December 20, 2024 • 39 mins
As Coline and Van Lathan's candid Eating While Broke conversation continues, Van dives into hard-hitting topics between bites of grilled cheese. With raw candor, he shares illuminating personal experiences that expose the darker realities of vapid celebrity worship, Van opens up about watershed moments in his own life, from his abrupt TMZ exit to the heartbreaking loss of his father. He also delivers pointed insights on the deep-seated racism that plagues America. Through it all, Van's authenticity and dedication to uplifting the black community shine through, Coline guides the thought-provoking exchange in this explosive beginning to Season 3 of Eating While Broke.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yo, I talk a lot. I know sometimes it could
be hard to follow me. But if you don't listen
to anything else, I say, listen to this. These people
don't give a fuck about you. We didn't talked like
your dad has passed away. I done took you outside
the office, We've talked about it, We've gone through all
(00:21):
of this. You wouldn't do this to me. Not only
will they, they're going to Yeah, like they're going to
do it. It's like they're going to do you. You
You're gonna get done. You will be done like something
like if you are, if you are making the track
towards being somebody important or influential, somebody is going to
(00:44):
do you. There's no magic or sinister story to a divorce.
(01:12):
Sometimes it don't work out. It just doesn't work out.
But you want to believe certain people will never be
happy because their lifestyles are antithetical to happiness in a relationship.
So you want to you want to believe like like you,
like you, you you. You want to believe that right.
You want to believe that TAMS gives you that. In
(01:34):
order to do that, TMZ has to treat those people
like they're not people. They have to treat them as
if their concepts celebrity is not a person.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
That's why I guess comes off a little bit invasive
and ruthless.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Right, Well, no, because they're.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
They're not treating they're they're treating them kind of like.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Well, you have to write like even even the TMS
tour was a celebrity safari, Like what's on a safari?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yeah, animals animals, right.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
And so and so like when when you like the
tours celebrities to fight its animals, right, and so you
do that, right and what you what you say is okay, Well,
in order to be a celebrity, the game is pr
at its base, right, So this is what you sign
up for kind of right, because like there are certain
things that you don't sign up for. I'll never talk
(02:22):
I'll never I'll never forget this. There was the sister
of a celebrity that had that had had something taught
done to them. I'll never forget. I'm not gonna talk
about who I had the conversation with. I'm like, yo,
we shouldn't do that. And they did the story and
this dude went on fucking and let us fucking happ
(02:42):
and I was like, yo, we had to take it
down and apologize and do all that stuff like yo,
like there's a limit to this. And that's not me
making a moral judgment on the team team. I'm just
telling you the way things go. So like when you
know all of that, when you have an idea of
what drives that, Like obviously they're moral. There are things
(03:04):
that you have to not care about to work there.
But most of the people there are good people. They're
just desensitized to whatever was going on there because that's
where they work, like like that, like that's what they do.
I'm there. It's the same thing. Things are coming in
at a certain point you go, god damn, you know,
and it's there will be little small things. This is
(03:25):
a football player that had this video come out of
some altercation. It was in and it said savage beating
by this and I was just looking at the hellline.
I'm like, that's I don't think we should go savage
beating there, Like I think savage is like a that's
like an interesting way where there's just little small things.
The mayor of DC died Marion Barry crack maryor Marion
(03:49):
Barry dies like he died and like by the way,
the people in DC are gonna freak the funk out
because I don't know if you guys know, but Marion
Barry was with Martin Luther King Junior. Like where I'm from,
Like I deal with a group of people, the community,
people that are always categorized by the worst moment that
they have. And I don't feel comfortable with categorizing a
(04:14):
man that means so much to his city by the worst,
most scandalous thing he ever had. You can't talk about
his life without talking about that, Yeah, but maybe in
the headline you don't do that. So it so all
of those things start to start to happen. And so
for me, what the place represents it's not even so
much a bunch of not even so much a bunch
(04:36):
of moral people that are running around trying to get
the dirn on celebrities. It represents our relationship to celebrity
and our relationship to ourselves, because there's no fucking reason
whatsoever why we should spend so much time talking about
what happens in the lives of famous people. It just
really like, at its core, it just doesn't And even
(05:02):
to this day on the podcast, I still do it.
And the reason why I still do it. I don't
get the stories, but you try to extrapolate larger conversations
out of these things and talk about them with notable people.
But really it's just the need to talk about things
that people care about, and for whatever reason, people care
about celebrity and fame.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Okay, can that makes sense? So going back to your story, Yeah,
so you're at TMZ for nine years, you said, and
then what happens after that?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
After that?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Wait, what happened with your ending in TMZ?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I got fired for an altercation inside the office with
a white boy.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
You say altercation? No hands?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
They say I use hands?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
They say you used hands? Did you use hands?
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yeah, not in any real way.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
I mean not in a real way. What did you
do like that?
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Or like, no, I'm not gonna smack nobody. See, I
would never This is the funny thing that would never happen, Right.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
That would never happen. You say, a white boy, I'm like,
maybe you went light on him, you smacked him.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
This guy was my guy, still is my guy. He's
a Republican. Whatever, tell you what happened. I'm an emotional person.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I can kind of see that.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Very true. Uh, They they wanted me to talk about.
There's only one thing I don't want to talk about,
Hurricane Katrina. I just don't want to talk about it.
Like even saying the name Hurricane Katrina, like right now
it makes me want to cry. I just don't want
to talk about it. I want think about, I want
talk about I don' want talk about it. I don't
very tough, very hard. And there was this story that
(06:46):
had gone on in the newsroom earlier where George Bush
was being cool with like Ellen Degeneress, thats some football games,
and I was like, it doesn't matter what you guys
say about George Bush. I don't give a fuck that
he paints. I don't give a fuck that show Obama
likee George Bush, fuck George Bush, forever like it. It
doesn't matter. I don't give a fuck. Who's the who's
worse fucking forever Wheel was in the water. He didn't
(07:07):
care that. The way it goes like, hey, we're gonna
bring this back and you're so passionate about it, and
the thing it's like, guys, I don't want to talk
about it. Oh, I told you. I want to talk
about guys, and I want to talk about Like, no,
I'm like, I'm like, please, Pa, I'm like please, I
don't want to. I want to discuss it. I'm here,
I do everything. I've been the funny nigga for a
(07:28):
long time. I've been the I do. I'm the Swiss
Army Knife of niggas. I'm the funny nigga. I'm the
basketball nigga. I'm the who look at the ass nigga.
I'm like all that I've been. This just I'm saying,
don't don't. I don't want to talk about it. You
gotta do it, fam we need you. Okay. So I
get on there and I'm talking my whole thing, and
this guy up there hosting the show, he's cutting me off,
(07:49):
and he's speaking to me in a way that I
don't like. Anytime you speak to me in a way
that I don't like, we have a conversation about it, Okay,
is it? So this is generally how this happened. I
challenge anyone to watch the video. Guys up there, he's
sitting down, he's doing the show. I know him now.
I know him like we're friends, and we're friends. Now
(08:13):
he's up there and he's doing the show. He's done
this already and I don't want to yell at him
across the newsroom make a big scene. So I go
up to him while he's sitting down, and I put
my hands on his shoulders, and you can see me
on the video. I'm whispering into his ear. I'm whispering
into his ear.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Does he turn around and do the whole big scene?
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Nah? He turns around, and he moves his hand from
off my shoulder and I'll move it and then and
then I whisper into his ear, and I say, and
you can see me leaving. I pat him on the side.
You can see me leaving, and I do like this,
and I walk back. The last thing I said to
him was not something that you should say to somebody
in the office. He stood up and I was like, whatever,
(08:55):
I don't even want to The last thing that I
said is something. And so when I said that, Charles said,
Van go home.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
What did you say?
Speaker 3 (09:03):
No?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So like so, the I mean, the last thing was
a threat. It was no, no, no, that wasn't a.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
It was a lights out.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
The last thing was a threat. It wasn't a threat
as in I'm gonna do something to you. It was
a threat as in, these are my limits.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, don't cross that line again.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yeah, you know, and and that's probably too far off
for Charles. Charles Charles goes Van go home. That's the
last time I was ever in TMZ. It was funny
because when they called me, I knew I was gonna
have to it was gonna have to bench be for
a little while, right, uh for that. Yeah, so listen,
it's funny. So I'm on the thing and I'm like,
I'm one of the phone with the HR people and
(09:46):
they go, yeah, did you choke him? And I went
wait what And they were like, yeah, did you put
your hands around his neck? And I was like oh.
And I was like, guys, this is Van. Hey, it's me.
(10:08):
Circus Bear like, hey, it's Vans. This is Van. Think
about what you're asking me. Think about if you're asking
me whether or not I choked Mike in in front
of the whole newsroom.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
It's me.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I know you guys, it's children. I'd be around y'all
like it's Van, Hey, it's me. Now come back the
whole thing. I was like, oh, they about to do me,
and they did. And it was like the funny thing
about it was so all of these conversations. It's like
(10:48):
stuff happens. I end up being terminated. Karen, my manager,
like automatically has stuff. So we're taking all kinds of
means was doing all kinds of stuff. Nobody guys is
off me. We're doing the same stuff because literally my
contract was up at TMZ in about four more weeks
and I had already told them I wasn't resigning. So
(11:10):
if they thought they would have had me for a
longer term, there's no way they would have fired me.
But it's like whatever, this is a way to try
maybe say some money, get off from under Its cool.
So my it starts to get around the office and
I'm not coming back. So my coworkers throw me a
going away party, including the guy that I supposedly chose,
(11:32):
who comes to the going away party. And after that
that was on a Saturday. Pictures go up on Instagram
on Monday. Paid six colls me and says, what we
heard that you got fired. We heard that you got fired.
We heard it there was some kind of office altercation.
We heard there was all of this stuff, and I'm
like fuck. Now, I'm like god, damn. Now I'm the
(11:55):
six foot fourth scary nigga, are you six four? Don't play?
And so and so and so. Now I'm like and so.
Now I'm like the six foot I'm not like er
er er. And they put up an article and the
article was like super it went soft on me. Everybody
(12:17):
loves fan and all of this stuff like that. TMZ
got their asses kicked. Everybody was coming at them, like
everybody and so then the next day the office struck back.
And this is the one of the most important moments
of my career. Yo, I talk a lot. I know
(12:37):
sometimes it could be hard to follow me. But if
you don't listen to anything else, I say, listen to this.
These people don't give a fuck about you. They don't
tell you what we do as black people. Sometimes what
we do is like the record label becomes a crew
(12:57):
and a family, the production group becomes a crew and
a family. We gotta sign, we got a logo, we
got all of this stuff and boom boom boom, boom boom,
and we cool. I know your kids, I know I
know all of these people around you. We didn't talked
like your dad has passed away. I took you outside
the office. We've talked about it. We've gone through all
(13:20):
of this, you wouldn't do this to me. Not only
will they they're going to Yeah, like they're going to
do it. It's like they're going to do you. You're
gonna get done. You will be done like something like
if you are if you are making the track towards
being somebody important or influential, somebody is going to do you.
(13:44):
You will be done. So the question is for you
is how are you gonna respond to it? As much naive.
This is coming from a man at that time who
was thirty nine years old. I didn't think they would
do me that way. And the reason why I didn't
think they would do me that way, it's not because
it's because Yo, I know these people. It's to the
point to me to where if if I pick up
(14:06):
your baby and hold your back I'm from ban Rouge.
If I pick up your baby, if I don't fuck
with you and get that little nigga away from me,
But like if if I pick up your baby and
hold your baby and all your wife and I've been
to your crib and all of that stuff, I'm thinking
that there's gonna be a point where where somebody's gonna
want to make me look in a certain way and
somebody's gonna go, we can't do that to that.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah, but does it also make you wonder like kind
of going back to the Jesus days, like the whole Judas,
Like which one like with that piece of advice or
that's that statement? Do you think that people should be
also double looking over like which one in their crew
is gonna be the one that kisses them on the cheek?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
No? No, do you know what we forget about Judas?
What that he got paid? The money is the.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Judas I understand.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
So so hear me out.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
So the root is always gonna be in the industry
in of itself.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
The root the what pulls you apart, what brings you
together with these people is the commerce, and what pulls
you apart is the commerce. Yeah. Sure they liked me,
but I was good for business. Yeah you know what
I mean. Yeah, they liked me. They definitely liked me.
But I was funny, and I was smart, and I
(15:22):
was devastatingly handsome, and I was and I was all
of those they like. They they liked me, but I
was good for business and a lot of the things
that I got away with there, I wouldn't have gotten
away with if I wasn't good for business. And at
that point I was bad for business.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
So but they threw the mud back on.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
You, right, So I was bad for business. And the
moment that I became bad for business, we talked about
it before. Was not a person anymore. It's like a thing.
So Judas, Yeah, he did what he did. They paid
him thirty pieces of silver. The thing is going to
get at you. Just be prepared for the thing, the
thing when you're no longer, when they no longer have
to protect you. First of all, anybody who doesn't have
(16:08):
to protect you won't. That's the first thing. And secondly,
if you're a threat to the money.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Your toast.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
So at that point everybody is making them look bad.
They're like they don't want to be embarrassed. People are
asking if TMZ is racist. People are starting to say
the TMZ fire Van because vancd to Kanye West. It's
all of this stuff. If somebody would have got on
the phone with me, I swear to God, if somebody
would have called me and be like, Van, we're taking
the beating. Is there something you can say, I'd have
(16:53):
done them a solid because that's out of done them
a solid because I had no fucking problem with being
where I was. It was aw cool. I had everything
set up.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
So, oh that's what that was gonna be. My next question.
So what was your mindset at when all of this
was going on?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I started having heart problems?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Well, I thought you just said that. What do you
mean while were you having heart problems?
Speaker 1 (17:17):
It was stressed out? Okay, sorry. Like when I say
I started having heart problems, it's like there's something called
preventricular contractions. It's like a skipping of the beat. Like
I was so stressed that I was like to play
basketball very active. I was so stressed that my heart
started missing timing. It was boomoom boom, boom boom.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
When you were stressed over what just the whole transition
and where your next road was going.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah, the whole deal, think about it, right, like the
whole deal. But here's the deal though. I say all
this to say this. People look for God in like
the sky. Sometimes God is on the ground too, He's
like right where you're walking. I had to go through that,
(18:05):
you know why why? Because I had to put people
through that. I had to go through that because I
had written and hit publish on headlines that had made
people feel that way. I had got on TV and
talked about people in a way that made them go, shit,
these people don't know me. I had been a part
(18:26):
of stories that portrayed people in a light that's not
quite accurate to who they actually are without me really
knowing them. I had been a part of that.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
So but you had You've been a part of it
without the relationship. It's different. Obviously, if you have the
relationship and you're pushing the published button.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
That all feels the same. Because like for me seeing
me on page six and seeing me going through all
of this stuff and me going, hey, guys, you guys
know me. This is not the thing. This is not
the deal. Seeing something out of context, played up all
the little micro feelings about black man, or right there,
(19:04):
which is a maritime before Van snapped. It's a maritime
before Van hurt somebody. This was a maritime before he
showed us who he really is. Remember, when a white
person does something wrong, it's somebody who did something wrong.
When a black person does something wrong, they're showing us
who they really are the whole time. So it's so
all of this stuff, it's like I went through that,
(19:25):
and I was like, Okay, cool, no more of that
for me. I have to feel that, like I'm not
one of those persons. I always get caught when I
do something wrong. I always it always comes back to me.
He don't want me to escape without feeling it. Yeah,
so it always comes back to me. And I could
not leave there having done the Kanye thing and looked
like some kind of big deal or whatever. I could
(19:48):
not have left there without being on the other side
of a headline. And so that's the way it went.
Take the lesson, move on, continue to do dope shit,
do as much as you can, but like it. And also,
you know, I had been to Grilled Cheese Land already.
If I had to go back there again, I could.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Now that you're older, do you It's I've been to
the broke land. But I promise you I'm terrified of
going back. But I meet so many people on this
show that'll be like, I'll fault bankruptcy. I'll go back again.
I'm not worried about it. You're not at that phase
where you really genuinely don't want to go back.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
To me, I can't go back now. I could if
I had to go back, it would happen, right, But
I can't go back now.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Why do you see that we lost dad?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
So we lost dad in twenty twenty one, and it
just changed, like it changed everything, like when we lost them,
when we lost the old man. It's like I remember
when you get the news. I go to bat Rouge
and right away people start asking me stuff and it
really didn't matter. I'm not used to people asking me
stuff like in a family way, and then my decision
(20:56):
being what they do and shout out to build man,
like you know, Bill goes So, I a guy I
work with at the Ringer. Bill like hit Bill. I'm
like Bill goes Hey. It's like, man, He's like he's
honest with me right there. He's like, Man, I'm telling
you right now, when you go down there, now, it's
gonna be different, Like you're going to have to be
(21:17):
the guy. And I'm not saying that I am the
guy in my family. I'm just saying that, Like.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
You're also the youngest, aren't you.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yeah, I'm the youngest, but I'm also I mean, in
terms of this immediate family, I want to parse apart
all my family dynamics, but like they rely on me,
so it it so because of that now it's not
even now. The fucking roof gotta get changed. Like stuff
(21:45):
gotta happen. And even if my dad was around and
he couldn't do it, he had a way to get
it done. He was a useful, resourceful, responsible old school man.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
You say that, but going back to when you're mom left,
you were saying that, like if the stove broke, you guys.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Were like, w he wasn't that way with him, but
he would be that way with you. So if it's him,
he man. When I went to his crib, like after
he had passed away, like I see y'all got the
wires and all this stuff, and you know, it's a
production house. That's how it goes. So I go to
this nigga shit and I'm in there and it's like
(22:24):
it's weird, Like death is so weird because you're gone,
but everything else around you is like the same. So
I go into his house and the outdoor channel like
he's a hunting fish, So the outdoor channel is still on,
like it's still on, like he's He's the only thing
that's not alive.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
In the room is him.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Like the outdoor channel is still on in the middle
of the thing. His saddle is on the saddle horse
that you put on in the room next to him.
All of his hunting stuff is there. He has stuff
laid out for the next time he's going. His gun
is taking apart. He was oiling it the night before
he passed away, so like he wasn't expecting to die, right,
And so I'm going there and I'll look and I
(23:09):
see that he's running power out of one of the
rooms into his bath room. I'm like this, nigga is
good for nigger rigg and some shit. Why don't you
just do whatever you gotta do to have the people
come out there and have the power. I see if
it would have been me doing that, If it had
been me doing that, he say, boy, fix that. He's
just used to dealing with a little bit less and
(23:30):
then kind of making sure that you don't. So for
him to be like gone and for people to know
that they can't just because sometimes he didn't have it
to give to you. He just had a strategy for you.
And that's the craziest thing. When you need when you
need one hundred and fifty dollars for somebody and they
ain't got nothing but advice. You know what I'm saying, Like,
(23:52):
that's like that's the you know what I'm saying, Like,
that's that's sometimes he didn't have it, but like since then,
like I could go back to grilled cheese. I can
get used to anything, but we can't go back to grilly. Yeah, yeah,
I get it that we can't.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
It's like niggas. And that's funny because and they know
that because they don't even ask for the same amount
of money before. Like if you if you got a
thousand bucks in the bank account, people go, yo, man,
let me hold, let me hold, let me hold a
hundred bucks, bro, whole hundred dollars. Man need that. But
if you don't, these numbers get crazy. What you mean,
Oh bruh, the numbers get crazy. It's like, yeah, I
(24:31):
need four thousand dollars. What the fuck you need for?
You ain't got a four thousand dollars life?
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah, like what what?
Speaker 1 (24:37):
What the fuck you need four thousand dollars for?
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Man?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
I mean I need four thousand dollars? All right, Cool?
You need four thousand what like what like I don't know,
like you know, you know, the whole thing and I'm
not like you. Hear other people talking about this and
they are actually really rich I'm doing okay, yeah, and they.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
They hitting you for real. So when you come back
to you give them what your dad gives you.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Nat how to get this for now, I gotta help out,
like I gotta help out as much as I can.
But but see this is the way I help out.
I make you earn it. And listening to.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Me, oh god, I love it, Oh my god, one
of those I.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Make you earn it, and sure y gotta do it,
gotta do it, gotta do it. I make you earn Hey, now, look,
I'm gonna send this to you. We gotta talk about
how you live it. But we're doing it.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
That's messed up, man.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
I'm not a fucking atm hilarious. So we at least
got to have a conversation about how we could be better.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Now, I got rules of the game. If it's mom is,
just give me the bill direct.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
We all know that all of this doesn't it doesn't.
This is not a mother grandmother thing. Mother and grandmother
don't they don't even ask, they don't, they don't even
ask like they really don't ask like they like it's
like you'll come to their house, come to my mother
in my grandmother's house, and they really do in the
old small TV on top of the big Curtis Mathew.
(26:06):
I'm like, nah, man, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta
go get this whole situation so they don't even ask.
Obviously with your mom is not that big of a.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Deal, oh of mine. I'm just like, I have to
pay direct because it's never gonna get to whoever you owe.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
They want your mom not gonna pay.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
The bill if I give my If my mom has
a thousand dollars light bow, hence her one thousand dollars
light bow, you see where we're going, She'll be like,
you give her the money. She'll be like, I know
that they'll keep the lights on. If I just give
them ten, you'd be like, just the bill. So I
just be like, send me the bill direct.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
I see. This is why I love talking to people,
and that's how I know you Black. That's why I
love talking to people because I remember back in the day,
I don't even know you could do that.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
I never knew you could do that until I discovered
my mom can rack a bill's extremely high.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
My mom time, my mom told me to pay the
light bill. She was like telling me come out there
and you'll drop them off seventy dollars. I'm like, drop
him off seventy dollars. She Saydeah, tell me you drop
them off seventy dollars. I was like, you can drop
them off seventy dollars and she was like, yeah, they
want you to pay something. You drop them off the
seventy dollars and then you come back a little bit later.
(27:13):
I remember one. It's just so many stories. Mom sprayed
mace at the feet of the light guy, the light
build god, so he could come cut the lights off.
She made some she makes the light build God no
way swear light buil God. Mased them and then told
him that the house was covered in the blood of
Jesus and that if he came in there, his blessing
was gonna be cut because she was trying to turn
the lights off on her kids. Maceed them and then
(27:34):
it was like, I'm letting you know, this house is
covered by the blood of Jesus. She's coming here. This
is crazy. She had she had force, she had the Bible,
she had all kinds of stuff anyway, So all of
that stuff now is just like now you're blessed. You're
walking in abundance, and you're trying your best to be
available to the people that you care about. I care
(27:55):
about all of black people. That's why I care about you.
That's why you have to be investigated by the BBI,
and we have to make sure.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
I don't even understand the point of the investigation, but okay.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
The point of the investigation for you, the point of
So what we do with the Biracial Bureau of Investigation
is we make sure that we we identify the problematic
biracials that exist amongst us.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
What do you mean the problematic? You mean the ones
that don't claim they're black. I knew that's what it was.
I knew I'm not one of those. I pass the test.
Me acknowledging my nationality does not negate whether I'm black,
whether I'm not acknowledging I'm black.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I'll say right there, I'll say, right now, your prospects
are good.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
My prospects are hella good.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
We're gonna have to go deep.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
We're gonna have after you read, after you reborn a crime.
We could we could talk, but we're not going to.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
I'll read Trevor's book. I'll actually add his book to
it is the curriculum to be behind.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
One of my favorite books. Ryan, it's one of your
favorite books.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Ryan, you fuck with that? Ryan? You biracial?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
You are what?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
What?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
What are?
Speaker 3 (29:09):
You?
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Vietnamese? Oh?
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Soo?
Speaker 1 (29:12):
One Vietnamese parent, one white parent. Okay, that counts.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
But I mean, yeah, I don't know that by racial.
I was like, wait, you got blacking him?
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Hold up?
Speaker 2 (29:23):
You do that kind of brothers the second he said
biracial ship. But baby, you don't know, you never know.
But but no, you should. You should check out the
Trevor Noah book. I promise you it's a great read.
You'll you'll probably end your BBI commission after that.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
I know what you mean though, because I've met people
that are like you know, they won't exactly acknowledge the
black if they're half. But I acknowledge it, but I
also acknowledged the others.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
It's more of a bit than it is anything else.
But I'm gonna have a lot.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Of fun with it, have fun with it. Is there
any way people could Keep up with you now, mister
(30:15):
success Story.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Still Grinding Hire Learning Podcasts on The Ringer Podcast Network
with My Fantastic co host Rachel Lindsay. Fantastic co host
Rachel Lindsay The Midnight Boys podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network,
The ring Verse. Uh you see me on CNN. The
(30:41):
movie company is doing well. Life is moving in a
positive direction. I'm not where I want to go by
my moay.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I do want to touch on the Academy Award winning,
like can we backtrack to that? That was before you
were That was after you're fired, So.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I wouldn't have been able to do it if I'd
still been at Team Z.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Okay, did you know you were going to work on
that project when you were getting fired or did it
just come out? It was it around the George Floyd
or okay during the COVID during COVID Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Okay, idea money execution. You never know what's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
How do you feel about with everything that happened during COVID,
how these brands are now supporting black business? Like, how
do you feel about it?
Speaker 1 (31:27):
What do you mean how they support it? I don't
think they are.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Well, they there was a period during the whole Black Lives.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
To me, it.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Feels like the world had to come to an end.
Like literally, sports had to end, The whole world had
to stop for everyone to say, what is happening to
blacks is really bad? It literally took If I think
if sports was running at the same time, it'd be
like any other year. But what I did notice, like
there was a lot of like I know, a lot
(31:54):
of brands that got distribution because they were black owned,
or if you had a black in the title of
any thing that you were doing around that time, you
were getting distribution. You were getting sales from white you know,
white ran companies.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Yeah. Ah, So it's interesting there was an opportunity there
that was missed. It was missed for merriad reasons. America's
inability to reconcile its relationship with black Americans will be
the thing that destroys America because if you cannot reconcile.
(32:29):
In reconciling America's relationship historically and contemporarily with black people,
you actually address many different American problems. You address American inequity,
you address capitalism, you address you address so many of
the different problems that exist for Americans across the lower
(32:50):
class spectrum, right, But you can't really do it because
Number One, there is a way to things are supposed
to go in the country, and there's a fixed middle
to lower class in the country, and the threat of
those people becoming anything other than that threatens the way
things are supposed to go. With black people specifically, It's
(33:15):
this simple, and I know this sounds very unintellectual. America
just don't want niggas to have shit. Yeah, all right,
and so and here's the example to that. Real quick.
I'm not going to go on and on like I
do everything that America has told Black people to do
(33:41):
to get a hit in America, black people have done.
Black people bought land. We own more land in nineteen
oh five than we own now. Bought land top four
white owners white land owners, and all of America own
more land than all of Black America combined. We owned land.
(34:01):
They took the land. They took the land through terrorism,
they took the land through contract buyd We started thriving
communities everywhere. They just said, no, we try to buy houses.
They said no, we tried whatever we did, they just
colluded to take it away. It's like you know, people
talk about Greenwood, I know, you know, Tulsa is the
(34:24):
one that sticks out in people's minds. What destroyed Tulsa
was not the riot. It's not what destroyed Tulsa. Tulsa
was known as Black Wall Street after the riot. They rebuilt.
They had enough money to do that.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
What destroyed Tulsa urban renewal. Urban renewal, which was a
plan to take areas of inner city America, places that
were deemed inner city or low low income, and like
run fucking freeways through them. Tulsa got fucked over because
(35:03):
they ran a fucking freeway through it. The people. They
couldn't take the people's land any other way. So they
use urban renewal, imminent domain, all different types of things
like that to dispossess these people of what they had built.
And they have their communities right, and so all of
that stuff is to say that racism and the idea
that black people are supposed to be lesser than is
so deeply entrenched in the American psyche that if it's
(35:25):
not dealt with, and if it's not, if we don't
come to terms with it, then America can't exist in
any real functional way. And it's only so long, right.
We think that it can. We think that it could
just be like this forever. It can't because you start
turning the blond eyed to the middle class, then you
(35:46):
erode your ability to be a stable community, right you.
Income inequality a stable society. Income inequality goes crazy. All
those things happen because they're huge chunks of the American
electorate that people just are okay with saying they don't matter.
George Floyd gets killed in front of everybody, and then
people go, okay, well, maybe we should do more for
(36:07):
black people. Did they let us tell them the way
they should do more? Right, They donated to three or
four places, made those places rich, and then heaped the
entire reputation on Black America on what those people did
with the money. So, like what I'm saying is right now.
It's people would answer to these questions, but they would
(36:28):
have to be the questions that would have to be
asked seriously, and they never will. Now, I want you
to have nothing brought you over here as a slave
in order to make it make sense to them and
to trick themselves into believing they have to trick themselves
into believing you were subhuman and after three generations they
really believe it. Yes, right. I mean when you're first
kidnapping someone and you see a mother being separated from
(36:50):
a child, you might feel something inside you that says
that's wrong. But see about like one hundred years after that,
that's gone because you have now like purposefully endeavored into
a psychosis that makes you, that makes the way this
country runs. Do you have to like approach that as
(37:12):
if it's true? And that's where we are, and so
the only thing for us to do is to disassociate
with that and do what eighty five South and so
many other people are doing here, which is collectivize. Do
it for yourself, like depend on yourself and have solidarity
with yourself. See grilled cheese.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Too, grilled cheese too. Look at that grilled cheese.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
You like it.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
It's good. It's good you too, grilled cheese. Thank you
so much for your time. We appreciate it. And I'll
catch up with you. And we're in La.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Yeah, catch up. We'll have your We have an IR
on you.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna see what your your reading history
is looking like. Hey, what up? Jay suck? All right, it's.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Secret ingredient.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Yo, Picture this a parallel dimension where Van Laythan's born
without his secret sauce, that raw, unfiltered candor. In this
twisted reality, that legendary Larry Flint joke never lands, Harvey's
approval never earned, TMZ producer status never achieved. And when
Kanye's spit in nonsense in the newsroom, insulting everybody in
(38:32):
their mama, ain't nobody stepping up to check him. But
in our world, Van Layton's keeping it one thousand. He's
got that freedom to speak his mind. And it's not
just opening doors for him, it's straight up kicking them
off their hinges. Van Laythan teaches us that when candor
is your secret ingredient, life can hand you all the
lemons it wants, you just throw them lemons right back
(38:55):
and whip up a banging ass grilled cheese sandwich. I'm
calling wit, and you've been listening to Eating While Broke.
Peace out for more Eating While Broke from iHeartRadio and
(39:24):
The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Yo, I talk a lot. I know sometimes it could
be hard to follow me. But if you don't listen
to anything else, I say, listen to this. These people
don't give a fuck about you. We didn't talked like
your dad has passed away. I done took you outside
the office, We've talked about it, We've gone through all
(00:21):
of this. You wouldn't do this to me. Not only
will they, they're going to Yeah, like they're going to
do it. It's like they're going to do you. You
You're gonna get done. You will be done like something
like if you are, if you are making the track
towards being somebody important or influential, somebody is going to
(00:44):
do you. There's no magic or sinister story to a divorce.
(01:12):
Sometimes it don't work out. It just doesn't work out.
But you want to believe certain people will never be
happy because their lifestyles are antithetical to happiness in a relationship.
So you want to you want to believe like like you,
like you, you you. You want to believe that right.
You want to believe that TAMS gives you that. In
(01:34):
order to do that, TMZ has to treat those people
like they're not people. They have to treat them as
if their concepts celebrity is not a person.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
That's why I guess comes off a little bit invasive
and ruthless.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Right, Well, no, because they're.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
They're not treating they're they're treating them kind of like.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Well, you have to write like even even the TMS
tour was a celebrity safari, Like what's on a safari?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yeah, animals animals, right.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
And so and so like when when you like the
tours celebrities to fight its animals, right, and so you
do that, right and what you what you say is okay, Well,
in order to be a celebrity, the game is pr
at its base, right, So this is what you sign
up for kind of right, because like there are certain
things that you don't sign up for. I'll never talk
(02:22):
I'll never I'll never forget this. There was the sister
of a celebrity that had that had had something taught
done to them. I'll never forget. I'm not gonna talk
about who I had the conversation with. I'm like, yo,
we shouldn't do that. And they did the story and
this dude went on fucking and let us fucking happ
(02:42):
and I was like, yo, we had to take it
down and apologize and do all that stuff like yo,
like there's a limit to this. And that's not me
making a moral judgment on the team team. I'm just
telling you the way things go. So like when you
know all of that, when you have an idea of
what drives that, Like obviously they're moral. There are things
(03:04):
that you have to not care about to work there.
But most of the people there are good people. They're
just desensitized to whatever was going on there because that's
where they work, like like that, like that's what they do.
I'm there. It's the same thing. Things are coming in
at a certain point you go, god damn, you know,
and it's there will be little small things. This is
(03:25):
a football player that had this video come out of
some altercation. It was in and it said savage beating
by this and I was just looking at the hellline.
I'm like, that's I don't think we should go savage
beating there, Like I think savage is like a that's
like an interesting way where there's just little small things.
The mayor of DC died Marion Barry crack maryor Marion
(03:49):
Barry dies like he died and like by the way,
the people in DC are gonna freak the funk out
because I don't know if you guys know, but Marion
Barry was with Martin Luther King Junior. Like where I'm from,
Like I deal with a group of people, the community,
people that are always categorized by the worst moment that
they have. And I don't feel comfortable with categorizing a
(04:14):
man that means so much to his city by the worst,
most scandalous thing he ever had. You can't talk about
his life without talking about that, Yeah, but maybe in
the headline you don't do that. So it so all
of those things start to start to happen. And so
for me, what the place represents it's not even so
much a bunch of not even so much a bunch
(04:36):
of moral people that are running around trying to get
the dirn on celebrities. It represents our relationship to celebrity
and our relationship to ourselves, because there's no fucking reason
whatsoever why we should spend so much time talking about
what happens in the lives of famous people. It just
really like, at its core, it just doesn't And even
(05:02):
to this day on the podcast, I still do it.
And the reason why I still do it. I don't
get the stories, but you try to extrapolate larger conversations
out of these things and talk about them with notable people.
But really it's just the need to talk about things
that people care about, and for whatever reason, people care
about celebrity and fame.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Okay, can that makes sense? So going back to your story, Yeah,
so you're at TMZ for nine years, you said, and
then what happens after that?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
After that?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Wait, what happened with your ending in TMZ?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I got fired for an altercation inside the office with
a white boy.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
You say altercation? No hands?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
They say I use hands?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
They say you used hands? Did you use hands?
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yeah, not in any real way.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
I mean not in a real way. What did you
do like that?
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Or like, no, I'm not gonna smack nobody. See, I
would never This is the funny thing that would never happen, Right.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
That would never happen. You say, a white boy, I'm like,
maybe you went light on him, you smacked him.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
This guy was my guy, still is my guy. He's
a Republican. Whatever, tell you what happened. I'm an emotional person.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I can kind of see that.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Very true. Uh, They they wanted me to talk about.
There's only one thing I don't want to talk about,
Hurricane Katrina. I just don't want to talk about it.
Like even saying the name Hurricane Katrina, like right now
it makes me want to cry. I just don't want
to talk about it. I want think about, I want
talk about I don' want talk about it. I don't
very tough, very hard. And there was this story that
(06:46):
had gone on in the newsroom earlier where George Bush
was being cool with like Ellen Degeneress, thats some football games,
and I was like, it doesn't matter what you guys
say about George Bush. I don't give a fuck that
he paints. I don't give a fuck that show Obama
likee George Bush, fuck George Bush, forever like it. It
doesn't matter. I don't give a fuck. Who's the who's
worse fucking forever Wheel was in the water. He didn't
(07:07):
care that. The way it goes like, hey, we're gonna
bring this back and you're so passionate about it, and
the thing it's like, guys, I don't want to talk
about it. Oh, I told you. I want to talk
about guys, and I want to talk about Like, no,
I'm like, I'm like, please, Pa, I'm like please, I
don't want to. I want to discuss it. I'm here,
I do everything. I've been the funny nigga for a
(07:28):
long time. I've been the I do. I'm the Swiss
Army Knife of niggas. I'm the funny nigga. I'm the
basketball nigga. I'm the who look at the ass nigga.
I'm like all that I've been. This just I'm saying,
don't don't. I don't want to talk about it. You
gotta do it, fam we need you. Okay. So I
get on there and I'm talking my whole thing, and
this guy up there hosting the show, he's cutting me off,
(07:49):
and he's speaking to me in a way that I
don't like. Anytime you speak to me in a way
that I don't like, we have a conversation about it, Okay,
is it? So this is generally how this happened. I
challenge anyone to watch the video. Guys up there, he's
sitting down, he's doing the show. I know him now.
I know him like we're friends, and we're friends. Now
(08:13):
he's up there and he's doing the show. He's done
this already and I don't want to yell at him
across the newsroom make a big scene. So I go
up to him while he's sitting down, and I put
my hands on his shoulders, and you can see me
on the video. I'm whispering into his ear. I'm whispering
into his ear.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Does he turn around and do the whole big scene?
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Nah? He turns around, and he moves his hand from
off my shoulder and I'll move it and then and
then I whisper into his ear, and I say, and
you can see me leaving. I pat him on the side.
You can see me leaving, and I do like this,
and I walk back. The last thing I said to
him was not something that you should say to somebody
in the office. He stood up and I was like, whatever,
(08:55):
I don't even want to The last thing that I
said is something. And so when I said that, Charles said,
Van go home.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
What did you say?
Speaker 3 (09:03):
No?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So like so, the I mean, the last thing was
a threat. It was no, no, no, that wasn't a.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
It was a lights out.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
The last thing was a threat. It wasn't a threat
as in I'm gonna do something to you. It was
a threat as in, these are my limits.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, don't cross that line again.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yeah, you know, and and that's probably too far off
for Charles. Charles Charles goes Van go home. That's the
last time I was ever in TMZ. It was funny
because when they called me, I knew I was gonna
have to it was gonna have to bench be for
a little while, right, uh for that. Yeah, so listen,
it's funny. So I'm on the thing and I'm like,
I'm one of the phone with the HR people and
(09:46):
they go, yeah, did you choke him? And I went
wait what And they were like, yeah, did you put
your hands around his neck? And I was like oh.
And I was like, guys, this is Van. Hey, it's me.
(10:08):
Circus Bear like, hey, it's Vans. This is Van. Think
about what you're asking me. Think about if you're asking
me whether or not I choked Mike in in front
of the whole newsroom.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
It's me.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I know you guys, it's children. I'd be around y'all
like it's Van, Hey, it's me. Now come back the
whole thing. I was like, oh, they about to do me,
and they did. And it was like the funny thing
about it was so all of these conversations. It's like
(10:48):
stuff happens. I end up being terminated. Karen, my manager,
like automatically has stuff. So we're taking all kinds of
means was doing all kinds of stuff. Nobody guys is
off me. We're doing the same stuff because literally my
contract was up at TMZ in about four more weeks
and I had already told them I wasn't resigning. So
(11:10):
if they thought they would have had me for a
longer term, there's no way they would have fired me.
But it's like whatever, this is a way to try
maybe say some money, get off from under Its cool.
So my it starts to get around the office and
I'm not coming back. So my coworkers throw me a
going away party, including the guy that I supposedly chose,
(11:32):
who comes to the going away party. And after that
that was on a Saturday. Pictures go up on Instagram
on Monday. Paid six colls me and says, what we
heard that you got fired. We heard that you got fired.
We heard it there was some kind of office altercation.
We heard there was all of this stuff, and I'm
like fuck. Now, I'm like god, damn. Now I'm the
(11:55):
six foot fourth scary nigga, are you six four? Don't play?
And so and so and so. Now I'm like and so.
Now I'm like the six foot I'm not like er
er er. And they put up an article and the
article was like super it went soft on me. Everybody
(12:17):
loves fan and all of this stuff like that. TMZ
got their asses kicked. Everybody was coming at them, like
everybody and so then the next day the office struck back.
And this is the one of the most important moments
of my career. Yo, I talk a lot. I know
(12:37):
sometimes it could be hard to follow me. But if
you don't listen to anything else, I say, listen to this.
These people don't give a fuck about you. They don't
tell you what we do as black people. Sometimes what
we do is like the record label becomes a crew
(12:57):
and a family, the production group becomes a crew and
a family. We gotta sign, we got a logo, we
got all of this stuff and boom boom boom, boom boom,
and we cool. I know your kids, I know I
know all of these people around you. We didn't talked
like your dad has passed away. I took you outside
the office. We've talked about it. We've gone through all
(13:20):
of this, you wouldn't do this to me. Not only
will they they're going to Yeah, like they're going to
do it. It's like they're going to do you. You're
gonna get done. You will be done like something like
if you are if you are making the track towards
being somebody important or influential, somebody is going to do you.
(13:44):
You will be done. So the question is for you
is how are you gonna respond to it? As much naive.
This is coming from a man at that time who
was thirty nine years old. I didn't think they would
do me that way. And the reason why I didn't
think they would do me that way, it's not because
it's because Yo, I know these people. It's to the
point to me to where if if I pick up
(14:06):
your baby and hold your back I'm from ban Rouge.
If I pick up your baby, if I don't fuck
with you and get that little nigga away from me,
But like if if I pick up your baby and
hold your baby and all your wife and I've been
to your crib and all of that stuff, I'm thinking
that there's gonna be a point where where somebody's gonna
want to make me look in a certain way and
somebody's gonna go, we can't do that to that.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah, but does it also make you wonder like kind
of going back to the Jesus days, like the whole Judas,
Like which one like with that piece of advice or
that's that statement? Do you think that people should be
also double looking over like which one in their crew
is gonna be the one that kisses them on the cheek?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
No? No, do you know what we forget about Judas?
What that he got paid? The money is the.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Judas I understand.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
So so hear me out.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
So the root is always gonna be in the industry
in of itself.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
The root the what pulls you apart, what brings you
together with these people is the commerce, and what pulls
you apart is the commerce. Yeah. Sure they liked me,
but I was good for business. Yeah you know what
I mean. Yeah, they liked me. They definitely liked me.
But I was funny, and I was smart, and I
(15:22):
was devastatingly handsome, and I was and I was all
of those they like. They they liked me, but I
was good for business and a lot of the things
that I got away with there, I wouldn't have gotten
away with if I wasn't good for business. And at
that point I was bad for business.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
So but they threw the mud back on.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
You, right, So I was bad for business. And the
moment that I became bad for business, we talked about
it before. Was not a person anymore. It's like a thing.
So Judas, Yeah, he did what he did. They paid
him thirty pieces of silver. The thing is going to
get at you. Just be prepared for the thing, the
thing when you're no longer, when they no longer have
to protect you. First of all, anybody who doesn't have
(16:08):
to protect you won't. That's the first thing. And secondly,
if you're a threat to the money.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Your toast.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
So at that point everybody is making them look bad.
They're like they don't want to be embarrassed. People are
asking if TMZ is racist. People are starting to say
the TMZ fire Van because vancd to Kanye West. It's
all of this stuff. If somebody would have got on
the phone with me, I swear to God, if somebody
would have called me and be like, Van, we're taking
the beating. Is there something you can say, I'd have
(16:53):
done them a solid because that's out of done them
a solid because I had no fucking problem with being
where I was. It was aw cool. I had everything
set up.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
So, oh that's what that was gonna be. My next question.
So what was your mindset at when all of this
was going on?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I started having heart problems?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Well, I thought you just said that. What do you
mean while were you having heart problems?
Speaker 1 (17:17):
It was stressed out? Okay, sorry. Like when I say
I started having heart problems, it's like there's something called
preventricular contractions. It's like a skipping of the beat. Like
I was so stressed that I was like to play
basketball very active. I was so stressed that my heart
started missing timing. It was boomoom boom, boom boom.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
When you were stressed over what just the whole transition
and where your next road was going.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah, the whole deal, think about it, right, like the
whole deal. But here's the deal though. I say all
this to say this. People look for God in like
the sky. Sometimes God is on the ground too, He's
like right where you're walking. I had to go through that,
(18:05):
you know why why? Because I had to put people
through that. I had to go through that because I
had written and hit publish on headlines that had made
people feel that way. I had got on TV and
talked about people in a way that made them go, shit,
these people don't know me. I had been a part
(18:26):
of stories that portrayed people in a light that's not
quite accurate to who they actually are without me really
knowing them. I had been a part of that.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
So but you had You've been a part of it
without the relationship. It's different. Obviously, if you have the
relationship and you're pushing the published button.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
That all feels the same. Because like for me seeing
me on page six and seeing me going through all
of this stuff and me going, hey, guys, you guys
know me. This is not the thing. This is not
the deal. Seeing something out of context, played up all
the little micro feelings about black man, or right there,
(19:04):
which is a maritime before Van snapped. It's a maritime
before Van hurt somebody. This was a maritime before he
showed us who he really is. Remember, when a white
person does something wrong, it's somebody who did something wrong.
When a black person does something wrong, they're showing us
who they really are the whole time. So it's so
all of this stuff, it's like I went through that,
(19:25):
and I was like, Okay, cool, no more of that
for me. I have to feel that, like I'm not
one of those persons. I always get caught when I
do something wrong. I always it always comes back to me.
He don't want me to escape without feeling it. Yeah,
so it always comes back to me. And I could
not leave there having done the Kanye thing and looked
like some kind of big deal or whatever. I could
(19:48):
not have left there without being on the other side
of a headline. And so that's the way it went.
Take the lesson, move on, continue to do dope shit,
do as much as you can, but like it. And also,
you know, I had been to Grilled Cheese Land already.
If I had to go back there again, I could.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Now that you're older, do you It's I've been to
the broke land. But I promise you I'm terrified of
going back. But I meet so many people on this
show that'll be like, I'll fault bankruptcy. I'll go back again.
I'm not worried about it. You're not at that phase
where you really genuinely don't want to go back.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
To me, I can't go back now. I could if
I had to go back, it would happen, right, But
I can't go back now.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Why do you see that we lost dad?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
So we lost dad in twenty twenty one, and it
just changed, like it changed everything, like when we lost them,
when we lost the old man. It's like I remember
when you get the news. I go to bat Rouge
and right away people start asking me stuff and it
really didn't matter. I'm not used to people asking me
stuff like in a family way, and then my decision
(20:56):
being what they do and shout out to build man,
like you know, Bill goes So, I a guy I
work with at the Ringer. Bill like hit Bill. I'm
like Bill goes Hey. It's like, man, He's like he's
honest with me right there. He's like, Man, I'm telling
you right now, when you go down there, now, it's
gonna be different, Like you're going to have to be
(21:17):
the guy. And I'm not saying that I am the
guy in my family. I'm just saying that, Like.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
You're also the youngest, aren't you.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yeah, I'm the youngest, but I'm also I mean, in
terms of this immediate family, I want to parse apart
all my family dynamics, but like they rely on me,
so it it so because of that now it's not
even now. The fucking roof gotta get changed. Like stuff
(21:45):
gotta happen. And even if my dad was around and
he couldn't do it, he had a way to get
it done. He was a useful, resourceful, responsible old school man.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
You say that, but going back to when you're mom left,
you were saying that, like if the stove broke, you guys.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Were like, w he wasn't that way with him, but
he would be that way with you. So if it's him,
he man. When I went to his crib, like after
he had passed away, like I see y'all got the
wires and all this stuff, and you know, it's a
production house. That's how it goes. So I go to
this nigga shit and I'm in there and it's like
(22:24):
it's weird, Like death is so weird because you're gone,
but everything else around you is like the same. So
I go into his house and the outdoor channel like
he's a hunting fish, So the outdoor channel is still on,
like it's still on, like he's He's the only thing
that's not alive.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
In the room is him.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Like the outdoor channel is still on in the middle
of the thing. His saddle is on the saddle horse
that you put on in the room next to him.
All of his hunting stuff is there. He has stuff
laid out for the next time he's going. His gun
is taking apart. He was oiling it the night before
he passed away, so like he wasn't expecting to die, right,
And so I'm going there and I'll look and I
(23:09):
see that he's running power out of one of the
rooms into his bath room. I'm like this, nigga is
good for nigger rigg and some shit. Why don't you
just do whatever you gotta do to have the people
come out there and have the power. I see if
it would have been me doing that, If it had
been me doing that, he say, boy, fix that. He's
just used to dealing with a little bit less and
(23:30):
then kind of making sure that you don't. So for
him to be like gone and for people to know
that they can't just because sometimes he didn't have it
to give to you. He just had a strategy for you.
And that's the craziest thing. When you need when you
need one hundred and fifty dollars for somebody and they
ain't got nothing but advice. You know what I'm saying, Like,
(23:52):
that's like that's the you know what I'm saying, Like,
that's that's sometimes he didn't have it, but like since then,
like I could go back to grilled cheese. I can
get used to anything, but we can't go back to grilly. Yeah, yeah,
I get it that we can't.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
It's like niggas. And that's funny because and they know
that because they don't even ask for the same amount
of money before. Like if you if you got a
thousand bucks in the bank account, people go, yo, man,
let me hold, let me hold, let me hold a
hundred bucks, bro, whole hundred dollars. Man need that. But
if you don't, these numbers get crazy. What you mean,
Oh bruh, the numbers get crazy. It's like, yeah, I
(24:31):
need four thousand dollars. What the fuck you need for?
You ain't got a four thousand dollars life?
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah, like what what?
Speaker 1 (24:37):
What the fuck you need four thousand dollars for?
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Man?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
I mean I need four thousand dollars? All right, Cool?
You need four thousand what like what like I don't know,
like you know, you know, the whole thing and I'm
not like you. Hear other people talking about this and
they are actually really rich I'm doing okay, yeah, and they.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
They hitting you for real. So when you come back
to you give them what your dad gives you.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Nat how to get this for now, I gotta help out,
like I gotta help out as much as I can.
But but see this is the way I help out.
I make you earn it. And listening to.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Me, oh god, I love it, Oh my god, one
of those I.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Make you earn it, and sure y gotta do it,
gotta do it, gotta do it. I make you earn Hey, now, look,
I'm gonna send this to you. We gotta talk about
how you live it. But we're doing it.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
That's messed up, man.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
I'm not a fucking atm hilarious. So we at least
got to have a conversation about how we could be better.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Now, I got rules of the game. If it's mom is,
just give me the bill direct.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
We all know that all of this doesn't it doesn't.
This is not a mother grandmother thing. Mother and grandmother
don't they don't even ask, they don't, they don't even
ask like they really don't ask like they like it's
like you'll come to their house, come to my mother
in my grandmother's house, and they really do in the
old small TV on top of the big Curtis Mathew.
(26:06):
I'm like, nah, man, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta
go get this whole situation so they don't even ask.
Obviously with your mom is not that big of a.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Deal, oh of mine. I'm just like, I have to
pay direct because it's never gonna get to whoever you owe.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
They want your mom not gonna pay.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
The bill if I give my If my mom has
a thousand dollars light bow, hence her one thousand dollars
light bow, you see where we're going, She'll be like,
you give her the money. She'll be like, I know
that they'll keep the lights on. If I just give
them ten, you'd be like, just the bill. So I
just be like, send me the bill direct.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
I see. This is why I love talking to people,
and that's how I know you Black. That's why I
love talking to people because I remember back in the day,
I don't even know you could do that.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
I never knew you could do that until I discovered
my mom can rack a bill's extremely high.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
My mom time, my mom told me to pay the
light bill. She was like telling me come out there
and you'll drop them off seventy dollars. I'm like, drop
him off seventy dollars. She Saydeah, tell me you drop
them off seventy dollars. I was like, you can drop
them off seventy dollars and she was like, yeah, they
want you to pay something. You drop them off the
seventy dollars and then you come back a little bit later.
(27:13):
I remember one. It's just so many stories. Mom sprayed
mace at the feet of the light guy, the light
build god, so he could come cut the lights off.
She made some she makes the light build God no
way swear light buil God. Mased them and then told
him that the house was covered in the blood of
Jesus and that if he came in there, his blessing
was gonna be cut because she was trying to turn
the lights off on her kids. Maceed them and then
(27:34):
it was like, I'm letting you know, this house is
covered by the blood of Jesus. She's coming here. This
is crazy. She had she had force, she had the Bible,
she had all kinds of stuff anyway, So all of
that stuff now is just like now you're blessed. You're
walking in abundance, and you're trying your best to be
available to the people that you care about. I care
(27:55):
about all of black people. That's why I care about you.
That's why you have to be investigated by the BBI,
and we have to make sure.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
I don't even understand the point of the investigation, but okay.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
The point of the investigation for you, the point of
So what we do with the Biracial Bureau of Investigation
is we make sure that we we identify the problematic
biracials that exist amongst us.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
What do you mean the problematic? You mean the ones
that don't claim they're black. I knew that's what it was.
I knew I'm not one of those. I pass the test.
Me acknowledging my nationality does not negate whether I'm black,
whether I'm not acknowledging I'm black.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I'll say right there, I'll say, right now, your prospects
are good.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
My prospects are hella good.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
We're gonna have to go deep.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
We're gonna have after you read, after you reborn a crime.
We could we could talk, but we're not going to.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
I'll read Trevor's book. I'll actually add his book to
it is the curriculum to be behind.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
One of my favorite books. Ryan, it's one of your
favorite books.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Ryan, you fuck with that? Ryan? You biracial?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
You are what?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
What?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
What are?
Speaker 3 (29:09):
You?
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Vietnamese? Oh?
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Soo?
Speaker 1 (29:12):
One Vietnamese parent, one white parent. Okay, that counts.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
But I mean, yeah, I don't know that by racial.
I was like, wait, you got blacking him?
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Hold up?
Speaker 2 (29:23):
You do that kind of brothers the second he said
biracial ship. But baby, you don't know, you never know.
But but no, you should. You should check out the
Trevor Noah book. I promise you it's a great read.
You'll you'll probably end your BBI commission after that.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
I know what you mean though, because I've met people
that are like you know, they won't exactly acknowledge the
black if they're half. But I acknowledge it, but I
also acknowledged the others.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
It's more of a bit than it is anything else.
But I'm gonna have a lot.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Of fun with it, have fun with it. Is there
any way people could Keep up with you now, mister
(30:15):
success Story.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Still Grinding Hire Learning Podcasts on The Ringer Podcast Network
with My Fantastic co host Rachel Lindsay. Fantastic co host
Rachel Lindsay The Midnight Boys podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network,
The ring Verse. Uh you see me on CNN. The
(30:41):
movie company is doing well. Life is moving in a
positive direction. I'm not where I want to go by
my moay.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I do want to touch on the Academy Award winning,
like can we backtrack to that? That was before you
were That was after you're fired, So.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I wouldn't have been able to do it if I'd
still been at Team Z.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Okay, did you know you were going to work on
that project when you were getting fired or did it
just come out? It was it around the George Floyd
or okay during the COVID during COVID Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Okay, idea money execution. You never know what's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
How do you feel about with everything that happened during COVID,
how these brands are now supporting black business? Like, how
do you feel about it?
Speaker 1 (31:27):
What do you mean how they support it? I don't
think they are.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Well, they there was a period during the whole Black Lives.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
To me, it.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Feels like the world had to come to an end.
Like literally, sports had to end, The whole world had
to stop for everyone to say, what is happening to
blacks is really bad? It literally took If I think
if sports was running at the same time, it'd be
like any other year. But what I did notice, like
there was a lot of like I know, a lot
(31:54):
of brands that got distribution because they were black owned,
or if you had a black in the title of
any thing that you were doing around that time, you
were getting distribution. You were getting sales from white you know,
white ran companies.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Yeah. Ah, So it's interesting there was an opportunity there
that was missed. It was missed for merriad reasons. America's
inability to reconcile its relationship with black Americans will be
the thing that destroys America because if you cannot reconcile.
(32:29):
In reconciling America's relationship historically and contemporarily with black people,
you actually address many different American problems. You address American inequity,
you address capitalism, you address you address so many of
the different problems that exist for Americans across the lower
(32:50):
class spectrum, right, But you can't really do it because
Number One, there is a way to things are supposed
to go in the country, and there's a fixed middle
to lower class in the country, and the threat of
those people becoming anything other than that threatens the way
things are supposed to go. With black people specifically, It's
(33:15):
this simple, and I know this sounds very unintellectual. America
just don't want niggas to have shit. Yeah, all right,
and so and here's the example to that. Real quick.
I'm not going to go on and on like I
do everything that America has told Black people to do
(33:41):
to get a hit in America, black people have done.
Black people bought land. We own more land in nineteen
oh five than we own now. Bought land top four
white owners white land owners, and all of America own
more land than all of Black America combined. We owned land.
(34:01):
They took the land. They took the land through terrorism,
they took the land through contract buyd We started thriving
communities everywhere. They just said, no, we try to buy houses.
They said no, we tried whatever we did, they just
colluded to take it away. It's like you know, people
talk about Greenwood, I know, you know, Tulsa is the
(34:24):
one that sticks out in people's minds. What destroyed Tulsa
was not the riot. It's not what destroyed Tulsa. Tulsa
was known as Black Wall Street after the riot. They rebuilt.
They had enough money to do that.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
What destroyed Tulsa urban renewal. Urban renewal, which was a
plan to take areas of inner city America, places that
were deemed inner city or low low income, and like
run fucking freeways through them. Tulsa got fucked over because
(35:03):
they ran a fucking freeway through it. The people. They
couldn't take the people's land any other way. So they
use urban renewal, imminent domain, all different types of things
like that to dispossess these people of what they had built.
And they have their communities right, and so all of
that stuff is to say that racism and the idea
that black people are supposed to be lesser than is
so deeply entrenched in the American psyche that if it's
(35:25):
not dealt with, and if it's not, if we don't
come to terms with it, then America can't exist in
any real functional way. And it's only so long, right.
We think that it can. We think that it could
just be like this forever. It can't because you start
turning the blond eyed to the middle class, then you
(35:46):
erode your ability to be a stable community, right you.
Income inequality a stable society. Income inequality goes crazy. All
those things happen because they're huge chunks of the American
electorate that people just are okay with saying they don't matter.
George Floyd gets killed in front of everybody, and then
people go, okay, well, maybe we should do more for
(36:07):
black people. Did they let us tell them the way
they should do more? Right, They donated to three or
four places, made those places rich, and then heaped the
entire reputation on Black America on what those people did
with the money. So, like what I'm saying is right now.
It's people would answer to these questions, but they would
(36:28):
have to be the questions that would have to be
asked seriously, and they never will. Now, I want you
to have nothing brought you over here as a slave
in order to make it make sense to them and
to trick themselves into believing they have to trick themselves
into believing you were subhuman and after three generations they
really believe it. Yes, right. I mean when you're first
kidnapping someone and you see a mother being separated from
(36:50):
a child, you might feel something inside you that says
that's wrong. But see about like one hundred years after that,
that's gone because you have now like purposefully endeavored into
a psychosis that makes you, that makes the way this
country runs. Do you have to like approach that as
(37:12):
if it's true? And that's where we are, and so
the only thing for us to do is to disassociate
with that and do what eighty five South and so
many other people are doing here, which is collectivize. Do
it for yourself, like depend on yourself and have solidarity
with yourself. See grilled cheese.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Too, grilled cheese too. Look at that grilled cheese.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
You like it.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
It's good. It's good you too, grilled cheese. Thank you
so much for your time. We appreciate it. And I'll
catch up with you. And we're in La.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Yeah, catch up. We'll have your We have an IR
on you.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna see what your your reading history
is looking like. Hey, what up? Jay suck? All right, it's.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Secret ingredient.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Yo, Picture this a parallel dimension where Van Laythan's born
without his secret sauce, that raw, unfiltered candor. In this
twisted reality, that legendary Larry Flint joke never lands, Harvey's
approval never earned, TMZ producer status never achieved. And when
Kanye's spit in nonsense in the newsroom, insulting everybody in
(38:32):
their mama, ain't nobody stepping up to check him. But
in our world, Van Layton's keeping it one thousand. He's
got that freedom to speak his mind. And it's not
just opening doors for him, it's straight up kicking them
off their hinges. Van Laythan teaches us that when candor
is your secret ingredient, life can hand you all the
lemons it wants, you just throw them lemons right back
(38:55):
and whip up a banging ass grilled cheese sandwich. I'm
calling wit, and you've been listening to Eating While Broke.
Peace out for more Eating While Broke from iHeartRadio and
(39:24):
The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Host
Coline Witt
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