Freeway Ricky Ross, Former Drug Kingpin, Author, & CEO of LA Kingpin™

Join us as we dive deep into Freeway Rick’s life journey, exploring his highs, lows, & relationship with cannabis today! From street hustler to motivational speaker & mentor, his story is a beacon of hope that reminds us all that transformation is within reach, no matter where we start. Check out his website https://lakingpins.com/ and his IG: https://www.instagram.com/_lakingpins

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jo's on Munchie's tonight.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Yo, it's Cannabis Talk one on one.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
You gonna learn today with Blue and Hello.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Welcome to Cannabis Talk one on one, the world's number
one source for everything cannabis. Funny as Blue along Sunny
is usually mister Joe Grunde, but today we have the
financial guru.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Field and Yeah, we have an amazing show for you, Tony.

Speaker 4 (00:27):
Let us know what's going down, man, you know what
we got going on today. Man, Thank you for listening
to our podcast, Cannabis Talk one on one. Check out
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We have so many great articles and blogs on our website.
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(00:47):
us or call us anytime at one nineteen eighty What
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pages at Cannabis Talk.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
One on one.

Speaker 4 (00:58):
My boy Blue is number one, Chris for right, Joe,
who's not here today, Brother from Another Mother is at
Joe Grande fifty two. And you're feeling in there, you know,
and you can find me at the Insider Investor Brother.
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(01:23):
ladies and gentlemen. It is an absolute freaking honor to
welcome a true icon, a visionary to the CT One
on one platform today. Besides us, now is none other
than the Freeway Ricky Ross, a living legend whose life
story reads like a gripping novel. He has transcended the
boundaries of adversity to become a symbol of resilience, entrepreneurship

(01:44):
and transformation. You guys, coming up from the streets of
south central La Freeway Ricky Ross's journey this is a
testament to the power of human potential. He's come from
humble beginnings, He's navigated the complexities of life, marked by challenges,
and has merged as a central figure in the world
of drug trade in the eighties.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
I'm mada, how are you man?

Speaker 1 (02:07):
I got more now?

Speaker 4 (02:12):
Let me tell you though, the evolution beyond those tumultuous
years has made his impact shine beyond the years right now.
After his release from prison, Freeeriy Ricky Ross embraced a
path of redemption and empowerment which I'm excited to hear about.
His commitment to education and community development has been nothing
short of remarkable. He's a trailblazer in the realms of

(02:34):
personal growth and advocacy. He has dedicated himself to dismantling
systematic barriers and providing opportunities for individuals to transcend their circumstances. Today,
we are going to deep dipe into Freeway Rickey Ross's
life journey, exploring his highs lows relationships within the cannabis
industry from a street hustler to motivational speaker and mentor.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
And I love that his story is a beacon of.

Speaker 4 (02:58):
Hope that reminds us all that transformation is within reach
no matter where we start. You guys, without further ado,
please welcome my man, mister Freeway Ricky.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Was that she was in.

Speaker 5 (03:14):
I wow, So Freeway Man, tell us you know, you know,
right off the jump, man, let's go back, you know
before we go and tell the good stuff that you
know people may or may not know about you that
that I want to dive into.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
But let's get back into you know, I grew up
in South Central. What school did you go to?

Speaker 2 (03:38):
I went to elementary. I went to Manchester Elementary, Bredhard
Junior High School Firestone, Firestone, Manchester's Manchester.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, Manchester, I forget. Yeah yeah, Imperial. It was a
little down the way Imperial right now.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Know that's what I'm saying on them Perial right now.
Brad Hart was called brick City, okay. And then I
transferred to Dorsey in high school because I started playing tennis.
No way, thank you for tennis.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
That was your sport.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, yeah, your tennis saved my life.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yea.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Had it not been for tennis, I don't know what
what I probably would have became, you know. Uh yeah,
because in in elementary I wanted to be a crypt.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Okay, yeah, most of us did. Yeah, they call me Blue.
I was like, yeah, you think you're gonna be that? What?

Speaker 2 (04:26):
It's crazy that a couple of homeboys that I ran
with in elementary and junior high school sure, just getting
out of prison, yeah, you know, forty five years, thirty
eight years and and and not for money crimes.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
You know, for yeah, the ones you can ever give
back exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah, yeah, unfortunately. You know, did you ever go to college?

Speaker 2 (04:49):
I went to junior college. Well, let me say this.
I played tennis at the junior college. I didn't really
go to class.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah yeah, he.

Speaker 6 (04:59):
Got a PhD in the University of the Streets I went.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
I went there, but I didn't know.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
I didn't go here like you're hearing me, but you're
not listening.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
I was on the road. She but you know, I
never made class.

Speaker 4 (05:16):
What was it about tennis that made it? I'm really curious, man,
was that the coach or the opportunity or with the girls.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
I wish were no girls in tennis back girls didn't
like tennis players. You know, the basketball players and the
football players got all of them. Yeah, yeah, tennis. But
what tennis did for me is it gave me hope.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
You know.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
After I was a real little guy and and none
of the coaches talked to me about basketball or football.
And I didn't know what what I was going to
do in school. I couldn't read, I couldn't write, so
I know my academics wasn't going to be it. And
I was always looking at sports. So when I When
I found tennis, I was like, oh wow, this is
the sport that a little guy can really joint succeed in.

(05:55):
So I fell in love with it around.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
Tony's a little guy too.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
I also funny enough, tennis was my sport.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
We got to hit some balls with it.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, yeah, that's funny.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
We're not little, We're not We're vertically challenged.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Because little is a different level. You know, blue can
relate to little.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
I'm like, I'm like just a little bit taller than
you guys, about the same size.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
As you guys.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
I only needed two more inches, I would best. People
don't understand, man, I'll send you a link. Amazon's got
this amazing lift shoes that we've talked about. Yeah, man,
every two inches.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
So so listen.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
So so you you were there, you're playing, Uh, playing
ball saved your life, right and then you know it
took me.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Out of the streets. Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 7 (06:48):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
You know when I was in federal prison, m c
C fight my life sentence and I remember when they
were executing Cookie Williams.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yeah, I remember that. It was huge.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
It was all over television everywhere everywhere. Streets are going
crazy and and.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
I didn't know too, kie. But I saw him a
couple of times, you know, past at the.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
Park, you know where, oh, all right in the in
the neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
In the neighborhood, I would seem and and had they
allowed me to hang out with him and my mom
would allowed it, you know, I would, I'd have been
right there with him. So h when when they killed him,
h I thought back of how lucky I was not
there be there because you know, if you're running with somebody,

(07:32):
you don't know which incident it.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
Is, what it is when it happens. Yeah, there's no
there's no like, oh, well you know it's going down.
It's going down now in the.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
Mix exactly exactly, so you understand what I'm saying. So yeah,
So when I look back at my life, I was
just thankful that uh you know that that uh Richard
Williams introduced me to Tennis.

Speaker 4 (07:52):
What time period of your life was, how old were
you that you got sentence? And how long was that
sentence by time he got out?

Speaker 2 (07:58):
Uh I got my life sent thirty six.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
No, So before we go to in the DV that,
you know what, I want to keep going into a
little bit of of of who you are because I
you know, I like that, like, you know, people see you,
you know, in certain lights, right, and I think it's
important that they know, you know, who you were growing up.
And then, you know, I don't think anybody would have
claimed that, oh, he plays tennis when I hear your story,

(08:27):
I'm not like, oh, yeah, Ricky Robson is playing tennis.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
No, I never thought that at all.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
I would think by the neighborhood teach.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Me, yeah, I bet well.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
But I would also think that it would be, you know,
on some like, Okay, he must have been one of
the main shot callers in the hood to have that
kind of access.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
But I know a lot more than than than other people.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
But but what's on what's on Netflix, what's on television?

Speaker 1 (08:46):
What do you watch at home right now? Kind of
what kind of I.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
Don't really watch. The last last series I watched was
The Defining One Doctor.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
Dre And yeah, that was great.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
And Jimmy, I bean, I loved it. I loved it.
You know, I just got a distribution deal from Universal,
so I wanted to find out what the great ones did.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
You know.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
One of the things I found out about my success,
you know, I don't know if we're ready for that.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
Go for We're ready for what you got.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
I've always had an ability to hang out with the
good guys, you know, the guys that are winning at
those particular things, you know. And what I found out
is that when you study the great ones, you know,
you may not be as great as them, but.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
You start to learn like them, you start to mimic them.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yeah, you look like them, you know, and sometimes you
get the points that they did. So I had to
watch that documentary.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Sure, you know, Yeah, it was a great documentary.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
I mean, I was at death ro in the nineties
so and a lot of people don't know that about me,
but I was one of the first lot and artists
there and spent a lot of time with all of
them guys, and and you know, when I got to
watch that video. Also, the uh straight out of Compton video,
I think it was straight out of Compton with all them,
a lot of it was really happening, you know. It's

(10:01):
a real good indication of what was happening out there.
And I was fortunate enough to actually see it, so
it really kind of brought me so close to seeing
all that again.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
I was like, damn, you know, it's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
So with with what you're doing right now. You know,
I know that you have a lot, you know going on.
We talked of off air, but I want to go
into you know, where it all happened.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
So you know, tell us is Ricky Ross your real name?

Speaker 2 (10:25):
That's my real name?

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Right And with that being said, you know, uh, you know,
how did how did it become uh you know the drugs,
the drugs get involved, like how did everything in your life?

Speaker 2 (10:39):
Because well after after high school, you know, I was
kind of bummed out. You know, it was discovered that
I couldn't read to write and sure, and I wouldn't
be going to a major university like my friends were going.
You know, my best friend in high school went to
U see Santa Barbara and he played one and to

(11:00):
a you see Santa Barbara. The guy that I traded
off and on with at at in high school at
Dorsey Troy Collins. He wounds up going to San Diego
State and plan number one and another one of the
guys played at Full of ten and and here I
was like, you ain't going to college kid, you know,

(11:20):
you can't read it.

Speaker 4 (11:21):
Right, you know, And it wasn't because you were a
bad person. You literally could not read or write so.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Recognized.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Nobody had ever showed me the techniques reading and writing.
They never I don't know. You know, I sit in
prison and I wrestled with this inability to read, you know,
nights and nights and days and days.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
And is it because you couldn't read or because you
were you were dyslexic? And you know, because I I
don't read or write very well at all. It's my
it's kind of like my you know, to this day. Uh,
it's it's my kryptonite, you know what I mean. It
doesn't do me any good.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
Like I started looking at it, and it's just like
it started.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
I could read it, and then you know, I I
can memorize, you know, songs, I could write songs. I
create stuff, you know, But and I know how to spell.
Not that great, but you know, I kind of have
a lot of those same challenges. Are you how are
you doing now with it?

Speaker 2 (12:12):
Oh? When when I left prison, I was reading on
the college level.

Speaker 6 (12:15):
It was not a disability, it was just you didn't
have access to it.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
I think that nobody taught me the technique of reading,
because reading and the way we talk are not the same, right,
You know, you have to learn how to sound.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
I still don't know the tech afterwards.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
You have to learn how to sound the words out,
you know. And when I first started writing, I had
to get a dictionary, and I have to look up
every word in a dictionary, and and and after a while,
I was able to remember how to spell those words.
So it really really boiled down to the consistent you know, reading, reading, reading.

Speaker 6 (12:51):
You learned how to read and write in prison?

Speaker 2 (12:53):
I did?

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Were you in the school there?

Speaker 2 (12:56):
I went to class as well? Yeah, I did go
to school. What kind of classes were check ged? They
make you take the basic GED. But what I did
is I took it even further once I learned how
to read and and and I saw that that I
could comprehend law books. You know, I found an issue
that eventually got myself out of prison. Even though my
lawyer he takes the credit for that.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
No way. Yeah, you called him like yo, and he.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Was like, oh no, you're not gonna win that. That's
not your issue.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
He's where do you want to refund? Right now? Give
me a remad bro.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
You know they don't get them retainers back once you
get a retainer to him, that's theirs. Oh no, I
used that. Uh but yeah, Maceli made me some Q cards,
you know, and taught me how to sound the words
out and and you know, the next thing I know,
I was reading the newspaper a guy named George Lewis.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
George Lewis, what's he doing now?

Speaker 2 (13:49):
I amn't saw George in a while.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
He's so locked up?

Speaker 2 (13:52):
No, no, no, no, he got out before I did. They did?

Speaker 3 (13:55):
Did they have in the FED that they had your insteads?
Where were you locked up most of the time?

Speaker 2 (14:00):
I did. I did six years in MC San Diego
fighting the case. Then I went to USP Lompoc, I
went to Victorville, f CI victor val I went to
f CI Phoenix, and I eventually got out at uh
f CI texall canon.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
A seven facilities if I could count.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, they gave me, they gave me.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
You got a little tour, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
Well, you know, sometimes it's good to break up your time,
you know, see a different group of people, group of
people during mobility, different food, you know.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
And you mean, do you meet some good people on
the FEDS.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
I met some great people.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:33):
You know, I always hear good things about, like, you know,
people that were locked with the Feds versus the state.
You know, they're always like coming out like, dude, I
learned so much, got educated. I was in there with
you know, some of the biggest crimes of the you know,
criminals of the world. Yeah, oh yeah, you know, they're
very intelligent people, right to get to the Fed.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
My goodness. A matter of fact, one of the guys
who turned me onto one of my favorite books, Garden
Hall from Arizona, he was in there because he said
that he shouldn't have to pay taxes, right, and he
had to Bigg's house in Arizona, You're gonna pay taxes.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Or he canna be back in here. I guess what
was my favorite.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
But the richest Man in Babylone. All right, you know
absolutely books that I I took a lot of principles
out of the book and made them mind.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
You know.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, I studied hard. I read it with three hundred
books before I left. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
I read the newspaper every day. I used to subprib
to La Times. And while I was reading La Times,
there was an article that came out and said, if
you read the La Times every day for two years,
you have a master's degree. So I probably had like
three master's degrees.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
Yeah, well I was on the cover of.

Speaker 6 (15:39):
How many years total was that of Little lock Up?

Speaker 2 (15:41):
I did twenty years to two different bills, you know,
diferent I got the first bit and uh they was
trying to wash me up on that one. Brother, I
got to took the cop stop. Uh. So they got
and dieted. So they had a couple of breaks. Here
ses I got out in six months.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
I was retroversion set up. Well wait wait, wait, let
let me say, got a lot of questions on so
here here we go. So so when we come back,
I want to ask you what are we going on
a break? We're gonna.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
You know, I want to I want to, you know,
get into you know how how it all started?

Speaker 1 (16:28):
You know, how did you become the world famous street rag.

Speaker 8 (16:32):
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Speaker 7 (16:54):
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(17:22):
man Freeray Rickey brou.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
How do you have we leave things?

Speaker 3 (17:26):
So so really, I mean, you know, let's go into
the guy that's never think about like someone's never ever
heard anything about you, because I mean, like I said,
I can jump. I don't want to jump, you know,
into the things that I know, you know, and I
don't know that I need to know. Well I know
their street legends, I know the street edge version, you
know what I mean. So you know, I mean, but

(17:47):
you know, give us your story from from like how
you got involved into the cocaine trade and and you.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Know, well as as we already talked about, you know,
after after high school, I wasn't one to comment. I
started going to l a trade tech you know, basically
just playing on the tennis team matches and whatnot. What
I was doing that a couple of my homeboys, and
I'm really back into the hood now. You know, when
I was in high school, I literally only came to

(18:15):
the hood to sleep.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
Sure, you know, when I when.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
I leave tennis practice, I get to the house, I'm
so I go to bed.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
But now I'm back in the hood. You know, I'm
hanging out. I'm seeing guys carrying guns. I'm seeing guys smoke.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
Weed and cigarette on the block.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
They drinking eight ball. So one day my guys was like, man,
come on, let's go to.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
The street races on avalone cop.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
You know. It was on Century and uh in Vermont
at the old churches.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Chicken, Yeah, I know exactly.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
So so we go to the street races and we're
riding our bikes up here. When we rode bikes to
the street racers, right, so I see all these pretty.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
Car I was like, what the hell, what's coming from.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
I gotta have me one of those.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
Yeah, Tennis didn't pay for that.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yeah, And then they had the pretty girls in there
with them. Yeah, I want both of those.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
I'm gotta have both those. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
So I started going around asking all the guys, man,
how do y'all get y'all cars like this. Yeah, and
a guy by the name of Dirty Bennie was like,
come by my house tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
Oh wow. I shout out to Dirty Bennie.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
My bike over to his house. Yeah, and he said,
oh tomorrow, you know. He said, tonight we're going to work.
Come on go with us. So I started off driving
stolen cars for him. He give me fifty dollars a night. Yeah,
And it started from there. Benny wound up going to prison.
I took over his business.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
He took it over.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
A team with my own chop shop. I got my
own chop shop when I was chopping up cars. And
basically what I did is I took his method to
get back to the neighborhood. To all the guys that
was younger than me. I started paying them fifty dollars
a drive for me and teach.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Him how to steal a car. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, the the the old, the screwdriver, and then the.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Snatch boar, snatch war baby, snatch war, weeds yeah, the old,
the damp poort, so, you know, dealing with the stolen cars.
Then I was introduced to cocaine by a guy by
the name Michael McLaurin.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
Okay, Michael McLaurin.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, he used to paint cars.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
It's not that sounds for me. I don't know that name.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
He was one of the top painters. Okay, there was
Big d. Who else was it? It was it was
like three of them that was that was like top
painters of cars. Yeah, me and him. It got really
tight because I wanted to paint my car. I didn't
have no money, but I wanted.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
He said, let me show you how to get some money.
That's good.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
So he introduced me. He gave me my first fifty
out of rock, told me, you see what I could
do with it?

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Was crack already big then?

Speaker 2 (20:59):
No, it wasn't, and wasn't anybody nobody talked about crack. Yeah,
most of the people didn't was snorting it, yeah, you know,
including him, including him. But he gave me fifty dollars worth,
and I ran into uh Martin and pimp. You know.
I asked all other hommies and all of the old g's.
Nobody knew what cocaine was, you know what it looked like.

(21:19):
And finally Martin cooked it up. So Martin was the
first time I ever seen anybody actually cook up some
cocaine it up and I thought it was rocket signs.
I was like, damn, this guy is cool.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
It's really real.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
And he beat me out the fifty.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
Wow, he beat you out the fifty right.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
On the right, on the bat. I lose my first
day in.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
The She just said he checked this out of the
hardy run over there and checked us and boom, go
how did he get you out of the man.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
Well, he had to test it once he rocked it up.
He had to test it. Yeah, and you're talking about
this thing. Was only decided to match it. Yeah, fifty
dollars worth.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
He tested the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
So he tested a little and he was like, man,
I'm not sure you're gonna sell that. Look, I'm just
gonna give you fifty dollars for it later. Yeah, do
it on the pipe man. Boom. But but what happened?

Speaker 1 (22:12):
You learned?

Speaker 2 (22:15):
He called me back. Yeah, but not with the fifty bucks.
But he had somebody who wanted to buy one hundred
dollars worth.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah beat you Yeah, No, I.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
Had nothing, Yeah, so I called I called Mike, and
I literally became the middle man.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
When they would call me, I would call Mike. Mike
would bring it down, give it to him. But I'm
not getting any money out.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
Of this, right, you're catching up your fifty still.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
So eventually we did that. I called a gt A
case too. I got caught. The cops rated my shop.
I had seven cars chopped in half.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
And tops already this at this time.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
I'm nineteen. Wow, we're still like in the early eighties.
At this point, the seventies, late seventies. I started thinking
it right before the eighties. OK, So, uh, captuate my
shop so I can't steal cars anymore. Mike ain't let
me make my money off the cocaine. So I'm just
really just like like helping Mike. So my man Ali,

(23:15):
who had went to jail for burglary, get out and
he was like, man, what you doing. I was like, Man,
I'm selling uh cocaine for Mike, but I ain't making
no money. I need three hundred fifty dollars to get started,
because that's at that time I ate. I ate, well,
we used to call it eight balls, was selling for
three fifty. So he was like, look, you start to
still pretty much cheaper.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
I heard like.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
We'll give you some cocaine for free.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
They just come over like, hell, you need anything, I'm
like I'm good or yeah, I'll take that whatever the
better feeling.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
Let me taste it.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
So I going to start the car. But how we we?
We we find the duce in a quarter at Brenhard
Junior High School, our old high school. We strip it
and the rest was history. We never broke again.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
Yeah, you started buildings, how the empire started.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
That's how it started with that with aduce in a quarter,
built it.

Speaker 4 (24:14):
Up and was it a rocket ship? Was it over
a time? Gradual? I mean for you to become a legend.
There's so many kids that come up in the game
and they're a dime a dozen, but for you to
make a name like that was there was our first time.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
It didn't happen overnight. I didn't really know the game,
you know, I had to learn how to sell cocaine. Yeah,
you know, and it was it was a process.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
But you took it serious, clearly.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
Very seriously. I mean I felt that, you know, Elie
time said that. I thought that it was God's gift
to me. I thought that was what a guy was like,
Oh I'm blessing you with this? Was that?

Speaker 1 (24:46):
Was there a turning point? Like you ever have addiction
through that.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
I did it for two weeks.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
Yeah, I did it two weeks. Said this is too good.
I got to get away from it.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
Well, you know what we we started with an ounce.
I mean we had an ounce of cocaine. We I
was rich. This is when you probably could make at
that time off of twelve hundred bus.

Speaker 3 (25:06):
Way more yeas nine thousand thousand.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
Wow, I have a feeling of three fifty. And that
ship was.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Now you got a guy you gottat even think of that.
You got a guy who who you know, a couple
of months ago, weeks ago, didn't have gas money. The
gas was born on the galla. Sure, now he got.

Speaker 3 (25:27):
Nine racks, huh quick? And back then nine racks went
a long way.

Speaker 4 (25:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
And our favorite restaurant at that time was Tackle Pezz right,
Tackle Pete. You get a brito fifty cent?

Speaker 4 (25:40):
You're taking everybody out, everybody like that?

Speaker 1 (25:44):
What's up, Ricky? You're leaving fifty cents for that too?

Speaker 4 (25:48):
It was there was there a pivotal moment, you know
in that movie with Johnny Depp Blow, he meets the
dude in prison that became his connect. Was there a
main connect to put you on the map or was
it just kind of grinding out?

Speaker 2 (26:01):
I found out that I learned how to build connects.

Speaker 6 (26:04):
Wow, that was your superpower you could build.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
I mean, you could take a person who's just a
mediocre guy but knows the people, and if you keep
running that money to him, pretty soon he becomes the.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Man and started knowing how to build people. Yeah, I
learned how to build them, and you're doing that today
and your businesses.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
Absolutely everything that I do, I try to build people up,
you know, make them bigger, because the more big people
you have around you, then the bigger you are.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
So you started to when did it start to get
to like, you know, from the ounce level. You know,
now it goes up to the quarter pounds fast, you know,
like kilos.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
You know.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
What I found out is is it was hard to
get to an ounce, but once you get there, it.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
Was easy to go. It's like your first million.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
The next ounce is easy to get. And I went
from one ounce to five ounces to ten ounces, and
then now I want to get to a pound. You know,
that pound was hard to get to, but then once
I hit the pound and it was thirty pounds, and
then I finally, finally somebody tipped me off of bikilos. Hey, man,
they've been beating you out of four ounces. Every every
time you buy two pounds, you lose four hourceswounds. Give

(27:26):
me my sixteen hours. So and they was like, oh, no,
they've been beating you out of them for four ounces.
And I was like, he beat me out of four ounces.
You're talking about two thousand dollars a piece. So when
I turned that around, I started making a live money. Yeah,
and then I got to the point to where I

(27:48):
would buy connections. You know. I would go to the
guy and be like, man, you really don't want to
be in this business. We give you sixty thousand dollars
to walk away, and guys would take it.

Speaker 4 (27:59):
Really, Yeah, You're you're buying the source of the clientele,
the source, So you're consolidating sources.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
I already had. I already had the contail. What what what
I did with the client tail is I had these
step up houses where if you only have fifty dollars,
you would go to this house, but if you started
to by, like, guys would come there with one thousand
dollars buying fifty dollars rocks, right, And so that guy.

(28:26):
My guys in the house would use to the next
house and be like, okay, you you you.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Just stepped up your game.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Step up the game.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
You moved up to the big league.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
And they would do that until the guys would even
get big enough to come and meet me.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
Sure, that's the step up.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
I would have oounce houses, half pounced houses, eight houses,
quarter pound houses. So this system would allow people to
step elevate.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
You know.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
Basically what I what I tried to do was the
things that I know would have benefited me when I
was coming up that I wanted. Then I gave that
type of access to it to.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
You motivated bad behavior, not a bad thing. I mean,
it's a business model. You know.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
On the seminars says stem or personal development, we call
it the ascension model.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
Well, you know, but that's what happens. But that's what
happens when when you leave people behind.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah you got you got to make room for everybody.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
Yeah yeah, well said, they're gonna find a way.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
To catch up. Yeah, whatever that looks like.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
So you got them stepping up and then in the houses,
and then so they finally meet you, and then you
would start.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
To move keys to them. Correct right, and then and
then how many of those folks did you have on
the block? Give us a scale of how big that was.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
Oh, no, it was it was big, man, I don't know,
fifty sixty people. Yeah, you know, yeah, people coming from
all over the country. Yeah, because they come to La
to get LA was the spot. Yeah, yeah, come to
La to get.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
What they want to take it back to wherever they
were in Icago, the Midwest.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (29:57):
From a business standpoint, I'm really curious when you said
you were purchased the sources, So did you not have
enough volume coming af from your main source where you
have to acquire somebody else's sources you're trying to get
him out of the business.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Well, you never get.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
Enough really, so the back then, like you could not
you could enough.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
You can't get enough cocaine ship Yeah, that was getting
the cocaine was a problem.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
And this is pre nine to eleven.

Speaker 4 (30:17):
So you could literally coming in, you know, suitcases from
everywhere and you still could not get enough.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
You could, but you know they were they were on
cocaine harder, they were on it harder thing than they
are now. The law enforcement has actually let up. Yeah,
you know, back then you go to jail for cocaine.
You ain't getting a bail, no, yeah, you're done.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah. Now now you get busted with an ounce and
give you a ticket, yeah yeah, Or I mean it
wasn't like that, right.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
You busted with fifty kilos, they get your bail.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
Yeah yeah, before they were taking you there.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Oh no, you're not getting the bail. But you're twenty five,
you get you might start doing it.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
It would be like, yo, why do you want bail?

Speaker 1 (30:56):
Yeah, you're not going anywhere.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
You're not going nowhere.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
I was explaining that, but I said, listen, you know
a lot of people don't realize that when when I
was very young, I think the maximum life sentence was
like six or ten years, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (31:08):
When when when for murder? You know, I mean my
my well, my family.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
They caught some cases like that, you know, and and
they were doing like eight years on a fucking murder charts,
you know what I mean. Then and then it started
stepping up though, and all of a sudden they started
getting super.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
Stre Incarceration became a business.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
So now it's like exactly, it became it became a
public company.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah, yes, they're publicly traded prisons right now.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
And the only people could trade in it was judges
and prosecutors and police officers. So so they wanted a
business model a lot of time.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
Well, if I'm not mistaken, though, back in that day,
were their police officers involved.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
With I never had. You know, a lot of people
think because you know, I actually testified on some cops. Yeah,
and people think that they were on my payroll or
something like that. They weren't on my prayer road. No. No,
these were cops who the city had put together in
order to bring me down. And they got frustrated and

(32:07):
they started playing drugs.

Speaker 6 (32:08):
The worst kind of crooked cops like you weren't pay.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
They didn't get you.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
They couldn't get me.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
They couldn't get you, so they started to try to
get you.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
They couldn't get a guy without a high school to ploma,
who had never read a book and didn't read the newspaper.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
It was making more money than they were.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
One day, they weren't patient enough to say, you know
why we keep raiding the houses in there no doping houses.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Because you're a one step ahead of them.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
I was keeping the doping cars. You know, I had
learned from stealing cars had taught me about, so I
understood that if you put the dope in the trunk
of a car, you could park the car on the
street and nobody would mess with it more than I.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
Yeah, what's funny you say that, dude, I just got
the chills. Man.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
So, so when I was I used to sell a
whole lot of wit, like a lot a lot, you know.
And and I used to to have in my trunks
outside the cars. I would put the weed out there,
thinking that or cash out in there. And I keeps
a little in the house, you know what I'm saying
to where if someone came in or whatever, they can

(33:09):
get something on me, like, okay, here's ten twenty racks,
thank you.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
You you know, go away.

Speaker 3 (33:13):
But you know, the majority of it was in vehicles
outside and I and I had alarms on all those vehicles,
so if the thing went off, I'd be in my
house and I and you know.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
You could take them.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
But I was all, yeah, but and I would be
in the perfect years.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
And yeah, back in the day the sat of arms,
remembery that you could lock your brakes.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
Yeah, push the whole car, push.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
The thing in and the breaks would lock. So you
weren't still in that car.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
Yeah, it wasn't going anywhere.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
It wasn't going anywhere.

Speaker 3 (33:35):
You had the little the what's it called almost remember
what it was.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
They had the one that did the steering wheel, and
then the one that did the LifeLock something not lifelong,
but you know it.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
Oh yeah, I know what you're talking about.

Speaker 4 (33:49):
Yeah. Yeah, clearly it didn't work with ship because every
car I put it on I got stolen.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
I mean, the cops was a way to do it.
The cops raised my house and the dopest in like
three houses down. Yeah, and they never even go nowhere
near the car.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
Yeah, yeah, because yeah, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
You know, they couldn't figure it out. Yeah, but they
were so impatient, you know, they didn't want to do
the investigation. They were lazy. Yeah, you know, you couldn't say,
you know what, we don't have to watch these guys
three or four days in a row, you know. I mean,
it went only took that because really with me, and
we wouldn't even taking that because I was selling dope
every day. But what we did is we changed our hours.

(34:27):
We knew during the middle of the days, you know,
the cops would be wide awake and active. So what
we used to do is we would wait till four
in the morning and that's when we'd be doing our
dope deals.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
So when you really did get busted, right, I mean, well,
let's talk about this. How many times did you get
busted before you got really busted?

Speaker 1 (34:45):
Just once?

Speaker 2 (34:45):
Well, I had I had drugs planning on me before, right,
and I went to jail football forty days for that
drugs running. They planned two kilos.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
Oh that's that's a lot.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
And back then it wasn't nice, nice little bit, but
that that wasn't all that they did, because what they
were doing was telling the judge and the courts. Other
times they saw me with bags and estimated kilos and
I did kilos this many kilos in the day and
and so all that was accumulating the kilos was just

(35:19):
kind of like evidence to say, okay, we'll see he
really has kilos. But most of the stuff that they
were saying was was was purebs.

Speaker 3 (35:26):
They were just making their own story and knew who
you were. Somebody probably informed them or something. But they
didn't have anything on you because you were smart than that,
because why would you touch it if you have the
everybody else working for you.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
And that's what the judge told him too. He told
him exactly that he was like this this particular night
that they give me, I couldn't get any drugs. Yeah,
like I wanted drugs bad, but I couldn't get them.
You know, I was feeding. But the man was like,
so we go play basketball. We finished playing basketball, and

(35:59):
all the fellas ain't making no money today either, so
everybody's at at my place. I got this tire shop,
or I self customed tires and wheels and radios and
all that stuff. So I'm passing by and I got
big glass windows and you can see all the guys
kneel down. I said, oh, they're in they're shooting dice.
So we pull up going, you know, see what they're doing.
I ain't at the guys a day. And uh so

(36:20):
when I get ready to leave, everybody leave the crap
game and walk me to the car. So the cops
are watching this night, so they followed me and I
look up and I see a car coming with no
lights on. And I tell my boy, I was like, man,
the car is coming behind us with no lights. So
he pulled his sporty fuur Magnumaz. He's like, man, I'm

(36:40):
gonna give it to him. And when they pull on
the side of us, we saw it was the police,
the sheriffs, and he was like, oh ship, that's Tomar.
Tomorrow was one who had just got him a detective.
So we got this high speech chase going. We high
speed chasing it through van Is.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Boulevard just because you have the pistol.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
Really at that point, no, no, no, we ain't Crystal. We're
gonna be a pistol. Yeah, they're gonna play drugs and
we already know what they Yeah, they already been playing
drugs on like four or five my boys, right, so
so we know they they're gonna play drugs on you.
You're going to jail tonight.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
The Rampart scandal.

Speaker 4 (37:14):
I love how you can tell the story smiling like
you're smiling ear to ear, like this has not left
you with this like stain or this bitterness right like.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
It was it was it was it was an adventure. Yeah,
you know, I look at it. Your story is part
of the game. You know when you play the game,
you know this all this comes with the game.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
Yeah, you know what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
And I really got lucky. You know, if these guys
wouldn't have done what they did, I probably when the
FIDS came in, I probably would have got caught with
way more five six hundred kilos a week.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
Yeah, well I was already doing thirty fifty oh no,
no day a day.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
So were you working with cartels? Were you working with
I mean.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Was working with the nigger rocking connections?

Speaker 1 (38:01):
Okay, he bought them all. I mean he literally brought
up all this. You can't get that much.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
Were they were? They were part of the CIA. Yeah,
the Conscience was working with the CIA to fight the
world with the Garagua, and they were bringing drugs into America.

Speaker 4 (38:17):
And that's why you were saying back then it was
a lot more lenient because they were looking the other way.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
Right, it wasn't.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Leniate, It wasn't lenient. They were harder, but they were
allowing the drugs to come in. Right, They're more lenient
right now? Right now? You know, I see guys that
get caught with a hundred kilos and get a bill.
You know, they never would have gave us a bill.
When I got the two kilos they plan on me,
I didn't get a bail. My bill. When I finally
got a bill, it was a million bucks eight twenty five,

(38:43):
you know, a twenty five men and everything that you
put up for bill has to go in front of
the judge and has to be verified and tax paper.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
Did you get bailed out or no?

Speaker 2 (38:52):
No, I wouind up beating the case?

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Oh you did? How did you get the case?

Speaker 2 (38:56):
So they were so I turned myself in right because
my mom she's like, boy, I'm all over the news,
armed and dangerous. They said, I shot at the cop.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
Oh wow, yeah, it's just making up ship.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
What happened. I jumped out of the car. The car
was was going. I'm speeding down the street, right, I
jam on the brakes before the car could come to
a stop. I jump out the car and run and
need a car. The car keep rolling.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
He didn't the for them.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
They wasn't that they were dumb. Dumb, So the cops
started shooting at me. Wow, so they shoot up all
the people houses? Oh no way, Yeah, they shot up
in people houses. Yeah, so he was shooting, that's where
to shoot back. Oh my god, but you had no
gunpowder on your hand? None? No gun? Wow, my boy
had a gun. But he never shot you know, I

(39:48):
never would have let him shoot, and he wouldn't have
shot without me.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Shoot at him.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
Yeah, So so was he running with you? Did he
go to the officer?

Speaker 2 (39:56):
No, he he stopped the car.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
He stopped the cars.

Speaker 2 (39:59):
From the running.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
I had to stop the car.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
He stopped the car. So on the news that night,
I'm all on the news. We keep all in dangers
shot at cops and no, no.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
Because they knew who you were.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yeah, they already kne who I was.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
Picture of you up and everything.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
So Mom's called me, you're gonna turn your silf in.
They're gonna kill you. I don't want you see you.
Did I really see you in jailed? And did?

Speaker 4 (40:24):
I don't want to turn my Is this where the
freeway moniker comes from with the avatar?

Speaker 1 (40:27):
Like, where did that.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
Not already been freeway before that?

Speaker 4 (40:32):
Why because you always read on the freeway or you're
running from the cops or how that come from?

Speaker 2 (40:36):
It came from when when I used to steal cars. Yeah,
steal cars on the side of the freeway after after
after No, that was before before my shop, before I
had the shop, I would strip cards, right, My mom
stayed like on a dead end you know, the freeways
right the house, so you don't really have much traffic

(40:58):
coming through the street, and so you know we take
a front end off or take a motor right there, Yeah,
right there on the spot, you know, unboded, you know,
when you're unvoting and nobody can really tell what's going on.
Once all the boats off, you just snatched your front
end off and drive it down the street. It So
that's how they started calling us freeway boys, the guys

(41:18):
at the street racers Jake Clayton who uh was a
big time lowrider. But yeah, so so the cops had
never they still had never saw me, so I turned
myself in. Now they sent me to the county Yell
no bill. The cops come to the county jail to see.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
Me, the ones that just the detectives that just shot
at you.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
Yeah, they come to see me, threatening your took me
in the back room off the record, right and and
interrogating me. Yeah. So when they got ready lead, it
was like you better not say nothing to your lawyer,
and they talked about my lawyer. Your lawyer is a
coke head, and uh, he can't get.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
You off there, put hands on you or just strong interrogation.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
They just roughed me up a little bit, you know,
letting you push you in real physical with these foods
recorded the whole thing. Oh wow, they recorded the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
That's how you beat the case.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
Yeah, so we go to court, and next time I
go to court, I didn't even tell my lawyer yeah
until we were sitting in the courtroom. So we sitting
in the court room, I was like, yeah, man, you
know them foods came down there and seeing me like
two weeks ago. He's like, huh yeah, he said yan,
And one of them was on the witness stand testifying.
He said, yanna. Uh. You know, I just found out

(42:36):
that they came and see my client. I wasn't notified
and I wasn't notified, and they actually cop that was understanding.
Did you guys come and see him? And he's like,
oh yeah, we was down there doing someone else and
we just stopped buying.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
Stop to say hi.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
Then you know, he had a lawyer, He said, did
you did you record that that thing? You recalled everything?

Speaker 1 (42:53):
He said, yeah, came over where is it?

Speaker 2 (42:58):
And they listened back to the spliced up.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
That's how it spliced that thing up. It's mites. There's
two minutes of video death records that were like that
real remember that.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
You know, he gave me a fort with wow. Judge
told him to get him out of here. I was
out of it. I was out of the countyes on like
twenty minutes. That's like unheard of.

Speaker 4 (43:21):
You're like, thank god I listen to Moms because she
told you herself there right.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
Yeah, So at that point you started getting a little
you know, knowing that you're hot right clearly then you
already knew you were hot, but it was getting hotter.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Well, that's when I moved out of town. Okay, I
moved to Cincinnati. Then, Okay, I'd already been working in
Cincinnati and Saint Louis. I have been working in Texas,
but I cut my my cousins off in Texas.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
We're getting too rough.

Speaker 4 (43:49):
There was you know, we had some different shits, a
different animal boy, you know, you know, you.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
Know, I mean like this here. I hate when I
read on somebody and then all of a sudden they
come to life, and then you know, they get a
couple million dollars and they'd be like a.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
Guy who brought you to the dance.

Speaker 4 (44:11):
Speaking a couple of million dollars during this entire time period.
Did you diversify You mentioned the tire shop. I love
talking about money, but were you were you thinking of
had you seem like a very smart businessman.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
Were you already thinking about that? I was planning some scenes.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
I was ahead of the game.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
I was.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
I was same thing I did in the in the
in the in the coked business, I started to do
in real estate. I paid a guy to introduce me
to a guy by the name of Bill Little. Most
people never heard of him, but he used to own
He used to be one of the biggest landowners in
in downtown LA. Maybe the biggest landowner in downtown LA.

(44:46):
In California, I think he was second behind like vib
Hope with somebody Wow. So I paid a guy, I
think I bought the guy house. It was like one
hundred and seventy five thousand, uh and this was like
eighty five eighty six wow, to take me to his
house and and induce me to him. So I had
already started buying real estate.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
Mentors.

Speaker 4 (45:05):
You bought real estate sources like you did in the
streets with the cocaine, Like you recognized opportunity and you
got yourself in you bought mentors.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
But when I meet these guys, when I meet them
eight months later, I'm in jail. So I never really
got to use the tool, the tool tourist fullest. But
I learned enough game that right now today, once once,
once I get back re established, uh, I'm gonna be
a monster in real estate.

Speaker 3 (45:33):
So so so when when you when you actually you know,
went from California to Cincinnati, you know, was it that
the Feds were following you or was it that.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
The local cops that ran me out?

Speaker 1 (45:48):
The local.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
But they didn't follow me. What happened is is after
I got out of prison, I had drugs actually planning
on you.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
Eight ball shooting at you.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
I shot at them.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
Yeah, it's a big game on.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
So I was like, it makes sense to stay here
getting out with these guys just mad at you. Why
not go somewhere with the drugs. At that time in Cincinnati,
keilo was sixty.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
Four thousand, and you already had clients there.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
I already had clients, and I was getting kilos twelve.
You knew how to get it there eleven ten. Yeah,
So if I took a kilo to to Cincinnati, I
make fifty thousand profit. Wow, even though they may not
buy one hundred kilos in one day like they was
doing here. So when I went to when I went
to Cincinnati, Uh, when I really had it cracking, I

(46:45):
was doing about fifty kilos a day, I mean a
month a month, my bad month, I was doing about
I was doing about fifty key grew and I was
making about twenty thousand. So I was doing a smaller mount.

(47:07):
I was doing a smaller.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
Mount of drugs.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
But I made a lot of money. Yeah, you know
from California. I was going to make.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
Right prof that's what you had.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
Yeah, this is Natty. Now I'm making a great crop
and you know, to be to be KOs and I
got work.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Through that should change my name. We're just playing, you
know with that. You know, so so now you know
now I'm thinking, you know, I want to know what
it was that how you got busted in Cincinnati. Canna

(47:45):
start going to one went when come back?

Speaker 3 (47:47):
More for us.

Speaker 8 (47:50):
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and Cannabis Talk one O one, subscribe to our weekly
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Speaker 7 (48:10):
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Speaker 1 (49:00):
I care with my man, Ricky.

Speaker 4 (49:01):
You had one more question for him, and we're gonna
go in a different direction here, But man, I got
so many questions.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
Now, this is one of the coolest interviews I've done.
I'm gonna tell you that, like so how did you
get busted?

Speaker 2 (49:11):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (49:11):
Like in Cincinnati? Like what was like they called you
from La No, it was straight through, straight through. I had.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
My suppliers had had went overseas so they wasn't working.
So I fly out to California and I grabbed nine
kilos and I have a guy, well I had more
than nine, but I had each guy getting on the
bus with nine kilos at the time. This one guy
got on the bus and somebody was smoking weed on

(49:41):
the bus. So the cops discovered the nine kilos and
my guy who was carrying him, he jumped off the
bus and got away, but he never contacted us and
told us that the cops had confiscated the kilos. So
the time that the bus was supposed to get there,
I was going to pick him up. So I go
to the bus station and it just so happened my

(50:04):
beaper falls off, so I don't go inside. But my
other guy walks inside the bus station and he was
asking where the bus from l A was coming coming
in and where was it at, and the Feds grabbed me.
So I walk in the door and I see the
Feds got him surrounded.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
I took off he just walked away and burned out.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
I burned out, so you know, I do everything I
can to keep my man.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
And this it was.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
It was really bizarre to me because this guy never
should have went to prison. He never saw the bag.
He didn't know what the bag looked like. The only
thing he knew was that the guy was coming in
from l A. So they said that he inquired about
the bag and was total bullshit.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
You know, he said that was a fluke.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
So they were able to pin him to me because
he was from my neighborhood. And you know how it's
like they do with gangs, like if you grew up
in this area, you with.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
This association, Yeah, this is your Yeah, you know you
live on the West Side from the you know exactly
the Crimpshall team, you know, like they.

Speaker 4 (51:12):
Know, probably Cincinnati cops. It was like a Cincinnati cops.
It was probably like a badge of honor to nail
somebody from l A.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
I imagine where the sheriffs came down after they found
out he was from la the ones who planned the drugs,
they brought him down so and then they they tended
the case in Cincinnati. Okay, Cincinnati would have really they
could have get I was doing fifty kilos a month.
My diatman said fifty kilos and more month. That's what
it said on my more. Yeah, fifty or more later,

(51:41):
But they knew I was doing at least fifty. I
just went with their number.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
Yeah, that part.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
So after I couldn't get him out of jail, you know,
I spent a lot of money trying to keep him
out of jail. He went to jail, and next thing
I know, uh, they inded of me. I had a
secret indictment, okay, and they eventually caught me.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
Yeah. Now we're at the federal level.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
Yeah, that was fit and the Feds.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
Actually, he'll take you down then.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
Yeah. Never the state, I've never uh my Laurie was
always able to beat the state.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
Yeah. And then on on on on the federal level.

Speaker 3 (52:18):
You know, did you see a lot of that collapsing
because of the cartels and everybody else that was involved
that you were you a part of that that case
when they all kind of got the contras got you know, yeah,
I was.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
I was a center of that.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
Yeah, So it was my story that Gary Webb from
the center'sd a Mercury by Yeah, Uh, he linked me
in and my drug supplier, who also was my informant. Right,
he put us together, gotcha, and that's when you know,
all hell broke loose. You know, my whole life changed.
You know, I was in front of cameras every day,

(52:53):
and Maxie Waters in jail. I was in jail.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
Yeah, they were just showing up with cameras at you
every day.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
Every day, every day. This is before h nine eleven.
You know, after nine eleven they stopped letting the news
media talk to the inmates. Like right now, it's hard
for a news reporter to talk to an inmate, But
at that time, they gave you total access to the media.
Maxiine workers came down to see me, the oy g

(53:20):
from c i A. I mean, everybody was coming down.
I mean it was it was all over the news.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (53:28):
It was crazy because they're also building a name off you.
I mean by aligning themselves with you, they're also kind
of getting notoriety.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
But they was trying to clear you know, the c
IA was trying to clear their name. They didn't want
to be known as drug dealers. You know, they were
supposed to keep drugs out of the country, but now
they were.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
They were right in the middle of it.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
Yeah they turned the blind eye. Oh you go ahead,
I didn't see that.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
Yeah, they were getting paid, they were getting paid.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
Yeah, well you know Bush. I mean this went all
the way up to the White House, Bush, Reagan, Bush
and Reagan was also implemented. And remember Ali North, yeah
the fifth and say the book stops for him. You know,
you ain't going no higher.

Speaker 4 (54:05):
To me, I think a lot of the younger generation
has no idea about this gap of American drug history,
whether it's the around Contra affair Alie North, and then
they're the incarceration system that got developed after that where
it became a business.

Speaker 6 (54:18):
And that's a whole other conversation. I'm sure you can
speak to.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
That absolutely for sure. I was there when Unicorp you
know you lived it. Give guys twenty five an hour
to do jobs that out here to get you know,
thirty forty an hour to do.

Speaker 4 (54:32):
Wow, dude, this is all like the negative shit and
the bad part. And I mean we could talk about
this for years, but I am so excited to hear
about how you now have turned this chapter. And one
of my mentors always told me when I had my
you know, you don't know my story, but I you know,
my partner went to prison. I helped put him in
prison for robbing people in the Ponzi scheme. And to
me that was like, you're robbing little old ladies. And

(54:53):
when I hit rock bottom because I lost everything, my
mentor said, listen, man, at least you're not in prison.

Speaker 1 (54:59):
You know.

Speaker 4 (54:59):
I agel, I've been in prison twice. I'm a double phone.
And now I got all these cars and I go
all this, what's your fucking excuse? And I was like,
all right, like double fellon. Guy's got a life, and
now he's got a massive personal development story and massive
you know, uh public speaking. Except all the stuff that
I read about you, I want to hear about that

(55:20):
on what you're doing to now you know, spread the
story not from an entertainment value, but you're empowering kids
to hear the story. Man be like, man, if this
guy can do it, I can without all that pain.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
Well, I felt it was. It was so important, you know,
for people to know that the same energies, techniques, strategies
that we use in the streets can be using any
field that you go into, you know. And and one
of my goals now is to demonstrate just how many

(55:52):
different businesses that using these same strategies we can run,
you know, and I've spoke with so many juvenile intentions
is around around the country. Last year, I spoke at
uh downtown l A. What's what's the name of that
did juve and I Hall I did. I did their graduation.
I was a keynote speaker for their graduation.

Speaker 1 (56:14):
Did you ever spend time there? Or it was just
something that because.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
It was just something that they called me and asked me,
and they thought that it would be good for the
kids to hear.

Speaker 3 (56:23):
The kids can some of them are drug drug dealers.
Some of them, you know, have had criminal backgrounds in
one of their parents. So they want to relate to
some of the not to somebody that they ain't never seen,
nothing like that.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
Yeah, the guy coming there with a suit, he went
to collge. You ain't from us, you don't know, you
don't know what it's like. But somebody like me who
couldn't read, Yeah, they get it. They have and I
can tell too, you know, like I love. I don't
know why they haven't hired me to go from prison
to prison and jail to jail. And and and talk

(56:55):
to these guys because a lot of these guys read
the newspapers and they hear what I'm out here doing
and they would like to implement the same strategy.

Speaker 4 (57:07):
Maybe I'm too cynical, but I think there there's a
reason for that, because there's profit and keep people, you know,
keeping people incarcerated, and I think I think they don't
want to spread positivity in that system. It's not they
call it correction facilities. They're not fucking correcting anything. It's
gladiator school. They're coming out out stronger with more connections,
coming out right.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
Absolutely put you in there, you know, you in there
with the carteil and said they're coming out with the
bigger rolodex right exactly.

Speaker 1 (57:34):
You also got something that was that Esquire magazine that
I was reading about.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
Yeah, yeah, eight off anniversary to be to be exact,
they did a feature story on me and said that
my story was the biggest story for the past eighty years.

Speaker 1 (57:50):
Man. Congratulations, man, that's so huge.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
I did that. And then you know, we had the
documentary that was on Netflix. How what was that called
Cracking the System Freeway Cracking the System.

Speaker 4 (58:02):
And in my book, you know, you know, that was
on there for a couple of years, right, like Netflix
kept out of rotation for a minute.

Speaker 1 (58:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
I was on the front page for a year and
a half every time they were on Netflix. You see
my ugly face? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:14):
So what was the name of that one again?

Speaker 2 (58:15):
Freeway Cracking the System?

Speaker 1 (58:16):
And I think you mentioned something else, Oh your two
books books?

Speaker 2 (58:22):
I got Freeway Free, Ricky rossun Told autobiography, which is
done super should be on everybody's best sellers list. I
don't I don't know why. ELI Times finally finally did
a story around last year. Yeah. They said they read
like a spasacean movie.

Speaker 1 (58:37):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
And then I got to twenty one Keys to Success
and that's about my first six months out of prison.
You know the things that I had to go through,
uh to get to where I am now. I just
shot another documentary with v H One should be coming
out soon. I don't know the date. We're in pre
production right now for the motion picture. Matter of fact,
we're going with the producers and the directors. Tonight they're

(58:59):
doing Kevin Hart released for one of his new movies.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
Who's playing you in the feature as that you're not
playing yourself?

Speaker 2 (59:06):
No, I don't want to be a movie star. I'm hoping.
We haven't picked the actor yet, but I'm hoping I
can get Childish Gambino too.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
Okay, who's your backup if that doesn't work? Kevin Hart?

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Kevin. We talked about it before, about him playing.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
Kevin and making shitty tennis player. Though sure makes me
look bad.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
I'm taller than that.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
Yeah, I got buy a few feet So that's in
pre production right now.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
You're ready to go, Michael, Mike Hold is the director now,
Mike Hold the director A couple of months back. What
else I got going? The dispensary, Yeah, the dispensary Las Kingpin.
You only look out for that. We're hoping in the
next three maybe four weeks and had it open.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
Where is that going to be?

Speaker 2 (59:59):
Uh? Some valley okay by brank Airport?

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
Yeah, did you get did you get a license in
your name?

Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
Was it the it's my name? I went on as
social equity? Did you I spoke to city council.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
You know miss Brown? You know miss Brown?

Speaker 3 (01:00:14):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
What's your name? Brown? Doctor Boxer? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:00:19):
Yeah, I do know doctor. I know doctor.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
She's good people. I like that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
Yeah, I spoke uh downtown l A for why they
should allow convicted felons to get a license, and also
up in Oakland to uh I can't think of her name,
but she was the state representative. I spoke to her
about why convicted felons should be allowed to get in
this business. You know, I'm like, if it wasn't for us,

(01:00:43):
it wouldn't be legal right now.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Yeah, when is that opening or is it already opening.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
We're hoping to be opening like three to four weeks
past everything. We got our state licensed city license. We
just passed the fire department. Uh So we're hoping here
in the next few weeks to get that up and going.

Speaker 4 (01:01:01):
If you had one message to somebody listening right now,
who's on the edge, you know, they're moving some weight
and they're they're on they're on the illegal side. If
you will, is there a message that you're looking at them,
looking at yourself that you would kind of deliver to
them hard to heart.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Well, you know, the same energies, the same efforts that
we put into the illegal side. If we put that
same energy and effort into the legal side, we have
some of the same results. You know, sometimes a little
it's a little harder with with with the legal side,
because they put you through you know, these guys put
you through the through the through the ringer, and that's

(01:01:35):
why the black market, you know, cannabis is still thriving
and in so many other drugs.

Speaker 3 (01:01:41):
My dad always told me that it takes the same
amount of energy it is to do it wrong, is
it does do it right, exactly right. And I believe that,
you know. And I didn't believe that when I was young.
I was like, nah, but you know, and and and
it's true. It's like it just focused on doing it
the right way, and it's the same.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
Amount of energy, you know, you know what I mean.
You know, you focus on the wrong things, you're gonna
get dude.

Speaker 4 (01:02:00):
The biggest thing that strikes me about this interview, man,
is like, I've met a lot of people that have
gone through shit trials, tribulations to have drugs planted on
you by police officers, right, And I want to know
why you don't have a chip on your shoulder. You
see so many people using that as an excuse why
they want to continue living wrong or they want to
still fuck with the police. For you, you kind of
like you still smile through all of this you've lived it.

(01:02:23):
But for somebody that's gone through shit, you're like, it
seems like you've kind of overcome something and you've seen
a light. What is it about your story that makes
you kind of so positive about it?

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
Well, you know, if somebody does something to you, you
may still be mad. But they did and they're going
on about their business. Now you still run around mad
and they don't pay it no mind. They forgot So
I look at it. It's better to give and move on.
Calle the future. I'm more of a future guy, you know,

(01:02:55):
Like people ask me what happened last week. I don't
know what happened last week, but I can tell you
what's gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
The next week. Yeah, I'm really good at it. I
love that output, man.

Speaker 4 (01:03:04):
And it's not even about politics, but I think that
lately there's that victim mentality that it's almost like they're
giving you these kids like you're a victim.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
You're a victim.

Speaker 4 (01:03:12):
But a lot of people that are coming up like
we all did, like we didn't have silver spoons in
our mouths, right, but to come out and to kind
of say, you know what, fuck it, it's in the past.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
I fucked over.

Speaker 4 (01:03:22):
But I'm going to look forward to the future, and
I have all these opportunities and possibilities.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
A lot of times you got to say, I fucked
myself the personal responsibility. I put myself in a situation.
But that to happen to me, Yeah, yeah, you know,
because a lot of times we allow people, you know,
even like with the guy who set me up, I
understand that he couldn't have set me up.

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
If I didn't take a good part. Yeah, I didn't
take a bait.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
He couldn't have set me up. I had to.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
I had to.

Speaker 2 (01:03:46):
I had the option to say no right and walk away,
but I didn't.

Speaker 4 (01:03:51):
You've banked a lifetime of good karma, man coming up,
and I think, I think that what's happening to you
right now with the movies and the fun stuff now
that books the movies, and it's fun of being on stage.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
So much fun, so good I've been. I've been like
six cities in the past week and a half.

Speaker 4 (01:04:11):
Well let's let's let's make it more. You know, I
got a couple of events coming up that I'm producing.
Person the Blue is going to be speaking at them.
I personally, I'm telling you right now, I would love
to be honored either say to you speak out to
our people business standpoint, from a money standpoint, from just
personal development. I think everybody right now, especially into this
next twelve months, it's going to be a struggle season.

(01:04:31):
You know, people are gonna be a hurt financial out here,
and there's there's the easy races, and there's ways to
to kind of, you know, do things legitimately. If people
want to come find you, support you outside of the
dispensary and the movies and the books.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
What's the best way to find you on socials? Uh,
they can give me a freeway Ricky Ross on Facebook
and freeway Rick on Instagram and freeway Rick on Twitter.

Speaker 4 (01:04:54):
And if you're looking for booking, yeah, absolutely, you got
a great rep that kind of helped you to find
you and break you. Guys reach out to her her
Instagram as a N G E E, S M, A
L t Z or just yeah, man, I'll put you
in touch because my eyes can't read that well. But
seven one four five she did say that I could

(01:05:16):
give her number out seven one four two five one
seventeen fifty two.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
Is that right? Yeah? They missed it because you want here.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
Seven one.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
Fifty two.

Speaker 4 (01:05:26):
But man, I I can't this is one of the
best interviews I've done. I'm super excited.

Speaker 3 (01:05:30):
Ablue what you got to add on, you know, I
just I just want to say, man, thank you for
taking the time to share your story, you know, because
you know it isn't it about us.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
It's about the pew that we touched through our platform,
like we appreciate it. You know.

Speaker 3 (01:05:42):
This is what we do for a living and you
know it too. It's just what you do, you know,
and when you live that certain way. It's just nice
to be able to get it out to so many people.
Because again, if just one person here's this story and goes, man,
I'm living that way right now, and I could I
could change your or I could find it, you know,
do it the right way instead of the wrong way.
I find that one message or or they they're in

(01:06:03):
a position where they don't have to take de bait
right now because they're like, you know what I.

Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
Heard that I'm giving no time and the vulnerability, man,
the authenticity is there. It's just it's just bores right
for you. Man, It's something that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:14):
There's a reason you're being successful on stage, in the
books and anything else that we forgot man.

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
That you want to resume money and I've just had
a good time with you guys today.

Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
You're coming back, Man, you're coming back. I can't wait
to get you on my show. Anything else.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
I'm so busy. I'm believable. How busy are you?

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
You're gonna be a regular here. I could tell. I'm
with you said, it's like I made it here.

Speaker 7 (01:06:39):
It was.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
You know, it's funny once you come here on family.
So we have some nice events and fun fun times. Well,
this way we can brok them on. Thank you for
being on Cannabis Talk one on one. It's always a pleasure.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
Man. Oh, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
But there it is. Guys, It's Cannabis Talk one on one.
And remember this, if no one else loves you.

Speaker 3 (01:06:59):
We do.

Speaker 8 (01:07:00):
Thank you for listening to Cannabis Talk one oh one
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever.

Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
You get your podcasts.

Speaker 8 (01:07:07):
Make sure you like, follow, and subscribe to the show now.