Melvin Cole: Saving Kids Just Like Me (Pt 2)

In Melvin’s family, you were either a drug dealer or a junkie. At 8 years old, he remembers choosing between these two options and joined his family’s cocaine ring that was arguably the largest in West Tennessee history. It led him to one of the most desperate situations you could imagine and making a deal with God to get out of it. He promised to save other inner-city Memphis kids just like him and that’s exactly what PURE Academy has done. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, everybody, it's spilled Courtney with an army of normal folks,
and we continue with part two of our conversation with
Melvyn Cole right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors.

(00:27):
You're running back. Yeah, so running your junior year.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
So junior year, we go to the state championship. We
play against bg an Academy and if everybody no freeze,
he got all these fancy players. I mean, listen, he
was the same guy back then, and he trying all
this ship and we lose, and we on the bush
and I'm sitting I'm like, look, dude, I'm going back

(00:51):
to the hood, like.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Like, oh, you weren't going to go back to bar
crush your senior year?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
No way? Why not? Why it wasn't beneficial to me?

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Okay once you get recruited.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
I came over there for one reason. That was the
Hipen Winnestate Championship.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Okay, So in my mind, we.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Didn't get it done. And I mean, so what I'm sitting.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Like, no, but I got to ask you something. You
still have to meet the at least the medial academic
standards at Briarcrest. How were you doing that?

Speaker 2 (01:22):
I'm not stupid.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
I didn't say you were stupid. So you were doing
the work. Yeah, yeah, don't you think you were getting
some value for that?

Speaker 2 (01:35):
No? Why where was it gonna take at the time?
Where was it gonna take me?

Speaker 1 (01:43):
I see? Because see here's the thing. There's this thought
about kids coming from urban areas and getting scholarships to
private schools. It happens all over our country, it does.
I am g is a huge one. But I mean
when you look at a Catholic school like Bishop Gorman
and they got these studs playing for them, you know,

(02:07):
their moms and daddies ain't paying for them to go
to school. But the trade off is now, in a
perfect world, the idealistic trade off is you're gonna go
play sports for the school and help them win games,
and they get to expand their profiles a school as
a result of that. But what you get is instead
of getting this a for attendance lack of education, you're

(02:28):
actually gonna get taught and get an education.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
That's not how it's explained to you.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Fuck no, I'm holding I'm telling you that is the idealistic.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
No no, no medical conversation, no no, no, listen, that's great
and those are the conversations that's being high had by adults.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
What are the conversations you're having with you.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
With the keys? Yeah, man, come over and play football
because at the end of it, because you gotta look
at it at the end of the day. Why are
you talking to me now because I'm fucking a great student?

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Why are you talking to me because you play ball?

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Because I play ball and your ass couldn't be easies.
That's why you're talking to me now because I'm some
great guy. You're not talking me because because.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Let's be honest, you're a drug dealer with a kid
at fourteen. You don't fit the.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Profile said when my kid was older than a huge
kid when we were got to school, That's what I
was goind of confused about. But I got kicked out
for pre member.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Ain't talking about that. We got to get to that.
I'm sitting there like this, all right, So after after
junior year, you're out.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
I'm done.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
But somebody says, no, come on back. We're gonna freeze
freeze man, So then you know, all right, coach, I'll
come back. How was your relationship with them? Were you
all right with them?

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Now I'm gonna tell you this. This is what I'll
tell you. Man. I love Hugh Freeze to this day.
Like when I tell you because you know what you're
gonna get with him, like he he ain't gonna bullshit
you now, he gonna he gonna, he gonna lay it
out on it all you can ask. Yeah, that's and
I'm cool with that. I'm cool with that. I mean,

(04:12):
I'm great. Yeah, man, I don't have it.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
So because he came to and you were cool with him,
he said, all right, I'll roll up back. Let's go
try to win a state.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Man. Because he came to me, he he told me, man,
I know I should have ran you more. He said
that we was on the bus, Man, I know I
should have ran you more. Have you come back. We're gonna,
I'm I'm gonna do this. We're gonna we're gonna win.
I'm gonna help you go off to.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
College and so and so your senior year. This can so.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
I So I trained all that year going through the summer.
Senior year came around and and I got to be
honest with you, Freeze did his part. I mean that
was that was college coaches at the game. I mean
I was getting recruited like I didn't. My recruitment wasn't
short by any by any sketch of imagination, you know,

(05:01):
old miss Mississippi State, Louisville Bowling Green. I mean, I
was actually gonna go to Misssippi State before Jackie Sheriff
fired his whole coaching staff if we had the Memphis
Maniacs during that time. So Kippy Brown was great friends
with Hugh So, I mean he held his end of
the bar.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Again.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
I mean, that's one thing I would openly say that.
I mean, that's why to this day, if I got
a player that he wants and the player wants him,
I mean, I'm endorset, you know what I mean. But
so that was the whole thing, like all right, I mean,
but for me, it was the fact that I was
wanted and I was needed Because walking through the school

(05:43):
and dealing with them kids, Man, you you ain't really
wanted and needed.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
I mean, but you're still dealing drugs, yeah, because you
got to feed your back. You're going to this high end,
wealthy kids all around you. Man, I'm getting kids showing
up in the parking lot having cars nicer than you've
ever seen.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Man, I'm getting picked up from White Haven and I'm
going to Briar Chris and I'm looking. I'm like, damn,
these kids got this, this and this, and in my
mind I just will figure like all right, well I'm
gonna get this one day doing what I do. But yeah,
like that shit.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Was haf but and you're doing that. But this other
life is you're dealing drugs take care of everything. So
you're still in in that life. You're living a double life.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
I've deal living double life my whole life.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
This is an extreme. This is an extreme in terms
of the culture you're going to school in versus the
culture you live.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, not and day and you win a state championship
and we win to stay championship and then there's a party.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
There's a big time party. Tell me about that. Man.
To me, I thought it. So here's the thing about it.
I've never went to any All Canvas parties or anything
like that. I've never been associated with.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Well, you're going back to the hood because I'm going
back every day right that you ain't staying out near Briarcrosh.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
That was my It was just like work. To me. Hey,
I get picked up, I get dropped off, I get
picked up I get dropped off. Listen, I know I
ain't these people kind.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
Hey, I got to ask you about that. Real talk here, bro,
The people that are picking you up and taking you
out there are white, right, Nah?

Speaker 2 (07:22):
I had a black guy.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
What they hire a black guy to ride you around?

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Now you want to hear the crazy part about it.
It was another black kid that was on broad crist
team too, that lives where I lived it but they fit.
But those kids couldn't get it freeze over the edge.
So this kid, he would come and pick me up
and then we'll ride to the school together and then he'll

(07:47):
drop me off.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
All right, Well, then my question, I asked it wrong.
This is my question. You got to school and you're
surrounded by white teachers, white administration, white everything, right, the
exact opposite of what I was when I went to
an assist. My question is to you, I know what

(08:09):
you said earlier about the reality of your life and
what's right first wrong when you're in that environment, but
you certainly know there's a different set of rules and
standards and briercusts because, like you said, you ain't stupid,
and you know you're dealing drugs when you're at home.
But you know that doesn't go down. I mean, you
can't be down with that at Briarcrest, So you can't.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Huh, White can't because those kids get high too.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
I'm getting there. Don't get that question is did you
work your hustle with Briercrests?

Speaker 2 (08:42):
No? I wish I could have.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
But weren't you working a hustle? By not working the hustle?
You feel what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
The second, the second part of it, because see you
got to understand is being a drug dealer wasn't the
ultimate goal. The ultimate gold was the National Football League.
Drug dealing was second.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
What's helping you get there?

Speaker 2 (09:06):
That's all it was. I said, it wasn't. It wasn't
who I was. It was just a means to an end,
to get me down the road to the next stop sign.
That's all I was looking.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
You look back on that and you don't now how
just pervertedly wrong all of that is.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
But that's all you had. Why is it wrong? Considering
pharmaceuticals is the number one industry in America right now? No,
hurt I got appeal your arm. Hurt I got appeal.
You're told hurt I got appeal. You coughing, I got appeal.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
It's wrong, is because or in jail.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
No tax invasion.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Okay, tax evasion too. My point is this is not
what you're teaching kids today, correct because okay, let me
say it a different way. It is so common in
your life, fit in the lives of people that grew
up in places like you and still do today this
very minute, this is happening. Do you ever hear yourself

(10:10):
talk about it now and think, you know.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
Wow, not while uh, it's an inner struggle.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
Tell me about that, because just like you said, now
I realize in the sense of what I what I
deem is wrong, not about going to jail or that
part in terms of man, we're tearing down communities, we're tearing.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Down families, like that's what I'm talking We're tearing it down.
So to be a part of that for so long
and then be a part of bringing it back when
you have your struggles, because then you have those people
that say, man, how you gonna say this and do this?
You was a part of this for so many years.

(11:08):
Look what you and your family did to the city.
So that's the struggle that you go back and forth
because you know what I once was the problem we
once rule. I mean it's no secret with my family,
with Bobby and Craig, we arguably had the largest roughest

(11:34):
cocaine run out West Tennessee history. I mean, our organization
operated in twenty nine states.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
We'll be right back. The party at Broadcress.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Life changing. It was a house party, which you don't
normally go to. I don't want to go to. Kids
will drink.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
Hey, we gotta state championship.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
We gotta stay championship. Let's have some fun. The team.
The teammates didn't convince me. Come on, come on, Melvin,
come on, you never hang out with us, which is
kind of cool and listen. And it was so I thought, So,
I mean, we're having this party.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
I mean, did you ever think you'd be hanging out
having a party a bunch of white kids from suburban Memphis.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
No, I never crossed my mind. Yeah, because the whole
thing was teammates and teammates. I went home every day.
So we went and state we want to stay championship.
I got the guys on the team because now what
I will say is those guys that played on the
team with me and brid Christ, they didn't see white
and black like those I can genually say those were

(12:57):
some of my dudes, like like I still talk to
some of them to this day, like like those are
my dudes, white and black. So we never the football
aspect of We never looked at it like that.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
It's weird how football breaks down that barrier.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
And that's one thing.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
When you hurt and bleed together.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
It's totally different. It just doesn't matter. And Freeze was
good at that. He was good at blending everybody together.
So in my mind, all right, teammates want.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
So the party was safe, That's what I'm trying to say.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
In my mind, it was. It was safe. It was
it was sanction I mean, you gotta think about you
got a bunch of kids with alcohol. Shit we didn't buy,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yeah, so it was sanctioned.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
So you know, girls, she won't have sex. I mean,
she was hot, she looked good to me. I'm like,
all right, cool, you know what I mean. It wasn't
out of us. It wasn't like I was the only
guy in the house having sex, you know what I mean.
It was it was a few of us, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
A high school party full of seventeen eighteen year old
teenagers and alcohol feeling good about themselves after state championship.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
The state championship, well, I mean we didn't gonna.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Have especially for a guy with a two year old
at home.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
So this particular room, me and the girl was in,
some guys bust opening the door. You know, we were
young or shit, we don't stop. We just seventeen years old.
What you're gonna stop for? Y'all know how to? I
mean everybody's and man, I didn't think anything of it.
And what I didn't think anything of it?

Speaker 1 (14:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Man, it was it was fun. I mean she was
cool with it. I was cool with it. It was fun.
So we get back to school and I'm coming out
to cafeteria and all the guys started clapping. I don't know,
so I'm like, I'm like all right, So you know,
at the time, principal and everybody wanted to know, like
where is everybody clapping around? So I tell the story

(14:50):
of what happened?

Speaker 1 (14:52):
So you tell who?

Speaker 2 (14:53):
So I tell the principal, I tell Freeze. You tell
them what I'm lying about? Like what am I lying about?
The girl didn't scream rape? Like what am I lying about?
It was, it was nothing to lie about.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
I mean, you do you realize.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
I got a two year old?

Speaker 1 (15:18):
You know what, I'm fucking do you realize the the
profundity of that blatant honesty about what am I gonna
lie about? But also the naivet tell you of it.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
How naive at that.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Time for you to not recognize the danger and that
story profoundly honest, but equally naive. And the reason I'm
saying that is without mentorship, up, without coaches, without somebody

(16:04):
who truly cares about you. When you're in an environment
like that to win football games, but you don't have
the full proper support, you're bound to fall into a
football yep. So in my mind, you really didn't do
anything wrong. But at Briarcrest Christian School, so and.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
That was the thing. So they says, well, you know
that's pre matter sex.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
I said, I got a two year old.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
I said, dude, y'all knew I had a fucking two
year old? Like what what? Huh? And he looks at
me and says, you know, hey, it's some things you
just don't do. And right then I knew black boys
ain't sposed to as white girls. I learned that lesson
that day, and I was kicked out, and I got

(16:57):
that very clear.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
All right, So let's talk about that for a second.
I've heard you say that before. First, I want to
make it really clear, Lisa and I raised our children
based on our faith and based on my steadfast belief
as a father that you need to wait to have children,

(17:23):
you need to preserve yourself. And I want to be
careful not to sound like a prude, because I didn't
do that when I was in high school. I was
just like you. I didn't have a kid. But I

(17:44):
guess what I'm saying is, I don't want anybody to
think I condone having children out of wedlock at fifteen
and all of that. I think that's dangerous and bad
and destructive in most cases, and I don't want to
condone it. However, hearing your story, you certainly understand it.

(18:04):
But to hear you say that's when I learned black
folks ain't supposed to have sex with white girls. Are
you saying that if a white kid had not admitted
to having sex at that party, that they also would
not have been kicked out.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
This is what I'm gonna say. They knew I was.
I wouldn't only one having six at that party.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
You were the only one that admitted it.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
The kids were mad. Matter of fact, one of the
teachers told me, ma'am, I wish you had a lie.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
There's the nave at tea part.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
That's what one of because at the end of the day,
I was never a bad person. I did bad shit,
but I was never a bad person. So I never lived.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
Were causing trouble to school?

Speaker 2 (18:57):
No, that's not who I am. I've never been that guy.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
But it is a horrible thing that from that experience
you took from it. Well, that's what happens to black
guys that have sex with white girls.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
I mean, twenty years ago, there was the case.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Look, man, I get it. I just want our listeners
to get it.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
Yeah, twenty two years twenty five years ago, that was
that was the case here in Missis, Tennessee. Now you
guys still think about where we're at. We still got
a street downtown called Auction.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
No, they changed it two years ago. Oh well great, yeah,
you talk about the bridge. Yeah, but when I was
in school, what it was called Auction. When I grew up,
it was Auction, and for everybody to listen. The Auction
Street Bridge connects Front Street with what is Mudd Island
and it goes over what's called the Marble Bayou right
next to the Mississippi River. And the reason it's called

(19:58):
Auction Street Bridge is because that's where the barges rolled
up to the backside of Front Street and unloaded the slaves,
and that's where they had their slave auction. And until
four or five years ago, we still had that street
called Auction Street and that was Auction Street Bridge because
that's where black human beings were sold.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
So you got that to just change four five years ago.
And my experience was over twenty years ago. So let'sen talk.
Let's and learn.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
So you get by hook or crook, you get back
into Whitehaven, you're able to graduate, and now you've got
your scholarship and you go play college ball. Yeah so
I was, but you still got that kid and that
baby mama. So you still dealing drugs, still hustling. So
tell me how the hustle went.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
It was simple. When I wasn't playing football, I was hustling.
When I wasn't working out, I was hustling.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
Where did it lead?

Speaker 2 (21:00):
Just started thinking.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
There was a night you were in a car and
things got bad.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
I was in college, so I was dealing out of Chicago.
And I originally met these two brothers when we first
set up the deal, and I had gave him about
three four pounds a week and I was going to

(21:31):
swap it out again, give him more, get the money,
swap it out. And I'm in the car with the
brother and he says, my brother be on the way.
You know we did. So we're doing small talk and
he changed the conversations to crack. So I'm thinking to.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
Myself, oh shit, you think he's law.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah, I think he's face all day long. Right, So
I'm thinking I'm trying to figure out how I'm gonna
kill him, kick him out my car, and get back
out of here.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Now, let's speak clear. You ain't never shot or killed
nobody before this before what before this night?

Speaker 2 (22:08):
Now that's part of the game.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
No, But you're thinking I'm gonna have to kill this
guy and dumping by my car so I can get
out of here. Correct, But up until this point, I mean,
you ain't never killed nobody. Okay, maybe I'm wrong.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Part of the game. Let me ask you. So, let's
say when you go to work, you grab your briefcase.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Right, yeah, yeah, it's just all the.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
Shit that comes with the game. You don't like. You
don't pick and choose what you do in a drug game,
because that shit come os.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
So you're literally just making a value determination that this
guy's got.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
To go because he's the face. It's me and him, okay,
because if you don't go, I'm jammed up. I'm selling
to an undercover.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
We'll be right back. Turns out he's not the Fens,
it's not the Fax.

Speaker 2 (23:17):
So as I'm hesitating on the decision to kill him,
all I hear is so once I turn around, now
his partner got the barrel of the gun in my face.
So I reached for my gun and he hits me twice,
once in the shoulder and once in the back of
the head. They take the money, they take the gun,
take the weed. They take off, and I remember I'm

(23:43):
sitting in the car and I go, damn. I thought
I was gonna go out and the shootout. So I
crossed my arms across my legs and I laid there
and I'll never forget. The police and the ammulams come
and everybody and this is this lady and I tell her, says,

(24:04):
where's my phone, reach and grab my phone. So she
gives my phone and she puts it right here, And
during the whole ride to Cook County Hospital, she's like, baby,
fight for your life, Fight for your life. And I'm like, nah,
she's let me die.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
I'm tired.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
I've been doing this shit for so long. I'm tired.
So she's like, nah, baby, nah, baby, fight for your life.
Fight for your life. And the whole way, I'm trying
to convince this lady that I'm tired, and she's convincing
me to keep fighting for my life. So we make

(24:46):
it in Cook County Hospital and I'm covered in blood
and all that, and the doctors come in and then
after my vitals and everything is stable, they come back
and say, your cousin is here to see.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
You us in Chicago. You ain't got no cousin in Chicago.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
I said, no way. I said, hey, don't let anybody
come back here. I don't have a fucking cousin.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
So I called my friend. Do you think they're coming
to finish?

Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, because they know the consequences if I'm alive.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Because they feel like you're gonna talk. No, no, no,
My band. You ain't gonna talk. I'm gonna get my
getting back. I'm gonna get my lick back. I get it.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
You hit me, I'm gonna hit you.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
I understand that's football, but that's also apparently the gang world.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah, I mean that's I mean, it's not even the
gang world. That's life.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
I'm gonna get my lick back if you If you're
a lawyer and you lose a case, guess what, I'm
gonna get my link back when I see that attorney again.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
Yeah, they ain't worried about your talking. You know what.
I never even got that until sitting there looking at you.
The law was not the problem. You probably the problem.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
Me and my family was the problem. I see, if anything,
you want the law to come gonna help you out.
So from there, I took off and my friend picked
me up, and he came out.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
They didn't operate.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
No, I left.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
You're still bleeding. You got bullets in here, and you
get up and roll.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
I leave shoot out. My friend picks me up. He
tied me in his girlfriend's apartment. I called my mom.
I say, mom, the drug deal went wrong. I need
a flight out of Chicago. My mom books the flight
for me the next day, and this is where my

(26:34):
body starts to shut down as I'm getting back to Memphis.
So at this time I had a connecting flight from
Chicago to Atlanta, Atlanta to Memphis. Well, they end up
having some weather and some other so so get we
get stuck in Atlanta and my body's still shutting down.

(26:55):
They put us in this hotel. So I go to
the front desk and I tell the lady, I said,
it is that anyway I can charge my phone. I'm
about to die and I just want my mom to
know where she can come pick up my body. So
they let me use the phone. I call my mom.
I told hers say hey, I said, I'm stuck here.

(27:17):
They say the plane supposed to come at this time.
I said, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna make it,
and I just want you to know where to come
and get me from. So made it through the night,
the whole the hotel. They shut us back to the airport.
I'm in a wheelchair. They are you bleeding? I'm still

(27:38):
covered in blood, so the blood is dropped by there.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
They're putting you on an airplane with us on or
are you hiding it.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
No, I'm just like it.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
My mom.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
My mom bathed the blood off of me when I
got home.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, so my mom bathed when I get When I
get to Memphis, my brother picks me up. And if
anybody knows my brother, he's the ultimate hard ass talking
about I've seen him one cry one time in my
whole life, and that's when he was picking me up
from the airport, and I knew I was fucked up

(28:12):
because he don't cry. We got home, my mom bathed me.
All my gang members and family that they came over
and we talked, but it was my father that night.
My father's arguing with my mom. He said, Roberta, I'm

(28:34):
telling you something else wrong with that boy. He too tough.
There's no way he'll be acting like this if he
got shot on the shoulder. Some else is wrong with
that boy. I'm telling you something else is wrong with him.
He's too tough. The next morning, you have seen those
little pocket flashlights. Yeah, he shines, He said, boy, the

(28:56):
same holes in your head as in your back that
you get shot in the head. I said, man, I
don't fucking know. I reached down for my hammer and
the motherfucker wasn't dumping. I said, I don't know. They
took me to the hospital, fractored skull, bullet and the
opsipital load. That's when I was rushed to the med

(29:16):
and I stayed in the mid about fourteen days. I
lost the ability to read write a lot of that
because so the opposit, the load, it's the most sensant
part of the brain. It's where your memory center is,
it's your vision, it's your everything, and that's where the
bullet was lodged. And I grew pitched.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
Man.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
I had a conversation with my uncle and he was like, man,
look at the dope game that did to you, like
it done took any fucking thing from you. So and
from that day forward, I made avengance to get back
on the dope game from everything it took from me,
from my grandma to my family, to my football career,

(29:59):
my hope, and I just raised war on the drug
bas is it. After that, I said, I'm gonna put
the game down so hard that they even gonna have
to kill me. I'm gonna do life in prison.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
For those of you listen, there may be some background noise.
It is a absolute dropout thunder rain. Behind me, which
the irony of ironies is the skies opened up and
dumped while Melvin told that story. You survive it about
a grace of God and then you get you finally

(30:36):
get arrested. And what you've said is drug Dane leads
two things, death or jail.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
I tell kids all the time, you cheated death. That's
the ultimate reward.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
That you cheated one of them, but you couldn't cheat
the other.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Cup lack a discipline.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
Lack of discipline and.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
For people to that know me, that's that's not who
I am.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
We had a weak moment one day.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
I did what happened. We was running drugs back and
forth through the Greyhounds. I had created a found out
a system how you can run from Dallas to Memphis
to Memphis to Ohio through Louis Villa, and if you
did it at certain parts of the night, the Greyhound

(31:27):
was closed, so it was no security, just basically busses
transferring people. And that was our route. And for years
I never got off that route. And at this particular time,
I was dating this girl who I had kind of

(31:48):
got sought for and I hadn't seen her in probably
about two weeks. As we was hustling and kind of
getting to going and I and at this time, I
was supposed to just make a quick trip and go
back because the load was like and she begged me.
She's like, just see me, baby, just see me, Just
see me, just see me. And I fell weak and

(32:10):
I opted to get off the bus in Cincinnati and
have her drive the rest of the ways, and I
call one of my homeboys. I said, put your cruise
control on sixty five and I'm gonna call you in
an hour. Wherever you are.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
That's where I'm That's how you could track him.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
No, No, that's how I knew. He could never set
me up at this That's.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
What I'm talking about. You tracked his time in this miles.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah, so you don't know where exit. I'm gonna say, hey, Bill,
this is where I'm at. So you just drive and
I'll call you an hour.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
I got it.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
In between that time, I'm hanging out with her. We
in the car, we're getting jiggy. I'm doing all the
shit I'm not supposed to do. I call him. He
finally pull up well shortly after the police pulled up too.
Police said, we got to call two suspicious cars back
her dumping trash, said man, trash, fucking trash on the ground.

(33:10):
So then the police asks for everybody's license and identification.
He said, can I search the car? Said nah? He
said if you ain't got none of high, I can't
search the car. Said I'm kind of a rush. I
got somewhere to be. He said, oh, he won't take long.
Then my partner said, man, it's a fucking tahoe. I
won't take that long. Please step out of the car.

(33:34):
I knew it then, so I thought. I said if
I run, I'm leaving them and all they gonna do
is snitch on me. I said, might as well eat it.
And I told him don't search the car. So I
got a chance in court. So we step out. He
found the first brick that was wrapped up in clothes.

(33:54):
What's this, man, I don't know shit. You put it there?
He plew the second brick out. I said, all right, man,
those are myn He don't know nothing. She don't know nothing.
Go ahead and take me down so I can make bond.
Because in my mind it was a small order. The
police had violated my rights, and I thought I was good.

(34:17):
I mean, that's partially why I'm smiling on my mugshot
and boy kind of took a turn from there, so
I mean, I was. I get in there and they
move in in the middle of the night and they
think they got this big fish because it's this small

(34:39):
town Sydney, Ohio, and they thinking they got this big fish.
And I'm thinking, like, man, my lawyer is gonna beat
this like and I remember, we get ready for breakfast.
The next morning, I'm on the news and the guy says,
that's him right there, and I tell him, I said, y'all,
I'm not gonna eat lunch with y'all. I said, whatever

(35:01):
bun he give me, I'm gonna make it. I'm'a be
out of here. Said this same one I do. I said,
I'm I'm feed. I ain't no state guy fed. And
as I'm walking back to my cell, that was this
old guy and he said, young blood, come here. He said,
you really got that money like that said, my money

(35:24):
long longer than train smoke. So he slid me this number.
He said, well, if you really got the number, called
this guy and he'll help you out. So that's when
he gave me. My lawyer, Patrick mull against super lawyer
of the year.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
That's how you got it.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
That's how I got pack. So we went to court.
They gave me. They gave me the hundred thousand cash,
and sure, bun. My my family has a Bill's bum here.
Willie Harper, that's how Bell's bun. He beils everybody out.
He belt shaw out. He was the first guy to
bill a million dollar. He came and got shot for
a million dollar bun off of murder in Atlanta. So

(36:02):
we bonded out and I told him. I told the
guys in there, I said, hey, listen, this what's gonna happen.
I said, they gonna call my name, and y'all can
look out that wonder and you're gonna see a blue truck.
And I said, when I get in there, she's already
gonna have my blunt rolled up and I'm gonna blow
the smoke cap. That's exactly what I did. So when

(36:23):
I got out, I called Pat. He said, ma'am, when
I was expecting your call, how soon can you get here?
I said, how far are you away from? He said
about ninety minutes. I said, I'll beat here. I went
in with Pat and told him what happened. He chopped
it all up and he said, all right. Well, during
that time, we was just thinking it was one case.

(36:45):
So while I'm out on bond fighting this case, I'm
sitting at home and man it, it probably was a
million fucking police there was. I thought they was crawling
out the ground or so many. I'm like roaches. Who's
they about to come pick up? Like it? Yeah, they
busted in. They wanted no mailvine and I'm all right,

(37:07):
that's me and they snatched me up and I'm trying
to figure it out. And there was a secret indictment.
So one of the guys that I moved from Memphis
to Ohio to help me run the cocaine ra and
he spoke for eight minutes and thirty eight seconds on
a none of them is called launched the investigation. So

(37:28):
now here I was sitting without a bond on this case.
So what a lot of people. What I learned was
so the fish created what they called the Rico Act
to break up the mafia.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
Yeah, the Rico Act was all about the Bob, all.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
About the mob. So every state set up their own
version of the Rico Act to break up inner city organized.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
Crime, which is a lot of gangs and drug dealer.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
And the crazy part about it, so the way they
consider a criminal enterprise is four more people doing the
same thing, and you're creating over five thousand dollars. So
there I was facing conspiracy to corrupt activity and five

(38:21):
cocaine chargers. I was facing more years than I've been living.
But at that time it didn't matter to me because
I knew I was in my early twenties. If I
did twenty years, i'd come home at forty. I still

(38:41):
be king. If I did forty years, I come home
in sixty and I still had the rest of my life.
So I was cool with it.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
And did they senence you or you took a play?
So I took a play. That was god fifty eight months.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
I got sixty eight months, and that was.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Just under six years, right.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
And the crazy thing about it is if we wasn't
so scared, we could have we probably could have beat it.
So Pat ended up filing a motion to suppress the
evidence because if police found it the wrong way and
blocking the car and it was an unlawful detainment. But

(39:24):
my co offender, he wasn't scrown, and Pat says, and
mayver we put him on the stand, and.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
You lose, you're doing twenty or forty, you out of here.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
So going through that, the first case, they gave me
twenty four months. Pat talked to the prosecutor. On the
other case, he got the big charge to corrupt activity
thrown out completely. So I end up eating four charges
of trafficking cocaine. So they gave me a total of

(39:58):
forty four months from this case, twenty four months from
the other case where we got ranted together with a
total sixty eight months.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
So and the.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
Agreement was I paid the drug firm, I stayed out
of trouble, and I agreed to do all the classes.
And they wanted me to do the search program because
I was adamant about not having a job.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
So and what do you do your time?

Speaker 2 (40:25):
Dating correction institution that's Ohio in Ohio.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
So for our listeners, they're like, where's the redemption? Because
this is a wild story. Your life is wild, but
the redemption's coming. But all of this was important to
lead up to prison and what changed your life?

Speaker 2 (40:48):
And why tell us? One night it was normal getting
ready for lockdown, you know, just nothing different. As I'm
walking back to my cell, I'm witnessing this young boy

(41:12):
get brutally raped. I'm telling how he yelling, he's screaming,
he got blood skating out his ass. I mean, is
it's something I've never been I've never even seen.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
Your You witness a guy getting raped in the jail
six someone. I have a question. Where are the I
hear this. I have been told by numerous guests and
stuff I've read. I mean, the gangs and the drug trade,
and there's as much happening in the jail is out.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
Yeah, the jail run the streets.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
I get it. Where are the guards?

Speaker 2 (41:49):
Whatever?

Speaker 1 (41:50):
Do the guards? Are they aware and turning their back
or they're just so few of them they don't even
know both. And so there's this inmate getting gang raped. Yeah,
and you saw this man.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
They were killing that boy. They were killing that boy.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
Was it a was it a gang thing?

Speaker 2 (42:15):
It wasn't my business, That's what it was.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
You just keep your head down and keep walking. Listen,
don't be part of it.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
I immediately went to my cell and I dropped down and said, God,
that cannot happen to me. Period. I'm killing all of them,
and then I'm killing myself that right there. Nah, they
can't happen to me period.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
Because if it doesna get your look back, I'm gonna
kill every single one of them. I'm gonna be able
to face nobody after it happens, and yourself.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
So I told God right there and I said, listen,
if you can protect me in here when I get out,
I buried all my money and I commit my life
to saving young boys that look like I said, but
that that shit can't happen to me.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
So you're telling me after the trauma of a crackheaded
and mean drunk grandmother, an absentee father getting shot in
the head, getting shot in the shoulder, Daridine in Atlanta hotel, uh,
being in gunfights and the gang and the life and

(43:25):
seeing everything you saw after all of that, and how
hard you must have been, there was still something so
hard it even would have broke you.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
Absolutely. And it was that for you because you're going
to think about it everything that you see before then,
And I was prepared for They.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
Told me that, but nobody told you about that.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
Nobody told me about this ship. You know what I mean?
He ain't coming home, Hey, man, ain't know they fucking
in prison now that that ain't what they coming home
saying that ain't what they say in the raps. Now,
didn't nobody know that shit? I didn't, and.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
So you dropped on your knees and you made a
de with God.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
Period. Dude, I can't go listen. I'm trying to tell
you a real man knows his limitations. That shit. I
ain't no coming back from that. In my mind, I
ain't no coming back from that.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
We'll be right back. The very second interview I ever
did was with a guy named John Ponder, who spent
time in a federal penitentiary for bank robbery. After a

(44:53):
life of crime, he now is in Vegas and operates
one of the most successful reentry programs for former felons
in the country. As you know, I'll let you finish
my sins. What percent of people that were in jail
returned to jail? Eighty five percent, That's exactly right. The

(45:15):
national number I think is eighty seven. Now, the recidivism
rate of the people that go through his program is
only eight So instead of eighty five percent going back
to prison, only eight. So you can imagine his success.
We're not going to get in telling his story. If
you want it, pull it up on an army and
armed folks. John potter phenomenal story. He made his deal

(45:40):
with God in prison and ask the judge in the
robe to not be his judge, but for God to
be his judge and to judge his heart. And he
swore if he would ever get out and not have
to spend the rest of his life in jail, he
would do what he has now successful really done. That's

(46:01):
John Ponder's story. That's your story.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Yeah, I was scared simple, then you got extra set
six on one. What can you do? Hope they hear
you up.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
That's what you can do.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
Hope they hear the fuck up. I don't like them odds.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
So you made the deal, you get out of jail,
and it never happened to you. But now you on
a hook because you done made a deal with God. Right,
Because here's the deal. You make a deal with God
and he holds up his end of the.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
Bargain, you damn show a hole of yours the park.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
That's right. So what's the first thing you do?

Speaker 2 (46:49):
Honestly, Yeah, go look for the dude who snitched on me. Yeah,
first thing I did.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
A lot of people make deals with God when they're
in jail. When they get out, they start thinking.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
But The thing that got me was God immediately showed
me that same scene back in prison. The only difference
it was me hm.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
So that was my.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
I mean because I was I've told people I want
to angel when you first get out, nobody is that's
the biggest thing. When you're in prison. You lie to
God to try to get out, you know what I mean.
So that and that's what I first did. And I
mean it was quick God showing all right, renig on me.

(47:43):
And that was when I all right, let's do what
I said I was gonna do.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
And you started with little league football, right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
So actually before I even started with little league football,
I just started helping more kids that I knew. So
I opened up So I opened up a gym because
my PO, so I started off as a personal training
because my PO was all about me getting a job.
Like it was because I had this thing about I

(48:15):
don't want a job, like I had a bad experience
at sixteen and it's not gonna happen. So that was
the whole thing. She's like, you gotta better get a job,
but I'm gonna violate you. You don't get a job.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
Let's be honest. You've been an entrepreneur since you were nine.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
Yeah, So I'm sitting there like no like, and then
I tried the nine to five. The shit didn't work.
I mean it was right when Steak and Shake first
came on Goodman Road, and you know, I'm in there,
and if anybody knows Steak in Shake, all the baseball
teams come in, and then you got the screen jumping

(48:48):
and I'm trying to keep up with the burgers and
this damn manager yelling at my glove and got stuck
to the grill.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
I'm like, you know what, I'm opening the gym.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
I'm going this. This is when I was young. So
that's that's what pushed me back into the streets. It
was like nah, so ever since then, I vowed never
to have a job, and with me being honest, doing
my whole deal with fight my case with the prosecutor
and everybody, that's how they was gonna stick it to
me by making me getting this job. So I take

(49:21):
a personal training job at the French Riviere and me
and the other guys we're having like this. I guess
it's toward toial contests or whatever, and I just like,
I'm gonna go find my own like this is crazy.
And so then one day the manager comes in the

(49:44):
ends with my check. I said, hey, show down. You
missing some money on here, buddy, I said, if we're
doing personal training and I get a percentage, I said,
this is not a this is not enough. I said,
where's my points on the package? And then the guys
is what I said. I said, y'all, don't talk like that.

(50:05):
Where's the rest of my money? So then the guys was, no,
you top out at this right here. No way, I'm
going to get my own gin. It's no way. No
we get points on the package in the streets. He no,
not doing this, no way. And I wanted to open

(50:26):
up my own gym, and so I stuck. But then
from there I wanted to help kids, but they couldn't
afford the pay, so I said, fuck it, come on in.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
I want the same reason why lots of kids in
the urban areas can't play little exports. They can't afford
the cleats, they can't afford the That's why.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
I didn't play right.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
So the first thing, So when I got a chance,
I said, once I got done helping my small group
of kids, so I'm start a little League too, And
that was my whole plan. Even when I was in prison,
I was telling the guy, I'm gonna give these kids
to look at experience that I always wanted.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
And never got and never got, and just maybe they'll
see a way different rug and game banging.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
Maybe. But if I can provide this for them, you
never know what is gonna change in them. And so
that's why I started. I got me a Little League team.
Everything was free. I bought the kids. You covered it,
showed it past him in jersey cleat socks. I mean,
we were suited and Booty and I traveled the kids
we want. We was the first Little League team in

(51:33):
history to play at and T Stadium in Dallas. It's
on YouTube. It's the first team to do it. And
we traveled to kids and I wanted to expose them.
I wanted to get these kids everything that I didn't have.
And then it just from there, I'm dropping kids off.
Someone was going home to know.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
Folks don't understand, Melvin. If you're gonna coach kids in
the hood, you also are gonna run actual service. Yeah, uber, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
If you care about these keids participating and having a future,
where you got to go pick them up.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
That's right, just like they did for you at Brocrass.
No difference, same deal, no difference, I know.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
And but from there the man in me, man, I
can't drop kids off on the porch at foot home projects.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
Come on, talk about that for a second. Like foot
homes remember to national audience, Foothomes is.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
One of the roughest projects in Memphis right now, is
currently torn down.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
Yeah, it was one of the roughest projects in the
United States period. Yeah. So with me the third most
violent zip code in the US.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
So with me knowing that and me being a part
of that, there's no way I can lead his eleven
year old boy out.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
Here and literally when you drop them off, they they
might go curl up in a chair on the porch
because they ain't got nowhere to go.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
Well, my little guy, Bobby, that's what he was actually doing,
Like you come home with me. I ain't gonna do that.
Then when you look up his mama, don college till
three days like to looking for him. So now your
mind you think three days. So now your mind you think,
like damn, if I would have left him on the porch,
he would have been there for three days. Man, I

(53:24):
can talk about my grandma all day long, but shit,
I came in the house. So it was one of
those things that it took a life of his.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
I want to talk about something real quick, just a
little off subject. In urban areas, there's all kinds of
vernacular that's different than suburban areas. There's a whole different language,
there's a whole different dialog, there's a whole different everything.

(53:58):
I think we can all agree to that, just the truth.
And then there's one in Hispanic, heavily Hispanic urbinari as.
It just is one of the ones that is what
stood the test of time. Is my kids will ask
their friends where do you live? Kids in the urban

(54:21):
area will say where do you stay?

Speaker 2 (54:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
I always thought that that was really poor grammar until
I understood it's actually perfect grammar, because any of these
kids don't live anywhere. It's just where they stay that night.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
Well as what I'm saying is where you stand that night,
that month, that week.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
Because there ain't nothing permanent.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
I ain't shit permanent. Permanent's change. That's the clicking fan Melvin.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
That seems so foreign to most of the people listening
to us, but to from the urban areas, of our cities.
That's just the clicking fan. They don't even see it anymore.
It's not that they don't know English, they're saying it
right where you stay. And if you really grasp that,

(55:16):
how do you expect a kid to learn? How do
you expect a kid to be loved? How do you
expect a kid to read on grade level? By third grade?
He ain't thinking about getting lullabys and being read to.
He doesn't even know where he's going to stay that night.
And if he ain't got nowhere to stay, he probably
ain't eaten. And if you've taken a thirty six hour

(55:38):
period of time, which is a weekend, if you go
to school, you get lunch over the weekend, If you
get one meal over the weekend, you don't think you
upset and angry and irritable, and you can't sleep, and
your stomach growling and you're hungry and you're hurting. How's
that kid supposed to learn? And how does he feel
cared for, love, nourished, nurtured, any of it. It's not possible.

(56:01):
It is not possible. And so you weren't dropping the
skid off on the porch because you know that so
you take them to your.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
House, because I know what it feels like. Man, I
ain't crazy.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
You are crazy, but I know you are crazy, Melvin,
but in the best sense, the best way.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
Yeah, because you know you've seen there, like, okay, you
lead his kid. He got two options, fight or flight.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
It's almost the same two options that or jail. Neither
of them are very good, but it's what you got.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
So then you got to ask yourself, man, what type
of man are you pulling away?

Speaker 1 (56:38):
Knowing that?

Speaker 2 (56:39):
Mm hmm, So that that ain't why God got you out.

Speaker 1 (56:45):
Of the joint, to leave the skid up here on
the porch.

Speaker 2 (56:48):
Nah. So, man, you look, me and my fiance is
sharing a downtown two being room an apartment with fifteen
kids and my daughter. They turning up ship, they turn
up the apartment pool gates, they turn up the apartment.
They running her crazy.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
Your fiance deserves a special place in Heaven to even
live with your crazy self.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
And no, she quit, she's probably gonna burn her hair.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
Well you hear me, good lord. So, but that's going on.
And so now you're thinking, they ain't got a place stay,
they ain't got no food, they're not getting an education.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
That's me all over again, even worse, ten times worse.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
So you're looking at fifteen years.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
There's no way, So we move them in. We end
up getting kicked out of the apartment obviously, end up
renting the house. So we rented the house for the
first year when she finally skid outled. So now I
let her keep re orchestrated where she keeps the name
on the leaves, because as a convicted villain, you can't rent.

(57:53):
You can't, you can't rent.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
In a good area. Yeah, you're still on parole.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
This time you screwed. And so it was one of
those things where I did what I was supposed to do,
you know what I mean. I knew, I knew what
these kids was going through. Every kid that I deal
with is either like me or in.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
A worser situation. But it is amazing that fifteen kids
piled into a two bedroom apartment with you, a convicted fella,
trying to do right by them, trying to keep them
fed and taken care of, is better than what they had.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
Because they're looking for love.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
Listen, it could have been an eighteen bedroom house if
ain't no love being passed out. That don't mean shit.
You going, man, I'm kids looking for love. When I
hit the screech, I was looking for love. When I
joined my gang, I was looking for love. I was
looking for acceptance. I was looking for people that wanted

(58:56):
me to be around you. Fuck if it meant selling,
eat or blowing your ass off. I just wanted to praise.
I wanted to feel good about myself. I wanted to belong.
That's all these kids want. Shit, that's what anybody wants.
That's why we journed for turning is that's why we
get these good jobs and why we get all in
these social groups. Because what in the end of the day,

(59:17):
everybody want to fucking belong. So when a kid, when
you're growing up and you're not getting the love from
your momy or your dad, you gotta get it from somewhere.
I mean, because you're gonna themed for it. That's human nature.
You're gonna theme for love. You're gonna seek out love.

(59:37):
That's how biggest thing get period. Man, Before we do anything,
we're gonna love on you.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
We'll be right back. So you got this knowledge, you
got these kids, you're doing this football thing, and then
you come up with this idea.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Actually I got pushed into the idea.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
How'd you get pushed I'm surprised anybody pushed you out? Well,
life did, Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
So the whole plan was so I created this little
league team and I made these kids really good, to
the point where we actually took them to FBU on
the national circuit. So it was only two hundred middle
school kids that were invited. Thirteen of them was mine. Wow,

(01:00:38):
and one of the kids. Two of the kids in
up winning MVP in they certain area. So I said,
you know what. And at the time, I was training
this guy's son that went to a private school, and
they was adamant about the boys playing with him at
the private school. So I'm like, okay, here it is

(01:00:59):
all over again. Yeah, we're gonna send all these kids
to the private school and they'll get their great education.
But now they have me.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
So they got them to erase the nat naivety, to
raise the misunderstanding, to do the very thing I was
talking about. You needed a broadcrest that you didn't get.
They would get the education, the unbelievable experience, but they
would have you to mentor them through.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
That problem mental to navigate it good, like, nah, don't
say that shit, No no.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
No, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
It's true, but don't you say that, YO ain't gonna
be back in the ghetto.

Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
Don't you dare say that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
And man, I thought we had a solid plan. The
guy who came up with the idea had a pocket.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
Full of money, and big heart wanted to help.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
Big heart wanted to help his kids was involved. I mean,
it seemed like the perfect fit. And then the guy
understand dude, that the kids was going to need support
outside of the school to be able to hold up.
Perfect Well, we meet with the administration of the school

(01:02:11):
and they say, we just need them to take this test.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
The dreaded Entry and Aptitude test, to make sure they
can actually handle it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
Yeah, so I said, yeah, I said cool. I said,
I'm telling them a little bit behind, you know, I
don't know how much. So, you know. So the guy
was like, oh, no, we probably can make a special
school inside of a school, and don't worry about it.
Don't We've gotten these kids before. They'll be fine, coach,
don't worry about.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
Is that your white person talking? It doesn't look like it. Yeah.
If I start trying to talk like a black person,
I would look as goofy as that I was. So
I'm like, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
So then he comes back and he's like, they scored
in a zero percentile.

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
And reading zero and at the time not zero point
five zero.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
So I'm like, man, what the fuck that mean?

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
They can't read?

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
No, you know he did it better. They can't come here, right,
I said, oh, hell all right?

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
So now, and in fairness, they the school, those schools
are not equipped to handle kids that are so far behind. Correct,
where are they gonna put them, How they're gonna teach them?
They're gonna be behind. So I mean, it's horrible, but

(01:03:39):
the fact is they can't take them to their school
because they're not equipped to deal with the deficiency in
learning that they've had to that point.

Speaker 2 (01:03:46):
And I wasn't mad at the school.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
No, for real, But I'm just saying nobody needs to
hear that and think, well, that damn school turned their
back on those kids that they're not equipped.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
They weren't equipped, they wun't.

Speaker 1 (01:03:57):
No, But you got a problem. You got all these
schedus you care about that needs you, and clearly they
need an education.

Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
So that's how I came up the crazy idea, which
is I said, whatever we were removing from the school system,
create a small, nurturing environment that's conducive to learning, that's
conducive to being caught up. And they reached their full

(01:04:27):
potential like anybody else.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
So you're gonna make your own school.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
So at this time, so that was.

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
A parolled convicted felon gonna start a school.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
That was the plan. So at the time, Tam and
she was a one day a week volunteer and they
had one out of town, and I had told about
this great plan about them going to the private school,
and she was calling checking in on the plane and
I was like, ah, it didn't work out like that,

(01:04:59):
I said, I said, the school didn't take me. I said,
but I need your help schooling these kids. I said,
this is the idea. She says, ma'am. But we're not educated.
I said, I know. I said, but zero percentime, we
know more than they know, so we can just start there.
And I told her, I said, if we could just
start there and just get just get some people to
wrap their arms around, I said, because they're not dumb,

(01:05:23):
they're just untaught.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
There's a huge difference of being dumb and being uneducated.
The a's dumb. They just not been taught.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
They just they just hadn't been taught. So this Tammy
dived in head first with me. She she reached out
to a couple of volunteers. They dived head and I
reached out to a couple and we basically did round
the clock education with these kids. So the fact that

(01:05:51):
they were living with me allowed us to do education
at night. So that was the plan. We're chopping it
this way, chopping it away. The first year we got
a three point seventh grade level jump. Man Tammy went crazy,
and then you know, I was like, just your first year.
So the second year, we get a three point one

(01:06:12):
grade level jump on our kids and now every like
so I said, let's put them against the Act. That ain't
nobody can say anything if they go against Act. So
then our kids started to hit the college benchmarks and
reading right. We had a couple of kids with a
composite of a twenty compositive twenty one. I mean, there

(01:06:34):
was ways away from kids that we had. When they
first got to us, they was reading on third and
fourth grade reading.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Yeah, but in twenty and twenty one's you're qualifying for
college you're qualifying for football scholarships, and you have a
proficiency in being able to read reading comprehension math No.
Twenty twenty one on at eight Rhodes scholars But it's
a hell of a flock from zero percent time cooking
a huge jump cooking. It's life changing.

Speaker 2 (01:07:02):
I mean, and that's when we said, that's when we
knew we said it works. I said, y'all, I've been
telling y'all it's the environment. The way I grew up
is not what I wanted to do. I said. These
kids are the same. I said, so if we can
give them everything that they need to.

Speaker 1 (01:07:20):
Be successful, an education, love and nurturing environment and food, compassion,
food and accountability, they flourish.

Speaker 2 (01:07:33):
So so they hit the they hit the benchmarking, and
it was like, okay, all right, let's let's be efficient.
Because everybody was talking about homeschool and Tammy was jumping
through the hoops with N C. A A and turning
in this paperwork, and of course everybody saying all we
did was football, And I mean, so he was like, no,

(01:07:56):
now that we know this pilot program work, let's skill
it up. I said, because there's a million malevns throughout
the United States, and they all need what I need, love, opportunity, accountability.
But see it, you don't need ship else you give
me those three things, I got it. I'm good to go.

(01:08:16):
So we formed. We formed a school called Peer Academy.

Speaker 1 (01:08:24):
Spells stands for.

Speaker 2 (01:08:25):
So peer stands for progress and under restraints.

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
And the streams were.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
Progressing under restraints and extremes. That's what I've done my
whole life. And these kids in Memphis that's living in
double the national average of property, that's living in double
the national average of food hardship. That's what they're doing.
The progressing under the most all the restraints and the

(01:08:52):
streams you can think about.

Speaker 1 (01:08:54):
So now you got pure the school. And that brings
me to where I first met you, where you guys
bought a house on a swamp to put a school.

Speaker 2 (01:09:12):
You know what it was actually for us to uh
to have a safe place. So the doing the entire organization.
Every time somebody found out the truth, they would kick
us out. So, like I said in the beginning, I

(01:09:33):
had a gym. So I owned my gym for seven
years and I closed down my gym to turn into
a school. Well, when the landlord got w into that
we're not gonna renew your least well the house that
we were staying in when we got on the news
and my landlord found out, it was a convicted feeling.
I can't stay here, buddy. So it was at one

(01:09:55):
point that me and the kids went homeless. We'll be
right back. We was literally sleeping on board members couches,

(01:10:18):
living out on my escalade. I mean, so it was
one of those things where at the time I went
to my board chairman, I was like, Ginaltisten, damn it,
I need y'all help. I'm a drug dealer. Ain't had
no paperwork. I gave. This ain't gonna I mean, I
need y'all to do this, I said, but it's gonna work.

Speaker 1 (01:10:36):
Drug Dealer's make sure every buyers fans. You dropped the
life by this point.

Speaker 2 (01:10:41):
Yeah, that's that's overWe we ain't picking that up. And man,
they they had a hearter goal. I mean they understood,
they had an artic goal, and they understood the mission.

Speaker 1 (01:10:54):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
So, so me and Tammy was running around through the
city trying to find a house.

Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
You've you've talked about Tammy Tammy gall One. So that's
who it's Tammy.

Speaker 2 (01:11:05):
That's that's like miss glue man. She keep it, She
keep it all together, you know, I mean from me,
the boys, the donors, I mean the bridge. I mean,
you gotta be honest. Without Timmy, I ain't getting too
many rooms with white boys.

Speaker 1 (01:11:21):
She's an angel for you.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
Absolutely, like, without without a doubt.

Speaker 1 (01:11:27):
So now you buy the house that looks like a swamp.

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
Now, so we bought it. We buy the house that
looked like swamp. And I know zero about construction, but
I'm so headstrong and this is what we're gonna do.
So I end up mismanager all the construction money I'm

(01:11:53):
talking about. Man, we looked up. Me and the boys
are living in a house without heat, mhmm, without plumbing.
But we had this big gate that I put up
to keep everybody out. So then we started using loze,

(01:12:14):
We start using the bath, throwing around the problem.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
Need no gate. Nobody wants to come in the house
without heating, plumbing.

Speaker 2 (01:12:19):
But you know what we am getting Nick saving to
come in. I never forget one of our kids, Chris
at the time was ah At the time, he was
like ranked the twenty eighth player in the country, and
Nick saving comes down and he says, this is where
y'all live. I said, yeah, coach, unless you got a

(01:12:41):
better spot.

Speaker 1 (01:12:42):
Corse, you should have seen last year. You should seen
last year you would have gonna visit us in the
parking lot and my escalator, that's what you did to do.

Speaker 2 (01:12:51):
I was gonna take your call in the parking lot.

Speaker 1 (01:12:53):
And this is nice. You see the gate said you
see a game.

Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
So then Jimbo Fisher come out. He says, you got
the number one kids sleeping on the floor. I said, shit,
I'm sleeping on the air mattress.

Speaker 1 (01:13:07):
What you want me to give him? And it was
just I can't believe it. This is better And where
it came from, it was a.

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
Lot better than where he came because he's safe, he's full,
and nobody playing with his booty at night, and and
he's loved. What's all the kids need?

Speaker 1 (01:13:25):
And so you rip out the woods, y'all bring in
three hundred loads of dirt.

Speaker 2 (01:13:31):
Man, So now, and that's what I mean another time.
So I'm gunn home, knocking down all these trees and
we need to feel and this, this and this having
no idea what I'm doing, so we knocked down over
eighty trees. Now we're sitting in a seventeen foot drop
swamp out Like, Hi, I don't know what to do.

(01:13:57):
I was. I was completely stuck. And I get up
two thirty in the morning, and I started my meditation
in my prayer and then I started my workout. And
at this time, they was redoing the Memphis Airport concord A,
and I'm watching these dumb trucks as I go to work.

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
All that dirt.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
So I said, I'm gonna follow these trucks. I'm gonna
figure out where they're going and where they're coming from.
I want to know. So I followed the truck, figure
out where they're going, where they come from. I'm clocking
the mileage. And I called one of my buddies. I said, hey,
you ever heard of this company? I google them and
they're in car you here?

Speaker 1 (01:14:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know them.

Speaker 2 (01:14:45):
Can I have us following them because I need some dirt.
So I'm calling, I'm calling. I'm calling. Finally say hey, listen,
I don't track your trucks. I can save you on mileage.
I can save you, and I know somebody is paying
you to dump that. I said, listen, you come give

(01:15:05):
it all to me. I need over three hundred and
eighty longs. You come to me. It's like all right,
he hangs up. I'm like fucking seriousness. So I'm calling
them back. I'm calling them back. I said, hey, listen, listen, listen,
just come check it out. If I'm wrong, don't ever

(01:15:27):
fucking call me again. But if I'm right, give him
a dirt. So I convinced the guy to come down
and see it. He pulls in with this big black
truck and it gets out and you're right, I said,
I know that's what I've been telling you. Now can
I get my damn dirt? And he agreed, and boy,

(01:15:52):
for you know it, they had all the dump trucks
from the airport re routed and we end up filling
in US seventeen foot drop to create our practice field.

Speaker 1 (01:16:04):
Which is now the pure football field is now.

Speaker 2 (01:16:08):
So we once we did that, and I went to
donors and told them what we were doing. I said, listen,
if you will buy the sad, me and my boys
will roll it. We ain't a problem working. We just
can't afford the sod, you know what I mean. And
we had some foundations to jump on with us. We
bought the sod and me and the bulls. We had

(01:16:29):
over one hundred rolls. A saw the big rolls and
we rolled it out. Some of it got crooked. We
had to pull it together with a rake. And now
we had a proud practice field that sent over twenty
kids to college.

Speaker 1 (01:16:44):
So for the listeners, my first vision of this campus,
this four acres was a house that had been cordoned
off into classrooms with probably twenty four twenty five kids inside.
They're going to school, but the student teacher ratio is

(01:17:05):
probably five six, seven to one. And then behind the
house under a tenth as a weight room, and behind
that is another room or another building that look like
a trailer. And then off to the right of that
is a practice field. And then next to the practice
field are the dormitories where the kids live. And how

(01:17:29):
many kids live at Pure Academy typically annually twenty three four.

Speaker 2 (01:17:35):
Five something like that, twenty five twenty five.

Speaker 1 (01:17:38):
Kids that are fed three squares.

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
No reference LUNs dinner, two snacks.

Speaker 1 (01:17:45):
Reference Lut's dinner, two snacks, and.

Speaker 2 (01:17:48):
They love, they get educated, they're working out, we're working out.
We take them, We take them all throughout the United States.
So one of the things we do the first week
in June, we rent a charter bus and we take
our kids throughout the country to various colleges and universities.

(01:18:09):
They get a chance to participating in the school camps,
interact with the coaches, look at the college campus, what
they like, what they.

Speaker 1 (01:18:16):
Get exposed to the world they never dreamed of. Yep.
So here's the thing. I was coaching football when Pure
showed up, and I'm like, well, that was Pure, you know,
because out of nowhere, all of a sudden, there's this Pure,
and I'm like, man, this is gonna be this ragtag thing.
Ain't nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:18:35):
I got pushed. There was another push too.

Speaker 1 (01:18:38):
And then I started to knowing Pure started kicking everybody's
ass pretty good. Not only was Pure teaching kids, loving kids,
providing for kids, they were pretty fair at the game
of football too.

Speaker 2 (01:18:51):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:18:53):
And how many years since you moved to the four
Acres and actually started the boarding school years ago? Was
up five and considering twenty five kids about annually, And
that doesn't mean twenty five in and twenty five out,
because some of these are freshman, sophomore, senior, so they're rotating.
So you're graduating seven eight to ten kids a year, right,

(01:19:17):
So that's fifty kids about graduated, and you're saying twenty
have gone under play college.

Speaker 2 (01:19:24):
Football full athletic scholarships.

Speaker 1 (01:19:27):
And the other ones are still going to school.

Speaker 2 (01:19:31):
Some are still going to school. I was just bragging.

Speaker 1 (01:19:34):
I mean, it's not just about football scholarships. They're getting educated.
Moving on.

Speaker 2 (01:19:38):
No, yeah, don't. I don't care. I don't care about
football or even the college. There's this one kid man,
I love him to death. His name is Tick Brown,
and we went through a lot of shit with.

Speaker 1 (01:19:52):
Tears, just kind of growing up.

Speaker 2 (01:19:58):
His stepdad thought that he could put his hands on
the house, so we had to visit with him. Like, man, listen,
I can't tell you what to do with your woman,
cause I don't know what's going on. But if you
hit Terry again, there's gonna be some serious consequences. Take

(01:20:24):
that for whatever it's worth, I said, because you can't
get mad at him for the shortcomings of your life.
So let's snip that in the bud. So Terry stayed
with us, graduated, and he didn't wanna. He decided to

(01:20:45):
go back to Raleigh, Egypt after the football season, graduated,
got a job at Amazon.

Speaker 1 (01:20:54):
Amazon.

Speaker 2 (01:20:55):
Amazon. I called him. I said, ter I think you
better than that. I said, nothing's wrong with Amazon. I said,
I think you got more than that though. I said, listen,
you're just eighteen. Come back, come back to period. Let
me give me, give me more time, give my staff

(01:21:15):
more time, give us more time with you. It's a
lot of shit we can tron out and the crazy
boty battle. I gave him the same speech Freeze gave me. Man,
if you trust me, I'll get you to college. Terry
trusted me. We sent Terry to Fort Valley in Georgia.
First year, Terry flunks out. He called me and said, Coch,

(01:21:41):
I don't want to do this shit. I said, cool,
So what do you want to do? He said, I
want to drive trucks. I want to what I want
to drive trucks? I said, guess what? Then I mana
help you get your CDs. We're gonna figure it out.
So now to this day, Terry Brown is made in
sixty five grand driving trucks. He just told one of

(01:22:04):
our staff and some more people that he's driven fifteen
states in the last two weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:22:13):
It's pure, even though it does put a lot of
good athletes out into the world because of what the
program is.

Speaker 2 (01:22:21):
It ain't about that now, it's about it's about producing men.
It's about producing more melvins, to save more melvins. That's
what periods about football is just this. That's how we meet.

Speaker 1 (01:22:35):
It's the hook. The hook.

Speaker 2 (01:22:37):
So you think about, like this, where else were you
gonna meet hundreds of black kids in the hood? Little
leaf football because everybody think they're gonna be the next
Michael Vick, Michael Jordan.

Speaker 1 (01:22:51):
Yeah, which we've already established earlier on ain't happening.

Speaker 2 (01:22:54):
Right, So you're telling me you want to be Michael
Vick cool by four years a high school, three years
of couch. Then we'll talk about that. But before you
can ever do that, hey man, these are the things
you gotta do. And then by the time you realize
NFL is not in a deck.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
Of cards, you got to back up finally, rather than
an ad for attendance, We'll be right back. So Pure

(01:23:39):
saving lives, but you want to scale it.

Speaker 2 (01:23:43):
I do so.

Speaker 1 (01:23:47):
Share with our listeners the unbelievable truth about where Pure
is going to be this August.

Speaker 2 (01:23:57):
So the good part about it, we just bought the
old Memphis Health and Science Academy building in Chelsea.

Speaker 1 (01:24:08):
Which is a defunct school. There was a charter school.

Speaker 2 (01:24:10):
There was a charter.

Speaker 1 (01:24:11):
School before it was that it was.

Speaker 2 (01:24:15):
It was a Baptist college, a Baptist college.

Speaker 1 (01:24:18):
But it's a facility on how many acres.

Speaker 2 (01:24:20):
It's a facility on seven acres. Were over sixty five
thousand square feet of building.

Speaker 1 (01:24:25):
That was defunct and left because of the school vacated correct.

Speaker 2 (01:24:29):
And it's amazing how much damage to a building was
done in less than twelve months. I'm talking about everything
they could took they took.

Speaker 1 (01:24:43):
And so you guys bought it. You your board, Pure
Academy bought it.

Speaker 2 (01:24:48):
And you know the crazy thing about it, that was
really a blessing. I got a phone call and somebody
was sharing their good news with me and I was like, Okay,
what the fuck does they got to do with me?
And she says, can your air gonnass just listen for one,
just one second, just just one. I said, hey, one

(01:25:11):
thousand and forty minutes of the day, God need you
to get to your point. And she says, coach, you
can buy the high school. I said, what she said,
go look at it? You can buy the high school,
I said, for real. So I drive over there and

(01:25:34):
I go wow, I said, but I gotta call the
glue to make sure it's gonna work. Because if it
ain't gonna work, ain't no even you said, so damn it.
Where are you at? I'm headed, I'm headed back to town.
I just came from North Carolina. I said, can you

(01:25:54):
can you stop by the actress before you get to
the house, I said, I said, five minutes. I just
need I just need you five minutes. So me and
my security and tem you know, breaking into this abandoned builder,
and she's like, Melvin, you're right. She's like, it's a
hard sale. A lot of people are gonna be mad

(01:26:17):
at you because we had already on our current campus,
we was already one hundred and twenty five grand into
architect fees. We already had a groundbreaking ceremony about converting
what you had about converting with We've already took over
four million dollars of donors money. And she's like, Mailvin,

(01:26:37):
you we gotta do this. I said, I know, I said,
but I needed you to see it first. Now I
got you on board, Let's go talk to the people
that gave us the money, because I.

Speaker 1 (01:26:48):
Said, if you and the people in the money, if
you use this money for something different.

Speaker 2 (01:26:51):
Yeah, I mean because because yeah, they gave it to me.
But you know what I mean, you gotta be respectful.

Speaker 1 (01:26:57):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:26:57):
And one of the guys that gave me the money,
I mean, he was a good friend. He was the
guy that spearheaded the whole private school thing that just
didn't work out. So the last thing I wanted to
do was tell him, all we're doing something in white
hen and look up and his money isn't North Memphis
and Chills and his name is on the wall and
North Memphis, I mean so And we told him and

(01:27:20):
he was like, Melvin, thanks for calling. He's like, normal
people don't even call. I was.

Speaker 1 (01:27:26):
And so, now your academy is going to be on
seven acres and a sixty how many squire.

Speaker 2 (01:27:33):
Feet over sixty five thousand.

Speaker 1 (01:27:34):
Square How many kids can you house?

Speaker 2 (01:27:37):
So we'll be able to house over one hundred and
seventy five kids, and we'll be able to educate over
three hundred and fifty is a day, Melbourne.

Speaker 1 (01:27:46):
In six years from the back of your escalade, you're
going to be able to house, love, nurture, educate, and
feed one hundred seventy.

Speaker 2 (01:28:00):
Five kids by the blessing of God.

Speaker 1 (01:28:02):
And then have a day school that will throw another
two or three hundred kids into that list.

Speaker 2 (01:28:08):
No, no, no, no, the three fifty is not included.
The one seventy five, another three fifty, right, so it'd
be like a total of like five twenty five.

Speaker 1 (01:28:15):
And to be clear, this is not a city school,
nor is this a charter school. This is a private school.

Speaker 2 (01:28:22):
Yes, Category one accredited through the State of Tennis Department
of Education. Private school. So right now eighty five percent
of our fund in is private.

Speaker 1 (01:28:41):
This is how we break the chain.

Speaker 2 (01:28:44):
Yeah, I've always I've always seen to break a vicious cycle,
you must create a vicious cycle in some way. It's
gonna work.

Speaker 1 (01:28:55):
On your website as a quote that says it's far
easier to build children, I'm paraphrasing as far as your
build children than it is to fix broken men. Absolutely,
what grade will this thing start at?

Speaker 2 (01:29:15):
So right now, we got nine through twelfth, and we wanna,
we wanna, we want to solidify the ninth through twelfth
and then we're going to start to reach back. So
our whole out of the pilot program. We founded that
the kids that we that we got younger had even
more success. But what kind of derailed our.

Speaker 1 (01:29:37):
Earlier to catch them? The more success you can have,
that seems obvious.

Speaker 2 (01:29:40):
But what derailed the program is when we had the
craziest superintendent who shut down school and football with all
sports for inner city kids.

Speaker 1 (01:29:51):
And the reason COVID.

Speaker 2 (01:29:54):
So we immediately had to grab a hold to those kids,
and our kids that was in the programming was affected.
So that's how we got launched into just strictly ninth
through twelve. So our whole thing is once we solidify
this in two or three years to make sure we
got it, then you reach back and Pure ideally would

(01:30:14):
build a sixty twelve school and then one day we
maybe in year five, May year seven.

Speaker 1 (01:30:24):
I can't Pure. Why can't Pure exist in Baltimore and
Little Rock and Cincinnati and Chicago and Cleveland? And it can,
it can and.

Speaker 2 (01:30:35):
It will because all those places have the same problem Melvin's.

Speaker 1 (01:30:42):
But to scale that, that's a lot of money. Well,
why is this not something that all of these large
national brands that are pouring money into naming rights for

(01:31:03):
stadiums and everything else, And I get it. Profits is
a necessary measure of niting business success, and marketing and
advertising promotion is part of that. And so companies are
putting their money where they think they're going to get
the most notoriety for their brand. I get it. But
why couldn't this be a national brand thing?

Speaker 2 (01:31:27):
That's the plan, because like I said, you've action in
the same courses that I'm accing. My board members are acing,
supporters are excellent. If a company got eight nine hundred
million dollars to invest in warehousing everything else, well about
you got that same money to invest in the community

(01:31:48):
as well. So I think it's just about having those
uncomfortable conversations and not being afraid to have them.

Speaker 1 (01:31:56):
The other thing is moment. It's about people just knowing it. Yeah,
the opportunity is there. Yeah, that's another thing. That's the
biggest thing, because I think in the defense of those.

Speaker 2 (01:32:11):
Corporations, at least the ones I've dealt with, once you
make them aware of the problem and the solution and
the solution, they typically help.

Speaker 1 (01:32:23):
Melvin, you grew up a bread a born and bred
drug dealer, and by all rights you might should have
been dead by now. You did time, and you saw
something horrific in prison, and you made a deal with God.

(01:32:46):
And it started with Little League and away program, and
by this August it will have blossomed into a full
fledged private school that has the potential to serve five
hundred kids that could be scaled across our country and
literally change the face of what a private school looks

(01:33:08):
like in our urban areas. Yep, what do you see
when you look in the mirror?

Speaker 2 (01:33:18):
Just a commitment, not not no guid that's holy. It
didn't die no better than nobody else. I just simply know,
Guy is the last person you want.

Speaker 1 (01:33:34):
To reneed Melvin. Uh, We're not going to spend all
this time telling a story and not asked, Like you said,
you just got to ask if people are interested in
supporting Peer, partnering with pere branding with Pure, or even
seeing how to bring Peer to their town. All of

(01:33:55):
our guests share their information. How do people get in
touch with you?

Speaker 2 (01:33:58):
Uh? My email address is Melvin co at Peer Academy
nine O one dot com, or you can also visit
our website at ww dot Pero Academy nine O one
five one three yes five O one C three Text deductible.
We've been in good standings over the last thirteen years.

Speaker 1 (01:34:18):
And to be clear, you're living with and around these kids.
This is not Melvin's get rich scheme.

Speaker 2 (01:34:28):
No, if I wanted to get rich, I just go
back to cocaine.

Speaker 1 (01:34:32):
So the point is, yeah, this is if you hear
the story and it's worth supporting. Understand these dollars are
going to change the most disadvantaged among us kids' lives,
mentored by a guy who holds them accountable, teaches them
and loves them and requires that of the whole staff.

Speaker 2 (01:34:54):
That's the first thing when we're hiring. Do you love kids?
Because if you're here for paychick, wrong plays.

Speaker 1 (01:35:05):
Buddy, Hopefully, hopefully some people out there listen will reach
out to you, bro hope. So we're an army of
normal folks. And I'll say it again. When passion and
discipline meet at opportunity and the person with that discipline

(01:35:26):
and that passion sees a need and takes the opportunity
to fill it, amazing things can happen in our world.
And we talk about those stories every week, and yours
is good, gosh, the epitome of it. And if a
guy from your background can do it, why can't anybody
else if they just find their discipline and passion and

(01:35:48):
meet it at opportunity. Man, brother, what a story, What
an amazing thing you're doing, and if done, the lives
you're changing. And you know, bro, I'm honored to know you,
and at the risk of sound and condescending, and I
hope you don't take it that way. I'm so proud

(01:36:10):
of you. I'm proud to be your friend, I'm proud
to know you. I'm proud you're doing this in Memphis,
and man, brother, I can't imagine what this thing is
going to be in ten years from now. Go be incredible.
Thanks for joining me, Thanks for having me. I appreciate it,

(01:36:33):
and thank you for joining us this week. If Melvin
Cole or another guest has inspired you, in general, or
better yet, to take action by donating to Pure, by
starting something like it in your area, or something else entirely,
please let me know. I'd love to hear about it.
You can write me anytime at Bill at Normalfolks dot

(01:36:53):
us and I will respond. And if you enjoyed this episode,
share with friends and I'm social, subscribe to the podcast,
rate and review it become a premium member at normalfolks
dot us. All of the things that will help us
grow an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'll
see you next week.