Do you struggle with self-doubt sometimes?
What helped you get through a tough emotional season?
Today, Jay sits down with award-winning rapper, actor, and activist Common for a deeply moving live conversation recorded at the legendary Chicago Theater. Known for his poetic lyrics and conscious artistry, Common opens up about his journey from a young boy on the South Side of Chicago to becoming an Academy Award, Emmy, and three-time Grammy winner. In this intimate conversation they explore the emotional and spiritual work behind his success. From heartbreak and rejection to healing and purpose, Common shares what it really took to become the man he is today.
Common shares personal stories of growth and transformation, starting with his childhood dream of becoming a professional basketball player and how he eventually found his voice through writing and music. He reflects on the moments that shaped his purpose, including the story of Emmett Till, which moved him to live with more intention. Common also opens up about the heartbreak that forced him to confront the ways he was dimming his light, and the daily spiritual practices that help him stay grounded today, like reading scripture, praying, practicing gratitude, and staying active.
Jay and Common also dive into what it means to be vulnerable in hip-hop, why self-love is the foundation for every other kind of love, and how trusting the divine plan can turn disappointment into direction. They explore how trusting a bigger plan can help turn setbacks into clarity, and share personal insights on setting boundaries, building real friendships, and staying connected to your highest energy.
In this interview, you’ll learn:
How to Transform Pain into Purpose
How to Stop Dimming Your Light in Relationships
Why Vulnerability is a Superpower in Creativity
How to Build Daily Practices for Spiritual Alignment
How to Trust God’s Plan, Even When It’s Painful
How to Attract Friendships that Match Your Frequency
Whether you're moving through heartbreak, looking for direction, or trying to reconnect with your purpose, this conversation is a powerful reminder that your story matters and you're right where you need to be.
With love and gratitude,
Jay Shetty
What We Discuss:
00:00 Introduction
01:13 Live In Chicago
02:15 Common Before the Fame
06:11 Jay On His Childhood & Upbringing
06:44 Pain As A Catalyst for Creativity
09:01 Proximity To Greatness Is A Motivation
10:11 Living Our Dreams To The Fullest
13:49 How to Trust God's Plan
16:46 Trust That There’s a Bigger Plan
22:19 Transitioning Between Careers
30:15 Attracting & Building New Friendships
36:18 Everyday Routine For Body & Mind Care
40:40 A Poem From the Audience
43:21 My New Favourite Colour
48:49 Pushing Through Fear As A Motivator
53:33 Letting Go and Letting God
55:26 Common On Final Five
Episode Resources:
Common | Website
Common | YouTube
Common | Instagram
Common | X
Common | Facebook
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
One of my greatest lessons has been in one of
the greatest pains I had, and that was a heartbreak.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hip Hop icon Colin is an Academy Award, Emmy and
three time Grammy winning artist.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
What was the hardest part about learning to love yourself
and take care of yourself?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Sometimes I can bring that little rashet into the present
and those feelings of being rejected and make this new
rejection greater than what it really is.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
All break therapy. You're talking about the trauma you've been through.
These are the themes that hip hop's noticed.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
For all I was doing was telling my truth.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
How have you learned in the moment to deal with
that emotion and to learn how to trust.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
You understand what energy you want in your.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Life and who deserves to be in your life.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I usually wouldn't seize the moment.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
The thought came to me like I'm gonna call John
Legend and I tell them, hey, man, I'm part of
this movie Selma. They don't want a song from us,
so we're submitting it, but will you do the song?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
And he said.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
The number one health and wellness podcast Jay Only, I'm
so excited to finally share the live interviews from my
very first podcast tour, presented by Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
This one was recorded live at the legendary Chicago Theater
with the One and Only Common Special thanks to MSG
Entertainment and the Chicago Theater.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Chicago, Chicago, Peas. I love this place, Chicago.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
I am so excited to be here tonight at the
Chicago Theater in Chicago with mister Chicago Only comment.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Oh, thank you comment.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
I want to start off just saying how grateful I
am to you for your artistry. I grew up listening
to you in London. You're music, your words, your energy
has made it all the way over to the fourteen
year old me who is dreaming of being a rapper.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
And then I listened to you and realized I wasn't
good enough. And we've spoken before, we never met until tonight.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
And your voice has such a power. It carries so
much energy. It carries so much that the frequency you operate,
it comes through your voice so powerfully. And I want
to start off by asking you you know today obviously
we know you as the Emmy Award winner, the Grammy
Award winner, the Oscar Award winner. Yeah, give it up right,
(02:37):
it's like there's not many people. There's not many people,
But I want to know who common was before the Emmy,
the Grammy, the Oscar, because that's what we've been talking
about tonight, is when you're at the start of your journey,
who were you at the start of your journey?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Well, first, thank you Jay, and thank you all, and
I'll just thank God for this moment and who I
was before I was out as an artist. I was
a young black boy from the South Side of Chicago
(03:15):
who had a tremendous, incredible mother and a great stepfather
and a beautiful community that taught me everything from God
to survival, to intelligence, to basketball, to music, to life
and to love. And that gave me a foundation of
(03:39):
someone who wanted to actually be something in the world.
I didn't know what I wanted to be all the way,
but I knew I wanted to give something to the world.
And that's who I was before I actually got to
be out there as an artist. Some of my dreams
was basketball, to be a basketball player. But I can't hoop, y'all,
(04:02):
just so you know, not as good as I used
to do. But I can hoop, but uh yeah, so
you know, I just wanted to be something. It was something, though, Jada.
One thing that got me when I was really a
young kid was I used to love this English class
because our English teacher would teach us a lot about
like black history and like all these great writers from
(04:26):
James Baldwin and doctor May Angelo and Nikki Giovanni and
Richard Wright. So one day she taught us the story
about this young man named Emmitt Till. And Emmit Til
was from Chicago and in the fifties, I believe it
was nineteen fifty five. He went to visit his family
(04:46):
down in Mississippi and went to the corner store with
his cousins and was accused of whistling.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
At a white woman.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And her husband eventually found where Emmit Til lived when
he was staying with his aunt for the summer, and
they grabbed him out of the house and they ended
up beating him to death and threw him in the river.
The reason why I bring the story up is his
mother chose to show have an open casket funeral, and
(05:17):
his head was bigger than I can describe. And the
way they had beat him for whistling that a white woman.
What he was accused of it always hit me in
a place where I felt almost like guilty. I felt pain.
I felt like I old imitate Till and that was
(05:38):
really a real driving force in my life. Though I
never met Matil in my life, his spirit was like
something that I felt like I had to live for
and for those people who had been like him, who
had lost their lives for no reason, but specifically immate Till.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Now.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
That was one of the driving forces for me as
a kid, even though I didn't know what I wanted
to be. And I just want to say that that
meant a lot to me.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely go for it. It's incredible to me
how people we've never met and people we've never seen,
how their stories can transform our lives. For me, when
I was growing up, I was reading everything from David
Beckham and Dwayne the Rock Johnson when he was a wrestler,
(06:27):
all the way through to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
And I was really lucky that my dad would give
me biographies and autobiographies of these people. And it was
because of him handing them to me that I got
so inspired by people who'd lived these service based lives. Yes,
but I wanted to ask you when you read that story,
when you heard about that story, how did you not
(06:51):
get bitter or negative but became hopeful about wanting to
represent and live a good life. Because hearing about those
kind of pains and struggles can also make you act different,
but for you, it pushed you to want to do
something positive with your life.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
The killing of Immittil was really the catalyst many believe
for the civil rights movement, and how that affected me
was man, I felt like this beautiful young man didn't
have like that evil energy to him, that dark energy
to him, and I felt that I wanted to be
(07:28):
a reflection of that. I strived to approach life in
ways where when I would go through something, I would
figure way out by figuring out the positive the lesson
in it. And I didn't have that type of like
information as a kid, or like I didn't have it
like really developed. But I knew that as a kid
(07:50):
that I didn't want to be putting negative energy out
there even when I was dealing with difficult moments. That
didn't mean I didn't feel those difficult moments or I
didn't have the but I couldn't stay there and I
knew when I saw what happened with Mattil. Yes, of
course I did feel some anger, like why did that
happen to him? But I knew I had to make
(08:11):
it into a positive and I wanted my life to
feel positive and I wanted others'.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Lives to feel positive.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
So that's what I used it for, and eventually in
certain aspects of my life, I've been able to translate that,
you know, And that's what part of the practice is
that of what we do. Like, I'm so grateful that
I know you can rhyme too. I know you can rhyme.
I know you can rhyme. But I'm so grateful in
(08:37):
how you are using your words and your gifts and
your spirit and your heart. It's amazing how the things
that we do to build to get to you would
never know that your love for writing would like lead
you to this place. And I would never know that,
like the things that I experienced, whether it was I
(08:59):
Matil or positive. Note some people don't notice. I was
a ball boy for the Chicago Bulls, right, Yeah, so
I was there when Michael Jordans first came into the league.
In fact, I used to have some Jordan's I used
to get jim shoes or sneakers as people say. Were
in Chicago, we say jim shoes. So I used to
(09:20):
get jim shoes from a lot of players. And at
the time, I would give them to my teachers. I
would sell them. But I had some Jordans that I
gave to my father that he signed. My father would
God bless us, so he would wear them to my
concerts and I'd be like that, do not wear.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
These shoes, man, these shoes worth too much. That being said,
I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
You know, it's amazing how as you said sometimes, well,
I did get to.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Be around Michael Jordan. I didn't know him well, but
I got to see that.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
It's amazing how witnessing that greatness affected me in a
positive way too.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
So it was some.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Heavy things that affected me and some beautiful things that
affected me.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah, and it's your power that you were able to
notice both, yes, and convert them and transfer them into
building a positive life. And we were talking about dreams earlier,
and I know a lot of this audience got dreams, right,
This audience has dreams, and often I find, yeah, give
it off for your dreams. You gotta, I know, there's dreams.
(10:22):
I know, there's dreams, and sometimes it can feel like,
you know, you're holding that dream back, you're not living
it fully, you're hiding it.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
You're kind of embarrassed about it.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Maybe you're guilty about it, maybe you're maybe you don't
believe in it yourself. You said one of your early
dreams you were telling me backstage and even now you're mentioning,
was actually to.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Be a basketball player.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
How serious were you about that dream compared to what
then became music but then became acting, Like, how serious
was that dream?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Now? That dream was very serious.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
I mean I was dedicating my time and energy a
lot of it to just playing bar like that. I
was one of the most important things to me in
my dream was the Magic Johnson's, the Isaiah thomas Is,
the Michael Jordan's, all these great players that I actually
got to be. Like I said, in the presence of
(11:15):
it was like it made it even that much more
attainable to me. I worked on it. I worked on it,
and I got pretty good. I mean I can't you know,
we all when you were a hooper or whatever, you
feel like, oh I'm cold.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I got gain.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
But in all reality, I probably wasn't pro material, but
it's beautiful how divine and how great God orchestrates things
for you to be where you should be when you're
trusting that. I got injured in my sophomore year and
I was out for like months. In those months of
(11:51):
me not being able to play ball led me to
wanting to write more. Like I was already writing, but
it was like, Okay, I can't hoop right now, so
I'm right And when I came back to the team,
I wasn't getting any playing time, so I was like, well,
I'm gonna go be a rapper.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Then, man. And it's just, you know, it kind of
guided me to where I should be.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
So my first dream was to hoop, and I kind
of got to live out that dream in a movie
called Just Right, where I played the NBA player. You know,
I was like, Wow, this is amazing because it was
a fulfillment of a dream as an actor. It was
my first leading role, but it also was like, I'm
actually getting to play like I'm an NBA player. I
(12:32):
was playing against Dwayne Wade and Dwight Howard at the time,
and it was it was an amazing experience and it's
something how we talked about this, how you know you
have a dream and that dream can evolve and it
could become you find a new dream, and that dream
can evolve. And I think, you know, I'm really keen
on dreams because and I really try to try to
(12:56):
like inspire young people to have a dream and even
whatever age we are, but really I want young people
to get that early because that was one of the
most important things for me growing up. That led me
to say, Hey, I'm not going to go too far
over to this craziness. Like we in Chicago. You're gonna
(13:19):
get into some craziness, right you go, you go be
around it, gonna you're gonna experience something.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
You might participate in it.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
But because I had a dream, I would only participate,
but so much I had to bound you.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I had to bound you. And that truly was.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
My guiding light, Like you know what, I want to
be something, I want to do something. And even as
those things begin to evolve, it still became a boundary
for me to be like, all right, y'all doing too much.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I can't do that over there.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
The thing I love about that and I want us
to take away from this is sometimes your first dream
doesn't work out. And I think for a lot of us,
when our first dream doesn't work out, we think it's
dream over, like game over, It's that's it now, we
can't live any part of our dream. And you know,
I was saying, my first dream, real dream, was to
(14:11):
become a monk. That's what I thought I was going
to do for the rest of my life. And I
did it for three years, and when it ended, I
felt like I'd failed, Like I felt like it was over,
and I felt, how am I ever gonna spread what
I've learned? And how am I ever going to live
a life that's dedicated to spiritually? Like will that ever
happen again? And it's incredible the plans you've been saying
(14:34):
that God has for you. And I was sharing this
earlier with a couple of people. I was saying that
God's imagination is far better than my imagination.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Yes, right, But.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
It's a scripture in the Bible that says his thoughts
are greater than your thoughts. You know, That's that's very
important for us to understand because sometimes in that dream,
you like, I want it, I want it, and I
want to got this. I mean, because I have that
I still have it to this day.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I want this role. I want this role, and it
doesn't happen.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
And now I've grown to understand that God's dreams and
his thoughts are greater than my thoughts. So, for whatever
reason it is, I'm not supposed to be in that
particular film. I'm not supposed to be with that particular relationship.
I'm not supposed to have that particular job. I'm not
supposed to have a house that I really knew I wanted.
(15:30):
It's hard to grab on to it at times. But
the more and more you know, we practice it and
speak it and know it and trust in our heavenly
Father and the creator of the heavens and earth and
know that that plan is a master plan and all
we have to do is listen and be in tuned
and get the lessons from it too. Life becomes more beautiful.
(15:51):
And I can look at those moments where I haven't
gotten a role, and that doesn't mean that I don't
feel like, damn man, I really wanted to be working
and I was excited about the script I wanted. I'm
not going to fake and act like I didn't. But
I can say, Okay, Creator, I know you got something
greater for me, something out there, and I'm going to
(16:12):
do whatever I need to do to be present and
also be obedient and surrender to what the higher plan is.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Yeah, I saw something the other day that really resonated
with me. My friend sent it to me and it
said something like, when things don't go your way, it's
God in the universe saying not now, not this, I
got something better. Yes, right, And it's that understanding of
just being able to have that trust in the moment.
(16:46):
I want to ask you that, how have you learned
to build that trust in the moment? Like you said,
we're both human, yes, we're not perfect. You feel that pain.
I feel that I want to achieve things. I'm trying
to build things. I'm trying to create things, and I'm
the same. I feel pain. I'm not going to sit
here and lie and say, oh, I just trust everything
and you know I'm beyond that. No, that's not true.
(17:08):
Like I feel upset. You're like, oh, gosh, I worked
so hard for this, putting so much effort, we did everything.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
What happened.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
When you've done it enough times, you get a better relationship.
But how have you learned in the moment to deal
with that emotion and to learn how to trust.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
It's been the process, and as I said, like, you know,
it's a practice. I was thinking earlier today about how
we always talk about bad habits, but I started thinking
about good habits.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
For me.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
One of my good habits has been to use the
scriptures that I read and stay consistent and diligent in
my prayers and my meditations, staying consistent with the way
I love myself and treat myself, and that kind of
helps me build the armor and the strength to be
(17:58):
like when I have some of them most difficult pains.
One of my greatest lessons and times that I've grown
as a human being has been in one of the
greatest pains I had, and that was a breakup, a
heartbreak where I was like broken and I hadn't been
broken like that. I had lost people in my life,
(18:20):
and that was definitely devastating, but it was something about
a heartbreak where the person was obviously you hear they
still alive. This was the first love that I had
as an adult, and I knew God it ordained it,
but at a certain point it became not healthy and
(18:41):
when we were partying it was hard.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
It was really hard.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
And it wasn't like I made the decision I got
broke up.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
With, you know, and it was like who, this is hard.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
And at times I wasn't eating like consistently. I was
sitting in this hotel room for weeks, just trying to
find a peace, calling my aunt, talking to different people
about it.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
It was weighing on me.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
And I remember just starting to read certain books like
The Mastery of Love and Return to Love and these.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
A lot of love books, y'all.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
But each time and each thing I read, I would
get something out of it. Not even I wouldn't even
have to read the whole book, but I would get
something out of it. And I started thinking and practicing
some of the things that I was reading as much
as I was still trying to hold on to and
be like HEO, god, I know you said this is
the relationship. I thought this was the relationship. Well, I
(19:40):
learned some lessons in that. One of the lessons was
that I was willing to dim my light for others,
and in that relationship, I was dimming my light. It
wasn't not that person's fault. I take responsibility for that,
and I was dimming my light. But I was doing
that not only in that relationship. I would do it
when I would get around other artists that were more
(20:02):
known than me, people that were like more celebrated than me.
I would just dim my light for whatever somebody might
not even it might not be about popularity, money or anything.
I would dim my light if someone else just had
something that I felt was greater than me. Well, I
started to learn to love myself more and that became
(20:23):
a practice, and it became saying beautiful things to myself
and repeating those scriptures and like starting to do things
for myself that like fed into who I am and
the things that I love and jay about being present.
That really taught me to be present, because at a
certain point I had to realize, yeah, that was something
(20:44):
that a relationship that was in divine order for me,
and we had gotten the lessons out of that relationship
and I got the pain that would that would send
me to a whole new height and would turn me
into a light that I never knew I had. And
that's when it was done at that point. But it's
hard sometimes to understand that it's done. But once you
(21:07):
realize that God ordained the relationship, and he also ordained
the progress from it and the moving forward from it.
Then I was able to move forward and be more
present in my life and take that understanding of man,
I can believe in myself. I grew up in an
environment when my mother is very strong and like wise woman.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Almost everyone I was around.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
You couldn't really be too confident or my mother will
let you know. You think you cocky, or you think
you doing this, you think you doing this. But you
got to find a balance in that. And I didn't
have the balance. I would always dim my life. And
eventually I was like, I have to declare and claim
(21:55):
and know within myself and speak towards my great towards
the things that I envision for myself and the things
that I know I am. I have to say it,
I have to believe it, and I have to not
be afraid to wear my greatness in front of anyone.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah, I had to learn that.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
As I was listening to you, I was thinking about
something that I always try and remind myself, especially when
it comes to people going through breakups, is that you
either grow together or you grow apart, but both are growing. Yes, right,
we think if we grow together, we're growing, but you
also say.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
You grow apart. Yes, but there's still growth.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Still growth in that journey, and you often miss that
when you feel like, oh, and if we stayed together
then it worked, then it was good for me. But
if it ended, it wasn't good for me. And I
wanted to ask you about you know, these themes. I
just I don't want to take it for granted. The
themes you're talking about. You're talking about heartbreak. You're known
to talk about therapy, You're talking about the trauma you've
(23:02):
been through. You know, we have your beautiful book here
and then we rise a guide to loving and taking
care of self. These are not themes that you righte
give it up. Yeah, these are not themes. These are
not themes that hip hop's known for. To have you
sitting here and you talking about this balance of your
(23:22):
mom and being too cocky, it's like that like hip
hop has that bravado that you know, that feeling of
it's not.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
Really about humility.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
It's more about ego and being present than here you
are with all these awards and all this achievement. But
then you're talking about trauma and therapy and heartbreak. That
can't have been easy to start talking about it on
day one in that space.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
I can't imagine it wasn't, but I will say I
did start with a great advantage, and my advantage was.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
But first, here's a quick word from the brands that
support the show. All right, thank you to us, and
says now, let's dive back in.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I had a group of friends that allowed me to
be me and allow me to be unique, allow me
to be different, and they embraced me.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
They would talk, you know, they gonna talk.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
They junk about me and like joke on my crochet
pants or crochet hats and you know whatever, like obscure
things I was into. But it still was love and
it still was like we we are supporting you. And
that that kind of helped me to go out in
the world and not be as afraid to be myself.
So the actual like thought of being myself wasn't as
(24:36):
difficult as it was seen.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
What was the question?
Speaker 5 (24:41):
No, no, no, no, that's honest.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
The way this jun is, this Junie is good.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
I do want to know what the question My mind
went to talking about that, but for a second I
wanted to know because I also had another thought about
when you asked a question. But this Junie, I want
to say, Man, I really just yo this Junie. Man,
I'm digging this bro for real. Cheerzuz CHEUZI cheers cheers.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
My question was, how does someone who's in hip hop,
which is known for being braggadocious, that's what it is
and egoistic, have the comfortability.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yeah, that's what that's what. That's So.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
I was on my third album and I was doing
a show and after the show, this guy came up
to me and he was like, comment, your music.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
This song you did.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
It was called Retrospect for Life and it was about
abortion and I was telling my own experience and story.
It started off as a poem and it eventually was
a song and he and he said, this song you did,
Retrospect for Life, made me and my wife decide to
have our child. And I was and I'm not saying that,
(25:59):
I'm saying that, but because that was a moment where
it was like, what like this music and me telling
my story can affect you in that way? Like all
I was doing was telling my truth and I was
doing it unapologetic, and I just had to do it
(26:19):
for my heart because hip hop was the way I
was expressing myself in the best way that I could
and in the freest way that I could, in the
most honest way, and sincere so for this gentleman to.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Tell me that.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
His child is alive because of this song, it made
me know that I had a higher purpose with the
music and with what I was doing, and that allowed
me as a hip hop artist, as a black man,
because ultimately, when we saying like, yo, you're coming from
(26:56):
hip hop? Hip hop has been the like the garden
for black and Latino, black and brown people to express ourselves.
And then it brought everyone into the garden, which is
a beautiful thing, but it was a garden that started
with our expression. So when we're saying like, coming from
hip hop, expressing yourself in this way, it's really saying,
(27:17):
being a black kid expressing yourself in this way, how.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Did you do that?
Speaker 1 (27:21):
I felt so good that I knew that I could
move my people through the music that I was like,
I have to keep expressing myself in this way. And
it was those songs, like love songs that ended up
being things that people responded to from me. People wanted
to hit them bars and all that, but I had
(27:43):
a gentleman come to me earlier before a show and
be like, hey, coming, would you be okay if in
the middle of your song the Light, which is about
a woman and woman being the light, in the middle
of your song, would you stop so I could propose
to my girlfriend?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
And I said yes, of course.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
And you know, to have to note that I'm writing
songs about from my heart and spirit and my experiences
and they become those things for people. Led me to
understand that I have to be as vulnerable as goofy,
as like free, reflective, as like just open, like non perfect.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
I don't know a better word that I can say.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Your word Smith, Uh, but you know I got to
be that anything else is misguiding people, or it's not
being true to who I am as an artist, is
not being true to my purpose, and I'm not doing
my duty to the most high guy.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Jay.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
If it's anything that I can tell you that that
drives me is every day And I know you talked
about every day and I want to put in a
practice some of those things you said we should do
every day.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I'm so into that. The exposure and all that. I
thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
One of the things that gets me is I want
to please the most high. I want to stay in
my purpose and please the most high.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Yeah, yeah, I mean that's there's nothing better than that.
There's there's no greater accountability, there's no greater source of inspiration,
there's no greater channel, and there isn't apart from that.
And as I'm listening to you, one of the things
that really resonated with me was what you said about
(29:27):
the friends. Because to have friends that you know, in
England we call it banter, right, people who can banter
with someone who can like poke fun at you, but
then at the same time has your back and having
someone that if you can do that with them, that
means you're closer to them. So when we first moved
to the States or maybe more LA, when me and
(29:48):
my wife would banter with each other because she's from Britain,
to everyone just thinks like we're going to break up
or something because we can.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Like really lay each other.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
But but that's part of our love language because the
more I can that would do, the deeper we know
each other. Yes, because as we grow up, you lose
some friends that you grew up with. Maybe people move cities,
they get married to someone else, they move into a
different part of the world. Maybe you've been here your
whole life, you had the same friends, but you kind
of outgrown them now right, How do you, as an
(30:17):
adult continue to build new friendships that look like your
future and not like your past.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
That's beautiful, you said, People was like, oh, b what
do you gonna say about that? Man?
Speaker 1 (30:32):
You know, at a certain point, like once I started
to like, okay, understand who I am. And I'm still learning,
you know, like we hopefully we always will learn to
we leave this planet on the physical level. So I'm
still learning, but I do know a lot of things
about me, and I know myself, and I think one
(30:54):
of the things that has helped me to understand about
attracting new friends and who lungs in this atmosphere is
people's energy. Being discerning about people's intentions, making sure that
any friendships, relationships, even moments, you want to be able
(31:14):
to give and you want to be able to receive too.
You start by giving. You know, most of the time,
if I see somebody, I'm gonna greet them, how you doing,
and hopefully they'll agree back boom love, And it's like
it might just be that moment, or it may be
more than that, but the point is you understand what
energy you want in your life and who.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Deserves to be in your life.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
And you also have to be accountable for being a
good friend, partner, homie in their lives.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
And like one of my.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Closest friends is backstage with me, even though we talk
about tell the same stories over and over again, like
you know, I'd be like, damn, we used to, but
we still have. We still tell them same jokes about
each other. But we also share scriptures. We also share motivation.
He'll send me things that motivate. We also talk about
(32:13):
life and just being in pain going through these things.
And for me, that's a friendship that evolves. Some people,
when you said, you said a very good point. Sometimes
you outgrow other people, but a great, beautiful friendship and
relationship you all grow as individuals and even if you
ain't not at the same place at the same time always,
(32:35):
you might get there. And I think for me, just
understanding when I'm around people like how do I feel
around this person and how do this person make me feel?
And hopefully I'm making them feel great, then that's the
type of energy I want to be around.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
And is this something that's going to be consistent.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
We're doing this quick movie together and we can hang
out at this time, but this is not going to
go further than that as a Friendhi.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
That happens sometimes, but that's okay.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
That person is great for your life at that moment,
and you all can give each other equal yoke. But
ultimately it's about to me just being around energy that
you know is there to better you. Iron sharpens iron
and you bring that into your life.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
Well said, Well said.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
I feel like when I'm vibrating in my highest energy,
it's really clear whether someone wants to match it or not. Yeah,
Whereas if I walk into a space and I go
at my lowest frequency, I don't actually know where someone stands.
So it's almost like being your highest vibration or frequency
actually allows you to see what energy someone's are and
(33:46):
whether they're willing to match and you're going to match them.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Is that new friends?
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Because I don't have a whole lot of new friends
to be honest, you know, but I do have new
people in my life that I work with that I
love that I'll be there for. But I'm like, you know, friends,
not just people you like I'm cool with them, Yeah,
all our friends. How do you decide who you let
into your life, especially with you being having such a big,
(34:12):
widespread platform and so many people probably wanting to be
in that space, how do you make decisions on who.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
I'm pretty lucky, I think because my lane is so clear.
The only people who want to get closer people who
want to be spiritual, and so it kind of makes
it easy because they know that I'm not really interested
in other stuff. So it's kind of like the people
that do want to get close. There are all people
that want to evolve, that want to grow, you know.
(34:38):
It's people like yourselves who want to become more healed,
which I love because my lane is so clear. And
that's what I mean by when we're vibrating at a
frequency that I'm not always at a high frequency, but
if our frequency is clear, yes, then it's clear to
others whether we're going to be a good time or not.
So to some people, I'm the most boring person on
the planet because they know I'm not into the three
(35:02):
things that they love.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
But that's why I think it's so good to.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Be clear about who we are and broadcast that I
don't mean necessarily publicly. I mean, when you walk into
a room, whatever word you say, the question you first ask,
the way you answer a question can completely shift the
direction of a conversation. Like when I walk into a room,
I want to get into one deep conversation with someone
(35:27):
in the corner. I'm not the person who's like milling
around trying to say hello to everyone. There's nothing wrong
with that.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
That's just not me.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
And so I'd much rather walk away from an event
having had a deep, powerful, profound conversation and made one
new friend then feel like I spoke to thirty people
about small talk. And again, there's nothing wrong with that,
it's just who I am.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
So I love some of the things you just said
because I love great conversations. I feel like that's one
of the ways I learned so much about myself is
through conversation with people who who just have some emotional
insight intelligence.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
That's one of my favorite things.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Man, No matter where I am, and you know, my
friends be like, boy, you talk a lot, you know,
But I do love those conversations. And another thing you
mentioned it that I have to say has been one
of the most powerful aspects about helping me in my
life is to be clear, like taking care of myself
(36:28):
when it comes to like the foods I eat, like having,
like I said, my own meditation and prayer.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
What does that look like.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
We'll cuts through some of those habits, because I feel
like this group loves learning about habits and practices and
tools and tactics. What are some of yours that you commit.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
To wake up in the morning, thanking God for the day,
thanking God just for the day, for the breath of life.
And as Jay said, this is a spiritual thing. I'm
not like when I talk about God, I'm talking about
the creative heavens and Earth that exists in all woman, man,
that exists in all people on the planet. It's not
(37:07):
a religious thing. This is about the spirit that created
all of us and that exists in all of us.
So just communing with God is the first thing. And
then I get into it's certain scriptures that I read
that reinforce who I am and my relationship with the Creator.
(37:27):
And then I get into my prayer, and then I'll
get into my meditation. People ask me like, do you
do this type of meditation. It's type My meditation is
the south side of meditation.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
I just came up with.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
I pulled from everything that I had experienced and was like,
this works for me. It's not gonna be this twenty
minute meditation. Might be a minute or two, but I'm
gonna get it in and it works and it works
for me. But seriously, it's that meditation. And then I
go to this other book that I have that has
these mantras and scriptures to them. At that point, you know,
(38:04):
like I'm prepared for the day and going into that
day knowing that, man, this is going to.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Be a beautiful day.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Because we all sometimes I wake up like something feel
funny as soon as I wake up, But me getting
into gratitude and just saying thank you for the day
and thank you for the breath of life starts to
shift that funny feeling. And then like me starting to
starting to say the things that I know I'm creating
(38:33):
for and the purpose that I'm here for, it starts
to shift and my day becomes greater just from there,
and even if some incidents happen, my perspective on the
day is not down because I've done those things. Now
the diet and food side, I get into my I
got my supplements that I take and you know, take
those in the morning and then I try to get
(38:55):
a work out in. Like I said, sometimes you don't
have an hour to do a workout and get whatever time.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
And it's just movement. What I noticed is when I
move around, whether it's a walk, I used to think
I was like, man, those old people be walking, man.
But now I'm taking walks.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
I'm walking in London, walking into the parks, and I'm like,
am I that age said, I'm walking? But but a
walk is a beautiful thing. And I realized just the
movement of the body is good for the mind and
the soul. So this is all part of my like
wholeness when I what I talk about in the book
(39:33):
and then we rise. This is that wholeness of like.
Because I had certain aspects, like I was always pretty
much a spiritual guy like this and learning my spirituality,
you know, reading from the Bible at one point, reading
into the Koran and reading different things to just know
God for myself. But then I needed other aspects and
(39:55):
I started to figure out that the diet made me
see clear. Now only did I see clear, like I
was rapping clear, Like my voice sounded clear, like for real,
like for not having certain foods in my body and
taking care and my energy. I was waking up with
energy instead. Like so I felt the difference. And that
(40:16):
was all the research I needed to do. I didn't
need to read nothing to note that, like, oh, I
feel better doing these things. So all those things are
things that I put into practice, and you know, I
pick up new things, like just listening to you, I'm like, wait,
I'm gonna start figuring out this exposure bless you. I'm
I'm gonna figure out this exposure thing, like and see
(40:36):
what I can do because I'm always looking to learn
and grow.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Yeah, I love that talking about exposure therapy. I wanted
this event to be special and this is gonna be
a surprise for everyone. I wanted to give someone in
the room. We've been talking about dreams, we've been talking
about rising above judgment. We've been talking about taking your opportunity.
I wanted to check there's no pressure, but I wanted
(41:01):
to check if there was a poet, a rapper, a
spoken word artist in the audience that wanted sixty seconds
to share with the audience and with common their skills.
I want to give you a moment, and I don't
want you to steal a moment from someone else. So
this isn't messing around, it's it's someone who truly has
I see the yellow shirt. I see one up there.
(41:24):
I love that hustle, the hustle, I love it.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
What's his name? Oh you don't know?
Speaker 3 (41:32):
Oh wow, okay, that's amazing, that's great. You know, I
really feel like there's moments like this. We got you
in the seat to give someone a moment, to give
someone an opportunity, to put someone out there, to put
someone on. I chose the hardest person to get downstairs.
Now he's last trying to find his way while we're
waiting for him. I want to want, oh, here we go.
(41:59):
I'm true.
Speaker 5 (42:00):
I want to say hello before.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Its brother alsome. That's blessome, bless you, thank you, glad,
thank you.
Speaker 5 (42:11):
All right, So your name is Daniel, Daniel, Where are
you from?
Speaker 6 (42:15):
I'm from Chicago.
Speaker 5 (42:19):
From here, you're rappers, smoking word eyes, poet.
Speaker 6 (42:23):
I'm a poet.
Speaker 7 (42:24):
In all honesty, I've taken kind of a back seat
from the spotlight. I don't have any socials. I go
and perform at open mics occasionally. But yeah, my heart
is pumping.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Well, this is this is what we wanted to do
tonight because you running down and we saw you hustles.
You take a breath just to catch your breath, but
that was the point of tonight. I want to make
it known that you can do it. It's not a
you know, I think we often feel like we have
to wait for our moment, We've got to work for it.
But we want to give it to people right here.
So I want to give you sixty seconds to share
(43:00):
with us the words, the work, whatever you want to
read to us, come and will give us a zero
out of ten rate.
Speaker 5 (43:06):
Now you ready?
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Yeah, you got it, bro, You got it, Bro, you
got it. You got it.
Speaker 7 (43:20):
Okay, So I'm gonna give you something that's relatively new,
and it's about the lady that pushed me to come
up here.
Speaker 6 (43:28):
She's up there a real quick because I don't want
to waste any of your time.
Speaker 5 (43:33):
You're not wasting anyone's telling me, God, I'm nervous.
Speaker 6 (43:37):
Why am I up here?
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (43:42):
Yeah, let's called my new favorite color.
Speaker 3 (43:47):
Before we dive into the next moment, let's hear from
our sponsors. Thanks for taking a moment for that. Now
back to the discussion.
Speaker 6 (43:56):
If I asked any of you, what's your favorite color,
it will come without a say.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Guess.
Speaker 7 (44:01):
You might even attribute some colors to different moods. Green
might be the envy, and a mean girl whose burn
book would burn looks through sky blue retinas like our
heavenly ceiling, relling with the beauty of God's creations. But
not a single star burns brighter than the patren my
eyes behold. After all, they say that's where her beauty lies.
So my answer is red. That's my favorite color. It's
(44:25):
something about the way it massages her cheeks before they
form that rose that reminds me of Aretha's declaration, a
dedication to the strongest flower in concrete jungles never meant
to grow, but defying all odds God's peculiar creation, sending
sensations where you hear, see, and touch vibrations. I love
to make up bless just to see a smile from
(44:46):
those red lips. I'd re educate the inner child to
me that was deceived to believe the synesthesia couldn't be achieved.
But who knew the color red could taste so sweet,
scent like strawberry's harvested solely by God's worthy out happily
trick for this treat. And I'm gonna leave it there
because I am dying.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Jay jack Y, I'm gonna lie. I'm gonna liun no.
That was That was dope, real dope, Yo.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
I know it's kind of hard to handle for everybody.
Give it up for Daniel, Yo.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
I say it like this.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
I say it like this, and God we trust. I
see a shirt and I tell them seeings day not
like us.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
What can you do? Yo? You know the whole outcome.
I see Martin and of course I see Malcolm.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
We know right now. I keep my mind heavy. I
keep it already. When I'm with Jay Shetty, it's like
this consense yo.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
I guess you know me. I gotta say rest in
peace to that brother Kobe.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
This is how it is, yo, We at your service,
were right here in Chicago, and this is about purpose.
It's on purpose, Yo. I'm telling you these words. Is
my man Jay Yo. I told you he's a wordsmith.
Com sense. I'm coming. I got my brother from London.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
This is how it be. I got a hundred styles
in running. I can let you know. My mind's like encyclopedia.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
When I come to the Chicago Theater, letting you know
it's time for me to climb. We talk about the
spirituality is divine and I'm coming straight for shot off
the head. My man Daniel said his favorite color is red. Yo,
I read through books to this how we look. We
got an understand, cam Sense. I've never been shook. I've
(46:32):
been hanging in places where we hang outside. I'm talking
about the West and of course the South side, and
that's how it be when I know to go off
and shout out to my people. That's even from the north.
Com sense, it's like this, Joe, I guess I'm living
in I was cruising up and down the street called
Michigan Avenue, grabbing new things that I need to do.
(46:53):
Com sense, Yo, I told you I believe in you
and believe in me as I'm receiving these things. Earlier,
we were talking Jay about dreams and that's how it
be the style of be free.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
I just gotta say respect to g O. D you
have been danging everyone.
Speaker 5 (47:20):
That was that was a surprise for me. Wow wow.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
Wow little fun wow o little yea.
Speaker 5 (47:32):
Yeah, that was I was not expecting that.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
Man, I kind of I love I love rapping man.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
I love I love him see and once once we
had the music a little bit and Daniel did his thing.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
I'm like, I'm at home, I'm on the Jayson said show.
I'm like, I got it. I want to m C.
Speaker 5 (47:55):
I was straight up the dome.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
It was all the references that what up yet reference
It's amazing, keep it free.
Speaker 5 (48:03):
It's oh my god, thank you, thank you so much
for that, and thank you Daniel. Daniel again, everyone, you
took your moment.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
I love I love people taking their moment, yes, and
I love helping people have their moment. And when those
two things come together, because I feel like I spent
my whole life waiting for someone to give me a shot.
And often we can feel that way, just waiting for
someone to open the door or just let us in
or whatever it may be, and you know, oh, there
(48:38):
we go. He just made it upstairs. And it's just
beautiful when you put yourself out there like that. And
I hope that you know. One of the things I
like to do differently in these evenings is have moments
(48:59):
like that, because when you see someone who's sitting in
the same place as you are, but takes the moment
I hope it's a reminder to you tomorrow when you're
at the office, when you're talking to someone, when you're
with your family and you've just been avoiding that moment.
I hope it gives you the courage and the strength
to go. Daniel did that, you know, on stage in
front of two thousand people with coming.
Speaker 1 (49:20):
And yeah, Jay, I gotta say, like, you made me
think about like it was a point whereever I had
to learn to take that moment and this happened to me.
This is further into my career. This is basically I
was in a movie called Selma, right, And I was
an actor in Selma. Yeah, and I'm directed by the
(49:42):
great Ava Duvinet, and I mean it's incredible actors in
there and actresses. But anyway, it was about the people
of the civil rights movement. And we finished the movie,
and the movie it really moved my spirit because we
were living in the shoes and the skin of the
people the civil rights movement. So we got to meet
Ambassador Andrew Young and John Lewis, the late great John Lewis,
(50:07):
and it affected my life. I remember Ambassador Andrew Young
at our first meeting said, what are you willing to
die for live for that. He said, we were willing
to die for freedom and justice and equality, so we
lived for it every day, right, Well, that all that
(50:28):
affected me. We finished the movie and I'm asking everybody
is a part of it, what are y'all gonna do
for the like songs like what's gonna What's y'all got
any music in mind? They was like, yeah, we got
some in mind, but it's not you, right. So I
usually wouldn't seize the moment or take that moment, and
(50:51):
like I would be shy about that moment.
Speaker 2 (50:53):
That's what I was talking about them in my light.
At times.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
I was on the phone talking to my manager saying, well,
what are they doing with the song for Selma? And
he was like, man, they said they got some people
they want to use, but they they haven't locked it in.
It hit me like it was like the Creator speaking
to me. God was speaking to me. I literally said,
I'm going to call you back. The thought came to
(51:18):
me like I'm gonna call John Legend and see if
he would be open to like working with me on
a song for this. I hang up the phone with
my manager and called John. John is in London and
I tell him, hey, man, I'm part of this movie, Selma.
It's incredible, man Like, it's about doctor King and the
(51:38):
women and the men of the civil rights movement.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
Let's do a song.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
Now, they don't want a song from us, so we're
submitting it. But will you do this song? He said,
I got you, brother. I usually wouldn't asked like my friends,
and I've worked with John before, but I wasn't the
type to just ask for it.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
But something I listened to what God said, Look call John.
I did it.
Speaker 1 (52:01):
And John said, I'm gonna be over here for a
few months on this tour, but I will go in
the studio. On Wednesday, I hung up the phone. I
text them three titles. The last title I texted him
was Glory. He said he saw that that name Glory,
and it sparked his thoughts and he started coming with
(52:23):
the melody and he started, you know, coming up with
the words for the hook. One day when the Glories,
when I can't sing it, y'all, I mess it up.
But you know he did that sent it back to me.
After that Wednesday, I remember getting the music. I was
going to my father's memorial. I heard that music. I
was overwhelmed. I ended up writing that song, and that
(52:49):
song became a song that we ended up winning a
Golden Globe, winning a Grammy, and winning an.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Oscar World for And I'm bringing that up because there
was that moment.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
It was that one moment where I decided to listen
and not be afraid and just ask and seize the moment,
and it happened.
Speaker 5 (53:18):
I'm so glad you shared that story.
Speaker 3 (53:21):
I'm so glad you shared that story because I think
you know that was later in your career, Yes, and
you still have that doubt where you have to listen
in And I think I love hearing that because I
think we all think one day we're going to get
to a place from which we don't have to listen
anymore to God, to that inner voice, to that direction.
Speaker 5 (53:43):
But the truth is it's always the case. You always
have to go inward to find that outward direction.
Speaker 3 (53:50):
It's not going to happen by constantly looking around and
where do I want to be and where do I
want to go? And you've got to constantly look inside
and hear the ask here, the calling yes, that question,
yes right, because we're looking for the answer that you
don't hear the ask.
Speaker 2 (54:05):
Yes, you know what I mean. Yes, man, Yes, it's
a really.
Speaker 3 (54:07):
Interesting thing that God's trying to ask you to do something.
You're like, God, tell me the answer.
Speaker 2 (54:10):
Right, tell me to answer.
Speaker 5 (54:11):
I was like, no, no, no, I want you to
do that.
Speaker 1 (54:12):
I want you to do this, and you have to
be open to the to the experience and the journey too.
It's a beautiful thing, but it's a thing where it
doesn't stop. Like I mean, last week, I was like, man,
I want this, I want this. It didn't happen for me,
and I had to like really come to grips and
do exactly what I told you.
Speaker 2 (54:32):
I work on.
Speaker 1 (54:33):
I work on like just still staying in gratitude, still
knowing what's for me, is there for me, and really
being present and Okay, I prayed for that and I said, man,
if it's in your will and I use my scriptures
to and that didn't happen for me, then I have
to understand that I'm supposed to be here wherever you
have me, and I'm going to be trusting in that
(54:54):
and be present in that. And that's one of the
things that I just it doesn't stop. I was later
in my career when I did that with John, when
I said, hey, you know I called them. But it's
still moments where I'm like, should I say to this person?
Should I not? But I'm more leaning towards because I've
I've worked on it to say I'm gonna speak up
(55:16):
for the things that I want or just say my truth,
Like if it's something that doesn't work for me, I
know how to speak up on that too.
Speaker 2 (55:23):
So I love that.
Speaker 3 (55:26):
I wanna take the last few moments to end every
on purpose interview, as we always do with the final five. Yes,
these questions have to be answered with one word to
one sentence maximum.
Speaker 2 (55:38):
Okay, so this is a real challenge.
Speaker 5 (55:42):
This is the real challenge. These are your final five.
Speaker 3 (55:46):
Question number one, which we asked to every guest who's
ever been on the show, what is the best advice
you've ever heard or received to.
Speaker 2 (55:55):
Love others as you love yourself. I think that's the best.
They're the best, and I've.
Speaker 5 (56:00):
Received I agree question. Oh yeah, give it up, absolutely,
go for it. This is awesome question.
Speaker 3 (56:08):
Usually when I'm doing the final vibe with someone like
I don't get this, so this is amazing, Like you
don't know what a gift you're giving me by being
here right now. You know, when we're doing this in
the studio, it's beautiful. But we should do every episode
with you guys here.
Speaker 2 (56:21):
Yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (56:24):
Question number two, what is the worst advice you've ever
heard or received?
Speaker 1 (56:30):
People say this, They say the same shit every day.
I ask them, like, how you doing, and they say, man,
same shit, new day. I don't subscribe to that mentality.
So I looked at that as like bad advice, and
I'm like, nah, so it's gotta be something new happening
in a day, something.
Speaker 5 (56:48):
New, So create something new. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (56:52):
Question number three, what was the hardest part about learning
to love yourself and take care of yourself?
Speaker 1 (57:01):
The hardest part about learning to love myself and take
care of myself is learning to love myself. When I'm
being rejected. That is like a real that's a because
that is when it taps into the little Rashid and
(57:21):
the things that I've been rejected or abandoned from before
as a kid. And when I'm rejected now you told
me to keep this answer short, but to carry on.
But when I'm rejecting now, sometimes I'm I can bring
that little Rashid into the present and and those feelings
(57:44):
are being rejected and make this new rejection greater than
what it really is. I'm not present in what is happening,
So I think loving myself in those moments has been
some of the toughest times.
Speaker 2 (58:00):
But I feel I'm worth it, so I strive for it.
Speaker 3 (58:07):
Question number four, how do you show yourself self love
every day?
Speaker 1 (58:13):
The things that I do for self love that I
spoke about from every aspect, the prayer, meditation, foods, I
make sure I'm diligent about it, and like if my
call time is at five thirty, if they coming to
get me to go to set at five thirty, I'm
still going to get up and make sure I have
enough time to do those things because that's me loving myself.
(58:36):
That's me giving the time to myself that I need
and that that has nothing to do with nobody else,
but that's me and the Creator. And I think you
know that's how I take time. And I also have
boundaries now too, like where sometimes if somebody is I
know it's taking advantage of me or just asking for
(58:59):
too much and I'm not able or willing to give that,
I know how to speak up for that So that's
another way that I've learned to love myself every day.
Speaker 2 (59:08):
To speak up, beautiful sure.
Speaker 3 (59:12):
Fifth and final question of the final five we asked
this every guest who's ever been on the show, if
you could.
Speaker 5 (59:18):
Create one law that everyone in the world had to follow,
what would it be.
Speaker 1 (59:22):
We would have to go inside of ourselves to find
the greatest love that exists, and in every daily activity,
we would have to acknowledge that love in ourselves and
encourage it in others and see it in others. And
(59:44):
that would be the law, to know that love within
you and acknowledge it in others and treat them as such.
Speaker 5 (59:50):
Comen.
Speaker 3 (59:51):
We wanted to, I mean, beautiful answers. We wanted to
do one last special thing with you because you kindly
came out to Chicago to be here with us. I
want you to take a look behind you in a
second when we have it up there. If we get
it up there, we go. What if you could communicate
(01:00:12):
with your younger self? Now, what would you say to
your younger self?
Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
Well you had head inn brother, Well, I would say
I would say man. I would say, man, no matter
what you go through, you got everything you need to
to be what your purpose to be on this planet,
and go out there and do your duty, and do
it in the highest way, and do it with joy,
(01:00:39):
do it with love, do it with grace. And you
will make some mistakes, you will go through pain. But
God loves you more than anything, and you love you,
so show the world that love.
Speaker 5 (01:00:52):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
And second one, what do you what do you need
to hear? Look at very dapper, It's like what would
you say you need to hear?
Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
Most?
Speaker 5 (01:01:08):
Right now?
Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
The quest is still going. You still got a lot
of growing to do, a lot more to give, be free.
You're doing well, but but you're going to be greater
and you will do greater and all those things you're envisioning.
(01:01:30):
Continue to be patient and be diligent and remember your purpose,
and Jail'll have you back on.
Speaker 3 (01:01:38):
Again anytime, anytime, anytime, anytime. Off off to this next one.
I'll see if you want to come back on again.
If we get a third or up, it's an ai
AI from the team. When you look at that, what
(01:01:59):
wisdom do you? What wisdom do you hope you will
have realized? Well in the next ten twenty years.
Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
You finally stop putting that die in your bed. I
would hope that I was still.
Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
Be enjoying like music, creating music, enjoying acting. I would
hope to be getting my Morgan Freeman on at that point.
And I would hope that the work that I have
done is penetrating people's lives and families and things are
(01:02:37):
just better in the world because of me doing my part,
as we all do our part.
Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
And I hope that I'm just having fun in a good,
healthy relationship.
Speaker 5 (01:02:48):
Coming everyone, come back anytime.
Speaker 3 (01:02:53):
If this is the year that you're trying to get creative,
you're trying to build more, I need you to listen
to this episode with Rick Rubin on how to break
into your most creative self, how to use unconventional methods
that lead to success, and the secret to genuinely loving
what you do. If you're trying to find your passion
and your lane, Rick Rubin's episode is the one for you.
Speaker 4 (01:03:16):
Just because I like it, that doesn't give it any value,
Like as an artist, if you like it, that's all
of the value. That's the success comes when you say
I like this enough for other people to see it.
One of my greatest lessons has been in one of
the greatest pains I had, and that was a heartbreak.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hip Hop icon Colin is an Academy Award, Emmy and
three time Grammy winning artist.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
What was the hardest part about learning to love yourself
and take care of yourself?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Sometimes I can bring that little rashet into the present
and those feelings of being rejected and make this new
rejection greater than what it really is.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
All break therapy. You're talking about the trauma you've been through.
These are the themes that hip hop's noticed.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
For all I was doing was telling my truth.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
How have you learned in the moment to deal with
that emotion and to learn how to trust.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
You understand what energy you want in your.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Life and who deserves to be in your life.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I usually wouldn't seize the moment.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
The thought came to me like I'm gonna call John
Legend and I tell them, hey, man, I'm part of
this movie Selma. They don't want a song from us,
so we're submitting it, but will you do the song?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
And he said.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
The number one health and wellness podcast Jay Only, I'm
so excited to finally share the live interviews from my
very first podcast tour, presented by Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
This one was recorded live at the legendary Chicago Theater
with the One and Only Common Special thanks to MSG
Entertainment and the Chicago Theater.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Chicago, Chicago, Peas. I love this place, Chicago.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
I am so excited to be here tonight at the
Chicago Theater in Chicago with mister Chicago Only comment.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Oh, thank you comment.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
I want to start off just saying how grateful I
am to you for your artistry. I grew up listening
to you in London. You're music, your words, your energy
has made it all the way over to the fourteen
year old me who is dreaming of being a rapper.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
And then I listened to you and realized I wasn't
good enough. And we've spoken before, we never met until tonight.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
And your voice has such a power. It carries so
much energy. It carries so much that the frequency you operate,
it comes through your voice so powerfully. And I want
to start off by asking you you know today obviously
we know you as the Emmy Award winner, the Grammy
Award winner, the Oscar Award winner. Yeah, give it up right,
(02:37):
it's like there's not many people. There's not many people,
But I want to know who common was before the Emmy,
the Grammy, the Oscar, because that's what we've been talking
about tonight, is when you're at the start of your journey,
who were you at the start of your journey?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Well, first, thank you Jay, and thank you all, and
I'll just thank God for this moment and who I
was before I was out as an artist. I was
a young black boy from the South Side of Chicago
(03:15):
who had a tremendous, incredible mother and a great stepfather
and a beautiful community that taught me everything from God
to survival, to intelligence, to basketball, to music, to life
and to love. And that gave me a foundation of
(03:39):
someone who wanted to actually be something in the world.
I didn't know what I wanted to be all the way,
but I knew I wanted to give something to the world.
And that's who I was before I actually got to
be out there as an artist. Some of my dreams
was basketball, to be a basketball player. But I can't hoop, y'all,
(04:02):
just so you know, not as good as I used
to do. But I can hoop, but uh yeah, so
you know, I just wanted to be something. It was something, though, Jada.
One thing that got me when I was really a
young kid was I used to love this English class
because our English teacher would teach us a lot about
like black history and like all these great writers from
(04:26):
James Baldwin and doctor May Angelo and Nikki Giovanni and
Richard Wright. So one day she taught us the story
about this young man named Emmitt Till. And Emmit Til
was from Chicago and in the fifties, I believe it
was nineteen fifty five. He went to visit his family
(04:46):
down in Mississippi and went to the corner store with
his cousins and was accused of whistling.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
At a white woman.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And her husband eventually found where Emmit Til lived when
he was staying with his aunt for the summer, and
they grabbed him out of the house and they ended
up beating him to death and threw him in the river.
The reason why I bring the story up is his
mother chose to show have an open casket funeral, and
(05:17):
his head was bigger than I can describe. And the
way they had beat him for whistling that a white woman.
What he was accused of it always hit me in
a place where I felt almost like guilty. I felt pain.
I felt like I old imitate Till and that was
(05:38):
really a real driving force in my life. Though I
never met Matil in my life, his spirit was like
something that I felt like I had to live for
and for those people who had been like him, who
had lost their lives for no reason, but specifically immate Till.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Now.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
That was one of the driving forces for me as
a kid, even though I didn't know what I wanted
to be. And I just want to say that that
meant a lot to me.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely go for it. It's incredible to me
how people we've never met and people we've never seen,
how their stories can transform our lives. For me, when
I was growing up, I was reading everything from David
Beckham and Dwayne the Rock Johnson when he was a wrestler,
(06:27):
all the way through to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
And I was really lucky that my dad would give
me biographies and autobiographies of these people. And it was
because of him handing them to me that I got
so inspired by people who'd lived these service based lives. Yes,
but I wanted to ask you when you read that story,
when you heard about that story, how did you not
(06:51):
get bitter or negative but became hopeful about wanting to
represent and live a good life. Because hearing about those
kind of pains and struggles can also make you act different,
but for you, it pushed you to want to do
something positive with your life.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
The killing of Immittil was really the catalyst many believe
for the civil rights movement, and how that affected me
was man, I felt like this beautiful young man didn't
have like that evil energy to him, that dark energy
to him, and I felt that I wanted to be
(07:28):
a reflection of that. I strived to approach life in
ways where when I would go through something, I would
figure way out by figuring out the positive the lesson
in it. And I didn't have that type of like
information as a kid, or like I didn't have it
like really developed. But I knew that as a kid
(07:50):
that I didn't want to be putting negative energy out
there even when I was dealing with difficult moments. That
didn't mean I didn't feel those difficult moments or I
didn't have the but I couldn't stay there and I
knew when I saw what happened with Mattil. Yes, of
course I did feel some anger, like why did that
happen to him? But I knew I had to make
(08:11):
it into a positive and I wanted my life to
feel positive and I wanted others'.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Lives to feel positive.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
So that's what I used it for, and eventually in
certain aspects of my life, I've been able to translate that,
you know, And that's what part of the practice is
that of what we do. Like, I'm so grateful that
I know you can rhyme too. I know you can rhyme.
I know you can rhyme. But I'm so grateful in
(08:37):
how you are using your words and your gifts and
your spirit and your heart. It's amazing how the things
that we do to build to get to you would
never know that your love for writing would like lead
you to this place. And I would never know that,
like the things that I experienced, whether it was I
(08:59):
Matil or positive. Note some people don't notice. I was
a ball boy for the Chicago Bulls, right, Yeah, so
I was there when Michael Jordans first came into the league.
In fact, I used to have some Jordan's I used
to get jim shoes or sneakers as people say. Were
in Chicago, we say jim shoes. So I used to
(09:20):
get jim shoes from a lot of players. And at
the time, I would give them to my teachers. I
would sell them. But I had some Jordans that I
gave to my father that he signed. My father would
God bless us, so he would wear them to my
concerts and I'd be like that, do not wear.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
These shoes, man, these shoes worth too much. That being said,
I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
You know, it's amazing how as you said sometimes, well,
I did get to.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Be around Michael Jordan. I didn't know him well, but
I got to see that.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
It's amazing how witnessing that greatness affected me in a
positive way too.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
So it was some.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Heavy things that affected me and some beautiful things that
affected me.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah, and it's your power that you were able to
notice both, yes, and convert them and transfer them into
building a positive life. And we were talking about dreams earlier,
and I know a lot of this audience got dreams, right,
This audience has dreams, and often I find, yeah, give
it off for your dreams. You gotta, I know, there's dreams.
(10:22):
I know, there's dreams, and sometimes it can feel like,
you know, you're holding that dream back, you're not living
it fully, you're hiding it.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
You're kind of embarrassed about it.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Maybe you're guilty about it, maybe you're maybe you don't
believe in it yourself. You said one of your early
dreams you were telling me backstage and even now you're mentioning,
was actually to.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Be a basketball player.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
How serious were you about that dream compared to what
then became music but then became acting, Like, how serious
was that dream?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Now? That dream was very serious.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
I mean I was dedicating my time and energy a
lot of it to just playing bar like that. I
was one of the most important things to me in
my dream was the Magic Johnson's, the Isaiah thomas Is,
the Michael Jordan's, all these great players that I actually
got to be. Like I said, in the presence of
(11:15):
it was like it made it even that much more
attainable to me. I worked on it. I worked on it,
and I got pretty good. I mean I can't you know,
we all when you were a hooper or whatever, you
feel like, oh I'm cold.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I got gain.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
But in all reality, I probably wasn't pro material, but
it's beautiful how divine and how great God orchestrates things
for you to be where you should be when you're
trusting that. I got injured in my sophomore year and
I was out for like months. In those months of
(11:51):
me not being able to play ball led me to
wanting to write more. Like I was already writing, but
it was like, Okay, I can't hoop right now, so
I'm right And when I came back to the team,
I wasn't getting any playing time, so I was like, well,
I'm gonna go be a rapper.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Then, man. And it's just, you know, it kind of
guided me to where I should be.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
So my first dream was to hoop, and I kind
of got to live out that dream in a movie
called Just Right, where I played the NBA player. You know,
I was like, Wow, this is amazing because it was
a fulfillment of a dream as an actor. It was
my first leading role, but it also was like, I'm
actually getting to play like I'm an NBA player. I
(12:32):
was playing against Dwayne Wade and Dwight Howard at the time,
and it was it was an amazing experience and it's
something how we talked about this, how you know you
have a dream and that dream can evolve and it
could become you find a new dream, and that dream
can evolve. And I think, you know, I'm really keen
on dreams because and I really try to try to
(12:56):
like inspire young people to have a dream and even
whatever age we are, but really I want young people
to get that early because that was one of the
most important things for me growing up. That led me
to say, Hey, I'm not going to go too far
over to this craziness. Like we in Chicago. You're gonna
(13:19):
get into some craziness, right you go, you go be
around it, gonna you're gonna experience something.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
You might participate in it.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
But because I had a dream, I would only participate,
but so much I had to bound you.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I had to bound you. And that truly was.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
My guiding light, Like you know what, I want to
be something, I want to do something. And even as
those things begin to evolve, it still became a boundary
for me to be like, all right, y'all doing too much.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I can't do that over there.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
The thing I love about that and I want us
to take away from this is sometimes your first dream
doesn't work out. And I think for a lot of us,
when our first dream doesn't work out, we think it's
dream over, like game over, It's that's it now, we
can't live any part of our dream. And you know,
I was saying, my first dream, real dream, was to
(14:11):
become a monk. That's what I thought I was going
to do for the rest of my life. And I
did it for three years, and when it ended, I
felt like I'd failed, Like I felt like it was over,
and I felt, how am I ever gonna spread what
I've learned? And how am I ever going to live
a life that's dedicated to spiritually? Like will that ever
happen again? And it's incredible the plans you've been saying
(14:34):
that God has for you. And I was sharing this
earlier with a couple of people. I was saying that
God's imagination is far better than my imagination.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Yes, right, But.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
It's a scripture in the Bible that says his thoughts
are greater than your thoughts. You know, That's that's very
important for us to understand because sometimes in that dream,
you like, I want it, I want it, and I
want to got this. I mean, because I have that
I still have it to this day.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I want this role. I want this role, and it
doesn't happen.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
And now I've grown to understand that God's dreams and
his thoughts are greater than my thoughts. So, for whatever
reason it is, I'm not supposed to be in that
particular film. I'm not supposed to be with that particular relationship.
I'm not supposed to have that particular job. I'm not
supposed to have a house that I really knew I wanted.
(15:30):
It's hard to grab on to it at times. But
the more and more you know, we practice it and
speak it and know it and trust in our heavenly
Father and the creator of the heavens and earth and
know that that plan is a master plan and all
we have to do is listen and be in tuned
and get the lessons from it too. Life becomes more beautiful.
(15:51):
And I can look at those moments where I haven't
gotten a role, and that doesn't mean that I don't
feel like, damn man, I really wanted to be working
and I was excited about the script I wanted. I'm
not going to fake and act like I didn't. But
I can say, Okay, Creator, I know you got something
greater for me, something out there, and I'm going to
(16:12):
do whatever I need to do to be present and
also be obedient and surrender to what the higher plan is.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Yeah, I saw something the other day that really resonated
with me. My friend sent it to me and it
said something like, when things don't go your way, it's
God in the universe saying not now, not this, I
got something better. Yes, right, And it's that understanding of
just being able to have that trust in the moment.
(16:46):
I want to ask you that, how have you learned
to build that trust in the moment? Like you said,
we're both human, yes, we're not perfect. You feel that pain.
I feel that I want to achieve things. I'm trying
to build things. I'm trying to create things, and I'm
the same. I feel pain. I'm not going to sit
here and lie and say, oh, I just trust everything
and you know I'm beyond that. No, that's not true.
(17:08):
Like I feel upset. You're like, oh, gosh, I worked
so hard for this, putting so much effort, we did everything.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
What happened.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
When you've done it enough times, you get a better relationship.
But how have you learned in the moment to deal
with that emotion and to learn how to trust.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
It's been the process, and as I said, like, you know,
it's a practice. I was thinking earlier today about how
we always talk about bad habits, but I started thinking
about good habits.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
For me.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
One of my good habits has been to use the
scriptures that I read and stay consistent and diligent in
my prayers and my meditations, staying consistent with the way
I love myself and treat myself, and that kind of
helps me build the armor and the strength to be
(17:58):
like when I have some of them most difficult pains.
One of my greatest lessons and times that I've grown
as a human being has been in one of the
greatest pains I had, and that was a breakup, a
heartbreak where I was like broken and I hadn't been
broken like that. I had lost people in my life,
(18:20):
and that was definitely devastating, but it was something about
a heartbreak where the person was obviously you hear they
still alive. This was the first love that I had
as an adult, and I knew God it ordained it,
but at a certain point it became not healthy and
(18:41):
when we were partying it was hard.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
It was really hard.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
And it wasn't like I made the decision I got
broke up.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
With, you know, and it was like who, this is hard.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
And at times I wasn't eating like consistently. I was
sitting in this hotel room for weeks, just trying to
find a peace, calling my aunt, talking to different people
about it.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
It was weighing on me.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
And I remember just starting to read certain books like
The Mastery of Love and Return to Love and these.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
A lot of love books, y'all.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
But each time and each thing I read, I would
get something out of it. Not even I wouldn't even
have to read the whole book, but I would get
something out of it. And I started thinking and practicing
some of the things that I was reading as much
as I was still trying to hold on to and
be like HEO, god, I know you said this is
the relationship. I thought this was the relationship. Well, I
(19:40):
learned some lessons in that. One of the lessons was
that I was willing to dim my light for others,
and in that relationship, I was dimming my light. It
wasn't not that person's fault. I take responsibility for that,
and I was dimming my light. But I was doing
that not only in that relationship. I would do it
when I would get around other artists that were more
(20:02):
known than me, people that were like more celebrated than me.
I would just dim my light for whatever somebody might
not even it might not be about popularity, money or anything.
I would dim my light if someone else just had
something that I felt was greater than me. Well, I
started to learn to love myself more and that became
(20:23):
a practice, and it became saying beautiful things to myself
and repeating those scriptures and like starting to do things
for myself that like fed into who I am and
the things that I love and jay about being present.
That really taught me to be present, because at a
certain point I had to realize, yeah, that was something
(20:44):
that a relationship that was in divine order for me,
and we had gotten the lessons out of that relationship
and I got the pain that would that would send
me to a whole new height and would turn me
into a light that I never knew I had. And
that's when it was done at that point. But it's
hard sometimes to understand that it's done. But once you
(21:07):
realize that God ordained the relationship, and he also ordained
the progress from it and the moving forward from it.
Then I was able to move forward and be more
present in my life and take that understanding of man,
I can believe in myself. I grew up in an
environment when my mother is very strong and like wise woman.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Almost everyone I was around.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
You couldn't really be too confident or my mother will
let you know. You think you cocky, or you think
you doing this, you think you doing this. But you
got to find a balance in that. And I didn't
have the balance. I would always dim my life. And
eventually I was like, I have to declare and claim
(21:55):
and know within myself and speak towards my great towards
the things that I envision for myself and the things
that I know I am. I have to say it,
I have to believe it, and I have to not
be afraid to wear my greatness in front of anyone.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah, I had to learn that.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
As I was listening to you, I was thinking about
something that I always try and remind myself, especially when
it comes to people going through breakups, is that you
either grow together or you grow apart, but both are growing. Yes, right,
we think if we grow together, we're growing, but you
also say.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
You grow apart. Yes, but there's still growth.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Still growth in that journey, and you often miss that
when you feel like, oh, and if we stayed together
then it worked, then it was good for me. But
if it ended, it wasn't good for me. And I
wanted to ask you about you know, these themes. I
just I don't want to take it for granted. The
themes you're talking about. You're talking about heartbreak. You're known
to talk about therapy, You're talking about the trauma you've
(23:02):
been through. You know, we have your beautiful book here
and then we rise a guide to loving and taking
care of self. These are not themes that you righte
give it up. Yeah, these are not themes. These are
not themes that hip hop's known for. To have you
sitting here and you talking about this balance of your
(23:22):
mom and being too cocky, it's like that like hip
hop has that bravado that you know, that feeling of
it's not.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
Really about humility.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
It's more about ego and being present than here you
are with all these awards and all this achievement. But
then you're talking about trauma and therapy and heartbreak. That
can't have been easy to start talking about it on
day one in that space.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
I can't imagine it wasn't, but I will say I
did start with a great advantage, and my advantage was.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
But first, here's a quick word from the brands that
support the show. All right, thank you to us, and
says now, let's dive back in.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I had a group of friends that allowed me to
be me and allow me to be unique, allow me
to be different, and they embraced me.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
They would talk, you know, they gonna talk.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
They junk about me and like joke on my crochet
pants or crochet hats and you know whatever, like obscure
things I was into. But it still was love and
it still was like we we are supporting you. And
that that kind of helped me to go out in
the world and not be as afraid to be myself.
So the actual like thought of being myself wasn't as
(24:36):
difficult as it was seen.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
What was the question?
Speaker 5 (24:41):
No, no, no, no, that's honest.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
The way this jun is, this Junie is good.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
I do want to know what the question My mind
went to talking about that, but for a second I
wanted to know because I also had another thought about
when you asked a question. But this Junie, I want
to say, Man, I really just yo this Junie. Man,
I'm digging this bro for real. Cheerzuz CHEUZI cheers cheers.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
My question was, how does someone who's in hip hop,
which is known for being braggadocious, that's what it is
and egoistic, have the comfortability.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yeah, that's what that's what. That's So.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
I was on my third album and I was doing
a show and after the show, this guy came up
to me and he was like, comment, your music.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
This song you did.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
It was called Retrospect for Life and it was about
abortion and I was telling my own experience and story.
It started off as a poem and it eventually was
a song and he and he said, this song you did,
Retrospect for Life, made me and my wife decide to
have our child. And I was and I'm not saying that,
(25:59):
I'm saying that, but because that was a moment where
it was like, what like this music and me telling
my story can affect you in that way? Like all
I was doing was telling my truth and I was
doing it unapologetic, and I just had to do it
(26:19):
for my heart because hip hop was the way I
was expressing myself in the best way that I could
and in the freest way that I could, in the
most honest way, and sincere so for this gentleman to.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Tell me that.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
His child is alive because of this song, it made
me know that I had a higher purpose with the
music and with what I was doing, and that allowed
me as a hip hop artist, as a black man,
because ultimately, when we saying like, yo, you're coming from
(26:56):
hip hop? Hip hop has been the like the garden
for black and Latino, black and brown people to express ourselves.
And then it brought everyone into the garden, which is
a beautiful thing, but it was a garden that started
with our expression. So when we're saying like, coming from
hip hop, expressing yourself in this way, it's really saying,
(27:17):
being a black kid expressing yourself in this way, how.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Did you do that?
Speaker 1 (27:21):
I felt so good that I knew that I could
move my people through the music that I was like,
I have to keep expressing myself in this way. And
it was those songs, like love songs that ended up
being things that people responded to from me. People wanted
to hit them bars and all that, but I had
(27:43):
a gentleman come to me earlier before a show and
be like, hey, coming, would you be okay if in
the middle of your song the Light, which is about
a woman and woman being the light, in the middle
of your song, would you stop so I could propose
to my girlfriend?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
And I said yes, of course.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
And you know, to have to note that I'm writing
songs about from my heart and spirit and my experiences
and they become those things for people. Led me to
understand that I have to be as vulnerable as goofy,
as like free, reflective, as like just open, like non perfect.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
I don't know a better word that I can say.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Your word Smith, Uh, but you know I got to
be that anything else is misguiding people, or it's not
being true to who I am as an artist, is
not being true to my purpose, and I'm not doing
my duty to the most high guy.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Jay.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
If it's anything that I can tell you that that
drives me is every day And I know you talked
about every day and I want to put in a
practice some of those things you said we should do
every day.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I'm so into that. The exposure and all that. I
thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
One of the things that gets me is I want
to please the most high. I want to stay in
my purpose and please the most high.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Yeah, yeah, I mean that's there's nothing better than that.
There's there's no greater accountability, there's no greater source of inspiration,
there's no greater channel, and there isn't apart from that.
And as I'm listening to you, one of the things
that really resonated with me was what you said about
(29:27):
the friends. Because to have friends that you know, in
England we call it banter, right, people who can banter
with someone who can like poke fun at you, but
then at the same time has your back and having
someone that if you can do that with them, that
means you're closer to them. So when we first moved
to the States or maybe more LA, when me and
(29:48):
my wife would banter with each other because she's from Britain,
to everyone just thinks like we're going to break up
or something because we can.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Like really lay each other.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
But but that's part of our love language because the
more I can that would do, the deeper we know
each other. Yes, because as we grow up, you lose
some friends that you grew up with. Maybe people move cities,
they get married to someone else, they move into a
different part of the world. Maybe you've been here your
whole life, you had the same friends, but you kind
of outgrown them now right, How do you, as an
(30:17):
adult continue to build new friendships that look like your
future and not like your past.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
That's beautiful, you said, People was like, oh, b what
do you gonna say about that? Man?
Speaker 1 (30:32):
You know, at a certain point, like once I started
to like, okay, understand who I am. And I'm still learning,
you know, like we hopefully we always will learn to
we leave this planet on the physical level. So I'm
still learning, but I do know a lot of things
about me, and I know myself, and I think one
(30:54):
of the things that has helped me to understand about
attracting new friends and who lungs in this atmosphere is
people's energy. Being discerning about people's intentions, making sure that
any friendships, relationships, even moments, you want to be able
(31:14):
to give and you want to be able to receive too.
You start by giving. You know, most of the time,
if I see somebody, I'm gonna greet them, how you doing,
and hopefully they'll agree back boom love, And it's like
it might just be that moment, or it may be
more than that, but the point is you understand what
energy you want in your life and who.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Deserves to be in your life.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
And you also have to be accountable for being a
good friend, partner, homie in their lives.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
And like one of my.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Closest friends is backstage with me, even though we talk
about tell the same stories over and over again, like
you know, I'd be like, damn, we used to, but
we still have. We still tell them same jokes about
each other. But we also share scriptures. We also share motivation.
He'll send me things that motivate. We also talk about
(32:13):
life and just being in pain going through these things.
And for me, that's a friendship that evolves. Some people,
when you said, you said a very good point. Sometimes
you outgrow other people, but a great, beautiful friendship and
relationship you all grow as individuals and even if you
ain't not at the same place at the same time always,
(32:35):
you might get there. And I think for me, just
understanding when I'm around people like how do I feel
around this person and how do this person make me feel?
And hopefully I'm making them feel great, then that's the
type of energy I want to be around.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
And is this something that's going to be consistent.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
We're doing this quick movie together and we can hang
out at this time, but this is not going to
go further than that as a Friendhi.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
That happens sometimes, but that's okay.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
That person is great for your life at that moment,
and you all can give each other equal yoke. But
ultimately it's about to me just being around energy that
you know is there to better you. Iron sharpens iron
and you bring that into your life.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
Well said, Well said.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
I feel like when I'm vibrating in my highest energy,
it's really clear whether someone wants to match it or not. Yeah,
Whereas if I walk into a space and I go
at my lowest frequency, I don't actually know where someone stands.
So it's almost like being your highest vibration or frequency
actually allows you to see what energy someone's are and
(33:46):
whether they're willing to match and you're going to match them.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Is that new friends?
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Because I don't have a whole lot of new friends
to be honest, you know, but I do have new
people in my life that I work with that I
love that I'll be there for. But I'm like, you know, friends,
not just people you like I'm cool with them, Yeah,
all our friends. How do you decide who you let
into your life, especially with you being having such a big,
(34:12):
widespread platform and so many people probably wanting to be
in that space, how do you make decisions on who.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
I'm pretty lucky, I think because my lane is so clear.
The only people who want to get closer people who
want to be spiritual, and so it kind of makes
it easy because they know that I'm not really interested
in other stuff. So it's kind of like the people
that do want to get close. There are all people
that want to evolve, that want to grow, you know.
(34:38):
It's people like yourselves who want to become more healed,
which I love because my lane is so clear. And
that's what I mean by when we're vibrating at a
frequency that I'm not always at a high frequency, but
if our frequency is clear, yes, then it's clear to
others whether we're going to be a good time or not.
So to some people, I'm the most boring person on
the planet because they know I'm not into the three
(35:02):
things that they love.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
But that's why I think it's so good to.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Be clear about who we are and broadcast that I
don't mean necessarily publicly. I mean, when you walk into
a room, whatever word you say, the question you first ask,
the way you answer a question can completely shift the
direction of a conversation. Like when I walk into a room,
I want to get into one deep conversation with someone
(35:27):
in the corner. I'm not the person who's like milling
around trying to say hello to everyone. There's nothing wrong
with that.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
That's just not me.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
And so I'd much rather walk away from an event
having had a deep, powerful, profound conversation and made one
new friend then feel like I spoke to thirty people
about small talk. And again, there's nothing wrong with that,
it's just who I am.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
So I love some of the things you just said
because I love great conversations. I feel like that's one
of the ways I learned so much about myself is
through conversation with people who who just have some emotional
insight intelligence.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
That's one of my favorite things.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Man, No matter where I am, and you know, my
friends be like, boy, you talk a lot, you know,
But I do love those conversations. And another thing you
mentioned it that I have to say has been one
of the most powerful aspects about helping me in my
life is to be clear, like taking care of myself
(36:28):
when it comes to like the foods I eat, like having,
like I said, my own meditation and prayer.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
What does that look like.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
We'll cuts through some of those habits, because I feel
like this group loves learning about habits and practices and
tools and tactics. What are some of yours that you commit.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
To wake up in the morning, thanking God for the day,
thanking God just for the day, for the breath of life.
And as Jay said, this is a spiritual thing. I'm
not like when I talk about God, I'm talking about
the creative heavens and Earth that exists in all woman, man,
that exists in all people on the planet. It's not
(37:07):
a religious thing. This is about the spirit that created
all of us and that exists in all of us.
So just communing with God is the first thing. And
then I get into it's certain scriptures that I read
that reinforce who I am and my relationship with the Creator.
(37:27):
And then I get into my prayer, and then I'll
get into my meditation. People ask me like, do you
do this type of meditation. It's type My meditation is
the south side of meditation.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
I just came up with.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
I pulled from everything that I had experienced and was like,
this works for me. It's not gonna be this twenty
minute meditation. Might be a minute or two, but I'm
gonna get it in and it works and it works
for me. But seriously, it's that meditation. And then I
go to this other book that I have that has
these mantras and scriptures to them. At that point, you know,
(38:04):
like I'm prepared for the day and going into that
day knowing that, man, this is going to.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Be a beautiful day.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Because we all sometimes I wake up like something feel
funny as soon as I wake up, But me getting
into gratitude and just saying thank you for the day
and thank you for the breath of life starts to
shift that funny feeling. And then like me starting to
starting to say the things that I know I'm creating
(38:33):
for and the purpose that I'm here for, it starts
to shift and my day becomes greater just from there,
and even if some incidents happen, my perspective on the
day is not down because I've done those things. Now
the diet and food side, I get into my I
got my supplements that I take and you know, take
those in the morning and then I try to get
(38:55):
a work out in. Like I said, sometimes you don't
have an hour to do a workout and get whatever time.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
And it's just movement. What I noticed is when I
move around, whether it's a walk, I used to think
I was like, man, those old people be walking, man.
But now I'm taking walks.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
I'm walking in London, walking into the parks, and I'm like,
am I that age said, I'm walking? But but a
walk is a beautiful thing. And I realized just the
movement of the body is good for the mind and
the soul. So this is all part of my like
wholeness when I what I talk about in the book
(39:33):
and then we rise. This is that wholeness of like.
Because I had certain aspects, like I was always pretty
much a spiritual guy like this and learning my spirituality,
you know, reading from the Bible at one point, reading
into the Koran and reading different things to just know
God for myself. But then I needed other aspects and
(39:55):
I started to figure out that the diet made me
see clear. Now only did I see clear, like I
was rapping clear, Like my voice sounded clear, like for real,
like for not having certain foods in my body and
taking care and my energy. I was waking up with
energy instead. Like so I felt the difference. And that
(40:16):
was all the research I needed to do. I didn't
need to read nothing to note that, like, oh, I
feel better doing these things. So all those things are
things that I put into practice, and you know, I
pick up new things, like just listening to you, I'm like, wait,
I'm gonna start figuring out this exposure bless you. I'm
I'm gonna figure out this exposure thing, like and see
(40:36):
what I can do because I'm always looking to learn
and grow.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Yeah, I love that talking about exposure therapy. I wanted
this event to be special and this is gonna be
a surprise for everyone. I wanted to give someone in
the room. We've been talking about dreams, we've been talking
about rising above judgment. We've been talking about taking your opportunity.
I wanted to check there's no pressure, but I wanted
(41:01):
to check if there was a poet, a rapper, a
spoken word artist in the audience that wanted sixty seconds
to share with the audience and with common their skills.
I want to give you a moment, and I don't
want you to steal a moment from someone else. So
this isn't messing around, it's it's someone who truly has
I see the yellow shirt. I see one up there.
(41:24):
I love that hustle, the hustle, I love it.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
What's his name? Oh you don't know?
Speaker 3 (41:32):
Oh wow, okay, that's amazing, that's great. You know, I
really feel like there's moments like this. We got you
in the seat to give someone a moment, to give
someone an opportunity, to put someone out there, to put
someone on. I chose the hardest person to get downstairs.
Now he's last trying to find his way while we're
waiting for him. I want to want, oh, here we go.
(41:59):
I'm true.
Speaker 5 (42:00):
I want to say hello before.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Its brother alsome. That's blessome, bless you, thank you, glad,
thank you.
Speaker 5 (42:11):
All right, So your name is Daniel, Daniel, Where are
you from?
Speaker 6 (42:15):
I'm from Chicago.
Speaker 5 (42:19):
From here, you're rappers, smoking word eyes, poet.
Speaker 6 (42:23):
I'm a poet.
Speaker 7 (42:24):
In all honesty, I've taken kind of a back seat
from the spotlight. I don't have any socials. I go
and perform at open mics occasionally. But yeah, my heart
is pumping.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Well, this is this is what we wanted to do
tonight because you running down and we saw you hustles.
You take a breath just to catch your breath, but
that was the point of tonight. I want to make
it known that you can do it. It's not a
you know, I think we often feel like we have
to wait for our moment, We've got to work for it.
But we want to give it to people right here.
So I want to give you sixty seconds to share
(43:00):
with us the words, the work, whatever you want to
read to us, come and will give us a zero
out of ten rate.
Speaker 5 (43:06):
Now you ready?
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Yeah, you got it, bro, You got it, Bro, you
got it. You got it.
Speaker 7 (43:20):
Okay, So I'm gonna give you something that's relatively new,
and it's about the lady that pushed me to come
up here.
Speaker 6 (43:28):
She's up there a real quick because I don't want
to waste any of your time.
Speaker 5 (43:33):
You're not wasting anyone's telling me, God, I'm nervous.
Speaker 6 (43:37):
Why am I up here?
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (43:42):
Yeah, let's called my new favorite color.
Speaker 3 (43:47):
Before we dive into the next moment, let's hear from
our sponsors. Thanks for taking a moment for that. Now
back to the discussion.
Speaker 6 (43:56):
If I asked any of you, what's your favorite color,
it will come without a say.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Guess.
Speaker 7 (44:01):
You might even attribute some colors to different moods. Green
might be the envy, and a mean girl whose burn
book would burn looks through sky blue retinas like our
heavenly ceiling, relling with the beauty of God's creations. But
not a single star burns brighter than the patren my
eyes behold. After all, they say that's where her beauty lies.
So my answer is red. That's my favorite color. It's
(44:25):
something about the way it massages her cheeks before they
form that rose that reminds me of Aretha's declaration, a
dedication to the strongest flower in concrete jungles never meant
to grow, but defying all odds God's peculiar creation, sending
sensations where you hear, see, and touch vibrations. I love
to make up bless just to see a smile from
(44:46):
those red lips. I'd re educate the inner child to
me that was deceived to believe the synesthesia couldn't be achieved.
But who knew the color red could taste so sweet,
scent like strawberry's harvested solely by God's worthy out happily
trick for this treat. And I'm gonna leave it there
because I am dying.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Jay jack Y, I'm gonna lie. I'm gonna liun no.
That was That was dope, real dope, Yo.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
I know it's kind of hard to handle for everybody.
Give it up for Daniel, Yo.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
I say it like this.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
I say it like this, and God we trust. I
see a shirt and I tell them seeings day not
like us.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
What can you do? Yo? You know the whole outcome.
I see Martin and of course I see Malcolm.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
We know right now. I keep my mind heavy. I
keep it already. When I'm with Jay Shetty, it's like
this consense yo.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
I guess you know me. I gotta say rest in
peace to that brother Kobe.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
This is how it is, yo, We at your service,
were right here in Chicago, and this is about purpose.
It's on purpose, Yo. I'm telling you these words. Is
my man Jay Yo. I told you he's a wordsmith.
Com sense. I'm coming. I got my brother from London.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
This is how it be. I got a hundred styles
in running. I can let you know. My mind's like encyclopedia.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
When I come to the Chicago Theater, letting you know
it's time for me to climb. We talk about the
spirituality is divine and I'm coming straight for shot off
the head. My man Daniel said his favorite color is red. Yo,
I read through books to this how we look. We
got an understand, cam Sense. I've never been shook. I've
(46:32):
been hanging in places where we hang outside. I'm talking
about the West and of course the South side, and
that's how it be when I know to go off
and shout out to my people. That's even from the north.
Com sense, it's like this, Joe, I guess I'm living
in I was cruising up and down the street called
Michigan Avenue, grabbing new things that I need to do.
(46:53):
Com sense, Yo, I told you I believe in you
and believe in me as I'm receiving these things. Earlier,
we were talking Jay about dreams and that's how it
be the style of be free.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
I just gotta say respect to g O. D you
have been danging everyone.
Speaker 5 (47:20):
That was that was a surprise for me. Wow wow.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
Wow little fun wow o little yea.
Speaker 5 (47:32):
Yeah, that was I was not expecting that.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
Man, I kind of I love I love rapping man.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
I love I love him see and once once we
had the music a little bit and Daniel did his thing.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
I'm like, I'm at home, I'm on the Jayson said show.
I'm like, I got it. I want to m C.
Speaker 5 (47:55):
I was straight up the dome.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
It was all the references that what up yet reference
It's amazing, keep it free.
Speaker 5 (48:03):
It's oh my god, thank you, thank you so much
for that, and thank you Daniel. Daniel again, everyone, you
took your moment.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
I love I love people taking their moment, yes, and
I love helping people have their moment. And when those
two things come together, because I feel like I spent
my whole life waiting for someone to give me a shot.
And often we can feel that way, just waiting for
someone to open the door or just let us in
or whatever it may be, and you know, oh, there
(48:38):
we go. He just made it upstairs. And it's just
beautiful when you put yourself out there like that. And
I hope that you know. One of the things I
like to do differently in these evenings is have moments
(48:59):
like that, because when you see someone who's sitting in
the same place as you are, but takes the moment
I hope it's a reminder to you tomorrow when you're
at the office, when you're talking to someone, when you're
with your family and you've just been avoiding that moment.
I hope it gives you the courage and the strength
to go. Daniel did that, you know, on stage in
front of two thousand people with coming.
Speaker 1 (49:20):
And yeah, Jay, I gotta say, like, you made me
think about like it was a point whereever I had
to learn to take that moment and this happened to me.
This is further into my career. This is basically I
was in a movie called Selma, right, And I was
an actor in Selma. Yeah, and I'm directed by the
(49:42):
great Ava Duvinet, and I mean it's incredible actors in
there and actresses. But anyway, it was about the people
of the civil rights movement. And we finished the movie,
and the movie it really moved my spirit because we
were living in the shoes and the skin of the
people the civil rights movement. So we got to meet
Ambassador Andrew Young and John Lewis, the late great John Lewis,
(50:07):
and it affected my life. I remember Ambassador Andrew Young
at our first meeting said, what are you willing to
die for live for that. He said, we were willing
to die for freedom and justice and equality, so we
lived for it every day, right, Well, that all that
(50:28):
affected me. We finished the movie and I'm asking everybody
is a part of it, what are y'all gonna do
for the like songs like what's gonna What's y'all got
any music in mind? They was like, yeah, we got
some in mind, but it's not you, right. So I
usually wouldn't seize the moment or take that moment, and
(50:51):
like I would be shy about that moment.
Speaker 2 (50:53):
That's what I was talking about them in my light.
At times.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
I was on the phone talking to my manager saying, well,
what are they doing with the song for Selma? And
he was like, man, they said they got some people
they want to use, but they they haven't locked it in.
It hit me like it was like the Creator speaking
to me. God was speaking to me. I literally said,
I'm going to call you back. The thought came to
(51:18):
me like I'm gonna call John Legend and see if
he would be open to like working with me on
a song for this. I hang up the phone with
my manager and called John. John is in London and
I tell him, hey, man, I'm part of this movie, Selma.
It's incredible, man Like, it's about doctor King and the
(51:38):
women and the men of the civil rights movement.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
Let's do a song.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
Now, they don't want a song from us, so we're
submitting it. But will you do this song? He said,
I got you, brother. I usually wouldn't asked like my friends,
and I've worked with John before, but I wasn't the
type to just ask for it.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
But something I listened to what God said, Look call John.
I did it.
Speaker 1 (52:01):
And John said, I'm gonna be over here for a
few months on this tour, but I will go in
the studio. On Wednesday, I hung up the phone. I
text them three titles. The last title I texted him
was Glory. He said he saw that that name Glory,
and it sparked his thoughts and he started coming with
(52:23):
the melody and he started, you know, coming up with
the words for the hook. One day when the Glories,
when I can't sing it, y'all, I mess it up.
But you know he did that sent it back to me.
After that Wednesday, I remember getting the music. I was
going to my father's memorial. I heard that music. I
was overwhelmed. I ended up writing that song, and that
(52:49):
song became a song that we ended up winning a
Golden Globe, winning a Grammy, and winning an.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Oscar World for And I'm bringing that up because there
was that moment.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
It was that one moment where I decided to listen
and not be afraid and just ask and seize the moment,
and it happened.
Speaker 5 (53:18):
I'm so glad you shared that story.
Speaker 3 (53:21):
I'm so glad you shared that story because I think
you know that was later in your career, Yes, and
you still have that doubt where you have to listen
in And I think I love hearing that because I
think we all think one day we're going to get
to a place from which we don't have to listen
anymore to God, to that inner voice, to that direction.
Speaker 5 (53:43):
But the truth is it's always the case. You always
have to go inward to find that outward direction.
Speaker 3 (53:50):
It's not going to happen by constantly looking around and
where do I want to be and where do I
want to go? And you've got to constantly look inside
and hear the ask here, the calling yes, that question,
yes right, because we're looking for the answer that you
don't hear the ask.
Speaker 2 (54:05):
Yes, you know what I mean. Yes, man, Yes, it's
a really.
Speaker 3 (54:07):
Interesting thing that God's trying to ask you to do something.
You're like, God, tell me the answer.
Speaker 2 (54:10):
Right, tell me to answer.
Speaker 5 (54:11):
I was like, no, no, no, I want you to
do that.
Speaker 1 (54:12):
I want you to do this, and you have to
be open to the to the experience and the journey too.
It's a beautiful thing, but it's a thing where it
doesn't stop. Like I mean, last week, I was like, man,
I want this, I want this. It didn't happen for me,
and I had to like really come to grips and
do exactly what I told you.
Speaker 2 (54:32):
I work on.
Speaker 1 (54:33):
I work on like just still staying in gratitude, still
knowing what's for me, is there for me, and really
being present and Okay, I prayed for that and I said, man,
if it's in your will and I use my scriptures
to and that didn't happen for me, then I have
to understand that I'm supposed to be here wherever you
have me, and I'm going to be trusting in that
(54:54):
and be present in that. And that's one of the
things that I just it doesn't stop. I was later
in my career when I did that with John, when
I said, hey, you know I called them. But it's
still moments where I'm like, should I say to this person?
Should I not? But I'm more leaning towards because I've
I've worked on it to say I'm gonna speak up
(55:16):
for the things that I want or just say my truth,
Like if it's something that doesn't work for me, I
know how to speak up on that too.
Speaker 2 (55:23):
So I love that.
Speaker 3 (55:26):
I wanna take the last few moments to end every
on purpose interview, as we always do with the final five. Yes,
these questions have to be answered with one word to
one sentence maximum.
Speaker 2 (55:38):
Okay, so this is a real challenge.
Speaker 5 (55:42):
This is the real challenge. These are your final five.
Speaker 3 (55:46):
Question number one, which we asked to every guest who's
ever been on the show, what is the best advice
you've ever heard or received to.
Speaker 2 (55:55):
Love others as you love yourself. I think that's the best.
They're the best, and I've.
Speaker 5 (56:00):
Received I agree question. Oh yeah, give it up, absolutely,
go for it. This is awesome question.
Speaker 3 (56:08):
Usually when I'm doing the final vibe with someone like
I don't get this, so this is amazing, Like you
don't know what a gift you're giving me by being
here right now. You know, when we're doing this in
the studio, it's beautiful. But we should do every episode
with you guys here.
Speaker 2 (56:21):
Yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (56:24):
Question number two, what is the worst advice you've ever
heard or received?
Speaker 1 (56:30):
People say this, They say the same shit every day.
I ask them, like, how you doing, and they say, man,
same shit, new day. I don't subscribe to that mentality.
So I looked at that as like bad advice, and
I'm like, nah, so it's gotta be something new happening
in a day, something.
Speaker 5 (56:48):
New, So create something new. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (56:52):
Question number three, what was the hardest part about learning
to love yourself and take care of yourself?
Speaker 1 (57:01):
The hardest part about learning to love myself and take
care of myself is learning to love myself. When I'm
being rejected. That is like a real that's a because
that is when it taps into the little Rashid and
(57:21):
the things that I've been rejected or abandoned from before
as a kid. And when I'm rejected now you told
me to keep this answer short, but to carry on.
But when I'm rejecting now, sometimes I'm I can bring
that little Rashid into the present and and those feelings
(57:44):
are being rejected and make this new rejection greater than
what it really is. I'm not present in what is happening,
So I think loving myself in those moments has been
some of the toughest times.
Speaker 2 (58:00):
But I feel I'm worth it, so I strive for it.
Speaker 3 (58:07):
Question number four, how do you show yourself self love
every day?
Speaker 1 (58:13):
The things that I do for self love that I
spoke about from every aspect, the prayer, meditation, foods, I
make sure I'm diligent about it, and like if my
call time is at five thirty, if they coming to
get me to go to set at five thirty, I'm
still going to get up and make sure I have
enough time to do those things because that's me loving myself.
(58:36):
That's me giving the time to myself that I need
and that that has nothing to do with nobody else,
but that's me and the Creator. And I think you
know that's how I take time. And I also have
boundaries now too, like where sometimes if somebody is I
know it's taking advantage of me or just asking for
(58:59):
too much and I'm not able or willing to give that,
I know how to speak up for that So that's
another way that I've learned to love myself every day.
Speaker 2 (59:08):
To speak up, beautiful sure.
Speaker 3 (59:12):
Fifth and final question of the final five we asked
this every guest who's ever been on the show, if
you could.
Speaker 5 (59:18):
Create one law that everyone in the world had to follow,
what would it be.
Speaker 1 (59:22):
We would have to go inside of ourselves to find
the greatest love that exists, and in every daily activity,
we would have to acknowledge that love in ourselves and
encourage it in others and see it in others. And
(59:44):
that would be the law, to know that love within
you and acknowledge it in others and treat them as such.
Speaker 5 (59:50):
Comen.
Speaker 3 (59:51):
We wanted to, I mean, beautiful answers. We wanted to
do one last special thing with you because you kindly
came out to Chicago to be here with us. I
want you to take a look behind you in a
second when we have it up there. If we get
it up there, we go. What if you could communicate
(01:00:12):
with your younger self? Now, what would you say to
your younger self?
Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
Well you had head inn brother, Well, I would say
I would say man. I would say, man, no matter
what you go through, you got everything you need to
to be what your purpose to be on this planet,
and go out there and do your duty, and do
it in the highest way, and do it with joy,
(01:00:39):
do it with love, do it with grace. And you
will make some mistakes, you will go through pain. But
God loves you more than anything, and you love you,
so show the world that love.
Speaker 5 (01:00:52):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
And second one, what do you what do you need
to hear? Look at very dapper, It's like what would
you say you need to hear?
Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
Most?
Speaker 5 (01:01:08):
Right now?
Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
The quest is still going. You still got a lot
of growing to do, a lot more to give, be free.
You're doing well, but but you're going to be greater
and you will do greater and all those things you're envisioning.
(01:01:30):
Continue to be patient and be diligent and remember your purpose,
and Jail'll have you back on.
Speaker 3 (01:01:38):
Again anytime, anytime, anytime, anytime. Off off to this next one.
I'll see if you want to come back on again.
If we get a third or up, it's an ai
AI from the team. When you look at that, what
(01:01:59):
wisdom do you? What wisdom do you hope you will
have realized? Well in the next ten twenty years.
Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
You finally stop putting that die in your bed. I
would hope that I was still.
Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
Be enjoying like music, creating music, enjoying acting. I would
hope to be getting my Morgan Freeman on at that point.
And I would hope that the work that I have
done is penetrating people's lives and families and things are
(01:02:37):
just better in the world because of me doing my part,
as we all do our part.
Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
And I hope that I'm just having fun in a good,
healthy relationship.
Speaker 5 (01:02:48):
Coming everyone, come back anytime.
Speaker 3 (01:02:53):
If this is the year that you're trying to get creative,
you're trying to build more, I need you to listen
to this episode with Rick Rubin on how to break
into your most creative self, how to use unconventional methods
that lead to success, and the secret to genuinely loving
what you do. If you're trying to find your passion
and your lane, Rick Rubin's episode is the one for you.
Speaker 4 (01:03:16):
Just because I like it, that doesn't give it any value,
Like as an artist, if you like it, that's all
of the value. That's the success comes when you say
I like this enough for other people to see it.
Host
Jay Shetty
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