March 21, 2024 âą 48 mins
Summary Daryl Phillips, Executive Director of the ASAP Foundation, discusses the creation and mission of the foundation, which aims to raise awareness of drug abuse and provide harm reduction strategies. He emphasizes the need to meet people where they are and provide resources for safer drug use. Phillips also highlights the impact of drug culture on overall culture and the disparities faced by marginalized communities in relation to drug abuse. He calls for personal development, unity, and the sharing of resources as key factors in advancing marginalized communities. The conversation explores the power of personal conversation and redefining success. It delves into the qualities of leadership and the importance of self-work. The role of role models and the impact they have on personal growth and development is also discussed. The conversation highlights the significance of consistent inspiration and support in achieving goals. The concept of a village and its role in shaping individuals is explored. Finally, the conversation touches on the influence of positive role models in preventing substance use. Takeaways Meet people where they are and provide resources for safer drug use Recognize the impact of drug culture on overall culture Address disparities faced by marginalized communities in relation to drug abuse. Focus on personal development, unity, and sharing resources for the advancement of marginalized communities Personal conversations can trigger a reevaluation of how we define success. Leadership is a quality that comes from self-work and setting a good example. Role models play a significant role in personal growth and development. Consistent inspiration and support from others can drive personal success. The concept of a village and community support is crucial in shaping individuals. Positive role models can help prevent substance use and provide guidance in life. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Background 02:25 The Creation of the ASAP Foundation 05:02 Expanding the Scope of the Foundation 07:31 The Influence of Drug Culture on Overall Culture 10:01 The Legalization and Regulation of Cannabis 13:54 Shaping and Advancing Culture 18:08 The Impact of Drug Use and Addiction 22:37 Meeting People Where They Are 25:51 Disparities in Drug Abuse in Marginalized Communities 27:34 Advancement of Marginalized Communities 32:24 Success Stories and Transformative Moments 38:16 The Current State of Culture and Advancement of Marginalized Communities 41:57 The Power of Personal Conversation 42:49 Leadership and Self-Work 44:06 Acknowledging and Appreciating Role Models 45:13 Consistent Inspiration and Support 46:32 The Importance of a Village 47:27 Positive Influence and Substance Use JOIN THE NEWSLETTER đ« Be the first to hear about behind the scenes, new episode drops and live shows near you! Sign up: https://tr.ee/QJ4c7FUWBj LISTEN TO THE SHOW iTunes: http://bit.ly/3XDA3sl Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3D33sCM JOIN OUR COMMUNITY đž Instagram: https://instagram.com/cultureraisesus đŠ Twitter: https://twitter.com/cultureraisesus đ” TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cultureraisesus ABOUT US Culture Raises US. It isnât just something weâre impacted by, itâs also something we can impact. As empowered stewards of Culture, itâs time to get smart on how we can continue influencing society while breaking new grounds. On Culture Raises US, Astor Chambers invites you to join for honest, insightful, and challenging conversations with pioneering cultivators across music, fashion, tech, sports, art, and entertainment.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
To who much is given, much is required. Part of
the requirement is sharing. Culture is the heartbeat within our
lives and it's at the core of so many things.
While we live in a time when we are starving
for wisdom, I welcome you to your wisdom retreat that
culture raises us.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Today's guests donal Phillips, executive director of the ASAP Foundation,
which is dedicated to fostering greater awareness of drug and
substance abuse. The Always Strive and Prosper Foundation was actually
birth by the unfortunate passing of ASAP Yam some years ago,
and they've minimized really the impact of drug abuse, misuse
(00:42):
and propaganda sense. Daryl's also very much an experienced entrepreneur, director,
producer of film, multimedia in general and other forms of entertainment.
But before we get into his story, I would love
to get your thoughts on when you hear culture, what
is does that mean to you?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Culture? I've heard many incantations throughout your podcast. I think
for me, it's just the special sauce that like secret
sauce that KFC has or whoever may have that pregu
that raggul But it's the elements that kind of combine
to give something a composite like secret language or language.
(01:28):
Most people, that is revolves around things in the culture,
the composite pieces being art, food, language, and things that
are just the everyday communication that create way of life
for specific people.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, you know, it's as you talk about food. I
often make that immediate correlation as well in terms of
what culture represents in many constitutes in many instances for
me as well. But you know, I've had the pleasure
of knowing you ever since elementary school and since a
(02:07):
very I think early age. You've always been someone that
I've respected and admired because you came from this like
amazing village of women who always took such great care
of you. And I now see how that's rubbing off
on you with your commitment to helping others with what
you're doing with the ASAP Foundation, and this ability to
(02:31):
kind of inform and educate others is truly a gift,
and I think sets a tone to why this conversation
with you is so important. So tell us the story
behind the creation of the ASAP Foundation.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Well, I think that if I take it to its
full extent, I think it all started with asapbms himself
many years prior to even the foundation existing, which was
the concept of ASAP itself which was always strive and prosper.
And I think for Yams it was as an architect
of things, was creating a name of something that you
(03:09):
could believe in, that was inspiring, that was more so
than just thought provoking or shock at awe, which I
think is given to a lot of street epithets or
cultural epithets. Is like he focused on something that would
bring synonymous, that would encourage and encourage and be inspiring
(03:29):
within the culture itself. Right people say, oh, is it
a SAPs it as soon as possible or no. It's
always strive and prosper, which is something that you always
want to be able to do as a being. And
prosper doesn't have to be financial. It can be emotional,
it could be spiritual, it could be you know, through
simple things in your community can have you prosper. And
(03:52):
so from that, I think when he started the found
when he started the mob, and when the mob started
coming together, it was about by different pieces and aspects
of the culture, always striving and prospect through the culture
itself and having different elements that represented a collective of
artists and whether it could be fashion, whether it could
(04:13):
be rap or a hip hop or a production. And
so from that, I think he had this holistic perspective
on what culturally could be embodied under something or within something.
And then meeting him, meeting Rocky and the collective when
they were developing, spent a lot of time around them
filming and doing other media and content development. And I
(04:34):
think on his passing having been able to share moments
on him and experience and understand his true intellect and inspiration.
His mother, you know, when we were connected, was just like,
you know, I want to do one thing to be
able to have one other person not overdose, or one
(04:55):
thing that can speak to another parent so that they
don't go through this law. So if they go through
this loss, we were here to help them. So and
then she was very adamant about keeping that same anacronym
in place for what we were going to go move forward,
which was this is what he really believed in, this
is what he thought, this is what he came up with,
So let's keep this as synonymous with the work that
(05:19):
we plan on doing.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Well. And it sounds like you're casting or have the
ability to cast even a wider net than just the
work that you're doing within the drug space. When you
talk about the striving and prospering and always prosperly, that
just doesn't does, just doesn't stay within the space of
what you're doing. All this great current work in.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, I mean, I think the the work itself is
has become a thinking an umbrella of harm reduction and
the idea of When we started, we were definitely focused
more on drugs, but then we were also had to
find our footing and understood the space the place that
we well did we wanted to augment or a niche
that we wanted to focus within the harm reduction And
(06:02):
I think once after having a chance meeting with doctor
Carl Hard, it was understood that we wanted to create
something that could speak to him himself, if he was
still with us, to speak to the demographic that he
was a part of, and have messaging that could work
for them. That we weren't going to be talking about
abstinence and talking about stopping twelve year olds from smoking,
(06:25):
and more so about communicating to people how they could
do things safer not to die right, And that was
the goal and I think until we I mean, you know,
we thought we thought of it holistically also as like, okay,
we're doing back to school events, Let's do a big
back to school event. Let's do what we give out
backpacks and toys or backpacks and school school supplies, and
(06:47):
we have a toy drive. And then we had a
Mother's Day event which did makeovers. And then we've also
done sound bath or sound meditations and catering. And that
was from others that had lost loved ones or have
individuals and their family still going through substance use and
abuse issues. So for us, it was there's a holistic
aspect of it overall, which is like, how can we
(07:08):
reduce the most harm with effected impact and individuals, And
then also how can we focus on safer safer tips
or safer education regarding drug use, misuse and abuse so
that we can prevent overdose.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah, which again is another amazing thing that I think
you all bring to the table, and you just said
it so eloquently about this is not about driving abstinence, right,
this is about driving awareness that if you do. Here
are some of the tools and the thing rooms that
we'd like to share with you to inform you on
how to manage it as well as possible, right. And
(07:48):
I think when I look at drug culture as a
holistic drugs themselves and substance abuse, I think there is
a significant role that that still plays in shaping the
culture that we know today. Right. And before the unfortunate
passing of Stephen it was his name, right, yeahs, was
(08:08):
there a particular moment where you realized how big and
instrumental this drug culture was to influencing our overall culture
of life.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
So I think a couple of things come to mind.
One is us growing up in the early I would say,
earlier hip hop years, a lot of the and I
don't you know, without drug culture was actually you know,
hip hop was our news channel and it was telling
us what was going on in our community, and we
knew like herb for us, you know, weed was like
(08:43):
Cypress Hill rolling a blunt phillies. It became a different
thing that was like we became a big part of
our hip hop culture and our hip hop experience for
most of us at that time. And then also I
think that that was a cushion because crack was something
that was like in our face at the time, you know,
(09:06):
And so there was this dichotomy or like split, which
was like okay, conscious quote unquote conscious rap, or like
certain parts of rap, whether it's tribe called quest or
whether it was you know, funk dubious or Cyperushal or
things like that, they were embracing marijuana as kind of
like a safer conversation or regular conversation. And then there
(09:28):
was the aspect of the economy of drugs in our
music and in our culture, you know what I'm saying,
which was I'm gonna get rich doing this or this
is how this is what I do to get by
m hm. One thing I think that taught us in
the future where we didn't really understand it, that was
to not stigmatize drug use or what aspect people play
in the drug ecosystem. You know. So I don't I
(09:53):
try to understand that overall. But I think then I
knew the power of drugs in the culture, and that
that's also Rack can roll, that's in the I think
we have to open up the conversation and look at
what drugs are. You know, I look at people and
they say, oh, well, this person is doing this, or
this person is a is such and such head or
a coquet or this person. But but I'm like, but
(10:13):
you drink a cups of coffee a day.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Come on, come on, bro come on.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
It's you know, everybody has their forms of self medication,
everybody has their forms of being able to sustain their functionality,
and we can't really demonize certain people that may have
different weight in life and need a different kind of
thing to get them by. And I'm not supporting that,
but I'm just saying, let's take away, let's take away
all the judgment and then we can actually start dealing
(10:42):
with people one on one and provide help. You know,
it's usually not the drugs itself, it's what's behind them. Yo.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
The way you just broke that down of how when
we were growing up to your point, the demonization of
drug use, how do you look at that now with
cannabis being this for profit business model that's very different
from when we came up, But also I think is
(11:09):
very synonymous with that of the era of when probation
prohibition with liquor, right, and you know this coming of
this now huge industry that many people and families and
lineage of you know families have benefited from. How do
you now see that helping to not only minimize the
(11:31):
demonization which it adds. I think we could both agree
to that, but there is this element of Okay, now
that it's legal, it's even easier for you to now
position the type of conversation and mindset that you just
shared even more so I would.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Assume, Yeah, I think the idea is that, I mean,
the overall goal that I think I are ideal for
me is that all drugs are legalized at some point,
because there are certain drugs that are legalized now, and
I think we just look at it in a way
we look at it how things impact community. So alcohol,
more people are dying from DUIs and alcohol and alcohol,
(12:10):
alcoholism and substance abuse then usually most other drugs combined.
But this is legal and it's actually pushed in a
certain way. But I think there's a way that we
have to get to regulation. And part of the reason
why we have so many problems right now with fentanyl
and other things being in other drugs is because we
have this black market that we can't that I don't
(12:33):
want to say control, but a black market that is
relegated to not being regulated, and so that is what
threatens people. You know, we don't like back in the
day during pre pro Like during Prohibition, people were still
using alcohol and getting alcohol, but it was tainted with
all kinds of substances. And then one two was legal
(12:54):
again it was regulated in a certain aspect to decrease
that aspect of alcohol all having all these other different
adulterants that might cause you to be more inebriated or intoxicated,
but not we're distilled correctly. And the system that we're
kind of in right now, and I think overall, as
far as the cannabis situation, it's it's it's it's almost upsetting,
(13:19):
and it's unfortunate that so many families in our community
had their lives ruined by cannabis and marijuana law, drug laws,
and a lot of us went to jail. And and
you know, now it's open because it's more of a
capitalist endeavor that helps taxes. It's something that has become commonplace.
(13:41):
Now it's like coffee, it's like tea. But now we're
kind of left out of that game and left out
of the ability to have the economic upside of it,
particularly because we've been left out of so many of
the capitalists, you know, pioneering leaps that happened, you know,
so I look at that as unfortunate and hopefully people
(14:02):
will be able to find other ways to make use
of cannabis and make use of the cannabis economy without
it just being flower sales. You know.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, So let's let's talk about that, because a big
conversation that we have here is, you know, how moving
forward are we going to continue to shape and mold
the cultures that we have participated in created and in
many cases, given the ip away and this one and
the way you just discussed it, there's a lot of
(14:34):
work that we need to do to ensure that we
are on the front end and not the back room.
Do you have any thoughts or ideas or insight on
where those places are, what those things are that we
should be doing so we don't get caught on the
back end again.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Well, unfortunately we are in the back end. We already
behind the eight ball as far as this, you know,
the cannabis economy is situated I think for the next state.
But I think overall people have to look at things.
I would say, you know, an entrepreneurial aspect is like
how are they connected to something? You know, so if
(15:13):
if I want to start something new, a new business.
I want to make cookies. Okay, do I know how
to cook in my chef you know? Do I like food?
And so I think in the cannabis culture, people you know,
need to just understand that there's a big playing field
overall and then see where they can fit into that
(15:34):
playing field if this is a passion or if this
is an area or industry they want to be involved in.
So it's like, Okay, I can be involved in creating
CBD products or THHD products that can be edibles, it
can be salves, do different things that are actually medicinal
not only recreational. And you know, look at the different
(15:55):
layers of where you want to see yourself in that
in that situation, I know some that's like doing packaging. Yeah,
and they do packaging design and they're doing very well.
And that was having been in the aspect of growing
cultivating flower right, It's like, oh, actually, this is where
(16:16):
my true gift is.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Isn't to let me apply it to that and guess
what you're applient some magic because you can't even tell
with some of these joints, what's like candy or what's cannabis.
Bro wild, I've got stories.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
No, it's true, it's but you know, that's what happens
when you know it becomes an industry. Before it was
you know, you know, I think I'm old enough to
remember weed in Manila envelopes, you know as shake or
pre rolls, and and then you know, now we see it.
It's packaged, and it's got shelves. We've got dispensaries, We've
got stories acting like dispensaries, you know. So it's it's
(16:58):
evolved in all the aspects of something you are going
to evolve with it, such as hip hop. Before it
was like, okay, it was certain things. It was twelve
inch records and singles, and that I think we remember
hip hop albums all of a sudden and you know,
raising hell or Beastie Boys with you know, so then
it became something. The more it became an industry, the
(17:18):
more that the other aspects of like someone's like, oh,
I just designed album covers, you know, you know, I
do graphics for a record label, and I'm getting two
hundred thousand dollars a year. And so there becomes these
industries and you figure out where you fit in, where
you fit in or your passions that you have.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Well, I tell you, man, the power of influence is
very real. And I say that because what many may
not know is that you were probably my first exposure
and example of having a serious shoe game, bro, because
and this goes back to third grade where we met
and we built our brotherhood because you always and you know,
(18:01):
the latest and greatest due to being the little brother
of big sisters who were flying and your mother who
always kept you so fresh. I see this strong correlation
to what you're now doing. But want to know, how
do you see your influence helping in this next generation
of youth and beyond understanding of the implications of you know,
(18:22):
just dire you know, drug consequences.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Well, I think that's the Okay, seeing trends, I think
that's what goes back to our youth. It's like kind
of seeing trends and where we see ourselves in it,
you know. So it's like, Okay, we like these shoes.
You and I would go to Kpcong.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Right Choies on one hundred and thirds.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
So we were looking at these spaces and I was like, Okay,
this is where we're what we're what we're into, and
we we recognize the trend that we wanted to be
a part of. And I think a lot of the
youth today are recognizing aspects of the trends that they
would like to be a part of. Like they're not
into smoking weed as much, but they're into taking pills.
(19:06):
So where I look at that or for the last
ten years, you know, a leen was a very big
part of the culture. And then you know, but what
hasn't been identified as the downsides part of it because
people haven't garnd through the downsides. But I look at
it and so let's say, now when we're talking about fentanyl, right,
(19:28):
so folks in cocaine or ketamine or it might be
an MDMA. So it's making its way into powdered substances,
and that's what's attributing to a large increase in overdoses
as well. But now when it's now when I look
at it, that it's going to be its present in
black market pills, and pills are becoming much more popular
(19:50):
amongst youth of a certain age group from like twelve
to twenty five, as far as like a new demographic
in a mass way. Then you look at it, I
was like, oh, there's a big danger there's a big
red flag here because a lot of these pills are
going to be tainted. We're FENTANL of a you a
younger person or a person in general. But I feel
(20:12):
that this has more threat for the youth is that
they may be thinking they're getting a per ten a
per twenty and it's actually ten times stronger or part
of that pill has Fenton on it, So it's something
that is probably going to cause them an overdose because
the opia tolerance is not that high. The person did
(20:32):
not properly, you know, put this substance together or this
pill together. So that's what I look at as like
the future of like, oh, they really need to know
these things. They need to know the jeopardy therein in
regards to what's available in that market. So we have,
you know, besides what we've been doing with our FENTONL
test trip kits, which we distribute to bars and restaurants
(20:55):
in the city. That when that was something that we
saw as like, hey, this is a community that's already
taking drugs. It's in a bar and you know drug
use is going on here already. Let's see what we
can do to put these boxes in here that have
fentanl test kits has easy instructions that people can take
these home with them. So it's a matter of just
(21:16):
creating I think, an area or an aspect of the
culture that's interested in engaging in engagement and information so
that they can increase their awareness. You know. This is
the youth is already in tuned to trends, so we
have to someone make a trend in normalizing drug testing testing.
(21:37):
So like, Okay, if I'm using drugs, I need to
personally test it, or I need to inquire where those
drugs came from, you know, so it's not just oh, yeah,
pass me that split, or oh you have a couple
of pills, it's like where these come from? And then hey,
we should test these before we use it because people
are dying from So that's it. We just have to standardize,
(21:59):
make that a trend in itself that people are becoming safer.
And I think that's a little bit of our underlying
or a lot of our of our goal is to
normalize and make it a trend to be safe in
drug use.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, and another thing that I think you are exemplifying
is no shit of meeting people in situations.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Where they are definitely right.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Right, Like, what you just walk through is a beautiful
case study of meeting people where they are as opposed
to trying to meet them where you need them or
want them to be. Right, You've adapted and when you
look at trends. That's the thing with trends, right you Now,
once you know the trends, okay, so now what are
you going to do with that information and how you're
(22:42):
going to meet people in that space? Rather than try
to counter the trend because it might not work with
the vision of the long term plan that you have,
Rather than take the trends, meet people where they are
and then help get them to where you'd like them.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
To be exactly what you are master of. You know,
I may have started a small shoe, but I remember
when you first were, like, you know, seeding the newest
latest sneakers on certain celebrities within the industry, and you
kind of knew people's personal style. You were meeting them
where they were at with what you had or what
(23:16):
you dought was specific to them. And I think that's
the same thing as being able to you know, in
this space, more than ever, I've learned to remove a
lot of my prejudice, judgment, and stigmatization of individuals.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
And that's worked. No, that is work because we are
so programmed and we are also so suffering from that
being done to us.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Yes, and we have to remove these these algorithms that
we've already adapted to that we kind of assume about
certain people. I would say, you know, I understood and
had seen people that we used heroin or used opiates,
I think since I was a kid and I can remember,
but I didn't particularly know that through protracted use, and
(24:06):
I would say substance overuse, that they were actually experiencing
extreme pain and that the normal network was being rewired
so that a normal thing of life actually was a
very painful day for them because from the drug was
really making them feel pain, pain and sickness and nausea,
(24:28):
bone pain, headaches. So when we look at somebody and
you just think, oh, they're just you know, somebody would
just say, oh, that's a fiend. Why would you even
pay attention to them? And it's like, wow, you're not
even paying attention. That person really is going through a
lot of pain right now, and we just don't have
any understanding of it true that that was one of
the early realizations where I understood like, okay, I have
(24:49):
to change my whole framework, you know. And however, we
grew up kind of looking at people that were you know,
we used the word crackhead probably a million times in
our life, ye, which is horrible, you know, at this point,
and we just kind of relegated these people to the
side as far as like you made your future, you
(25:10):
made that, you made that bad, you made that bed.
And you know, even I would say in the economy
of drug dealing or drug vending, being a merchant, it
was that same perspective like I'm selling this to you,
but that's your bed, you lie in it, and desensitized
towards you know, how we were all playing a part
(25:32):
in the same system, and how overall the larger institution
of government law enforcement were actually playing a much bigger
part in that criminalization aspect. And then overall also just
you know, I think that the overall destruction of our communities.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I think, well, listen, now, you pinched the nerve because
you know, studies definitely indicate that black communities are disproportionately
affected by drug overd elses and the consequences of substance abuse,
right so from your perspective, what's the underlying causes of
this disparity.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
I mean, I believe the disparity, if we go back
to it, it's just you know, the original kidnap of
our ancestors to this country, that disparity, and then starting
and then building up the industries of this country and
not being able to impart to be a part of
that ownership. And then I think, you know, you look
(26:31):
at things like Black Wall Street and Tulsa and we're
talking about these things now, or that there was a
Harlem renaissance in the twenties, but you know, we still
have destabilization in our education system. So we look back
at our history and we see at point where we
were thriving and there was this institution of government, law
enforcement that chose to destabilize that thriving. You know, and
(26:54):
Jerry Mann there do different things so that we can't
be united, or that we're relegated to the outsides of
these and we're away from resources, food, clothes, and sheltered,
not being able to be an aspect of everyday life.
It becomes that disparity. So what happens I think in
my perspective or what I've read a lot. Is that
become a side of our psychological and our environment around
(27:18):
us becomes destabilized, and therefore we are looking at self
medicate or we become destabilized in that aspect, you know.
But I would think it's the education system first and
foremost that needs to change in our communities. And then
second of all, you know, I think there has to
be an understanding of you know, when we stop seeing
(27:39):
ourselves as a disproportionate number in the incarceration system, then
we will start seeing a change in that as well.
And it's not because we're doing more crime, it's just
that we're being targeted for more crime.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
You know, you dropped a couple of bars there, but
I'm gonna let that marinate sit. You know that this work,
the work that you're doing is so much great work,
so much great work. I would love for you to share.
Was there like a particularly impactful success story of like
this transformative moment that the Foundation kind of facilitated that
you can share, because I'd love for people to not
(28:15):
only get an understanding of what the foundations about what
you're all about and the why, but then also maybe
an example in the case study of and here's something
that we point our finger to to say, this is
where we knew there was some amazing magic that we
can show to multiple people.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
I would say there was a realization moment and that
was really given by doctor Carhart, who has a couple
of books. One is a High Price and another one
is called Drug Use for Grown Ups. He was head
of Department of Psychology at Clumbua University. He's a brother
from Carol City, and you know, he was also one
(28:52):
of the foremost scientists in the area of being able
to tell you what drugs do and how addiction works
and how it is impacted and it's really through psychological environment,
you know. So and everything that we heard and what
he showed me was that everything we heard about drug
use and stigmatizing drug use and addiction was wrong. And
(29:13):
then then that's some other reading that we could go
into later. So that was like an Aha moment, like
everything I've been thinking about drug addiction and drug use
is wrong and then now, okay, let me learn what's
right and what's the better perspective. And then from there,
I think for us being able to understand users, vendors
(29:39):
and everything within the drug ecosystem is what you want
to be able to understand understanding that the crack era
and the laws were slanted, and you know, in order
to get caught, in order to get the same restriction
or the same penalty, you had to have five grams
of crack. You had to have five hundred grams of powder. Right,
(30:00):
I have to make money selling five grams of crack
over and over and over again. That puts me in
a higher target of being taunted for that, and now
I'm getting higher sentencing. So you know, looking at those things,
you can see that how the government is implicit and
you know, our criminalization in this in this area. And
(30:23):
then I think for AHA moment for us was during
the pandemic and giving out fentonal test strips and kind
of we put them in these boxes that are kind
of like fish bowl kind of concepts when you saw
fish bowls with condoms and bars or high school yeah. Hey,
so kind of taking that same concept and saying, well, look,
if we have something that doesn't really mess with the
aesthetics of an environment, can we put this in these
(30:45):
bars in certain places. Started with one place, second place,
third place, and then we you know, I started to
see traction and At first everyone was very much again,
oh wait, no, it's on test. We don't need that
in here, We don't have that customer.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Yeah, clean, you know you have that exactly. That's like
my child isn't listen to hip hop exactly.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
So you know, there was this idea and fear aspect.
But then I think what it was was I started
appealing to like bartenders and managers actually started losing friends,
and you know, it reminded this over. So we began
to give out the kits, and the certain places became
(31:25):
more apt and more open to taking them. And then
there was an either article and then Washington Journal article
or Washington Wall Street Journal article or New York Times
talking about this program amongst the harm reduction work of
the city. So it was like, okay, so what we're
doing is right. And then when I started seeing that
the boxes would be empty now and that people were
(31:47):
aware of what these things were and picking them up,
and that there were a place that was running out
after a month is now running out after a week
or weekend, showing me that we were doing something right.
And then as now the numbers kept increasing as far
as overdoses and our people paying attention to it. We
felt that this was great that we were able to
provide these tools for people to be able to be
(32:10):
safer in their use and safer and really just really
hopefully keeping themselves alive. Feedback from people that were doing
tests and showing positive results of fensanel in the drugs
that they did not expect it to be in and
that was like, I mean, that's that was like a
roller coaster ride, like exhilarating. It was just like, oh,
sure you like, this is amazing that they that they
(32:32):
used it. So people are like, are you saving lives?
I'm like, I'm not saving lives. We're not saving lives.
When you use these kids to test your drugs, you
are saving your lives, yes, lives, and you all saving
the pain of your family, your friends, your kids, whoever
it may be. You're actually making yourself be here in
one more day for them, which I think was Tatiana
(32:55):
Yams's mother's original goal when she came to me was
being able to give people any on any kind of
tools or messaging to keep themselves safer. So I think
we've been able to get that part, and that was
that's been amazing to see that, you know, these things
are being snapped up, that awareness is growing overall, you know,
(33:15):
but as you know, being my brother from you know,
another mother, is that this reminds me. This whole era
reminds me of early HIV era and kind of like
people not talking about things, or people thinking it's only
affecting a certain demographic. All of a sudden, it's affecting
(33:37):
every demographic and everyone's like, oh, ring the alarm. So
I think that's where we're at right now, where it's like,
within five years everyone will probably know someone that is
overdosed and will agree or two degrees of separation, which
is unfortunate, but I think, you know, that's where we're going.
Where it's like everybody thought this was relegated to people
(33:58):
that only use certain drugs, or people that have addiction issues,
or people that are you know, uh, shooting drugs or
things like that. That's not it, And it's no longer
just about substance abuse. It's about substance use m and
that like somebody who's taking a pill for their first
or second time, who doesn't have any experiences of too
(34:19):
much knowledge about buying pills getting pills, could be taking
a pill laced for fronton Or and die. And that's
not because they were an addict. It's not because they
were had a long use of drug use. It was
just because of negligence and the lack of awareness and education.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Well, I think part of the process that you just
walked through, you talked about the learning of drug use
and drug addictions and being wrong? What was that? What
was that part?
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Drug use and drugs? Oh, so that part really resolves
revolves around you know, we had those commercials This is
your brain on drugs.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Yes, I remember those.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
I hate you know, Black Pan, Nancy Rage and Ronald Reagan. Meanwhile,
you know these guys they're using you know, cocaine to
fund Iran contra missions. You know. So at that point,
what from Carl Heart, what we were learning is that,
like there were studies done where they put a rat,
(35:18):
let's say, a rat in a cage, you know, and
here's some water with some cocaine in it or heroin
in it, and then you know, you'll watch the rat
running around cage, go back, keep going back, drinking the
water with the cocaine, keep going back, keep going back.
So they're like, oh, look at this, this is our
addictive The substances, but they're not looking at the fact
that they have the rat in the cage. So now
let's say you put a rat and up band cage,
(35:39):
you know, with fifty other rats, some food and some
cocaine and some water. The rat's gonna go to the
cocaine water much less rat stuff. With rats, it's gonna
go meat, it's gonna go hang out, it's gonna go
dig a hole, it's gonna go there, and it's probably
gonna come back to the drugs at some point as well.
(35:59):
But it is not completely a vortex of drug use.
So what we look at is our communities are like
these cages, and you know, our lives can be these cages.
Not just to say this is marginalized experiences, but our
communities are cages. We have food deserts, we have projects,
we have all these things that keep people encapsulated like
(36:20):
a cage in which now you put drugs in there
as one of the only aspects of self medication. You know.
It's not like we're doing yoga studios in these places,
you know. Or how about health food places long licker store.
We have fish fried fish place and a bodega maybe
that has like cookies and sugar cereal, which is probably
(36:43):
our first introduction into drug use sugar, you know, abuse sugar,
you know, so it already starts patterning the youth and
our kids and ourselves with sugar as a drug that's
in almost everything we have at our food location that's
not really even food, you know. So the abuse issue
starts early, or the substance use issue starts early, and
(37:07):
then we look at it as like, yea, we got
to change our psychological, physical environments in order to break
these cycles. And so I'm not you know, I don't
look at it as oh, this person just had It's
just really usually a couple of mishaps in life that
caused people to take drug use functionality and then become dysfunctional.
(37:31):
And it can be the marriage. It could be a divorce.
It could be a bad grade on a test. It
could be a lack of love from parents. It could
be so many things that just kind of trigger that
that that excess. It's not it's not about a personal
a personal weakness, you know, it's about just maybe not
(37:52):
having that support structure. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Yeah, and now you're definitely you know, kind of teetering
into you know, even broader conversations with your sentiment here
even outside of you know, drug use or the misuse
or the mishaps around them. And given you know, your
extensive history that I kind of alluded to in the
(38:15):
beginning within the music industry and content production of documentaries
regarding social justice and activism. If nobody can tell yet
by the way that you speak, what's your thoughts on
the current state of our culture and what's needed for
the further advancement of marginalized communities.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
What we need, I mean, we need a lot. I know,
we need to we need to really have unity. And
I think one major thing that I'm like paying attention
to more is like, you know, the equation of like
the black capitalism and black excellence you know who, And
(38:59):
you know, I think we have to get more into
like personal achievement and you know, focusing on what we
can do to increase our own personal value self value
and personal ownership and accountability and then being able to read, listen,
and I think share. So you know, Michael K. Williams,
(39:22):
who else knows a friend who passed away as well
from a drug from you know, an overdose and fentanyl
related you know, he was always He mentioned to me
so many times about like, you know, it's not about
getting out the community or like making it and making
yourself successful so that you get out of the community.
You know, you don't want to get out of your community.
(39:43):
What you want to do is be able to go
get resources from outside of your community and bring them back,
you know, and you know, stop going from like, oh
I used to live there. I mean all this money.
Now I lived in a gated community. You know, it's like, okay,
but why can't you back in your community? And if
you can't live back in your community, then you should
(40:04):
consistently be giving too, not giving back, but giving too.
You should definitely continue to have place and have commitment
and passion for the communities you come from, and stop
thinking about escaping because where you're escaping to it's not
going to be helping your community. You know what I'm saying.
The new friends and the new people that you're around
(40:26):
are not focused on helping your community unless it's a
tax right off. It's about how can we stay in
the trenches and how can we continue this, you know,
continue to support the struggle. And if you come from
the community, you know what those struggles are, and it's
often just being able to have that aspect of oh,
(40:47):
I learned this over here or I got this over here,
let me bring it back to you, and you know,
not piecemealing yet. So I just look at that as
one thing, and then you know, I think it's reading,
listening and sharing is like the main things that I
think that are simple to be able to access if
you have nothing but life itself, or if you do
(41:09):
have a bunch of things, you still want to be
able to share. And I think those those are the
three elements that you know, I'm trying to focus on personally.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Well, listen, you know I always end these with the
three seeds that you want to leave with stewards of
culture moving forward. And I think that was a crystal
clear breakdown of your three seeds on the personal development,
which when you walk through the story of you know,
because even I've fallen guilty of yeah, I'm not I'm
(41:43):
not in a neighborhood, no wrong, you know' here, I
I'm in I'm in LA, I'm in Portland, in real
and you're right that there has to be an element
you would think of, well, why did I have to leave?
Why can't I still, you know, be there and contribute
there to elevate that to where it needed to be.
And you know, the blessing of being in an environment
(42:06):
that had a great mix of all things which you
and I I mean literally, and I'm very biased, we
grew up in one of the best neighborhoods ever in
terms of the exposure that we had of multiple things, good, bad,
and indifferent, right, and all playing a significant part in
(42:26):
that gumbo of like twenty percent thirty twenty percent, not
like an eighty twenty right of oh it's just all
pristine and good, and then you'll just twenty percent of
the nonsense. Like we grew up and we got a
little bit of all of it, which I think helped
to round us out. So as I hear you talk
about that conversation and that thought, it's such a powerful
(42:50):
notion that I think can help trigger the mentality of
many of the next generation to relook and rethink on
how we position ourselves and what defines success, right, what
really defines success, And that too, I think is a
personal conversation definitely.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
I mean, I think everything is is personal right now.
If you can remove the ego from it, then you'll
able to like access the wealth of it. But you know,
you're not a leader. I don't think people are leaders
because they choose to be leaders, but because they are
actually set a good example, so you know. And that's
you know, sometimes or set a example so to speak,
(43:30):
because it may not always be best example. You know,
people can lead people to other things. But leadership is
a quality of like probably the person that is doing
a lot of self work and understands in a certain
way of being able to share that information with others
and you know that that gives them a little bit
more power and it gives them a little bit more
(43:52):
you know, followers so to speak, or collective.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Well, listen, bro. One of my desires in having you
all was based off the fact that you played a
significant role in my life. You know, I looked up
to you from day one on how you carriage yourself.
You were always a very refined, smart and then fresh
(44:19):
you know, brother and friend, and you exemplify what you
just said of removing the ego to access the wealth.
You've always been a wealth of knowledge of character. I
mean you went to and like everything you've done. I've
always been applauding you and been like this guy has
made me a better person because I was then striving
(44:39):
to be like Yo, Darll's doing it. Be I gotta
I gotta do it. I gotta do it. No listen.
And I appreciate that, but I want you to get
these these roses. You're gonna take these roses right now.
And so as I look at what you're doing with
this foundation, Bro, I can't tell you how proud I
am and why I wanted to share this, because there's
(45:01):
many who are not being exposed to you or what
you're doing and the work and the great work of
the foundation and Yander's mother's vision to stay behind this,
but it is so necessary. You're so appreciated and valued,
and I just thank you for being the stand up
individual that I got to meet in third grade. Bro,
(45:22):
those principles have grown tremendously in you and if not
dried up, and for that, I want to applaud you
and thanks.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
You well, thank you, because I mean thank you in
general as my brother, and I thank you because you've
always been that consistent inspiration as a brother, as a father,
as an entrepreneur, as a person that was just really
always looking to excel. And so I was like part
of like a reflection aspect. So I was like, damn aster,
(45:52):
just doing it so I could do it. And then
also like your family, your mom, your dad, that was
like that was part of that special sauce in the culture,
come into your house. It was a cultural experience, you know,
whether it was the curry chicken lee, you know, and
(46:15):
it was a certain aspect. But also you know, your
mom would be working, My mom would be working, but
I was like at your place. I was at your
house or I could be there, and that was like
a second family. And so that's part of our cultural experience.
It's like, oh, that's my brother, but no, we have
different mothers or we in different households, but this is
my brother, and you'm treated as family. I think. I
(46:38):
remember even when I was going away to school, you
and your mom brought me a book back, you know,
and for me to excel at school, you know, And
so that was part of the village support. One of
my first vacations with your with your family, you know,
and it was like us and I'm like, I've never
been on a vacation. I don't know what's going on.
(47:00):
And then you know, your pops. I remember going to
Applebee's on Flatbush Avenue and being like this is yo,
this is amazing, you know. And so that was a
cultural experience also for a person that was growing up
without my father present or without my mom being around
a lot. I had sisters, but it was like you
became my brother, and then it was also like your
(47:21):
parents became examples from me as well, who became pillars
of principle, and that lasted for years with me. I
think that those are the things that when we look back,
is those are the one those little things that can
help somebody not go through life in a startin way
with it where substance use becomes something to supplant something
(47:43):
that's missing. M. So you know, I always I'm always
thankful for the relationship, then for the open door for
the culture that I was able to experience with you
and your family as well.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
M with Daryl. I can't thank you enough, bro, and
I love you.
Speaker 3 (48:00):
Thank you, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (48:01):
We truly appreciate your support because it helps us fulfill
our mission of promoting cultural awareness and personal development. Please
click the subscribe button below to help ensure and solidify
our mission
To who much is given, much is required. Part of
the requirement is sharing. Culture is the heartbeat within our
lives and it's at the core of so many things.
While we live in a time when we are starving
for wisdom, I welcome you to your wisdom retreat that
culture raises us.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Today's guests donal Phillips, executive director of the ASAP Foundation,
which is dedicated to fostering greater awareness of drug and
substance abuse. The Always Strive and Prosper Foundation was actually
birth by the unfortunate passing of ASAP Yam some years ago,
and they've minimized really the impact of drug abuse, misuse
(00:42):
and propaganda sense. Daryl's also very much an experienced entrepreneur, director,
producer of film, multimedia in general and other forms of entertainment.
But before we get into his story, I would love
to get your thoughts on when you hear culture, what
is does that mean to you?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Culture? I've heard many incantations throughout your podcast. I think
for me, it's just the special sauce that like secret
sauce that KFC has or whoever may have that pregu
that raggul But it's the elements that kind of combine
to give something a composite like secret language or language.
(01:28):
Most people, that is revolves around things in the culture,
the composite pieces being art, food, language, and things that
are just the everyday communication that create way of life
for specific people.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, you know, it's as you talk about food. I
often make that immediate correlation as well in terms of
what culture represents in many constitutes in many instances for
me as well. But you know, I've had the pleasure
of knowing you ever since elementary school and since a
(02:07):
very I think early age. You've always been someone that
I've respected and admired because you came from this like
amazing village of women who always took such great care
of you. And I now see how that's rubbing off
on you with your commitment to helping others with what
you're doing with the ASAP Foundation, and this ability to
(02:31):
kind of inform and educate others is truly a gift,
and I think sets a tone to why this conversation
with you is so important. So tell us the story
behind the creation of the ASAP Foundation.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Well, I think that if I take it to its
full extent, I think it all started with asapbms himself
many years prior to even the foundation existing, which was
the concept of ASAP itself which was always strive and prosper.
And I think for Yams it was as an architect
of things, was creating a name of something that you
(03:09):
could believe in, that was inspiring, that was more so
than just thought provoking or shock at awe, which I
think is given to a lot of street epithets or
cultural epithets. Is like he focused on something that would
bring synonymous, that would encourage and encourage and be inspiring
(03:29):
within the culture itself. Right people say, oh, is it
a SAPs it as soon as possible or no. It's
always strive and prosper, which is something that you always
want to be able to do as a being. And
prosper doesn't have to be financial. It can be emotional,
it could be spiritual, it could be you know, through
simple things in your community can have you prosper. And
(03:52):
so from that, I think when he started the found
when he started the mob, and when the mob started
coming together, it was about by different pieces and aspects
of the culture, always striving and prospect through the culture
itself and having different elements that represented a collective of
artists and whether it could be fashion, whether it could
(04:13):
be rap or a hip hop or a production. And
so from that, I think he had this holistic perspective
on what culturally could be embodied under something or within something.
And then meeting him, meeting Rocky and the collective when
they were developing, spent a lot of time around them
filming and doing other media and content development. And I
(04:34):
think on his passing having been able to share moments
on him and experience and understand his true intellect and inspiration.
His mother, you know, when we were connected, was just like,
you know, I want to do one thing to be
able to have one other person not overdose, or one
(04:55):
thing that can speak to another parent so that they
don't go through this law. So if they go through
this loss, we were here to help them. So and
then she was very adamant about keeping that same anacronym
in place for what we were going to go move forward,
which was this is what he really believed in, this
is what he thought, this is what he came up with,
So let's keep this as synonymous with the work that
(05:19):
we plan on doing.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Well. And it sounds like you're casting or have the
ability to cast even a wider net than just the
work that you're doing within the drug space. When you
talk about the striving and prospering and always prosperly, that
just doesn't does, just doesn't stay within the space of
what you're doing. All this great current work in.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, I mean, I think the the work itself is
has become a thinking an umbrella of harm reduction and
the idea of When we started, we were definitely focused
more on drugs, but then we were also had to
find our footing and understood the space the place that
we well did we wanted to augment or a niche
that we wanted to focus within the harm reduction And
(06:02):
I think once after having a chance meeting with doctor
Carl Hard, it was understood that we wanted to create
something that could speak to him himself, if he was
still with us, to speak to the demographic that he
was a part of, and have messaging that could work
for them. That we weren't going to be talking about
abstinence and talking about stopping twelve year olds from smoking,
(06:25):
and more so about communicating to people how they could
do things safer not to die right, And that was
the goal and I think until we I mean, you know,
we thought we thought of it holistically also as like, okay,
we're doing back to school events, Let's do a big
back to school event. Let's do what we give out
backpacks and toys or backpacks and school school supplies, and
(06:47):
we have a toy drive. And then we had a
Mother's Day event which did makeovers. And then we've also
done sound bath or sound meditations and catering. And that
was from others that had lost loved ones or have
individuals and their family still going through substance use and
abuse issues. So for us, it was there's a holistic
aspect of it overall, which is like, how can we
(07:08):
reduce the most harm with effected impact and individuals, And
then also how can we focus on safer safer tips
or safer education regarding drug use, misuse and abuse so
that we can prevent overdose.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah, which again is another amazing thing that I think
you all bring to the table, and you just said
it so eloquently about this is not about driving abstinence, right,
this is about driving awareness that if you do. Here
are some of the tools and the thing rooms that
we'd like to share with you to inform you on
how to manage it as well as possible, right. And
(07:48):
I think when I look at drug culture as a
holistic drugs themselves and substance abuse, I think there is
a significant role that that still plays in shaping the
culture that we know today. Right. And before the unfortunate
passing of Stephen it was his name, right, yeahs, was
(08:08):
there a particular moment where you realized how big and
instrumental this drug culture was to influencing our overall culture
of life.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
So I think a couple of things come to mind.
One is us growing up in the early I would say,
earlier hip hop years, a lot of the and I
don't you know, without drug culture was actually you know,
hip hop was our news channel and it was telling
us what was going on in our community, and we
knew like herb for us, you know, weed was like
(08:43):
Cypress Hill rolling a blunt phillies. It became a different
thing that was like we became a big part of
our hip hop culture and our hip hop experience for
most of us at that time. And then also I
think that that was a cushion because crack was something
that was like in our face at the time, you know,
(09:06):
And so there was this dichotomy or like split, which
was like okay, conscious quote unquote conscious rap, or like
certain parts of rap, whether it's tribe called quest or
whether it was you know, funk dubious or Cyperushal or
things like that, they were embracing marijuana as kind of
like a safer conversation or regular conversation. And then there
(09:28):
was the aspect of the economy of drugs in our
music and in our culture, you know what I'm saying,
which was I'm gonna get rich doing this or this
is how this is what I do to get by
m hm. One thing I think that taught us in
the future where we didn't really understand it, that was
to not stigmatize drug use or what aspect people play
in the drug ecosystem. You know. So I don't I
(09:53):
try to understand that overall. But I think then I
knew the power of drugs in the culture, and that
that's also Rack can roll, that's in the I think
we have to open up the conversation and look at
what drugs are. You know, I look at people and
they say, oh, well, this person is doing this, or
this person is a is such and such head or
a coquet or this person. But but I'm like, but
(10:13):
you drink a cups of coffee a day.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Come on, come on, bro come on.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
It's you know, everybody has their forms of self medication,
everybody has their forms of being able to sustain their functionality,
and we can't really demonize certain people that may have
different weight in life and need a different kind of
thing to get them by. And I'm not supporting that,
but I'm just saying, let's take away, let's take away
all the judgment and then we can actually start dealing
(10:42):
with people one on one and provide help. You know,
it's usually not the drugs itself, it's what's behind them. Yo.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
The way you just broke that down of how when
we were growing up to your point, the demonization of
drug use, how do you look at that now with
cannabis being this for profit business model that's very different
from when we came up, But also I think is
(11:09):
very synonymous with that of the era of when probation
prohibition with liquor, right, and you know this coming of
this now huge industry that many people and families and
lineage of you know families have benefited from. How do
you now see that helping to not only minimize the
(11:31):
demonization which it adds. I think we could both agree
to that, but there is this element of Okay, now
that it's legal, it's even easier for you to now
position the type of conversation and mindset that you just
shared even more so I would.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Assume, Yeah, I think the idea is that, I mean,
the overall goal that I think I are ideal for
me is that all drugs are legalized at some point,
because there are certain drugs that are legalized now, and
I think we just look at it in a way
we look at it how things impact community. So alcohol,
more people are dying from DUIs and alcohol and alcohol,
(12:10):
alcoholism and substance abuse then usually most other drugs combined.
But this is legal and it's actually pushed in a
certain way. But I think there's a way that we
have to get to regulation. And part of the reason
why we have so many problems right now with fentanyl
and other things being in other drugs is because we
have this black market that we can't that I don't
(12:33):
want to say control, but a black market that is
relegated to not being regulated, and so that is what
threatens people. You know, we don't like back in the
day during pre pro Like during Prohibition, people were still
using alcohol and getting alcohol, but it was tainted with
all kinds of substances. And then one two was legal
(12:54):
again it was regulated in a certain aspect to decrease
that aspect of alcohol all having all these other different
adulterants that might cause you to be more inebriated or intoxicated,
but not we're distilled correctly. And the system that we're
kind of in right now, and I think overall, as
far as the cannabis situation, it's it's it's it's almost upsetting,
(13:19):
and it's unfortunate that so many families in our community
had their lives ruined by cannabis and marijuana law, drug laws,
and a lot of us went to jail. And and
you know, now it's open because it's more of a
capitalist endeavor that helps taxes. It's something that has become commonplace.
(13:41):
Now it's like coffee, it's like tea. But now we're
kind of left out of that game and left out
of the ability to have the economic upside of it,
particularly because we've been left out of so many of
the capitalists, you know, pioneering leaps that happened, you know,
so I look at that as unfortunate and hopefully people
(14:02):
will be able to find other ways to make use
of cannabis and make use of the cannabis economy without
it just being flower sales. You know.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, So let's let's talk about that, because a big
conversation that we have here is, you know, how moving
forward are we going to continue to shape and mold
the cultures that we have participated in created and in
many cases, given the ip away and this one and
the way you just discussed it, there's a lot of
(14:34):
work that we need to do to ensure that we
are on the front end and not the back room.
Do you have any thoughts or ideas or insight on
where those places are, what those things are that we
should be doing so we don't get caught on the
back end again.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Well, unfortunately we are in the back end. We already
behind the eight ball as far as this, you know,
the cannabis economy is situated I think for the next state.
But I think overall people have to look at things.
I would say, you know, an entrepreneurial aspect is like
how are they connected to something? You know, so if
(15:13):
if I want to start something new, a new business.
I want to make cookies. Okay, do I know how
to cook in my chef you know? Do I like food?
And so I think in the cannabis culture, people you know,
need to just understand that there's a big playing field
overall and then see where they can fit into that
(15:34):
playing field if this is a passion or if this
is an area or industry they want to be involved in.
So it's like, Okay, I can be involved in creating
CBD products or THHD products that can be edibles, it
can be salves, do different things that are actually medicinal
not only recreational. And you know, look at the different
(15:55):
layers of where you want to see yourself in that
in that situation, I know some that's like doing packaging. Yeah,
and they do packaging design and they're doing very well.
And that was having been in the aspect of growing
cultivating flower right, It's like, oh, actually, this is where
(16:16):
my true gift is.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Isn't to let me apply it to that and guess
what you're applient some magic because you can't even tell
with some of these joints, what's like candy or what's cannabis.
Bro wild, I've got stories.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
No, it's true, it's but you know, that's what happens
when you know it becomes an industry. Before it was
you know, you know, I think I'm old enough to
remember weed in Manila envelopes, you know as shake or
pre rolls, and and then you know, now we see it.
It's packaged, and it's got shelves. We've got dispensaries, We've
got stories acting like dispensaries, you know. So it's it's
(16:58):
evolved in all the aspects of something you are going
to evolve with it, such as hip hop. Before it
was like, okay, it was certain things. It was twelve
inch records and singles, and that I think we remember
hip hop albums all of a sudden and you know,
raising hell or Beastie Boys with you know, so then
it became something. The more it became an industry, the
(17:18):
more that the other aspects of like someone's like, oh,
I just designed album covers, you know, you know, I
do graphics for a record label, and I'm getting two
hundred thousand dollars a year. And so there becomes these
industries and you figure out where you fit in, where
you fit in or your passions that you have.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Well, I tell you, man, the power of influence is
very real. And I say that because what many may
not know is that you were probably my first exposure
and example of having a serious shoe game, bro, because
and this goes back to third grade where we met
and we built our brotherhood because you always and you know,
(18:01):
the latest and greatest due to being the little brother
of big sisters who were flying and your mother who
always kept you so fresh. I see this strong correlation
to what you're now doing. But want to know, how
do you see your influence helping in this next generation
of youth and beyond understanding of the implications of you know,
(18:22):
just dire you know, drug consequences.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Well, I think that's the Okay, seeing trends, I think
that's what goes back to our youth. It's like kind
of seeing trends and where we see ourselves in it,
you know. So it's like, Okay, we like these shoes.
You and I would go to Kpcong.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Right Choies on one hundred and thirds.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
So we were looking at these spaces and I was like, Okay,
this is where we're what we're what we're into, and
we we recognize the trend that we wanted to be
a part of. And I think a lot of the
youth today are recognizing aspects of the trends that they
would like to be a part of. Like they're not
into smoking weed as much, but they're into taking pills.
(19:06):
So where I look at that or for the last
ten years, you know, a leen was a very big
part of the culture. And then you know, but what
hasn't been identified as the downsides part of it because
people haven't garnd through the downsides. But I look at
it and so let's say, now when we're talking about fentanyl, right,
(19:28):
so folks in cocaine or ketamine or it might be
an MDMA. So it's making its way into powdered substances,
and that's what's attributing to a large increase in overdoses
as well. But now when it's now when I look
at it, that it's going to be its present in
black market pills, and pills are becoming much more popular
(19:50):
amongst youth of a certain age group from like twelve
to twenty five, as far as like a new demographic
in a mass way. Then you look at it, I
was like, oh, there's a big danger there's a big
red flag here because a lot of these pills are
going to be tainted. We're FENTANL of a you a
younger person or a person in general. But I feel
(20:12):
that this has more threat for the youth is that
they may be thinking they're getting a per ten a
per twenty and it's actually ten times stronger or part
of that pill has Fenton on it, So it's something
that is probably going to cause them an overdose because
the opia tolerance is not that high. The person did
(20:32):
not properly, you know, put this substance together or this
pill together. So that's what I look at as like
the future of like, oh, they really need to know
these things. They need to know the jeopardy therein in
regards to what's available in that market. So we have,
you know, besides what we've been doing with our FENTONL
test trip kits, which we distribute to bars and restaurants
(20:55):
in the city. That when that was something that we
saw as like, hey, this is a community that's already
taking drugs. It's in a bar and you know drug
use is going on here already. Let's see what we
can do to put these boxes in here that have
fentanl test kits has easy instructions that people can take
these home with them. So it's a matter of just
(21:16):
creating I think, an area or an aspect of the
culture that's interested in engaging in engagement and information so
that they can increase their awareness. You know. This is
the youth is already in tuned to trends, so we
have to someone make a trend in normalizing drug testing testing.
(21:37):
So like, Okay, if I'm using drugs, I need to
personally test it, or I need to inquire where those
drugs came from, you know, so it's not just oh, yeah,
pass me that split, or oh you have a couple
of pills, it's like where these come from? And then hey,
we should test these before we use it because people
are dying from So that's it. We just have to standardize,
(21:59):
make that a trend in itself that people are becoming safer.
And I think that's a little bit of our underlying
or a lot of our of our goal is to
normalize and make it a trend to be safe in
drug use.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, and another thing that I think you are exemplifying
is no shit of meeting people in situations.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Where they are definitely right.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Right, Like, what you just walk through is a beautiful
case study of meeting people where they are as opposed
to trying to meet them where you need them or
want them to be. Right, You've adapted and when you
look at trends. That's the thing with trends, right you Now,
once you know the trends, okay, so now what are
you going to do with that information and how you're
(22:42):
going to meet people in that space? Rather than try
to counter the trend because it might not work with
the vision of the long term plan that you have,
Rather than take the trends, meet people where they are
and then help get them to where you'd like them.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
To be exactly what you are master of. You know,
I may have started a small shoe, but I remember
when you first were, like, you know, seeding the newest
latest sneakers on certain celebrities within the industry, and you
kind of knew people's personal style. You were meeting them
where they were at with what you had or what
(23:16):
you dought was specific to them. And I think that's
the same thing as being able to you know, in
this space, more than ever, I've learned to remove a
lot of my prejudice, judgment, and stigmatization of individuals.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
And that's worked. No, that is work because we are
so programmed and we are also so suffering from that
being done to us.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Yes, and we have to remove these these algorithms that
we've already adapted to that we kind of assume about
certain people. I would say, you know, I understood and
had seen people that we used heroin or used opiates,
I think since I was a kid and I can remember,
but I didn't particularly know that through protracted use, and
(24:06):
I would say substance overuse, that they were actually experiencing
extreme pain and that the normal network was being rewired
so that a normal thing of life actually was a
very painful day for them because from the drug was
really making them feel pain, pain and sickness and nausea,
(24:28):
bone pain, headaches. So when we look at somebody and
you just think, oh, they're just you know, somebody would
just say, oh, that's a fiend. Why would you even
pay attention to them? And it's like, wow, you're not
even paying attention. That person really is going through a
lot of pain right now, and we just don't have
any understanding of it true that that was one of
the early realizations where I understood like, okay, I have
(24:49):
to change my whole framework, you know. And however, we
grew up kind of looking at people that were you know,
we used the word crackhead probably a million times in
our life, ye, which is horrible, you know, at this point,
and we just kind of relegated these people to the
side as far as like you made your future, you
(25:10):
made that, you made that bad, you made that bed.
And you know, even I would say in the economy
of drug dealing or drug vending, being a merchant, it
was that same perspective like I'm selling this to you,
but that's your bed, you lie in it, and desensitized
towards you know, how we were all playing a part
(25:32):
in the same system, and how overall the larger institution
of government law enforcement were actually playing a much bigger
part in that criminalization aspect. And then overall also just
you know, I think that the overall destruction of our communities.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I think, well, listen, now, you pinched the nerve because
you know, studies definitely indicate that black communities are disproportionately
affected by drug overd elses and the consequences of substance abuse,
right so from your perspective, what's the underlying causes of
this disparity.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
I mean, I believe the disparity, if we go back
to it, it's just you know, the original kidnap of
our ancestors to this country, that disparity, and then starting
and then building up the industries of this country and
not being able to impart to be a part of
that ownership. And then I think, you know, you look
(26:31):
at things like Black Wall Street and Tulsa and we're
talking about these things now, or that there was a
Harlem renaissance in the twenties, but you know, we still
have destabilization in our education system. So we look back
at our history and we see at point where we
were thriving and there was this institution of government, law
enforcement that chose to destabilize that thriving. You know, and
(26:54):
Jerry Mann there do different things so that we can't
be united, or that we're relegated to the outsides of
these and we're away from resources, food, clothes, and sheltered,
not being able to be an aspect of everyday life.
It becomes that disparity. So what happens I think in
my perspective or what I've read a lot. Is that
become a side of our psychological and our environment around
(27:18):
us becomes destabilized, and therefore we are looking at self
medicate or we become destabilized in that aspect, you know.
But I would think it's the education system first and
foremost that needs to change in our communities. And then
second of all, you know, I think there has to
be an understanding of you know, when we stop seeing
(27:39):
ourselves as a disproportionate number in the incarceration system, then
we will start seeing a change in that as well.
And it's not because we're doing more crime, it's just
that we're being targeted for more crime.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
You know, you dropped a couple of bars there, but
I'm gonna let that marinate sit. You know that this work,
the work that you're doing is so much great work,
so much great work. I would love for you to share.
Was there like a particularly impactful success story of like
this transformative moment that the Foundation kind of facilitated that
you can share, because I'd love for people to not
(28:15):
only get an understanding of what the foundations about what
you're all about and the why, but then also maybe
an example in the case study of and here's something
that we point our finger to to say, this is
where we knew there was some amazing magic that we
can show to multiple people.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
I would say there was a realization moment and that
was really given by doctor Carhart, who has a couple
of books. One is a High Price and another one
is called Drug Use for Grown Ups. He was head
of Department of Psychology at Clumbua University. He's a brother
from Carol City, and you know, he was also one
(28:52):
of the foremost scientists in the area of being able
to tell you what drugs do and how addiction works
and how it is impacted and it's really through psychological environment,
you know. So and everything that we heard and what
he showed me was that everything we heard about drug
use and stigmatizing drug use and addiction was wrong. And
(29:13):
then then that's some other reading that we could go
into later. So that was like an Aha moment, like
everything I've been thinking about drug addiction and drug use
is wrong and then now, okay, let me learn what's
right and what's the better perspective. And then from there,
I think for us being able to understand users, vendors
(29:39):
and everything within the drug ecosystem is what you want
to be able to understand understanding that the crack era
and the laws were slanted, and you know, in order
to get caught, in order to get the same restriction
or the same penalty, you had to have five grams
of crack. You had to have five hundred grams of powder. Right,
(30:00):
I have to make money selling five grams of crack
over and over and over again. That puts me in
a higher target of being taunted for that, and now
I'm getting higher sentencing. So you know, looking at those things,
you can see that how the government is implicit and
you know, our criminalization in this in this area. And
(30:23):
then I think for AHA moment for us was during
the pandemic and giving out fentonal test strips and kind
of we put them in these boxes that are kind
of like fish bowl kind of concepts when you saw
fish bowls with condoms and bars or high school yeah. Hey,
so kind of taking that same concept and saying, well, look,
if we have something that doesn't really mess with the
aesthetics of an environment, can we put this in these
(30:45):
bars in certain places. Started with one place, second place,
third place, and then we you know, I started to
see traction and At first everyone was very much again,
oh wait, no, it's on test. We don't need that
in here, We don't have that customer.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Yeah, clean, you know you have that exactly. That's like
my child isn't listen to hip hop exactly.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
So you know, there was this idea and fear aspect.
But then I think what it was was I started
appealing to like bartenders and managers actually started losing friends,
and you know, it reminded this over. So we began
to give out the kits, and the certain places became
(31:25):
more apt and more open to taking them. And then
there was an either article and then Washington Journal article
or Washington Wall Street Journal article or New York Times
talking about this program amongst the harm reduction work of
the city. So it was like, okay, so what we're
doing is right. And then when I started seeing that
the boxes would be empty now and that people were
(31:47):
aware of what these things were and picking them up,
and that there were a place that was running out
after a month is now running out after a week
or weekend, showing me that we were doing something right.
And then as now the numbers kept increasing as far
as overdoses and our people paying attention to it. We
felt that this was great that we were able to
provide these tools for people to be able to be
(32:10):
safer in their use and safer and really just really
hopefully keeping themselves alive. Feedback from people that were doing
tests and showing positive results of fensanel in the drugs
that they did not expect it to be in and
that was like, I mean, that's that was like a
roller coaster ride, like exhilarating. It was just like, oh,
sure you like, this is amazing that they that they
(32:32):
used it. So people are like, are you saving lives?
I'm like, I'm not saving lives. We're not saving lives.
When you use these kids to test your drugs, you
are saving your lives, yes, lives, and you all saving
the pain of your family, your friends, your kids, whoever
it may be. You're actually making yourself be here in
one more day for them, which I think was Tatiana
(32:55):
Yams's mother's original goal when she came to me was
being able to give people any on any kind of
tools or messaging to keep themselves safer. So I think
we've been able to get that part, and that was
that's been amazing to see that, you know, these things
are being snapped up, that awareness is growing overall, you know,
(33:15):
but as you know, being my brother from you know,
another mother, is that this reminds me. This whole era
reminds me of early HIV era and kind of like
people not talking about things, or people thinking it's only
affecting a certain demographic. All of a sudden, it's affecting
(33:37):
every demographic and everyone's like, oh, ring the alarm. So
I think that's where we're at right now, where it's like,
within five years everyone will probably know someone that is
overdosed and will agree or two degrees of separation, which
is unfortunate, but I think, you know, that's where we're going.
Where it's like everybody thought this was relegated to people
(33:58):
that only use certain drugs, or people that have addiction issues,
or people that are you know, uh, shooting drugs or
things like that. That's not it, And it's no longer
just about substance abuse. It's about substance use m and
that like somebody who's taking a pill for their first
or second time, who doesn't have any experiences of too
(34:19):
much knowledge about buying pills getting pills, could be taking
a pill laced for fronton Or and die. And that's
not because they were an addict. It's not because they
were had a long use of drug use. It was
just because of negligence and the lack of awareness and education.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Well, I think part of the process that you just
walked through, you talked about the learning of drug use
and drug addictions and being wrong? What was that? What
was that part?
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Drug use and drugs? Oh, so that part really resolves
revolves around you know, we had those commercials This is
your brain on drugs.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Yes, I remember those.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
I hate you know, Black Pan, Nancy Rage and Ronald Reagan. Meanwhile,
you know these guys they're using you know, cocaine to
fund Iran contra missions. You know. So at that point,
what from Carl Heart, what we were learning is that,
like there were studies done where they put a rat,
(35:18):
let's say, a rat in a cage, you know, and
here's some water with some cocaine in it or heroin
in it, and then you know, you'll watch the rat
running around cage, go back, keep going back, drinking the
water with the cocaine, keep going back, keep going back.
So they're like, oh, look at this, this is our
addictive The substances, but they're not looking at the fact
that they have the rat in the cage. So now
let's say you put a rat and up band cage,
(35:39):
you know, with fifty other rats, some food and some
cocaine and some water. The rat's gonna go to the
cocaine water much less rat stuff. With rats, it's gonna
go meat, it's gonna go hang out, it's gonna go
dig a hole, it's gonna go there, and it's probably
gonna come back to the drugs at some point as well.
(35:59):
But it is not completely a vortex of drug use.
So what we look at is our communities are like
these cages, and you know, our lives can be these cages.
Not just to say this is marginalized experiences, but our
communities are cages. We have food deserts, we have projects,
we have all these things that keep people encapsulated like
(36:20):
a cage in which now you put drugs in there
as one of the only aspects of self medication. You know.
It's not like we're doing yoga studios in these places,
you know. Or how about health food places long licker store.
We have fish fried fish place and a bodega maybe
that has like cookies and sugar cereal, which is probably
(36:43):
our first introduction into drug use sugar, you know, abuse sugar,
you know, so it already starts patterning the youth and
our kids and ourselves with sugar as a drug that's
in almost everything we have at our food location that's
not really even food, you know. So the abuse issue
starts early, or the substance use issue starts early, and
(37:07):
then we look at it as like, yea, we got
to change our psychological, physical environments in order to break
these cycles. And so I'm not you know, I don't
look at it as oh, this person just had It's
just really usually a couple of mishaps in life that
caused people to take drug use functionality and then become dysfunctional.
(37:31):
And it can be the marriage. It could be a divorce.
It could be a bad grade on a test. It
could be a lack of love from parents. It could
be so many things that just kind of trigger that
that that excess. It's not it's not about a personal
a personal weakness, you know, it's about just maybe not
(37:52):
having that support structure. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Yeah, and now you're definitely you know, kind of teetering
into you know, even broader conversations with your sentiment here
even outside of you know, drug use or the misuse
or the mishaps around them. And given you know, your
extensive history that I kind of alluded to in the
(38:15):
beginning within the music industry and content production of documentaries
regarding social justice and activism. If nobody can tell yet
by the way that you speak, what's your thoughts on
the current state of our culture and what's needed for
the further advancement of marginalized communities.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
What we need, I mean, we need a lot. I know,
we need to we need to really have unity. And
I think one major thing that I'm like paying attention
to more is like, you know, the equation of like
the black capitalism and black excellence you know who, And
(38:59):
you know, I think we have to get more into
like personal achievement and you know, focusing on what we
can do to increase our own personal value self value
and personal ownership and accountability and then being able to read, listen,
and I think share. So you know, Michael K. Williams,
(39:22):
who else knows a friend who passed away as well
from a drug from you know, an overdose and fentanyl
related you know, he was always He mentioned to me
so many times about like, you know, it's not about
getting out the community or like making it and making
yourself successful so that you get out of the community.
You know, you don't want to get out of your community.
(39:43):
What you want to do is be able to go
get resources from outside of your community and bring them back,
you know, and you know, stop going from like, oh
I used to live there. I mean all this money.
Now I lived in a gated community. You know, it's like, okay,
but why can't you back in your community? And if
you can't live back in your community, then you should
(40:04):
consistently be giving too, not giving back, but giving too.
You should definitely continue to have place and have commitment
and passion for the communities you come from, and stop
thinking about escaping because where you're escaping to it's not
going to be helping your community. You know what I'm saying.
The new friends and the new people that you're around
(40:26):
are not focused on helping your community unless it's a
tax right off. It's about how can we stay in
the trenches and how can we continue this, you know,
continue to support the struggle. And if you come from
the community, you know what those struggles are, and it's
often just being able to have that aspect of oh,
(40:47):
I learned this over here or I got this over here,
let me bring it back to you, and you know,
not piecemealing yet. So I just look at that as
one thing, and then you know, I think it's reading,
listening and sharing is like the main things that I
think that are simple to be able to access if
you have nothing but life itself, or if you do
(41:09):
have a bunch of things, you still want to be
able to share. And I think those those are the
three elements that you know, I'm trying to focus on personally.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Well, listen, you know I always end these with the
three seeds that you want to leave with stewards of
culture moving forward. And I think that was a crystal
clear breakdown of your three seeds on the personal development,
which when you walk through the story of you know,
because even I've fallen guilty of yeah, I'm not I'm
(41:43):
not in a neighborhood, no wrong, you know' here, I
I'm in I'm in LA, I'm in Portland, in real
and you're right that there has to be an element
you would think of, well, why did I have to leave?
Why can't I still, you know, be there and contribute
there to elevate that to where it needed to be.
And you know, the blessing of being in an environment
(42:06):
that had a great mix of all things which you
and I I mean literally, and I'm very biased, we
grew up in one of the best neighborhoods ever in
terms of the exposure that we had of multiple things, good, bad,
and indifferent, right, and all playing a significant part in
(42:26):
that gumbo of like twenty percent thirty twenty percent, not
like an eighty twenty right of oh it's just all
pristine and good, and then you'll just twenty percent of
the nonsense. Like we grew up and we got a
little bit of all of it, which I think helped
to round us out. So as I hear you talk
about that conversation and that thought, it's such a powerful
(42:50):
notion that I think can help trigger the mentality of
many of the next generation to relook and rethink on
how we position ourselves and what defines success, right, what
really defines success, And that too, I think is a
personal conversation definitely.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
I mean, I think everything is is personal right now.
If you can remove the ego from it, then you'll
able to like access the wealth of it. But you know,
you're not a leader. I don't think people are leaders
because they choose to be leaders, but because they are
actually set a good example, so you know. And that's
you know, sometimes or set a example so to speak,
(43:30):
because it may not always be best example. You know,
people can lead people to other things. But leadership is
a quality of like probably the person that is doing
a lot of self work and understands in a certain
way of being able to share that information with others
and you know that that gives them a little bit
more power and it gives them a little bit more
(43:52):
you know, followers so to speak, or collective.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Well, listen, bro. One of my desires in having you
all was based off the fact that you played a
significant role in my life. You know, I looked up
to you from day one on how you carriage yourself.
You were always a very refined, smart and then fresh
(44:19):
you know, brother and friend, and you exemplify what you
just said of removing the ego to access the wealth.
You've always been a wealth of knowledge of character. I
mean you went to and like everything you've done. I've
always been applauding you and been like this guy has
made me a better person because I was then striving
(44:39):
to be like Yo, Darll's doing it. Be I gotta
I gotta do it. I gotta do it. No listen.
And I appreciate that, but I want you to get
these these roses. You're gonna take these roses right now.
And so as I look at what you're doing with
this foundation, Bro, I can't tell you how proud I
am and why I wanted to share this, because there's
(45:01):
many who are not being exposed to you or what
you're doing and the work and the great work of
the foundation and Yander's mother's vision to stay behind this,
but it is so necessary. You're so appreciated and valued,
and I just thank you for being the stand up
individual that I got to meet in third grade. Bro,
(45:22):
those principles have grown tremendously in you and if not
dried up, and for that, I want to applaud you
and thanks.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
You well, thank you, because I mean thank you in
general as my brother, and I thank you because you've
always been that consistent inspiration as a brother, as a father,
as an entrepreneur, as a person that was just really
always looking to excel. And so I was like part
of like a reflection aspect. So I was like, damn aster,
(45:52):
just doing it so I could do it. And then
also like your family, your mom, your dad, that was
like that was part of that special sauce in the culture,
come into your house. It was a cultural experience, you know,
whether it was the curry chicken lee, you know, and
(46:15):
it was a certain aspect. But also you know, your
mom would be working, My mom would be working, but
I was like at your place. I was at your
house or I could be there, and that was like
a second family. And so that's part of our cultural experience.
It's like, oh, that's my brother, but no, we have
different mothers or we in different households, but this is
my brother, and you'm treated as family. I think. I
(46:38):
remember even when I was going away to school, you
and your mom brought me a book back, you know,
and for me to excel at school, you know, And
so that was part of the village support. One of
my first vacations with your with your family, you know,
and it was like us and I'm like, I've never
been on a vacation. I don't know what's going on.
(47:00):
And then you know, your pops. I remember going to
Applebee's on Flatbush Avenue and being like this is yo,
this is amazing, you know. And so that was a
cultural experience also for a person that was growing up
without my father present or without my mom being around
a lot. I had sisters, but it was like you
became my brother, and then it was also like your
(47:21):
parents became examples from me as well, who became pillars
of principle, and that lasted for years with me. I
think that those are the things that when we look back,
is those are the one those little things that can
help somebody not go through life in a startin way
with it where substance use becomes something to supplant something
(47:43):
that's missing. M. So you know, I always I'm always
thankful for the relationship, then for the open door for
the culture that I was able to experience with you
and your family as well.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
M with Daryl. I can't thank you enough, bro, and
I love you.
Speaker 3 (48:00):
Thank you, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (48:01):
We truly appreciate your support because it helps us fulfill
our mission of promoting cultural awareness and personal development. Please
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Host
Astor Chamber
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