December 19, 2025 • 34 mins
Today on The Breakfast Club, Mysonne Details His Role On Zohran's Transition Team, Influencing Policy, Justice. Listen For More!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Wake programming your Alarm the Power five point one on iHeartRadio. YEP,
it's the world most dangerous morning show to Breakfast Club
Charlamagne the God, DJ NV, just hilarious, Nvy and jets
on here but ll Kolbay Lauryn LaRosa is and we
got a special guest Man. He was recently appointed the
Zoran Mundani's Transition team. Definitely a friend to the room.
(00:22):
The good brother Mice on his hand with something.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Mice, thank you for having what's going on with your
autographics for me? Man? This is the first let me see,
this is the first time I actually see I don't
even have not even see it like in person. I've
just seen it online. Wow.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Well, before before we get into that, what does your
role on Zoran Mundani's Transition Team entail?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It entails being an advisor, being able to talk about
policies that we think should be implemented, from criminal justice,
from public safety, also appointments people that we think should
be a part of his staff that in that area
that we feel best fit, what it is that he
(01:05):
wants to accomplish, and what represents us in the community.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
So what power do you have to actually influence policy?
Because you know, people will be like, oh, it's just optics.
You get somebody like Mason as well respected in the city, like,
what power do you have that.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's twenty of us. It's twenty of us on in
that committee. Right. So we sit down and we talk
about policy. We have different meetings and we send Okay,
this is the policy we think we shouldn't act and
he gets to look at that based off you know what.
We come together and he makes his own decision. We
don't just tell him what to do. We all we
can do is advise and give recommendations.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Hater love mom, Donnie Right. People have been yelling that
they want this, They want people in the community, from
the community helping to make decisions.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Why are people so upset that's happening?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Because you know, people don't like change, especially the people
that don't want to see change. They want to make
it seem like it's a bad thing. It doesn't make
sense that you mad that somebody who's experienced a criminal
justice system on both fans, who was wrongfully convicted inside
prison for seven years, came home and started working with
youth inside prison, started you know, dealing with reform organizations.
(02:12):
Who has influenced policy within prisons. Who knows, you know,
the mind state of the young kids that's going in
and out of these prisons, that's actually working with him.
That doesn't make sense that somebody would be mad. So
I love what ma and Mandami is. Manlek right now
is doing right now because he's really trying to encompass
what New York looks like, the people inside New York,
(02:34):
the voices of New York. I'm about to do start
doing roundtable meetings and convenience with formerly incarcerated individuals in
which we sit down and we talk about what it is,
what it looks like to actually be productive members of society,
what do we want to see, What do we realize
is wrong with the system, so he can actually get
(02:54):
a real understanding of what's happening inside the system.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I try not to take too many things personal, man,
But when I saw this on the front page of
the New York Post, you labeled as a crime boss
Mandonia points rapper who served seven years for armed robbery
as justice advisor, it actually offended me as a person
with a criminal record, because it's like, damn, my son
went to prisoner what nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
How owe you twenty yep, twenty one. You are forty seven,
forty hyol grown man.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Now you've done nothing since you've came home but given
back to your community, but tried to teach others not
to follow the same path.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
And you still can't escape that.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Well, you know, but I say all the time, with
the devil means for bad, God of you for good.
They got a good picture. So I actually like this
picture you're wearing. You know what black I'm saying when
you look is boycott black murder on the shirt. And
it had and we actually sold out, so you can
you can go buy some more on the website if
you want to, until freedom dot com. But it actually
shows what it is that I represent. So what happened
(03:56):
was for me when I see I received so many congratulations,
Like people didn't even realize that they were actually trying to,
you know, discredit and defame me. People were just like,
while you you you're doing something with the mayor, you're
actually you know, a part of the justice advisory system
with the mayor. So it was it was it didn't
even get the effect that they wanted to get. So
(04:17):
it was for me, it was like you know what,
I'm not gonna utilize. I'm not gonna allow them to
utilize that to discourage me from the work that I've
been doing for the last over a decade. You know,
with until Freedom, we've been doing this anti violence work.
We've been doing criminal justice work for the last over
a decade. So for me, it's like I'm gonna continue
and I'm gonna utilize this this notoriety in which you'all
(04:38):
mean for bad, I'm gonna utilize it. I'm gonna make
sure that you know, the world gets out. I'm gonna
make sure that I represent formally in cost raised and
justice impacted people properly. So when they say, oh we
can't do I want I want to be a representative
to say that Mason showed you that it's definitely possible
that you can be successful.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Did that because I mean, you've been doing this for
a long time, like you know what I mean. But
did this moment and how like a New York Post
or you know wherever else mentioned you, did it turn
up something new or like make you think of like, Okay,
we need to make sure we're doing this over here too,
Like was there like a blind spot that like you
saw through all this.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I don't know if it was a blind spot, but
it definitely was a level of urgency and made me
feel more, you know, motivated to do the work that
we've been doing to motivated to bring certain voices because
you know, I say this all the time, there's so
many formally incarcerated people who are doing so many positive
and you know, just really good things that nobody talks about,
you know, And that's the thing I want to highlight.
(05:33):
I don't want because a lot of people formally incarcerated
don't believe that they can do certain things. They don't
believe that they can be successful, and most the public
perception is that too as well. So I want to
be able to highlight people that come home that have
been doing this work for years, who've been doing positive
things for years, who've been productive members of society. You know.
(05:54):
They always people act like they don't know Alan Iverson
was formally incars, you know, like it's so many people
that we talk about that was forming in Customers Command,
Malcolm Iction is formally incarcerated, and it's like we just
we look down on the stigma and when we talk
about formally incarcerated a lot of people don't act like
they know that Black people are the highest falsely accused
(06:15):
and exonerated people in the world. So so a lot
of us, like I said, I was falsely accused of
a crime. I spent seven years in jail for crime
I didn't commit. I went to trial for my case.
So it's like a lot of us just because there's
the stigma of us being arrested and incarcerated, they make
it seem like we're a threat to society and we
just criminals. And some people have committed crimes, but some
people like when you go to the justice, when you
(06:36):
go to the the prison, right, it's supposed to be rehabilitation.
So if a person does his time and he comes
on and he's productive, why do we act like he
can't be productive.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
And they're focusing on your past. But that is the
very thing that qualifies you for the role. How do
you feel about that?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I think that is so ironic or it's just disingenuous
to say that when we got to a president that
got thirty four felonies and his whole cabinet is full
of criminals. Right, So, but we look at especially black people,
we act like we can't do certain things. And I
say all the time, this is those closest to the
problem are close as the solution, you know, sitting in
(07:16):
the cell for seven years, you know, seeing how the
injustice system works, seeing how inmates are treated, and how
people are sitting. A brother just was killed, you know,
he was executed, and they found out four or five
years later that his DNA didn't match it. He was
actually innocent. So these are things that happened every day
in the justice system, and people like myself who've actually
(07:39):
experienced it will understand that and see the blind spots
because somebody who just went to school and studied law
never understood those realities. A lot of times, I've watched
a lot of elected officials. I've watched people who studied
the law and then they actually got incarcerated and they
came home and have conversation with me like I didn't
realize what was going on, and they becoming biggest advocates
(07:59):
for prison reform before, you know, those type of things.
So I just think that I've been blessed with the opportunity,
you know, and God created for me for such a
time as now. You know, I never understood when I
was incarcerated. When you sitting in jail for seven years
for a crime you didn't do, you don't understand what
you're in there for. It, especially you got a million
dollar record deal. You're sitting in the jail cell and
you're like, why the hell am I sitting in jail?
(08:21):
And it was days that that was my conversation. And
you know what, I always said that I'm not gonna
allow this system to break me because every day that
I don't grow, and I don't learn, and I don't
do things positive in the system. One So when I
came home and I started realizing, oh why I was
in there. I started realizing that that our people are
overly incarcerated, especially young black and brown mass They're overly incarcerated.
Some of them are just lost, they don't even identify
(08:42):
with things. So I came home with a different perspective
is to say, you know what, I'm gonna pour into
my community different I'm gonna empower these young boys. I'm
not gonna make them think that prison is some way
to be. But I'm also not gonna make you believe
that because you was in prison, that you can't be successful.
And I wanted to come home and model that behavior.
And I think for the last twenty year that I've
been out of jail. You know, my crime happened in
(09:03):
ninety nine. It's twenty six years later, and y'all still
talking about a crime that happened twenty six years later.
But y'are not looking at the track record for the
last twenty years that I've been home and I've been
on this ground putting put boots on the ground of
doing this work.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Are you going to take any legal action against some
of the headlines and stuff that came out.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I mean, I don't know. You know, I'll discuss it
with some lawyers and see what happens. But really, right now,
I really just want to focus on just doing this work.
You know, shout out to me and my Daminus team,
you know, my team until freedom. We've been doing this work.
And you know, like I tell people, this is this
is a volunteer. I'm not getting no check for this.
This is a volunteer and not because I really believe
in what's supposed to be going on in our communities.
(09:42):
You know, we're going to start forums where we talk
about civic engagement with formally in custory we talk about,
you know, how hard it is for them to be employed,
the you know, the collateral damages and causes that happen
till you come on from jail and you can't be
a bar bro. You can't be adore all these things
that have We want to talk about those things, and
then we want to talk about how what's the next
(10:03):
step forward. You know, women that's being incarcerated, We're going
to start these convenience and we're gonna have them all
at the table. Like that is one of the biggest
voting blocks in the world that nobody is really tapped into.
Formally incarcerated people. A lot of them don't even realize
they can vote, you know how strong they are. There's
millions of people who are formally incarcerated that have really
just lost belief in the system. So I me being
(10:26):
on the inside understanding how it can make change. How
somebody like when when you get somebody like Mandami in
in Mandani in office right now, and you you get
behind them and you you push the agenda of what
it is. You know, because we're going to push the agenda.
People think, oh you you and you with the government. Nah,
if they do something wrong, I'm gonna be outside protest
to Mandamie too, because that's what we do. Like we've
(10:47):
been just like when Dublasio was in there, we helped
de Blasio get an office. When he didn't do what
we did, we was at the when he was at
the presidential we stood up inside the DNC and screen
that what happened to a regarda arrest Daniel pantulet wer regard.
Just like when may Adams got elected, we was I
was with him too when he started doing things and
letting the police police do things to community members. We's
(11:10):
outside protested. So it's no different. As long as he's
you know, doing what he's supposed to do for the
community and agenda for the community, we're gonna stand with
him and we're gonna we're gonna give our input and
we're gonna stand beside him. But the minute he stops,
then we're gonna be outside with the people.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
I'm glad you touched on that because you know a
lot of activists often fear being absorbed by politics. So
how are you protecting your voice and integrity while working
with this transition team?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
I mean, you have to work with people that actually
are in positions to put policy to make the real
changes you want, and I've seen it done. Shout out
to my brother Jimini Williams, Like we've worked with Jimini Williams,
you know, and we worked with numerous different you know,
my brother Yusuf Salam from the Central Park, the exonerated,
exonerated five exactly. So it's people that I know in
(11:58):
positions that have actually on things in our community. So
I know that you have to have those levels of relationships.
But those people, they also know that when you do
something wrong, we're gonna be outside your office saying that
you gotta get it right. We're not gonna we understand
that you have our best entry, but the minute that
you don't, then we're always gonna hold you accountable. So
I understand people's, you know, fear that because activists get
(12:21):
aligned or stand next to certain politicians and people in office,
that they're gonna lose their autonomy. But we just not
those type of people. We've been fighting against anything that's
not for our people. We're gonna fight against every time.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Man Mayor Young, Well, that said Mayor Young. Andrew Young
was up here.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
And Andrew Young said, the same people who supported him
and helped him get elected. He said, as soon as
he won, they were outside protesting in his front of
his office and he was like, what are y'all doing?
He goes, they said, you the man. Now, Yeah, so
we got to push you to make sure you do
what you said you was gonna do.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
And that's what it is, man. It's about accountability. It's
about understanding that I work for the people. I do
not work for the government. When I'm inside these rooms,
when I'm having conversations, when I'm at these tables, my
objective is always to get what's necessary for the people.
You know, So it never changes, no matter how much status.
That's just not how I'm built. You know, I've done
(13:13):
too much time. I've been in the streets. I know
the ills and the spills inside our communities, and I
know I want them, the community to know that every
time that I'm at a table, our voice is there.
It's not just for me, Like I said, this is
a volitier. I don't get it down to do this work.
It's not for me. It's for me to make sure
that the work and the people are represented.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Popularly, you talked about until freedom, Like you guys send
it next to Mayor Adams and now what you're doing
with mom, Donnie?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Right.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I think when hip hop gets involved or anybody from
the culture gets involved in politics, people pay attention a
bit more. But then like now, people are easily flipped right,
Like you're on the front of the New York Post
and the support isn't the same. What do you think
politics or the system owns hip hop or people from
the culture like you that you don't get.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I think like it owes proper representation, right. What happens
with a lot of politicians is a shout out to
man Dommie Again, he didn't run from when I got
when this happened and they talked about it. He talked
about the necessity to have somebody who's been through the system,
you know, at the table with other weed. Like I said,
(14:20):
is a whole transition team of four hundred people. It's
twenty an hour in our criminal justice and community support,
but it's over four hundred people, and everybody at that
table has a voice, and everybody represents somebody different or
a different genre, a different demographic inside of New York City,
and those voices need to be at the table. What
I think that politicians need to do is elevate certain people,
(14:42):
especially in hip hop. Don't leave us because what happens
is when something goes wrong or they don't and you
standing up there. I've had this conversation with Pap whose
Pap was like I was on the front line and
I was standing and these politicians left me out the drive.
You know what I'm saying. When you start getting political,
too political for hip hop, they move away from you.
And the politicians move away from you too because they
don't no longer have the value and you no more
(15:04):
because you lose your value in your community. But for me,
I've always stand on what I stand on, so I
don't care about what politics think. If I stand by
a politician, that means that that politician represents what I
feel at that moment. The minute that that politician politician
doesn't represent what's the needs of my community or what
I stand on, that I don't stand on them, So
don't I don't deal with no blanket like you always say.
(15:26):
I'm not with no party. I don't care about the
Democrats Republicans. I care about people, and especially black people
in our communities because that's what I am, and I
know that we are highly impacted by anything that goes
on the government. So when people are talking about, oh,
I'm not political this and if you ain't at the table,
then you're on the menu. But that's the reality of
the situation. These people are making laws, they are going
to be laws passed that are going to affect you.
(15:48):
If you're looking at this, if you're looking at this
administration right now, and you don't see how our people
are being infected, how people can afford groceries, how they're
taking away everything that says black anywhere, that a black
woman are getting unemployed, unemployed at the highest rates ever,
like we're getting locked up. Everything that I told you
(16:09):
they was gonna do is what they doing now. So
if you still want to play this that you're not
political and you're not gonna be involved in the game,
then cool, You're just going to be a victim of circumstance.
I'm not gonna sit around and be a victim of circumstance.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
What's one compromise you're not willing to make, even if
it creates political tension between you and Donnie.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I'm not willing to make compromises where you take away
things in our communities that are necessary. Right, I'm not
willing to make compromises where we know that violence interruption
and CMS work has been doing phenomenal work over the
last decade in our community and you don't support that.
(16:49):
I'm not willing to compromise where you don't put certain
things inside schools, because this is one of the things
I want to implement, is where we have emotional intelligence class,
we have alternative to suspension. Last, we know that once
you start putting kids and putting them suspending them in
junior high school, they not coming back to school. So
if you're not willing to if you're not willing to
get the root causes or what crime is in our community,
(17:12):
if you're not willing to educate and put the resources
in our communities. If I, if I see that those
things are you not doing, that's a line in the
sand for me. If you if you're willing to stand
by and allow police to abuse people like Mayor Adams,
a police overs a punch of the woman in the
face and he told me she shouldn't have been screaming.
Once you start doing that right there at that point
(17:33):
that me and you, we were on different sides of
the spectrum, So I don't. That's where I drawed a line.
When you when you're willing to allow the police to
abuse our community, or you're willing not to make sure
that resources that need to come into our community to
prevent violence and prevent crime, if you're not willing to
do that, then that's where I draw the line.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
What convinced you that Zoran Mundani was serious about transformational
change and not just using like progressive language.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
That's a good question, right, because I watched zoron for
a while, and you know, I think I had after
this last election, I had just fairly much just been
kind of done with politics and just you know, politicians
in general. But just listen, just I listened to him
for a while, right, and I just kept paying attention.
And then when he won the Democratic nomination, I said
(18:21):
to myself, well, he's going to be our mayor, right,
so I want to have a conversation with him, and
through the resources that I have and people that I know,
I said, you know what, I want to set up conversations.
Shout out to Tamika. I want to set up conversations
with black men and people for my community, because they
don't even hear him and he sounds good, but I
want to be able to look him in his eyes
(18:42):
and have real conversations with him. And he came into
those conversations. We had about two or three of them,
and he was very attentive right, and he was on
He was on board with the things that we were saying.
And he did it didn't sound like it was political
gibbor jazz like the average person does. I I've been
around life positives and he seemed really authentic and he
(19:03):
stayed true to that, and I watched him be attacked
for it all the time. And he kept saying, we
need violences to rupt us. We need to make sure
that we have mental health inside our communities. We need
to make sure that police is not the first line
of defense in every situation. Like those are things that
will tell me. He said, we need to make sure
that the school program is that black boys are graduate.
All these things that he was talking about. When he
(19:24):
sat down with us, everybody felt that same authenticity. And
then when he built this transition team, and I walked
into auditorium with four hundred people, a lot of them
grassroots organizers that I seen throughout the years. For the
last over a decade, and everybody was in that room,
and he sat there. He said, we're gonna get criticism
and we're not gonna all agree. And I know that,
(19:45):
and that's why I'm putting this team together because I
don't want everybody that agrees with me. I want different
walks of life. I want different ideologies. I want different ideas,
and I want us to come up what New York
actually looks like. And that for me, was the first
time that I've ever seen somebody do. I watched three
or four men's coming office. They get their regular they
get their homeboys, and the transition team, they get their
homeboys in it. But he really put together apparatus that
(20:10):
really is going to represent New York City. So I'm hopeful.
I believe that he's really gonna try. I don't think
that he's beholden to a political system. I don't think
he needs money or anything. I think he really wants
to see change, you know. So if I'm right, if
my gut feeling is right, then we're gonna be good
for at least the next four years. But if not,
then I'm gonna be outside protests.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
I already be getting really challenged behind closed doors.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Oh hearing about this one call with miss Erica.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
For she came into the transition meeting right and she
called him out. She's like, well, I see certain people
in here that's been a part of the status quo
that you got in your system already, and and they
ain't been doing nothing. You know, all they doing is
these people is they investigating these kids thirteen and fourteen
(21:01):
for four and five years instead of coming to us
and say, yo, this was going on so we can redirect.
They just want to put cases on our babies. Like
we trying to save these babies, and they putting cases
on these kids. And he stood up and he said,
what you're saying is really understand. I understand what you're saying,
and that's what we need. We need your voice because
those are the things that needs to be heard because
(21:21):
a lot of us don't have that perspective. Her and
she's gonna always do that. And even her, she was like, Okay,
well maybe we got some but she you know, Erika
ain't gonna she ain't got all. She's not gonna submit
to nothing. But you know, I think at this point
it's a lot of us who are skeptical it's a
lot of people at that table who not here. They
don't want status quo, they don't even agree with government
or nothing, but they believe that this situation is possible,
(21:45):
you know. But once again, if it ain't possible, then
we're gonna be outside tearing you up.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
What about when he like when mom Donnie does things
like when he goes and meets with Trump. I know
he got a lot of like pushback from some people
because they were like, really smiley smiley in the meeting
or whatever. Until freedom, y'all are very much like, if
we won't rock with you, we don't rock with you.
What we said is what we stand on in your
face or behind your back whatever. Right, how do y'all
deal with conversations with him about stuff like that? Because
now people are like, but you guys are sitting next
(22:12):
to him, and that we know of for until freedom,
y'all we went and see you guys end up meeting
with President Trump.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Well, that's why I'm not the man, right, That's what
when you know what I'm saying, That's why when they
say run for political officers, I don't want to do
that because I don't want to do politics. But I
understand that being the mayor, understanding that this is the
president and federal aid that's needed for New York City
has to go through the president. I'm gonna have a
conversation with you. I'm gonna sit down as the mayor.
I understood it what I have done. No, that's why
(22:39):
I wouldn't be the man. But understanding. But I believe
when I watched that, it looked like Trump was happy
to be in his president. Didn't look like he was
just happy to be in Trump's president. And he called
him a fashions in his face. And to me, that's
what he didn't waiver from what he said he was doing.
He said he sat down, he told him, this is
what we need inside of New York City, and this
is where and now we've had the conversation. Right, It's
just like two warriors on the war. You see two
(23:01):
generals go to war. Don't mean that we not at
war no more, but we discussed in terms of war.
I'm explaining to you, look, if you stop this right now,
then we don't got to go to the war. And
you're saying, well, I'm not gonna stop that, and you say, okay,
so you sure you're not gonna stop that. All right,
we've met. We shook hands. Robert de Niro and al Pacino.
They they respect, they may have had a level of respect,
and they shook hands, but it didn't stop, you know,
(23:21):
Alba Pacino from shooting him down at the end of
the movie. So that's what happens in these type of situations.
He met with the president. Now if he's and now
if he stops his agenda, if he stops trying to
push his agenda, because now he's trying to be you know,
cool with Trump, then once again, you just one of
those that fell by the wayside, because we watch Eric
Adams do that, right, So if you follow them for that,
(23:41):
I would be disappointed. I just don't really see it.
I think the meeting was, you know, par for the course.
It was saying, hey, I met with the president, right,
I told him what I wanted, and I'm still going
along with my agenda. Now, don't say that I didn't
try it. Ain't nobody gonna be able to say, oh,
look you you and you're not even savvy enough to
sit down with the president. No. I sat down with
him and he said he agreed, right, So but my
(24:01):
agenda has always been my agenda. Now, if he changes
his agenda, then we got to issue with him. But
if he doesn't, that meaning with Trump is just supposed
to be what it's supposed to be as just being
the leader. That's why.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
That's why I don't like when politicians adopt the language
of activists.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
If you're gonna use language like fascism, it does look
confusing to people when you say you can work with
a fascist, because that's never worked in the history of
man and vice versa. You called him a communist. That's
why you saw Trump's people sow up and arms like, Yo,
you told us this dude was a communist. But now
y'all just buddy buddy inside the Oval office. But that
is politics. But I think I'm just a person that
(24:37):
think words matter.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Man. I think words do matter. I think it matters more.
And that's why we have an inside outside game. Right.
It's just like what Michael said. You know, if you
don't respect doctor King's peace, then you're gonna get what
we got over here. It was we're the alternative, right,
Like when they show this to me, he talks about
it a lot. They show stokely Carmarker walking alongside Doctor
(24:58):
King and they both talking about what's going on, and
Doctor King said, you know, we're gonna rally and we're
trying to unify and stokely carmakers like burning everything. No,
and they walk in the same path. So the reality
is everybody's words may be different, but we still got
the same agenda. And as long as his agenda is
to stop fascism, I don't care if you stand there
(25:19):
and have a conversation with him, if you're saying yo,
because you know what I've studied, right, and I didn't
understand it and shout out to I forgot went with
the organization and we went to study the principles are
nonviolence doctor King's Kenya non violence, and I never was
on board with it, But when I really got down
to how strong and how mentally strong, it was what
(25:42):
the principles are and how you go about it, how
you you identify with the issue is you don't attack
the person with it. You attack the issue, and then
there's a level of reconciliation after I attack and we
go to war. And even when I win, it's not
me winning over you, it's me winning over the situation,
and then after I went over situation, they're supposed to
(26:02):
be a level of reconciliation because a lot of times
people don't even identify their wrongs, and sometimes after they lose,
then they may be able to have reconciliation. And when
you really sit there and think about it, it takes
real strong minded and leadership to have that type of foresight.
So when I'm thinking about this right now, of course,
Trump to us is the Antichrist. Were looking at him.
(26:23):
Everything he's doing is just wrong to us. But man
Mondami seems to have a level of understanding and vision
that most leaders don't. You know, He's able to sit
there and call you the truth and still smile and
still go about what he's doing and then make you
like it. I've never seen somebody get called a fascist
and said, well just call yeah, yeah, that's right, I'm fast.
(26:44):
This guy's great, you understand saying how who else has
that level of christ The only person I've seen do
that was when Natod Martin Luther King. He said we
need this to happen, and he said make me.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
We also got to remember Trump as a con artist exactly, so,
so Trump might be playing to everybody's playing.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
You understand what I'm saying. But the thing is at
the end is who gonna win. I think what's happened
is Mandammi has became the star, and Trump loves the star.
He collses up to anybody that's the star. That's what
he is. He's a groupie, so he you know what
I'm saying, He coaxes up to anybody that this is
the fact.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
It's just the fact.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
You know. But at this time, I think Madami has
a real agenda and he has the people behind him.
Like he's literally going outside in the streets and just
putting a mic outside and talking to random people, just
trying to figure out what do you want inside New
York City? You know what I'm saying, Like, I've never
seen the man that that's that interested in really galvanizing
the people. You know, So you know, we'll see, Like
(27:38):
once again, I could be wrong, but you know, I'm
really usually a good judge of character. You know, sometimes
I get people to doubt the benefit of that when
they never really benefit. But I'm giving her a benefit
of that. Hopefully you know he will, but it lets again,
if he's not, we're gonna be out there protest.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
How do you want young organizers watching this moment, watching you,
watching Tamika, watching the Erica Ford on this transition team,
how do you want them to understand the relationship between
protest and policy.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Shout out to Angelo two. He's actually he's on the
Prime Justice word. But I want young protesters to understand organizers, right,
because I don't want you to just be protesters. I
want you to be savvy. I want you to be intelligent.
I want you to be strategic. I want you to
look at this moment as progress, right because we all
got to do different things. There's an inside outside game.
(28:25):
And you know, for years we sit outside and we
was the protesters, and people say yeah, y'all can go
out there, and they made jokes you got your pick
a signe and it was cool, but we watched incremental
change happen. Right. We got we got incremental change, and
we protested enough people to it. They said, okay, what
do y'all want? Right? And then they sat down with
us and then we start saying, okay, we want this,
and they start and we started watching capitulate. When we
(28:47):
look at talk about the CMS, Tamika and Erica Ford
and at those they sat out there and protested the
mayor until they got millions of dollars put into that
CMS system to when they were nothing, you know, when
they was told that there was no data and they
would never get a dime. And now it's up to
over one hundred million that's given to CMS inside of
(29:09):
New York City because people did that work. So I
want you to be understanding. I want you to be relentless.
I want you to be fearless, but I want you
to understand that there's the process and that there's an
ultimate goal. And if you just protest and you don't
see things going anywhere, if you don't get yourself, if
you're not in positions to actually make change, if you
(29:29):
don't have the ears and the wherewithal to touch the
people who can actually give policy to actually do things
for the community, you're fighting for it and you just
fighting a fight for nothing. So it's cool. I told people,
I'm tired of having, you know, victories that you know,
just being the leader that die. We celebrate our leaders
(29:49):
dying at thirty and ain't got nothing, but they kept on.
I want to win, you know, I don't want moral
of it. I'm tired of moral victories. When do we
actually get the victories where we see some change for
our people. I'm tired of the story of we watching
our people run out in glory and they say, yeay,
y'all gonna be the first ones. We know, all y'all
gonna die, but it's gonna be brave. You brave because
(30:10):
you went out there. And I don't want that no more.
Like when we're gonna be strategic and we go through
the back door and we actually take over the castle
and we put our people in position, When we're gonna
start doing that, like, I think our strategy has to
change and it has to evolve what we're dealing with.
It's just like when we look at Trump and we
look at jasmine crackers, and we look at the people
that are meeting fire with fire. We can't keep having
(30:32):
the conversations about, oh, this is not how we're supposed
to No, this is how it is. You can't fight
or fight with one hand behind your back, where people
got four and five hands and they jumping you, and
you saying but I fought with honor and I did
it the right No, Actually, you fought and they killed you.
Like I'm tired of just dying, Like, I really want
us to win the war. So I want black people
and our young activists to be strategic and figure out
(30:55):
how do we actually get the things that we're fighting for.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
I agree with Jall, got one more question, Maybe think
about something this now, what's the biggest lie people believe
about how change actually happens.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
And what's the hard truth they need to accept them out?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
The biggest lie is that people act like if they
do nothing, things are gonna change. Right. They say, Yo,
I'm not voting, you don't even need to be involved
in that system. I'm not gonna be there. I'm not. No,
when you take yourself out and you don't have a strategy,
like people been not voting for years, there's a million
I know a bunch of people that said, I ain't
never vote, But so what have you ever got for
(31:30):
not voting? What have you never got for not fighting?
And I think you know when people think that if
you don't go out there, and you're not out there,
if you protest and it doesn't know. I've literally watched
protests turn into policy. I've literally watched people turn into
protesters get into power. I watched literal front line activists
get into office. Jimiani william was an activist outside with us.
(31:53):
You know what I'm saying, that use of salon was
they were activists on the front line with us at times.
So I watched those people getting positions to what they
can actually do things. So telling people to not be
involved in this system. And if you take yourself out,
you more valuable then they gotta come to you know,
if you take yourself out, then they don't even they
don't even account you, right, because when they start doing votes,
(32:14):
they only account for the people that's voting. So one
of the other million or one hundred million that ain't voting,
they don't care, right, So how do you make yourself valuable? Right?
If you don't add value to something, then you don't
have any worth. So I think that that's the biggest
lies that we act like if we're not involved with
the system, that the system is gonna somehow change and
(32:36):
it's gonna benefit us, or we can or another thing
is that we can money ourselves out of our problem.
Money has never changed Black people's situation, not individually. We
think individual I know people I've had conversations, Oh we
overhere doing this and we over here, okay, but still
ninety percent of black people don't have nothing. And you
got that right, you and you and twenty people got
(32:57):
that right, and y'all invested in that. So how we're
is the strategy for ten and twenty and thirty percent
of black people to be in power, to be in
positions to where they can create generational wealth, to where
the majority of us are not struggling, right to where
we see power, to where we're more than one two
percent of the wealth in America. We've been two percent
(33:17):
of the wealth in America since we've been here. When
are we gonna grow? What is the strategy for that? Right?
So that's what I don't want us to individually think
our individualism and our individual success and our individual money
and worth is going to help black people. It does not.
It is how do we collectively come together and create
a strategy to where we're building something, and we're creating
(33:37):
something in structures and organizations and build in schools and
all these things that are really gonna change our people.
So if we're not doing that, and we just because
I can people, I don't have to do nothing this.
I'm good, you know what I'm saying, but I understand
that if I don't do this, and I don't utilize
my voice, and I don't utilize every platform that I have,
then generations of our people are gonna be suffering.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Well, it's my son, man. Where can they find you?
Speaker 2 (34:02):
My brother? You can find me on Instagram at mysong
n y general. You can find me on YouTube, the
same thing, Facebook, same.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Thing, Yo.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Keep holding them t on my podcast that we're gonna
get ll on real soon. So make sure you follow
us on T in my podcast.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
On iHeart Yes, the Black Effect, iHeart Radio Podcast Network.
My man, my son is the breakfast club, Yes, sir,
hold up every.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Day a wag up the breakfast clubs. Y'all done,
Wake programming your Alarm the Power five point one on iHeartRadio. YEP,
it's the world most dangerous morning show to Breakfast Club
Charlamagne the God, DJ NV, just hilarious, Nvy and jets
on here but ll Kolbay Lauryn LaRosa is and we
got a special guest Man. He was recently appointed the
Zoran Mundani's Transition team. Definitely a friend to the room.
(00:22):
The good brother Mice on his hand with something.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Mice, thank you for having what's going on with your
autographics for me? Man? This is the first let me see,
this is the first time I actually see I don't
even have not even see it like in person. I've
just seen it online. Wow.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Well, before before we get into that, what does your
role on Zoran Mundani's Transition Team entail?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It entails being an advisor, being able to talk about
policies that we think should be implemented, from criminal justice,
from public safety, also appointments people that we think should
be a part of his staff that in that area
that we feel best fit, what it is that he
(01:05):
wants to accomplish, and what represents us in the community.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
So what power do you have to actually influence policy?
Because you know, people will be like, oh, it's just optics.
You get somebody like Mason as well respected in the city, like,
what power do you have that.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's twenty of us. It's twenty of us on in
that committee. Right. So we sit down and we talk
about policy. We have different meetings and we send Okay,
this is the policy we think we shouldn't act and
he gets to look at that based off you know what.
We come together and he makes his own decision. We
don't just tell him what to do. We all we
can do is advise and give recommendations.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Hater love mom, Donnie Right. People have been yelling that
they want this, They want people in the community, from
the community helping to make decisions.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Why are people so upset that's happening?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Because you know, people don't like change, especially the people
that don't want to see change. They want to make
it seem like it's a bad thing. It doesn't make
sense that you mad that somebody who's experienced a criminal
justice system on both fans, who was wrongfully convicted inside
prison for seven years, came home and started working with
youth inside prison, started you know, dealing with reform organizations.
(02:12):
Who has influenced policy within prisons. Who knows, you know,
the mind state of the young kids that's going in
and out of these prisons, that's actually working with him.
That doesn't make sense that somebody would be mad. So
I love what ma and Mandami is. Manlek right now
is doing right now because he's really trying to encompass
what New York looks like, the people inside New York,
(02:34):
the voices of New York. I'm about to do start
doing roundtable meetings and convenience with formerly incarcerated individuals in
which we sit down and we talk about what it is,
what it looks like to actually be productive members of society,
what do we want to see, What do we realize
is wrong with the system, so he can actually get
(02:54):
a real understanding of what's happening inside the system.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I try not to take too many things personal, man,
But when I saw this on the front page of
the New York Post, you labeled as a crime boss
Mandonia points rapper who served seven years for armed robbery
as justice advisor, it actually offended me as a person
with a criminal record, because it's like, damn, my son
went to prisoner what nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
How owe you twenty yep, twenty one. You are forty seven,
forty hyol grown man.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Now you've done nothing since you've came home but given
back to your community, but tried to teach others not
to follow the same path.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
And you still can't escape that.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Well, you know, but I say all the time, with
the devil means for bad, God of you for good.
They got a good picture. So I actually like this
picture you're wearing. You know what black I'm saying when
you look is boycott black murder on the shirt. And
it had and we actually sold out, so you can
you can go buy some more on the website if
you want to, until freedom dot com. But it actually
shows what it is that I represent. So what happened
(03:56):
was for me when I see I received so many congratulations,
Like people didn't even realize that they were actually trying to,
you know, discredit and defame me. People were just like,
while you you you're doing something with the mayor, you're
actually you know, a part of the justice advisory system
with the mayor. So it was it was it didn't
even get the effect that they wanted to get. So
(04:17):
it was for me, it was like you know what,
I'm not gonna utilize. I'm not gonna allow them to
utilize that to discourage me from the work that I've
been doing for the last over a decade. You know,
with until Freedom, we've been doing this anti violence work.
We've been doing criminal justice work for the last over
a decade. So for me, it's like I'm gonna continue
and I'm gonna utilize this this notoriety in which you'all
(04:38):
mean for bad, I'm gonna utilize it. I'm gonna make
sure that you know, the world gets out. I'm gonna
make sure that I represent formally in cost raised and
justice impacted people properly. So when they say, oh we
can't do I want I want to be a representative
to say that Mason showed you that it's definitely possible
that you can be successful.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Did that because I mean, you've been doing this for
a long time, like you know what I mean. But
did this moment and how like a New York Post
or you know wherever else mentioned you, did it turn
up something new or like make you think of like, Okay,
we need to make sure we're doing this over here too,
Like was there like a blind spot that like you
saw through all this.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I don't know if it was a blind spot, but
it definitely was a level of urgency and made me
feel more, you know, motivated to do the work that
we've been doing to motivated to bring certain voices because
you know, I say this all the time, there's so
many formally incarcerated people who are doing so many positive
and you know, just really good things that nobody talks about,
you know, And that's the thing I want to highlight.
(05:33):
I don't want because a lot of people formally incarcerated
don't believe that they can do certain things. They don't
believe that they can be successful, and most the public
perception is that too as well. So I want to
be able to highlight people that come home that have
been doing this work for years, who've been doing positive
things for years, who've been productive members of society. You know.
(05:54):
They always people act like they don't know Alan Iverson
was formally incars, you know, like it's so many people
that we talk about that was forming in Customers Command,
Malcolm Iction is formally incarcerated, and it's like we just
we look down on the stigma and when we talk
about formally incarcerated a lot of people don't act like
they know that Black people are the highest falsely accused
(06:15):
and exonerated people in the world. So so a lot
of us, like I said, I was falsely accused of
a crime. I spent seven years in jail for crime
I didn't commit. I went to trial for my case.
So it's like a lot of us just because there's
the stigma of us being arrested and incarcerated, they make
it seem like we're a threat to society and we
just criminals. And some people have committed crimes, but some
people like when you go to the justice, when you
(06:36):
go to the the prison, right, it's supposed to be rehabilitation.
So if a person does his time and he comes
on and he's productive, why do we act like he
can't be productive.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
And they're focusing on your past. But that is the
very thing that qualifies you for the role. How do
you feel about that?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I think that is so ironic or it's just disingenuous
to say that when we got to a president that
got thirty four felonies and his whole cabinet is full
of criminals. Right, So, but we look at especially black people,
we act like we can't do certain things. And I
say all the time, this is those closest to the
problem are close as the solution, you know, sitting in
(07:16):
the cell for seven years, you know, seeing how the
injustice system works, seeing how inmates are treated, and how
people are sitting. A brother just was killed, you know,
he was executed, and they found out four or five
years later that his DNA didn't match it. He was
actually innocent. So these are things that happened every day
in the justice system, and people like myself who've actually
(07:39):
experienced it will understand that and see the blind spots
because somebody who just went to school and studied law
never understood those realities. A lot of times, I've watched
a lot of elected officials. I've watched people who studied
the law and then they actually got incarcerated and they
came home and have conversation with me like I didn't
realize what was going on, and they becoming biggest advocates
(07:59):
for prison reform before, you know, those type of things.
So I just think that I've been blessed with the opportunity,
you know, and God created for me for such a
time as now. You know, I never understood when I
was incarcerated. When you sitting in jail for seven years
for a crime you didn't do, you don't understand what
you're in there for. It, especially you got a million
dollar record deal. You're sitting in the jail cell and
you're like, why the hell am I sitting in jail?
(08:21):
And it was days that that was my conversation. And
you know what, I always said that I'm not gonna
allow this system to break me because every day that
I don't grow, and I don't learn, and I don't
do things positive in the system. One So when I
came home and I started realizing, oh why I was
in there. I started realizing that that our people are
overly incarcerated, especially young black and brown mass They're overly incarcerated.
Some of them are just lost, they don't even identify
(08:42):
with things. So I came home with a different perspective
is to say, you know what, I'm gonna pour into
my community different I'm gonna empower these young boys. I'm
not gonna make them think that prison is some way
to be. But I'm also not gonna make you believe
that because you was in prison, that you can't be successful.
And I wanted to come home and model that behavior.
And I think for the last twenty year that I've
been out of jail. You know, my crime happened in
(09:03):
ninety nine. It's twenty six years later, and y'all still
talking about a crime that happened twenty six years later.
But y'are not looking at the track record for the
last twenty years that I've been home and I've been
on this ground putting put boots on the ground of
doing this work.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Are you going to take any legal action against some
of the headlines and stuff that came out.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I mean, I don't know. You know, I'll discuss it
with some lawyers and see what happens. But really, right now,
I really just want to focus on just doing this work.
You know, shout out to me and my Daminus team,
you know, my team until freedom. We've been doing this work.
And you know, like I tell people, this is this
is a volunteer. I'm not getting no check for this.
This is a volunteer and not because I really believe
in what's supposed to be going on in our communities.
(09:42):
You know, we're going to start forums where we talk
about civic engagement with formally in custory we talk about,
you know, how hard it is for them to be employed,
the you know, the collateral damages and causes that happen
till you come on from jail and you can't be
a bar bro. You can't be adore all these things
that have We want to talk about those things, and
then we want to talk about how what's the next
(10:03):
step forward. You know, women that's being incarcerated, We're going
to start these convenience and we're gonna have them all
at the table. Like that is one of the biggest
voting blocks in the world that nobody is really tapped into.
Formally incarcerated people. A lot of them don't even realize
they can vote, you know how strong they are. There's
millions of people who are formally incarcerated that have really
just lost belief in the system. So I me being
(10:26):
on the inside understanding how it can make change. How
somebody like when when you get somebody like Mandami in
in Mandani in office right now, and you you get
behind them and you you push the agenda of what
it is. You know, because we're going to push the agenda.
People think, oh you you and you with the government. Nah,
if they do something wrong, I'm gonna be outside protest
to Mandamie too, because that's what we do. Like we've
(10:47):
been just like when Dublasio was in there, we helped
de Blasio get an office. When he didn't do what
we did, we was at the when he was at
the presidential we stood up inside the DNC and screen
that what happened to a regarda arrest Daniel pantulet wer regard.
Just like when may Adams got elected, we was I
was with him too when he started doing things and
letting the police police do things to community members. We's
(11:10):
outside protested. So it's no different. As long as he's
you know, doing what he's supposed to do for the
community and agenda for the community, we're gonna stand with
him and we're gonna we're gonna give our input and
we're gonna stand beside him. But the minute he stops,
then we're gonna be outside with the people.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
I'm glad you touched on that because you know a
lot of activists often fear being absorbed by politics. So
how are you protecting your voice and integrity while working
with this transition team?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
I mean, you have to work with people that actually
are in positions to put policy to make the real
changes you want, and I've seen it done. Shout out
to my brother Jimini Williams, Like we've worked with Jimini Williams,
you know, and we worked with numerous different you know,
my brother Yusuf Salam from the Central Park, the exonerated,
exonerated five exactly. So it's people that I know in
(11:58):
positions that have actually on things in our community. So
I know that you have to have those levels of relationships.
But those people, they also know that when you do
something wrong, we're gonna be outside your office saying that
you gotta get it right. We're not gonna we understand
that you have our best entry, but the minute that
you don't, then we're always gonna hold you accountable. So
I understand people's, you know, fear that because activists get
(12:21):
aligned or stand next to certain politicians and people in office,
that they're gonna lose their autonomy. But we just not
those type of people. We've been fighting against anything that's
not for our people. We're gonna fight against every time.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Man Mayor Young, Well, that said Mayor Young. Andrew Young
was up here.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
And Andrew Young said, the same people who supported him
and helped him get elected. He said, as soon as
he won, they were outside protesting in his front of
his office and he was like, what are y'all doing?
He goes, they said, you the man. Now, Yeah, so
we got to push you to make sure you do
what you said you was gonna do.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
And that's what it is, man. It's about accountability. It's
about understanding that I work for the people. I do
not work for the government. When I'm inside these rooms,
when I'm having conversations, when I'm at these tables, my
objective is always to get what's necessary for the people.
You know, So it never changes, no matter how much status.
That's just not how I'm built. You know, I've done
(13:13):
too much time. I've been in the streets. I know
the ills and the spills inside our communities, and I
know I want them, the community to know that every
time that I'm at a table, our voice is there.
It's not just for me, Like I said, this is
a volitier. I don't get it down to do this work.
It's not for me. It's for me to make sure
that the work and the people are represented.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Popularly, you talked about until freedom, Like you guys send
it next to Mayor Adams and now what you're doing
with mom, Donnie?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Right.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I think when hip hop gets involved or anybody from
the culture gets involved in politics, people pay attention a
bit more. But then like now, people are easily flipped right,
Like you're on the front of the New York Post
and the support isn't the same. What do you think
politics or the system owns hip hop or people from
the culture like you that you don't get.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I think like it owes proper representation, right. What happens
with a lot of politicians is a shout out to
man Dommie Again, he didn't run from when I got
when this happened and they talked about it. He talked
about the necessity to have somebody who's been through the system,
you know, at the table with other weed. Like I said,
(14:20):
is a whole transition team of four hundred people. It's
twenty an hour in our criminal justice and community support,
but it's over four hundred people, and everybody at that
table has a voice, and everybody represents somebody different or
a different genre, a different demographic inside of New York City,
and those voices need to be at the table. What
I think that politicians need to do is elevate certain people,
(14:42):
especially in hip hop. Don't leave us because what happens
is when something goes wrong or they don't and you
standing up there. I've had this conversation with Pap whose
Pap was like I was on the front line and
I was standing and these politicians left me out the drive.
You know what I'm saying. When you start getting political,
too political for hip hop, they move away from you.
And the politicians move away from you too because they
don't no longer have the value and you no more
(15:04):
because you lose your value in your community. But for me,
I've always stand on what I stand on, so I
don't care about what politics think. If I stand by
a politician, that means that that politician represents what I
feel at that moment. The minute that that politician politician
doesn't represent what's the needs of my community or what
I stand on, that I don't stand on them, So
don't I don't deal with no blanket like you always say.
(15:26):
I'm not with no party. I don't care about the
Democrats Republicans. I care about people, and especially black people
in our communities because that's what I am, and I
know that we are highly impacted by anything that goes
on the government. So when people are talking about, oh,
I'm not political this and if you ain't at the table,
then you're on the menu. But that's the reality of
the situation. These people are making laws, they are going
to be laws passed that are going to affect you.
(15:48):
If you're looking at this, if you're looking at this
administration right now, and you don't see how our people
are being infected, how people can afford groceries, how they're
taking away everything that says black anywhere, that a black
woman are getting unemployed, unemployed at the highest rates ever,
like we're getting locked up. Everything that I told you
(16:09):
they was gonna do is what they doing now. So
if you still want to play this that you're not
political and you're not gonna be involved in the game,
then cool, You're just going to be a victim of circumstance.
I'm not gonna sit around and be a victim of circumstance.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
What's one compromise you're not willing to make, even if
it creates political tension between you and Donnie.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I'm not willing to make compromises where you take away
things in our communities that are necessary. Right, I'm not
willing to make compromises where we know that violence interruption
and CMS work has been doing phenomenal work over the
last decade in our community and you don't support that.
(16:49):
I'm not willing to compromise where you don't put certain
things inside schools, because this is one of the things
I want to implement, is where we have emotional intelligence class,
we have alternative to suspension. Last, we know that once
you start putting kids and putting them suspending them in
junior high school, they not coming back to school. So
if you're not willing to if you're not willing to
get the root causes or what crime is in our community,
(17:12):
if you're not willing to educate and put the resources
in our communities. If I, if I see that those
things are you not doing, that's a line in the
sand for me. If you if you're willing to stand
by and allow police to abuse people like Mayor Adams,
a police overs a punch of the woman in the
face and he told me she shouldn't have been screaming.
Once you start doing that right there at that point
(17:33):
that me and you, we were on different sides of
the spectrum, So I don't. That's where I drawed a line.
When you when you're willing to allow the police to
abuse our community, or you're willing not to make sure
that resources that need to come into our community to
prevent violence and prevent crime, if you're not willing to
do that, then that's where I draw the line.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
What convinced you that Zoran Mundani was serious about transformational
change and not just using like progressive language.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
That's a good question, right, because I watched zoron for
a while, and you know, I think I had after
this last election, I had just fairly much just been
kind of done with politics and just you know, politicians
in general. But just listen, just I listened to him
for a while, right, and I just kept paying attention.
And then when he won the Democratic nomination, I said
(18:21):
to myself, well, he's going to be our mayor, right,
so I want to have a conversation with him, and
through the resources that I have and people that I know,
I said, you know what, I want to set up conversations.
Shout out to Tamika. I want to set up conversations
with black men and people for my community, because they
don't even hear him and he sounds good, but I
want to be able to look him in his eyes
(18:42):
and have real conversations with him. And he came into
those conversations. We had about two or three of them,
and he was very attentive right, and he was on
He was on board with the things that we were saying.
And he did it didn't sound like it was political
gibbor jazz like the average person does. I I've been
around life positives and he seemed really authentic and he
(19:03):
stayed true to that, and I watched him be attacked
for it all the time. And he kept saying, we
need violences to rupt us. We need to make sure
that we have mental health inside our communities. We need
to make sure that police is not the first line
of defense in every situation. Like those are things that
will tell me. He said, we need to make sure
that the school program is that black boys are graduate.
All these things that he was talking about. When he
(19:24):
sat down with us, everybody felt that same authenticity. And
then when he built this transition team, and I walked
into auditorium with four hundred people, a lot of them
grassroots organizers that I seen throughout the years. For the
last over a decade, and everybody was in that room,
and he sat there. He said, we're gonna get criticism
and we're not gonna all agree. And I know that,
(19:45):
and that's why I'm putting this team together because I
don't want everybody that agrees with me. I want different
walks of life. I want different ideologies. I want different ideas,
and I want us to come up what New York
actually looks like. And that for me, was the first
time that I've ever seen somebody do. I watched three
or four men's coming office. They get their regular they
get their homeboys, and the transition team, they get their
homeboys in it. But he really put together apparatus that
(20:10):
really is going to represent New York City. So I'm hopeful.
I believe that he's really gonna try. I don't think
that he's beholden to a political system. I don't think
he needs money or anything. I think he really wants
to see change, you know. So if I'm right, if
my gut feeling is right, then we're gonna be good
for at least the next four years. But if not,
then I'm gonna be outside protests.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
I already be getting really challenged behind closed doors.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Oh hearing about this one call with miss Erica.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
For she came into the transition meeting right and she
called him out. She's like, well, I see certain people
in here that's been a part of the status quo
that you got in your system already, and and they
ain't been doing nothing. You know, all they doing is
these people is they investigating these kids thirteen and fourteen
(21:01):
for four and five years instead of coming to us
and say, yo, this was going on so we can redirect.
They just want to put cases on our babies. Like
we trying to save these babies, and they putting cases
on these kids. And he stood up and he said,
what you're saying is really understand. I understand what you're saying,
and that's what we need. We need your voice because
those are the things that needs to be heard because
(21:21):
a lot of us don't have that perspective. Her and
she's gonna always do that. And even her, she was like, Okay,
well maybe we got some but she you know, Erika
ain't gonna she ain't got all. She's not gonna submit
to nothing. But you know, I think at this point
it's a lot of us who are skeptical it's a
lot of people at that table who not here. They
don't want status quo, they don't even agree with government
or nothing, but they believe that this situation is possible,
(21:45):
you know. But once again, if it ain't possible, then
we're gonna be outside tearing you up.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
What about when he like when mom Donnie does things
like when he goes and meets with Trump. I know
he got a lot of like pushback from some people
because they were like, really smiley smiley in the meeting
or whatever. Until freedom, y'all are very much like, if
we won't rock with you, we don't rock with you.
What we said is what we stand on in your
face or behind your back whatever. Right, how do y'all
deal with conversations with him about stuff like that? Because
now people are like, but you guys are sitting next
(22:12):
to him, and that we know of for until freedom,
y'all we went and see you guys end up meeting
with President Trump.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Well, that's why I'm not the man, right, That's what
when you know what I'm saying, That's why when they
say run for political officers, I don't want to do
that because I don't want to do politics. But I
understand that being the mayor, understanding that this is the
president and federal aid that's needed for New York City
has to go through the president. I'm gonna have a
conversation with you. I'm gonna sit down as the mayor.
I understood it what I have done. No, that's why
(22:39):
I wouldn't be the man. But understanding. But I believe
when I watched that, it looked like Trump was happy
to be in his president. Didn't look like he was
just happy to be in Trump's president. And he called
him a fashions in his face. And to me, that's
what he didn't waiver from what he said he was doing.
He said he sat down, he told him, this is
what we need inside of New York City, and this
is where and now we've had the conversation. Right, It's
just like two warriors on the war. You see two
(23:01):
generals go to war. Don't mean that we not at
war no more, but we discussed in terms of war.
I'm explaining to you, look, if you stop this right now,
then we don't got to go to the war. And
you're saying, well, I'm not gonna stop that, and you say, okay,
so you sure you're not gonna stop that. All right,
we've met. We shook hands. Robert de Niro and al Pacino.
They they respect, they may have had a level of respect,
and they shook hands, but it didn't stop, you know,
(23:21):
Alba Pacino from shooting him down at the end of
the movie. So that's what happens in these type of situations.
He met with the president. Now if he's and now
if he stops his agenda, if he stops trying to
push his agenda, because now he's trying to be you know,
cool with Trump, then once again, you just one of
those that fell by the wayside, because we watch Eric
Adams do that, right, So if you follow them for that,
(23:41):
I would be disappointed. I just don't really see it.
I think the meeting was, you know, par for the course.
It was saying, hey, I met with the president, right,
I told him what I wanted, and I'm still going
along with my agenda. Now, don't say that I didn't
try it. Ain't nobody gonna be able to say, oh,
look you you and you're not even savvy enough to
sit down with the president. No. I sat down with
him and he said he agreed, right, So but my
(24:01):
agenda has always been my agenda. Now, if he changes
his agenda, then we got to issue with him. But
if he doesn't, that meaning with Trump is just supposed
to be what it's supposed to be as just being
the leader. That's why.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
That's why I don't like when politicians adopt the language
of activists.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
If you're gonna use language like fascism, it does look
confusing to people when you say you can work with
a fascist, because that's never worked in the history of
man and vice versa. You called him a communist. That's
why you saw Trump's people sow up and arms like, Yo,
you told us this dude was a communist. But now
y'all just buddy buddy inside the Oval office. But that
is politics. But I think I'm just a person that
(24:37):
think words matter.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Man. I think words do matter. I think it matters more.
And that's why we have an inside outside game. Right.
It's just like what Michael said. You know, if you
don't respect doctor King's peace, then you're gonna get what
we got over here. It was we're the alternative, right,
Like when they show this to me, he talks about
it a lot. They show stokely Carmarker walking alongside Doctor
(24:58):
King and they both talking about what's going on, and
Doctor King said, you know, we're gonna rally and we're
trying to unify and stokely carmakers like burning everything. No,
and they walk in the same path. So the reality
is everybody's words may be different, but we still got
the same agenda. And as long as his agenda is
to stop fascism, I don't care if you stand there
(25:19):
and have a conversation with him, if you're saying yo,
because you know what I've studied, right, and I didn't
understand it and shout out to I forgot went with
the organization and we went to study the principles are
nonviolence doctor King's Kenya non violence, and I never was
on board with it, But when I really got down
to how strong and how mentally strong, it was what
(25:42):
the principles are and how you go about it, how
you you identify with the issue is you don't attack
the person with it. You attack the issue, and then
there's a level of reconciliation after I attack and we
go to war. And even when I win, it's not
me winning over you, it's me winning over the situation,
and then after I went over situation, they're supposed to
(26:02):
be a level of reconciliation because a lot of times
people don't even identify their wrongs, and sometimes after they lose,
then they may be able to have reconciliation. And when
you really sit there and think about it, it takes
real strong minded and leadership to have that type of foresight.
So when I'm thinking about this right now, of course,
Trump to us is the Antichrist. Were looking at him.
(26:23):
Everything he's doing is just wrong to us. But man
Mondami seems to have a level of understanding and vision
that most leaders don't. You know, He's able to sit
there and call you the truth and still smile and
still go about what he's doing and then make you
like it. I've never seen somebody get called a fascist
and said, well just call yeah, yeah, that's right, I'm fast.
(26:44):
This guy's great, you understand saying how who else has
that level of christ The only person I've seen do
that was when Natod Martin Luther King. He said we
need this to happen, and he said make me.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
We also got to remember Trump as a con artist exactly, so,
so Trump might be playing to everybody's playing.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
You understand what I'm saying. But the thing is at
the end is who gonna win. I think what's happened
is Mandammi has became the star, and Trump loves the star.
He collses up to anybody that's the star. That's what
he is. He's a groupie, so he you know what
I'm saying, He coaxes up to anybody that this is
the fact.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
It's just the fact.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
You know. But at this time, I think Madami has
a real agenda and he has the people behind him.
Like he's literally going outside in the streets and just
putting a mic outside and talking to random people, just
trying to figure out what do you want inside New
York City? You know what I'm saying, Like, I've never
seen the man that that's that interested in really galvanizing
the people. You know, So you know, we'll see, Like
(27:38):
once again, I could be wrong, but you know, I'm
really usually a good judge of character. You know, sometimes
I get people to doubt the benefit of that when
they never really benefit. But I'm giving her a benefit
of that. Hopefully you know he will, but it lets again,
if he's not, we're gonna be out there protest.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
How do you want young organizers watching this moment, watching you,
watching Tamika, watching the Erica Ford on this transition team,
how do you want them to understand the relationship between
protest and policy.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Shout out to Angelo two. He's actually he's on the
Prime Justice word. But I want young protesters to understand organizers, right,
because I don't want you to just be protesters. I
want you to be savvy. I want you to be intelligent.
I want you to be strategic. I want you to
look at this moment as progress, right because we all
got to do different things. There's an inside outside game.
(28:25):
And you know, for years we sit outside and we
was the protesters, and people say yeah, y'all can go
out there, and they made jokes you got your pick
a signe and it was cool, but we watched incremental
change happen. Right. We got we got incremental change, and
we protested enough people to it. They said, okay, what
do y'all want? Right? And then they sat down with
us and then we start saying, okay, we want this,
and they start and we started watching capitulate. When we
(28:47):
look at talk about the CMS, Tamika and Erica Ford
and at those they sat out there and protested the
mayor until they got millions of dollars put into that
CMS system to when they were nothing, you know, when
they was told that there was no data and they
would never get a dime. And now it's up to
over one hundred million that's given to CMS inside of
(29:09):
New York City because people did that work. So I
want you to be understanding. I want you to be relentless.
I want you to be fearless, but I want you
to understand that there's the process and that there's an
ultimate goal. And if you just protest and you don't
see things going anywhere, if you don't get yourself, if
you're not in positions to actually make change, if you
(29:29):
don't have the ears and the wherewithal to touch the
people who can actually give policy to actually do things
for the community, you're fighting for it and you just
fighting a fight for nothing. So it's cool. I told people,
I'm tired of having, you know, victories that you know,
just being the leader that die. We celebrate our leaders
(29:49):
dying at thirty and ain't got nothing, but they kept on.
I want to win, you know, I don't want moral
of it. I'm tired of moral victories. When do we
actually get the victories where we see some change for
our people. I'm tired of the story of we watching
our people run out in glory and they say, yeay,
y'all gonna be the first ones. We know, all y'all
gonna die, but it's gonna be brave. You brave because
(30:10):
you went out there. And I don't want that no more.
Like when we're gonna be strategic and we go through
the back door and we actually take over the castle
and we put our people in position, When we're gonna
start doing that, like, I think our strategy has to
change and it has to evolve what we're dealing with.
It's just like when we look at Trump and we
look at jasmine crackers, and we look at the people
that are meeting fire with fire. We can't keep having
(30:32):
the conversations about, oh, this is not how we're supposed
to No, this is how it is. You can't fight
or fight with one hand behind your back, where people
got four and five hands and they jumping you, and
you saying but I fought with honor and I did
it the right No, Actually, you fought and they killed you.
Like I'm tired of just dying, Like, I really want
us to win the war. So I want black people
and our young activists to be strategic and figure out
(30:55):
how do we actually get the things that we're fighting for.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
I agree with Jall, got one more question, Maybe think
about something this now, what's the biggest lie people believe
about how change actually happens.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
And what's the hard truth they need to accept them out?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
The biggest lie is that people act like if they
do nothing, things are gonna change. Right. They say, Yo,
I'm not voting, you don't even need to be involved
in that system. I'm not gonna be there. I'm not. No,
when you take yourself out and you don't have a strategy,
like people been not voting for years, there's a million
I know a bunch of people that said, I ain't
never vote, But so what have you ever got for
(31:30):
not voting? What have you never got for not fighting?
And I think you know when people think that if
you don't go out there, and you're not out there,
if you protest and it doesn't know. I've literally watched
protests turn into policy. I've literally watched people turn into
protesters get into power. I watched literal front line activists
get into office. Jimiani william was an activist outside with us.
(31:53):
You know what I'm saying, that use of salon was
they were activists on the front line with us at times.
So I watched those people getting positions to what they
can actually do things. So telling people to not be
involved in this system. And if you take yourself out,
you more valuable then they gotta come to you know,
if you take yourself out, then they don't even they
don't even account you, right, because when they start doing votes,
(32:14):
they only account for the people that's voting. So one
of the other million or one hundred million that ain't voting,
they don't care, right, So how do you make yourself valuable? Right?
If you don't add value to something, then you don't
have any worth. So I think that that's the biggest
lies that we act like if we're not involved with
the system, that the system is gonna somehow change and
(32:36):
it's gonna benefit us, or we can or another thing
is that we can money ourselves out of our problem.
Money has never changed Black people's situation, not individually. We
think individual I know people I've had conversations, Oh we
overhere doing this and we over here, okay, but still
ninety percent of black people don't have nothing. And you
got that right, you and you and twenty people got
(32:57):
that right, and y'all invested in that. So how we're
is the strategy for ten and twenty and thirty percent
of black people to be in power, to be in
positions to where they can create generational wealth, to where
the majority of us are not struggling, right to where
we see power, to where we're more than one two
percent of the wealth in America. We've been two percent
(33:17):
of the wealth in America since we've been here. When
are we gonna grow? What is the strategy for that? Right?
So that's what I don't want us to individually think
our individualism and our individual success and our individual money
and worth is going to help black people. It does not.
It is how do we collectively come together and create
a strategy to where we're building something, and we're creating
(33:37):
something in structures and organizations and build in schools and
all these things that are really gonna change our people.
So if we're not doing that, and we just because
I can people, I don't have to do nothing this.
I'm good, you know what I'm saying, but I understand
that if I don't do this, and I don't utilize
my voice, and I don't utilize every platform that I have,
then generations of our people are gonna be suffering.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Well, it's my son, man. Where can they find you?
Speaker 2 (34:02):
My brother? You can find me on Instagram at mysong
n y general. You can find me on YouTube, the
same thing, Facebook, same.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Thing, Yo.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Keep holding them t on my podcast that we're gonna
get ll on real soon. So make sure you follow
us on T in my podcast.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
On iHeart Yes, the Black Effect, iHeart Radio Podcast Network.
My man, my son is the breakfast club, Yes, sir,
hold up every.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Day a wag up the breakfast clubs. Y'all done,
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