NY Times Best Selling Author Omar Tyree: Navigating Modern Black Relationships

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
What is the purpose?
What am I trying to do?
People are giving you keys,giving you gems, creating
pipelines to access, talking toinfluential people icons about
how they've done it and sharingthe tips so that you can enter

(00:30):
into that space.
One thing that I do know aboutmarginalized communities is that
the Pipeline to Access is oftenlimited.
Now, if you cleaned up onSaturday mornings and your
parents played old school music,then this show is for you.
Yes, welcome everyone.

(00:58):
You are now tuned into anotheramazing edition of Sonia on Air.
I'm your host, sonia Hudson,and this is an intentional show
where we unpack celebritypivotal moments and their
milestones, while providingpipelines to access so that you
can have opportunities, justlike the celebrities that I
interviewed.
So do me a quick favor Beforewe jump into this all-star

(01:23):
celebrity interview and I tellyou about today's guest, do me a
favor Make sure that yousubscribe, like, share and leave
a comment Once again make sureyou subscribe, like, share and
leave a comment.
It's so important, especiallyfor a content creator who is a
woman of color, of a particularage.
It is so important to have yoursupport.

(01:44):
So, for every like, for everysubscribe, for every share, I
thank you from the bottom of myheart.
Let me tell you about today'sguest.
I'm excited.
I'm always excited about everysingle guest.
Today's guest is a New YorkTimes bestselling author.
He is known for let me just sayit's two words the name of one

(02:08):
of his novels, fly Girl.
If you are a fly girl of aparticular age, like myself, you
know who this author is, noneother than Omar Tyree.
So we read all of his booksthroughout the 90s, the early
2000s, but guess what?
There's an evolution of FlyGirl and I think that we all

(02:32):
need to be reminded of thefabulosity of the era.
The 90s was such an era.
It was framed in sexuality,fashion, music, toxicity.
But we've made it through.
We definitely made it through.
When you ask anybody abouttheir most favorite era, the 90s

(02:54):
is definitely it.
The 90s is just a word.
The 90s is an adjective.
The 90s is an adjective, itdescribes everything.
So we're going to be talking toOmar Tyree about the evolution
of his best-selling novel, flyGirl, but we're also going to be
talking about so many otherthings.

(03:15):
Some of the things that Ireally want to talk about is the
capacity and the courage topivot.
A lot of people get scared,intimidated when they have to
make a change, and this is amilestone that every single
person will face, young and old.
How do you pivot, how do youignore or bypass the anxiety in

(03:35):
order to get to the next step?
We're also going to be talkingabout how did he sign to a major
publishing company the firsttime around, the first time
around signing to a majorcompany, major publishing
company.
So there are so many aspiringauthors that are going to be
tuning in to this episode, sothis is going to be a gem for

(03:56):
you.
Pipelines to Access.
We're also going to be talkingabout his writing process and
some of the challenges that he'sfaced.
I don't know if some of you know, but I'm also a published
author.
I've written a few books.
Make sure that you go check itout.
It's all under Sonia Hudson.
The name of my first book wascalled the Seasons of Love and
the second book is called A LoveI Can Trust, and I'm also a

(04:19):
contributing writer to manymagazine articles, other novels,
so I'm an author too.
So it is going to be a pure joychatting it up with Omar Tariq.
We're also going to bedispelling some myths, some
things that just aren't true.
So, if you are an aspiringauthor, or if you really respect

(04:42):
the genre of writing and thecareer of being an author, you
want to know what's fact, what'sfiction, so that you can take
your career to the next level.
And then we're really going tobe talking about the evolution
of Flagler.
You're going to be so happythat this book has been
reimagined Same story, all newlook, but we're going to be

(05:04):
talking about it all.
So just make sure that you staytuned to the duration of this
Sanya On Air all-star celebrityinterview and do me a favor once
again make sure you subscribe,like, share and leave a comment,
okay?
Also, if you're watching thison YouTube, make sure you hit

(05:25):
the notification bell.
That way, every time I uploadan all new Sonya on Air
celebrity interview, you'll bethe first ones to know.
So, before I bring in Omar Tyree, I'm just gonna go for a quick
commercial break for our show'ssponsor.
And make sure you support thissponsor as well, because she is
a Black-owned business and onceagain in this space where so

(05:49):
many things are being dismantledbecause of the color of the
skin, it is super, superimportant that we keep brands of
excellence alive and well andthriving.
So lean into this commercialbreak.
Afterwards, make sure that yougo to the website, throw it in
the bag, shop purchase, keepBlack business in business.

(06:13):
I'll be right back with OmarTarbi.
Stay tuned.
Eating T-shirts and more LLC isa proud Sony On Air sponsor.
Get your customized tumblers,mugs, t-shirts, hoodies and
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Travel in style with a custompassport holder.
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Now back to Sonia on air.
I have so many things that Iwant to discuss and unpack with

(06:58):
you Now.
The purpose of this show is Iunpack pivotal milestones and
provide pipelines to access.
So the first thing that I wantto talk about is the capacity
and the audacity to pivot Now.
Early on in your career, youthought that you would become a
pharmacist, but then it quicklypivoted to becoming an author.

(07:22):
What made you pivot careers?

Speaker 2 (07:25):
I actually wanted to play football.
You know you had.
You didn't have no major calledfootball, but when I went to
the University of Pittsburgh myall intentions was to walk on a
football team.
I was already on a track teamand that year the NFL had a
strike 1987.
And so all the players you knowwas on strike, and then they

(07:47):
started filling out teams withscab players guys that they was
grabbing off the street, youknow, guys on the practice squad
and so we had like threecollege guys from Pitt that left
school early to join these scabteams for the NFL and then our
dad, going coach, became likethe most vocal coach and
everybody wants to go pro.
That's what your whole dreams is, you know.

(08:08):
So when that whole thing wentdown, you know I kind of got
turned off from college sportsbecause I understood how they
was using and abusing you knowthe athletes and you may not get
everything you want to get outof it, but they get what they
want to get out of it as thecollege.
So you know, you know thatpivot thing.
You know I wanted to playfootball but you have to declare
a major and my mother was apharmacist, so I declared.

(08:29):
You know what I was used toseeing my mother with pharmacy
and I was good in math andscience, so that's how that
ended up happening with thatpivot.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
I understand Similar to now.
You want to become a footballplayer.
My aspirations was to become aDallas Cowboy cheerleader.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
Dallas Cowboy cheerleader.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yes, it was just something captivating about
those cheerleaders.
I just loved it.
You can tell me that I wasn'tgoing to be a Dallas Cowboy
cheerleader.
So what I'm hearing is youleaned in, you wanted to figure
out what was going on in thecareer of football and realized
that that wasn't for you becausethey were kind of using their

(09:13):
players and you realized thatyou didn't want to be used.
So you said this isn't thecareer for me.
Was it kind of difficult topivot?
Because a lot of people arescared to pivot.
Was it difficult for you?

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Well, I mean you know football is a dream, you know
what I mean.
Like you're in school where youcan study stuff.
That's not dreams, you knowwhat I mean.
But getting on a football teamand getting a chance to really
play and shine to the pointwhere you can get to the NFL,
that's still a dream was there.
But you know, getting to thenext level, but in classrooms I

(09:48):
had good grades in classrooms.
I knew what I was doing.
So you know it's not a dreamthere.
So the pivot is easy.
It's like I already know how todo math and science.
I know that getting on afootball team and getting on the
field and getting big plays Ican't control that, but I can
control what I'm doing in class.
So it wasn't something scary atall.
It's something I already did.
You know when you try to be anathlete, you know that's extra,

(10:11):
but you're already in schoolstudying stuff.
So I just finished what I wasalready there studying.
But the whole writing thing, youknow we had writing assignments
and stuff and writing coursesand so once I really understood
that I was a standout in that asstorytelling, which I was doing
verbally at first, and then youstart doing written when they
ask you to write it down, youknow.

(10:31):
So once I understood how youknow good of a storyteller I was
, and other you know kids wouldget me to help them with their
english homework and stuff Isaid, hey man, this is something
serious here, let me, let mekeep rocking and rolling with it
.
So I pivoted to pharmacy, butthen the pivot went to writing,
because that was a new passionthat I found out I could do.
Now I could already do itverbally, but writing it down.

(10:54):
That's when it went to the nextlevel.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
Got it, got it.
Now.
You also mentioned a couple ofgems.
Your mom was a pharmacist, andoftentimes people and
experiences kind of shape theevolution from a child to a
young adult or an adult.
Who are some of the people whoinfluenced you?
Now, before you answer that, Ijust want to kind of give some

(11:17):
of my influences and it just sohappens that they're authors as
well.
For example, terry McMillan shehelped me realize how to
navigate sisterhood andrelationships.
Elin Harris he was the firstauthor that really explored the
down low life.
And then also you, mr OmarTyree.

(11:40):
As a young girl growing up inBrooklyn, new York, it was the
first time that I saw myself andmy friends captured in a book
called Fly Girl.
That was the first time that I,as a young girl growing up in
the project, saw myself in abook.
So I just shared who some of myliterary influences are, who

(12:00):
influenced you and they don'thave to be authors, but who are
some of the people whoinfluenced you.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
That's a great question.
I didn't have any influences onthe writing level.
I wasn't reading books.
I was out there in the streetswith guys in Philadelphia, you
know what I mean?
It was the 1980s.
We'd go on to parties, we'dbreak dancing hip hop.
We'd go to the mall, we'd go tothe movies.
I played football.
So I played football my wholelife until the college years.
So I'm, you know, I'mpracticing playing football.
I wasn't, you know, on thereading side until college, you

(12:33):
know.
So with me, the wholestorytelling thing was watching
movies and telling stories, youknow, in the neighborhoods, you
know.
So I didn't have an influenceas a writer.
I was the writer.
I was doing it verbally insteadof written, and so I was the
one that was always talkingabout what happened at the party
, what happened at the fight,what happened when we went
downtown, what the girl lookedlike, what the party flowed like

(12:54):
, who was wearing what, whothrew the first punch in the
fight.
So I was always the verbal dudelike no, this ain't how it went
.
Dude threw a punch over hereand this dude.
So I was always ain't how itwent.
Dude threw a punch over hereand this dude.
So I was already in the middleof the circle as far as and if
you got something wrong, I wouldcorrect you.
No, that's not how it went.
This is how it went, and so Iwas never influenced by a writer
.
My writing came straight from me, looking at what was going on

(13:16):
and being very descriptive, youknow.
So when I started reading otherpeople's work, stealing stuff
later on, then it would be, youknow, uh, walter mosley with his
mystery books and how hedescribed things.
Terry mcmillan and how she, youknow, had chapter titles for
every chapter.
She had a title for the chapter, and then her stuff was
contemporary, and then thepoetic, you know, afrocentric,

(13:38):
flow of tony morrison.
There was a whole lot of peopleonce I started writing, but I
didn't have any influence tostart writing.
It was me.
That was a whole lot of peopleonce I started writing, but I
didn't have any influence tostart writing.
It was me that was astoryteller already.
You know, I tell people all thetime.
I've always been smart, butI've never been a nerd, never.
You know what I mean.
I was always an athlete.
I was always outside in theneighborhood I grew up in.

(13:58):
Everybody had to fight in thebottom of West Philly, that's
all.
Us were fighters, so I didn'thave a chance to be a nerd, but
I was still smart.
So I was an aggressively smart,which, when you're aggressively
smart, they call you somethingdifferent, you know, and they
don't call you a nerd.
Typically, they call youarrogant because you protect
your intelligence, you protectit and you dominate with it, and

(14:19):
they don't like that.
They want to take it away fromyou.
So I was, you know.
Well, he think he knowssomething.
He think he because I was veryconfident in my confidence and
you know my skill base.
But yeah, I wasn't reallyinfluenced by other writers.
I was influenced by thesurroundings.
You know everything that wasgoing on this girl, this car,
this fight, this party, mewatching everything and then

(14:42):
knowing how to verbalize it.
That was it.
So I really wasn't influencedby other writers.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
I get it.
You know similar stories.
You know I'm very well aware ofPhiladelphia.
I actually visit there abouttwice a month.
I have a lot of family thatlive there.
But also smart in school,growing up in the projects that
wasn't celebrated in school,growing up in the projects that

(15:10):
wasn't celebrated Also coined,arrogant and protecting my
smartness by not allowing thatto deter me from going after
what I knew was destined for me.
But Omar, that had to come fromsomewhere.
So, although no one kind ofshaped your literary side, who
helped shape the man Omar Tari?
Was it family?
Was it friends?
I know that you mentioned yourcommunity and your environment,

(15:32):
but were there people who helpedshape you as an individual?

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, I grew up in the baby boom era.
I wasn't part of the baby boomera, but my mother was the
oldest of eight and my fatherwas the oldest of four.
So what happens is I end upbeing the oldest grandchild.
I'm right in the middle ofaunts and uncles that not that
older than me.
I had an uncle that was twoyears older than me, so I grew
up with uncles, aunts andcousins.

(15:56):
They were from the baby boomera.
I wasn't, but if you growing upwith them, you're going to act
just like they do.
So I'm old school through thecore man, loyal to the core, and
then you had uncles and oldercousins that were part of that
manhood.
So it was very physical.
You know, the first words Iknew was for manhood was take it
like a man playing football.
They didn't want you crying andwhining and whimpering.

(16:18):
You know because then, grandma,what's y'all doing down in the
basement?
Because you take you tacklingyou trying to get to the wall
and tag the wall with thefootball and they tackling you
on hard cement in the basementsin Philly.
And then, whenever you got hurt, take it like a man.
Take it like a man because theydidn't want you crying and
whining and then grandmomsstopping what we were doing.
And so that was the first thinga man heard from me toughness,

(16:45):
you know.
So I've never had a broken body, broken bone, whatnot the
toughness.
And then you, you get older, andthen there's responsibility.
You have football coaches.
We have football coaches thatwere black police officers.
We had this league calledpowell police athletic league
and so, yeah, guys, yeah, theseguys were black, you know, uh,
police officers.
So they had that tough loveapproach.
Look here, now I want to lockyou up.
I see you doing something youkeep, you know.

(17:05):
So, of course, you really dounderstood, like, and then when
you got in the household, I hada stepfather, six foot four, 230
pounds, so I'm still not thatbig.
Yeah, now you put on someweight.
He might be 250, 64, but he'solder now, you know.
But with that you grew up andhis whole thing was, you know,
you got new laws, new rules andnew regulations.

(17:26):
You ain't gonna be runningaround in the street wild and
all that.
And so responsibility of manhood, you know, with them type of
men being around you, it's allhardcore responsibility, doing
what you need to do, no excuses,no feelings, and that's another
thing you know when you starttalking about men versus women,
the the feelings component.
They took that out as young men.

(17:46):
We don't hear about no feelings.
You got to go to work, you gotto take care of your family, you
got to be tough.
Nobody want to hear nothingabout no feelings, how you feel
about this, how you feel so withmen, we ain't got time for that
.
You got to go do your work, dowhat you need to do, and so
that's why I was.
I was influenced by uncles,cousins, football coaches, my

(18:07):
stepfather, you know, and thatwas a time the 1970s, 1980s very
masculine Philadelphia, verymasculine.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
You know we have such similar stories and you know
you shared about how black menaren't encouraged to show
emotion, to be vulnerable.
But, as you were talking, I'mjust like you know, as a Black
woman.
It's the same story on thisside as well, especially, like I
said, growing up in theprojects, we had to be strong.
Boy or girl, you had to bestrong and if you weren't, you

(18:39):
would get eaten up by thestreets.
And this is why I'm alwaysencouraging people who, when you
become an adult and they seeyour strength, they see your
fortitude and they translate itinto arrogance and I'm just like
if they only knew my story andnot my glory, they would
understand those people and theenvironment that shaped me.
And this is why I'm soaudacious now.

(19:02):
So I totally get it, why I'm soaudacious now.
Yeah, so I totally get it.
But very similar stories.
I also ran track through PAL,so I have, you know, once again,
very, very similar, yeah itbecomes a defense mechanism.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
You want to protect from peopletrying to crush your dreams
every day.
So you start saying, look, Iain't listening to you, I don't
know what you're talking about.
And then they look at that likewas something wrong with her?
She just want to ignore people.
She hard-headed, you know,because you're supposed to
listen to them and just be aregular person.
Nine to five no dreams, though,when you listen to them.
But when you don't listen tothem, oh, you think you know

(19:38):
somebody, you think you'rebigger than somebody, you think
so we get beat up either way,man.
So you know yeah, I wentthrough that too when you think
you can do something in the hoodand everybody else is doubting
you.
But you know my aunts and uncles.
They were optimistic too.
They did some great things.
So we had that kind of familythat we're going to do it anyway
, no matter what y'all think.
And I was the youngest in thehousehold.
You know we had like 15 to 20people in the house, because my

(20:02):
grandmother was like thefavorite aunt of all the cousins
, and so every time they gotkicked out the house or
something crazy androdean, I'mcoming to stay with y'all for a
minute, you know, and then mymother was the oldest, so you
know I couldn't come home and goto an apartment, whatnot.
So I'm at grandmom's everysingle day and my mom just
picked me up after work, so I'mwith grandmom and them, with all

(20:23):
the cousins and aunts anduncles and all that stuff, you
know.
Then I got my own room at nightso I was spoiled, rough and
spoiled at the same time.
So it's, it's crazy, because Ihad my mom, had money, but I'm
still growing up in poverty.
So I'm spoiled, but I'm stillin poverty.
So I still got the feeling ofpoverty, but I can do whatever I
want to do.

(20:43):
So now it's awkward because I'mthis aggressive, rough inner
city intellectual dude who'sspoiled, who's still optimistic,
and so it catches you off guardLike well, if you from the hood
, you're supposed to be thinkinglike this, not like this.
How did you end up thinkinglike this?
So it's just a weird thing.
When I really look back at youknow my whole life trajectory

(21:03):
just really different.
You know, even back with mebeing a hyper intelligent dude
but never being a nerd.
You know what I mean, like I'venever been that.
You know, and so it's alwaysbeen like he a cool, smart dude.
They try to put the term streetsmart in front of it.
Right, we can't just be smart.
You got to be smart, we, we gotto put that in front of it to

(21:24):
make it black and cool yeah, butwe only do that in our
community, which is so sad.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
We always try to minimize excellence, black
excellence.
You know it just can't be.
You're smart, like you said.
You know it has to be yournerve smart.
No, why can't we just smart?
So I'm very proud to hear yourstory of where you came from and
, you know, managed to go toHoward, another institution of

(21:52):
excellence, something thatthey're trying to minimize.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
They didn't think I could get in there either.
You can't go to Howard, man,that's the number one HBCU.
And then I got in there andgraduated with honors.
And the only reason I didn'thave a magna because my first
semester I wasn't planning onstaying, I just wanted to check
out the atmosphere.
And then my grandmother got tome and she was like well, you
know, you know oldest grandson,and don't worry about it.

(22:16):
Go to Cuba, do what you want todo.
Everybody's watching you.
You're the first one.
You set an example.
But go do what you want to do.
If you want to drop out, godrop out.
So she did the reversepsychology on me.
You know like, oh, you're theoldest, everybody watching you.
But you go, do what you want todo, don't worry about us.
You know.
I was like all right, grandma,I'm going to finish for y'all.
And I've never had my Howarddegree.

(22:36):
I finished it.
I gave it to my mother fromsarcoidosis in 96 and then my
grandmother got it.
So it's been on mygrandmother's wall ever since
the 90s.
You know my Howard Universitydegree, because it was more
important for them.
I knew what I was going to doregardless, because I was
already a scholar.
I was going to learn what Ineeded to learn.
But that degree from Howard Igave it to my mom and my

(22:58):
grandmom and they're real proudof that.
And then my younger brother,sure enough, went to the
graduation and he said I want tocome here.
He's looking at the girls andstuff, you know.
And he went ahead and went tohoward and graduated from howard
because he saw his olderbrother and that's exactly what
my parents told me.
I said look at this, look atthis.
I didn't ask, I didn't ask tobe the first one, I didn't ask

(23:19):
to be born first, but I got todeal with it.
So yeah, you know you gotta gotto get part of manhood.
Again my mother was like you'rethe oldest, you got to.
It wasn't no getting away fromit.
I was back and forth arguingwith her.
Then my grandmother got meyou're my oldest grandson.
So I was like, ah, I got to doit.
So again, I had to take myemotions out of it.
All right.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
I'm going to finish for y'all, and I did it.
That was making me think abouta lot, just about the
responsibility to continue thenarrative and the journey of
excellence.
And oftentimes excellence isn'tjust for us.
Sometimes it's about paying itforward and making sure that
we're providing the samepipeline to access to someone
else.
But with that responsibilitycomes a lot of pressure.
Did you feel pressure to stayin college because your mother
was encouraging you to access tosomeone else?
But with that responsibilitycomes a lot of pressure.
Did you feel pressure to stayin college because your mother

(24:10):
was encouraging you and yourgrandmother was encouraging you?
Did you feel pressure?

Speaker 2 (24:14):
Well, if you want to say, pressure on somebody else
forced you to do something youdidn't want, but I didn't have
pressure in finishing, it waseasy to me.
So the pressure for me was thisis not what I want to do and
that's what they want me to do,you know.
But then I had to take it offand say, all right, that's my
family, they're right, I am theoldest, so all right, let me
just do that.
So I said, all right, I'm gonnafinish these last one year.

(24:36):
It was only one year left.
Right, I said, let me finishthis one year for you guys.
And I did it, you know.
So now, when you go through that, now, if I got kids, of course
I gotta do the same thing.
Hey, I finished, you gonnafinish, you know.
So, both my sons finished aswell.
But yeah, I had to go ahead.
And but that's what I wassaying earlier, when you got to
do what you got to do, you gotto do what you got.
Ain't no emotions involved?

(24:57):
And I think, like today'sgeneration, there's too many
emotions involved when they getto back out.
Where we didn't get to back out, we didn't get to back out.
You, coming out of Brooklyn,you know what you got to deal
with.
You don't get to back out thesekids now.
It's like they got too manyoptions.
All right, I'm going to do thisinstead.
I'm going to do this insteadI'm going to do we didn't have
them out.
You don't have no option Finishthis or Go live out in the

(25:20):
streets.
You know.
So that that's what it was.
We had to grow up that way andit's yeah, I'm glad.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
I'm glad that you segwayed into that about this
new generation and how thingsare different.
Aside from doing radio andpodcasting, I'm also an educator
.
I started off as a classroomteacher and now I'm a high
school administrator.
I've been in education for over25 years and it is a daily
struggle just encouraging kidsor reminding kids or convincing

(25:51):
kids that sometimes you just gotto push through.
There's so much privilege andthere's so much entitlement in
this generation and this is whypeople like us we have to keep
these conversations going toremind them that sometimes you
just really don't have a choiceand sometimes you just have to
keep one foot in front of theother.

(26:11):
So I'm glad that you mentionedthat, because that was
definitely a gem and a tool thata lot of this generation of
young minds need to hear.
But another milestone andpivotal moment that you were
able to be successful in wassigning to a major publishing
company Simon Schuster yourfirst time around as an author.

(26:33):
How did that happen?
Because that's not an easy feat.
How were you able to sign withSimon Schuster your first time
around?

Speaker 2 (26:40):
I was already selling books, so just like the kids
are doing now.
You know big fish, swallowlittle fish, but you got to be
in the water already, so Ialready had three books out.
My first book called it on whitecampus.
I wrote when I was atPittsburgh, 19 years old.
Then I wrote Fly Girl, between19 and 20, because I started it
in March, my birthday's in April, so I started it at 19 and I

(27:05):
finished, like I guess, at theend of April.
So I was 20 because I turned 20in April.
So I was 19 to 20.
It was only took like twomonths to finish, but it started
in March, finished in Aprilafter I turned 20.
And then, uh, and when DC theycalled it a murder capital.
When I was there it was reallyvicious with drug selling in the
early 90s.
You know, after rachel edmundshe was like the king of legal

(27:27):
farm illegal pharmaceuticals.
He went to jail when I firstgot there at 89 and all the
underlings in dc wanted to takeover.
So they called it the murdercapital for 90, 91, 92 with so
many deaths.
If you was in a drug trade theywere not playing in dc.
Do not sell on my corner.
I will kill you and I'm almostwasn't playing.
But if you wasn't selling drugsyou ain't going to worry about

(27:49):
dc.
But I wrote that book too,because it's called um capital
city the chronicles of the dcunderworld.
So that was my first threebooks.
College boy, where it's coloredon white campus with all the
blacks going to predominantlywhite schools, like I was at
pittsburgh, we were like fivepercent of the population.
Then I went to the hbcu.
You know I had the howard thingwith the fly girl thing.

(28:10):
I wrote, you know, about the1980s hip-hop era and then it
was the gangster era, the drugdealing era of the night.
So all those books were alreadyout.
And then I did a lot of expoevents, just like I got a table
right in front of me right nowwhere I got all my books on the
table and stuff.
So I can see, you guys can seethat.
Yeah, so I used to have tableslike that where you would do

(28:31):
expo events in new york andphilly and dc, baltimore,
atlanta, cleveland, detroit, andthen you just rent a table for
200 at these expo events andthen sell your books from the
table.
Yeah, I would sell like I wouldmake like eighteen hundred
dollars in a weekend.
You know, the man didn't, youknow, sell you.
So I kept doing that, that.
I was selling books out ofstores and I was distributing

(28:52):
out of stores New York,philadelphia, virginia, you know
.
So the publishers were learningabout like who's this Omar guy
with this fly girl book?
And then I hooked up with thesuper agent, denise Stinson, and
she was out of Michigan andDenise was a big-time sister
with getting publishing deals.
I met her through a sisternamed Vanessa Lloyd, somebody
out of Philadelphia who does alot of PR events with books, and

(29:16):
so it was just like one meetingone person meeting the other
person, me and then they did thename will start bubbling, who's
Omar Tyree with this fly girlbook.
And that's how it ended upleading to Simon Schuster.
And they had a sister therenamed Dawn Daniels, who was like
one of the few black editors ata major house.
And I immediately was like allright, I wanna sign with the
black editor, I wanna sign withthe black.
So I'm telling Denise Stinsonlike hey, let's sign with the

(29:39):
black woman.
And she went in there and gotthe money immediately and then
she was like Omar, the moneycame too fast, I'm going to ask
for more money.
And I was like hey, don't messit up, don't mess it up, don't
mess it up.
And she's like no.
She said no, I know how thisgame works.
And she went out there and gotme double of what I asked for.
And I was like wow, and thatwas with the, you know, simon

(29:59):
and Schorster, dawn Daniels, theblack editor, editor, and then
we went from there.
I was already a hustler, alreadyknew how to sell, already you
know, a media person, and so Iknew how to do interviews and a
whole nine, and so I jumpedright on them.
But that's how it happened.
I was already in the game,already professional, I was just
young and doing it.
And you know how it is now whenthey grab you young I was 25

(30:21):
years old they grab you young,they they jumping up and down,
they like we got it, we got it.
And then I just went ahead anddid my thing once I got in the
door.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Wow.
But you know you mentioned onceagain some other gyms you were
doing the work already.
Nothing was just handed to you.
You weren't actively doing thework, you were going out there.
You know you were participatingin the evolution of your
success.
Nothing was just handed to you.
You were able to connect andmeet with people who were in the

(30:50):
field to make sure that theytook your career from point A to
point Z.
What I really want tounderstand, because, as you were
showing us the books that lineyour table right now, omar, do
you even understand themagnitude of the impact that
you've made on people's liveslike me?

Speaker 2 (31:08):
Do you understand that I don't, because you're
still living, you know.
So when I wrote my book JustSay no, which became my most
that's my favorite book, thisbig, thick, 500 page.
You know the character in it,john Loverboy Williams.
He told his friend, he said tobe a legend.
You got to die while you're inthe character in it, john lover
boy williams.
He told his friend, he said tobe a legend, you gotta die while
you're in the middle of it.
This is his philosophy, becauseI'm writing and he was like if

(31:30):
you don't die in the middle ofit, they'll get used to you, you
get worn down and you justbecome the old man.
You know, he puts you aside,you know.
And so in his philosophy hewanted to die at the king of his
father.
You know, like like two foxy,core and biggie, because now
they can never talk about thenegative parts of you.
You got all positive stuff.
No, yeah, so when you stillalive and whatnot, you're still

(31:54):
trying to do things so you canride up and down with your
popularity and what you're doing, you say the wrong things, you
do the wrong things.
Nanny don't like you, so yeah,when you got to live through it,
it's different, you know.
So, yeah, when you gotta livethrough it, it's different.
You know what I mean, cause youstill in your bus, so it's
still things I wanna do.
I still wanna do movies.
I haven't been able to do that.
And so now, the things you'vebeen successful at, the things
you haven't been successful at,you thinking about those things

(32:16):
now, and so you don't really getwant to do, you still got
motivation, you still got, youknow success, successes and
failures, and so, yeah, I'm justyou don't feel it because
you're still here, I'm stillalive, I'm still energized,

(32:37):
still trying to do stuff.
So, yeah, it's a funny feelingbecause you know that you done,
said that stuff, but you'restill thinking I want y'all to
see this in a movie now.
I want y'all to see my otheridea, I want y'all to see my
international idea.
So I'm still working hard,trying to get new things done I
get that, omar, but I beg todiffer.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
You know, I don't want us to to wait until we're
dead, and you know, um, we'recarried by six and there's a
whole lot of slow singing andflower bringing.
Shout out to biggie, I want usto get our flowers while we're
still here to smell them.
Um, yesterday I was listeningto a church sermon and it said

(33:19):
that you have to have thecourage to be disliked and, and
while we're alive, we just haveto feel these emotions of being
liked and being disliked and tounderstanding that we've done
some great work.
Recently, I created thisamazing partnership with NYU
Hospital for a New York Cityhigh school, just providing a

(33:41):
pipeline to college admissionand to those students who are
interested in becoming doctors.
And someone stopped me and theysaid do you understand what
you've done just now?
And I was like no.
And when they spoke to me, Iwas like, oh my gosh, I didn't
even realize it because I wasjust going through the motions
of okay, this is what I'msupposed to be doing.

(34:02):
So I was going to encourage you, omar.
Stop sometimes and giveyourself credit, because there
are people like me.
I'm not waiting until you dieor you transition.
I want to give you your flowersnow.
So in this moment, I want tolet you know that, as a young
girl growing up in Brooklynoklyn, I read all of your books and I

(34:25):
was captivated by them and theyshape, helped shape the woman
that I am today, and for that Ithank you while you're still
alive and able to hear it.
So I want you to receive thatthank you, thank you.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
You know, I was in an event in um, virginia.
Yeah, I got allergy season, soit's killing me, man
Theraglomology, where your nosekeep running for no reason.
You don't have a cold and it'stheraglomology, but anyway.
So I was in Virginia and thesister was saying that I had a
style of writing and I was like,nah, my books are always
changing because I got differentsubjects.

(34:57):
She said, yeah, but your womenare always strong women.
And then I had to stop and Iwas like, yeah, you're right,
because my mother again mymother was the oldest of eight
and she was the official boss ofthe household.
It was crazy because, again, I'ma storyteller, I knew who my

(35:19):
mother was talking to withoutbeing in a room, based on how
she was talking.
So if she had this highfalutinvoice, oh, how are you?
Oh, I'm going to be there,that's okay, she's talking to
some white people at work,because she would do this
highfalutin, oh, how are you?
And whenever I said it, oh,sound like a white woman on the
phone.
Oh boy, stop that, don't dothat, don't do that.

(35:40):
And then she'd get on her.
And then I told her and thenshe's going to try to do this.
So she sounded like thegirlfriend talked to him and
then I knew when she was talkingto family members because she
went into that boss mode.
Well, who's she talking to?
Well, have her call me.
Well, I'll call her up and tellher, because she went to.
So I knew who my mom wastalking to based on how she
spoke on the phone.

(36:07):
So I always the phone so Ialways understood, you know, the
elements of, of, of hierarchy,and yeah, I mean individuals in
in power position and I was inthat same position.
I was born into it.
I'm the biggest cousin, so Igot all these younger cousins
and they all looking at me likeyou and you hanging out with the
uncles and the aunt and theaunts.
So I'm like my youngest nextcousin was like five years
younger than me.
You know like a kid when you'reyou is old and he's three.

(36:27):
You're like man, you can't go tothe playground, so it's like I
already had.
You know what I mean?
That that hierarchy and staturemy whole life is nothing I can
do about it.
I was born into that positionand so I tell people all the
time is look, dude, I'm not afollower.
I don't know how to follow.
Even when I was meeting peoplewhen I'm throwing up, I was very

(36:48):
used to being around olderpeople because I grew up with
them.
So now when I get around thedistributors and they're 40
something, I'm 20 something,they're like man, you seem like
you were old to do like yeah,because I grew up, I'm telling
you like I grew up with olderaunts and uncles, so I don't
feel that you know like oh,you're too older than me.
No, I'm like hey, man, let's dobusiness.
They were like man, you actlike you're our age the business

(37:09):
.
For me it was easy and natural,central.
I was a hard worker already.
I was a kid that grandma wouldsend to the store and I come
there quick and get me a quarterfor it.
I was quick.
Well, like grandma, like, sendthe grandson, he's gonna get
there the fast game.
I had no messing around, noneof that.
I was not playful at all.
I was a very serious kidbecause of how I was raised and

(37:32):
and the level I was raised in.
Being the oldest, I'm the chiefof the family.
There's nothing I can do aboutit.
I'm in that position.
So I had to, you know, takethat mantle and run with it.
It wasn't nowhere nothing elseI could do.
They kept saying that you're theoldest, you're the oldest, you
don't have to be the oldestright, that's so when you get to

(37:53):
be older and people like, well,I can't try to, I'm trying to
figure out omar, you got it.
When I tell him this historylike, oh, now I get it, like he
was in that position, you didn'tknow me.
But when you're getting them,people like, well, who's Omar?
Think he is dude.
I'm the chief of my family.
I'm sorry if if I need toapologize to you for my
authority, but I've always beenin this position and there's

(38:14):
nothing getting around it.
I'm the dude.
So you know, when everybody I'mstill here, they're gonna all
say call uncle Omar, call cousinOmar, call you know that's what
it is.
So you have to accept thatresponsibility.
It's like the lion king.
I'm the next man up and you gotto go ahead and get your wars
ready, get your you know yourmuscles ready and do what you
got to do.

(38:34):
So I I didn't have a choice, Ididn't have it.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
I did not have a choice.
I love that.
I love that quote.
Now let's talk about somethings that are fact or fiction,
right?
So is it fact or fiction thatan author can only write about
the experiences that they'vegone through, right?
Is that fact or fiction thatthey can only write about
experiences that they've gonethrough, or can they write about

(38:59):
experiences that other peoplehave gone through?
Is that fact or fiction?

Speaker 2 (39:04):
yeah, I tell people all the time, if you can only
write what you know you gotabout three books in you before
you start being redundant yougotta, you gotta write what you
research and that's why mydegree in journalism becomes you
, you know, huge, because I canalways research things all day
long.
You know, now I wrote afootball book about the Eagles

(39:24):
and Green Bay in Brazil.
They went to Brazil inSeptember last year and I didn't
get a chance to go to that game, but I got online and did all
the research I needed to do onBrazil, sao Paulo, and I already
know Philadelphiailadelphia.
I went online and did researchon green bay, so I pieced that
story together, you know.
Then I had to get theportuguese translation and I did

(39:45):
all that without even going tobrazil.
And that joint is on pointbecause, again, you're doing
your research, you're reading,listening, and I'm from
philadelphia, so I know what thephiladelphians are like and
what we do with the games andall that kind of stuff.
But yeah, I've done a whole lotof books California I'm not
from there did a book onCalifornia.
St Louis I'm not from there dida book on St Louis.
Brooklyn I've been up thereplenty of times in New York did

(40:07):
a New York book the Caribbeanislands.
I've been down there, wrotebooks about it.
Yeah, I've been over to London.
I want to write books aboutAfrica, the Middle East,
shanghai.
I wrote a book about Dubai,welcome to Dubai and my Traveler
series.
So, yeah, I got 30 plus booksbecause I know how to research
and write about things that Imay not know but I'm interested
in.
And I went to a forum fromOctavia Butler, the famous

(40:30):
sci-fi and fantasy writer whopassed away, octavia Butler.
She said the same thing yearsago.
This is 1996.
She said you write what you'reinterested in and what you're
passionate about, because youcan have stuff you know and be
bored with it.
And you're going to write aboring book because you're bored
with it.
And that's the same way I wouldbe if you asked me to write a
fly girl 2025.

(40:51):
I'm like dude, I was passionatewhen I was young, when I was 19
, but at this age, age, nah, I'mnot thinking about that right
now.
I'm thinking about other stuffthat I'm passionate about.
So when you write it, whenyou're passionate, it comes out
a lot different from just tryingto write something because you
want to make money or somebodytold you to write it, or you got
a two book deal and a contractand you got to finish the second

(41:12):
book.
I always wrote from passion andso my books are always on point
, but research allows you towrite anything.
I'm not from DC, but I live downthere.
I did the research on whatareas were the roughest areas,
how they talk, what they did,what they did.
I always was doing research onpeople's slang.
New York, of course, has themost slang of anybody, but every
city has their own slang.

(41:33):
So you can't have peopletalking in DC the way they speak
in New York, because they speakdifferently With the Geordie
and the Joe and the Let Me FindOut and Curry and all that.
Everybody got their ownlanguage.
So that's the first thing yougot to learn Like, hey, man,
they speak different in Chicago,they speak different in LA,
they speak different in Houston,they speak different in Detroit

(41:53):
with the R100.
So you got to be very cognizant.
When you're doing research,your ears always have to be open
.
How do they speak in Brooklyn?
How do they speak in Harlem?
How do they speak in the Bronx?

Speaker 1 (42:04):
You guys got four different fathers in the world
where they're different in eachone, so you got to understand
that as a storyteller.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
But yeah, you always got to have your thinking button
on when you're writing stories.
But yeah, people say that youwrite what you know.
That's why we don't get a lotof credit for how much we know.
As writers, we know a lotbecause we're always researching
stuff that we're interested in.
I read for interest, I read forinformation, not for enjoyment.
You gotta like, oh, I'm justenjoying, I enjoy information.

(42:32):
That's why I have to tellpeople that all the time I enjoy
knowing stuff.
I don't like saying I don'tknow, I don't like that.
I remember when, uh, chris rockhad that, that famous one when
he was talking about blackpeople love saying I don't know,
I don't know, I don't know anddude, I was like dude, I would
make up something before I saidI don't like saying that because
you feel idiotic like I shouldknow this.

(42:54):
How come I don't?
In fact, when we was coming upin philly, we used to have this
thing and you don't know.
You better ask somebody youbetter find out you know, we
used to say that you better findout, you better ask somebody.
We we made into a smart though.
You don't know, you better askthem, you better find out, you
know, so yeah.
So I didn't like that whole Idon't know thing.
I want to find the answers andthat's what they're talking

(43:15):
about.
You, if you want to write morebooks, you got to find the
answers the solutions to theproblems, to the issues, and
then write about it, and that'swhy I got 30 books.
I went away from it for a whilebecause I wanted to do movies.
I wanted to still tell stories.
Movies are hard to get themoney, but now I'm back in the
book game.
I got new books coming nextyear and I got new books I'm
already starting on and actuallyI want to be an editor and edit

(43:37):
other people's books.
So I'm going to be negotiating,you know, an end point deal,
one of the majors.
I started talking to Simon andShorster.
I might end up talking toRandom House and Hackett,
because now I know so much aboutbooks and how to do it.
I want to be able to pass thatdown to the other kids and
publish the books that I believein, because now social media is
really taking over, where nowyou got to be popular before you

(43:59):
can do anything, and that'sawkward because you can have a
whole lot of intelligent peoplewho are not social media.
You know mavericks or on, youknow, look at me, look at me.
This is the most vain communitywe've ever had.
Man, like everything is, lookat me, look at me, look at me
and I'm like yo, dude, dude,what you got?
A genius writer who ain't thinkabout looking at them.
They just think of that book andthey don't have a social media

(44:21):
following and they're notpopular.
I want to be able to push themout there and make the book
popular.
A lot of companies don't wantto do that now.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
They want to buy a ready-made person yeah hard now,
man, it's really yeah, it is,and I'm glad that you mentioned
that you that today's space ismeasured upon the likes on
social media and you could bethe most popular person, the
most intellectual person, andget overlooked because the likes

(44:48):
don't equate to what they youknow.
So I want that for you, Omar.
I want you to transition intothat space so that you can
further drive in the narrativethat this algorithm isn't
working and so many people aregoing to get lost if we stick to
this current algorithm.
It just isn't working.

(45:09):
But another question when itcomes to fact or fiction for an
emerging author, does asuccessful author have to just
stick to one genre of writing?
Is that?

Speaker 2 (45:19):
fact or fiction.
That's another one.
Again, I've done all thedifferent genres too.
I got children's books, I gotmystery.
I got the urban fiction, I gotthe romance fiction, I got the
thrillers, I got the sciencefiction.
Yeah, I got horror.
I did a vampire story, awerewolf story.
I know how to write those.
So, yeah, if you know how to gointo it, you got to read other

(45:41):
people's work.
But again, I I watch movies allthe time.
So a lot of the stuff it comesfrom other stuff where I'm
really checking it out.
So that's the same thing.
If you stuck in a genre youcan't write other genres, then
you got to stay there becausethat's what you know.
But if you know how to bouncearound and do other things.
So I wrote the autobiography ofmary and barry.
You know, I've helped otherpeople to write their books

(46:01):
because I understand the factsand I understand the fiction and
I understand how to mix themboth together and I understand
different genres.
I love science fiction is myfavorite movies.
When you start talking aboutaliens and star wars and really
all the marvel comics is sciencefiction.
They call it hero stuff, but ifyou think about the heroes it's
all dealing with science, x-menand mutants, and you know what

(46:22):
I mean Special biogenic, youknow issues and all and science,
space and all.
It's science fiction.
But they call it superheroesbecause they got superpowers.
But yeah, that's my favoritefilm stuff science fiction.
So I can write that too.
But then when you start writingfor black people, they have to
now be the audience.
Are you going to read sciencefiction?
Right?
Actually, even when I wrote thetraveler series, we grew up on

(46:43):
James Bond.
Right, it's Bond, the name isBond, james Bond.
So we grew up and he wouldalways travel to these exotic
locations right all over the.
And I'm sitting there watchinglike, damn, he's in Brazil, now
he's in Australia, now he's inJapan, now he's in London, now
he's in brazil.
Man, he's in australia, nowhe's in japan, now he's in
london, now he's in thecaribbean, and so you love that.
So I wanted to create a seriescalled the traveler, and then

(47:03):
black people immediately waslike, well, I don't get to
travel like that.
I probably wouldn't read that.
So I'm like man.
So now you're restricting what Ican write because I had to have
an audience for it.
So now I can't write thatbecause you're not going.
So I went ahead and changed thecharacter to a white character,
wrote the book.
People that read it loved it.
I had a female, black female,to be his, like, his supervisor.

(47:25):
But if we're not going to readit, I had Will Smith in the lead
.
Then I had to change Will Smithto a white guy because we and
so, yeah, it can discourage usfrom being able to write if we
don't think that we write incertain genres and whatnot.
Even Octavia Butler she didn'twant to use her photo because
she didn't want people to seethat she was black when she was
writing science fiction.

(47:45):
Yeah, she said this in 96 whenI went to the.
It was the Atlanta Art Festival.
They had the book festivalthere every summer in Atlanta
and I was there in 96.
And, yeah, octavia Butler, bigtime, she got a book called wild
seed.
That's science fiction, fantasy.
That's my favorite book of alltime, mixing african history and
african mythology with withscience, with sci-fi and stuff.

(48:06):
So, yeah, I mean the researchis important to be able to move
around in different genres, butyou have to have an audience
that's willing to move with you,and the audience can hold you
back if they only want you towrite street books and you want
to write something else.
If they only want you to writeromance and you want to write
something else.
If they want you to write girlbooks and you happen to be a

(48:27):
male.
You know what I mean, becausethis book, in fact this book
here, if you can see it, it hasa guy on the cover with the
girls at the bottom screamingand yelling like they do at a
concert.
That's what they do and I had awoman that emailed me and I was
like, yeah, my new book.
I'll just say no.
And she was like is that thebook with the guy on the cover?
And I just stuck with this withthe guy on it.

(48:48):
It's just, I can't put a guy.
I can't put a guy.
I'm a guy, I'm writing aboutguys.
I can't put a guy on my cover.
So it kind of behooved me thatwe had gotten to the point where
we were so used to femininebooks that I'm not even and I'm
a guy, I'm a straight male, I'mlike yo, dude, I can't write a
male book.
Now you know like you guys wantyour books.

(49:09):
That much you know.
So I said, wow, this issomething else.
But yeah, you get impacted by alot of what you know and people
try to push you into that, butit's up to you to let them know
that you can write other things.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Yeah, Well, you just mentioned, you know writing
other things.
You mentioned Octavia Butler.
You mentioned, you know shedidn't even want her picture to
be on the book, but as you weretalking about those things, it
made me think about theemergence of what they termed as
urban literature.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Well, you know I get in trouble with that because you
know I inspired a whole lot ofpeople, that you know, because I
started calling it urbanbecause of radio, you know.
So you know again, even withthat, no, the credit Again.
I was the first to do thatbecause I was down there in DC
with Kathy Hughes WOL Radio at8th and radio at eighth and
eighth street, northeast dc,hanging out with them.

(50:02):
I'm a young whippersnapper soshe used to say I gotta pay my
bills, gotta pay the bills, andshe do a commercial.
But they called it urbaninstead of black and so I was
hip, like, hmm, you know it'sblack radio, but they're using
the word urban, urban, top thisurban 40, urban, contemporary,
urban, adult.
So I was like, all right, I'mgonna call my black books urban.
So I started saying urban,classic, urban, books, urban.

(50:24):
And it picked up man and catchedon in the early 90s.
And then the people that was inprison, they started putting
the street word on it.
So then it was urban streetbecause they writing these
street books, drug dealer booksand all that.
And so then it blew up.
But it got to the point whereit started outsizing the science
fiction and and out doing themystery books and out doing the

(50:46):
children's book.
Then it was like you go to theblack section of the bookstore
and every book is gangster girl,gangster girl, five right away
girl.
And then it got to the pointlike yo, this, okay, I
understand, I started somethingthat don.
And then it got to the pointwhere I'm like yo, this, okay, I
understand, I started something.
That don't mean everybody gotto do it, everybody do it all
the time and that's the onlybooks we put out, and so then,
they started getting mad at me.

(51:07):
Like, well, omar, how you goingto tell us to stop writing?
I'm not saying to stop writingit, but you got to write about
other stuff.
We not just urban hood in this.
You know, like yo, we got otherstories, you know, so I got in
trouble for that.
But I'm willing to say like wegot too many of them, dude, we
got other jobs.
Now it's toned down, it's calmeddown yes I mean, we went

(51:27):
through that period yeah peoplewere beating at me and I and I
was like, look man, I feel likefrankenstein, you know, you make
it happen.
And then the monster goes outthere and starts killing people.
And you got to go out there andgrab him back into the lab,
like what are you doing,frankenstein?
And he's like, oh, theseFranken people.
So I'm like yo, dude, I createdsomething that I got to go grab

(51:48):
and put it back in a shelter orsomething you know, because it
got out of hand.
But yeah, a lot of people.
How dare you try to take awaymy money and all this other
stuff?

Speaker 1 (52:00):
I'm like yo dude I'm protecting the culture at this
point.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Yeah, I wrote books that needed to be written, but
after you get to like the 20thgangster girl books, it's like
yo, dude, do we need anothergangster girl book, particularly
if they're not learning thelessons?
And that's the other thing.
My books taught you lessons andso some people could be like,
well, oh, my book, no, everysingle book that I put out, I
ended it with responsibility.
I ended it with a lesson whereI could say, hey, she went to

(52:24):
college at the end of this.
Did your girl go to college atthe end of you know what I mean.
So it's like at the end of theday.
And then when I came back to thesequel, you know, for the love
of money, and then, boss lady,she did some, some, some bigger
things, you know I mean.
So I didn't keep it in the hood.
She kept elevating and eventhough people was mad at me, why
, why, she didn't marry victor.
Okay, so now I got a dude to goto jail.

(52:45):
He's supposed to wait eight,nine years, come out, marry her.
So she didn't ignore.
And she went to hampton.
So now she didn't, went toschool with college dudes,
ignored, all them dudes waiting.
I said that's totallydisrespectful to an hbcu man
that I'm gonna go to school withthis girl for four years, but
I'm not good enough for herwhile she's waiting around.

(53:06):
I said that's crazy man, andeven the dude in jail was like I
wouldn't expect you to do that.
I'm in jail, you need to go onwith your life.
So it was crazy.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
But you know what, as you were talking, it reminded
me of and I hate to say this,about us, the black community.
Sometimes we are so used to thetrauma of it all that we just
can't let it go.
So that's why, you know, theywanted you to write that book
differently, because they wantedthe main character, the woman,
to stick to the trauma.
They wanted the main character,the woman, to stick to the

(53:36):
trauma of.
Let me just wait, let me not gothrough the Black excellence
experience of going to Hamptonand making something about.
No, let me wait for somebodywho's going to do nine years in
jail.
We are so attached to trauma.
But going back to theoversaturation of the urban
literature, I'm so glad that itended because it looked like the

(53:58):
publishing companies wanted tocapture that and they weren't
willing to sign anyone unlessthey had that street literature
and it kind of dummied down, inmy opinion, literature.
What do you think about that?

Speaker 2 (54:12):
Well, when you say that you got to be careful
because their main goal wasmoney, so, the street stuff was
cheap.
They wasn't asking for a lot.
Oh, just give me $20,000.
They had to pay me $250,000.
So it's a different level.
So now you come in there as aliterate writer, you want
$100,000, but a street writerjust wants $15,000.

(54:34):
And it's selling.
So you got to understand.
The publisher was like, hey, man, this stuff sells if we don't
have to edit it a lot.
You know so it wasn't a thing.
But they wasn't trying to get.
The money is money.
So they're like, okay, thisstuff is.
And so, yeah, it got to thepoint where it was too much of
it and everybody's getting money.
And then they're getting in theway of the bigger stuff.
You know now the sales, evenbecause I was doing bigger sales

(54:56):
before a whole lot of urbanstreet.
Then they jump in and then mysales go down because I'm
competing with people.
And then I'm gonna tell you abook leslie, my new orleans book
.
I love this book, my favoritecharacter, new orleans.
This book suffered because it'sin hardback.
It costs 22 plus taxes.
25 people were selling 10 books, like all over har.

(55:18):
So it's like Omar, they're notgoing to buy a $25 book if they
can buy three for $25.
So I was getting beat up.
So now they're like well,leslie ain't that good because
it ain't selling, it is good,but they're looking at a price
tag versus the.
So then I started doing theothers.
That's where I really startedthinking about film.
I said I got to get ahelicopter.

(55:40):
If you driving from Philly toNew York and you want that
turnpike, I don't care if youwant a Rolls Royce, if you want
that Jersey turnpike and it'sjam packed, you ain't going
nowhere fast.
So you right next to a Yugo,you right next to a Kia Soul and
you want a Rolls Royce andyou're like man, I'm right next
to this guy.
But if you get a helicopter andyou fly right to new york,
that's what the movies do.

(56:01):
The movies become thehelicopter.
So you can really see howadvanced my stuff was when I was
really putting it out therelike that.
And I didn't get the credit forthat, because then he had all
these other books that werecoming out and they just buying
it for a cheaper price, notreally for the excellence of the
work, and so that went down too.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
So when we talk about the monetization of books and
the amount of money that authorswere earning and when urban lit
started to enter into the genreand we now saw authors like you
not making the same amount ofmoney, we also saw the emergence
of digital books.
Emergence of digital books,kindle and Nook.

(56:43):
How did that impact the salesor how much money you received
as an author Did?

Speaker 2 (56:46):
it impact you significantly.
No, everybody was braggingabout the ebook thing In the
break of the 1990s into 2000,.
Stephen King if anybody canbreak something, it's gonna be
Stephen King, and I've businessright.
He's like the dude the Americanwriter nobody can guard with.
Stephen King couldn't makeebooks go to the next level he

(57:08):
was trying to do.
They're gonna read it to acertain extent, but, like you
said earlier, holding a book inyour hand and the having a
bookshelf where you got multiplebooks on your bookshelf, like
that it's not going away.
So I was telling people backthen like man, you got an e-book
reader where you got thisdevice thing in it.
So we tried all that.

(57:30):
E-books are going to sell to acertain extent.
It's never going to take outthe physical book maybe another
hundred years or something, butwe're not there yet.
So people were all talkingabout it and then it went back
down and then it does what itdoes.
The physical book is still thephysical book.
So yeah, I made a little bit ofmoney off of e-books, but the
whole e-book thing is wayoverrated.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Way overrated.
Physical books is still the king, it is, it is.
Physical books is still theking, it is, it is.
And, like I said, it's payingit forward.
I'm seeing the legacy of beingan avid reader continue.
Like I said, it started with mydad, it spilled over into me
and, because I was an avidreader, my daughter is now an
avid reader and I think shechallenges herself to read,

(58:15):
let's say, 200 books.
Let's say, in a year or sixmonths, you will always find her
holding a book.
She's familiar.
She's about to be 30 on March20th.
She's well aware of who you are.
Matter of fact, she's earhustling because she's a fan of
your work.
So I love this.

(58:35):
How everything is, it has aseason, it has its time, but,
once again, the essence of anactual book it will never, ever
go away.
Now what I want to jump intonext is you know, same legendary
story, but an all-new look.
When I saw you on social mediamentioning the re-emergence of
fly girl, I said, oh no, I haveto have him on the show.

(58:59):
And then I went to a few of mycoworkers and I'm just like,
guess who I'm going to betalking to tomorrow?
And then there was a woman.
She is about 35 years old and Isaid Fly Girl, and she was like
Omar Tyree.
I said yep, she knows your name.
Then I went to a guy and he'sabout in his forties and I said
fly girl, do you know the author?
And he was like no.

(59:20):
I said, well, my brother, letme tell you who he is, and then
you have to tune in to thisepisode and then you also have
to talk about his books to yourstudents.
So, for those who don't knowabout the story of fly girl,
remind my audience or introduceto an all new audience.
What is the story of Fly Girl?
Remind my audience or introduceto an all new audience.

(59:40):
What is the story of Fly Girlabout?

Speaker 2 (59:43):
Well again, I grew up in Philadelphia in the 70s.
The 80s became the mostmaterialistic generation Black
America ever had and there's nocompetition, dude, like we had
more jewelry, jewelry, moredesigner clothes, more
hairstyles, more fanciness, andthen we were a very extroverted
culture.
When you start talking aboutbreak dancing and hip-hop

(01:00:06):
parties, we walked to theparties.
We didn't even catch the busesfor the bus going right past you
.
We want to walk because we wantto show off our boots, we want
to show off our shoes andpocketbook, we want to go to the
mall about want to show off ourshoes and pocketbook, we want
to go to the mall.
And so that generation man it'slike the 80s was crazy with
popularity, ostentatiousness,with the jewelry and all that.

(01:00:27):
And so the word fly.
I was at the playground in 1985.
I was 16 years old and I hadmoved to an area called mount
airy and it was like the move uparea in philadelphia.
They called it uptown, now mary, germantown and west oakland.
I had moved on up, you know,because my mom had the money.
So I moved up from west phillyto this area and when the 80s

(01:00:48):
hit we had the flyest girls inphiladelphia and I already live
in that area, and you had guyscoming from all over philly
north, philly, south philly,west philly to talk to these
mount aryan, germantown and westoakland girls, and so when it
came time to start writing books, I was like yo man, I'm gonna
write about you know what I meanthe philadelphia fly girl era.

(01:01:09):
You know, when I got to college, it wanted us to write about
different scenes and charactersand where we're from, and so I
already had the whole ideas ofus chasing after these
ostentatious, fancy girls fromthe 80s, and then it just went
into a whole book of what's herlifestyle like?
Why does she chase God?
What kind of guys is it?
And so then I wrote it from thegirl's perspective instead of

(01:01:29):
my perspective.
But I'm one of the guys thatwants one of these girls.
So it's the same thing withresearch.
Again, you're writing about thegirl that you want, that all of
us want, and then I'm breakingher down.
What makes you do this, whatmakes you do that, what kind of
family she come from, what elseyou think about, what does she
say here?
And so, again, with mememorizing how people speak,
what they do, what they wear,all the details came together

(01:01:51):
and I happen to be a writerinstead of a rap artist and so
instead of putting out roxanne,roxanne and and an old sheila
and candy girl, I wrote a book.
You see what I'm talking about.
But these same songs are likeguys talking about girls and
music.
I wrote the book mary jane.
You know what I mean?
All that stuff, we had allthese girl names in music.

(01:02:13):
But I was the one that wroteabout the fly girl in the book
and we even had a fly girl frombrooklyn, the boogie boys, a fly
girl, fly, fly, fly and say 85.
That came out.
I'm 16, I'm at the playgroundin west philly and that song
come on with the dj fly fly, andwe got the fly girls at the

(01:02:33):
playground and we went onhawaiian shirts back then, with
the pk shoes and and thehawaiian shorts and all that.
We had all that stuff and theseare gangsters, hardcore
gangsters in philly wearinghawaiian stuff.
You know, because that was theera.
But, yeah, I went ahead andwrote the book and I was the
again the first one to do that,with all the lingo, all the

(01:02:54):
stuff we did on point psychology, because I'm from the hood, so
I know how we talk, I know howwe get down.
And then when people got it, itblew their minds like, oh my
God, he's right on point witheverything, and so it was just
one of them things.
I wrote it in a book instead ofputting it on a song, and
that's the only difference.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
So, like I said, we're now seeing a reemergence
of Fly Girl.
Now I know what happened,because I've done my research,
but tell my audience how did itcome about that we're now seeing
a new look to Fly Girl?
How did that come about yearslater?

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
Well, I was trying to get the movie done.
Lionsgate had the rights to doit.
I wrote the screenplay too.
Amazon has a screenplay and wewere trying to get the thing to
happen.
But you know it's like if theydon't write the screenplay, you
know you can't do the movie, youdon't get the money, you don't
do the movie, you don't get theproduction.
And so it's been years and so Iwas like man, can I put a tag

(01:03:59):
on a book soon to be a majormovie?
That would help the book sellmore.
And then I started callingSimon Schultz hey, it's the 25
year anniversary, just put astick on it.
Hey, it's the 30 year.
And they were pretty muchignoring me, like, oh, when the
movie going to get?
When the movie they keep askingabout them?
I said look, I don't havecontrol over the Hollywood.
Money can put it back out.
To make a long story short, lastyear I put out a book called

(01:04:19):
control, because I don't havecontrol.
A lot of us don't have controlover a lot of stuff, but we want
control.
So I put that book out ofpsychological thriller with
kensington last year and simonashore got in touch with me and
said hey, we would like to put,you know, your books back out.
I thought he was talking aboutthe whole backlist.
I was like, all right, cool, Iwant to touch, I want to, you
know, teach at the colleges andstuff.

(01:04:40):
But they said, all right, we'rejust talking about the fly girl
series.
So I was like all right.
And then they asked me, theywanted me to help them design it
.
I was like yeah, so I had toput the earrings in there,
because that's the iconic thingyou got that triangle earring.
That I said, okay, each step sheelevated.
So she from the $300 earringsto the $30,000 Birkin bag.

(01:05:01):
So you see, the For the Love ofMoney she's got the Birkin bag
on there.
And then the last one's the$300,000 Rolls Royce.
So it shows her elevation goingup Earrings, birkin bag, rolls
Royce.
Of course, when you got a RollsRoyce now you got the mansion
and stuff too, and that's whatshe did as a character.

(01:05:23):
She went up and up and up andup, and so now I'm coming back
with him like wow, I wasn'tthinking about it when I wrote
it, but yeah, the elevation Igave her is amazing.
But at the end of thatelevation now we're looking at
the boss lady.
How do we now deal with theblack woman as the boss lady at
the end of that elevation?
you gotta mean so now you'redealing with the young girl that
was dating any cool drug dealerwhen she was young.
Then she elevated to okay, nowI gotta have an educated man

(01:05:45):
with money for my career.
Then she elevates okay, nowwhat man qualifies for me?
Now you know what I mean.
Like I got my own money and sothat's three stages that I
actually wrote at a young agethat now we got to talk about
again with the new books and I'mlike I'm all for talking about
that transformation from 17 to27 to 37.

(01:06:07):
It's something else.
It's something else.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
We're excited.
What do you hope that this,this trilogy of books, does,
that it hadn't done before thistrilogy of books does?

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
that it hadn't done before.
Well, we're going to startthose new conversations, because
now I have now created thewhole arc of the contemporary
black woman, whether she likesit or not.
You've got to find anotherseries of books that did what
Fly Girl did.
Well, actually, I started atsix, because she had a six year
old birthday in the book 1977.

(01:06:39):
Because she had a six-year-oldbirthday in the book 1977.
So, to go from 1977 in realtime into 2025, let me say
another series of books that didthat.
And I'm right on point, when Ihad the book boss, lady Oprah
Winfrey was the only one callingherself that, outside of Diana
Ross, of course, that we grew upwith you know outside of that,
beyonceyonce wasn't beyonce yet,like that.
You know, elia was still here.

(01:07:00):
We didn't have that.
But we didn't have meganestallion we didn't have.
You know, all these new girlsthat become bigger and bigger
and bigger and bosses now we gotathletic girls is doing that
thing now.
So now, from the time that bookcame out in 2005, we got a
whole lot of new boss women inthe thought line of that.
So it's going to be some greatconversations to say, okay, how

(01:07:21):
do we deal with this new powernow?
Because it is a new power.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
Yes, it is a very much new power.
So, once again, I really lovedhow you explored the different
layers of becoming a woman, froma girl to womanhood, and the
dynamics of relationships.
They have all changed and we'reembarking upon this discussion
of the disconnect between menand women.

(01:07:47):
In this era, do you think thatyou're going to write a book
exploring the disconnect betweenrelationships between men and
women?

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
I'm going to have to because you know this whole tour
.
I'm going to be talking aboutit because, again, that watch
how this works.
We talked about my history.
Now, you know I was raised bymen.
I had a masculine mother, evenbecause she was the oldest.
She had four younger brothers.
When you are older sister toyounger brothers it's a
different thing to come at youbecause you got to deal with

(01:08:17):
them differently.
So my mother was used todealing and then she hung around
masculine cousins and my father, robert Tyree the whole
neighborhood know he was thefighter dude, like your pop was.
And then she married a six footfour, melvin austin senior who
was rough from overbrook highschool.
Both of them went to overbrookhigh school.
That will smith brags about, ofcourse.

(01:08:37):
Will smith was a young buckback then we talking about.
You know, in the 60s and the50s both my pops my world pop
dropped out.
My step five graduated.
You know what?
I mean so I was raised by allthese men old school.
Now you want a new generationwhere old school manhood that's
like the neanderthal thing, thatpeople don't like that anymore.
So now I'm stuck in the middleof it like yo.

(01:08:59):
I was raised this way.
What do I do now that now we?
Now I gotta ask women um, whatdo you want me to be?
How do you want me to be?
How do I supposed to act withyou?
What do you want me?

Speaker 1 (01:09:08):
to do you want me to open the door.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
You want to be dead.
Because now it's like what,what do you, what do I, what can
I get away with as a man when Iwas raised that way?
So now it's like the older menare like wow, and then the
younger dudes are like I don'tknow, dude, I don't know dude, I
don't know what to do, I don'tknow what they want.
So it's going to be some greatconversations.

Speaker 1 (01:09:27):
But let me tell you, in my opinion, why a lot of that
has changed.
The disconnect because youmentioned, when you were growing
up, your household had menRight, and today's space
households, a lot of householdsdon't have men in them anymore
and a lot of women are nowraising boys.
I remember when I becamepregnant and I'm telling this

(01:09:49):
the true story I got on my kneesand I prayed to God and I said
God, please don't allow me tohave a boy, cause I don't know
how I could handle thatresponsibility to raise a boy
into a man.
I knew that my job was to beraising a girl into a woman.
So I think that that's where alot of the disconnect starts

(01:10:10):
from.
The household dynamics havereally changed.
Women are raising boys with theabsence of the fathers.
Women are getting more collegedegrees as opposed to men.
So now we're on a differentplaying field.
You know, even talking to mydaughter, who's 29, about to be
30.
And she came to me last monthand she said mom, a guy wants to

(01:10:33):
date me and he's not evenplanning the date.
He's asking me to plan the dateand she's like, how do I
navigate around that?
Like, do I just do it or do Iencourage him by telling him the
things that I like so that hecan plan the date?
So, once again, our voices havebeen forced to amplify because

(01:10:53):
we are raising men without the,with the absence of, of of men.
So that's the cause of thisdisconnect.

Speaker 2 (01:11:01):
Yeah, it's hard.
So I'm looking to see wherethat's going to go in the next
10 years.
You know, I brought up the factwhen I wrote Single Mom in 1997
, I did the research 71% singlemother households.
Now I looked it up because Ihave a friend that you know he's
breaking up with his wife andhe wants to do a whole movie
about the disconnect.

(01:11:22):
And I brought up the number,looked up the number again 73.
You're not a man.
It's like wow, man.
It's like.
And now you got some youngwomen that they do, don't even
want to marry the dudes theywere to do.
They want to have a kid and getthe alimony check.
And it's like whoa, like what'sgoing on?
Like you don't want the man inthe family, no, I want the check

(01:11:42):
and the child, the childprotects me before the check.
I'm like wow and I remember whenwe didn't even have that term
baby's mama, baby's daddy.
They started that in the 90s wehad men during our era, dudes,
this one's taking care ofresponsibility.
We didn't have a word for it.
Then they started oh, this ismy baby's daddy, that's my mama.

(01:12:03):
Like we started war.
I'm like what the hell in the90s, my mama?
Like we started.
I'm like what the hell In the90s?
I was in college when theystarted that.
I'm like, wow, and so nowthat's normal, that's my baby's
dad, my child's mama.
You know what I mean, insteadof saying my wife, you know the
mother.
It's crazy.
We've got new words now, youknow.

(01:12:25):
So words now you know.
So we gotta, we gotta see wherethat's gonna go, man.
But now I'm gonna be talkingabout it all summer long because
my books represent that at theend of the book, boss, lady, she
has no children and no marriage.
And again, when I write books,I'm not writing fantasy stuff
for you to feel good about.
I'm writing stuff that's strictto the culture of a
journalistic perspective ofwhat's going on, and I wasn't
thinking about it.
Then I was in my own 30s whengood about I'm writing stuff
that's strict to the culture ofa journalistic perspective of

(01:12:45):
what's going on and I wasn'tthinking about it.
Then I was in my own 30s.
When that book came out, Iwouldn't think about the
trajectory of where Black womenare going to go with the whole
boss lady thing.
But now that I'm here I'm like,wow, if no man qualifies now,
if your daughter's like, okay,now I got to pay for the man man
, that's not gonna make a womanfeel like wow.
Like you know, now she has toget.

(01:13:07):
Am I supposed to pay for theman now?
Mama, get like my, becauseshe's not used to that.
You know, even with dude, likewith me being an older dude, I'm
automatically pulling my moneyout.
I'm not used to a woman paying.
So now I'm like I'm.
It's confusing.
But now the younger dudes arelike, hey, man, women got more
money.
I'm asking her.
I would be like I would neverask a girl.
I would ask if she want to godust, if it's the first date or

(01:13:27):
something, but I would neverbecause I'm old.
So I'm like I don't do.
But the new people like, hey,dad, they got their own money.
I'm like man, this is, yes,changing right in front of it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:38):
yes, and I'm trying to.
I I don't know if I want toadjust to it because that's just
not how I was raised.
Like my parents were togetherfor over 50 years, so that's
what I know to be true.
So it's such a visceralreaction when now my daughter is
facing these dating nuances andI'm just like trying to give
her my perspective from myreality.

(01:14:00):
But that's not her realitybecause this era and space is so
, so different.
But that's not her realitybecause this era in space is so,
so different.
So I hope that you pin a novelthat is exploring the
ever-growing gap of disconnectbetween men and women, because
it's a real conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
I actually had a.
I started a book calledCarnival where I'm talking about
Trinidad and Tobago and I knowy'all got a lot of Trinidadians
up there in New York.
You know I went to school withthem at Howard, so I know the
Trinidadians all over the place.

Speaker 1 (01:14:27):
I'm from.

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
St.
Kitts, my dad, St Kitts, ohthere you go there, you go, so,
yeah, so even down in DC Ben'sChili Bowl Trinidadians you know
what I mean.
I did articles on them, butgetting back to chance to finish

(01:14:49):
it because I want to go down toTrinidad, see it, taste it
around the culture, the wholething.
So I want to go there, firstfor my research, because I don't
want to do the Brazil thingwith that, I want to be there.
But anyway, in that book it'stwo married men who go to
Trinidad for carnival and youalready know what the women go.
So you and they go down thereand they having problems with
their wives.
So to disconnect.
And here's at the end of theday, you're dealing with
publishers that are used tofemale readers.
So immediately they were likeOmar, is this a female bashing

(01:15:13):
book?
So now I'm like I'm a guy, Ican't even talk about the
disconnect that men have withwomen, because you're
immediately like, well, what ifthe audience doesn't like?
So now I can't even be honestabout what men are going through
, because if women don't want itin the book, they won't reject
them.
But I'm like but this is what'sgoing on we got a passport boys

(01:15:33):
.
That's a real thing.
I can't even write about itbecause women are going to be
upset.
I'm like whoa.
I mean, that's what culture andart is supposed to be like you
said sometimes you got to bedisliked, sometimes you got, but
you got to put that stuff outthere.
And so the editors were like, oh, we don't want you.
Then they backed off and said,okay, omar has a point.

(01:15:54):
We can't start, you know,angling a book toward massaging
women if this is what's going onright now.
So, yeah, that disconnect, evenin the publishing, is so female
dominated that now, as men, youknow, I saw men when, when I
was writing my books, I neverpandered to an audience, which
means I never broke the audiencedown or try to demean.

(01:16:16):
But I've seen other books wherethe guys in the book I'm like I
don't know guys like this thatare this, you know, soft or this
, you know, commendable to thewoman.
So I'm reading and I'm like,definitely, this dude wanted to
appeal to women with this malecharacter, but that doesn't do a
service to men who are real men.
It's like yo, this ain't noreal, you know.

(01:16:36):
So I'm reading books like that,like I can tell that she's
trying to satisfy the femaleaudience, but you're not being
honest about how real men reallythink and how they get down,
and so, yeah, it's somethingelse when you start doing that
as publishers and you say, look,you want to sell books, make
your audience happy, but you'remaking them happy with lies.
You're making them happy withmistruths.

(01:16:57):
You're making them happy withstuff that they're going to be
unprepared for later on.
Oh, I thought this was likesomeone.
No, I gotta give you.
So the truth hurts man.
Like sister soldiers said, ifthe truth hurts, you'll be in
pain.
If the truth is crazy, you'llbe insane.
We are at war, but the last theyhaven't heard sister soldiers
speak, so they don't have anyidea of how militant and how old

(01:17:21):
school she is with what shestands ground on, but then
Sister Soldier says she said itall the time dude, if the truth
hurts, you'll be in pain, butright now, a whole lot of people
cannot take the truth.
It's all about buttering upyour audience and making more
money off your audience, insteadof telling them what it is.
And so these books are bringingback the truth, because I was

(01:17:41):
telling the truth when I was ayoung kid, just writing it the
way it was naturalistic books.
And so now you got the trilogycoming back where I have to talk
about the evolution and theelevation of the black woman,
because that's what the seriesdoes.

Speaker 1 (01:17:55):
That's what it does well, you know, I'm gonna keep
praying that you get a seat atthat table to be a decision
maker, because we want the truthfrom the male perspective.
There is an audience for that.
Most recently, I was having aconversation with Jay Alexander.
He is one of the co-founders ofFUBU and he is now the founder
of the For Us by Us Network andsome of the content on there.

(01:18:18):
It's a little salacious for meand it is offering the woman's
perspective, and I challengedhim.
I also want to see the maleperspective.
I want to know the nuancesbehind the way that you think,
because that's how we're goingto, you know, kind of lower the
gap.
We need to understand oneanother.
We just can't have one versionof the story.

(01:18:39):
So you just sit at the table,omar, it's waiting.

Speaker 2 (01:18:42):
So please do us proud once you occupy that seat yeah,
and then I got to keep myemotions in check and be very
analytical and logical about it,because you can get emotional
and those type of discussions.
But that's what I've beentelling sisters, you know, for
the last couple of years.
I'm gonna keep saying it menhave a tendency to protect what

(01:19:03):
they want.
What do I mean by that?
Since you were a little boy,the older guys would tell you do
not tell that girl that she'snot going to give you none.
You tell her this.
I'm telling you, like you areeverybody, every man listening,
from new york to la, fromhouston to detroit we've been
through that with with olderbrothers do not tell that girl

(01:19:25):
that she is not gonna give you.
So we learn how to lie to womenall the time.
And then you get to be a grownhusband and I'm around grown
husbands right now and I'll say,omar, you're not gonna change
women, you know how does it.
So they all have complaints butthey like, dude, that's just
the way it is and what.
You're not gonna change that.
So a lot of men, even thoughthey don't like it, they don't

(01:19:45):
talk about it now with theyounger dudes.
Here's the deal.
I'm talking about married oldermen in their 50s and 60s.
When you talk to these youngerdudes in their 30s, they're not
married yet and they still areapathetic about where they're
going with young women andthey're doing stuff like this.
Well, you know, when she don'tlike me, no more, I just speed
on.
I just I'm gonna get ghostthat's the new word ghost.
Right, I'm gonna get ghost.

(01:20:06):
And I'm telling women like ifthat dude has a plan to get
ghost and you walking aroundlike everything is great and
whatnot, and he's not expressinghis real emotions about what he
don't like when he gets ghost,you got no idea why you got it
and you're sitting there like,well, why did my?
Wow, you didn't have anyconversation and that's what I'm
trying to get sisters with.

(01:20:27):
You cannot have a silent manwho doesn't like what you're
doing but won't say anythingabout it.
Then he goes to the barbershopand tells them everything, blow
by blow, but you don't know anyof it.
That is a problem.
And I'm telling you now andthat's why I'm going to keep
bringing Sister Soulja up.
If the telling you now andthat's why I'm gonna keep
bringing sister soldier up ifthe truth hurts, you're gonna be
because we got to get back tothat truth.

(01:20:47):
Because if you got men who arenot saying what the truth is and
they looking at that clock andsaying, all right, when I'm done
with this, I'm just gonna moveon to my other girl, you, a
whole lot of women, are going tobe left holding it back and I'm
trying to get them prepared.

Speaker 1 (01:21:00):
You got to have that tough conversation, so you know,
where you're going with thatman yeah, yeah, yeah, and it
won't be easy at first.
You know, I'm going through asituation where, at first,
communication was non-existent,but now the individual, or my
person, is better understandingthat communication is allowing
us to, to grow, to learn moreabout each other, so that we

(01:21:22):
aren't let me disappear for fiveminutes or five days or five
months, because I just don'twant it anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:21:28):
What you disappear for.
Oh I just needed some space tomyself.
Why, oh, I don't want to talkabout it you got to talk about
it.
I'm tired of hearing that Idon't want to talk about it.
You have to talk about it.
You can't keep thinkingsomebody going to guess what you
mean Well about it.
You can't keep thinkingsomebody gonna guess what you
mean.
Well, he should know what Iwant.
Well, he should know what Imean.

(01:21:49):
Well, he should know what heneed to do.
No, you gotta talk, man, yougotta say something so that
point there is driving me much.
He should know that already.

Speaker 1 (01:21:55):
Well, you were man you should know, but you know.
No, you gotta tell him, yougotta tell them.
I am an unapologetic truthteller.
I am bold in what I say, I meanwhat I say.
I'm straight, no filter.
You know, that's just the cloththat I was cut from, because
I'm a Brooklyn girl born andraised.

(01:22:16):
You know.
So there's nothing else to me.
So you know.
Are there any final thoughtsthat you would like to convey to
my audience before we close outthis amazing conversation?

Speaker 2 (01:22:29):
Well, this is going to be a fun time, you know it's
like now you got the socialmedia generation where
everything happens and doesn'thappen on social media, but we
were here before social media,yeah, so you got to go back to
the physical events.
You know, beating the bush forthe people, getting them talking
.
And I'm gonna keep talkingabout the elevation of the black
woman, because I happen to havewritten that series and,

(01:22:50):
whether I was thinking about itat the time or not, I did it.
It's coming back out.
I'm a grown man now that'sgoing through my own issues of
watching what's going on with it.
I'm concerned about it and I'mgonna keep talking about it.
So I'm gonna be, you know, niceand poised and logical, but
we're gonna keep talking aboutthe disconnect that we have
right now because it's gettingsteeper for your daughter and

(01:23:11):
for my sons.
It's getting steeper when Ihear young guys saying, well,
when I'm done with it, I'm justgonna walk away.
I didn't think about that.
When I'm done, you got Mary'sand kids, but when I'm done, I'm
just gonna walk away like Iwasn't raised that way.
Man like what the heck is goingon.
But if that's the thing womenlike, well, I'm just gonna take
my kids and he's gonna pay forit.
It's just like nothing, likelike y'all didn't go to the

(01:23:32):
auction and say you know, forrich or for poor, but but we
heard that, but we ain'tsticking to that, so that's
right dangerous, so yeah I'mgonna keep talking about it.

Speaker 1 (01:23:42):
I'm Me too, but you know something else that you
mentioned on the male side.
You know I'll talk about thefemales too, because you know,
even though I'm female, thereare some nuances that we need to
address as well.
Even in this space and era, youhave more females saying no, I
don't want to get married, I'djust rather have this baby.
I'm like what?

Speaker 2 (01:24:06):
Yeah, you don't even have aspirations to be a wife
anymore, you just want to have achild.
And that's it, the faith, theconfidence and faith in the
black man.
You know what I mean and yousaid it.
If too many people are beingraised without a man, then in
their minds, what is a man?
What's a man to do?
And if I'm doing all this stuffwithout a man, then I'm going
to keep doing it without a man.
What do I without a man?

(01:24:26):
What I need a man for?
And so, yeah, it got to thatpoint where it's like I don't
need no man to keep doing so.
A man becomes a contemporarything, not a long-standing
family thing, but a contemporarything of what I want right now.
And oh, that's well, that's ahard world to live in, but
that's yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 (01:24:40):
You know my father.
You know he's in his 70s andalthough he's an older man, I
often, too have to remind him.
I still need to be intentionalin how you move and what you say
in front of your granddaughter,my daughter.
It is an ongoing responsibility.
We have to hold each otheraccountable, men and women.

(01:25:03):
We have to communicate what weneed, how we want to be
represented, how we want to betreated, how we want to be loved
, and it's all going to besuccessful if you're willing to
have these open conversations.
So, even though he's my father,and although he's raised me and
he is an amazing man, I stillgive myself full permission to

(01:25:24):
look at my father and say, okay,can we kind of do this a little
bit differently?
Because I still have mydaughter watching and I want to
make sure that she's getting theright examples.
So be unafraid to have theseconversations, no matter who it
is with, because I think that weowe it to ourselves, because
this disconnect can't grow anywider.
I don't want it to.

Speaker 2 (01:25:44):
Well, I'm glad that she gets a chance to see her
grandfather and talk to hergrandfather.
You know what I mean, becausethat's the thing again where we
had grand, I was around mygrandfather, you know.
So.
My sisters were around, youknow what I mean.
I got two sisters on myfather's side, you know.
So when you get around olderpeople, you know how they are,
you know how they act.
So I don't feel pressure aroundolder people at all.
I did it quickly.
I did an interview with what'shis name, the football player,

(01:26:09):
mike Singletary, big-timefootball player, old-school
Chicago Bears, and he's the kindof man old-school where they
got that gruff, rough, kind.
But I was raised that way.
So I talked to him like he's myuncle and he's like man.
You talk to Mike Singletarylike that.
I'm like yeah I had uncles.
I had coaches like that so I'mused to it, so I wasn't afraid

(01:26:30):
of him.
You know, because I again I hada six foot four, 230 pound
monster in the house who wouldknock on people's doors and,
excuse me, you parked your carin my spot.
I would like if you cameoutside, moved it and then with
no gun.
I'm like this dude is crazy.
But I came up with that, so Iwill do the same thing if I need
to, because I'm used to it.

Speaker 1 (01:26:50):
So a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (01:26:51):
They're not used to that.
They get intimidated.
But it's like yo, dude, Icouldn't.
I had to go every day, I had tocome home to this dude this big
.
So after a while you get usedto it, like, get used to it,
like I gotta stand up, I gottastand up.
So even though I'm only sixfoot 160 something, I still have
that, that thought line and I'mthis bigger just because I was
raised by that.
So that's how I'm thinking,like the napoleon kind.

(01:27:13):
Now of course I'm not short,short, but I'm not six four you
know, but yeah, man, you getraised a different way, and so a
lot of people like, well, howcome you come off like that?
You can't see who I was raisedby, right I'm talking about you
just right me, but I had to dealwith that every single day of
my life, and so, as they say,iron sharp as iron I'm iron and

(01:27:33):
I didn't have a choice.
I'm sorry, I gotta apologize toy'all, but that's how I
survived this dude every day wowand survive.

Speaker 1 (01:27:42):
you did and thrive.
You are doing, omar, once again.
I am so proud of you.
I am so happy that you decidedto bless my platform.
This was a great conversationand I wish you nothing but
continued success.
Where can they pick up thisre-imagined, same legendary
story, but old, new look, of atrilogy?

(01:28:03):
Where can they pick up yourbooks?
For the love of money, fly Girland Boss Lady?
Where can they pick it up?

Speaker 2 (01:28:10):
We started promoting it early but it's really going
to hit the market May the 6thbecause they still doing the
cover design, so I had to stoppromoting it.
Now I'm promoting the Fly Girlbrand gear.
So we got Fly Girl clothingcoming.
We got cell phone.
We got perfume.
That's so.
We got fly girl clothing coming, we got cell phone, we got
perfume.
That's the biggest slippers.
Everything fly girl.
Because now I have to make itmore than just the book.
You got to make it a wholemovement, make it international

(01:28:33):
and yeah doing that now, but thebooks would be back out with
all the links and all thepre-orders.
May the 6th.
And then, of course, my summertour starts in june and I'm
still trying to book somethingat the the sharp was that the
schomburg center in harlem, andit's hard.
Man, she's trying to get a newyork thing.
It's hard.
So I'm still trying to bookthat.
And then y'all got the boys andgirls brooklyn high school that

(01:28:53):
y'all do that event in thesummer I might come back there
and do that.
But yeah, all summer long I'llbe pushing the book they move
that.

Speaker 1 (01:29:00):
Yeah, they move that from boys and girls.
Yeah, they moved that.
It's downtown Brooklyn.
It's been here for a few yearsnow, but now they're talking
about relocating the fair, so beon the lookout Because there
may be a new location thissummer.
But I'm definitely going toorder my Fly Girl gear Because

(01:29:20):
I'm headed to Aruba In two weeksand I got to represent the fly
girl movement all the way inaruba and y'all started it
because the brooklyn book boogieboys from brooklyn started that
song, so and then I had it.

Speaker 2 (01:29:36):
I added the extra y.
So when you see fly with two y,I did that.
Everybody else spells with oney, including the boogie boys.
I added the extra y becausethat's how we say it.
Fly, we hover, yeah, and nobodysays fly.
Nobody says that fly.
So, yeah, I added that extra yfor the for the four fly girl.
Four and four makes eight.

(01:29:57):
You know real simmons metric,like boss lady, and yeah, it's
gonna be coming back out andwe're gonna be talking about the
elevation and the elevation ofthe black woman.

Speaker 1 (01:30:07):
Nice, nice.
I'm going to stay tuned intothis conversation because I'm
interested in, you know, justhearing about the elevation and
the evolution of the black womanand the disconnect, so that we
can kind of reengage.
But once again, thank you somuch, omar.
Where can my audience followyou?
Are you on social media?

Speaker 2 (01:30:27):
Yeah, I'm at only one , the number one, omar Tyree on
Instagram, and then TikTok isOmar Tyree, facebook is Omar
Tyree, LinkedIn is Omar Tyreeand X is Omar Tyree.
So then I got Fly Girl Fridayson Instagram, where I'm starting
a whole store.
Every Friday we release a newFly Girl product.

(01:30:48):
We got the first t-shirts onthere.
Next week we're doing thehoodies, and so I'm going all
out and we're going to showeverybody the stuff first.
Then we're going to open up thestore in April and we're going
to have it moving.
So I'm going to have a lot ofsisters that's designing clothes
and running the company, and sosisters that's designing
clothes and running the company,and so sisters again are in
position because I don't wearthe clothes.
So I gotta listen to thesisters that omar, this color,

(01:31:09):
omar, this curve, omar I'm likecool.
So I'm gonna have a whole bunchof sisters in business bald
ladies that I'm working with.

Speaker 1 (01:31:16):
Yes, I like the pink and, and I believe it was the
yellow one, so I'll be talkingabout that real soon.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I, I'm partof the movement.
I'm a fly girl too, but, omar,once again, thank you, enjoy the
rest of your day.
I'm going to continue on withthis episode, but, like I said,
it has been a blessing and it isalready written, it is already

(01:31:38):
ordained.
You already have your seat atthat table and you will continue
on with this movement and wewill be there cheering you on.
We're just waiting for it tohappen, but it's already
happening right now, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:31:51):
You got it.
Thanks for having me and let'sdo a follow-up.
And after the whole tour isover, we do a follow-up in the
fall, like September or October.

Speaker 1 (01:32:00):
I'm here.
Just tell me when and we'llmake it happen.
Thank you so much.
Okay, I'll talk to you soon.
You got it, bye-bye, yes, sothere you have it.
Omar Tyree, bestselling author.
That was an amazingconversation.
He really just talked about hislife trajectory, the journey of

(01:32:23):
his life, the pivotal momentswho shaped him.
This is something that a lot ofpeople don't understand.
You see these adults and thenyou're like who do they think
they are?
Who does he think he is?
Who does she think she is?
It's the audacity of how wewere raised.
It is the audacity in how wewere raised.

(01:32:48):
So, when you see excellence,step in the room and I'm talking
to us, I'm talking to my people.
When you see excellence, stepin the room.
We have to stop leading with ourtrauma and automatically
finding something wrong with it.
Instead of celebrating it, wehave to align ourselves with

(01:33:10):
greatness.
Omar mentioned that in hisseries of for the love of.
I mean for his series of FlyGirl, fly Girl, boss Lady.
People wanted the maincharacter.
They wanted her to wait,although she was a college
student and she became acelebrity and her boyfriend was

(01:33:34):
incarcerated.
They expected her to wait eight, nine years for him to get out
of jail.
Why?
Why does he have to be theprison bae?
Why do black women always haveto be the prison bay?
I don't get it.
I don't get it.
We have to stop living intrauma and if we don't

(01:33:54):
acknowledge that, once again,the disconnect, the gap will
continue to grow.
So make sure that you alignyourself with this movement, the
fly girl movement, becausethere are so many fly girls out
there like myself, and he's anauthor that deserves it.

(01:34:16):
I'm telling you, I'm so truewhen I say that I am praying for
him to get a seat at the table.
Praying for him to get a seatat the table.
It's already written, it'salready happening and I'm
excited to see what Omar isgoing to do once he signs the
contract accepting that positionand he's able to make a film

(01:34:38):
out of Fly Girl.
Who doesn't want to see the FlyGirl film?
I do.
I'm waiting for it.
So, once again, an amazingconversation.
Listen to this conversationover and over again.
Make sure you share thisconversation with your family,
your friends, people that youknow could benefit from this,

(01:35:00):
people who you know aspire to bean author, people who you know
who are current authors.
This was a information-filledconversation.
Make sure you also support theSanyo and your sponsor.
Go to the link in thedescription section of this

(01:35:20):
episode and get your shop onBlack-Owned Business Once again.
We're living in a space where weneed to elevate, we need to
acknowledge, we need tocelebrate, we need to protect
Black-owned.
It is so super important.
So do me a favor.
I just have one request Even ifit's once a month, support a

(01:35:43):
Black-owned business.
Even if it's once a month,support a Black-owned business
Business.
It could be a podcaster, sharetheir episode.
It could be a store, buysomething for yourself or for a
friend, but support, support,support, support.

(01:36:07):
So this has been anotheramazing edition of Sanya On Air.
I have a lot to think about.
After every conversation onSanya On Air, I walk away and I
just think.
I just think about what wascommunicated, what was said,
what was learned, what needs tobe unpacked, and I implore you

(01:36:27):
to do the same.
So stay tuned for anotheramazing episode of Sign On Air,
where I unpack celebrity pivotalconversations, celebrity
pivotal moments and milestones,while also providing you
pipelines to access.
Take care, my loves, Smooches,bye-bye.

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NY Times Best Selling Author Omar Tyree: Navigating Modern Black Relationships

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