Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Kem.
Platinum-selling R&B artist, author of Share My Life
🎯 Purpose of the Interview
To explore Kem’s memoir Share My Life, which chronicles his journey from addiction and homelessness to musical success and personal healing. The interview aims to inspire listeners by highlighting the power of vulnerability, perseverance, and self-transformation.
🔑 Key Takeaways 1. Healing Through Storytelling
Kem wrote Share My Life to help others heal, just as others’ stories helped him:
“Any healing and transformation that I have experienced… is because somebody shared their story with me.”
2. Overcoming Self
Kem emphasizes that the biggest obstacle in life is often oneself:
“All of life is about overcoming self… My biggest problem has always been me.”
3. Family Dynamics & Silence
Kem discusses the generational silence in his family and how it shaped his emotional struggles:
“We didn’t talk about stuff… You’re left to fend for yourself emotionally, spiritually and psychologically.”
4. Addiction & Recovery
Kem’s sobriety began on July 23, 1990, marking a turning point in his life:
“When the student is ready, the teacher appears… I surrendered.”
5. Entrepreneurial Hustle
Kem self-funded his breakout album Chemistry using a $17,000 American Express loan:
“I figured this will either work or I’ll have the largest credit card bill in America.”
He learned the music business in real time—creating barcodes, consignment sheets, and selling CDs in local stores.
6. Letting Go to Move Forward
Kem found success when he stopped obsessing over getting a record deal:
“I didn’t stop making music, but I let go of the idea that this was the only thing I could do.”
7. Fatherhood & Growth
He reflects on fatherhood, relationships, and the ongoing process of aligning his life:
“I’m always in the process of lining my life up… It’s not a place where you arrive.”
8. Education & Redemption
Kem returned to earn his high school diploma after dropping out, choosing that path over the GED:
“It was always a point of shame… I may as well go back to school.”
💬 Notable Quotes
- On vulnerability:
“In the telling of my story to help others, I’m also helping myself.”
- On entrepreneurship:
“Entrepreneurship is doing the next right thing.”
- On music’s role:
“My music is therapeutic… It’s uplifting, emotional, motivational.”
#SHMS #STRAW #BEST
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I am Rashan McDonald, a host of weekly Money
Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this
show provides are for everyone. It's time to stop reading
other people's success stories and start living your own. If
you want to be a guest on my show, please
visit our website, Moneymaking Conversations dot com and click the
be a Guest button. Chris Submit and information will come
(00:23):
directly to me. Now let's get this show started.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
My guest on the show today is a renowned R
and B singer songwriter Kim. For all of his life,
Kim has always been driven by music and the emotions
involved in bringing his music to life. He is now
the author of the memoir share My Life. In his
book Share My Life, Kim goes back to the very
beginning before his music start him to introduce us to
(00:46):
his grandmother, who worked as a sharecropper in the South
and had thirteen children. His mom always had a beer
in a hand, and he had a very intense relationship
with his father. Confused and rejected, Kim eventually used drugs
and alcohol for relief. He is on the show to
discuss this incredible journey. His independent music career, family, and
his book Share My Life. Please welcome to money making Conversation,
(01:08):
masterclaf the one and only Kim.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
How are you doing my brother?
Speaker 4 (01:12):
I'm good man. How you doing this book?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Let's let's just let's set the table here because it's
a great book.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I read it from cover to cover and my wife
he knows when I was maybe just leave me alone
and reading this is this is this is this is
this because you had me on the journey. But when
I when I look at who Kim is one platinum
selling album, Kim album to two goal selling albums, Chemistry
and Intimacy, three Grammy nomination, five number one hit singles.
Why are you writing this book Share my Life?
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Thank you for having me today, brother, I appreciate it.
I wrote this book because any healing and transformation that
I have experienced in my life, which has been a
great deal experience, because somebody shared their story with me
along the way, and uhbody was transparent with me. Someone
was vulnerable with me. Someone was willing to admit their
(02:05):
faults to me, and they're overcoming to me their triumph
and the tragedy of their lives. They shared those experiences
with me and it helped me to transform my life,
and I'm hoping that my book does the same for
someone else.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well, you know, when you because we know one, Kim,
you know you do not have a long relationship through
music through Steve Harvey morning sure a lot of events
we did together over the years, and when the inspiration
behind this book, I knew that version. I can remember
when I first met you. I believe it was in
Philadelphia at wdas, they large outdoor festival, and I just
saw this cool, little thin guy come down there with
(02:43):
his jacket on, sat down, no socks on, sat down
that piano and just did his thing, A confident guy.
And when I read the book, Kim, that wasn't who
you were growing up. The confidence wasn't there, the style
wasn't there, the grace wasn't there. Talk about that early
years of Kim.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
You know my In the book, I talk about my
struggles with with depression. I talk about being homeless for
a minute. I talked about my struggles with alcohol and
drug addiction. And people who follow me, you know, just
like you. You know, I've shared bits and pieces of my
story throughout the years of being signed to the Motown label.
It's been decades since I had a real job, and
(03:30):
those periods of my life were again you know, they
were they were they were hard years. There was a
lot of darkness, but I learned some things that that
that has helped me to uh to uh to sustain.
On July twenty third of nineteen ninety, I had my
last drink, my last drug. And there's an adage I
love that says when the student is ready to teach,
(03:51):
her appears and I, uh, I came to a place
where I where I stopped trying to consider the idea
that I could solve my own problem with my with
with with my present state of mind. Right, you know,
I gave up on I gave up on, you know,
my ideas on how to fix my life. And when
(04:11):
I surrendered. And that's what that was, was a surrender.
When I surrendered, you know, I ended up running into
some some some people, into some organizations that have that
have helped me build upon upon the there the foundation
of my career and my life today are built on
the shoulders of people who have come into my life
(04:32):
and shared their stories with me.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
You know, this is it. It's a really interesting book.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I'm talking to Kim his books Shared My Life, a
memoir about his life, his struggles as a youth, as
a young man, and we all had struggles. I've had
struggles and overcoming the arts, overcoming the overcoming yourself sometimes
when you think about it, because a lot of things
that you did, you are you created the problem now
when you look at yourself and this book, Kim, you know,
(04:56):
I'll be honest with you. Know we've talked, but just
to hear you talk this much, I didn't I didn't
know what to expect in this interview because you're a
very low key guy.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
You talk about shyness in the book.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Much of what has been written in the book. You know,
I've already I've already processed, you know, process and uh,
you know it is it is therapeutic in the sense
that in the telling of and the telling of my
story and an effort to help other people, I'm also
helping myself, right right, That's how I'm bearing witness. I'm
(05:30):
giving testimony which also which also feeds me and you
and you said something very interesting, you know that that
I want to that I want to pick up on.
You said, a lot of it is about overcoming overcoming
of self, right, and all of life. It is about
overcoming self. It's all about overcoming you. Right, all these
(05:53):
all these gurus on on Instagram and Facebook and the
creatures and were always talking about you can't let them
do this, do you you? And you know, don't pay
attention to your haters and Davis and theay that Look,
my biggest problem has always been has been me, right,
I'm it ain't other people, you know what I mean?
And uh, and you know you know that that that's
(06:14):
be'st and and uh. Entrepreneurship and and and success in
life is an internal job. It ain't an external job.
It's what it's what we tell ourselves and how we
navigate our innerspace that dictates what happens externally, you know.
So I share this, you know, in the book and
the hopes that I can you know that I can
inspire and encourage somebody to uh, you know, to get
(06:35):
to get to get through to the other side of
whatever they may be dealing within their lives, you know, And.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
You do it inspire because of the fact that, let's
put this way, Kim, you're doing things that I never did.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
And you accomplished some things in the book that I didn't.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I don't know if I could have overcome because of
the fact there's a support system in place. There were
two people who played very important roles, and I want
you to describe to them because they the name was
Mom in the book and mother in the book. Can
you explain to everybody who mother was and who Mom
was in your book?
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Well? Mom is Mom is is? You know my mom is.
When I talk about Mom, I'm talking about my mother,
the woman who gave birth to me at seventeen years
old and in Nashville, Tennessee. You know, she's pregnant by
a high school teacher that was at her school. You know,
(07:29):
an encounter of shame. I was born, you know, under
the auspices or in the auspices of shame. You know
her dad this is sixty seven, right, So her dad
was a preacher, was a pillar in the Pentecostal church.
So I mean it was it was a scandal, you
know what. Right on top of that, they burned in
(07:50):
Detroit down nineteen sixty.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
Seven, right, So you coming in, you know, out of wedlock,
the Tronto fire.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Welcome to the world, Kim and Uh. And the woman
I referred to as mother is my mom is my
mom's mother, and that's that was, that was everybody in
the family called her her mother, you know, and other
families the vernacular would be big mama. You know, she
was big Mama. And in our family and too strong,
(08:21):
strong willed, strong willed, powerful determined women, you know, and uh,
with all of their with all the tragedy and all
of the triumph of their lives, you know. And uh,
I talk about silence, you know, and how silence is
the silence in our in our family dynamic was was generational.
(08:43):
You know. We didn't talk about stuff. We didn't have
the tools to to communicate. We didn't have coping skills,
especially you know in African American community. I'm sure in
other communities as well. You know, there's the there's the uh.
You know, this is grown folks business. You don't ask
any questions. You go over in the corner and you
it down. The dysfunction that is displayed in the household
(09:04):
is not it's not uh. You don't get debriefed on it.
You know, it just happens and you're left to find
for yourself emotionally, spiritually, and and and psychologically. And uh,
there was a lot of that growing up. And we've
done a lot of good work to get to the
other side of that, you know, and I'm grateful for that,
you know. But but those are the seeds that that
(09:27):
informed my my my uh low self esteem, my childhood depression,
my my ultimately my addiction, you know, being in and
out of jail and hospitalized, you know, out in the streets, stealing, conniving,
you know. Uh, you know, those were the seeds, you know.
And uh, and I talked about that and I'm great
and I'm and I'm cool, you know, I'm I'm not.
(09:49):
I don't I don't wish to shut the door on
my past. It's a part of who I am, you know.
It makes me who I am today. It informs the music,
it informs the art, and you know, and it's and
it's a witness, you know, it's a it's a testimony
to to going through something, you know, and taking taking
your lemons the lemon life, you know, and making some
(10:14):
delicious lemonade.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Well you know, you know interesting first of all, and
reading the book is a is a very honest book.
And that is always when you start writing these memoirs,
you start evaluating yourself and you start because you're not
just talking about yourself, You're talking about.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Other people who have who have journeyed with you now.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
And because you talk about so many different people, so
many different people who had emotional, very very close emotional words,
did you reach back at the individual that you talked
about in the book?
Speaker 3 (10:43):
How was that broker into in writing your memoir?
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Not all of them, you know, having had a conversation
with everyone. Uh that is that is uh depicted in
the book. I you know, my mom was interviewed for
the book, and early on in the writing that's my
my father was interviewed for the book. You know I did.
I went on Rashaan. I went way around the block
(11:10):
to protect to protect my my I went way around
the block, to not detegrate, to not uh dishonor to
not bring shame on the other characters of the book.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
And I noticed that, you know, because you know, I've
been fortunate to being in this role of writing a
memoir with a superstar talent like you, and and being
able to because once it goes out there, you can't
bring it back. And then all of a sudden, certain people,
you try to write it as comfortable as possible, but
they still get offended by it because they feel you
didn't tell it the way they it should have been
(11:45):
told you you should have asked me. So it becomes
it becomes something you write honestly, and then when it
gets published, that's another journey that you have to deal
with because the fact that your story has to be told,
that it'll only be told one way through your through
the lens of camp. And with that being said, it
had to start somewhere, and it started in the house.
(12:05):
It started with your mom, started your dad, started with
the mother, which is your grandmother. That, okay, was important
before you move forward, correct, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Yeah, I mean that that is I mean, that's that's
the found that that's where it all starts, you know.
And and I you know so so so backing up,
it's like, yes, you know, I'm seeing it. I told
the truth as I see it, you know, and I'm
in there, and there is no way that I would
have told the truth or I would have There was
no way that I would have characterized that. No matter
(12:36):
what I had said, I would not characterize it. I
would not have characterized it the way that another kid
that someone else would have. You know, everybody's going to
be different. You know, I could make it especially as
nice as possible and there and you know, people would
still take issue with it. I expect that, and I
anticipate that, and that that's you know, I think that
(12:58):
that's just part for the course. But I but I did,
you know, I you know, I treated everybody, you know respectfully.
I told the truth, but I you know, I didn't.
My intent was not to was not to shame or
or or or or or integrate anyone.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
And you didn't, and you and you didn't. I want
to be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
You didn't because I know the level of honesty that
these books have to be and UH, and especially with
two of the UH. The people you had to discuss were,
you know, the mothers of your children. That was important
that that story was told as accurately and as sensitive
as possible. But one of the part about growing up
with because your you're your father, you know, he is
(13:37):
an engineer, graduated from HBCU Tennessee State, and your mom
eventually got her degree at Wayne State. And when we
come back from this break, I want to talk about chemistry.
That man when you when you started talking about that man,
that the book went to a whole different level because
it became an entrepreneurial book, and it became it became
a different That's the part of the book that you
(14:00):
is incredibly intense, incredibly well written, incredibly I open it,
but when you got to the entrepreneur section, that was
a section that really told me why you're great today.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Please don't go anywhere.
Speaker 6 (14:12):
We'll be right back with more money Making Conversations Masterclass.
Welcome back to Money Making Conversations master Class hosted by
me Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversation master Class continues online
at Moneymaking Conversations dot com and follow money Making Conversations
master Class on Facebook, X and Instagram. I gotta tell
(14:35):
everybody let her know when I when I get to
my truck and go to my player, the first four
songs I gotta just let everybody know are Kim songs.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
He is And I say that to be honest to everybody.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
When I bring him on the show, is that that
when somebody has comes into your life musically. Because music
plays are such a powerful role in people's lives, a
lot of people don't understand the you have music, Kim.
When you started putting together chemistry, you became a perfectionist.
They had to be right, it had to be and
you and you were driving people crazy. Tell us about
(15:12):
that journey as an independent music producers, seller and artists.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Yeah, I'm still driving people crazy. Well, I you know,
and I didn't. I didn't set out, you know, entrepreneur.
You know, I think sometimes it gets uh, we complicated,
you know, we complicated, and you know, there's lots to learn.
(15:41):
And you know, I watched Shark Tank and I hear
people coming in there. Man, they're breaking down their business
and like breaking down their numbers and you know, the
cost of acquisition for one of their online I mean,
they know all of that Stuffdude, I didn't know any
of that. I didn't know any of that stuff. All
I knew was I needed. I wanted to make I
wanted to put a CD out on my own, you know,
And I learned. I just kept doing the next What
(16:03):
what was the next? Right? What's the most logical thing?
The next right, logical thing that you need to do?
Do that right? Like you need to do is record
this right, So go and find the studio you know
to record. Well, the first thing you need, you need
some money, right, So I had you know, I kept
my I had been UH in credit recovery for a
(16:25):
few years and ended up getting an American Express card.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Come on, goal card, Now let's go give you credit.
It was a gold card.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
Now it was a goal it was a gold card,
and then UH and then attached to the gold card, well,
it wasn't attached to the gold card. But then I
had the Gold card for a couple of years, and
and then I ended up getting a business line of credit,
you know, seventeen thousand dollars from American Express. So they
didn't know what I was going to do with the money.
But what I did with the money was record, was
(16:51):
record the Chemistry album, you know, and and on yourself.
You have to if you can. If you're not gonna
better on it, then don't bring your proposal to my door.
How much you right, that's right? How much money you
got it your skin is you know, are you willing
(17:12):
to put everything that you got, you know, on the line?
And I was, yeah, I figured, look, this will either
work or if it don't work, I'll just have the
largest credit card bill in America that I will spend
the next thirty five years, you know, paying off. But
if it works, you know. Then then I'm onto something.
So I was you know, I was just I just
kept doing the next right thing, you know, and recording
(17:33):
the record, finding the place to produce the record, you know, pivoting,
you know, when I wasn't at the right studio because
this dude didn't really you know, didn't provide me with
what I needed. So I had to pivot to somebody else,
you know, to help record the album. My manager then
was Toya Hankins, and you know she was instrumental in
the marketing and yep, yeah, we were sending you know,
(17:56):
I was sending people. I didn't know any you know,
I do. I didn't have any any I did have
some books, you know, how to manage your bands and
all this business of music. You know. I knew how
to copyright. So there was an education that was taking
the place. But it was taking place in real time,
you know. I was learning as I was, as I
was going, And what's the next right thing? You know,
(18:17):
So somebody's going to buy the CD. They're going to
scan it, so you need to have a UPC code.
Now you can record at the studio and they'll put
theirs on there. They'll do that for you, It's like, nah,
I want my own. So I went to the UPC
Code Council or whatever that is and got my own
barcode that will have today, you know, put it on
the back of the records. Was selling them, you know,
on consignment at the mom and pop record stores in Detroit.
(18:39):
I had to make I had to use, you know,
a word program to to make consignment sheets so that
I could keep track of of, you know, my sales
and how much people owed me. And I mean it
was a it was definitely it was. It was. It
was definitely definitely uh, you know, an entrepreneurial uh endeavor.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
You know, you know the reason the reason I ordered
the people to hear that because people don't see the
end game. They only hear the denominations their awards. Well,
you were hustling, man, you was, you was taking your
album back in the day after when they were albums
to different stores and could you sell this? So can
you sell my CD? And then you had to humble
yourself to be a salesman and convince people and talk
(19:25):
people and talk yourself up. And a lot of people
today are they missed that step. They think that I
can get on social media I can get a bunch
of followers and I can be a star, but then
there is some groundwork to that.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Correct, Yeah, there's there's definitely, well, you know, I don't know, man,
I mean, you know, I see people on on online,
you know, and the YouTube stars, and you know, I
mean they you know, I motivated. You know, I don't
know how. I don't know how I would do it today.
You know, Uh, you know their motivation is you know,
(19:57):
they don't you know, I don't. I can't can't. I
can't speak to that, but I can speak to is.
Is is the discipline and and building something that lasts forever.
But dude, if you can stream and you don't have
you don't have to do that, and you can stream
a billion streams and become a millionaire and like sit
at the house and never leave the house and never
(20:18):
do shows, so the world. But I can't do that,
right right right? We gotta have I got, you know,
so I uh you know, but I you know, I
had to. I had to. I had to. We had
to work, you know, we had to work and had
to build a foundation that that has lasted for two decades,
you know, and you know, and I'm I'm, I'm, I'm.
(20:42):
I couldn't be happier and more grateful, you know, for
the grind that it took to sit where I sit today.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
And the grind is always about the unknown. And then
as you're going through what is music really the ultimate?
What was that turning point? Because I read was your
ninth grade your music teacher with the first person they've
really set you in front of a piano or a keyboard,
and you start playing around with that, and then you
started spending hours more than you spend time in the book.
(21:09):
You start spending time on a at these keys. When
did when did that become like you know, your master,
Like this is what I love because that's what we
all learning, like whether it's dribbling a basketball or standing
on stage as a comedian or a singer. When did
you realize that this is a gift, This is my gift.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
I mean, I knew that I loved I knew that
I knew that I loved it before before our family
moved left Nashville. You know, I loved the piano when
I was a toddler. You know, I didn't either there
was a check attached to it or or it was
a you know, a possible vocation until much later, you know,
in in my life, and you know, and actually and
(21:49):
there's a you know, and there's a paradox there too,
because I didn't get a deal. Well, you know, when
I got a deal, when I stopped, when I when
I you know, I realized that, uh, that I didn't
have to you know, I had always been chasing a
record deal since I was a teenager. You know, when
I came to a place in my thirties, I was like,
you know what, maybe music is not my thing. I
(22:09):
thought that I became open to the idea I could
be successful doing something else, you know, it doesn't have
to be music. And I let go of it. I
didn't stop making music, but I let go of the
idea that this was a.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Passion of it or because of the doubt or or
the rejection.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Is that why you let go on the idea?
Speaker 4 (22:29):
It was none of that. Is this was elevated thinking, Right,
It wasn't that it was the rejection. It was like
I was just open to the you know, it's a
spiritual axiom. Right, I had this. I gotta have it.
I gotta have it, I gotta have it, I gotta
have it. I gotta have it, and it's like, no,
you know what, I don't have to have it. I
can be successful doing something else. Let me go find
out what that is. And it didn't mean that I
(22:50):
was going to quit making music. It just meant that,
you know, it didn't I didn't, you know, like, dude,
there's more to me than just than just doing this.
Let me go find out what those things are. And
I went and looked at for those things and I
failed miserably. However, it was. It was the letting go, right.
It was the letting go and being willing and all.
(23:11):
I think. Business is one thing that I've that has
really been crucial to me, and this last you know,
probably eighteen month period is that businesses fail, man, and
people fail because they don't pivot. They don't pivot soon enough,
you know, they wait and they hold on, you know.
And I say this for the people who, you know,
(23:33):
for the for the aspiring singer whose mother tell them
that they sound good singing in the living room, and
spend your whole life until you're sixty five years old
trying to sing, you know, when actually you make some
pretty good cupcakes, and that's what you should be doing right,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Oh, that's funny.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
In your book now you talk about trying to be
a comedian. Now you didn't talk about.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Trying to be That was a very good joke there,
my brother, thank you.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Look, you know, so
I feel I you know, I I've always known what
it was, you know, But I'm always open to the
idea that I don't have all the answers, right, I'm
always open to the idea that I don't have all
the answers. And even even today, dude, it's like, yeah,
I make records. I'm sitting down here, you know, I
(24:19):
just wrote this book. We got a live album that
just came out. I'm out on the road with with
Letteracy and UH and music Soul Child, And still ask
myself every day, Lord, if to hey, yo, then point
point me in the right direction. I want nothing that
don't belong to me, you know, which is anti entrepreneur.
You know that that whole self will you know? And
police sofa up by the bootstraps. There's a place for that,
(24:40):
you know. But it comes with limitations. So I just
I just I just remain I just remain open.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
But there was a shot that you potentially selling Mary
Kay though.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
I was. I wasn't. I wasn't selling Mary Kay for
the car I was selling Mary I was.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
I love it right right?
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah, you know the emotional side of this, You know,
you talk about the relationship, you talk about you know,
your skin tone being bullied and and but the relationships
ties really to the music. It ties to your therapist
telling you that probably your music is therapeutic to you.
When you started getting these answers along the way, you
and your father too incredibly amazing children out of wedlock.
(25:30):
Can you start dealing with that, the responsibility of fatherhood
and your career and trying to maintain a responsibility and
stay close to your children.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
When did you start.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Lining everything up, Kim that it made sense to you
that I'm doing.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
It right, I have, you know, I don't know that
it's I don't know that. You know, I'm always in
the process of lining it up. You know, it's always
I'm always in the processes process of lining it lining
my life up and peeling the layers of the onion
to my life. You know, I don't think it's not
a place where you arrive because I look back, you know,
(26:06):
where I thought I had it lined up pretty good,
and like, you know, I'm looking back and like, dude,
you were crazy right back right we like you know,
with every you know, I'm not we we are constantly evolving, constantly,
constantly learning. I'm not the guy. I'm not the same
guy I was six months ago. You know what I'm saying.
It's like constantly you know, reevaluating, constantly, you know, as
(26:31):
Stephen Covey would say, you know, constantly sharpening the saw,
you know, trying to get It's not it's not a
question of of arriving. It's a question of continuing to
to to make the best effort to do, to keep
doing the next right thing, you know, and building upon that,
you know. And I'm fair, I'm gonna you know, I'm
in a pretty in a pretty good place, you know,
(26:52):
right now. But I also know that there's that there's
definitely more to learn and more to be discovered.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
The amazing thing that I discovered what you read in
this book, because you know, you only know a person
one side of a person, just like a person doesn't
know other size than me until I tell them and
reveal them. Like you were real like you were revealing
in this book. But you know the fact that you
made a conscious effort. You know, your mom graduated from
college Wayne State, your father graduated from Tennessee State, and
(27:19):
then you made the conscious decision to go back to
school because you dropped out.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Why was that important?
Speaker 4 (27:26):
I went? I went back to get my high school plomba. Yeah. Yeah,
I didn't go to you know, I was not you know,
I was not college material. And that's and that's okay,
we're getting ingrained, and you know, we ingrained in our
children at you know, college, college, college, and everybody ain't
gonna thrive in college, you know what I'm saying. So,
but I went back to get my high school diploma
(27:47):
because it was always a point of it was always
a point of shame, you know for me. And I
was trying. I was actually I actually was trying to
take the GED. I was trying to take the GED
to get my GED. But the test for the g
ED will shoot hard. It was easier for me.
Speaker 7 (28:04):
I'm like, dude, I may as well as well go
back to school, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
You know, I'm gonna tell you. I'm telling Kim, I
gotta stop you man. You know this is a pretty
intense book.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Man.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
You know, Kim is a pretty intense showman. And we've
been laughing. Man, we've been joking around.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
That's the amazing side of this story and the amazing
side of you.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Man.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
You a good brother, man, You are a You are
a winner, you are you are a comedian. And that's
a side of y'all. I'm so happy I'm getting to
hear and see for the first time in my life
because as as as a person who watch you perform,
I'm in awe. And that's a shield because you know
when you like you're saying, Michael Jackson came out and
(28:56):
Prince and you know, all those songs you talk about
that really turn your direction of who you are today.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
That's who you are.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
To me when I watch you on stay as an
artist because of the fact that how you affect me
from a stand from a personal standpoint.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
It's all good.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
It's all good because you motivate your your Your music
is motivational, Your music is emotional, music is uplifting, all
those things that that.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
As an artist you want it to be.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
But to hear you, you know, in this layer of you,
I've never seen before.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
It's really refreshing in your thoughts. Is this is this Kim?
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Thank you? Yeah, this is Kim. This is Kim. Yeah yeah,
thank you man, thank you for that, you know, and
thank you or Shaan's good talking to you.
Speaker 6 (29:39):
This has been Money Making Conversation Masterclass with me Rashaan McDonald.
Thanks to our guess and our audience. Visit Moneymakingconversation dot
com to listen or register to be a guest on
my show. Keep leading with your gifts, keep winning.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
It is
Hi, I am Rashan McDonald, a host of weekly Money
Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this
show provides are for everyone. It's time to stop reading
other people's success stories and start living your own. If
you want to be a guest on my show, please
visit our website, Moneymaking Conversations dot com and click the
be a Guest button. Chris Submit and information will come
(00:23):
directly to me. Now let's get this show started.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
My guest on the show today is a renowned R
and B singer songwriter Kim. For all of his life,
Kim has always been driven by music and the emotions
involved in bringing his music to life. He is now
the author of the memoir share My Life. In his
book Share My Life, Kim goes back to the very
beginning before his music start him to introduce us to
(00:46):
his grandmother, who worked as a sharecropper in the South
and had thirteen children. His mom always had a beer
in a hand, and he had a very intense relationship
with his father. Confused and rejected, Kim eventually used drugs
and alcohol for relief. He is on the show to
discuss this incredible journey. His independent music career, family, and
his book Share My Life. Please welcome to money making Conversation,
(01:08):
masterclaf the one and only Kim.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
How are you doing my brother?
Speaker 4 (01:12):
I'm good man. How you doing this book?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Let's let's just let's set the table here because it's
a great book.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I read it from cover to cover and my wife
he knows when I was maybe just leave me alone
and reading this is this is this is this is
this because you had me on the journey. But when
I when I look at who Kim is one platinum
selling album, Kim album to two goal selling albums, Chemistry
and Intimacy, three Grammy nomination, five number one hit singles.
Why are you writing this book Share my Life?
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Thank you for having me today, brother, I appreciate it.
I wrote this book because any healing and transformation that
I have experienced in my life, which has been a
great deal experience, because somebody shared their story with me
along the way, and uhbody was transparent with me. Someone
was vulnerable with me. Someone was willing to admit their
(02:05):
faults to me, and they're overcoming to me their triumph
and the tragedy of their lives. They shared those experiences
with me and it helped me to transform my life,
and I'm hoping that my book does the same for
someone else.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well, you know, when you because we know one, Kim,
you know you do not have a long relationship through
music through Steve Harvey morning sure a lot of events
we did together over the years, and when the inspiration
behind this book, I knew that version. I can remember
when I first met you. I believe it was in
Philadelphia at wdas, they large outdoor festival, and I just
saw this cool, little thin guy come down there with
(02:43):
his jacket on, sat down, no socks on, sat down
that piano and just did his thing, A confident guy.
And when I read the book, Kim, that wasn't who
you were growing up. The confidence wasn't there, the style
wasn't there, the grace wasn't there. Talk about that early
years of Kim.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
You know my In the book, I talk about my
struggles with with depression. I talk about being homeless for
a minute. I talked about my struggles with alcohol and
drug addiction. And people who follow me, you know, just
like you. You know, I've shared bits and pieces of my
story throughout the years of being signed to the Motown label.
It's been decades since I had a real job, and
(03:30):
those periods of my life were again you know, they
were they were they were hard years. There was a
lot of darkness, but I learned some things that that
that has helped me to uh to uh to sustain.
On July twenty third of nineteen ninety, I had my
last drink, my last drug. And there's an adage I
love that says when the student is ready to teach,
(03:51):
her appears and I, uh, I came to a place
where I where I stopped trying to consider the idea
that I could solve my own problem with my with
with with my present state of mind. Right, you know,
I gave up on I gave up on, you know,
my ideas on how to fix my life. And when
(04:11):
I surrendered. And that's what that was, was a surrender.
When I surrendered, you know, I ended up running into
some some some people, into some organizations that have that
have helped me build upon upon the there the foundation
of my career and my life today are built on
the shoulders of people who have come into my life
(04:32):
and shared their stories with me.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
You know, this is it. It's a really interesting book.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I'm talking to Kim his books Shared My Life, a
memoir about his life, his struggles as a youth, as
a young man, and we all had struggles. I've had
struggles and overcoming the arts, overcoming the overcoming yourself sometimes
when you think about it, because a lot of things
that you did, you are you created the problem now
when you look at yourself and this book, Kim, you know,
(04:56):
I'll be honest with you. Know we've talked, but just
to hear you talk this much, I didn't I didn't
know what to expect in this interview because you're a
very low key guy.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
You talk about shyness in the book.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Much of what has been written in the book. You know,
I've already I've already processed, you know, process and uh,
you know it is it is therapeutic in the sense
that in the telling of and the telling of my
story and an effort to help other people, I'm also
helping myself, right right, That's how I'm bearing witness. I'm
(05:30):
giving testimony which also which also feeds me and you
and you said something very interesting, you know that that
I want to that I want to pick up on.
You said, a lot of it is about overcoming overcoming
of self, right, and all of life. It is about
overcoming self. It's all about overcoming you. Right, all these
(05:53):
all these gurus on on Instagram and Facebook and the
creatures and were always talking about you can't let them
do this, do you you? And you know, don't pay
attention to your haters and Davis and theay that Look,
my biggest problem has always been has been me, right,
I'm it ain't other people, you know what I mean?
And uh, and you know you know that that that's
(06:14):
be'st and and uh. Entrepreneurship and and and success in
life is an internal job. It ain't an external job.
It's what it's what we tell ourselves and how we
navigate our innerspace that dictates what happens externally, you know.
So I share this, you know, in the book and
the hopes that I can you know that I can
inspire and encourage somebody to uh, you know, to get
(06:35):
to get to get through to the other side of
whatever they may be dealing within their lives, you know, And.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
You do it inspire because of the fact that, let's
put this way, Kim, you're doing things that I never did.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
And you accomplished some things in the book that I didn't.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I don't know if I could have overcome because of
the fact there's a support system in place. There were
two people who played very important roles, and I want
you to describe to them because they the name was
Mom in the book and mother in the book. Can
you explain to everybody who mother was and who Mom
was in your book?
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Well? Mom is Mom is is? You know my mom is.
When I talk about Mom, I'm talking about my mother,
the woman who gave birth to me at seventeen years
old and in Nashville, Tennessee. You know, she's pregnant by
a high school teacher that was at her school. You know,
(07:29):
an encounter of shame. I was born, you know, under
the auspices or in the auspices of shame. You know
her dad this is sixty seven, right, So her dad
was a preacher, was a pillar in the Pentecostal church.
So I mean it was it was a scandal, you
know what. Right on top of that, they burned in
(07:50):
Detroit down nineteen sixty.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
Seven, right, So you coming in, you know, out of wedlock,
the Tronto fire.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Welcome to the world, Kim and Uh. And the woman
I referred to as mother is my mom is my
mom's mother, and that's that was, that was everybody in
the family called her her mother, you know, and other
families the vernacular would be big mama. You know, she
was big Mama. And in our family and too strong,
(08:21):
strong willed, strong willed, powerful determined women, you know, and uh,
with all of their with all the tragedy and all
of the triumph of their lives, you know. And uh,
I talk about silence, you know, and how silence is
the silence in our in our family dynamic was was generational.
(08:43):
You know. We didn't talk about stuff. We didn't have
the tools to to communicate. We didn't have coping skills,
especially you know in African American community. I'm sure in
other communities as well. You know, there's the there's the uh.
You know, this is grown folks business. You don't ask
any questions. You go over in the corner and you
it down. The dysfunction that is displayed in the household
(09:04):
is not it's not uh. You don't get debriefed on it.
You know, it just happens and you're left to find
for yourself emotionally, spiritually, and and and psychologically. And uh,
there was a lot of that growing up. And we've
done a lot of good work to get to the
other side of that, you know, and I'm grateful for that,
you know. But but those are the seeds that that
(09:27):
informed my my my uh low self esteem, my childhood depression,
my my ultimately my addiction, you know, being in and
out of jail and hospitalized, you know, out in the streets, stealing, conniving,
you know. Uh, you know, those were the seeds, you know.
And uh, and I talked about that and I'm great
and I'm and I'm cool, you know, I'm I'm not.
(09:49):
I don't I don't wish to shut the door on
my past. It's a part of who I am, you know.
It makes me who I am today. It informs the music,
it informs the art, and you know, and it's and
it's a witness, you know, it's a it's a testimony
to to going through something, you know, and taking taking
your lemons the lemon life, you know, and making some
(10:14):
delicious lemonade.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Well you know, you know interesting first of all, and
reading the book is a is a very honest book.
And that is always when you start writing these memoirs,
you start evaluating yourself and you start because you're not
just talking about yourself, You're talking about.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Other people who have who have journeyed with you now.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
And because you talk about so many different people, so
many different people who had emotional, very very close emotional words,
did you reach back at the individual that you talked
about in the book?
Speaker 3 (10:43):
How was that broker into in writing your memoir?
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Not all of them, you know, having had a conversation
with everyone. Uh that is that is uh depicted in
the book. I you know, my mom was interviewed for
the book, and early on in the writing that's my
my father was interviewed for the book. You know I did.
I went on Rashaan. I went way around the block
(11:10):
to protect to protect my my I went way around
the block, to not detegrate, to not uh dishonor to
not bring shame on the other characters of the book.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
And I noticed that, you know, because you know, I've
been fortunate to being in this role of writing a
memoir with a superstar talent like you, and and being
able to because once it goes out there, you can't
bring it back. And then all of a sudden, certain people,
you try to write it as comfortable as possible, but
they still get offended by it because they feel you
didn't tell it the way they it should have been
(11:45):
told you you should have asked me. So it becomes
it becomes something you write honestly, and then when it
gets published, that's another journey that you have to deal
with because the fact that your story has to be told,
that it'll only be told one way through your through
the lens of camp. And with that being said, it
had to start somewhere, and it started in the house.
(12:05):
It started with your mom, started your dad, started with
the mother, which is your grandmother. That, okay, was important
before you move forward, correct, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Yeah, I mean that that is I mean, that's that's
the found that that's where it all starts, you know.
And and I you know so so so backing up,
it's like, yes, you know, I'm seeing it. I told
the truth as I see it, you know, and I'm
in there, and there is no way that I would
have told the truth or I would have There was
no way that I would have characterized that. No matter
(12:36):
what I had said, I would not characterize it. I
would not have characterized it the way that another kid
that someone else would have. You know, everybody's going to
be different. You know, I could make it especially as
nice as possible and there and you know, people would
still take issue with it. I expect that, and I
anticipate that, and that that's you know, I think that
(12:58):
that's just part for the course. But I but I did,
you know, I you know, I treated everybody, you know respectfully.
I told the truth, but I you know, I didn't.
My intent was not to was not to shame or
or or or or or integrate anyone.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
And you didn't, and you and you didn't. I want
to be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
You didn't because I know the level of honesty that
these books have to be and UH, and especially with
two of the UH. The people you had to discuss were,
you know, the mothers of your children. That was important
that that story was told as accurately and as sensitive
as possible. But one of the part about growing up
with because your you're your father, you know, he is
(13:37):
an engineer, graduated from HBCU Tennessee State, and your mom
eventually got her degree at Wayne State. And when we
come back from this break, I want to talk about chemistry.
That man when you when you started talking about that man,
that the book went to a whole different level because
it became an entrepreneurial book, and it became it became
a different That's the part of the book that you
(14:00):
is incredibly intense, incredibly well written, incredibly I open it,
but when you got to the entrepreneur section, that was
a section that really told me why you're great today.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Please don't go anywhere.
Speaker 6 (14:12):
We'll be right back with more money Making Conversations Masterclass.
Welcome back to Money Making Conversations master Class hosted by
me Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversation master Class continues online
at Moneymaking Conversations dot com and follow money Making Conversations
master Class on Facebook, X and Instagram. I gotta tell
(14:35):
everybody let her know when I when I get to
my truck and go to my player, the first four
songs I gotta just let everybody know are Kim songs.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
He is And I say that to be honest to everybody.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
When I bring him on the show, is that that
when somebody has comes into your life musically. Because music
plays are such a powerful role in people's lives, a
lot of people don't understand the you have music, Kim.
When you started putting together chemistry, you became a perfectionist.
They had to be right, it had to be and
you and you were driving people crazy. Tell us about
(15:12):
that journey as an independent music producers, seller and artists.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Yeah, I'm still driving people crazy. Well, I you know,
and I didn't. I didn't set out, you know, entrepreneur.
You know, I think sometimes it gets uh, we complicated,
you know, we complicated, and you know, there's lots to learn.
(15:41):
And you know, I watched Shark Tank and I hear
people coming in there. Man, they're breaking down their business
and like breaking down their numbers and you know, the
cost of acquisition for one of their online I mean,
they know all of that Stuffdude, I didn't know any
of that. I didn't know any of that stuff. All
I knew was I needed. I wanted to make I
wanted to put a CD out on my own, you know,
And I learned. I just kept doing the next What
(16:03):
what was the next? Right? What's the most logical thing?
The next right, logical thing that you need to do?
Do that right? Like you need to do is record
this right, So go and find the studio you know
to record. Well, the first thing you need, you need
some money, right, So I had you know, I kept
my I had been UH in credit recovery for a
(16:25):
few years and ended up getting an American Express card.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Come on, goal card, Now let's go give you credit.
It was a gold card.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
Now it was a goal it was a gold card,
and then UH and then attached to the gold card, well,
it wasn't attached to the gold card. But then I
had the Gold card for a couple of years, and
and then I ended up getting a business line of credit,
you know, seventeen thousand dollars from American Express. So they
didn't know what I was going to do with the money.
But what I did with the money was record, was
(16:51):
record the Chemistry album, you know, and and on yourself.
You have to if you can. If you're not gonna
better on it, then don't bring your proposal to my door.
How much you right, that's right? How much money you
got it your skin is you know, are you willing
(17:12):
to put everything that you got, you know, on the line?
And I was, yeah, I figured, look, this will either
work or if it don't work, I'll just have the
largest credit card bill in America that I will spend
the next thirty five years, you know, paying off. But
if it works, you know. Then then I'm onto something.
So I was you know, I was just I just
kept doing the next right thing, you know, and recording
(17:33):
the record, finding the place to produce the record, you know, pivoting,
you know, when I wasn't at the right studio because
this dude didn't really you know, didn't provide me with
what I needed. So I had to pivot to somebody else,
you know, to help record the album. My manager then
was Toya Hankins, and you know she was instrumental in
the marketing and yep, yeah, we were sending you know,
(17:56):
I was sending people. I didn't know any you know,
I do. I didn't have any any I did have
some books, you know, how to manage your bands and
all this business of music. You know. I knew how
to copyright. So there was an education that was taking
the place. But it was taking place in real time,
you know. I was learning as I was, as I
was going, And what's the next right thing? You know,
(18:17):
So somebody's going to buy the CD. They're going to
scan it, so you need to have a UPC code.
Now you can record at the studio and they'll put
theirs on there. They'll do that for you, It's like, nah,
I want my own. So I went to the UPC
Code Council or whatever that is and got my own
barcode that will have today, you know, put it on
the back of the records. Was selling them, you know,
on consignment at the mom and pop record stores in Detroit.
(18:39):
I had to make I had to use, you know,
a word program to to make consignment sheets so that
I could keep track of of, you know, my sales
and how much people owed me. And I mean it
was a it was definitely it was. It was. It
was definitely definitely uh, you know, an entrepreneurial uh endeavor.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
You know, you know the reason the reason I ordered
the people to hear that because people don't see the
end game. They only hear the denominations their awards. Well,
you were hustling, man, you was, you was taking your
album back in the day after when they were albums
to different stores and could you sell this? So can
you sell my CD? And then you had to humble
yourself to be a salesman and convince people and talk
(19:25):
people and talk yourself up. And a lot of people
today are they missed that step. They think that I
can get on social media I can get a bunch
of followers and I can be a star, but then
there is some groundwork to that.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Correct, Yeah, there's there's definitely, well, you know, I don't know, man,
I mean, you know, I see people on on online,
you know, and the YouTube stars, and you know, I
mean they you know, I motivated. You know, I don't
know how. I don't know how I would do it today.
You know, Uh, you know their motivation is you know,
(19:57):
they don't you know, I don't. I can't can't. I
can't speak to that, but I can speak to is.
Is is the discipline and and building something that lasts forever.
But dude, if you can stream and you don't have
you don't have to do that, and you can stream
a billion streams and become a millionaire and like sit
at the house and never leave the house and never
(20:18):
do shows, so the world. But I can't do that,
right right right? We gotta have I got, you know,
so I uh you know, but I you know, I
had to. I had to. I had to. We had
to work, you know, we had to work and had
to build a foundation that that has lasted for two decades,
you know, and you know, and I'm I'm, I'm, I'm.
(20:42):
I couldn't be happier and more grateful, you know, for
the grind that it took to sit where I sit today.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
And the grind is always about the unknown. And then
as you're going through what is music really the ultimate?
What was that turning point? Because I read was your
ninth grade your music teacher with the first person they've
really set you in front of a piano or a keyboard,
and you start playing around with that, and then you
started spending hours more than you spend time in the book.
(21:09):
You start spending time on a at these keys. When
did when did that become like you know, your master,
Like this is what I love because that's what we
all learning, like whether it's dribbling a basketball or standing
on stage as a comedian or a singer. When did
you realize that this is a gift, This is my gift.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
I mean, I knew that I loved I knew that
I knew that I loved it before before our family
moved left Nashville. You know, I loved the piano when
I was a toddler. You know, I didn't either there
was a check attached to it or or it was
a you know, a possible vocation until much later, you know,
in in my life, and you know, and actually and
(21:49):
there's a you know, and there's a paradox there too,
because I didn't get a deal. Well, you know, when
I got a deal, when I stopped, when I when
I you know, I realized that, uh, that I didn't
have to you know, I had always been chasing a
record deal since I was a teenager. You know, when
I came to a place in my thirties, I was like,
you know what, maybe music is not my thing. I
(22:09):
thought that I became open to the idea I could
be successful doing something else, you know, it doesn't have
to be music. And I let go of it. I
didn't stop making music, but I let go of the
idea that this was a.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Passion of it or because of the doubt or or
the rejection.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Is that why you let go on the idea?
Speaker 4 (22:29):
It was none of that. Is this was elevated thinking, Right,
It wasn't that it was the rejection. It was like
I was just open to the you know, it's a
spiritual axiom. Right, I had this. I gotta have it.
I gotta have it, I gotta have it, I gotta
have it. I gotta have it, and it's like, no,
you know what, I don't have to have it. I
can be successful doing something else. Let me go find
out what that is. And it didn't mean that I
(22:50):
was going to quit making music. It just meant that,
you know, it didn't I didn't, you know, like, dude,
there's more to me than just than just doing this.
Let me go find out what those things are. And
I went and looked at for those things and I
failed miserably. However, it was. It was the letting go, right.
It was the letting go and being willing and all.
(23:11):
I think. Business is one thing that I've that has
really been crucial to me, and this last you know,
probably eighteen month period is that businesses fail, man, and
people fail because they don't pivot. They don't pivot soon enough,
you know, they wait and they hold on, you know.
And I say this for the people who, you know,
(23:33):
for the for the aspiring singer whose mother tell them
that they sound good singing in the living room, and
spend your whole life until you're sixty five years old
trying to sing, you know, when actually you make some
pretty good cupcakes, and that's what you should be doing right,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Oh, that's funny.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
In your book now you talk about trying to be
a comedian. Now you didn't talk about.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Trying to be That was a very good joke there,
my brother, thank you.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Look, you know, so
I feel I you know, I I've always known what
it was, you know, But I'm always open to the
idea that I don't have all the answers, right, I'm
always open to the idea that I don't have all
the answers. And even even today, dude, it's like, yeah,
I make records. I'm sitting down here, you know, I
(24:19):
just wrote this book. We got a live album that
just came out. I'm out on the road with with
Letteracy and UH and music Soul Child, And still ask
myself every day, Lord, if to hey, yo, then point
point me in the right direction. I want nothing that
don't belong to me, you know, which is anti entrepreneur.
You know that that whole self will you know? And
police sofa up by the bootstraps. There's a place for that,
(24:40):
you know. But it comes with limitations. So I just
I just I just remain I just remain open.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
But there was a shot that you potentially selling Mary
Kay though.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
I was. I wasn't. I wasn't selling Mary Kay for
the car I was selling Mary I was.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
I love it right right?
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah, you know the emotional side of this, You know,
you talk about the relationship, you talk about you know,
your skin tone being bullied and and but the relationships
ties really to the music. It ties to your therapist
telling you that probably your music is therapeutic to you.
When you started getting these answers along the way, you
and your father too incredibly amazing children out of wedlock.
(25:30):
Can you start dealing with that, the responsibility of fatherhood
and your career and trying to maintain a responsibility and
stay close to your children.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
When did you start.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Lining everything up, Kim that it made sense to you
that I'm doing.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
It right, I have, you know, I don't know that
it's I don't know that. You know, I'm always in
the process of lining it up. You know, it's always
I'm always in the processes process of lining it lining
my life up and peeling the layers of the onion
to my life. You know, I don't think it's not
a place where you arrive because I look back, you know,
(26:06):
where I thought I had it lined up pretty good,
and like, you know, I'm looking back and like, dude,
you were crazy right back right we like you know,
with every you know, I'm not we we are constantly evolving, constantly,
constantly learning. I'm not the guy. I'm not the same
guy I was six months ago. You know what I'm saying.
It's like constantly you know, reevaluating, constantly, you know, as
(26:31):
Stephen Covey would say, you know, constantly sharpening the saw,
you know, trying to get It's not it's not a
question of of arriving. It's a question of continuing to
to to make the best effort to do, to keep
doing the next right thing, you know, and building upon that,
you know. And I'm fair, I'm gonna you know, I'm
in a pretty in a pretty good place, you know,
(26:52):
right now. But I also know that there's that there's
definitely more to learn and more to be discovered.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
The amazing thing that I discovered what you read in
this book, because you know, you only know a person
one side of a person, just like a person doesn't
know other size than me until I tell them and
reveal them. Like you were real like you were revealing
in this book. But you know the fact that you
made a conscious effort. You know, your mom graduated from
college Wayne State, your father graduated from Tennessee State, and
(27:19):
then you made the conscious decision to go back to
school because you dropped out.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Why was that important?
Speaker 4 (27:26):
I went? I went back to get my high school plomba. Yeah. Yeah,
I didn't go to you know, I was not you know,
I was not college material. And that's and that's okay,
we're getting ingrained, and you know, we ingrained in our
children at you know, college, college, college, and everybody ain't
gonna thrive in college, you know what I'm saying. So,
but I went back to get my high school diploma
(27:47):
because it was always a point of it was always
a point of shame, you know for me. And I
was trying. I was actually I actually was trying to
take the GED. I was trying to take the GED
to get my GED. But the test for the g
ED will shoot hard. It was easier for me.
Speaker 7 (28:04):
I'm like, dude, I may as well as well go
back to school, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
You know, I'm gonna tell you. I'm telling Kim, I
gotta stop you man. You know this is a pretty
intense book.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Man.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
You know, Kim is a pretty intense showman. And we've
been laughing. Man, we've been joking around.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
That's the amazing side of this story and the amazing
side of you.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Man.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
You a good brother, man, You are a You are
a winner, you are you are a comedian. And that's
a side of y'all. I'm so happy I'm getting to
hear and see for the first time in my life
because as as as a person who watch you perform,
I'm in awe. And that's a shield because you know
when you like you're saying, Michael Jackson came out and
(28:56):
Prince and you know, all those songs you talk about
that really turn your direction of who you are today.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
That's who you are.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
To me when I watch you on stay as an
artist because of the fact that how you affect me
from a stand from a personal standpoint.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
It's all good.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
It's all good because you motivate your your Your music
is motivational, Your music is emotional, music is uplifting, all
those things that that.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
As an artist you want it to be.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
But to hear you, you know, in this layer of you,
I've never seen before.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
It's really refreshing in your thoughts. Is this is this Kim?
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Thank you? Yeah, this is Kim. This is Kim. Yeah yeah,
thank you man, thank you for that, you know, and
thank you or Shaan's good talking to you.
Speaker 6 (29:39):
This has been Money Making Conversation Masterclass with me Rashaan McDonald.
Thanks to our guess and our audience. Visit Moneymakingconversation dot
com to listen or register to be a guest on
my show. Keep leading with your gifts, keep winning.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
It is
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