Ultra Black History

This week Tamika D Mallory and Mysonne General discuss the significance of Black History Month, and the impact of education on the Black community. They introduce their guest, Hedrick McBride, a renowned publisher who emphasizes the need for relatable and culturally relevant books for children. The discussion highlights the connection between education, representation, and social justice, while also addressing the challenges faced by the Black community in today's society.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Tamika D.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Mallory and the Ship Boy my Son in general.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
We are your host of t M I.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, Motivation and.

Speaker 4 (00:09):
Inspiration, New Energy. I'm good, I'm good. I'm a little
you know, it's been it is, oh.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Right, Yeah, I'm Black History.

Speaker 4 (00:29):
I mean, everything we've we've been talking about all month
is about black people, but we certainly need to kind
of focus on Black History Month.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
And like the I guess the what do we call.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
It, the observance, that's the word.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
It's the observance of it all.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
So we haven't really been able to get to that
because the country is very, very very different. Interesting, It's
not so much it is different different.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:02):
I struggle with saying that it's different. I think that
it is worse.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
So if it's worse, it different.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
Yeah, I guess so, But I still think it was
pretty bad already. I mean, I just don't I don't know.
I just feel like we've got to be coming to
a crashing halt because we're in the we're in a
we're in when a woman is across the world in
Pakistan talking about running my money, I.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Am I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
But I don't know, but she has now made her
way to every outlet at least all the blogs are
covering it.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:49):
I don't think the quote unquote mainstream media is covering it.
But this woman, it's in my DMS. People send it
to me like what is going on? But somebody sent
me something which I don't know if it was her,
because you know, first Ai, second of all, the way
that it was positioned, because now other people are creating
like parodies to this thing and making skits. But it

(02:13):
looked like a person who looks like her was counting
money if they paid that late, because it seemed to
me like there were Pakistani.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
People.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Know.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
It's no way that folks don't know that the lady
thought or she met somebody I believe online and he
must have professed his love for her and told her
he was going to marry her. And then somehow I
don't know if he invited her or what happened. I'm
sure he found out she had little mental health, and
then he might have a little mental health too. And

(02:48):
then she traveled from wherever sounds like the USA because
she sound black as black, and took herself over there
to Pakistan and talking about she wants her money and
she's not leaving until she gets her land, and it's
really a thing.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
But the thing about it is that I said Pakistan Pakistanians.
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (03:11):
That is something I need to figure out. How do
you say the people versus the place? Is it Pakistanians?

Speaker 2 (03:19):
I believe, right?

Speaker 4 (03:20):
Okay, so you would just say Pakistanians. Okay, So the
Pakistanian people, some of them seem to be entertaining them.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Dave's having press conferences. People must be bored, hilarious, people must.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Be and she is.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Saying now she had to tell people that she's raising
money so they could send her home. She told people
to send her money.

Speaker 4 (03:46):
Seemed like she had some If it's her that I
saw in this, she definitely.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Raised money, Ain't no question about that. You know, the
internet love to just give money to crazy people.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
Well, anyway, by the time people see this sho, there
would have been some updates and I will probably be late,
like this will probably be old give So that's why
I'm saying, like, what like every day the world just

(04:18):
proves how much crazier it can actually get. So I
guess it's different.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
It's definitely different.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
You're like, I think I was the person, the first
person to send it to you, because Tiffany Laughton sent
it to me in the middle of the night. She
sends me like five videos and she's screaming like, this
is the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Then I just kept seeing it and seeing it.

Speaker 4 (04:41):
Then that's why I said, let me send it to you,
and you know whoever else is in our little group.
Then I sent it to Linda and she just is
like this this world.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Then the lady she has his job on.

Speaker 4 (04:53):
She was wearing a hi job, but she had it
tied like some kind of bothing on this. So I
just have never seen them wear they're jobs like this.
It's just it's different.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
It's different. It's different.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
It's very very very much. It is extremely different.

Speaker 4 (05:12):
It is black history, mom, and was She's a part
of black history.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
And there people listen, this is the last thing I'll
say about this.

Speaker 4 (05:21):
I've also watched the commentary of a few people who
are like, bruh, I don't you know. I would never
do it. It's comical. But the lady is on business.
She over there, like I needy't to round me my
land and my money, and if you want me to leave,
you gotta pay for me to leave, because I came

(05:41):
over here to marry my husband. And by the way,
the husband would have been like nineteen years old and
she's thirty three. Like if that lady, don't go somewhere
and sit her ass down anyway, what else is up
her history?

Speaker 3 (05:56):
So look, there's a meme that's been going around for
a couple of years, and I know I seen it
yesterday again and it's a reporter talking to I believe
it's Morgan Freeman, and they talking about black history mon
and Morgan Freeman says to him, I don't want black history.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Man.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
He's like, why should my history be relegated to one month?
Your history is not relegated to one month, So I
don't want it. Don't give me no one month of
my history. And when I thought about it, I understood
his point of view. But then I was like, but
we live in America, right in the reality of America
is that they don't celebrate black.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
History, they don't talk about our history.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
They don't give us the opportunity to actually hone in
on the great you know, accomplishes, accomplishments and feats that
our ancestors have made.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
And I kind of.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Enjoyed Black history one. Look, I get to throw on
my stuff.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
I get to get yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
Mean I get I need to get I get to
get into it. And you know, I was thinking, what
do you think about it? Do you think that it's
a bad thing that they give us black heresy is?
It doesn't make it seem like our history is less because.

Speaker 4 (07:09):
Of or I mean, we do get the short this month,
and you know, and I do understand people who say that,
but I also feel like observances are exactly what they are.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
They're observances.

Speaker 4 (07:20):
So you know, you don't have President's Day being celebrated
every day.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
You have a day that.

Speaker 4 (07:27):
Is specified for you to focus on presidents, veterans, people you.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
Know who who what do you call it? Memorial?

Speaker 4 (07:35):
Memorial Day is for people who have died in war
and what have you and you know, and also other
I think they have kind of expanded it. I know
we have expanded it to also acknowledging people who are service.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
Workers, people who are you know, who take care of folks.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
And so I mean, I you know, everything has its
time and I think that that one entire month we
should really take as much advantage of it as possible,
especially now when we see there is a attack on

(08:13):
our history, there's an attack on anything that has to
do with you know, forcing the world to sit still
and have to look at, as you said, the accomplishments
and the fights that we have fought and won. You know,
there's been a lot that we've contributed to society, and
if it were not for the fact that there is
this time that's been set aside, you know, people probably

(08:36):
wouldn't hear much about us at all. So I see,
you know, I see, I'm not saying that I don't
understand how once they put it in February, which happens
to be the shortest month of the year, then after
that they may say, well, they don't want to hear
about it again. But then that's not true because the
next thing, you know, you got doctor King. Well before
then you have you know, doctor King's birthday that comes up,
and I feel like people celebrate doctor King's birthday for

(08:59):
the entire month January. You know, I hear at least
at least beginning around the fifteenth, when his actual birthday
takes place, then they go all the way and then it.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Goes all the accomplishments.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah, so you know, well, I mean.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
I just I pretty much agree with what you're saying.
I just when I heard it again, it made me think.
And it's just the time that we end, you know,
it's just every time I think about, like you said,
the d and what we're going through with this.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
Government and diversity, equity and inclusion.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
Diversity, equity and inclusion, you know, and what we're going through,
you know, like you said, how they're trying to pretty
much erase our history and to have this month is
very much important at this time.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, I think before they're getting rid of shit left and.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Right, and they still don't want this even they don't.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
Even want the government right, Like it's it's.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
An education, which is the other big So they.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Don't want kids we must celebrated within education either.

Speaker 4 (10:02):
They don't want like remember critical race theory and all
of that. They want they don't want you to isolate
and celebrate any particular holidays except for things that have
to do with white men. I mean seriously, like it's
just that's what it is. They're saying that they are
going to especially, as you said, for the federal government,

(10:25):
which the Department of Education is a part of the
federal government. Right, they want to end the celebration of
any particular group.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
It's pretty.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
I think the only way to describe it is just
to look at the fact that, like the shrides that
people have made, that's not just black folks. Like I
think about the Muslim community and how in New York
the Muslims didn't even have certain days observances for public schools,
and they fought and fought and fought, and I remember

(11:03):
when they won, and it was under Deblasio that these
days became law, like they became chartered in New York
State and in New York City, I know for sure,
I don't know about the state. And now there's like
two or three dates on the calendar that that everybody,
not just Muslim students of course, but everybody is off

(11:23):
because they are observing these particular days. So, you know,
I say all of that to say a lot of
people have fought to ensure that we live in an
inclusive society where everybody can be celebrated, and these.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
Folks just don't want to do it anymore. But you
know it, You have to do it. Well. I don't
know if it's strange.

Speaker 4 (11:43):
I think that they're actually sticking true to their uh,
their their their existence.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
Their beginning to me is this, how do you think
that that is going to work? Right, because you've people
have gotten used to celebrating and being acknowledged and seeing
themselves and being themselves and coming.

Speaker 4 (12:04):
To you know, I think what they're saying is you
can celebrate it all you want, but it won't be
But that's paid.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
That's the first step of it, right, because what you
do is you take you pretty much take the.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Knowledge president in February to so President's Day.

Speaker 4 (12:23):
So they still going to take some of our stuff
too in the month in the same Black History Month.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
That's interesting. I never put that in the contest.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
So that's what I'm saying, Like, if you look at
if you look at most of the holidays that they're
a black I mean they are white holidays that celebrate, Yeah,
they celebrate their their accomplishments.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
They still celebrate in that Columbus Day.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah, So these are these are things that I'm saying.
So so they think that's just gonna work. You just
gonna erase the rest of the people here. You're gonna
take back the Hollids and.

Speaker 4 (12:53):
You're gonna do That's all I want to say.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Let me tell you what my thought of the day.

Speaker 4 (13:03):
What Actually, it's not my thought of the day, but
I could make it my thought of the day for today,
since we are short for time before we have our guests,
our Black History Month guest, because we focused on Black
History Month today and not these people politics. Let me
tell you that we are all, every single one of
us hypocritical beings. I was listening to Angela Rode talking

(13:27):
about this on their podcast, Native Lamp Pod, and it's true.
She was talking about Snoop and his performance at the
Crypto Ball, and she was, you know, literally saying like,
I'd rather call my brother on the phone to tell
him how I feel directly, And she was acknowledging that,

(13:47):
you know, there are people who probably will feel like, oh,
you're being hypocritical, because if it was somebody that you
don't really have a relationship with or whatever, you would
just say whatever. And I think that's true. I would
hope that if you're brother sister did something that you
wouldn't go to the Internet to tell the world about it.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
I would hope.

Speaker 4 (14:04):
But you know, hey, some people say what's good for
the goose is good for again if they if they
don't like whoever on the internet, and they don't like
they mama and they sister, they brothers and cousins, they
go right on to the Facebook and write it up
there too. I mean, I guess that's but I understand
both sides. But I wanted to say that we certainly

(14:24):
are and we live in contradiction all the time. Like
hypocritical is probably a negative connotation to that word, so
I wouldn't necessarily use it, but I just want to,
you know, state it in a way that most people
can understand. But I think the the conflicts, right, you know,
and the complications of life, because I was somewhere a

(14:49):
couple of evenings ago, and you know, I am, and
I think you are like this too, which it took
you some time to get there. So let me put
your business in the street. But I just don't want
to hear r Kelly.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
I just don't. That's not on my car.

Speaker 4 (15:04):
My family members know not to play it at holidays,
and in fact, it is starting to become something that
I see less and less and less and less that's
just I don't. I'm it's at the point now where
no one has to tell the DJ at a.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Family event or whatever. They just they're just not doing
it anymore.

Speaker 4 (15:25):
But the other day, I was wherever I was, somewhere anyway,
restaurant at night, late at night, and they started playing
some good old R Kelly songs.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
I mean, and I'm just so sorry, like I didn't.
I forgot.

Speaker 4 (15:39):
I totally forgot. I wasn't even drinking. I totally forgot.
And the next thing you know, I was just sitting
up there man in here wish and I was just
all into it. And I was sitting there thinking to myself, Wow,
we have to have a lot of grace for one another.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
We have to have a lot of grace for one another, because.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
It's not it's very hard, you know, for people to
ignore the music and contributions that R Kelly has made.
Like my whole childhood can be marked by al Kelly songs,
Like I could tell you every year of my life
based on R. Kelly song and what I was doing,
the girl I liked, and the party we went to

(16:22):
in the song and the first slow jam that you
got you rubbed the little rub you got like R
Kelly was that for us in the late eighties early
wise he was.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
It's just like he was.

Speaker 4 (16:34):
But but I would say that, you know, and and
I was having this conversation with someone else and they'd
be like, yeah, but the parents, the parents took their
kids there and whatever.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
And that's fine.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
I'm not because I believe that that is true, that
there was some parents that literally took their children to
him knowing that he something wasn't right. Like I'm never ever, ever,
ever ever take get my granddaughter and I never did
it with my son, to take them to somebody and
a man, woman, whomever else it is, that's not a

(17:08):
family member or somebody that I trust. And even in
those situations, we were always taught you don't even trust
everybody in your family and just leaving my child there
for days and whatever and not like, no, I'm just
not ever doing that. So I understand people who say,
but what about the parents, And I think that those
parents have to deal with their children, They're gonna have

(17:31):
to deal with different things. But guess what, I don't
know them. I don't buy their albums, I don't buy
their shoes, clothes, don't I don't support them in any way.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
With R.

Speaker 4 (17:40):
Kelly, this is a grown ass man. You're a grown
ass man. And if a person brings you their child
and you allegedly allegedly do whatever to them, which you
know whatever, allegedly do whatever things to them, and.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
You know, then someth's wrong with you.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
You also so the parents and you it doesn't It's
not like because of the parents then you somehow are
exampt Yet No, no, no, you also have an issue.
And I'm not finna be buying maybe, but I know
I'm not finna be buying the music. I'm not finna

(18:20):
be two step in. I'm not gonna do none of that.
I did get me a little twist in the chair
on a from then eventually I said no, I didn't
even do that. I just said I'm gonna be very vulnerable.
I just, you know, I was like, I'm gonna be
vulnerable and talk about this because you know, I don't want.
I hate for people to be walking around in the

(18:41):
world feeling like everything is a zero sum. That's what
this world makes you believe. It makes you believe that
if you don't do everything exactly perfectly as they say,
whoever they is then, or whoever they are, then you
just have failed. And I don't think that that's right.
I think we all come short, come up short in

(19:03):
terms of how we live and the things that we
do every day.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
And I just wanted to say that, you.

Speaker 4 (19:07):
Know what, I had a moment, but I put myself
back together.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
I mean, sometimes you have a moment, you snapped out.

Speaker 5 (19:14):
Of it, you know.

Speaker 4 (19:16):
And then there was people in the restaurant and I
was like, damn, they musn't paying me no attention. But
I was just thinking to myself, Wow, I really don't
do our like at all, but today the paparazzi people
could have caught me, and I look like I'm just
a hypocrite because.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
I need to.

Speaker 4 (19:34):
Doing the doing it. So yeah, a nission whatever, ANISSI
let's not give it an.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
I don't do too much, don't do too much. But
that's it. That's what happened.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
Listen, everybody got our own cross and sins the bed.
You know, let he who was without sin through the first.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yeah, you sound really.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Religious.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
No, anyway, I'm just gonna let it go.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
So today is another one of our friends.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
We have a guest. It's like a brother of mine's.
You know, he is a world renowned publisher. He has
published over one hundred and thirty books in thirteen years.
He is He has published books from Everybody to our
friend Yandy to styles p you know, so the list
goes on and on.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
And he does children's books. This is his specialty.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
He's the publisher of all three of my books, Raising Kings.
We have I Know My Rights and we have Echoes
in the Streets. Which is my last book, and currently.

Speaker 4 (20:48):
It's not your last. It is your latest, okay, it
is my latest last, and your latest.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
It is my latest.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
And he is none other than Hedred McBride, the owner
of McBride's Stories. How are you doing today, month?

Speaker 5 (21:04):
Brother peace? Brother. We know each other for so long
and you still say my name.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
I always because I always just call you McBride. That
was up.

Speaker 5 (21:17):
Everybody everybody calls me McBride. You know, it depends on
when you met me. But now I'm honored to be
with you guys, and most most respect to you too.
And you know, it's just a great journey to be
here with you. I'm watching everybody. I'm a fan as
well as a supporter and a brother. So I'm grateful

(21:39):
to be here.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
Thank you so much. It's good to have you.

Speaker 4 (21:42):
It's so funny because every time we talk about you
on the show, my son is like McBride.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
Every single time.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
I always get his name room, I always say.

Speaker 4 (21:54):
I can't believe you don't know this. Where are you from?
Where's your family from?

Speaker 1 (21:58):
Your roots?

Speaker 5 (21:59):
Well, my father is from the South, We're from some
to South Carolina, moved to New York, hallm in the Bronx.
My mom is from Saint Croix, moved to the Bronx.

Speaker 4 (22:09):
I knew there was somebody that has some Caribbean blood
running through their their their veins because I don't know
does blood run through your veins or does blood run
through your body through your veins?

Speaker 1 (22:23):
So that's how they get it out. They go in
the van. I just to make sure because sometimes I
don't be knowing stuff.

Speaker 4 (22:28):
But anyway, but I know Hendrick is absolutely a Caribbean
inspired name. So that's why I kind of know it
because I know a lot of men name Hedrick who
has somebody in their family that comes from the Islands.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
And it's a beautiful name. It's a beautiful name.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
So sometimes people need to be calling you Hedrick and
not just McBride.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
I'm gonna give Hendrick Saint Croix, you know that.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
So that's what's up.

Speaker 5 (22:57):
I think everything. As a child, Sedric heard it all
and Drake I heard it all.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
So this so, you know, we're celebrating Black History Month,
and you know, we wanted to celebrate you because most
of the books that you have pretty much exuberate black
history right like they they focus on it. You know,
most of the authors focus on how we better our communities.

(23:27):
It shows us in a light that you know, young
kids get to see black people and brown people and
the light that is always positive. So what made you
start writing these books?

Speaker 5 (23:40):
Just that's a great question, that's the million dollar question.
It started off by being a parent reading to my daughter,
Scylla McBride. She's sixteen, well she'll be seventeen next week.
She's sixteen. So I used to read with her nightly basis,
and I found myself reading books that were not culturally
relevant to her. I'm reading Cat and Had, I'm reading

(24:01):
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, just children's books that we all
grew up on. Like, how can kids in this day
relate to these books? So I said that they don't
have any characters that look like us, they don't have
storylines that look like us. Back in those days, I
was a younger man, so I'm wearing a Yankee hat
all the time. So I said, we need representation. And

(24:23):
that really made me start this journey. And then when
I started it, it was so many people related to
it and wanted it, and that's when I kept going.
And then I'm becoming an educator. I've been a school
teacher in Brownsville, you know, one of the poorest districts
in New York City, and I would state test scores

(24:43):
was so low. I was a fifth grade teacher and
I was wondering. I said, these kids are so smart,
why are the test score so low? And kids really
tell you because the books don't represent us. We don't
want to read. We're not even interested in reading. If
you ever picked up a state test booklet, the stuff

(25:04):
that's in there is not even relatable to the kids.
So they just check out. You see these scores, and
this shows that the black and brown, the black Hispanic
population of scoring so low. It's not because they're not
smart enough, it's because they're just not interested. It's not
for them. I pretty much started a crusade, like I

(25:24):
started a mission, a mission to save our kids, because
you know the correlation between education and the prison system.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
That's right, That's right, that's right.

Speaker 4 (25:36):
Well, you know what, I appreciate you saying that, and
I want to simplify it because the way you said
it was so eloquent, so educated. It's born. That's the
bottom line is it's boring. Nobody wants to read it.
And to be quite honest, if you really go back
once we get a little bit older and we have
and you get some a level of consciousness and you

(25:58):
go back and read some of the these stories, it's
really kind of racist too, like you know what I mean,
it's like and also for you to be forced as
a teacher and student and parent to have to read
some of the material and take that stuff in, which
is teaching you, you know, Goldilocks, who's a white person

(26:21):
with certain types of hair, that that's you know, that's
a pretty woman.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
You know what I'm saying. They're not telling you never
for tid. They're not telling.

Speaker 4 (26:29):
You anything about people who look like you, and they're
forcing you to have to like learn this. It's already
enforcing stereotypes about us that we have issues overcoming later
on in life. They literally are teaching you in the
school system that to be light or white is to
be better than anything else.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
That's a sair.

Speaker 5 (26:51):
It's indirect. It's training us to not have high self esteem,
not to have goals, just to celebrate others than our selves.
So our books celebrate us. It makes us feel good
about ourselves. And even when we were children, our TV shows,
you know, even if you had a different strokes that

(27:11):
we loved them. They always had a white rich family
or Webster or you know, like it just it just
showed us like it could never just be a black
family thriving. Now, these were our role models, and we
were so thirsty to see black people on the show
that we would attach to it right. Well, that that

(27:34):
changed the game a different world. These are things that
changed the game. And this is what we're trying to
do again because it.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
So for how many years you've been doing you said,
thirteen years is the first time you started this book.
Have you seen like the books that you have written
with other authors, have you seen changed Like do you
see that when you bring these books to the schools,
Are you seeing the kids more engaged.

Speaker 5 (28:03):
It is similar to rap music where sometimes our bigger,
biggest consumers is not even our people, because everybody wants
to know our culture. They want to know what's going on.
And not to toot your own horn that I know.
My rights book that we published together came about during
the George Floyd, you know, around those times when COVID started,

(28:26):
and that book to date is my biggest selling book,
and it has reached so many people. You know, and
and and you know how organic how that book came about.
You and I met at a restaurant. I won't say
the name because they my son and myself of not
paying our task.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
We met.

Speaker 5 (28:53):
That's where we met.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
I don't know who it was, so, you know, saving
the world and saving.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
I don't think they knew. I don't think they do.
They wouldn't know. But yeah, he had.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
He had reached out to me through a mutual friend
and and she hit me like, yo, do I have
this publisher. He wants to meet with you. He's interested
in doing book with you. So I was like, all right,
hit me up.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Who was it signed? Hit me up?

Speaker 3 (29:29):
And she did, like, yo, listen, I got he's a
good friend of mine. I want you to meet.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
And it was a perfect match.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
It was a perfect match.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
And we sat down and he was like, yo, listen,
I got a perfect idea for you.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
You know, I wasn't really thinking.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
I was thinking about writing my own book and my
memoir and all these things. And he said, I think
you should write a book about the first ten amendments
of the Constitution and just break it down for children.
And I was just like, I was like, wow, I
said that really made SI. And He's like, I'm telling you,
you got a good following.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
People listen to you.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
You know, you're already in that space, you're dealing with kids,
and you have all of these people following you.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
I think it'd be a dope. I there, And within
the next week or two weeks, we had the book work.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
We wrote the book and the response from it was
just like he said, it was amazing.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
People gravitated. We still want to book.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
We still have not.

Speaker 4 (30:24):
Put the type of energy that we could into the book.
I know y'all have, but I'm saying, like your team,
we still we've done a little bit, but not even
as much as we could do that the book could
be all.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Over this toll. Yeah, right, we take the book.

Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, you're gonna attach ourselves to Tamika's tour because Tamika
got her book tour and starting next week, so.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
It starts this week.

Speaker 3 (30:54):
So what I'm gonna do is attach myself with our
books right while she's selling over goad.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
Look, we got book over here, something you can get
for the kids.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
See what I mean.

Speaker 4 (31:04):
And what I mean by that by saying like we haven't,
what I mean is that every single day, new opportunities
come about where people are looking for stuff to for
their children, like because especially here we are in this
time when people are feeling really attacked, our rights are
under attack, and it's a new moment to say to

(31:25):
emerge and say listen, even though they don't care nothing
about the Constitution right now, but nonetheless it does exist.
And our kids need to know. They need to know
the difference between what we see in front of our
faces and what people have fought and died, like people
put blood, sweat and tears to create a society that

(31:46):
had a level some level of fairness and for you
to be able to fight, you know, And I think
one of the things that's a little scary is that
at one point. Actually, I was having a conversation with
doctor Bernice King, doctor Martin Luther King Junior's daughter, the
other day, and she was saying that the scary thing
is that at one point you at least had the

(32:08):
courts that you could appeal to as black people for
some level of protection, and now that's going away. So
y'all need a part too, because you guys need to
somehow find a way to talk about where we currently
stand and how the Constitution is actually being ignored with
some of the stuff that oh boys doing over there

(32:28):
over there over there, I'm not I've been calling him
something that I'm not going to put on this show
today while McBride is on here, so he don't got
to go home with that on him.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
But yeah, So anyway, what was the first book you wrote.

Speaker 5 (32:43):
The first book I wrote was Parkville High And I
used to work for with Developmental Disabilities for people with
developmental disabilities, and I saw firsthand that they are no
different than anyone else. So I just wanted to bring
away to people with disabilities, like just because I have
a disability, that doesn't mean I'm a regular. I'm not

(33:05):
a regular person. So that was the first book we
wrote for kids that attended They all had a different disability,
but they attended public high school. So it showed people
to not judge a book by his cover because we're
all the same. We're all the same.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
I love that.

Speaker 4 (33:22):
I love that, And so would you say that of
all the books you said, my Son is like your
best selling But what give us some other big collaborations
that you have on in the McBride stories repertoire.

Speaker 5 (33:38):
So it's so many different feelings and thoughts. Because my
Metalworld piece, which is roun Our Test a basketball player.
He's a high school teammate of mine. So he was
the first influenza slash celebrity to attach himself to McBride's stories.
And by having that partnership, it was it enabled me

(34:00):
to attract other celebrities. So guys both know it's always
a copycat league. Nobody wants to be the first person
to do something. So he was a risk taker and
he invested in me and we published books together, and
that that enabled me to sign Yandy. That enabled me
to sign a Marvel a Negro, like we have books

(34:21):
in different languages. You know, it just helps build your resume.
You need that one person to stamp you. Wow, that's
metalworld piece. He was on the Lakers. That's when he
won the championship for the Lakers. You know, he was
on top of his career, but you know he needed
like a pr boost and he my high school friend.

(34:42):
So it was that was like a memorable He had
books on our books, was on CBS shows, ESPN, like everywhere.
That was like, what really took me to the next level.
So I'll always be in debt indebted to him. Just
saying with my daughter now or she's the reason for
the company, but she's published five books now you know

(35:04):
she's still in high school. So just just being able
to have these valuable partnerships with good people. Yandy is
a friend of mine from high school days. Like just
to have these partnerships are so valuable because we were
helping so many people. But you surrounded by people that
you you know, respecting and have luck.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
That's that's great.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
What advice would you give a young publisher that wants
to write books that's looking into What advice would you
give a young author and a publish that wants to
do both, Like what would you.

Speaker 5 (35:37):
I would say, don't always focus on yourself and your
needs because you have to see what the needs are
of the people. Like sometimes people would write about whatever
they always wanted to put out, but you have to
think about what people would want to hear about or
what's suiting them. So you have to be open minded

(35:58):
because a lot of like nowadays we're so publishing. You
can put out anything you can put out of you know,
a book about making oxtels with your grandmother, but you
just have to know if it will people receive this,
is this what people need? Like when my soign and
myself always collaborate, is never about us. It's always about

(36:19):
are we providing a solution? And I know everyone doesn't
right to be so serious, but that's that's the you know,
that's what we wear on our shoulders because we want
to change the world. We want to you know, help out.
So when we collaborate, it's always about what's needed, what
what do people need to hear? So some people write

(36:41):
for fun, but you know, we not in that type
of business were you know, we freedom fighters and and
I do it a different way. I do it through
literacy because like people don't know it or not, but
education is if you're not educated, you already at a disadvantage,
and we make these books. If you see his raising kings,

(37:03):
like these books are beautiful, Like people love to look
at the book.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
Yes, the artwork is amazing. They really should. Yes, artwork
is amazing.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
It's amazing.

Speaker 5 (37:13):
And he's a rapper, he's you know, he's an author,
so you know the words are going to sound good
as well. So it's the same way as a dope
rap song when you got doctor dre and then you
got a good lyricist and you make a perfect mix.
So that's what we're kind of trying to do with
these books, Like we have perfect illustrations with perfect words,
Like we're just trying to I don't know, just you know,

(37:36):
just trying to just trying to help out and just
trying to save the world, so to speak. Like it's
crazy to say, but we're trying to save the world.

Speaker 4 (37:45):
So let me ask you two quick things. One is
you said you mentioned having other additional.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
Languages, So how did that happen? Is it? What other
languages do you carry?

Speaker 5 (38:00):
Because one thing about black and brown, you could be
we've been transported all over the world, you know that, sister,
Like that's how we all got here. Everybody was dropped
off somewhere. So that partnership with a marl I Negra
showed me because she's dark, darker than anybody, any of us.
So she we did her book in Spanish and French

(38:25):
because people all over the world can relate to somebody
that looks like her. So we just want to represent everyone.
We have books in different language, my Song's book and
this is something like that that he keeps it so
real because I asked him, I said, you want to
do it in France, you want to do it in
English Spanish? He said, I'm from the Bronx McBride. He said,

(38:46):
I grew up with black and Hispanic people. So there's
a Spanish version of I know my rights. He didn't
even want the French because he said, I grew up
in the Bronx. This is what I grew up with.
So it's all about representation.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Yeah, that's great.

Speaker 4 (39:05):
My second question is understand like, what would be something
that you would say you need to help your business
go to the next level. And the reason why I'm
asking you that is because right now we're in a
weird time in the world, especially where a lot of
corporations are coming under fire for you know, not supporting diversity,

(39:27):
equity and inclusion. You know, some of them have been
in their own ways in terms of their relationship to their.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
Employees.

Speaker 4 (39:38):
They have you know, serious violations, human rights violations, and
people are calling for there to be an exodus, if
you will, of black folks from these brands target and
the list goes on and on and on. So my
question for you is in terms of distribution, like what
would you be What would be something that if you

(39:59):
had an aim right now that could come and help you,
that you think would allow you to get in more
households into more of the hands of our young people.

Speaker 5 (40:09):
That's a great question. I feel like, and this is
a debate I have with loved ones and family and friends.
I like to move a certain way because and my
song will tell you, we make most of our money
in schools and organizations, like we like, not in the
mainstream with everything. So it's like you have to move

(40:30):
a certain way because I feel like attaching yourself to
certain companies and organizations you might not be in alignment
with all of their values. And we see this every day,
like companies that we trusted for all these years, you know,
sometime they pop out and they're not in alignment. So
I like to move this way, Like I don't need

(40:51):
to be a millionaire yet. I just feel like if
we're making six figures or so, we just moving how
we move, because sometimes you have to stay not attached
to people. And we just saw with a lot of
the leaders, a lot of the people that just fell.
These are people like five years ago that we looked
up to and you know, we would have honored to

(41:13):
be attached to them. So I feel like, and one
thing about my son, he always say integrity over income,
and that's why he's one of my favorite partners. And
I'm not just saying this because I'm on here, but
it's like your integrity, if you keep your character and
you move how you move, you still gonna get what
you deserve. Like some people would jump out the window

(41:35):
and partner with a big cup corporation, and then what
happens if something, you know, something hits the fan. It's like,
I like to move like this, to be honest, and
I won't nay names, but I was offered. I've been offered. Please,
I've been it's thirteen years. I've been offered by a
lot of major corporations to you know, buy my catalog

(41:57):
or you know, create caught tunes for me. And then
I looked into their company and in align with what
I'm into. So sometime being independent is good.

Speaker 3 (42:08):
But I love that. And that's one thing have you
looked into. I think because our books I think should
be cartoons. Like I really been thinking about that. I
think if we just had a cartoon with our books,
I think it would take it to the next level.
So that's something that I think we should look into.
I think because most all of the books that I've
seen you wrote, not just my book, but just every

(42:29):
book that you have written that I know, like with
other authors, they have a real good substance, and they
have really good themes.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
You know that some is about bullying, some is about
being different.

Speaker 3 (42:40):
So it's just so many different you know, I've seen
the one that you had with Devo and his wife,
you know, the time Machine, the Black and when they
traveling through time and they talking about things that happen
in black and like these.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
These books are necessary in history.

Speaker 3 (42:56):
Yeah, they traveling through the timas and they showing us
different things in times and it's a dope idea. You know,
so I think all of these books could be cartoons.
You know, I think that's I think that should be
the next thing that you think of. But I want
to ask this, This is the last question I'm going
to ask you, like who would you want to do
a book with?

Speaker 2 (43:15):
Like who have you? What artists?

Speaker 3 (43:17):
So whatever that you look at, it was like, you
know what, this book right here would be dope. I'm
not don't tell me the idea because we don't want
to give away.

Speaker 5 (43:26):
Just being selfish and wanting to give rich overnight. I
would love Lebron James, I would love Na. So were
out of here, We out of here. But all in
terms of I almost did a book with Dick Gregory
before he passed away. And this was when Bill Cosby

(43:47):
had got incarcerated. We was just close to doing a
book with Dick Gregory because I said, you would be
the grandfather. Like a lot of people, we respect Dick Gregory,
but these legacies are not carried on. So if I
would have did a series like he would have been
the grandfather telling stories, I thought that would have been fired.

(44:08):
But on a sofa tip, I need a Rihanna, I
need Lebron, come get me.

Speaker 4 (44:15):
What would you like for your legacy to be in
the end. And by the way, you when you said,
I'm not just saying this because my son is sitting
right here and I just thought of this little joke
that Hedricks don't lie, Hedricks tell.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
Them the straight truth every time.

Speaker 4 (44:34):
But what would be your like, what's the thing that
you want to see come from your efforts? Because this
is not just I would say, it's not just being
an author and a publisher. You are also this is
a spiritual journey right anytime we are able to bring
information to our young people that's different from this mess

(44:58):
that they receive, their being bombarded with garbage every day.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
And for you to try to cut through because if.

Speaker 4 (45:04):
You made like you know, kind of like popping Who's
zooming who books, if you made books about fashion and
you know, fighting and carrying on, you probably could make
a whole lot of money because there's a big market
for that.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
But to try to cut.

Speaker 4 (45:21):
Through the noise and bring some level of history and
stability to our young people that's very spiritual. And it's
not just young people because I know we know from
my sons books that families, entire families, they take those
books they sit down together and they read them together,
and everybody, especially for I know my rights, everybody was

(45:43):
getting educated because we heard that many times.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
A lot of times parents would call me and be like, hey, y'all,
just read the book.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
I didn't even know some of these rights.

Speaker 5 (45:52):
You know.

Speaker 3 (45:53):
I thought I was getting a book for my son
or my daughter, and I ended up learning as much
as they did, right, you know what I'm saying. So
that was a blessing.

Speaker 4 (46:00):
Yeah, so I think that's very spiritual, and you know,
I hope you see it that way. So what would
you say in the end, you want your legacy to
be I want.

Speaker 5 (46:10):
My legacy to be someone who you know, added diversity
to children's literature, encouraged kids to read during the technology era.
And you know, I'm from the hood too, So my
friends call me the black Doctor Seuss. They go to
the club, they say, my men beat Doctor Seuss. So
the same way they celebrate Doctor Seus's birthday and all

(46:32):
that stuff, I would love to be celebrated McBride's stories.
You know, we change in the face of literature, of
literacy for our kids, and is in a time where
it's so needed. Is this is this is a scary
time with education, and you know, and you know, information

(46:53):
is presented to kids so quickly we're throwing it down,
we're giving them the fundamental If you read Raising Kings,
he broke down every facet of being a young man.
Like we taking our time with it. So we just
want to build the fundamentals. We come from the eighties
and nineties, growing up with fundamentals, right. You know, I

(47:13):
play basketball, you have to have a left hand right
hand jump shot. You know, like we welwould come from fundamentals.
Now everybody's getting things so fast that they don't know
the fundamentals. So I just want to be that person
that brought it back to the old school, so to speak,
and just slow things down. Education doesn't have to be
over like quick instant. Now you do a book report

(47:35):
in ten minutes. We used to have to go to
the library get three books and encyclopedia like it took
a long time to do that stuff.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
So AI is doing that.

Speaker 4 (47:45):
AI is speeding up, you know, the process and if
you will of information, which is you know, I think
that I don't think there's anything wrong with having tools
to help fine tune something that you have already had
to do velap. But if you are able to just
go to a system and say, write me a paper

(48:05):
about McBride's stories, how many books does he did he do?
And you know what's the names? And then it just
pulls up everything and you don't got to do research.
That's a problem, right right, that's what we are.

Speaker 5 (48:20):
And I wanted to say something. I don't like to
brag too much. Even though you see my trophies and
stuff in the back, I see it just to let
my son know I used to do that. I used
to do it with sham Garden. But I was just
hired as a professor at Morgan State, which is my college,

(48:40):
the English course as Introduction of adolescent literature. And one
of your books is going to be a textbook at
Morgan State University in the fall.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
Congratulations, that's black history.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
That's black. We celebrate you, mak history. Keep it going, King.
We got a lot of work to do.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
Man, you're an amazing person, not just a author, not
just a publisher, but you're a good person. Like you
know how you just meet people and his spirit just
matching mind. You know, I'm a spirit person. Like if
your energy and your spirit is off, I don't care
what you got. I don't want to do nothing with you.
So when I met him, he was very humble, but

(49:25):
he's still you can tell that he's a man. You
don't see I'm saying, very humble individual, but he's a man.
He's honest, He looks you in your eyes. Anything that
he said to me, he did. And that's all I
ever asked for. So I salute you, and it's numb,
but loved brother. We got a lot of work to do.
Keep being great and we got a lot of work
to do.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
That's it. That's it. Thank you for joining t in
my first time. But it won't be the life.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
We're gonna work on Tamika's book soon.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
We're gonna work but children, but we get that.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
We're gonna get that children's But don't worry about We
gonna this is. This is how we do it.

Speaker 3 (49:57):
We're gonna come with the cover and everything and and
we're just gonna fill it in.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
You're gonna fill it and watch anybody good. Twenty pages,
that's what.

Speaker 4 (50:05):
We need on this tour.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
Serious artwork that we come with. We're gonna we're gonna
get this. Don't listen, let me do the management.

Speaker 5 (50:17):
We just go ahead, got a shameless plug. My song
is about to drop echoes in the streets. The Newark additions.
Newark Editions catered to Newark, New Jersey and New York
all the time, but we want to focus on and
that's where he does a lot of his work.

Speaker 4 (50:37):
Yes, yes, like my song loves Newark. I believe one
day he may live there.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
So I mean I love Newark because Newark loves me.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
Shout out to Shout out to Key should shoutout to
shout out to do it all dupre shout out to
who else?

Speaker 2 (50:55):
I don't want to miss nobody. Who else.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
Ball Cook like, oh yeah, definitely family.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
Shout out to coach T the music teacher over there, West,
I hi, who we do the program together, so they
have foret.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
Shout out to feed.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
Shout out to new Direction like all a, it's a
real ecosystem of people there who really love what they
do and it's not like fake. They just not give
me a yes. So that's what I'm saying. So it's
a real ecosystem and they've embraced me. You know, they
gave me opportunities act weall Cook said, I said, I

(51:34):
want to do this program, so I come in do
whatever you want to do, you know what I'm saying.
And the music teacher, coach T is like my brother
in there. And and it's not just a music program.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
What we do.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
It's called from from Drill Music to Hell Music, in
which we take the whole beats and the concept of
drill music, but we transform it and there's no spinning.
Ain't nobody got no ops, ain't nobody shooting nobody, But
were creating real music of substance, and it's raw music,
and it still has the elements of the reality of
which they deal with, but we just not promoting any violence.

(52:06):
So we're not engaging in violence. And not only do
we do the music, but it's mentoring that goes along.
We sit down and we have whole twenty and thirty
minute conversations and they tell us about why they made
these music or why they felt like they had to
talk about this, and what's going on in their real lives,
and a lot of them don't have nobody that could
actually have conversations with them, and they open up, and

(52:28):
you be so surprised to see some of the toughest
dudes open up telling you about their reality, tell them
what happened to their parents, tell them how one of
their friends got killed and shot, and then you start
tearing back the layers and you start you change, and
you transforming these kids.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
And that's all I want to do.

Speaker 3 (52:44):
Like I want kids from our communities who don't feel
like they have opportunities and they don't have people that
listen to them, to actually have somebody that listens to them,
that has.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
Been through what they've been through, that has lost.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
Friends and family to the streets, into the prisons, and
lost them to the graveyard. And I want to be
able to let them know that we actually care about them.
So they've given me opportunities to do that in new work,
and I love that city.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
So that's that it is. Thank you for being here
with us.

Speaker 5 (53:14):
Good good day, Thank you for having me.

Speaker 4 (53:16):
Peace, peace, King, Congratulations, brother man.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
This is what I'm talking about. We're doing you know,
it's it's slow.

Speaker 4 (53:26):
We're moving slower than other people because we're choosing a
route that doesn't include foolishness. And some people they're not
doing foolishness, but they just for whatever reason, have a
different I don't know what you call it. Like everybody's
got their own blessing in their own time. Our The
fact that we spend so much time being like front

(53:50):
liners puts a little bit of distance between us and
like the fast paced success, because.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
I don't think I don't think we look for success
in that way, right, Success for us is actually being
able to transform, you know, the mind state of where
we live at, the people that were around, to be
able to actually get justice, like freedom and just those
are the things that we look for in success.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
So the rest of the things supposed to come along
with her.

Speaker 3 (54:19):
Somebody always told me, like, like when you work for accolades,
they don't come.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (54:24):
You supposed to work for your heart. You were supposed
to work from your heart and the accolades to come
for you. So I think that's what it is for us.
So you know, it's even though it's a slower route,
it's more rewarding, it's more earned.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
You know, you you you.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
You feel it Like shout out to Rhapsody, I just
remember that we never shout her out and she got
her Grammy Wow. And it's like Rapper is such a
dope rapper, right, and she's always been a dope rapper.
But she took and she said in her speech that
she didn't have to change. You know what I'm saying, like,
she didn't have to sacrifice and compromise.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
Who she was and what she believed.

Speaker 3 (55:00):
That she just true to herself, to lyricism, to be
honest to herself and the king.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
And that's what we've done.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
And despite what anybody can tell you, we can go
to sleep at night knowing that we did is.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
We did this.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
We took, we took the stick around the back.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
And that's it.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
Man.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
So shout out to Hedrick, Hedrick.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
Hedrick, I know we did.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
I'm just so used to say, I don't know. When
I see h E, I'd be like he so.

Speaker 3 (55:26):
But now Morgan is the textbook and come on, now,
come on, now, come on, black history bla.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Black history making history. I'm really proud of you.

Speaker 4 (55:45):
But that's why I say, because I know what you
have sacrificed from the day that I met you, and
I remember meeting someone so intelligent, so creative.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
But very frustrated about just the whole world. And I'm
may not have had all.

Speaker 4 (56:02):
The pieces, but I did see in you something that
I was like, Well, the movement needs this, like this
person and this energy. The movement really truly needed you,
and so it wasn't even me like I introduced you
to Carmen Perez and that just like took off on
its own, and you guys, you know, started going into prisons.

(56:25):
And then you could tell each year you still were
frustrated with a lot of things in this in a
movement space. Obviously we making money in the movement. Still
today we haven't all the way figured that out. We're
better than we were, but it's a tough process. But
I would say that you, I would say that I

(56:51):
began to watch the layers of the frustration kind of
shedding as you began to have more accomplishments towards your
goals and things that you wanted to do to find
your people, find your tribe. As you've done that, more
of that frustration of just being like, ain't nobody real.
Everybody just lied, they say they're gonna do this, they

(57:12):
don't do it this, and people just full of shit.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
Everybody's a sucker.

Speaker 4 (57:17):
Then you started being like, Okay, I have found people
that are not those things and people who I can
build with, and so I think that's really good for you,
mister McBride is one of those individuals who said he
was gonna do something, He meant it, he stood by it.
How many people have we met with and then they
just all but he said he was gonna do something

(57:42):
with you and he really did.

Speaker 3 (57:43):
Yeah, he's been a man of his word in integrity.
So shout out to him and shut out to you,
like you said, for seeing whatever it was in me,
because it was a lot that I was dealing with
at that time, fresh home from prison and just trying
to figure out, and.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
You are really fashionate. I mean it was some years later.

Speaker 3 (58:01):
No, it wasn't really that much years. It was years later,
but it wasn't. It was because it's about five years,
five years out of prison when you just ain't it's like,
you know what I'm saying, you're trying to figure stuff out,
You're trying to move around.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
It was a lot.

Speaker 3 (58:16):
It was a lot that I was dealing with. But
I appreciate the opportunities.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
And you did not disappoint.

Speaker 3 (58:22):
That's that's always I always said. But just give me
the opportunity. And I tell I tell that's what I
tell the young kids all the time. Be prepared for
the opportunity, right, people like y'all need this and that
when you get the opportunity, you have to maximize on it.
That's one thing that I've I pride myself on. When
I got on FLEX and I finally got the opportunity,

(58:43):
I maximized. When I got to the BT. I maximized
when I got what's called.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
The BT cipher. You are maximized.

Speaker 3 (58:51):
Right when I was on the ten ten fifteen stage
at the Millionaire, I'm maximized. Like I always said, when
you get the opportunity, you have to make sure that
you maximize it.

Speaker 4 (59:03):
So I was gonna I'm laughing because there are two
people on the internet who to me are like literally hilarious,
but they are not joking. They serious as a doorknob,
but they're hilarious. And that's Coach Stormy and.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
Applies.

Speaker 4 (59:22):
And so the other day Coach Stormy posted a video
of Plies saying, don't call me with no problems. I
don't care, I don't want to hear it. Don't call
me complaining about why.

Speaker 1 (59:36):
You can't do it.

Speaker 4 (59:38):
You try, but you can't, but it ain't I don't know,
he said, I know enough about problems as long as
there is breath in my body. If you just wake
me up, I'm gonna figure something out. Every single day,
I'm gonna figure something out. And Coach Storm is over there,
like this is what I'm talking about, because you know,
they're both very intense individuals. But I can see from

(01:00:00):
in her situation somebody that came from God knows. I mean,
you know, her mom passed, watched when she was younger.
She's been through a lot. She came through poverty, through
all the streets of Miami, the whole thing, to being
a stripper and all of that, and now here she
is not only making money. She's not she's not just
making money, but she also has made millionaires.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
And I know because I saw them. I was dead.
I see them, and there are people I love.

Speaker 4 (01:00:27):
You know, she she's done that, and so she don't
really want to hear you with your storyline. The bus,
but I was on my way. I was on my way.
I'll try to get down there. But then the bus
broke down. And then when I got off the bus,
it was cold, it was raining. I had to stand
under the ship. And then I tried, but I couldn't

(01:00:49):
make it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
I couldn't. I couldn't download the software. I just don't
nobody want.

Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
To hear that, bloody don't want to hear it, especially
not us. And that kind of brings me to my
I don't get it because I don't get it kind
of fits into that, right, because the reality of the
situation is I've been sitting back right with this whole
d diversity, equity and inclusion. God, we've been just dealing
with I know you did, but I was just because

(01:01:14):
I go on the internet, right, and there are these
narratives that we have brought into as black people, right,
that nobody else has brought into. Right when we look
at when we look at all of the institutions, the opportunities,

(01:01:35):
the benefits, the resources, every other group of people benefits
and capitalizes off of resources in America. Right, if we
look at if you look at welfare, were not the
people that get the most welfare.

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
We don't capitalize the most off welfare. Right. If you
look at d.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
We get criminalized for getting well.

Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
But this is what I'm trying to tell you, Like
we we we don't benefit the most off welfare. Right,
White people get more welfare than anybody. Right, Jewish people
capitalize off the systems where they housing and all of
those things.

Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
They capitalize off of that.

Speaker 5 (01:02:09):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:02:09):
The Asians come here and they capitalize off resources they
come in. The Dominicans, everybody comes.

Speaker 6 (01:02:15):
Here and get they get they get funded, they get grants,
everybody gets funded to do something, and nobody calls it
a handout.

Speaker 3 (01:02:26):
Black people who were brought here and chained and shackle
who have did labor for free here, who for four
hundred years were stripped of everything that they own.

Speaker 1 (01:02:37):
We.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
Right, but it's all us. But I just want us
to understand we have we have.

Speaker 3 (01:02:43):
Martin Luther King said that the best we are the
only people have who have been who have been enslaved
on American soil. We are the only people who have
been stripped of our land, brought here with nothing and
given absolutely nothing. But somehow they made us believe that
they shouldn't give us nothing. And if we take something

(01:03:05):
from this government that we pretty much built in America,
that we built, that it's a handout, right like they
made it to They're telling you they made us. This
is the craziest, it's the most craziest shit in the world.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
They say, d I what you need something from them?
For what do you mean they took our shit?

Speaker 3 (01:03:23):
They literally took everything from us, and they're not even
giving us one percent of the shit that they owe us.
And you make it seem like we we there's something
wrong with us forgetting the shit that they took, like
it doesn't even make sense. Only black people your only
black people. You see people pontificating there on the internet.

(01:03:44):
We don't need nothing from nobody, but the rich people
need something from someone. The people that own this land,
they getting all of the benefits. They getting the free shit,
they getting the welfare, they getting the Social Security, they
getting all of the stuff, they get the d I
they figured the white women's figuring it. I'm gonna go
and give me this d y'all. I'm gonna get this check.
I'm gonna put this and make sure my son got it.
And y'all want us to believe that every.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
Time you get the E.

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
But what do you mean you're going, I'm gonna benefit
of it?

Speaker 3 (01:04:13):
Right because I understand, I understand that these programs exist. Right,
I'm gonna go get like everybody else said, I'm gonna
get the food stamps, I'm gonna get this and that,
and they'll tell us. Oh man, you you want to
hand out. You're looking for No, I'm not looking for
a handout. I want to be able to benefit the
same way everybody else's benefits because I'm gonna build my
own ship. But they have benefits that we can get

(01:04:34):
because these rich people is getting the benefits. They getting
free housing, they getting They telling their daughter and the wife,
you don't need to go over there and get that
free stuff over there.

Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
They're telling them to get m w B.

Speaker 4 (01:04:48):
Yeah, the white woman becomes her husband is the construction owner,
but the white woman will put it in her name
so that it can be under a minority women business.

Speaker 3 (01:05:01):
They figured out how to beat the system. It's just
like what Donald Trump said, y'all created the system. I
ain't paying taxes because why should I. Y'all got the
system there, y'all know the same way y'all get. Why
do black people think that they're not supposed to figure
out how to benefit off the system. Why do they
make us believe that we shouldn't be able to capitalize
off the shit that's there for us to capitalize.

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
Why do you make me think that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
If I tell a young boys growing up in the community,
he worked hard. He went to school, he did this,
and he studied, and now he wants to work at
a job and they have a diversity, equity inclusion. He
goes there, he's looking.

Speaker 2 (01:05:35):
For a hand out.

Speaker 3 (01:05:36):
He studied his whole life to go to that school.
He studied his whole life to get that job. Everybody
is not an entrepreneur. Everybody ain't gonna do the same shit.
So trying to make people feel like they are not
worthy or they're somehow weaker because they want to be
able to get the resources that are afforded to them
in America as black people. It's crazy to me. And

(01:05:56):
this is the reason why. This is the reason why
we're still in the same reason, while we still only
represent two percent of the wealth, everybody keep having we
got we got so many people who talk about how
we can do this, and we need to be doing
this for own we you know, everybody else is figuring
out They come in here and they getting the resources
and they getting three and four stores. Right, we ain't
figuring out how to get the grants in our community

(01:06:18):
because y'all made the people think it's a handout or
I don't want that. Bottom line is there's a certain
way that you can save your money. That's the bottom line.
That's what I'm trying to tell you, because that's what
they do. They figure out how to save their money.
They get they get housing, they get welfare, they get
food stamps, and they make their money and they put
their check in the draw and they stack it up

(01:06:38):
until they're able to buy a house. Like people, this
is what this is what everybody else is doing. We
the only one that's not doing it.

Speaker 4 (01:06:44):
I wouldn't say we don't do it. I think it's
very and zero you know, zero sum or get absolutes
we shouldn't do because I don't think that we don't
do it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
I think for the most we have nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
But we could.

Speaker 4 (01:06:59):
We can look at how to take the conscious like
for instance, in these different places where you have anti
violence groups and otherwise getting you know that can apply
for contracts.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
We need to do that.

Speaker 4 (01:07:12):
We need to get the contracts to do the anti
violence work or to open up youth services, food services
and all of that, and not feel bad because we
got a contract from the city, or even because we
got food stamps or medicaid or whatever the case may be.
But I do understand why the stigma has been attached

(01:07:33):
to it, not just from us, It's not all just
black people. There's a stigma that has been attached to
these things in the world.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
Woah.

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
But I'm trying to I hear what you're saying.

Speaker 3 (01:07:42):
I don't believe that the stigma has been attached to
it because everybody else is capitalized.

Speaker 4 (01:07:47):
Well, I'm saying for black people, and it's not only
us that.

Speaker 3 (01:07:50):
And that's the problem. They put the stigma on it
for us. They don't put the stigma on it for
nobody else. There's nobody else there's stigmatized by that. So
my thing is, I don't get it. And when we
wake up and we figure out how do we benefit
off this system that has benefited us for us for years,
while we're still doing whatever else we need to be
doing at the same time for centuries exactly, and while

(01:08:13):
we're still building and calculating and then figuring out how we
build our own business. But we capitalize all of the
things that's old to us, then we're gonna get a
lot further. Until then, we're gonna keep having the same
conversation that we've been having for the last one hundred years.
I hear that and with that said, that brings us
to the end of another episode. Shout out to Hendrick

(01:08:35):
McBride and McBride's stories. Dope, brother man, keep doing what
you're doing. Look, my book is now in the HBCU.

Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
So very happy for you. Happy you deserve that to meet.

Speaker 3 (01:08:48):
This book is out too, so make sure that you
go get that. I live to tell the story. It
is her memoir. It might bring a tears to us,
because it's bringing tears to a lot of eyes, so
make sure you get that. So make sure that you
follow us at TMI Show PC on YouTube and tm
my Underscore Show on Instagram.

Speaker 2 (01:09:09):
Please follow us, keep us.

Speaker 3 (01:09:10):
Being the number one podcast in the world, the number
one podcast in the world.

Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
We got this.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
I'm not gonna always to me, it's not gonna always
be wrong, but we will both always and I mean always,
be authentic.

Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
Salute.

Speaker 3 (01:09:26):
That's how we own it.