not gonna die thirst. Whatever bacteria disease I get for drinking the water, I'm gonna drink that water because I'm thirsty. Now if you put me, uh, uh, some clean water and some dirty water, I'm gonna pick up the clean water. So my mother was young, so she don't know what to start exposing us to, to, she start looking at life differently. Cause she start seeing things differently. So then she start knowing that it's an importance to make sure that as a single mother, I have to have my sons exposed to some positive male influences. My dad's in prison, my brother's in prison. He's a pimp. He's a woman beater. Uh, go over aunt house, uncle Joe Campbell. So you got all these elements, not that these are bad people, not that these are bad people. Uh,
Speaker 2 00:11:08 Bad choices.
Speaker 0 00:11:09 Yeah. Bad choices. And so I'm saying throughout all my life, I made bad choices to try to establish an identity as a boy and as a man. Until I realized as a, at this point in life, this boy can give me everything I've been about to kill for this boy. About to give me everything I ever been wanting. Identity. I'm a father, I'm a daddy. And I never left that. I stayed there. I walked away from wanting to be a pimp. Uh, I stayed there. And that's where I found Charleston. That's where I found me. Yeah. In fatherhood.
Speaker 2 00:11:47 That's awesome. I mean, and, and everybody's got their own story. And I know, I know that was a significant part of yours. We've talked about a number of times about your children. And yet when I, you know, when I did the fishbowl stuff, I mean, I first of all can relate to kind of the, the cultural coolness to the whole vibe. I had a lot more freedom to feel cool because I wasn't actually engaging. So I wasn't gonna be risking prison or anything like that. But I can see where a, a dope dealer would think that that moniker carries something cool until you start living it and realizing that it's not cool at all. And when we debriefed people, I literally, man, I had one dude that had three kids in the same year and he couldn't remember middle names for two of 'em. He was struggling to remember.
Speaker 2 00:12:35 And then one of 'em, he thought it was this, but he couldn't spell it. That to me is, uh, uh, it doesn't compute to me. But I know it happens all the time. And that's why I say it was different about you. Cuz that's the difference. Uh, is that it affected you the way it would affect me and the way it did affect, I changed my life trajectory too when my son came. Yeah. But thousands, millions, even of men aren't affected like that. And they still keep acting a fool. And there's certain stimuli that they, that needs to be had or there's some kind of other solution. Cuz I know
Speaker 0 00:13:10 I read well, well, you just, you just said something, uh, very critical and and very important. You said stimuli. You know the experiment they do with dogs, the one that make his mouth water up. You hold up the, so, uh, fatherhood can be so shameful and painful. You can't get your stimuli, so you run from it. I ran away for 20 some days. I ran away from mama's kids. I didn't answer the phone. I went and hung out with my Latin king partners in poll. And man, I ain't answer the phone. I celebrated my birthday. So I probably, I think I was in my 32, 33. Never been absent. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:14:00 But I just let my, my mother say son, because I was struggling at the time. Uh, I don't have a real work ethic. I can go get a job, but I don't have a work ethic. I can learn fast, but man, I'm gonna get bored on the job. You know what I'm saying? So mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, my mother says son, because she see me struggling. She said, why don't you come back home? You in the, because I was a single dad at the time. My, my baby mama was in jail. Why don't you come back home, son? And, and, and, and, and, and hit the reset button, save you up some money and then go back out. Okay, cool. Uh, made sense. I had, I, I, I had landed a warehouse job was making good money weekly, could put all the overtime in I want. Uh, and I like going, I was rear-ended leaving work one day.
Speaker 0 00:14:55 I was rear-ended leaving work one day and ended up in a trauma center. So, you know, got a concussion. Yeah. Rear-ended hard. Yeah. Well, she was texting and driving. Yeah. Uh, the insurance company offered me $55,000. At the time, my medical bills were like 40 something. I should have took the 55. But listening to the lawyers, they trying to pursue the whole insurance policy. Right. They're greed, not me, but I'm listening to the lawyers. Uh, we go to mediation, still offering a 50. My mom son, you think y'all to take it? I, I think, but the lawyers saying, you know, girl, you better call. I just got hit.com. Okay. So that's what you thinking. So in the process, I got this money, this, this invisible bag that I'm go get down the road, the lawyers say, let's go to trial. We go to trial and lose.
Speaker 0 00:15:51 Ooh, don't get nothing because Dallas County, I probably would've got $300,000. Very liberal city. Uh, Fort Worth is more conservative. Here I am sitting up on the, on the jury. The jury. And, and, and, and, and, and one of the questions that they asked you, Hey, Mr. White, have you ever been convicted of a crime of moral turpitude? They asked you had in a deposition. Well, you don't even know what moral turpitude is. No, ain't it? But I did. So I said no. So they know I've been to T Y C for murder. The insurance company, they find out everything, but they can't bring it up. No. That's why I'm curious already. Listen, listen. Yeah. Listen. Hey, where did you go to high school? These are deposition questions. Hey, we're, oh, I didn't go to high school. Oh, you didn't? Do you have a high school diploma?
Speaker 0 00:16:45 Uh, no, I don't. And I was kind of cocky at the time, you know, coming out the streets. Uh, so you don't have no high school diploma? No college degree. Well, I got a gd. Oh. Where did you get your D degree? In T Y C. What is t? Yc Texas Youth Commission. There you go. It still has nothing to do with it. Well, it has to do with your character. Yeah. Because we have too many commercials that's going on black radio stations. So most white jurors are thinking, black people are exaggerating. The, the, if you hadn't broke a arm, you hadn't lost eye or you hadn't died. It's hard to convince this predominantly white jury that you're not playing for the money with the hook and crook lawyers. That is pretty much propagated on all commercials. Yeah. So how did you meet your lawyer? How did you found out about this chiropractor? How did your lawyer refer you to the neurologist? All them in bed together. The insurance company know this, but you don't know this. Right. And you're legitimate hurt. Yeah. And you got legitimate doctor bills. But they're exploiting you and the insurance company know that you're poor and you should have took the $55,000 and y'all being greedy. Yep. And they're, and that's the truth.
Speaker 2 00:17:59 And you're, but you're following
Speaker 0 00:18:00 Council. I'm following council,
Speaker 2 00:18:02 Man. We're all leaning on council. Like, you guys are smarter than me at
Speaker 0 00:18:05 This. They paid for me to go get my gold teeth taken out so I can be presented to the jury better. Oh lord. They paid, huh? These don't come out. They had to go, I had to go to a dentist and ah, ah, <laugh>, they paid for 'em to be taken out. Oh. So I can be presented better. Yeah. But I forgot, uh, at the, I, I, I'm, I'm, I, I was married to my, my kid's mother at the time. And so I'm following counsel. They say neurological damage or are you, are you having problems with your sex life? I'm saying, well, yeah. I hadn't had sex in 11 months. So you're struggling with erectile? I don't know. Well, yeah, possibly. So you say that in the, in, in the deposition to the insurance company. Well, it says you're married having problem with your wife or your girlfriend. Well, me and my wife separated. So I'm having problems with my girlfriend. I'm a cocky guy coming out the streets with gold. So I'm asking, I'm man, I'm, I'm being stupid. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:19:00 All irrelevant.
Speaker 0 00:19:01 All irrelevant is stupid. But, but this is, is irrelevant. It's gonna be used against you because it's recorded. You done, this is sworn. These is a sworn deposition. Yeah. Yeah. So when the insurance company, they asking you this in front of the jury. So, hey, do you, so this goes towards, to assassinate your character, only to show the jury that, hey, we know this guy got hurt, but we don't believe it's $150,000 worth of. So, but the, but you're not suing. So when you go to court and sue the insurance company, the jury make it look like you suing this pretty little lily, blonde, white woman over there with the Louis Vuitton pers because on the paperwork, it don't say all State, it says her name. Right. So when, when, when, when they took me down that road, that rabbit hole, uh, and I saw the lawyers drop their head, uh, yeah.
Speaker 0 00:19:54 I, I walked away. Uh, I caught the bus. I didn't have a car at the time. Uh, I was a temporary worker on the job. So of course I'm gonna lose the job cause of the injuries. I couldn't go back and work. Yeah. So that sent me into a whole nother direction. I had just completed, I was just, I was transferring from, from Tarn County Community College, and I was gonna go to a A H B C U. I was gonna enroll into, to Paul Quinn. And, and, and due to the accident, I ended up by, by default, ending up in Texas, Westland. Uh, which, uh, that's where God wanted me.
Speaker 2 00:20:30 Yeah. That's blessing and disguising. That's a great, that's a great
Speaker 0 00:20:32 Place to go. Yeah. That was my best education in life. Yeah. Uh, uh, I made the front p paper of the Rambler. Uh, I was nominated, uh, student of the student of the men a year. Uh, I made the dean's list. Uh, I, I I I pulled my pants up. That's when I stopped sagging.
Speaker 2 00:20:50 So, so that's a problem though, that you paint. I know last time we talked, we talked a little bit about racism, different little things like that. Yeah. And I don't mean to, to dig it up so specifically, but so that scenario, you paint racism or socioeconomic bias, could it be either or? And I assume you would agree that crap still goes on, right?
Speaker 0 00:21:14 Yeah. Yeah. Well, uh, racism is hitting. It's, it's in, it's, it's in your, it's in the teachings, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So you don't know what a motherfucker been taught. When you are applying for a bank, you're applying for a job. When a cop pull you over, you don't know what he's been taught. It's hidden. There's no more signs. Ain't nobody saying get out the car, nigger. Right. So it ain't no more sign. It's hidden. Most of us don't know how to see it because we have our own ideology that's either distorted or inaccurate.
Speaker 2 00:21:48 Yeah. The cuz a lot of people don't wanna see it. That's what I'm saying. Or they don't wanna admit they're a part or they're a contributing factor to something that could be inadvertent
Speaker 0 00:21:58 Or, so you got a bunch of, I believe you got a bunch of white people who are racist, who don't think they're racist and they believe they're being prejudiced, but because they're in a position of power and, and, and, and, and they have control over people's lives, it excludes them from being prejudice in this position. You're racist. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 00:22:18 <affirmative>. Right.
Speaker 0 00:22:20 Uh, you have a lot of black people who think they're black racist or they're not in a position of power. They're just hateful prejudice people. Uh, and, and I always like to use these two examples, Archie Bunker and George Jefferson. Two prejudice guys. Yeah. Who was able to come to television and appear to be racist, but it was just prejudice ideologies from either lack of understanding or lack of knowing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:22:57 If you had swapped roles, though, if George Jefferson were, uh, living in the little, uh, shotgun shack down there. Yeah. And you had Archie Bunker living in a highrise. He may, he may have been a little bit more, he
Speaker 0 00:23:09 Would've be, he would've been considered a racist. But
Speaker 2 00:23:10 In those situations where you have the attorney, especially in a depo, you're doing that stuff on tape and everything else. Do you I can envision that being a, a breadth of people, but all poor people. Because I think a lot of the people that do take advantage and take the risk of doing insurance fraud or whatever, and saying, yeah, I wanna try to claim this money even though I'm not hurt, who end up screwing you over who actually got hurt. I think a lot of those people come from poor communities. That's where they were advertising. Right.
Speaker 0 00:23:39 You're saying? Well, that's why you hear 'em on hip hop radio stations. That's why you hear 'em mostly on hip hop radio stations. You see, you see these commercials. The Jim hat Earth. You see these commercials after Maori povi, Jerry Springer. Yeah. You know, all the Yeah. All the shit that poor people watch. You know, not black people, but poor people. Yeah. Give poor white trash on Jerry Springers. Hey, I fucked my sister. That's not your sister. That's your aunt. You know, man. Uh, they had a whole slew of people on there. Go to Ma Povi. They had a black woman who had seven men tested. They had a white girl who had seven men tested. Where does racism fit into this new group? They seemed equal in their eyes. That's why you don't see children having race rides.
Speaker 2 00:24:30 Right.
Speaker 0 00:24:31 When I was in school, we had race rides at places, uh, the Gina 6, 10, 15 years ago, they had a race ride 20 years ago in Gina, Louisiana, the Gina six. Uh, even in small country towns, you know, the different that don't exist anymore because the new group of black, white, Arab Jew, they see each other equally. They're not embracing the hate that some of us got from our uncles and thought it was cool. The
Speaker 2 00:25:04 Youngsters you mean
Speaker 0 00:25:05 The youngsters? I mean the youngsters. Yeah. Oh,
Speaker 2 00:25:07 Maybe. I hope you're right. I hope you're
Speaker 0 00:25:09 Right. Well, cause listen, I'm all over the country. I'm courtside seat at the Detroit Piston game. Who you think high fiving the black players, young white kids who you think is performing at the Jewish Bar Mitzvahs? Rappers, <laugh> Drake. 21 Savage. Yeah. Jewish kids are becoming some of the best producers. The white kids are the best engineers, man. You see white kids buying Steph curry jerseys.
Speaker 2 00:25:36 You do see, well, obviously a lot of that stuff is, is culturally emulated, which kind of transitions us into it as something else too that I was curious about. Cuz I know we didn't get as deep into it last time. Yeah. But I know we talked about, um, we talked candidly about how you're a cha I call it the chameleon, right? Yeah. So you have, you have your, uh, you have your persona that is, uh, real derogatory and outspoken and you're always outspoken. Mind you. Yeah. So I'm not trying to divide your personality or anything, but you kind of have two different sides. You have, uh, you have this side and you have another side where I might be a rap, a gangster rapper talking crap to you. Yeah. And you're talking back to me, right? Yeah. Um, what is your, what is your view on different kinds of rap music? Cause I know when we talk, when we talked about rap music, you, you generalize.
Speaker 0 00:26:32 Uh, I love rap music. I hate rappers. So I listen to rap music every day, all day. Probably three days out of the month. I'm gonna spend a whole day listening to r and b. Slow song. But for the most part, uh, I, I'm listening to music, uh, my choice of rap music. So the music that I listen to, you won't hear nobody get killed in it. So
Speaker 2 00:26:55 Those rappers though, that's, I mean, and, and as we generalize, those are still rappers, but they're not necessarily, those aren't rappers that you're talking about. You're talking specifically about Well,
Speaker 0 00:27:05 Today's rappers are all killers and gangsters. So you had, so you had the East coast rappers, Kool Mo D uh, l l Cool. J They didn't propagate gangsterism. Cool. Mo d was a guy that had the ladies dressed up in a suit and dance. Fresh haircut. L l Cool. J ladies love Cool James. When he made the I'm bad album, he was still cool. It wasn't gangster. Right? When he was saying, mama said, knock you out. Yeah. It wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't pointing you to prison. Right. So then you hear, you get nwa, the, the fathers of gangster rap, they wasn't pointing you to prison in the beginning. They were telling they were painting a picture. Right. They telling the story. They poetic They was poetic poets. Yeah. Telling a story. But what started happening, these characters start appearing in real life. One of the characters was a strawberry.
Speaker 0 00:28:06 Strawberry. Strawberry is the neighborhood hole. That's when crack first came. We call 'em crack heads and dope fiends in California. They were st strawberries. The strawberry is the lady who was addicted to crack, who will sell a body for crack for a dime, $10 rock. So guess what, as kids who shouldn't be hearing this, guess what we doing when we get $20? We're not trying to go to the local girls and have to just tongue kiss and make out and not slide in the home. Get the second base and have the blue balls. Man, we getting $20 to go get Mexican Maria. So we can all trick with the crack grown woman. Because what young guy, all young guys want a bone, a old, you know, a grown woman, <laugh> 13 for men. So we were, so we didn't sell crack for kids to, for the money.
Speaker 0 00:28:57 We wanted to have sex with the older women that looked at good to us. So that's what we was doing. We was becoming perverted. We wasn't probably having sex with them, grown women. They wasn't to do them type of things. Huh. But every time, every dollar I got was gone to Mexican Maria. That's why I got a Mexican baby. Now, I was doing that at 13 years old. So when I got drugs, I'm going sell a little some, but man, I'm all, I'm on a freak. My testosterone levels is high at 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. And we in these trap houses. Right? So, so the NWA lyrics start evolving to seeing a woman walking down the street in rat packing her. Then it start evolving into rat packing other guys. Then it start evolving to robbery, doing robberies, car thefts. So these pictures are being painted to children long before, uh, Luther Campbell, from, from the Group two live crew, uh, was sued and had to go to the Supreme Court and they ruled that parental advisory labels and stickers should be put on put on tapes.
Speaker 0 00:30:04 Yeah. So that's long bef that's, that's, so we three years in before they did that shit. Right? But it didn't stop us from stealing the tapes out of our uncle's cars who liked it. So when I go away from 91 to 98, you start having drive by music. So they literally got drive by music. Music that you listen to, to go drive by and kill people. They got music for that gangster nips Scarface. So, so then it start evolving 93, 94. Now here come the propagation of the Crip and bloods by way of the culture through media. You got Snoop Dogg murder was the ch murder, murder was the case. Right? Now you got these guys in St i's commercials old English commercials. You, you, you see. So now it's in the culture. So now they're starting to make La Dodgers hats red. It ain't La Dodgers blue and white. Why would they make a solid red LA Dodgers hat? Right? Why would they make a red New York Yankees hat? Why would they make solid blue Jordans red? So they started appealing to the natures of the gangsters in, in the street culture. That's how the streets culture was able to evolve so effectively and, and swiftly in, in, in, in, in the hip hop culture. And it drowned out. Guys like cum it drowned out. Guys like Kanye, west Jesus walk, uh, uh, guys like, uh, Andre, 3000 guys like Kendrick Lamar, it drowns them out.
Speaker 2 00:31:44 Well, you still got those guys, man. Kendrick won a Grammy Oh, recently. Which well deserved cuz that that cat's still telling real stories too. And he's, he doesn't like, he's not pulling punches. Well, when he, but he's not promoting something and he's making sometimes, and I don't mean to use him as a specific example. He could be one though. Where, where you have guys that are, that are controversial, let's, let's say, but it's for the sake of prompting conversations that are gonna make progress. Right? Oh, so you and me are sitting here talking about this. If we talked about a specific tune or something that might be
Speaker 0 00:32:22 Tupac was like that initially. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> Tupac, most of Tupac's first. The Tu pocalypse, all that was to spark conversation. He he said that. Right. It wasn't until he got with the gangsters and he had to start fitting in with the gangsters. He started hollering M o b. So Kendrick, Kendrick Lamar grew up his first album. The the Streets could relate to it. Second album, they started saying, oh man, he's crossing over. That's the whole goal,
Speaker 2 00:32:52 Right? For
Speaker 0 00:32:53 Sure. That's the whole goal.
Speaker 2 00:32:56 I'm with you. So, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:32:58 So, so, so the youth, uh, we support Kendrick. Uh, Kendrick got a white audience. He got a Mexican audience. Uh, he's not just limited to the chitlin circuits as most rappers are. That's why they can't win Grammys. And
Speaker 2 00:33:12 He's from Compton, for heaven's sake. So, I mean, he's got
Speaker 0 00:33:15 His speech blood and he and he with the pot rules. He was in that, he's in that.
Speaker 2 00:33:20 But he's grown up. He's smart. He's smart about his approach.
Speaker 0 00:33:24 Did you hear what you just said? You said he's grown
Speaker 2 00:33:27 Up. I know, but not everybody grows up.
Speaker 0 00:33:28 They haven't grown up
Speaker 2 00:33:30 Tegan. I know. I,
Speaker 0 00:33:31 I sat at the park with these niggas, man. They plug in the phone in the big light pole all day long. And sometime the community center come out and give 'em sack lunches, smoke weed. They there all day long. Yeah. Walk the Taco Bell, get some, but they there all day long every day. I know that. And they was there when they were 17 years old. They was there with Tookie, William Fir came to the set. <laugh>. Yeah. They was there at 69, 70, 72 during the blue murders and heard it is 2023. They still at these same parks.
Speaker 2 00:34:02 That's what I'm trying to get at though. How do we, what's the difference? What's
Speaker 0 00:34:05 The They gotta die off.
Speaker 2 00:34:06 What's the thing, man? They
Speaker 0 00:34:07 Have to die
Speaker 2 00:34:08 Off <laugh>. They gotta die off. It's gonna happen.
Speaker 0 00:34:10 This is the group and generation that majority, it's, we have to put 85 to 90% of all our time, energy, and resources on our children. Let the grownups do and do. Man. Man, we have to. Because at, at this point in, in, in America, this country have become so divided. It ain't just white people. That's hateful. Black people, hateful Mexican, hateful Arabs hateful. Everybody hate one another. So Sure. Where does that leave the kids? The, we see the kids playing with each other. They don't, they not
Speaker 2 00:34:53 Hateful. They're not indoctrinated. No.
Speaker 0 00:34:55 Yeah. You see 'em on football teams together. You see 'em at, at the, the wrestling events. Man, they not hateful.
Speaker 2 00:35:04 So how do we keep us old folk from screwing it up again?
Speaker 0 00:35:10 Uh, we gotta hold our politicians accountable. Cause they appear just to be as, as hateful as the gangs toward one another. Yeah. Uh, at at, at this point, uh, there shouldn't be no reason why no politician can't work together to fix this country. Uh, the framers and, and, and the founders of this country, they locked themselves away during those first continental Congress, second con man, they locked themselves in a room. There was a lot of men that had to come to an agreement on how that they was gonna found and, and frame this country by way of its Constitution and Bill of Rights. Uh, that took some time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:35:54 And also these two parties that rose from the ashes and solidified themselves have become such beasts.
Speaker 0 00:36:01 They're hateful.
Speaker 2 00:36:02 It's hard to get around that stuff, man.
Speaker 0 00:36:04 Man, when I hear, when I hear, when I hear a, a Republican say a Democrat or a liberal man, come on. When I hear a, a a a a a, a Democrats say, oh man, they're Republican man. We people, yeah. These are the identities that most children like myself was fighting and dying and kidding for because we just wanted to have this. It's no different than the politicians, man. Some of them lie still cheap, go corrupt to maintain this identity or to maintain this power. Yeah. It's no difference. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:36:37 Because based on getting reelected, as opposed to doing the right thing at risk of getting the boot and saying, I did my best, but I did it. Honestly.
Speaker 0 00:36:45 Oh, I'm, I'm George Washington, have all been, always been my favorite president. When I went back to college, I was in my late twenties, uh, going into my thirties. Your non-traditional student. I took school serious. And boy, I went in that motherfucker. I boy, I boy I made the dean's list. I took it serious from community college to university. Uh, I learned that George Washington was the first president that could have been a king in this country because the people wanted him to be president forever. He said absolute power corrupts absolute that a man who remains in power for a long time becomes corruptible.
Speaker 2 00:37:36 Yeah. They just came from that, for heaven's sake too. They seen it. That
Speaker 0 00:37:39 He was the first man in this country said, no, I know y'all want me to be it, man, but, and I can be it, but I'm not gonna do it. Two terms. That's it.
Speaker 2 00:37:47 Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:37:48 I've been loving that man ever since I seen that.
Speaker 2 00:37:51 He probably would've had gold teeth too, if he could've. Right. If he could've.
Speaker 0 00:37:54 And I would, I would. He would've been gang silver platinum or something. Yeah. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:37:59 He'd been gang.
Speaker 0 00:38:01 But, uh, that's a man with honor who know when the exit stage. Um, it's certain things I don't put myself in, in, in, in a position because I know it's a chance that I would do something. Right. So, uh,
Speaker 2 00:38:19 That's very, that's very insightful and yeah. Uh, introspective and tons of people will resist doing that. Yeah. All of us have something that we should stay away from that we're tempted to be in the middle of, and we know is gonna be nothing but trouble. Yeah. And you've gotta be disciplined enough to know how to set yourself up for
Speaker 0 00:38:39 Success. Oh, that, that's how I've been able to maintain, uh, my character in, in integrity for the most part of working in the black community. I work with a lot of single mothers and, and, and for a lot of time, uh, you become a savior, uh, uh, a alike person if you help people. Uh, that's why a lot of cult leaders, a lot of pastors, a lot of men in power can pray on, on women, uh, uh,
Speaker 2 00:39:05 Police officers.
Speaker 0 00:39:07 Yeah. So pastors. Yeah. So that's what I mean by that. Ions judges. Yeah. Yeah. So, so that's what I mean by that. And, and, and so I don't put myself in, in, in, in, in certain positions because I wanna protect my character and I wanna protect my integrity as a man. So that's why I don't do a lot of things. That's why I don't go a lot of places. Uh, that's why I don't hang out with certain people. Uh, because I wanna protect my character. Uh, what I say, don't define who I am. It's what I do.
Speaker 2 00:39:33 There you go. And that's part of the brilliant comedian, uh Yeah. Comedian and comedian <laugh> that you are. Right? Yeah. Which is kind of where I, I kinda lo was a launch point of this because I see value in that. And I, and I think that, uh, some people that would admit such a thing as you do would be considered fake. But in your case, it actually is. You are the, the rapper that's bringing up something, living this way, saying something that brings different people to the table to start having a conversation. And I assume that that's something that you're in support of. I don't know. Well, I thought, don't me put words in your mouth either. I
Speaker 0 00:40:13 Thought, I thought that's what rap was. I grew up believing as a kid that Ice Cube was a gangster till I grew up and realized Ice Cube produced movies. Mm. He was an educated, articulate guy that rode raps pretty much for the whole group. Eazy-E was a drug dealer who couldn't rap. They turned him into a rapper, but he ended up becoming the biggest, one of the biggest rappers. Yeah. I didn't know Tupac was a poetic kid. Went to a performing art school. Magnum school mother disciplined him, just got off on drugs. He never sold drugs. He had a, he was, he was a avid reader. I didn't know he wasn't gangster. I didn't know he didn't move keys until I grew up and looked at his life after death. I was, I was in my teens when Pac died. I, so it wasn't until I got grown deep that I realized that rappers aren't really gangster.
Speaker 2 00:41:12 Right. <laugh> and the ones that are, are short-lived cuz they're dead
Speaker 0 00:41:16 Or, well, the ones that are, they ain't gonna last long. Right.
Speaker 2 00:41:18 So I wonder if then, and I'm just posing this off the cuff, I'm sorry. So
Speaker 0 00:41:23 Not just rappers, I realized that the street gangsters aren't as gangster as they've been portraying to us. And as we believe they are, they cry in the police car. They snitch and talk to the police and asked what time will I see the judge in the morning? They write home and say, man, I'm, I'm, so I didn't know that. I didn't, they banging to fill a need. Yes. I didn't, I didn't know, man. When, when they said I rise, that the gangsters stood up because on tv, on good times, I seen a dude with his leg like this, her chewing gum <laugh>.
Speaker 0 00:42:00 And when they said, I rise, he didn't, he didn't rise. I saw that on good times. So in my mind, that's the nigga I'm gonna be Yeah. Chewing gum. When the judge say, chew the gum out, put it on the table table. Like, you know. So in my mind, all the gangsters and street guys did that. In my mind, the police had to kick all the gangsters and street guys' ass. They don't just turn around and put their hand behind the back when the cops say, turn around. The cop had to make 'em do it. I didn't know that when the street gangster guys who killed people, I didn't know they went to prison and didn't go to lock up. I thought all of 'em went down there and broke all the rules. I didn't know they followed rules in prison. I didn't know they would let another man strip him naked and look in a, in they anus in a anal cavity search.
Speaker 0 00:42:46 I didn't know that they would agree to do that. I didn't know that gangsters, I thought a gangsters said, man, ain't nobody looking at my, but until I find out that all of this shit is a lie, these are humans with breaking points. These are humans with traumatic paths. These are humans that didn't come out like this. They learnt this. They, most of 'em did this outta fear or most of 'em became this outta a fear not to be done it to them again because it happened to them. So they make sure they ain't gon So I started learning some things as I got older. That's how I can speak like this. But when I was 25, I couldn't speak against this culture. I would have to regurgitate a video. I saw a book out and read. But what you see now is the convictions.
Speaker 0 00:43:33 So I understand that most of our politicians who speak right and talk. Right. We've seen many end up getting caught in sexual scandals going to prison. But they say all the right things in the public. We see some of our influencers be online saying all the right things in public only to end up getting caught doing wrong things in the dark. Right. So I wanted to do the opposite. Yeah. I wanted to come to the internet and say all the wrong things that would be thought-provoking, uh, uh, uh, provocative, uh, that, uh, make people response because I know in real life I'm none of this. I'm not allowed talking cussing motherfucker. I'm I man, I'm very quiet and observing in and and reserved in person. But I, I, I learned how to tap into this character from trying to play all these different roles in life to try to fit in. So I done played killer, I done played gangster, I done played pimping. I done played burglar. I done played Rob, I done played thief. I done played pimp. I done played all these. I done played college. Boy, I done, I done played all these different roles. So now when I say, okay, let me create this character, uh, the character was my release vow, it became my release vow.
Speaker 2 00:44:58 I can see it's, and it's a creative outlet in your, the fact that you are eliciting good conversations is fantastic. You get people that are hostile. But I mean, we have have people respond to, you know, the stuff that you said before. But again, it's, it's something that I find easy to address.
Speaker 0 00:45:15 Well, there's some people mad. I won't come over here and do the ignorant nigger fool and talk to nigger talk. And I'm saying, man, some of the smartest authors you tailor to what's before you. So I I, and, and, and maybe this is not for this platform, but I heard a black guy tell another black guy, man, you can't send no negro down there to talk to a bunch of niggas in the ghetto. You cannot send an educated negro to go down there off in the ghetto to talk to them ignorant, crazy ass niggas. You find a educated, ignorant, crazy ass nigga to go talk to niggas. You can't get a educated, crazy nigga from the ghetto to go talk to educated Negroes. They can't deliver the message to one another. Right. I'm not talking to our educated people. I'm not talking to the ones that somewhat made right. Choices and decisions. I'm not talking to the ones that got it. Right. I'm not talking to them. I'm talking to the ones that's doing wrong. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:46:13 And the ones that have enough gumption to listen and maybe just ask enough questions or get pissed off enough to say something that gets a response that maybe again, starts that conversation. I think the, the earlier we get to the point where, you know, when I said somebody's Yeah. They, they're grown up. Is the difference between getting old and being grown. If we could find somebody doing what you're doing, that's 25. And the harder we work, the earlier we work, yeah. The closer we can get to that. Cuz I, I still think, I mean I run into, uh, I, the people that appreciate what I'm doing are older people. Because again, those are the people that, again, they're not the people I need to change. They're the people that are in support of change. Right? Yeah. So, uh, and if you have somebody that's 22, some will listen. I'm trying to figure out how to do that without being pretentious or pretending like I'm young or whatever. But I wonder if some of these rappers in particular that maybe aren't going to the absolute extreme, but have a message that's important that can still relate to the street life, but will be overtly come out and say, man, this is the way I actually lived.
Speaker 0 00:47:24 Oh, NBA a young,
Speaker 2 00:47:25 This
Speaker 0 00:47:26 Is a story. Nba a young boy is doing it. So it, if you look at this kid homie, if you look at this kid, n b a young boy, uh, he's responsible for a lot of violence as far as his lyric wise and some of the things that he pushed and, and propagated three years, four years, five years down the road. This kid is talking, saying, I wanna write this wrong. He's saying what you just said. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, man, I, I done done a lot of damage with this and before I die, I wanna make it right. This is a kid in his early twenties that's just got out the feds
Speaker 2 00:48:02 Man. He could, he could make a,
Speaker 0 00:48:04 He he got more influenced than Tupac
Speaker 2 00:48:06 Man. He sure does because he's, it's, he's unstoppable at that age.
Speaker 0 00:48:10 So, but, and so he came outta prison doing the Maryland Monroe thing, painting his fingernails, a gangster rapper who was promoting kid and painting his fingernails. I even tried to shame him, but then I had to think about what his juvenile worker told me. He was a kid that used to get jumped on, abused by other kids and even adults. So when he take the microphone, he's a angry, hurt kid that can get this pain out. And this is his way of getting back
Speaker 2 00:48:39 The pain's in the face of somebody that would chastise him now because he's strong enough to be able to shun it and not not let it in. Right.
Speaker 0 00:48:48 And, and, and, and he's showing the old OG guys, the old OG street niggas that you can evolve too. He's growing way faster. Yeah. Because what I'm seeing is the OG guys, they're growing up, but they're growing up with the same childhood boy value system.
Speaker 2 00:49:04 Right.
Speaker 0 00:49:06 The same things matter to them as 16 matter to them at 50.
Speaker 2 00:49:10 That's just getting old, not growing up <laugh>. Yeah. That's just now got old. That's
Speaker 0 00:49:15 It. So, so I I I, if you look at what our children are doing, they're showing us what to do. It's just they don't have the resources and we don't have the understanding nor the connection with 'em to keep 'em going. That's why they give up. That's why they throwing the towel. We don't have the resources in order to connection with 'em.
Speaker 2 00:49:44 Well, hence the chameleon hitting stages. Yeah. Hitting podcasts, hitting who knows what else. But I, I really appreciate how, how you're making that part of your plight. Cuz that's something that I, I truly believe in too. And I, um, as old as I will get, I will continue to try to reach down. Right. Uh, there's gonna be more people below me. Well, lemme ask you something in age as I go. I hope
Speaker 0 00:50:06 Let, lemme ask you something. Uh, why you shy away from what you did for those kids. Why you shy away from that?
Speaker 2 00:50:15 I just don't wanna be, uh, I mean, it, the purpose wasn't to, to brag about it. The purpose was to make the difference and that got accomplished. So somebody asks me, I'm, you know, we've had those conversations. We had a bunch of dudes around sipping whiskey, and then they come around to me like, oh man, what's your legacy? And I always have the worst answer in everybody's eyes because I s I don't care how I'm remembered. I care about what effect I've had on the people I leave behind. But if they don't remember that it was me, it doesn't matter. Oh. So that's really kind of how I approach that.
Speaker 0 00:50:52 This, this what I see, this, this how I see you in that situation, uh, Denzel Washington with the book in the book of Eli. Okay. You just walking away from goodness, no accolades, no nothing. Uh, but this ain't for you though. This is where I come in at. Uh, the people back there gotta know. Cause don't nobody know, uh, this is the story that'll break a racial barrier.
Speaker 2 00:51:21 Oh, I hope so.
Speaker 0 00:51:22 Uh, man, if people knew because I'm telling gangsters about the story. They saying what man did, I'm telling real street gangsters that don't like snitches hate undercover cops and everything. But when they heard that shit, man, it change everything. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:51:39 Well, we gotta do something. I know we talked about doing something, man. I'm, I'm
Speaker 0 00:51:42 Ready to, I wanna be in the movie. Yeah. Shit. Put me in the movie. Definitely. Yeah. Let play one of the kids that you say, I'm little enough <laugh> hell,
Speaker 2 00:51:52 He's like, man, that eighth grader got a mustache already. No
Speaker 0 00:51:55 Wonder
Speaker 1 00:51:56 What's it, what you going do, do what you gonna do. Success around the second grade rules accompanied fake to make you do what they want, what they want. Blow is the one to see you through. Don't let those off. Just that a honey from the money. But don't the fool the game soul between Glory Lane. If you.
