September 25, 2025 • 39 mins
In this explosive two-part episode, Coline sits down with the one and only Van Lathan for a conversation that's as real as it gets.
Originally aired May 9th, 2024:
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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 took you outside the office.
We've talked about it, We've gone through all of this.
(00:21):
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 do you.
(01:07):
There's no magic or sinister story to a divorce. 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,
(01:28):
like you, you you. You want to believe that right.
You want to believe that teams gives you that. In
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 TMZ 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 TMZ
tour was a celebrity safari, Like what's on a safari?
Animals animals, right and so and so like when when
you like the tours celebrities for 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
(02:14):
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 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
(02:37):
the story and this dude went on fucking and let
us fucking have 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 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 there they're moral.
(03:04):
There are things 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 what 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
(03:24):
small things. This is 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 it's like an interesting way or there's
just little small things. Uh. The mayor of DC died,
(03:47):
Maror Marion Barry Crack. Mayor Marion Barry dies like he
died and like by the way the people in DC
are going to 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, a community, people that
are always categorized by the worst moment that they have.
(04:09):
And I don't feel comfortable with categorizing a 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, 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 is not even so much a
(04:32):
bunch of not even so much a bunch 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
(04:53):
in the lives of famous people. It just really like,
at its core, it just doesn't matter. And even 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.
(05:16):
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 what? An altercation inside the office
with a white boy?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
You say altercation?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
No hands? They say I use hands?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
They say you used hands? Did you use hands? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Not in any real way.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
I mean not in a real way. What did you
like that?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
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 said, 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 very true.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
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, don't want think about I want to talk
about don't want talk about it. I don't very tough,
very hard. And there was this story that had gone
(06:47):
on in the newsroom earlier where George Bush was being
cool with like Ellen DeGeneres, 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 like George Bush,
fuck George Bush forever, Like it doesn't matter. I don't
give a fuck. Who's the who's worse fucking forever wheels
in the water. He didn't care that. The way it
(07:09):
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 do I want
talk about Like No, I'm like I'm like, please, please,
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 long time. I've been the I do.
(07:30):
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 out there hosting the show, he's cutting
me off, and he's speaking to me in a way
(07:51):
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 le genially
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 he's up there and he's doing
(08:14):
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 to 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 whispering to 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.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Want to hear it.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
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 1 (09:03):
No? So the like so the I mean, the last
thing was a threat. It was no, no, no, that wasn't.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
A 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 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 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 they go, yeah, did you
(09:47):
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. Circus Bear like, hey,
(10:11):
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. It's me.
I know you guys as 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,
(10:35):
and they did. And it was like the funny thing
about it was so all of these conversations. It's like
stuff happens. I end up being terminated. Karen, my manager,
like automatically has stuff. So we're taking all kinds of meanings.
(10:57):
We're doing all kinds of stuff. Nobody guys is off
me right, 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
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
to maybe save some money, get off from under it.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
This is cool.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So my it starts to get around the office that
I'm not coming back. So my coworkers throw me a
going away party, including the guy that I supposedly chose
who comes to the going away party. And after that
that was on a Saturday, pictures go up on Instagram
(11:40):
on Monday. Paid six colls me and 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 six
foot fourth scary nigga, are you six four? Don't play
so now and so and so. Now I'm like and so.
(12:02):
Now I'm like six foot, I'm like er er And
they put up an article and the article was like
super it went soft on me. Everybody loves fan and
all of this stuff like that. TMZ got their asses kicked.
Everybody was coming at them, like everybody and so then
(12:26):
the next day the office struck back. And this is
one of the most important moments of my career. 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. They don't tell you what
(12:51):
we do as black people. Sometimes what we do is
like the record label becomes a crew and a family.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Yeah, the.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
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 done took you outside the office. We've
talked about it. We've gone through all of this. You
wouldn't do this to me. Not only will they they're
(13:25):
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. You will
(13:45):
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 I if I pick up
(14:06):
your baby and hold your bab I'm from ban Rouge.
If I pick up your baby, if I don't fuck
with you and get that little nigg 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 of their crew
is gonna be the one that kisses.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Them on the cheek? No? No, do you know what
we forget about Judas? What that he got paid? The
money is the Judas I understand. So so hear me out.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
So the route is always gonna be in the industry itself, the.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
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 was devastatingly handsome, and
(15:25):
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.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
For business, but they threw the mud back on you, right.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
So I was bad for business. And the moment that
I became bad for business we talked about 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 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,
(16:07):
anybody who doesn't have to protect you won't. That's the
first thing. And secondly, if you're a threat to the money.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Yeah, your toast.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
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
a beating. Is there something you can say? I'd have
(16:49):
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 (17:00):
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 (17:06):
I started having heart problems?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Well, I thought you just said that. What do you
mean while were you having heart problems?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Was stressed out?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Ok?
Speaker 1 (17:16):
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 timy. It was
boom boom boom boom boom boom.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
When you were stressed over what just the whole transition
and where your next road was going?
Speaker 1 (17:41):
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, but sometimes God is on the ground too,
and he's like right where you're walking. I had to
go through that, you know why, because I had to
(18:03):
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 of stories that portrayed people in a
(18:27):
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 (18:33):
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 (18:41):
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 men are right there.
(19:01):
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
so all of this stuff, it's like I went through that,
(19:22):
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
(19:45):
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 laying already.
If I had to go back there again, I could.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
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 (20:21):
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 (20:28):
Why do you see that.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
We lost dad? 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 ban 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
(20:52):
then my decision being what they do and shout out
to Bill Man, like you know, Bill goes So, I
a guy work with at the Ringer. Bill hit Bill.
I'm like, Bill goes Hey. He'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
(21:13):
be the guy. And I'm not saying that I am
the guy in my family.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
I'm just saying that, like, you're also the youngest, aren't you.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
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
(21:41):
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 (21:54):
You say that, but going back to when your mom left,
you were saying that, like if the stove broke, you
guys were like, well, he.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
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 it's weird, Like death is so
(22:22):
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 in the
room is him. Like the outdoor channel is still on
(22:44):
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 hunting. His gun is taking a part. 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 look and I see that he's running
(23:06):
power out of one of the rooms into his bathroom.
I'm like this, nigga is good for nigga ing 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 then kind of making sure that you don't.
(23:29):
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, well,
you know what I'm saying. That's like you know what
(23:50):
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 grill Yeah, yeah, I get it,
Like we can't.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
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 one
hundred bucks, bro the whole hundred dollars. Man, I need that.
But if you don't, the numbers get crazy. What you mean,
oh bruh, the numbers get crazy. It's like, yeah, I
(24:27):
need four thousand dollars. What the fuck you need for?
You ain't got a four thousand dollar life?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Like what what?
Speaker 1 (24:33):
What? What the fuck you need four thousand dollars for? Man,
I 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 (24:50):
They hating you for real. So when you come back
to you give them what your dad gives you. No, no,
let me tell you how to get this.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
For now, I gotta help out. I like it. 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 me, Oh god, I love.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
It, Oh my god, one of those I.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Make you earn it. Sure, ye gotta do it, gotta
do it, gotta do it. I make you earn Hey. Now, look,
I'm gonna send this to you, but we gotta talk
about how you live it. But we're doing it.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
That's messed up.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Man. I'm not a fucking atmarious, So we at least
got to have a conversation about how we could be better.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Now, I got rules of the game. If it's mom is,
just give me the bill director.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
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 doing the old
small TV on top of the big Curtis Mathews. I'm like, nah, man,
(26:03):
we gotta, we gotta, we gotta go get this whole situation.
So they don't even ask. Obviously, with your mom, it's
not that big of a deal.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Oh of mine. I'm just like, I have to pay
direct because it's never gonna get to whoever you owe.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
They want your mom not gonna pay the.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Bill if I give my If my mom has a
thousand dollars light bol hence her thousand dollars light bl
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.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Be like, just pay the bill.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
So I'll just be like, send me the bill direct.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
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 (26:45):
I never knew you could do that until I discovered
my mom can rack a bill's extremely high.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
My mom time, my momy told me to pay the
light bill. She was like telling me, come by there
and you'll drop them off seventy dollars. I'm like, drop
them off seventy dollars, she said, telling me drop them
off seventy dollars. 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. I
(27:10):
remember once, it's just so many stories. Mom sprayed mace
at the feet of the light guy, the light build god,
so he couldn't come cut the lights off. She made
some she makes the light buil 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 it was like,
(27:30):
I'm letting you know, this house is covered by the
blood of Jesus'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 about all of
(27:52):
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 (27:57):
I don't even understand the point of the investigation.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Okay, 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 (28:17):
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 passitest me.
Acknowledging my nationality does not negate whether I'm black, whether
I'm not acknowledging I'm black.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I'll say right there, I'll say, right now, your prospects
are good.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
My prospects are hella good.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
But we're gonna have to go deep. We're gonna have.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
After you read, after you reborn a crime. We could talk,
but we're not gonna.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
I'll read Trevor's book. I'll actually add his book to
it is the Curriculum to be Beyond.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
One of my favorite books. Ryan, it's one of your
favorite books.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Ryan, Fuck with that? Ryan? You biracial?
Speaker 4 (29:03):
You are?
Speaker 1 (29:04):
What?
Speaker 3 (29:05):
What?
Speaker 2 (29:05):
What are you?
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Vietnamese? Oh?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Soo?
Speaker 1 (29:08):
One Vietnamese parent, one white paranent Okay, that counts.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
But I mean, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Is that by racial?
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I was like, wait, you got blacking him?
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Hold up?
Speaker 2 (29:20):
You do that kind of the second he said biracial ship?
But baby, you know you never know? But but no,
you should. You should check out the Trevor note Book.
I promise you. It's a great read. You'll you'll probably
end your BBI commission after that.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
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 other.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
It's more of a bit than it is anything else.
But I'm gonna have a lot of fun with you.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Is there any way people could keep up with you?
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Now?
Speaker 2 (29:55):
It's the success Story.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
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
(30:22):
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 (30:28):
I do want to touch on the Academy Award winning like,
can we backcheck to that? That was before you were
that was after you're fired, So.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
I wouldn't have been able to do it if I'd
still been at Team Z.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Okay, did you know you were going to work on
that project when you were getting fired or did it.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Just come out after? Kay?
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Was it around the George Floyd or okay, during the COVID.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
During COVID Okay, yeah, okay, idea money execution. You never
know what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
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 (31:08):
What do you mean how they support it? I don't
think they are. Well.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
There was a period during the whole black lives. To me,
it 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
(31:32):
there was a lot of like I know, a lot
of brands that got distribution because they were black owned,
or if you had a black in the title of
anything that you were doing around that time, you were
getting distribution. You were getting sales from white you know,
white ran companies.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah. Ah, So it's interesting there was an opportunity there
that was missed, and was missed for myriad reasons. America's
inability to reconcile its relationship with black Americans will be
the thing that destroys America because if you cannot reconcile.
(32:10):
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
(32:31):
class spectrum, right, But you can't really do it because
number One, there is a way that 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
(32:56):
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 gonna go on and on like I do
everything that America has told black people to do to
(33:22):
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 owned more land
than all of Black America combined. Right, we owned land.
(33:42):
They took the land. They took the land through terrorism,
they took the land through contract bind 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 Like you when people
talk about Greenwood, I know you know, Tulsa is the
(34:04):
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. You know. What
destroyed Tulsa urban renewal. Urban renewal, which was a plan
(34:26):
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 they
ran a fucking freeway through it. The peoples. They couldn't
(34:47):
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 of their communities, right, and so all of
that stuff is to say that racism and and the
idea that black people are supposed to be lesser than
is so deeply entrenched in the American psyche that if
it's not dealt with, and if it's not, if we
(35:10):
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
rode your ability to be a stable community, right you,
Income inequality a stable society. Income inequality goes crazy. All
(35:34):
of those things happen because they are 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 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
(35:56):
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 have to be the questions that would
have to be asked seriously, and they never will. And
I want you to have nothing brought you over here
as a slave in order to make it make sense
(36:18):
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 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
(36:42):
like purposefully endeavored into a psychosis that makes you, that
makes the way this country runs. You have to approach
that as 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 souths
and so many other people are doing here, which is
(37:06):
collect advice. Do it for yourself, like depend on yourself
and have solidarity with yourself. Se grilled cheese too.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Grilled cheese too. Look at that grilled cheese.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
You like it.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
It's good. It's good. Eat your 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 (37:28):
Yeah, catch up. We have your We have an IR
on you.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna see what your your reading history
is looking like.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Hey, what up?
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Jay suck?
Speaker 4 (37:39):
All right, it's a rap secret ingredient, yo. Picture this
a parallel dimension where Van Lathan's born without his secret sauce,
that raw, unfiltered candor and this twisted reality that legendary
(38:01):
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 their mama, ain't nobody
stepping up to check him. But in our world, Van
Laythan's keeping it one thousand. He's got that freedom to
speak his mind, and it's not just opening doors for him,
(38:23):
it's straight of 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 and whip up a banging
ass grilled cheese sandwich. I'm calling wit, and you've been
listening to Eating While Broke.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Peace out for more Eating While Broke from iHeartRadio and
(39:05):
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 took you outside the office.
We've talked about it, We've gone through all of this.
(00:21):
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 do you.
(01:07):
There's no magic or sinister story to a divorce. 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,
(01:28):
like you, you you. You want to believe that right.
You want to believe that teams gives you that. In
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 TMZ 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 TMZ
tour was a celebrity safari, Like what's on a safari?
Animals animals, right and so and so like when when
you like the tours celebrities for 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
(02:14):
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 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
(02:37):
the story and this dude went on fucking and let
us fucking have 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 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 there they're moral.
(03:04):
There are things 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 what 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
(03:24):
small things. This is 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 it's like an interesting way or there's
just little small things. Uh. The mayor of DC died,
(03:47):
Maror Marion Barry Crack. Mayor Marion Barry dies like he
died and like by the way the people in DC
are going to 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, a community, people that
are always categorized by the worst moment that they have.
(04:09):
And I don't feel comfortable with categorizing a 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, 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 is not even so much a
(04:32):
bunch of not even so much a bunch 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
(04:53):
in the lives of famous people. It just really like,
at its core, it just doesn't matter. And even 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.
(05:16):
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 what? An altercation inside the office
with a white boy?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
You say altercation?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
No hands? They say I use hands?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
They say you used hands? Did you use hands? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Not in any real way.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
I mean not in a real way. What did you
like that?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
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 said, 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 very true.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
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, don't want think about I want to talk
about don't want talk about it. I don't very tough,
very hard. And there was this story that had gone
(06:47):
on in the newsroom earlier where George Bush was being
cool with like Ellen DeGeneres, 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 like George Bush,
fuck George Bush forever, Like it doesn't matter. I don't
give a fuck. Who's the who's worse fucking forever wheels
in the water. He didn't care that. The way it
(07:09):
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 do I want
talk about Like No, I'm like I'm like, please, please,
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 long time. I've been the I do.
(07:30):
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 out there hosting the show, he's cutting
me off, and he's speaking to me in a way
(07:51):
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 le genially
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 he's up there and he's doing
(08:14):
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 to 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 whispering to 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.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Want to hear it.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
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 1 (09:03):
No? So the like so the I mean, the last
thing was a threat. It was no, no, no, that wasn't.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
A 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 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 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 they go, yeah, did you
(09:47):
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. Circus Bear like, hey,
(10:11):
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. It's me.
I know you guys as 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,
(10:35):
and they did. And it was like the funny thing
about it was so all of these conversations. It's like
stuff happens. I end up being terminated. Karen, my manager,
like automatically has stuff. So we're taking all kinds of meanings.
(10:57):
We're doing all kinds of stuff. Nobody guys is off
me right, 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
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
to maybe save some money, get off from under it.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
This is cool.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So my it starts to get around the office that
I'm not coming back. So my coworkers throw me a
going away party, including the guy that I supposedly chose
who comes to the going away party. And after that
that was on a Saturday, pictures go up on Instagram
(11:40):
on Monday. Paid six colls me and 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 six
foot fourth scary nigga, are you six four? Don't play
so now and so and so. Now I'm like and so.
(12:02):
Now I'm like six foot, I'm like er er And
they put up an article and the article was like
super it went soft on me. Everybody loves fan and
all of this stuff like that. TMZ got their asses kicked.
Everybody was coming at them, like everybody and so then
(12:26):
the next day the office struck back. And this is
one of the most important moments of my career. 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. They don't tell you what
(12:51):
we do as black people. Sometimes what we do is
like the record label becomes a crew and a family.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Yeah, the.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
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 done took you outside the office. We've
talked about it. We've gone through all of this. You
wouldn't do this to me. Not only will they they're
(13:25):
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. You will
(13:45):
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 I if I pick up
(14:06):
your baby and hold your bab I'm from ban Rouge.
If I pick up your baby, if I don't fuck
with you and get that little nigg 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 of their crew
is gonna be the one that kisses.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Them on the cheek? No? No, do you know what
we forget about Judas? What that he got paid? The
money is the Judas I understand. So so hear me out.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
So the route is always gonna be in the industry itself, the.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
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 was devastatingly handsome, and
(15:25):
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.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
For business, but they threw the mud back on you, right.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
So I was bad for business. And the moment that
I became bad for business we talked about 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 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,
(16:07):
anybody who doesn't have to protect you won't. That's the
first thing. And secondly, if you're a threat to the money.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Yeah, your toast.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
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
a beating. Is there something you can say? I'd have
(16:49):
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 (17:00):
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 (17:06):
I started having heart problems?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Well, I thought you just said that. What do you
mean while were you having heart problems?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Was stressed out?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Ok?
Speaker 1 (17:16):
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 timy. It was
boom boom boom boom boom boom.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
When you were stressed over what just the whole transition
and where your next road was going?
Speaker 1 (17:41):
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, but sometimes God is on the ground too,
and he's like right where you're walking. I had to
go through that, you know why, because I had to
(18:03):
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 of stories that portrayed people in a
(18:27):
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 (18:33):
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 (18:41):
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 men are right there.
(19:01):
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
so all of this stuff, it's like I went through that,
(19:22):
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
(19:45):
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 laying already.
If I had to go back there again, I could.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
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 (20:21):
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 (20:28):
Why do you see that.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
We lost dad? 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 ban 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
(20:52):
then my decision being what they do and shout out
to Bill Man, like you know, Bill goes So, I
a guy work with at the Ringer. Bill hit Bill.
I'm like, Bill goes Hey. He'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
(21:13):
be the guy. And I'm not saying that I am
the guy in my family.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
I'm just saying that, like, you're also the youngest, aren't you.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
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
(21:41):
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 (21:54):
You say that, but going back to when your mom left,
you were saying that, like if the stove broke, you
guys were like, well, he.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
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 it's weird, Like death is so
(22:22):
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 in the
room is him. Like the outdoor channel is still on
(22:44):
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 hunting. His gun is taking a part. 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 look and I see that he's running
(23:06):
power out of one of the rooms into his bathroom.
I'm like this, nigga is good for nigga ing 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 then kind of making sure that you don't.
(23:29):
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, well,
you know what I'm saying. That's like you know what
(23:50):
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 grill Yeah, yeah, I get it,
Like we can't.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
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 one
hundred bucks, bro the whole hundred dollars. Man, I need that.
But if you don't, the numbers get crazy. What you mean,
oh bruh, the numbers get crazy. It's like, yeah, I
(24:27):
need four thousand dollars. What the fuck you need for?
You ain't got a four thousand dollar life?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Like what what?
Speaker 1 (24:33):
What? What the fuck you need four thousand dollars for? Man,
I 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 (24:50):
They hating you for real. So when you come back
to you give them what your dad gives you. No, no,
let me tell you how to get this.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
For now, I gotta help out. I like it. 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 me, Oh god, I love.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
It, Oh my god, one of those I.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Make you earn it. Sure, ye gotta do it, gotta
do it, gotta do it. I make you earn Hey. Now, look,
I'm gonna send this to you, but we gotta talk
about how you live it. But we're doing it.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
That's messed up.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Man. I'm not a fucking atmarious, So we at least
got to have a conversation about how we could be better.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Now, I got rules of the game. If it's mom is,
just give me the bill director.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
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 doing the old
small TV on top of the big Curtis Mathews. I'm like, nah, man,
(26:03):
we gotta, we gotta, we gotta go get this whole situation.
So they don't even ask. Obviously, with your mom, it's
not that big of a deal.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Oh of mine. I'm just like, I have to pay
direct because it's never gonna get to whoever you owe.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
They want your mom not gonna pay the.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Bill if I give my If my mom has a
thousand dollars light bol hence her thousand dollars light bl
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.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Be like, just pay the bill.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
So I'll just be like, send me the bill direct.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
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 (26:45):
I never knew you could do that until I discovered
my mom can rack a bill's extremely high.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
My mom time, my momy told me to pay the
light bill. She was like telling me, come by there
and you'll drop them off seventy dollars. I'm like, drop
them off seventy dollars, she said, telling me drop them
off seventy dollars. 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. I
(27:10):
remember once, it's just so many stories. Mom sprayed mace
at the feet of the light guy, the light build god,
so he couldn't come cut the lights off. She made
some she makes the light buil 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 it was like,
(27:30):
I'm letting you know, this house is covered by the
blood of Jesus'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 about all of
(27:52):
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 (27:57):
I don't even understand the point of the investigation.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Okay, 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 (28:17):
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 passitest me.
Acknowledging my nationality does not negate whether I'm black, whether
I'm not acknowledging I'm black.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I'll say right there, I'll say, right now, your prospects
are good.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
My prospects are hella good.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
But we're gonna have to go deep. We're gonna have.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
After you read, after you reborn a crime. We could talk,
but we're not gonna.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
I'll read Trevor's book. I'll actually add his book to
it is the Curriculum to be Beyond.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
One of my favorite books. Ryan, it's one of your
favorite books.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Ryan, Fuck with that? Ryan? You biracial?
Speaker 4 (29:03):
You are?
Speaker 1 (29:04):
What?
Speaker 3 (29:05):
What?
Speaker 2 (29:05):
What are you?
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Vietnamese? Oh?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Soo?
Speaker 1 (29:08):
One Vietnamese parent, one white paranent Okay, that counts.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
But I mean, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Is that by racial?
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I was like, wait, you got blacking him?
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Hold up?
Speaker 2 (29:20):
You do that kind of the second he said biracial ship?
But baby, you know you never know? But but no,
you should. You should check out the Trevor note Book.
I promise you. It's a great read. You'll you'll probably
end your BBI commission after that.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
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 other.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
It's more of a bit than it is anything else.
But I'm gonna have a lot of fun with you.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Is there any way people could keep up with you?
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Now?
Speaker 2 (29:55):
It's the success Story.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
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
(30:22):
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 (30:28):
I do want to touch on the Academy Award winning like,
can we backcheck to that? That was before you were
that was after you're fired, So.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
I wouldn't have been able to do it if I'd
still been at Team Z.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Okay, did you know you were going to work on
that project when you were getting fired or did it.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Just come out after? Kay?
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Was it around the George Floyd or okay, during the COVID.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
During COVID Okay, yeah, okay, idea money execution. You never
know what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
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 (31:08):
What do you mean how they support it? I don't
think they are. Well.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
There was a period during the whole black lives. To me,
it 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
(31:32):
there was a lot of like I know, a lot
of brands that got distribution because they were black owned,
or if you had a black in the title of
anything that you were doing around that time, you were
getting distribution. You were getting sales from white you know,
white ran companies.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah. Ah, So it's interesting there was an opportunity there
that was missed, and was missed for myriad reasons. America's
inability to reconcile its relationship with black Americans will be
the thing that destroys America because if you cannot reconcile.
(32:10):
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
(32:31):
class spectrum, right, But you can't really do it because
number One, there is a way that 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
(32:56):
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 gonna go on and on like I do
everything that America has told black people to do to
(33:22):
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 owned more land
than all of Black America combined. Right, we owned land.
(33:42):
They took the land. They took the land through terrorism,
they took the land through contract bind 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 Like you when people
talk about Greenwood, I know you know, Tulsa is the
(34:04):
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. You know. What
destroyed Tulsa urban renewal. Urban renewal, which was a plan
(34:26):
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 they
ran a fucking freeway through it. The peoples. They couldn't
(34:47):
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 of their communities, right, and so all of
that stuff is to say that racism and and the
idea that black people are supposed to be lesser than
is so deeply entrenched in the American psyche that if
it's not dealt with, and if it's not, if we
(35:10):
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
rode your ability to be a stable community, right you,
Income inequality a stable society. Income inequality goes crazy. All
(35:34):
of those things happen because they are 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 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
(35:56):
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 have to be the questions that would
have to be asked seriously, and they never will. And
I want you to have nothing brought you over here
as a slave in order to make it make sense
(36:18):
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 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
(36:42):
like purposefully endeavored into a psychosis that makes you, that
makes the way this country runs. You have to approach
that as 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 souths
and so many other people are doing here, which is
(37:06):
collect advice. Do it for yourself, like depend on yourself
and have solidarity with yourself. Se grilled cheese too.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Grilled cheese too. Look at that grilled cheese.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
You like it.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
It's good. It's good. Eat your 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 (37:28):
Yeah, catch up. We have your We have an IR
on you.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna see what your your reading history
is looking like.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Hey, what up?
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Jay suck?
Speaker 4 (37:39):
All right, it's a rap secret ingredient, yo. Picture this
a parallel dimension where Van Lathan's born without his secret sauce,
that raw, unfiltered candor and this twisted reality that legendary
(38:01):
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 their mama, ain't nobody
stepping up to check him. But in our world, Van
Laythan's keeping it one thousand. He's got that freedom to
speak his mind, and it's not just opening doors for him,
(38:23):
it's straight of 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 and whip up a banging
ass grilled cheese sandwich. I'm calling wit, and you've been
listening to Eating While Broke.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Peace out for more Eating While Broke from iHeartRadio and
(39:05):
The Black Effect, Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Host
Coline Witt
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