February 13, 2024 • 36 mins
Last week, my good friend Cat shared his incredible story of wrongful imprisonment. Though Cat maintained his spirit behind bars, I could tell this painful injustice left scars. However, Cat didn’t let those dark days harden his heart.
You’ll never guess what happened when Cat was finally exonerated after seven long years. I welcomed my long-lost friend into my new empire at FUBU. I’ll never forget the amazement in Cat’s eyes that first day surveying my Empire State Building office, with fine art and saltwater fish tanks surrounding us. Though I had “made it,” deep down I was still that kid from Queens. With Cat back, it felt like old times.
Cat was driven to build his own fortune. But when harassment and threats endangered Cat’s fresh start, I made it my personal mission to safely bring my friend home each night. You’ll be moved hearing how I protected Cat.
The conversation continues into surprising new territory today. From stolen luxury cars to backstage stories with hip hop legends, Cat and I go deeper into our winding road to success. I confess my early regrets and near-death moments along the way. Cat shares how small bets doing magic and minor business failures transformed into a mega brand and reality TV fame.
Through triumph, trauma, and second chances, an unbreakable brotherly bond has kept Cat and I firmly rooted in our pasts while reaching toward bigger dreams. There are more unbelievable revelations in store today. So get ready for part two!
Host: Daymond John
Producers: Beau Dozier & Shanelle Collins; Ted Kingsbery, Chauncey Bell, & Taryn Loftus
For more info on how to take your life and business to the next level, check out DaymondJohn.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What if I told you there was more to the
story behind game changing events. Get ready for my new podcast,
That Moment with Damon John will jump into the personal
stories of some of the most influential people on the planet,
from business mobiles and celebrities to athletes and artists.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
So in one eighteen, that was a special trip to
be able to go to the Empire State Building. You
you you excited for about a month, you paying your
little little statue of liberty, all those liberty in the
Museum of Natural History. Those are the big trips right now.
I remember through uh that Vibe magazine thing, I found
(00:43):
out that that you within an embody state. I'm like,
oh shit, ye that was like a special trip, Like
oh shit. So I remember in there they had the
Empire Estate Buildings address and I put, uh, the three
fifty fifth Avenue, and I put a fool wool and
(01:05):
I put your name on the right and it got
to you and then you wrote me back and you
sent me your number. But when I got it, I
was like, oh shit, you had let ahead like it
was a fool envelope. And when I seen that shit,
that shit was like I mean, because you know, back
when we were growing up, like we didn't have nothing.
(01:28):
We just had dreams and all that stuff like that.
You know, spent a big part of life buying the
bylines and re circling stuff we're gonna get in the
bylines that we never bought, you know, three fifty four,
I'm getting that right there. Well, we never get it.
But now something had happened. I'm looking at the envelope.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Now you got I said I had a real letterhead.
I had to let ahead on pool be first started.
It was just a big old ink stamp.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Envelope.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Who was Oh no, I couldn't get the envelope.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
No, i'malking about. The envelope was a fuoble.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Envelope, lady old kind of stuff like. It was just
that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, So you know, then we talked, but then boom,
let's let's speed up to me getting up. So now
it's like, okay, I'm going up there. And uh, I
remember I came up there on on Uh it was Monday.
I got on Friday. I came up there Monday, and
I'm just looking, Oh, ship, this is just a lobby.
(02:26):
I don't get it. Yeah, I'm like, oh, lobby city
in the em I say Ben, because I haven't seen
inside of the building since I was a little kid, right,
So I'm like, oh ship. So I come up standing.
When I come up the thing that you got, the
name outside and the whole way, I'm like, like the
ship was unreal because she was only your thought before.
(02:48):
And I'm like, oh ship. And then I walked into
the office and it's like Indian and Chinese people everywhere.
I'm like Korea three, like, oh ship. Like you know,
I thought that was gonna be all you know, homeboys
and all. It was a business office. I was like,
oh shit, right. And then I sat there, uh he said,
(03:12):
I was waiting for you to walk out, waiting no
dame and say come downstairs. This is another place. And
I said, they tell me had on sixty five, give
me directions, get there, and came around there, came in
and then I remember people I know now had your
office at the time. I ain't know the office. I'm
walking and I can hear people talking, but I'm just walking,
slow walking, slow walterslow, taking everything in, take everything in.
(03:32):
I turn and came in and I was like, holy shit.
You was sitting at the glass desk, had chained on
and and uh some timberlains and some some jeans hanging,
and now it see the Homeboys in the office, and uh,
this thing I had read about but never seen. You
(03:55):
had the flat screen TV. Oh them chips goes like
eighteen fifteen thousand some I was like, oh shit, shit
had changed. Had the thick carpet on a on a
a black carpet on the floor. And I'm looking at
pictures but you can't see that I could see is
that you got the backdrop of New York behind you.
(04:16):
And I'm looking like, holy shit, like ship was just different,
like different, you know.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
I you know, I've been in this position in my
life for so long that I can think about that
now as the way the kids, and it seems so
I think we're in a different world now. Maybe maybe not,
but yeah, thick carpet chairs like we're sitting on now
that don't have plastic all over from your grandmother's right,
(04:44):
a big screen TV. I had real wood on the
walls or a real wallpaper. I mean the wallpaper we had,
I mean that stuff was peeling off walls and.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Something else also too. When we were growing up, we
always knew people would money didn't have the cloudy water
gold fish that all us and and I've seen a
fresh water fishing open salt water fish with oh these
colorful fish flying around. Holy shit. You know, I'm just
(05:17):
trying to take it in. And uh, but I didn't
see the in between. I seen one extreme, I see
another extreme. But then uh, as the day went on,
you know, we we did some talking and or stuff
like that. But then he was like, yo, I mean
you got on the mic. Yo, Yo, my man cats
home and we going such and such for dinner of
(05:37):
the night, I meet you down in the parking line
like a half an hour or something like that, right,
and you told me, oh, yeah, you just good upstairs
with Tod to On. Oh that's damn driver. Then got
a driver like when we grew up, your identity was
(05:57):
the bad car that you get. And I'll say, this
guy got a driver where people even gonna see him
in the cardie like things had changed because uh, you know,
you get a I'll call back in the days after
your idea, all the girls knew you coming through, And
I say, this.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Guy got a call and and yeah, so you wanted
the people to see you in the car back in
the days. But yeah, you guess you get a driver
because you don't want people to see you.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
And and so I come down and then they told
stuff feeling me and I'm thinking, oh yeah, namely got
the Rose Royce also too, and and this he said,
telling me up, I'm like, what the fuck? And then
when you family came and we pooped up to the garage,
meet over with Jay Keith and called when we grew up,
(06:43):
it was only gonna be one large guy at.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
A time, one guy, one guy would have called.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
It was either bimmy or it with one other versus
one guy at a time. And I come back and, uh,
that night you had your suburban there with the thing
equalizers jumping with the music and the big brims and
the black oh, your TVs and all something like that.
But then we pull up the block to the garage. Shit,
(07:08):
he come out in a posh. Chief had the Lincoln Navigator,
Carl had the Gray or six hundred or five hundred,
whatever it was. And my mind, it only could be
one large guy at a time. That was always the
rules around the way. And now I'm saying, like everybody
fucking let it, Like, oh shit, it was just a
(07:29):
different perception. And I wan gonna tell this story real
quick through that and never was repeated, never was repeated.
Let me tell you something, what happened. Let me tell
you what happened When it started getting the nineteen ninety
seven and people started blowing up and all stuff like that,
Puffy Head got a Bentley like Louke Bentley, and they
was talking about how he was coasting through Harlem and
(07:50):
he was just showing it up before you get a
ship down to a land, like, oh shit, taking money
like that and now that's crazy. And then a Shaq
and Kobe, the big guys were saying getting this big money.
Now they had Bentley's like, oh, it's like that Iams
had one. I came home and found out, uh that
you had to. And then one day you came to me.
(08:10):
You told me, yo, you wanna you wanna, you wanna, Uh,
you're gonna drive home today. I said, yeah, you gonna
let me hold the nigga. Ain't leaving the car around
your way. I said, you're gonna drive home to day.
I said, okay, okay. So went down to the garage
and started the call and then I lean over the
music playing out, just thinking to myself, you know, cause
(08:34):
we lived for the Vibe magazine, the Source magazine. But
that was that was life. And I'm saying, this must
have been what Puffy felt like. And I started driving
the music playing and see soft I'm just looking around
and taking an experience, like if some niggas up steaky,
just see me now. And I'm driving. And then we
(08:56):
got to the uh Midtown to know, right, and they
were doing construction and tun so everybody was running through
one tunnel and I wrote and the police said, come on,
and I'm riding in the tunnel. Got the little gangsoline
or something like that. And when I got into tunnel,
the tunnel shrunk all of a sudden, and my mind
(09:18):
paddicked and I got on the long side of thing,
and Dame even reached over and grabbing. We fighting over
the wheel back and fall and try trying to get
back on the ConTroll and.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
I just like was just because of jail, Like.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
The whole thing just shrunk on me. When I got
outside of the tunnel and I couldn't take it, and
we fighting back and forth. I see your car coming,
you pull a cr back over a weekeet over here
and then get it under control and we come to
the end of the tunnel, you like your poolicehit over
right here, right, but you start laughing at me and
(09:53):
you point your finger over, you know, in the side
of the rails and laughing, laughing, and I'm saying, like, yo,
I'm I was trashed this guy six I mean two
hundred and sixty thousand dollars call and it's a joke
to him, like that's where life had went to. I've
been working for sixteen since an hour all these.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Years, sixteen cents an hour.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Sin since an hour, and uh now almost messed up
something crazy and it really didn't even mean anything to you.
Like so, like I said, the new reality just had
to sink You had had to sink into me, like, oh,
that's just crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
But do you remember that You don't now, but I
think that that you know, this is one of those
that moments that you realize why you know, I was
such a differend too many and people like you a
difference to me to keep me grounded, to think about
where we've come from and how hard we work and
how we were both on the right track. And you
(10:54):
would have been one of the football guys. Yeah, as you.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
First may.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Well anyway, listen, I want to make sure that people
understand that you you. We will have more of these stories,
but we could take up twelve with these stories. I
want people to understand that you. First of all, we
have several other friends that have had similar situations. One
of them turned did twenty six years or something he
didn't do with This is not something that is uncommon
in the African American community and many other communities, Latino
(11:44):
and various other things, as well as I know people
in West Virginia. They're the same color as the ones
who are incarcerating them. It's a it's a big social issue.
It took you seven years, I think, to get rewarded
from the police. Eight years. I remember they were trying
to lock you back up in the neighborhood because they
(12:05):
said that the precinct had had an objective to lock
you back up, because I guess if you follow the money,
if you're back in carcarrated, you don't get that reward.
And it's against your it's against your you know, it's
against you as a strike. You move, you move to Atlanta.
You know you received a small amount of money the
large amounts of others, A small amount of some I've
(12:27):
never seen that type of money be utilized to for
somebody who was so fascinated of how the world had
turned and didn't have a slow growth. And you even
after that, for seven years you lived off of nothing.
Then you your rewards of money, you learned to you
learned to trade online, you put the way, you put
(12:47):
away the money, and you haven't worked since then for
anybody else after coming home, and you've never had to
do anything else besides you candlesticking and trading day trading
long holes and stuff like that, because you just sat
there by yourself and you said, I'm never going back
to that again. But I also don't want to have
to depend on anybody else. What was that moment when
(13:09):
you would say that somebody would give you a couple
of million dollars and you would say, oh man, I
would think, man, that's going to set me up easy,
and I don't have to do anything. Because you didn't
have any financial intelligence. Why were you smart enough to
put that money away? On one end, educate yourself. Since
you've been home, let's say, since you have now got
(13:31):
the money, been ten years. I saw you have one call.
Then even that call you gave it up. And this
other one that looks like a little I don't know,
a lunchbox or a popsicle. You're like six foot seventeen
to see a feet dragon all out of it. You
live a modest, modest life. What gave you that discipline?
Because I would have thought that after all those days
you said I worked for this shit, I suffered for it.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Not really, it is not disciplined because it never was me.
Oh like, be that loud guy out there, to be
the one trying to show off everybody, and I was
that never was me, so.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Oh, believe it or not, I learned a lot from
those cars and everything else that was never me. That's
why you don't see, you know, if I happened to
ride private, you don't see that flashing this. You don't
see me showing my home. You don't see those things
that never was us. And I think that maybe is
at the core of why when those guys are out
on that corner going out at night, trying to move
whatever they were doing, you and I were thinking about, man,
(14:26):
how we're gonna make a difference because we after I
got a couple of nice things. After while I was like,
I don't need it.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and so uh you know then then
after that, you know, coming from Wayfret, from mc hammer
all the way up through Mike Taxon, Bobby Brown, we
always heard those stories and be.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Like oor bankrupt, mc Hammer, Mike Tyson and.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Uh, you know, you hear different things.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Then.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
I remember getting to the early nineties, the early two thousand,
probably around two o four, and you started uh uh
bringing in that.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Uh the was the rat race, I think the Robbert
Tilzaki's rat Race and Monopoly. Bringing the cat gave the
cash flow cash flow, and I started bringing that into
the office and people started playing, We.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Started playing converses, doing a Monopoly doing. You start doing that,
and then it was like, Yo, if I had knew
about this shit a long time ago, I'm not saying
this is what y'all say. I knew about this a
long time ago, I would have that. And then grim
was something on, yo, I'm gonna start bringing bag lunches
because I'm gonna taking my money.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
So that game was like you started coming around other people.
That was you know, when I started changing the channel
from b t M t V to Jim Kramer and
c NBC. The dynamic of the office changed as well.
The conversation started to change.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah, and that's what I was seeing the change up.
But let me say something. Uh, you had started saying
one thing and then and then uh, we jumped into
that party. I was gonna say this part going back
to the beginning about the police thing. What happened is, uh,
the police just really wanted like when I got out,
(16:06):
it was a part of DA's office that just wasn't happy, right,
But they don't want to admit that they was wrong.
So now the police was just like on a hunt
for me. And I remember one night that came after me,
chased me down, threw sticks at me, and then I
remember I ran and got and jumped over the fence
and I had ripped my leg open on the top
(16:26):
of the fence and getting away from him, and that
was like like like like yeah, But but then I
remember I was telling you about that, right, and I
remember you had told me, yo, just stay up there
latest later ladies you want to. And then what made
a big difference. You started taking me home every day
(16:51):
to make sure I get in the door. And that
was like, like, uh, all these times you be in jail,
people don't be writing you and this motherfucker you just
think people don't even care no more, right, I'm talking
(17:14):
about that's just what people think about.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
But then you.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Like showed the point of care that was like through
the roof. I ain't gonna say why, but you explained
to me about you haven't been around there in a while, right,
And you went from not being around there to making
sure that I got home safe.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
And you could say, well, I opened up one of
my books with it, because the first time I got
a car, somebody saw me on Long Island that was
from that area, and I when I went and parked
the car I was in Long Island, it was a
It was a lexus for you don't why. He turns
around and I he pulls me out of the car
and has me in my backyard. I had a dog
and my my daughter was just born. I had a daughter,
(18:05):
and he had a gun in the back of my
head and he and he took the car. And what
had happened was there was guys from my neighborhood who
saw me pull up at a gas station. They said,
I can't rob because you know who I am. But
they was with a friend. He said you go, Robin,
because the Dame's gonna be Okay. I don't know anything
of this that, but all I know is my daughter
is up in the house. She's about two years maybe
(18:26):
about five years old. I'm being pulled to the backyard.
There's a cold gun in the back of my head,
and I'm laying down on the ground. My wife at
the time was there, and she was she went upstairs.
I knew she was coming downstairs, so I was thinking
he gonna shoot me or he gonna shoot her because
if she said, you don't know what she's gonna do.
And he took the car. So I said, I'm not
(18:46):
coming back around that neighborhood because they're trying to pull
me back even though I never did anything, and I'm
taking and you were taken out of that neighborhood too.
You know, we've seen things that happen to people like
Nipsey Hustle and various other things where you know, some
of the street elements they have a ninety percent of
the people are rooting for you ninety five percent. I
(19:09):
hope of the cops are good cops. I don't want
us to have this conversation like there are public servants
that are out there, you know, directing traffic or and
it's not glamorous or coming to your rescue and our
rescue when things happen, and there are bad apples in
the hood and every indiate aspect. But yeah, I had
no reason to go back there because I felt that
(19:29):
why wouldn't somebody just in the darkness bust a shot
in the window or in the door. That's the easy
thing to do. And it's in their face too, because
I was coming driving you off with quarter million, half
a million dollar cars, maybacks and all kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
And that's what I'm saying with with that happening to you,
against all of that, you still would drive me home
every night to make sure I got to the front.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
But then it was that moment you knew that I
I have the love for you that you have for me.
We're going to continue this because it's not really that
I kid who's watching this. I just want to remember
what happened in my life because I forgot all that.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Let me just let me just say something else to
connect some stuff together.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
You're taking me down a really amazing path, and I
hope you've given other people the insight where we've come from.
I was once I was on social media to day
and I was around Nori and Joe wasn't drinking. I
was like, Yo, you know, no, I'm talking. It's regular
New York talk, you know, right, And I said, you know,
I'm want to put this out And people would normally say,
(20:33):
you're the sky on ABC with these beautiful suits and
you know, as articulate as I can be for somebody
who who repeated the seventh grade twice, and most people
would say, don't put that out there because I don't
want to see that. I'm not trying to be hood.
It's just where we came from, almost came for some place,
(20:54):
and you know, I've given you this, this, this this
place to kind of reflect on what we've been through.
We got any final thoughts. I know we're gonna probably
do two and three series of.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Yeah, but let me just say this right here. I'm I'm, I'm.
I'm working on a book.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
But the books called it's not a tell all, is it?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Listen?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Listen, listen with my chapter of mystery.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Listen.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
I don't like your memory.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Oh boy, well I'm gonna take you this right here,
take it out. Uh, it's called the Queen's Butterfly fact.
Right boom, I'm twenty twenty. I'm sitting in uh uh
the studio at Shock Tank, right, and I'm back there,
all the computers out and all that stuff like that.
(21:43):
And I'm looking at you'll on the distance on the stage,
right and uh then y'all, you know, call break? You
coming here talking this with somebody? If the makeup on you?
He's looking this ship right here, somebody else is trying
to talk to you, talk stuff.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Like this, right, And I'm boy touch. I'm not even
gonna interview him yet, a boy touch and diet of it.
So what does this mean to make up on you?
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Right? But and I'm seeing how you interacting with the people.
But then you noticed me, Oh shut you know you
made it here?
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Right?
Speaker 2 (22:16):
And I said to myself, yes, crazy, all these people
in this room right here, and do anybody have an
idea how we even got here?
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Right?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
An accident nineteen eighty Right, my father dies in a
car accident. Right, And he died in a car accident.
He left insurance for the family, right, and each kid
get it by the time they turned eighteen years old. Right,
that was eighty nineteen eighty one at Alfreds barbecue. I
(22:53):
met you do magic tricks in Alfred's basement, right and.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
An out for So nineteen eighty one you met me.
I was twelve years old. I was over a buddy's house.
Who is the guy they played belly about? We went
to Catholic school. My parents had got divorced, but I
believe they had the first time they had like a party.
And you lived about eight blocks away, and I was
allowed to go over your.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
House house oh from you yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Allowed to go to the house and meet the kids
in the other side of the neighborhood. No difference. I mean,
you know, you just live in pockets.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah. And so what ends up happening is this right here,
I met you. You we we we we from the beginning,
we still again cool because anybody else went out of
the house. I kept asking you about how you do
the trick? How did you You didn't really drink no bleach?
You didn't drink no bleach? How did you do the trick?
And you told me tell them the trick? Well, what
happened is you was down, You were in the basement,
(23:51):
and you betting people a quarter that you would drink.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
The bleach, which is there was a couple of bleeks.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
That's a bleach that you said that you that you
said you remember.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Nobody's seeing. The cameras are on, we're in a podcast.
So I would drink a blood a glass of bleaching
for a quarter. I remember, had a second quarter, so everybody.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
So what ends up happening is you give them a
little smell test, put it, you know, put up under
the sure. Oh shit, yo, he's stupid. You know y'all,
he's stupid. And then you drank it. They get the monch.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
So is everybody giving me the money so they can
see me die it?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
No, they didn't give you money yet they was. You
were betting them a quarter that you would drink.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
And once I drank it, they were making sure that
I died.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Oh you know. But then when the excitement was over,
you know, collected a couple of quarters, they went back
outside because it was a pool. Puddy. I stayed down
there and kept handing you about how you do the trick,
and you went and tell me, but I keep getting there,
keeping me at you. Then you eventually told me that
before we came down here, that you had stuck your
pointing finger down in the bleach bottle and you held
(24:53):
it around a couple of the rims, so you put
that under the nose and make them smell that, and
didn't drink the water. And means you just start talking.
I mean, you start talking denn and all that stuff
like that. Right now, I'm connecting the dots. We become friends.
But Alfred kind of treated you like he was your brother.
(25:15):
So he used to talk about what y'all doing when
he's not married. So I knew a lot about you
from when you were around getting the mirrors and go
from the mirrors to Alpha. Well, shit, I'm going inside.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Alpha wanted to go in, but Alfred it was a
mirror factor ducause Alfred say, I don't want the mirrors
in the garbage. I want the mirrors in the mirror factory.
You don't have any money, I don't need any money.
I got a crowball.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Yeah. So I used to hear all the different stuff
about you know, about y'all and all that stuff like that.
So by the time you come back around, I already
know what to talk about because I know what y'all
been doing. Right, So it grew like that. But then
what ends up happening? Is this right here? Uh, Alfred
had got some work from somebody that was with the
(26:28):
Supreme Team.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Work crack or cocaine or whatever. I don't know what
they're selling. And Supreme Team that documentary about about how
they our community.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
It might it might have been up right, but uh
so what ends up happening is so what ends up
happening is, uh Leon ran off with the work.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Leon is Alpher's brother.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
His brother ran up, ran off with the work, and
he's going out for the whole ship.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
You know what the fuck?
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Alpha was hiding out from him for a while.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Then, whether it was by the way, I want to
I want to explain with people. So so Leon ran
off with the crack or whatever it is, I don't
know the Supreme Team gave Alford. Now, Supreme Team is
known for assassinating the the police officer Edward Burns, who
was guarding a witness for a crack cocaine case. So
(27:20):
they pulled up. The cop was outside watching and protecting
a witness, and they pulled up and they killed They
assassinated a cop. So these people or there were people
that obviously were very serious about what they were doing. Yeah,
So and that became a case that went all the
(27:41):
way up to the presidency where he talked about it.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, so you know he was he he wanted to
uh not have that pressure on him, but the pressure
was great. And he's behind from the guy Alfred aufhad
hiding from the guy. Oh and whoever the guy was.
I still remember he had a he had a brown
kind of maroon is three hundred Essex, the same car
(28:07):
because I used to see him coming and he'd be
parking on different blocks till it got to the point
where Alfred talking with they like, Yo, I'm gonna sell
my call selling I call it damn it because he
got to pay then back that money. It was that
he owed him something like fifteen hundred dollars and fifteen
hundred dollars a lot at fifteen fifteen hundred dollars a
lot at the time. So he said, I'm gonna sell
(28:27):
my car home. You have to what your world's I'm
gonna do, right, So in the back of my mind
I knew now that you had a car you driving.
So what happened is now and get to eighty six,
my money from the insurance comes in. I'm eighteen now boom,
(28:49):
I'll go buy the Cadillacsville Loo. She said, I'm gonna
go crazy. Oh shit, they like my car. I'm starting
to drive them around or stuff like that. And they
eventually talked me into driving them down to L's show
in Philly.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Driving them down to when ll co J was on tour. Yeah,
you could drive whole down there.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
When L first got on, he choose the hard rocks
and gangsters around our way, the guys from the corner
of the bed, Yeah, to be a security.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Took he wanted them to.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, he wanted them to be a security. So they
he took mookie and losing them as a security. But
now when they start getting close, they wanted more of
their boys to come down there. So you should you
got a car, now, why don't you drive down there?
And I drove them to Philly, right, and now we
we Philly and everything is what we heard. It was
(29:44):
the girls are.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
All of us and pulling them all this that that
that and the was ll col J, Big Daddy Kane
EKMD Public Enemy. That one. Let me say it, you
know you can remember better than.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
First one was run DMC l O c J TIMEX
Social Club and the Beastie Boys.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Time Ax Social Club and the Beastie Boys. That was
the first talk.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
So yeah, the first one.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
So remember when I saw the Beasts, I said, man,
these dudes are crazy.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. So now we're backstage, we have
the but come I wasn't on before. It was weak.
It's and they talking about they want more of their
crew to be down there doing that. And so I remember,
like he said, well, I know somebody else they got
(30:35):
a car boys, I knew Alfred Sula's car to to
me to you, n we got a car.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Next.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
You know, Dame is on these trips. Dame is on
the trips. And and now we get to the point
where El's last song. He always like Farmer's crew come
on stage, and we on stage, fourteen thousand people at
the spectrums there at us and we up there and
you know, l come through giving everybody a pound, and
(31:05):
you know the second he giving pound for that second
right there, all fourteen thousand eyes on you, and that
shit was crazy right there. I'm experiencing it, you experiencing it.
And we start going back and forth, back and forth,
back and forth, spots like spotting, spoting spot and when
we could get in New York until we get it.
(31:27):
But then by the time it got to nineteen eighty nine,
I got the job on the tour, you by haitting
had the sixteen pastring of Van. So if anybody's gonna
make it to the show, they gotta come through you.
So the first call put into you and then putting
a call into Harrold, this is where we're gonna be
(31:47):
at until it got to a point where a lot
of niggas wanna give up no gas money. You come
up there sixteen pastries of Van by yourself, right, and
then that's when you start saying like, yoh, well, shoot,
you're gonna be here, why can't I be here? And
I had went to the promoter, and you had said
(32:10):
that those bands that they be wrinting, that you could
do it right, you know, I don't know, you know,
And you said, well, I'll do it for free, just
to show them I could do it. And then in
order for you to do it for free, you would
have to go back home work and then and then
come back here. But to stop you from doing that,
every city that we go to, I could get three tickets,
(32:34):
and I will go get the tickets A couple of
backshafe passes as for the other dances to go get
there three tickets and we went outside in the in
front of the couse and we just said the most
expensive ticket was seventeen fifty. And we go out there
and sell a couple of tickets, get to ten dollars,
ten dollars, ten dollars, and make about seventy dollars for
(32:54):
you to get gased. I think, just so you don't
have to go back home work, you go to the
next place. But while we're doing this, it's guys out
there with the with the bootlegs two shirts, just kicking off,
kicking off, were getting our a little bit of money,
but they getting a hundredsome. We just watching it. Old ship,
old shit.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
And.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
We've seen this so many times. And then by the
time the tour is over. By the time the tour
is over, it's like, you know, it's cool running around
with talking on so so, but we we gotta get
something for ourself. And that's when I pulled myself on
(33:40):
the box and I'm doing this right here, right And
then you had a bunch of ideas you did you
did the other boat thing, and and we did the
super soaker thing on on the thing. But I believe
it was from you seeing uh how much money was
in that hill pop merchandise that helped you have that
(34:04):
vision when you come back home, like the do.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
The clothes, and I saw, but I also saw people
doing what they love, like l and all. I saw
all the people out there cheering. But I think the
critical thing was I was ready to do that tour
for free when people were haggling. I was ready to
drive I don't know Philadelphia all the way home, but
I remember one time Elle said because he did, we
didn't know that well. He said, Yo, who want to
take all my dirty ass underwear to my grandmother? And
(34:30):
I was like I do, And four years or five
years later I would knock on his door and ask
him to take a picture, but I would take home
his dirty ass underwear to his grandmother. And where most
men would say, why am I taking another man's underwear
home and paying for it? Because it was the gas
that costs me money and and uh.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
So what I'm showing is to get to that point
in Hollywood. If Alfred never had his problems, and if
my father never died, we would have never been in
oppositions and my.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Father would have never left. I never became the man
of the house at ten years old.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
So I think it's powerful about how the things that
have created us that a lot of people will suffer
from and they have to get over and deal with it.
It is what it is. So, man, thank you so
so much for spending that moment. When we Man, we're
gonna be talking about this some more. I have a
really good time walking down memory lane. And I love
you brother, and your your very close friend.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Man.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
It always has been and man, it's amazing. Thank you brother.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Ship show That Moment with Damon John is a production
of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from
the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite show and don't
forget to subscribe to and rate the show. And of
(35:57):
course you can all connect with me on any of
my social media platforms at the Shark. Damon spelt like Raymond,
but what a d
What if I told you there was more to the
story behind game changing events. Get ready for my new podcast,
That Moment with Damon John will jump into the personal
stories of some of the most influential people on the planet,
from business mobiles and celebrities to athletes and artists.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
So in one eighteen, that was a special trip to
be able to go to the Empire State Building. You
you you excited for about a month, you paying your
little little statue of liberty, all those liberty in the
Museum of Natural History. Those are the big trips right now.
I remember through uh that Vibe magazine thing, I found
(00:43):
out that that you within an embody state. I'm like,
oh shit, ye that was like a special trip, Like
oh shit. So I remember in there they had the
Empire Estate Buildings address and I put, uh, the three
fifty fifth Avenue, and I put a fool wool and
(01:05):
I put your name on the right and it got
to you and then you wrote me back and you
sent me your number. But when I got it, I
was like, oh shit, you had let ahead like it
was a fool envelope. And when I seen that shit,
that shit was like I mean, because you know, back
when we were growing up, like we didn't have nothing.
(01:28):
We just had dreams and all that stuff like that.
You know, spent a big part of life buying the
bylines and re circling stuff we're gonna get in the
bylines that we never bought, you know, three fifty four,
I'm getting that right there. Well, we never get it.
But now something had happened. I'm looking at the envelope.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Now you got I said I had a real letterhead.
I had to let ahead on pool be first started.
It was just a big old ink stamp.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Envelope.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Who was Oh no, I couldn't get the envelope.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
No, i'malking about. The envelope was a fuoble.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Envelope, lady old kind of stuff like. It was just
that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, So you know, then we talked, but then boom,
let's let's speed up to me getting up. So now
it's like, okay, I'm going up there. And uh, I
remember I came up there on on Uh it was Monday.
I got on Friday. I came up there Monday, and
I'm just looking, Oh, ship, this is just a lobby.
(02:26):
I don't get it. Yeah, I'm like, oh, lobby city
in the em I say Ben, because I haven't seen
inside of the building since I was a little kid, right,
So I'm like, oh ship. So I come up standing.
When I come up the thing that you got, the
name outside and the whole way, I'm like, like the
ship was unreal because she was only your thought before.
(02:48):
And I'm like, oh ship. And then I walked into
the office and it's like Indian and Chinese people everywhere.
I'm like Korea three, like, oh ship. Like you know,
I thought that was gonna be all you know, homeboys
and all. It was a business office. I was like,
oh shit, right. And then I sat there, uh he said,
(03:12):
I was waiting for you to walk out, waiting no
dame and say come downstairs. This is another place. And
I said, they tell me had on sixty five, give
me directions, get there, and came around there, came in
and then I remember people I know now had your
office at the time. I ain't know the office. I'm
walking and I can hear people talking, but I'm just walking,
slow walking, slow walterslow, taking everything in, take everything in.
(03:32):
I turn and came in and I was like, holy shit.
You was sitting at the glass desk, had chained on
and and uh some timberlains and some some jeans hanging,
and now it see the Homeboys in the office, and uh,
this thing I had read about but never seen. You
(03:55):
had the flat screen TV. Oh them chips goes like
eighteen fifteen thousand some I was like, oh shit, shit
had changed. Had the thick carpet on a on a
a black carpet on the floor. And I'm looking at
pictures but you can't see that I could see is
that you got the backdrop of New York behind you.
(04:16):
And I'm looking like, holy shit, like ship was just different,
like different, you know.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
I you know, I've been in this position in my
life for so long that I can think about that
now as the way the kids, and it seems so
I think we're in a different world now. Maybe maybe not,
but yeah, thick carpet chairs like we're sitting on now
that don't have plastic all over from your grandmother's right,
(04:44):
a big screen TV. I had real wood on the
walls or a real wallpaper. I mean the wallpaper we had,
I mean that stuff was peeling off walls and.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Something else also too. When we were growing up, we
always knew people would money didn't have the cloudy water
gold fish that all us and and I've seen a
fresh water fishing open salt water fish with oh these
colorful fish flying around. Holy shit. You know, I'm just
(05:17):
trying to take it in. And uh, but I didn't
see the in between. I seen one extreme, I see
another extreme. But then uh, as the day went on,
you know, we we did some talking and or stuff
like that. But then he was like, yo, I mean
you got on the mic. Yo, Yo, my man cats
home and we going such and such for dinner of
(05:37):
the night, I meet you down in the parking line
like a half an hour or something like that, right,
and you told me, oh, yeah, you just good upstairs
with Tod to On. Oh that's damn driver. Then got
a driver like when we grew up, your identity was
(05:57):
the bad car that you get. And I'll say, this
guy got a driver where people even gonna see him
in the cardie like things had changed because uh, you know,
you get a I'll call back in the days after
your idea, all the girls knew you coming through, And
I say, this.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Guy got a call and and yeah, so you wanted
the people to see you in the car back in
the days. But yeah, you guess you get a driver
because you don't want people to see you.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
And and so I come down and then they told
stuff feeling me and I'm thinking, oh yeah, namely got
the Rose Royce also too, and and this he said,
telling me up, I'm like, what the fuck? And then
when you family came and we pooped up to the garage,
meet over with Jay Keith and called when we grew up,
(06:43):
it was only gonna be one large guy at.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
A time, one guy, one guy would have called.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
It was either bimmy or it with one other versus
one guy at a time. And I come back and, uh,
that night you had your suburban there with the thing
equalizers jumping with the music and the big brims and
the black oh, your TVs and all something like that.
But then we pull up the block to the garage. Shit,
(07:08):
he come out in a posh. Chief had the Lincoln Navigator,
Carl had the Gray or six hundred or five hundred,
whatever it was. And my mind, it only could be
one large guy at a time. That was always the
rules around the way. And now I'm saying, like everybody
fucking let it, Like, oh shit, it was just a
(07:29):
different perception. And I wan gonna tell this story real
quick through that and never was repeated, never was repeated.
Let me tell you something, what happened. Let me tell
you what happened When it started getting the nineteen ninety
seven and people started blowing up and all stuff like that,
Puffy Head got a Bentley like Louke Bentley, and they
was talking about how he was coasting through Harlem and
(07:50):
he was just showing it up before you get a
ship down to a land, like, oh shit, taking money
like that and now that's crazy. And then a Shaq
and Kobe, the big guys were saying getting this big money.
Now they had Bentley's like, oh, it's like that Iams
had one. I came home and found out, uh that
you had to. And then one day you came to me.
(08:10):
You told me, yo, you wanna you wanna, you wanna, Uh,
you're gonna drive home today. I said, yeah, you gonna
let me hold the nigga. Ain't leaving the car around
your way. I said, you're gonna drive home to day.
I said, okay, okay. So went down to the garage
and started the call and then I lean over the
music playing out, just thinking to myself, you know, cause
(08:34):
we lived for the Vibe magazine, the Source magazine. But
that was that was life. And I'm saying, this must
have been what Puffy felt like. And I started driving
the music playing and see soft I'm just looking around
and taking an experience, like if some niggas up steaky,
just see me now. And I'm driving. And then we
(08:56):
got to the uh Midtown to know, right, and they
were doing construction and tun so everybody was running through
one tunnel and I wrote and the police said, come on,
and I'm riding in the tunnel. Got the little gangsoline
or something like that. And when I got into tunnel,
the tunnel shrunk all of a sudden, and my mind
(09:18):
paddicked and I got on the long side of thing,
and Dame even reached over and grabbing. We fighting over
the wheel back and fall and try trying to get
back on the ConTroll and.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
I just like was just because of jail, Like.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
The whole thing just shrunk on me. When I got
outside of the tunnel and I couldn't take it, and
we fighting back and forth. I see your car coming,
you pull a cr back over a weekeet over here
and then get it under control and we come to
the end of the tunnel, you like your poolicehit over
right here, right, but you start laughing at me and
(09:53):
you point your finger over, you know, in the side
of the rails and laughing, laughing, and I'm saying, like, yo,
I'm I was trashed this guy six I mean two
hundred and sixty thousand dollars call and it's a joke
to him, like that's where life had went to. I've
been working for sixteen since an hour all these.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Years, sixteen cents an hour.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Sin since an hour, and uh now almost messed up
something crazy and it really didn't even mean anything to you.
Like so, like I said, the new reality just had
to sink You had had to sink into me, like, oh,
that's just crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
But do you remember that You don't now, but I
think that that you know, this is one of those
that moments that you realize why you know, I was
such a differend too many and people like you a
difference to me to keep me grounded, to think about
where we've come from and how hard we work and
how we were both on the right track. And you
(10:54):
would have been one of the football guys. Yeah, as you.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
First may.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Well anyway, listen, I want to make sure that people
understand that you you. We will have more of these stories,
but we could take up twelve with these stories. I
want people to understand that you. First of all, we
have several other friends that have had similar situations. One
of them turned did twenty six years or something he
didn't do with This is not something that is uncommon
in the African American community and many other communities, Latino
(11:44):
and various other things, as well as I know people
in West Virginia. They're the same color as the ones
who are incarcerating them. It's a it's a big social issue.
It took you seven years, I think, to get rewarded
from the police. Eight years. I remember they were trying
to lock you back up in the neighborhood because they
(12:05):
said that the precinct had had an objective to lock
you back up, because I guess if you follow the money,
if you're back in carcarrated, you don't get that reward.
And it's against your it's against your you know, it's
against you as a strike. You move, you move to Atlanta.
You know you received a small amount of money the
large amounts of others, A small amount of some I've
(12:27):
never seen that type of money be utilized to for
somebody who was so fascinated of how the world had
turned and didn't have a slow growth. And you even
after that, for seven years you lived off of nothing.
Then you your rewards of money, you learned to you
learned to trade online, you put the way, you put
(12:47):
away the money, and you haven't worked since then for
anybody else after coming home, and you've never had to
do anything else besides you candlesticking and trading day trading
long holes and stuff like that, because you just sat
there by yourself and you said, I'm never going back
to that again. But I also don't want to have
to depend on anybody else. What was that moment when
(13:09):
you would say that somebody would give you a couple
of million dollars and you would say, oh man, I
would think, man, that's going to set me up easy,
and I don't have to do anything. Because you didn't
have any financial intelligence. Why were you smart enough to
put that money away? On one end, educate yourself. Since
you've been home, let's say, since you have now got
(13:31):
the money, been ten years. I saw you have one call.
Then even that call you gave it up. And this
other one that looks like a little I don't know,
a lunchbox or a popsicle. You're like six foot seventeen
to see a feet dragon all out of it. You
live a modest, modest life. What gave you that discipline?
Because I would have thought that after all those days
you said I worked for this shit, I suffered for it.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Not really, it is not disciplined because it never was me.
Oh like, be that loud guy out there, to be
the one trying to show off everybody, and I was
that never was me, so.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Oh, believe it or not, I learned a lot from
those cars and everything else that was never me. That's
why you don't see, you know, if I happened to
ride private, you don't see that flashing this. You don't
see me showing my home. You don't see those things
that never was us. And I think that maybe is
at the core of why when those guys are out
on that corner going out at night, trying to move
whatever they were doing, you and I were thinking about, man,
(14:26):
how we're gonna make a difference because we after I
got a couple of nice things. After while I was like,
I don't need it.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and so uh you know then then
after that, you know, coming from Wayfret, from mc hammer
all the way up through Mike Taxon, Bobby Brown, we
always heard those stories and be.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Like oor bankrupt, mc Hammer, Mike Tyson and.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Uh, you know, you hear different things.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Then.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
I remember getting to the early nineties, the early two thousand,
probably around two o four, and you started uh uh
bringing in that.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Uh the was the rat race, I think the Robbert
Tilzaki's rat Race and Monopoly. Bringing the cat gave the
cash flow cash flow, and I started bringing that into
the office and people started playing, We.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Started playing converses, doing a Monopoly doing. You start doing that,
and then it was like, Yo, if I had knew
about this shit a long time ago, I'm not saying
this is what y'all say. I knew about this a
long time ago, I would have that. And then grim
was something on, yo, I'm gonna start bringing bag lunches
because I'm gonna taking my money.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
So that game was like you started coming around other people.
That was you know, when I started changing the channel
from b t M t V to Jim Kramer and
c NBC. The dynamic of the office changed as well.
The conversation started to change.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah, and that's what I was seeing the change up.
But let me say something. Uh, you had started saying
one thing and then and then uh, we jumped into
that party. I was gonna say this part going back
to the beginning about the police thing. What happened is, uh,
the police just really wanted like when I got out,
(16:06):
it was a part of DA's office that just wasn't happy, right,
But they don't want to admit that they was wrong.
So now the police was just like on a hunt
for me. And I remember one night that came after me,
chased me down, threw sticks at me, and then I
remember I ran and got and jumped over the fence
and I had ripped my leg open on the top
(16:26):
of the fence and getting away from him, and that
was like like like like yeah, But but then I
remember I was telling you about that, right, and I
remember you had told me, yo, just stay up there
latest later ladies you want to. And then what made
a big difference. You started taking me home every day
(16:51):
to make sure I get in the door. And that
was like, like, uh, all these times you be in jail,
people don't be writing you and this motherfucker you just
think people don't even care no more, right, I'm talking
(17:14):
about that's just what people think about.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
But then you.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Like showed the point of care that was like through
the roof. I ain't gonna say why, but you explained
to me about you haven't been around there in a while, right,
And you went from not being around there to making
sure that I got home safe.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
And you could say, well, I opened up one of
my books with it, because the first time I got
a car, somebody saw me on Long Island that was
from that area, and I when I went and parked
the car I was in Long Island, it was a
It was a lexus for you don't why. He turns
around and I he pulls me out of the car
and has me in my backyard. I had a dog
and my my daughter was just born. I had a daughter,
(18:05):
and he had a gun in the back of my
head and he and he took the car. And what
had happened was there was guys from my neighborhood who
saw me pull up at a gas station. They said,
I can't rob because you know who I am. But
they was with a friend. He said you go, Robin,
because the Dame's gonna be Okay. I don't know anything
of this that, but all I know is my daughter
is up in the house. She's about two years maybe
(18:26):
about five years old. I'm being pulled to the backyard.
There's a cold gun in the back of my head,
and I'm laying down on the ground. My wife at
the time was there, and she was she went upstairs.
I knew she was coming downstairs, so I was thinking
he gonna shoot me or he gonna shoot her because
if she said, you don't know what she's gonna do.
And he took the car. So I said, I'm not
(18:46):
coming back around that neighborhood because they're trying to pull
me back even though I never did anything, and I'm
taking and you were taken out of that neighborhood too.
You know, we've seen things that happen to people like
Nipsey Hustle and various other things where you know, some
of the street elements they have a ninety percent of
the people are rooting for you ninety five percent. I
(19:09):
hope of the cops are good cops. I don't want
us to have this conversation like there are public servants
that are out there, you know, directing traffic or and
it's not glamorous or coming to your rescue and our
rescue when things happen, and there are bad apples in
the hood and every indiate aspect. But yeah, I had
no reason to go back there because I felt that
(19:29):
why wouldn't somebody just in the darkness bust a shot
in the window or in the door. That's the easy
thing to do. And it's in their face too, because
I was coming driving you off with quarter million, half
a million dollar cars, maybacks and all kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
And that's what I'm saying with with that happening to you,
against all of that, you still would drive me home
every night to make sure I got to the front.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
But then it was that moment you knew that I
I have the love for you that you have for me.
We're going to continue this because it's not really that
I kid who's watching this. I just want to remember
what happened in my life because I forgot all that.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Let me just let me just say something else to
connect some stuff together.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
You're taking me down a really amazing path, and I
hope you've given other people the insight where we've come from.
I was once I was on social media to day
and I was around Nori and Joe wasn't drinking. I
was like, Yo, you know, no, I'm talking. It's regular
New York talk, you know, right, And I said, you know,
I'm want to put this out And people would normally say,
(20:33):
you're the sky on ABC with these beautiful suits and
you know, as articulate as I can be for somebody
who who repeated the seventh grade twice, and most people
would say, don't put that out there because I don't
want to see that. I'm not trying to be hood.
It's just where we came from, almost came for some place,
(20:54):
and you know, I've given you this, this, this this
place to kind of reflect on what we've been through.
We got any final thoughts. I know we're gonna probably
do two and three series of.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Yeah, but let me just say this right here. I'm I'm, I'm.
I'm working on a book.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
But the books called it's not a tell all, is it?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Listen?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Listen, listen with my chapter of mystery.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Listen.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
I don't like your memory.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Oh boy, well I'm gonna take you this right here,
take it out. Uh, it's called the Queen's Butterfly fact.
Right boom, I'm twenty twenty. I'm sitting in uh uh
the studio at Shock Tank, right, and I'm back there,
all the computers out and all that stuff like that.
(21:43):
And I'm looking at you'll on the distance on the stage,
right and uh then y'all, you know, call break? You
coming here talking this with somebody? If the makeup on you?
He's looking this ship right here, somebody else is trying
to talk to you, talk stuff.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Like this, right, And I'm boy touch. I'm not even
gonna interview him yet, a boy touch and diet of it.
So what does this mean to make up on you?
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Right? But and I'm seeing how you interacting with the people.
But then you noticed me, Oh shut you know you
made it here?
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Right?
Speaker 2 (22:16):
And I said to myself, yes, crazy, all these people
in this room right here, and do anybody have an
idea how we even got here?
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Right?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
An accident nineteen eighty Right, my father dies in a
car accident. Right, And he died in a car accident.
He left insurance for the family, right, and each kid
get it by the time they turned eighteen years old. Right,
that was eighty nineteen eighty one at Alfreds barbecue. I
(22:53):
met you do magic tricks in Alfred's basement, right and.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
An out for So nineteen eighty one you met me.
I was twelve years old. I was over a buddy's house.
Who is the guy they played belly about? We went
to Catholic school. My parents had got divorced, but I
believe they had the first time they had like a party.
And you lived about eight blocks away, and I was
allowed to go over your.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
House house oh from you yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Allowed to go to the house and meet the kids
in the other side of the neighborhood. No difference. I mean,
you know, you just live in pockets.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah. And so what ends up happening is this right here,
I met you. You we we we we from the beginning,
we still again cool because anybody else went out of
the house. I kept asking you about how you do
the trick? How did you You didn't really drink no bleach?
You didn't drink no bleach? How did you do the trick?
And you told me tell them the trick? Well, what
happened is you was down, You were in the basement,
(23:51):
and you betting people a quarter that you would drink.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
The bleach, which is there was a couple of bleeks.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
That's a bleach that you said that you that you
said you remember.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Nobody's seeing. The cameras are on, we're in a podcast.
So I would drink a blood a glass of bleaching
for a quarter. I remember, had a second quarter, so everybody.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
So what ends up happening is you give them a
little smell test, put it, you know, put up under
the sure. Oh shit, yo, he's stupid. You know y'all,
he's stupid. And then you drank it. They get the monch.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
So is everybody giving me the money so they can
see me die it?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
No, they didn't give you money yet they was. You
were betting them a quarter that you would drink.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
And once I drank it, they were making sure that
I died.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Oh you know. But then when the excitement was over,
you know, collected a couple of quarters, they went back
outside because it was a pool. Puddy. I stayed down
there and kept handing you about how you do the trick,
and you went and tell me, but I keep getting there,
keeping me at you. Then you eventually told me that
before we came down here, that you had stuck your
pointing finger down in the bleach bottle and you held
(24:53):
it around a couple of the rims, so you put
that under the nose and make them smell that, and
didn't drink the water. And means you just start talking.
I mean, you start talking denn and all that stuff
like that. Right now, I'm connecting the dots. We become friends.
But Alfred kind of treated you like he was your brother.
(25:15):
So he used to talk about what y'all doing when
he's not married. So I knew a lot about you
from when you were around getting the mirrors and go
from the mirrors to Alpha. Well, shit, I'm going inside.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Alpha wanted to go in, but Alfred it was a
mirror factor ducause Alfred say, I don't want the mirrors
in the garbage. I want the mirrors in the mirror factory.
You don't have any money, I don't need any money.
I got a crowball.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Yeah. So I used to hear all the different stuff
about you know, about y'all and all that stuff like that.
So by the time you come back around, I already
know what to talk about because I know what y'all
been doing. Right, So it grew like that. But then
what ends up happening? Is this right here? Uh, Alfred
had got some work from somebody that was with the
(26:28):
Supreme Team.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Work crack or cocaine or whatever. I don't know what
they're selling. And Supreme Team that documentary about about how
they our community.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
It might it might have been up right, but uh
so what ends up happening is so what ends up
happening is, uh Leon ran off with the work.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Leon is Alpher's brother.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
His brother ran up, ran off with the work, and
he's going out for the whole ship.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
You know what the fuck?
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Alpha was hiding out from him for a while.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Then, whether it was by the way, I want to
I want to explain with people. So so Leon ran
off with the crack or whatever it is, I don't
know the Supreme Team gave Alford. Now, Supreme Team is
known for assassinating the the police officer Edward Burns, who
was guarding a witness for a crack cocaine case. So
(27:20):
they pulled up. The cop was outside watching and protecting
a witness, and they pulled up and they killed They
assassinated a cop. So these people or there were people
that obviously were very serious about what they were doing. Yeah,
So and that became a case that went all the
(27:41):
way up to the presidency where he talked about it.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, so you know he was he he wanted to
uh not have that pressure on him, but the pressure
was great. And he's behind from the guy Alfred aufhad
hiding from the guy. Oh and whoever the guy was.
I still remember he had a he had a brown
kind of maroon is three hundred Essex, the same car
(28:07):
because I used to see him coming and he'd be
parking on different blocks till it got to the point
where Alfred talking with they like, Yo, I'm gonna sell
my call selling I call it damn it because he
got to pay then back that money. It was that
he owed him something like fifteen hundred dollars and fifteen
hundred dollars a lot at fifteen fifteen hundred dollars a
lot at the time. So he said, I'm gonna sell
(28:27):
my car home. You have to what your world's I'm
gonna do, right, So in the back of my mind
I knew now that you had a car you driving.
So what happened is now and get to eighty six,
my money from the insurance comes in. I'm eighteen now boom,
(28:49):
I'll go buy the Cadillacsville Loo. She said, I'm gonna
go crazy. Oh shit, they like my car. I'm starting
to drive them around or stuff like that. And they
eventually talked me into driving them down to L's show
in Philly.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Driving them down to when ll co J was on tour. Yeah,
you could drive whole down there.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
When L first got on, he choose the hard rocks
and gangsters around our way, the guys from the corner
of the bed, Yeah, to be a security.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Took he wanted them to.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, he wanted them to be a security. So they
he took mookie and losing them as a security. But
now when they start getting close, they wanted more of
their boys to come down there. So you should you
got a car, now, why don't you drive down there?
And I drove them to Philly, right, and now we
we Philly and everything is what we heard. It was
(29:44):
the girls are.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
All of us and pulling them all this that that
that and the was ll col J, Big Daddy Kane
EKMD Public Enemy. That one. Let me say it, you
know you can remember better than.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
First one was run DMC l O c J TIMEX
Social Club and the Beastie Boys.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Time Ax Social Club and the Beastie Boys. That was
the first talk.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
So yeah, the first one.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
So remember when I saw the Beasts, I said, man,
these dudes are crazy.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. So now we're backstage, we have
the but come I wasn't on before. It was weak.
It's and they talking about they want more of their
crew to be down there doing that. And so I remember,
like he said, well, I know somebody else they got
(30:35):
a car boys, I knew Alfred Sula's car to to
me to you, n we got a car.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Next.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
You know, Dame is on these trips. Dame is on
the trips. And and now we get to the point
where El's last song. He always like Farmer's crew come
on stage, and we on stage, fourteen thousand people at
the spectrums there at us and we up there and
you know, l come through giving everybody a pound, and
(31:05):
you know the second he giving pound for that second
right there, all fourteen thousand eyes on you, and that
shit was crazy right there. I'm experiencing it, you experiencing it.
And we start going back and forth, back and forth,
back and forth, spots like spotting, spoting spot and when
we could get in New York until we get it.
(31:27):
But then by the time it got to nineteen eighty nine,
I got the job on the tour, you by haitting
had the sixteen pastring of Van. So if anybody's gonna
make it to the show, they gotta come through you.
So the first call put into you and then putting
a call into Harrold, this is where we're gonna be
(31:47):
at until it got to a point where a lot
of niggas wanna give up no gas money. You come
up there sixteen pastries of Van by yourself, right, and
then that's when you start saying like, yoh, well, shoot,
you're gonna be here, why can't I be here? And
I had went to the promoter, and you had said
(32:10):
that those bands that they be wrinting, that you could
do it right, you know, I don't know, you know,
And you said, well, I'll do it for free, just
to show them I could do it. And then in
order for you to do it for free, you would
have to go back home work and then and then
come back here. But to stop you from doing that,
every city that we go to, I could get three tickets,
(32:34):
and I will go get the tickets A couple of
backshafe passes as for the other dances to go get
there three tickets and we went outside in the in
front of the couse and we just said the most
expensive ticket was seventeen fifty. And we go out there
and sell a couple of tickets, get to ten dollars,
ten dollars, ten dollars, and make about seventy dollars for
(32:54):
you to get gased. I think, just so you don't
have to go back home work, you go to the
next place. But while we're doing this, it's guys out
there with the with the bootlegs two shirts, just kicking off,
kicking off, were getting our a little bit of money,
but they getting a hundredsome. We just watching it. Old ship,
old shit.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
And.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
We've seen this so many times. And then by the
time the tour is over. By the time the tour
is over, it's like, you know, it's cool running around
with talking on so so, but we we gotta get
something for ourself. And that's when I pulled myself on
(33:40):
the box and I'm doing this right here, right And
then you had a bunch of ideas you did you
did the other boat thing, and and we did the
super soaker thing on on the thing. But I believe
it was from you seeing uh how much money was
in that hill pop merchandise that helped you have that
(34:04):
vision when you come back home, like the do.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
The clothes, and I saw, but I also saw people
doing what they love, like l and all. I saw
all the people out there cheering. But I think the
critical thing was I was ready to do that tour
for free when people were haggling. I was ready to
drive I don't know Philadelphia all the way home, but
I remember one time Elle said because he did, we
didn't know that well. He said, Yo, who want to
take all my dirty ass underwear to my grandmother? And
(34:30):
I was like I do, And four years or five
years later I would knock on his door and ask
him to take a picture, but I would take home
his dirty ass underwear to his grandmother. And where most
men would say, why am I taking another man's underwear
home and paying for it? Because it was the gas
that costs me money and and uh.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
So what I'm showing is to get to that point
in Hollywood. If Alfred never had his problems, and if
my father never died, we would have never been in
oppositions and my.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Father would have never left. I never became the man
of the house at ten years old.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
So I think it's powerful about how the things that
have created us that a lot of people will suffer
from and they have to get over and deal with it.
It is what it is. So, man, thank you so
so much for spending that moment. When we Man, we're
gonna be talking about this some more. I have a
really good time walking down memory lane. And I love
you brother, and your your very close friend.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Man.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
It always has been and man, it's amazing. Thank you brother.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Ship show That Moment with Damon John is a production
of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from
the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite show and don't
forget to subscribe to and rate the show. And of
(35:57):
course you can all connect with me on any of
my social media platforms at the Shark. Damon spelt like Raymond,
but what a d
Popular Podcasts
1. The Podium
The Podium: An NBC Olympic and Paralympic podcast. Join us for insider coverage during the intense competition at the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. In the run-up to the Opening Ceremony, we’ll bring you deep into the stories and events that have you know and those you'll be hard-pressed to forget.
2. In The Village
In The Village will take you into the most exclusive areas of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games to explore the daily life of athletes, complete with all the funny, mundane and unexpected things you learn off the field of play. Join Elizabeth Beisel as she sits down with Olympians each day in Paris.
3. iHeartOlympics: The Latest
Listen to the latest news from the 2024 Olympics.