Club Shay Shay - Keith Lee Part 2 - Club Shay Shay

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thank you for you coming back. Part two is underway.
So how was that experience, because, like you said, Bro,
I'm in my apartment, Yeah, and I got the CEO of.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Chipotle on the phone.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
On the phone, yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
And he's thought about, okay, we want to name up
some po. We're gonna put something on a menu, name
something after you.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
They had it. It was called the keith A Dia
and it was on the app the like I said,
the Chipotle. The crazy thing about that Chipotle is a Chipotle.
Me and my wife we met when we worked at
a six inside the South Premium Olet and that Chipotle
was directly in front of South Premium Olet. So to
go back there three or four years after, uh no,
it was it was longer than maybe like seven years
after me and her met and standing in front of

(00:42):
the spot that we met. But now we got a
Chipotle named after us.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
It was for real And it was one of them
things where it was like I never questioned God, but
it was like why mean, yeah I did?

Speaker 3 (00:53):
What did I do to deserve this?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah? Fast, thanks.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
I'm looking at some of the companies you partnered with Chipotle,
Piece of Hub, Wing Stop, Door, Dad, Pepsi chime hondai Microsoft.
I mean, how does Keith Lee determine who he's going
to partner with?

Speaker 2 (01:08):
For me, it's a conversation that that's had after I said,
I prayed before everything, and I can you can feel it.
You can feel when when something's right and something's not right.
I'll get you to get you an exclusive.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Here.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
We had a conversation with I was here. I said
the name because I ain't gonna we had a conversation
with Okay, I ain't gonna say name. But one of
the biggest fast food companies in the entire world. We
had a conversation with them, and.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Oh, I say the name. Get my bad, my bad, Okay,
go ahead, un shll come on and shell.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Hypothetically, but we had a conversation with somebody, and come on.
So we had a conversation with somebody, and they initially
reached out and it was like, we want to have
a full This was to be like a full commercial,
a full deal, like a really big thing. And mind you,

(02:08):
I'm not making that much money at the time. I'm
making good money, but not like nowhere near to be turning.
They was offering almost a million dollar shame, and I
wasn't making nowhere near that. But they was having a
conversation and they asked me do I eat that food?
And I don't. Instead of saying, of course I eat it,
trying to get the money me as a person of integrity,
I told him straight to his face. I was like, no,

(02:29):
I don't. I've never ate it as a kid, I
don't eat it now. I don't really eat fast food.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
How much y'all offer? You know what I always wanted
to try. I always wanted to try that.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
But it's, like I said earlier, with integrity, like it's
something that I feel like I have to be able
to turn pass down to my kids. Had this conversation
with them when I'm when I'm fifty or sixty and
tell them like, no matter what position I was in,
I've always been myself and I've always stuck to what
I believe is right in my heart. And I had
the conversation with them. He put me on the phone

(03:03):
with again with the CEOs CEOs, and the first first
question he asked was, all right, Keith, do you like
this food, the brand, whatever it is? Do you like
our brand? Thinking I was going to back down because
we having a conversation from the CEOs and in front
of all of them people, and they said, oh, okay,
well we'll have a conversation at the back end. I

(03:23):
already knew it was a wrap that meant it's not
about the work. But it was just like I said,
a testament to who I've always stood on and I've
always stood stood my ground and put my feet in
the ground and being who I say I am.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Is it easier to represent a brand?

Speaker 1 (03:39):
And because I found this myself, it's a lot easier
to represent a brand if you use the product, if
you eat the food, because it's not it's not rehearsed,
it's not forced. I actually drive this car, I actually
go to this place, I actually eat this food, as
opposed the yeah I do for me.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Again, we blessed enough to have people, people that will
really go out and get the product and try their product.
And I refuse to stamp anything that I personally don't
like because I understand these are people's heart earned money
the way that they're going to spend and I think
a lot of people don't think about it like that.
They just be like, oh, it's my money, I'm going
to get the money for my family. I'm supporting, but

(04:19):
it's like you also affecting other people's money in other
people's family, because if it's a product that you won't
even stand behind and you don't eat your daily life,
or that you would eat, why are you about to
make them spend they last earn money. And I said,
I'm blessed enough to really have people that will go
out with they last. And I'm talking about people be
standing in line and having their own real issues. They
stand in life eight nine hours. And it's like, I

(04:42):
don't take that lightly, Like I don't play with that.
And I appreciated you the last money of all. So
all every decision I made, like how you asked with
decisions go into me picking certain partners that we do with.
I think of them, I think of my family. I
think of if I can ask myself twenty years from
now if that made sense, I can still say yes,

(05:04):
no matter how it went, no matter if like I said,
I missed out on the million dollars, no matter if
I got a million dollars, Like I can have that
conversation with myself later on the road and not regret it.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Wow, congrats on being the first person in your family
to own a home and you just recently purchased the home,
you and your beautiful wife and your two daughters.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
What was that moment?

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Like, Uh, it didn't feel real. It felt like I
remember having a conversation like multiple times of like who
won't walk in this house after we done, like we're
the landlord or at yeah, I know he gonna come
in here and be like, you can't change this. You
can't change that. I'm gonna be transparent. It put me
in a depression. It put me in a pretty deep depression.

(05:46):
Survivor's guilt, survivor's remorse of like feeling like it's gonna
be snatched away, feeling like yes, I have it, but
how long do I have it for? It's trauma. It's
definitely trauma. I had to sit and question and ask
myself why why am I in this house with my

(06:07):
family and with the people that love me and I'm
surrounded by love and I feel alone. This is a
two weeks ago, so this ain't like three four years.
It's like recent and it just so we sitting on
almost two acres of land, and I vividly again week ago,
stand in the backyard like who's is this Like it

(06:32):
is one of those things where it's like you don't
believe you earned it and you don't believe you worthy
enough of it or for it. But other people, other
people and God deemed you worthy enough. And just finding
that self worth and finding that self confidence and being
I'm always stateful. But for me, it was like this

(06:54):
ain't mine. But then once I start seeing our stuff
rolling and I start like see and my kids would
really change it for me and brought me out a depression.
My daughter just learning how to ride the bike for
the first time. I'm teaching her in the backyard how
to ride the bike. And we got a heel in
our in our backyard and when I say two acres,
it's just all land. It's like we got trees, but

(07:15):
as far as I can go, it's just grass. And
I literally like put her on the bike and let
her roll down the hill and I let her go
and I'm just watching her roll in this field like
grass and like I was like, you did it, man.
Like I really had to sit It's not many times
in my life I've been proud of myself and I
had to sit back and be like I'm proud of me.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
Man, that's your best purchase. Have you made any bad
purchases since you've been this Keith Lee?

Speaker 2 (07:43):
No, I got a wife. I got a black wife.
She don't let me make no dumb no, no dumb purchases.
So my whole team is women. Uh, they be on
my head like it ain't no go out splurred.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
You ain't got no new whip y'all got.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
She brought me a wit. I don't so I don't sweurs.
The only think I buy a shoes shout out to Nike.
I only think I buy shoes. I don't spend my
money on nothing else. But like so, I have a
shoe wall that I collect I'm at probably if I
had to guess the worst, I would sell it right
now for like two hundred grand. Really yeah, that's the
only thing I really spend money on. But other than that,

(08:21):
I don't spend money on nothing. Like they talk about
me all the time. I walk around in like Target
T shirts, like I go to h and M. I
go to Zara. Only very fancy thing I have other
than the house. My wife bought me a Genesis G
ninety wow, probably one hundred and twenty thousand. Yeah, but
I wouldn't. I wouldn't spend it, right, Yeah, she spent

(08:41):
it because you know I wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Is it now because of how you grew up and
not having sometimes you had to go without?

Speaker 2 (08:49):
Oh let me backpedal.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Sorry.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
The biggest purchase not bad purchase, but the biggest purchase
that I look in retrospect, it was the amount of
money we got out the first year we started doing
taxis Shanning. We gave out damnre three hundred thousand dollars
the first year, just like here, here you go, take it.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
I'm sure she said, We're not doing that no more.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
Out of anything, I feel like it's not a regret
because in my mind, to be a blessing, you got
to get a blessure. I mean, to get a blessing,
gotta be a blessing. It's just in retrospect, I think
a lot of that comes from the way that I
was raised to of like, yeah, we had money every
now and again, but we ain't. I ain't never touched
this kind of money.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, yes, it's different.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, it's a different. And it was hard for me
to figure out how to say no, I ain't never
been a person to now I am, well, I'll say
no one a heartbeat. Like it was a video that
just came out when he's that complex and a guy
walked up and he asked me to record him for
two seconds, and I was like, no, no, thank you.
It just they be trolling. He wanted to turn the
camera around and like either do a dance or like

(09:51):
standing awkwardly or something like that. But now I'm getting
to a point where I know how to say no.
It took me a while to get there by show.

Speaker 3 (09:59):
Oh so you go to some a car and you
go to complex. Can you'd be buying sneakers?

Speaker 2 (10:02):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah, you spend that kind of bread. She lets you
spend that kind of bread on kicks.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
Only on shoes. Shoes. Shout out to sacred sneaks. I
got a personal sneaker guy who was my best friend.
He crazy, he twenty one, but he the type to
be getting like pairs dunks. Has worked one hundred thousand
dollars or he'll fly over to Italy just to sell
one pair of shoes that's worth eighty ninety thousand dollars.
When I get them, I don't be paying that.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
But what's the most what's the what's the most expensive
pair of sneakers. I don't have to know how much
you paid for. What would you say you have? That's that's.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Probably my nineteen eighty five collection. I got maybe six
pairs of Jordan wants from nineteen eighty five. All of
them was a pretty penny.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
Are you not? You're not gonna wear them?

Speaker 2 (10:47):
Are you on my feet? I'm wearing movies in Japan? Okay,
yeah I'm one of them, but yeah, don't. I don't
spend money on stuff other than the shoes. So for me,
I've always wanted to collect shoes. I've always wanted to
be a sneaker, but I just never could afford it.
I used to wear air walks in high school, and
I used to get made fun of a lot. That
was the only time I wouldn't even say bully, but

(11:07):
you know people roasting. Yeah, I used to get roast
all the time of shoes. But it was, like I said,
I either was wearing hand me downs, or I was wearing,
like I said, airwalks or stuff that my mom and
dad could afford. I got in trouble once my brother
he wore size twelve. I wore size eight and a half.
I took a pair of his Air Force once and

(11:28):
he used to like color room, like with this back
when you used to get like white air Force one
color room with the colored pencils. Yeah, I took a
pair of them. I stuffed three pair of socks in them.
Put him in my book bag. He was gonna wearing
the school that day. I had no idea put in
my book bag. I used to take the bus, so
I walked to the bus stop. My mama. I had
a full outfit back there too. I had a polo
that came to like down here. It was supposed to
come up here, but it was like down here.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
Clothes.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
I'm stealing everything. I go to school, I go to
the bathroom. I take rubber bands. This is no lie.
I take rubber bands, I take the sleeves. Put the
sleeves up here. Put the rubber bands up. Take the socks,
put them in the shoes. I'm walking around school looking
like Bozo the clowmb my shoes coming up here, my mama.
I'm walking through the hallway feeling like that guy. I
randomly hear my mama voice. You know your mama voice

(12:11):
cut through everything. Yeah, I ran to hear my mama voice.
I look up and she's standing there with my brother
like that was his outfit for today. I'm like, I
started running, Bunkie. I'm running through the hallway and they
end up catching me and up putting the other clothes
back on. I got talked about that so much for weeks,

(12:32):
bro for weeks. Uh. But now I think that has
has sparked the now that I can afford the shoes
that I've always wanted. Back then, I go ahead and yeah,
did you.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Get to see my life on what Not? A few
weeks ago, I sold three hundred pairs of sneakers from
my personal collection, and all the proceeds are going to
my Alma Mauda Savannah Steak that's going to be donated
at a later day and time. The best part of
the night was someone persons a pair of shoes off
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(13:04):
items in just about every category you can think of.
For the sneakerhead, Whatnot is celebrating the best snikers of
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Use my code Shannon fifteen for fifteen dollars off your
first purchase over twenty dollars. Not knowing how long this

(13:26):
is going to last. Hopefully it last another ten, fifteen,
twenty years investing. Are you a big investor now? And
be smart with your money because, like you said, you
never imagine in your wildest I don't even know if
you thought if you'd become a professional MMA fighter, you'll
be making bread like.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
This a thousand percent. So again, I have a very
strong tea behind me. Like you said, we just bought
our first house. It's been maybe like a year and
a half almost Yeah, I would say like a year
and a half where we start making this kind of money.
We are doing big things. First, shout out to BT

(14:03):
and shout out to Churchy. We about to be on TV.
We're gonna do it a sitcom. Churchy Kevin Stage one
of my best friends. He has a sitcom that runs
on normal cable and it runs on BT plus. That's
big for us. You know, normal cable is different. It's
different when you want to app But if you could
just scroll on cable you could see a TV show
Like that's a different level. So I think that's it's

(14:25):
just invest investing in reinvesting in ourselves. The first year
and a half, we literally just took all of the
money that we was making and we put it right
back into what we was doing. So with food tour,
like I said, all of that, most of that comes
out of pocket because when you got too many hands
in it, people get to tell you how to do
it and what to do. I like my family being
on the forefront and when I work with companies. If

(14:47):
I was working with a company that sponsored the whole
food tour, I don't think that'd be the reality. So
we really just invested all of our money right back.
It's very expensive to go on a roll like that,
Like it ain't no joke, like from hotels to flights
to like said, the restaurants itself, to just driving around
in the sprinter all day. Uh add up, bro like.

(15:11):
But again it to get a blessing, you got to
be a blessing. And pouring into what I feel like
I was called to do it has brought us to
where we are now. I think I'm speaking into existence. Uh,
these next few years are gonna be like insane. I
don't know where I'm gonna be. I'm saying it right
now when I look back at this three four years

(15:31):
from now. As long as I'm with my family and
I'm happy, that's all that matters to me.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
Yeah, impersonations, you become people like to parody.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
How do you feel about that?

Speaker 2 (15:44):
It's hilarious to me. It's one of those things where
I feel like it's only a few people who's done
it well. Keenan Townsend, Yeah, yeah, I ain't gonna lie.
I like when people are realistic about the impression. A
lot of times it's like a a trope to impersonate me,
and it's like a very stereotypical like, Hi, my name

(16:04):
is Keith Lee. I got it. Let's try it and
rate them one through ten. I talk like that sounding
like that at all, it'd be like real high pitched
and real like stuffy. The only reason I speak in
that cadence in that conversation, again, you're doing a great
job because we touching stuff that I didn't think it
was gonna touch. The only reason I speak like that
is because, again my social anxiety. If I don't slow down,

(16:26):
you won't understand anything that's coming out of my mouth.
They always say, like you said, I got to spech
at better, But that's why I said. What we talked about.
You here talking to my wife before the cameras hurnt on.
So it's like, hey always talk about my voice. So
the only way that I can make sure I'm enunciating
and you can hear me is to slow down and
talk in a very modo tone, relaxed way. But if

(16:48):
you do an impersonation, it just got to be like calm.

Speaker 3 (16:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
I feel like that's more than anything. I don't talk
like this.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
Keenan said, he tried to Hennessy Hobby n neeiro fruity
pebbles chicken sandwich from Lisa Soul Foods.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
He got it. Shout out sh yeah he got it.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
He got it. So the scale of one to ten,
you give him a ten for that.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, yeah, he was the best one so far.

Speaker 4 (17:11):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
There is a guy who he's been impersonated me for
like a year and a half to the point where
that's like his main page. Yeah uh that. I got
a few Keith Lee doppelgangers, but it's now it was
one guy he does like Keithley Pardy. But he's like
in Atlanta and we met him in person. We don't

(17:32):
love nothing like really he likes six feet tall. It's
like six feet tall. He had like plats, he didn't
even have locks, and he walked up. He's like, yeah,
people tell me we look like all the time I
was looking, he was like six two. I looked at
my do't I'm fine nine? But I feel like, uh
like impersonation Y has definitely kind of got it right.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
You had if you're ready to run to some controversy
with tarajis.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
Oh, let's talk about it, Shannon, what happened? All right?
So again, these are the things that I've never talked
about specifically because I like my family be on the
forefront and I like the restaurant to be the main,
the main focus. The only time I do speak on
it is when I feel like it's starting to affect
my family or starting to affect the money that I
bring in for my family. But like the details of it,

(18:16):
I've never gotten too details. So we'll get into details.
So I had a conversation with BT before we had
walked out or anything. We did a convention. It was
with like a food e con or something maybe like
a week before and we met one of the hiss
from BT there and we had did the BT Awards

(18:37):
the year before. So when we met her, she was like, oh, yeah,
what y'all war into the B two Wars. At this point,
we didn't even have an invitation, So I'm like, I'm not,
I don't know, we're not going. She like, what, everybody
would love to hang y'all there, y'all gotta be there.
We loved y'all so much and this whole year. We
had worked with BT maybe like three or four times
prior to this, and she was like, yeah, we love you,

(18:58):
we want you here. Like we had a full conversation.
They end up getting us the tickets. We had front
row tickets, we had the red carper and all of that.
I told her beforehand. The love that y'all say that
y'all had for us, I don't feel it, because when
y'all do mention us, or y'all do bring us up
in conversation, it's always the most negative things that you

(19:19):
can possibly talk about. Oh, it's always like the drama
or like it's never like we went to a restaurant
and we was blessed enough to leave thousands of people
at a restaurant that I was about the clothes tomorrow,
or like anything that was positive and it's ninety percent.
I would like to think it's ninety percent positive what
we do ten percent of the bad, right And I

(19:40):
felt like a lot of times there was the bush
that I was being brought up. So I had a
conversation with it, transparently about it to We talked about it.
We talked again before we got before we went up
into the A War show. We was sitting backstage and
I was talking to one of the heads of BT
and I told her the same thing, And I was saying,
you don't have to include us. I'm okay with being

(20:03):
in the sprinter van with my family and just eating food.
That's more than enough of me. If you are going
to include us, include it from a place that y'all
want us here, and not just because we viral or
we food and fluensures that like are big right now,
I was like, included from a place of the love
that you say that you have for us, because what
I don't like is that you come to us every

(20:23):
time you see me is immediately like, oh, we love
you so much. We want to do this, we want
to do that, and then nothing comes out of it. Right,
So we go to the War show. We sitting behind
DC young Fly. We sit next to what's his name,
you know, the original seats that we were in. We
were sitting next to a older guy and everybody was

(20:45):
like being super rowdy, and me and him we talking,
We have conversations, we laughing with each other. I'm telling
him like, you ain't got to worry about my wife
standing up and working. We sitting here, we enjoying the show,
we laughing, we having a ball. So it's probably halfway
through the showers from BT walks up or a person
from production walks up and she says, hey, we about
to switch your seats in a minute because we're doing

(21:06):
a episode or were doing a segment to where we're
giving people they flowers, right, mind you. I just talked
to BT an hour ago and I'm like, y'all don't
have to do this. I'm okay sitting in these seats
having conversations with I think his name was doctor Bobby Jones. Now, yeah,
we sit next to doctor Bobby Jones. I'm like, this
is more than enough of me. Like, I'm more than
thankful just to be here. They like, no, we're gonna
sit you on the front road and we're gonna give

(21:27):
your flowers, and we really want to highlight you. We
really want to. And I'm saying, all this is a production.
Lady like, don't bring us up here with the like
I'm okay with sitting here. She's like, no, come on,
So they come get this. Maybe like ten minutes later,
they put us in Tyler. She was sitting there. She
had got up the left, so they put us in
Tyler's seats, sitting next to Tyler. We sit next to
Jordan and no, Jordan is Stallion. He's a guy from TikTok.

(21:54):
He does like the hit where he like turned his
camera around here in the bathroom and he like do
like reaction videos. Me and Jordan looked nothing alike. Again,
Jordan's six to two, big scruffy beard, he got a
curly afro. Me and Jordan are are really franch too.
That's what made all of this even crazier. So me

(22:14):
and Jordan were sitting there, they Taji come out and
this is the biggest thing that I want to get
throughout the whole story. I didn't blame Taraji for one second,
because it was all production that was making things or
didn't have to be made, that was making a spectacle
that had no business being a spectacle. So they come around.
She's starting to do her segment. We're readding the prompter

(22:37):
and own the prompter is saying like, give fla J
her flowers, say this about fla J. Do this, that
and the third. So she read off of the prompter
for Fla J. Specifically, she do like two or three
white people. She come over to us and she immediately
walked past me, walked to Jordan, and she start talking
to Jordan as if she was as Jordan was me.
And I'm reading a prompter and a prompter is saying like,

(22:59):
tell Keith Lee, give Keith Lee's flowers, this and the third.
And she looked at Jordan and she go, I bet
you rate this a war show ten out of ten.
And Jordan go, oh no, no, no, no, that's him.
Mind you. At this whole time, I'm not upset it
to Roger at all. I'm like, I understand a whole
bunch is going on. They just threw this on you.
They didn't have to throw this on you. Again we

(23:20):
was okay, sitting in the back like they just made
this a last minute ditch effort to give it our flowers.
They had a she'd come over, she like, oh my bad.
She immediately start like improving, because again this is a
situation where it's a lot going on. So she starts
saying like, you look good too, even though my wife

(23:40):
is sitting right here. She's like, oh, you look good.
Give you give him his flowers? This that and the third,
and then she tell Jordan that he looked good. And
this is a whole bunch of improv. She leave me
and Jordan looking at each other like what just happened?
Like it was the craziest thing. I'm looking I'm sitting
there like you didn't have to do that, Like my
wife and I were more than content with just being.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
In the moment, sitting in the scene where we were
having a good time talking.

Speaker 3 (24:11):
You didn't have to do all of that, but we
put us in that spot.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
And if it up for no reason. Now that I
opened my phone. Literally when I say, five seconds after
I happened, I owed my phone. We did the number
one thing on Twitter, and it's like Keith Lee looked
so embarrassed. His wife looked humiliated, and his wife they
she was flirting in front of his wife. She was
just at a third and they was just dragging the
situation out and I took a roll. I took the

(24:35):
roads that they gave me. I dropped them on the floe.
The reason I dropped on the floe because this whole time,
I'm like, that's not for me. That wasn't meant for me.
What was meant for me was to sit there where
I was sitting at and mine my business. Because if
it was meant for me, it would have went just
as smooth as everything else was going. Like I said,
we were sitting there, laughing, smile and having fun. When
I dropped the rolls, I was speaking directly to production, like,

(24:58):
don't do this again. If we gonna come and we're
gonna enjoy the role, show, enjoy how we had the conversation.
Mind you, I know all of this is happening because
I had the conversation with him before. But people online
they just see, oh, he dropped the roles. He talking
directly about Taraji, So they make it into a huge
thing of like me disrespecting her, this, that and the
third So I take the video down because I am

(25:18):
a supporter of black women and I'm a supporter of
us as a people, and to see her on stage
killing it the way she killed it, I didn't want
that to be clouded by the unnecessary part. So I
took the video down specifically for that reason. But then
you know, people dig into that. They're like, why he
take the video down. It's because people was getting on
his head and this, that and the third. So Taraji

(25:38):
come out and she say, yeah, his ego was hurt,
and the whole time, I'm like, Taraji, I didn't have
no issue. I didn't have no problem with you. If anything,
I feel like she should have understood that I was
talking directly to production because I know the situation that
she was in. We was in it together. We was
literally looking at the prompter and the teleprompter together, So
I understand that it was nothing that she did. It

(25:59):
just was a space or the moment kind of thing,
And I felt like she would understand that I wasn't
coming from a place of attacking her. But it was
one of those things where it's like, it is what
it is. I still got love for Taraji. I never
had no ill will in my heart for her. I
still got love for BT. That's why I said we're
doing the BT thing. Because we called. I called them,
we had a com I still haven't had a conversation
with Taraji, but BT called me and we had a

(26:19):
full conversation. I told them exactly how I felt, and
they apologized and it was like, we understand that it
was super last minute, and next time we do something,
we're gonna plan it out and we actually gonna think
about it and make it a heartfelt thing if we're
gonna actually do it.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
But how did it make you feel?

Speaker 1 (26:34):
For probably the first time since you started and you
became this uh internet sensation that you had had people
kind of come for you.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
M How did you? How did you? How did you?
How did your wife handle it? Because you guys are
packaging deal.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
I was pissed off, but I was pissed off from
a perspective of it was being made as if I
was going at Taraji. I don't care what people say
about me. People gonna talk about me my whole life.
So I told her I always been the one that
stick up for myself, So that part in my head again,
I don't see myself like that anyway, so you can
say he ain't a celebrity. He wanted to be a celebrity.

(27:10):
I want to be Keith. I don't want to be
nothing else. So when those comments was coming, I wasn't
paying no attention to it. The only time I ever
got upset is when people was like, he's down in
black women. He's taken away from the shine of a
black woman in a black woman's time, where she was
doing something amazing for us and pushing the culture for her.
That's when I was getting pissed off. I didn't want
it to be misconstrued that I was coming to her.

(27:30):
My family will tell you. I literally was having conversations
with them and I was like, bro, if they just
leave her out of this. And then when she started
getting mad at me, I'm like, why why are we
going at it? Like? Why is it always spun to
where it's two of us that look the same, keeping
until artucation that don't need to be had.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
Would you have felt better had she if she would
have picked up the phone, If somebody could have put
you guys in contact with each other so you guys
could talk to this thing man a woman.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
Rather than just saying like, oh, it's ego hurt, Like
I feel like if, but again I'm not. I don't
expect anything because we don't have no personal relationship. But
understand it was just as stressful for her to get
all of those comments and getting all the feedback and
so just as stressful. And again it was cloud and
what she was doing that night. So I understand the
frustration from Martin because she like, I'm doing something that
I've always dreamed about doing and keeping because you know,

(28:17):
she came out publicly about her not getting the respect
that she deserves, and she was getting to respect that
she deserved, and it got clouded by something that's stupid,
that's dropping the rolls. So I feel like from her perspective,
I fully understand. I said, I don't whod no ill
will or no feelings towards her. It's one thing that
I did I didn't want to talk about. I didn't
even think about it. The BT wars this again, I
never spoke on this before. There was a video that

(28:37):
came out of a guy walking up in Gerald Huston.
You know, he walking around with the cameras, the glasses,
the cameras on his glasses and he purposely mistakens people
for other people, and he did it to us, and
he called me DDG and he walked up and it
turned into like a fiasco of what of us, like
actually getting into it. I wanted to make it very
clear because again I never spoke on it. I didn't
have no problem with Gerald. Gerald grabbed me. He walked

(29:00):
up up the thing and he grabbed my waist and
I was like, hey, don't do that. It's the difference
between him saying, oh you, DDG. I'm the type to
laugh about that. I don't care about yeah, but I
don't care about people trolling. But me and DDG stood
next to each other, he came, I just met as
Mama was at last week, and my whole family said
we look like So from that part, it was like
I can laugh, like I just don't like being touched.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
It was the touching part.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
So I wanted to make that very clear. I think
that was one of my biggest things I wanted to
get off while we're doing this, is that like if
we troller, you trolling.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
I get that.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
I just don't like being touched, bro. Like I think
that comes from me being a fighter in my whole
life and from just anxiety in general and me being
outside and really trying to get to that space of
being comfortable in those spaces of a thousand people around
us and taking visures or not. I'm getting a lot better,
and I do pride myself on that. It's just the
touch it right that takes me immediately back to like

(29:51):
get away from me, like exactly exactly, but it was
fun to Like I was mad that he was calling
me DDG and and I I wanted to be a
celebrity and I want him to know who I am,
And I was mad here on I didn't care about
none of that. I don't care if you know who
I am. God know who I am. Man my family
on im. That's what matters the most of me.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
Go James and the Lakers are back putting on the show,
and you know, I got to get the best deal
on tickets. That's why I need to tell you about
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Speaker 3 (30:25):
I'm excited to go see the Lakers.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Y'all know who it is. It's your favorite. And I'm
riding around here in Vegas with mcguy Keith Lee. And
he's the Internet's most popular and famous food critic. He
was named one of four thirty Under thirty class Member
for twenty twenty four. A viral food and local restaurant reviewer,
charitable influence and advocate for small businesses. One of the
top digital content creators, social media superstar, and sensation King

(30:47):
of TikTok food community. He has over nineteen million followers
between TikTok and Instagram. A farmer, mixed marshal arts, fighter,
the loved father, husband, and he's the people champ.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
God.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
That's amazing. Man.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (31:03):
Bro all my life, grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle,
p price, Want a slice? Got the brother Swap all
my life. I'll be grinding all my life, all my life,
grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle, pa price one slice,
Got the brothers, swap all my life.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
I've been grinding all my life.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
I'm excited about who.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
You was intro and I said that I don't know
who that man here.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
But I appreciate that man. This tour of Vegas and
some of the local hot spots. Let's do it. I'm
super exciting. One of the five best cities.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
For food top five in order.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
You can put them in order. If you like it,
you can just give me your top five.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
My order personally, Yes, New Orleans number one, Okay, Houston
is number two, Chicago is number three. Wow, Toronto will
be four right now. I will go Miami. Yeah. If
I had the think of where I will go back,
I will go Miami for shure. But top three is solid.
My top three is New Orleans, Houston, and Chicago.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Solid.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
No, No Atlanta, no New York.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
So very specific reasons why I say that, right, Yeah,
So for those that don't know, we go on food tour,
but we go on food tour for people that look
like us and people who come from the background that
we come from. So we specifically do it for people
that can jump on a plane, that are foodies and
just want to go try food. So I don't do
it in a way where you can go call the
biggest influencer in that city or the biggest celebrity and

(32:41):
had them show for you around and show you places.
I do it specifically for people that literally just want
to go try food. So we go to spots that
are more on the unknown level, places that only locals
know about, if you know, you know, kind of places
that have great food, great customer service, but can need
the marketing. But we also go to saples at the
community to show respect to each city that we go to.

(33:03):
So when I'm picking these places that are my top five,
is more on accessibility, like what's the easiest to jump
on the plane and just go get some great food?
And I feel like New York isn't in that top
five for me because the accessibility of to know the
spots is really hard to find great spots unless you're
from there. And if you do meet somebody that's from there,

(33:24):
if y'are not super close, if you just meeting this
person for the first time, they more than likely not
gonna give you the spots that they go to because one,
they don't want the spots blown up, so they don't
want everybody there too. They aren't a super welcome in
group of people. They want you to be a tourist
and that's it. But once you start venturing off of
that and you start deeping it, digging into local spots

(33:46):
and spots they've been going to for years, and spots
they have nostalgia attached to. They don't want no parts
of it.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
What's the best city to get piece in.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
New York? Got that New York out that that was
one of the best things that we had when he
was there was PIECEA. I'm from Detroit, so I like
a deep dish, big hardy I've tried. Oh, I'm see,
but that's because you're from Atlanta. Yeah, understood.

Speaker 3 (34:15):
Yeah, I'm from South Georgia, Georgia underd Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
But I see like when i get that deep dish,
I feel like I'm meeting the piece of cake, use
something that.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
See Now if you if you don't like a super
thick then I wouldn't say. But personally like time from Detroit.
So I like a deep dish. I like I like
the dough to be super high quality and to be
the main focus.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
What about what's the five most underrated cities?

Speaker 2 (34:38):
Well, you put me on us spot. Let us go
there and Shannon top five most most underrated. I will
go Detroit. I feel like not a lot of people
know that Detroit has a food scene. Seattle, I feel
like it's one of those places. Again, if you know,
you know, if you're a true food you know, Seattle
has a great food city. Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge is

(34:58):
a place that is very specific now like it's it's
black people, black people, country food. So if you are
into country food, I'm found my hog mall neck b Yeah,
your mother, everything smothering and covered. Then bat and Rulee
is definitely an underknown spot. Arizona, Oh, Arizona, that's perfect Arizona.

(35:18):
I feel like Arizona's underrated. And the reason I say
that is because you get a lot of healthy spots,
but you also get very authentic, from my knowledge, authentic
Southwestern Southwestern food. Even they have a really big native
population for you get native food, and I've never been
to a place that has native food. Milwaukee got a
good food scene. That's that's pretty underrated. Wow, Oh Dallas.

(35:43):
Dallas got a food scene that's definitely underrated. Really for
sure it's here or missed because it's a place that
like doesn't have much of a big food culture other
than barbecue Southern Texas roots, but as far as stepping
into other cuisines and other ethnicities, they don't really do
it that much so. But the barbecue alone carries some

(36:05):
of the best Barbara ever had in my life.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
What about the worst where you go, like, man, y'all,
they'd be hyping this up and it ain't even like
that food wise.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
Yeah, so you know you start talking about it, that's
home experience.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
Absolutely so for me. Atlanta and I'm so happy you
asking this. Atlanta had really good food. Atlanta had a
good food scene. It's just you have to be somebody
in order to get food. Do you have the name
drop when you go to Atlanta and get food? Nah?

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Because I really don't go to the places that I
go to. They kind of know me. So when I like,
I call it, they're gonna take care of me.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
But I ain't.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
But do you feel like if they didn't know Shannon Sharpe.
And that's exactly why I say we do the food
to people that really want to jump on a plane
and just go get food. If we go to a
place specifically because Keith Lee and we go eat at
the best restaurant and people want to jump on the
plane and go.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
Try that, they're not going to be going to be
able to get it.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Not only the service, they're not gonna be able to
get the food. They're gonna go in there and anybody, Oh,
we ain't got no bookings for the rest of the day.
That third, but let Shannon Shark walk in. We got
six tables as wide open. We about to clean them
right now. You get the fresh food. So that's one
of the main kinds of why we do so.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
It's not so much the food, it's the service, absolutely
in order to get the food. Are you surprised you
got so much blowback for when you critique Atlanta and
you let them know that it's not so much the food,
it's the service. If you're not somebody you're not, you're
not getting in there. They're always crowded, they're always booked,
and they only treat people that of influenced.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Was I surprised, No, Because it's like ripping a band
aid off of something that people didn't know was a scar.

Speaker 3 (37:50):
Right.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
If you from there and you was born and raised
in that environment, you don't know no better. You think
that that's what the food scene is, and you think
that's what culture is, right cause that's part of Atlanta's culture, right.
I j just came from a perspective of somebody who
wasn't from there, and somebody who was experiencing it for
the first time, the death threats and whatnot, was I
surprised about that. Yeah, that's the first time I ever

(38:14):
experienced something like that. People taking food that areas, Oh
it's bad, it's real. Even in DC, we got a
death threat from a guy who like, who's a a
rapper out there, and he talking about next time he come,
instead of reviewing food, we're gonna review his life or
something like that. We just eating food.

Speaker 4 (38:29):
Man.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
It's like, my opinion, isn't the end all be all.
I understand that everybody has a different opinion on food,
and I always say that, but I get how the
internet gets too And I don't blame him, because people
are prideful and where they come from, right, and people
have a lot of love and nostalgia in the city
that they come from, and they feel personally attacked. And
I wanna make put it on the record right now

(38:50):
that when we go for the food tour is not
to find what the best food is. It's specifically to
highlight the restaurants that that have great food, gret customer service,
but can need marketing and don't get the marketing specifically
because either they in a food desert to where a
lot of people don't have access to the food that
they that they would need or want. Or two it's
a location based place, or three it's a place where

(39:11):
the owners have put so much into the restaurant itself
that they don't have the time or the money to market.
Because a lot of people who do food reviews, that's
why I don't send myself with food influencer or a
food creator any of that, because I don't charge restaurants anything.
When I first started, people were telling me I could
charge anywhere from five thousand to ten thousand per video
for a restaurant, and I know people that do that

(39:33):
that charge more more than way more than that, But
I specifically do it for their restaurants, and I don't
charge them a dime. So that's what the food to
It about is about. It's about marketing these places, and
it's about going out and trying food that my mom
can go in the next day and get the same
experience that we have. Look like old school, yeah yeah,

(40:00):
Atlanta had good betters.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Yeah you call hell getting in there.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
And I don't want that to be mistaken at all.
Atlanta has.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
Yeah, you're not saying they don't have good food anything.
You just said the customer service.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
I really like the people in Atlanta. I love how
many of us is out there. I love the wealth
that's out there and the things that that those kids
that are from there are exposed to. When it comes
to black wealth, when it comes to black excellence, when
it comes to a community that's built around us for us,
I never want that to be lost in translation. When
it comes to the mecca of what we do and

(40:35):
the highlight of us is Atlanta. But at the same time,
if you ain't got a certain status or a certain
million followers, you better cook it home.

Speaker 3 (40:45):
Sah. Do you try crazy food? To have you tried
crazy food?

Speaker 2 (40:55):
And what you consider crazy?

Speaker 3 (40:57):
I mean I hate as a kid, I hate raccoon.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
I world hate rabbit, turtle country country. Uh No, I
try anything that. I always said I'll try anything once.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
So you would try raccoon postule, Yeah, I'll.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Try once, But I like it. I don't know. You
eat well? How do you eat it? You eat like?

Speaker 4 (41:17):
No?

Speaker 2 (41:17):
No? No?

Speaker 3 (41:18):
You bake it? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (41:20):
Put yeah, you put it in the oven, you cut
it up. Bale peppers on your celary.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
You put it in there, You're a different kind of country.
I'm not gonna lie to you and say I won't
because again, I'm a foodie, so I get very interested
in stuff. I'm the type to my my family be
getting mad at me all the time. I'm the type
to walk into a random establishment and be like, Oh,
we was in Seattle and we walked by and we
saw ducks hanging out the window. We walked in, got

(41:44):
a duck. He cut the head off right in front
of us, and we went the car ate it. That
was my first time ever doing something like that, but
I'll do it like this is good. It depends on
where you get it from. A lot of times it
can be gamey, it could be a little too overpowering
and chewy and texture. But the one we just had
was super crispis playful. It was fresh and it was juicy.
Like I said, they took it right off the rack
and cut it in front of us. You like qual

(42:05):
I like quail, I like quayal.

Speaker 3 (42:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
Yeah, we just had a quail egg the Scotch from
when we was in Seattle. It was like a Scotch egg.
It was wrapped and it was fried, but it was
a quill egg that was wrapped in bacon and then
fried again on the outside.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
It was good. Yeah, but you need to eat like
seven of them to get full.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Yeah. That's the fact that like this I eat, Shannon. Yeah,
I'm an eating man.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
Yeah, for sure. I saw where you ate the sushi worm.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
I knew that was coming. So when we were in Seattle,
we went to a place. It was a sushi spot.
A bunch of people were recommended. It was a stable
of the community, and it was out the door when
we went. So we went just to show respect to
the city and go to a place I was a staple.
I did the full review, did the full video. I
posted it. Two days later. Somebody tagged me in a
clip of them slowing it down and on one of

(42:49):
the the giri's there was a what seemed to be
something moving. I can't confirm it or now what it was.
I'm not gonna say it's a worm of parasite or anything.
It was something that looked like it was moving, and
I ate it. I had no idea what it was.
I had no idea that there was anything moving. Into
somebody tagging in that video that whole thing spiraled into
something else. Uh allegedly, I can't confirm it or not

(43:12):
that this is specifically from the restaurant, but somebody was
hospitalized a day after we left, and again I can't
confirm it not it was from that restaurant. And in
my mind, if anybody did go to a restaurant that
we did go to and they were sick, and anyway,
I came and spoke spoke up about it because I
wanted to send my heart and my support to that person.

(43:35):
I love sushi.

Speaker 3 (43:36):
I've never had it. I just I just like my
food cook. I just can't.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
You don't like none wrong, I can. I was about
to say something, I'm leaving alone.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
I'm a.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
I know you go and see yeah, so I again,
I'm a foodie. I can't have shellfish. But I explored
with everything else other than show us.

Speaker 3 (44:03):
So that restaurant got closed down.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
Right from allegedly from what I hear, they did put
a statement out and said that it was closed. But
I believe it was closed because they are looking internally.
The owners have reached out to me on a bunch
of different occasions, and I get the impression that they
are just fine. Tuning things and getting things together, because
I don't get the impression that they were malicious in

(44:26):
any any fashion or that they were neglectful. I believe
it just was a isolated I feel like it was
just an unfortunate incident that was put on the internet.
And I feel like anybody could have put on the
internet and it would have blew up in the same manner.
It just so happened to be that we were the
ones that posted it. But I truly believe that, not

(44:47):
only in my I even gave the sushi that had
the alleged whatever it was moving on it, I gave
it like an eight point five, and that was the
highest thing out of the entire thing at the entire
what I was eating, because of my opinion, it was delicious.
I just believe that once they take a step back
and really like see what it was that could have
been an issue, that they'll be back better than other.

(45:08):
And I'm not opposed of going back.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
And that's where I was going out asking you, would
you be open to going back and offering another review.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
Absolutely, I'm not opposed going back if I'm welcomed, if
it's not a review, if it's just having a conversation.
If it's being back on opening day and bringing my
family and showing my support and showing that I mean
it when I say I understand it. As a business,
it's a lot harder than just food itself, and I
have nothing but respect and love for them and what

(45:36):
they do.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
Keith, I went shopping yesterday for you.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
I know you'd be doing all these reviews and sometimes
the food is really really good and you want to
take some of it home. So I went shopping for
you at Amazon. I got you something fire, keep the left.

Speaker 3 (45:51):
Over, that's firing.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
I appreciate you, man, just being here with you more
than again.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
Appreciate you man.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
At times I was broad members sad though five o
FO these days winning, I know, all right, Shannon. This
is where everything started. Man. We was in here two
years ago. We've been leaving here for like three or
four years. This is where I have my baby's at.
This is where everything started for me, as far as
contracts for fighting food reviews, starting that papatoach hair. Yeah,

(46:22):
this is the mecca for real.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
This is the beginning of Keith Lee as we know it,
absolutely and then something.

Speaker 4 (46:31):
Yeah.

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(47:14):
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Speaker 3 (47:35):
Keith.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
We're back at the condo where it all started. Being
back here what kind of memories come rushing back everything? Man,
this is insane to me.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
So literally from we moved here twenty nineteen, when me
and my wife had no money coming in for real.
When I say no money, we just trying to figure
out how to even survive down there. The rent was
one thousand dollars. We moved in. We had both our
babies here. The pandemic happened here. All of the videos
that you see online happen. And hear me even starting
on TikTok because I always have bad social anxiety, so

(48:03):
I never posted. I never man, four years ago, you
could never get me on camera. So like this is
where everything, me even getting comfortable to be on camera started.
I don't know you can feel it, but it's like
I'm getting goosebun bro, Like I ain't even here so long.
I'm like, look you can see it. Yeah starting up, man,
But yeah, this mean everything to me.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
You mentioned that you started posting the TikTok videos to
help with your stuttering, just help with your social anxiety,
and also to help you because in Emma, you're going
to have to do interviews and so you could be
more fluid in your conversation did.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
How did the TikTok? What made you think?

Speaker 1 (48:38):
Say, you know what, let me get behind the camera,
let me just talk, build up some curves to do this,
and then once I get in front of people, I
should be able to do it.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
Shitting right here, do interviews. I was sitting there, I
had like a little table, and I was sitting to interviews,
and I would be so bad it would literally mess
up my entire week, Like from the point where like
the second I got to think about doing an interview,
to three or four days before the interview, to the
actual interview, to a week after interview. It literally would
just like ruin me. I'd be sweating and I'd be nervous,
I'd be clammy. So during the pandemic, we ain't really

(49:07):
had not enough to do, like we Like I said,
she was pregnant, so my brother fought in Brazil, and
the second he far from in Brazil. The pandemic started
while I was out there. So she called me. And
so they don't really they didn't really have the same
news feed that they have out here. So when my
wife called me, she like everybody taking stuff off the shelves,
they panicking, they grabbing stuff and they wearn't masks and
that's this when it first started, so you know, people

(49:28):
weren't has masks, suits and all top. So she called
me and she was panicking, and I'm like, Okay, as
long as I can get back then I'd be safe.
But I was worried about getting back, and so by
the time I got back, I was like, whatever we
need to do to get this issue like under wraps
even a little bit, I'm gonna start doing and TikTok.
At that point, it was either like you was made
fun of for having it or you people was like, bro,

(49:51):
you missing out because this is where everybody we in
the house, So this is where everybody at. So I
think it's one of those things where God don't make
the mistakes. And my wife was telling me to do it,
so I was like, I might as well try it.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
Seeing where you are now, seeing where you were then,
what's going through your mad.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
Emotions?

Speaker 3 (50:10):
Bro?

Speaker 2 (50:10):
Like I'm trying not to cry. Yeah, it's surreal because
I remember vividly having conversations about the exact moment that
we in right now, coming back and rejoicing and having
like that like I made it moment and the fact
that it's here. I don't even think it's I think

(50:30):
it's impossible to put into words. I just can't wait
for my kids to be able to watch this because
I got a four year old a two year old,
and both of them are born in his house. So
I just can't wait for them to watch this and
let them know their daddy made it.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
You mentioned the MLA aspect of it, So how did
sports help you get over your anxiety? Because you're around
people all the time. I mean, it's kind of hard
to play sports and not have a conversation, not be
having an interaction.

Speaker 3 (50:54):
So did it help or hurt you playing sports?

Speaker 2 (50:57):
I would say it kind of hurt me because the
sports that I was playing, So I wrestled off from
middle school to high school to my first year in college,
and even my first year at college. The only reason
I didn't wrestle all the way through is because I
couldn't afford it, so I got kicked out. But I
feel like the reason that hurt is because wrestling and
MMA guys are very awkward anyway, and a lot of
them go through a lot of eating disorders, they go

(51:18):
through a lot of anxiety, a lot of depression. But
it's not a thing that spoke of in the sport.
It's not a lot of people that come on the
forefront and say it because we fighters, we like the
modern day gladiators. They're supposed to be the tough guys,
so I think a lot of it is hitting. So
for me, once I got into the real world and
I got into a space where I wasn't around nothing

(51:38):
but fighters or wrestlers, it made me feel like the outcasts.
I always kind of felt like the outcasts, even in wrestling,
but even more so when I was in normal society
because you had it's a different level you got to
turn off when you fighting. You Yeah, sure, it's a
different level you got you locked in. So it's it's
something that that I feel like a lot of people
don't have to be able to switch on and switch off.

(52:00):
So for me, it was hard to switch that off
once I got into like a space where people looked
at me more for doing cooking videos or more for
doing food creating videos, and they looked at me for
fighting because as you know, as a professional athlete, you
think that's all you wanna do for the rest of
your life. So it was such a drastic change for
me that I feel like fighting heard It hurt a
little bit because again, I didn't have that social interaction

(52:22):
with people. All of social interaction with people I had
was people that got kicked in the head for a living.
So it was like, they talk different, they act different,
they have a different mindset. So once I got into
this space and I'm like, you don't worry about getting
punched in the face.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
But did it because like as you mentioned other fighters,
they're kind of socially awkward, kind of like yourself. They
have anxiety, they don't really care to be speaking on camera.
Did it give you a certain level of comfort hanging
around people that were kind of just like you.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
You guys had something in common subconsciously, Yeah, because, like
I said, you don't really know what you don't know.
I didn't know because I don't really consider myself socially awkward.
I consider myself a person who will from exit from
the conversations, exit from social interactions. So again, it's something
that you don't even realize until you get around other
people and you like, wait, y'all just be sitting here

(53:10):
talking to people like you be mingling? Right?

Speaker 3 (53:12):
I never did that.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
Like networking, I don't do that.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
Are you naturally an introverted person?

Speaker 2 (53:17):
Absolutely?

Speaker 3 (53:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
I think a lot of it is trauma based. I
had a very traumatic childhood. My parents did the best
that they could because my mom and dad were always
super involved. I've just always been kind of like a
quiet state of myself kind of person. And then when
I didn't and I tried to step out of that
and tried to be like the life of the party
and like the extrovert that will go out party drink smoke,
I always ended up in like I was always the

(53:40):
one that was targeted for some reason, and I genuinely
believe now with retrospect, it was because God was telling
me that that's not for you, and you're trying to
fit into something that don't belong for you. So I'm
gonna make you an example, and I'm gonna stick you
on the forefront. And I felt like that was always
an example for me.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
Being socially awkward as a child, having a speech impediment.
I had one of them. I still have a list talking.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
You think I got a speech of better? Where that
comes from?

Speaker 3 (54:03):
It seems like you can have a stuttering problem, correct.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
Kind of Yeah, Okay, we're gonna speak, But it wasn't
necessarily stuttering. It was more or less of like trying
to I guess, just stuttering. Yeah, you got it, you
got it.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
But the kids, the kids make fun of you and
make you go deeper deeper into being into yourself, in deeper, deeper, introverted.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
M M No, I was if anything, I was a bully.
I didn't lie to you. I was a I can guess, oh,
I was an asshole bro growing up as a kid.
It wouldn't know me getting bullied. It was more than
opposite because I was always real small. So when I
graduated high school, I was like fort eleven, maybe like
one hundred.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
Who are you fulling that? For level exactly?

Speaker 2 (54:50):
It was one of those things. It was I got
a I had a little man got complex. Little man
said drown. So it was like, the last thing you
was about to do is mess with me. And again,
I wrestled after high school, so I I had that
age over a lot of people. But for the most part,
I always was fighting. I was always arguing. I always
had a problem with authority. So for me, I never
again I never really realized that I was this introvert

(55:11):
or this super quiet person until I got into spaces
where I would be around other extroverts, or I got
into spaces where like sayd it was networking events, or
like people looked at me something other than a fighter.
So my older brother thought he was in the UFC
by the time I graduated high school, so I always
was in his shadow. So for me, it was easy
to be like, I'm just Kevin Lee's brother, Like I

(55:33):
don't really have to step out of that. So when
all of this started taking off and like I was
Keith Lee, that'st when everything like opened up for me
and I really saw like, oh, you really got an issue,
Like you really can't do interviews, You really can't talk
to another human being for more than five minutes without
shoot sweating bullets, and like literally like want to shut
off and run in your room for the rest of

(55:54):
the day. That didn't really start until, like I said,
like twenty nineteen, twenty twenty. But as a kid, you
can me nothing.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
So how was it a family time? Because you said,
I mean, did you realize that how is your family?
Are they very talkative? Did you know you guys sit
around the television and carry on conversation to watch watch
a program together. So how was it growing up with
your brother and what you said? He's already in the UFC,
so he's probably what five six years older.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
Than four years? So I got a brother that's four
years older than me, brother that's four years younger than me,
and then I got a sister that's seven years older
than me.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
Okay, so how so how was your childhood? How was
your you know, you and your brothers, did y'all get along?

Speaker 3 (56:29):
Did you fight? No?

Speaker 2 (56:32):
So he definitely didn't get along. But for me, I
like I was always I felt like the black sheep.
But I feel like me and my sister argue about
that a lot because she felt like she was a
black sheep. But so my sister, she had god parents,
so growing up she was always with her godparents. And
then it was me and my older brother. My younger brother.
My older brother was a very smart kid, the kid
who everybody like modeled after and everybody was like praising

(56:55):
at all times. He had always had like a four
point of gray point average. He was in sports. He
was light skinned, curly hair, pretty boy, way lighter than me.
Ok yeah, yeah, right, typical B two K, like super curly.
When I was younger, I was always the darkest out
of everybody in my family. So and I like I

(57:15):
was small. The main thing about me as a kid,
I always either hurt myself or I always like ended
up in a situation to where I was the center
of retention but for the wrong reasons self hurt yourself
or I was clumsy. So my head was the same
time as it is now, I was just fully eleving.

Speaker 3 (57:32):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
So so it's like my neck wasn't strong enough to
carry right. I got scars all back here. I got
the scar on my forehead you see here, I got
scars all in here. When I say like that was
a normal thing for us have a family function and
us to end up an emergency room because keithon bust
his head open. I had staples. That's happened to me
at least, I would say six seven different times, seven

(57:55):
different occasions. And for me, like I said, childhood wise,
it was more or less of like I was always
trying to figure out where I belonged and why I
belonged where I belonged, and I never could really like
figure it out. So I was always longing for attention.
So I always had a problem with authority, and I
would make it known that I had a problem with authority.
So I was always the one getting suspended. I was

(58:16):
always the one getting kicked out of school. I got
kicked out of five or six different schools. I got
expected when I say, kicked out me and expelled from
the whole school district.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
So yeah, it was it was like that, did you
have a problem with you know, parents are authoritative figures.

Speaker 3 (58:30):
Did you have a problem with your parents?

Speaker 2 (58:32):
Absolutely? Yeah, And me and my dad used to get
into all the time, to a point where I moved
out when I was sixteen and with my god brother,
and then when I moved back in, we ended up
moving here. And then when I met my wife. I
met my wife when I was eighteen. I was homeless
at the time. Let me tell it. I ran away
from and yeah, I had, I just wasn't staying. She'd

(58:53):
tell you, I literally was sleeping in my car, and
I never told her this until maybe like last year.
I would like. So I was working as a lifeguard.
I would drive to work and I had like a
two thousand Nissian maximum super bucket. I used to drive
to work in it, and then as soon as I
would get off of work. I would text her and
be like, Hey, I'm on my way over to you.
Literally do she know I'm already sitting in the parking

(59:14):
lot and I've been sleeping her for three days. And
I'm literally like on the phone with my cousin, with
my sister and telling them like what's going on? And
she thinks I'm getting off of work, but the whole
time I've been sleeping in the parking lot. I walk upstairs,
take a shower, getting food, be like, oh, I'm headed
back to work just because I didn't want to be embarrassed,
walk back downstairs, and sleep back back in my car.

Speaker 3 (59:33):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (59:33):
Yeah, So that was happening for maybe like what a month? Maybe? Yeah,
maybe like a month. So my relationship with my parents
have always been very rocky, but I take a lot
of credit for it because my dad always tried the
best that he possibly could. When he would come home,
it would be like, either you gonna do what I
say or that's it. No other right ifans were buts
I grew up in an old school house hold, so yes,

(59:53):
it was different for me because I've always been a
big communicator, so you either got to explain to me
why I'm doing what I'm doing or I'm not doing it.
But no, no, no, no, exactly, don't do that. In fact,
on the King Shady Queen and you listen to everything
we say. And that always was a problem for me.

Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
Did your brother and supposter have those same problems with
your father or they just.

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
Like it was me? Yeah, But so it trickled down
from me to my younger brother. And my younger brother
and I was in prison, and I believe a lot
of it and it was okay, he horrible, he was
bad for it trickled down from me to him. But
I think a lot of times it was more or

(01:00:32):
less of like I said, just a communication issue. So
my sister like so she was with my god parents.
So by the time a lot of the traumatic stuff
happened for me, h, she was already in Chicago where
she went to school at And then my older brother
he was already in college. So a quick story. When
I was in eleventh grade, my brother had, like I said,
he four years older me, so he had graduated already,
he was in college. We were living and so I'm

(01:00:53):
originally from Detroit, so we were living in Detroit on
seven miles out of drive and we had my dad
bought us a topcha. He bought my little brother top
of bike. You know what the top of bike is like.
One of the bikes had the real big tire on
the front and then a real fat tire on the back. Yeah,
he bought my little brother one of those. And he
was riding my neighborhood acting like he was the shit.
And it was a group of kids across the street.

(01:01:13):
Obviously they ain't like it. Again, we're still in the
inner city Detroit, So one day they stole this bike.
We ended up going to get it back and we
put it back in the garage. One of the little
boys from across the street came while we asleep. It
was just me, my mom, me, my mom, and my
little brother. My dad was at work. He came in
the garage while we was asleep, and I saw him.
Nobody else saw him. So I walked outside in front

(01:01:35):
of him. He wants to go take the bike anyway.
I punched him in the face. He ran downstairs, told
his brothers, told all of his cousins and whatnot. I
go back in the house and not thinking nothing of it.
Maybe five minutes later, all you hear is like it
sounded like a war war starting outside. All you hear
is like people screaming and yelling. I go peek through
the window, no exaggeration. It's probably thirty people and they
are running down the street and they taking their shirts

(01:01:57):
offtee right, know what that means. They taking their shirts off, screaming, squabble,
it's over with. It ain't even nothing you can say
at this point. So they full blown coming down the street.
I go to close the window, acting like if they
don't see me, then they'll go to the opposite direction.
Before you know it, there's a brick that comes to
the front window and it shattered all in the class.
We had a class that was in the like, so

(01:02:18):
the front door was here and then the glass was here.
It literally shattered through the living room. So now it's
a big brick in my living room. My mom comeing
downstairs and she panicking. She go to open the door.
They rushed the door. They completely like try and take
me outside. I ended up getting jumped. They end up
hitting my mama, and they hit my little brother. But
when this happened, of course, you know, my dad get
a call. I handle my own I like to think

(01:02:40):
I still got jumped. So I go in the house.
I call my dad, tell him. My brother ends up
driving down because he went to school in the Grand Valley.
It was maybe like an hour hour and a half.
He ended up driving down while my kids, I don't
know how far it feels, but it felt like hour.
But he drive back. He pull up, my dad get
a gun. Long story short, he go down do whatever
he was supposed to with the house. According to court documents,

(01:03:04):
he went down and did whatever they said he did.
And this my dad. So the next morning, my dad's
in jail. I'm we still staying at the house. Maybe
a week later, we're getting the viction otis they come.
My brother went back to school by this point, so
it's literally me, my mo, mother or brother. We hear
my dad gone, were getting the viction otis. They come

(01:03:25):
and tell us like, hey, you got two or three
days to get out, and we're throwing anything on the curb.
My mom's best friend used to live like on the
opposite side of the block, but she had a house
that she had just moved out of, and it was
one of those situations like how I was telling you here,
how when we moved out we just didn't tell the
landlord that we moved out, so the landlord is still
thinking we there. But at this point we squatting basically.
So we get evicted, we move over to the house

(01:03:48):
we squatting, and it was one of the darkest times
in my life. And I'm telling you, I'm at this
point of like not understanding really but like fully, like
what am I doing? My mom? She has no money.
At this point, we eaten Checkers. Shout out to Checkers
because at this point I want to sponsor to you.
We eating Checkers box. And they had a popcorn chicken

(01:04:08):
box and it was like popcorn chicken and fries and
you get a fly two dollars and we all get
one a day and that's all we've eating. So that again,
my older brother wasn't there, and my older sister wasn't there.
It was just me and my younger brother that had
to go through that. And it was one of those
things where I feel like that really molded me as
a person of who I am. So that's probably why
I act I act of it now as an adult.

(01:04:32):
I feel like I've learned from a lot of it.
And being in this house is really like reminded me
of why I'm exactly where I'm at and where I'm
supposed to be at. Did that experience they about to
choke me up?

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Come mom, man, that experience that you went through, did
that have anything that you say, you know what, I'm
going to the mma?

Speaker 3 (01:04:53):
I got jumped.

Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
I'm gonna be because you say you're handling your own
but I mean you don't do so much as much?

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
Yeah, not necessarily. I feel like the main reason why
I end up fighting is because I got kicked out
of school. I got kicked out of college. Well, I
couldn't afford it, and they basically was like, either you
give us twenty five thousand dollars by tomorrow or the
next day after that, or you gotta leave. So I
came back home to Vegas and my brother he saw
me on the couch and he saw I was depressed
and I didn't know what I was about to do,

(01:05:21):
and he was like, bro, come to the gym with me.
And he took me to the gym and I never
turned back.

Speaker 3 (01:05:24):
Wow, So what what did em may give you? What
is what is EML may do? For Keith Lee?

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
Hard work? It gave me a lot of like resilience,
and I feel like that's exactly what I take into
this profession that I'm in now. I feel like my
work ethic is bar none. I honestly don't. That's that's
why I don't compare myself to nobody, and I don't
consider myself an influencer. I just considered myself Keith, and
I feel like the reason I do that is because
not to sound cocky or sound like asshole, but I'm

(01:05:53):
him saying I'm one of the helpes. I take a
lot of credit and I give it to my wife,
and I give it to my kids, and I give
it to my sister, and the people in our family
weed some dogs. Bro. When I tell you, like it
might look like we just eat food, But even this
last week, we've been in four different states thugging it
off the sprint van, and a lot of this we

(01:06:15):
do it our own money, we do it our own time,
and before you know it, we look up and we
on food tour and we've been outside in the sprinter
van for nine hours a day. And I feel like
a lot of that is a testing to my MMA background,
because it's again, it's a different switch you gotta turn
on in order to really like lock everything out and
just do what you feel like you called to do.

(01:06:36):
And that's what I feel like I take into food
and anything else.

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
You have an eight and five record in MMA, you
want three by knockout, one by submission, for by decision.
What's what's the hardest part about MMA? I mean, you know, look,
there is everything. I mean the backfist and kick you
and hitch elbow you, choke you out because really people
ain't really trying to go to the cards. Now if
you try to be in the UFC, Daniel action, that's

(01:07:00):
the fact. If he won't action, So do you go
get a couple of decisions? Dannagare like, nah, you're not
for the UFC, So what is the hard What is
the hardest part about.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
I can't speak for nobody else, but I feel like
the reason why my record looked the way it did
is because I, again, I had a brother that was
already in it, so I didn't have to slow roll.
I if you go back and watch and see who
I fought, I was jumping into the deep end immediately.
Like my first three fights was in Canada. Most people
don't fight internationally until they get to they tenth fifteenth
pro fight. I was outside immediately. So the hardest part

(01:07:33):
for me was fighting guys that were out of my
experience level and not really having anybody to be like relaxed, Bro,
you ain't got a rush. I was eighteen fighting guys
that had kids and and real life struggles. So for me,
I felt like that was the hardest part. But physically
the hardest part. I feel like, if you were to

(01:07:54):
beat me, it was pressure. It was guys that was
coming for a NonStop, had nothing to lose, was willing
to getknocked out. I always was a person who value
my feet, my footwork, so I'm moving. I don't want
to get hit. I don't like getting punched. I got
a pretty facial. I wouldn't keep this care bro. Yeah
it was guys who didn't give a damn. But yeah,

(01:08:16):
once I didn't even really officially retire. My wife won
me the officially retire, but everything kind of just took
off in like the end of twenty twenty two and
in like December. I fought in September twenty twenty two,
so right after that last fight, everything kind of took off.
But I feel like, yeah, the hardest part was just
like and it's relinquishing. It's like you you have no
control over what was about to happen. You just gotta

(01:08:36):
let it happen. And that's the hardest part for me.
It's like just getting into that mindset of like, God,
I trust you and I know whatever's about to happen
is about to happen, and it ain't nothing that I'm
about to do. I can train for eight weeks straight,
the hardest training camp, to be the most prepared, train
with the world champions, train with everybody who they claim
is the best. You go out there and get finished
in twenty seconds. So it ain't really nothing you could

(01:08:58):
do about it other than just let it be what
it is.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
You said you had a wrestling background, so clearly you're
good at grappling. You know, try to take people down,
get them off their feet. You didn't want to, like
you said, you don't want to get punched in the face,
or the best way not to get punched in the
face and get them on the mast and do what
you need to do, y'all, So that was what you
try to do.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
I was a hybrid, so I mix it up really well.
In my opinion, I came in an era where people
was doing everything, so there was no more just grapplers
or just strikers. There's very rare cases of it. And
like somebody like could be where he's a straight grappler,
I came in like on the tailling that so, like
I said, I turned professional. I was in twenty fifteen,

(01:09:36):
when I was eighteen or twenty fourteen, So that was
when literally you have to do everything. People on a
grassroots level or like the amateur length ranks. They was
literally like switching stancers already, stuff that most people don't
do until, like I said, twenty twenty five pro fights.
They was fighting at nineteen eighteen grappling striking. So I
like to consider myself part of that generation.

Speaker 3 (01:09:59):
What are it feel like to knock someone out? And
what does it feel like to get knocked out?

Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
So I've never been knocked out. I've been finished once
in my entire career, and that was me being choked
out rear naked. So that was probably in that And
I feel like I love the tree even brought it up.
That fight right there was literally what made my life
begin to where it's at right now. So I was
in his house when it happened too, by the way,

(01:10:26):
that's crazy. I was here when it happened. So I
just had a contract with Belatur, which is the second
biggest promotion in the world when it comes to MMA.
I was tooing one in the promotion. I had just
beat the number seventh ranked guy and a number eighth
rate guy, and I was I had just lost to
the number one Ranke guy. So I'm thinking in my

(01:10:47):
head like, oh, it's just a bounce back fight. I'm
fighting this guy that's like seven and oh. I'm like, oh,
this is gonna put me right back into top contention
because they had a tournament coming up at one thirty
five to where the top eight guy has fought for
a million dollars. So the winner between me and the
guy I fought that was seven to zero went into
the tournament. So I'm thinking, like, mind you I just bought.

(01:11:08):
I just fought number seven, number eight. This guy was
I think he was ranked number twelfth at the time.
I'm real cocky, Shannon. I'm like, oh, that's over with it.
Like I'm already coming home and I'm telling her like
what spot what I'm telling them what spot of the tournament?
I got I'm telling the exactly what we about to
do with the money. I'm taking a camp serious, but

(01:11:29):
I already I'm going into it with that mindset of like,
oh it's over with, I get smoked. I'm talking about
whooped on the first time in my entire career. So
at eight and five, only I had my four losses
were my split decision and split decisions to where like
it could literally go like this like Razor there. That
was the only time where I got shut out and

(01:11:50):
I got finished in the first round. He was when
I say jab, everything was landing. I was looking up
by how many people in here. I'm looking at his coaches,
like why how you going to let him jump over
the top. They come funch me in the face. It's bad, bro.

Speaker 3 (01:12:05):
I can look up.

Speaker 2 (01:12:06):
Before you know it, he got my back and it's
maybe like ten seconds left o'clock and I can hear
so they do a smacker, but the last ten seconds,
so I can hear the ten seconds smacker, and you
can see on my face in the video that I'm here.
I'm still there. He got the trope, but I'm like,
I'm all right, I'm still scrambling. Before you know it,
I go to lift up. I get up and I
run to the cage. I don't know I've been out

(01:12:26):
for like three seconds. Wow, and he looking at me out.
You can go watch the video. I'm a completely bloodied
up in my head. I didn't go out at all.
In my head, I'm like, oh, this choke, not even
in Oh, let me get up. Oh, I hear that
the time is over. Let me get up and run
to my corner. Literally, you know, I'm out. I wake up,
my head snap back. I stand up, and I stumble
all the way over to the corner and the ref

(01:12:48):
he picked me up and he like, it's over with.
You can see in the video. I'm like, why what happened?
I was out gone that it felt like a movie,
Like it felt like it's such a weird feeling because
you still hear everything, you still feel everything, like you
feel like you're watching somebody else. Like I felt like
I was standing over myself and being like, oh the joke,

(01:13:09):
not even but the whole time, I'm like calm, So
for me, that felt like I said, it felt like
a movie. But putting somebody else to sleep, that's one
of the most amazing feelings. That's why I say, it's
a switch. You gotta be a little crazy, You got
to be a little off to say you feel good
to put somebody to sleep. But when you're any heat
at the moment, I feel like it's one of those

(01:13:29):
like vindicate moments. Because the second for anybody who has
never fought before, the second that you know you won
everything from So it's usually like eight week process that
goes into fighting. And that's from cutting weight, that's from
eating right, that's from making sure that you're running in
the morning.

Speaker 3 (01:13:46):
None of that.

Speaker 2 (01:13:47):
None of that I'm talking about like full bone militant.
So the second that the fight is over, it could
be from you finishing, putting it, go out of sleep.
Everything comes crashing and you just feel like, oh I
can breathe now. Like so it's literally like when people
say like it's a monkey on your back, that's no joke.
Like you know when like Super Bowls to ship that's
exactly what it feel like. Every fight is like somebody

(01:14:07):
lifting somebody off your shoulders. So it's like literally the
second fighters over, you just go oh and.

Speaker 3 (01:14:12):
Then it showed that all that hard work, that the
eight week all of it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:15):
Absolutely absolutely it's one of the best feelers in the world.

Speaker 3 (01:14:19):
What about a return. Are you interested in returning to
the the gun?

Speaker 2 (01:14:23):
It got to be a lot of money, involved a
lot of money. I got kids, man, And the main
reason I even stopped training, Like I said, there was
never official retirement. The main reason I even stopped is
because you either got to do it or you're not
gonna do it at all. Oh, it ain't no plan.
It ain't no like, oh, I'm about to go on

(01:14:43):
the food tour. I'm about to go drive around the
city and I'm about to go eat and then I'm
gonna train. Ain't none of that. No. I trained with
one of the best guys in the world. His name
is Duey Cooper. He trained Francis and Gonu. He's got
like four or five different championships in the UFC. Alon.
He a bad man, So it would playing with him,
it wouldn't know like, oh, I'm about to come in,

(01:15:03):
I'm a celebrity. Ain't none of that, man, go get
on the bag. So for me, it was it was
either you're gonna do it, You're not gonna do it
at all. So that's probably the main decision. When I
come back, I'm looking at my wife right now and no,
y's over. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:15:20):
So have you ever met Dana.

Speaker 2 (01:15:23):
I've met him like in passion, right because that's my brother.
My brother fought for ten years. But I never had
like a fool blown conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:15:32):
So do you still train?

Speaker 4 (01:15:33):
Like?

Speaker 2 (01:15:33):
No, sir, you see me in this chair. I'm spreading
out in this chair.

Speaker 3 (01:15:39):
So there's there's I mean, do you still work out?

Speaker 2 (01:15:41):
I played basketball? Yeah, so that's it.

Speaker 3 (01:15:43):
No, No, no training, no bad no blood work.

Speaker 1 (01:15:46):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:15:47):
I'm blessed enough to say I got a lot of
contracts right now, and all of those contracts says that
I can't have any blemishes on my face. Right So
if I go train, uh from just scar tissue from
doing it for so long, my face is automatically is
gonna swellow. It's gonna open enough, or it's gonna get
cut real easy.

Speaker 3 (01:16:02):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:16:02):
And that messed up with money I can't mess with. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:16:06):
We just saw the fight this weekend. John Jones took
out step Now he's the heavyweight champ. He also took
the belt from Cyril Gun.

Speaker 2 (01:16:15):
I hate that whole conversation. We can talk about it.
I hate that.

Speaker 3 (01:16:19):
Do you hate the conversation to go.

Speaker 2 (01:16:21):
I hate the conversation to him ducking from Tom.

Speaker 3 (01:16:23):
Oh, no, we hate it.

Speaker 4 (01:16:25):
Bro.

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
Now we're talking because I like to consider myself an
mm a, uh, what's the.

Speaker 3 (01:16:30):
Nerd all of that? Okay, tell us about Bones.

Speaker 2 (01:16:36):
I don't eve think it's a conversation or it's a
question that he's the best that we've ever seen do
it by far. I hate the conversation of like he
dug in Tom. We did this maybe like a year
ago with Sergei Papa, that's how you say his last name.
Excuse me for pronounce wrong. But when he was coming
through the ranks and he was killing people, everybody was, oh,

(01:16:56):
he got a fight Jones and Jones scared of him,
and then he got finished by Tom and don't nobody
talking about him no more. It's like, don't nobody paying
no attention. But it's like, is very annoying to see somebody,
especially somebody that look like us, be in a space
where it's like every single time you do something, it's
something else that got to be done in order for
you to send meet your legacy. It's like he's been

(01:17:18):
doing this since I was a kid. Yes, he's been
doing it.

Speaker 3 (01:17:20):
Well, he's been a champ since twenty eleven.

Speaker 2 (01:17:22):
That's insane. Yeah, that's insane. And he hasn't lost to anybody. No,
for if he was anybody else, right, it wouldn't even
be a question, it wouldn't even be a conversation, because
when could be beat Judge, that was gai Chie his
last fight, When could be Gaigie. There wasn't a question of, oh,
he got to come back and he gotta fight Ilia

(01:17:44):
to submit his legacy, or he got to come back.
He gotta fight Vote to submit his legacy, or he
gotta come back, he gotta fight Holloway. It wasn't none
of that. It wasn't even a like even there's no
conversation as we speak revolving around his legacy is greatness.
But with Jones, he gotta beat everybody in their mama
in order to get any kind of recognizing.

Speaker 1 (01:18:04):
And then when he beats as they're gonna come up with,
they will come up with somebody else. Well, he got
to wait till us to.

Speaker 2 (01:18:09):
Be something else. Yeah, it's always gonna be something else.
And even if he don't beat all, because it's the
fight world, anything happened. I don't think that takes away
from the greatness that is Sean Jones and that always
will be John.

Speaker 3 (01:18:20):
Jones to have that type of ring for a decade
and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:18:24):
I don't think Tom doing that. I ain't gonna lie.
He might again, everything happens the way he's supposed to.
But I feel like it's a little a little too late,
because again, jon't what Tom is twenty seven thirty one.

Speaker 3 (01:18:35):
I think I think he's seven years younger.

Speaker 2 (01:18:38):
I think that, I think that I think the conversations
over with that alone, yeah alone, even just his age.

Speaker 3 (01:18:44):
Are you a boxing fan?

Speaker 2 (01:18:46):
Every not again? I watch Yeah, I predicted Tank and
uh Garcia in front of the tank literally the punch,
the round and exactly how I was about to go right,
because again I'm him.

Speaker 1 (01:18:58):
So do you who do you want to say? Who
do you want to see Tank fight? People say they
want to see a rematch, they want to see Tank
fight Shakur, they want to see him fight Boots. So
who would you like to see Tank fight?

Speaker 2 (01:19:07):
That's a great question. I feel like there's so many options.
But at the same time, I think a lot of
people feel like he hasn't been tested yet because we
are in this era of protect the oath, But just
from seeing him up close and watching him. So I
trained at Maywells for years, So just seeing him up close,
I feel like I'm about to sound like a tape

(01:19:30):
recorder with anybody that's in his camp. Tank him, bro,
take one of them. So I don't care who he fight.
I feel like he is our generation's best, and I
feel like at the end of the day, when the
smoke is clear, he gonna come out of like really
being one of them, one of them.

Speaker 1 (01:19:45):
Where are you on this celebrity boxing? We just saw
Jake Paul fight Tyson. We saw McGregor haught that fight.
I hate everything about what What did you hate about it?

Speaker 3 (01:19:56):
Do you think it was stage? Do you think what
happened first? The lead up?

Speaker 2 (01:20:00):
I told my wife that I can't be there because
I was gonna dump a ring. I was one of
it's Tyson bro Right, He's a legend of the sport.
He's a legend of our community. He's somebody who should
be held to the highest regard. I don't like that
there was like this conversation of like competitiveness. He's sixty bro,
Like if we if we bring up any legend of

(01:20:22):
any other race, or demographic. There's no way that you
touch in one of their legends. But we allow our
legends to get in there, and he allowed that mockery.
I agree with you. I agree with you, But us
as fans still was having conversations around the fight itself,
like it was about to be a competitive or back
and forth fight.

Speaker 1 (01:20:40):
I mean, Keith, if what they're saying is true to
man made twenty mili, I mean, can I hear you?

Speaker 2 (01:20:44):
I hear you?

Speaker 3 (01:20:45):
What is it? It was money, Joe Freddie.

Speaker 1 (01:20:47):
Now you have to realize, here's a guy that's made
what five six, seven hundred million dollars and I'm not
so sure he has half of that. I'm not so
sure he has a third of that here, and so
twenty million dollars at the age of fifty eight.

Speaker 2 (01:20:57):
People, but you you might Tyson, the money gonna come
and go, right, Yeah, he's had way more than twenty
million before. Sure, So in my mind is I know
he I watched Tyson very religiously, and I know he
don't believe in legacy. But for me, it's not necessarily him.
It's the kids that's below him, is my kids, it's me,
it's somebody who's watched him literally from the beginning. So

(01:21:21):
to stand on integrity. This is one thing I always
preach my kids. To stand on something that you can
that would last forever and that you can pass on
to another generation. And as far as integrity and as
as far as something that you a cold, that you
stand behind to stand on that is way more valuable
than any amount of money.

Speaker 3 (01:21:40):
Yeah for me. So would you do a celebrity boxing match?

Speaker 2 (01:21:45):
Maybe? Maybe? See maybe, but.

Speaker 3 (01:21:48):
Money have to be right. They got.

Speaker 2 (01:21:52):
For me, so money wise, it would specifically be for
professional fighting. That's where I say the money i'd be
right because again, my life isn't in Yeah, no, this celebrity,
but celebrity. The money don't necessarily got to be right.
It got to be the right one. Got to be
the right fight for me. I wouldn't fight necessarily celebrity
because I feel like it would erase what I've done
for ten years in the make space. It would really

(01:22:14):
just be go out there and have fun, but still
be competitive. So it would have to be that middle
ground of being competitive and still not getting cut up
by my wife because I'm getting cut in stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:22:22):
Is there any way we could do a celebrity, mm
a fight.

Speaker 2 (01:22:25):
Maybe we can be the first of the come. Who
you want to see me fight?

Speaker 1 (01:22:29):
Shaanning, I don't know who out like you say, you
wade you you fought at one thirty five.

Speaker 2 (01:22:34):
So I'm not that at all right now, big boy, No,
I'm solid sixty.

Speaker 3 (01:22:39):
You're not more than one sixty, Way.

Speaker 2 (01:22:40):
More than one sixty. I'm solid, bro, I'm built like
a brick house.

Speaker 3 (01:22:45):
Okay, what's sixty three?

Speaker 2 (01:22:47):
Not even closed?

Speaker 3 (01:22:49):
What you're trying to say?

Speaker 2 (01:22:50):
You're not one ninety key, I'm like one eight eighty
three solid.

Speaker 3 (01:22:54):
I think it's sixty eighty shnon.

Speaker 1 (01:23:03):
So one thing, I know when you kept asking Shannon
who would he wanted who would he wanted to see
you fight?

Speaker 3 (01:23:08):
If he threw out Jake Paul, what would your video
response

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Club Shay Shay - Keith Lee Part 2

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Shannon Sharpe

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