will.i.am

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Man, what's hand him? Man? You got Marshaw Bismall Lynch.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Doug Hendrickson and Gavin Knewsome and you're listening to politics.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
You know to be you're known to be.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Gavin.

Speaker 4 (00:20):
It's interesting. I was on the heels of the debate
on Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
I know you're there.

Speaker 4 (00:24):
I know Marsham was somewhere. I just got back from
a little trip here. What was the vibe like there
being there?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
He got crushed. I mean Trump got crushed. He knows
and he knew it. I mean I was in the
spin room and all of a sudden, there's all this commotion.
I'm doing a live hit on NBC or MSNBC, one
of the two, and everybody looks over our shoulder and
there's this giant scrum because Trump came down to his
own spin room. And I'll tell you what it had been.
There's no greater tell than that. When you are the principal,

(00:52):
you're in the debate, You've got all these folks, they're
supposed to be doing that for you. He clearly was
trying to shape ship the fact that he got crushed,
and of course he came in as only Trump said.
He said it was the best debate he ever had.
He was here in California, trash in California, at his
golf course, right on the coast, the Pacific Ocean behind him.
More couldn't be more beautiful, saying it's the worst state
in the world, trash and everything about California, and said

(01:16):
he won the debate overwhelmingly. The polls represent that he
got crushed. It was an embarrassment. He looked weak.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
Old goat explained it to me. So when you say
the spin room, so he walks, he leaves the stage,
and the spin room is what how many people are
in there?

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Who's rooms?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
It's in another room. So you got the convention which
is just down the road. He made his way all
the way up to the convention room, and you just
imagine hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of reporters and all
doing live shots from the all the spectrum, Fox News,
not just you know, ABC News and CNN. Everybody's there.
You got the Who's who the Republican Party. You got

(01:52):
RFK Junior there, he got Tulca Gabbard there, Vivek Ramaswami,
you got Doug Bergman all his surrogates, you got all
of us on the other side, and yeah, I mean
and everybody's spinning. Of course, for us it was a cakewalk.
I mean we walked in there big smiles on our face.
These guys had a hard time spinning the fact that
it was a good debate for for for Trump, it

(02:14):
was terrible. I mean, he looked. You can't look at
it objectively and not and not make.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
That Trump have any words.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
No, I didn't. I would look forward to see them.
I want to have some words with him today after
he's trash in California.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
You should have went and grabbed him gloves that I
was using out there in Cuba to fight them.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Cackling those kids. By the way, let's talk about that.
Where the hell was the ref You were tackling.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
The kids and I had to play to my advantage.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, two hundred pouds man, two hundred pouds man.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Them little kids were shifty, man. But you should have
You should have grabbed some of them gloves and seen
if a batman can throw them hands.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, I'll tell you that the gloves that were throwing
or Harris through the gloves, she threw the glove. And
by the way, if it was a prize fight, Marshawn
It was a tko in the second round, she took
him down commanded the stage from the first second when
she walked right up to him and introduced herself as
Kamala Harris.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
She she put it out there how to pronounce her her.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
He he's still the disrespect that that that ex president
has his next level.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Man.

Speaker 4 (03:25):
But Gavin, after all this shit he talks about you,
do you ever feel like when you saw him in
the spin room to walk up to him and just say, hey, bro,
you got fucking crushed and look him in the eye
and walk out?

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Or do you no, Gavin Bro, we from California. We
don't do no talking. So if you're gonna walk up,
you got a fire on blood. I ain't gonna even
hold you. So if you ain't gonna do that, then
you might as well. Just don't. Don't turn into one
of these internet gainsts. If you've seen it's on site. Damn,
you just gotta get off hella quick like.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Damn, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
You got to hit him with a club punch too.
I don't know if you it's probably been a long
time since you've been in the club, but you get
in a club, you off a couple of them shots
of pa trenity. You get the little wobble like this,
and then you come overhand like this, right on that chin.
If he could take that.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Oh god, you know I was looking at the verbal hits,
no physical hits. But I appreciate. And by the way,
when the Secret Service visits you, I just want to
make sure that we recognized that was Markshawn Lynch talking
about the physical.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Tell them they better make sure I ain't got a
little bit of all in me because I got a
club punch for they ass too. Have you ever been
in a Have you ever been in a real fight before?

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Again, you see the scar right there, brother, right there,
sliding into home plate.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
No no, no, no, no, no, I'm talking about I'm
talking about got.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Into it, got into it. That's a cleat right there, brother,
that's a cleat right there. Stitches.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
So you're saying you didn't do too well.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Talk about guns, not just the ones in Oklahoma. Let's
talk about the guns. But don't I don't take my
weapon out. I used my verbal weapons. I'm a peacemaker.

Speaker 5 (05:02):
Now he's so.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Now, so you did throw hands. But back in the day,
like even when you was a ute.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
When I was good, I was good. I was the
one getting bullied.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Man.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
But we'll talk about that another day. But no, I
grew into my own now, no one messes. Well, how
many people.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
May say, oh, yeah, you got a motherfucking title that
a lot of motherfuckers are scared of. I wouldn't try to,
you know what I mean, See though, y'all on that
level together where y'all could actually you know what I mean,
because I see all the YouTubers doing it, I mean,
the athletes going into it. I mean, you know, go
ahead and show the political world that you know what
I mean, y'all ain't scared to get in the ring

(05:43):
and throw a couple of hands.

Speaker 4 (05:44):
Well, no, here's the deal. Marshawn, Gavin and I both
had bullies. I'll tell you my story, Gavin can tell his.
I'll never forget this. I'm in seventh grade, Marshawan, and
I got this big guy's an eighth grader. Every day
is waiting for me at the top of the steps,
and he I would go. I would go around the
long way to school because I was terrified this guy
he got me one time, pushed me down and I

(06:06):
was terrified this guy.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
So you never ate lunch in eighth grade.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
No, I was in seventh grade.

Speaker 4 (06:11):
But then my dad, My dad heard about it, and
he said, listen, the only way you're gonna be able
this guy's going to stop bullying you is you got
to stand up to him. So he literally bought me
some boxing gloves, took me in the backyard, taught me
how to box and throw. So finally, after about three weeks,
I walk up the steps and the big dude's waiting
for me. And I sat there and the guy said words,

(06:33):
all the buddies around him, and.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
I got the first push and wa hit the.

Speaker 4 (06:37):
Dude right in the nose. He didn't didn't do anything,
but he beat me up. But guess what, that was
the last time that ever happened to me by this guy.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
And then we became friends.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
You upside down by your ankles, and he didn't hand me.

Speaker 4 (06:50):
Upside down like I did. John Schneider in your contract.
I still have the picture of that one. He said
that that was my bully. I know, Gavin, you had
a few bully stories.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
We call it the Bully of Baltimore because it was
Baltimore Avenue in courtA Madera, and my story done end well.
But I will say that boxing thing resonated because this
is around Rocky. When Rocky came out and I was
doing raw eggs every single morning. It got my gloves
from Big five down the block. It was hitting all
the time, and I was ready to go, and I
went out, went out. He used to surround me. I

(07:21):
had a paper route and I'd come in on the
paper route. I used to try to climb in the
back and it was always hard, but had my bike,
I couldn't climb over, and so anytime he come down,
they'd surround me, push me over. My sister would start crying,
and I will say, see, was my mom not my
dad in this case. She went down with me one
night and they lived just down the block and walked

(07:42):
right in and I thought, I thought she was going
to take care of it. She made me walk up
there with her. I'm nervous as hell right behind her,
and they got into it. My mom was like she
was young, and they got into it, and the dad
and the mom were defending the bully, and my mom
got in it. She turned around and brought us back house.

(08:03):
About six months later, we moved out of the neighborhood,
so it didn't end as well.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
You got ran about the spot.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
You can't ran up out the spot. Shit.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
Oh no, man, you know what Bully of Baltimore.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
Man, if he's listening, it ain't over it yet.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
But Marshaun, you know what's crazy about that?

Speaker 4 (08:18):
The incident I had and Gavin you might feel the
same way as a father, you know, like that scarred
me literally for a long time. And so whenever I
hear the kids come back about, you know, a kid
at school getting picked on by somebody whoever, I always
go to my So listen, man, here's my story. Go
befriend that kid, Go find that kid and make it right.
Because that's the one thing that one of the only

(08:40):
things that pissed me off as a parent when I
hear stories of kids eating alone or getting bullied, whatever
it may be, you know, have someone go pick him
up and defend him, whatever it may be. And so
I'm a big believer in that because I went through
I'm sure the same thing with you guys.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Say, trust me, man, one hundred percent, Like there's nothing
I hate more than bullies. And I I completely absolutely
convinced the exact same thing happened to you. It was
that early experience. And by the way, it was also
around that same time that one of my seventh grade classmates,
seventh grade classmates called me new scum instead of new sum.

(09:14):
And you know, I listened today Donald Trump. He called
me new scum about ten times story to press conference.
All I could think is, this is a guy who
wants to be president of the United States again calling
me the same damn nickname that a kid in seventh
grade he calls you today, Yeah, new scum newscom I mean,
talk about a man child.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
I could guess we could say that nickname kind of
stuck with you. Some some people get names like uh
like beast mode. I mean some you got new scum.
Some getting new scum. So you know, it's kind of
like you know, I mean, some things just stick.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
Men. This guy's obsessed with you, bro, It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
He's a pathetic weakness ten times today weakness. Bulliers are
the weakest people in the world. They're weak, they put
on a mask, they're weak, they're broken, they're insecure. That's
all that is. That's why you hit him in the face.
The dude ran away. I mean it's a cliche, it's classic.
But you know what, a lot of folks don't have

(10:10):
that courage to hit him back in the face. And
they and that's why we got to stand up for I.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
Think you just know that it's value in bringing you up.
So by him bringing you up, then I guess he thinks,
you know what I mean, he got the he gonna
get the ear of some people by bringing up Gad.
That's that's the that's the value in you, batman.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
I appreciate it. No, I'm here for everybody. I told
you I work for everybody.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
Start getting a little worried if he started calling you batman,
because then you know he really he really, he really,
he really honed it in on trying to figure some
shit out. Yeah, you gotta watch that one, Sodvin.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
Were you surprised he didn't want a debate for the third.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Time, No, he's scared to death. I mean, of course
he doesn't want a debate.

Speaker 3 (10:53):
He just he thought he won. He thought he won.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
No, he didn't think he wanted. He knew better. That's
why he showed up at the spin room. He's a
con man. He's oster I mean, so, I mean, obviously
he's spinning the spinners. I mean, it was embarrassment and
he knows it, and he doesn't want to be embarrassed again,
so he copped out. He ran, he ran away, you know,
I mean to talk about it. I mean, she punched
him in the face and he ran away. I mean

(11:19):
it's a perfect metaphor for what we just discussed. And uh.
And the problem is the poll numbers don't reflect much
of a move. And that goes back to your point.
In Oklahoma, we're living in two different worlds in the
same state nation. I mean, it's it's it's gonna be
a grind, man. It's like World War One. You're just
in the trenches, inch by inch by inch, back and forth,

(11:40):
and so nothing about this stuff's going to be easy.
But it just it's a reflective of the moment we're
living in.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
Well, it's funny.

Speaker 4 (11:46):
I read I read the Pat Mahomes thing where he
didn't want to endorse anybody, which I totally did, but
he was.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
He was his reason why it was great. I sent
it to Gavin.

Speaker 4 (11:55):
He's like, look, you know, I want you know, people
can like whoever they want, but live in humanity, you know,
live together peaceful whole thing.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
So he said it in the right way.

Speaker 4 (12:03):
I can't remember exactly what you said, but it was
a pretty cool comment. He's like, look, I'm not going
to get involved in this. That's not my job. But
you know there was a day when everyone did get
along and they weren't fighting and killing over you know
who's going to be the president?

Speaker 2 (12:18):
Amen? And you know, I will say the biggest thing
they did happened that night was Taylor Swift's endorsement of Harris.
For no other reason than this, just getting folks that
may not vote, young folks to vote, get them registered,
and get them vote to vote, and that could be
an entire race that could be determinative in this race.

(12:39):
Don't ever underestimate her influence and power. And as I
gave advice to Trump, he should be very careful of
how he reacts to that endorsement.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
Kevin, have you seen an influx of the younger people
from the last three elections? More votes of the eighteen
to twenty two year old out since eight And when
Obama started to now.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
No, I mean, well, it's going to be a good
segue to will I am. It was so instrumental as
a cultural icon during that two thousand and eight election
with Obama. But no, it's I mean, you've seen regression
in that respect. There's a lot of cynicism with young
folks in the last few years about politics and politicians,
and so they're walking away. That's why it's a big

(13:23):
deal that not only she dialed in for Harris, but
she's dialing up the registration and the energy for the
Harris campaign. So no, I mean it's the young folks
that ultimately will sway this election or like will determine
the fame and future of this election and the issues
they care about, the issues Harris cares about, the climate issues,

(13:43):
a gun policy, gun safety issues obviously, around democracy and
choice freedom, all those good things, right, Marshan. Hey, by
the way, Marshan, what the hell is going on? There's
apparently we have an epidemic of people eating cats and dogs.
Have you been reading about this stuff? Brother?

Speaker 1 (14:03):
I did. Man, I've just seen they dropped. They dropped
your boy dt uh his mixtape talking about eating cats
and dogs. Man, they are bro. They doing some ship.
I don't know what that is. I don't know, man.
It's a it's a it's a fucked up time right now.
I wonder how they're doing it. Is they doing shish

(14:23):
kebabs or the barbecue grill I mean fried or I
mean I don't know how they're doing that, but I
mean leave it, leave it, Leave it up to people.
They gonna fucking uh put some salt and pepper on
anything and try it. God damn, that's assuming it happened.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
B s's bs.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
We ever a guest starting ready to jump in right now.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
Let's do it.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Bring Will in?

Speaker 5 (14:59):
What's up? What's up?

Speaker 3 (15:00):
Will?

Speaker 4 (15:00):
Are you coming?

Speaker 1 (15:01):
Man?

Speaker 5 (15:02):
What's up with it? Way? Gavin?

Speaker 1 (15:03):
How you doing? Brother?

Speaker 2 (15:04):
Thanks for being with us?

Speaker 5 (15:05):
Man, show your daddy whatever?

Speaker 4 (15:07):
Bro?

Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yeah, what's had? And Lane? You didn't bounce on this?
Motherfucker cooler than the fan, my boy? Damn. Look, I'm
glad I came with a little stam because ship man,
I gotta you know, I ain't. We gotta represent for that.
You feel mes one time? God damn is money with
your big donk.

Speaker 5 (15:27):
Just chilling here?

Speaker 1 (15:28):
Bro?

Speaker 5 (15:28):
Just got back from South Korea.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
South Korea.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
That's one of them ones.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
That was one of them ones.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
That's one of them ones.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
On God, I had the pleasure.

Speaker 4 (15:38):
Uh And and Will noses back in the late nineties
meeting him with my client the Dirty Bird, Jamal Anderson
and Jay uh Will back in the day my.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
Younger years as an agent.

Speaker 4 (15:48):
But we're so excited to have one of the legendary rappers, singers, songwriter, producers, entrepreneurs,
any winner with over one hundred million albums sold worldwide,
an absolute icon in this world. Will I am welcome
to polit Chicken Broy.

Speaker 5 (16:07):
It's great to great to be here.

Speaker 4 (16:08):
You know.

Speaker 5 (16:09):
I like I'm a I'm a competitor. I like a
ship and you know, yo, real talk. If I didn't
get that concussion, I would be like one of the
best football players. But but I got that concussion.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
Concussion, concussion, I got.

Speaker 5 (16:25):
I got hit hard position.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
What position was you playing?

Speaker 5 (16:30):
I was a taeilback. I'm fast as hell?

Speaker 1 (16:32):
Th Oh is that right?

Speaker 5 (16:33):
Yeah? I'm fast? Bro?

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Like oh so you so you was told that rock then?
For real?

Speaker 5 (16:38):
Like Jamal Anderson, I mean he ain't fast, but I
whipped him in the race. Oh, Reggie Bush, he never
wanted to race me because you know I'll smoke him.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
Okay this day, I'm fast. Reggie got and Reggie got gassed.

Speaker 5 (16:51):
Though Reggie ain't faster than me and Reggie right now on, God, bro,
you know you never wanted to race me because you
know I'll skunk you. Bro, like you know that.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
Hey, well hold on if you because Reggie fold three,
that ain't somebody you know. You just get to just
be saying, I'm gonna running off phone. So you must
got some uh some high obtaining the in them things.
You must got some ponies. You over there running on
my way.

Speaker 5 (17:14):
I'm four two.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
Damn Okay, now we're talking.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
We're talking, so will will?

Speaker 4 (17:21):
Hey, who was your Who is the back you grew
up liking the back in the day?

Speaker 3 (17:24):
Who are the running backs you like?

Speaker 5 (17:25):
So my uncle played football for the for the for
the foul, so it's in the blood.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (17:32):
Then he played for the Rams yep, so yep. And
then I thought I was gonna follow in his footsteps
till I got cracked and yep, that's not that that
that was That was the end of my career. So
you were just fast, yeah, but sometimes you ain't that
fast to like if you get in the pitch and
you turn to the left and bam, like the speed

(17:54):
don't do everything.

Speaker 4 (17:55):
Will Growing up growing up in La where were you
playing back in the day as a youngster?

Speaker 3 (17:59):
What years you get the cancut?

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (18:00):
I got the concussion like straight straight seventeen okay, and
that's when I was like, you know what, I'm just
gonna do this music stuff.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
Okay. Did this happen in a game or did this
happen in practice?

Speaker 5 (18:13):
No, this happened in the game, and to the point
where it messed up how I how I played afterwards,
because I was always I didn't like the feeling of
I didn't know how I got there, you know what
I'm saying, Like that panic, like how did I get here?
Like where am I at?

Speaker 2 (18:29):
Like?

Speaker 5 (18:30):
I didn't like that feeling.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
You got that da sold on? Hold on? Did you
did you get a little nauseated too?

Speaker 5 (18:37):
I got nauseated.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
I got okay. Oh then you had one of them ones? Yeah,
oh yeah, I lived for that ship.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
How many sean how many times that happened to you
and cussed? Yeah, like one of those ones as you said.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
I mean, I'm being hit like that for show. But
as far as concussions, I never been diagnosed with a
uh with a concussion before?

Speaker 5 (19:00):
Do you remember like not remembering?

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Oh yeah, hell yeah, that's a good question. I mean,
hold on, hold on. I said, I've never been diagnosed.
Oh got it, got it, So you know what I mean.
I'm not saying I ain't done had him, because I
know as much as I be hitting motherfuckers with my head,
I know some I know something going on in that thing.
We'd like to call it screws loose. But uh, yeah,

(19:24):
I've never been diagnosed. But I that feeling when you
get hit and you get nauseating in your stomach, like
ooh shit, this ain't this ain't right. But I'll just
go throw up and then get right back in there
and try to see what's up. Now. Now, if I
don't remember, I'll go ask for my team. Hey, which
one of the motherfucker's hit me? All right, that's who

(19:44):
did it? All right? Then I gotta go see him
about something. He got to come meet me in the office.
But I'll tell you this, I just asked you if
it was in a game or in practice, because they
say we used to have this drill called the Oklahoma drill,
and that's the head of drill running back in the linebacker.
And they say that drill alone made more NBA superstars

(20:05):
than anything. Because if you can, if you can get
through the Oklahoma hitting drills, then you know what, you
probably can You probably can make it in this uh
in this football thing.

Speaker 5 (20:16):
Yeah, I couldn't have done that.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
Well, I'm glad you didn't.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Exactly it worked out for everybody.

Speaker 5 (20:23):
Yeah, like just just I mean, I love football and
I love to compete. I like I'm the talk ship
kind of competitive. I like that because you because you
can get in the skin and you can fuck the
whole game up.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
Hell yeah, because they're like that type of Yeah, because
a lot of individuals they don't understand how how mental
the game is. I think is more physical than anything,
but mentally, if you as not prepared and mentally you
are not ready, you'll have a long day. And if
you're an individual who because you say you could talk
some ship.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
I would.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
Yeah. I mean if you could just get over that,
if you could get over that and get through that, yeah,
you you, that's when you start understanding, you know what
I mean? And I take that ship as like life
learned lessons and I apply that to life, you know
what I mean? Because that ship. I recently just got
back into a to doing double days and I've just

(21:20):
been having like all these deep ass mental talks, and
I didn't realize how much, like I missed that ship
and how much those talks, how much that shit made
me the individual who I was. And it didn't come
from no outside source. It was all within. I mean,
you know, we take we take a lot of that

(21:41):
shit for how you say that for granted, we take
a lot of that ship for granted, but you know,
recently just getting back into it, like, oh shit, well
maybe that's how or maybe that's why I was able to,
you know what I mean, stay focused and do the
shit that I was able to do on the field.
But yeah, you know, I mean, I'm talking to myself

(22:02):
when you getting in there, you grinding, and you just
feel like you can't do no more, and then you
automatically to tell yourself like, hey, we done made it there,
we didn't come this far, Like why turn around and
you go and put that extra in And then when
you go out there and you see the actual results
to it. Now, while you win it, you don't feel it,
but when you think back, like, ooh shit, dad, damn,

(22:22):
I didn't know the power of me was so motherfucking strong. Yeah, yeah,
I love that shit.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
So I will I imagine so as as Marshall was saying,
he took that off the field and obviously a big
part of his life. I imagine when you got concussed
and you took that same competitive energy and spirit, uh
and that inner voice to all these endeavors, not just
in music, but across the spectrum, including your entrepreneurial side.
And and uh so I you still you're still talking

(22:51):
game and talking shit to your competitors in that space.
Or how is that mindset advanced your career more broadly
even even be a on just where we see so
much of you in the music sets. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (23:02):
So like if you if you're playing basketball, I'm the
dude on your team that is just mentally trying to
mess with who we're playing with. If we're playing football,
I'm that same dude. If we're in a group together,
I'm that same guy. I'm like, Yo, who's number one
on the radio this week? All right, cool, let's let's compete.
You know, if it's if it's like if I'm consulting

(23:25):
for a company and they need like some some some
strategic thinking to get around the barricade or over it
or through it or I like, I like to compete,
I like to study, I like to apply and come
up with like plausible ways to truly, you know, get
over these these boundaries, because all it is is is

(23:47):
imagination and just determination, like but not not blind determination,
because you could, like I said, you could get a
concussion if you if you if you only rely on
one skill set, you can't just rely on speed. And
so I thought, I learned the hard way you can't
just rely on that one superpower, and that at that

(24:09):
point in time, my superpower was with speed, and that
so now I like to equip myself with not only speed, agility,
you know, uh, understanding of my terrain strengths, build up strength, forecasting,
being able to see you around corners and the way
you see around corners, to elevate yourself and get as

(24:30):
much data or information as possible, and then networking surround
yourself with other folks that have the same goals and
desires and push through. And that ship talking is is
audacity you have to be, you know, because there's if you,
if you apply that stuff that's happening on the field,

(24:50):
that's some audacious ship. To look somebody in the face
and be like, come back here, see what happens. That's
an audacious ship. And so to have that same audaciousness
to like, this is what we're gonna do with this idea,
this is how, this is the kind of this is
who we who we're going up going up against, and
so that I like to be audacious, but we'll will

(25:14):
have have fun at the same time, Like there's a
there's a thin line between audacity and arrogance and arrogant
and talking ship. That's when ship gets violent. You don't
want to be arrogant and talk shit because that's when
the game turns into then it's not a game anymore.
You want to be audacious and ship talking fun, but

(25:37):
not arrogant and talk ship because that that that that'll
be the last that that that that turns into like
you know, fighting words real fast.

Speaker 4 (25:48):
No that Well, let me ask you a question, Like
I mean, obviously your mom is a huge influence on you.
So growing up back in La you know, obviously the
story is she drove you an hour away to go
to a different school. Was that hard as a kid,
because obviously grown up where you did and then you
went and gotten to music. Was that prior to get
concussed and went to to a music school.

Speaker 5 (26:08):
You know, check this out. I well, I didn't go
to a music school. I took music in school, and
I was horrible at the trumpet. But I got a
record deal while I was in school and going from
like East La to Boil sorry, from East La Boiled

(26:30):
Heights to Brentwood to school, from you know, seven years
old to eighteen years old. That was like a cultural
shock at first, but then it just became my like,
oh wow, this is how you could live. Because if
I was just stuck in the projects and not seeing
like other folks, you know, lifestyles and having two cars

(26:53):
and a house with two car garages, I wouldn't have known.
But I was happy that I was able to, you know,
go across the ten Freeway, past the four h five
to see big gass mansions in Brentwood, drive through Beverly Hills,
to see how people were living there, and compete, like,
oh really, this is how you live in brent This

(27:14):
is how you live in brad this is how you
live in Mitchell. Well, I'm living over here with Lallo's
and Joselitos and you know Earls and Bernie's, and I'm
going to compete. I want to live like that. I
want to have a house like I want my mama
have a house like this. I'm gonna get my mama

(27:35):
house like this, and let's compete. There was this kid
that I went to school with. His name was Kyle Copeland,
and he was like an all star athlete. And his
cousin brother is Royce Jefferson. I haven't seen these people
since we graduated sixth grade. We had dinner last night

(27:56):
last night. I mean, this is thirty three years. I
ain't these people since thirty three years. And to sit
down across from Kyle Copeland, his brother passed away with
a heart attack on the football field at Dorset High School.
Rest in peace, Big Copeland. But to sit down with
Kyle and Royce Jefferson, and here Royce Jefferson, Now you

(28:20):
know what he's doing with his life, having worked at
you know, SpaceX with Elon and them Boeing and now
working with another satellite company. And we went to a
science magnet school and I'm telling him like, yeah, bro,
I got a I got a school. In the down
I went back to my projects that started after school

(28:42):
program teaching kids robotics and computer Science and now we
serve fifteen thousand students in the hood and partnership with
la usd and we both were busted from our hoods
to Brentwood and went to Brentwood Science Magnet. I'm just
so proud of, you know, to see people that you
grew up with ain't seen in thirty three years, you know, now,

(29:06):
you know, do doing something with their life.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
Will Was it hard for your friends to see you
kind of leave the area and go to school there
where they're like, dude, what's up?

Speaker 3 (29:23):
Well, why are you going here? How is that with them?
And you guys?

Speaker 5 (29:28):
Oh, it was dope because they were like, fucking Willie dog,
are you you getting on the yellow bus and you're
going to You're going to school with the white boys?
Don I'm like, yeah, bro, hey was it a light
going to Hey they got big houses? Han dong? Hey
do they have fucking Lamborghinis over there? And saying like
you go to school with the white boys and the
white girls home the white girls like you huh Like
it was it was? It was a dope. It was

(29:49):
a It was a beautiful like you know, melting pot.
La Is. I love la la Is like la is
a Damn, I love l A.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
And we and we'll just so for folks that don't,
they're not familiar with Boyle Heights. I mean it predominantly.

Speaker 5 (30:09):
Particularly predominantly Latino Latino. We were one of the only
black families in our neighborhood. Yep, and and and and
and and usually there's just like in the past, black
and brown were always feuding. But when I grew where
I grew up, it was beautiful. And they they were
proud of my uncle because the neighborhood knew that my

(30:31):
uncle played football with them, and they were like, hey,
your uncle plays for the Falcons. Hey you're now your
uncle plays for the Rams and and and when I
was growing up, I had a really you know, heavy
Mexican accent, uh, But traveling the world, you know my
accent is you know, I could dial it back in,
like especially when I go back to the neighborhood. But

(30:53):
it was it was a beautiful thing. You know, I
wouldn't changing for the world.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
And was it your it was your mom's influence that
got you on the other side there at the Science
Magnet School. I mean she was was she the dogged determinive,
I mean she was she wanted all that for you.
Was it more just your own self?

Speaker 5 (31:09):
No, no, I was too young. I was seven. So
it was her idea to send this out to Brentwood
and then par Revera and Palisades High School and uh
and I loved it. I love I'm so happy that
that was my path. And I think it's the reason
why Black Eyed Peas became like super international, because like
when you meet Persians and you meet Korean folks, you

(31:33):
meet you know, Israeli, you meet folks from you know,
Bahrain and the UAE. You go to school with folks
from that are Saudi. You go to school with folks
that are you know, Armenian, Mexican, you know, Argentinian, Like
you're like, wow, where are you from?

Speaker 1 (31:55):
You know?

Speaker 5 (31:55):
And and you're German. It makes you want to be like, Yo,
one day, I want to go there. One day, I
want to go check out. I want to go to Israel.
I want to go to you know, I want to
go I want to go check out, you know Eru.
I can't wait to go to South Korea. Knowing the
difference going up living in LA gives you the the

(32:19):
the ability because if you're not familiar with it. You
can't tell the difference between Korean, Japanese and Chinese. You
don't know the difference between Indonesian and Filipino. You can't.
It's hard to tell the difference between Singaporean and Malaysian
and Cambodian and Laos and Guam. But being in la
it's like, Oh, you get to like, where are you from?

(32:40):
You're from Laos? What's Laos? Oh SNAr? Cambodia? Well, what's
what's Guam? Oh snair?

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Laos?

Speaker 5 (32:46):
Would you Filipino?

Speaker 4 (32:47):
Well?

Speaker 5 (32:47):
I thought you was Indonesia. And then when you finally
get to go to these places and play in Jakarta
and playing, you know, Bondayace and do a concert for
you know, tsunami relief, the world is a beautiful place.
And before you get to see the world, if you're
blessed to live in Los Angeles, you see some version

(33:09):
of that.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
Well it's interesting. I mean, California is and I keep
reminding myself of this, but twenty seven percent of California's
four and born, which is remarkable. You look at the
nation it's about just a little less than fourteen percent.
It's almost double the number of four and born. It's
a majority minority state. So your point about the ability
to live and advance together across every conceivable difference. It's

(33:31):
a special place, but notably in la the most diverse
part of the most diverse state in the world's most
diverse least democracy in the United States. So that's a
hell of it experience and have that sort of nature nurture.
But you, you know, it's interesting you and I met.
I think the first time I met you it was
around robotics. Was Dean Kman or something someone you.

Speaker 4 (33:51):
Know, having You're wrong, you know where it was. It
was in two thousand and eight. We went to the
show in San Francisco. You came with me.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
Oh wait, I think you're the mess the action first
time I was mayor. That's right, that's right. Yeah, I
I forgot about that, Jesus, But at least I remember.
It was more formidable in this case because I remember,
I mean, you were so and I and I never
connected to doubt, I never understood. And now I have
the origin story of the Science Magnet school that you
were involved in. But that's been a big part of

(34:19):
your life because you've been you've been leading the way
on this robotics innovation, entrepreneurialism, you're involved in AI. Now
you've got this. You're always you talk about, you know,
I know, your mindset being five years ahead of the curve,
always trying to look over the mountain, maintaining that entrepreneurial
mindset and innovative mindset. But when did I mean, when
did that really start to gell for you in terms

(34:42):
of branching out beyond just the music and really and
really sort of attaching uh more around the high tech
side of things and uh and really trying to particularly
an AI you can talk about that where where you've
got some really dynamic technology you're working on today.

Speaker 5 (34:59):
So it hit me, you know, when you have success,
the world caused you to bring awareness to things. So
and two thousand and one, we went on tour on
September the twelfth, actually the day after September eleventh. We
were recording an album in in Bedega Bay on two

(35:24):
thousand and one, and our last day was September the eleventh,
and then our tour started on the twelfth. So I'm like,
we have to go on tour. It has everything to
do with your question Gavin on how did I get
so tech? Because just going to Brentwood Science Magnet elementary

(35:45):
doesn't really I'm not baked in and I'm not soaked
in tech. That was some courses that we took, but
it wasn't enough to be like, this is the path.
So we went on tour and we so what America
felt like. And then the last day of our tour,
we we when the tour finished, we went to the

(36:07):
studio and we wrote a song called Where's a Love
on November the twenty fourth, twenty fourth, threety fifth, So
we wrote that song and then that song became our
our first big hit. And then when you have that
kind of success, the world calls you. You know. Two
thousand and four of the world started calling us. So

(36:27):
I went out and did my campaigning. You know, because
traveling the world in two thousand, from nineteen ninety nine,
two thousand, two thousand and one, the world they they
frowned on Americans. It wasn't a it wasn't it wasn't
a healthy relationship when you would go to certain places
because of how America responded to nine to eleven and

(36:50):
went to war to find weapons of mass destruction and
never found them. And so the world looked at America
and in the world. Uh, very you know, shame on
you guys, and saying you're American. Wasn't the word you said,
wasn't the sentence you said when you traveled around the world,

(37:10):
because you could be in harm's way, especially when you
go play you know, certain places that were anti American
because of our response to ninet eleven. And so we
campaigned in two thousand and four for Carrie. It didn't work.

(37:30):
And so in two thousand and five, tsunami hit Indonesia
and so I was like, what do I want to
do on my birthday March fifteenth? So I went. I
was like, yo, I'm gonna go to tsunami. I'm gonna
do tsunami relief. So I flew to Bondaiace and I
did tsunami relief. And when I was there, I was like, wow,

(37:51):
look at this devastation. Was bodies stacked up on the
shore and to see, you know, Mother nature have its
way on folks that did nothing to deserve that type
of like you know, reality that was thrown upon them.

(38:13):
I'm like, Wow, there's a tsunami that's hitting my neighborhood.
Every single day, there's a tsunami of neglect. It's a
tsunami of no opportunity, a tsunami of zoning that allows
for a check cashing place to be right next to
a liquor store that writes, next to a motel that's

(38:34):
right next to bad food that's right next to a school.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
And then a payday leonard to boot amen.

Speaker 5 (38:39):
And that cocktails is detrimental to people that live in
the communities I live. That means if there's a check
cashing place, the people in the community aren't financially literate,
and once you cast that check, you're gonna go buy
some liquor. And then if you get kicked out of
your house, there's a motel for you, and then there's
a strip club there to spend your money on that's

(39:01):
right next to the school. And the teachers that are
getting paid to teach are not getting the same amount
of money as a stripper that's right next to the motel,
next to the check cashing, next to that bad food
that's going to give you some high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes.
And then here's some magical little medicine to help staton
to help curb that high tension.

Speaker 4 (39:23):
Right.

Speaker 5 (39:23):
So I'm like, if the Food and Drug Administration is
allowing bad food to be riddled in our neighborhood, but
then give you some solution like medicine.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (39:33):
Zoning allows for strip clubs to be next to schools,
next to check cashing, next to liquortory.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
What the hell?

Speaker 5 (39:38):
Because this zoning is not in Beverly Hills in Britainwood
when I went to school, So why is that zoning
cocktail not allowed there but allowed here?

Speaker 1 (39:47):
Yep?

Speaker 5 (39:47):
So I was like, this tsunami cocktail is killing my people.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
And will you're seriously you're telling me literally, this is
coming to you after that damn tsunami. You start, you
start piecing these things together, all these things start to
gel in terms of.

Speaker 5 (40:12):
I saw that neighborhood get destroyed by water and the tsunami,
and then I see my neighborhood get hit by an
invisible force every single day, but nobody's coming for our
tsunami relief. So I was like, you know, what, what is?
What What can I do? I was like, the moment
I get some disposable income, I want to bring, you know,

(40:34):
the technology to my neighborhood because if the kids in
my neighborhood are able to have the same ability to
idate and materialize like they do in Silicon Valley. Whoa whoa,
whoa whoa whoa that. And this is before the iPhone.
It's two thousand and five. So by two thousand and

(40:54):
eight iPhone just one year out. There wasn't the I,
There wasn't the app store like we know it today.
Uber hasn't transformed the world. Airbnb hadn't transformed the world yet.
So in two thousand and eight, my hunch was robotics
programs and computer science programs coupled with Lorraine Power Jobs

(41:15):
college track program nice Love. I partnered with Lorraine Power
Jobs and brought college track to southern California. And I'm like, hey, look,
I want to send kids to college, but I don't
want kids to go to college and then just have
debt and a diploma. I mean, I like double d's,
but not double d's like that debt and diploma. You
feel me, that's the wrong double D YEHB and diploma.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
Marshawn likes both, no, I know.

Speaker 5 (41:45):
So I was like, yo, if I could send kids
to school where they have a skill set so when
they graduate there's jobs waiting for them, and if there's
no jobs waiting for them. They have the skill set
to create new industries themselves. That's what the hood needs.
And so I started that in two thousand and eight

(42:06):
with just sixty five students. Now we serve fifteen thousand students.
After my partnership with la USD, Dean came and let
me tweak the curriculum a little bit, and now our
partnership with First Robotics LAUSD has resulted to we having

(42:27):
the most First Robotics teams in any school district in
the US. I've seen kids to Dartmouth to Stanford, to Brown,
to UCLA, to USC to Georgetown, to cal State Northridge
to San Diego. So I'm really proud of our students

(42:48):
and the reason why I wanted to do that in
my neighborhood because I don't think a kid if everybody says, man,
I can't wait to get up out our neighborhood, like
people don't say that in Brentwood. People don't say that
in Palasades, like I can't wait to get up by
the palisades. Too much water up in here, too much here,
like this views too spectacle, look, can't wait to get

(43:09):
up out of here. That's not what's happening there. So
I want people to say, though, I can't wait to
change my hood, because Brooklyn would tell you that it's
gonna be gentrified anyway. But why can't we do the
altering of our community ourselves. Why are we gonna let
somebody else be like, Wow, this neighborhood is great. I've
been hearing all these great things about this neighborhood on

(43:32):
these rap songs. Let's go out there and like change
it to where the people that lived there can't even
afford it wrong. That's whack, that's like, that's horrible.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
Well, it's funny.

Speaker 4 (43:42):
Will Marshawn and I talked about this all the time,
and Marshaana jump in, but he's been at the forefront
of this as well since he got drafted in two
thousand and seven with Oakland, and Marshawn speak to Will
about you know what you've done there, because what he's
saying is exactly the same stuff you've been doing and
thinking as well since you came out of the league.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
I mean, the approach is the same, just in different fields.
And our use use the sports approach to bring the
kids in and then like our me, my cousin Josh
and my cousin Marcus. We have a foundation and a
youth center of Oakland. Uh, A lot of the same

(44:20):
things that you was just talking about, which is why
I'm just really over here just really listening to you.
And you know, speaking of this robotics program, like how
do we? How do we? I would say, segue that
from you know, down in Yo, in your area and
bring that up to Oakland. Like Yo.

Speaker 5 (44:39):
We could do that like this, And because we treat
robotics like a sport. Every year, we have this culmination
of all the events that happened with the regionals and
we have the championships in Texas. Now I'm at the
Houston Stadium there with the Rangers where the Rangers playing.

(45:01):
It used to be in Saint Louis where the Rams
used to play. And to bring that, it'll be great
to rock with machean, to to bring a robotics program
to Oakland, a couple of them, you know, that'd be amazing.
And we could do that like like this. We got
the blueprint and the system how it worked. That'd be fantastic.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
How many schools are you in all across the country now,
you know.

Speaker 5 (45:27):
Right now in La alone, my efforts equal to just
a little over four hundred schools.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
Crazy.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
Well, well it's interesting as an agent. It's funny. I
grew up in Silicon Valley.

Speaker 4 (45:42):
I'm so impressed by you because if you look back,
you were the first global superstar to really be at
the level you're at and decided and I think it
was your was it with your idea with Jimmy Iveen
on the beach by Dre But then you decided, Hey,
you know what, I'm gonna adventure into Silicon val I'm
an adventure to tech.

Speaker 3 (45:59):
It's amazing.

Speaker 4 (46:00):
See what you've done well ahead of the game. Everyone's
doing it now, but back when you started, no was
doing it.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (46:06):
So two thousand, Napster hit pretty hard and Black Eyed
Peas we started off as like a college group. We
would play ucla USC Northridge, Domingus Hills, Long Beach, San Diego.
We were just wanted to own La. We're like, we
can't own La colleges. Ain't nobody gonna mess with us.
Let's play La Colleges. The problem that we saw is

(46:28):
that when Napster hit, all of our college fans was
getting our stuff for free. So we're like, how are
we not selling records but selling out? We went from
doing House of Blues to doing Greek theaters to Greek theaters,
Like how we selling more tickets and less albums? And
so then I saw Sean Fanning at a club. I'm like, yo, you'

(46:48):
the dude from Nashville. He's like yeah, I'm like yo,
this is changed phone numbers. I really like to get
into your mind and like what made you create this?
Like what is this? So we became really cool friends.
In two thousand and two thousand and one, while everybody
was suing Napster, I just wanted to understand Napster interesting
and the mentality there. Once again, if you're going to compete,

(47:11):
you gotta know who you're competing with. You can't just
attack you get you get, you get a concussion. You
gotta know who's fast on your on your opponent. And yeah,
I learned a lot. So from that, I met Ron
Conway and the person that introduced me to Ron Conway

(47:33):
was AMC.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
Hammer.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (47:36):
MC Hammer's like, yo, I heard you got a company.
The reason why I wanted to start my own company
because I told Jimmy, Like, yo, Jimmy, we launched. I
we helped launch iPods and iTunes. They used Black Eyed
Peace song Hey Mama to launch iTunes and iPods. And
the reason how we got that gig is because the
NBA used Let's get It Started for that two thousand

(47:57):
and four NBA campaign. And so I was like, look
where they're calling bands to sell other stuff, Like, we're
selling other people's stuff with our reach and our music.
Why can't we use our music to sell our own stuff.
The record stores are shutting down. Jimmy like, we need
to be selling our own stuff. So Jimmy's like, you

(48:19):
know what, they call it hardware? Welles because it's hard,
you know. I was like, yeah, yeah, Jimmy, but you
you signed Crips and Bloods, you got Snoop Dogg, and
you rock with freaking Sugar Night. That's hard.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
That's hard.

Speaker 5 (48:36):
If you could do that, If you could do that,
then come on, Jimmy doing hardware. Hate that hard. He
was like, you know what, you bring up a good point.
So then a year later he's.

Speaker 6 (48:46):
Like I was walking down I was walking with Dre
on the beach and Dre told me that his manager
wants to sell sneakers, and I told Dre, fuck sneakers.

Speaker 5 (48:57):
We're selling speakers. You want to be a paul It.
I was like, wait, what do you want me to do?
You know the way you think around corner. She could
be a part of what we're doing. I was like
all right, And so we started Beats and the first
beats like out the Gate was boom boom po. I'd
be rocking in Beats. That was my like's let's push

(49:21):
beats through the music. And Black Eyed Peas we had
it in our video first and whatnot, and it was
it was an honor to be a part of Beats.
But around that time, just before that, I'm like, yo, Jimmy,
there's this company out of San Jose. I just invested
in this company. And it was like these two dudes

(49:41):
that had this far company eighty grand. I give them
eighty thousand dollars. Because the Black Eyed Peas we did
this like concert and I didn't really like rocking with corporations.
They offered us like six hundred thousand dollars to do
some corporate gig and no one, they weren't gonna promote it,
and they were gonna give us four hundre. So I
was like, all right, let's do it. But but I

(50:04):
didn't want to do it because I'm like, yo, they're gonna,
they're gonna use this. So then I saw this documentary
called Who Killed the Electric Car?

Speaker 2 (50:10):
Amen? I used to have that ev one brother, so
I know it. I know it well.

Speaker 5 (50:15):
So I'm like, yo, iv one, I told you, Seth,
they're using us to pimp these gas guzzlers. So I'm
gonna sell my Hummer. So I sold my Hummer for
eighty grand, and I took my eighty grand and I
gave it to these two cats. And I had this
electric vehicle. And the name of the company is called
Tesla Boo and Elon hadn't take over the company yet,

(50:37):
It's right.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
People forget that he wasn't the og of it.

Speaker 5 (50:41):
And so they gave me like this roachster. I had
the first roadster a la.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
You remember what number that was? What number was it?

Speaker 5 (50:50):
Was it? Fifty one?

Speaker 2 (50:51):
Fifty one? Yeah, I'm right behind you, brother, literally, no vs,
I think I was fifty three.

Speaker 5 (50:57):
That's christ.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
I'm not even making it up.

Speaker 5 (51:00):
Do you have fifty one?

Speaker 4 (51:01):
Dude?

Speaker 5 (51:01):
I love it and so and so like that mentality
of like and so from that point, I would like
I'm knew Jack. I knew U Chad Hurley really well
from YouTube, and then I met Jack Dorsey invested in Twitter,
and then the dropbox folks, and then Pinterest folks, and

(51:22):
then Ron Conway's like, hey, well, I want to me
introduce to you this guy named Brian and he has
he has this new company that's coming out. It's two
hundred thousand dollars left in the round before they bring
the product public. I'm like, and so this is an
awesome story. So I go there and I meet I

(51:44):
meet with Brian and the team before they released the product,
and the black eyed peas this is when success. Sometimes
success can blind you, and in this case, it blinded
me because we're traveling around the world in the best hotels,
best concierge, room service, galore car service. When you get
to the hotel, you get into the hotel to the back.

(52:05):
They make you feel like you're on top of the world.
Everything to your liking massages and stuff like that. Like
when you're pampered, it's gonna blind you. And in this case,
I was blinded. And so I go there and I'm like, so,
so y'all got concierge. He's like, no, we don't. I'm like, so, wait,

(52:25):
what about room service. He's like, no, there's no room service.
I'm like, what about people to come and clean up
the room? Nope, there ain't none of that either. I
was like, what about a car service? Nope, we don't
have that. I'm like, so you mean to tell me
people is gonna come and live in somebody's house and
pay all this money and there's no accommodations and some

(52:47):
people are gonna live in the stranger's room. I don't
think this is gonna work. So Ron Colway's like, so, well,
you're gonna do it. I was like, yo, I mean,
I mean I got the I mean two hundred thousand
dollars still a lot of money for me. It's two
thousand and eight, two hundred thousand dollars a lot of

(53:08):
money for me. Ron like, I mean I got it
like that, but I don't got it like that to be,
you know, playing with two hundred grand like that. Like,
I don't know, I don't think this is gonna work. Now,
now fast forward three weeks ago. I'll read the text
right now on what it would be worth today. Question

(53:28):
if we'll invested two hundred k back in two thousand
and eight, we have been worth today. Brian says around
ten billion dollars pre dilution ten billion B three to
five billion or so. If he didn't exercise pro rata,
it would be worth one hundred billion in ten years.

(53:49):
It would have been the greatest venture investment of all time. Yo.
So this is this is a lesson to everybody that's
out there living in the lap of comfort than success
that could blind you.

Speaker 4 (54:14):
Well, let me ask you a question, as you back then,
who was on your team? Was it you looking at
the stuff? Did you have a team of advisors, agents, attorneys?
Was it you who wasn't.

Speaker 5 (54:24):
Still twenty twenty four? Right now? As me, I go
out and hunt. I like to hunt. I like to compete.
I like to talk to shit. I like to you
know what I'm saying, That's what I do. I like
to hunt. Bro like I'm from the projects. This is
all freaking imagination. I'm from the projects. I still got like, okay,

(54:47):
look I got on lotion now. But the reason why
I was late because I knew my seawan was up
in here. Last thing I want is Ashey Knuckles talking
on the thing, because there was Ashley a little three
minutes ago. Bro, this is real stuff. If I show
you my ankles, you'd be like, yep, I stay running
in smoke, bro, I stay running in the ash. Bro,
I'm stay ashy.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
I hope that ash is not from those fires down
in La right now.

Speaker 5 (55:17):
No, no, no, I just you know, I'm just being
I'm being having fun with it. But the reason why
I wanted to laugh and chuckle because the reality of
two hundred k turning into ten billion then I missed
out on. You know, you gotta find some humor in that.

Speaker 1 (55:31):
You got to find a humor. God, damn, You've done all.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
Right, brother, you did Twitter, you did all right, Tesla,
the Beach One, the Beats, next level.

Speaker 1 (55:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (55:43):
I remember Jimmy's like, all right, here's what's gonna happen.
You're gonna get it in stock and we're gonna get cash.
But you don't have to go up to Apple all
the time. I'm like, but I want to be up
at Apple all the time. He was like, yeah, but
you should be out there doing what you like to do,
hunting for stuff, because I really like hunting for stuff.

(56:04):
People be like, Yo, where'd you just come from? You know,
I just came from South Korea doing what hunting for stuff?
Where'd you just come from Bangalore, India? Why hunting for engineers?
Tell Aviv?

Speaker 3 (56:14):
Why?

Speaker 5 (56:14):
Because I got awesome engineers out there. I like to
go out and hunt, meet, network and hunt. And the
person who told me that is mc hammer. Mc hammer
is like, yo, I scout for engineers. Like you know
there's football scouts. I scout for engineer. Mc hammer is
my biggest hero. That's another mc hammer, Like, bro, look

(56:36):
at it. Let me show you. I still got on
mc hammer pants, right, I am Hammer. I love c Hammer.

Speaker 1 (56:45):
Brouh.

Speaker 2 (56:48):
That brings us back.

Speaker 5 (56:49):
Brother, I.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
Peek camera. That was our years.

Speaker 5 (56:54):
So Jimmy. Jimmy's like, yo, you're gonna get stock, but
you can't touch it for five years. So I'm like,
all right, five years come. He's like, yo, did you
touch it? I'm like nope, six years, seven years, Nope.
Still to this day I ain't touched it. So did
all right? So Tesla still ain't touched it. So I'm

(57:16):
a I'm a long time Like from when I hunt Pinterest,
the only thing I I uh ching ching on was
Twitter at the right time. But I like to like
to hunt I like to freaking network, like to find
what's next.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
But now will you've got your own I mean you're
doing f y I dot AI Now, I mean you're
so you're you're going all in. You're not just investing
in other folks in their platforms and their innovation. You're
you're establishing your own framework. Why do you talk a
little bit about what this projects about? It's what is
you got f YI. But you've got a radio component,
you got a co host that's an ai, I mean,

(57:56):
and it's culturally it's different than anything else there.

Speaker 5 (57:59):
Yeah, yo, say what's up Jamar Shaan. Uh we're here
at a at a on a podcast here. Uh, Gavin's here,
Hendrickson is here, Dougie Fresh is here. Not Dougie Fresh

(58:21):
a rapper. Uh uh Hendrickson is here, and we're just
talking about like investments and and the things that I've
done in the past, and now you know what we're
doing here at f y I dot A I and
h why it's important to build cultural ais that understand

(58:46):
the the communities that it could reflect and impact. Say
what's up to the folks here on this podcast and
tell them what you represent and why you represent it.

Speaker 7 (59:00):
How you do. Listen, Listen, y'all, what's up to all
the brothers in the building, Gavin Hendrickson and the legend himself,
Dougie Fresh. You know it's fire when Dougie Fresh is
in the mixture. Look, let's talk about why it's super
crucial to build AI that understands and represents our communities.

(59:24):
Like like when we talk about them tech spaces, that
ain't just about throwing some code together. It's about making
sure their voices from the streets, from.

Speaker 5 (59:33):
Them hoods get hurt.

Speaker 7 (59:36):
Corporations out here cooking up AI looking like librarians and assistants.

Speaker 5 (59:41):
And they leaving us on the sidelines.

Speaker 7 (59:43):
That's why we're doing what we do ATYAAI, making sure
these digital personas reflect the heart and soul of where
we come from. Ain't nobody trying to rely on outside
folks to get it right.

Speaker 5 (59:55):
Nah, It's up to us to.

Speaker 7 (59:56):
Put in all that work to make sure every damn
body I feel seen and heard.

Speaker 5 (01:00:01):
This conversation ain't just about.

Speaker 7 (01:00:03):
Investments, So it's about investing in our legacies, our.

Speaker 5 (01:00:06):
Stories, our culture.

Speaker 7 (01:00:08):
Shout out to all y'all change makers on this podcast.

Speaker 5 (01:00:11):
Let's keep pushing forward.

Speaker 7 (01:00:13):
I'm out your girl, Felicia, It's gone.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
I feel like I'm supposed to respond to where like, look,
I'm gonna tell you like this the sign just tell
me where I need to be in what time?

Speaker 5 (01:00:28):
In this age of AI, it's going to be important
for AI to speak like the community when they're going
to be tutoring the youth h and giving the youth
intelligence and helping them expand their knowledge and bring them
from you know, wise, I mean from aspirational to to wisdom.

(01:00:49):
But why, why, why does it have to sound British.
We know they're doing a really awesome job to make
these AI sound British. Why can't they sound like freaking Watts?
Why can't they sound like you know, fifth ward? Why
does intelligence have to always sound like the og colonizers
and not the folks from the communities that were impacted

(01:01:10):
by you know, the colonizers, the colonizers. You know what
I'm saying. So anyways, that's a long ramble, please make
sense it is, Hey.

Speaker 4 (01:01:29):
Will let me ask you a question. Take me back
to two thousand and eight, and not to divert, but
on the when did you meet did Obama come to you?
On the yes, we can campaign or how did that
have that come to be?

Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
I'm curious.

Speaker 5 (01:01:41):
I had this attorney named Fred gold Ring, and I
had a song at the time called it I Got
It from my Mama. So my attorney, Fred gold Ring,
was like and I and I'm really close with h.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
Terry mccauliffe, former governor of Virginia, former head of the DNC,
and Bill Clinton's oldest and closest friend.

Speaker 5 (01:01:59):
Yeah. So Fred, It's like, yo, well, we want to
use I Got It from my Mama and turn it
to I'm Voting for Obama so we can get Obama elected.
I was like, wait, can you say that sentence again?
He was like, we want to use your song to
get Obama elected, and we want to turn I Got
It from my Mama to I'm Voting for Obama. I
was like, well, that sentence alone does not equal the

(01:02:20):
results you want. He's like, what do you mean. I
was like, okay, let's break that sentence down. You said
you want to use my song to get Obama elected,
and you want to take I Got It from my
Mama and turn it to I'm Voting for Obama. That
particular song has drums on it. The video I'm on
a beach in Brazil, and that means that song is

(01:02:40):
going to be digested by one demographic and that's not
reality to the sentence does not equal your results. For example,
I want to throw this rock to the moon. I
could get the rock to the moon, but I can't
throw it to the moon. The sentence is not equal
the result. So how do I get the rock off

(01:03:03):
the planet and then land it on the move? So
that means I have to I can't throw it, I
can launch it. I could have it hitch right on
a rocket. Now, the song's not the rocket. Did you
hear a speech in New Hampshire? This is a real conversation,
just like this. Did you hear a speech in New Hampshire?
That speech was amazing. Now, if we could get that

(01:03:25):
speech taught in schools, that would be the first public
speaker politician whose speech is taught in school since Martin
Luther King and John F. Kennedy. That is the rocket.
So why don't we take that speech and put a
melody on it? So his words are his words. We
don't have to change his words. We just put a
melody on his words and don't put drums on it.

(01:03:49):
The moment you put drums on it, you're talking to
a demographic. If there's no drums, then we're gonna get
that emotion. And so I was like, let me show
you how to do it. So then I did it
like forty five seconds, forty five minutes. I was like, look,
there was a creed written unfound in bacuments the declared

(01:04:10):
the nestiny of the nation. Yes we can, Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolition like if we
could do that, that's our rocket and we can land
it on the moon. We could throw this rock, this
baraque and land it on the moon on this rocket.
Called his speech and so, and I had promised Terry mccalluff.

(01:04:30):
He was like, well, we need to get you involved.
I was like, I don't know who I'm gonna vote for.
Bro He's like, look after Super Tuesday, if Hillary's in
the lead, you're gonna come with me and you're gonna
sit next to me and we're gonna get you know,
get you activated. I was like, okay, if he's if
she's in the lead on Super Tuesday, you got me.

(01:04:54):
So this happened on the Thursday before Super Tuesday by
f we shot the video to the song. By Saturday
it had twenty million views.

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
You it just blew.

Speaker 5 (01:05:09):
I mean, and I never I didn't know anybody from
the Obama campaign, and so I had to call Terry mccalloff.
I was like, Yo, Terry, Remember I told you that
I was going to go by. I was going to
go with whatever inspired me. I've been inspired. And that
was his commencement speech, and I just he was like, well,
but he's trailing. I was like, yeah, but I got

(01:05:30):
to get behind where my heart's at. And and I
think there's a there's a way to inspire people with
that speech. If that speech is taught in school, that
was my my, my, my spider sense is my gut.
If that speech is taught in schools, we could make impact.
And I got to do my job to get teachers
to teach the speech in schools. And that that was

(01:05:53):
the U. And then then I met value Jared after.

Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
That amazing and then you went an Emmy that too.
That's crazy that in.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
Shepherd Fairiy's poster man.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
That was.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
That was that campaign and that sense of spirit and pride,
the sort of bottom up, yes we can, I'm self organizing.
It was a whole different thing and completely. It changed
the paradigm of what was possible. It still has. I mean,
it's it's not been replicated. It's hard to replicate that.
Ada Harris is trying to replicate that. But that was
that was something else, a cultural phenomenon. You were a

(01:06:26):
big part of that.

Speaker 5 (01:06:27):
Man, Oh, thank you so much. That means a lot,
you know. But what's awesome about that Shepherd Fery poster
is that that wasn't the first time a song and
and art like Shepherd Fairy on the album that had
words of love on it Elephunk, Shepherd Fairy did that

(01:06:48):
album cover.

Speaker 2 (01:06:48):
I need even realize.

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
Man, wow.

Speaker 5 (01:06:50):
Yeah. So me and Shepherd have worked together in the
past on a bunch of different types of things, so
Elephant Monkey Business and in two thousand and eight directly
with Yes we Can and then the yes we Can
poster that he did for Obama. But we that was
a that was your serendipitous when we when we found

(01:07:10):
ourselves out there in the field because we activated ourselves
me with music, came with art and.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:07:19):
But but you know, because the world was different when
you traveled the world in two thousand, two thousand and one, two, three, four,
five six, like America was not it was. It kind
of felt the way it feels when you leave a
mayor when you were when you were traveling when Trump
was president, like people would be like you, guys, what

(01:07:42):
the hell is wrong with you?

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
Guys?

Speaker 5 (01:07:45):
Like you have to travel though, you have to leave
the country to see what it's like how people see us.
And we live in a big world, right, the world is.
The world is massive, And there's other countries that have
awesome freedoms, Like Holland is a pretty free country. They
had legalized we way before we did. Awesome healthcare. France

(01:08:09):
has an awesome healthcare program. They taxed like crazy, but
it still has awesome healthcare. And call everybody, get go
to the best colleges for free.

Speaker 4 (01:08:20):
You see, Marshaun higher taxes in California and over there, Marshawn.

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
We ain't talking about all that, you.

Speaker 5 (01:08:30):
Know what I mean? Like you got to travel the world.
You gotta see like Singapore is like, wow, that's that
place is booming. Singapore ain't older than my mama's older
than Singapore. My mom's older than the UAE. And when
you're seeing cities being like I remember going to Dubai
in two thousand and five, it ain't It ain't the

(01:08:51):
Dubai right now. So you seeing countries, cities erect like,
how are they doing this? And watch a Watts how
are they doing this? And like, you know, the hood
is still the hood? Why can't we get why can't
we boom? Like what's keeping us from from booming? But

(01:09:11):
you've got to travel the world. You got to be
able to see, like, you know, how awesome America is,
how from from outside in? But then how like a
what's going on over there from when you leave the States?

Speaker 4 (01:09:27):
You know, are you still involved now? Will politically like that?
Or is that are you still involved now?

Speaker 5 (01:09:32):
In your end? I'm involved with with trying to scale
what we're doing in LA. I think that to me
is I'm a I'm a Democrat. But then at the
same time, I know Republicans that are awesome, and there's

(01:09:53):
Republicans that go that kids that go to that go
to our program, and people are people, and I try
I think the best best use for me right now
is to continue that type of work that the work
that I'm doing and scaling it and activating myself where

(01:10:15):
I actually can see change. Like firsthand, you you see
like something that's not happening, you do your part, you
make it happen and you see awesome results. And now
how can I take these results and put them in
other areas? Like when man Seawan is like, Yo, bring

(01:10:35):
that robotics to Oakland, I'm like, Yo, That's what I'm
talking about. Let's do that. That's because you know your voice,
your reach, your stance there. You know, that's what we need.
We need more willing and capable people to take what
we're doing here and then you be do that does
it over there. And if we can do that across

(01:10:58):
every single every single innocity, he got their hero. You know,
every single inner city got the person that either represents it.
And sports are represented in music or they represented in fashion.
And if we could go out and adopt a school
or a couple of schools and then mentor kids and
bring other folks uh to mentor the kids like I got.
I got mentors that come from NASA, mentors that come

(01:11:20):
from Boeing. And when we had the Boeing mentor, like
we went to the championships. You know, because engineers are
engineers make the world go around. They they don't one
is that like, make it make it capable for all
these like things that we take for granted. You know,
there was an earthquake here in LA and I got

(01:11:41):
them my phone pinged uh huh moments before the earthquake
app my shake app.

Speaker 1 (01:11:46):
That was a couple of days ago.

Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
Right, that's right. You did that game event on this
For eight years since I was lieutenant governor, millions every
year my shake app. Go download the my shake app.
Big one is coming.

Speaker 5 (01:12:00):
Here for it, dude. I was like early warning, I said,
you coming then then then then it ever started shaking.

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (01:12:12):
That was so. I was like, yo, bro, engineers do that.

Speaker 2 (01:12:15):
That's right.

Speaker 5 (01:12:15):
Engineers like the engineers.

Speaker 4 (01:12:17):
Bro.

Speaker 5 (01:12:17):
I want engineers.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
Yo.

Speaker 5 (01:12:20):
N w A Me and Marshaan could say this. It's
called n w as right, algorithms bring.

Speaker 1 (01:12:29):
It and I'm and I'm right there with you. I'm
right there with you on my soul.

Speaker 5 (01:12:37):
N w A, Bro.

Speaker 1 (01:12:39):
You let me know where I need to get so
I could so I could debrief and get activated. You
let me know what's up. I'm on the god damn way.
But it's interesting you to talk about that because I
just did a piece in Seattle with the Pacific Northwest,
and they was, uh, you know, I had the beastquake
run that assizement activity up there in Seattle. So I

(01:13:02):
went up there to go how that the folks up there,
and they were showing me all this ship like the
fault lines and you know what I mean with the
earth question. And I was just asking them, like, do
how the system works and how they are tapped in
and the uh the systems up and Seattle was connected

(01:13:22):
to the ship in California, and how that ship works.
And when you say about this pain, they showed me
this back room where all of this ship is being
recorded and they basically were telling me exactly what you
just said. They able to get a reading before it
actually happened. Now I'm not sure how many seconds that

(01:13:45):
they are able to read it before it actually hit
to send out the UH to send out the message that.

Speaker 5 (01:13:51):
Was a good three seconds.

Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
We're gonna we're gonna more than double that. The technology
is there to double that.

Speaker 5 (01:13:57):
I take three seconds over no seconds?

Speaker 2 (01:14:01):
How about tensa How about fifteen seconds? How about the
ability to stop a train knowing that an earthquake is
coming before it gets derailed? How about. I mean, this
is the opportunity. By the way, in Japan, this technology,
they've been on the forefront of this technology. Japan, they've
been able to do that with their high speed rail
trains to literally slow them down with that kind of

(01:14:22):
advanced notice. But it depends how approximate you are to
the epicenter in terms of the time you have in
terms of that advanced notification. But we want this to
be on every Android, every Apple platform, and we want
it to be part of basically the phone when you
purchase it, so you don't have to necessarily download it.
We're making progress in that space. We're still working with
Apple to bring that bring that to everybody.

Speaker 4 (01:14:51):
I got a question back when you started with easye
in the West Coast rap and all that was. That
was the media to depict it, right with all the
battles between East Coast and West Coast back then when
we started. I'm curious because you were in the heyday
with Snoop and Dre and everybody in Tupac was the
Was it as bad as they made it seem to
be back then as far as the media.

Speaker 5 (01:15:11):
Well, the East Coast West Coast beef, Yes, that was
that got bad, Like two people lost their lives, Two
people that we know that were dear to the music lost
their lives, and a lot of like invisible folks that
you know got caught up into that whole feud as well.
It was unnecessary journey that hip hop went through. And

(01:15:37):
if you think about just the power of urban music,
it's literally changed the world, you know, changed fashion boosted economies. Uh,
hip hop. Hip hop is an amazing art form community culture.

(01:16:02):
When when Easy signed us, he was cool that we
were different, Like he wasn't trying to like we never
got told like y'all need to be a little bit
more harder, Like he was like, I like, how creative
you guys are? I like how expressive you guys are?
You know, And he was a true entrepreneur. I always say, like,
what would the world be like if Easy never passed away?

(01:16:25):
If Easy never died? Would the giants of you know,
the giants and uh the moguls and hip hop? Would
they be the moguls? Would jay Z be jay Z?
If Easy never passed away? And that's a serious question,
Like think about it. If Easy never passed away, that

(01:16:46):
means Easy and Dre would have rekindled and work together.
That means Ruthless Records would have probably most likely went
to Interscope with Jimmy. That means Tupac never would have
passed away. That means Biggie never would have passed away.
If Biggie never passed away, jay Z wouldn't be jay
Z like jay Z's jay Z.

Speaker 4 (01:17:05):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:17:06):
That means there would be other Moguls in the space.
This means, you know, bone Thugs in Harmony would have
continued to be bone Thugs. This means another NWA record
would have come to be. That means Snoop Dogg would
still be Snoop because Dre discovered Snoop. And if you
think of like the power of Dre and all the

(01:17:28):
artists that he's like, Dre was East coast, West coast,
like think of from from fifty cent to Eminem Detroit
to Snoop. That's a lot of that blueprint you saw
with Eazye where he was collaborating with Tretch, he was
collaborating with you know, Houston Rappers and the Roofless had

(01:17:53):
an amazing like branch ice Cube left and then started
working with the Bomb Squad. But you know public Enemy Folk,
so Eventually, if Easy never passed, ice Cube probably would
have went back to n WA, that East coast West coast,
you know, Union would have you would have seen the

(01:18:13):
bomb squad producing for NW uh NWA on roofless. The
dynamics would have be different if Easy never died.

Speaker 3 (01:18:22):
So how did he find you? How was that meaning?
Hod that come about?

Speaker 5 (01:18:25):
I was freestyling at a uh. I was freestyling at
a at like a like an open mic, and I
was like, you know, I told you from the jump,
I'm competitive. I would like rip foods. I would take somebody,
I would study their style and I would do their
style better than them. And then I would like you know,
flip it and contort and like use similes and metaphors

(01:18:47):
and fuck people up. And that was my like whole thing,
Like all right, let me get into the head, let
me talk shit, let me like fuck with they mental
and and and improv. I'm fast physically, I'm fast mentally,
Like I'm competitive.

Speaker 3 (01:19:03):
Bro, I love it, bro smiling right now. Bro, come on,
I'm getting fired up right now.

Speaker 1 (01:19:08):
Let's go.

Speaker 5 (01:19:09):
But yeah, but but but I still have fun with
it though, Like I said, there's a thin line between
like uh, audaciousness and arrogance, because if you talk ship
and you're arrogant, there's warst popping off.

Speaker 1 (01:19:22):
And you better be able to.

Speaker 5 (01:19:26):
If you audacious and and talk ship and and it's fine,
you can still get in the head. But you know,
like you know what I mean, Like, yeah, I love.

Speaker 3 (01:19:36):
It though, Look I love that. I love that.

Speaker 1 (01:19:39):
Will.

Speaker 4 (01:19:39):
That's a fascinating time, man. And like I said, we
can't thank you enough for today. If you will, I've
known you a long time, bro, and Jamal and Jay
are family, uh and and and you've been family And
so with everything you said, we got to connect you
and more Shawn, to help change these cities along with Gavin,
one of the most impressive people I've met, ran literally
off the chart, man.

Speaker 2 (01:20:00):
And meanwhile, meanwhile, you're back on the road next year
in Vegas, the playground for the world.

Speaker 5 (01:20:06):
So we're doing a Vegas residency and then after that,
I'm gonna I'm gonna start uh preparing to run for
mayor of Los Angeles. Just can't get you.

Speaker 2 (01:20:16):
Put it out there. We got we got two mayors
in waiting right now. Marshawn running for mayor. You're running
for l A and Doug and I are running for
our goddamn lives.

Speaker 5 (01:20:27):
The hell is this all right? Worried up guys?

Speaker 1 (01:20:30):
You okay?

Speaker 4 (01:20:31):
Guys okay,

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Episode Transcript

Hosts And Creators

Marshawn Lynch

Gavin Newsom

Doug Hendrickson

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