Flex Alexander

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
R and B Money.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
We are.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Take Valanti. We are the authority on all R.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
And Blay in his tank Valentine and this is the
Army Money podcast on all things R rent B.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
We're gonna get into some real entertainment. Jay Valentine hair
because partlast an R and B Singapore.

Speaker 4 (00:36):
Whatever you are, you got to be able to intertange
at a high, high level. I don't want to waste
a lot of time on the intro because he does
so many things.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
He's exacting, comedian, comedian, Yeah, basketball player, listen hoop he
put Hooper on there.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, hoopers have to play defense. I don't know. He's
just a score. He's just a scoring. Listen. I played defense.
I played you did not listen. I did it all
in college. At that stage in my life, I'm not
playing defense.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
In my thirties, I'm done with you. Did you ever
get a chip in the elague? Uh? No, Man, we
got close.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
We used to do flex dirty though they would throw flex.
He would be like, oh, well you got flex, and
then it would be nobody else.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
I would have it. The one time that I had
a great team but nobody showed up. It was me,
justin Timberlake, Ice Cube, Snooper, everybody tours and everybody was
on tour, everybody. I remember that we were I was
left with Yes, I was still left with me. And
then the cousin of nobodce Cube, you know what I mean.
It was the age, but it was terrible. We had

(01:50):
one We went to one championship at the I think
it was Staple Center. I believe it Staple Center. And
that was the closest chance we had, and and and
yeah we didn't get it. I got there, I got
three and then yeah, yeah, yeah, but he always manipulated.
He was always able to nothing. I was able to

(02:13):
stay with certain teams. Yeah, I didn't was able to
stay with certain team Dave Brown.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
Guess who I saw the other day, my center, Kenneth Career.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah. And then I had my three point shooter. Yeah,
you know what I'm saying. Good squat Corey, hard corey Corey.
And then we had playing no defense either, No I
need to shoot shoot three. That says yeah. Charlie Barrell
and Marcus Polk, you got we're gonna have people. They

(02:53):
have people. Yeah, we have the house. Yeah, because you
had too bigs. Yeah, that had too big. But but
Roger Roger. He was a big Roger. He was a
big played. That was his downfall. He should have been
in that and on the outside. That extended fire and
extended that. He was league. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. He shooting three.

(03:16):
He was just like shooting three. One year I had,
I was with Harvey Mason. Uh, that's all you need
is Kenny Loughton was, you know, crying, that's my boy.
But he was like my team because they played together
and then they took him off my team and got
them together. So I had it was me. It was
it was Harvey Mason and Deon Taylor director he balled.

(03:39):
But then soon as they took Harvey, we was just
like we just fell apart. It was it was. I
was telling my son that I was like, yo, we
felt like every Sunday we was in the league. Yeah.
I mean was coming in because I would come in
with my suit on from church on this it's on

(04:02):
the table. I always take the angles and the snap away.
Oh my god. That was that was beautiful. The Travel
Games was dope to talk about it. Listen, I remember
when we got to ask by the Chicago s guy.
I tell that story. We were in the locker room. Right,
we're in the locker room. Everybody's like, you're gonna go
out there, you know again, it just just give me

(04:23):
the ball. And then Brian McKnight he's like here, we
know we everybody's again, and I'm the other fellas they professional.
I told you guys know, I was on your team.
I was on your side. I kept screaming everybody and
I was telling them to I was like, yo, y'all listen,
it ain't gonna just be no walking. I mean, they ran.
They beat us by like forty seven points. It was ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (04:45):
When they filed Michael Clark Duncan got something yes across
his chest and he fell to the ground like like
he hit the Yeah. I said, Jesus, yeah, right, what
have we gotten ourselves?

Speaker 1 (05:01):
I mean it was it was. It was a lesson. Now,
my highest level was college ball, but pro it goes
to a different level. And just watching nobody was going
for shots, they were going to spots. They just constantly moved.
It's their profession. It was crazy.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
But I called it, like I said, I said at
one point because the first half they weren't doing that.
First half, we were just going back and forth twenty.
But the second half they started talking in a different language,
different and girls started disappearing and reappearing on the other
side of the court.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
It was crazy, she's shooting. I'm like, just does he
know about the night before?

Speaker 2 (05:43):
He doesn't know, since he's your teammate and we should
we at least give him insight.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Well, it was his fault. It was whose fun. It
was all Tank's fault. What was his fault? Because he
goes to like a day we were at the day bus.
He was, yeah, I didn't know. He starts challenging them.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
A friend of mine who's a sports agent calls me
and says, hey, your guy Tank.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
He's like challenging some of my clients and they said
they're gonna kick his ass tomorrow. I going crazy, and
I was there.

Speaker 4 (06:21):
I lost the shootout to the I can't remember who
the little white girl shooter was, but I was like,
I'm about all about the butt show and she beat
me about thirty on the shooting game, like that's that's
that's not gonna happen on the real court.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Back and I was talking.

Speaker 4 (06:32):
I kept talking, y'all not going y'all don't know what
to see this grown man business.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah, it was. It was I had twenty one. I mean,
but see there there and you have it. You have it.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
That's something everything because in the first half and when
I saw he said, when I saw nothing was working,
I said, I said, for the team, nah my yo.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
That that was crazy, man, that was that was crazy.
That was the best it was. It was that reminded
me of the time. I think it's before you you
got in the league. We did. Uh. We went and
we practiced with the dream the Olympic team. Oh wow.
We got Lisa Leslie, t Spoon, all of them, and
Van Chancellor was the coach and he set us up. Now, guys,

(07:23):
I don't want you to go in there and hurt
my girls. Now we're gonna take it easy. Now we're
gonna just play. It's gonna be a little little practice
getting just get him sweating. Man. We go out there,
same thing, they picking running play like yo, we're like
all right. We started talking and it didn't end up good,
not at all. And Lisa Leslie was just I mean
just it was easy.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
So you're going to against the wh're you only on one?

Speaker 1 (07:46):
I'm proud to say yes. Would never be the WN BBC.
Remember some of the.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
Do when some of the when they the girls from
the sparks playing a.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Man that it's not the same. It's not those are
the girls that got cut. That's not true. That's not true.
It don't count.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
Listen, and so what there was another team they lost?
Flex you are you are I don't even say a
friend of a friend of the family. You are a
family of family. You're beyond that. We've been doing this
for many moons, many and many a Sunday. So first
of all, thank you for being here. Man. And you know,
like we're doing this arm and b Bunny podcast, like

(08:32):
we like to go back to the root of the thing.
Look at the beginning of the thing. You know what
I'm saying. Where where does all this start? Where does
all this start to be?

Speaker 1 (08:42):
It all starts for me. It was a lot of
people think I'm from Harlem, but I'm actually from the Bronx,
from the from the South Bronx N seventy fourth and
Clinton Clinton Towers. And I moved to Harlem. At some
point I forgot you're I was in Harlem, but I
lived there my cousin over in Riverton across from Lincoln Projects.

(09:05):
Worked at Pampaan right, that's where the Alicia Keys shot that.
You don't know my name video? I worked there, man,
you worked there? I worked there. I was up there.
We got a bacon, naggy cheese, Yeah, orange juice, what ice?
You know? I you know, I was trying to do
my thing, man, But yeah, started in the bronx, you know,
came up. You know. Mom's grandmother was the ones in

(09:27):
the house holding everything down. Moms had like three jobs,
my brothers. You know, my brother went to the service,
my other brother was doing his thing, and at eighty
five when crack hit. You know, it hit my family.
So you know, I just got to the point where
I was like, yeah, I'm it's not what I want,
you know what I mean. I want to I want
to get up out of here. And I ended up leaving.

(09:50):
I lived with my grandmother for a little bit, but
I had a aunt who was an alcoholic, so I
hated that. So I just went out on my own.
You know what I mean. This is after going away
to school, coming back and just really trying to figure
out what I was gonna do with my life. I
knew I always wanted to entertain. I was a hip
hop dancer. I started dancing in the clubs oh Man seventy.

(10:16):
I got out in the parks, like I got to
see everybody in the park. In the Bronx, I got
to see Grand Master Flash, Melly Mel, I got to
see the Furious Five. I got to see rock Steady Crew.
I got to That's in the Bronx. That's in the
Bronx Man, That's that was the mech birtha me Birth
and Mecca. I got to see African band by all
of them up close, you know personal. I mean, you

(10:38):
know you disco Fever, you had the Latin Quarters, which
came later, but that was the thing. I was like, Yo,
hip hop really hip hop molded me. Because of hip hop.
Everything spawned from hip hop, everything spawned. I ended up
dancing for Salt and Pepper and choreographing for you know,
different groups and being in all these videos. And I

(10:59):
was in one of the Dope his Cruise Ever, the
Mop Top, my Boys, Stretch, Peter Paul Khleif Link or
Ramier it was called. It was motivated on performance, uh,
motivated on precision towards outstanding performance. We all had our
dreads and those are the brothers that you know who
did all the Mariah Carey stretch. Would remember the time

(11:22):
with Fatima, like we had a nice conglomerate, you know
what I mean. So we would break off and go
choreograph and do different things. But I just this was
always in me to do stand up and and comedy.
And from when I was little, I saw Eddie Murphy's
Delirious and I was like, Yo, that's what I'm going
to do. My mom was like, okay, baby, if you

(11:44):
say so. But that right there changed my life seeing Delirious.
So let's start dancing. Let's start off with dance.

Speaker 4 (11:50):
Yeah, do you ever do you do you start off
and say I want to dance, Let me go to
a school where they're teaching dance, or do you just
immediately take.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
It to the streets. It was streets. It was just
being out there in the park. You know, Cat's got
the cardboard out and you just you're getting out there
with the car cardboard. And if you was if you
had money, you had so they still it started there.

(12:20):
That's where it started, man and I and I did.
At one point, I went to the Lower East Side.
It was it was a place called the Hemy Street
Settlement and they had different dance classes, and I took
modern jazz for a minute. Uh but you know, Fellas
was laughing at me, all you need to take it
out of jazz. But I'm glad I did because I
learned all aspects of a certain techniques that all that stuff. Man.

(12:43):
But it started in the streets, man, It started right
there in the school yards and the parks. That's where
it started for me to dance. Who who was the
There's always.

Speaker 4 (12:53):
A guy or a girl that you like that was
like the person that you was like, either stealing the
moves from or just hopping and just watching to see.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
I think when I started, I tried to mimic a
lot of the cats on the rock Steady Crew, Kutiaki Buck,
four Crazy Legs, Mister Wiggles, all those guys, because they
went on to do Beach Street, the famous battle cry
joint right there. I mimicked those dudes, like you know,

(13:22):
I was like, man, I learned how to do a
head spin, and learned how to do the windmill and
watching them and then as I went on later, my
good brother who gave me the name Flex, my boy
Buddhist Stretch, one of the dopest to ever do it.
I just copied a lot of what he did. Man,
he just had such you know, versatility, you know what

(13:45):
I mean. And I was like, yeah, I need that
in my repertoire. And that's how we clicked. And then
the whole crew and we just all we mirrored each other,
but we were still individuals, you know what I mean.
So Stretcher probably one of the guys that I looked
at in the Mount rushmore of dancers. Are you doing

(14:07):
comedy at the same time? Now, I started comedy in
eighty nine. Now that came about because of my boy
Khalif loose Leaf was a dancer as well. I used
to be able to meet people, do impressions and you know,
just have cats laughing. And he kept saying, Yo, son, Yo,
you gotta get on stage and do that joint son.

(14:28):
I'm like, He's like nah man. So that he dared me,
I forget what the challenge was. But once he dared me,
I was like, all right, all right, I'm gonna do it.
I'm gonna do it. But he was the one that
kind of push me and my cousin Grapevine, who's in
the group Trends of Culture on Motown back in the day.
They had a huge song called Off and On then
him DJ Mowell. They used to come down to the

(14:50):
Uptown Comedy Club. I mean in the beginning, nobody, you know,
nobody was coming down there, and they would come support me.
They would come week after week after week. And I
just felt like I couldn't do it if they weren't there,
you know what I mean. And I went to the
Uptown Comedy Club and they have a new Jack segment.
You have three minutes to do your best. I went up.

(15:11):
I did it. It was laughing. I was like, yo,
you freestyle it. I did stuff that I would do
in the house, you know, I had you know, I
used to do impersonations of Edith Bunker had a bullwinkle
selling drugs and you know, stupid stuff like that. Yeah,
so I would do I would do those Jesse Jackson

(15:32):
and all that stuff, and I would just be all
over the place. But people loved it and I got
the response, and I was like, yo, and it's a
different kind of high. It's different, you know, from dancing
because I'm dancing for somebody else, but that I'm like,
this is me. So then I was working with Salt
and Pepper. At the time, they would come support up
to the Uptown Comedy Club.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, you pooring Champagne.

Speaker 4 (16:02):
Pulled something to do, you know, spend.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
When they all came up, man, they support, How.

Speaker 4 (16:09):
Do you let's go back? How do you get that?
How do you get the Salt and Pepper gigs? We
you know, we're from the place, we know what that is.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
So what happened was spin shout out Todd call my
house and I don't know how she got another, but
she called back with the rotary phone. My grandmother had
the red rotary phone, so she called me, said he
no phone call, somebody spin to spend of something. Got
on the phone.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
As I'm getting older, I realized that they purposely messed
up to do that.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Now I'll be doing the same thing.

Speaker 4 (16:49):
I do it, but on purpose, jeffy, everybody I don't know.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
So I get on the phone and she said, hey,
you know, we're we're looking for another dancer to kind
of match Pepper's height or whatever. You know, you available,
you know, do you want to do what? We're about
to go on tour. We about to go do our
seneo all this stuff. And I was like, yeah, let
me check my calendar. I'm available. Yeah, and so what
did what? But what had you been doing to that
point to where they I was making the name for myself.

(17:18):
I was doing videos and you know chorey graph. I
had done the Crystal Waters video lit out, Yeah, and
Peter Paul I did that. I got the Power joint
with Chill rod g Joint. I mean I did uh
uh Queen Latif for fly Girl and what you call

(17:40):
it was a dancer in that video. He was in
a group on myps he probably sorry, I'm just people
don't talented. Yes, yes, it was in a group. I
don't know if it's men a vision or something you
can sing. Yeah, So he we were in that joint
together and Peter Paul too. So I just started making
a name for myself and I would end up choreographing

(18:03):
and or have stretched it something. I would assist him.
He worked with this goop Caroll Seduction, and I worked
with them, and I just kept building the name. So
they just they called and I was like, yeah, I'm down.
And the first trip was going to come in to
LA and we did our Senio and we did the
Marshall Warfield Show back when she had a talk show,

(18:25):
and we did another show and just did the press circuit.
They shot a little kind of docu video. This was
like before people were doing that. And I was just like, man,
I'm like, I can't believe me. I'm in LA. And
I was like, this is great. This is your first
time leaving. This is my first time leaving, well, not
leaving New York, but coming to California. It was my
first time. Was I've been to North Carolina I was

(18:46):
ninety five, yeah, or go down to the family reunion whatever,
but this was my first time. I'm like, I'm in
LA and I'm just like, Yo, this is crazy. Was
just blowing my mind. Man, it was just happening, like
and I'm sitting there like man, Senior Hall show and
Salt and Pepper was so They was so amazing with
including their dancers. You know, because most people, you do

(19:09):
a show blah blah blah, and then you got scurry
off and then it's the artist. But when we finished,
he would come stand out there on the floor and
you know, they would introduce all of us. Man. It
just I loved them forever. Man. They supported me. They
would come up to the comedy club and then they said, hey,
why don't you open up for us while we're on tour.
I was like, so I would go out, do thirty

(19:31):
minutes comedy, go back, change, come out and dance.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
When you went from doing three at the comedy club
to doing third eighty.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
Minutes, yeah, because by that time I had built up,
I had built up my comedy and as I was
gonna get them two checks, you going to dance too? Yeah?
I was dancing, so I would do the stand up. No,
actually there's three checks because I would do stand up,
go back, and change, and all the dances. We were
their roadies. We would grab their bags. Yeah I was

(20:02):
getting that brand. Yeah yeah, yeah, fake security everything, man everything.
But yeah, they used to come up and support. But
so many people came into the Uptown Comedy Club. Uptown

(20:24):
Comedy Club was iconic. A Deaf Jam was spawned from
the Uptown Comedy Club. I'm just gonna go ahead and
say it. We were the first, really at that time
to be on the map with with comedians coming up
there with Chris Rock was everybody. Everybody came up. And
then we had a television show we shot right out
of Halem called The Uptown Comedy Club, we had all

(20:47):
the artists was yeah, oh yeah, yeah, okay, oh yeah yeah.
And they actually were in talks, I believe Russell and
you know, my ex managers at the time in the
in the owners and the creators of that, Kevin and
I J. Brown, you know about he wanted to bring
them on and create this thing with death Jam, and
I don't know what happened. They just ended up saying
we're gonna stick with ours, and then they went on

(21:07):
and did death Jam. But if you look at Uptown
Comedy Club, it's the same setup, the comedians there, everybody surrounding,
and it was just it was the dopest energy, you know,
Kevin and andre A mom so they sold Buffalo Wings
like it was it was hood, but it was so dope, man,
it was the dopest energy ever. Man. I will never that.

(21:30):
That was one of the best times in my life
because I learned, you know, they taught me a lot
about stand up. So I was just doing impressions and
I remember doing a show with this one comedian and
he did the same impressions and I went after him
and I was stuck, and I said, I'll never let
that happen so I learned how to write jokes. I
learned how to talk about life experience and add that
into and if you want to throw an impression in cool.

(21:53):
But I just didn't want to make my whole act
based on that. And I learned a lot. I get
them all the credit in the world. It was. It
was the mecca we had, every we had Paul Mooney
was writer producer on the show. Hearing his stories, man like,
it was just amazing. Like everybody came up there. When
you go back and pull up Uptown Comic Club on YouTube,

(22:15):
you see Wu Tang Clan Luke, you see Tony Terry,
Every spectrum of artists came and saying and we did comedy.
And that's where the battle came from. The your Mama jokes,
the battle that they do on Wild spawned from that.
And Nick told me himself, he said, you know where
that came from, Right, Uptown Comic Club was the first

(22:36):
to bring your Mama jokes to television. That's great, Yes,
that was part of part of history.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
That's your question. Yeah, I'm something you said in there
about that about that making that adjustment. As far as
for comedians, yeah, like I'm pretty sure most of y'all
have a set, So how do you make that adjustment
if somebody has similarity to your set and they go
on before. Yeah, right, because like even with DJ's it's

(23:04):
like they they give an opening DJ songs you can't
you can't play right, So I'm sure there's not like
an opening thing of like, yo, you can't do certain
you know.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
It's it's it really is. Just don't take somebody's joke,
you know what I mean. That's the one rule. That's
the one rule. Don't everybody follows that.

Speaker 4 (23:24):
Though within the circuit though everybody knows everybody, everybody knows,
like because I was when I was at the Lave Factory,
like all the comedians would be there, another comic is
on stage and somebody would say, do the lawnmar right,
you know what I'm saying, And they would just go

(23:45):
into the lawnmower.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah yeah, yeah, guys know your stuff. There's a certain reference.
Yeah yeah, there's people that you know that that's such
and such a joke. Whatever, Just don't do that. You
can talk. It's not to say you can't talk about
a lama because the age old saying is there is
not one original joke all of them. Are the variations
are the same thing. So but you know, okay, I'm

(24:10):
doing Jesse Jackson. This guy comes out, he does Jesse Jackson,
but he's talking about something different. Is he still in
the material? No, Jesse Jackson is open fair play, you know.
I just it just made me say, you know, I
want to talk about something else. And there's nothing wrong
with doing impressions, but I just said I want to
I want to really talk about something. And I broke
up with this girl at one time, and I just

(24:33):
started talking about it on stage and it clicked. I
was like, this is it right here? I said, this
is it truthful? Because you can't take my life, you know,
that's you know, my life is my life, So you
can't come up and talk about what I went through.
So that's how I made that they transitioned and learned
and learned how to put jokes together and learn how
to just add on because there's no rhyme or reason.

(24:55):
You don't just sit down when they go, okay, it's funny,
it's little stuff. We could be having a conversation, you know,
we even having to come in. I say, oh man,
that that might be funny. When they take that put
that on. You know, I might be thinking of something
and I just need a tag. Or in most comedians
when you go out, they you know, cool dudes, be
like yo, man, you throw this on the end of
it and boom boom. Okay cool and it's cool like
and all my cats. And you know, I got to

(25:16):
give love to my boy Chris Spencer. He was he
was I want the guy who who said get your
ass back on stage because I walked away from stand
up once I got my TV show and did all that.
I walked away for probably twelve years because I got
to LA and I lost the that New York has

(25:37):
just the energy of I can go through three spots
to night. I could just go boom boom, boom boom,
and there you make money. You know, comics in LA
you don't make money. It's really like I didn't know that.
You know, they don't you really just being seen, you
know what I mean. You get paid something, but until
you become like a yeah. But at that time with

(26:00):
New York, everybody was doing. Everybody was doing. They were
doing comedy out of bbq's. You know, they had the
drug dealers joined out in the Queen's Manhattan proper. There
was popping bottles and like it, like you, I could
go make five hundred here, fifteen hundred here, you know,
fifteen hundred here in the night, and I do that
five days a week, and then on the weekend I'm

(26:23):
eating I was making bread doing that. So I came
here and only known there that at that time, Yeah,
I had no I had done showtime at the Apollo. Yeah,
I done the Apollo. So I was starting to bubble.
And this was before my first TV show where I
lived with my boy Dougie Doug. Remember, Yeah, it was
before that show. So I was building my name, and

(26:46):
then once I got that show, it built more and
I was still doing it. But then once I got to,
you know, doing my own show, I just I was
like a go out here and and chase that money
when I'm making this, like and it's a grind, it's
a grind. And I just didn't play it right. I

(27:07):
remember I told DL that, man, I said, I said,
DM Man. I was like, man, I just I didn't
want to leave and then come back and my child
has grown and I've been going all of me and
he was like, she, excuse get everybody ass a call
d L that's a hard working dude. Man. I love
that dude. Man. The sacrifice that thing, yes, yes, And

(27:31):
I didn't at the time, I didn't you know, get it,
you know. And and I sacrificed those years in a
sense I missed an audience that couldn't ride with me.
And then once I did a show, it was just like, Okay,
that's what he's doing now, you know what I mean.
And brothers like Dyell and said, all of them, Uh,
they've all just stayed that course. Dave Chappelle like I

(27:53):
used to hang with day back in the day. He
used to be a Boston comedy club and and and
the comedy seller and go to spot to spot and
I mean just one two in the morning. I remember
doing Spot to be the comedy seller, performing with Ray
Romono at like twelve midnight. There's fourteen people in the audience.
You know, this is before he had a show. He's
working on his material, you know, and next thing, Stud's

(28:16):
got a show. It's crazy, but you I think I
felt more in love with you know, when I was
doing my show, just the freedom that I had and
the money that I was making as opposed to I
got to go out here and grind it out. Yeah,
you know what I mean, it's a different comfort level
that you can definitely fall in love. Yeah, I'm like,

(28:37):
oh yeah, I'm cool. Mant me, look at my accounts.
I ain't got to go out and do seven shows
for you know what I'm saying, which was still when
I look at it, I was saying, stupid.

Speaker 4 (28:47):
It's just like, you know, perspective or it's just a
thing where like I remember at the beginning of my
career in the music side of it, like I didn't
know ex exactly what you should do when you have
a hit record that you wrote and produced one hundred
percent of. I don't know what that meant. I thought,

(29:13):
So all the alcoholics free.

Speaker 5 (29:19):
We did, Kevin, you mean I can keep my shirt
off rock all the time?

Speaker 4 (29:32):
No one was No one told me, okay, So this
is what you can do now now you are. Now
you can go write and produce for these people. But
not only that, you can start a publishing company because
people songwriters and producers now kind of want to be
you and under you. Now you can get an a
stall of writers and producers who now you don't have

(29:53):
to do all the work and and now, and you're
an artist and you can you know talents, So why
don't you just start a label?

Speaker 1 (29:59):
And good? Nobody told me this, I know.

Speaker 4 (30:03):
So it's like a thing where like I got to
this comfortable space where now I'm getting some money. Yeah,
I'm getting these these performance Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
What else do I need to do? Exactly? I'm chilling.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
Some people look at it as you lose sight, other
than you didn't have the the foresight, you know what
I mean, because people be like, oh, you know, you
didn't keep the main thing the main thing.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
Well, sometimes you don't know what the main thing actually
is or.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
What comes along with the main thing being successful and
all the ancillary things around it that you can now
build your company and your empire whatever you're trying to
build out.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
No idea, because at that time, we weren't thinking about
reiterating what you said. Like now everybody's like, no, my brand,
you know, I'm building that said brand.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
Exactly, exactly exactly, just because we didn't have the brands. Yes, yes,
everyone else had brand yes, and we just you know,
we're consumers of their brand.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
And helped build them. So where was in your opinion,
what's your big break man? I mean show Uptown Comedy
Club definitely, because Uptown Comedy Club and Showtime with the
Apollo were the things that really introduced me to the

(31:28):
world in a way that it said, Okay, he's his individual,
I'm not his dancer anymore. This is you know, this,
this is flex you know. And even still in my
mind it being on TV, I still was only thinking
about New York, you know what I mean, Even still
I was just like, yeah, man, you know, I just

(31:49):
that's why I didn't even when I started traveling, I
started seeing like, oh, people watch the show. You what
I mean? It trips you out, and it still trips
me out. I've never been one to get flying, but yeah, yeah,
that's me. I've always been grateful, always still surprised when
people remember stuff. And I'm thankful because if not that
I could not have a career. So that for me

(32:09):
was was a big breaks. Uptown Comedy Club, showed Time
to Tipolo and then doing Death Jam. I did Death
Jam when Martin was there, and then I think when
Ricky Harris got Rest of Soul when he and It's
funny Ricky Harrison and I we had this thing, man,
you know, Ricky used to have something with everybody and
and it's crazy. They were shooting this documentary on comedians

(32:33):
or death jam or something, and he and I got
to see each other. It's probably a few months before
he passed, and we got to see each other man
and we just laughed. I said, man, brother, I love you, Man,
I love he said man. We was young and da
da da, And I'm so glad that we got to
had a conversation because I was so mad at his ass,
because he went out and did well before he introduced me.

(32:54):
He on purpose did one of my closing joke that
was the killer. He did it before I came out,
and there He's like, yo, give it up a flesh
and he came back he was like, yeah, knock it out.
I was like, this, mother, what's up y'all? It was
that quick. I had to adjudge. Yeah. You know why
he did it though, because he was just didn't he

(33:15):
didn't care at that time. Ricky. Ricky working with a
lot of people back then, and it was it was young,
was the nineties. People he had egos. It was yeah,
he was. He was all against and that was right
in the height of you know, tat down and all
that stuff, man, But I'm glad we got to talk

(33:35):
and you know, we straightened all that out and was
just man, it was a good brother, you know. And
you you sit back and you're just like, man, you
see how you matured and you know what I mean.
But but those shows, uh yeah, Uptown Comedy Club because
that's really it was weekly and that's when I was like, man,
I started making money. I was like whoa. And then

(33:57):
I did show Time Me to Pollo three times I
and you do Spot Simbad Malcolm Jamal Warna and Earth
Kit Okay yeah, yeah yeah. Earth the Kit was like
he's one of the rising TV styles from how give
it that all? Flex? I was like, man, my god,

(34:19):
that was my.

Speaker 4 (34:23):
Were were you purposely trying to get out of dancing
once the comedy thing started started taking off?

Speaker 1 (34:29):
Yeah? Once the comedy started just taking off. And I remember, uh,
Cheryl calling me it was just like you and I was
telling him I got this and she was like, look,
she said, Flex, just go do your things. She's like this,
it's time for you. It's time for you to soar.
And and you know you're not dance no more, you
know what I mean? Because I was still trying to
hold on because I loved it that much.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
You know, like you said, you never got fly with
nobody do that no more.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
I was still trying. I was getting gigged, and I
was still kind of going, you know what I mean,
and and and people started recognizing me and uh, and
I still try to hold on. And I remember I
was up for the movie Juice. It came down to
myself and Omar's between the We auditioned for like a week,
and that's where I met Trench. There pop all of them,

(35:20):
so they were mixing matching actors. So there was another
friend of mine who read for the role of Steel. Uh,
the young kid in there. It was it was fighting
at his house. It was Khalil Kane. It was. It
was a bunch of us man and so we all read.
And I remember meeting pak and and I remember in
the audition I was where I knew he was different,

(35:41):
and I knew I was inexperienced. I'm in the room
and Jackie Brown Carmen I was cast and director g
Rod Brown, Ernest Dickerson. Uh directing Ernest Dickerson. So I'm
in there. We're doing the scene, a locker scene where
he closed, and he was like, where you been Q
And then he sees him and he know, and he's
telling him, I'm crazy. I don't give it, and we're

(36:02):
doing the scene and before he was in the movie.
He walks off, flips his hood up, but he's doing
the scene with me. He was behind me. He was like, well,
I don't whatever, I am crazy. It's like pot none.
He smacked me on the ass and walked off in
the scene. And I started joking because we were out
in the hallway joking and laughing, but he was locked in.
I wasn't locked in, and I was just like I

(36:24):
look back at that and go like man and Omar
you know, because he went, Uh went to Good Day
to performing our school. Uh, not Julie R. But it
was one of the performing on school, him and Marlin
uh and all of them went to om Marbles again.
He was focused, he was you know, they was already
that that's where I saw, okay, my inexperience and where

(36:44):
I need to lock in to go to another place.
And they took us all to dinner. It was like,
you know, the last supper to see who was gonna
make it. And then Uh, I didn't get the call
and and I get the call, so I was I
didn't get it, and I mean by call Shauff, I
was like, I ain't get the movie. And I was
so crush And this was your first audition for anything,
for anything. They saw me at the Uptown Comedy Club.
They said, hey, we're doing this little movie called Juice Man,

(37:05):
we'd like to have you come in. And that's how
that's how it started. And I remember them calling me.
You know, it's like a week or so later. Director go, hey, man, man,
we love you. Man. Sorry it didn't work out, but
we just want to you know, we want to fit
you in there somewhere was back and it became this
class thing class a lot of teeth and a lot

(37:27):
of teeth. Was like she I knew already from comedy
and all, and she said, you know, don't make me
look stupid. I was like, nah, got you say. Can
We're gonna say this right here. We're gonna boo boom boom,
just so she has the upper hand and then uh
and we we we delivered. So y'all created that scene. Yeah, yeah,
we came out because we didn't know what the scene
was created. As far as the DJ audition and you know,

(37:47):
the bad DJ come out. We didn't know what we
were gonna say, but she knew I was a comedian
and she didn't want me like really going in, you
know what I mean. So we kind of talked, but
I'm gonna say this, and then it just and that
was it lived And I look at it now and
I see my inexperience because when I'm when I turned,
I'm like, I'm like you you might have a chance.

(38:07):
And then she was so small and then I turned
with my back to the camera. That's my inexperience. I
turned and walked up. He turned the other way so
they see your face. But ever became an iconic scene,
that little bit. Man, No, it's viral. It's always ral.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Whenever they're connecting it to somebody being wacked by somebody,
you always.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
Say that just posted it. Fifty posted it like two
weeks ago because I guess whatever when he did the
thing in in uh Street Street somebody's music, Yes, yes,
about to do I guess they had a little thing
going back and forth. But he threw that up there
and just relived again. There's gotta be some residuals attached

(38:46):
when when you go.

Speaker 4 (38:48):
When it just resurfaces and starts circulating, it's street.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
I wish it keeps you in the like in mind street.
I like it because that is very valuable for sure.
That's because people still talk about that and they talk
about like I started it, and I'm like, man, I
just had that little part, but I'll feel it. Be
grateful for that, Grateful for the connections and you know,

(39:15):
meeting Pok Pok and just being cool with him, and
you know, every time I saw him, it was just
always love man, and that right there. I always I
always cherish that always.

Speaker 4 (39:25):
Okay, So move to l a man, Yeah, lah, yeah,
come on and bis man, what's the palm trees?

Speaker 1 (39:33):
And that was when I came man man, he said
that was on the pan. That was the family is
that you should be here. The crazy thing. The crazy
thing for me is you know when you came out
there to work, girls knew what you were working on,
Like it was crazy. I was like, when you came out, Yeah,
when I came, yeah, they knew it. Oh you shooting like.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
He was?

Speaker 1 (39:54):
He was you know, he was on the film televisions
at different and it was ninety one, Yeah, ninety one
came out here ninety one, we shut we uh shot
Where I Live ninety two and it aired in ninety three.
How did you get the show? So the Brown Brothers
were managing Dougie Doug and yes my ex managers. Yeah,

(40:19):
they were managing. So we were all under that umbrella.
I mean they had everybody, Tracy Morgan, you know, I
saw Tracy Morgan walk in the door. JB. Smooth like,
they had everybody. Man, that's my dude. So they were
doing a showcase and they did it purposely, did a
showcase at City College so that the producers could see
everybody and hopefully, you know, they like somebody. So I

(40:42):
go up through my thing, you know, Doug finishes, closes
out whatever, and then they say, hey, man, they like it.
They want you to read for it. Like I'm like
all right, cool. So I'm like, okay, I'm ready now
audition in New York and uh they liked me. And
then I do it again. They're like, okay, we want
to fly into LA I'm like, okay, cool, come out here.
I'm staying at the Universal Hilton and I'm just like,

(41:04):
oh man, it's I'm like I got predemned. So I'm
there and then I was only supposed to be there
for a couple of days. Like, I'm seeing all these
dudes in the audition that I watched on The Cosby Show,
and you know, established dudes. But I had that New
York I was like, I don't care whatever. I was like, yeah,

(41:27):
I watched y'all. I was sitting in the Bronx. I
was like, but I'm going to get this joint. So
I had no fear. And that's the thing. It's the
great thing about New York and the flip side of
the downside to La. The sunshine can put you to sleep,
and I kind of lost that, you know, that hunger.
But at that point I was hungry. I was in

(41:48):
there like doing doing my scenes over and they're like
the boy. They laughed. I'm like, ah, and it was
you know, so I was like, I know, I put
it down. So my former agent, he had the same
agent as a Robin Harris, God rest his soul. Uh.
They set up general meetings for me. So I go

(42:10):
to CBS for a general meeting. So this is a
few days later. I go and I'm sitting there waiting
to meet the executive and an interceptionist. Of course, he's
right here, gets on the place. Name is Bill Gross
said hey, flex like some good man, saying no you
still wait run. I'm like yeah, he'said, well yeah, I said, man,
just unfortunately you can't take that meeting, you know. And
I was like, wives, because you got the show on ABC.

(42:33):
I was like what what gave her the phone? And
I was like, heah, I gotta leave because you know,
I got the TV show. And I can remember the
feeling I had. You know, they had to call me
a cab. Back then, it was Valley Cab. There was
a red and white company and I had to take
a cab all the way from CBS all the way
back to UH Universal and I remember that feeling like, Yo,

(42:57):
I'm gonna be on TV on Channels seven and thinking
of all the shows I've watched on Channel seven growing up,
you know what I mean, from Happy Days, you know,
Fantasy all that stuff, and I'm like, I'm gonna be
a part of that. And I was I called my
mother my grandmother, and I was just that feeling right there.
I'll never forget that joint. It was. It was it

(43:18):
was crazy. It was like the first time I dunked,
like yo, and we uh we. I had to move
out here and you know, got a place and we
started shooting and understanding camera position. All that worked with
a great producer and Michael Jacobs who did Dinosaurs and
Boy Meets World, Don Tranovsky and brother Eric Van Lowe,

(43:42):
and I learned so much. I learned. I learned and
my boy Sean Baker, you know my other co star
man we had so in the boy Jason bow Smith
who was the little bad kid and Friday on the bike.
Yeah yeah, yeah, j Knocker Doyle like we had in
Sovan Walker was an amazing actor and Lorraine Tussaint was

(44:04):
this amazing actor is still killing it. And I just remember, like, yo, man,
I'm in Hollywood, man, I'm doing TV. Like yo man,
this is crazy. I'm like, I ain't ever going there.
And how long did that show last? Unfortunately only lasted
thirteen episodes. Something happened where I won't go into that

(44:28):
with between it, you know, started the show and the
network and it just it didn't go anymore. But then
I in ninety four after the Northridge earthquake, you know,

(44:50):
we have one working and north earthquake hit, I was like,
I'm going back to New York. I'm like, I ain't
built for this. I come back to New York and
I get back on my stand up grind. I'm boom
boom ninety four, ninety five, ninety six, boom that I
get a call. Hey man, you know this is New
Network UPN You know they they have a show. They

(45:12):
will offer you a holding deal. Now this was back
when you can cake up getting holding deals. I had
had one at Disney for you know, a few hundred
thousand and helped me for a year and a half.
Didn't do nothing, they just paid me. And then this
came up. So they sent me a bunch of scripts.
They said, oh, this script right here, they're really high

(45:32):
on and they gonna probably do this call Homeboys and
out of Space. So I looked at them. Now I
was like, Homeboys, not a space. Then I find out
it's the EP who was working on Where I Live
to show that I had just done. So he hit
me up. He said, flax my man, flex second, Hey man,
it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be And I said, yeah, man,
but do y'all have to say homeboys? I said, that's

(45:54):
so old school. He's like, no, man, people are gonna
love it, and I'm like, all right, cool. So we
shoot the pilot and Mel Jackson who was the original
cast member. Mel Jackson was from soul Food. He was
lem Me Well from soul Food. Shout out to Mel
and shot the pilot with him, and then and Rona

(46:18):
Bennett who's in Vogue. Rona Bennett singing sister, she was
in it. Uh So shot the pilot. So we're waiting. They' say, oh, yes,
you know, it's picked up. And then I get a
call from number I don't recognize. I'm like, what was it? What?
Darryl Bell? Yo, what's up? Man? Daryl Bell from a
different world say, man, I'm excited we're going to be

(46:39):
doing this. And I was like, huh what. And they
replaced Mel and brought in in Darryl Bell. And then
we went on to shoot the show and we had fun.
I mean, it ended after twenty two and then it
went that dark period. It was like what's next? And

(47:00):
to be honest, I was I was frustrated. I was like,
are you still in La? I'm still in La living
just this just this spot Lastancia over, yes, right there,
living right there and trying to figure it out. Man,
and I remember, you know, moving in, me and my

(47:22):
cousin moving in. Off comes the elevator, Shannice, and I'm like,
I'm like, yeah, you live here. She's like yeah. I'm like, yo,
I'm moving there. And I knew who she was. I
didn't know her, but of course I knew she was
going to see Laurence Hill. And she was like, I'm
wait for me. Was going to see Lauren Hill. Going
to see Lauren Hill that night and she was like,
I'm waiting for my cousin. Blah blah blah blah. Was
she taking along? And I was like, well, you know,

(47:43):
give me the number and keep in touch. And it
wasn't even on like that type of thing. And she
was like, all right, I'll be back. She went upstairs,
took like thirty minutes like I'm out, and then you know,
I see her two weeks later. I said, all right,
now you ain't give me a number. Four. She gave
me a number. We just started talking and I remember
but sharing with her. I was like, yo, I'm out
of here, like I'm tired. I'm like trying and trying,

(48:05):
and she said, you got to do your own thing,
you got to create something for yourself. She said, you're
too talented. We are you gonna go back to New
York for She really pumped me up, and I was like,
do you have any ideas? I said, yeah, idea about
a single dad. You know. It was buddy of mine
from Harlem. It was a single dad and you know,
just watching his life. She was like, there you go.

(48:26):
And then that spawned, you know, the idea of just like, man, okay, yeah,
this this is something that you know, I should get
out and pitch, you know, and then this is where
you start to learn all of the ins and outs
about about pitching and all that stuff. So I had
a friend originally from the idea write a script, you know,

(48:47):
paid them for the script. They turned it down, but
the ip is still mine, you know what I mean.
So I'm like, Okay, I want to keep going and
I want to try to pitch this again. Got another deal,
got a pilot, a script deal from ABC and Disney,
and I got another writer. They turned that down. So

(49:10):
again I'm like, well, hey, I still want to go
out with this, but I want to take it back
to how I originally envisioned it. Because you get writers
and they add they had their visions too, which is
which is fine. So I said I want to I
want to get back out with it. So my agent
was like, all right, cool, let's let's let's go back out.
So we go back out. My agent and my manager
at the time, we go out pitch it. I pitched

(49:31):
it to green Black John Lowry, Bob green Black, who
was had NBC for a while, David John Lowry just
done so much stuff went in. They had a deal
at Fox, uh and another executive then Keith Cox. They
had a deal at Fox. So pitch it like on
a Tuesday, that Friday call, It's like we want to
do it. We love it, like like oh this is dope.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
And in a time frame from the idea to now
out actually doing a deal for how much time is that?

Speaker 1 (50:03):
It's probably about, I say, really a year, year, year
and a half maybe, which is pretty quick. It was quick.
It moved pretty quick because it right around after I
met wife. Yeah, because I met her. My brother passed

(50:24):
in ninety seven, and then my after my grandmother passed
in ninety nine, and yeah, so it moved pretty quick.
So they said they want to do it. It was
like all right, cool, So I obviously put the deal together.
I got to find writers, you know, looking for writers.
I met with like five six writers. Met with his sister.
You need the boom got wrestled. We'll go over to

(50:47):
her house and wife and I'm telling her the story, like, hey,
this boom boom, it's dead. This is this all write
it down. And then we go to shoot the pilot.
So I'm doing all the deal stuff and and and
I said, I created by credit. I'm like, a right,
cool boom boom boom. Fill all that out. Okay, so

(51:09):
that's throwing to the side, and now we shoot and
then we get to I forgot what point it was.
Oh it was. We shot the pilot and then we
didn't get picked up. We were it was uh, my wife,
you were driving and I got the call. They were like, yeah,
they're not gonna pick it up. And then we pulled over. Dude,

(51:32):
we start crying because we just got married. I'm like,
what am I going to do? I was like, And
we put on Mary and Mary was like, God just
can't give me. I come to We sit on the
side of vine and like, O were crying. Man, Jesus,

(51:55):
I'm figuring. I'm like, what am I gonna do so
then you know it's just you know, you go through that,
those emotions. So they cut to a year's past. Sorry
first year anniversary. We're driving back from Santa Barbara, get
a call from my ex manager David. He's like, hey, hey, Flex,
how you doing man. I'm like, I'm good man. He said, hey, so, yeah,

(52:18):
would you want to still want to do your show?
And I'm like we talked about I was like, yeah,
Paramount's picking it up and they want to do it.
I'm like what, I'm like, what amo so? So explain
how something like that. I still don't know because I've
never but I've never been a part of a show
shot a pilot where it didn't get picked up and
it get picked up later or was it in the

(52:40):
same place. No, it was different network, every different studio
exactly same network, network, different studio, different studios. Sell you
what happened. So there was the head of the network
at the time. What was his name, It'll come back
to me, but but the head of the network at
the time, he called me himself and he was probably

(53:02):
said hey man, because he used to be over at
Dean lit Back was his name. He used to be
over at upm when I was on Homeboys. He was
at Disney, so he's seen me grow, he's known me,
and he's just like, man, this kid is great. But
by he called me and said, hey, man, I'm so sorry.
We should we should have picked you up. You know
the first time they had picked up a show called

(53:23):
The Secret Files of Desmond Pfeifer. It was the show
with Sean McBride where he was it was the Slave
of Lincoln and that was the TV show that they made,
and they had picked that up and he was just like,
he said, yeah, you know, we shouldn't have done that.
He's like, but he said, don't worry about it. You
know we got you. You covered boom And I was like,
I bet so. So now we're going to shoot. So

(53:46):
then here comes the subject about the creative buy. So
the guild recognizes who put pen to paper or a
finger to keyboard. It ain't about who said, hey I
I I created it. When I see people young writers
or people they send something or they put something up
like yeah, created by means nothing until you go through

(54:10):
the WGA register it. You do that and then you
registered through is it the Library of Congress one of
those other ones out of the register. It there the
Library of Congress. But it's another form that you can
copyright it. That is when it's copyright And even then
I for writer comes in, they're going to add their

(54:33):
sauce to it. So together or separately you can agree say, okay,
you brought this in, we've created it together, or listen,
I created this, Okay, you wrote this off of my creation,
and it's going to stay my creation. I didn't know
any of that, and then my attorney at the time
was like, yeah, you didn't have it registered. I was like,

(54:54):
I didn't know I had to. I had no idea.
I just had an idea, you know what I mean,
And that that's the difference of you know, a couple
of meal on that back end, you know. But Paramount
tried to make it right and as far as reflecting
in points, but it was never going to be what
a creator gets and a creator that just it follows you,

(55:15):
you know, you know, it can help other other jobs.
So it was a hurdle we had to get over.
So if you had to do it over again, would
you have would you have written the script the pilot yourself?
At that time, I was not right and I would
have read, you would have registered it, put it in

(55:37):
the best form I could into a treatment, you know,
one sheet or whatever, because at least had I had that,
they would be like, oh, he already had that there,
So this is a creation based off that, because back
then you could still you would get uh created by
based created based on the concept, based on the concept,

(55:59):
you know what. They were still doing that, but they've
killed that credit. I would have done that, and I
would have had a different conversation with the showrunner that
I chose because I hired the showrunner. I brought the
showrunner and I said, this is who I want, you
know what I mean. I would have had a different
conversation or I would have because at the time, it
was like we already in motion, wheels in motion, and

(56:21):
I could either be like, you know, man, you know,
piss a bitch, and I ain't doing none of this.
Stop the train from it. You've got a hundred some people,
you know, depending on you to work, just like, all right, man,
let's just let's just do it. And but you know,
that was the only kind of thing that stung. But

(56:42):
we you know, went on to do great and at
the end of the day, you know we needed each other,
you know, showrunner myself, we needed each other. You know,
I found Kylo. I didn't discover her, but I saw
her on a commercial, a Nike commercial, and they were
playing the Little Rascals music. She act like the cute
little girl and said, oh you Lisa Leslie, Oh you know,

(57:03):
I'm such a big fan. Can have you autograb And
she goes, sure, a little girl. She's like, well, you
need to rebound better. And that's why I saw her.
I was like, that's gotta be my daughter. And we
reached out and sat down, had a meeting. We shot
the pilot pilot. Kyla was I think twelve or thirteen
man by the time we went to series. I think

(57:24):
she was fifteen by the time we shot the first
first season. But yeah, I would That's the only thing
I would have done different. But you know, I had
a great time, one of the you know, the best
times in my life. Seas. We did six one hundred
something seventeen episodes, so syndication in the whole thing. Yeah,

(57:45):
but it was really i'd say five and a half
because you know, they tried, they wanted to go a
different direction and do some different things and I was like, well, no,
I don't want to do that. So it was just
an impasse where Okay, I'll agree to come back and
do this is my shows, and then you know, and
then y'all move on. And that's what we did, because
how does that go and how does that work?

Speaker 2 (58:06):
If it's something that I mean, obviously, you gave us
the breakdown of the whole creative buy thing. I know
about the you told us about the money that may
have been missed or not even made that but that
was missed out by you not doing it that way.
But did that ultimately give them the power to restructure

(58:27):
your show?

Speaker 1 (58:28):
No, they've always had. I mean, listen to the studio
has the power they give. They're giving them money no
matter what we like to think.

Speaker 4 (58:35):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
If you look at the history of anybody that tried
to show out and they except that we can't canceling
the show, you know what I mean. So it's just
about I wouldn't say playing a game, but just knowing
when the picket battles and all that stuff. But listen,
they gave me, afforded me a life that you know,

(58:56):
ten years prior I didn't have, so I'm grateful for that,
you know what I mean. And you're gonna have those
bumps and you're gonna have those bruises, but all of
those things that are to teach you, you know the
next go round that you know better. So now I
know better. I'm like, I know, before I even pitch anything,
say anything, I'm going right to guild here boom, regis

(59:19):
every which way I can, and then we're gonna talk,
you know what I mean. Because it gets dicey, and
people get people get funky. You can see people forget,
people forget and forget. You can sit and have a conversation, Oh,
we're gonna do this, oh yeah, and then something happens
that all changes. Yeah, and you talk to my lawyer.
Now it's like, oh, oh we had an agreement. It
all changes. Friends or no friends.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
It is.

Speaker 1 (59:41):
It is. It is one of the one of the
stickiest places to be when you get into a situation
like that, especially if it's friends or people that your
your peers, you know, because it's always about who did what.
It's like, let's just do it together, like myself, Chris
and Buddy, we have a project now, Like we get

(01:00:02):
it together. You know what I mean, and you know,
I will always be like, hey man, they're stronger than
me in this area. I have a strength in this area,
and we just put it together. But you know, people
are putting time in it and helping you. That's that's
that's a different thing, are you.

Speaker 4 (01:00:20):
I mean I think you're you're probably up financially in
a good space. When you guys come to this impasse
and they're like, well, we're going to do something different.
You know, you're doing pretty well for yourself and now
you're saying, what's my next move again?

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
Yeah? Yeah, I am, you know out and you know,
you take some gigs here and there. You know, I
chilled a little bit, you know, just home and really
just trying to trying to trying to figure it out.
Then I get a call from my agent. It's like,

(01:00:56):
hey man, uh, you're not going to believe me. I'm like,
well what it was like, Yeah, so they're doing this
Michael Jackson movie. Let me go and get it out.

(01:01:18):
It is going to get this out. Get this call
this Michael Jackson movie. And I'm like, okay, cool, who's
in it. It's like they want to meet with you.
I'm like, they said who's in. I'm like, like, what
they can't they want to beat other pH one, you know,
Santa Monica. I'm like, I'm like, okay, they want you
to meet with the director producer. I'm like, okay, cool,

(01:01:39):
al right, I'll go take a meeting. Go sit down.
I don't see nobody else there. It's not like I'm
not reading nothing. It's like I'm just like sitting there.
And the director is like, he's very earthy, like we
want to do you know. This is we're not trying to,
you know, to fame him. This is you know, we love.
We want to put energy in. And I was like, okay,

(01:01:59):
cools energy cool. They just asked me questions about him,
how I felt. I was like, come on, I met
him once. Super cool. I'm like yeah, like and that's it.
Just had a conversation. I leave. I think about a
week later they called and they was like, yeah, they
want to make you offer. I was like, come off

(01:02:20):
of that conversation. Just off of that conversation, just off
of that, I'm like, I was like, come on, man,
you like they know I'm six four, right, Like I
can't like how they want to make an offer. And
I'm like then I find out, I'm like, who else
were they talking to? This would have even been really funny.
I think Hill Harper was on their ring. Shout out

(01:02:43):
to Hill's go Senator. He may not even know that,
but I guess they were thinking about him at the time. Yes, yes,
what yes. So I'm like okay, and I'm like, all right,
well whatever, you know, negotiate whatever. Clearly think we all
look like yeah. And they came back with the number
and I was like, yeah, I'll do it, I'll do it.

(01:03:09):
Tell us what that never was? Brother, I know you
can't tell us keep that lock. Yeah, it was good.
It was enough for him to do it. It was
a great number. Overlooked everything much what it costs for
you to play Michael Jackson tap but no. But but
you know what, you gotta understand. It wasn't now, it's
not about yeah. But I'm looking and I'm saying, this

(01:03:33):
is before so this is and when they pitched the
story and they're sitting there telling me, once I agree
to do it, that like we're gonna we have, we
got the songs, we're gonna be doing big performances, we
got the rights to the song. I'm like okay. I'm like, okay,
it wasn't just about what you could buy. It wasn't
about that at that point, it's like you really can
do something. I'm like, oh, man, we said, we gotta.

(01:03:54):
He said, I have this performance. You do a man
in the mirror. I was like, okay, I'm gonna kill it.
And they took you back to your day today, all
of that stuff and the love that I have for Michael,
you know what I mean. I was just like, oh,
bat boom, So we go do it. I should have
known first day walking in the makeup trailer and I said,
I see the rubber nose sitting there, and I'm just like, yeah,
I'm not putting that on. Like, I'm not doing that.

(01:04:16):
I'm not gonna make a caricature. Yeah. So I didn't
put the nose on. But then they came out with
the dog on the airbrush with the ashy airbrush powder
and they put it on. I was like, I was like,
y'all know I look ashy, right, Oh no, to'll be
fun like all right, and then we start shooting. We're
shooting with the intent of delivering something really good, which

(01:04:41):
at the time for the time because guess this check
us out. It air on BH one, nobody had nothing
negative to say. If this air on b ask me
you were probably younger. You were probably Oh my listen, listen,
I'm tough dude. It aired, people say, oh man, you
did a great job. I mean I even even I

(01:05:02):
mean sitting with La Toya talking to her and she
she knew production value was crap, but she was just like,
we appreciate you really, you know, trying to really channel
the one thing. People just say, it's like, yo, you
really you know, channeled him just the kindness and all
that stuff to make up because make it was horrible.

Speaker 2 (01:05:19):
But you're gonna because that's my biggest issue.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
Yeah, yeah, that was that was bad. It was was
it chalk. It was some air brush. It was in
an airbrush. That's all. I know. That every morning one.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
Scene, well you had all all white and he was
matching your shirt. I know, man, And I said, ain't
no way, Yeah, it ain't no way.

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
It looked like they took me and they rolled me
and powdered donuts and just like and action. What's the
time right now? What's the day? Oh my god, listen, man,

(01:06:07):
I thought I was safe.

Speaker 4 (01:06:07):
When did any point during the shooting, At any point
did you look at yourself?

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
There was no points, no point except for the makeup.
I was like, man, they gotta do this better. But
at no point did I think because again this was
before social media, so there was no opinions to base anything.
I thought. I was clear, they ate this man so
much money. They ain't no way. You didn't walk by

(01:06:38):
that mirror and go oh hell no. I was just
like yo, man. And then when people hit me up,
and initially I was like, initially I was getting offended,
like I got a family, But then I was like,
you know what where he was getting offended at first
when it because when social media started, and then when
people would see it or it would came on, or

(01:07:00):
they would hit me. Oh they would hit me. I
would get tagged. We ain't never gonna forgive you, never forget,
never forget that you should never oh my god. And
then I would be going back when and then I
was like, man, I got to learn to laugh at myself.
And when I looked at that com I was like

(01:07:20):
this was initially, but then I was like, so people
hit me, I'm like, man, you all right? I was
asked you I don't know what I was thinking. And
you know some of our responses. Somebody said something about
uh uh I posted something and they were like, yeah,
you need to post uh a piece of that terrible
Michael Jacks movie there. I said, I'll post the check stuff.
How about that? You know? But then I was like, no,

(01:07:42):
I don't do that, don't do that. But I just
have fun with it. Now it's it's it's always around
his birthday. I know yearly when it's coming. So I
get ready and just sit there and just let me
take it. And now that they did the movie and
that's coming out, I know that they're gonna play get
the movie. They did it, yes, with your Jamaine Son

(01:08:03):
and Answer Food Couad directed. It is an amazing they
that was They did it right. And the thing is
even in that somebody's gonna have a problem with it.
Of course, sure of course sure, but it's not gonna
be what I did. This is how.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
Our friendship is the reason why I've never posted it.
Oh but now that I know you cool with it,
I'm listen. You know how many people I know that
have posted that time?

Speaker 4 (01:08:33):
I mean, like I get hit here as your friend,
like you didn't do it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
What do you mean? I've never seen but it's so funny, man.
But you know what, I'm like, I can say that's a.

Speaker 4 (01:08:51):
Great moment in you know, your love for music, your
love for Michael. Like you're like, how you want to
turn that down? Like when you ask me like the
turned down Michael Jackson. I'm in my mind. I'm trying
to think of all the things I would just need
to do to get into that character too, and I'm
gonna try and do them.

Speaker 1 (01:09:09):
Listen. I came home. I came home and I was
still in character. We went to eat me and a
family and I was like, because everything was shaved. I
got to the house, I forgot the code to the alarm,
like I really was because I just watched hours hours.
I'm like, if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna go
ahead and do it. And it was I submerged in

(01:09:32):
that joint, yo, and it was who Yeah, it tat.
It taught me a lot, man. I was just like, yeah,
I really gotta vet this thing out a little little
a little better. But I mean, again, for my love
of music, love of him, like I had, I know,
there was talks of you know, Tyresee doing Teddy Panograss.
I spoke to Teddy Panegrass years ago about I was

(01:09:53):
submitted about playing Teddy Pentagram. This was years ago. Someone
else had the rights at the time, and I knew them,
and they called me and they put me on the
phone with him and saw my picture. It was like, oh,
Man pictures, great man. He said, yeah, we're gonna keep
you know, keep going. We're gonna figure this out. And
you know, obviously he passed. But you know, I've tried
to get the rights to Sam Cook at one point,

(01:10:15):
but the the guy who owned it, who swindled him
out of his his rights to his music, owns the
music and won't let anybody. That's what if you notice,
the only person who ever had the original uh rendition
of Change Gonna Come is Spike Lee in X nobody
else and Ali was our Green singing it. They did

(01:10:36):
a ready remake of it, but they won't let that
music go. And I'm like, you can't do a Sam
Cook movie without the music. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's
some people I've I've tried, and you know, I just
I don't know, just they just Michael got me. I
love Michael Man love. Man, there's such such a it

(01:10:59):
was such an amazing it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:11:01):
God, just he would come in, introduce himself to everybody
and everybody's name. Just it's an amazing, amazing, amazing person.
What does that lead to? After Michael Jackson? Uh? That,
after that, God, it was, that's when the what do
you call it? Hit? The two thousand and eight financial

(01:11:22):
collapse hit. It was I had had we got property,
we bought property in Vegas, and you know, I'm stacking up, like, yeah,
you know, I want to pass this down. Bottom fell
out everything. I should have let it go, but I'm
pulling from savings trying to keep it. Got to I
had a twelve unit little building and four single family

(01:11:43):
homes and everybody like it was. It was bad. So
I'm pulling money trying to keep it going because I
want to pass this down and I should have let
it go. And that's what led to us, you know,
doing the show on own talking about it. Yeah, talking
about what we what we went through. And because I
didn't want to do reality, and so the only way

(01:12:03):
I would do is if we had something to talk about.
And you know, Wifey, she loves reality. She just want
to do reality. Show. I wanted to the reality show.
And then I said, listen, if we're going to do it,
we got to tell the story because I don't want
blogs and it's coming out telling our story. We're going
to tell you know, how everything happened. And we did,
and for the most part, it was super positive. We

(01:12:25):
had so many people who were thankful in this industry,
and we both know that came to me on the side, Yo, man,
I was living in my car or Yo, man, I
don't know how you spoke out, but thank you and
you know that gave me the confidence and you know,
and I'm just like, that's the reason, if anything, that
was the reason to do it for those people. We
had a couple that reached out and they told us

(01:12:48):
that they told my wife that they lost everything, had kids,
all that, and they were planning to mit suicide and
they were writing a letter and they were going to
leave the kids with her parents. They saw our show
that both were They saw our show and said, hey,
we saw that you guys can make it, and they
just didn't do it and turn and turned things around

(01:13:12):
and thrive. And I wonder where that couple is now.
I hope, you know, I know they were still going.
But that that for me was was everything, you know,
and that was everything. So going through that, after Michael Jackson,
after that the financial collapse, everything changed, the business changed,
and then it just became you know, doing a TV
movie here or doing to reoccur here, and you know

(01:13:34):
I would do Gray's Anatomy I did. I had a
bunch of stuff. Man, I've done a whole bunch of
stuff that people forget, you know what I mean. And
I was able to just continue sustain and then you know,
Wifey started performing more again, and and we just kept going. Man,
we just we just kept going. And people think, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,

(01:13:57):
you got black Ball, and I'm like, no, I'm still
working black Ball for playing Michael Jackson, like really, like
it didn't make no sense, but that just, you know,
I led into I had another deal, create another show.
It didn't happen, but I had a deal on the table.
But I just kept going. I just kept going, kept going.
That's all I know how to do. You know, even

(01:14:18):
in the tough times like right now, you know, so
many people going through it and still trying to front.
I'm like, yo, everybody getting hit hard, everyone, and this
is the time where you just have to shift and
figure things out do other things as well. I don't
think it's anything wrong wrong with that. I've been, you know,
heavy into studying government contracting, and you know, I'm looking

(01:14:40):
at the percentages of millionaires that come out of there,
and I'm like, okay, all right, we're gonna learn that's
something else, you know what I mean? Because as much
as I love this, I know I can't sit and wait.
And even if you reach out to people, those people
are waiting. You know, they're not in a position to
do anything. And I'm talking about black, white everything. I

(01:15:00):
got a couple of white friends, just producers. They got
shows packaged with some names, and they can't sell them.
So that just tells you where we are. I'm like,
what do they know? Why is everybody on hole right now?
What do they know? I don't know if it's the election,
I don't know what it is. But it's a weird time.
And it's not saying that you can't get things done,
but I just think it's we're in the time now

(01:15:21):
that you have to really dig deep and and and
and understand that you know, just one way is not
the way anymore. Like you said earlier, you know, for
you know, hit record, right, and it's like, okay, publishing company, Okay,
get some artists, let me do. It's that same thing
you yes, putting all these numbers, all of that stuff.

(01:15:42):
You have to do. It almost like the three card mindset.
You got to you have to. And that's one thing
I will never never stop doing, you know, because it's
just it's just I don't know, man, I love it.
I'm fell in love with getting on stage again, back
doing stand up, and I just fell in love with
it more this time because now I've lived life and

(01:16:03):
now I have stuff to talk about, you know what
I mean. The journey is you know, my wife and
I went through our kids, what we went through, and
you know, and what she's come through and with this
cancer thing, and I mean it's all other shit don't
mean nothing to me. So I don't people can oh
you did this, it's like okay, cool, it's funny. Yeah,

(01:16:26):
but you know, at the end of the day, ma'am
still here. You know, we're still here, and that for
me is everything. This is all I ever wanted to do.
So you know what I mean, this is what it's
I mean, I'm telling you like this. This is all
I ever wanted to do. Man. I love it, not
for the other stuff, but just to when I get
on stage. Man, I'm telling my story. I got your attention.

(01:16:47):
You know, you paid your money to come see me.
I'm like, yoh, man, it's like you're doing a concert
and Nadia and you're taking your time on a song
and they're like, I'll tell you that. You know, you know,
it's the same feeling, you know. I think when I
was younger, it was different. When I was younger, I
was like, yeah, I get that bread. You know, people
know me. You know, it's still humble. But I think

(01:17:09):
now it's the love is kicked in because at fifty
four is different. Fifty four fifty four, yes, sir, yes, sir,
it's me. I believe you don't hope no more. I
see him. I do the same thing to him. I said, Bro,
you know, no hold with us, no here you text
me A couple of times, I said, Jay, let me
just let you know it's not happening. It's not legs, no. No.

(01:17:33):
The last time I thunk I was what forty six,
and then I was doing a celebrity game in Indianapolis
and next year I went, I went to go up.
It was just gone, just gone. I say, you know what,
I'm good. Everybody I know my age or in our
age is popping achilles. I'm like, look, thank you don't
need that. Don't nobody needs that.

Speaker 4 (01:17:52):
See super legs over here. He did a meniscus. I
told a a C and you still that the same leg,
didn't need surgery, didn't do surgery, just did all.

Speaker 1 (01:18:07):
Rehab and still going. I love it. I love it.

Speaker 4 (01:18:13):
I stopped because of that, yes, I said, And then
I came back like wait, wait where you at to that?

Speaker 1 (01:18:20):
Yeah? I run No, No, I can't. I can't find
any enjoyment of anything else the same way. Really, I
think like within your journey, bro, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:18:37):
You from a talent standpoint, a gift standpoint, like you've
accomplished some some really incredible things. But that piece where
you and your wife share your share your life with
the world, Yeah, that positive way that is like that

(01:19:00):
is the gold Man. And even when I just used
to used to see y'all two together. You know what
I'm saying, it's like a it's smiling. It's a different
kind of energy, like it's like, oh yeah, that's that.
That's the Lord's work right there. It's like it's like
seeing two people that like, I don't know, like something

(01:19:24):
else comes from that, something more inspirational, something deeper, just
from y'all standing there together, you know what I'm saying.
So I'm glad y'all were able to tell that story.
And I know for a fact you've saved more people
then you realize. Just your example, man, and just those smiles.
So y'all walked in and she starts smiling.

Speaker 1 (01:19:45):
Look at this man, she always smile. You married the
R and B man. I don't know about saying. In
my head, I know you are you listen, she will
tell you. In my mind, I'm singing. And the crazy
thing is I'm singing all the time. She don't sing
around the house. I'm the one for your music. Everything

(01:20:08):
you listen, you're all kings. You don't sing off case.
She talked, She's like, I turned about that key. She's
off my note, off my note, off my note. She'll
purposely come in. She'll get me a note like no, no, no, no,
off my note. Yeah yeah yeah, your melody.

Speaker 2 (01:20:28):
Guys, understand that melody. A solo guy, just think tune
now you know what I mean. Listen a whole nother career. Hey,
pivot in his whole time.

Speaker 1 (01:20:39):
You never know, you never know. I was in the group.
Once I got I got kicked out, but I was
there for for a minute. It was an R and
B group. I was a rapp R and B group
called jim Wait wait what woy wait wait wait before
you before you go ahead and start playing. Yeah, we
need to know about shot like like like like French

(01:21:05):
for I love you shot him? Okay, hallm I thought
it was like French timbling both my R and B.
It was my boy, my boy, Michael Harrison shout out
to Michael Harrison in Harlem. He was up in this apartment.
I think that the least things of Spanish. Dude named Jimmy,
and there was another guy and nobody was French though No, okay, okay,

(01:21:29):
she was trying to do something different. So we up
in there. I mean we harmonizing. And are you really harmonized?
I thought I was until I got to notice Jimmy's
until I got to notice, Yeah, you might want to
go ahead do this dancing thing because you yeah, we're
not going to be your services. But I knew it though.

(01:21:50):
I knew this was something I had come to terms
with and I knew this is not my calling. And
look who got to play Michael Jackson look at that
and not none of yeah would kicked me out.

Speaker 4 (01:22:20):
For this.

Speaker 1 (01:22:21):
I think. I think I had two rehearsals and I
was gone. But that's how much I love music. We
just went to the fool and fool and love Uh
festival that they had out by so far, Gladys Knight, Ross,
line of Richie Santana, the whispers, I mean every I

(01:22:47):
loved it. It was. We all went out even know
that was happening.

Speaker 2 (01:22:49):
Oh it was.

Speaker 1 (01:22:51):
It was a little loun organized as far as getting
in part, but I can a plus on putting together
a lineup in The stages were like the cross So
when one artist was performing, artists was over here setting up.
As soon as they finished, they was on and it
just went like that.

Speaker 2 (01:23:08):
It was.

Speaker 1 (01:23:09):
It was so dope and seeing all of them performing,
seeing Eddie up this mean and walk to it, and
people won't get Walter enough credit Walter Walter, Yeah, Walter
cold blooded. I mean it was. And we left. Lionel
had started. He just started off man with being alone.

(01:23:29):
He started off with Hello. I was like, Yo, how
are you gonna start with Hello? Catalog? He got that
many hit speaking of his let's talk about Nle Rogers.
He got there and I did. I didn't know he
did his catalog. He said, y'all might know this one.

Speaker 4 (01:23:47):
I was like like that.

Speaker 1 (01:23:48):
I'm like what.

Speaker 4 (01:23:51):
That was?

Speaker 1 (01:23:52):
If you can get there next year. It was that
right outside of so far in between and the forum outside.
It was amazing. That's what I love how much I
I'm always playing music in my car is the R
and B and Wifey's car. She's playing and drop it
like it's hot. She might be playing Sexy Red, she

(01:24:12):
might be playing my booty whole Brown. She might be
playing just know what you think? What you think? She smiling, smile,
and she is dropping it. I mean she's at the party.
Oh my god, she she is trade up gangsters need

(01:24:36):
to balance with all the Shenanigans. I listening to Awfulish.
I love it, man. I mean going from shoot Bar
Skags to you know, Bobby Carwell to you Yeah, everything, man,
I just love all of it. That is not flex
is your top five R n B s Okay, So

(01:25:02):
what do we say here because again, we've talked about
We've talked about Michael and I know they said, oh,
king of Pop, but Mike was so R and B
and for me, he is definitely there. And Jay listen
off the walk, man, listen, I can't help it. Come on, okay, Luther,

(01:25:30):
come on, get some armies in the French accent. That's okay,
gotta have Luther. Uh. Oh my gosh, Jeffrey Osborne, come on, jail.
Oh gosh, putting there. I gotta put Gladys Knight. Yeah,
and there, gotta put Gladys Knight's incredible voice, my soul. God,

(01:25:55):
have to gosh more m you got it, Shaka Khan
shot check corn. Yeah, I just saw her.

Speaker 2 (01:26:10):
Yeah, she's still out there with the with the fit on,
with the hair blown hitting all the nose.

Speaker 1 (01:26:18):
Just saw her. She she it's so hard, because how
can you forget Whitney? Like it's so hard? Man, come on,
sing the remix. Okay, so there we go. Okay, we
got Whitney. So that's what. That's sick. That's sick. That's

(01:26:39):
I gotta stop, Okay, I don't. I don't want you
to veer off of your you know your ahead. Come
on give us. Oh my gosh, said Whitney. Whitney definitely
got the voice, the voice always I and I'm partial.

(01:27:04):
I have to put my wife in there. I was going,
I was going to, I'm just trying to you want
to stab something? Absolutely is the turn up. You're not
playing them and you talk about someone who's still who
sounds probably even better now. And I told her this,
after all you've been through, so you sound better now

(01:27:26):
then you did back then, and you sound great, but
you you've lived life. It's a different type of richness.
That richness.

Speaker 4 (01:27:35):
Is.

Speaker 1 (01:27:35):
It's just different. The last show, she just I was
just like yo, And of course, as you guys are
are you sure I didn't? I didn't think I did
this right? Are you crazy? Yeah? Okay? One more, one more,
Oldest ready yeah, Old's ready? Yeah? Oh yeah your name?

(01:27:58):
He got a song called I Love words can say? Yeah?
Is that part of the top five RB song? Okay,
let's go to the top five R and B songs.
Let's go, Okay, rock with you, Rock with you? Definitely,

(01:28:23):
dang that's uh h h. You did the R and
B Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's one of us. You've been
watching y Yeah, people may not agree, but that damn

(01:28:45):
cry for you by Jo you're talking to. I don't
agree something cry in joy that I was in there too.
I was in that group too. We're in the group.
It's all of us. Yeah, I mean, yes, I was
there too. Some people ain't gonna agree with you. We
don't know, but i'mnna smack him. You God damn right,
cry for you. Okay, so we got we got that.

(01:29:12):
Uh gosh, it's not an original, but still that's the original,
was Dion Warwick. But the house is not at home.
House is not doommommmmm saving all my love for you.

Speaker 4 (01:29:36):
Yeah, I like you're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:29:45):
Yeah. The singers in the songs, all of it. Okay,
one more more, one more, oh gosh mm hmm zoom
the Commodore's yeah yeah yeah that's a life reflection. Yeah

(01:30:07):
maybe just the foodless dreamer. Come on, but I don't
care what's because I know my happiness is waiting for
me somewhere, searching for the silver lining. I mean, yeah,

(01:30:29):
that's it for me. This this man knows.

Speaker 4 (01:30:34):
This man knows importantly, he knows how to talk to
a woman. Yeah, m because that's where it starts. Yeah, yeah,
when you're interested in a woman.

Speaker 1 (01:30:48):
Back in the day, we used to have slow jam tapes.
You look for the first tape. Listen, you look for
the sonic when they came over. You hear play on
that cassette to convey your message, to relay your instruction.
This is what I'm saying, this is, this is, this
is what we're doing. And you know your everything I do.

(01:31:08):
Come on that shout out of camber. You are you
and jealousy? Uh? I would be Casey because I'm just
all about the who. Yeah, just all about who. Yeah, couple,

(01:31:28):
Come on, man, listen, man, listen Casey, Casey Killer. How
could I not they talk about those dudes, I mean
case like, just both of them, just the way they
volley off each other. Man, and people understand the lyrics

(01:31:49):
and and a lot of stuff, especially that first album,
and they're known for the moms or open that's commission,
That's commission, and just the fact that they threw that
in there. Come real church board church womember you what
do you mean in jos I'm a mixture of David

(01:32:11):
and Davante. Yeah, I'm Davante. I'm okay. I like what
you do. You cannot sleep on. Jojo cannot Jojo is
the is, the is the ultimate utility man. He does

(01:32:36):
it all.

Speaker 2 (01:32:38):
There are two guys that made two of the most
amazing groups work Jojo Haley Sean Stockman.

Speaker 1 (01:32:46):
Talk the talk. Wait a minute, those two, those two men,
those two men want to run dry? What what we
don't even talk anymore? Talking about? And we don't even
know what we argue about because that's usually by how
I go? Don't you know more? Why do we hurt

(01:33:09):
each other? Why do we push love away? Let's not
not wait until the water runs dry? With your tim
and may get that group out of here. We're talking
about Jonesy and boys and minute you talking about your
tem we cunning than champions.

Speaker 4 (01:33:33):
Think about those words. Let's wait till the water.

Speaker 1 (01:33:37):
Run Listen lyrics like come on man, I'm on, baby
face prince? How did I forget? We're not gonna do this?

Speaker 4 (01:33:48):
Did we get all the songs out?

Speaker 1 (01:33:49):
Or stop? We stop? Okay?

Speaker 4 (01:34:01):
You? If they call you to play prints, you got
to remind them I'm six.

Speaker 1 (01:34:13):
It's not come out doing this. I'm not I'm not you,
I am something never COMPREHENDI oh my god, carry your

(01:34:33):
bags every day? My God is so much great music.

Speaker 4 (01:34:38):
Okay, okay, we're gonna make a vowl trying. I'm a
super R and B artist, super R and B artists,
and we're gonna take mixtures of all artists from from everywhere.
I want to know who you're gonna get the vocal from,
the performance style, the styling, and the heart of the artists,
the passion of the artist. Who you're gonna get the vocal,
the one vocal for your super R and B artists.

Speaker 1 (01:35:04):
I got. I have to put my wife there. Mm hmmm.
I have to, yeah, yeah, because she's so underrated. I'm
not going to argue with you. And she's so loo
you get and was the catalyst for a lot of
these young girls starting I have. I have her and
Tamiya in this space that I said. It's like it's

(01:35:28):
called vocal. Yes, I mean, come on, you signed a
deal at eleven and singles their where It's like, okay,
forget to me. God, it's so mad. She's performance style,
performance style, performance style, Uh wow, m hm, got it.

(01:35:59):
Throw Michael in there, Michael's voice, Michael moves, I lights
some shop toaster. I want to toast it. Styling, styling
would have to be like mm hmm, funky because that's thin,

(01:36:29):
but then now styling easy. I would say it. I
mean because in the height Whitney mm hmm Whitney, Yeah, definitely, yeah, yeah,
because she could go with the jean and the motorcycle jacket,
and she could throw the gown, the gown stand flat
foot off the passion of the artist, the heart. Mm hmmm, Dan,

(01:36:56):
can you do a double Michael singing to your gotcha?
Here's I don't think it was anybody's passionate. He meant it,
He meant it, and I got I got one more
for him. You're probably about to say what I'm about
to say.

Speaker 2 (01:37:09):
Who's gonna play him in the bio pick? Who's gonna
play this artist in the bio pick? Definitely not mean,
I mean, I've had it.

Speaker 1 (01:37:24):
I can do it. Who's gonna do the choreography for this? Oh?
Yeah yeah? Oh wow? Travis Pain. Travis Pain, give us some,
give us some backstory on Travis Pain. Choreographed for Janet,
for Michael, he was the one, and this is it.

(01:37:47):
You saw him a lot? Okay, yeah, ball ahead. Travis
Pain is is a legend in this business. Wow. Yeah.
Choreographed for much more than I can remember. But off
to Travis Pan his not just choreography, staging, what you
wear all the stuff. Full creative director, full creator. He's

(01:38:08):
a creative director for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:38:09):
We've come to the segment of this show. Will you
tell us a story? Funny or fucked up? Are funny
and fucked up?

Speaker 1 (01:38:18):
And the travels of Flex the things you've seen, the
things you've experienced. It could be any of those things.
It's only rule. One rule to the game. One rule
to the game. What's that You can't say? No names? Okay, okay?
First one is at a memorial service? Uh meet this

(01:38:39):
this this brother? Can I say what they do? A
rapper entertainer? People love them. Going to the bathroom, sees me,
Oh man, what's up? Flex? Oh oh fan man? Growing
up like, oh man, call me too big fan of you?
That cool? Come out like hey man, hey, let's let's

(01:38:59):
get together, you know, lunch with that. I'm like bad man,
all right, man? I hit you up? Hit him up?
Mm hmmm, hit him up, mm hmm, hit him up.
Never heard from that person again. Gave me the fool gaze, Yeah,

(01:39:19):
gave me gaz. I have a pet peeve with that
if you don't mean it, don't do the faking move.
Don't do that. Yeah, don't leave me on red. Okay,
after they tell you, after they tell me, hit me up,
after they pull out phone. Hey, okay, that's one second. One, yes, yeah,

(01:39:44):
it's terrible. Second one was working for this person as
a dancer, and in rehearsals, I've been doing some things.
I guess they were not happy with I'm imitating them,
and uh, they don't know you're a comedian yet. No,
not at that time. So we have a show, we

(01:40:09):
go sound check, I do it again. There was another dancer,
a little hater I used to dance for Hammer, and
I guess he goes back and tells said person, I
am in my hotel room getting ready for show. Blah
blah blah. Get a knock on the door, pro manager,
Hey man, yo, got just get your stuff together. So Yo,

(01:40:30):
you know, show's not to seven thirty, not for you.
He's a plane ticket. You've been fired. Yeah. I was
removed from my hotel room, put on the plane back
to New York. Missed out of that whole tour. Yeah, imitating?

(01:40:51):
Are you doing a bad person? It was just yeah,
don't do me don't do don't play with me like that. Flex.
And and they knew I was just a jovial guy.

Speaker 2 (01:41:05):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:41:05):
It might have been some other stuff. I don't know,
but yeah, they didn't. They didn't like that. Mm hmmm
mm hmmm. If you are you almost did the voice.
But yeah, yeah, and it's said person always, you know,

(01:41:27):
if I'm at a show that they're doing currently always
he loves to tell that story. Oh they still tell
the story. Oh yeah, because but I fired you so
you could become I thank them. Actually, I say, hey, man,
thank you because it pushed me because I said, I
ain't never let nobody fire me again. Yeah, let tell

(01:41:51):
you after you because you're doing it. No, we never know. Okay,
whatever tells, I won't tell. It's always a secret. It's
a secret.

Speaker 4 (01:42:04):
Brother flex Uh entertained extraordinary. Uh former hooper, Avid Golfer
now Avid Golfer. Oh no, he listened because because he
be golfing with like Michael Jordan and all that. And
I told him one day, I said, man, anytime y'all
going through that Michael Jordan things, man just hit me said.

Speaker 1 (01:42:25):
Okay, he's like that was a little chick like you
like he didn't give me. That's a little put in
the word for you. I'm like, it's don't count on it. Man.

Speaker 4 (01:42:51):
You you you, You're one of my favorite human beings.
It's like you said, man, you you, you come from
that place. I think that we all come from.

Speaker 1 (01:43:01):
Man.

Speaker 4 (01:43:01):
I think we share that nuance. But we also man,
we we we are brothers and we've been families.

Speaker 1 (01:43:08):
Sir for a long time. I'm glad I ran into
you on that plane.

Speaker 2 (01:43:14):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:43:15):
I'm just glad that I got to, you know, come
here and and and just share a little more about,
you know, my story, because when you do, you don't
really look back at your career. I know I didn't,
and really, you know, think to myself and I really
do anything, you know what I mean, And I look
and I go, Man, historically, I mean, I was the

(01:43:35):
first hip hop dancer to transition from hip hop into
television and film, before j Lo, before all of them.
And I'm just like, okay, I did that, you know.
And I just look at the benchmarks and I just
thank you for let me just you know, talk about
a little bit a little bit of it here anytime.

Speaker 4 (01:43:58):
And the music, yeah, yeah, he tapped back into the
micro saw that right.

Speaker 1 (01:44:04):
Every now, everyone there a little bit every now and then. Man,
it's in my heart. I wanted to hit you in
the here with a baby pottery man shelling you. You're horrible, Alexander.

Speaker 4 (01:44:23):
And this is the Everybody Podcast, the authority on all
things r B.

Speaker 1 (01:44:28):
Yeah, and man, this is our loved one. This is brother.
Thank you. Appreciate you, appreciate your brother. Appreciate

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Tank

J. Valentine

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