Club Shay Shay - Keith Lee Part 1 - Club Shay Shay

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Y'all know who it is. It's your favorite.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
And I'm riding around here in Vegas with macguy Keith Lee,
and he's the Internet's most popular and famous food critic.
He was named one of Forbes thirty Under thirty class
Member for twenty twenty four.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
A viral food and.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Local restaurant reviewer, charitable influence and advocate for small businesses.
One of the top digital content creators, social media superstar,
and sensation King 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 (00:33):
Keith Lee, God's amazing man.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Ah appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (00:36):
Brother, All my life, grinding all my life, sacri fights, Hustle,
petick Price, one slice got the bron Geist, Swatt all
my life, Ippy grinding all my life, all my life,
grinding all.

Speaker 5 (00:49):
My life, Sacri fights, Hussele, pectick Price, one slice got
the bron Geist, Swat all my life, Poppy grinding all
my life.

Speaker 6 (01:01):
I'm excited about who you was intro and I said,
I don't know who.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
That man is, but I appreciate that man. This a
tour of Vegas and some of the local spot spots.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Let's do it exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
What are the five best cities for food?

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Top five in order?

Speaker 1 (01:26):
You can put them in order. If you like it,
you can just give me your top five.

Speaker 6 (01:29):
My order personally, Yes, New Orleans number one, Houston is
number two, Okay, Chicago is number three.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Uh, Toronto will be four right now. I will go Miami.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:41):
If I had the nigga where I would back, I
would go Miami for sure. But top three is solid.
My top three is New Orleans, Houston, and Chicago.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Solid.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
No, No Atlanta, no New York.

Speaker 6 (01:53):
So very specific reasons why I say that, right, Yeah,
so for those that don't know we're going. 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 it the biggest influencer
in that city or the biggest celebrity and had them

(02:15):
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 staples at the community to
show respect to each city that we go to. So

(02:37):
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, correct, And if you do meet somebody that's

(02:57):
from there, if y'all 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.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
They aren't a super welcoming group of people.

Speaker 6 (03:09):
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 like local spots and spots
they've been going to for years, and spots they have
nostalgia attached to.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
They don't want no parts of it.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
What's the best city to get pizza.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
In New York? Got that?

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (03:34):
New York got that.

Speaker 6 (03:35):
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 tried, but
I'm see, but that's because you're from Atlanta.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yeah, understood.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, I'm from South Georgia.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Georgia, understand.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, but I see like when I get that deep dish,
I feel like I'm eating a piece of cake.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Use somebody.

Speaker 6 (03:59):
Yeah see now if you if you don't like a
super thick then I would say, but personally, it's time
to 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 1 (04:08):
What about what's the five most underrated cities?

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Well, you put me on us spot.

Speaker 6 (04:13):
Let's go there and Shannon top five 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
a place that it's very specific now like it's it's

(04:36):
black people, black people, country food. So if you are
into country food, I'm talking about hogmall neck boy. Oh
yeah yeah, your mother, everything smothering and cover. Then Baton
Ruge is definitely an underknown spot. Arizona, Oh, Arizona, that's
perfect Arizona. 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

(05:00):
authentic southwestern Southwestern food. Even they have a really big
native population, 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.
Dallas got a food scene that's definitely underrated. Really for
sure it's here or missed because it's a place that

(05:23):
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
of the best barb ever had in my life.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
What about the worst where you go, like, man, y'all,
they'd be hyping this up and it ain't even.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Like that food is Yeah, so you know.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
You start talking about it.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
Experience absolutely so for me.

Speaker 6 (05:58):
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.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Do you have the name drop when you go to
Atlanta and get food?

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Nah? Because I really don't go the places that I
go to. They kind of know me.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
So when I like, I call and they're gonna take
care of me, but I ain't.

Speaker 6 (06:20):
But do you feel like if they didn't know Shannon Sharp?
And that's exactly why I say we do the food
to every people that really want to jump on the
plane and just go get food. If we go to
a place specifically because I'm Keith Lee and we go
eat at the best restaurant and people want to jump
on the plane and go try that, they're not going
to be going to be able to get it, not

(06:40):
only the service, They're not gonna be able to get
the food. They gonna go in there and they, oh,
we ain't got no bookings for the rest of the day,
just that third. But let Shannon Sharp 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 caleids of why we do so.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
It's not so much the food, it's the service, absolutely
in order to get the food. Yeah, 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 influence.

Speaker 6 (07:17):
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 (07:24):
Right.

Speaker 6 (07:25):
If you from there and you was born and raised
in that environment, you don't know no better. Do you
think that that's what the food scene is and you
think that's what culture is, right, because that's part of
Atlanta's culture. I just came from a perspective of somebody
who wasn't from there and somebody was experiencing it for
the first time, the death threats and whatnot.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
Was I surprised about that. Yeah, that was the first
time I ever experienced something like that. People taking food
that areas, Oh it's bad, it's real.

Speaker 6 (07:51):
Even in DC, we got a death threat from a
guy who like, who's a rapper out there, and he
talking about next time he come. Instead of reviewing food,
we review his life or something like that.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
We just eating food.

Speaker 6 (08:02):
Man.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
It's like, my opinion isn't the end allb all.

Speaker 6 (08:05):
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 them because people
are prideful and where they come from, and people have
a lot of love and nostalgia in the city that
they come from, and they feel personally attacked. And I
want to make put it on the record right now
that when we go for the food tour is not
to find what the best food is. It's specifically to

(08:28):
highlight the restaurants 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
the owners have put so much into the restaurant itself
that they don't have the time or the money to market.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
Because a lot of people who do food reviews.

Speaker 6 (08:52):
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 that charge more more than way more than that,
But I specifically do it for their restaurants, and I

(09:13):
don't charge them a dime. So that's what the food
Tworried 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 got. Love like old school.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yeah, Atlanta had good brunch. Yeah Yeah, I Atlanta had
good betters.

Speaker 6 (09:34):
Yeah getting in there, And I don't want that to
be mistaken at all.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
Atlanta has Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
You're not saying they don't have good food anything you
just said the customer service.

Speaker 6 (09:47):
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

(10:08):
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 1 (10:19):
Or eat. Yeah. Do you try crazy foods? Have you
tried crazy food?

Speaker 3 (10:28):
But what you gonsider crazy?

Speaker 2 (10:31):
I mean I hate as a kid, I hate raccoon.
I hate squirrel, hate rabbit.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Turtle, country country.

Speaker 6 (10:39):
Uh No, I try anything that. I always say I'll
try anything once.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
So you try raccoon, possum, Yeah, I'll try once.

Speaker 3 (10:46):
What I like it? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
You eat?

Speaker 3 (10:48):
But how do you eat it?

Speaker 1 (10:49):
You eat like no, no, No, you bake it like yeah?
Put it?

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, you put it in the oven, you cut it up.
Bill peppers on your celery.

Speaker 6 (10:57):
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 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 a duck.

(11:17):
He cut the head off right in front of us,
and we went the car and ate it. That was
my first time ever doing something like that, but I'll
do it like duck.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
It was really this is good.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
It depends on where you get it from. A lot
of times it.

Speaker 6 (11:27):
Can be gamey, it could be a little too overpowering
and chewy and type. But the one we just had
was super crispy. It was flavorful, it was fresh, and
it was juicy. Like I said, they took it right
off the rack and cut it in front of us.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
You like quaal, I like quail.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
I like quail.

Speaker 6 (11:40):
Yeah, yeah, we just had a quail egg. The scotch
from when we is in Seattle. It was like a
Scotch egg it was wrapped and it was fried, but
it was a quail egg that was wrapped in baking
and then fried again on the outside.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
It was good. Yeah, but you need to eat like
seven of them we get full.

Speaker 6 (11:54):
Yeah, that's the fact that like this I eat, Shannon. Yeah,
I'm an eating man.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, for sure. I saw you ate the sushi worm.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
I knew that was coming. So when we were in Seattle,
we went to a place.

Speaker 6 (12:05):
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 that was a staple.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
I did the full review, did the full video. I
posted it two days later.

Speaker 6 (12:19):
Somebody tagged me in a clip of them slowing it
down and on one of the Giri's there was a
what seemed to be something moving. I can't confirm it
or not 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
there was anything moving into somebody tagging in that video,
that whole thing spiraled into something else.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
Allegedly.

Speaker 6 (12:44):
I can't confirm it deny 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 my

(13:06):
support to that person.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
Right, I love sushi.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
I mean I've never had it. I just I just
like my food cook. I just can't. You don't like none, wrong,
I can.

Speaker 6 (13:18):
I was about to say something, I'm leaving alone.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
I'm a I know you go and see.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
Yeah, So I again, I'm a foodie.

Speaker 6 (13:32):
I can't have shellfish, but I explore with everything else
other than showfish.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
So the restaurant got closed down.

Speaker 6 (13:38):
Right from allegedly from what I hear, they did put
a statement out and say that it was closed, but
I believe it was closed because they.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
Are looking internally.

Speaker 6 (13:47):
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 any
any fashion, or that they were neglectful.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
I believe it just was a isolated I feel.

Speaker 6 (14:06):
Like it was 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 that posted it.

Speaker 3 (14:18):
But I truly believe that, not only in my I even.

Speaker 6 (14:22):
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 I've been 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. And I'm not opposed of

(14:43):
going back. And that's where I.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
Was going out, as would you be open to going
back and offering another review.

Speaker 6 (14:48):
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
had nothing but respect and love for them and what

(15:09):
they do.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
Heez. I went shopping yesterday for you.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
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.

Speaker 1 (15:18):
So I went shopping for you at Amazon.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
I got you something on fire, keep the left Dover's firing.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
I appreciate you, man, just being here with you more
than a gift. Appreciate you man.

Speaker 6 (15:31):
At times I was Bromember saying, though five on folk
these days winning Only then it I.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
Know, all right, Shannon.

Speaker 6 (15:39):
This is where everything started, and we was in here
two years ago. We've been living here for like three
or four years. This is where I have my babies at.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (15:48):
This is where everything started for me, as far as contracts,
for as fighting food reviews, starting at Papacholch hair. Yeah,
this is the mecca for real.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
This is the beginning of Keith Lee as we know it.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
Absolutely yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:07):
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Speaker 1 (16:13):
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Speaker 2 (16:14):
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(16:36):
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(16:57):
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Speaker 1 (17:00):
You get free shipping.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
Just go to Farmersdog dot com slash shade Shade to
get fifty percent off. That's Farmers Dog dot Com slash
shade Shape Keith. We're back at the condo where it
all started. Being back here, what kind of memories come
rushing back everything?

Speaker 6 (17:15):
Man, this is insane to me, so literally from we
moved here in twenty nineteen, when me and my wife
had no money coming in for real, when I say
no money, we were just trying to figure out how
to even survive that 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 here. Me even starting on TikTok because I

(17:35):
always had bad social anxiety, so I never posted. I
never man, four years ago, you could never get me
on camera, right, So like this is where everything me
even getting comfortable to be on camera started.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
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.

Speaker 6 (17:51):
Can see it, yeah starting up, man, But yeah, this
mean everything to me.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
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 gonna
have to do interviews and so you could be more.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
Fluid in your conversation. How did the TikTok?

Speaker 2 (18:10):
What made you think, 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 6 (18:18):
Shitting right here in new 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 two 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,

(18:40):
we ain't really 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 panic in, they grabbing stuff,
and they wearing masks and that's this when it first started,

(19:01):
so you know, people wearing 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 or 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

(19:22):
fun of for having it or you people was like, bro,
you missing out because this is where everybody were in
the house, So this is where everybody at. So I
think it's one of those things where God don't make
no mistakes. And my wife was telling me to do it,
so I was like, I might as well try it.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
Seeing where you are now, seeing where you were then,
what's going through your bad emotions?

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Bro?

Speaker 3 (19:44):
Like I'm trying not to cry.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
I see you.

Speaker 6 (19:47):
Yeah, it's surreal because I remember vividly having conversations about
the exact moment that we're in right now, coming back
and rejoicing and having like that like made it moment
and the fact that it's here. I don't even think
it's I think 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 and

(20:08):
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 2 (20:15):
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 interaction.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
So did it help or hurt you play in sports?

Speaker 6 (20:31):
I would say it kind of hurt me because the
sports that I was playing, So I wrestled all from
middle school to high school to my first year in
college and even my first year of college. The only
reason I didn't wrestle all the way through because I
couldn't afford it, so I got kicked out. But I
feel like the reason it hurt is because wrestling and
NMA guys are very awkward anyway, and a lot of
them go through a lot of eating disorders, they go

(20:51):
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 is we may fighters, we
like the modern day gladiators. We're supposed to be the
tough guys. Uh 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 but fighters or wrestlers, it made me

(21:14):
feel like the outcast. 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.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
You Yeah, sure, it's a.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Different level you got you locked in.

Speaker 6 (21:29):
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. 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.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
At me for fighting.

Speaker 6 (21:44):
Because, as you know, as a professional athlete, you think
that's all you gonna 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 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

(22:05):
space and I'm like, you don't worry about getting punched
the face.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
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 1 (22:22):
You guys had something.

Speaker 6 (22:22):
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 willfully exit from 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

(22:43):
just be sitting here talking to people like you be mingling, right,
I never did that like that working, I don't do that.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
Are you naturally an introverted person?

Speaker 3 (22:50):
Absolutely?

Speaker 6 (22:51):
Yeah, I thought what I'm saying, 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.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (23:00):
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 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

(23:21):
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 2 (23:28):
Being socially awkward as a child, having a speech impediment.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
I had one of them. I still have a list
by talking with it.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
No, you think I got a speech a better where
that comes from? It seemed like a stuttering problem, correct
kind of Ye're gonna see. It wasn't necessarily stuttering. It
was more or less of like trying to I guess
it's uttering, got it.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Got it?

Speaker 2 (23:54):
But the kids, the kids make fun of you and
make you go deeper, deeper into the into yourself, in deeper, deeper, introverted.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
M No.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
I was, if anything, I was a bully. I did't
a lie to you.

Speaker 6 (24:06):
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 and
who level exactly.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
It was one of those things it was I got.

Speaker 6 (24:25):
I had a lower man got complex, like a little
man syndrome. So it was like, the last thing you
was about to do is mess with me. And again,
I wrestled afrough high school, so 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 or
this super quiet person until I got into spaces where

(24:49):
I would be around other extroverts, or I got into
spaces where, like I said, 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 time when 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 don't
really have to step out of that. So when all

(25:09):
of this started taking off and like I was Keith Lee,
that's 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 shot
sweating bullets, and like literally like I want to shut
off and running your room for the rest of the day.
That didn't really start until, like I said, like twenty nineteen,

(25:31):
twenty twenty.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
But as a kid, yeah, you couldn't tell me nothing.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
So how was it a family time? Because you said,
I mean, did you realize that how is your family?
Are they very talkative that 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 3 (25:51):
Than four years?

Speaker 6 (25:52):
So I got a brother that's four years older than me,
brother that's four years younger than me, and then I
got as sister that's seven years older than me.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
Okay, so how your childhood? How was your you know,
you and your brothers did you get along? Did you fight?

Speaker 1 (26:04):
No?

Speaker 3 (26:06):
So he definitely didn't get along.

Speaker 6 (26:08):
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 at all times. He had

(26:29):
always had like a four point of gray point average.
He was in sports.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (26:33):
He was light skinned, curly hair, pretty boy, way lighter
than me. Yeah, yeah, right, typical B two K like
super curly.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (26:44):
When I was younger, I was always the darkest out
of everybody in my family. Uh so, and I like
I 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 attention but for the wrong reason self hurt yourself.
Or I was clumsy. So my head was the same
time as it is now. I was just forty eleven.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
Wow, So it's like.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
My neck wasn't strong enough to carry right. I got
scars all back here.

Speaker 6 (27:12):
I got the scar on my forehead you see here,
See I got scars all in here. When I say
like that was a normal thing for us to have
a family function and us to end up an emergency
room because Keith Thon bust his head open, I had staples.
That's happened to me at least, I would say six
seven different times, seven different occasions. And for me, I said,
childhood wise, it was more or less of like I

(27:35):
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 always the one getting kicked out of school.
I got kicked out of five or six different schools.
I got expect when I say, kicked out me and

(27:56):
expelled from the whole school district.

Speaker 3 (27:58):
So yeah, it was it was like that.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Did you have a problem with you know, parents are
authoritative figures. Did you have a problem with your parents?

Speaker 3 (28:05):
Absolutely?

Speaker 6 (28:06):
Yeah, And me and my dad us to get into
all the time, to the point where I moved out
when I was sixteen and with my god brother, and
then when I moved back in, we end 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 phone and.

Speaker 3 (28:23):
Yeah, I had a blazing I just wasn't staying.

Speaker 6 (28:26):
She'd tell you, I literally was sleeping in my car,
and I never told her this until maybe like last year.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
I would like. So I was working as a life card.

Speaker 6 (28:34):
I would drive to work and I had like a
two thousand Nissan 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.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
On my way over to you.

Speaker 6 (28:45):
Literally do she know I'm already sitting in the parking
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 was going on?
And she think I'm getting off of work, but the
whole time I've been sleeping in the parking lot. I'll
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 1 (29:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
So that was happening for maybe like what a month?

Speaker 1 (29:09):
Maybe?

Speaker 3 (29:09):
Yeah, maybe like a month.

Speaker 6 (29:11):
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're gonna do what I say, or that's it, no
other right ifans or buts.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
I grew up in old school house hold.

Speaker 6 (29:25):
Yes, 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.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
No, no, exactly, don't. That's in fact, I'm the king
shady queen, and you listen to everything we say. And
that always was a problem for me.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
Did your brother and supposter have those same problems with
your father or they just like it was me?

Speaker 6 (29:48):
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 also, okay,
he horrible.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
He was bad.

Speaker 6 (29:58):
For you to say consider, but it triggered down from
me to him. But I think a lot of times
it was more or 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, she was already
in Chicago where she went to school at And then
my older brother he was already in college.

Speaker 3 (30:18):
So a quick story.

Speaker 6 (30:19):
When I was in eleventh grade, my brother had, like
I said, he was four years older me, so he
had graduated already, he was in college. We were living
and so I'm originally from Detroit. So we were living
in Detroit on seven miles out of drive and we
had my dad bought us a topper bikele He bought
my little brother topp 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.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
Tire on the back.

Speaker 6 (30:40):
He bought my little brother one of those, and he
was riding my neighborhood acting like he was a ship.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
And it was.

Speaker 6 (30:45):
A group of kids across the street. Obviously they ain't
like it. Again, we're still in the inner city of 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 he was asleep. It was just me,
my mom, me, my mom, and my little brother. My
dad was at work. He came in garradge while we

(31:05):
were sleep and I saw him. Nobody else saw him,
so I walked outside in front of him. He wanted
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.

(31:26):
There's probably thirty people and they are running down the
street and they taking their shirts offt you right, know
what that means.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
They taking their shirts off, screaming.

Speaker 6 (31:34):
It's over with. It ain't even thathing 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 shatters all in the glass.
We had a class that was in the like, so
the front door was here and then the glass was here.

(31:54):
It literally shattered through the living room. So now it's
a big brick in my living room. My mom come
downstairs and she panicking. She go to open the door.
They brushed the door. They completely like try and take
me outside. I end up getting jumped. They end up
hitting my mama and they hit my little brother.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
But when this happened.

Speaker 6 (32:10):
Of course, you know, my dad get a call, I
handle my own I like to think 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 Grand Valley, which maybe like an
hour hour and a half. He ended up driving down
while my kids, so I don't know how far it feels, but.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
It felt like hour. But he drive back.

Speaker 6 (32:29):
He pull up, my dad get a gun. Long story short,
he go down do whatever he was supposed to do
at the house. According to court documents, he went down
and did whatever they said he did.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
And this old my dad.

Speaker 6 (32:43):
So the next morning, my dad's in jail, I'm and
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 literally just me,
my mom, and my little brother. We hear my dad go,
we're getting the viction otis. They come 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

(33:05):
used to live like on the opposite side of the box,
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 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

(33:27):
really but like fully, like what am I doing?

Speaker 3 (33:32):
My mom?

Speaker 6 (33:32):
She has no money. At this point, we eaten Checkers.
Shout out to Checkers because at this point I want to.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
Sponsor to you.

Speaker 6 (33:39):
We eaten Checkers box and they had a popcorn chicken
box and it was like popcorn chicken and fries and
you get a flight 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

(34:02):
I act a little bit. Now as an adult, 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.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
Did that experience.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
They about to choke me?

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Hup?

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Come mom, man, that experience that you went through? Did
that have anything that you say?

Speaker 1 (34:25):
You know what? I'm going to the mma? I got jumped.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
I'm gonna be because you say you handle your own
but I mean you don't only do so much.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
As a bunch of Yeah, not necessarily.

Speaker 6 (34:35):
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 got to leave. So I came back home
to Vegas and my brother he saw me on the
couch and he saw I was a breast and I
didn't know what I was about to do, and he
was like, bro, come to the gym with me. And

(34:56):
he took me to the gym and I never turned back.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
Wow. So what did give you? What is what may do?
For Keith Lee hard work.

Speaker 6 (35:05):
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 out 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 consider myself Keith And I feel
like the reason I do that is because not to
sound cocky or sound like asshole, but I'm.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
Him saying I'm one of the help a lot of you.

Speaker 6 (35:32):
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.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
We some dogs, bro.

Speaker 6 (35:40):
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, uh, thugging it off the sprint
van and a lot of this. We 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.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (35:57):
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. And that's what I feel
like I take into food and anything else.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
You have an eight and five record in the MMA.
You won 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 and choke you out, because really
people ain't really trying to go to the cards. Now,
if you try to be in the UFC, Dana won't action.

(36:34):
That's the fact he won't action. So do you go
get a couple of decisions? Dane Gore like, nah, you're
not for the UFC. So what is the hard What
is the hardest part about MMA?

Speaker 6 (36:43):
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 thought I would 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 profight.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
I was outside immediately.

Speaker 6 (37:06):
So the hardest part 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

(37:26):
feel like if you were to beat me, it was pressure.
It was guys that was coming for NonStop, had nothing
to lose, was willing to get knocked 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.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
Care bro.

Speaker 6 (37:46):
Yeah it was guys who didn't give a damn. But yeah,
once I didn't even really officially retire. My wife wont
me the officially retire, but everything kind of just took
off in like the end of twenty twenty two and
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

(38:07):
control over what was about to happen. You just got
to 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 what ever'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

(38:27):
is the best. You go out there and get finished
in twenty seconds. So it ain't really nothing you could
do about it other than just let it be what
it is.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
You said you had a wrestling background, so clearly you're
good at grappling. You 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 mask and do what you
need to do.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
So that was what you try to do.

Speaker 6 (38:49):
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 scrapplers
or just strikers.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
There's very rare cases of it.

Speaker 6 (39:03):
And like somebody like could be where he's a straight grappler,
I came in like on the tailing that. So, like
I said, I turned professional and I was in twenty fifteen,
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.

(39:25):
They was fighting at nineteen eighteen grappling, striking. So I
like to consider myself part of that generation.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
What does it feel like to knock someone out and
what does it feel like to get knocked out?

Speaker 3 (39:38):
So I've never been knocked out.

Speaker 6 (39:39):
I've been finished once in my entire career, and that
was me being choked out triangle or rear naked, So
that was probably in that And I feel like I
love that 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. To by the way, that's crazy. I

(40:01):
was here when it happened. So I just had a
contract with Belatour, which is the second biggest promotion in
the world when it comes to mm A. I was
touring 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 rank guy. So I'm thinking in my head like, oh,
it's just a bounce back fight. I'm fighting this guy

(40:23):
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 guys fought for a million dollars.
So the winner between me and the guy I fought
that was seven and oh went into the tournament. So
I'm thinking, like, mind you I just bought. I just
fought number seven, number eight. This guy was I think

(40:44):
he was ranked number twelfth at the time. I'm real cocky, Shannon.
I'm like, oh, it's over it like I'm already coming
home and I'm telling her, like.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
What spot man, what I'm telling him?

Speaker 6 (40:56):
What's spoting the tournament I got. I'm telling the exactly
what we about to do with the money. I'm taking
a camp serious, but I already I'm going into it
with that mindset of like, oh it's over with, I
get smoked.

Speaker 3 (41:08):
I'm talking about whooped on the first time in my
entire career.

Speaker 6 (41:12):
So at eight and five, only had my four losses
were by 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
I got finished in the first round. He was when
I say jab everything was landed. I was looking up
by how many people in here. I looked at his coaches,

(41:33):
like why how you going to let him jump over
the top.

Speaker 3 (41:35):
They come punch me in the face. It's bad, bro.
I could look up.

Speaker 6 (41:39):
Before you know it, he got my back and it's
maybe like ten seconds left o'clock and I could hear,
so they do a smacker for the last ten seconds,
so I could hear the ten seconds smacker, and you
can see on my face in the video that he
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 out for like

(42:00):
three seconds. Wow, and he looking at me out. You
can go watch the video. I'm all 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 times 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. He picked me up

(42:22):
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.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
Watching somebody else.

Speaker 6 (42:39):
Like I felt like I was standing over myself and
being like, oh the joke not even in. 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.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
That's why I say it's a switch.

Speaker 6 (42:55):
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 like fndicate 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

(43:15):
from making sure that you're running in the morning.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
Yeah, none of them.

Speaker 6 (43:20):
None of that I'm talking about like full blown militant.
So the second that the fight is over, it could
be from you finishing putting it 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 it like super Bowls, that's exactly
what it feel like. Every fight is like somebody lifting

(43:41):
somebody off your shoulders. So it's like literally the second
the fight is over, you just go.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
Oh, and then it shows that all that hard work,
that all the eight week all of it.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Absolutely, absolutely, it's one of the best feelings in work.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
What about a return? Are you interested in returning to
the the gun?

Speaker 6 (43:56):
It got to be a lot of money involved a
lot of money. Uh, 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.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
Not gonna do it at all.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
It ain't no playing. It ain't no like, oh, I'm
about to go on a full tour.

Speaker 6 (44:17):
I'm about to go drive around the city and I'm
about to go eat and then I'm gonna train.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
Ain't none of that.

Speaker 6 (44:22):
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.
Alan He a bad man, so it would play with him.
It wouldn't know like, oh, I'm about to come in,
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 or you're not gonna do

(44:43):
it at all. So that's probably the main decision when
I come back. I'm looking at my wife right now
and I know.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
It's over.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
So have you ever met Dana.

Speaker 6 (44:57):
I've met him like in passion because my brother, My
brother fought for ten years, but I never had.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
Like a full blown conversation.

Speaker 1 (45:05):
So do you still train? Like, no, sir.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
You see me in this chair. I'm spreading out in
this chair.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
So there's there's I mean, do you still work out?

Speaker 3 (45:15):
I played basketball? Yeah, so that's it.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
No, No, no training, no bad no glove work. No.

Speaker 6 (45:20):
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 it's
gonna swell, whether it's gonna open up or it's gonna
get cut real easy.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (45:36):
And that I mess up with money. I can't mess
with money. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
We just saw the fight this weekend. John Jones took
out Steepe. Now he's the heavyweight champ. He also took
the belt from Cyril Gunn.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
I hate that whole conversation. We can talk about it.
I hate that.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
Do you hate the conversation to Go?

Speaker 3 (45:54):
I hate the conversation to him ducking from Tom?

Speaker 1 (45:57):
Oh, no, we hate it, bro.

Speaker 6 (45:59):
Now we talk because I like to consider myself an mma, Uh,
what's the nerd Fishinado?

Speaker 3 (46:06):
All of that bones.

Speaker 6 (46:10):
I don't even 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
duck and Tom. We did this maybe like a year
ago with Sergei Pava Losh that's how you say his
last name.

Speaker 3 (46:24):
Excuse me for pronounce wrong.

Speaker 6 (46:26):
But when he was coming through the ranks and he
was killing people, everybody was, oh, he gotta fight Jones
and Jon was scared of him. And then he got
finished by Tom, and don't nobody talking about him no more? Right,
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

(46:48):
to be done in order for you to send nature legacy.
It's like he's been doing this since I was a kid.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
Yes, he's been doing it.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
Where he's been a champ since twenty eleven.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
That's insane. Yeah, that's insane. And he hasn't lost to anybody. No,
for if he was.

Speaker 6 (47:02):
Anybody else, it wouldn't even be a question, it wouldn't
even be a conversation because when could be beat uh
was Judge, that was Gaigie his last fight, When could
be beat gai Chie, There wasn't a question of, oh,
he gotta come back and he gotta fight Idia to
submit his legacy, or he got to come back, he
gotta fight Volte to submit his legacy, or he gotta

(47:23):
come back, he gotta fight Holloway.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
It wasn't none of that.

Speaker 6 (47:25):
It wasn't even like even there's no conversation as we
speak revolving around his legacy is greatness. But with Jones,
he gotta beat everybody in their moment in order to
get any kind of recognizing.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
And then when he beats as they're gonna come up
with all, they will come up with somebody else.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Well, he got to wait to us.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
To be something else.

Speaker 6 (47:43):
Yeah, it's always gonna be something else, and even if
he don't be asmall, because it's the fight world, anything happened.
I don't think that takes away from the greatness that
is John Jones and that always will be John Jones.

Speaker 1 (47:54):
To have that type of ring for a decade and
a half, I.

Speaker 3 (47:57):
Don't think Tim doing that. I ain't gonna lie. He
might again, everything happens though he's supposed to.

Speaker 6 (48:02):
But I feel like it's a little a little too late,
because again, jon't what Tom is twenty seven thirty one.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
I think I think he's seven years younger than I
think that.

Speaker 3 (48:12):
I think that I think the conversations over with that alone,
yeah alone, even just his age.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
Are you a boxing fan? Everyon? Again?

Speaker 6 (48:20):
I watched, Yeah, I predicted Tank and 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 2 (48:32):
So who do you who do you want to see?
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 3 (48:41):
That's a great question. I feel like there's so many options.

Speaker 6 (48:44):
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 Maywell's for years, So just seeing him up close,
I feel like I'm about to sound like a tape
recorder with anybody that's in his camp. Take him, bro,

(49:06):
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.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
Where are you on this celebrity boxing? We just saw
Jake Paul fight Tyson. We saw McGregor.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
Caught that fight. I hate everything about that.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
What did you hate about it? Do you think it
was stage? Do you think what happened.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
First to the lead up?

Speaker 6 (49:34):
I told my wife that I can't be there because
I was gonna drop the ring. I was one of
it's Tyson, Bro. He's a legend of the sport. He's
a legend of our community. He is 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

(49:55):
of any other race or demographic, there's no way that
you touch in one of their legend, but we allow
our legends to get in there.

Speaker 3 (50:02):
And he allowed that mockery. I agree with you.

Speaker 6 (50:05):
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 2 (50:13):
I mean, Keith, if what they're saying is true to
man made twenty mili, I mean, can I hear you?

Speaker 3 (50:18):
I hear you? What is it?

Speaker 1 (50:19):
It's money, Joe Freddie.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
Now you have realized 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 6 (50:31):
People, but you you might Tyson, the money gonna come
and go right? Yeah, Uh, He's had way more than
twenty million before for 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.

Speaker 3 (50:47):
It's the kids.

Speaker 6 (50:47):
That's below him is my kids, it's me, it's somebody
who's watched him literally from the beginning. So 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

(51:08):
something that you a cold, that you stand behind to
stand on, that is way more valuable than any amount
of money for me.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
So would you do a celebrity boxing match?

Speaker 3 (51:18):
Maybe maybe, see maybe, but.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
The money have to be right, So they got.

Speaker 6 (51:25):
For me, So money wise, it would specifically be for
professional fighting. That's where I say the money got to
be right because again, my life isn't in Yeah, no,
the celebrity, but celebrity, the money don't necessarily got to
be right.

Speaker 3 (51:36):
It got to be the right one. Got to be
the right fight. For me.

Speaker 6 (51:40):
I wouldn't fight necessarily a celebrity because I feel like
it would erase what I've done for ten years in
an make space. It would really just be to 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 1 (51:56):
Is there any way we could do a celebrity MMA fight.

Speaker 3 (51:59):
Maybe we can be the first of the Come who
you want to see me fight?

Speaker 1 (52:02):
Shanning? I don't know who? Like you say you atee
you you fought at one thirty.

Speaker 3 (52:07):
Five, So I'm not that at all right now? Boy, No,
I'm solid.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
What sixty? You're not more than one sixty? Wayne?

Speaker 3 (52:14):
More than one sixty? Come on, key, Wayne, come key,
I'm solid, bro. I'm built like a brick house.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
Okay, what's sixty three?

Speaker 3 (52:20):
One?

Speaker 1 (52:21):
Not even closed? What you're trying to say? You're not
one ninety.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Key, I'm like one eighty one eighty three solid?

Speaker 1 (52:27):
I think it's sixty eighty that Shannon said? What said?
One thing? I know when you kept asking Shannon whould
he wanted to who would he wanted to see you fight?
If he threw off Jake Paul? What was your GIDO response?

Speaker 6 (52:48):
Make that money man?

Speaker 3 (52:50):
You don't make that money man. We won't chat.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
You want on your fa.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
Come on? Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on, Steve, come I completed.
I didn't even Yeah, go ahead talking.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
Let me do it like this.

Speaker 2 (53:11):
Last year, my co host, we were talking about you
have you were critiquing a restaurant and and Ocho said something.
You responded and we were asking. We're talking earlier about
celebrity boxing match. We asked, would you fight Jake Paul
and you said you would like a celebrity boxing match.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
I'm gonna do anybody. Let's go chack, come on, O Joe.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
One.

Speaker 6 (53:35):
O Joe was talking hot, he was talking crazy. O
Joe was talking on a different level. But we had
a conversation. Since uh yeah, I come from a place
of love, man, I come from a place to transparency.

Speaker 3 (53:50):
We had a conversation. Chad didn't mean no harm, but
if you want to put the gloves on, we can
put the gloves on. I ain't gonna lie our whoop
chat ass.

Speaker 6 (54:01):
Alright, I take Oho down through there, and again that's
coming from a place to love.

Speaker 3 (54:05):
I'll take Oh Joe down through that.

Speaker 1 (54:06):
He said, you got the side.

Speaker 6 (54:08):
Take down through there, all right, And I feel like
we will sell out a We will sell out a
big one for that.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
Oh Joe. We can make this happen.

Speaker 6 (54:20):
One one six six one about six six one six
and a half.

Speaker 3 (54:28):
You got to be two something to do something around here. What, Yeah,
you got it.

Speaker 6 (54:32):
I ain't gonna lie non professional it's different because again
I was fighting at one of the highest levels that
you can fight at.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
But non professional one anything under two hundred can't do
nothing with me.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
O Joe, Now you say you want this mode you've
been calling the andre Ward and all these.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
Keith Lisa, he got the hand for you.

Speaker 3 (54:49):
He said, updated too, it'd be crazy too.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
And registered ten different states.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
And we're gonna hug each other and pray afterword. It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
So you mentioned you were in Bellator when they didn't
renew you or they released you. What was going through
your mind then?

Speaker 3 (55:06):
Oh my life was over. With my mind.

Speaker 6 (55:08):
I came back in this very house and had no
When I say no idea, my wife was pregnant with
our second child. I had a two year old. The
rent here was one thousand dollars. I had no idea
how I was about.

Speaker 3 (55:21):
To pay that.

Speaker 6 (55:22):
I literally vividly remember sitting in this very chair, in
its very spot. Swear to you, I went to it.
This is when food reviews actually started for me, because
before then I was just cooking in this kitchen and
I would cook four times a day for her when
she was pregnant, and I would just record myself every
time I was cooking. And when after that fight, I
was curled up in a ball in that bed, goddamn

(55:43):
abowt to cry. I was curled up in a ball,
and I remember her coming over the top of me
and being like, everything is gonna be okay. It was
so hard for me to see because I'm staring at
my two year old. I'm staring at her belly. I
no sense of what's about to happen. I thought that

(56:04):
Food Reviews could do something, or I thought now I
wouldn't even say I'm lying to myself.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
I had no idea what food was gonna do.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
You definitely didn't think it would take off like.

Speaker 3 (56:12):
This, never in a million years.

Speaker 6 (56:14):
I just vividly remember having a conversation with her and
she telling me I was gonna be okay, and she
was rubbing my back. I stood up and I was like,
I'm about to make something happen. I'm about to go
do something. I don't know what it is, but whatever
it is calling me, whatever that voice is telling me
to do, I'm about to do it. And I've listened
to it before. And I'm in a position where I'm
losing contracts. And when I say lost of contract, channing

(56:35):
that contract was worth I think I had like one
hundred thousand dollars up one contract.

Speaker 3 (56:40):
That's money.

Speaker 6 (56:41):
Yeah, I'm like, oh bro, what I was like, just
all right, I ain't eve gotta fight, just give me
ane thousand dollars in my mind. But like God willingly,
maybe six months after all of that happened, and like
I said, sitting the shot starting no food reviews, we
ain't stopp reached out to me and they gave me
a contract that was worth the exact same amount that
that contract was worth for Belaitory.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
Wow, you had jobs. You did a delivery for Postmates
door Dash. Were you a good delivery guy? You get
good tips, you invite off them people food?

Speaker 6 (57:09):
No, No, no, my little brother was that's my little brother.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
That's what I said here in prison.

Speaker 6 (57:22):
But no, for me, I feel like I was. But
I had so much going on at the time. I
was sharing the car with my wife. So my daily
schedule was I would go to the I would wake up,
I would go drop her off in the morning. She
had to be at work at nine o'clock. She had
to be working nine. I would drop her off. I
would go do three or four deliveries that took maybe

(57:42):
like an hour. I would go straight to the gym.
After that, I would train for maybe two hours, lead
a gym. I'm talking about sweating, smelling like everything smell,
get back all of that, getting the car, go do
more deliveries. That's why I said, I can't really say
I'm a good delivery driver because of a delivery driver
pull up and you smell like a igh used to
he probably.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (58:03):
He wanted food now, but I was drinding bro.

Speaker 6 (58:06):
I literally would leave there, do four by deliveries, go
to the next gym session. After that, do two or three,
Go pick her up from work, take her with me
to do a few mold to get money for dinner,
and then after dinner, I would like try and recover
the best I could and do it again tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
So was I a good delivery driver. I was a
livery driver that did what he had to do right.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
Yeah, did you get good tips?

Speaker 3 (58:30):
Mm hmm, maybe a little bit.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
But so you.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
Mentioned that when things were transpiring, you would cook. You
were cooking for your wife, Are you a good cook?
I thought, how did you? How did you learn from
watching your mom? How did you learn how to cook?

Speaker 1 (58:46):
Or was out of was it out of necessity?

Speaker 6 (58:48):
I've always been a study of the game, so I've
always again, I've always been a professional in the sense
of no matter what I do, I take it extremely serious.
So when I was cutting weight, you can ask my
coach this. When I was couldn't wait, I would be
watching the Food Network. And that's me not eating no
like solid meals for two or three days, and me
watching people cook, and me watching people make like desserts

(59:10):
and and full blown like food pouring down there.

Speaker 3 (59:14):
And he'd like, how are you watching this? Like you
not even eating food? My stomach caved in.

Speaker 6 (59:18):
I'm sitting on the floor and like wrapped up like
a mummy cause I'm kind of sweat right, and I'm
full blown in my mind, I'm not realizing I'm studying,
but now in retrospect, I'm studying for what God had
in store for me.

Speaker 3 (59:29):
But yeah, I was full blown, like watching Food.

Speaker 6 (59:31):
Network all day every day. A lot of people that
I used to watch on YouTube. It was like people
versus food. I used to watch Cocoa Butter, which is
like a YouTube channel of like us trying different cuisines
that we never tried before. Got Fieri of course, Gord Ramsey,
Bobby Flay, like I was a huge studier when it
comes to that.

Speaker 3 (59:52):
That's pretty much how I taught myself.

Speaker 6 (59:54):
Afout cook is just watching other people and watching other
videos and tutorials and just coming here and experience and
like experiment stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
So that's what you do. You watched them doing, like, okay,
I do that.

Speaker 6 (01:00:03):
Yeah again, I've always been cocky in a since as
a kid. So I was like, why can't I make
a beef Wellerton. It's a video right now with me
in that kitchen making a beef Welton and it was horrible.

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
But I tried.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
I was so cocky.

Speaker 6 (01:00:15):
That's one of the hardest dishes to make in literally
in a culinary field.

Speaker 3 (01:00:19):
And I'm me. I was with like twenty two. I
was like why not. I had like a little burnt pan.
I had some puff pastry.

Speaker 6 (01:00:26):
I'm cutting mushrooms like I'm really doing something full blown.
The pastry, though, was distick, it was raw in the middle,
the steak was overcooked. I cut the puff pastrie out
and ate the steak.

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
Anyway, when you were were you were foodie, when you
were growing up, did you critique your mom your grandmother's.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
Cooking and this was this was good? I don't know
about this one.

Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
Mom, I've been as waiting. They used to get so
mad at me. Even Thanksgiving. I used to full blown
and be like in mydvanion, this is like a yeah,
full blown.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
Yeah, they didn't they didn't take kind of uh yes
and no.

Speaker 6 (01:01:02):
Because so like my dad was always the one who cooked.
My dad was a very meat eater. Okay, so he
used to cook steaks. I'm talking about full blown like
we used to walk in house. My my wife used
to hate it at first because she come from a
house where they make full meals.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
My dad just made meat. So you had no beg,
you know nothing.

Speaker 6 (01:01:20):
You might have a little piece of experience like this
be here, but it's really just steak. And I'm talking
about own a cutting board just laid out. So like
that's the kind of house that I grew up in.

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
Right, So what made you change from cooking videos to
doing reviews? When did when did that switch go off?
That says you know what? The cooking videos okay, but
let me review food that's already been cooked.

Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
Before we continue. I just want to say you were
amazing at what you do.

Speaker 6 (01:01:42):
It's different seeing in in person and seeing how you
handled the conversation and take it to different spots that
I already was thinking of my mind, No, this is crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:01:52):
But what's the question?

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
How did you How did you determine to stop doing
You was doing cooking videos on YouTube and then you say,
you know what switch goes off? You're like, okay, let
me do reviews and start placing those on TikTok.

Speaker 6 (01:02:05):
It was right after that last fight, Like I said,
I was having conversations that I didn't know what I
was about to do, and I just started listening to
the inner voice and I literally was just doing whatever
felt right at the time. So my again, we in
this kitchen, we standing in there, and I was at
this point I was making cooking videos, but I also
was like dibbling, dabbling with food reviews and people versus

(01:02:26):
food who I just said, I used to watch a lot.
I made a video saying I used to watch them,
and they reached out and was like, we would love
to have you on the show. And back then that's
the equivalent of Shannon Sharp calling me and like, we
want to sit down.

Speaker 3 (01:02:36):
To the interview at the house that you grew up here.

Speaker 6 (01:02:38):
So I'm freaking out and I'm like panicking, and I'm like,
what am I to what I'm about to do? But again,
I'm at the point of trusting God and trusting the
planet he putting in for me. So I'm like, whatever
we At this point, I'm in my mind, I'm like,
what they want to talk to me, fo like what
they want to bring me on their phone. But I'm
just trusting God and I'm letting it happen my way's
supposed to. And I'm standing in the kitchen and my

(01:02:59):
wife comes up and she says, Okay, if you about
to go on people versus food, what are you gonna
post on your page that's gonna make people come and
actually follow you and not just come and look at
your page and keep scrolling. And I was like, I
already do four reviews every now and again. What if
I just post one four of you a day until
I get on the show. This was in November twenty

(01:03:20):
twenty two. And my sister, She's always been a battery,
packing my back she's living with us at the time,
and she living on the couch right here, and she like, yeah,
why don't you. I'm like, okay, let me just try it, right.
I start posting once a day in November. By December,
so I started at one point four million followers. By December,

(01:03:40):
I had like seven million followers. Wow, I had like
seven million. That's when the Wingstop deal came in. That's
when the money started rolling in a little bit, and
it just was like, what's happening. I vividly remember being
in here and like, what is going on? I got
a call from Kevin Hart while I'm sitting right here
in the same spot, and he like, yeah, I want

(01:04:01):
you to come try my restaurant.

Speaker 3 (01:04:03):
And I'm like, what are you doing, Kevin? You?

Speaker 6 (01:04:05):
I literally I have the video on my phone of
me looking at him like what are you talking about?
Why would I come try food for you? And he like, bro,
you the biggest sting you this, that, and the third.
I don't see myself as other people see me, and
I think that stems from that's my anxiety. So I
see myself as a normal person and genuinely, to my core,
I'm just Keith. So when things like that happen.

Speaker 3 (01:04:24):
It's like you lying, Like stop lying?

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
Do you shoot and edit all your own videos every day?

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
So I shoot on my phone.

Speaker 6 (01:04:34):
I literally take my phone and I sit on the
stairwheel and I record. I sit with my family with
eat food. The second the camera go off, I go
to the back of the sprinter, I edit the videos
I posted, and then we go bout her day.

Speaker 3 (01:04:48):
But you that just to keep up.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
Yeah, yeah, so you never really have any interaction with
the people that actually own the restaurant. You go in there,
buy food just like a normal you're in your sprinter,
you eat like I mean, obviously you're not eating that much.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
That's the thing, because.

Speaker 6 (01:05:08):
I would be huge if I ate everything. Yeah yeah, yeah,
But so I give the four rundown of how it works.
So and when we go to a restaurant, it's specifically
either based off a recommendation or it is based off
the restaurant. It's self reaching out so that way nobody
can say I was picking on them and I just
randomly went to a restaurant and gave my unsolicited opinion.

(01:05:28):
The pin has always asked for. So once we go
to the restaurant, I'll have my sister, or I have
somebody that nobody's ever seen me with in my family
go and order the food.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
They might be knowing you might have to seise.

Speaker 3 (01:05:39):
It depends on where we're at.

Speaker 6 (01:05:41):
So if it's a spot where because the threshold is
one hundred to one hundred and fifty recommendations and like
I said, somebody reaching out. So if it's a place
where it's like barely over the threshold, like a hundred recommendations,
then I'll send my sister in because a lot of
the times those people have no idea, right. But if
it's a place where we got twenty five five hundred recommendations,

(01:06:01):
or we got three thousand recommendations, or the restaurant owner
and his mama and his grandmama and his cousin and
reached out, then that's when I send the family member
that nobody's ever seen me with. So it's levels of
like ninja that we called it. It's like levels of
like incognito. So if it's at the highest level, it's
somebody that you literally never seen me with, somebody that
don't even look like they're related to us, that you

(01:06:22):
would never and we even get like we get real creative,
Like they go to DD's and grab like random shopping
bags just so they look like they've been shopping in
the neighborhood. They throwing full disguises, so it's a full
blown like mission basically. So they go in, they get
the food, they record the experience. When they come back
in the car, they give us all the information of
how the customer service was, how fast it took, how

(01:06:45):
many people was in there. They get videos of the
inside and everything. I do the review full blown, unbiased,
just giving my personal opinion the second that the video
turns off. If there's if it's an eight or higher
of like the overall rating for the car, because we
literally I ask everybody, like, how did y'all think about it?

Speaker 3 (01:07:04):
They experience the food.

Speaker 6 (01:07:06):
If it's over eight, we go in and we have
a conversation with owner, and a lot of times if
I feel like it's over eight, we blessed enough to
where we'll have people jump on a plane and literally
try to place the same day. So I as again
with a great power and great responsibility, So I feel
like it's in our duty to go in and have
a conversation with the owner and tell them like, hey,
there's no promises, but it might get crazy in here,

(01:07:27):
and a lot of times that's why we leave really
large tips so they can afford to go grab the
food that they need for the next day, because a
lot of these places they are either like behind a
rent or they just like to make ends meet, so
it's like they can't afford for the surge, like they
can't afford to keep up with the demand because a
lot of times they have to hire people the same day,

(01:07:49):
where they got to call their cousins to be like, hey,
we need ten of y'all to come and help us
for tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (01:07:53):
So we pay up up for that.

Speaker 6 (01:07:55):
So we paid for the food, the help that you
may need, and everything that comes involved in that. So
that's when we talked to the owners.

Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
Do you remember the first video you uploaded that went viral.

Speaker 6 (01:08:06):
Food review, Mister Gary, Mister Gary, it was a food
truck that was around the corner from here. So I
used to ride my bike just to stain shape. And
the shrip is maybe like ten minutes from here, but
it's a straight shot up Flamingo, So I used to
come out here. I used to ride my bike and
I always to ride real late so maybe like eleven o'clock.

(01:08:27):
So this is maybe two weeks into Remember I told
you I was posting every day. There's maybe two weeks
into that. And I was riding my bike back.

Speaker 3 (01:08:34):
From the strip.

Speaker 6 (01:08:34):
This is maybe at like twelve o'clock at night. It's
real late, and I'm driving past a random street that
like literally nobody usually walks on because I don't know,
if you know, we in a hood share at twelve o'clock,
it don't be nobody down the street normally. So I'm
driving down the street and it's a random like led
lighted box and I can't tell what it is, and

(01:08:57):
I'm like, why is there?

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
Again?

Speaker 6 (01:08:58):
We in a hood, I'm like, why is lights in
the middle of the street. So I turned my bike around,
I ride down and low Mahoe is a food truck.
I walk up to it. I asked the man like, hey,
can I try some food? And he like, uh, yeah,
we sell. It was called mister Gary's. I think it
was like lobster and something Missigary seafood.

Speaker 3 (01:09:19):
So he had I'm.

Speaker 6 (01:09:20):
Allergy showfish, but he had lobster, shrimp, he had crab,
he had everything. But he also had a burger so
I was like, can I try to burger? And he
was like, I'm gonna be honest with you. Everything is
cooked on the same grill. So I was like, okay,
never mind, and I went to leave and he was like, wait,
I'm gonna clean the grill off. Come back tomorrow. I'll
literally disaffect everything. I'll clean everything, I'll break everything down.

Speaker 3 (01:09:39):
Mind you.

Speaker 6 (01:09:39):
He has no idea why I am right, And in
my mind, I'm like, why would he do all of
this for a stranger or just a regular.

Speaker 1 (01:09:45):
Customer and put do all that for a burger.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
Burger The burger was go down the street.

Speaker 3 (01:09:52):
It's twelve o'clock lights.

Speaker 6 (01:09:53):
He like, bro, I'm about to leave for the night,
but come back in the morning. I'm gonna come here
early just for you specifically, and I'm gonna clean everything.
On my mind, I'm like, why is this place slow?
Why is this not a loyal fan base that's coming
here and supporting this man that's really like putting his
hole into this rest of So I go back the
next morning. Again, he still has no idea. I am
go back the next morning. I try to burger. The

(01:10:15):
burger is amazing. I make a video to that effect
and say, hey, in my opinions, burger is great.

Speaker 3 (01:10:21):
I tell the whole story.

Speaker 6 (01:10:22):
The video gets like twenty million, I would say, like
in the first twelve hours or like fifteen or twenty million.
He calls me and he panicking. He in a full blown,
like sweat. He'd run around the house. I'm like, what's
going on? He like, people got my phone number? Why
do people have my phone number?

Speaker 3 (01:10:41):
Long and behold.

Speaker 6 (01:10:41):
I recorded the outside of the truck and had his
phone number across the top and that was connected to
his cash app. People say him forty thousand dollars in
less than twelve hours, and he had no idea what
to do. He was calling me, He like, do I
pay these people?

Speaker 3 (01:10:53):
They money back? He's like, do I go see these
people food? Like what do I do with his money?

Speaker 6 (01:10:57):
And I'm sitting there again, all of this is taking
for the first time, and I'm like, I.

Speaker 3 (01:11:01):
Don't know we the myssacarious. I'm like, oh, this is
justn't new to me.

Speaker 6 (01:11:06):
But it was like that reassurance or that knowingness of
like knowing I had a community behind me that was
willing and more than willing to go out and support
these restaurants, and I always I told him at that day,
because people want to see good people win, and people
literally was like flock into his restaurant before you know what,
the news was there. The video had over like thirty million,

(01:11:28):
forty million views, and he had raised over I think
like six thousand dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:11:33):
Wow. Yeah, Why do you think people connect with your videos?

Speaker 6 (01:11:38):
I don't know, Shannon. I ain't go out to you.
It baffles me every day. I think for me is
because I pray a lot. Again, I don't see myself
as other people see me, so it makes me question internally.
But my I always fall back to the fact that
I feel like I'm supposed to be here and God
put me here for a reason. And I think a

(01:11:58):
lot of it giving myself a little credit is that
I really take this serious, like I don't play around.
I know these people's lives that are being affected, whether
that be being good or bad. I know there's a
lot of power that's been bestowed on me right now
and bestowed on my family. We have no idea how
long this is gonna last. We don't know if we're

(01:12:19):
gonna be here tomorrow. We don't know if we're gonna
be here in three years. I just know, as long
as I can stay myself and I can be me,
I'm gonna be everywhere supposed to be. So I feel
like that's why people connect. If that's why y'all connect,
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:12:30):
Why y'all connect me. I'm thankful for it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:31):
Though.

Speaker 2 (01:12:33):
The foods that you critique, are they all foods that
you've had before and you're basing it on a previous test,
or you're like, man, no, I just like this. I've
never had this dish before, but I really really like it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:46):
That's a great question.

Speaker 6 (01:12:48):
I like to think I step outside of the box
a lot, but again, we go on recommendations, and a
lot of my audience look like me. Now we're being
blessed enough to where we stepping outside of that and
we really hitting like a worldwide audience.

Speaker 3 (01:13:01):
But for a long time, it was just us.

Speaker 6 (01:13:03):
So the recommendations I would get would be from restaurants
that were specifically for us.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
That we grew up.

Speaker 6 (01:13:11):
Yeah, yes, but now I said, we I like it.
We step outside the box. And again, I'm a true foodie.
So even if I'm not recording, we go in the cities,
I'm trying something that I've never traveled for. I'm the
type to literally book a flight to somewhere, get off
the plane and just walk to the nearest restaurant and
just try it and have no idea what I'm eating.

Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
He's in Japan. He is in Japan for a week straight.

Speaker 6 (01:13:32):
And when I say I ate everything under the sun stuff,
I didn't even know how to pronounce stuff I had.
I'm talking about we walking into a random buildings eating
everything that people was recommended.

Speaker 3 (01:13:41):
Uh. I think that's just the foody in me.

Speaker 6 (01:13:43):
But for the most part, it, like I said, it's
coming from recommendation, so it can sometimes be like monotonous,
but it's deeper than the food. For me Shanning, it's
like it's the people behind the restaurants. It's people that
look like.

Speaker 2 (01:13:57):
Us, right, and a lot of times they got a
story to tell the whole and literally they started and.

Speaker 3 (01:14:02):
They got kids.

Speaker 6 (01:14:02):
They feed off of this, like they got their kids
kids that they feed off of this. I'm blessed enough
to say that in the past year alone, we've been
a part of changing one hundred and fifty families lives
that look like us.

Speaker 2 (01:14:15):
Wow, you great on scale of one to ten? How
do you come to the Have you ever given a ten?

Speaker 3 (01:14:22):
A few?

Speaker 6 (01:14:23):
I would say maybe fifteen may max. We've been to
over three hundred, four hundred restaurants. I would say maybe
twenty max.

Speaker 3 (01:14:32):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (01:14:33):
How does someone get a ten? What did it have
to be?

Speaker 2 (01:14:35):
Obviously you want the customer service, you want food hot?
But how what's the court? What's the A, D C
D E? That gets to that ten?

Speaker 6 (01:14:45):
So I don't really do interviews, as you can tell.
So I'm giving you stuff that I don't never give
to nobody good like that.

Speaker 3 (01:14:54):
So I'm just give you my full skill for me.

Speaker 6 (01:14:58):
Anywhere from A one to a four is something that
I wouldn't eat again, unless okay, one to a three
I wouldn't eat again. Four is like I could see
there's things that I personally would change, but there if
I needed to eat it, I would eat it. Five

(01:15:18):
is right in the middle. Five is like it's not bad,
but it's not good. Six is like, Okay, we fix
a few things, this can be really really good. Seven
is like, this isn't the worst thing I had, but again,
you fix maybe two or three items, or two or
three ingredients and a dish and we talk about something superior.
Eight is like, even if I'm not recording, I'll eat this.

(01:15:42):
I would probably would eat the whole thing, but I'll
eat it if if I'm coming back to the city.
Nine is like, I'm about to finish this, and whoever
wants some, y'all better hurry up and get it because
it's about to be gone. Ten is nothing that I
personally can think of can be changed about this dish
to make it better. It ain't a piece of salt
that can be added, a no level of sweetness, no
level of savory. And this it's nothing in this dish,

(01:16:05):
no added an ingredient that I can think of that
can make this any better. So that's why I get
the ten because in my mind, that's a perfect dish.

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
Have you ever made recommendations like, man, you need to
add a little bit more this, a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:16:15):
More bad tickets? Do they take people take your bites?

Speaker 3 (01:16:19):
I would like to think so.

Speaker 6 (01:16:20):
So we went to a place in New Orleans and
it was called what was the name of it, you
know what I'm saying. It was called something It was
like a sweet buyou or buyou effect or something like that,
And it was supposed to be Mexican inspired tacos and
Mexican inspire food.

Speaker 3 (01:16:38):
It was black people food, yeah, full blonde. And I
went in.

Speaker 6 (01:16:42):
I had a conversation with them and I was like,
let's just call it black people food when I say
it was so they had nachos, the nachos.

Speaker 3 (01:16:50):
The nachos was like ground beef. It was ground beef
nacho cheese. It was like I think they even they
using Dorito's. They was using some kind of like bad
the rito hit that ain't that's us? Yes, yeah, And
I felt.

Speaker 6 (01:17:04):
Like once you identify your demographic and identify your target
audience and you make it known exactly who you're making
food folk, it makes it easier for people in the
audience in the area to be like, oh I eat
that kind of food.

Speaker 3 (01:17:16):
Oh I want to try that.

Speaker 6 (01:17:18):
So and after we had the conversation, they changed a
lot of the meal items to reflect exactly what it was. Wow,
it was like rotail dip and they caught it like
Mexican nacho and I was like, this is rotail.

Speaker 3 (01:17:29):
I know it's bell Vita.

Speaker 2 (01:17:32):
So you started like I'm reading that you and you
watched a lot of videos with your daughter.

Speaker 1 (01:17:38):
The pawl patrol and things like that, and you're like.

Speaker 2 (01:17:40):
Well, you know, hey, is that did that really give
you the idea that you in the chair?

Speaker 1 (01:17:44):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:17:45):
No, I didn't have furniture.

Speaker 1 (01:17:49):
So you never getting rid of it.

Speaker 6 (01:17:50):
Huh No, know that that's going in that case somewhere
in a few years. Yeah, So how that happen was,
I literally didn't have furniture. We bought my daughter a
play set and it was a little small white table
and it was this papatrol chair or this is like

(01:18:10):
third one caause ide broke so many of them sitting
in them, But it was a papatrol chair and it
was sitting in this corner, and she had like a
little kitchen set up. So one thing about us as parents,
I like to tip our hats off. No matter what
we got, our kids don't have everything. So I can
be down on my last pair of shoes, I can
be down to not eating. My kids gonna have whatever
they think about. So my daughter can walk into the

(01:18:32):
store and grab whatever she want. And this is when
we was making one hundred dollars a week and I
was I'm talking about full blown my two yearl walking
down aisles grabbing stuff, throwing in the cart, and however
we about to make it happen.

Speaker 3 (01:18:42):
We're gonna make it happen.

Speaker 6 (01:18:43):
So she had every toy that you can think of,
and we didn't have a kitchen table. And one day
I was doing a four of you and I didn't
have anywhere to set up at. I didn't have no
fancy lights, I ain't had no fancy setup. I literally
was setting my phone up on like either a bottle
or like whenever I can get close to me. At
one point it was a boat the sugar, and I
would just set my phone up on it. And her
chair was in right there, and at this point I

(01:19:05):
was probably like one hundred and fifty pounds them. I
was shredded, I was lean ripped, and I was.

Speaker 1 (01:19:12):
Out.

Speaker 3 (01:19:14):
I don't feel like a superhero, but I remember vividly sitting.

Speaker 6 (01:19:19):
In that chair and I was like, if I can
fit it, I'm about to make the video right here.
And I made the video and somebody commented, like, what
is he sitting on?

Speaker 3 (01:19:27):
And I was like, oh, this is have people talk.
He's making people talk.

Speaker 6 (01:19:30):
So I was like, I'm about to just sit in
from the own and that just became a thing, and
especially with the Internet, you don't know what's gonna stick.
Don't especially when you not even trying, like how you
didn't try to swipe on Instagram line.

Speaker 3 (01:19:44):
You don't even know.

Speaker 1 (01:19:46):
I don't, I don't, I don't.

Speaker 6 (01:19:48):
See you want even want to see.

Speaker 1 (01:19:51):
That's why, that's why I got somebody to hendle a.

Speaker 3 (01:19:54):
Come on, Michelle, I have to get you one.

Speaker 2 (01:19:57):
The best part about that And it would have been
a lot longer had he not turned it up because
he had he has access to my account, So had
he not turned it off, it might have been four hours.

Speaker 3 (01:20:09):
You ain't gone for four hours.

Speaker 1 (01:20:12):
You know, got me, got me driving home, going into jail.

Speaker 6 (01:20:18):
Yeah, for me, it was it was one of the
situations where it was like I didn't even know it
was about to be a thing, and it just so
happened to be a thing.

Speaker 2 (01:20:26):
The Chipotle reviewed you, and you you reviewed as uh
state case of deal, and I don't they liked it.
I guess because they got they got they got a
key a keeper.

Speaker 3 (01:20:39):
Deal slaying that saying.

Speaker 2 (01:20:44):
Because at one point in time, I think you interviewed
It's like, man, they don't give you enough with all
the portions.

Speaker 1 (01:20:51):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:20:52):
They might have kept that up for a week because
they don't going back to the small portion size key.

Speaker 1 (01:20:56):
I'm just saying. I'm just saying so for.

Speaker 3 (01:20:58):
Me, even the way that happened.

Speaker 6 (01:20:59):
So, there was a video that a lady named Lexis
she put out and she so she goes around and
she tries recommendations that employees make. So, like you know,
if you work at a restaurant, you do things that
other people don't do because you've been there all day.

Speaker 3 (01:21:16):
You just started messing with concoctions and whatnot.

Speaker 6 (01:21:19):
So her thing is that she goes around and she
tries employee recommended. So she tried a place, I mean,
she tried Chipotle, and employee recommended a state casey deer
with fajitas and sour cream.

Speaker 1 (01:21:31):
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:21:32):
So I just tried it, and I'm like, oh, this
is amazing. In my mind, this is when Chipotle was
like at the top of the top of the game,
this when everything was fresh and like they said, it
was my case that he was spelling how big it was.

Speaker 3 (01:21:47):
I tried it.

Speaker 6 (01:21:47):
I never in a million years thought that it was
going to take off the way it was gonna take off.
And I know that's a cliche thing to say. But
a week after I post that video, I'm on the
phone with the CEO of Chipotle and like you know,
they'd be having a real long time tables. They set
the zoom call up where the table was like I
was sitting on the edge of the table and it
was just a long like director Ceo co and I'm

(01:22:10):
sitting there in my car. I'm in a two thousand
and thirteen Hyundai Sonata, was it or accent Hyundai Accent.

Speaker 3 (01:22:20):
Hug Cat falling off the tent peeling you got.

Speaker 6 (01:22:24):
You gotta make sure you put it in the gear
the right way because it's seyrup and all kinds of
stuff in the gearshift.

Speaker 3 (01:22:29):
I'm talking about full blown on the.

Speaker 6 (01:22:30):
Phone with the CEO, the CEO of Chippotle, and he like, yeah,
we want to bring the case of thea and make
it a full meal item. We want to name a
Chipotle after you. They literally changed the entire Chipotle from
Chipotle to Chappotle.

Speaker 3 (01:22:44):
Again. Shannon, I'm like, what are we doing?

Speaker 6 (01:22:47):
Like what it was just stemmed from me sitting in
his chair eating the fucking case of again.

Speaker 2 (01:22:53):
This concludes the first half of my conversation Part two
is also posted, and you can access it to whichever
podcast platform you just listen to part one on. Just
simply go back to club profile and I'll see you there.

All Episodes

Club Shay Shay - Keith Lee Part 1

Episode Transcript

Host

Shannon Sharpe

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Club Shay Shay - Keith Lee Part 1