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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
What I call her Ye where I'm the Angel Lag
my girl Jasmine brand. Good morning is hearing me from
the Jasmine Brand. And we have a special guest host today,
which I'm excited about. My guy Chris Witherspoon. You know
him as the CEO of pop Viewers, but we see
him all over the place CNN, FANDANGO, MSNBC doing huge

(00:28):
interviews with some of the biggest stars in entertainment, movies,
film and all of that. Chris Witherspoon is here with us.
What an intro? I mean, what an intro? I feel
so blessed to be here right now. Thank you for
having me. And I'm the biggest fan of both of you,
and I feel like this is this is a life
event for me. You know, I've interviewed Oprah a few
different times. This is bigger than Oprah. Not for real,

(00:50):
You're the Oprah Radio. Yes, I feel it. Chris said,
Angela is the Oprah of radio. I know that in
my heart, in my heart that let what I feel.
I love it. I just wanted you to know I
didn't say that. Witherston said that. Come to me that
Angela Ye is the Oprah of radio. I know death

(01:10):
right to me though, I've been wanting to get Chris
up here, and I told them as soon as I
knew this show was happening, because I feel like he's
such an expert right in things that I'm I like
to bring in people that know more than me in
different fields. Just like yesterday we were talking about the
collapse of Silicone Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Yeah right,
and we had art holding on don't talk about that.

(01:33):
That was a great conversation. But for you, Chris, because
you know so much when it comes to movies, film entertainment,
all of that. You know that's a special type of skill.
And the people you've interviewed, Viola Davis, will Smith over
several times, several times, Tom Hanks, people like that. I mean,
come on, come on, name. So it's an honor to
have you here with us. Thank you, thank you. I'm

(01:54):
excited to be here. And I feel like TV and
the film and TV industry is changing so much and
doesn't impact how we view life. The stories that we're
seeing these shows, in these movies, it's bigger than your storytelling.
So I'm happy to be in this business and I'm
happy to be here as an expert in that space. Well,
thank you, as Chris smells amazing. Yea, go ahead, Well
we are going to start the show up with shining

(02:15):
a light. I feel like we just shine all kind
of lights on Chris, and we did receive it, though,
now you should. Honestly, this is great for us and
so and I know you'll be visiting Way Up with
Angela frequently. Every time the oscars just happened. He's bopping
over here, guys, I wish you'd be like the Way
Up song supplies shout out to paint. All right, So
now it's time for y'all to shina light. Eight hundred

(02:37):
two nine two fifty one fifty. You see how good
we all fail. Just now everybody's shining a light on everybody.
You're amazing. Two Jasmine, Thanks Obro with the Jasmine Brands.
Thank o hating on me. I love it, y'all calling
shine a light on somebody doing something positive during your
lights on y'all, Brent love to those who are doing greatness.

(03:03):
It's time to shine a light on them. Yes, what's up?
It's Way Up with Angela. Yee, my girl Jasmine Brand
is here with me. Good morning, Chris Witherspoon who is
the CEO of pop Viewers. And we're going to talk
about that, yes, yeah, a little later, but right now
we are shining a light and Chris is guest hosting
with us this morning, and y'all gonna love this. By
the way, his energy is amazing and he is a

(03:24):
wealth of knowledge. Is I wish I could see this
bop the shoulder thing he's doing it? Oh yeah, I
mean this music. I'm a high out on moon, like
dropping and popping and dropping all of it. Get coffee
yet or anything that's high? Okay, But this is where
we shine a light on somebody who has done something positive? Okay?
Is anybody you want to shine a light on before
we get to it? No, what's Angela? Why are you

(03:47):
asking this? Off air? Soccer prepare? All right? Well, what
about you, Chris? Anybody you want to say something positive
about who's done something great for you in your life?
Who thinks someone's done something great for me? I think
my son I was just about I'm gonna gonna throw
I feel like he is so hype Bobby being here
right now. We played we played probably one of five
in the car all the time. It's like he's loving
and he is the biggest fan of yours and he

(04:08):
thinks I am the coolest dad right now. School today,
I was like, nobody, don't do that. It's a podcast too. Apparently,
that's a good point. Okay, there we go. I love that.
That's see. What's his name? His name is on the
vest undress. We'd like to shine a light on you baby,
all right, Well, who do you guys want to shine
a light on? Eight hundred two nine fifty one fifty

(04:30):
is a number? James, Hey, Andrewie, how are you doing good?
How are you good? Listen? I want to shine a
light on impressive fifteen in Jacksonville, Florida, young man by
name mcdonfay Harderman, he Senci this thing apparent that is something.
It's all impressive fense. He does a lot of work
for the Elvi as well. Oh nice, that's amazing. Okay,

(04:53):
what's one more time? It's all impressive okay, impressive fencing. Yes,
and his number is nine over four four sixty nine
six zero six seven And did you go there? Or yeah,
yes I did. He's done a wonderful job. Okay, we'd
love to hear you and you know firstand very impressive.

(05:15):
All right, thank you, Shamira. Who do you want to
shine a light on? Hi? I want to shine a
light on my husband, Kwan Okay, Kwan. So just an
overall amazing, amazing person, amazing dad. He just had and
we had a procedure today for third three. We're on
the way home and everything was a success today. So

(05:37):
I just want to shine a light on him. Yes,
so it's just good spirits two and that is a blessing. Congratulations,
Thank you, all right, thank you? What's up? Stephanie? Who
do you want to shine a light on? I want
to shine a light on my bonus tomorrow. Her name
is Ebanie Harris, the CEO of You's been heard me
success ever? Okay, she's your bomm Yes, what's her name again,

(06:02):
Efany Harris? Efony Harris. And how did your blended family
come together? Well, she's married to my dad. She's my dad. Like,
I love that. That's seeing people people could get along.
Was it easy in the beginning or did it? Was
it a little tough, but it was always easy because
she's always been with the baby. Okay, all right, we

(06:24):
love that. Yeah. Well, shout out to bonus moms out there,
all of them doing a great job. Thank you, thank you. Yes,
and that was shining to light. Anna. We do that
every single morning. Eight hundred two nine two fifty one
fifty is a number, and of course if you can't
get through, you can always leave a message for the
last words. When we come back, we got yet, and
we'll be talking about the oscars. According to the executive producer,

(06:46):
they had to cut a lot of the Will Smith jokes.
Will give you more info on Way Up with Angela Yee.
But she's like to talk like a Angela Yeane, like
a Angela Yeane. Man, she's spilling it all. This is yet. Yes,
it's a way Up with Angela Yee. And I have
Jasmine Brand here with me, Happy Tuesday, Happy Tuesday, and

(07:06):
aspecial guest host Chris Witherspoon, who was so excited to
have thank you for having me in Happy Tuesday. Make
sure y'all look up, pat viewers, and this is your
expertise right here. So let's talk about the oscars. So
one of the executive producers and also the wife to
the host Jimmy Kimmel, Molly McNerney, was talking about why
some Will Smith jokes were pulled from the ceremony, there

(07:30):
were some jokes that were made. Listen to this want
you have fun, We want you to feel safe, and
most importantly, we want me to feel safe. So we
have strict policies in place. If anyone in this theater
commits an act of violence at any point during the show,
you will be awarded the Oscar for Best Actor and
permitted to give a nineteen minute long speak. No, but seriously,

(07:54):
the Academy has a crisis team in place. If anything
unpredictable or violent happens during the ceremony, just do it
did last year? Nothing all right? Well, Molly McNerney said
that her husband did not go harder because they didn't
want to make this year all about last year. She
told Variety, I cannot tell you how many Will Smith
jokes we had that we then got rid of. We
think that only the best for that roommate it. There

(08:15):
was certainly something that went harder, but we didn't think
that was our place to do that. That should be
Chris Rock, not us. But they didn't want to ignore
it all together. What did you guys think? I think
that I felt like the jokes were fair. I feel
like it wasn't too hard Yeah, I feel like they
went a little light, you know, in comparison to what
I was expecting Jimmy Kimmel to do throughout the night.
But I kept thinking to myself that just last week
we had Chris Rock do an hour special where those
last five minutes really rocked social media, rock the media world.

(08:39):
And I think that Molly and Jimmy, as they were
getting ready to prepare Lost week, they probably thought, you know,
that didn't turn off that well, you know rocky things
turn on Chris Rock. It really did that. He dropped
it right before the Oscars. Side. Barty Kimmel's wife is
the EP of the Oscars. Yeah, I's family, hire your husband. Yeah,

(09:01):
But I think that it was the right move for
him not to go to because it's also like, let's celebrate,
We're celebrating. It's supposed to be a celebration, absolutely, and
let's focus on this year and the Academy is really
trying to kind of you know, revamp and I think
make themselves look good after what went wrong last year
because it was really you know the tang off the
tracks period. Yeah, period period, and they really didn't do anything.

(09:23):
That's what he said, That's what he said, and you
kind of can't do anything. Yeah, yeah, all right. Now
Diddy is looking to get a majority stake in b
ET as Paramount is putting that network up for sale.
There's a lot of people are bidding for this though,
by the way, Tyler Perry is trying to do it
Byron Allen and more people are contending for that. So um.
And then you know he also has Revolt. It would

(09:43):
be nice if they did it together, right because I
feel like, then what happens with revolts? Do you put
everything together in the same thing. I was saying Tyler Perry,
Byron Allen and Diddy could it would be a nice
little trio if they combined forces and did it took
over together. But like they're competing with each other. They
know it's et making a lot of money right now?
Or are they somehow endangerous that white folks trying to

(10:04):
buy them? Where is it like some kind of a
prize pony right now? I don't know if Perry has
a lot of shows on there BT. Plus, I did
watch the Monique movie on there. Okay, what was it called?
The reading? Was that what it was called? Yeah? The reading?
I heard it was amazing that one. It was it
was good. I love a horror movie. Plus, I do
have it. Yes, did you just add as behind the

(10:30):
scenes you are such a hater. I do want to
say all my streaming services at home has a different
name on it because first a lot of them are mine. Okay,
but you lightweight live in my house. I was water relax. I'mous.
What could be a change we could see two b
ET if someone like a Tyler Perry or did he

(10:51):
want to buy it? Like, what are the changes that
we want to see to a b ET? Yeah, because
look like is we're vote making money right now too?
That's a good question, That's a really good question. I don't.
And I also feel like whatever networks do, they also
have to do a lot online and streaming also in
order to compete, because you can't just be no b
ET plus is the future of BT? Yeah, exactly, you're
right now, You're right about that. All right, Well that

(11:12):
is your yet. And when we come back, we have
about last night. That's when we talk about some things
that we got into last night, and we had some
fun stuff to talk about with y'all. So about last night,
it's way up the Angela ye, so about last night
light went down. Yes, it's the way up with the

(11:33):
Angela yee, I'm here with Jasmine Brand good morning. You
know her from the Jasmine Brand. And then Chris Witherspoon.
He is a CEO and founder of pop Viewers. But
you've also seen him on a mini show on CNN,
on Fandango and MSNBC interviewing people like Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey,
Viola Davis, everybody. I've been around you, guys, I've been around.

(11:54):
He gets around. I've been around. Download pop Viewers today
in the Apple app store. That is my new baby,
my new sort of like focus right now. And some
people what pop Viewers is because I think it's an
amazing concept. Yes, so it's a place for you guys
can go to discover new shows, new movies, and more importantly,
react to what you're watching. And our goal right now
is to kind of really bridge the audience sentiment with
the studios, so studios understand what people are watching, not

(12:16):
just how many millions of folks people are watching shows,
but why people are watching shows in various films, and
we can kind of incorporate the viewers into the content
that they see in the future. You know, it's interesting
because depending on whose Because sometimes you see stuff that
gets great reviews and you're like, who, I don't. And
then you see something that is a classic for us yea,
and it doesn't get good reviews, and you're like, who

(12:37):
is reviewing these movies? So it kind of gives us
the power to say, I like this. I was watching
The Best Man final chapters and so remember he put
they had adapted his um and this is my about
last night because I watched the whole thing at once, right,
and anyway, you watched the whole series. It was good.

(12:59):
And remember he had turned the book into a movie
and his reviews were like terrible, right, yeah, right, But
she was like, oh, it's amazing. You said what people
were like when they were in the theater watching it.
And so many times I feel like it could be
something that doesn't get great reviews, but it's good. Who
is reviewing it? Sounds like it sounds like what you have.
It's kind of helps with the disconnect. Yeah, I feel

(13:19):
like so many of our content, our shows, in our
movies for black people, buy Black people, buy Latin um.
You know, Americans, our content, oftentimes critics don't know how
to really access so you will see black content. Um,
they have low scores on Rotten Tomatoes or low score
from critics aggregates, but at the end of the day,
we are still watching this. This is a class. You know.
I was watching Lock Up to get ready for today.

(13:41):
I know y'all watched that so last night after I finished, Yes, yes, yes,
it is so good and major. You know, writers for
big colocations writing those kind of shows, but a lot
of us are watching those shows. So for me, Pop
Yours is a way for us to bring diverse commune
it needs together and show the power the power of

(14:02):
us coming together and watching I love the research that
you did. Was watching love after that was my job?
What's the monique? I want a guest host on angela
Is show to watch? Ye you must Yep, that was
my job last night, but I'm gonna keep it. A A
lot of what I watch is also because if I
see something that's trending, yes, or that everybody's posting and
talking about, I'm like, let me get into this, because

(14:23):
I also want to make sure I'm up on what
everybody else is watching so that I feel like I
can talk about it. Listen, how many of the Oscar nominees.
Have you watched not that many rights. I was trying
to watch one last night. What really is the power
right now, you guys, is word of mouth. As I'm
talking to the studios, I'm explaining to them like that
word of mouth co signed from a friend, from something
that you know and trust, is so much more powerful

(14:45):
than critics coming together and saying Tar or All's Quiet
on the Western Front or The Banches of Anah Sharon
are the top films of the year. It's really about
what people are watching in meeting folks where they are,
and that's what we do at pop Viewers, right all right,
well and shout out to act your age. On Bounce TV,
they that was the most washed half hour series debut
they ever have with over a two point one four
million viewers. It's really funny. Yeah, it's great, but it

(15:07):
shows the power of the black and brown consumer. We
are powerful. Now. One thing I wanted to talk about
because you discussed your son earlier, is Tyler Perry, and
he was on Michelle Obama's The Light podcast and he
talked about disciplining his eight year old son. He was
discussing how the nanny was telling him to brush his teeth.
He didn't want to brush his teeth, and he kind
of was going in on the nanny and I got

(15:28):
down eye to eye and I was talking to him
and I said, listen to me, you are not going
to be this way. We love you, we are your parents.
You will not behave this way. We talked to you
better than this. And I'm talking to him and I'm
starting to get emotional, and he said, I'm sorry, Papa,
I'm sorry. He brush his teeth, did all those things.
But I went out on the balcony. I was in
tears because I realized that nobody had ever got down
and talked to me eye to eye. So to have

(15:50):
a moment that I had a chance to have a
conversation with a child who is my spitting image. I
was not only correcting and leading him the right way,
but helping my own little boy inside of me. Healed yes,
because he talked about getting beat all the time growing up.
And I know this was something that struck a chord
with you, Chris, in particular, you have an eleven year

(16:10):
old son, and we're going to talk about that. Eight
hundred two nine two fifty one fifty disciplining your child,
how you were discipline growing up, and how that affects
how you parents. I want to see what you guys
think as well. Call us up eight hundred two nine
two fifty one fifty going way with Angela Yee. Yes,
it's way up with Angela Yee. And I'm here with
my girl Jasmine from the Jasmine Brand, and Chris Witherspoon's

(16:32):
CEO of pop Viewers, makes sure y'all download that app.
And we're talking about Tyler Perry and disciplining his eight
year old son with compassion. Now I know for you, Chris,
this really struck a chord. You have an eleven year
old yes, yes, yeah, listening to this story, I thought
it was so profound that he didn't say that he
spanked his child. You know, my son is eleven. We
have not spanked him yet. His mother, who's my good

(16:53):
best friend, we went half of the baby. We said
we were not going to spank our son. And now
I was spanked. I was spanked, like for any old
reason and like on a regular basis. But I think
one of the things that I kind of realized is
like when you spank a child, sometimes you take away
the abilities to have a conversation around what will he happened?
I understand what they were feeling. And I think what
Tyler Perry did as an example of what we see

(17:14):
so many other parents from the other side of the
tracks due, which is like understand why their child did
what they did, have a conversation, have a conversation, you know.
And I feel like I didn't get a chance to
do that. And in therapy right now, I do a
lot of therapy. It's not so much me being in
trauma over the spankings. It's more about like learning how
to use my voice and express what I'm feeling, and

(17:34):
how there wasn't always space to do that in my
home as a child, right, Yeah, because I got spanked
a lot as a child, and the time, yeah, I'd
be like who left the cap up to toothpaste? And
it was me and my brother, So yeah, it was
if he got a spanking, I did, and if I did,
he did, so I already kneed. Yeah, if he got
in trouble, I was in trouble my dad, because it

(17:54):
used to be like when he was getting spank I
would laugh behind my dad's back. But then I was like, oh,
I'm next. My brother spanked all the time, like together
two years apart. Oh wow, yeah, what about you spanked
a little bit, not a lot. I was kind of
scared of my mom, Like she could like yell at
me or look at me, and it kind of scare me.
I got a few, like more so when I was little,
little like you know, I'll whip up till five and

(18:15):
then it kind of stopped, and she would just kind
of you know now as it popped. Because you do
have a daughter, yeah, not too yet, right, Rain is
almost too I um, I might later on pop her
like I might pop her, but I'm gonna try to
talk to her because right now, I grab her face
and be like, hey, no biting, because she she'll get
next to Yeah, she gets upset with your chuld bite
her grandmother and I'd be like, no, we don't you

(18:36):
need to hit their little hand. You be like pound pound. Yeah,
I grab her, I grab her face and I look
her in her eye and I'm like, we don't, we
don't do that. And then she won't look at me
in my eyes, so I know she knows what the
gonna laugh at you. Well then, but the words used
to be when I get spanked in front of my friends.
Can you imagine? I can't believe that happened to you,
because that would be so embarrassing, and then your friends

(18:58):
be feeling so bad for you, like they don't want
to look at you. So, Angela, you got spanked in
front of your friends. Yes, And this is when I
started going to private school, so you know, the white kids,
they were not getting a spanking, right, And so I
remember I got spanked in front of my friend and
she was horrified, horrid. What age were you when the
spanking stopped? Um? I was probably like about maybe I

(19:22):
was like fifteen. That's kind of old. No. I think
they stopped for me around fifth grade, fifth grade and
sixth grade. You're about to be driving. Were you're doing
at fifteen? To get you remember? Nothing? I was on
the phone too long, like get off the phone, you know,
and stuff like that. But yeah, okay, all right, Well
let's see what you guys have to say about these
spankings that Tyler Perry was talking about. He's disciplining his

(19:44):
eight year old son. He does not spank his son.
He talks to him and has him explain things with compassion,
something he wish he would have had the space to
do when he was growing up and he was getting
beatings all the time. Let's see who was on the line, Kwane.
What's your thoughts on disciplining your your kids or being
discipline growing up? Oh my god. So when I was
growing up, my mom used to whoop me for like everything,

(20:07):
like if I would fold my dress RN. That is like,
nobody's gonna teach you common sense. You gotta have it.
You know, if I said a curse word, I would
have to write it a hundred times. Knew what it meant,
was the language to dialect it came from. But she
whooped me for like every thing. Now I'm raising my daughter.

(20:27):
I barely spank her, probably once a year. But what
I noticed the difference is I have character, I have strength.
I had no common sense. My daughter lacked of no
serious maybe because I'm not thinking her, but I do. Also,
I didn't have an opinion. So now I allow my
daughter to speak. You know how you're feeling. Do you
agree with why I'm yelling at you? You know things

(20:50):
of that sport. Back in the day, you didn't have
a choya. You did what their parents said. And this
is not very long ago. Because I'm funny, san, but
my daughters twell. So my mom raised me young, but
she had that old fool life sharp and you think
the beatings helped you, She's saying, yeah, absolutely absolutely, So

(21:13):
why have you decided to not beat your daughter? Beat
it strong? Because my mom did the mold okay, like
it was like kind of traumatic and waves. But the
qualities that I have my daughter like, okay, all right,
that's interesting. All right, Well, thank you Kuanne for sharing.
Thanks for sharing. Yeah, yeah, weltham And I just want

(21:33):
to say my mom passed away last Sunday. So my mom,
I'm on the radio, all right, but rest in peace
to her and my condolences. Thank you. You know, for
some parents it hurts them more to beat their kids. Yeah,
I can't imagine. I can't either. I'm like my mom,
I'm like, how does she do that? Back? Then? Easily?

(21:53):
All right, let's take some more cause Chase ye, how
are you? We're talking about Tyler Perry discipline his eight
year old son. But what are your thoughts and what's
what's it been like for you? Well? Like for me,
like I grew up getting I got beat right, my
parents didn't play now that I'm an adult, my children
the mix and uh they have that different type of

(22:14):
beer with me and respect for me and both out
the ham with their mother. So do you do you
spank them or discipline them physically? Or how do you
discipline them? Oh? Definitely, Okay, I wouldn't be where I
was to stay without those who Now, is there a
limit to these whip things? That's what I want to know. Yeah,
what are the guidelines? Oh? Yeah, like we're not getting
we're not getting the people involved now people. Yeah, yeah,

(22:38):
between abuse and the spanking. Right. Yeah, Also, at what
age do you do you stop spanking? What age do
you start? Oh that's a good question. What ace do
you start? What ace do you stop? I think my
oldest son is the turn twenty, and I think he
got his first spanking when he was about to say
yeah when did When did it stop? The fight? When
was the last wiping? It stopped when he moved out

(23:01):
my house? That is like, wow, okay, yeah, we're talking
about nineteen he moved out. Yeah, that's when it stopped.
And they never try to hit you back. He probably
can whoop you to. I'm a pretty I'm a pretty
big guy. I'm ex military soul a more than welcome
to shrine. It wasn't worked out in the favors. I
don't know. I ain't gonna be nineteen. And you're thinking,

(23:25):
but if you got we were just going to the
body now yah, y'all were fighting, got it? Okaya? Like
if you don't want to pay Phil, you don't want
to respect the houses either at you even get out
or you take the bait. Oh my goodness, all right, okay,
no com all right, well you guys, thanks for calling
and sharing with us. That was eye opening. When we

(23:47):
come back, we have yet we'll be talking about flow Rider.
What he has happening now that he won that eighty
two point six million dollars. Let's break it down on
way up with Angela. Ye yet next yo, she about
to blow the lead above this party, get it and
get the tea. Yes, it is way up at Angela Yee.
I'm here, Jasmine Brand is here, Good morning, Chris. Witherspoon

(24:10):
is here, Chris. What's your Instagram for people to find
you too? It's at Witherspoon CE. So my last name
w I T H E R S p O N
and then my first initial CE okay, so you can
follow him and pop viewers. Yes, all right, now flow
right out. As we all know, won this crazy lawsuit
after suing energy during company Celsius. He got eighty two
point six million dollars and now he's launching his own

(24:31):
energy drink is called jet Set one. He said, Celsie
is great, but at the same time, you want to
take something and make it even greater. So not only
did he win this money, but now he's also going
to be coming out and doing a whole brand against Celsius,
and that is more than enough money that you need
to get a company off the ground. Like he could
take eight million with his brand and his notoriety, that

(24:52):
that eight million and get that that seed funding to
grow his company. And we see how much money people
can make off of beverage companies, you know. So he's
planning to launch this in the first quarter of twenty
twenty four, he said, coming from the success of Celsius
when they had no name and the marketing was very little,
I took that product and I took it worldwide. This
is a thing that we want to do with jet
Set one. And he was sucking an insider exclusively. Okay,

(25:14):
I want to see how I tast something. You want
to try it. They're saying it's healthy and it tastes
better than every energy drink on the market, and so
on and so full natural ingredients for the gem. Look
at us already helping at Florida's also, by the way,
headlining the eighteenth annual AIDS Walk and Music Festival. So
they announced that he would partner with the organization and

(25:37):
to raise over two million dollars for HIV AID services.
I love that he's given back. I mean that's a walk.
So I say, bring your jet set to the walk. Yeah,
not till twenty twenty four. Since we're talking business, Shack
is celebrating the opening of his restaurant and he, by
the way, is he's making his way around Kansas City.

(25:58):
I saw some video footage of him. You know, he
DJs as Diesel Yes in the club and when I
tell you, it was Bram packed in that club. I've
actually seen him DJ before. He's good. It was in them.
He plays a lot of fist pumping music. I guess
you played for whoever the audience. But I was in
the Bahamas at the Bahamar, and he happened to be
djaying there and so yeah, it was cool. So he

(26:20):
has a new restaurant, Big Chicken, and they had a
ribbon cutting Saturday afternoon ceremony at the new Kansas City
International Airport Terminal and Concourse B. So congratulations to him.
He's been doing this restaurant thing for a minute. Remember
we went to his restaurant in Lave. Yeah, my dad
was in Kansaity, So my dad has to check that
out right. And at the airport, you say, yeah, that's
why getting hungry at the airport. And they don't really

(26:41):
have good food there at the airport. They don't have
good food at Cana Airport either. And in Atlanta, Ludacris
has his restaurant in the airport Chicken and Beer. Yep,
okay restaurants, yes, but I think it's kind of because
you still have to pay a lot to be in
the airport, so you got to make sure people come.
That's true. But there's always people in the airport. So
it wouldn't be nice if we you have some of

(27:01):
that in a Delta sky lounge, like a little a
little little little crisp chicken of beer pop up there,
a little shack up, you know, Okay, I feel like
it can happen, right, all right. Shack is also now
that's the good news. On that news, it says that
he's also been evading getting served papers for an FTX
related lawsuit for four weeks according to attorneys, and having
a hard time serving him. Well, he's in Kansas City,

(27:26):
but apparently they said he's been just evading them. There's
a lot of celebrities that are in this lawsuit, by
the way, Tom Brady stuff, Cyrie, Larry David, among others.
And that is all for being exposing people to misrepresentations
and omissions and things like that. So you know, it's
like a cryptocurrency, yeah, platform, okay, yeah, So sometimes you

(27:47):
agree and get the check and you don't really know
what you're getting into over there ducking him. Yeah, yet
it served all right? And um, little ouzi Vert is
addressing controversy. Some people are saying he has satanic lyrics
on his new track and so here is that one line,
I make a City Girl Believe in Satan. And so

(28:08):
when TMZ caught up with him, here's what he had
to say, Hey, what do you mean by that lyric?
Man not actually Satan, but just basically I make a
girl do whatever I say something. What did? She really
didn't think too much of it. She was there when
she heard me make the song. She know what she knows,
like what I really did. So don't really about sight. No,

(28:29):
do you believe in stan? Um? No? He said, you
believe in Satan. It's a crazy thing to yell out
to somebody. But what he's saying is it's so extreme, right,
I mean that's how I took it that, Like I
can make you believe in something. Yeah, so extreme. He
came from a religious background too, but he said he
just likes to say whatever he wants to say. He's
really not trying to offend anyone. So all right, Well

(28:50):
that you have it and that is your yet And
when we come back, it's time for under the radar.
These are stories that are not necessarily headline stories. They're
flying under the radar, but we feel like they're important.
It's way up with Angela Yee. I got news as
the news that relates to you. These stories are flying
under the radar. Yes, it's way up with the Angela Yee.
Jasmine Brand is here with me, Happy Tuesday. Chris Witherspoon

(29:12):
is here at me also good afternoon check out pots.
Yes still depending on where you are, Yes, well, I
guess everywhere still still morning right now, all right now
under the radar. These are stories that are not necessarily
the headline stories that we're watching on the news, but
their stories that we feel like are important. And as
we're sitting here right now, our producer Dan is drinking

(29:32):
out of a reusable water bottle, which sounds like a
great idea, right, It's good for the environment, the ve Yeah.
A new study has delivered a very disturbing finding, though,
and that is that these water bottles are filthy if
you don't clean them regularly. All right, So, a new
recent study from US based water filter guru dot com

(29:55):
found that reusable bottles can have forty thousand times more
bacteria than the average toilet seat. Oh my gosh, it's
like a portable Petrie dish. So they swab them and
they found two types of bacteria present, and it can
cause infections, and these are increasingly resistant to antibiotics. Okay,
So they compare the cleanliness of the bottles to household

(30:17):
objects and it turns out that this has more bacteria
fourteen times more than a pet drinking bowl. Oh my goodness,
that's disgusted. That's awful. Yeah, but I love this news
because I'm the kind of person that i'm. People always
go on me for wasting water bottles because I like
to have the water bottle, open it and like have
that fresh that fresh water as opposed to the water
from that little thing. Um, So this actually helps my cause,

(30:39):
I mean, and the main thing is clean it. Yeah, often,
but I'm trying to find how clean you gotta get
washing it at least once a day with hot soapy water,
and sanitizing it at least once a week. This is
what you're supposed to do. Yeah, that's what you're supposed
to do. Now, they do say squeeze top bottles are
the cleanest of the three styles tested because a tenth
has a tenth of the amount of bacteria as the

(31:01):
ones that screw off or the ones with the straw
fitted lids. I wonder, I wonder how often our ep
dan cleans his I'm looking at him. I'm gonna guess
not that often. Okay, he mustn't speak so bad, he
mustn't speak, But we don't want him on our mics
because there's a lot of back come on what we
know in his mouth right now? Do you want to

(31:24):
say something how the it's a screwable one. It's the
one with the top comes clean the top like inside,
But the bottle itself, I only put water in it,
So do you really need to clean the ba But
the top where I drink from, that's what gets cleaned.
Now you have to clean the whole thing times more
than a pet's drinking ball, because imagine this, are you
putting your mouth on there. There's a little bit of

(31:44):
backwash going in there, and that's the same bacteria that
would have been on the top to Now all you're
doing is I'll replace the water, though you should definitely
repay you also to clean the inside. Dan, It isn't
that hard. If you're going to clean the top, why
not clean because they have those breath they brush it
just like how you clean up a baby, but save
your life, they have brushes for them. Okay, go ahead,

(32:06):
somebody get a swat. Does anyone drink out of about
water fountain anymore? No? You know, in the gym once
and once in a blue moon, I will take my
bottle and put the bottle in the water. But even
then I'm a little bit nervous about it. I don't
even like when people do that. Stop it things. I
don't know why I don't like that, stop it immediately.
I'm a germaphobe, though I am too. This this study

(32:26):
is changing, Chris. It doesn't sound like your germaho rely
not enough. I just don't want to black out, you
know what I mean. If I can't get to the
bottle of water fast enough, I gotta get because I
was wondering why do people wash their hands after they
go to the bathroom and not also before? I do
it both times. Yeah, you gotta do it both times,
especially at the gym. Well, I only wash mine after.
I don't. I'm gonna be honest. I don't wash my
hands before. Most people don't. Yeah, I do it after,

(32:47):
but not before, especially guys. You got to touch it right, No,
you you really want to make sure that you scrub it.
You washed before you got to My grandfather told me
that when I was a little boy. Yeah, absolutely, last,
before and after. Okay, well that is your under the radar.
Now when we come back, we do have the Way
Up mix at the top of the hour, Plus we
have a special guest joining us. Today's Stratus more Folk,

(33:08):
and he has a book called out called Be a Disruptor.
If you've heard of Brooklyn Chop House, it's an amazing restaurant.
There's two of them here that people go to all
the time. But he also started Philips back in the
day and a very popular restaurant. But he's got a
lot of drama with that. He's going to talk about
all of that on Way Up with Angela Yee. It
says south in the room from industry shade to all

(33:30):
the gossip out send Angela's spilling at all right, it's
Way Up with Angela. Ye, I'm Angela yee. Jasmine Brand
is here. Good morning, afternoon, Yeah, good afternoon, wherever you are.
Chris Witherspoon is here, happy Chris say line. All right,
So it's time for your YE team. Now let's discuss

(33:52):
a Diplow. Diplow was recently on a podcast Help Me
with her Name Emily Vadajikowski Is that's perfect, okay? Emily
Radzikowski's podcast, and he was talking about a situation he
had where he's gotten oral sex from a man before.
Here's what he had to say, Sure, before you're sure

(34:12):
that's happened? Yeah, and you just don't remember. I mean, like,
I don't know if it's a gay unless you're like
make eye contact while there's a book. That's such a
straight guy thing to say. But I mean, it's not
like gay. I don't know, it's you tell me all right.
So so I don't know if it's a gay unless
if it's if you don't make eye contat unless you

(34:32):
make eye contact. So does that mean it never happened.
I've never heard this before, the whole eye contacting this
is this is this is very new to me in
my community. Um, I don't think it makes him gay.
I think it makes him something like there's all these
new terms now. I think it makes a small on
lines of fluid, made him fluid. There we go. I

(34:53):
think even by maybe, But that's very open minded him
to come on a podcast and say all that. It's
hard because like people don't want to label themselves, don't
They don't anymore. Sometimes you try something and then if
you try it one time, but it sounds like it
probably happened more than one time. And how far did
they go? That's the other part. I'm curious, Well, we
know one thing didn't happen. It was no eye contact, right,

(35:14):
that's true. Yeah, And so I feel like eye contact
is a connection, so maybe he say there was no connection. Yeah,
or also it means he can pretend like it didn't happen,
like he doesn't even really know it was a man
down there because he wasn't physically seeing the guy. Yeah,
because he also said that he's sure he has but
he's not, but he doesn't remember much. Yeah, so he's
maybe a little gay or a little by Can you

(35:34):
be a little gay? Yeah? I think so that's a
good question. Actually, I think a little by little you
get you way gay all the way, game the way, game,
all the way up, all the way. But Angela, all right,
but that's fine, So maybe a little bit. So I'm

(35:54):
probably him for saying that, though I'm really probably saying
that's a very hard thing to say, you know, with
the policy of a white man. So I feel like
for a black man it probably even harder to say.
If you know a black man is he's also very
in this space of like Caribbean, like a lot of
his music Major Laser. Yeah, you know, but I think
you're right. I think that being able to experiment with

(36:16):
your sexuality it is a privilege, and white people are
more privileged to feel that they can kind of color
outside the line sometimes women and man, you see so
many white girls and fraternities like sororities, you know, and
women have their freedom to experiment a lot more than
men do. We do. That's the point you were making.
You were saying that when women do it, we don't.
Really it's not so much of a big deal. It's

(36:37):
kind of like it was college. Yea. All right. Now,
let's talk about the nest. Two times he was on
Lift Service and that episode is actually out today, and
one of the things that he discussed is his relationship.
Now he actually has three girlfriends, maybe two, but three. Okay,
you know, I'm gonna league at me, like I like,
I gotta have more than one woman. But they know

(36:58):
about each other. Yeah, guy, no stay together? Oh how
many women? Oh so that's three times? Okay, they get along.
They counted their friends, I mean, is count on you
got there? Do you have a favorite? The first wife?

(37:21):
It was a lot of suying. Yeah he was, but
he does get very in depth with it. Yeah, from
the women from the why one of them was actually there,
but she didn't she wasn't in an interview though. Yeah.
She was definitely making sure that he said the right thing. Okay,
she would stand up. Yeah. And then another thing he
talked about. So if you guys remember, this went viral
and people were actually going in on him because he

(37:44):
gifted his friend who they said took his charges. Right,
that was the post. Uh. He gave him five thousand dollars.
And some people were like, yo, this man took charges
for you and did time for you and all you
did was give him five thousand dollars. Here's what he
had to say about that. I didn't say that he
took a charge for me. And when d ten eleven
years from me, I see that he did teen years.

(38:05):
And while we was inconclrated, I mean him, he were
silly and when they kicked the dough win, I had
some illegal in the sea and he took the charge
from jail. You see what I'm saying. So there was
a sign lord to for me, all right, So he
got extra sixty days. But the way it sounded when

(38:26):
we saw it on social media, sound like he was
he did ten years for you, and I'm gonna say
five sixty days. You need a little more than five thousand.
Come on, yeah, I don't want to do I don't
want to do actually days, I don't want to month.
You know, angel I would do one extra day for you.
I wouldn't even do that for you. Keep it Jesus Christ,
and one extra day. I'm trying to go home, Angela,
I know what we're staying now, all right, Well that

(38:47):
is your yet, yeah, but thank you for nothing. And
as Women's History Months, so when we come back, yes,
we will be celebrating some women. And a real woman
would not make you take an extra day for her,
A real friend wouldn't do that. But it is Women's
History Months, so we're going to celebrate that. It's way

(39:08):
up with Angela. Ye, celebrating the ladies doing women's his
three month. Yes, it's way up with Angela. Yee. Jasmine
Brand is here with me, I'm here, and of course
Chris where the spoon is here. I'm so honored to
be here right now, y'all. We're so happy to have you,
by the way, I mean, he's interviewed Oprah several times,
several times, Tom Hanks, Will Smith. Who are some of
the other people you've intervened? Denzel Washington Daniel Colluya, everybody, Berry, everybody,

(39:34):
everybody in Hollywood Street and now you're here. Now I'm here.
Put a downgrade with the Oprah Radio. I said it earlier, y'all.
Angela Ye is the Oprah Radio. She needs to receive
Angela Winfrey. There we go. I like that Winfrey of radio.
But it is Women's History Month and we do want
to celebrate some amazing women. Now, I know you're really

(39:54):
good friends to Joyanne read Yes, I'm celebrating Joy today.
Like Joyanne Reid is the Oprah of politics and my opinion,
and she is just someone y'all. That is, she's a trailblazer,
the first black woman to have her own primetime cable
news show Number one to read out say that, but
also as a friend and as a former boss of
mine at the Careo where I worked for many years
entertainment editor over there, she is the person that got

(40:15):
me on camera. No One. Initially, I think will they
saw me in that light? Until Joy said, Okay, I'm
your managing editor. I want you to begin doing entertainment
segments for the Today's Show for MSNBC, and I'm gonna
fight for you to do so. So She's not just talent,
She's not just a star warsh, She's someone who's a
star maker and I slew her today for that. She's
also from New York. Yeah, she went to Harvard. Come

(40:35):
on Harvard, and and she is a sad because her
birthday is December eighth. Okay, yeah. It's also an author
see so many things. Yeah, she had she had a
career in radio before she came to MSNBC, so she
knows all of this world too. Yeah. What I love
about Joyanne Read is she just keeps it funky all
the time, says what she thinks. Because I've seen her

(40:55):
getting attacked, yes, you know, for her opinion or saying something,
and people get mad, and that's not an easy space
to be in. Politics is worse than I feel like anything.
They be savage. The things that she gets on Twitter
and social media in general from people on the right,
sometimes I'm like, oh, we're security, Yeah exactly. Not for nothing.
She wrote a book in twenty nineteen, The Man Who

(41:17):
Sold America Trump in The Unraveling American Story, No Wonder,
No Wonder, she goes back. She's about politics all right,
and the person that I wanted to celebrate today is
Phyllis Johnson. Now y'all know, I have a coffee company.
It's called Coffee Uplifts People. And Phillis Johnson has been
an invaluable asset to US seas an entrepreneur and author
and activist. But she also has her own importing company

(41:39):
called Beat Imports that she founded back in nineteen ninety nine.
So she's been working here in this space for a
long time. And in twenty twenty she founded the Coffee
Coalition for Racial Equity. And there's a lot of racial
injustice and unrest going on around us, but in the
coffee business, it's really tough. If you think about where
coffee beans come from, it's all black and brown places.
It's a large percentage of women men who are farmers.

(42:01):
But we're talking about ownership, we're talking about opportunity finances.
A lot of times people aren't getting paid properly. That's
why when you see fair trade on coffee, that's to
make sure that people aren't getting pennies on the dollar
who are working in these farms and working behind the scenes.
And so with her company be the Imports. Again, I
told you she's had this since nineteen ninety nine. It's

(42:21):
been a pathway for new discoveries and enlightenment, she says,
not just for herself and her family, but for others.
It's the first company often to engage with women coffee
entrepreneurs and producers in various countries, or to inspire entrepreneurs
in our own country. So she said, sometimes the best
thing that one can be, it's a good representation or
inspiration for others. As a black woman and the Green
coffee trade, I stood out and been noticed by others

(42:44):
who also stood out in their own way. Come on,
feels I love. It's a rural I can't say rural, rural,
rural Arkansas. Struggling someone and I was going to college.
If you don't see the example, be the example exactly
like that is what Phillis is doing. She is being

(43:04):
then example, and she's somebody I actually personally have gone to.
Oh really yeah, just for that, also for her knowledge.
We've been working with her now as an importer. So
we've actually wanted to make sure with Coffee uplifts people
we have a black woman who's a roaster, and then
we have Phillis who's our importer. I wouldn't watch a
documentary about her, like I feel like watching the life
of the beans and like also the women you talked about,

(43:26):
who are you know oftentimes to pharm owners, would I
would netflix and chill the coffee out of that the
core fee? Yeah, yeah, I'm reading about her now. She's dope. Yeah,
because a lot of times we talk about equity, we
talk about inclusion, and so she is the example because
you know how the coffee industry can be even here.
I feel like in the United States they really market
to middle age white men yep. And so for somebody

(43:47):
like Phyllis Johnson to try to level out the playing
field and also make sure that things are more equitable
and have more access, I think that's important. So we're
all trying to take these tangible steps to help improve
racial equality. When it comes to coffee, it's a huge
Where can you find the fair trade thing you mentioned?
When you look at coffee, you can see if there's
a fair trade stamp on there. I learned about that

(44:09):
with you. All right, Well that is our women's history. Man.
Shout out to Phyllis Johnson and be the imports. And
when we come back, we have another entrepreneur Stratus more Fogan.
You guys are gonna love history. He is definitely MOB
affiliated and he has no problem talking about it. But
he's also a restaurant or. The restaurant business is a
tough one, and so he talks about being a disruptor

(44:29):
in his space. History is amazing. If you've ever been
to Philips, he started Philip's Brooklyn Toop House. We see
that all the time out here, so check it out.
Way up with the Angela Yee, I'm back. Yes, it
is way up with Angela Ye, I'm Angela Yee. And
Jasmine Brand is here with me what's up? And also

(44:50):
Chris Witherspoon, Hey, I'm on the way up, y'all. And
Chris is what I say? Your title is so founder
and CEO of Pop Years for entertainment app in the
Apple app Store right now, and also entertainment journalists for
NBC News and MSNBC. All right, let's not play no games?
All right? To go? Yeah, One thing you said earlier though,

(45:13):
that I didn't even I wanted to. We were talking
so fast about things. You were talking about your son, right,
and your son is eleven, yes, And then you said
that you and your friend had an agreement, and that's
how everything happened. She listened to talk to me about
this agreement, because you know, we're always like, okay, so
if I don't have a kid and you don't have okay,
So my best friend, my best friend. This is a

(45:34):
great New York story. I was. I was working at
this hotel Selho Grand about fifteen years ago after being
an NBC page. So I was kind of like trying
to find myself, figure out what's next for Chrismaerspoon. And
my friend was my supervisor at the hotel. Okay, she's
from the DR and I never met anybody from the DR,
from a small town in Ohio, and jokingly, within knowing
her from one week, she said, you know, um, I

(45:54):
always thought I thought about having a kid, but I
never knew how I was going to do it. And
I feel like you'd be an amazing father, which could
be down they have to kill me. And she WASNA
had a dream about me, okay, And I was like,
it was overnight, you know, overnight, three in the morning,
working overnight, you get delirious. And I was like, sure,
why not? And she kept talking about it. He became
roommates and we are both a part of the LGBTQ

(46:15):
plus community. Um so yeah, we just went half on
a baby and we we raised the child together as
roommates for a year. Then we have our own places
and we both have our own She has a girlfriend.
I have a boyfriend, right neon. Right when you and
I first met, I remember you telling in this Chris,
and I've never heard of a I don't know anyone
that has had this same, similar kind of setup. So
I was it was funny MTV reached out to us

(46:37):
when she was pregnant. Someone that I knew heard our story, uh,
and reached out to me. Um, and we didn't do
a story. I was like, or documentary. I think it's
my son's story to tell the whole nuances of how
we created him and things. Um just he's a memeon
if you go to embracing Black culture right now. They
posted him last week as a picture I took of

(46:58):
him at the beach. And if some one knows how
to monetize this, y'all, please dm me at weatherspoons scenes
using means of his son. He not getting no money
from it. I'm gonna put him one coffee for the people.
I think it should be like on a can of coffee,
something good. But I love that. So she had a dream.
She had a dream. She had a dream, and she
was you know, as as as you know, when you're
someone from certain communities and you can't afford to go

(47:20):
to the you know whatever the different places are for
for surrogacy or in mutual fertilization, you have to get creative, right,
and then it's good that you're still in the child's
life too. Oh my god, my son was like my son,
my sons, and he knows our stories in the background. Yeah,
he knows our stories and he's so proud of us.
And I loved it. We could put him out in
the world and he gets to be kind of like,

(47:41):
you know, in these rooms and in these conversations with
young people, kind of telling his story. How long did
you all know each other before you decided to Well,
I knew her for a week when but then he
became roommates for four years. We were roommates, okay, and
then and then things got real because she had uterine
fibroids and so they had to remove them. The doctor

(48:02):
was like, all right, and one year y'all got to
get pregnant. Okay, all right, So we did timeline. We
love it all right, well, thank you for sharing that story.
I love it, you know, all right? And um, that
is Chris Witherspoon talking about his eleven year old andress. Okay, um.
And when we come back, Stratis more Fogan is going
to be joining us. He's an author, he's a disruptor

(48:24):
and his book is all about that. But he also
has a brand new restaurant that just opened, and he
also owns Brooklyn Top House founded Philippe's been in the
restaurant business since he was six. It's fascinating. Way up
with Angela, yell with Angela is back to set off
your work. What's up? It's way up at Angela. Yee.
Jasmine brand is here with me. And Stratis. I've never

(48:44):
pronounced your last name, is that right? Yeah? Okay, more Fogan,
Stratis more Fogan is here with us. Now. I'm gonna
tell you guys. He has this book out. It's called
Be a Disruptor and it's streetwise lessons for entrepreneurs from
the mob to the man and dates. But we all
know Stratus, I think in general despot being one of

(49:05):
the owners of Brooklyn chop House. But what people may
not have known is that he also was one of
the owners of Philip's. Okay, so we got to get
into some of these lessons from this book because you've
been in the restaurant business since you were sixty years old. Now,
one of the things that you learned from an early
age is discretion. Discretion is really important when it comes

(49:26):
to owning a restaurant and being in that business. So
you learned that in an early age. Explain that because
this is actually a mob story that you guys would
love to hear. Yeah. So my dad had the Chelsea
Chop House. One of them was in Howard Beach and
about six seven years old, I was at Buzzport and
the first lesson of discretion I had was what there
was a little diminutive guy used to come in with
a lot of big guys around him, and they used

(49:46):
to go very discreet. My father would like, drop what
he was doing, you know. I was like, Wow, who
is this guy that my father looks at with such reverence,
you know? And then he would go sit him down.
Then I hear him tell the manager skid us to
Cambi in his true and it was Carlo Gambino, you know,
the boss of the Gambino family. And you know, so
here's a little short bus boy who's really not shy.

(50:07):
You know, I'm walking up to his table, and you know,
I start pouring water and I say hi, mister Gambino,
and no one says yeah, you could hear a pin drop,
and you know, I felt so weird, like what did
I do wrong with just being nice? That's what my
because my father actually calls him sir. So after after
he puts me down on his knee and he talks
to he goes, hey, how school like like like a grandfather,

(50:27):
and he slips a twenty dollar bill in my in
my pocket. He just says, next time high is enough.
And I'm like, all right, all right, I have no
idea what I did, but I'll keep taking the twenties
and I'll just say hi and then um. So as
I can see my father peeking around the table, going,
oh my god, Stratus is sitting with the gangsters, you know,
and I've been there for like ten minutes. And so

(50:48):
as I get up, my father goes to come here,
what was that about? I said, Dad, I don't know
what I did. I just said hi, mister Gambino. O God,
this guy goes so far out of his way it'd
be discreet, and here comes a six year old chubby
bus It knows exactly who you are. And I saw
when I left the table, they all started laughing like
it was so innocently done. But it was very funny.
There's a lot of lessons to learn there, because you know,

(51:10):
like I do say in my book Fast Forward, you know,
two thousand and six is two lessons I learned. I
just opened Felipe Chao on my honeymoon a mechanos, and
I get a call for I think there was like
the Inquirer or something. They said, we're offering you a
million dollars for the tape. And I said, what tape
and they're like, there's a tape, you know, and they

(51:30):
mentioned their names, so I'm not going to make you.
And they were having sex in your restaurant. So so
I'm like, so I called my managers right away and
I'm like, what happened? So a hip hop mogul and
a Hollywood starlett were having sex in one of the
private rooms, I felieve, and they've noticed that we had
security cameras, and I said to the manager, can on

(51:53):
the security cameras and tell me what you see. So,
oh fucking I can't love this serious, I can't. Yeah,
He's like, yes, so and so reserve the whole room
last night to have a private dinner. And I'm like,
give me a favor before I even get an inch
of temptation deleted off the server, right, get rid of it.
That's not how I do business. Yeah, because if you

(52:15):
would have leaked that out, that's something that could destroy
your business. And that's not the way I've become successful.
Right now, we're talking to Stratus more Fogan. He's the
author of Being a Disruptor, but also the guy who
started Philip's, that amazing restaurant and now has one of
my favorites, Brooklyn tap House. Now another thing, because this
is streetwise lessons from entrepreneurs from the Mob to the mandates. Right,

(52:36):
this book that you have about being a disruptor, you
also talk about your relationship with so many people from
the Mob were coming to your restaurants and how some
of them actually might be more stand up than people
who work day and for the government or in politics. Yeah.
So um in nineteen ninety three this right, so now
I know most of them Mob because they're run the

(52:56):
Faulton Fish Market and they're like extended family to I mean,
I never looked at them as like there were criminals.
So here I go. I opened up my restaurant in
ninety three called Gotham Diner, and at that time I
became very close with like Ralph Coppola, who was the
underbass of the Genevc family. And these guys were friends
of mine, Bucky Carbone, and they were just customers and
they paid their bill. They did ever make you pay them.

(53:18):
You said, nothing like that. Like it. They were my
friends and there was always like a mutual respect. So
in ninety three ninety four it became like the hottest place.
And then at the time I opened Rouge Nightclub, So
that's what he turned away. By the way, Madonna and
two path, we need your death story after Okay, So

(53:40):
getting back to my book. My book is a story
of inspiration and the journey of an entrepreneur. But it's
not the typical book that you would read where it's
all based on analytics. It's basically like and this is
what I did to fix it, So all my analytics
is supported by true life story. Yeah, and that's why
it's hit a nerve with a lot of people because

(54:00):
I actually beat myself up in the book quite a
bit because I want people to learn from my mistakes
and how I handled it. Well, let me go back
a little bit. So when I opened up Gotham Diner
to answer the question regarding how I got involved with
over organized caring, like, yeah, so what happened was is
so I became friends with the heads of the Genet

(54:21):
DC family and there were my friends, but simultaneous that
I had John Gotti Junior beating up my managers, his crew,
and then they finally came to see me. They wanted
ten thousand dollars a month or they were going to
break all my windows. So I told him every night
they're throwing black paint all over my windows, and every
night I would clean. Every morning I would clean it up.
So Ralph Copel and those guys saw me one day

(54:43):
clean that what is this? I said, John Gotty Junior
and those guys want to payment, and I'm not doing it,
and this is what I get. Sit tight. So literally
like six hours later they say, go to Ferry a
bistro on sixty fifty nights, on which I knew was again,
Bino hang out, go there eleven o'clock tonight. We're gonna
we're gonna squash this thing. So I get there at
eleven o'clock at night and you can see all the

(55:03):
suits in the back, which were all the Gambino heads.
And I know these guys and they're always really good
to me. I just hate that John Gutty Junior and
those guys are all a bunch of thugs. And I
had no problem saying it in the nineties and I
still can say it today. Yeah, yeah, not afraid and
yeah yeah. So what happened was I get to this meeting.
It's like something out of like Griffellas had just come out,

(55:25):
and I'm like, rows like my life now, I'm like,
i'd a sit down. And then Ralph's like, listen, he's
my nephew. He's around us. Tell Junior next time he
comes near him, come correct or we're gonna have a problem.
And then he goes Raffie, I didn't know I'm here.
I didn't know. I didn't know. I said, the next
time you walk into that restaurant, was you gonna do
this week? You're gonna pay and you're gonna bring all

(55:45):
your friends, and you're gonna pay, and you're gonna support
that restaurant. And if you ever go there again and
cause any trouble, I promise you the next time we
see each other, i'm gonna have you crawl on the
floor like the dog that you are, and I'm gonna
kick you in the ass until you bark in front
of all these people, my guess. And I was just
like very descriptive, Oh yeah, and that's exactly what happened.
I'm like, all of a sudden, I think I grew

(56:06):
six inches. As I'm walking out the door, I'm like, wow,
I got friends like this. So as I'm talking to
my dad the next day about what happened, He's like, well,
he may have just exchanged one devil for the other.
And I would be thinking that too. Yeah, And the
truth be told, it's not true, right, no, these guys,
because that's what you would think from we're protecting you. Now,
you got to pay us, right, These guys continued to

(56:26):
come to Gotham Diner, and basically they continued to pay,
and they wouldn't They would never hear of it. If
I want, I think the first time I try to
take the check. He's like no, no, no, no, no, no,
put the check down. And they're always paying with a
credit card, which is really funny. You think mob's always
paying with a credit card. They wanted yea, that they
wanted a paper trail that you know what, we're just

(56:48):
we're just like this kid and there's no nothing attached
and everything stopped. All right. That's jad is more Fogan
and we'll be back with some more. When we come back,
we'll discuss Madonna and Tupac and how he didn't let
them in the club. It's way up with Angela Yee
yea at bringing Ringing the night up with Angela Yee

(57:12):
and Stratus Morphogen, author of Be a Disruptor and also
restaurant our Brooklyn Top House, The Leaps. All of that
is here with us and we got some questions. Now
let's get back to this Tupac and I know we
have to do that. So you open up Ruge Nightclub.
Yeah right, everybody's coming here. It's the hot spot. Yeah,
this is so, this is actually so. The night before

(57:32):
the grand opening, um, Julia Cooke came to me and said,
I want to throw a birthday party from my husband
David Cooke, who is the energy conglomerate and you know,
multi billionaire family. And I said, wow, that's a great
way to open it. Because only celebrity I knew at
the time was Susan Lucchi. Because I grew up in
Garden City, I didn't know. Actually I saw her last week.
She looks amazing, but she's like the only celebrity I

(57:54):
ever knew. I didn't know what a celebrity was. Um.
And actually the young kids that I met at Gotham
Diner there weren't celebrities yet. David Blaine's and all this.
They're all working for me for a hundred bucks a night,
but they weren't celebrities. Wow. So so here I opened
up the nightclub and then night and I told, like
my big fact Greek wedding, that's my family. I said,
it doesn't matter who comes to the door tonight, no
one's coming in. This is Thursday night. They could all

(58:15):
come on Friday. And it's a black tie event. You've
got like Henry Kissinger, Murradocks, you got it's who's to
a Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue for David Cooke's birthday party.
So putting that, my next though this is before the internet,
you know. The next till going off, and I'm like what,
They're like, you have to come to the front. There's
someone trying to get in. I said, if they're not
on the list and are coming in. They're like, you're

(58:36):
making this call. I'm not making the call. That's what
my security said, okay, And this time I'm so intoxicated
at this time, and I'm just like, I'm like, oh
my god, I'm thinking it's like, you know, maybe one
of my cousins I pretending to be a countess or something.
So I get to the front, as you know, black
guy there gold chains, looking pretty cool, but not for tonight.
There's a little blonde girl with a bomber jacket and

(58:57):
a Yankee hat. And I look at them and I
go and I turned on the st I don't want
to hear it. There's only black tie in there, you know. No,
I don't want to I don't care who they are.
And I walked away. So the next morning here every
one seven am. I saw that David Coake's party got
some press. I was like, all right, cool, they're like, bro,
look at page two the picture of me going like this,

(59:19):
and it says new Kid on the Block rejects Tupocket
Madonna and going like this is him saying like never
so wow, but that's not bad press. So I didn't
should really exclusive? Yeah yeah, and I'm not. I'm like
for us gump of clubs right now. It was a
total mistake and I had thought, oh my god, I
just ruined my club. I don't understand press at the time.

(59:40):
I'm twenty five years old, but obviously you know what
happened because they were like, you know, who is this guy?
Who is this guy? Stress? You know? Then Nile Rodgers
calls me a week later and he's like, bro, she
wants to come back. Are we cool? And I'm like,
I'm not worthy. So I'm like, Nile, as long as
she dresses right, we're cool. Yeah, we're cool like this,

(01:00:05):
And so she comes with Sam Cassell. Sam Cassell now
was playing for the Houston Rockets and the Houston Rockets
are playing the Knicks. This is June ninety four. She
comes in, she's gracious, She's like, I'm sorry, I go no, no,
I'm sorry, I'm no sit down. Whatever I got out
of Champagne closed the curtain. They were having like a
little dinner, a little you know, rendezvous, whatever that was.

(01:00:26):
I thought it was over. We're all friends, everything is good.
I saved my club. But meanwhile, the buzz on the
street walls, Wow, we got to go to this place,
and how do you reject like the hottest couple of
the moment. So when again, the next tellstout's going off?
Put on ET on channel two. I think it was CBS,
and I'm like, oh, what did I do? Now? I
put on two and Sam Cassell's wife is throwing all
his clothes out of the second story window. Pictures came

(01:00:49):
out with my bottle leaving with Sam Cassell for my
mid So that's how I became the Forrest Gump of
my cot. We need a series, writing, definitely, yeah, we
need comes. There are two options, thanks are they are
like a series or yeah, that's what they're discussing now,
Like is it a sex in the city type thing

(01:01:11):
for business and street smarts or is it like you know,
a doctor series and sex in the city, speaking of
which there's a connection there. I'm not going to give
it all away though, because you guys do have to
get the book to even see this is not even
the tip of the iceberg of all the things that
you'll learn and be a disruptor. But honestly, like just
knowing you from when I first met you, and how
great you've been just as a person. That is like

(01:01:33):
owning a restaurant in this business of service, because it
is a service business, it matters a lot. You've always
been really amazing. But Statis again, thank you so much,
and much love to your partners. And Dampoo was a
great friend of mine too. I talk to him about
business all the time. And you know, be a disruptor
is available now and anything else that we missed a
lot we got. Well. Thank you Jattis again, I appreciate

(01:01:59):
thank you always supporting things Angela all right, and you
know I like to support it because they've got some
good food and Jasmine and I like to eat. But
we do have asked ye when we come back. Eight
hundred two nine two fifty one fifty is the number
any question you want to ask, we are here to
help again. That's eight hundred two nine two fifty one fifty.
It's a way up with Angela. Yee. Everybody with its
relationship or career advice, Angela's dropping facts. What's up? Its

(01:02:24):
way up with Angela yee and it's time for ask ye.
Eight hundred two nine two fifty one fifty is the number,
and remember any question you have, we are here to help.
If you can't get through, you can always use that
number and leave a voicemail. Eight hundred two nine two
fifty one fifty And right now we have B on
the line. Hi are you guys? How are you driving
tour today? Good? How are you? You sound nice and

(01:02:44):
happy and lifted up? I'm blessed. How are you favorite?
Thank you are appreciated. So what is your question for
ask ye? Okay, you guys? So I am divorced. I've
been single four a year and five months down. I
hus been talking to someone, taking it very slow. Fernally
got physical, but the physical part of it just is

(01:03:08):
breach with our third would total gentleman and everything. He
had great states, we have great tim spending together. But
I can't feel anything. There's nothing you could really do
about the size. Does he do other things that pleasure you?
So yes, I was able to say, you know, horrible, yes,
But after that, you know, once you excited, you want

(01:03:29):
to go full in. Yeah, girl, we know. So it's
like once I get there, I don't know what to do,
and I didn't have multiple conversations. But he's so sweet.
He's just like, well, let's try something else to work
on the Let's try to work on it. At least
she talked to him, right, Yea, I love to just
communicate with whoever I'm with, but I feel like I'm

(01:03:50):
kind of like messing up his ego a little bit. Yeah,
I'm sure because it's something that he can't really help.
Everything else that he can do, you know, like you said,
he's great at but that's one thing. He was born
this particular way and unfortunately, sexually, it's not compatible with you.
So do you feel like could you see yourself being

(01:04:10):
with him in a permanent relationship? So in my mind,
I don't do date today. I'd let them know before
he is. You know, I'm looking for in the future,
something serious. I'm not any moon to like play game.
So now I think like more so towards the future. So, say,
when a couple of years it's trying to have kids,
how am I going to be comfortable with having the
kids if I can't feel it? And then my therapist said,

(01:04:33):
maybe I'll grow into it. But I never experienced just
growing into it. I just feel like you can't force it.
And if it's not there and something's missing that's important
to you. If it didn't matter to you that much,
I would say work with it. If you were like,
you know, I can deal with it. It's fine. He
still pleases me. But it feels like you're not okay
and you don't want to settle for something that you're

(01:04:55):
not okay with, and we're not here to try to
convict you. And I get it, like maybe you feel guilty.
Maybe you damn everything else is so great. I'm so
very guilty because I'm just like you know how us
as woman will pray for things in a relationship, and
when it comes and it's just one thing that's not missing,
is it right to just leave them alone? Or is
it okay to worry about your your self happiness and

(01:05:15):
what you want? And your self happiness is number one
right now? Let me just say that, And every life,
it's not about trying to make the other person happy.
If you're not happy, how you're gonna make the other
person happy next time in your prayer? You gotta you
gotta be more specific too. Yeah, Lord, let him feel me. Yeah,
if I if I stop talking to him for this reason,

(01:05:37):
then it's my law. That's what he's saying. I mean, right,
you know it is your loss because somebody else will
be fine with that and be okay with it, and
you're just not. And you can never and I had
to learn this myself. You can never force yourself to
be okay with something that you're not okay with. Everybody
else might be like, girl, are you crazy? Oh, it's not,
but you know how you feel, and clearly you feel.

(01:05:58):
You feel this so much that you're like, this ain't
gonna work. And you were married for so long. You
deserve happiness, you know, you just so Yeah, you deserve
what makes you happy. And there's certain things you can
compromise one and that's not one of them. Oh my goodness,
thank you, all rights so much. Okay, keep us, keep
us updated, please, I will our promise. Okay, all right,

(01:06:19):
all right, bye? All right, Bee, keep inching towards the
right man, because I'm feeling like that's not it. And
when we come back, we have the last word eight
hundred two nine two fifty one fifty. In case you
couldn't get through, you can always leave a message. We
love to hear from you, and y'all know you guys,
open and close the show. It's way up with Angela Yee.
Pick up the phone tapping and get your voice heard.

(01:06:41):
What the word gets the last word on Way Up
with Angela Yee. Yes, it is a way Up with Angela. Ye.
I'm Angela Yee and Jasmine Brand is here with me.
I love the little cool down, Yeah, Angela. I love
this all right, Olso I got my guy Chris Witherspoon
here with me today. D Chris say hello, Hey, I'm

(01:07:01):
buying right now. I'm in too. Know that this is
coming to an end right now, Okay, Chris coming back tomorrow.
I enjoying having you here so much, Chris. And make
sure you guys check out his app. By the way,
pot viewers, that's really why we know each other too.
That is really is We came together because she is
a brilliant entrepreneur. She is someone you want to pick

(01:07:23):
her brain before you do anything great in life. She's
also business world. She's also the Oprah winfree of radio.
Come on, come on listen to this. I coined that term.
I own it, y'all. This is not Angela saying that
I'm saying I'm giving her these flowers of radio Angela winfree.
I'm over here just looking at my credit I know

(01:07:43):
what's good. It's great buying. It is great, I said,
Angela my credit score with the weekend. She's like, we're
behind something, girl. That's how I am though. I'm like, Okay,
what we buying? What we got? We're building? Me buying?
What block we buying? That's how she rolls. People are
lying about these bank collapses and everything. Yeah, and I
know there was a lot of false information. In case
you missed it, we did have Art holding on yesterday

(01:08:05):
Teeth Market Strategists, and he was giving us a lot
of information. So check that out and tell Stratus more
fucking joined us today from Brooklyn chop House, founder of
Brooklyn Talk. We love founders, Yes and to leaves. Yes,
all right and so yes, Okay, what were you gonna say, Jasmine,
I was gonna say that I love the way art
tells a story. No artists from the Stratus. Yeah, I

(01:08:30):
was like hurt. No, I was like, I love the
way art breaks too. Art breaks things down as if
I'm a kindergartener, and I appreciate that all right, Well
we needed that because it's very complicated, so I'm not
gonna lie. But anyway, we want to make sure that
you guys have the last word today eight D two
one fifty and number less Harry last Words from Virginia Beach.

(01:08:53):
And I did not expect to like this show as
much as I did. I mean, I linked to on
YouTube Angian way up. I listened to the Breakfast Club
and I'm actually starting to listen to you to this
show more than the Breakfast Club. So you know, no, Shade,
I love everybody, but the Bible on this show is rocking,

(01:09:13):
So keep up to do work. I like this show
more than I expected to, so you got to keep
doing what you're doing. Well. So this your boy d
Ryot calling from Savannah, Georgia. Man, I want to sign
a light the hall Old City School. We're about to
have Saint Petro's down here this weekend and it's about
to be lit. We hosted a about a million people
in this city this weekend. It's your boyd Ryot textingmenth Yo,

(01:09:35):
whatout area? This scully quot from Green having Correctional facility.
Man doesn't here. Listen to you too, man, so shout
outside on the radio man. You pass our day bout
we locked in nineteen hours a day man to make
sure you shout all the dudes. That's of our favorite
green Haven out man. One I heard about the book
Things or Discipline your Child, I just wanted to say

(01:09:58):
that Caliperi wasn't the only one that experienced the same thing.
I got a whooping or beating, whatever you want to
call it, every time I did something wrong. And I
feel like as a mother now, explanation and talking to
a child it's more beneficial than just whoop in the
ash every time they do something wrong. My son is five,

(01:10:20):
and because that's something more thoughts on them. But I
feel as though if you talk to a child and
you get them to comprehend, pop in or thinking it
should be the last resort way up where Angela ye