LIL' FIZZ - Frito Chilli Cheese

Dive into a compelling episode of "Eating While Broke" with Lil' Fizz, as he gives us an unfiltered glimpse into his life from B2K fame to financial savvy. Fizz talks about the dizzying highs of stardom with earnings locked in a trust, steering him into a path of entrepreneurship in the cannabis industry and dining ventures. He recounts the ups and downs of his finances and how resilience, fueled by the love for his son and a newfound interest in sports, kept him afloat.

Reflecting on his acting pursuits, Fizz shares the realities of evolving from a music icon to an actor, embracing both challenges and victories. In this episode, we see a side of Fizz that goes beyond the stage, a story of persistence and real-life hustle, all while enjoying a simple yet iconic dish—Frito chili cheese, a symbol of his journey through fame, fatherhood, and fortitude.

 

Connect: @wittcoline  @airfizzo

Share your recipes with us: @EATINGWHILEBROKE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
I'm your host Colen Witt, and today we have very
special guests in the building, recording artists actor. Most of
us all know you from your multi platinum selling group
B two K. Yes, ma'am, it is an honor to
have you here today.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Thank you. I appreciate you having me.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Tell me what you're gonna have me eating today.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
All right, so today we're gonna take the famous Freedo
Lai bag, Fredo's original corn chips, and we're gonna pop
in a pot some hornmale chili. Okay, We're gonna heat
that joint up, and then we're gonna melt some cheese
in there and we're gonna pour it into the Friedo bag.

(00:49):
We're gonna mix it up, and we're gonna have chili
cheese fritos.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
This sounds really dope. I've never ever had this, So
I was you heard me. I was really excited. I
was like, wait, what, Yeah, that's what we're gonna go with.
This sounds like something you'd eat like after school.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yo. So the way this came about was I used
to me and my friends after school, we would always
go to West Chuster Park so and just playball. It
was an open gym there, so of course, you know,
we didn't have no money. As kids, we have like
some change in our pocket. And the ice cream trunk
used to pull up and he would have these small

(01:51):
bags of free thos and chili and cheese that he made.
He would just dump a little bit in there and
give us a plastic spoon. We mix it up like
not your us.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Oh so that's how okay, okay, I didn't even know that.
I wonder if all the ice cream trugs so that
I feel like in La that happens. Yeah, I don't
know about New.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
York, but then you know, it transferred over to us.
Leaving middle school to high school and stopping at seven eleven,
getting the bag of Friedo's, opening it in the store
and then hitting it with the chili and cheese instead
of doing nacho chips, because then you get more chips
in the bag, you know, so then you could get fancy.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
You're like kind of big too, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
You could get fancy after seven elevens through some jalapenos
on there too, you know what I'm saying. And then
they just charged you like a dollar for the Chilian cheese.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Oh really, okay, I thought you guys were like kind
of sneaking it.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
I mean yeah, it was the initial thing, you know.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Then they were like, no, kids, you're gonna pay a dollar. Okay,
we'll go ahead and whip up this chili.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Start.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
What do you call this, Freddy Freedom?

Speaker 2 (02:54):
My name is the Freedo Bang.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
The Freedo Bang.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, okay, because you whip Freedo up with little shebang,
you know what I'm saying. So it's the Freedo Bang. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Teachers.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Teachers were gonna pop open this can of chili right now.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
You don't add any seasoning or anything.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
I mean, if you really want to get fancy like that.
But we're talking about being broke. So when you broke,
you ain't got no seasons, you know what I'm saying.
You gotta work with what you got.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
How'd you find the can of chili? How'd you get
onto that?

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, it was down the street from my house. I
stayed on Slosson and uh it was a grocery store
down the street called the Bootle Market. It's still there
in the Booto Market. This was the chili they gave us.
You know what, I'm saying, this is our options chili.
I'm gonna take a little bit of this water.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
And you're fron You're an l A native, right, yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, yeah, Well I was born in New Orleans, so
I got got creole winding. You know what I'm saying.
I could really throw down. We was really cooking, and
we wasn't no no broke. You know what I'm saying.
I can make some real real fire up in here.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
But so if you didn't have to cook a broke
this what dish could I expect from a good Like
if you were trying to impress me, like, what would
you do to what meal would you cook for me?

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Well? First I would ask do you are.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
You allergic to anything?

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Nothing? Okay? Do you like spicy food?

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Not really?

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Not really okay? So I would probably bless you with like.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Some bless you are you in the kitchen?

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Okay? I would bless you with some chicken and shrimp
pasta jumbalie.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
How long would that take you to cook?

Speaker 2 (04:35):
I'm quick, so I probably fixed that up in like
an hour.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
No way, damn. We should have had a special addition
for you. So take me back to what was going
on during this era, like take me all the way
there so I could be there with you during this
broke here in middle school? High school? What's going on?

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Say mostly middle school? High school is early be two
k you know, so I was on the road at
that time. But high middle school, you know, I would
catch the bus home. Like I said, I stayed right
there off Slusson in like over heal, so right there.
I mean we used to have Ye's Cafe, I mean

(05:14):
Ye's Chinese restaurant. We had Sachi's karaoke, Tariokey chicken bowls,
we had another little Mexican restaurant right there.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
But you know, what was your home life was like?
Was it like a single mom? Two parents house, single mom?
And then what did your mom do she like as
far as work and how did she support y'all?

Speaker 2 (05:37):
She canceled counseled at a junior college West Los Angeles
community House. She's a counselor up there. Well she was.
She retired. But man, I got so many kids that
used to see me and would be like, yo, your
little fizz, And I'm like, yeah, they will be like, man,

(05:57):
I know your mom, Like he helped me through school.
Tell miss Frederick, I said, thank you like, Yeah, so
I used to be like, man, my mom's more famous
in the hood than me, because literally, like everybody that
knew me knew my mom. Everybody was going to that school.
See what was bubbling warm? Okay, that's like you know,
what's heating up? See that little smoke coming off of it.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
So the kids in school they would call you a
little fits. So your name was little Fitz.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Before I got the name in the group.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
But you're saying, after you was superstar B two K,
they were still coming up to you about your mom. Yes,
that's pretty awesome.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yes, Still to this day, I'll see people like, man,
your mom helped me through school. Man, if it wasn't
for her, I wouldn't have went to this school and
started working here. Yeah, she put a lot of.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
People on like, so she was like very inspiring.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, she was a counselor. Then she became head of
a transfer center, so she started helping kids figure out,
you know, all the credits and everything they needed to
get to their desire university.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Wow. And then did you have sip? It was just
you my older sister. Okay, So did you guys grow
up with her busy busy? Because a lot of single moms.
I'm hearing that like barely.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
My older sister, she's seven years older, so she played
a big role in my life most of the time.
I can remember in elementary school my mom was working
graen yard shift for some computer computer company, and uh,
it would be me and my sister. I would come home.

(07:30):
Times have changed, man, I would come home from the
bus in the second grade by myself wow, and do stuff.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Like this really, Like, so you learned learn how to
cook like simple meals early, yeah, super early, second grade ten?

Speaker 2 (07:45):
How old is it was making all of that super early?
But like I said, my family was from New Orleans,
so I had an uncle who showed me how to
chop up green onions. Take some uh some hot sausage
cut up, put some a couple of empowdered garlic powder,
some garlic clothes. Cut those up and put it in
the in the noodles, and that'd be tasting like a

(08:07):
whole different. It ain't regular top raman. You know.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
That's how you did your raman.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
What crack, what fire man?

Speaker 1 (08:15):
We should have had you a damn You could do
your own eating while broke special So you started with
B two K kind of early So take me through, Like,
I guess how that transition happened from being raising a
single mom, you know, household with an older sibling that's
seven years older to you, kind of getting signed right

(08:37):
out of high school or I'm guessing during high school.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
In high school during our ninth grade year actually ninth grade?

Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah, what were you doing as a kid?

Speaker 2 (08:47):
I didn't finish the full ninth grade year. I checked
out and started doing independent studies.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
So what were you doing that led to a record
deal on the ninth grade? I have to know what
you were doing when your mom wasn't watching you.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
Well, we were being rehearsal a lot, you know, as
a group, we were together in studio sessions, rehearsals mostly
mostly rehearsal and.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Performing for different labels.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
So while you were a little kid, though, but who
was helping you guide you when you're a little kid,
Like obviously you didn't Just like how I need to
know how this group came together because I'm so lost.
You were so young?

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, I was young. I was eight years old when
I joined the group.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Was it like you and your friends?

Speaker 2 (09:38):
It was me actually, uh, friend of mine still to
this day, Jane Aiko's older brother, his name Jahi. He
was in the group. It was me and him were
more of the original like first two. We went through
a lot of different members until it got to me, Jahi,

(09:59):
this other guy Trey, and Bull and Rats and that
group got split up because Sony wanted to sign us,
but they wanted to sign just us three with another
member and take the other two Jahi and Trey and
put them in another group, which became Final Four.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
But how did you guys get in front of the
labels at that age?

Speaker 2 (10:24):
We had management that was that had originally put the
group together, you know, was finding all the members. A
lady by the name Akisha Gamble and choreographer Dave Scott.
They found us in all different places. I was at
a Black HICs Black Expo downtown LA and my mom

(10:46):
took me down there as a kid, and there was
this group on stage and I was looking at him.
I was really into ABC Criss Cross at that and
they had on like the big jerseys and the baggy jeans,
and I was like, oh, they looked tight. And then
we walked off and this lady came chasing behind my mom.
She's excuse me, your son is so adorable. What's his name?
She started talking to me and I was like, yeah,

(11:08):
I'm Drew and she was like, do you sing a
rapp And I'm like, yeah, I rap and she's like,
oh okay, and my mom's looking like you rap? What's
going on? So she called my mom uh later on
that week and invited me over to one of the
group members' houses what happened to be Jahiaiko's older brother

(11:30):
and audition. I rapped and they liked it. They put
me in a group. I was hey, wow, and yeah,
we just from that point we got a lot of
working you know, learning how to be an artist, rehearsals,
media training, and from there the group just kept developing.

(11:50):
Different members would come in and out, you know, things
weren't happening in the time spend that certain parents were
looking forward to happen for their kids, so they would
take them out the group. We find a replacement, and
that's how it all like formed to the five members
and then split to B two K and final four.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Okay, and then what was your mom's thoughts during this
whole process? Oh?

Speaker 2 (12:11):
My mom was like, yo, like, don't have your heart
set on this, you know, she wanted me to finish
school and live a normal life, you know, live a
normal grow up in the normal how normal kids do.
She didn't really see it. Between the four of us,
we had an idea on what this was really going
to be.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
Like you were you personally were really invested.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yeah, all four of us four, you know, we were
destined on getting in to where we saw ourselves. And
I was being the biggest group in America.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
So and you saw that from a young age. And
did you tell your mom that?

Speaker 2 (12:46):
Yep? And she wanted to take me out the group
at a time and I was like, no, not not, Nope,
this is happening. And she was like, but you don't
want to give up on your you know, I want
to play basketball. I wanted to do the you know,
sports things. She just felt bad. She was like, I
don't want to you know, discourage you or anything, but

(13:07):
I still want you to have your you know, your childhood.
Like prom he didn't come in graduating from high school.
So when it happened, I just promised her that I
would finish school. So I finished high school. I graduated
from independent studies, but I graduated, got my degree, and
it just worked. It worked. How I've seen it.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
But did you ever end up going to like prom
and all the high schools?

Speaker 2 (13:30):
So we did an MTV prom or something, but it
wasn't like a real problem.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
Okay, do you feel like, looking back that you missed
out or.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Not that I missed out because I got to experience.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
With, oh watch out that bad boys hot.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Okay, I got to experience with you know, nine percent
of the world.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
So I'm sure you were touring at a very baby age, right.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
So no, I don't regret it. But you know, now
that I'm like, my on is here, I'm like, nah,
I wouldn't let him do this, you know, I wouldn't
do entertainment unless it just was God sent for him
to do it. But I want him to have that
normal child life, you know.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
So you kind of see now that you're a parent,
like what your mom's perspective was.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Sure, Wow, you don't ever see it as a kid,
you know. Yeah, So this this this chili cheese ready ready?

Speaker 1 (14:27):
So I opened the bag. So guys, just so you
listeners are listening, he heated up the chili in the
pot through some shredded cheese on top. We're opening the
bag of Fredo's I've never had this, so this is going.
It's very hot, and he's pouring it directly from the
pot into the bag. He looks like a professional, like

(14:52):
he's been doing this his whole life.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
Step five. You know what I'm saying, Take that blinky
right there at them an up, got your fork right
there ready, yep, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're feeling in a
bag right there. You know it's oh yeah, that's that.
That's that nikki right there. So when you get about here,

(15:16):
you're gonna like start like, all right, I need some more,
and then you can put more if you're not. If not,
if you're done, you know, you can go back to it.
So yeah, yeah, and we'll let you all see that.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
That looks really gooey and messy, and all right, here
we go. I got my first I mean this, this
looks crazy.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yeah, get ready, because you know, I don't know what
this is doing to the stomach these days, saying as
an adult, this might not agree with me. This is
eating while broke.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
We got the bags rolled back just the way business
teaching me how to do this. So I got it
on my fork right here, steaming hot.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah yeah, let me get a little bit with you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Here we go for the taste test.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
Come on and we go.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
Oh there we go, ready one the three. Listen, How
you still don't do this?

Speaker 2 (16:24):
How I still don't? You can't do this every day? Now?
You know I'm not in.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
My age, no, no, but you know what the texture
on this this is. This is awesome. The texture from
the crunch and then the Melsey gooey and the hotness
this is. I don't know why I didn't know about this.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
Yeah, I have to put you all on man, this
is that got real, l A.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
I would be eating this every day, you feel me?
All right, guys, I'm gonna stop eating in your ears,
but this is I would kill this. This would be
my everyday snack as a kid. That's highly addictive, really good.
And by the way, this meal was like three dollars
I think, like seriously, like three or four dollars cheap,

(17:14):
like for multiple servings, Like it's like maybe five. But
this is an amazing Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Like you know, if my son is having a sleepover
and his boys is over, they want a snack, I
can get the little bags of the free doos make
this bit yep and they're like, this is.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Fire you like daddy other year off.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yeah yeah, yeah, you know, I got all the snacks.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Let me tell you, this is a great snack. This
is a great I don't even know appetizers, Like this
is amazing. So now your your story is so unique
because you're young and you literally went to the Promised Land,
which was pretty impressive. So you're eight years old, you're

(18:07):
you know, you end up signing in the ninth grade,
So like let's talk about the signing day and what
was going on in your life, like what your schedule
was looking like, what your home life was looking like, Well,
your pockets were looking like before the deal.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
So in high school, ninth grade at the time, I
started school kindergarten at four years old, so in ninth
grade I was thirteen. I was super young. My schedule
was a normal kids school schedule. I played for the
football team at the time, I was trying out for

(18:46):
the basketball team. I made the team but didn't ever
get to go to the first practice because I had
to check out before then.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
Okay, but your schedule also included like rehearsals and trainings, right.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Not as much while school was going on. More so
on the weekends because yeah, we were in school. We
hadn't checked out your ship. But prior to ninth grade
starting and that summer, prior to ninth grade, we were
together all the time.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
Did you guys go to the same high school?

Speaker 2 (19:21):
None of us.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
Now, did you tell your friends at school or your
pears at school that you were doing this when they
support it?

Speaker 2 (19:28):
When I came, I cause I went to Bishop Montgomery,
so it was a Catholic school. We had uniforms. So
I came to school one day in regular clothes. I
was checking out and everybody was like, where are you going?
Where you go? I was like, yeah, I'm leaving. I'm
about to be famous. Like all right, what are you
talking about. I'm like, yeah, I'm checking out. I'm about
to be famous. So I just got a deal. No,

(19:49):
I'm trying to be real cool. I used to wear
a fake rolex with a tape on it holding it
together and stuff, so it was fun, you know. I
just I remember that though going there, and then we
started to do like magazine covers and stuff like when
word up was out, So then all of my peers

(20:10):
and everybody at school was like, yo, you really are famous,
Like you in this group. So they had a homecoming
that year, a homecoming dance, and my boy that went
to school with me, he made me a fake ID
for Bishop and I went to the homecoming dance. And
when I went there, it was like everybody was like, yo,

(20:31):
oh my god, he's here. Like I was like, I
remember that that was my highlight high school moment, Like yeah,
it felt like I had was like prom king or
something like, you know, everybody was just all lies on
me at the school dance.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
That has been pretty incredible feeling now as because that
was the first time and the only reason why I'm
trying to find this out was that the first time
this is before you're really really be two K. So
this is like a the snippet of what your life
is about to becoming.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
And you liked it.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah, okay, So then what's the next milestone like between
you being signed now you know you're getting these interviews,
your people are starting, you're starting to get all this
pr behind you, Like, what's the next milestone before before money,
like more of the fame, Like what was that next transition?
Like when did you realize Like, oh.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Shit, I would think it was when we first heard
our song on the radio. We were in New York
and like Times Square and we were about to do
one on six in Park for the first time.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
That's a big show at the time, I would have
been and that's it was the car the song playing
in the.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
Radio and on the radio in the car.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
It wasn't the one on six in Park.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
What And because it was like, Yo, we're actually on
the radio. You know. That's like now it's like we
got streaming absence and stuff, so it's not like anybody
can go put that song on the app and you
can hear it. Back then, to have your song on
the radio, it was like you made it. You was like,
oh my god, there the world is listening to us

(22:12):
right now on the radio, you know. So that was
just a big, a big accomplishment and the milestone for
us for sure.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Okay, and then the song what was the song at
the time, because I know all your songs pretty much
just blew up. I just remember beat Too Gay everywhere
it was uh huh, okay, yeah, Tricky Stewart. So your
songs playing on the radio, you're doing these interviews, you're
no longer in school, you're still in high school, and
your mom is she on the road with you or

(22:40):
she letting you.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
No, we're on the road with road management, but she's
calling you know, I'm making sure I do my parts.
My mom was before she got the counseling job, she
was a substitute teacher. She would sub in at different schools.
So I never got a break like to just say,
fuck it, I ain't doing homework today. What I'm saying
it was like, did you do your work? What is it?

(23:02):
Let me see it. So it was like, you know,
school had to be done, okay, yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
And then what are your pockets looking like during this
rise to success?

Speaker 2 (23:15):
Well, we got our little advancement, which wasn't crazy. You know,
most of it had to go into a trust account
because we weren't eighteen, so I couldn't spend it like that.
And I think the first little money I had, I
might have had like five grand to really touch and
I think I spent it all in the mall. In
like two weeks, it was gone, those shoes, just everything

(23:37):
you wanted. You know. It was like I got money, Now, two.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
Weeks it was gone. Did your mom know you blewing?
In two weeks?

Speaker 3 (23:44):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Nah? No, See, my mom gave me access to really
control my own money, the money I could touch, you know.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Oh, so she didn't touch it at all, she let it.
Oh that's nice. A lot of parents don't do that.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Nah. Nah. And sometimes I'd be like, I wish you
would have took all my fucking money.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Well, you know what, Now when you handle your money,
do you handle it different?

Speaker 2 (24:08):
Because especially because I have a kid, you know, I
always have to put something to the side for him.
So when you know, whenever he's eighteen or something happened,
you know, he's he's good.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
He's so don't caring. Yeah, yeah, I know that. Like
now I feel way more parental responsibility after having a kid.
I'm like, first of all, school tuition, priority over everything, okay,
number one thing, you know. And now I'm like, okay
for future, you know, generational wealth, house, whatever, you know. Trust.

(24:43):
But luckily with social media, now I feel like, even
if you're not really the genius at parenting, like social
media will have like a thirty second snippet on how
you should be operating, you know, right, how you should
be handling your house and your real estate and your
bank accounts for your kids. And if you say this,
you see those snippets online.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
Yeah, well all the time, all the time.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
All right, So back to your story. So you you
get your five thousand, that's your first taste of money
while being popular. Right, then what's the next monthslone? Like,
when do you do you blow up and actually have
money a lot of money at the same time.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
No, because like we were still under eighteen. So, like
I said, majority, I know, my money was going into
a trust account, you know where I couldn't touch it
till I was eighteen. However, really your parents worked, it
was how you was you see your money. So I
was maybe seeing only ten percent of my money.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
That I was getting good job, Mom, I was good.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
I wasn't seeing a lot.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
So but then what happened when you turned eighteen?

Speaker 2 (25:52):
I ain't got my crib, pay my car off, the
responsible stuff I should do at eighteen, you know. But
then from there it was like figuring it all out
again because I wasn't doing the nine to five. I
did check back into school because Mom she was still

(26:12):
at the junior college. So I was like, I think
I was maybe like twenty four and I checked back
into school for like a year.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
But where was B two K when you were twenty four,
like I was.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
We were broken up before we turned eighteen. We broke up,
oh before you before I turned eighteen. Yeah, we broke
up when I was seventeen.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Really, but so when we was watching you on TV
and all that, you was a little kid.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
Yeah, I was from thirteen to seventeen.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
What it's so weird because I think maybe because I
was younger, I felt like maybe you were older or something.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
No, thirteen to seventeen, and then love and Hip Hop
came about twenty fourteen. By that time, I was going
on thirty.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
Okay, okay, so you're in the so the band gets dismembered,
you go back to regular life. But is regular life
normal for someone that is a super star? Well no, yeah,
So tell me how that was that transition tough.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
I would say not. I didn't. It wasn't tough for
me because I'm an introvert. I already don't like to
be out, so I'd rather stay in the house. So
I was just very secluded most of the time. It
wasn't until I had my son when I was twenty
four that I like started to step out again. And

(27:35):
you know, I have to play the parent roles. So
now I'm meeting other kids, parents and talking and being
more social and out. So that's what got me out
of like Michelle was having my son.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
But when the band justmembered, did you say you're gonna
stay in music or did you say we tried?

Speaker 2 (27:54):
I tried, but it was just so much politics and
people that we were dealing with that keeping certain things
in place to where we couldn't really do much. So
I tried to do what I could, but yeah, it
wasn't much.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
Did you end up trying to get a job or open, No.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
I was never going to get a job.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
That was never good.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
I was not a Nope. I'm like, no, I'm fizzed.
I'm not getting no job. I'm gonna figure it out.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
What did your mom say when you were saying that, She.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Just told me keep going. She pushed the dream.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
You know, how did you survive? I guess from now
from that point, I mean before loving hip hop.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
So before hip hop so eighteen to twenty four when
I was eighteen. Now you're about to get a breakthrough
story nobody ever really got. That's what I.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Help me, help me, help you help me, but help me, Yes,
tell me.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
I did some. I did some smart things, you know,
win my money. But prior in those years, I started
a business. I had a cannabis dispensary. I had dispensaries,
uh that whole time and even past that time. Uh,

(29:10):
but yeah, that was my main source of income. I
had met a guy who really knew the business inside
and out, and we were neighbors, and I had a
little bit of money, and I was like, yo, I
smoked at the time, still do. And I was like, yo,

(29:31):
I want to start one of these, Like what like
what is this? And he started showing me the ropes
and everything. So we opened one together. It was just ye,
this was two thousand and six. I opened my first shop.
It was downtown to lay me and him. We had

(29:51):
that one for about a year and maybe two years,
and then opened another and another And you.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
Guys were you guys? Was he a part black too?

Speaker 2 (29:59):
Or was it was a Jewish guy?

Speaker 1 (30:01):
Oh, Jewish guy. I was gonna say. Because the cannabis industry,
there's rumors on the street that it's notorious a little
bit slanted away from the blacks, like to get their
licensing and being able.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
To know the stories that came in place, like you
have the it's a license that's available for people who
have been to jail for selling marijuana or traffic in marijuana.
Yeah that I forget what it's called. Man, it's been.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
So long, but there is there is a system that
helps to get them, Okay. Yeah, because I remember thinking
at some point, like, man, you got to think of
how many people are doing this before it became legal.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, all their experience and to my situations for sure,
because you know, I mean it came out in what
two thousand and twelve, one shop I have for like,
I had it for like three four years. It was
on Robertson. It was called Little Amsterdam. Sold it to
these other guys and they never took It's part of

(31:04):
my fault. I never got the least out of my name.
So when the city came down on them and raided
them and everything came back on me because the building
was in my name.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
Oh wow.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
So yeah, it was all on TMZ and everything. Little
Fizz caught selling marijuana. I'm like Jesus Christy, Yeah, but yeah,
that was that was mainly what I was doing for.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
So you were on and you were you weren't just
an investor like you were hands on yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah. People will see me in the shops like, bro,
what you're doing in here? Yoh you the plug? I'm no, man,
it's a business. They didn't see it like that back then.
Like now you see it and you see it and
you respect it as a real business. You know. Back
then it was like everybody felt like I was just trapping.
But I'm like, man, I'm putting money into this, you
know what I mean. Like I went and got sellers,

(31:53):
promounced things with my name, wanting that let you know
I was really doing it, you know, aside from not
being able to have a business license per se. But
I was still trying to do it as legal as
I could. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
And is there a reason why the life expectancy on
those business was To me, they sound a little short
because it's like you said, one year or four.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Years, or because at that time it had no federal guidelines.
It was legal with state but not federally. So once
you got too big, like I remember when a shop
I had downtown got so big, I got a letter
from the US attorney telling me to close or they
were going to send the DA and in two weeks
to raise me.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
What so I thought, But I thought it's still not
legal on a federal level because I heard that that's
why those shops can't have bank accounts.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Right, Yeah, so many loopholes in it. Now I'm out
of it.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
Now, Okay, what made you end up closing up shop?
And then I have to know anytime an entrepreneur walks
away from a business or industry, you have to wonder,
like what happened?

Speaker 2 (33:02):
It was time and I think, you know, God put
certain things in place for me to see and say,
you know it's time to move on. You're not the
answer you're looking for.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
No, I would say this. Okay, a lot of people
don't know this. I may have said it on the
show a couple of times, but other guests that have
participated in this activity. But during the pandemic, I was
like freaking out and my business. I have a corporate
events company, and my business it was a pandemic. It
got annihilated in minutes, like it was like end of

(33:34):
my business instantly. And so I saw a lot of
the people Weed was like selling like crazy. So I
invested in Weed and then it was like going good.
And then we took a little bit of a legal turn,
and then I was like oh that a legal urn
may not so I try to pull out and I

(33:55):
still ended up losing a lot of money. I lost
a crazy amount of money, but most of it was
the profit that I was profit. I was just like
kind of letting it set so I didn't personally lose
as much as I lost my games. But it was
going good. And then it took like I said, it
took a little legal, illegal turn and then I was like, uh,
I don't know, I don't think and it ended up

(34:17):
not ending well. I ended up losing all my money.
So just so you know, I've played and I got
out and that was my lesson. And let me tell
you something. The other people didn't get out as soon
as me and I promised you they was done for
good after that. They was like, I'm never touching that
industry cause it's very there's rules, and then it's so

(34:38):
easy to like fracture it or whatever. It just gets
a little. Yeah. So that's why I was out. But
I was only in for like probably like a year.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
Oh yeah, I was quick, man.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
I was nervous the whole time. And I was like investor,
way back here, way back here.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
So imagine being hands on over ten years.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
Well, I will tell you this. The stuff I was doing.
I can say this because nobody's ever gonna but some
of the stuff I was doing was a little illegal.
But during the pandemic, I would fly look over at
the cameras like do you want to say that? I
would fly money, not over over on the airplanes or whatever.

(35:19):
But now I you know, I travel. When I had
a baby, I realized when you travel with breast milk,
they test everything. And I realized later like that was
very dangerous to fly with money, because you know weed,
money has like we smell.

Speaker 4 (35:33):
Yeah, I was during I promise that people don't know
me know that.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
I was like, yo, I'm getting on this plane and
I would you know, I would be nervous as hell.
But I never flew with like nothing crazy like one
hundred k, but it was it was still enough to
be like, you know. But then I had a baby
and I realized that I was an idiot because with
a baby, they like test your breastmoke. They're like all
like swabbing everything, swabbing the child. I'm like, yo, only

(36:16):
they knew like before the breast smoke, you know, and
if they would have done that, I would have, we
would not be sitting here right now. But yeah, no,
that's why I got out, just so you know, sideon
all right, So anyways, you do this business, you exit
the last oh.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
For the minorities and the people that do want to
try to get in. It's called social equity license. Oh
really yeah, social equity license. So if you look into it,
you can you know, I don't know if they're still
doing no more, if they're still available to apply for it,
but that's what it was.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
So if you have like a beard to entry, you
can go there and they'll help you get the license.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
Yeah, you gotta go down to the city City Hall.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Social equity license. Thanks for remembering that. So after your
entrepreneurial thing is that when hip hop, love and hip
hop enters the scene.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
When what love and hip hop enters is when what
you said.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
When you're exiting, because you said there was no space where.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
You were still still there.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
Oh you were still there.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
I didn't. I didn't fully get out till twenty eighteen,
and I had a whole case.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
So that was right before the pandemic. Yeah you said
you had a whole what case?

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Yeah, I have my lawyers and everybody did a great
job at keeping that, you know, keeping that off off
the news and blogs, because I really did that was
I was. I was in court the whole time I
was on tour, the reunion tour. Oh really, yeah, yeah
I was.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
Oh wait, so B two Kate was back. So you
were investing in these business, You were doing this business,
but you ended up going back to beat You guys
reunited for the.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
Were reunited in twenty nineteen. So summer eighteen is when
I had my whole situation happened, and twenty nineteen is
when I started going to court for it. And I
was in court for like a year.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
Ok.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
Yeah, So every time I'm on stage, I'm like, am
I going to jail tomorrow? Hold on?

Speaker 1 (38:16):
Man?

Speaker 2 (38:17):
So my dad's move is like faint, like this might
be my last show.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
But and you weren't a dad at the time yet, right.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Yes you were, Yeah, my son was nine years old.

Speaker 1 (38:29):
You were really like stressed, yeah during the reunion. But
you're now at this point, you're also generating money from
the tour, and I'm sure that's going to.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
Court court yep, yep, lowyer all that.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
Dang, So what are your pockets looking like during that era.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
Still good, Still good. Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know
I had a lot going on from TV, the shops.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
It sounds like you're also good at managing money at
this point.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
Yeah. Yeah, So I wouldn't say I would like, I
have never really.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
Went broke after after that age. You never went broke.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
Again after sh I never really went bro thank god.
But no, I mean there's there's still struggles, you know
what I mean, there's still struggles, and there's there's just
like you said, it's being smart. It's knowing when to

(39:26):
to start trimming down, you know, trimming the fact. You know,
if there's bills that are over here that are necessarily
you got to cut them off. You know, can't go
out to go to eat at mass Stros every weekend,
you know what I mean, You got to scale back,
cook at home, you know what I mean. So it's
just all about being conscious of where you are, you know,

(39:47):
and where you can go, you know, not living beyond
your means. So I would say in the group, you know,
we did a lot of that to where if it
wasn't for me having money put up like I did
in my trust, you know, I could have been back
out here broke like that not knowing where to go
or being able to take the risk that I've taken.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
So were you the youngest member in the group. Okay, yeah,
I feel like it's hard sometimes when you're that young
and you get exposed to money. I feel like there
could be a double edged sword where you end up
never really understanding how money works because you're used to
it coming and then maybe disappearing and coming, and it's
in lump sums versus like little.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
Well see, my mindset was I was getting the little
increments and all the money was going in the trust.
Then the group broke up and it was broken up
for a few months and my trust open. Now it
was okay, I have money, but I don't have this group.

(40:52):
So what am I going to do? I have to invest.
I have to make my money work for me. So
that that's when the conversation came with my neighbor and
what we're doing with the shop, and can we open it?
Can I get in? Can I be an investor? How
does that look? What do I need to do? So
it worked out for me.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Very smart, very intuitive, natural entrepreneur.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
I would say thank you.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
So during so the twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, you have
the reunion. Take me to the next milestone in your life.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
The next milestone would be, uh, coming off tour. It
was funny because it's like, now I'm done with the
whole cannabis business, right, and I'm coming off tour and
I'm still in court. And after I would say maybe

(41:46):
six months of being off the road, I had my
sentencing and I got off with no jail time, gratefully,
but I had probation and some work release, which is
like community service, but like you know, working on the
size of the freeway, chopping free. You had gotten island

(42:08):
sweeping saying yeah, nice time doing that. So after that,
once I was free of that and just had to
deal with probation, I was figuring out, you know what's next.
Obviously Loving hip Hop wasn't going on anymore? Oh said

(42:30):
the pandemic.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Okay, but you were at that point you had already
taped it. You had taped at least one season of it.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Of Love and Love and hip Hop started twenty fourteen. Oh,
so you were all I had done seven seasons of
Love and Hi. So in twenty twenty, when the pandemic
was going on, twenty yeah, twenty twenty the pandemic was happening.
I was trying to figure it out, but you know,
everybody was in the house. So I just started kind

(43:02):
of diving into everything from trying to figure out how
to produce shows, acting more. I ended up filming a
movie which is actually coming out next month, November twenty second.
It's called Run Nixon. It'll be in AMC theaters.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
Oh yeah, I've seen it on your social media. Yeah,
so Run Nixon.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
I did the movie, started acting more, learning how to produce.
I actually produced on the movie as well. And I
was still doing music here and there, filling it out
more of like a hobby. And then I opened a restaurant.
I had the opportunity to get to open a restaurant.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
This is before the pandemic.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
This is during the pandemic.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
During the pandemic. Yeah, oh my gosh, take me to that.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
So I a friend of mine, my lawyer, a friend
of my lawyers had a restaurant. He had multiple restaurant
and being at the pandemic had happened, he didn't want
to close them all, but he had to trim down.
So it was an opportunity for me to take over
one of the restaurants, which I did. I rebranded it

(44:14):
called it Druze Louisiana French Quarters. It was in Westwood,
beautiful location, right by UCLA.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
And.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
I just kind of jumped in it, you know, Like
I said, it was during the pandemic, so I jumped
in it, like let's just see what it does. And
early I had a lot of people coming in, but
of course it slows down. It's a restaurant, you gotta like,
it's so many different things that go into a restaurant
with marketing and getting people to come in from Yelp reviews,

(44:47):
and it's just a whole lot. So I'm going through
it and trying to figure out how to make turnover
a profit. Of course, in restaurant businesses, it doesn't happen
like that. It takes at least a year or two to.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
Break even wow, or will even create that stability of
understanding that flow.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
Right, And so my brain and working how it works
like very fast and always trying to figure out the
next idea or the next move to keep it going.
When I opened the restaurant and I put the restaurant

(45:27):
on grub Hub, uber each door Dash, I started seeing
it like one of my dispensaries. So with the dispensaries,
I would always promote and put my shops on weed Maps.
Weed Maps is a website or an app that gives

(45:47):
all the patients and customers access to where each of
the shops are. And so how it works is you'll
go to a certain region in your state and it'll
show you all the shops in that region, and it's
like a list. It looks like grub Hub or uber
eats or door Dash. So when I'm on this and

(46:08):
I got my restaurant on there, I said, I wonder
if I could do something different with this. And at
the time, I had seen something called ghost kitchens where
people would create these virtual restaurants and only post it
on grub Hub or uber Eats, and you would be
able to order it through that, but you couldn't go

(46:30):
to a physical location.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
Oh, I didn't even know that.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
So when I seen that, I said, that's how I
do it. So I basically created five virtual restaurants. One
was called La Soul Tacos. I had Trus Louisiana, of course,
which was the actual standing restaurant. I had Maxwell's Polish Dogs.

(46:55):
I had Veggie Buns, which was all vegetarian food, and
then I had, uh, what was the last one?

Speaker 1 (47:04):
And you came up with all this on your own.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
Yeah, and damn what was the other restaurant? It was
one more restaurant I had, Oh, uh, go Wings, now
Wings stop go Wings. So I had those five restaurants
and I had them all on grub Hub, door Dash,
Uber Eats. Uh, what's the other one? Grubhub, door Dash,

(47:27):
Uber eats, and.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
Door Dash.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
I said, door Dash, grub Hub, uber eats, and it's
one more.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Basically all the food apps.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
So I took all the food apps. I put all
my restaurants.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
And these are all ghosts most of them. All four
of them are ghost.

Speaker 2 (47:46):
Kitchens except one. So now not only are you going
to these apps to order food, you're ordering from five
of my restaurants. So now I'm not banking on one restaurant.
I'm banking on on five different ones with five different.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
Foods, and then five different ghostly one location, but one location,
but the ghost location could be anywhere, right, I mean
like when they pull it up on the map, are
they is it close to their house?

Speaker 2 (48:12):
The ghost location gives you an address to pick for
the delivery drivers to pick the food up. They would
come to Drus Louisiana.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
So instead of banking on Drews Louisiana to do what
I needed to do, Now I'm getting five calls for
this restaurant, twenty for this one, fifteen for this one.
And it got to be so much that I overwhelmed myself.
And now I'm in there helping the cooks cook myself. No. Yeah,
and I'm like, bro, I didn't sign up for this.

(48:43):
Like it's a great ideas, doing what it's supposed to do,
but this is a lot of work. I'm going to
the restaurant depot buying, running out of this sour cream
might about to be about to expire. And I got
health department coming tomorrow, and I got to have everything
in it in there with no expiration dates, all good
expiration dates. I got to make sure the meats are frozen,

(49:06):
the fishes frozen, it's in the freezer. This part, like,
it was a lot to deal with. And I'm doing
it do loo with a few employees. So building it up,
building it up. It's getting better. But then the pandemic
hit back again. We had the second rise and I
was in the UCLA Health Building and they came down

(49:29):
and were like, got to shut down the food in here. Why, Well,
one thing was for sure, I didn't feel it. I
felt a certain way about getting a vaccine, and a
lot of my employees didn't want to get it. So
being that we weren't vaccinated, they're like, y'all got to
get out this building.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
Yeah. So, but what an amazing Okay, I just have
to highlight this pivot because my favorite person the interview
on this show is entrepreneurs. Believe it or not, If
choose between celebrities, influence and entrepreneurs, I'm all, I'm all
about entrepreneurs. But your pivot game being hinted like taking
over this business but figuring out a way to create

(50:11):
more business and market it was simply outstandingly genius. Like
I'm gonna take that and make it into a clip
and send it to like, you know, hopefully restaurants everybody
takes games because that is the most genius innovative thing
I've ever heard. And even when you pay attention to
the way, you didn't, I gotta highlight this. You chose

(50:33):
different types of food, you chose wings, you chose veggies,
Like you covered all the basics of and did you
actually think about that, Like, yeah, covering all the that
is because.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
Not everybody sea food, not everybody eats veggie food, not
everybody's not impressed with your own works like this.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
But were you not sitting there, like I would have
been called like, yess not much of a g I
n look what I did, Like, you don't do that?

Speaker 2 (50:59):
No, I do that.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
If I have a simple hack and I feel like
I like somehow crack the cold on geniusness, I would
be texting all my friends like, yo, you'll never guess
what I was able to accomplish. And you didn't do that,
That's amazing. I'm the opposite. I wasn't fucking Billboard of
the Year.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
I'd be right, my circles real small. And then it's
like if my boys hit me and it's like, yo, man,
what you're doing with this? This is super dope? Can
I get in? I'm always yeah, come on.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
Wow, let's do it. But that was that. It was
probably the most dopest pivot game I've ever seen. And
it was during the pandemic. You really had to think
out of the box. Some people will quit, believe it
or not, a lot of people will quit under that
type of pressure, and a lot of people wouldn't be
running around, you know, trying to find the sour cream

(51:50):
or whatever. So kudos to you. You're so extreme entrepreneur,
so exciting. I did not know that about you. So
I'm really more hyped right now. But that's cool, all right,
So take so keep going with your story.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
Man, there's so many things after that. I had a
home that I bought in in Porter Ranch, and I
leased it out because I was running everything. Like with
the restaurants, we ended up closing that down, and at

(52:30):
that time, I have my home, I'm helping my mom's
with her home, and now I have to figure out
ways to scale down, trim back. So I leased out
my house, got something a little smaller, and I was

(52:51):
in a space of trying to figure out what was next.
So I, like I said, during the pandemic, besides the
restaurant and music and film, I was also learning to produce.
So I wanted to figure out a way to produce

(53:13):
a show, but one that made sense, and I wanted
to do something that involved my son because now my
son is older and he's controlling my life.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
So what do you mean, scare me? Tell me, what
does that mean?

Speaker 2 (53:27):
Every day? Of course, there's school, but then after school
there's basketball practice, after practice or before basketball practice, there's
basketball training, after training, nurse practice. Then we're back home.
Then we're homework and study, then dinner, cooking dinner.

Speaker 5 (53:42):
And then I'm like a single dad, right, Me and
a mom are joint joint custody. So mostly every other week,
you know, he's with me, but I'm the dad and
he's in puberty stage, so he's with me, now, you
know what I mean, Like, yeah, you can go.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
Mom wants to see you. You want to see mom,
hang out, go y'all, do y'all thing. You know what
I'm saying. I'm never gonna not let you see your mother.
You know what I'm saying. You always see your mom,
but in these crucial stages, you need to be with me. Yeah,
you know. So every day from the type of school
he goes to a prep school. I drop him off
at the gym in the morning. They train for three hours,
then they get busted to school in the sprinter van

(54:27):
and they have lunch. Then they do school for three hours,
no homework. After that we're training. After training, he has
practiced two times a week after that, it's games on
the weekend tournaments.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
He's definitely controlling your life, is him? Just to backtrack
a little bit, I know we talked about your mom.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
You are very.

Speaker 1 (54:49):
Much even when you watch love and Half Hop, but
you see your very vested dad. Is there? What is
your relationship with your dad? Is there a reason why
you're I'm not saying all men aren't vested, but I'm no,
it's definitely noticeable.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
Well, I didn't meet my father until I was thirteen,
so I always had this thing where I had a
vision of what a father looked like and what I
wanted my father to be like. And I made a
promise to myself, you know, if I ever have a
kid or something, he's never going to experience what I
experienced growing up in wanting and trying to imagine what

(55:25):
it's like to have a father in his life. So
when he got here, I just I was already setting stone,
like this is my son, you know, regardless, Like I'm
gonna be there no matter what. I'll go broke, I'll
eat while I broke, as long as I'm in his life,

(55:46):
you know what I'm saying. So trying to figure it
out what's next, And like I said, everything is basketball.
I'm in the gym with him twenty four to seven,
so I'm noticing. One night I'm telling him, YO, turn
TV off, go to bed. So I walk in this

(56:06):
room he was sleep and I go to turn the
TV off, and it was this YouTube show he watches.
And all these shows he watches on YouTube are based
on basketball, from a channel called Overtime, Elite, to Ball,
his Life, to Switch Cultures, just everything you can think
of basketball related he's watching. But this particular night, he

(56:28):
has on a show on Overtime called Fear Nothing. It's
a show based on Mikey Williams's journey from high school
basketball to wherever he's going, and he watches this. He
watched the show a whole lot at this time, and
I looked at it and I had to Things just

(56:51):
hit my brain and I said, that's it. I'm sorry.
I said, that's it. That's what I need. That's what
I need to produce a show doing youth high school
basketball that doesn't just highlight one player, but highlights all
of the kids and gives it like a sports center

(57:11):
fit to where they could watch this and feel like
I might be on here tonight. Yeah, because they don't
have that. So I created this show called Youth Got Game.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
Youth Got Game and they can get it on YouTuber.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
Yeah, okay, so our first episode is be coming out
in the next month or so.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
Okay, But.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
Got into that and started networking, got the right people
on the team, and now we'll be hosting like all
the top Nike tournaments. Wow, all the So it's like
May Hoops camps will be hosting those.

Speaker 1 (57:50):
Is your son really turns like crowd and excited about
what you were able to do? Just it's kind of
like he inspired this, right, So does he say it
or does he talk about it or not?

Speaker 2 (58:01):
Really, he's just focused on playing the game. You want
to see hisself on the show. He knows that with me,
he's gonna have to work really hard and do what
he's supposed to do. It's not gonna just be oh,
you're and my son, I'm putting you on. So it's
more of a challenge.

Speaker 1 (58:14):
Now.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
I put him up to the challenge. He accepted it,
you know, So you got to put in the work.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
But yeah, so put together that show. We got a
couple of big things coming up for us. We're doing
a camp in Charlotte with this company, cyber Athletics.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
You're doing a basketball client camp camp.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
Yeah, we'll be hosting it our podcast.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
Wait, the show is a podcast, and I guess I'm
kind of visioning like reality slash.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
It's a live podcast.

Speaker 1 (58:46):
It's a live podcast.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Okay, got it. And we have guests on the show,
you know, from younger athletes, to coaches, to referees to
professional past and future and players.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
I love it. Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
So that's that's what I've been on now. And in
the process of that, I actually took on a team.
I created a travel team from my son because we
were doing all these games and we were with a
couple programs that I felt like could be doing more
and not necessarily be much as much of a money grab.

(59:28):
So I ended up starting my own team and got
all my son's friends who I know could really hoop,
and one of my friends who coaches high school basketball,
and put them all together. We started a team East
West Prospects, and we went this summer and smashed through
all the tournaments, won all of them that we joined, literally,

(59:52):
and I had a bunch of sixth graders turning seventh
graders who played against eighth and ninth graders and we
were winning everything. Wo. So that started happening. I started
getting calls from like top program directors from Compton Magic
or why not these are programs ran by These are

(01:00:14):
top programs that were put together that are sponsored by
like Adidas and Nike and NBA players, Like why not
its Russell Westbrook program. Compton Magic is a staple in LA,
has been around since I was a kid, you know,
And they have players who've come from their programs to
play professional basketball. We're in the NBA today. So all

(01:00:36):
these programs are calling me now trying to combine.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
And when to get behind East West.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
Yeah. Wow. So one of my friends and I knew
since I was like seventeen eighteen, he's cousins with Paul
George and he runs the program for Paul George Elite,
and we had talked and we was like, yo, man,
and I want you to bring your boy, Like how

(01:01:03):
much it's gonna cost me to get your boy back
over here? Talking about my son? And I'm like, man,
let's you know, let's have a conversation. Let's talk and
see what we can come up with. Basically, he gave
me the keys to run the seventh grade program at
Paul George Leaks. So now we're sponsored by Nike, playing
on all the top platforms.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
So, but does your son leave your East West team.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
To So East West is now Paul George.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
Okay, So now it's official. So you guys have been
accepted as an official under that umbrella. Yep, okay, So
son is still on the team. Damn, I want to
watch these games. He got me hyped.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
So yep, we did that, and you know, constantly filming
on them as well, highlighting now and then.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
Is it hard to get all those parental clearances or
is it like everyone you you built such a good
rapport with everybody that everyone just sign and releases. As
for what, oh, I thought you're you highlight the kids
on the show.

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
I will if they're doing they thing, you know what
I'm saying, But that anybody can be highlighted, it does.
I don't need parental Oh I don't know. Highlight somebody's
kid that's doing what they should be doing on the court.
You know, that's just giving them more exposure. Yeah, and
we're not charging you know for that, Like this is Hey,
if I think you're hot, you're doing what you need

(01:02:18):
to do, you look good on the court, and you eating. Yeah,
let's highlight you, you know what I mean, Like a
lot of kids put in a lot of work in
basketball that we don't see, you know, from the kid
that doesn't have the travel team, that plays at the
park and he's there every single day and might be
there by himself, and and he just played one game

(01:02:40):
in a recreation league and might put up fifty points
and you'll never hear about it. But now you're watching,
you've got game and you'll see it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
You know, like we're diving in deep from everywhere across
them everything.

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
Wow. Okay, okay, So you're even getting the ones that
like can't afford to be in the clinics. I love that.
And then I know you're thinking about opening your own
clinic down the road.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
Right as far as like camps, yeah, camps, Yeah, we'll
probably do something.

Speaker 1 (01:03:10):
Yeah, I definitely see that in your future.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
It's definitely gonna.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
So what's the next milestones for you after that? Because
I think we're current, right, you brought me so.

Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
Now that's where we are, and some more exciting things.
Putting together a podcast along with Bug and Rats.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
What Yeah, yeah, yeah, where got you guys should come
here and take you. Yeah, I'll take care of you.

Speaker 2 (01:03:36):
Yeah, I'll let you. I'll let you see when we
when we when we dropped the teaser on.

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
Okay, oh you guys already started recording it and everything
unless you see, I'm gonna call like you don't tell
me enough he called. I think calls me almost once
a day now, I'm not even gonna lie, it's probably
five times a day.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
Man. I talked to I talked to him and Book
every single day, you know. And they've been on their
journeys as well, right as it's super smart networking and
tied into a lot of different things that brings so
much value to what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
And he's also done the I feel like he's also
been teaching me a little. I mean, I'm not good
at it. But he also worked on his mental health
and he'll be like dropping like like smart gems. I mean,
i'd be like I wish I was like that. He'd
be like, you can be like that. Well I'm not
there yet, but you know, but yeah, he's worked on
his mental health too, which I think a lot of

(01:04:31):
people don't talk about working on that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
In addition, that's really big of him, man, I salute
him for that. Sure, he's doing really good. And you know,
and Bug is still working in films doing films. So
us all coming together and creating what we put together,
it's pretty dope.

Speaker 1 (01:04:49):
So it's like, B two K coming back. Should we
be anticipating because you're talking to.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
Lines, we're gonna see some you Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
Okay, Well, I'm pretty sure your fan base is still
rock solid and loyal and uh, they're gonna be anticipating
in the days to see the reunion for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
For sure.

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Bless you, bless you? Now, how can everybody keep up
with you? We could talk directly to this camera. How
can everybody keep up with everything you have going on?
And then break down the youth You got game, youth
got game everything individually?

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
No, for sure? Well, first and foremost, you can you know,
check out my instagram air fizzle, same with the threads
air Fizzle.

Speaker 1 (01:05:39):
It's Ai R Fizzle.

Speaker 2 (01:05:40):
Yeah, fi z z o. Check out my movie coming
to AMC theaters November twenty second run Nixon. I'm really
excited about that. I think y'all are really gonna.

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
Enjoy that, And what's run Nixon about?

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
I'm a single five Well, no, I'm sorry. I'm a
father of a ten year old boy who has a
heart condition. His mother is a stripper and one day
she drops him off to his game. I get there.
He plays basketball. I get there and he has a
heart attack on the court. He's suffering from forget what

(01:06:21):
the heart disease is called, but basically he needs a
heart transplant immediately or he won't survive, and our insurance
doesn't cover it. So his mother takes matters into her
own hands and robs a drug dealer from the strip
club she works at.

Speaker 1 (01:06:37):
Oh wow.

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
He gets home, he puts clues together, figures out who
did it and why, and he kidnaps our son and
I have to figure out how to get him back.

Speaker 1 (01:06:47):
Oh this sounds crazy intense. We gotta see this movie
in theater and then what else can we look forward
to it?

Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
And then look forward to seeing you know me my
boy CJ. Y'all can follow him on Instagram Coach CJ
Underscore twenty three. We'll be highlighting all these kids. Man,
youth Got Game. Check out Youthgot Game dot com. You've
got game Instagram page. Yeah, it's gonna be crazy, man.

(01:07:17):
You might be the next kid on youth. Got game,
you never know. I yes, ma'am.

Speaker 1 (01:07:22):
All right, guys, Well, thank you for feeding me. I
can finally finish this bag Frido without tuning in your ears.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Yes, yes.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
Piece for more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The

(01:07:52):
Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.