EYL 176 STEVE HARVEY ON HOLLYWOOD, FINANCIAL LESSONS, BEING A MOGUL, & IRS PROBLEMS

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:58):
I had to learn something adversity. This is what I learned.
I often ask people. I said, how many of you
all have ever had a bad day? And the audience
raised their head, how many of y'all have had days
where you felt like you wasn't gonna make it?

Speaker 3 (01:10):
And everybody raised their head.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
How many y'all have had days where you thought you
you just didn't know what you was gonna do. Everybody
raises they hand. I said, now, let me tell you
something about yourself. Your track record for surviving hard days,
days you wasn't gonna make it, thought you weren't gonna
make it, an insurmountable days.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Your track record for surviving those days is one per
every bad day you've ever had, you survived it. You
got a one hundred percent track record. Everybody in here,
everybody watching, got a one hundred percent track record of
surviving funky ass days. My graduates from my school being

(01:53):
forced bad drop bag drop, Mike drop bad drop drop.

Speaker 4 (02:09):
All right, guys, welcome back, e y l. This is
going to be a legendary situation.

Speaker 5 (02:14):
Feels legendary already.

Speaker 4 (02:15):
It's already a legendary pre conversation that we actually had
for like a half an hour. So if you know us,
you know that you know we grew up in the
culture from music, sports, of course, entertainment. So one of
the pillars of our culture who's actually become an icon,
Steve Harvey. So Steve Harvey needs no introduction, But I

(02:38):
was telling him the story. My I'm not sure if
that's my first introduction, but like when it really became
like really really big.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
For me was the Kings of Comedy.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
And it's crazy that that happened over twenty five years ago.

Speaker 5 (02:51):
Now the teenager say.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
That I was younger than the teenager.

Speaker 5 (02:56):
I'm gonna go further back. I'm gonna go further back.

Speaker 6 (02:57):
I remember what happened to wait up at twelve am
to watch a show time at the Apollogy.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Oh apollow that was before.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
That was before what I'm saying the same time, right,
like you have to wait up to see it follow
that was legendary. But just to see the Kings of
comedy in the movie theater and to see his cultural impact,
like I never forget, like I had never seen because
I'm too young for like raw or you know all
of those.

Speaker 5 (03:21):
So crazy.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, that was before my time.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
So that was the first time I actually saw like
a comedy show in a movie theater packed and people
talking about it, and people stealing the jokes and making
it their own jokes.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Like what it just became like a cultural phenomenon.

Speaker 6 (03:37):
I think that might have been my first time crying
at theater. Why'd you cry because I was just laughing,
so oh yeah, yeah. Once I said we back got
up there, it was just like this is crazy. And
then d l and it was it was crazy. It
was I couldn't wait for the DVD to come out
to keep watching it.

Speaker 5 (03:52):
That's how it was.

Speaker 6 (03:54):
DVDs is what we used to put inside of the drive.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
God damn forget it. Yeah, tell people, but you know,
it's crazy. Just to see the evolution. I told them,
it's just inspiring for me, Like we're actually at his
a state right now, and to see the evolution of
you know, somebody that was doing comedy and then it
was on TV radio and now just media mogul and

(04:19):
has grown a whole empire. Like, you know, it's inspiring
actually because we actually got to see it first hand.
We actually got to like witness the growth step by
step by step by step. So this is going to
be a dope conversation because I feel like a lot
of times people might they might see the surface, like
they see, you know, the celebrity, but they don't actually
see what goes behind that and how he's actually transitioning

(04:41):
the whole world of Hollywood with the conversation that we
just had. We have that conversation as well, reframing everything
and ownership and all of this stuff global vision. So
this is going to be extremely extremely high level conversation.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
Dope conversation.

Speaker 6 (04:55):
So it's dope because it's like we saw the entertainment,
but most people forget that there's a bit it and
so like they head here, what's gonna happen today? Man,
it's going to be one of those situations that they
gonna remember father.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
Yeah, thank you for joining us, brother, I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, thank you for having us. Thank you man.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
You know, one of the things like you were talking,
because what I learned very quickly that show business is
actually two separate words.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
It's not one continuous thing.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
See, you can have the best show in the world,
but if you don't have the business, then how would
people book you? How would people pay the ticket price
to see you? Why would people come? You know, if
you don't have the business. So you can have the
best show in the world, and if you don't take
care of the business, it won't work. You can have

(05:44):
the best business acumen in the world, but if you
ain't got no great show, or you might trick them
into paying you this money, and you might, but once
they get there and you don't have the show that
leaves up to the ticket price, you don't have a
repeat customer. So I always had to learn that show
business was two separate words, and I had to ask.

(06:04):
And at first it only starts out as being a
great show show me because you got to learn the business.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
And over the.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Years I started focusing on the business, and that was
one of the biggest causes for my success because I
always understood that even with a promoter that booked me
or comedy club owner that hired me, I didn't go
in there just to be hired.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
I went in there as his partner.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
I wanted to sell his place out, so after he
paid me, he was successful, so he would want me back.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Over and over and over again.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
And I kept that relationship whether it was a comedy
club owner or a promoter or a TV show.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
That was my philosophy.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
So I want to get into this. I understand you
have five core principles when it comes to considering business.
Dreaming big, dream big, use your imagination, show gratitude, overcome fear,
and have faith. Yeah, man, can we go over each
one dream, big, let's start with that one.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
Everything starts with the dream.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Nothing launches without the dream that comes from your childhood.
From anything, it's the dream. It's the core basis of success.
See the thing with me, man, is that I don't
really focus on the technical aspects of business, because I'm
not the technical guy. I focus on the mental aspect
of business. I focus on the part that go on

(07:19):
in here, because if you fix what goes on in here,
you got a shot. Now, you technical ain't nothing if
you ain't got it set up. So the dream is
the core of everything. That dream, Man, it's biblical, you know.
Man without a dream or vision shall perish.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
Listen about you.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Education ain't even in the Bible. I ain't never mind.
I ain't never read nothing about Harvard Emory. I ain't
never heard no Ivy League scriptures.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
I've never All it talks about is that dream. So
that's the core imagination.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
Now that's critical, because see what people don't understand, is, man,
this thing that you imagine is is a peak. Albert
Einstein had a quote he said, imagination is everything. It's
the preview to life's coming attractions. Oh, man, when I

(08:15):
heard that that tripped me out. Because here's Albert Einstein
setting it out that imagination is everything.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
It's to preview to life coming attraction.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
So everything that's in your imagination is God showing you
a preview of a coming attraction that He has for you. See,
So you can't don't let nobody play your imagination off.
Don't let nobody twist you about what's in your imagination.
Don't learn how you see that they ain't supposed to
see it. See, everybody not gonna see your imagination. You

(08:46):
can quit telling it to them. Because God wanted them
to see it. He to put it in their imagination,
but he put it in yours. So imagination is as
critical as the dream, because the imagination is just God
showing you a preview what he has to It's like
when you go to a movie and you get your
popcorn and you sit down before the movie start.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
What do they show you?

Speaker 2 (09:07):
They show you previews of what a coming attraction? Have
you ever seen a preview? And then the movie ain't
come out? Now, Bro, Once you see the preview, it's
send to be a movie.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
You believe that. And that's how the imagination works in
your life.

Speaker 4 (09:24):
I mean, as the third one is very interesting to me.
You show gratitude.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
See, gratitude is one of the most overlooked and key
principles to your success.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
If your goal is to.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
Be a millionaire, and you start out making twenty thousand
a year and then God gets you to fifty, but
you're mad because you ain't a millionaire, be hold up, man,
do you not remember that just a minute ago you
wasn't didn't have a twenty, So you got to show
gratitude for the fifty.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
Then somehow, by the grace of God, you get to.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
It's people making one hundred and fifty who used to
be dead broke mad because they not a millionaire. Hold up, partner,
do you remember when you was just making the fifty?
Now you done triple that, And you gotta understand that
there's joy in the journey. So if you don't show
the proper amount of gratitude, you're never gonna be happy.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
You're never gonna be content. And after a while, man,
God gonna get tired of you.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
They're like, if you somebody come over your house and
borrow a cup of sugar. Every day, every day, somebody
come to your house and ask you for a cup
of sugar and you give it to them and they
walk away and don't ever say thank you. How many
times can this cat come to your house and get
this sugar without saying thank you to you?

Speaker 3 (10:43):
Before you, as a human being, go yo, yo, yo,
my man.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
You come here every day and I give you this
couple of sugar, you ain't said thank you want to
don't come by here no more. But through God's grace
and mercy he allow us to keep coming back. But
suppose you were grateful though, Maybe one time you go
to God and ask for another one fifty and he
give you five hundred.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
Cause you didn't show gratitude.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Maybe sometimes when the guy that kept coming by your
house asking for the cup of sugar, if he would
show g gratitude, maybe you go, hey, man.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
He go five pound cycle sugar. That way, you ain't
gotta come back tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
But if you never show the gratitude, you never become
the recipient of the grace. And the grace is to
what you need on top of that that helps you
get to the next level and take your place.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
My wife asked me the other day, cause I just
turned sixty five, right, I was talking to my wife
and I said baby, I was just kind of kind.
I got a little throw it off a little bit,
cause even I'm human, you know, I got a little
throw it off, said baby. I just turned sixty five,
and I really was wanting a little bit more to
be popped off by now.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
She said, way'm my hold up state. She said, let
me ask you something. When you was thirty, where did
you see yourself at sixty five? I said, well, I
ain't see this, She said exactly. She said, So you
could want all you want, but you need to go
outside and just drive around and go get in some
of your cars and see how you fly.

Speaker 3 (12:09):
And just take a look around. And now I think
you be all right.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
And I went on and sat down and go sit
down about overcoming fear, well, fear. Fear is the number
one cause of people not being successful because davage person
freezes theyself with fear and they never try.

Speaker 5 (12:32):
You know.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
It's like people are afraid to fail. Dog, that's the process.
I don't care who you talk to. I've watched y'all's interviews. Man,
y'all can talk to some bad people. I don't care
who y'all was listening, Big Ross Man, that boy cold,
you sit up and listening to Ross Man, and you
go this a hood. Dude's real simple. If you don't
understand ross it's because you don't want to. He just basic, dude.

(12:57):
But if you are afraid feel, it freezes you. And
people are afraid to fail. Failure is a part of
the process. You cannot get where you're going without failing, Pardoner,
you don't learn nothing winning. Michael Jordan took nine hundred
some game winning shots. He only made one hundred and

(13:21):
forty some of them. They don't write about the seven
hundred some missus, but you see he on Wheedi boxes
because in one hundred and forty six.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
He made that.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
Nobody gives a down that he has failed three quarters
of the time. He was willing to take that game
winning shot and hoping to make it. Now he'd have
made one hundred and forty six. So he got a
lot of rings on his fingers because he lost to
feel failure and failure, man, is a part of the process,
So you got to lose the fear of failing.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
Man.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
It's just a part of it. It's the deal. The
last one having faith, Well, that's the ultimate. See.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
I was raised cool man because my father didn't go
to church ever. My father was a hoolum. He was
a hard working man, but my father was a hoolum.
He wasn't a gangster. My father was a hoodlum. He
did he had some legal activities with Don King in Cleveland,
and when I see Don King man, we just hugged.
Don King went to jail for manslaughter. My father knew

(14:26):
this dude. My father ran numbers with Don King in
Cleveland because in the winter time he worked construction, so
he wasn't working, so he was a number runner in Cleveland.
So my first job when I was ten years old
was a paper route, and my job was not to
just deliver the papers, but I had to go to
everybody's house off my bike. And remember where they put

(14:46):
their numbers. Some people put their numbers up under the
fender of their car. Some people would tape it under
their stairway, under their steps, rats and stuff under that
had get up there and get their taper. Some people
to put it behind their mail. Some people hand it
to you every morning. And my father was a hoodlum.
My mother was saved. She was a Christian. My mother

(15:08):
took her to church. That combination of his being doing
whatever he had to do to survive for his family,
measured with my mother's teaching us about God and prayer
and faith and scriptures has been the total cornerstone of
who I am.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
My faith. See, faith is a belief in things that
you cannot see. Without that how you make it.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Because I'm finna ask God for something that I don't see,
No how, no way I can get it.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
But I got the faith that one day I have it.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
That's cold, man, that's a cold peace to lock it
into your mind. And people that don't have faith, that
don't have a spiritual background, I feel sorry for him, man,
because it's finna be way hart way harder, because too
much gonna happen to you. That's gonna require some God.
Now you can think it, don't. I don't really believe
in God. Okay, you ain't gotta be He's still there.

Speaker 5 (16:11):
You know.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
I don't believe in heaven. It's still gonna be one.
One dude told me.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
He said, well, hey, man, suppose you get there and
you find out it ain't no heaven.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
Well then I lived the best life I could. It
ain't no heaven.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
You got a bigger problem if if you think it
ain't one day, and it is because now you've done
done what you wanted to do and now you ain't
going so faith man, all those five pillars are the
cornerstone though.

Speaker 6 (16:38):
So I mean, there's a generation that has watched you,
like we spoke earlier, like my son knows you for
family feud and you know, like right, they've come up
in the world where you've always been successful, but that
always goesn't the case? And so those core principles how
would they developed throughout your career because I know, I
mean you started early.

Speaker 5 (16:57):
You go homemost at one point, living.

Speaker 6 (16:59):
Out your car, and so how did we start developing
these court principles? Were the experiences that would happen? And
he's like, all right, there's a lesson. They won't have
to go through it because I did. Here's what you
need to love, you know man.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
It's that failure piece that teaches them to you. That's
why you got to lose your fear of failure, because
it's in the failures.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
It's where you learn these lessons. You know.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
My father used to say, ain't the best lesson you'll
ever learned is a balt lesson?

Speaker 3 (17:27):
That lesson you pay for that, one's gonna stick with
you hard than anything.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
So when faith is When I was ten years old
and I wrote on the assignment piece of paper what
you want to be when you grow up? And I
was ten and I wrote, I won't be on TV.
Okay Le's faith. I didn't know I couldn't, so I
just wrote it on. Bill Cosby was on TV in
nineteen sixty six. So in nineteen sixty eight, when Bill

(17:52):
Carsby came on TV, the whole block cleared out.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
Everybody went in the house. Watch Bill calls me. He
was on I spy.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Here's a black dude that was talking on television to
white people and telling them what to do.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
Oh man, we were sitting in there all day.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
So two years after that, when Lady asked me what
I want to do, I said, I want to be
on TV.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
Now.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Through all of my hardships, I did not get on
TV till I was thirty six. It took twenty six
years for that little piece of paper to ring true.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
That took a lot of faith.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
But in there in between now the homelessness, the losing
everything I ever earned, I ever ever had Twice, I've
lost everything twice. I lost it all when I was homeless.
I lost it all again in two thousand and five.

Speaker 3 (18:44):
I was zeroed out.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
In two thousand and five, I had one thousand, seven
hundred dollars left king with a comedy all that a divorce.

Speaker 3 (18:52):
Yeah, her lawyer was outstanding. I was in court clacking
for him. Yeah, he was so cold. I was in
heath in court room going next thing I know, I
ain't had nothing. This dude was gangster man, you know.

Speaker 5 (19:12):
And then I asked some.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
People had stole some stuff from me, and accounting and
all types of stuff happening.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
I lost everything, But in those dark.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
Moments was when I learned, Okay, faith is belief in
things that you cannot see.

Speaker 5 (19:26):
I don't know how.

Speaker 3 (19:27):
Much rise up again, but I gotta believe that I am.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
And then you got to keep that imagination that I
saw since I was teen, and I was gonna.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
Be on TV. So that imagination I had to keep
relying on that because.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
That's all I had, you understand, and then the dream
was to get on TV, and I had to keep
that in my head even through the darkest moments, because see,
if you mastered a mental aspect of it, when the
stuff is happening that comes into play. You remember all

(19:58):
the scriptures my mama taught, today is the day that
the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad.
And she say that to me every day I went
out of school. I was so tired of hearing that.
But man, do you know how cold that thing.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
Stuck with me? That today is the day He made?

Speaker 2 (20:13):
And since I had to learn something in adversity, this
is what I learned. I often ask people. I said,
how many of you all have ever had a bad day?
And the audience raised their head. How many of y'all
have had days where you felt like you wasn't gonna
make it?

Speaker 3 (20:27):
And everybody raised their head.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
How many y'all have had days where you thought you
you just didn't know what you was gonna do. Everybody
raises they hand. I said, now, let me tell you
something about yourself. Your track record for surviving hard days,
days you wasn't gonna make it, thought you weren't gonna
make it, an insurmountable days, your track record for surviving
those days is one hundred percent.

Speaker 6 (20:51):
That's great. I used to say that to my coworkers.
I was when I was teaching, and like I had
a terrible day. They were like, why are you always
so happy? I'm like, if you had a terrible daddy, right,
really internalize that, how many good days have you had
to have to realize that this one wasn't as good
as the other ones? Like, yeah, you're right, I'm yeah.
So let's just be thankful for this moment. We might

(21:11):
not get it again.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
But every bad day you've ever had, you survived it, exactly.
You got a one track record. Everybody in here, everybody watching,
got a one hundred track record of surviving funky ass
days everybody.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
So now, once I know that when them funky days come,
I'm rest assured that even if it lasts for a
week or two six months, I'm gonna survive it. Because
if you wake me up in the morning, man, that's
a clear sign to me that he ain't through with
me yet. So I feel like I'm almost out of it,

(21:54):
and eventually you're gonna get out of whatever it.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
Is, you know. So let's let's talk about this.

Speaker 4 (21:59):
Steve har Global, So that's that's all your companies are
underneath that, right, So I want to talk about the
family feud Africa. But first I'll pick up on a
conversation that we just had as far as you realizing
that you wanted to change things up. How usually Hollywood
is done where you wanted to eliminate like the traditional

(22:21):
agent route, hiring a full time attorney south of Brandon
and actually, you know, doing the deals yourself, negotiating the
deals with yourself, you and your your attorney and not
having to pay the percentage and not having to go
through all of the hass or of dealing with the
traditional So can you.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
Talk about that a little bit.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yeah, See, it took me years to come to this
because Hollywood is a system. They have an ingrained system
out there. Man, you come out here, you get an agent.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
Then then a lot of them got a manager too.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
And then when you sign a contract with a Hollywood attorney,
they five percent of your contract.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
For the duration.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
So if you sign a five year deal, they get
five percent of your money for five years, and everybody
falls into that deal many because they lock you in.
And then what's crazy, what I found out was is
not a lot of agents that's beating the bushes to
procure you employment. They simply list you on their roster

(23:22):
and when somebody want you, they go online and your
name is under this agency's roster. And they call these
people now because they picked up the phone. Now their
ass is in for teen percent. Now when they come
in for teen percent, then you want to go do
the deal. They pick up their phone and call their
favorite lawyer. Who is they boy? Who they work in conjunction, Steve,

(23:44):
we got the guy that's gonna cut your deal. You
so busy being happy to be on TV. You say, okay, cool,
because you don't have that lawyer normally. And now right
there you fifteen percent of your money gone. Now if
you real stupid, you got a manager. Who is this dude?

(24:04):
That's some dude that's usually your homie that you started
out with, and you make him your manager. Now he
can be anywhere from five to twenty percent, depending on
how you cut.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
Your deal with him. Now you're looking up at.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Your money, man, and you could be out of anywhere
from fifteen to twenty five to thirty percent of your
money off the.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
Dribble before taxes anything. You ain't got nothing.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
So if you make one million, three hundred thousand of
that is gone.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
Yo.

Speaker 5 (24:34):
Man, man, you're doing it in California.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
You pay taxes, bro, And now you got that that
franchise tax, that's semi cent. So now you sent up
here going then the government they won't forty Now you
send up here, man, seventy percent of your money gone.
And that that's real, man, that's real talk. That's why, man,
Hollywood is the land of illusion. Most of us man

(24:59):
are not making what y'all think we making.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
We just not man, because we.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
In that system. And it's not just cause you stupid
or nothing. It says you get caught up in the system.
So as the years went by, and I I'm just
not getting free of this, you know what I mean.
It took me a long time to figure it out.
So I said, wait a minute, man. So I had
this lawyer that was doing some deals for me with
a business. I had this this guy named Brandy Williams,

(25:28):
and he was black, and he was with this huge
law firm, the acquisition merger firm, right, and he used
to come up to Chicago and do deals some man.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
I just liked him.

Speaker 5 (25:36):
Man.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
So one day I was sitting up, Man, I was
watching Godfather and I was watching my favorite movie Man,
and Tom is the concilier or whatever that name is
for the family, right, But he's not Italian, and he's
not he's not a maid man or nothing. But he
cut the deals for the Godfather. And I was sitting

(26:00):
there really watching that movie, one of my favorite movies.
I said, man, that's what I need. I need a
tom somebody had just cut my deals. So Brandon Williams,
some years ago we hooked up and I just approached
you one day. I said, Man, I ever thought about
doing something else? And he said, nah, I'm really good
where I am. Yeah, but that's cause you know you

(26:21):
in the system too, bruhs. So just let me talk
to you for a little bit. And we talked about it.
I said, Man, I'm gonna travel. I'm'a travel the world. Man,
I'm finna be global. I'm gonna bema. I'm gonna take
my brand and spread it across the world.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
I ain't gonna just sit here on United States TV.
I wanna go be global.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
I said, Man, we can travel, We can do this,
and he said and then he went home and talked
to his wife. And like we often joke about how
much smarter our wives are in US, and y'all don't
get to see them in the background with them women, man,
cause they know who they really are. She said it's
a no brainer, and he had a conversation with a
mom who's a lawyer, and next thing you know, he

(27:01):
came back and we formed a relationship.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
And it took me some.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
While to get out of some of the contracts I
was in. But after a while, as contracts was ending.

Speaker 3 (27:10):
I got rid of the lawyer.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
I said, hey, man, you read that paperwork and tell
me what to say, because only section I can really
understand his compensation.

Speaker 3 (27:21):
Once you type in the word WinCE, I get lost
cause I don't know how to ma now I'm reading
the Bible. Now whence further mold.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
That's why my Bible is the New Living Translation, because
I need just regular English words, man, because once you
say furthermore, whence hence after, I'm out. So I got
him in there, slowly, but surely over the years, as
contracts would inspire, I would take the lawyer out of this,
take the lawyer out of that. And then I got

(27:51):
smarter and I said, I don't really need an agent.
You know, I got some agents that do IMG does
some stuff like we're in partnership with miss Universe and stuff,
and that's a whole nother story. But we in business
with some stuff, and I'll allow you to package to
deal for me. But that's between you and the network.
But as far as now in my life, now, nobody,

(28:16):
ain't nobody getting ten, ain't nobody getting five. I found
a way to just keep them out. And you know
that ain't bad business man. I'm just why would I
You're not doing nothing. I'm the one got to put
these suits on, to turn these corners and create these
jokes and solve these problems being attained and not you, man.
So it was a really blessing from God man that

(28:38):
taught me that side of the business. And it's bought
a lot more of the money to my side of
the dam.

Speaker 6 (28:44):
And so when you do things like that, it obviously
allows you to pay more to the people that you have.
Why do you think that more people in Hollywood, the
beast of Hollywood, are not taking that approach?

Speaker 2 (28:55):
Well, I just think, man, you get caught up in
the system and it's comfortable and it's easy, and you know, look, man,
you gotta look at some of these big boys out here.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
They make it so much money. You know, you look
at Tyler and Denzel and Samuel al and these boys
is I me and will will smell these dudes is
really making money? Man? You know, I mean they may
listen to me, they they make it. M they they.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
Scraping it so and I don't really know their particular business,
but you know, if you make an X amount dollars
and you know, off to dribble and you comfortable, and
you got a team sometime comfort cause you don't wanna
have you.

Speaker 3 (29:33):
Gotta get a lawyer. M you do have to get
a lawyer.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
I'm just not finna pay you five percent. You know,
why don't you tell me what your hourly rate is,
how many hours it take you to cut this contract?
And even let that be your money. But you get
into TV business, it's like that.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
Now.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
I would think of Denzel cause he's such a brilliant
dude man and his wife paul Letta, I'm pretty sure
she done sat down figured this out.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
Hold so and Tyler.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Tyler's a gangster two because Tyler, I think has done
more in our lifetime. Man, in this generation, I don't
think there's been anybody black that's been more successful than
this dude in terms of ownership. Now, the queen was
Oprah for a long time, Oprah ain't no joke, but
she teaches it to us. She then told me Steve

(30:24):
got to get ownership. That's Tyler's whole mantra. But I think,
what what Tyler Finney do of late gonna change the game?

Speaker 3 (30:30):
He's finished, He finish, go past everybody.

Speaker 5 (30:33):
So just really quick.

Speaker 6 (30:34):
So even like the shows that had your name as
a title, So we had to Steve Harvey Show was
on WD and obviously you have to see Harvey Show
on NBC Talk show the license in the name or
how does that work? There was no ownership of ours.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
See, I didn't get I wasn't a business man when
Steve Harvey Show was out, was just happy to.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
Be on TV. You know. I just took my check
and went out and said I owned twelve percent.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
Of the show back in. But I learned real quick.
In Hollywood, you never see back in. They got a
different type of arithmetic. It's like the music industry. The only
people that you make true back in with is book people.
Book people are the most honest people I've ever done
business with.

Speaker 3 (31:12):
Books. They're honest. Music and TV, you're.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Not gonna get no back in partner, how man, By
the time they get through doing their arithmetic.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
I ain't made back in.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
On none of my shows ever, because they're saying they
didn't hit the numbers that they were supposed.

Speaker 5 (31:29):
To hit, even in syndication.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
Bro Steve Harvey show never saw back in. Never. I
just it's just crazy, man.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
So I started figuring that out and knowing, Okay, you
know my business with Freemantle, which is one of the
best companies I've ever dealt with. They're very honest and forthright.
But when I signed a deal to do Family Feud,
you know, look, man, Family Feud was a twenty year
franchise and they had owner ship and they couldn't get
you know, I was going through tax problems back there.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
I just wanted to check. So I took the check.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
Over the years, I still couldn't get ownership. But since
I can't get ownership, I'll tell you what, though, I'll
tell you what. I might not have ownership, but you
don't feel like I'm won. And so we've negotiated really
nicely with them and me.

Speaker 5 (32:18):
The longest running host in the history of the show.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
And it's the number one syndicated show on Earth.

Speaker 4 (32:25):
Speaking of Family Fud, so you have an unprecedented deal
with Family Feud where you actually produced the.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
Show in Africa.

Speaker 4 (32:32):
Yeah, which I believe is number one in Ghana and
South Africa.

Speaker 3 (32:36):
So talk about that. Well, that was funny, man. I
was sitting up one day.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
I was in Boswana at the Diamond Council thing, which
is another business I was interested in. So I was
over there at the Diamond Council conference in Boswana and
I picked up the phone. I called Brandon and it
was just one day. I was sitting there, man, and
I saw a facility. I said, Man, you know what
really be funny to do Family Feud in Africa.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
So I picked up the phone and called Brandon.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
Because the thing I love about Brandon is he don't
never ask me, no, why are we gonna Because he
don't know.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
I don't want to hear that.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
See the thing that's important thing about people around me
that I hire when I when I have a vision
and God showed me something, I call you and tell
you to do it. Don't start telling me why it
won't work. I don't want to hear that. I already
know it's gonna be hard to do. I already know
it's gonna be obstacles I don't want to hear that.

(33:39):
I want you to show me how we can do it.
So I picked up phone and I said Brandon. He said, yeah, man,
what's happening? I said, my men boswanna man, how is it?
La da da dah dah. I said, hey, man, call Fremantle.
I want to I want to do Family Feud in Africa.
He said, okay, tell me what you want to do.

(34:00):
I said, I want to do the show Family Feud
in Africa. Hey man, hey man, let me know what
they say clear and I know I think we a
mind it something. But this dude, man, he don't call
me back with no excuses. Do you know, Man, as
long as we've been together, this brother has never given

(34:22):
me a single excuse. Because that's one thing I'm really
I don't I don't do excuses, man, don't. Please don't
tell me an excuse that serves us no good an excuse.
I don't do excuses. I've never given anybody excuse. When
I make a mistake, I just eat mine. I don't
do excuses, so please don't tell me your excuse. Brandon

(34:45):
Williams has never given me an excuse. He got on
that phone. I said, Brandon, how it's going, man, He said, Man,
give me I'm working on a couple of things for
your Ah. Okay, cool. Next thing, I know, he said, hey, man,
there's a way we can do it. We can the
international rights.

Speaker 3 (35:02):
I said, okay, boum.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
He said, well it's gonna be a little caught. That's
that's okay, just go bound. He cut the deal and
he bought the international rights to South Africa and ti Ghana.
Then I said, okay, b let's go there and make TV.
He went, and next thing you know, he went over

(35:25):
there and everybody told him this was in what month
was at we started talking?

Speaker 3 (35:36):
That was probably.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
Told him in February March, and they say it would
take a year and a half to get this set up.
That was in February. In November, we was taping because
Brandon and now what you're talking about, we're gonna get
on TV now.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
And so I go to Africa and we're over there
and their mouth is.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
Open because they couldn't believe it. Wait a minute, you're
a major TV star in the United States. You're gonna
come to Africa in our studio and shoot this show.

Speaker 3 (36:11):
Yeah? Oh you're a host? Yeah, our host the show
because ain't nobody gonna do it like me? So let
me go on. How long did that take to do
the season or how many episodes?

Speaker 2 (36:22):
It is twenty twenty six episodes because they do a
weekly show, it's like an American TV season. It's twenty
two episodes weekly. That's an American TV show. They wanted
a full season, we gave them twenty six episodes in
Ghana and twenty six episodes in the US.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
In South Africa. How long did that take? It took
about a month or so to get it all together.
It took.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
It was a lot of because now, man, we got
to get questions that's unique.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
To South Africa, pole in Poland.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
Because I'm asking people questions, I have no idea what
this answer. Because I was then, what's your favorite dish
in Africa?

Speaker 3 (37:02):
Bunny chop? The hell is that bunny chop? And I'm
looking at do like the fried chicken clearly has to
be the number one aff and they would say stuff
like pop pop, the hell is pop?

Speaker 2 (37:17):
Though all this stuff was on the board, so it
was really funny. And then it was a language barrier
because the accents. There's two thousand languages in Africa and
you got tribes coming in as families, man dressing up
and they use they speaking English, but they have heavy

(37:38):
accents to me, but I'm the one on everybody understood
them except me.

Speaker 3 (37:43):
I'm the one with the accent.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
And they names, We couldn't even fit their names on
the cards. I mean they got some names man that
you'd have to put a name plate on these people.
And it was so funny, man, it was. It was
the funniest. It's the funniest show I've ever done.

Speaker 3 (38:02):
Was that. And then once we got it on the air.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
They couldn't believe we it did it and then it
aired and we were the number show in South Africa
and the number one show in Ghana.

Speaker 6 (38:13):
Is that their plans to expand to other countries in Africa,
particularly English speaker ons.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
My goal is to do like World Cup.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
Family feud, where I want to do it in a
big facility and I want to bring in country against country.
I want to have Ghana against the Congo, Egypt against Kenya,
South Africa against Barcejuanas versus. I want to have them
in there with flags because they so enthusiastic.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
Man.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
Because Number one, when I finally went over there to
start taping. The whole thing was, so you are coming,
so Steve Hobby, it's really come through Africa.

Speaker 3 (39:02):
Yeah, yeah, man, we believe that when Uncle Steve comes
to I believe it when we see it.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
So when we went there and we started taping, it
was mind blowing. It was such a popular show man
and it worked.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
And I hear that Africa and the UAE have you
have businesses in both. But let's talk about Africa. System's
talking about Africa.

Speaker 4 (39:24):
You see a lot of opportunity in Africa, right, like
outside of just doing the show, I understand that, you know,
you're looking at Africa as a place to do investments
and things down nature. Talk about that as far as
because we actually had the opportunity to go to Africa
for the first time a few months ago, went to
Nigeria and we went to Egypt. And it was due
for us because the way, you know, people was tapped
in with our podcasts out there.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
They love us out there and they were saying.

Speaker 4 (39:45):
Like, maybe you should do this out here, you should
do an actual Eyo university, Like here we're actually teaching
people about financial literacy and just to see the enthusiastic spirit.
It just let me know that there's so much room
for opportunity out there, like just from us looking at
so I'm curious to hear your standpoint.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
But see for you all to go over there is
brilliant because you all are forming the bridge. That's my goal,
is to create the bridge between African Americans and Africans
because there's more of a similarity than we Like. When
you was over there, it looked like you recognized all
of them. They look just like Detroit. He thought you

(40:25):
was in Philly. I mean the way they walk everything
I thought.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
I saw so many people I knew because we are
so similar in design, the way we walk, the way
we move.

Speaker 3 (40:37):
It was just amazing. But what we got to do, man,
is create that bridge.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
Like brothers like yourself who go over there, whose podcast
is probable, but who can teach and share what we know.
You know, I'm trying, Like all the young Africans want
to come to America. But I tell them, I said, look, man,
you sure, you sure you want to come over here
and be in this This is what you think it is.

(41:05):
See when I'm in Ghana or South Africa and I
get stopped by the police.

Speaker 3 (41:12):
Guess what I get. I get a warning, I get
a ticket, or I'll give them a hundred dollars in
I drive home and I got a hundred dollars. So
chances are I ain't got a ticket. Check to be
speeding my ass off.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
I've never since I been over there, saw on the
news or nothing that somebody got pulled over by the
police and got shot.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
They don't shoot you in Africa.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
I said, man, y'all, sure, y'all won't come over here
because you all don't understand that. And then when you're
in South Africa you hear about the difference between the
blacks and the colors. I said, well, let me help
you out with that. You come to America, you ass
is black. You can call them colors over here if
you want to, and you can call them black. But
you come to the United States, your ass is fit
to be black. So you sure you want to come

(42:02):
over here. I think it's more beneficial for us to
go home. See, this is how I describe it. America
is my home. This is my home, my children in here,
my grandchildren in here, A lot of my.

Speaker 3 (42:18):
Business is here, But Africa is my homeland.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
Me going to Africa is like going to a place
called home that I've never been. When you land in Africa,
you immediately feel good, don't you. Doug is crazy because
you home, Doug, this is where you're from. You'll feed
me along on this soil we was ripped from there.

(42:43):
So when I'm going to Africa, man, it's the place
I get to walk around and I'm good all the
time because the majority of the people look just like
me everywhere I go, and that's a warm feeling.

Speaker 3 (42:56):
Man.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
And if I could take what we've learned over here
as African Americans and share that with them and empower them,
that becomes great. But I think what people don't understand
is how rich of a continent Africa really is.

Speaker 3 (43:12):
Do you realize, man, it's the.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Only country in the world that don't have to import nothing.
They don't need your food, they don't need your energy,
they don't need your gold, they don't need your diamonds,
they don't need your cold, down't need your uranium, they
don't need your plant they don't need nothing. Africa is
the only country in the world that they don't need

(43:35):
your oil. You they ain't got to import nothing. But
they've been over there just raped colonialization, the Dutch, the Portuguese,
the Spanish, the French, the Chinese.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
They just over there just raping them, man.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
And so if we can go over there because they
got they got hey, man, they got money over there.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
They got some dudes over there. That's just making some
I was.

Speaker 6 (44:01):
It had me thinking, But as you said, everything is true,
and it was like, all right, you were going to
the UAE and not only bringing any food to Africa
but bringing festivals, and we were supposed to meet at
the last one ye, So why was it important to
do it specifically in the UAE.

Speaker 3 (44:18):
Well, See, the UAE is very different from me.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
I'm accepted over there, like like I never thought I would.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
Be, because the ua for me is like it's like
they like brothers. Man.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
I mean, I'm I'm so enamored with the UAE. Now
the draw for me in the UAE, it.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
Is unbelievable peace.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
If you want to go somewhere and walk down the
street and not have to worry about crime. If you
want to go somewhere and walk down the street and
not have to worry about racism, police, brutality, corrupt government,
then go to the UAE.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
In the Middle East.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
I'm telling you right now, I don't know of a
place on earth like it. There's no crime, don't buy
steal your car.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
They don't steal cars over that.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
Ain't no shootings, ain't no armed robberies. Ain't nobody getting stabbed.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
Where's this? Look, man, I can take a cigar and
walk down the beach. All I'm gonna.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
Do is have to take selfiesh And they're polite and
they're respectful. And it's because of their culture and their faith, man,
that makes them who they are. That you get a
clear picture there of what Islam is. It's not what
it's made to be in the propaganda machine. Everybody you

(45:53):
walk by ain't feeling to pull a cord and blow
up the market.

Speaker 3 (45:56):
That ain't what's happening. Man. These people, man, are live
in their life and they pray a lot of times
a day. Man.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
And my business partner, man will be talking and he says, hey, man,
you mind if I go in the other room to pray,
And he'd have made me pray more because I'll be going, Man,
look you you pray all these times today?

Speaker 3 (46:15):
Yeah? Man, and my business partner, he thirty four years old.
Let's do and.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
I'm just going, wait a minute, man, how did they
get this way? And it's their faith in their culture
and it's the way they treat people. It's one hundred
and sixty nationalities that live in the UAE. I mean
they got everybody. There's no homelessness, Ain't nobody living on
the street, Ain't no paper on the ground. Go to Dubai,

(46:41):
go to Dubai and apple doubt there's no paper on
the ground. Ain't nobody beg and got no cup jangling
it because no, we have a job for you. If
you come here, we have a job for you. The
only people that don't want to work over there is
because they don't want to work. Everybody's employed, every everybody
gets taken care of, but free medical everybody. That is

(47:05):
a very very special place to me, and I think
our company, melt UAE is where we can introduce all
what the Middle East is from that region to America
and the world and help with some of the falsehoods
that's been out about it.

Speaker 4 (47:26):
Going back to the conversation about Hollywood, I'm gonna talk
about this because you said that you know the back end,
you never get paid on the back end, and like
we've actually had conversations about We had conversations with like
some Hollywood companies and we got talked about the back
end and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (47:41):
So it's interesting that you say that.

Speaker 4 (47:43):
So, like, what are some things that you learned as
far as like do you always try to negotiate, like well,
just for young people that's coming up, like EP credit
or like get paid up.

Speaker 3 (47:53):
Front or some level of ownership, Like what are some terms?

Speaker 4 (47:55):
Because I feel like a lot of people just don't
know the information and you can't even ask a question.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
And if you're not equipped with some level of knowledge, the.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Best thing I can tell you is if you have
an idea, before you go around the town pitching this idea,
have your paperwork in order.

Speaker 3 (48:16):
Make sure you have the.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Domains for that name, make sure you have the ips,
any trademarks.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
Before you walk around.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
Pitching your idea, have everything on paper, get your trademarks,
get your IP. Because that's it ownership. Nobody's done it
better than Tyler Perry. This guy right here is complete
ownership of everything he do, so when he go to Hollywood,

(48:47):
he can do it the way he wants to see.
It took me a while to learn that part of it. Man,
I'm gonna tell you something. Man, I don't know how
this is gonna go with the country, but this is
a a long time ago. In the ninth I created
the show on the w B called Steve Harvey's Big Time.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
Do you know what Steve Harvey's Big Time was?

Speaker 2 (49:07):
Because they didn't believe me when I told them, y'all
ought to take showtime at the Apollo and put it
on mainstream TV instead of having me come on at
one o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 3 (49:16):
I used to tell them that, no, you can't do that. No, no, no,
no no.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
So I said, well, let me give him a version
of it. I said, let me create Steve Harvey's Big Time.
So I went to the fledgling network WB and they
put it on. I didn't have the business of it.
I should have owned the IP, the trademark, cause you
know what Steve Harvey's Big Time was. I had acts
from all over the world come on the show. I

(49:41):
had three judges and I had a host that stayed
on TV two years. It ended May tenth, two thousand
and five. I was in the middle of a divorce.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
My head was cloud I didn't have the business along
comes the show called America's Got Done. He's gonna say that.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
Yep, you know what America's Got Talent is. Shows come
from all over the world, different acts.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
They got three judges and they got a star. Well,
guess what. That's my ip, that's my concept, that's my
whole thought.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
But I ain't had no business for it. Look, man,
the first year of America's Got Talent was all acts
from Steve Harvey's Big Time, and they took all the
producers I had from Steve Harvey's Big Time and gave
them jobs. If I understood my business, America's Got Talent

(50:40):
would belong to me, and Steve Harvey would not be
sitting here talking to y'all.

Speaker 5 (50:49):
Thinking in my mind like I could.

Speaker 6 (50:51):
Once you were describing them like I know what America's
Got Talent. Then obviously Nick Kennon another guy who was
doing incredible and media.

Speaker 5 (50:58):
I feel like that could have been you hosting it.

Speaker 6 (51:00):
But I want to go something because you said something earlier,
and it just caught my mind about the most honest
people being the people who.

Speaker 5 (51:05):
Are writing the books.

Speaker 6 (51:06):
And so I know you wrote you've written three and
the fourth ones on the way, but from those books,
you've actually turned those into movies. Right, So think like
a man obviously one of those those classic movie What
was that process like in terms of ownership?

Speaker 5 (51:20):
Right, because now it's your ip, the book that's turned
into it. I know you're the voiceover in the movie,
and so what was that process like?

Speaker 2 (51:26):
That deal wasn't bad for me, It should have been better.
I did once again, I missed a couple of points.
Now the book completely mine. I've made more money from
that book, man, I can't even tell you. And I
still get checks. They still send your check. I get
paid every April first and every October first, and I

(51:50):
still get checks from the book. I don't even have
to check on it. The book business is honest. I'll
give you an example, like when I go to a
book signing and I got to fly there or get
a hotel. If you're in the record business, they take
all that, they put surcharges on it, and they charge
it back against your deal and your record sales.

Speaker 3 (52:09):
They don't do that in the book business.

Speaker 2 (52:11):
Whatever your book sales is, whatever your percentage is, that's
your check. Whatever it cost to promote it, they ain't
got nothing to do with you. So the book business,
I found to be.

Speaker 3 (52:23):
Very very clean back in for other stuff. Man.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
Now, when I went to the movie, it was a
tough time for me because I was in a lot
of tax trouble. So I took a big check from
Sony for the rights, and then I made back in.
I made back in points on the movie. I did,
but I could have done better.

Speaker 6 (52:47):
They have you involved in the process of actually creating
it and producing or nothing?

Speaker 2 (52:50):
No, that was mostly will pack h They asked me
a couple of questions, asked me what I thought of
Kevin Hart, and I was sitting him here, going, I mean,
the little dude is come. He wasn't who he is now,
but I knew right away that dude right there because
he was putting the work in. Kevin was putting in
the work as a young stand up. His stand up

(53:10):
used to didn't be that good. He'll tell you that,
but neither was mine because he was. You know, he
worked mostly white rooms, and you had to be a
certain way to survive white rooms. My earlier in my
career was all white rooms until the Comedy Act Theater
got started and Joe Torrey came one night and saw
me at the Punchline and Buckhead and took me down
to the Comedy Act Theater in the nineties and said, man,

(53:33):
you ought to come see how they do. So we
went to the waffle house and I was telling him
stories about my father. Joe Tory was cracking up. He said, man,
why don't you tell these stories on stage? I said,
I can't tell it like that. And for the white folks,
he said, man, let me take you down. He took
me to Comedy Act Theater and a black dude went
up on stage. He had on a pair of pajamas
and they had a Barbie doll stuck in the pocket

(53:54):
of the pajamas.

Speaker 3 (53:55):
He never mentioned the damn doll. He never mentioned them
damn pajamas. And all this fucker was talking about was
frying fish, and the black people was knocking shit over laughing. Man,
I was laughing so hard at this black dude because
all he was talking about was how to fry fish.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
But every black person in there knew what he was
talking about. And he went through the different variations of hot, saucy,
what you got it?

Speaker 3 (54:21):
And it was so black. They were just so black. Oh.
I was in that vomity. So the next night I
heard him.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
Got finished with my senate at the punchline, so I
could go back down, and that's what I met Mike Williams.
He said, hey, man, going up on stage, let me
see what you gotta give you five minutes. Now, I
had been at the Apollo, so a lot of people
knew me from the Apollo. But when I walked up there, man,
I left my white act that I had written for
the punchline, and I was doing jokes about my father,

(54:55):
barbecue and and stuff. Man, them black people was knocking
shit over the I mean they was just raking shit
off the tables. And I had never seen black people
in the club, cause black people laugh different, They emotional,
They don't they hit people that they rolled with.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
They they be in there. It it build and I
was in there, so I said, man, this is magical.
And it changed my.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
Life because I started writing my jokes even in the
white club as my black ass self. And so what
I learned at that particular time was I could become
a crossover act. But the way I've always crossed over
is I build a bridge and I invite white folks

(55:40):
over to me. The problem with most blacks is they
build a bridge and then they cross it.

Speaker 5 (55:47):
MM.

Speaker 3 (55:47):
Then when the bridge burned down, the ass can't come
back home. M.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
I build a bridge and a lot of white folks
come in the way I talk on family few is
how I talk right now. I'm not finna change that, man,
So you could be okay with me. Now, this is
me I've been told all the time, Like I tell
this story all the time. I was on NBC when
I first got to talk to you, and they said
they sent this lady in to talk to me.

Speaker 3 (56:11):
And she was a leing. She was old, what is
it linguist? She was a linguist. I didn't know what
that was. So I thought she was in there teach
me how to fix pasta. And I thought that was
nice cause I've always wanted to know a little bit
about pasta. And so she says, no, I'm I'm your

(56:33):
ling linguistics coach. And I said, well, what you mean?

Speaker 2 (56:37):
She said, NBC feels that if you speak more grammatically correct,
you'll be more successful on TV.

Speaker 3 (56:43):
I said, oh, I ain't finna do all that. She said.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
Excuse me, I said, I ain't finna do all that?
She said, could you say what you said slowly? For me, Sir,
I ain't I said, I ain't fitn't it do all that?
She said, That's exactly why I'm here. She said, do
you understand what we can become if you speak better?
I said, well, yeah, I ain't finna be about it though.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
She said, excuse me. I said, I ain't sitting to
be boy that though. She so, Sir, this is exactly
why I'm here. I said, Man, I'm gonna ask your question,
I said, because I'm not finna change. She said, why not?

Speaker 2 (57:23):
I said, let me ask you a question. Which one
of these sound better to you? I am broke or
I'm as rich? I said, see now you're talking to me,
but I'm as rich, I mean is rich? Now I'm

(57:43):
already rich. Sown where are.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
You finnah go with this?

Speaker 2 (57:48):
Now that lady packed her stuff up, she said this
black some of them. I know she wanted to say
black air bastard. She packed that up and walked out
of there. And I tell that to people all the time,
man said, by felicias, because I'm not dog, I ain't
finna do that.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
Not changing?

Speaker 5 (58:06):
So when did?

Speaker 3 (58:07):
When did it? Actually?

Speaker 4 (58:08):
Because you were saying you have financial hardship two thousand
and five, and you still was making some mistakes, but
in your state now, so obviously things changed.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
Dramatically. So what was the turning point?

Speaker 4 (58:21):
What was the turning point from you know, making mistakes
to actually going on the skyrocket?

Speaker 2 (58:27):
I know, man, that this is gonna sound like cliches
and corny, but a woman, a woman, what was the
difference making in my life?

Speaker 3 (58:38):
My wife? When I married Marjorie Mann two thousand and seven,
we got married.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
It changed the game for me because for the first
time in my life, I was at peace because she
made me good with who I was. She kept telling
me you were made eat your TV star. Don't don't
believe us here, Steve, you look good.

Speaker 3 (59:05):
You can do this.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
You're talented, You're the best. And I had a peaceful home.
I had never had a peaceful home life before. Man,
I was coming home.

Speaker 3 (59:13):
I wasn't sitting in the car looking at the door
for three hours scared to go in there. You know,
you probably might have been in something like that before.
I fortunately enough, but fortunately no. But yeah, you never know.
You know, faith, man, your faith? Yeah I know, but
you're gonna sit in that driveway. But even if you're
happy if you piss her off, you're gonna go sit

(59:35):
in that car, dog, because at least I can lock
these doors and roll these windows up in his car,
But if I sit in his house, I'm yeah. So
you know, I'm happy about that. But I was in
a horrible situation.

Speaker 7 (59:46):
And this woman came along and gave me peace pieces,
priceless man, and I was able to think clearly for
the first time, and so I was able to start
seeing stuff.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
Now we got huge.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
I got in a huge tax situation in two thousand
and eight because my divorce was in two thousand and
five and my accountant had gotten in cahoots. And next thing,
you know, my accountant died and a girl that worked
for him called my lawyer and said, we have a problem.

(01:00:26):
She had found on the floor all my tax forms
for seven years, signed and with the checks staple to them.

Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
So I'm thinking unassigned and unstaple of checks. Well, they
were cashing the checks, keeping the money, and not turning
into tax form.

Speaker 4 (01:00:45):
So your account that's why we interviewed Fat Joe similar situation.
He went to jail for that actually tax evasion. So
your accountant, you how you.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
Were signing the check Oh, so you didn't know who
the check was being made out to, Oh, to the government.
So how did they cash it?

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Well, they didn't cash it. They took the money out
of their account that matched the exact cause I wasn't
watching it. Six hundred thousand, you get duck it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:11):
So I'm thinking it's the check. Little did I know
it was some people taking the money out for seven years.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
For seven years, how much money did that? I ended
up owing twenty two million? Wow, twenty two million with
the with the penalties. So now listen to me, man,
me and my wife. In two thousand and eight, I
get the call. And the way I found out was
my lawyer called me and said, hey, man, we got

(01:01:40):
a problem. You haven't paid taxes in seven years. I said, man, kich,
what are you talking about. I paid tax I've been
writing the checks and all this here. Oh man, he said,
this woman found your taxes in your accountant's office on
the floor. Every tax check I had written in, every
was stable together for seven years, quarterly taxes, all of it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
So he said, man, that's tax evasion. You can go
to prison.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
And I said, what we gonna do? So he said,
hold on, man, let me get some lawyers. So he
called up some tax accountants out of Chicago. These boys
was the best, and they set me down and they said, man,
we got a major problem. He said, I got a
friend work at dis let me take the first year.
We took the first year and we sent it in
and he said, man, well this is an old tax return.

(01:02:31):
He said, man, we got a problem. He got more
but he didn't know it, and so l we need
a tax payment plan. So the tax payment plan was
so astronomical that it was no way I could pay this.

Speaker 3 (01:02:50):
So the deal was if you.

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
Missed one payment, we come and seize all your assets
and you going to jail.

Speaker 3 (01:02:56):
That was the deal.

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):
So the way I found out I was in real
bad trouble was my accountants, my former manager lawyer, got
on a conference call to discuss it. But they sent
out an email with the conference call number to my assistant.
But it wasn't supposed to go to me. She inadvertently
gave it to me. I wasn't even suposed to be
on the call. So when I logged in, they were

(01:03:19):
already talking and I just didn't announce myself, and I
heard them say, nobody can live under this amount of stress.
There's no way he can pay the back taxes, pay
his current taxes and his living expenses.

Speaker 3 (01:03:36):
And I heard a guy on the phone say, what
are we gonna do when he goes to jail?

Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
And I hung the phone up. I went upstairs. I said,
Marjorie Dona, and Marjorie got a problem. When I explained
it to her, Marjorie started crying. She sat down and cried.
My wife cried for two straight days. She says, Steve,
what you gonna do? I said, I'm gonna go to work.

Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
I took every comedy gig in this country. I signed
every contract. I went to work. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
I worked every single Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I went
to every venue, the Verizon Staples Center, MCI Phillips, I
sold out, the Fox I sold, I went everywhere.

Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
I stayed on the radio. Man, I'm coming, I'm coming
sold out.

Speaker 2 (01:04:26):
I never missed a payment, And for four years in
a row, I was sending six hundred and fifty thousand
a month to the government, plus I had to pay
my current TAXI I couldn't get behind on nothing, and
I was living so I was credit cards, running them up,
paying them off and Finally, Man, in two thousand and.

Speaker 5 (01:04:50):
Twelve, you got me thinking, now this is the paper
view event.

Speaker 3 (01:04:55):
Well it was coming to that. Two things happened.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
Two thousand and twelve, I sold forty nine percent of
my radio company to iHeart. I got check, man, I
got me a check and then so I paid the
government completely off to zero.

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
And that was the first time, man, I could breathe.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
And then the pay per view I said, let me
get out of stand up because my wife said, Steve,
you fin to be a major TV star. You're gonna
have to stop telling the jokes you're telling, cause you're
gonna ruin your career because she saw the political correctness turning,
and so she said, Steve, you can stop if you

(01:05:45):
want to.

Speaker 3 (01:05:45):
I said, maybe, I can't ever stop telling jokes. It's
who I am. She said, well, okay, but you gotta
watch what you say.

Speaker 2 (01:05:54):
And all of my TV shows are sponsored driven, the
radio sponsorship driven. I said, man, and let me get
out of this because I need time to go do
more TV. And so I did one last comedy show,
but I did it on pay per view, and little
did I know, for eight dollars you could watch my

(01:06:16):
last I had no idea how many people.

Speaker 3 (01:06:17):
It's gonna tune in for that. I made a lot
of money.

Speaker 2 (01:06:22):
It was the biggest single paycheck I ever made. And
next thing, you know, I was back.

Speaker 5 (01:06:32):
About that house.

Speaker 3 (01:06:34):
I had me some money, man, return. I was back return.
I had a nice nut sitting over there. I said,
I'm back, man, and then uh things. And after that, man,
it was all because my wife had this vision for
me and she could see it, and that was to
turn around.

Speaker 4 (01:06:48):
So the account you said he died so that you
couldn't sue his estatement, there was no there was no
course of action that could be taken.

Speaker 3 (01:06:57):
So it cause like the money that it's the same
situation with that Joe. It's crazy.

Speaker 4 (01:07:00):
So you lost the money that he took, but then
you had to pay that money in taxes and then pendal,
so it's like a double edged sword.

Speaker 3 (01:07:09):
It's crazy. Man. It's nothing but the grace of God
that I didn't go to jail how often.

Speaker 4 (01:07:13):
Because it's like, it's so crazy that this story, because
it's like fat Joe yourself, Kevin Gardner, Tim Duncan, like
this happens a lot. Like what would you advise for
people that as a learning experience, like just to always
watch your accounts a little.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Let nobody sign your check, don't let nobody have access
to your money, even if it's your wife. You still
got to watch it yourself. Cause little did I know, man,
I I wasn't moving the money. The only other person
that could move the money had access to the account.

(01:07:54):
So when you depart, when you're withdrawing the money out,
like let's say tax with six hundred thousand and you
take exactly six hundred thousand out, I'm thinking that's the
check cleard, Oh it made They never okay, the.

Speaker 3 (01:08:08):
Exact amount, I don't care if it was. If it
was one point two million, thirty two cent, one point
two thirty two cent got took out exactly. So I'm
thinking I'm just looking at real going down the sheet,
not realizing that that check ain't clear. And that's what happened. Man.
I got burnt. And that happened for seven years of money. Man.

Speaker 6 (01:08:31):
So so you spoke about the marriage in two thousand
and seven that brought you peace. I want to talk
about generational wealth and I kind of want to change
the phrase of sustainable wealth because you have seven kids,
five grandkids.

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
Seven and seven, seven and seven. Oh yeah, they had two.
They little machines right now cranking them out.

Speaker 6 (01:08:52):
And so I mentioned it because obviously maybe your children
have seen sumer the setbacks that you've had, but your
grandchick children will never see it.

Speaker 5 (01:09:01):
They don't know anything about that, and so it's tough
for them.

Speaker 6 (01:09:03):
To understand the type of perseverance, the type of determination
resiliency to sustain the things you've been through. So how
do we teach from what you've been through to them?

Speaker 3 (01:09:16):
You know, man, I ain't figured that out yet, because.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
There's even a hiccup between not the grandkids, but my
own kids. Okay, because look, bro, most of us that
are successful today oftentimes are the first ones in our
family to be successful. I'm pretty sure before Rick Ross hit,
it wasn't no more. I know, before jay Z hit,

(01:09:42):
it wasn't no more in his family. You know, we
ain't got nobody to go to to figure this thing out.
So what happens is and then you say, as most
good parents, I want my children to have a better
life than the one I had, So you try to
protect your children from the hustling grit that you was under. Now,

(01:10:03):
my kids ain't got to come up like me, figure
it out.

Speaker 3 (01:10:05):
And work through this and work like that. But in
that though, you've made a mistake. Because now.

Speaker 2 (01:10:14):
See, all of my children live their life as high
acrobats with a net.

Speaker 3 (01:10:21):
So if they lose grip of the handle, Daddy down
there got a net. I ain't handle net.

Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
So I was a high wire act and when I
slipped off, my ass hit the ground, had to get repaired,
then climb.

Speaker 3 (01:10:34):
Back up there. They got a safety belt on there
on the hunt, they're doing wild ass flips. It wasn't
nobody hold they hit the thing in the little cable,
pick them back up, and it's messed up. Man. Because
you and I talked about this with all the brothers.

Speaker 2 (01:10:52):
I know that's successful. I don't know nobody to figured
this one out.

Speaker 3 (01:10:56):
Man. How do we teach our the hustling grind.

Speaker 5 (01:11:03):
Earners what's up?

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Speaker 8 (01:12:54):
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able to finance it through them. I just, oh, wait,
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Speaker 2 (01:13:24):
Will be trying to keep them out of a hustling grind.
You understand, why would you not give your child an allowance?

Speaker 3 (01:13:30):
And you have it? Why would you not?

Speaker 1 (01:13:33):
So?

Speaker 3 (01:13:33):
Now?

Speaker 2 (01:13:34):
Plus you want them in the best schools, right, so
now you've got them in school with these white kids.
They sitting up in here with the latest on iPads, iPhones.

Speaker 3 (01:13:43):
You can't send your little black ass kid up there
without that because you're trying to teach them how to
be tough, strong, wicked.

Speaker 2 (01:13:48):
No, you got to put his little punk ass in
the same outfit, say you know, cause come on, man,
you can't have your child up there looking crazy. But
now you mad because they ain't got the same grit,
You got the same hustle. Like I look at them
all man, and I just go, I'm proud of what

(01:14:12):
they're becoming. But I know, man, that if something go
really wrong for him, they got me. But when something
went really wrong for me, my ass just had to
live in my car. I couldn't go to my daddy
and get a thousand for no apartment. By look, man,
I was in college for three years before I flunked out.

(01:14:35):
My father sent me money one time. He sent it
in an envelope and it had two index cards, And
when I opened it up, it had a flat crisp
five dollar bill in it, and the note on the
index card was, this shit gonna have to stop.

Speaker 3 (01:15:03):
Man, You're going too far with this shit. This ship
got to stop. Five dollars man. Three years of college,
he sent a five dollar bill and that was the
message on the card on their car. Up with man
had a day, So this shit got to stop.

Speaker 5 (01:15:23):
I went on book course this much bro brod.

Speaker 2 (01:15:27):
I had a job all through college, bought books. Everything, mother,
father give me nothing wasn't nothing. Some center be going, Look, man,
my kid tatoy call failed to pay their short because
they forgotten. They come to me, we gotta get another car. Well,
you ain't finna drive none of mine. I don't have

(01:15:48):
cars you can drive already none of my children. Here's
the only thing. None of my children have ever driven
one of my cars because I don't have drivable call.

Speaker 3 (01:15:59):
I ain't got no car.

Speaker 2 (01:15:59):
You go straight. I got calls, see and read. People
ask me all the time why you buy such expensive cars?

Speaker 3 (01:16:07):
Calls.

Speaker 2 (01:16:08):
If this all go away one day and I got
to go back to living in a car, it's gonna
be that motherfuck gonna be nice.

Speaker 3 (01:16:18):
Saying them. I'm gonna be in in the backseat of
a fernom you want to seeping this out of the road.
I got Refrench rate in now. I got lights in
the city. That's what I'm gonna be home to see
so quit asking me why I spend so much money
on the car, because if I gotta go live back

(01:16:39):
in that thing.

Speaker 6 (01:16:39):
Again, it's a nice living nice I brought the family
piece because I know, uh, Laurie and yourself going into business,
uh with with Moono. So what I mean, what's that
process like knowing that one of your children has the
you know, the business act mean to say, I want.

Speaker 3 (01:16:56):
To do this, you know, Laurie, Man, it's really great.

Speaker 2 (01:17:01):
I got a few businessmen in the family, you know,
the two youngest ones, winning and Laurie figuring it out.
Laurie came to me and said she didn't want to
go to college no more. And I was like, I'm
be damn, that's a fine time. After I done paid
these money. You know, we could have had this discussion
for the tuition with it, you know, I can't get

(01:17:23):
it back. But she had a plan, and it's been
really amazing watching her grow and developed because.

Speaker 3 (01:17:33):
Of a couple of things.

Speaker 2 (01:17:34):
Man, I'm so protective of her because I know what
she's up against, you know, and but she's always wanted
to be a business person, and so you know, you
watch your kids grow and develop. You watch them learn,
They make mistakes, as we all do. But what Laurie

(01:17:55):
did was Laurie has She's just always asked me a question, Dan,
what's it like for this?

Speaker 3 (01:18:02):
What's it like for that?

Speaker 2 (01:18:04):
And I could see her wanting more. But this Moon
Culture investment that we invested in. But her skincare line
was all her, all the vision of her and her mother,
her and her mother. Her mother had this vision before,
but she put it on the back burner and she
dumped it all in with Lourie. Because Laurie got smart.

(01:18:27):
Luri has a teen Louri has a CEO mentality. She
understands it now.

Speaker 3 (01:18:34):
She gets it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
You know, she been through the washer out here. She
know what this social media can be. She learned how
to make it more of a friend of hers than
the enemy. And she just got real smart man. And
she'll come to me and she'll go, Dad, I'm thinking
about doing this.

Speaker 3 (01:18:52):
What do you think? I don't always agree.

Speaker 2 (01:18:55):
But I don't have to because what's in Laurie's imagination
I don't have to see because God ain't gonna put
her imagination.

Speaker 3 (01:19:04):
In my head.

Speaker 2 (01:19:06):
So since I understand that principle when LORI comes to
me with this what people think is this wild crazy idea,
Like this girl right here is not gonna stop.

Speaker 3 (01:19:14):
Man. Her skincare line is good, she's into fashion, she's smart,
and uh, it's just a pleasure watching her.

Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
My oldest daughter, the twins, Brandy is on her own
with her beyond her element that she does speaking engagements Carly.
That girl went out here married her husband who came
and asked me for her hand in marriage on a
golf course.

Speaker 3 (01:19:38):
I had a seven eye in my hand. I wanna
crack his head wide over because I'm finished. You find
time to ask me to marry my daughter and I
just lost this round of golf out here. And uh,
but he's a good guy. She got it together. She
has been Agent of the Year with State Farm now
for two years and a running this girl and open
up agencies and stuff. She's insurance business. Yeah, yeah, that's

(01:20:01):
what started. I started that. I wasn't never agent of
a year. I was stealing premiums and stuff. I was
at lower level. Yeah, some things because I had to
make some survival decisions when I was selling in shots.
If you gave me your premium. But she's doing really,
really well. Jason, my other son, is uh in the

(01:20:26):
fashion business with his wife.

Speaker 2 (01:20:28):
He had a shoe line out for a while. It
kind of was hard to keep afloat. Now he's back
down at basel again. He's got his clothing line he's
working on with his wife, who was a model, the
runway model they met her. That's a long story, but
he's giving me more grandkids than anybody, and he's doing well.
My oldest son, Roderick, works on all my TV shows

(01:20:51):
because he just wants he wants to be in TV
uh directing and TV production, so he's working as a
second stage director on stuff for all my shows. Winton
does photography on my shows, but Winton does videos. He's
did a lot of work with Kanye two chains, a
lot of artists and stuff. Went and travels to do

(01:21:13):
Bay work and he does work for the Department of
Tourism over there. So when all of the kids, man
are getting it. They're not where they want to be,
but they're getting it.

Speaker 3 (01:21:25):
And I told them all.

Speaker 2 (01:21:27):
I think what helped him was I said I was
cutting everybody off and I didn't, but it felt good
saying it, but I didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:21:36):
I told Laura I was gonna cut her.

Speaker 2 (01:21:37):
Off, and she just went, Daddy stopped. That was all
she said was don't play. Don't play because Laurie really
thinks she's the special one.

Speaker 3 (01:21:47):
She really does lurid. I told Laury I was gonna
cut off because she's making a lot of money right now,
and I was gonna cut her off. And she just
started laughing. And then she said, well, and you're not
gonna speak to me anymore. I said, yeah, I'll still
talk to you. She said, but not if you cut
me off. So can't cut her off. But they're doing well.
Let me ask you this.

Speaker 4 (01:22:06):
You're also an angel investor, so you invested in coinbase, DraftKings, Airbnb,
all pre ipo.

Speaker 3 (01:22:15):
How'd you get How'd you get in that world?

Speaker 2 (01:22:17):
Well, because I got a couple of smart people at
work for me. To Bed Stevens is the head of
my global business development and strategist. He brings a lot
of these things to me because you know, really, like
I said, man, I'm in the mental game of it.
When it comes to the technical stuff, I just surround

(01:22:37):
myself with people who are technically smart. Now, Brandon is
not only my legal he's my COO. He's chief operating.
He's in charge of everything and they all report to him.
But to be d Stevens has bought me the majority
of these deals, especially in the tech space. All the

(01:22:58):
way I got this kid was I wanted my son
to help me run my company, my oldest son, Roderick,
who's in television. But he came to me and said, Dad,
you really want your business to grow? How I'm my
best friend. And I thought that was really smart of
him because he could have took this check. But he said, no, Dad,
this is what he dos. He gragged them graduated magnum

(01:23:19):
cum Lotty from Morehouse.

Speaker 3 (01:23:21):
He had all these offers to go to all of
these Ivy League schools. He had full rides to go
to all these schools and stuff. And I was sitting
down with him one day and I said, well, how
much do it costs to go to these Ivy League schools?

Speaker 2 (01:23:33):
And he told me, And I said, well, when you
get this degree at these Ivy League schools, how much
money will you make a year? And then he told me,
And I said how many years is this gonna take
to do that?

Speaker 3 (01:23:45):
He told me.

Speaker 2 (01:23:46):
Then I said, well how much you and not already
spent going to school, and he told me. And when
he told me, it just didn't make no damn sense
to me. So I said, I'll tell you what, man,
If you come work for me, he said, I'm gonna
be in exports and imports.

Speaker 3 (01:24:00):
I'm gonna be taking big meetings. Oh, you're on big
meetings or you wanta sit in big meetings. I got
big meetings for your ass tomorrow. And so I hired
him and gave him a salary that'll save all that
going to school for it. And how many years has
been now bade seven years? And and the way we

(01:24:23):
started was I took four hundred thousand dollars, gave him
four hundred thousand dollars and said, hey, man, show me
what you would do in the stock market. Four hundred thousand.
Just give him an.

Speaker 2 (01:24:39):
When I tell you that, he gave me ten times
that money in two years and then has quadrupled to
get that money. Just sent over there making money.

Speaker 3 (01:24:52):
And stocks, all his picks and stocks, all his every
last one of them. I'm I'm in some of those
companies get a market Monday. Yeah, But that dude right
there and that and that's what it takes, you know, Yeah, I.

Speaker 6 (01:25:04):
Mean we're having conversations for over the course of a
few months. You probably didn't know this part though, So
to Bed was part of a team, and we got
to give credit to Chad kat Right. Eighty five South guys,
they you know, found us early on to work for you, Chad.

Speaker 5 (01:25:21):
That's yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:25:22):
So all the all the things that they learned from
working around you, they implemented and told us.

Speaker 5 (01:25:26):
So we were like, Okay, this is great information.

Speaker 6 (01:25:29):
And so when I was talking to TVD about it,
he was like, yeah, man, we all used to sit
in the same room and so indirectly all the lessons
you've been teaching them.

Speaker 3 (01:25:36):
Yeah, that's a good lesson. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:25:38):
Actually you probably wasn't even aware of that. But really
each one teach one situation because Chad used to work
for you, and he built the eighty five South business
structure mainly based on the stuff that he learned from you,
and he's been a mentor for us.

Speaker 3 (01:25:52):
When we you know, getting in again. Yeah, we got
got our lawyer from him. Chad been a mentor for y'all.

Speaker 5 (01:25:58):
Yeah, and vice versa, vice versus.

Speaker 4 (01:26:00):
Wow, he's been telling us a lot of stuff about
how to run merch gave us the entertainment.

Speaker 6 (01:26:05):
Lawyer that we have all the lessons that you. I mean,
every time he tells us a lesson, it's like I
was and that crew man, this is what they told me.
They always said this, They always said this, and now
he's implemented on his own. And since we were just
starting in the media space, he was just giving us
the advice that he learned from y'all.

Speaker 5 (01:26:22):
And so like indirectly, him and him and.

Speaker 2 (01:26:25):
His cat Joe, they were spilling and they were just bright. Man,
they were just bright. We just got into a situation
with my former manager and that's all. But they I
stayed in touch with him because I always believed in them,
and you know, we talk every now and then and
then I hear about stuff that they're doing. And I'm
just proud of him, man, because they got it. They

(01:26:47):
weren't bitter with what happened to him. See, sometimes you
got to get in order to grow, You got to go.
See people don't understand, man, when doors close, you can't
trip when the door closed. That's simply God telling you
he got another door. He wants you to walk through
the problem that most people do. Like during the pandemic,

(01:27:08):
a lot of companies close, a lot of people lost
their jobs. It's people still standing there. Open this company
back up. I want my job back up.

Speaker 3 (01:27:16):
I'm waiting on the company to get back and come
back in business. It ain't.

Speaker 5 (01:27:20):
It's dog.

Speaker 2 (01:27:21):
Most of these companies that's gone ain't coming back. So
you can quit beating on that door.

Speaker 3 (01:27:26):
Why don't you stop beating on that door, Stop praying
to God to open that company back up.

Speaker 2 (01:27:31):
Lord bless 'em to get back on their feet. Why
don't you stop beating on that door and turn away
from the door and walk up the hall.

Speaker 3 (01:27:40):
It's some more dos? What hall ain't got no more dos?
What this is the This is the hallway of life.
The hallway of life got more doors. You got to
turn up the hall and there's a bigger door with
your name on it. But if you stay there banging
on that door, you know, you can't drive your car

(01:28:02):
looking in the rear view mirror. You gotta look in
the windshield, the rearview mirror.

Speaker 2 (01:28:06):
That's why it's this small, that windshield that big people
can't get out of their own way because they in
that rear view mirror.

Speaker 3 (01:28:12):
What would it be?

Speaker 2 (01:28:13):
And I wish it had a should have could have
would have. Hey, man, stop all that, walk up the
hall and go see what else God got for you
before we leave. I gotta ask you about this Michael
Jackson story. I heard you took Michael Jackson to church?

Speaker 3 (01:28:24):
Is that had of that? I got pictures of that day. Man,
that was one of my favorite moments. I uh.

Speaker 2 (01:28:31):
You know, Michael was in a lot of trouble mane
and he had a He had a publicist named Ramon
Bain and me and Mike was cool.

Speaker 3 (01:28:40):
Over the years.

Speaker 2 (01:28:41):
I always hung out with him and talk with him,
you know, like I was the only one that ever
called him the end word and stuff like that. I
just talked crazy to Mike.

Speaker 5 (01:28:52):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:28:53):
He needed that, you know, he just oh, hey, man, hey.
But I got no time for that. So one day
Ramone called me and said, Steve, Michael want to talk
to you. I said, it's up, Mike. He said, man,
I need to go to church. I just want to
go to church. And I said, well, he said, what

(01:29:13):
can you take me to church? I said, yeah, man,
I take you to church. Because Mike thought they was
gonna convict him. Mm and he says, Steve, I didn't
do this man, I just believed it.

Speaker 2 (01:29:27):
I just I've never believed that about Mike. I I
know him, I've been around him, and that's just me.
Everybody else will teach that last one that came out
he did it, that's you.

Speaker 3 (01:29:38):
You don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:29:39):
I ah, where all this stuff come from after after
he did and then if you anyway, that's a longer story.
But they just was doing this.

Speaker 5 (01:29:46):
Brother.

Speaker 3 (01:29:47):
So he said, hey, man, I want to go to church.
So I said, okay, man.

Speaker 2 (01:29:51):
So I called up my buddy chip Mary that owns
chip Mary uh episcoal Ame church over off of Jefferson
and Adams off for Crenshaw. Adam's over there somewhere in
that area off Crenshaw, and I called him up. He said,
Michael wants to come to this church. And I said, yeah, man,
he wants you to talk with him and pray for him.

(01:30:13):
And so I said, Mike, I'm gonna come pick you
up and we can go to church. So Mike had
took the entire floor of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and
gutted it and just turned it into his own place.
So I came up there and Mike met me at
the door on a mopad because he was crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:30:35):
Man. I said he had another one, but he said,
come on, let's go down to the apartment. I said, Mike,
a mopead dog. I'm six too, What is it? This
a little bit? So ride the mopeid down the in.
We get up and go in the place. And I'm
looking at this place and I'm going this because in incredible.

(01:30:56):
He didn't gut it the whole floor and just made
it his apartment. Incredible. So I'm in there man, and
I said, Mike, we gotta go to church. It's black people.
We gotta go now, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:31:08):
We gotta get parking and everything. I said, Mike, did
you tell anybody who was going to church?

Speaker 3 (01:31:13):
Oh? No, I wanted to be a secret. I said, okay, cool,
I told Chip Mary Man. We get in the car.

Speaker 2 (01:31:22):
No, first Mike goes to get dressed and he comes
out dressed and with Mike, fuck you got on?

Speaker 3 (01:31:29):
So where you going? Man? What is this you wearing?
What's the matter? This is my suit? What you dressed like?
Cap'n crunch?

Speaker 5 (01:31:38):
For?

Speaker 3 (01:31:39):
Where's she going with all these balls on your shoulders? Military?
We're going to church? Man? You got one stripe on
one leg? I said, where your suit at? Man? Black
people wear suits ties. This is all I got, Steve.
This jacket is twenty twenty thousand dollars. I'm going what
the dude was spending money on stuff? So I'm laughing

(01:32:00):
at him. So we go get in the car. He said, Man,
this is great, man, is it are?

Speaker 2 (01:32:07):
They have a great choirs? Man, they be jamming. So
we get down off the tin and we turn on Crenshaw.

Speaker 3 (01:32:18):
And it's cars from the tin all the way down
Crenshaw all up. Jefferson opts, people all on the side.
Where might go. I'm gonna what the hell? I said, Mike,
I thought, I told you, ain't tell nobody. I never
opened my mouth. Well, the preacher told somebody Michael was coming,

(01:32:40):
and the word got out. Let me tell you something, man.

Speaker 2 (01:32:42):
It was people from Belgium, Argentina, Amsterdam, signs from everywhere.
People from all over the world flew in to see
this guy go to church. So we finally took us
a long time to get through all the crowd and stuff.
Police escorts got it about out the way. We get
to the church.

Speaker 3 (01:33:02):
It's packed this Easter.

Speaker 2 (01:33:07):
It's a regular Sunday, it's Easter in hill Man, it's packed.
So before the service start, I get him in the
back with the preacher chip Mary. Chip Mary prayed for Michael.
He told me, said, Mike, you're gonna walk away from this.
He said, God knows what you did, you good brother, youinger,
And he was so worried.

Speaker 3 (01:33:25):
He prayed for him. Mike said, man, he says, I'm
gonna walk away. Say what these these people? He talked
God all the time with this black church man.

Speaker 2 (01:33:35):
So we went and they had a seat for us
in the middle, and we sat down and Boyd his
choir came out and they was jamming, and Mike's hat
was in his eyes, and Michae was just sitting there
just rocking.

Speaker 3 (01:33:46):
Man. He was getting it, man. He said, this is great, man,
this is great. Oh my god, what are they doing? Phil?

Speaker 2 (01:33:54):
He knew every instruments. Man, They went from a detour
e flat. This is amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:33:59):
What you heard that? I don't talk.

Speaker 5 (01:34:03):
He was in that.

Speaker 3 (01:34:04):
Man, Oh my god, why are those people jumping up
and down? I say they shouting for what? Well? Probably
because you here. It was funny, man. So the whole
church service, he was just rocking. Man. He loved it.
And so he went.

Speaker 2 (01:34:20):
He said, I want to meet with kids, and man,
basement full of kids. They was asking Michael questions, is
that your hair? Can I touch your face? Mike was
just letting him touch him and everything. So it's news
reporters outside. Where my phone at? Man, it's my phone anyway,

(01:34:42):
I got pictures of the news conference and everything. So
Mike says, I don't want to talk to anybody. Steve,
go out there and talk for me. I say, ain't
no problem. Look, man, Michael phones man. I mean everywhere
everybody was there, Steve, we want to talk to Michael.

Speaker 3 (01:35:01):
He ain't coming out.

Speaker 2 (01:35:03):
Not happening, and well, Steve, we won't talk, I say, Man,
Mike said, he ain't coming out, and he wants me
to talk for him.

Speaker 3 (01:35:10):
I go out in front of all the mics.

Speaker 2 (01:35:12):
Steve, where's Michael we'll talking about? So Mike ain't coming out.
We have questions for Mike, I said. Mike told me
to answer all the questions.

Speaker 3 (01:35:19):
So go ahead. Why did he come to church? I say,
you know he liked church music. Why did he pick
this church? He said he did? And I did. I
told him which one to come to. Well, when's he
coming out? I said, when he come out, We're gonna
get straight in the car. We don't want to talk
to you. We want to talk to Mike. I said, Man,
tell you no, motherfucker, mo, Mike ain't coming out here now.

Speaker 2 (01:35:41):
We ain't in the church right now. So y'all and
you know this, this is me back in the day
for I had all these shows.

Speaker 3 (01:35:48):
I ain't had nothing to lose, doog, I'm lighting.

Speaker 2 (01:35:50):
They ass up, and I'm aggravated because the dude don't
want to talk to me.

Speaker 3 (01:35:55):
I'm going with damn. I'm all you're gonna get So
what does Michael do now? He's talking to the I say,
he's talking to the kids about what why are they
allowing children in the basement with Michael? I said, hold on, man,
where you going with this? Hire? I said, what I say,
press conference over? So I go in the back. So

(01:36:18):
we talk with the kids.

Speaker 2 (01:36:19):
Long to Michael and say, Steve, I'm ready to go.
I said, all right, man. So I told us Katy
to go get the car bringing around. We walking out
there to get an umbrella for Mike and all this here.
We walked to the car and we get in the car,
I said, Mike, listen, Man, it's people all the way
down here. I just want to shake their hand, I said, Mike,
you can't shake these people hand.

Speaker 3 (01:36:39):
Doug, you know what we are. We crush all this.
Say what we finna do. So Mike's sitting over there,
and this ass roll the window down. Showe it by herself.
He rolled the window down. Man, he's fine. People was
reaching out there tying his clothes off. Oh yeah, they're
pulling me. I said, roll your wonder up. Shut up

(01:37:02):
all that wine and the shit. Mike can roll your
window up. You're gonna crush that hand. They fuck that hand.
And I got that window and this dude's hand was
caught in the window, he said. And so now the
car pick and I'm speeding. The dude is running with
his hand crushed in the window. So Mike said, Steve,
stopped the car. He's gonna get hurt, man, fuck him.

(01:37:27):
Were all gonna get hurt if we don't get out
of here. So I told dude, speed up, man. So
the driver sped up and I opened the window just
a little bit and he got his hand out.

Speaker 2 (01:37:36):
He said, Steve, you were gonna drag the poor man.
I said, did not tear your ass not to open
the window. Shit is your fault, Mike, He.

Speaker 3 (01:37:45):
Said, you're crazy. He's just talking to me so crazy.
I said, I'm trying to save your ass. You don't
know how to fight in here, talking about they're tearing
my clothes off? What is your hands? Fuck you think
they gonna do? So we get all the way back
to the hotel and they take us through the back
and Mike has stepped in some gum somewhat, so we

(01:38:07):
on elevator and he raised his foot up in his
gum down from his foot down to the floor. He said, Steve,
there's gum on my shoe. I said, And what the
fuck I'm supposed to do? I said, Mike, I don't
get gum off. Nobody's shooting man, but it's on my shoe.

Speaker 2 (01:38:23):
And now security they off that laugh in the asshof
because nobody talked to Mike like that.

Speaker 3 (01:38:28):
But it's gum on my shoe. What the fuck I'm
supposed to do?

Speaker 2 (01:38:32):
Rub that ship off the elevator, opening them two down
mope heads, and I said, man, we ain't got time
for this ship.

Speaker 3 (01:38:38):
Let's walk down here. True story.

Speaker 6 (01:38:44):
I can't let you go because you spoke about your
wife and have from a financial standpoint and bringing peace.

Speaker 5 (01:38:51):
But she's also changed your style.

Speaker 3 (01:38:54):
Yeah, we can't go to.

Speaker 5 (01:38:56):
See my man. Ellie's here.

Speaker 6 (01:38:57):
We gotta acknowledge that he transformation and the Steve Harby said,
we went from the big suits.

Speaker 3 (01:39:03):
Yeah, you couldn't tell me nothing.

Speaker 6 (01:39:06):
You couldn't tell me nothing class in the classic airline.

Speaker 3 (01:39:10):
You look at them suits.

Speaker 2 (01:39:11):
Every NBA player from Magic Johnson to Michael Jordan had
them suits.

Speaker 5 (01:39:17):
That was a treasure dog.

Speaker 2 (01:39:18):
They said, Man, we used to watch the Apollo to
see what you was wearing. And we get it made Michael,
all of them, they all know that. They all used
to come man them suits. Man, it was I was
king of the urban wear.

Speaker 6 (01:39:31):
But you transitioned now at lettusage and now it's fine fashion.
It's gotten to the point now it's like I think,
like people are looking just to see what you're wearing again.
But in the social media world it's like like they're
turning it into a comedy at some at some places,
but other people are looking at it like, Yo, who's
who's dressing this dude.

Speaker 5 (01:39:52):
Because he's fly? Yeah, see the hater, how was that transition?

Speaker 3 (01:39:55):
Well, Marjorie, if you watched my wife over the years.

Speaker 2 (01:39:59):
She's she's it man. She's the fastest and fashionista. And
it started with her when she said, Steven, want you.

Speaker 3 (01:40:08):
To change your suits?

Speaker 2 (01:40:09):
And I said why, She said, because I'm tired of
being married to a pimp. I said, well, I'm the
damn you ain't had no problem. She said, well, I
just had to get you married. Further, she said, I
was gonna change you the whole long. So she got
a couple of tailors and I started.

Speaker 3 (01:40:22):
Wearing some little Canali kitan suits and stuff like that,
and it was going okay.

Speaker 2 (01:40:28):
And then I got this guy when I got to
talk show and all this here, and I wanted to
have a certain look. I'm a game show host, I'm
a talk show host. I wanted to be more mainstreams.
So she took all the big suits off of me
and she cut the suits down. But I was one
note man, because that was the image I just wanted
out there, game show hosts, TV hosts, tie collar bar clamp,

(01:40:54):
cuff links, pocket square necktie, colors, shoe gators.

Speaker 3 (01:41:01):
That was it, and that went for a long time.

Speaker 2 (01:41:04):
The reputation on Family few was he dressed so nice
and all the people that have come on Family Feud
would try to wear two pocket squares because they thought
it was two pocket squares. It's really only one. I
just wore tom Ford pocket squares that had a border.
Once you have a pocket square with a border on it,
when you pulled the middle out and put the board,
it looked like it's too.

Speaker 3 (01:41:22):
So that was a little trick move I did, right.

Speaker 2 (01:41:24):
I was going along with that And then I went
to Africa four years ago and I started taping the show.
I had a problem with the guy. He couldn't make
the trip. He had some family issues. So my wife's
had been telling me about Ellie. She said, Steve, you
really ought to hire this kid. He's very, very talented

(01:41:46):
in fashion and you need to freshen up your look.
And I said, babe, I don't need all that, you know.
And plus I had seen Ellie a few times with
Wynton and Lloyd. They were friends, and you know, I
just didn't think nothing, you know, But every time they
got dressed, they was calling him, what do I wear?

Speaker 3 (01:42:04):
What do I do? And so when the dude didn't
couldn't make it to Africa, she called Ellie and said,
what are you doing? And he told her.

Speaker 2 (01:42:13):
Now, Ellie had designed something for me, some pajama sets
with Doce Cabano. Before that, I flew him out to
La to show me these designs. He designed these cold
sets for me and they were just outstanding. So she
called him and said, what are you doing? She said,
he said, I'm off right now. She said, get on
the plane and come to Africa.

Speaker 3 (01:42:33):
Now, this is Marjorie. She don't play. So the next
evening he shows up in Africa. Well, the guy that
wasn't making it made it. He had the dinner too.
Okrah moment.

Speaker 2 (01:42:53):
Now we go to the dinner at this restaurant in Africa,
this beautiful restaurant called the Saint, and the only seat
of veil at the table they sitting next to each other.

Speaker 5 (01:43:03):
This was awkward.

Speaker 3 (01:43:05):
This was a very awkward moment. Man.

Speaker 5 (01:43:08):
This was And so.

Speaker 2 (01:43:11):
One thing led through another and the brother had to
go home for family reasons. So Ellie stayed. And that
was the first time the first season of Family Feud.
He was starting to style me and I was going, yo, man.
So he says, oh, you're not wearing a pocket square today,
and I went, what are you nuts?

Speaker 3 (01:43:32):
No pocket square? Who?

Speaker 6 (01:43:34):
No?

Speaker 8 (01:43:34):
Who?

Speaker 3 (01:43:34):
You think you dressing and he says, we don't have
to match. We're going to color block. No, what you
mean we are f in the match. We're not finna match.
What No, we're fin the match partner. I'm from Cleveland.

Speaker 2 (01:43:49):
You know, my gators got to be the same color
as my hat, and my gators got to match my belt.

Speaker 3 (01:43:54):
I don't know what you're talking about. These are rules,
since that's old.

Speaker 2 (01:44:00):
So he started dressing me and color blocking and doing
all this stuff. I wasn't really happy with it, but
you know, when I come out to the dressing room,
all my sons dad as dope, and I was going, man,
this ain't that dope. And you know, it got on,
so it worked out for us. And then I just

(01:44:22):
noticed he was super organized. He was he took better,
took such great care to clothes. And then he started
showing me stuff. Mister Hervey, look at this, this is
coming out. This is gonna be the new collection. I
had never seen this in my life. What do you
mean new collection?

Speaker 5 (01:44:40):
Stuff?

Speaker 2 (01:44:40):
Getting the stoves? That's what I buy, stepanold Richard, a
little bit of tom Ford and buy some key time.

Speaker 3 (01:44:46):
No, no, no, no, no, no, this is what we're
gonna do.

Speaker 2 (01:44:49):
And so I got the show called Facebook Watch after that,
and they said, they don't want me to dress like
I normally dress. Would you wear your regular clothes? Now,
my regular clothes were different than my image was. So
he would go in the closet and start putting stuff together.
Then he just started saying, let me, let me buy
some stuff and bring it to you. So he would
go out and shop and bring stuff to the house

(01:45:11):
and I would.

Speaker 3 (01:45:11):
Look at it.

Speaker 2 (01:45:12):
I was fighting him all the way. He said, no,
mister Harvey, but you got to try it on. We
got to have a fitting. I used to hate when
he said it would have a fitting, and then you
know he said. Then one day he really pissed me
off cause the last year we was in Africa.

Speaker 3 (01:45:26):
He said, mister Harvey, you need to lose some weight.
You're making these fashions look ridiculous. And I'm went, oh,
you little skinny some bitch. You're sitting up in here
looking like a somebnie and you tryna tell him I
need to lose some weight. You don't tell him I
need to lose some weight.

Speaker 2 (01:45:41):
Okay. Cool kind of pissed me off. My wife said
he might be right that now when your wife say it,
then you I got to get my ass in the gym.
We gotta get some of this weight off. And then
on Facebook Watch two years ago, he started dressing me
the way we just started on some different stuff. He said,
mister Harvey, what's the one thing you really want to do.

(01:46:04):
I said, my wanma colors back. I used to wear
colors on Kings of Comedy.

Speaker 3 (01:46:08):
That's what I miss. He says, But we have to
change your fit. He started narrowing down the shoulders, narrowing
down the sleeves. I was against all of this. Change
your fit, mister Harvey. You now don't have the weight
you can wear. The clothes are better and y color
blocking and blah blah blah.

Speaker 2 (01:46:26):
And then it just took off. And it started happening
a few years ago on Facebook Watch. And then he
did a special order on uh NFL Honors and that
took off. And then the guy that would run the
NFL Honors works for Celebrity Family Feud and call him
up and said, hey man, you should let Steve Harvey
dress on Celebrity Family Feud the way he does on

(01:46:47):
NFL Honors. So they cause I used to have to
wear the same suit on celebrity family Feud because they
didn't know what order he was going, So I just
wore the same suit. When they did that, I told Ellie,
do your thing, and then he just started setting stuff out,
and next thing, you know, he said, mister Harvey, let
me take your picture. Which is the one thing I

(01:47:08):
hate sitting up for a picture. I don't like looking
at camera and smiling and stuff like that. So he said,
just look now. So most of my pictures I'm looking
down or something or got a cigar or something. He
was taking pictures and then he would start posting it
and by accident, next thing, you know, man, fashion bomb
daily and boom, people started picking it up. And I

(01:47:29):
was going, what's going on? Because it was never my intention,
you know, I just wanted to I didn't want to
hear my wife's mouth no more.

Speaker 3 (01:47:35):
That's all it was for her to be quiet.

Speaker 2 (01:47:37):
But this kid, Ellie is such an innovative dude, and
he understands how I am. And he don't bring stuff
that don't fit my body because still, all in all, man,
I'm sixty five, You dig you gotta let me be comfortable.
Skinny jeans is for skinny people, you know. And then
we got a couple of rules. I will not wear high.

Speaker 3 (01:48:00):
Top sneakers with a suit. I'm not gonna do that
for you. Yeah, I'm not finna do that. I see
all these basketball players and stuff. I'm not finna do that.
I'm not wearing a high top sneaker with my suit.

Speaker 2 (01:48:13):
Now, we got some stuff on a Ricci alligator sneakers
I had made. I'll wear that with them. But they
look they look dope, and we get in a lot
of fights because I don't like a lot of the stuff.
But to give him credit, he's right ninety percent of

(01:48:33):
the time. And but when it comes to fashion, man,
the dude just said, mister Harvey, I'm gonna let you
be you. I'm gonna introduce you to these looks. And
he introduced them.

Speaker 3 (01:48:43):
Some of it work.

Speaker 2 (01:48:44):
I put on some stuff and love it, and he'll go,
you're not wearing that, and I'll be going, well, the
hell I ain't.

Speaker 3 (01:48:50):
Well, I don't want my name on it. And then
that's when I know I look like a fool, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:48:55):
But it turned out to be a great relationship, man,
And I think it's done a lot for his recognition.

Speaker 3 (01:49:03):
Really more so than mine because for me.

Speaker 2 (01:49:05):
It's an it's an added like an accident, but for
him its career changing because this is truly what he does.
And I think what's gonna happen is I think this
dude is gonna be He's gonna end up before it's over.
He won't always work for me, because that's not how
I do people. I expect me to be a stepping
stone for most people like Chad and them cats like that.

(01:49:27):
He's gonna be one top fashion designers in the world.
He he will be what Virgil was. He will be
what Virgil was not for real when once somebody understand it,
he will be what Virgil was and Virgil was a
bad boy.

Speaker 3 (01:49:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:49:45):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (01:49:46):
Before we leave, I know you want to talk about
the NFT project, the NFT project that dropped h Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I got monkeys and how you feel about that, because
I'm like, I know, you old school, so to be
in a new world of n f T s, that's
that's whole new school.

Speaker 6 (01:50:01):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:50:02):
You just have to listen. Man, tab D bought this
to me because I'm telling you it was a tough
sale for me.

Speaker 2 (01:50:09):
N FT's what are you talking about, mister Harvey, buy
this monkey, because for me, it's just a little little
stupid ass face, right. I buy the monkey and next
thing you know, I'm in the magazine. I'm everywhere and
I'm sitting up here going to bed.

Speaker 3 (01:50:29):
Explain this to me because he has to help me.

Speaker 2 (01:50:31):
But one of the things about being successful, man, is
you have to surround yourself with people thats smarter than you.
You hear the saying all the time, if you're the
smartest person in your group, you need a new group. Dog,
I got a new group because I don't know everything.
But these NFT's have been so interesting to me, and

(01:50:52):
how to be a part of it and participate it
and get on the ground floor say it out loud.

Speaker 5 (01:50:58):
But that's for me.

Speaker 3 (01:51:00):
If I can own something, that's the deal for me.
It's not gonna change.

Speaker 2 (01:51:04):
This new Judge show is like such a jump for me, man,
because it's like I finally got one.

Speaker 3 (01:51:11):
I created this ip. You know that there's never been
a Judge show on primetime television ever ever. Dog, that's original.
That's an ip. I thought of it.

Speaker 2 (01:51:28):
It's my show. I'm the star, and I own it.
Now with the numbers that this show is getting on
ABC or trust and believe this one right here, This
Judge Show God willing, as my brothers say in the
Middle East in Shilah. If this pops off, When this

(01:51:53):
pops off as God's will, this will be the one
that I can ride off in the sunset in This
will be the biggest thing I've ever done. This is
complete ownership. I'm the executive producer, I'm the owner, I'm
the star, the creator. What's going to shock them though,

(01:52:17):
and I'm not gonna say it on camera. What's going
to shock them is the next move I make with
the Judge Show. It's gonna be paramount. And you can
look for us on the global level. You can expect
to see some studios in the Middle East, you can
expect to see some studios in Africa, and Steve Harvey Global,

(01:52:37):
Steve Harvey melt Uae melt Africa. The conversations I'm having
around the world. Man, by the grace of God, because
he put all this in my imagination. Brother disgi's the
limit And all I need for God to do is.

Speaker 5 (01:52:56):
I just need.

Speaker 3 (01:52:59):
Thirty nine years. I just need thirty nine more years.
That's a long time. Thirty nine years a long time.
I'm gonna live to one oh four and then I'm
gonna push all the chips up to the window and
cash it head. But I'm gonna be on the boat
pepping so hard, I swear it god Man.

Speaker 2 (01:53:19):
Next time y'all interviewed me to be on the yacht
in the middle of the Mediterranean, I'm gonna fly y'all
out for it. We're gonna spend two days out there
smoking cigars and drinking a leeche martinis. A leeche martinis.

Speaker 3 (01:53:34):
You ever heard of that? I have a favor.

Speaker 5 (01:53:36):
That's what you drink, Alchi.

Speaker 3 (01:53:38):
Martini Martini, y'all. I had one last year. I ain't
know what it was because I didn't know what the
leachi was.

Speaker 5 (01:53:45):
Yeah, I never had it.

Speaker 3 (01:53:47):
And when they showed it to me before they peeled it,
they had all them spines on it. Anybody eating that
they peeled it off made a martini? Yeah, it's good.

Speaker 5 (01:53:56):
Oh man, you had one dog, real pluck.

Speaker 3 (01:54:01):
Where you get them at New York in the restaurants,
Oh you in New York, not in Georgia. You get
a barbecue. My tita down here with a little gravy
on it because you and Georgia down here. Pardon it's
some areas down here where gravy is actually a beverage
gravy shaking that start. No, it's been a pleasure, brother.

Speaker 4 (01:54:25):
This is actually probably our longest episode, but it just
seemed like it was just like could last forever because
it's so much information. And I'm personally appreciative because I
learned from actually asking questions.

Speaker 3 (01:54:35):
It's like an audience does so a lot of the questions.

Speaker 4 (01:54:38):
I was asking you because I personally wanted to know
myself to not make mistakes and to know how to maneuver.
And that's what it's really about mentorship. So I appreciate
you taking the time out of your schedule.

Speaker 3 (01:54:47):
It was good, man, because I've watched y'all. Y'all deep brothers.

Speaker 2 (01:54:50):
Man, what y'all trying to do is educate, and the
more people you help become successful, the more successful you become.

Speaker 3 (01:54:57):
That's what people don't understand. Man. You got I had
to take some time to share the knowledge.

Speaker 5 (01:55:02):
You know. It's like.

Speaker 2 (01:55:05):
I went to Robert Smith's house and tell you his
quick story the billionaire, and the story is you got
thirty minutes. No one gets more than thirty minutes of
his time period. I was told that I done got
a jet on a flu to Austin to his house
cool for thirty minutes. Man, do you know how bad

(01:55:26):
I wanted to sit with this man to get a
jet and go somewhere for thirty minute meeting. Then the
lady explained to me, at thirty minutes, when I walk up,
if he does that, that means give him five more minutes.
At thirty minutes, that lady walked right in that room
and he did like that. I said, well, I got
five more minutes, and I sat down.

Speaker 3 (01:55:43):
We talked. She came back in, he did like that.
She walked away, She came back again. He did like that.

Speaker 2 (01:55:51):
She didn't come back no more. I was at Robert
Smith's house for seven hours. I was leaving his house
and I asked his the lady who runs it, I said.

Speaker 3 (01:56:05):
Can I answer your question?

Speaker 2 (01:56:07):
I said, I was expecting to leave in thirty minutes
forty minutes. I said, why was I in this man's
house for seven hours? She said, you know why, Steve,
She said, cause you the first person that sat with
him for twenty minutes and ain't asking for no money.

Speaker 3 (01:56:24):
Mm mm she said. So the question is, why ain't
you ask the man for no money? Cause he was waiting,
I said, cause I didn't wanna ask for no money.
I wanna learn how he made that money. Mm See,
I wanna be a billionaire. So what I needed from
him was information. The biggest thing Robert smith taught me
was to scale up everything you say in Steve, scale it.

(01:56:49):
You wanna bring three hundred boards your ranch?

Speaker 2 (01:56:51):
How do you bring three thousand to your ranch? You
bring three thousand? How do you bring thirty thousand? You
wanna train thirty thou lies? How you change three hundred
thousand lives? He taught me that valuable lesson. And me
and Robert Smiths we've been friends every since. Man and
when he gave that money the more house and paid

(01:57:12):
off all them loans. Do you know he meets with
them brothers once a month. He meets with him once
a month. I was on the yacht for my birthday.
He called me and says, Steve, need you join this
call with me on Thursday night. Man, ain't no problem.
Got on the lunch with him and set in, got
in on the zoom call with him. He had about
forty and fifty of them cats on the line set online,

(01:57:34):
and all I did was give them information about the
mindset you have to have for success.

Speaker 3 (01:57:41):
You got to get your mind wrapped around this thing. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:57:44):
If you don't get this here, you got to have
successful thought. Everything I think is big, and everything I
try to think is positive. And I'm human. I have
my days, you know, when I have doubts, and I'm human.
But right after that, whenever I think some working, I
do two things I start thinking of. I get grateful

(01:58:05):
and I immediately go into prayer. I get grateful and
then I just say, okay, God, I thank you for
what all you've done for me. Let me just shut
up and cool out. And then I go into prayer
and dog. What I have now is because of that.
It's not because like I'm the funniest cat out there.
You know, somebody asked me one time, you think you

(01:58:26):
that funny.

Speaker 3 (01:58:26):
I don't know. I know enough people do.

Speaker 2 (01:58:30):
I got about I got a hundred million people willing
to give me a dollar. I made a few hundred million.
Now you might not think I'm funny, but I don't really.

Speaker 3 (01:58:40):
Need you to make it. Don't do it there's a
whole lot of people hating on y'all, but you don't
need that one of Them's a fact, you know the
fact that I ain't never heard now one of Little
Baby's records. I wouldn't know a Little Baby song. He
don't need me asap Rocky. He got Rihanna. What do
you need me?

Speaker 5 (01:59:01):
Dog?

Speaker 3 (01:59:01):
I said, ain't South Rocket, went ain't South Rocket, Ain't
South rocket A South rocket? Got rihar What he need
me for? Hell if I know I ain't South Racket.
I don't even know what he do. I ain't got
to know none of that, man, Dog I was.

Speaker 2 (01:59:19):
I was that dumb ass dude in nineteen seventy seven
when hip hop hippity hop, when that came out.

Speaker 3 (01:59:25):
It was my last year of college. I heard that song.
I was at a dance.

Speaker 2 (01:59:29):
I said, Man, this, this shit ain't gonna last. I
don't know what is hip hop. This ain't gonna last.
This will never make it.

Speaker 3 (01:59:37):
They ain't even singing. It's no way this will make it.
I bought in my life, I can. I can tell
you the hip hop albums I bought.

Speaker 2 (01:59:49):
I bought All Eyes on Me by Tupac, I bought
Death certificate by ice Q.

Speaker 3 (01:59:54):
I bought jay Z's Blueprint. I bought P. D. Pablo's
Diary of a Center. Interesting. Interesting personally, that's one of
my favorite. You can't talk to me.

Speaker 5 (02:00:07):
You was going it was, yeah, I was class classic
class tupac J.

Speaker 3 (02:00:13):
Yeah, it felt. I know it was like y'all because
Dolly shut up turning around classic country ass.

Speaker 2 (02:00:34):
And then that song he got, I was scraping up,
changeing an ass tray, two cigarettes, not a dime to
my name.

Speaker 3 (02:00:42):
But man, it's a song about gratitude. It's a song
about man.

Speaker 2 (02:00:47):
Where he it was its darkest moments and he just
didn't know how he was gonna make it. But when
he said I was down to a cigarette, scraping up,
changing the ass tray, that was me.

Speaker 3 (02:00:58):
I played that song in my dress to the room
all the time.

Speaker 5 (02:01:02):
P D.

Speaker 3 (02:01:02):
Poblo Diary of a Center. They're gonna quit talking to me.
I played that for my son. My son said, who
is this country ass to I'm sitting here. I'm shocked.
You don't know. Pdy Poplo went to prison, came out.
I told y'all, everybody have it, but y'all wouldn't listen
to me. Now you got your see it popping off,

(02:01:25):
got you in the club, dancing your ass, salt, shake
it down, shake it down. Come on, man, I don't
even know y'all sitting up here to him. Y'all supposed
to be here, pop Foul those.

Speaker 6 (02:01:36):
Number five though it's number five, that's four, it's about five.

Speaker 2 (02:01:39):
The other album Okay, Petie Poplot, Blueprint Death Certificate, All.

Speaker 3 (02:01:44):
Ees on Me, All Eyes on Me, and uh uh
out Cast speaker Box.

Speaker 2 (02:01:51):
Think about blow oh yeah, that that double album that
was Cold. That was cold, the coldest album that seeing there.
When they wrote, uh, ain't nobody dops me, I'm just
so fresh and clean like that video like Key Key Mine,
like show Time at the Apollo minus the Key Key Sheppard.
When they released that, they came to the beat in

(02:02:13):
LA and I played it on my radio station and
a big boy say wrote this for you, huh, And
he played that line, Ain't nobody dopsh me, I'm just
so fresh and clean like show Time at the Apollo
minus the Key Key Sheppard?

Speaker 3 (02:02:28):
Well, who else out there? Ain't nobody enough for me?
After that? You couldn't say shit to me.

Speaker 5 (02:02:33):
Yeah, it's number one, number one selling hip hop album
of all time cause of me, number yes, number one reason.

Speaker 3 (02:02:41):
No, I'll kid you, not them the five albums I bought,
But hip hop don't need me.

Speaker 2 (02:02:47):
Look how many albums. It's the biggest music genre ever
created in the world. And Steve Harvey ain't about but
five of the albums what they need me for.

Speaker 3 (02:02:56):
So when people ask me, man, you think you the funniest,
I don't need you to think I'm funny man, you
ain't even for you. Wasn't the funniest ones in the King.
I ain't have to be. I was on the Kings.
You take me off, and it ain't no kings. You
take Bernie off. Ain't no kings.

Speaker 2 (02:03:10):
You take said off the m See like if I had,
you ain't asked me this. But that's pride right there.
That's the reason if I had a mount Rushmore comedy.
First of all, the trial is a mountain by hisself.

Speaker 3 (02:03:26):
He don't. He don't.

Speaker 2 (02:03:27):
You can't put him on this rock. He's a chisel,
whole plateau rock taller than the mount.

Speaker 3 (02:03:35):
Eddie Murphy gets a plaque alone.

Speaker 2 (02:03:38):
Okay, yes, legend, Eddie get a whole plaque by himself.
You can't touch Eddie when he comes to comedy who
Delirious Raw and then Satnday Night Live, but eyes three
times a maid day, My nu news Dog Buck Dog?

Speaker 3 (02:04:05):
Are you talking about somebody sitting there on Saturday Night
Live crying? I'm talking about Dog.

Speaker 2 (02:04:10):
I would go home and cry watching Buck Wheaton, Velvet Jones,
the Pimp and all this.

Speaker 3 (02:04:16):
Hell. Eddie got a rock by hisself for me, that
Mount Rushmore.

Speaker 6 (02:04:23):
That was for Outside of that, we got Defoe Ye,
Chris Rock Okay, okay, legend, Dave Chappelle, Yes, legend.

Speaker 5 (02:04:33):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (02:04:37):
Now it's hard because I know.

Speaker 2 (02:04:42):
I know some things people don't know. Bill Cosby was
the most prolific stand up of all time twenty comedy albums.
Ain't nobody done that?

Speaker 3 (02:04:53):
Dog?

Speaker 2 (02:04:54):
This dude right here was masterful. But if you say
something about Bill, anybody, how could you like? People ask me, all,
how could you be friends with Bill Callsby?

Speaker 1 (02:05:02):
Well?

Speaker 3 (02:05:02):
Hell, I ain't no.

Speaker 2 (02:05:04):
Well here, you know, you know they took all this
money from Bill, caused me, took his names off all
these buildings.

Speaker 3 (02:05:10):
Ain't nobody gave that money back? Though? You know? Why
are you what?

Speaker 6 (02:05:14):
He was? So?

Speaker 2 (02:05:15):
I would want to put him there? But if I
had to put the New School in there, it had
to be Kevin Hard.

Speaker 5 (02:05:24):
So the that's the fourth, that's the three three.

Speaker 6 (02:05:27):
Oh so we're not putting, Okay, So we got three,
got one more start.

Speaker 2 (02:05:29):
And one more the last spot. The Kings of Comedy
is a plaque together altogether. Yes, sir, My laws is
the most gift. My loss is the most What if
I said about Martin my Lawns is the best mimicker
I've ever been around in my life.

Speaker 3 (02:05:49):
What he did on death jam was unthinkable.

Speaker 2 (02:05:52):
He's the best mimicker, the most talented, versatile stand up
ever born on this planet.

Speaker 3 (02:05:59):
Which Jamie four Jamie Fox another one. But I'm telling you,
but we can't put everybody on this round.

Speaker 5 (02:06:07):
Now.

Speaker 2 (02:06:07):
I'm impartial because I'm one of the Kings, but I
know what the Kings did for black comedy.

Speaker 3 (02:06:13):
I know what it was. Man.

Speaker 2 (02:06:15):
It launched you can ask Kevin. It launched a Kevin Hart.
There's no Cat Williams. There's no Kevin, There's no there's
no none of these dudes. Man Earthquake. Who is a
bad boy?

Speaker 3 (02:06:33):
You know?

Speaker 2 (02:06:33):
Bill Bellamy A Dale gives Monique Samora uh Man, that
Teddy carp Into, Damon Ways. It's some boys, j Anthony
Brown Man the first night, the first week of Death
Jail on the stage in one night was Martin Lawrens,
All of the Waynes Broughts, Jamie Fox, Bill Bellamy, Bernie

(02:06:57):
mack Sheryl Underwood, Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, j Anthony Brown,
Teddy carp Into, a Dale Givings Dog. That stage was
so no genre, bread more still living talented people than
death Jail.

Speaker 5 (02:07:19):
Chause Tucker too was on it.

Speaker 3 (02:07:21):
Chris Tucker was on that stage. This boy. See you
can't that that that genre right.

Speaker 2 (02:07:27):
There was nothing else but that Mount Rushmore for me
because I know what the Kings was.

Speaker 3 (02:07:33):
Man, it was nice, the est grossing. It's just so
it's something that ain't. Ain't nobody finna do that. You
can get four Like. I love these boys at eighty
five South.

Speaker 2 (02:07:43):
But they doing something, man, I never thought would be done.
That's why I gotta take my hat off to him,
because I don't know how they did this. Man.

Speaker 3 (02:07:50):
They actually go on stage in the living room setting
and sit around and talk and sell out and the
ship is funny. They they've taken improv comedy to a
whole nother level, Like a lot of conversations, they're different.
We sat we did that show, and just after the
show was just like, how did they just do that?

Speaker 5 (02:08:11):
It's so talented and you don't realize it, like as
this happenue?

Speaker 3 (02:08:14):
Does this happen? I didn't think that could work. I
tried improv comedy. I can't do it.

Speaker 2 (02:08:19):
And then I don't understand dividing the check. That's what
always through me. We're gonna get this check and we're
gonna split it. Now, I gotta do this myself. But
eighty five self has came along Chico and Man Seeing
and DC and them boys, and they special.

Speaker 3 (02:08:37):
Man.

Speaker 2 (02:08:38):
They changed the way comedy could be done. So my
hat's off to them young boys right there, man, because
I just I didn't think it could work. But once again,
it wasn't in my imagination.

Speaker 3 (02:08:52):
It was in theirs. So that's my view, man. So
you have to write your own jokes to be top
tier or does that not mat Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:09:01):
But then you know, like the like Chapelle and Rock
you know they had writers, you know, but they doing
some high level stuff. It's it's time consuming. Like if
I went back, I'd have to go that route. I
spent my whole career writing my own. I bought two
jokes in thirty years, he said, bought them, bought two
jokes writers, Yeah, off of a writer. I bought a

(02:09:22):
funeral joke from Prescott Comedian out of Memphis. I bought
a funeral joke from Prescott, and I bought something else
from Prescott. I don't remember that joke, but I bought
it and then didn't use it. Right, But that funeral
joke that I never put on tape one of the
funniest pieces I've ever gotten. It was just, you know,
going to a black funeral and you know, and then

(02:09:44):
I you know, like you know, funeral homes, like back
in the day we lived in the hood, you had
to take the body to the funeral home. They didn't
do pickups.

Speaker 3 (02:09:52):
So my uncle died and we came home and he
was dead, and we had to take him to the
funeral home.

Speaker 2 (02:10:00):
Now, me and my nephew, we tend and my mom
and daddy in the front, and they propped my uncle
up in the back, sitting him up, and they put
us on each side so he wouldn't fall over. Ye know,
how fucking traumatized. I was we make a left turn.

Speaker 3 (02:10:15):
This he oon't me, He don't mean Mama helled me.
You shut up and leave my brother quick pushing him.
You know you're how hard it is to ride with
your first dead person and you and you and your
brother is bookends trying to prop his ass up.

Speaker 5 (02:10:31):
Brother.

Speaker 3 (02:10:34):
Listen to me, you need therapy after that ship. You
got to go to therapy.

Speaker 2 (02:10:39):
And now I wrote a whole joke about that and
taking him up there and took the suit down there
for the funeral director to dress him in and everything.
We get to the funeral and we opened up the
cask and and my uncle ain't got the suit on.
He got on a Michael Jordan's jog and suit with
number two and three of the director to shoot. I

(02:11:02):
used to I had wrote this ship. That ship was
one of the greatest jokes. I never put that on tape, man,
but that was one. If I came back, I had
to release.

Speaker 3 (02:11:13):
That n f T release it as an FT.

Speaker 5 (02:11:17):
Yeah, one of the first, one of the first.

Speaker 6 (02:11:18):
Actually, uh endorse and speak about Solano as to media.

Speaker 3 (02:11:23):
I'm sure he's behind that. Man. You explain how that
would work, how you would put it as an NFT.

Speaker 6 (02:11:31):
Yeah, so I first I would do it like as
a I would record it right, and then making a
digital product and make it exclusive to the people who
bought maybe create artwork around it and make it exclusive
to the people. And then after they bought it, perhaps
make it one night only where you actually perform.

Speaker 5 (02:11:49):
If they have the NFT, they get a whole big
business around it.

Speaker 3 (02:11:52):
They buy it in crypto, they can resell it. Every
time they resell it, you get percentage on it. Percentage
on it.

Speaker 5 (02:12:00):
To me, it's like, wait, that's it, man.

Speaker 3 (02:12:04):
You know how much of that stuff I got? Hey, man,
do you know I have footage? I have at least
sixteen hours of never recorded. I'm talking about because I

(02:12:27):
when I did my seven specials man and and and
and feature films and for stand up, I only picked
the best hour ten. I've got some stuff that never
got recorded. The funeral joke to Jerry spring a bit,
the waffle house joke. I got some shit, man, that

(02:12:49):
was so gut.

Speaker 2 (02:12:51):
Wrench and funny. Man, I just haven't had time to
go through all of it. I got a lot of
the footage, but this this'll be a time for it.

Speaker 5 (02:12:59):
I mean I'm gonna look up with.

Speaker 3 (02:13:01):
Y'all and do something.

Speaker 9 (02:13:01):
Man.

Speaker 3 (02:13:01):
I wanna do a business venture with y'all too.

Speaker 5 (02:13:04):
Let's do it. Do it.

Speaker 2 (02:13:05):
Y'all gotta get with the bad and y'all gotta come
up with the idea and we got to do the
three of us got to do a business venture together
and launch it. Take my radio show, use it as
the nucleus to promote, and then whatever social media I got,
and then we need to get out there and we can.

Speaker 3 (02:13:24):
Do something big. Man. We can promote on our side too. Yeah,
y'all y'all strong.

Speaker 2 (02:13:29):
Seeing if whatever y'all trying to do in Africa, if
y'all trying to go high of that work I got.

Speaker 5 (02:13:34):
Yeah, we'll talk about that. We got some investment opportunities
out there.

Speaker 3 (02:13:38):
I got a studio for you in Abu Dhabi's me
know to dip and I'm talking about where you can go. Man.

Speaker 2 (02:13:47):
Like when you go to Abu Dhabi, man, you won't
even believe it. You've never been nowhere on earth like this.
You you you know what it's like to walk outside
and not have to look around.

Speaker 4 (02:14:02):
That's like I was with Singapore and Singapore that was
like the most immaculate place that I've been to, Like
it was just no poverty, nothing on it stet looked
like we was in the future.

Speaker 3 (02:14:13):
Like it was like that was just like I ain't
never been there. Oh it's crazy.

Speaker 4 (02:14:16):
You know when you go on the plane, so I
was coming from Hong Kong, and when you go on
the plane, you know how to give you those things
to read, but nobody ever really reads it, Like I
actually read it this time it said drug trafficking of
any kind is punishable by death. Yeah, So then I
get there and then my friend who he's with, his

(02:14:36):
cousin actually was living out there, so she was telling
us like there's no drugs, like they're serious about that,
really no drugs, Like there's no drugs out there. But
it was like, I'm like, because it's like one of
the most expensive places to live, and she was like yeah,
but everybody works. And she's like even like low income housing,
it's like, are just a regular apartment, Like there's no poverty,

(02:14:56):
there's no ghettos, there's no crime, there's no none of that.

Speaker 3 (02:15:00):
And it looked like we was in the future. What
language is over there?

Speaker 4 (02:15:04):
Well, everybody spoke English because really, yeah, I forget what
it like native language is now.

Speaker 3 (02:15:10):
Somebody was telling me to go to Singapore, but I
kept thinking.

Speaker 5 (02:15:13):
The four principle.

Speaker 6 (02:15:15):
We can't leave without talking about I think, which is
probably the sixth principle, and that's the give back. Let's
talk about your foundation, the philanthropy work that you're doing well.

Speaker 2 (02:15:25):
I've been doing this for quite some time, Steve and
Marjora Harvey Foundation. But it's about to take a new turn.

Speaker 3 (02:15:31):
Man.

Speaker 2 (02:15:32):
I'm in the process of closing a deal to buy
Rock Ranch. And Rock Ranch is owned by.

Speaker 3 (02:15:40):
Chick fil A right now, and it's sixteen hundred acres.
Where is it that just south of here.

Speaker 2 (02:15:47):
It's about an hour and a half from here in
is it Rock, Georgia, And it's called the Rock Ranch
and it's one thousand, six hundred acres. I'm gonna buy
it myself, donated to my foundation because I don't want
my foundation to have to take that type of hit.
There's a lot of money to buy, but this is

(02:16:08):
going to give me a chance to do what Robert
Smith taught me to do, was to scale up. And
so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna build permanent
housing on it. Because right now, when I go down there,
I gotta spend hundreds of thousands on tents for the
boys to sleep in. I gotta I gotta have a
toilet's body in and showers body in, and uh. I

(02:16:32):
just want to change it and really really go all
out with it. We're gonna build sleeping for seven hundred kids,
boys and girls with indoor uh toilets and showers for everybody.
We're gonna have a performing arts center that seats seven
hundred with theater seating in it to show movies and

(02:16:52):
do presentations for corporate getaways. I'm gonna build about fifteen
tiny houses on it for corporate execus getaways to come
down there. I've got fishing ponds all over the place.
I got rock climbing, zip lining. I'm gonna open up
the STEM center. Robert Smith has committed to opening that
for me. I'm gonna open up a STEM coding center

(02:17:14):
to teach coding to young All of this for underprivileged kids.
If your child got money, that ain't who I'm working with.
I work for people who can't afford it.

Speaker 3 (02:17:23):
Man. I'm taking all underprivileged kids. That that's all.

Speaker 2 (02:17:27):
I'm taking the ones people don't thank God a shot
that was me. I'm gonna I'm claiming it. I'm gonna
open up the Floyd Mayweather boxing facility down there, and
he mentioned it to.

Speaker 3 (02:17:39):
Floyd, said.

Speaker 2 (02:17:43):
He ain't had a conversation with Floyd Mayweather bought it.
But here a good brother. Every time we see each other,
we cordial.

Speaker 3 (02:17:50):
But I love his dude. Al Hayman. He a Cleveland boy.

Speaker 2 (02:17:53):
I'm gonna go to I'm gonna go to Floyd and
I'm gonna ask him to build a gym for these boys.

Speaker 3 (02:17:58):
I'm just putting it out there. I claim.

Speaker 2 (02:18:01):
I'm building the Tyler Perry Performing Arts Center, the Robert
Smith Coding Center. I want to build it. Here's another
one that I'm putting out there. I'm gonna build the
Shaquille O'Neil Gymnasium. Shaquille is a good brother man, just
a good brother man. And I like being affiliated with
people as good dudes. Man that I know got their

(02:18:22):
heart in the right place.

Speaker 3 (02:18:24):
You know it.

Speaker 5 (02:18:25):
It.

Speaker 3 (02:18:27):
I just claim stuff like that, you know.

Speaker 2 (02:18:29):
But if they understand that I don't put my money
in at these cats is willing to give. They have
a lot of give back spirit in them, you know,
And I'm gonna open up Ah. I'm gonna put a
track down there. I'm gonna open up a gardening facility.
I'm gonna sell flowers. I'm gonna take two hundred acres
and grow flowers down there and raise honey with the bees.

Speaker 3 (02:18:52):
And I'm gonna open up farming.

Speaker 2 (02:18:54):
I'm gonna find me an African American farmer that got
hit during the pandemic and lost they farm. I'm gonna
give him farming acreage down there, a few hundred acres,
and I'm just gonna pay him to grow organic vegetables.
I'm gonna feed the community and whoever needs vegetables that
live in that area, I'm gonna just feed them for
free and let his brother earn a living from farming.

(02:19:18):
And I'm gonna open up a dining hall. I'm gonna
have facility there. When I'm not using it, i can
rent it out for corporate events and for weddings and
things like that. I'm also gonna open up the gym
and create it in a way where if HBCUs wanna
come down there and have camps, they can come down
there doing as long as it's not summer and hold camps,

(02:19:40):
training facilities, and I'm gonna have a Division one workouts
center built for football teams who wanna come down there.
I'm gonna go to the NFL and get them build
me a football field with astro turf, and I'm gonna
go to the NBA. If Shaq don't come through, I'm
gonna go to the NBA. I'm gonna have them build
me a gym. If they don't do it, I'll do
it myself. Don't make me no difference. I hope they do,

(02:20:01):
but it don't matter to me. I'm not in the
beg business. I'll ask you, but I won't beg you.
And then that's what God don't put on my heart.
So that's what we're going with philanthropy and my wife's
goal and our goal is to send ten thousand young
people to college full paid scholarships.

Speaker 3 (02:20:19):
We're on our way. We've done a hundred or so
right now, but we're a long way from ten thousand.
But that's the goal. I'll say this. We definitely want
to help in any way that we can help in that.
So I'm gonna have y'all come down there and teach
a course. Yeah, for sure, do it for sure. That's
what I want y'all to do. Gotta be dope. We
definitely do that. So thank you man. Yeah, Steve, it's

(02:20:40):
been a pleasure with my brother. Been real Black. Appreciate
you mine. I appreciate you man. I appreciate y'all. Let
me let me speak like this. Most people don't come
at me like this. I don't get to say these
types of things, So I appreciate it, app I appreciate
you more. Thank you guys for rocking with it.

Speaker 6 (02:20:56):
Before we go, we got to give thanks again to
be make you that this happened, shouting the Cole All Black.

Speaker 5 (02:21:02):
Effect family for also making sure that this took place.
So thank y'all.

Speaker 4 (02:21:07):
And I want to highlight his he's talking about it,
but I think it's important to really say this on camera.
So he talked about his lawyer, He talked about his stylust,
He talked about TVD who helps him out a lot
of financial issues. And they're all young black men and
that's important too. Like he has his staff and a
team of black professionals. He didn't have to compromise the

(02:21:30):
entire A lot of time, we think we have to
compromise the integrity. If we hired somebody black, he didn't
compromise the integrity. People are extremely highly qualified, and that's
something to highlight. It's like like Lebron you know different
things that nature, but it's always good to see, you know,
a team of black people, especially black men, working together.

Speaker 3 (02:21:49):
And they qualified too.

Speaker 2 (02:21:50):
Because when I put them boys in the room, I
ain't got to be in there because I know they're
gonna handle bits because they're smart and you ain't gonna
run nothing by them. Doog, I ain't even worried about it.
You can come in there. These cats got some minds
on them. And like you say, I didn't hire black
people that have to compromise. No, man, I'm actually I actually,
I actually have an edge because to tell you what

(02:22:12):
else it gives me, Man, gives me a comfort level.
Cause you know, man, sometimes, Man, when you out here
in this world as an hour for mail, it's lonely
out here. You're out here operating with people that don't
look like you, talk like you. Some of them don't
want to really be bothered with you, but you had
ability to make money, so they tolerate you.

Speaker 5 (02:22:29):
Well.

Speaker 2 (02:22:29):
When I'm home and I'm sitting around my guys. I
want the comfort level. I want to be able to
talk like I talk, say what I say now. If
I far off a word that ain't politically correct, ain't
nobody wincing.

Speaker 3 (02:22:40):
Writing me up? Get then out? No paperwork? Hey dog,
I don't want to say nothing. And all of a
sudden I see somebody filling out paperwork work Okay, yeah, yeah,
And we have a lot of meanings in my house
where HR don't apply.

Speaker 4 (02:23:01):
No, it's a pleasure of my brother. Thank you guys
for rocking with us. We'll see you next week.

Speaker 3 (02:23:05):
Peace, peace, my graduates from my school being forced bad.
Drop Bag Drop Mike, drop Bag Drop.

Speaker 9 (02:23:29):
Lows knows that free makes everything better. That's why our
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(02:23:51):
program subject to terms and conditions details at lows dot com.

Speaker 3 (02:23:54):
Slash Shipping terms subject to change.

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