Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let us the Freedom was like a novella that I wrote, Yes,
any cool examples of it? And I was just writing, yes,
let us the freedom, give us an example? Can you?
Like I wrote, Freedom was my girlfriend, So I wrote
letters to Freedom about the advancement, how she changed, how
she lived life different. I see more spinner, experimental and
just doing her. And I was like basically telling her,
(00:23):
like I miss you. You know what I mean. I
can't wait to, you know, experience all the things you
learned since I've been going. And when I'm talking about
the experiencing things she learns how I was born, I
was talking about the growth and women out here, like
how they you know? How they you know? And it
was like I used to just write letters to her.
(00:46):
Today we have Wallace Wallowed two sixty seven, people's on
the show. Wallowed two sixty seven is an activist, cultural
change maker, speechmaker, philanthropist, podcaster, and social media influencer. After
serving twenty years in prison, he has made it his
mission to show the world that there are no straight
lines to success or healing. He uses his life experiences
(01:06):
and various platforms to inspire people to overcome their challenges
and commit to transforming their lives day by day. In
this episode, we cover Wallow two six seven's early life,
his current mission, and his impact on young people and
the hip hop community. So, without further ado, I bring
you Wallow to sixty seven Walls Wallow.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Too six seven. People's welcome to the Psychology Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yes here, I'm I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
So good to have you here. You are so many things, right,
You wear a lot of hats.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah, some people say that.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, well on your website as a whole bunch of hats.
You're activist, cultural change maker, speech maker, philanthropist, podcaster, social
media influencer. Now you weren't always all these things.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
No, no, no, And it took a lot of work
to get there, a lot of work. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So why do you tell me what February eighteenth, twenty
seventeen felt like to you?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
It was a scary ass day because you know, I'm
walking out of prison and for the first time, I
got to be somebody that I never was. I gotta
be a law boding citizen. But not just that. I
told my grandma or family members and anything that I
was a different person than I had changed when I
was incarcerated. But I never that change has never been
(02:25):
challenged yet to see if it's really change. So I'm
scared of shit coming home from jail. I think that's
the scariest day, coming home from prison. That's the most
scariest day because you got to be somebody you never was,
and it's just like it's the unknown, like never before.
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, but you were happy you got McDonald's.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, I got that grub, I got the little breathfast
saying where I was cool and I saw and I
stopped in the well, I think stopped somewhere. I got
some razors because they had like one blade razors in jail,
and they like they like, you got to keep using
it to the new it's just bulls. I stopped, guys,
and I was just happy seeing just seeing little things,
you know, on a ride that oh yeah, well, you.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Know, there's so much of this new book you wrote
goes through your childhood and the things that you went
through and things you felt compelled to do. Right and uh,
there are a lot of these kind of stories you
talk about where you uh were attempting robbery, right, It
wasn't always armed robbery, no, not always.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, yeah, so it.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Kind of you worked up like no one's born, you know,
like doing things right, Like you know, there's a lot
of series of steps and stages and can you kind of.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
You just keep evolving and in whatever where will you win.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I am a huge hip hop fan. It used to
be a professional breakdancer, okay. Yeah, And and I just
I like in grad school, I watched B. E. T
every day of my life.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
So if you was it uys B Street before, Yes,
so this is breaking yeah, first groove, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Top tigger. This was back in like two thousand and six,
two thousand and six, so like every day and like no,
it was like.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That was late in the game though, I know, I know,
usually go back to the eighties.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Better late than never. I wasn't yeah, but like you know,
this is like I couldn't like resonate like at Yale,
Like no one was like talk to me about it. Yeah,
And like every day I was watching this. So I'm
a big hip hop fan.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
So that's one thing.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
And you have done a lot for the hip hop community,
and you have a podcast you know, on this topic.
But it's really interesting kind of like you can you
see your whole life there kind of in front of
your eyes right now. Kind of all these these steps
that led up to things that has made you a
role model now. But in a lot of ways, would
you do you even regret those things? I mean, there's
(04:51):
one sense you regret them, but there's another story of.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
The victimizds of my victims, you know, it's victims of crowns,
and you know you don't regret that. But like anything else,
like you live and you know a lot of your hardships,
a lot of your experience and the journey get you
to where you are now, you know, And even as
things you know, you just you just don't know because
you're growing up and you're trying to figure life out.
You're taking all these l's, these losses, not knowing their
(05:16):
lessons for later, you know. So it was like it
was a lot, man, I don't you know, And it's like,
I don't you can't take back. If any if any
of us take a lot of this stuff back, we
ain't gonna be where we're at today.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
That's the thing, Like, you wouldn't be this change maker.
It's kind of fascinating how life works like that. You
don't see you don't see it in reverse, right, But
I mean, imagine if you you know, you didn't enter
the life of crime whatsoever in your early childhood. Let's
say you had this, Let's say you lived. I don't
know what the word you is boring. I'm trying to
(05:50):
think like a boring childhood, you know, like you probably
would not be as motivated to do what you're doing today.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
I don't know where I would be.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Where would you?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, never know, you don't know. We go figure out,
we could hope and wish and wish it could have been,
would have been, But you know, you just don't know.
You don't know, you know, you don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
You said, I'm I'm gonna quote you a lot today.
You say, I make it my life's work to show
the world that there's no straight line to success or healing.
And that's why writing this book is so important to me.
I want to inspire others to overcome their challenges by
sharing through my experience the commitment and sacrifices it takes
to transform your life day by day completely. So do
you go around you do you give talks to like
(06:31):
inner city Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I do that, inner cities, the juvenile facilities, and just
regular people that I just went into you know, and
I just try to share and share with them the
best knowledge that I have of overcoming hardships and getting
out of that funk, you know what I mean, and
understanding that the world is bigger than the environment that
produce you, an environment you might spend most of the
time in. So you know, but it's different walks of people,
(06:55):
different nationalities, different genders. So you know, it all depends
on who I'm talking to at the moment, know, but
I just think that everybody need a little push. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
So what do you do when a young kid comes
up to you and you're like kind of seeing a
younger version of yourself. And let's say he's like chosen
a life of crime, let's say whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
I talked to him straight. I let him know, I
let it, and I you know, i'd be straight to
him in a way. It wasn't always straight to me.
I give it straight, Like listen, man, you're going to
jail or somebody gonna kill you. Yeah, Like, you got
to be realistic with him, especially because right now there's
a real time what was going on with him, and
at any moment, you know, they could just be in
(07:34):
a different place. I mean, so you know you got
to give it to him right then there, bang, here
it is. This is what it is. You know.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
So for our listeners that aren't aware, So what what
got you into jail?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Like what was the too on row rees? Too fire
on violations? But I've been in jail before that. That's
what got me the larcense. But I've been in jail
most of my life. June thirty, nineteen ninety up. When
I first got arrested, I was eleven for a couple
of days and a few days and farm for robbery
and I went on spent five years juvenile facility, went
from there, seventeen, caught the big cases, got certified as an adult.
(08:10):
They sent me to the penitentiary twenty years. So you know,
it's like this was about my life. It was the
life that I was living.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
You know, and it just kept escalating.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Oh yeah, it always do you know? Crime is like
you always get you find new ways, you try to
make it quicker. It's always gonna be a way that
you're gonna find.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
You said something, There's a quote that really gave me
a pause, and I was like, huh, that's so interesting.
You said this life of crime. Wasn't the life I wanted,
but it was all I knew? Yeah, why was it
all you knew? Because it was like It's like it
was the education of the street culture. And I've seen
(08:50):
it in America. They respected successful criminal more than anybody.
Like a lot of people just you know, a lot
of people.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Will say, oh, why, oh, why this? So I'm looking
at it as a kid, and I'm like, anytime the
drug dealer pull up in the Mercedes Bens with diamonds
on his pinky rings and a nice clothes on, coming
to get the most beautifullest girl in the neighborhood, and
everybody speak to him. They don't speak to the guy
that come home from work looking at the janitor what's name?
(09:19):
And then on top of that, you can ask any judge,
any United States attorney, district attorney, FBI agent, c I
A agent, DEA agent, what's your five favorite movies? All
of them Ahead, Good, Fuck, Good, Godfather and Scarfacing them.
They love Scar, they love they love Michael Cooleion, they
(09:42):
love Tony Soprano.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
So there's something about like the seductive appeal of power
that really drives a lot of it.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
It's something about the idea of wrong. I think wrong
is like wrong. It is like worship more than they
anything out here.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, we fetishize it.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Wrong is powerful. So so when you're looking at it wrong,
you're looking at it like I gotta have some some
sort of wrong in my life. Yeah, And people, even
if it's I work out, but I'm a cheat with
this food, even if it's different sexual acts, even if
it's oh, it's a lie, but it's a white lib.
(10:23):
Even if it's a it's always something that whereas though
its people have a craving for it somewhere in their life.
But sometimes the movies, the music, But you get to
everybody in some way. They love the successful criminal, they
love the bag. I hope you get away.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Well. You know a lot of this kind of motivation
for power often comes from when someone's in.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
A state where they feel powerless. So I'd love to
know more about your state of mind at that time.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Did you feel you said, this is the only way
you know, So were you feeling like like lack of
control at the.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Time, always a black of controller. It was just that
I want to steal an American dream because I didn't
think anybody that really had anything substantial work for it.
I've never seen a person that worked for twenty years
with a Mercedes Benz, Like that's one in a million.
You're like, you got to work on Wall Street or
some shit like that, and how many of them ain't
(11:19):
stealing you? So I'm sitting there looking like, damn, I
ain't seen nobody do it right when? And it's at
a young age. I'm peeping this and I'm like, hold up,
how she how he worked all the years and in
his fifties ain't gotten U. But this guy is twenty
something figured it out in sixteen months and living the life.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Do you think a lot of it comes down, like
to the role models that are available to you, like
in your immediate community.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, you know it was something, but they was out numbered.
That's what it sounds like. Listen. You got to understand
that they was outnumbered by the Marketing' not wrong right right,
the marketing the wrong the box office movies and when
they come out the movie, everybody's saying that everybody know
about these movies and these you know what I mean.
It's like you know when you look at you look
(12:11):
at Goodfellas, and I think it was ray Leola and
He had the one part of Goodfellas, if you go back,
you were a movie buff. We gonna see you go back.
And it was a time when he was a little
kid and he went in there to blow the cards
up and he said, by the time I was fourteen,
I was making more money than all the grown ups
(12:32):
in my neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
So when you look at that, it's like, well, it's
very seductor.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yes, you know me as a kid. You know me.
Or if you look at you look at a movie
like he and they tell you, you know, remember what's
the name? Told us back in the joint, never get
attached to anything. You can't walk out on thirty seconds flat
if you feel it. He coming around the corner and
he told Robert de Narrow that when he's sitting across
the joint hill. And Robert Narrow was a cop, I
mean Opportuno was the cop and he's all and he
(13:02):
all suited up, but he wasn't the one that was attractive.
He didn't have enough attraction around him in his role.
He was just this cop that used to drink, couldn't
get it right with his wife. You're not showing up whatever.
And you see Robert and hill coming through smooth, got
his life, no kids, spend a bunch of time in
the joint. He dealing with the library and girl he
(13:23):
just he come through.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
The library, the library or the librarian, the library or
whatever the whatever.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
She was the one that was in the library when
he went into the bookstore. Okay, No, she was in
the bookstore. He worked in the bookstore, I think. Okay,
And you remember he go to get the book, he
meet her, and he went against he went against his
whole rule in the end, why you get killed. But
the whole thing is like you're looking at this guy
like this, this fucking guy is the greatest guy in
the world. Yeah. Yeah, So so much of that is
(13:50):
like it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
You're also what your values are, like what did you
want to achieve in your life? So much like you
don't listen to that much rap these days that are
like I'm trying to think of example, something that's the
opposite of ego, you know, like you hear a lot
of ego even in these days.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Ego. Ego is life out here these days. Ego and
right now to a lot of people right now is god.
Social media teach you right now, they worship right now,
I meaning I need that shit right now, not tomorrow.
And people don't look at your story. They look at
your glory, they don't look at you know, they didn't
look at my page, like oh wollow winning right now
(14:30):
while IO doing this at third is you going back then?
How many thousands and thousands of posts I had when
I was living in any middle room? And I showed
you that I never took nothing off of my page,
and I do that, but mine's go all the way
back to when I was in prison. I was posting
in jail. I never took nothing off of my page.
So they gave you, they let use the phone. No,
I had to illegally. So so so when you go
(14:51):
back and you look at that, I showed you my journey.
Nobody's going to look at that. They're looking at right now.
Oh shit, he went and look at that. And that's
and that's how life is now. It's about right now.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
So it's a big message of yours to young people
that to have a different value system, the nicest and
you had.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
It, Oh man, you better have one because you can
make it happen now you could do you could living
right is man can take you to the moon these days,
did you know you got to think about it. That's good.
I could find somebody. I could come up with an
idea right now. I could find somebody overseas to develop
the app or the technology for me. Pay them a
(15:35):
few thousand. Maybe once I get it, go pitch it
to some vcs, get the funded, and be off to
the races.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Mm hmm, I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Just think about that though, and I could do it
all on my phone.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I need to learn a little bit from you, man.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
You got it. I think you got.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
It, okay, okay, just got to implement it and you
got it.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
You know what you okay?
Speaker 2 (16:05):
So would you be upset if I called you a
little movemoo yo, little wow move moom move Okay, that's wow.
What do you be okay with that?
Speaker 1 (16:17):
That was my childhood nick your childhood nickname. I know
that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Gowing up in North Philly, right, North Philly? So North
Philly around that time. Just can you just like plan
a visual of what North Philly was like in the eighties?
Speaker 1 (16:33):
No Philly was it was? It was fun. Yeah, And
I'm gonna tell you why it was fun Because outside
of the poverty and all that, the ingenuity that we
had to figure out ways to be happy. Wherever it
(16:54):
was a black party, wherever it was going in somebody basement,
listened to some some rapper albums, or wherever it was
me listening to some dirty some dirty uh comedy albums
with my uncle. It was it's just the physical fun
was just we our imagination back then and how we
(17:16):
created so many things and that physical fund like being
outside playing basketball in the crate, the milk crate, and uh,
it was just like, I mean, it was just different, man,
because it's like we didn't have nothing, but we had
everything because we had each other. That's the thing is
like some of these other communities that maybe are more affluent,
(17:36):
don't have the community. You know, there's something special about
that community that you had and.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
That you grew up. You grew up it was your
poor would say poor.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah, we wasn't rich. Yeah, you might as well say it.
You know, you're trying to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
And so you were out a lot, you were out.
I feel like you were on the streets a lot, yes, yeah,
yeah yeah. And so what were you like in school?
Speaker 1 (17:59):
I wasn't that good a school. So at school, I
would I remember I was going to the school in
the logan section, and every time the teacher would get
around to me to read or something, I go to
the bathroom. They get close because you know, you read
a packer. If you rea, I'd be like, I got
used the bathroom, Shoot to the bathroom and go utilize
(18:19):
and use the bathroom. So it was always like it
was just different, you know, Yeah, what do you matter
fast what high school you went to? I went to
high school. I went to I ain't gonna say I
even went to Germantown like that. I went to high
school really in jail. I was in prison already.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Wow, that's right, age seventeen.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yeah, I was in prison.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Got my ged that was age seventeen though. But you know,
you did go through a lot of these different uh
situations where you put in like why didn't you stop
like after a certain number of being in attendent center?
Like what like why didn't Why do you think you
just kept going even after being put in detention centers?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I never got punished. M I see all of them
juvenile facilities. They was like going to a school for
boys that was like a college slash. They feed you good,
you got all the sports in the world. You got
games and going home passes.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
It wasn't nothing, but there was a certain drive that
you had then. Like you're not a fundamentally different person,
but it seems like you channel a lot.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Of it into good Yeah I had to.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
But you had talents then, like even though some of
it was a legal and you still got away with
a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Oh, without a doubt, definitely did.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I mean, let's be honest, you were talentsed criminals. There
must have been some that weren't as good as you. Yeah,
not trying to glamorize it, but I'm just saying there
were talents. There was a skills that you have. Now.
I'm so curious how you channel into what you do well.
I was talking you a trick about this one thing
(20:06):
you're very very good about. You're very good at marketing.
I heard a story about that you were in wah Wah, right,
and you convinced everyone in wah Wah to buy to
buy your brand so you could, like on a dime,
you know, bring like be really good.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
At marketing anything. You know, I could do a little
bit of anything, you know when it comes to marketing,
because I believe in whatever I'm representing. Yeah. Yeah, So
I'm a marketed to the death. So when did you
start getting interested in marketing? Uh? You know. I was
in cell right, and I used to always watch commercials religiously,
(20:41):
to the point where I used to watch commercials and
I said that McDonald's the sandwich, that big Mac, that
shit never looked like that anytime. I got well mh.
Then I realized, oh well, Then I realized that the
brands didn't make these commercials, it was an advertising agency.
Start doing researching on that. Then I ran across his
(21:03):
book called Damn Good Advice by George Lewis. Then I
realized that George Lewis was the guy that made the
TV show The mad Man about that. So I'm reading it.
I'm like, oh man, so I just and I feel
as though I was a marketing when I was writing
on walls growing up because people like, oh you wallow, yeah, wallow.
(21:25):
So it was like I was like, this is my
thing because I ain't got you know, I ain't. I ain't.
And then I was thinking about Crazy Eddy back in
the day. You remember Crazy Eddy. Yes, that was my
favorite dude on TV. I used to love this.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
I remember crazy Yeah, I'm crazy at it. Yeah, I
was like, I thought about crazyety since eighty four. Listen,
crazy Eddy was a marketing legend. Yes, yes, you see
what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
So I'm like, I'm sitting here, I'm like, that's the
type of market Like, I ain't got no problem. A
lot of people it's too cool to market their own product.
They think they're getting on people nerves. I realized, now
I'm gonna keep it out there.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Yes, okay, So I mean there's got to be a
continuity somewhere of skill set there from you know, I
don't know what it is, do you know? Do you
know what?
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Like?
Speaker 2 (22:11):
What do you think is the core of your skill set?
If you had to describe it. I believe my skill
set is just going after it, go getting it. I'm
gonna go get it, and I'm gonna go get it great.
Whatever I put my mind to, I'm gonna go out
there and get it. Especially about believing it. I'm not
waiting for nobody. M Yeah you there. I think you
(22:31):
say in your book you have this one, this realization
that no one's gonna save you.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Ain't nobody coming to save me, So I gotta go
get it.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Let's talk about a topic I'm really interested in, which
is a victim mindset, because I see it a lot
in the young people these days. You see it too,
do you see it?
Speaker 1 (22:47):
They created this world whereas though judgment is lost in culture,
back in the day, if you did something, it was shamed,
though shame was important. If you was a junkie, they'll
say you were a junkie. If you was but miscious,
(23:12):
they'll call you a whore. If you was whatever, they
would they would put it on you and they'll shame
you for it. So other people that's witnessing won't do
the ship. Now they got a way to whereas though
if you judge somebody, if you shame them, you're bullying me.
So now this gave people away out to not be
(23:34):
accountable in this culture of now. So what happened is
you got a bunch of people running around here doing
all this goofy shit and then and then if you
call them out about it, oh, you're you're bullying me.
And no, you just did some dumb shit. You just
(23:56):
and I'm telling you that you did some dumb shit
in this document, and as you did some dumb shit,
and I told you about it, and now you're the
victim and I'm the bad guy. This victim shit is
unbelievable out here. It's rampant, like in this this overly
it's like this, man, I don't even understand it. I
(24:18):
don't like this. It's like you can't even you can't
even check nobody when they were on. So, you know,
I think that's gonna weaken the universe. Well, you have
the opposite mindset. Oh no, if I do some dumb shit,
I want you to tell me about it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
I call it an empowerment mindset. You know, like you
want to be better, right, you want to learn, you
want to grow, but you also realize no one's going
to come save you.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
That's when made me get up and go hard every day. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
So when you were actually how long were you in prison?
By the way, twenty twenty years? You were in prison.
When you were in prison for two twenty years, Like,
did you think to yourself? Like, actually, not only think yourself?
You wrote letters, right, freedom?
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Letters that us the freedom?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
I love that. Okay, tell us a little about those
letters of freedom.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Let us the freedom was like a novella that I wrote. Yes,
any cool examples of it? And I was just writing, Yes,
let us the freedom give us an example, can you
Like I wrote, Freedom was my girlfriend. So I wrote
letters to Freedom about the advancement, how she changed, how
she lived life different, how she more spinn her experimental
and just doing her. And I was like basically telling her,
(25:33):
like I miss you, you know what I mean, I
can't wait to, you know, experience all the things you
learned since I've been going. And when I'm talking about
the experiencing things, she learns how I was born. I
was talking about the growth and women out here, like
how they you know, how they you know? And it
was like I used to just write letters to her.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
I mean when you walked out as a as a
pretty much free man, right, eventually in twenty seventeen, you
were aware of that the odds were stacked against you.
You were aware of the civic dism rate, and you
that in a way that kind of motivated You're right,
(26:12):
You're like, I'm not gonna I'm going to defy the odds.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Yeah, I'm gonna just I'm I'm gonna do it up
for real. Yeah, you know, And I just went at
it a day.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, And did you think about that a lot in
prison about how like when I get out of here,
I'm going to.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
I'm not coming back. Yeah, yeah, I know it's more
for me out there, and that's what I really tabbed into.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, well, talk about some of the things that you're
up to these days, because I know you you have
your hands in a lot of things.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
You know, first and foremost you got on with good attentions. Yes,
the memoir, you got airplanees's a hotel on my clothing line.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
You got a Wildow two sixty seven foundation, which is
my foundation to show support and create resources for juvenile
people that's in the juvenile system coming home, because you know,
I think about the resource that I ain't have and
things that could have prevented me from going keep elevating
the crime. You got pure a few my highdration drink
right there. Yeah, yeah, go ahead, do your think Fisher
(27:09):
drink and a Fisher Iretion drink. A full of your
seventy six is in Chicago sky. So you know, I'm
just doing a lot of different things. Man. You know,
do you work with Meek Mills? Yeah, refort.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
So tell me about Reform Alliance.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Or Reform Alliance and something that me cooking up with uh,
Michael ruve me and bring me over there. Did my
thing you know over there?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
You know, and jay Z is part of that.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
So so you advocate for criminal justice reform. Yeah, what's
tell me something's wrong with the system right now.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
No, it's just a you know, probation parole. People is
getting these lengthy sentences after the time, you know, and
there's a lot of violations. People getting violations got to
go back up top you then me because of them. So,
you know, it's just a lot you know, other things
are working on. Like it's just you know, sometimes I
don't even talk about the things that ain't materialize yet.
(28:01):
I just like to focus on, you know, what you
can see, what you can feel, what you could touch,
what you could get right now. And you know, I
just keep developing other things until I make it pop,
until I get my proof of concept. I just really.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
That's not But then YouTube Avenues what is that?
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yes, I'm the cultural advisor YouTube Okay. I created a
person program called YouTube Avenues, whereas though we go to
cities in the cities of America, put four or five
hundred people in a room and educated my how to
start their YouTube how to scale on YouTube, how to
monetize their YouTube.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Is that just for working with young people or.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Now that's whoever? You could come, anybody could come.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Can I come?
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, you come, we come into New York City. I'll
make sure you get an invite.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Oh my god, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
I'm dead serious.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Well I'm dead serious and saying thank you so much. Yeah,
that'd be incredible. Just something you know, you're big in
the in the hip hop community. Watched the podcast. I
love the episode of fifteen, and you know, there's something
interesting about you because like I'm sitting next to you
and like I see, you know, I see a little
(29:08):
bit of this tough extereer, but I also see this vulnerability.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah, and uh, and you.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Put a lot of that in this book. But I
don't feel like on the whole the hip Hop Commuty
embraces vulnerability. I feel like it embraces like the tough
exteer a bit more so, like what do you like?
What do you say to your fellow colleagues and hip
hop community and trying to like make a call to
have this more expansive view of.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Like I think the best thing I could do is
just be myself and lead by example. Yeah, and because
I'm always going to be open up to what I'm
experienced when I'm going through what I'm feeling. And I
think sometimes people going it got to be in you,
you know, if it ain't in you, it ain't in you.
It got to be who you are. And I just
be me. So hopefully that you know those that's that's
(29:56):
that's who they am, it's going to show.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Yeah, because there is a lot of v ability in
a sense, like a lot of rappers talk about where
they came from, right, So that's for sure, But is
there a lot of vulnerability in terms of like, like
I feel insecure, you know, like there's so much ego.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
I think nobody want to say that that. I think
as humans, we all had insecurities. Yeah, you know what
I mean. Yeah, So I just think it's about I.
Even when I was in prison, right and I realized
that I was going bald, I was like, shit, I
was really I was really insecure about that. When you
were going, oh ball, gotcha, I was like, damn shit,
(30:32):
I'm getting old, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
And I started going bad when I was like twenty seven.
So I don't know if it was like meanestosterone.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, I don't know if it was distressed. I don't
know what the fun was going on.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
I'm like, shit, yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Just even just talking about like feeling insecure, feeling like
that's here.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yeah yeah, I mean I feel like those messages need
to be a little bit like be celebrated a little
bit more, and.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Then you know, I understand.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Yeah. So who are some other big influences in their life?
I well, first of all, I loved your book and
I enjoyed reading just even like just different people in
your life that you really admired, right, like your older
sibling Stevie.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
About Steve God, that's my brother rest in peace. He
was just that God to me. Man. I used to
sit there on the bed and watch him get dressed,
listen to the media that he introduced me to hip
hop because he had you know, I'm looking at them
cassettes over there, so just imagine all them slots fill
times too. That's how many tapes he had, right, because
(31:38):
we was cassette tape warriors back then, and I used
to be in there, wouldn't even getting dressed and listening
to different tapes. I'm making my own mixtapes, especially when
the double cassette came out, well you could record. I
was like, you played the one songful pause, it put
out a tape in there like No, that was my
guy man, you know, he was just he was that
(31:59):
he knew how to move, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
So there were others that were big influences on you, right,
anyone else you want to shout out to right now?
Speaker 1 (32:07):
It was many, you know, but Steve was the one
that was really really that.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
So another big message you talk about well and boy,
by the way, yeah, the one who I wrote your
forward Mama Yanla Leanna Vanzade. She says she's so proud
of you, right, yes, yeah, yes, that must feel good.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
That felt extraordinary, being as though when I was in prison,
I used to have a book called the We used
to call it the Purple Books Acts of Faith. It
was this purple book, right small, put in your pocket,
give you a little daily inspirations. So for me to
connect with her, I remember when the first time she
DM me out of nowhere, I almost dropped the phone.
I was like shit, and I told her like yo, wow.
(32:46):
And then for us to connect, I went to a home,
had a great meal and she just showed me so
much love.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Beautiful. You have a lot of people that support you
right now.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yes, that's a blessing. I think there's a lot of
you give love. Then I feel a lot of love.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Yeah. Another big part of your message is about seeking
where to seek your validation?
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Right? Do you seek it externally? Do you seek it
through money, women and cars? Or internally? And you're pert
your messages internally? Right you better or what? You know?
What I mean? You're in trouble, It kind of leads
you down to different path. That's where it's at. Man.
You gotta tap into tapping with fin Yeah, that's what
(33:29):
it's about. Yeah, and you do that every day every day.
I'm on a mission. M M.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Tell me more about your mission.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
You know. My mission is to help people, give people
the help that I wanted when I was down. Everybody
wants somebody to help them, but they don't help nobody.
Think about this ship. I don't help me. You did
you help? Who did you do something for? Everybody? Quickly
play the victim? Anybody helping me? Anybody support me? Anybody
who did you helping? Support? Everybody just takers out here.
(33:59):
So it's is deep. But I just try to lead
by example. Help people in real time.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Yeah, and you teach, you teach this message that the
more you give, the more you actually get in it's better,
you know, in a lot of ways. I mean a
lot of people might think the only avenue to receiving
things in life is by taking, and.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
That's like, no, you're not gonna get what you truly
want by doing that. You've got to work for the
shit and you got to work smart, that hard. I
love it. And you got to figure out your thing.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
You do a lot of grit, and I think a
big part of the message here of your life is
how you've channeled. It's not like you've you've just completely transformed,
but you've you've channeled. I'm gonna we could end the
interview now and I'll end with a cult which I
think really summarize a lot of this. You were thinking
this February eighteen, twenty seventeen. If I could transfer the
hustler's energy that I brought to robbing, stealing and dealing
(34:54):
to motivating people to give one hundred to reaching their
highest potential while staying out of trouble. I thought to myself,
can't nobody fuck with me?
Speaker 1 (35:04):
My man? And they can't
Speaker 2 (35:15):
I