May 9, 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 teams 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 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?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Animals animals, right.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
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 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. I 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 they're moral. There are things that
(03:04):
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 it's
like an interesting way or there's just little small things.
The mayor of DC died, Maror Marion Barry Crack Mayor
(03:49):
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. And I don't feel comfortable with
(04:13):
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, it's not
even so much a bunch of not even so much
(04:35):
a bunch of moral people that are running around trying
to get the dirt 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 matter.
(05:01):
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. 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? 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
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 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.
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, don't want think about I want
to talk about don't want talk about it. I don't
It's very tough, very hard. And there was this story
(06:46):
that had gone on in the newsroom earlier where George
Bush was being cool with like Ellen DeGeneres, that's 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.
(07:08):
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 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 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 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 the show.
(08:14):
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? Nah?
Speaker 1 (08:33):
He turns around and he moves his hand from off
my shoulder and I'm moving 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.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Even 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 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.
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 h 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 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.
(11:17):
This is cool. 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
(11:39):
up on Instagram. On Monday, Paid six calls 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? And so and so and so. Now I'm
(12:01):
like and so. Now I'm like six foot 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
(12:25):
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 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
(12:50):
tell you what we do as black people. Sometimes what
we do is like the record label becomes a crew
and a family. Yeah, 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
(13:13):
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 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
(13:34):
like if you are if you are making the track
towards being somebody important or influential, somebody is going to
do you. 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
(13:56):
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 your baby and hold your baby,
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
(14:19):
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?
Speaker 2 (14:50):
The money is the Judas I understand.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
So so hear me out.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
So the roote is always gonna be in the the
industry in 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 for business.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
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 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 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):
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
a beating. Is there something you can say? I'd have
(16:53):
done him a solid because that's out of done them
a solid because I had no fucking problem with being
where I was. It was all cool. I had everything
set up.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
So oh that's what that was gonna be My next question.
So y, 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, uh,
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 boom boom 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. Okay, 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,
and he's like right where you're walking. I had to
go through that, you know why, because I had to
(18:07):
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 like portrayed people in
(18:31):
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, that all.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
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 all the
little micro feelings about black men are right there, Which
is a maritime before Van snapped, It's a maritime before
(19:08):
Van hurt somebody. This was a maaratime 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 and
I was like, Okay, cool, no more of that for me.
I have to feel that, like I'm not one of
(19:30):
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 not have
left there without being on the other side of a headline.
(19:52):
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'd 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 fall 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. Why do you see that
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
(20:46):
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
then my decision being what they do and shout out
to know, man, like you know, Bill goes So, I
the guy work with at the Ringer. Bill like hit Bill.
(21:07):
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
be the guy. And I'm not saying that I am
the guy in my family.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I'm just saying that, Like, 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.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Now.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
The fucking roof gotta get changed, Like stuff 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.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
You guys were like, will 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
(22:23):
it's like 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
(22:43):
only thing that's not alive in the room is him.
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 His gun is
taking apart. He was oiling it to die before he
passed away, so like he wasn't expecting to die, right,
(23:06):
And so I'm going there and I'll look and I
see that he's running power out of one of the
rooms into his bathroom. I'm like this, Nigga is good
for nigga rig 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
(23:27):
used to dealing with a little bit less and 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.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
You know.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
You know what I'm saying, Like 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, Like we can't. I get it. It's like niggas.
And that's funny because and they know that because they
(24:12):
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
the whole hundred dollars. Man 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 need four thousand dollars.
What the fuck you need for? You ain't got a
(24:33):
four thousand dollars life? Like what what? 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.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah, and they they hating you for real. So when
you come back, do you give them what your dad
gives you?
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Nah?
Speaker 2 (24:59):
No, I mean how to get this for now?
Speaker 1 (25:01):
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.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
And listening to me, oh god, I love it, Oh
my god, one of those I.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Make you earn it. 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 atmarious. So we at least got
to have a conversation about how we could be better.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
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 in the old small
(26:02):
TV on top of the big Curtis Mathew. 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, it's
not that big.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Of a 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 the bill if.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
I give my If my mom has a thousand dollars
light bol hence her one 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
be like, just pay the bill. So I'll 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 buy there
and you'll drop them off seventy dollars. I'm like, drop
him off seventy dollars. She saydeah, tell them me 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 once, 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 them 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
(27:34):
it was like, 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
(27:55):
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,
the point of.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
The investigation for you, the point of so what we
do at 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 passitest 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):
But we're gonna have to go deep. We're gonna after you.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
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.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
To be behind 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? You are what?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
What?
Speaker 1 (29:09):
What are?
Speaker 3 (29:09):
You?
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Vietnamese? Oh so one Vietnamese parent, one white parent.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Okay, that counts. But I mean, yeah, I don't know
that by racial. I was like, wait, you got blacking him?
Hold up, you do that kind of brothers the second
he said biracial ship. But baby, you 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.
(29:38):
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 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 of fun with it,
have fun with it.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Is there any way people could keep up with you?
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Now?
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Miss the 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 boy.
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 going to happen.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
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 well.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
They 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,
(31:52):
like 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
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, 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.
(32:29):
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 own 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 when 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. You know what
destroyed Tulsa urban renewal. Urban renewal, which was a plan
(34:45):
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 people. They couldn't
(35:06):
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 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 don't
(35:30):
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 blind 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
(35:53):
of 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 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
(36:16):
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
(36:37):
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
(37:01):
like purposefully endeavored into a psychosis that makes you, that
makes the way this country runs. You have to like
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 South
and so many other people are doing here, which is collectivize.
(37:27):
Do it for yourself, like depend on yourself and have
solidarity with yourself. Se Grilled cheese too.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
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. Eat a 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 ir on you.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna see what your reading history is
looking like. Hey, what up? J suck all right, it's.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Secret ingredient.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
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 spin 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 Laythan'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.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Peace out
Speaker 2 (39:22):
For more Eating While Broke from iHeartRadio and 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 teams 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 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?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Animals animals, right.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
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 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. I 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 they're moral. There are things that
(03:04):
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 it's
like an interesting way or there's just little small things.
The mayor of DC died, Maror Marion Barry Crack Mayor
(03:49):
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. And I don't feel comfortable with
(04:13):
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, it's not
even so much a bunch of not even so much
(04:35):
a bunch of moral people that are running around trying
to get the dirt 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 matter.
(05:01):
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. 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? 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
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 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.
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, don't want think about I want
to talk about don't want talk about it. I don't
It's very tough, very hard. And there was this story
(06:46):
that had gone on in the newsroom earlier where George
Bush was being cool with like Ellen DeGeneres, that's 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.
(07:08):
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 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 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 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 the show.
(08:14):
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? Nah?
Speaker 1 (08:33):
He turns around and he moves his hand from off
my shoulder and I'm moving 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.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Even 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 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.
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 h 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 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.
(11:17):
This is cool. 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
(11:39):
up on Instagram. On Monday, Paid six calls 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? And so and so and so. Now I'm
(12:01):
like and so. Now I'm like six foot 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
(12:25):
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 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
(12:50):
tell you what we do as black people. Sometimes what
we do is like the record label becomes a crew
and a family. Yeah, 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
(13:13):
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 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
(13:34):
like if you are if you are making the track
towards being somebody important or influential, somebody is going to
do you. 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
(13:56):
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 your baby and hold your baby,
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
(14:19):
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?
Speaker 2 (14:50):
The money is the Judas I understand.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
So so hear me out.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
So the roote is always gonna be in the the
industry in 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 for business.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
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 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 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):
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
a beating. Is there something you can say? I'd have
(16:53):
done him a solid because that's out of done them
a solid because I had no fucking problem with being
where I was. It was all cool. I had everything
set up.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
So oh that's what that was gonna be My next question.
So y, 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, uh,
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 boom boom 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. Okay, 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,
and he's like right where you're walking. I had to
go through that, you know why, because I had to
(18:07):
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 like portrayed people in
(18:31):
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, that all.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
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 all the
little micro feelings about black men are right there, Which
is a maritime before Van snapped, It's a maritime before
(19:08):
Van hurt somebody. This was a maaratime 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 and
I was like, Okay, cool, no more of that for me.
I have to feel that, like I'm not one of
(19:30):
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 not have
left there without being on the other side of a headline.
(19:52):
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'd 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 fall 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. Why do you see that
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
(20:46):
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
then my decision being what they do and shout out
to know, man, like you know, Bill goes So, I
the guy work with at the Ringer. Bill like hit Bill.
(21:07):
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
be the guy. And I'm not saying that I am
the guy in my family.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I'm just saying that, Like, 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.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Now.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
The fucking roof gotta get changed, Like stuff 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.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
You guys were like, will 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
(22:23):
it's like 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
(22:43):
only thing that's not alive in the room is him.
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 His gun is
taking apart. He was oiling it to die before he
passed away, so like he wasn't expecting to die, right,
(23:06):
And so I'm going there and I'll look and I
see that he's running power out of one of the
rooms into his bathroom. I'm like this, Nigga is good
for nigga rig 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
(23:27):
used to dealing with a little bit less and 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.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
You know.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
You know what I'm saying, Like 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, Like we can't. I get it. It's like niggas.
And that's funny because and they know that because they
(24:12):
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
the whole hundred dollars. Man 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 need four thousand dollars.
What the fuck you need for? You ain't got a
(24:33):
four thousand dollars life? Like what what? 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.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah, and they they hating you for real. So when
you come back, do you give them what your dad
gives you?
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Nah?
Speaker 2 (24:59):
No, I mean how to get this for now?
Speaker 1 (25:01):
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.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
And listening to me, oh god, I love it, Oh
my god, one of those I.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Make you earn it. 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 atmarious. So we at least got
to have a conversation about how we could be better.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
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 in the old small
(26:02):
TV on top of the big Curtis Mathew. 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, it's
not that big.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Of a 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 the bill if.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
I give my If my mom has a thousand dollars
light bol hence her one 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
be like, just pay the bill. So I'll 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 buy there
and you'll drop them off seventy dollars. I'm like, drop
him off seventy dollars. She saydeah, tell them me 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 once, 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 them 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
(27:34):
it was like, 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
(27:55):
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,
the point of.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
The investigation for you, the point of so what we
do at 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 passitest 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):
But we're gonna have to go deep. We're gonna after you.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
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.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
To be behind 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? You are what?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
What?
Speaker 1 (29:09):
What are?
Speaker 3 (29:09):
You?
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Vietnamese? Oh so one Vietnamese parent, one white parent.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Okay, that counts. But I mean, yeah, I don't know
that by racial. I was like, wait, you got blacking him?
Hold up, you do that kind of brothers the second
he said biracial ship. But baby, you 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.
(29:38):
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 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 of fun with it,
have fun with it.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Is there any way people could keep up with you?
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Now?
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Miss the 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 boy.
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 going to happen.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
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 well.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
They 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,
(31:52):
like 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
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, 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.
(32:29):
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 own 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 when 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. You know what
destroyed Tulsa urban renewal. Urban renewal, which was a plan
(34:45):
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 people. They couldn't
(35:06):
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 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 don't
(35:30):
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 blind 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
(35:53):
of 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 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
(36:16):
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
(36:37):
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
(37:01):
like purposefully endeavored into a psychosis that makes you, that
makes the way this country runs. You have to like
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 South
and so many other people are doing here, which is collectivize.
(37:27):
Do it for yourself, like depend on yourself and have
solidarity with yourself. Se Grilled cheese too.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
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. Eat a 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 ir on you.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna see what your reading history is
looking like. Hey, what up? J suck all right, it's.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Secret ingredient.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
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 spin 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 Laythan'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.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Peace out
Speaker 2 (39:22):
For more Eating While Broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
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