January 29, 2026 • 54 mins
Melvin Gregg's journey from Vine star to Hollywood actor has given creators the blueprint for turning social media fame into a thriving career. Best known for his breakout role as Manboy on Snowfall, Gregg opens up about the financial sacrifices he made while on the show and shares behind-the-scenes stories about working with the legendary John Singleton. He also breaks down the difference between social media fame and acting fame, offers advice for content creators looking to transition into entertainment, and exposes the shady tactics platforms use to manipulate creator reach. Plus, Melvin reveals his unexpected passion for gardening and landscaping. And of course, Stak shoots his shot for an acting role yet again. Your time will come, Stak.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back, all the smoke. This is season five or six?
This is new six?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hold up, man, we made it to six?
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Is it six and a half? Five and a half.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Don't do that.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
We look like Ashton doing that ship six an shut
you mother. But we're here, man, we're back with a
new season. I'm not sure what season it is, but
we're here. And man, we got someone that I was.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I was.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I was happy to make this this happen. It almost
didn't happen because we had some false information, but we
made it happen. We're here Jack being a huge fan.
We ran into Bro in the gym this morning. Yeah yeah,
and now we're working together. But man, welcome to the show.
Melvin Greg appreciating new pre chuting. So social media superstar
(00:48):
turn actor. You kind of got your start on Vine
and Snowfall, American Vandal. You're on your newest roll the paper.
I mean, you got a lot of great shit going on.
Talking to us about out your journey and what.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
It's been like.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Start with Vine, I guess yeah, we'll get into all
before all that, but Vine kind of put you on
the map and your career took off.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Yeah yeah, yeah for sure. So I moved to later
act and it was tough.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
How were you?
Speaker 4 (01:15):
I was twenty two, twenty two, I think probably in
twenty eleven and just doing short films, student films, low
budgetself whatever I could. And then I saw Vine as
an opportunity to build an audience. And I knew if
I could build an audience, I'd be of more value
to a production, so I get more opportunities and maybe
I can get an agency or whatnot. So I saw
(01:37):
Vine as a way of doing that.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
So and you blew your vine following up right, you
got like seven million people on vine.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
YEA too bad they deleted the app and they all gone.
I still run it to over the streets, so it's love.
But yeah, so I was like, I got to figure
out a way to do this. And the cool thing
about vine is when it first started you can only
shoot and edit in the app like you could go
edit later upload it. You got to shoot a clip,
then stop, and then shoot another clip and stop, and
(02:06):
then you mess up, you got to start all over again.
So I'm like, it's a limited playing field. So that
that means people that got resources aren't at an advantage
because I have no resources. Is an even playing field.
The only difference is creativity and efficiency, which I feel
like I got. So I looked at what everybody was
doing that was popping up there, and I kind of
taught myself comedy from like reverse engineering what worked and
(02:28):
what went viral. Okay, this one viral for this reason,
this went viral for that reason. Oh it's small formulas.
So for me, I just implemented my tape or my
taste into it and just approached it from like a
marketing standpoint. I was like, I'm a storyboard out like
forty ideas, so I'm not going to run out, you
know what I mean. If I go viral, I'm high
(02:48):
traction and keep moving. And I shot most of them.
I was like, before I post the one that I
think is great, let me post five or six before
so they can get traction. Because I need audience retention.
I need to to stay there and building. So just
approaching it every step like that, being very intentional, I
was able to just build a following that just kind
of kept growing, and over the course of doing it,
(03:09):
I just fell in love with creating and comedy and
shooting and editing and you know, all of that stuff.
So it was definitely a blessing.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
What's the balance of people knowing you from social media
and TV? Because I remember when me and Jack first
got started in this and we went to All Stars Chicago. Yep,
it wasn't about nothing we did in our careers. It
was about all the smoke, you know what I mean.
And I thought that was dope, you know what I mean.
So what is kind of the balance of people that
recognized you for social media, people that recognize you on TV?
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Now it's even man's And it's interesting because I run
into people that ain't seen me since social media, so they'll
be like, damn, what you.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Been doing all just some of the biggest shows on TV?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
But go ahead, like I'd be.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Acting, oh that's what's up. Well, I ain't you since Vine.
Even when this new show the Paper came out, it
was going pressed. It just reached a different audience that
I probably ain't touched since Vaughn. So it was like, damn,
I ain't see him since vin. So it's like, you know,
I learned to just not be offended by none of it,
like shind you know me from something. I'm happy, I'm
glad I'm in a position where you could kind of
(04:09):
see me and recognize me, but it's a mix bad.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Do you feel like the industry has changed compared to
how it was when you first came in it now
in regards to acting.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
For sure, it changed that The landscape is completely different
one because of streaming, so content is consumed differently. So
that mean the buyers they approach it differently with what
money they put into what and what it takes to
get something made, and how much is something they make
and as far as and then also to social media
play a big part into it because people consume content
(04:38):
so different that their attention spans are shortened now, so
the way that content is crafted is different. A lot
of times, especially on the streamer, they gotta hook you
in in the first five or ten minutes because you
can easily go back and go watch something else, versus
if you go sit in the theater, you stuck in there,
so you got time for a slow burn. But with uh,
you know, with streaming and just a short attention span,
(04:59):
the way content is crafted is different. The way they
cast content is different because a lot of times they
little for builty in marketing, so they get somebody that
a lot of people know so it's more so about
the stars and the story. They like to have content
that's easily digestible, seeing that you could do a lot
of other things and multitask and still receive it because
(05:20):
a lot of it is spoon fed versus sitting in
the theater. So from top to bottom, I think the
industry is completely different. What is ever changing? Is ever changed?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Your new role on the Paper, which is a spin
off of the Office. I remember you telling me about
this before it actually check it out? Yeah, Jack's checked
it out already. What is that like that? Because that's
tapping into you just in your own words, you kind
of tap it into a new audience and the newer
fan base. What's that experience been like?
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Yeah, And it'll be on NBC in a couple of
weeks November eleven, so you know NBC too. But it's
definitely a different audience. But I think as a different audience.
But you know, you want to reach as many people
as possible, so you don't want it kind of limit
yourself by I'm gonna just do this because I feel
like our perspective and our voice should resonate through all audiences,
(06:08):
you know what I mean? We should introduce ourselves to
all different type of people, and you might be you
might change somebody's perception of a type that they might
have seen you as before by giving them another version
of thattility. Showing versatility is just introducing perspective and coaching
the people that might not have seen it in that way.
So I kind of take pride into doing a show
(06:31):
like The Office. If you look at the original, it
wasn't a lot of it wasn't as diverse as our
cast is now, and you might not have seen a
character like myself in there. So be able to be
able to come in and show, you know, a young
black man, be vulnerable, be transparent, be offbeat, be a
little awkward, be safe, you know what I mean, And
to be honest and authentic. You know, it's something I'm
(06:53):
grateful to be able.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
What's your character's name and kind of what your storyline
on the show.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
So his name is Detrick, he said off the bat,
like Detric. He sells ads for the paper, and as
the show starts, a new editor in chief comes in,
and you know, new newspapers is like dying out. Don't
nobody don't nobody like buy newspapers. So it's a dying thing,
and his new editor in chief comes in and he
(07:19):
tries to like bring the paper back to life, and
they don't have budget for reporters, so it's like, anybody
here that want to help, you know, go for it.
And it's just like the Bad News Bears of journalism
and my character he's in love with this girl that
he can't really talk to because she worked in a
separate department, so he jumps at the opportunity to work
(07:40):
for the paper just so he could talk to her.
But he offbeat, He awkward, He kind of like a
people pleaser. He's doing too much, you know, like nice
guys finished last.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, he that.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
So it is definitely different from a few of the
other things that I've done. But it's fun, man, It's
fun to lead to lean into being awkward and offbeat,
because I feel like a lot of times we learn
to mask that we're gonna look awkward or corny. We
know how a mask even though we might feel it. Yeah,
but with that character, I can just be I could
(08:13):
be awkward with it. Yeah, no masks, just like I'm
sitting weird, I'm standing weird. I don't know what I'm saying,
and it's kind of free and in a sense it's one.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
I think it's the one thing with dude. You're trying
to stop a dude from get arrested or something.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Oh when when he's trying to h he's trying to fight.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Yeah, you do, and you're trying to the whole thing
was funny, was trying.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
To Yeah, yeah, no, it's it's it's fun man. The
stakes are a lot lower and like a lot of
the other shows I did, it's but it's just like
workplace comedy, like just a regular day in the life,
awkward collection.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Of people compare and can trast your social media fame
to your TV fame.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
It's definitely interesting. It's like social media famous popularity. They
feel like they know you because they can see you
on their phone, They can see you every day. They
laugh at you when they see you on the street,
they yo, they you know, they feel like they know you, yeah,
versus like TV. Film is more of a reserve that
they have where it's like, oh, I don't know if
(09:09):
I could kind of go say something to him is
more hesitant than me respected space because they don't feel
like they know you as much. I like the users
as an example, when I said, because I've seen it firsthand,
King Batch, one of the he was he had like
he had got the Guinness World Record for the most
followers on find he had like forty million, like crazy numbers, right,
I'd be with Batch. We watched somewhere and the kids
(09:30):
went up Yo dasht a picture like they all around him,
like they know him, like he's popular in high school.
And then I was on the set of Creed Too
with Michael B.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Jordan.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
We went to a Sixers game and when he when
he walked through the crowd, I seen the same thing
to a complex con. He walked through the crowd, people
just stopping whisper like they don't approach him. But it's
just like you just see whispers go through Yo's It's
like a different respect and sophistication. I saw Ai go
(10:03):
up to him, like, Bro, the first time I have
cried out of a movie was your movie. And Ai
from the same area I'm from. You know how everybody
feel about Ai. But he from the cribs got a
different type of love and admiration. And I've seen the
love he was giving Mike because he sat down in
the theater for two hours and watched his story of
this character going through something and it made him emotional
(10:26):
to the point where he saw him he got emotional
again and it's just like.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
He cried every day.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Well yeah, bro, but yeah, to kind of just see
how TV and film resonate with people versus social media.
It's just it's different.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So you're more touchable as a social media stars, more
step back. Let's yeah, it makes sense. It makes sense
if you were young and popular on social media, would
you go for streaming or no, what you mean, if
you were to rewind, would you jump into streaming?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
However everything is being streaming?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Yeah, nah, nah, I wouldn't it take It takes too
much time. You gotta be on And I ain't got
that energy like literally like like the loud and gosh
and just like I ain't got I ain't got that
in me like I got from action to cut, I
give you what you need. I need to go chill.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Yeah, just kind of.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Yeah, my streams weren't.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
When they say cut up done, Bro.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
You want to get back to the house and do
something in the yard around the house and just chill.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
I want to you know, I want to have my
own time if I want to go do whatever and
not have to be on like they gotta be, that's
a different type of muscle. I ain't got all respect
to him. I couldn't do it.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
He landscaped his whole crib. I've seen it. I've seen it,
followed the journey. So I got a question. We were
looking up just finding research about you. Why all Google
is say you hooped?
Speaker 4 (12:00):
I don't know, man, nah. But I did a show
called American Vandal, right, and uh I played. It was
a mockumentary, so it's meant to look real, and a
lot of people thought it was real. But I played
the number one high school prospect coming out of high school.
They might have thought it was real life. And they
made like a highlight real for me, like like I
(12:22):
was a five start recruit and the highlight real kind
of nice, like it's crafted. So I did another movie.
It was a ben I Fleck movie and it was
based in basketball, and they wanted they wanted the actors
to come in to do like part of the audition
was to coome hoop. And I was in London at
the time. I'm like, I can't hoop, but I got film.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
I could see me star edit.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
I set on my five star edit right, So I
booked the wrong I booked the room. So now they
got us working with uh, these they like choreographed the
plays and stuff. And we played and I had n't played,
and I'm like missing late up to I was like,
what kind of fucking recruited you? How you get recruited?
I'm like, bro, it ain't real. I got a job now, Yeah,
(13:10):
I can make I could make it look real, but
oh that's dope.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
So we were talking about this earlier.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
Uh, I actually felt like, you know, I could have
been man Boy's cousin from Texas.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
You know what I'm saying, come up there and whole
ship down.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Whichever it's the same ship. He said to West's day
was his day that came. Jack said to say, I
like it, say yourself.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
But I really could have been you know, yeah, your brother.
I could have pulled up and had your back. You
know what I'm saying. Shut it down, you know what
I'm saying. But you know, if you ever, I'm pretty
sure you got a roll like that coming again in
their picture if you need Yeah, I'm trying to get in,
you know, what I'm saying. So, and I'm you know,
I think I can really kill one of them rolls.
I think, no gas they laughing.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I'm serious.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I think you could too, give him a little taste
what of your acting skills?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Let see what I mean. But I got put on
the spot last time and I killed it. So I
just need to what you want to do the same
with the same scene.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
Okay, you think I'm about to mess up all I
built just because you don't like to wear a nigga.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
Talk drive motherfucker.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
Yes, sir, one of the dopest rolls on Snowfall, man Boy.
You just said, tell us how you found out about
how you how you got the roller, man Boy, and
what you was doing when you found out you got
the role.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
I got the audition and it was like come in
for Snowfall. And I got there and it was a
room of people sitting around like this everybody, and I'm
kind of shizing up the room, these actors. And not
to say that in a bad way, but it's like
I'm really from that so not in LA but from
(15:07):
my side. So I'm like, they not gonna understand the
nuances that is, And this is me being I got
a delusional sense of confidence right when it comes to
some things. So I'm all right cool. I go into
the room and it's like it's pat Usually it's just
like one cast director associate with the camera is the
casting director is the It's like two of them. It's
(15:27):
the director, producers John Singleton, all in the rooms lined
up right in front of me. Well, this is it.
Usually you get a couple of rounds and they tell
you they like they get They tell you what they like,
and they give your notes and then you finally see
the director producer. It was all in one one scene.
So I'm like, all right, cool, and I did my
version of man Boy, and my version of man Boar
(15:52):
is much like you see on the screen because I'm
looking at it. I'm like a lot of times when
it comes to like these characters, they want you to
look dangerous, I can't look dangerous. If I go for that,
I'm gonna lose off the bat.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Like you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
I can't come in growling because but I'm also from
I'm from that in a sense. Why I know, it
don't matter what you look like like if you're trying
to scare somebody, you really don't want to do what
you say you're gonna do. You warning them versus if
you want to do it, you inviting them in. So
it's just a different energy. So I went in with
(16:27):
that and they were like, uh yeah, let's just uh
let's let's let's try it again. And this time the
stakes are high, like these guys could kill you and
you need to scare them off, all right, So I
do a version of that.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Whatever.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
I didn't give them vose versions. John Singingson had a
little back and forth band with me, asking me where
I was from, and it seemed like he was he
was he was rocking with me, so I was like cool.
I felt good about it because I was able to
do my version of it, and then I gave him
their version, and damn, when I left, I got a
call that they had me on hole, which means they
like you, but they still trying to make a decision.
(17:03):
I remember where I was at when I heard I
was on hole. I was like, I don't know, getting
some food or something, and then I don't even remember
why I was that when I heard I got a call,
But I just got to excite it because I knew
I knew I had it in my bag. I was like,
this is gonna be easy for me, but I also
know what it could do for my perception because coming
from Vine, people saw him as like the silly dude,
(17:26):
the goofy dude, or safe and a lot of times
people don't go from you know, it's hard to change
your perception. So I got to go so far right
that they were like, Okay, even if they meet me
somewhere in the middle, they still gonna take me serious.
And the great thing about this show is I got
a few episodes to sell them because my first episode
they weren't working with me still. They was calling me
(17:46):
Braxton from from the Jamie Fox bro They was like, oh,
they killed the show. They got this goofy nigga from Vine.
This ain't gonna work. But by like it was. It
was bad and Braxton did a movie where he played
a gangster one time too, and it was me, I'm like, man,
but three episodes in, I was able to sell most
(18:06):
of the show.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
But you was a fan of the show before it
even happened though, right, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I was.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
I was definitely a fan for the show. Funny enough,
I auditioned for it out the gate, but I'm a't
ready for it. I was my audition. I was nervous,
like it won't Like the second time I auditioned, I
was auditioning for Like Franklin, and the cast director was like,
hold on to them sides, as if she was gonna
call me back. I ain't never heard back from you.
Think I know. I see it on TV, but I
(18:32):
started watching it. I was like, yo, it's hard, like
it's it's hard. And the lead actor. I love actors.
I love watching actors. I saw damn it. I'm like, oh,
this Sniak raw like he hard and I had like
I had posted. I was watching the show and I
was like, bro killing it and I added him and
he hit me back. I was like, oh, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Man.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
I used to watch it, but I'm like, I appreciate it,
bro and uh. I happened to run into him in London.
I was in London around the same time I lied
about that audition the basketball foot it, and I ran
to him at a random party. I was like, yoh,
that's crazy. It's it's like kind of synchronicity, you know
what I mean. So when I got the audition, I
(19:14):
felt like I was prepared for it. I knew the show,
I knew the world, I knew what I wanted to
do in it. So when I got a call, it
was just like, all right, there's go time.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
Two questions, what does it take to get into the
character man boy? And did you have any input on
the way you dressed?
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (19:28):
So appreciate it?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah yeah, dope boy fresh.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
So whenever it comes to wardrobe, I'm a stickler for wardrobe.
Like I never go back and forth with anybody. I
always get people their creative liberty to you know, to
put their thoughts into stuff, and I kind of go
for it. But when it comes to wardrobe, especially something
that I feel like I'm familiar with, and even if
I'm not, I'm gonna do the research. I'm gonna I'm
gonna put my my I'm gonna be vocal about it
(19:55):
because I think wardrobe is important because you seen me before,
you hear me, and if I'm supposed to be and
I look like a lame, you ain't gonna believe nothing
I sael. So it's like if you believe if what
somebody says just it's just said a lot about them,
you know what? I mean, you sell a story before
before you even tell it about what you're wearing. So
I was big on the wardrobe, So yeah, I had
and put on that. And as far as getting into
(20:16):
the character, it's just it was a shift for perspective
and stakes for me. So every role I do is
gonna be a version of me at some point in
my life with different circumstances, you know what I mean. So, man,
boy was it was kind of like a like that
fairy tale if any kid that grew up in the
(20:37):
hood because of what's around you, you kind of got
some type of ambitions to be like I could be that,
especially the movies I watch growing up. It's only watched
gangster movies. Like my favorite movie was Juice. I'm watching
that when I'm like eight or not, you know what
I mean, And I'm looking up to Bishop so Is
and then just being you said, what what you say?
(20:58):
You didn get the juice to you kill man see,
and I ain't look at righty man. It's like I
want to be here. I'm like, no, I want to
be But I wouldn't have missed when I'm chasing que
through the through the park. This nigga su I was terrible,
but yeah, and then just kind of being being around
there growing up, I was very observant. I'm like, these
(21:20):
niggas moving like this, they should move like that. If
I was to do this, I wouldn't get caught. And
it's like a delusional confidence. But at the same time,
I knew, like they still here. This ain't this is
a dead end, Like I ain't about to do that.
Like and the last thing I ever wanted to be paranoid,
So I never chose that life in a way, but
in my mind, I'm like I could do it, and
I would really be like him, Like that's just my mindset,
(21:43):
so be able to do snowfall. I'm like, this is
my opportunity to really do that and to move how
I feel like I would move, and yeah, just to
change the ship for perspective, it becomes fun at that point. Yeah,
Like dirt on little Dirty Corny.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Knew you that.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
So it's just like his perspected like, come on, man,
I really know who you are, you a little bit,
what we're doing, how we're moving.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
So h yeah, your girls crack head talking to everybody
off like.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
So the only thing you got to do at that
point is just figure out the dialect and it's just
living that space and the mannerhisms because l a different
and fels.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
I think it got I think the dialect got better
throughout and the mannerisms came kind of easy because I
didn't watch enough movies. I didn't watch minutes. And it's
it's such a it's a it's a period piece, so
it's eighties, so it's it's obvious, it's how you standard,
it's how you walk. It's kind of common crue in
a sense. But period that from Grand like the Grand
(22:56):
Theft final characters, and I play that game forever, so
a lot of it's still kind of you know ingrained,
but I definitely modeled a lot of my dialect off
of what Franklin was doing. Yeah, and then also I'm
from the South, and a lot of people in LA
in the eighties they families migrated up from the South.
So it still got that twin to it. If you
listen to Snoop, he got a lot of that twin.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Yep, Older's Snoop's birthday, by the way, Happy birthday.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Oh Ship, happy birthday. He came. He came to set
a couple of times, did he Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
Yeah, so just say outside and hanging out with the
crew outside being on camera, do Man Boy come out?
Speaker 4 (23:31):
I mean, it's it's a part of me. But at
the same time, state saint is high. I ain't in
the ain't in the drug game where somebody trying to
kill me over the back. And also I'm a lot
older than what Man Boy is too, So I definitely
had dumb moments when I was a kid. When I
was younger, you know what I mean, thinking you bulletproof,
but you know at my age, no.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
Only like the character you came around the homers of
y'all joking, do you ever going to Man Boy character?
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Just bullshit with the homies?
Speaker 4 (23:56):
What like the dialect is nah own I touch it.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
I was about saying, because.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Yeah, niggas are probably climbing this nigga here. Who do
you think you will? Nigga really thinks you the characters like, yeah,
I ain't gonna get that. Ain't even get niggas ammunition.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Out of here.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Was like working with DeAndre Bods the West Coast Legends.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Yeah, nah, man Deandres Bro. He's such a a genuine
guy and such a nice dude man like he gives
nothing but love you know what I mean, from top
to bottom. He's just like just a humble, grounded and
for you know, for DeAndre Bonds Stacey to be like,
(24:46):
come on, y'all really killing it, man, y'all really doing it?
Like I love is she what y'all doing? And he
really West Coast. So it's just like he was right there. Yeah,
like that his bag he stayed. He stay in it
like it's him. It's a part of who he is.
And even before he got the roll, I remember John
Singles j John Singleton telling me he was like, he
(25:09):
was like, man, I got these I got this idea
for these couple of episodes coming up. Y'all gonna be
in the jungles, and I want DeAndre Bonds to be.
He gonna be the guy that you're gonna be going
head to head with. Man, I know he was like,
right now people know him as Stacy, but when when
it's over with, they gonna know him at Scully. I
was all right, and yeah, that that was That was it.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
You spoke to the greatness of John Singleton, talk to
us just about what that was like, what you soaked up,
what you saw? How cool was he was? He tough
on people. What was his aura and his energy about
because he's such a such a leg obviously rested things,
but what was he like working with?
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (25:43):
John was John was cool man. He was chill, was
laid back. He made you feel comfortable. You ain't feel
like intimidated to be around him because he just felt
like your uncle. And I always say, I think he
played the biggest part of not the part of me
getting the role because no offense to nobody, but everybody
outside of John was white, right, and a lot of
(26:05):
times white people defict depiction of a of a of
a gangster look a certain way, and I don't look
that way. So had John not been in the room
and saw what I was doing and being able to
understand what I'm doing and speaking the language that I'm speaking,
as far as just like everything about what I wanted
to do with a character, I don't think I would
have booked it because as I'm reading the room, they
(26:27):
like they rocking with a little bit. But to know
that guy from somebody was like, you have to be intimidating,
you have to you know that was from somebody outside
of John. I'm like, man, I can't do it like that.
Wouldn't make I wouldn't be that. If I was that,
so then it's gonna be it's not believable, like you trying.
And that's the thing to a lot of people when
you playing a gangst the character or whatever it is,
or you're trying to be intimidating, you don't have to
(26:48):
try to be intimidating. Like if people know what you bought,
you ain't gotta do much. You ain't going through time,
like at least from my experiences, So John wouldn't been
in the room, I wouldn't have got cash. I know
it for a fact. And how he took me up
under his wing when I even on the show my
first day, he'd be like, hey, look this is how
(27:09):
I see it going where you're going, like just kind
of giving me pointers and how he see the show,
and even past that, just telling me he really believed
in me. He was like, man, this is going to
change a lot of stuff for you. He was like,
I want to make sure you with the right people.
Introduce me to its publicist. He was like, man, I
got this movie I'm working on. I think you'll be great.
He just really took me up on his wing and
gave me the confidence to feel like I'm where I
(27:30):
was supposed to be. Is not by mistake, because this
guy who's broken so many stars and you know, introduced
so many legends into, you know, to the world with
this track record that he has, says he sees something
in me. So I have to lean into it and
really be confident in this space because I mean, he
just gave me the you know, he gave me the
green like he validated.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
That's one of the greatest yup. So we lost him.
Where was your mind that What was the state of
the show after that? And how did you guys find
the courage and the strength to move on?
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Man? It was I remember it was at the table
when we heard what happened, and he was you know,
he was still he hadn't pulled through yet, but he
was still. He was still with us, and the energy
was just it was low, and the show runner was like,
we just got it. We got to go through this
and do it for John, so you know, we do
what we need to do. And uh, I wasn't working
(28:21):
when I when I heard he died, So I don't
know how the energy was on the set because the
way my role was I popping once or once every
other week or something like. I wasn't there every day.
So when he died, I wasn't. I wasn't on set
to see that energy. But it definitely shifted. It shifted
through all because he won't there, like you know, our
big brother won't there with us to walk us through
(28:42):
it all. He had put together a core of people
that we could still count on and lean on in
regards to a lot of stuff. You know, Dug she
was there, he was consult producer, his cousin Smokey. John
put his cousin on the show Smoky Smoky Hat there
like twenty thirty years or something, so he knew the
he knew the culture or what John wanted to do.
So we still had them there. But it was definitely
(29:03):
a whole and and the whole thing man. And I
feel like the story kind of shifted to after he died. Yeah,
it wasn't his grounded and authenticity. It was still great,
but it's things that like if you know the code,
you know the streets, you like, this wouldn't be happening
like what you know. It kind of it kind of
(29:27):
drifted more to into just being entertaining rather than being
a story of this.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Area neighborhood to make it the Africa.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
Yeahn Macully, No, he's not in Africa. He yeah, your
music yeah yeah, but uh yeah, Scully ain't gonna be
fighting for Leon after he killed.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
His daughter all that.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
Yeah, but you know, uh, it's TV man, and a
lot of times you you could, you could start, you
could try to stay true to what it is and
the people do know it. But when it comes to
money and broad appeal and commercializing the show, sometimes you
got to You got to court another audience and keep it,
(30:14):
keep it exciting.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Working with how you say his first name, Dasmind one
of the biggest young actors today, and it blew me
away when I found out that he was British.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
And then you start finding.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Out all these other actors that are British and and
and the way they'll be able to switch that accent.
Did you take anything from that as trying to add
it to you? Obviously your style in Man Boy and
being able to accent and the manners we spoke on
a little bit before.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
I mean, I based a lot of Man Boy's dialect
on Franklin, but also my my little twist on it
as well, but when it comes to him being British,
I think it affected his perspective and how he approached
(31:01):
the character in a way, but that's not in my version.
I think that's where man Boy differs from him. But
I think it was brilliant what he did. If you
look at Franklin, Franklin not to typical la game banger,
la drug dealer. He don't feel like that. He more calculated,
more observed. He more suave, like you know, he just
working khakis with the belt. He ain't flash, he got
(31:22):
his watch on airplanes. He ain't loud, He's like. It
was Damnson's interpretation of a gangster, and it might be
based off of his interpretation because he's had a broader
scope than somebody from the neighborhood in regards to film
and craft in the character. But I think it's brilliant
because you can put Franklin Saint in pretty much any
(31:43):
movie and he don't feel out of place. You can't
take old Doll for minutes and put him in any movie.
He's too specific. So brilliant, brilliant choices made by Damnson.
It would have been a completely different showing character had
anyone else done it. So yeah, I guess from that,
I'm very meticulous with my characters and why do the
(32:04):
things I do and how it can play into the
things I want to do past that.
Speaker 5 (32:07):
Show reinventing yourself, you know, from vying to acting. Yeah,
and now you know having a big role, like a
role a man boy and doing what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Now, what does it take to reinvent yourself?
Speaker 4 (32:17):
I don't really look at it as reinventing. I look
like I feel like I'm on a different side of
myself growth, growth, and yeah, like we all got different
versions of ourselves. Who you are with your granny versus
the woman you love versus the one you might just
be kicking it with versus your homies. Like, it's different
versions of yourself. It's different chapters of your life. And
(32:38):
I like to try to pour from these chapters and
versions to figure out who the character is. So it's
very introducing reintroducing myself to people based on where I'm
at now. If it's for a character, is whatever the
character is. But for me as a person, it's mainly growth.
Like Matt said, like I'm married and I got kids,
so my focus and perspective is completely different than what
(33:01):
it was five ten years ago. So what I want
to promote and what I want to sell is completely
different than what I would have been selling ten years
ago in my twenties. I want to sell that I'm
that guy, I'm him. I can get what I want,
but you know, it's just different versus now. I want
to sell an idea what life can look like if
you do things. I don't want to say the right way, Yeah,
(33:23):
like this is a path you could go and it
could be happy, you know what I mean? And not
to shade anything else, But I grew up looking I
never thought i'd be married because the people I grew
up around, and my daddy got like three families. It's
like the man that got every woman that he wont
and got all the money. That's that's what I looked
at as like success. I should be like, I don't
want to big backyard and the picket fins. I want
(33:45):
a black card and the passport full of stamps. But
you know, through growth and just assessing life and seeing examples,
I'm like that that's probably not the path for me.
That ain't where I'm gonna find my happiness. At priority
change its life experiences man like, you know, doing it
then waking up being like, bro, this ain't it like
(34:05):
what I heard?
Speaker 1 (34:06):
It was.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Behind all of it, the ego is like, it's really
making me happy. So finding something that truly made me happy,
I don't mind promoting that because I feel like it's
it'll equate the happiness for most people if you do
it for the right reason.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Right at this moment. What are you most proud of
in your career or just period?
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Period?
Speaker 4 (34:26):
Is my family?
Speaker 2 (34:28):
No question?
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Yeah, no question at all. That's proority over business. Business
is what I do, Like a falling a husband is
who I am. I would much rather have a strong
relationship with my wife and my kids than I have
a strong career. I didn't.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
I don't read.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
I don't read tales about you know, people to make
it to the top and then you know die from
sceptionans of abuse or you know, they going through it
like mentally nobody there nobody there for them. And it's
like all them people that showed up at the box
office don't care. They're just wondering when your next when
your next film is proper, and then you know, the
snap of a finger, it could be all over now.
(35:06):
They on somebody else. So it's just like I don't
put my attention and focus solely into my career. I'm
never gonna compromise my family for my career. So that's
that's probably.
Speaker 5 (35:18):
What's your advice to a young content creator that's trying
to come up in these social media streets.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
Be intentional, use the leverage you got while you got it, uh,
but also be yourself because if you chase, if you
chase trends, you're gonna be chasing fether and you're gonna
really be a slave towards popping and how you how
you won't follow us and you following what's happening? You
know what I mean? You gotta you gotta lead and
(35:43):
do something your own way because if you copy in
somebody else, you always gonna come second to them or
third or fourth depending on when you see it when
versus doing your own things. So just be authentic. You
got to be consistent, and I just say, leverage your
position while you got it, because it's a it's a
long sprint. It ain't like you get viral one time
(36:03):
and you go on forever. You gotta go viral out,
the viral after viral after viral for years. Like if
you look at drew Sky, drew Ski the guy he
number one, but think about how many viral clips drew
Sky didn ad. You gotta keep going because that one
is gonna be old in a week, and they gonna
want another one, and they gonna want another one, and
they gonna want another one. So if you could keep
(36:23):
up with that pace, great, If you're don't plan to
keep up for forever, leverage the position that you're in
while you win it. Be smart about what you're doing,
if that's putting money up for the days that you
don't want to do it no more, or leveraging your
position to segue into something else. I just say, keep
keep the future in sight. Don't just get caught up
(36:45):
in it's here now, because it might leave and then
you might be out of love.
Speaker 5 (36:50):
So you got a nine to five in your contract, curator,
how do you get what's the moment where you get
to the point where you go full time and contact?
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Great?
Speaker 4 (36:57):
When you're making enough money to.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Quit, simple, yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
Don't just quit and be broke. You can't focus on content,
Yeah yeah, you can't focus on content when you're hungry
and you ain't got no place to stay in. You
know what I mean. Now you're in the middle of
the day trying to shoot videos, your girl mad at
you because you know, the car broke down and trying
to shoot. Now, you gotta be in a place where
you comfortable and content. So make sure you got some
type of financial security or you got incomes, some incomes
(37:25):
coming in. But I will say, you're gonna have to
quit that job sooner or later because you ain't gonna
be able to compete with people.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
That day full time.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's how That's how I look at
social media. When I quit social media, social media was
my nine to five, and well it was my nine
to nine because it don't stop. But I was like,
if I want to stop this and go into traditional space,
I got to make sure I'm in a financial space
where I can do that, because acting you don't, it'd
be a wild before you make money if you ever do.
(37:55):
I was getting like, man, I was probably getting like
five five episode for Snowfall, and it's a great show,
but five thousand ain't none in La and.
Speaker 5 (38:06):
The people that is best, So reaching I know that
five thousand worth five thousand.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
Your ages get ten, your managers get ten, your lawyers
get fired, so that's twenty five percent. Government get another thirty.
So that's that's what fifty.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Five percent was working for free.
Speaker 4 (38:23):
I'm working for free. So now I'm working with like
my mind might be all with twenty two hundred episode
that ain't you know? That ain't great money, you know
what I mean? So make sure you're in a financial
position where you can make the right creative choices, because
if I were, say some money, and I wasn't in
a good creative if I wasn't in a good financial place,
I wouldn't have been able to do no fall because
(38:44):
you lose money.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Okay, so you didn't renegotiate that role as you got.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
I mean, you got two seasons and it's pretty much
taken to leave it like I was a guest star.
Ain't got no leverage to come in and you because
they're just right somebody else, you know what I mean.
So it's like, this is what we got for you
could take it to leave it. But my mental, yeah,
my mentality is I got a chance to showcase what
I could do to the world in this place. So
rather than look at it as they give me twenty
(39:08):
two hundred episode. How much money are they putting into
marketing the show? How much money they put into making
this show, because that's how much money they put into
presenting me to the world on a high quality program.
So perspective based on creative choices and not really financial ones,
because the financial was taken care of before I hopped
in that arena.
Speaker 5 (39:27):
You don't have to say the number, but what was
the first project you had where the person when you
look there like, okay, this makes sense, this makes sense.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
Was it an acting or more on volume?
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Now? VIN was different because you do a cut, you
got a lot of streams when you post on every platform.
I remember when VIN first started, and I get back
to the next question, when VIN first started and money
started coming with an app called by Do it was
like a dating app, and draft Kings was new too,
and I remember I was like, man, I wish I
would in ll shated some equity with draft draft Kings
(40:02):
early on, but they gave you like four five hundred
dollars for a video, and in my mind, like I'm
from the hood, four five hundred for a seven second run.
I'm telling niggas from the critic like nigga, that's a
what so I'm doing that and then just kind of
being in a community with other creators. I remember Homi
day Storm. He been in social media, like he was
(40:22):
one of the biggest dudes on YouTube in like two
thousand and six. So when I met him, he had
million dollar homes and like he had he had been
eating and they Storm was like you can pay what
He was like, man, you're doing videos for a pair
of a pair of vans and a haircut, like, oh,
five hundred. He was like, now, shyn they hit you,
send him this and he sent me a drafted up
(40:44):
a little email and it's pretty much like I understand
we had a working relationship, but my rate based on
my new audience in my reach, it's twenty five thousand.
But considering we already have working relationship, I do the
next video for you for twenty but then after that
the rate, I'll go back to my initial rate and
from there it's gonna grow with my audience. I'm like, bro,
(41:06):
this nigga got to make me miss out on money.
Ain't no way. And they came back and it was
like it was like, nah, we can't do it. I'm
like fuck. He was like, nah, just hold tight there,
it's a bluff. They hit me back a week later.
I was like, all right, we could do it. And
at that point in my perspective, it was like the
world opened up for me, Like, Yo, I'm getting paid
this much money to make videos.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
So you went for five enough to cut you off
five hundred to twenty thousand.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
Yeah, And then for me at that point, I said,
well you're twenty and enough. Next time, like I need forty.
It's like we can't. We could if you could do thirty,
I need and it's like I'm running it up like
it was an interview with Tabitha Brown. She had a
manager who was a good fandomize and she was just
kind of getting into the reins of like money coming in.
(41:51):
He was like, I don't know what to charge. I said, bro,
say something ridiculous. They gonna come back and give you something.
And I think she had got like a I'm only
saying because she said it. She end up getting like
a hundred for something. It's like, oh, shoot for the moon.
All they can say is no. But then they got
to meet you somewhere and you value on yourself and
you come out the back and be like, give me
six hundred. They'm like, cool, we can do five fifty,
all right, you know, I mean it's just a negotiation.
(42:11):
So social media was it was different. It was different
type of money that was coming at the time. But
I didn't spend anything so going into traditional aim make
money for like two years. So I'm just running through
everything else I've made. But I still haven't got paid
for a film where it feels like it's worth it.
(42:31):
I'm still I still got to earn my strikes. Want
you to lead. You can kind of make demands once
you got a big audience, but when you supporting the lead,
they could easily say somebody else, So you just don't
have leverage to be like I want this. So in
the film, I still I still I'm still not in
that place. But as TV shows, I've done enough TV
shows whereas like each time the rate kind of go
up a little bit more. But you still just got
(42:52):
to look at what can I get out of this
and can I live off of this? So I'm definitely
in a position then where I can make a living,
but it still ain't in the spot where you know
I'm getting I'm getting new contract work. It's gonna be yeah, yeah,
it's you know, it's it's a matter of it's a
matter of time. I never really get discouraged, and I
try not to make a decision. Earlier on was making
(43:13):
social media because my stuff used to be over the
top like Rashet or Ranchet like, and I was losing
brand news. I was losing opportunities to make money because
my brand wasn't safe. But I asked myself, I'm like,
do I want to make money now or do things
that resonate with people that I relate to and the
comedians I look up to. It was never safe comedy.
I'm not watching Bill Cosby, So it's like, do I
(43:35):
want to make the money? I was just about to say,
I don't know who. I don't even know what it
was on stage. Yeah, different conversations, but yeah, I was like,
I got to make creative choices in our financial choices.
So I kind of just carry that with me through
(43:56):
through my career.
Speaker 5 (43:57):
Do you trust the platforms that pay you straight through
the platform like YouTube and.
Speaker 4 (44:00):
All those trust them in what sense as far as.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
The way they pay directly? Pay you directly?
Speaker 4 (44:04):
You ain't got no leverage? Yeah, you ain't. You ain't
got no choice that's.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Get the money that way, don't get nothing.
Speaker 4 (44:10):
I get it or I don't. So yeah, And that's
that's the thing with these platforms, man, they really they
own the audience and on everything I didn't see where
like Vin before Vine shut down, I didn't. I didn't
quick Vine when it got shut down, I quick Way
before it got shut down. My other thing is hop
off the ship when it's a float on way to
a sinking.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Yea.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
So I jumped from Vine and went to Instagram early
because Instagram had more my audience people I wanted to
make content for versus Vine, but also Vin. They started
favoring a specific type of content because they wanted to
rebrand the app. And it was things like if you
got black in your comment, in your in your caption,
they're gonna they're gonna put you onto like nobody gonna
(44:50):
see it. It's a lot of keywords that if you
got it in your caption to kind of filter through
stuff they don't want to promote to promote. And then
they started promoting like acoustic guitar covers and stuff, and
it's like, well, I'm doing his work and y'all not
even let me hear the explore pages, y'all not because
y'all own the audience. Same thing with Facebook. I ran
up like five million followers on Facebook and in like
(45:12):
six seven months doing crazy numbers. At one point before
I quit, I was on one hundred million views a week
for like two months straight on original content. Then I
started posting like a month later. I try to post something,
I got like two comments in two weeks with five
million followers because they own the audience. Same thing with Instagram.
Instagram limited they reach. They said it was an algorithm,
(45:34):
but what it is is if a brand of a Nike,
let's just say, you got a big audience, right you, Instagram?
You influencer. Nike comes to the influencer like, yo, I
got thirty grand for you post. I'm gonna hit your audience.
You Nike, you like you, not Nike. You Instagram. You're like,
I own some of that money. I own him. I'm
gonna shut him down. Nike comes straight to me, I
(45:54):
can put you anywhere. Sponsor posts put you anywhere. So
then they start capping you know what I mean, capping
your reach, and they just call it a new algorithm
or whatever it is. So it's like they own the audience.
The platforms own everything. But that's just you know, that's
just the game.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Take it to leave it else take leave it.
Speaker 4 (46:09):
And if you want to reach you got to do
everything on our platform. You gotta do live streams, you
gotta you gotta do pictures, you gotta stories, you post,
you gotta carousels, you gotta hit everything. If you want
us to put you out there, they really playing, big boy.
You want to plan a game, that's what you need.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
I've been stuck on five million followers for five years.
It's almost going into six years. I've been stuck on
that and Shadow Band like a motherfucker boy.
Speaker 4 (46:32):
I'm telling you ain't gonna hit that explore page Instagram.
Yeah yeah, ain't nobody getting that big I'm.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
A million for since before the pandemic and I haven't.
You're trying to tell me I haven't even I'm not
at one point one yet.
Speaker 4 (46:49):
I can't live it.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
That's we've been saying. We've seen this a lot.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Is I love this stuffcuse I used to do this
ship too.
Speaker 5 (46:55):
Is it something that you love doing around your house,
like guarding in the landscaping, or just something that you
had to do as the man of the house.
Speaker 4 (47:01):
Nah, I grew a love for it. So the house
I live in is a first house I've ever lived in.
I've never lived in a house I grew up in.
I grew up in you know, brick project buildings or
apartment buildings, and even when I moved to LA, I
stayed in apartments you know, LA ex spensive. So this
is the first house I've lived in. So I've never
been able to do like yard work and all of
(47:23):
that stuff. I just cut grass as a teenager, but
not to the extent of the things I do now.
But it started. It started. I had a production studio
I bought in twenty sixteen, when I still do on content.
I was like, I'm gonna get this warehouse. I ain't
about to pay nobody, Like, I'm not buying a production building,
So I gotta build all. I gotta build offices and
sets myself. And if I learned, I'm not limited by anything.
(47:46):
So my sound got James Hatchett. He knew how to build,
so he taught me. You know, he taught me to
road to building. So we built out the offices, built
out the sets and everything I needed. We just kind
of built it. We need a jail sales scene. Cool,
how do I build something that looked like jail bars?
So figuring it like figuring it out there with creating content.
(48:06):
And then when I got the house Pandemic hit. I
bought the house in February Pandemic hiting like March mar
And at this point it's like there's a lot of
stuff I wanted to do around the house, but can't
nobody come in? And am I just gonna.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
Sit here doing myself?
Speaker 4 (48:19):
And then doing myself? But also Instagram had an incentive
at this time, whereas like if you do an Instagram series,
they'll give you like a hundred racks to do, like
twenty episodes on Instagram. IGTV was what they was promoting.
I said, I need some of that pandemic hit. So
my mindset was like if I put the money in
my house, I could write all the money office production value,
(48:41):
so I ain't gotta pay no taxes on it. So
I said, oh, yeah, that's the plan. So from there
I was just like, what's the project I could do
around the house because I need another episode? What's the
project I could do around the house. So it was
the financial financial strategy in the sense to start doing
home rental because I could write it all off his
production value and put and put value into my house.
(49:01):
So I just go to YouTube like how they do this.
I watched like three or four videos in my cool.
I think I got a good idea how to do it.
Just go for it, and then over time it became
very meditative.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
Therapeutic.
Speaker 4 (49:13):
Yeah, therapeutic. That's what I was looking for. Is therapeutic.
You ain't got your phone because your phone probably recording,
and you just working one step at a time, break
by brick and at the end you build something, you
know what I mean. You go to strong foundation. It's
gonna last, you know what I mean. So, yeah, I
really enjoyed quick hitters.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
First thing to come to mind. Let us know one
album on repeat.
Speaker 4 (49:37):
That's what I can think of is gn X GNX
listening only listening to a lot of music. Man, I
ride in silence. You see me in the gym with
headphones on.
Speaker 1 (49:50):
Listening to I always wanted to ask you that's when
you said that.
Speaker 4 (49:52):
Yeah. So I'm working on the series and I'm training dialects.
So right now I'm listening to Bob Marley on RepA
throughout just the way, not the music interviews. Yeah, and
for a while a couple of months, I was listening
to just Malcolm ic speeches, probably like.
Speaker 1 (50:09):
He always has the head phones on in the in
the in the in the in the gym. The music
is basically music or whatever that's crazy.
Speaker 4 (50:17):
And if you you will see me too. I be
thinking people might think I'm crazy, but being an actor,
they might just not think much of it. But if
you see me, I'm talking. Yeah, I'm saying what I'm hearing'na.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Starting with you now, I will start fucking. But it's
actually before we forget what are you working on? Moving forward?
Because we're kind of at the quick hitter, but I
want to give you a chance to what do you
work right now?
Speaker 4 (50:40):
I forgot that won't quick at all, so we go
back and do season two of The Paper and January.
For the last six years I've been writing, I've been
writing scripts, writing series and I got you, bro, catching
what you're throwing.
Speaker 6 (51:01):
So he said, I'm catching what you uh yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know it's funny.
Speaker 4 (51:12):
John Singleton had met Laurence Fishburn on the set of
him doing some cowboys show. It's like Curtis the Cowboy
and Pee Wee Herman. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and John Singleton
was young and he was like, I'm writing, I'm writing something.
I got you, I got you, and that was that's
that's gonna be.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Yeah, missed every shot take.
Speaker 5 (51:31):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (51:37):
I've been writing. So just continue to write and building
out these worlds and characters. But also I'm doing a
short series right now. I don't want to speak too
much on it because they don't come out to what
that's the luxury doing your own thing and don't come
out tout one two. It ain't gonna come out, so
I want people be like, what happened to that? But
I'm confident and I'm really excited about it, and once
it's done, I'm gonna be, you.
Speaker 3 (51:57):
Know, come back and talk about yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (51:59):
Yeah, but working in the traditional space industry, Hollywood stuff,
but it also at the same time trying to build
up my own stuff, you know what I mean? Ownership
every King?
Speaker 2 (52:09):
Yeah, Okay, what's one movie that everyone should.
Speaker 4 (52:11):
Watch one battle after another. It's a revolutionary type movie.
A lot of people ain't gonna see it for whatever reason,
but I think for the time that we're in right now, Yeah,
it's important, but it's entertaining. It's still a fun movie.
It's a great film, and I've seen a lot of
bad movies this year, and that that made me think, like, Okay,
cinema ain't really still there. Yeah, it's still there.
Speaker 3 (52:32):
Dream director to work with Ryan.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
Cooler, that's the homie cool Yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:37):
Yeah, that's who was your childhood crush.
Speaker 4 (52:40):
First one coin of mind was the Yellow Power Ranger,
but it was two Dior for yellow ones. Her name
was it was the black Girl. It wasn't the Asian one,
no shade, but it was it was what was younger,
that's my You see how young I was. It was
(53:01):
a yellow one. It was the black girl. I don't
even remember now. I still remember what she looked like though.
When they show a little morphine head, Yeah I used
to Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say something like that.
Speaker 5 (53:12):
Yeah, if you can see somebody on our show, who
would it be? But you have to help us get
your answer on the show.
Speaker 4 (53:18):
This brother that I'm naming it is brilliant. One of
the most brilliant minds I've ever met. And I don't
think people know it. If they know him, they do.
But Malcolm, as he played in Snowfall as Kevin.
Speaker 3 (53:35):
Yes, and then he played and.
Speaker 4 (53:37):
Then he played in uh and.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah Bro.
Speaker 4 (53:42):
He from here from uh Lou, he from the Jungle,
so l a throughout. His uncle was like Tookie Williams like,
but his his story and his light skinned dude.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
Yeah he played. He plays fifty brother. Bro.
Speaker 4 (54:02):
His mind is like it's kind of like rain Man.
He knows so much about everything. And the way he
can articulate himself. You know when you think you can't
really find a way, bro, the way he can articulate.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
His thoughts put the words together.
Speaker 4 (54:17):
I feel like he sell himself short about being an actor.
I'm like, I feel like he he should be one
of the leaders that we need as a community. Like
his drainage is crazy, but yeah, I think it'll be
an interesting conversation.
Speaker 3 (54:32):
Well, thank you for your time.
Speaker 1 (54:33):
One more time ten where they can find the paper
at on Peacock, Yes, sir, and coming.
Speaker 4 (54:36):
To NBC on NBC November eleven.
Speaker 1 (54:39):
Melvi Man, we appreciate you, bro CO two, he smiles.
Us all the Spoke production G two but the DraftKings Network.
Speaker 2 (54:47):
We'll see y'all next week.
Welcome back, all the smoke. This is season five or six?
This is new six?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hold up, man, we made it to six?
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Is it six and a half? Five and a half.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Don't do that.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
We look like Ashton doing that ship six an shut
you mother. But we're here, man, we're back with a
new season. I'm not sure what season it is, but
we're here. And man, we got someone that I was.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I was.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I was happy to make this this happen. It almost
didn't happen because we had some false information, but we
made it happen. We're here Jack being a huge fan.
We ran into Bro in the gym this morning. Yeah yeah,
and now we're working together. But man, welcome to the show.
Melvin Greg appreciating new pre chuting. So social media superstar
(00:48):
turn actor. You kind of got your start on Vine
and Snowfall, American Vandal. You're on your newest roll the paper.
I mean, you got a lot of great shit going on.
Talking to us about out your journey and what.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
It's been like.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Start with Vine, I guess yeah, we'll get into all
before all that, but Vine kind of put you on
the map and your career took off.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Yeah yeah, yeah for sure. So I moved to later
act and it was tough.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
How were you?
Speaker 4 (01:15):
I was twenty two, twenty two, I think probably in
twenty eleven and just doing short films, student films, low
budgetself whatever I could. And then I saw Vine as
an opportunity to build an audience. And I knew if
I could build an audience, I'd be of more value
to a production, so I get more opportunities and maybe
I can get an agency or whatnot. So I saw
(01:37):
Vine as a way of doing that.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
So and you blew your vine following up right, you
got like seven million people on vine.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
YEA too bad they deleted the app and they all gone.
I still run it to over the streets, so it's love.
But yeah, so I was like, I got to figure
out a way to do this. And the cool thing
about vine is when it first started you can only
shoot and edit in the app like you could go
edit later upload it. You got to shoot a clip,
then stop, and then shoot another clip and stop, and
(02:06):
then you mess up, you got to start all over again.
So I'm like, it's a limited playing field. So that
that means people that got resources aren't at an advantage
because I have no resources. Is an even playing field.
The only difference is creativity and efficiency, which I feel
like I got. So I looked at what everybody was
doing that was popping up there, and I kind of
taught myself comedy from like reverse engineering what worked and
(02:28):
what went viral. Okay, this one viral for this reason,
this went viral for that reason. Oh it's small formulas.
So for me, I just implemented my tape or my
taste into it and just approached it from like a
marketing standpoint. I was like, I'm a storyboard out like
forty ideas, so I'm not going to run out, you
know what I mean. If I go viral, I'm high
(02:48):
traction and keep moving. And I shot most of them.
I was like, before I post the one that I
think is great, let me post five or six before
so they can get traction. Because I need audience retention.
I need to to stay there and building. So just
approaching it every step like that, being very intentional, I
was able to just build a following that just kind
of kept growing, and over the course of doing it,
(03:09):
I just fell in love with creating and comedy and
shooting and editing and you know, all of that stuff.
So it was definitely a blessing.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
What's the balance of people knowing you from social media
and TV? Because I remember when me and Jack first
got started in this and we went to All Stars Chicago. Yep,
it wasn't about nothing we did in our careers. It
was about all the smoke, you know what I mean.
And I thought that was dope, you know what I mean.
So what is kind of the balance of people that
recognized you for social media, people that recognize you on TV?
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Now it's even man's And it's interesting because I run
into people that ain't seen me since social media, so they'll
be like, damn, what you.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Been doing all just some of the biggest shows on TV?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
But go ahead, like I'd be.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Acting, oh that's what's up. Well, I ain't you since Vine.
Even when this new show the Paper came out, it
was going pressed. It just reached a different audience that
I probably ain't touched since Vaughn. So it was like, damn,
I ain't see him since vin. So it's like, you know,
I learned to just not be offended by none of it,
like shind you know me from something. I'm happy, I'm
glad I'm in a position where you could kind of
(04:09):
see me and recognize me, but it's a mix bad.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Do you feel like the industry has changed compared to
how it was when you first came in it now
in regards to acting.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
For sure, it changed that The landscape is completely different
one because of streaming, so content is consumed differently. So
that mean the buyers they approach it differently with what
money they put into what and what it takes to
get something made, and how much is something they make
and as far as and then also to social media
play a big part into it because people consume content
(04:38):
so different that their attention spans are shortened now, so
the way that content is crafted is different. A lot
of times, especially on the streamer, they gotta hook you
in in the first five or ten minutes because you
can easily go back and go watch something else, versus
if you go sit in the theater, you stuck in there,
so you got time for a slow burn. But with uh,
you know, with streaming and just a short attention span,
(04:59):
the way content is crafted is different. The way they
cast content is different because a lot of times they
little for builty in marketing, so they get somebody that
a lot of people know so it's more so about
the stars and the story. They like to have content
that's easily digestible, seeing that you could do a lot
of other things and multitask and still receive it because
(05:20):
a lot of it is spoon fed versus sitting in
the theater. So from top to bottom, I think the
industry is completely different. What is ever changing? Is ever changed?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Your new role on the Paper, which is a spin
off of the Office. I remember you telling me about
this before it actually check it out? Yeah, Jack's checked
it out already. What is that like that? Because that's
tapping into you just in your own words, you kind
of tap it into a new audience and the newer
fan base. What's that experience been like?
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Yeah, And it'll be on NBC in a couple of
weeks November eleven, so you know NBC too. But it's
definitely a different audience. But I think as a different audience.
But you know, you want to reach as many people
as possible, so you don't want it kind of limit
yourself by I'm gonna just do this because I feel
like our perspective and our voice should resonate through all audiences,
(06:08):
you know what I mean? We should introduce ourselves to
all different type of people, and you might be you
might change somebody's perception of a type that they might
have seen you as before by giving them another version
of thattility. Showing versatility is just introducing perspective and coaching
the people that might not have seen it in that way.
So I kind of take pride into doing a show
(06:31):
like The Office. If you look at the original, it
wasn't a lot of it wasn't as diverse as our
cast is now, and you might not have seen a
character like myself in there. So be able to be
able to come in and show, you know, a young
black man, be vulnerable, be transparent, be offbeat, be a
little awkward, be safe, you know what I mean, And
to be honest and authentic. You know, it's something I'm
(06:53):
grateful to be able.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
What's your character's name and kind of what your storyline
on the show.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
So his name is Detrick, he said off the bat,
like Detric. He sells ads for the paper, and as
the show starts, a new editor in chief comes in,
and you know, new newspapers is like dying out. Don't
nobody don't nobody like buy newspapers. So it's a dying thing,
and his new editor in chief comes in and he
(07:19):
tries to like bring the paper back to life, and
they don't have budget for reporters, so it's like, anybody
here that want to help, you know, go for it.
And it's just like the Bad News Bears of journalism
and my character he's in love with this girl that
he can't really talk to because she worked in a
separate department, so he jumps at the opportunity to work
(07:40):
for the paper just so he could talk to her.
But he offbeat, He awkward, He kind of like a
people pleaser. He's doing too much, you know, like nice
guys finished last.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, he that.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
So it is definitely different from a few of the
other things that I've done. But it's fun, man, It's
fun to lead to lean into being awkward and offbeat,
because I feel like a lot of times we learn
to mask that we're gonna look awkward or corny. We
know how a mask even though we might feel it. Yeah,
but with that character, I can just be I could
(08:13):
be awkward with it. Yeah, no masks, just like I'm
sitting weird, I'm standing weird. I don't know what I'm saying,
and it's kind of free and in a sense it's one.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
I think it's the one thing with dude. You're trying
to stop a dude from get arrested or something.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Oh when when he's trying to h he's trying to fight.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Yeah, you do, and you're trying to the whole thing
was funny, was trying.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
To Yeah, yeah, no, it's it's it's fun man. The
stakes are a lot lower and like a lot of
the other shows I did, it's but it's just like
workplace comedy, like just a regular day in the life,
awkward collection.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Of people compare and can trast your social media fame
to your TV fame.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
It's definitely interesting. It's like social media famous popularity. They
feel like they know you because they can see you
on their phone, They can see you every day. They
laugh at you when they see you on the street,
they yo, they you know, they feel like they know you, yeah,
versus like TV. Film is more of a reserve that
they have where it's like, oh, I don't know if
(09:09):
I could kind of go say something to him is
more hesitant than me respected space because they don't feel
like they know you as much. I like the users
as an example, when I said, because I've seen it firsthand,
King Batch, one of the he was he had like
he had got the Guinness World Record for the most
followers on find he had like forty million, like crazy numbers, right,
I'd be with Batch. We watched somewhere and the kids
(09:30):
went up Yo dasht a picture like they all around him,
like they know him, like he's popular in high school.
And then I was on the set of Creed Too
with Michael B.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Jordan.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
We went to a Sixers game and when he when
he walked through the crowd, I seen the same thing
to a complex con. He walked through the crowd, people
just stopping whisper like they don't approach him. But it's
just like you just see whispers go through Yo's It's
like a different respect and sophistication. I saw Ai go
(10:03):
up to him, like, Bro, the first time I have
cried out of a movie was your movie. And Ai
from the same area I'm from. You know how everybody
feel about Ai. But he from the cribs got a
different type of love and admiration. And I've seen the
love he was giving Mike because he sat down in
the theater for two hours and watched his story of
this character going through something and it made him emotional
(10:26):
to the point where he saw him he got emotional
again and it's just like.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
He cried every day.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Well yeah, bro, but yeah, to kind of just see
how TV and film resonate with people versus social media.
It's just it's different.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So you're more touchable as a social media stars, more
step back. Let's yeah, it makes sense. It makes sense
if you were young and popular on social media, would
you go for streaming or no, what you mean, if
you were to rewind, would you jump into streaming?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
However everything is being streaming?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Yeah, nah, nah, I wouldn't it take It takes too
much time. You gotta be on And I ain't got
that energy like literally like like the loud and gosh
and just like I ain't got I ain't got that
in me like I got from action to cut, I
give you what you need. I need to go chill.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Yeah, just kind of.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Yeah, my streams weren't.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
When they say cut up done, Bro.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
You want to get back to the house and do
something in the yard around the house and just chill.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
I want to you know, I want to have my
own time if I want to go do whatever and
not have to be on like they gotta be, that's
a different type of muscle. I ain't got all respect
to him. I couldn't do it.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
He landscaped his whole crib. I've seen it. I've seen it,
followed the journey. So I got a question. We were
looking up just finding research about you. Why all Google
is say you hooped?
Speaker 4 (12:00):
I don't know, man, nah. But I did a show
called American Vandal, right, and uh I played. It was
a mockumentary, so it's meant to look real, and a
lot of people thought it was real. But I played
the number one high school prospect coming out of high school.
They might have thought it was real life. And they
made like a highlight real for me, like like I
(12:22):
was a five start recruit and the highlight real kind
of nice, like it's crafted. So I did another movie.
It was a ben I Fleck movie and it was
based in basketball, and they wanted they wanted the actors
to come in to do like part of the audition
was to coome hoop. And I was in London at
the time. I'm like, I can't hoop, but I got film.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
I could see me star edit.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
I set on my five star edit right, So I
booked the wrong I booked the room. So now they
got us working with uh, these they like choreographed the
plays and stuff. And we played and I had n't played,
and I'm like missing late up to I was like,
what kind of fucking recruited you? How you get recruited?
I'm like, bro, it ain't real. I got a job now, Yeah,
(13:10):
I can make I could make it look real, but
oh that's dope.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
So we were talking about this earlier.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
Uh, I actually felt like, you know, I could have
been man Boy's cousin from Texas.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
You know what I'm saying, come up there and whole
ship down.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Whichever it's the same ship. He said to West's day
was his day that came. Jack said to say, I
like it, say yourself.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
But I really could have been you know, yeah, your brother.
I could have pulled up and had your back. You
know what I'm saying. Shut it down, you know what
I'm saying. But you know, if you ever, I'm pretty
sure you got a roll like that coming again in
their picture if you need Yeah, I'm trying to get in,
you know, what I'm saying. So, and I'm you know,
I think I can really kill one of them rolls.
I think, no gas they laughing.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I'm serious.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I think you could too, give him a little taste
what of your acting skills?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Let see what I mean. But I got put on
the spot last time and I killed it. So I
just need to what you want to do the same
with the same scene.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
Okay, you think I'm about to mess up all I
built just because you don't like to wear a nigga.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
Talk drive motherfucker.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
Yes, sir, one of the dopest rolls on Snowfall, man Boy.
You just said, tell us how you found out about
how you how you got the roller, man Boy, and
what you was doing when you found out you got
the role.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
I got the audition and it was like come in
for Snowfall. And I got there and it was a
room of people sitting around like this everybody, and I'm
kind of shizing up the room, these actors. And not
to say that in a bad way, but it's like
I'm really from that so not in LA but from
(15:07):
my side. So I'm like, they not gonna understand the
nuances that is, And this is me being I got
a delusional sense of confidence right when it comes to
some things. So I'm all right cool. I go into
the room and it's like it's pat Usually it's just
like one cast director associate with the camera is the
casting director is the It's like two of them. It's
(15:27):
the director, producers John Singleton, all in the rooms lined
up right in front of me. Well, this is it.
Usually you get a couple of rounds and they tell
you they like they get They tell you what they like,
and they give your notes and then you finally see
the director producer. It was all in one one scene.
So I'm like, all right, cool, and I did my
version of man Boy, and my version of man Boar
(15:52):
is much like you see on the screen because I'm
looking at it. I'm like a lot of times when
it comes to like these characters, they want you to
look dangerous, I can't look dangerous. If I go for that,
I'm gonna lose off the bat.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Like you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
I can't come in growling because but I'm also from
I'm from that in a sense. Why I know, it
don't matter what you look like like if you're trying
to scare somebody, you really don't want to do what
you say you're gonna do. You warning them versus if
you want to do it, you inviting them in. So
it's just a different energy. So I went in with
(16:27):
that and they were like, uh yeah, let's just uh
let's let's let's try it again. And this time the
stakes are high, like these guys could kill you and
you need to scare them off, all right, So I
do a version of that.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Whatever.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
I didn't give them vose versions. John Singingson had a
little back and forth band with me, asking me where
I was from, and it seemed like he was he
was he was rocking with me, so I was like cool.
I felt good about it because I was able to
do my version of it, and then I gave him
their version, and damn, when I left, I got a
call that they had me on hole, which means they
like you, but they still trying to make a decision.
(17:03):
I remember where I was at when I heard I
was on hole. I was like, I don't know, getting
some food or something, and then I don't even remember
why I was that when I heard I got a call,
But I just got to excite it because I knew
I knew I had it in my bag. I was like,
this is gonna be easy for me, but I also
know what it could do for my perception because coming
from Vine, people saw him as like the silly dude,
(17:26):
the goofy dude, or safe and a lot of times
people don't go from you know, it's hard to change
your perception. So I got to go so far right
that they were like, Okay, even if they meet me
somewhere in the middle, they still gonna take me serious.
And the great thing about this show is I got
a few episodes to sell them because my first episode
they weren't working with me still. They was calling me
(17:46):
Braxton from from the Jamie Fox bro They was like, oh,
they killed the show. They got this goofy nigga from Vine.
This ain't gonna work. But by like it was. It
was bad and Braxton did a movie where he played
a gangster one time too, and it was me, I'm like, man,
but three episodes in, I was able to sell most
(18:06):
of the show.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
But you was a fan of the show before it
even happened though, right, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I was.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
I was definitely a fan for the show. Funny enough,
I auditioned for it out the gate, but I'm a't
ready for it. I was my audition. I was nervous,
like it won't Like the second time I auditioned, I
was auditioning for Like Franklin, and the cast director was like,
hold on to them sides, as if she was gonna
call me back. I ain't never heard back from you.
Think I know. I see it on TV, but I
(18:32):
started watching it. I was like, yo, it's hard, like
it's it's hard. And the lead actor. I love actors.
I love watching actors. I saw damn it. I'm like, oh,
this Sniak raw like he hard and I had like
I had posted. I was watching the show and I
was like, bro killing it and I added him and
he hit me back. I was like, oh, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Man.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
I used to watch it, but I'm like, I appreciate it,
bro and uh. I happened to run into him in London.
I was in London around the same time I lied
about that audition the basketball foot it, and I ran
to him at a random party. I was like, yoh,
that's crazy. It's it's like kind of synchronicity, you know
what I mean. So when I got the audition, I
(19:14):
felt like I was prepared for it. I knew the show,
I knew the world, I knew what I wanted to
do in it. So when I got a call, it
was just like, all right, there's go time.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
Two questions, what does it take to get into the
character man boy? And did you have any input on
the way you dressed?
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (19:28):
So appreciate it?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah yeah, dope boy fresh.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
So whenever it comes to wardrobe, I'm a stickler for wardrobe.
Like I never go back and forth with anybody. I
always get people their creative liberty to you know, to
put their thoughts into stuff, and I kind of go
for it. But when it comes to wardrobe, especially something
that I feel like I'm familiar with, and even if
I'm not, I'm gonna do the research. I'm gonna I'm
gonna put my my I'm gonna be vocal about it
(19:55):
because I think wardrobe is important because you seen me before,
you hear me, and if I'm supposed to be and
I look like a lame, you ain't gonna believe nothing
I sael. So it's like if you believe if what
somebody says just it's just said a lot about them,
you know what? I mean, you sell a story before
before you even tell it about what you're wearing. So
I was big on the wardrobe, So yeah, I had
and put on that. And as far as getting into
(20:16):
the character, it's just it was a shift for perspective
and stakes for me. So every role I do is
gonna be a version of me at some point in
my life with different circumstances, you know what I mean. So, man,
boy was it was kind of like a like that
fairy tale if any kid that grew up in the
(20:37):
hood because of what's around you, you kind of got
some type of ambitions to be like I could be that,
especially the movies I watch growing up. It's only watched
gangster movies. Like my favorite movie was Juice. I'm watching
that when I'm like eight or not, you know what
I mean, And I'm looking up to Bishop so Is
and then just being you said, what what you say?
(20:58):
You didn get the juice to you kill man see,
and I ain't look at righty man. It's like I
want to be here. I'm like, no, I want to
be But I wouldn't have missed when I'm chasing que
through the through the park. This nigga su I was terrible,
but yeah, and then just kind of being being around
there growing up, I was very observant. I'm like, these
(21:20):
niggas moving like this, they should move like that. If
I was to do this, I wouldn't get caught. And
it's like a delusional confidence. But at the same time,
I knew, like they still here. This ain't this is
a dead end, Like I ain't about to do that.
Like and the last thing I ever wanted to be paranoid,
So I never chose that life in a way, but
in my mind, I'm like I could do it, and
I would really be like him, Like that's just my mindset,
(21:43):
so be able to do snowfall. I'm like, this is
my opportunity to really do that and to move how
I feel like I would move, and yeah, just to
change the ship for perspective, it becomes fun at that point. Yeah,
Like dirt on little Dirty Corny.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Knew you that.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
So it's just like his perspected like, come on, man,
I really know who you are, you a little bit,
what we're doing, how we're moving.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
So h yeah, your girls crack head talking to everybody
off like.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
So the only thing you got to do at that
point is just figure out the dialect and it's just
living that space and the mannerhisms because l a different
and fels.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
I think it got I think the dialect got better
throughout and the mannerisms came kind of easy because I
didn't watch enough movies. I didn't watch minutes. And it's
it's such a it's a it's a period piece, so
it's eighties, so it's it's obvious, it's how you standard,
it's how you walk. It's kind of common crue in
a sense. But period that from Grand like the Grand
(22:56):
Theft final characters, and I play that game forever, so
a lot of it's still kind of you know ingrained,
but I definitely modeled a lot of my dialect off
of what Franklin was doing. Yeah, and then also I'm
from the South, and a lot of people in LA
in the eighties they families migrated up from the South.
So it still got that twin to it. If you
listen to Snoop, he got a lot of that twin.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Yep, Older's Snoop's birthday, by the way, Happy birthday.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Oh Ship, happy birthday. He came. He came to set
a couple of times, did he Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
Yeah, so just say outside and hanging out with the
crew outside being on camera, do Man Boy come out?
Speaker 4 (23:31):
I mean, it's it's a part of me. But at
the same time, state saint is high. I ain't in
the ain't in the drug game where somebody trying to
kill me over the back. And also I'm a lot
older than what Man Boy is too, So I definitely
had dumb moments when I was a kid. When I
was younger, you know what I mean, thinking you bulletproof,
but you know at my age, no.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
Only like the character you came around the homers of
y'all joking, do you ever going to Man Boy character?
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Just bullshit with the homies?
Speaker 4 (23:56):
What like the dialect is nah own I touch it.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
I was about saying, because.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Yeah, niggas are probably climbing this nigga here. Who do
you think you will? Nigga really thinks you the characters like, yeah,
I ain't gonna get that. Ain't even get niggas ammunition.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Out of here.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Was like working with DeAndre Bods the West Coast Legends.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Yeah, nah, man Deandres Bro. He's such a a genuine
guy and such a nice dude man like he gives
nothing but love you know what I mean, from top
to bottom. He's just like just a humble, grounded and
for you know, for DeAndre Bonds Stacey to be like,
(24:46):
come on, y'all really killing it, man, y'all really doing it?
Like I love is she what y'all doing? And he
really West Coast. So it's just like he was right there. Yeah,
like that his bag he stayed. He stay in it
like it's him. It's a part of who he is.
And even before he got the roll, I remember John
Singles j John Singleton telling me he was like, he
(25:09):
was like, man, I got these I got this idea
for these couple of episodes coming up. Y'all gonna be
in the jungles, and I want DeAndre Bonds to be.
He gonna be the guy that you're gonna be going
head to head with. Man, I know he was like,
right now people know him as Stacy, but when when
it's over with, they gonna know him at Scully. I
was all right, and yeah, that that was That was it.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
You spoke to the greatness of John Singleton, talk to
us just about what that was like, what you soaked up,
what you saw? How cool was he was? He tough
on people. What was his aura and his energy about
because he's such a such a leg obviously rested things,
but what was he like working with?
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (25:43):
John was John was cool man. He was chill, was
laid back. He made you feel comfortable. You ain't feel
like intimidated to be around him because he just felt
like your uncle. And I always say, I think he
played the biggest part of not the part of me
getting the role because no offense to nobody, but everybody
outside of John was white, right, and a lot of
(26:05):
times white people defict depiction of a of a of
a gangster look a certain way, and I don't look
that way. So had John not been in the room
and saw what I was doing and being able to
understand what I'm doing and speaking the language that I'm speaking,
as far as just like everything about what I wanted
to do with a character, I don't think I would
have booked it because as I'm reading the room, they
(26:27):
like they rocking with a little bit. But to know
that guy from somebody was like, you have to be intimidating,
you have to you know that was from somebody outside
of John. I'm like, man, I can't do it like that.
Wouldn't make I wouldn't be that. If I was that,
so then it's gonna be it's not believable, like you trying.
And that's the thing to a lot of people when
you playing a gangst the character or whatever it is,
or you're trying to be intimidating, you don't have to
(26:48):
try to be intimidating. Like if people know what you bought,
you ain't gotta do much. You ain't going through time,
like at least from my experiences, So John wouldn't been
in the room, I wouldn't have got cash. I know
it for a fact. And how he took me up
under his wing when I even on the show my
first day, he'd be like, hey, look this is how
(27:09):
I see it going where you're going, like just kind
of giving me pointers and how he see the show,
and even past that, just telling me he really believed
in me. He was like, man, this is going to
change a lot of stuff for you. He was like,
I want to make sure you with the right people.
Introduce me to its publicist. He was like, man, I
got this movie I'm working on. I think you'll be great.
He just really took me up on his wing and
gave me the confidence to feel like I'm where I
(27:30):
was supposed to be. Is not by mistake, because this
guy who's broken so many stars and you know, introduced
so many legends into, you know, to the world with
this track record that he has, says he sees something
in me. So I have to lean into it and
really be confident in this space because I mean, he
just gave me the you know, he gave me the
green like he validated.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
That's one of the greatest yup. So we lost him.
Where was your mind that What was the state of
the show after that? And how did you guys find
the courage and the strength to move on?
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Man? It was I remember it was at the table
when we heard what happened, and he was you know,
he was still he hadn't pulled through yet, but he
was still. He was still with us, and the energy
was just it was low, and the show runner was like,
we just got it. We got to go through this
and do it for John, so you know, we do
what we need to do. And uh, I wasn't working
(28:21):
when I when I heard he died, So I don't
know how the energy was on the set because the
way my role was I popping once or once every
other week or something like. I wasn't there every day.
So when he died, I wasn't. I wasn't on set
to see that energy. But it definitely shifted. It shifted
through all because he won't there, like you know, our
big brother won't there with us to walk us through
(28:42):
it all. He had put together a core of people
that we could still count on and lean on in
regards to a lot of stuff. You know, Dug she
was there, he was consult producer, his cousin Smokey. John
put his cousin on the show Smoky Smoky Hat there
like twenty thirty years or something, so he knew the
he knew the culture or what John wanted to do.
So we still had them there. But it was definitely
(29:03):
a whole and and the whole thing man. And I
feel like the story kind of shifted to after he died. Yeah,
it wasn't his grounded and authenticity. It was still great,
but it's things that like if you know the code,
you know the streets, you like, this wouldn't be happening
like what you know. It kind of it kind of
(29:27):
drifted more to into just being entertaining rather than being
a story of this.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Area neighborhood to make it the Africa.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
Yeahn Macully, No, he's not in Africa. He yeah, your
music yeah yeah, but uh yeah, Scully ain't gonna be
fighting for Leon after he killed.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
His daughter all that.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
Yeah, but you know, uh, it's TV man, and a
lot of times you you could, you could start, you
could try to stay true to what it is and
the people do know it. But when it comes to
money and broad appeal and commercializing the show, sometimes you
got to You got to court another audience and keep it,
(30:14):
keep it exciting.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Working with how you say his first name, Dasmind one
of the biggest young actors today, and it blew me
away when I found out that he was British.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
And then you start finding.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Out all these other actors that are British and and
and the way they'll be able to switch that accent.
Did you take anything from that as trying to add
it to you? Obviously your style in Man Boy and
being able to accent and the manners we spoke on
a little bit before.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
I mean, I based a lot of Man Boy's dialect
on Franklin, but also my my little twist on it
as well, but when it comes to him being British,
I think it affected his perspective and how he approached
(31:01):
the character in a way, but that's not in my version.
I think that's where man Boy differs from him. But
I think it was brilliant what he did. If you
look at Franklin, Franklin not to typical la game banger,
la drug dealer. He don't feel like that. He more calculated,
more observed. He more suave, like you know, he just
working khakis with the belt. He ain't flash, he got
(31:22):
his watch on airplanes. He ain't loud, He's like. It
was Damnson's interpretation of a gangster, and it might be
based off of his interpretation because he's had a broader
scope than somebody from the neighborhood in regards to film
and craft in the character. But I think it's brilliant
because you can put Franklin Saint in pretty much any
(31:43):
movie and he don't feel out of place. You can't
take old Doll for minutes and put him in any movie.
He's too specific. So brilliant, brilliant choices made by Damnson.
It would have been a completely different showing character had
anyone else done it. So yeah, I guess from that,
I'm very meticulous with my characters and why do the
(32:04):
things I do and how it can play into the
things I want to do past that.
Speaker 5 (32:07):
Show reinventing yourself, you know, from vying to acting. Yeah,
and now you know having a big role, like a
role a man boy and doing what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Now, what does it take to reinvent yourself?
Speaker 4 (32:17):
I don't really look at it as reinventing. I look
like I feel like I'm on a different side of
myself growth, growth, and yeah, like we all got different
versions of ourselves. Who you are with your granny versus
the woman you love versus the one you might just
be kicking it with versus your homies. Like, it's different
versions of yourself. It's different chapters of your life. And
(32:38):
I like to try to pour from these chapters and
versions to figure out who the character is. So it's
very introducing reintroducing myself to people based on where I'm
at now. If it's for a character, is whatever the
character is. But for me as a person, it's mainly growth.
Like Matt said, like I'm married and I got kids,
so my focus and perspective is completely different than what
(33:01):
it was five ten years ago. So what I want
to promote and what I want to sell is completely
different than what I would have been selling ten years
ago in my twenties. I want to sell that I'm
that guy, I'm him. I can get what I want,
but you know, it's just different versus now. I want
to sell an idea what life can look like if
you do things. I don't want to say the right way, Yeah,
(33:23):
like this is a path you could go and it
could be happy, you know what I mean? And not
to shade anything else, But I grew up looking I
never thought i'd be married because the people I grew
up around, and my daddy got like three families. It's
like the man that got every woman that he wont
and got all the money. That's that's what I looked
at as like success. I should be like, I don't
want to big backyard and the picket fins. I want
(33:45):
a black card and the passport full of stamps. But
you know, through growth and just assessing life and seeing examples,
I'm like that that's probably not the path for me.
That ain't where I'm gonna find my happiness. At priority
change its life experiences man like, you know, doing it
then waking up being like, bro, this ain't it like
(34:05):
what I heard?
Speaker 1 (34:06):
It was.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Behind all of it, the ego is like, it's really
making me happy. So finding something that truly made me happy,
I don't mind promoting that because I feel like it's
it'll equate the happiness for most people if you do
it for the right reason.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Right at this moment. What are you most proud of
in your career or just period?
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Period?
Speaker 4 (34:26):
Is my family?
Speaker 2 (34:28):
No question?
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Yeah, no question at all. That's proority over business. Business
is what I do, Like a falling a husband is
who I am. I would much rather have a strong
relationship with my wife and my kids than I have
a strong career. I didn't.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
I don't read.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
I don't read tales about you know, people to make
it to the top and then you know die from
sceptionans of abuse or you know, they going through it
like mentally nobody there nobody there for them. And it's
like all them people that showed up at the box
office don't care. They're just wondering when your next when
your next film is proper, and then you know, the
snap of a finger, it could be all over now.
(35:06):
They on somebody else. So it's just like I don't
put my attention and focus solely into my career. I'm
never gonna compromise my family for my career. So that's
that's probably.
Speaker 5 (35:18):
What's your advice to a young content creator that's trying
to come up in these social media streets.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
Be intentional, use the leverage you got while you got it, uh,
but also be yourself because if you chase, if you
chase trends, you're gonna be chasing fether and you're gonna
really be a slave towards popping and how you how
you won't follow us and you following what's happening? You
know what I mean? You gotta you gotta lead and
(35:43):
do something your own way because if you copy in
somebody else, you always gonna come second to them or
third or fourth depending on when you see it when
versus doing your own things. So just be authentic. You
got to be consistent, and I just say, leverage your
position while you got it, because it's a it's a
long sprint. It ain't like you get viral one time
(36:03):
and you go on forever. You gotta go viral out,
the viral after viral after viral for years. Like if
you look at drew Sky, drew Ski the guy he
number one, but think about how many viral clips drew
Sky didn ad. You gotta keep going because that one
is gonna be old in a week, and they gonna
want another one, and they gonna want another one, and
they gonna want another one. So if you could keep
(36:23):
up with that pace, great, If you're don't plan to
keep up for forever, leverage the position that you're in
while you win it. Be smart about what you're doing,
if that's putting money up for the days that you
don't want to do it no more, or leveraging your
position to segue into something else. I just say, keep
keep the future in sight. Don't just get caught up
(36:45):
in it's here now, because it might leave and then
you might be out of love.
Speaker 5 (36:50):
So you got a nine to five in your contract, curator,
how do you get what's the moment where you get
to the point where you go full time and contact?
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Great?
Speaker 4 (36:57):
When you're making enough money to.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Quit, simple, yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
Don't just quit and be broke. You can't focus on content,
Yeah yeah, you can't focus on content when you're hungry
and you ain't got no place to stay in. You
know what I mean. Now you're in the middle of
the day trying to shoot videos, your girl mad at
you because you know, the car broke down and trying
to shoot. Now, you gotta be in a place where
you comfortable and content. So make sure you got some
type of financial security or you got incomes, some incomes
(37:25):
coming in. But I will say, you're gonna have to
quit that job sooner or later because you ain't gonna
be able to compete with people.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
That day full time.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's how That's how I look at
social media. When I quit social media, social media was
my nine to five, and well it was my nine
to nine because it don't stop. But I was like,
if I want to stop this and go into traditional space,
I got to make sure I'm in a financial space
where I can do that, because acting you don't, it'd
be a wild before you make money if you ever do.
(37:55):
I was getting like, man, I was probably getting like
five five episode for Snowfall, and it's a great show,
but five thousand ain't none in La and.
Speaker 5 (38:06):
The people that is best, So reaching I know that
five thousand worth five thousand.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
Your ages get ten, your managers get ten, your lawyers
get fired, so that's twenty five percent. Government get another thirty.
So that's that's what fifty.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Five percent was working for free.
Speaker 4 (38:23):
I'm working for free. So now I'm working with like
my mind might be all with twenty two hundred episode
that ain't you know? That ain't great money, you know
what I mean? So make sure you're in a financial
position where you can make the right creative choices, because
if I were, say some money, and I wasn't in
a good creative if I wasn't in a good financial place,
I wouldn't have been able to do no fall because
(38:44):
you lose money.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Okay, so you didn't renegotiate that role as you got.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
I mean, you got two seasons and it's pretty much
taken to leave it like I was a guest star.
Ain't got no leverage to come in and you because
they're just right somebody else, you know what I mean.
So it's like, this is what we got for you
could take it to leave it. But my mental, yeah,
my mentality is I got a chance to showcase what
I could do to the world in this place. So
rather than look at it as they give me twenty
(39:08):
two hundred episode. How much money are they putting into
marketing the show? How much money they put into making
this show, because that's how much money they put into
presenting me to the world on a high quality program.
So perspective based on creative choices and not really financial ones,
because the financial was taken care of before I hopped
in that arena.
Speaker 5 (39:27):
You don't have to say the number, but what was
the first project you had where the person when you
look there like, okay, this makes sense, this makes sense.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
Was it an acting or more on volume?
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Now? VIN was different because you do a cut, you
got a lot of streams when you post on every platform.
I remember when VIN first started, and I get back
to the next question, when VIN first started and money
started coming with an app called by Do it was
like a dating app, and draft Kings was new too,
and I remember I was like, man, I wish I
would in ll shated some equity with draft draft Kings
(40:02):
early on, but they gave you like four five hundred
dollars for a video, and in my mind, like I'm
from the hood, four five hundred for a seven second run.
I'm telling niggas from the critic like nigga, that's a
what so I'm doing that and then just kind of
being in a community with other creators. I remember Homi
day Storm. He been in social media, like he was
(40:22):
one of the biggest dudes on YouTube in like two
thousand and six. So when I met him, he had
million dollar homes and like he had he had been
eating and they Storm was like you can pay what
He was like, man, you're doing videos for a pair
of a pair of vans and a haircut, like, oh,
five hundred. He was like, now, shyn they hit you,
send him this and he sent me a drafted up
(40:44):
a little email and it's pretty much like I understand
we had a working relationship, but my rate based on
my new audience in my reach, it's twenty five thousand.
But considering we already have working relationship, I do the
next video for you for twenty but then after that
the rate, I'll go back to my initial rate and
from there it's gonna grow with my audience. I'm like, bro,
(41:06):
this nigga got to make me miss out on money.
Ain't no way. And they came back and it was
like it was like, nah, we can't do it. I'm
like fuck. He was like, nah, just hold tight there,
it's a bluff. They hit me back a week later.
I was like, all right, we could do it. And
at that point in my perspective, it was like the
world opened up for me, Like, Yo, I'm getting paid
this much money to make videos.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
So you went for five enough to cut you off
five hundred to twenty thousand.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
Yeah, And then for me at that point, I said,
well you're twenty and enough. Next time, like I need forty.
It's like we can't. We could if you could do thirty,
I need and it's like I'm running it up like
it was an interview with Tabitha Brown. She had a
manager who was a good fandomize and she was just
kind of getting into the reins of like money coming in.
(41:51):
He was like, I don't know what to charge. I said, bro,
say something ridiculous. They gonna come back and give you something.
And I think she had got like a I'm only
saying because she said it. She end up getting like
a hundred for something. It's like, oh, shoot for the moon.
All they can say is no. But then they got
to meet you somewhere and you value on yourself and
you come out the back and be like, give me
six hundred. They'm like, cool, we can do five fifty,
all right, you know, I mean it's just a negotiation.
(42:11):
So social media was it was different. It was different
type of money that was coming at the time. But
I didn't spend anything so going into traditional aim make
money for like two years. So I'm just running through
everything else I've made. But I still haven't got paid
for a film where it feels like it's worth it.
(42:31):
I'm still I still got to earn my strikes. Want
you to lead. You can kind of make demands once
you got a big audience, but when you supporting the lead,
they could easily say somebody else, So you just don't
have leverage to be like I want this. So in
the film, I still I still I'm still not in
that place. But as TV shows, I've done enough TV
shows whereas like each time the rate kind of go
up a little bit more. But you still just got
(42:52):
to look at what can I get out of this
and can I live off of this? So I'm definitely
in a position then where I can make a living,
but it still ain't in the spot where you know
I'm getting I'm getting new contract work. It's gonna be yeah, yeah,
it's you know, it's it's a matter of it's a
matter of time. I never really get discouraged, and I
try not to make a decision. Earlier on was making
(43:13):
social media because my stuff used to be over the
top like Rashet or Ranchet like, and I was losing
brand news. I was losing opportunities to make money because
my brand wasn't safe. But I asked myself, I'm like,
do I want to make money now or do things
that resonate with people that I relate to and the
comedians I look up to. It was never safe comedy.
I'm not watching Bill Cosby, So it's like, do I
(43:35):
want to make the money? I was just about to say,
I don't know who. I don't even know what it
was on stage. Yeah, different conversations, but yeah, I was like,
I got to make creative choices in our financial choices.
So I kind of just carry that with me through
(43:56):
through my career.
Speaker 5 (43:57):
Do you trust the platforms that pay you straight through
the platform like YouTube and.
Speaker 4 (44:00):
All those trust them in what sense as far as.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
The way they pay directly? Pay you directly?
Speaker 4 (44:04):
You ain't got no leverage? Yeah, you ain't. You ain't
got no choice that's.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Get the money that way, don't get nothing.
Speaker 4 (44:10):
I get it or I don't. So yeah, And that's
that's the thing with these platforms, man, they really they
own the audience and on everything I didn't see where
like Vin before Vine shut down, I didn't. I didn't
quick Vine when it got shut down, I quick Way
before it got shut down. My other thing is hop
off the ship when it's a float on way to
a sinking.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Yea.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
So I jumped from Vine and went to Instagram early
because Instagram had more my audience people I wanted to
make content for versus Vine, but also Vin. They started
favoring a specific type of content because they wanted to
rebrand the app. And it was things like if you
got black in your comment, in your in your caption,
they're gonna they're gonna put you onto like nobody gonna
(44:50):
see it. It's a lot of keywords that if you
got it in your caption to kind of filter through
stuff they don't want to promote to promote. And then
they started promoting like acoustic guitar covers and stuff, and
it's like, well, I'm doing his work and y'all not
even let me hear the explore pages, y'all not because
y'all own the audience. Same thing with Facebook. I ran
up like five million followers on Facebook and in like
(45:12):
six seven months doing crazy numbers. At one point before
I quit, I was on one hundred million views a week
for like two months straight on original content. Then I
started posting like a month later. I try to post something,
I got like two comments in two weeks with five
million followers because they own the audience. Same thing with Instagram.
Instagram limited they reach. They said it was an algorithm,
(45:34):
but what it is is if a brand of a Nike,
let's just say, you got a big audience, right you, Instagram?
You influencer. Nike comes to the influencer like, yo, I
got thirty grand for you post. I'm gonna hit your audience.
You Nike, you like you, not Nike. You Instagram. You're like,
I own some of that money. I own him. I'm
gonna shut him down. Nike comes straight to me, I
(45:54):
can put you anywhere. Sponsor posts put you anywhere. So
then they start capping you know what I mean, capping
your reach, and they just call it a new algorithm
or whatever it is. So it's like they own the audience.
The platforms own everything. But that's just you know, that's
just the game.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Take it to leave it else take leave it.
Speaker 4 (46:09):
And if you want to reach you got to do
everything on our platform. You gotta do live streams, you
gotta you gotta do pictures, you gotta stories, you post,
you gotta carousels, you gotta hit everything. If you want
us to put you out there, they really playing, big boy.
You want to plan a game, that's what you need.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
I've been stuck on five million followers for five years.
It's almost going into six years. I've been stuck on
that and Shadow Band like a motherfucker boy.
Speaker 4 (46:32):
I'm telling you ain't gonna hit that explore page Instagram.
Yeah yeah, ain't nobody getting that big I'm.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
A million for since before the pandemic and I haven't.
You're trying to tell me I haven't even I'm not
at one point one yet.
Speaker 4 (46:49):
I can't live it.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
That's we've been saying. We've seen this a lot.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Is I love this stuffcuse I used to do this
ship too.
Speaker 5 (46:55):
Is it something that you love doing around your house,
like guarding in the landscaping, or just something that you
had to do as the man of the house.
Speaker 4 (47:01):
Nah, I grew a love for it. So the house
I live in is a first house I've ever lived in.
I've never lived in a house I grew up in.
I grew up in you know, brick project buildings or
apartment buildings, and even when I moved to LA, I
stayed in apartments you know, LA ex spensive. So this
is the first house I've lived in. So I've never
been able to do like yard work and all of
(47:23):
that stuff. I just cut grass as a teenager, but
not to the extent of the things I do now.
But it started. It started. I had a production studio
I bought in twenty sixteen, when I still do on content.
I was like, I'm gonna get this warehouse. I ain't
about to pay nobody, Like, I'm not buying a production building,
So I gotta build all. I gotta build offices and
sets myself. And if I learned, I'm not limited by anything.
(47:46):
So my sound got James Hatchett. He knew how to build,
so he taught me. You know, he taught me to
road to building. So we built out the offices, built
out the sets and everything I needed. We just kind
of built it. We need a jail sales scene. Cool,
how do I build something that looked like jail bars?
So figuring it like figuring it out there with creating content.
(48:06):
And then when I got the house Pandemic hit. I
bought the house in February Pandemic hiting like March mar
And at this point it's like there's a lot of
stuff I wanted to do around the house, but can't
nobody come in? And am I just gonna.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
Sit here doing myself?
Speaker 4 (48:19):
And then doing myself? But also Instagram had an incentive
at this time, whereas like if you do an Instagram series,
they'll give you like a hundred racks to do, like
twenty episodes on Instagram. IGTV was what they was promoting.
I said, I need some of that pandemic hit. So
my mindset was like if I put the money in
my house, I could write all the money office production value,
(48:41):
so I ain't gotta pay no taxes on it. So
I said, oh, yeah, that's the plan. So from there
I was just like, what's the project I could do
around the house because I need another episode? What's the
project I could do around the house. So it was
the financial financial strategy in the sense to start doing
home rental because I could write it all off his
production value and put and put value into my house.
(49:01):
So I just go to YouTube like how they do this.
I watched like three or four videos in my cool.
I think I got a good idea how to do it.
Just go for it, and then over time it became
very meditative.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
Therapeutic.
Speaker 4 (49:13):
Yeah, therapeutic. That's what I was looking for. Is therapeutic.
You ain't got your phone because your phone probably recording,
and you just working one step at a time, break
by brick and at the end you build something, you
know what I mean. You go to strong foundation. It's
gonna last, you know what I mean. So, yeah, I
really enjoyed quick hitters.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
First thing to come to mind. Let us know one
album on repeat.
Speaker 4 (49:37):
That's what I can think of is gn X GNX
listening only listening to a lot of music. Man, I
ride in silence. You see me in the gym with
headphones on.
Speaker 1 (49:50):
Listening to I always wanted to ask you that's when
you said that.
Speaker 4 (49:52):
Yeah. So I'm working on the series and I'm training dialects.
So right now I'm listening to Bob Marley on RepA
throughout just the way, not the music interviews. Yeah, and
for a while a couple of months, I was listening
to just Malcolm ic speeches, probably like.
Speaker 1 (50:09):
He always has the head phones on in the in
the in the in the in the gym. The music
is basically music or whatever that's crazy.
Speaker 4 (50:17):
And if you you will see me too. I be
thinking people might think I'm crazy, but being an actor,
they might just not think much of it. But if
you see me, I'm talking. Yeah, I'm saying what I'm hearing'na.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Starting with you now, I will start fucking. But it's
actually before we forget what are you working on? Moving forward?
Because we're kind of at the quick hitter, but I
want to give you a chance to what do you
work right now?
Speaker 4 (50:40):
I forgot that won't quick at all, so we go
back and do season two of The Paper and January.
For the last six years I've been writing, I've been
writing scripts, writing series and I got you, bro, catching
what you're throwing.
Speaker 6 (51:01):
So he said, I'm catching what you uh yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know it's funny.
Speaker 4 (51:12):
John Singleton had met Laurence Fishburn on the set of
him doing some cowboys show. It's like Curtis the Cowboy
and Pee Wee Herman. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and John Singleton
was young and he was like, I'm writing, I'm writing something.
I got you, I got you, and that was that's
that's gonna be.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Yeah, missed every shot take.
Speaker 5 (51:31):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (51:37):
I've been writing. So just continue to write and building
out these worlds and characters. But also I'm doing a
short series right now. I don't want to speak too
much on it because they don't come out to what
that's the luxury doing your own thing and don't come
out tout one two. It ain't gonna come out, so
I want people be like, what happened to that? But
I'm confident and I'm really excited about it, and once
it's done, I'm gonna be, you.
Speaker 3 (51:57):
Know, come back and talk about yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (51:59):
Yeah, but working in the traditional space industry, Hollywood stuff,
but it also at the same time trying to build
up my own stuff, you know what I mean? Ownership
every King?
Speaker 2 (52:09):
Yeah, Okay, what's one movie that everyone should.
Speaker 4 (52:11):
Watch one battle after another. It's a revolutionary type movie.
A lot of people ain't gonna see it for whatever reason,
but I think for the time that we're in right now, Yeah,
it's important, but it's entertaining. It's still a fun movie.
It's a great film, and I've seen a lot of
bad movies this year, and that that made me think, like, Okay,
cinema ain't really still there. Yeah, it's still there.
Speaker 3 (52:32):
Dream director to work with Ryan.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
Cooler, that's the homie cool Yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:37):
Yeah, that's who was your childhood crush.
Speaker 4 (52:40):
First one coin of mind was the Yellow Power Ranger,
but it was two Dior for yellow ones. Her name
was it was the black Girl. It wasn't the Asian one,
no shade, but it was it was what was younger,
that's my You see how young I was. It was
(53:01):
a yellow one. It was the black girl. I don't
even remember now. I still remember what she looked like though.
When they show a little morphine head, Yeah I used
to Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say something like that.
Speaker 5 (53:12):
Yeah, if you can see somebody on our show, who
would it be? But you have to help us get
your answer on the show.
Speaker 4 (53:18):
This brother that I'm naming it is brilliant. One of
the most brilliant minds I've ever met. And I don't
think people know it. If they know him, they do.
But Malcolm, as he played in Snowfall as Kevin.
Speaker 3 (53:35):
Yes, and then he played and.
Speaker 4 (53:37):
Then he played in uh and.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah Bro.
Speaker 4 (53:42):
He from here from uh Lou, he from the Jungle,
so l a throughout. His uncle was like Tookie Williams like,
but his his story and his light skinned dude.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
Yeah he played. He plays fifty brother. Bro.
Speaker 4 (54:02):
His mind is like it's kind of like rain Man.
He knows so much about everything. And the way he
can articulate himself. You know when you think you can't
really find a way, bro, the way he can articulate.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
His thoughts put the words together.
Speaker 4 (54:17):
I feel like he sell himself short about being an actor.
I'm like, I feel like he he should be one
of the leaders that we need as a community. Like
his drainage is crazy, but yeah, I think it'll be
an interesting conversation.
Speaker 3 (54:32):
Well, thank you for your time.
Speaker 1 (54:33):
One more time ten where they can find the paper
at on Peacock, Yes, sir, and coming.
Speaker 4 (54:36):
To NBC on NBC November eleven.
Speaker 1 (54:39):
Melvi Man, we appreciate you, bro CO two, he smiles.
Us all the Spoke production G two but the DraftKings Network.
Speaker 2 (54:47):
We'll see y'all next week.
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Stephen Jackson
Matt Barnes
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