December 3, 2024 • 45 mins
Become a Relative & send some love
Growing up on Maxwell and Sheridan in Detroit, my cousin Damone, affectionately known as D-pledge, and I have stories to tell that go beyond the basketball courts of Finney High School. Damone takes us on his journey, from our humble beginnings to scoring 50 points in a game, making the leap from JV to varsity, and even earning a starting spot as a receiver in high school. Our conversation is a celebration of family bonds and shared successes, revisiting memories of Thanksgivings hosted at Damone’s new home and reminiscing about Auntie Jackie’s initial reluctance to let him play football.
Life’s transitions often demand tough choices, and I’ve had my fair share—like leaving college to care for my daughter, Angel. This episode shares personal sacrifices, such as relocating to Tennessee and shifting from the automotive industry to a full-time photography career. With my wife’s unwavering support, I found the strength to adapt and thrive, learning the importance of perseverance and family values along the way. Together, we explore how these transitions reshape our lives and highlight the critical role a supportive partner plays in navigating life’s challenges.
From comedic skits to capturing unforgettable moments, my path into photography was anything but conventional. What started as a side hustle while working at Chrysler has grown into a thriving business, with opportunities that include photographing Tennessee Titans players and celebrities. The journey hasn’t been easy—losses and grief in the family have taught me to cherish every moment. As I share plans for the future, like investing in real estate and giving back to the community, we emphasize the importance of maintaining connections and supporting each other. Join us for an episode rich with personal stories, hard-earned lessons, and aspirations for a prosperous future.
Relationships Worth More Than Money by Tweezy Kennedy & Marcus Alland
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Thank you, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yo Yo Season two
Relationships worth more thanmoney.
This one's very special to meBecause not only do I got
somebody that's really close tome, but this is really family
Bloodline Kennedys Not evengonna do too much To my right,
who I got.
This is really family.
Bloodline Kennedy's Not evengoing to do too much To my right
(01:28):
, who I got.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It's your boy, damon man.
D-pledge Boop.
No, that's me.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Bookie.
Yeah, yeah man.
So we just had a specialweekend, man.
Thanksgiving at Boop Crib man,it's been a blessing.
Thanksgiving at Boot Crib man,it's been a blessing.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
We had a good time.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Family came through and that wasn't even a third of
the family.
Yeah, 15 of us, man, 15 of usout of like, and it was just
like it's two families, threefamilies, yeah, out of like,
honey, you know what I'm saying.
But no man, I've watched.
You know what I'm saying, butno man, I've watched.
You know what I mean.
I just look back at the timeswhere we were kids growing up.
You, me, ro, k-ken, quest,reese, you know what I'm saying.
(02:18):
We all were just being kids,man, and you know we never knew
what the future was going tohold for us.
You know what I'm saying.
And now to see you, man, in abrand new house, you know what
I'm saying.
You, your wife, your kids, man,the kids playing around,
(02:38):
playing together, laying on thesteps right now playing yeah,
yeah, man.
It brings back so much memories,man.
But first and foremost man, Iwant to say congratulations to
getting the crib.
Let's take it back, man.
Let's take it back to.
I mean, I know where you from.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
You know what I'm saying, but take it back for the
people, for the audience.
You know what I mean.
Tell them where you from.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Pretty much same thing as Twine Tweez.
Born and raised Detroit,michigan.
Yes, sir.
Grew up on Maxwell, off of VanDyke and also off of Mack on
Sheridan.
Back in the day Went to FinneyHigh School Shout out to the
Highlanders Class of 06.
(03:21):
But shoot, just coming fromhumble beginnings, coming from
nothing, coming from dirt Notsaying that we were poor, you
know what I'm saying.
But everything that we have now, we got out the mud.
I'm grateful for the journey.
It's molded us to be the manthat we are today and I'm just
enjoying the ride right now.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, man, yeah, we wasn't poor, poor, it was just
like I would say, like it waslike lower middle class and then
middle class, yeah, and nothingwas given to us.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
We had to earn it.
We had to earn everything.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, man, and the whole thing.
Man is just crazy, like how weall are doing great things,
uh-huh, and we all different.
You know what I mean?
You got families now it's likewe're the unks and uncles
aunties and uncles and all that.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
We the OGs now.
We the OGs now.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
So I'm going to take it back to ninth grade.
Uh-huh, ninth grade, your ninthgrade, but it was my senior
year.
Yeah, he was about to playbasketball.
I've been knowing you've beenplaying basketball all your life
, you were the first one out ofour family.
I think that jumped on a planeat a young age.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
First one to like just travel with AAU, with the
Roadrunners.
But yeah, man, I had this coachman Shout out to Coach Jordan.
I tried to tell him man.
I said, coach, you got to watchout.
What was your number back then?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
In high school, yeah, in my grade For basketball.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I had dang.
That's a good question.
I don't know what number I hadOn JV.
Yeah, jv was different BecauseI played JV for a few months and
then, after like five games,they put me on varsity and that
fifth game happened to beagainst Osborne, my school, and
I told the coach.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I said, coach, gave him a good 30.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Watch out for him.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
And he was like why?
And I was like you know him.
I said yeah, that's my cousin.
He was like I ain't worriedabout him.
I said, all right, he ain'tdrop no 30.
He dropped 50 on him Easy.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And ever since then Boop was in, Boop was in varsity
.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, yeah.
So you did basketball and Iremember Auntie Jackie wouldn't
let you play football with us.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, she didn't let me play football.
I didn't play football.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
At all.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
None.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
We played for the.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Eastside Raiders Yep, I was going to see y'all go to
practice all the time You're theonly one out of the family that
didn't play.
I didn't play.
She didn't want me getting hurt.
She didn't let me playbasketball.
Yep, I made JV and I ain'tgetting no burn.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
No.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I ain't getting no burn.
Then that summer I just workedmy butt off and shoot.
I went to like a training camp,like tryouts and then, like the
summer workouts, it was killingthem.
I was ready, Shoot.
I was on varsity Starting thatreceiver Tim Grade, I was the
big boy.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
so what you think?
May auntie, auntie change hermind on that football, cause you
didn't play none, no C team, bteam or A team.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah, at that point I was in high school.
So I mean, I just had to, Ijust played, I just tried out.
It wasn't no cause, I wasn't alittle baby, no more, you know
what I'm saying like I'm 12, 11,so she was afraid of me getting
hurt.
But going to high school, I'm14, you know.
So it was a different ball game.
Plus, I made the team.
So she was like, oh, you'regoing to try it.
And when she came out there,you know I was showing out.
(06:53):
So she kind of laid off of it alittle bit and just wasn't
scared no more.
And let me play ball.
Because I played basketball andfootball in high school for all
four years.
So that's kind of like how thathappened.
When she saw I was good, I'mlike okay, okay, then she just
started, she just took it, andthen I started getting offers
and everything.
So she was with it, she startedtraveling, coming to all my.
(07:13):
She was my biggest, became mybiggest fan, right right.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And what for the youngins out there, man, what
you think you can give back tothe, to the youngest that's been
playing sports, that's playingsports right now in high school.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, the biggest thing I would say, man, the
biggest priority is school,school, school, school.
Like sports is going to bethere.
It's cool, but you just got tothink about it as it's.
It's not a forever thing.
You know what I'm saying.
So getting them grades and justmake sure you're hitting them
books, that's the most importantpart, because, at the end of
the day, your career can end atany moment, any second.
(07:49):
You can break an ankle Because,like me personally, I broke my
ankle and I broke my foot myjunior and senior year.
So just say that was my careerif I was professional.
You got to have something tofall back on.
You got to have your education.
So that's one thing that I Iwould really push like I was to
give.
I'm giving back to the kids.
Yeah, grades come first,because at the end of the day
(08:10):
you're a student athlete right,you know.
Athlete come second.
You're a student first.
So I would say always keep youreducation first, then sport,
yeah, because that that's gonnacome, because if you got
god-given talent, that's gonnabe there.
Right, just hit them booksfirst.
That that's the biggest thing,because when it's all said and
done, when the sports is over,when you get older, you're going
to have something to fall backon, which is your education.
So that's the most important.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, okay, okay.
You got to your senior year,you balling out at Finney,
playing receiver.
And then was Kyle thequarterback, then Kyle Gaskin
yeah, shout out to Kyle.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Kyle was a freshman Kyle was a sophomore.
That was my senior year, yeahand he got injured.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Right yeah, he got hurt.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
No, he didn't get hurt my year Nope.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
What made you play quarterback then?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
So our quarterback was Vincent Phillips.
That was my quarterback.
He was a junior, I was a senior, he was our quarterback.
He, he got hurt, he had a toreshoulder and then they ain't had
nobody to throw me the ball.
So I ended up playingquarterback three games.
We won all three.
Then Kyle came in so he endedup playing because I needed to
be back at receiver.
But that was actually I'm sorry, that was my junior year
(09:16):
because my senior year I didn'tplay football until to the state
, to the playoffs, to the citychampionship.
So to the playoffs, to the citychampionship.
So I broke my foot.
So I had broke my ankle.
My junior year for basketball Iwas the lead scorer in the
state.
We played Southeastern.
I came down and broke my ankleso I was out for the rest of the
basketball season.
Then I'm getting ready forfootball season, but I was
(09:39):
playing basketball in the gymand broke my foot.
So I didn't play no senior yearfor football until the city
championship.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, it's, mumford right.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, we played Mumford but they didn't really
throw me the ball.
I was pissed.
I was playing, I was out there,I'm like man throw me the ball,
yeah.
But then I ended up playing atthe state championship, I mean
the state playoffs.
I ended up scoring and stufflike that.
I was still banged up a littlebit but that was my senior year.
If I was healthy it would havebeen a different story, but I
did play basketball my senioryear and you had Michigan man,
(10:11):
you had Michigan on you tough.
I had big schools Michigan, iowa, nebraska, georgia Tech, all
the Big Ten teams, the SEC teams, pretty much all the big
schools, wisconsin, and of themyou know they was sending me and
my mom, my dad, out, so we wasgoing taking them different
states and different stadiumsand stuff, just getting them out
(10:32):
and seeing what other schoolshad to offer so it was a good, I
had a good run.
You know, the only regret I haveis just my school work.
If I would have went to classand stuff took my education
series, it would have been adifferent story.
But you know it is what it is.
I'm grateful for my journey andI'm just hopefully I can give
back to the younger generation.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Now, after the transition from high school, you
then had a grade to go toMichigan.
You know Braylon and all ofthem yeah, right in the Edwards
Michigan guy, all of them lovedyou, man.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Lloyd Carr was still there too.
Yeah, lloyd Carr, that was myguy.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
I talked to Lloyd Carr yeah, lloyd Carr was still
there.
But after high school, what wasyour?
What was your next thing like?
What did you do after high?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
school.
Actually, I still had an offeron the table which was Eastern
Michigan.
They still offered me, but theywas going to give me a partial
if I wanted to come to thatschool and I would have the red
shirt and stuff like that, getmy grades which is cool, but I'm
just like nah.
So I ended up going to actuallyto play basketball at Port
Huron.
I went to Port Huron to play.
(11:36):
They paid for my school andstuff.
I had a full scholarship.
I ended up going there for ayear, balled out, won MVP.
My other college team went tothe All-Star game and that's
pretty much all the top playersin the state of Michigan, like
Juco, go to the games like theEast and the West.
So I went to that and that waspretty cool and I got offers
from like Houston University anda few other D1s and the other
(11:56):
one was D2.
So I did that for a year.
Then I sat out for two yearsbecause I ended up having my
daughter.
So I went home and worked forthose two years and I'm like I
got to get I was 20.
I'm like I got to get backplaying ball.
So I drove up to Central Stateand just tried out Like I stayed
with a friend and I tried outwhen the team got back from a
away game, talked to the coaches.
(12:18):
They worked me out for about 30, 40 minutes.
It was like shoot man, we loveyou, we're trying to get you
here, we're trying to get youhere.
And they offered me ascholarship right then and there
, and shout out to Pastor Grayat our church she actually
funded the money for me to gothere because my old school was
trying to.
You know, like if you leave theschool they be wanting you to
pay all these fees and stuff.
But they wanted me to pay fivegrand for my transcript.
(12:40):
But my old pastor, she paid forme to get my transcript so I
can be able to go to college.
So shout out to her and my momfor putting that together.
So that's why I finished atCentral Michigan I mean Central
State and I played basketballand football there.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Okay, yeah, what do you feel like in your time from
becoming a dad?
From becoming a dad Like when?
Did you feel like thetransition of, you know,
prioritizing school sports andthen, yeah, fatherhood?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah, so pretty much, I think.
Like my junior year at CentralI had Angel, like I always used
to come because I had a car, soI used to drive back to Michigan
and pick her up so she wouldstay at my dorm with me sometime
on the weekends.
I'd have her for four or fivedays.
But I just reached a point, youknow, like I was getting hurt.
I was missing my daughter.
Like my daughter was justeverywhere and I didn't want
(13:36):
that responsibility to be myparents.
So it was a tough decision.
I could have stayed at school,but I'm like I got to get my
daughter because at the end ofthe day it's not my parents'
responsibility.
So I ended up leaving school.
My junior year came back home,started working, take care of my
baby, so that's kind of likewhat ended my career.
I still could ball, but it justwasn't fun for me no more.
(13:57):
I just left school, man, andcame home just started taking
care of my baby.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
So, taking care of Angel.
Shout out to the baby cuz yeah,Taking care of Angel.
Shout out to Baby Cuz yeah,Taking care of Angel.
Man.
What was the next thing Like,what were the next steps that
you did to transition to here inTennessee, Because you know,
coming from Detroit and makingthat.
When did you decide to makethat jump From Tennessee?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, Yep, so pretty much.
So I moved back to Michiganfrom Central State in 2011, 2012
, down there, but then I met mytwin's mom in 2012.
Yep, we started dating.
I sent her to the club.
Shout out to Lash, yeah.
Shout out to the wife.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Shout out to the wife yeah, I met her in 2012.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Like, I went to school with her.
I never talked to her, I justknew of her.
I saw her in the club in 2012and we started kicking it and
shoot, not even two months later, she was pregnant with the
twins.
So that was another situation.
So I went from coming home totaking care of one baby and then
got two more on the way in afew more months.
So more months.
So it was pretty quick, but, um, pretty much.
To answer your question how Itransitioned here, um, that was
(15:07):
2018 november.
Uh, we was married.
Um, me and the wife hadseparated.
She moved here in 2017.
I was still in detroit.
I was in detroit for a wholeanother year, but we just
decided to try to make it work,um, make our marriage work, and
you know what's best for ourkids too.
So I came down here in 2018 toThanksgiving and shoot, I've
been down here ever since.
(15:28):
Man.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
How important is it to have a partner that's with
you through thick and thin?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Man.
It's very important, especiallyin today's society.
A lot of people it's very, veryquick to leave with something
not going right.
I think the younger generationthey give up too easy.
I just think about our parentsand stuff.
They stuck to stuff.
Whatever Our grandparents, nomatter what they did, they
always stayed together.
And I think our generation, theones after that you do a little
(15:59):
thing, they're ready to breakup.
It's over, we done.
Nobody's willing to fight forthe marriage and relationships
anymore.
I don't think so.
But it was important for us,because it was mainly important
for me too, because I come fromfamily Like my mom and dad.
Marriage was never perfect, butno matter.
At the end of the day theyalways try to make it work and
stick it out.
You know, so and I'm big onfamily.
So no matter what we wentthrough, you know I was always
(16:21):
going to try to make it work, ifI can you know, not just for my
kids, because you don't want tojust do stuff for your kids,
but just to save our marriage,because we made vows at the end
of the day and that's important.
You know I take those vows veryserious, so it was a part, but
I'm just like we got to try tomake this work.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
We did.
You know what I mean generationof pleasures.
You know what I'm saying.
I mean Kennedy's pleasures, youknow.
I know you, your dad and yourname Pleasure, but you were.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Kennedy, sure Mama Kennedy yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Auntie Jackie Kennedy .
But what do you feel is likepart where people think that
everything is easy transitioning.
Transition as far as what?
Transition as far as gettinghere and you got the kids and
you got married.
You know what I'm saying, andwhat job was you doing at that
(17:24):
time?
Speaker 2 (17:24):
When we first moved here?
Yeah, so when I first movedhere, I was working for this
company called WWL it's prettymuch connected with Nissan and
what we did was load.
So once the cars come off theline, we load them inside the
trains to be transported out thecountry in different states,
and I was outside freezing.
So I mean, at that time in 2018, I was making like $21 an hour.
That was decent back then, 2018, then I was working 10, 11
(17:48):
hours a day.
So get paid every week.
So that was pretty straight.
So that's what I was doingduring that time in 2018.
Then, after the pandemic, Istarted doing photography
full-time, you know.
But it was important, like, asfar as like just to go back on
what you were saying like howimportant it is to have a
partner Like, honestly, Iwouldn't be the man I am today
without my partner, because sheinvested in me, you know, like I
(18:12):
was doing photography, like Iwas editing on my phone and
stuff, and she took her littlebonus money and bought me a
laptop, you know, so I can startediting, and that took my
business to a whole other level.
A whole other level.
Yeah, so I'm forever grateful.
And level oh, another level,yeah, so I'm forever grateful,
and that's why you have to havethat balance in a relationship
as well.
And then you want to make surethat the person that you're with
is down for you.
You know what I'm saying,because a lot of us they say
(18:33):
they down, but when stuff gettough and hard, things hit the
fan, they gone.
You know, complaining andtalking about you broken is
instead of supporting you andbuilding you and molding you to
be.
You know what I'm saying.
So that's what it's about.
It's about building each otherup, you know what I'm saying
Like she's made me the man I amtoday, like she helped build me,
like even the woman she istoday, like I'm molding her and
building her to be the womanthat I need her to be.
(18:54):
For me that's what it's about.
Like a lot of herself, not forjust for herself, but for me as
well.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
You know and vice versa yeah, she did.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
She did the same, like I know what I wanted, and I
try to mold her and make her,you know, to my best ability to
mold her to the woman I need herto be and she's been that vice
versa, you know.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
So, yeah, and it's great man, you, daylon, dallas,
lash Angel, all of y'alltogether, right, yeah, and then
now that's what made me.
When you started talking aboutthe photography, I was going to
transition into that.
(19:41):
We, we come from a hustlingfamily, like whatever.
Yeah, well, they'll sell youanything.
You know what I'm saying, forsure, whatever we come from a
hustling family, like whateverBoy, they'll sell you anything.
You know what I'm saying, forsure.
Whatever.
And it's always been grind.
How did you get intophotography?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Man, that's crazy.
So I wasn't even thinking aboutphotography.
Like I said, I was an athlete.
So I got a camera because Iwould start.
Everybody was saying you funnybecause I was just joking and
stuff like that.
So I actually bought a camerabecause I was doing skits before
Skits was out, before that waslike known.
I was doing skits in 2014,2015,.
Like on my phone and loadingthem on Facebook yeah, you know
(20:17):
what I'm saying Before they camehot, and so I'm like I'm going
to invest in this.
So I got a camera.
I was just going to recordmyself growing my jokes.
I was going to do stand-up too,so that's why I got the camera,
but I never shot.
I never did nothing with it.
So I just started like justtaking it around my family and
friends and taking pictures.
So I just became the man withthe camera.
I started making money on theside at work.
(20:39):
I used to work for Chryslerback in Detroit, so on the
weekends I do people, partiesand events, make my little money
and then.
So it just became a littlehustle.
But when I moved here, my wifegot me a little gig, like with
the sorority girls, and I didone shoot and then everybody
started booking me for that, forlike portraits and stuff like
that.
So I learned I had to learnquick on the go.
(21:00):
What sorority is that?
So my wife?
Speaker 1 (21:02):
she's an AKA, so Neck Crazy, neck yeah, aka, yeah,
shout out to the AKAs man.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Shout out to my baby Pinky green, to the pervs yeah,
man, that's dope.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
So you just, I remember you doing the skits,
but I didn't know.
That's what started it.
Yeah, that's what I startedfrom.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Because I used to do the little church skits, the
church skits, the choir director.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I was doing all that with my phone.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
I'm like I'm about to get me some high quality,
because nobody really had nohigh quality videos back then.
They just had like from theirphone.
Like I'm about to change thegame.
I was doing like a few littleskits with like other people in
Detroit yeah, they doing realgood right now too.
I just kind of like just let itdie, because you know, when you
have a family, you work, you'retrying to take care of your
family and everything.
(21:46):
Yeah, put food on the table,yeah.
So everything else just kind oflike die out like things that
you enjoy doing so.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
You went from skits to starting to be a photographer
, doing the side gigs on theweekends, a small weekend to
full time.
How did it go from on theweekends to full time?
What did you do to invest more?
Speaker 2 (22:05):
into that, Yep.
So, like when I was in Detroit,I was just doing weekends
because I was working Mondaythrough Friday, but when I moved
here, I was still working forWWL and I was just doing stuff
on the weekends still, yeah, butactually I ended up getting
fired because they was workingus too you know these jobs be
working us crazy.
They wanted they had mandatorydays too, like I work my regular
(22:25):
40.
But then they'd tell me on mylast day of work oh yeah, we got
mandatory tomorrow and the restof the week.
So it was messing up mybookings like people that have
books.
So I had to cancel the shootsand it was kind of like bad for
business, like I'm tellingpeople I've got to be there
tomorrow.
And I got to, but I came inlate, but it was not within a
(22:47):
certain amount of time.
So at the end of the day theylet me work and then fired me.
So after that I was just like Ireally got to go hard with this
photography, Damn Craig.
Yep.
So they let me get my money.
They gave me all my money andthen shoot.
I just bought a brand newcamera and two lenses and shoot.
I just went to work, juststarted hustling, I started
grinding because I'm like I hadto pay these bills.
What was your first camera?
(23:09):
My first camera was so thefirst one I bought was a Canon
T6S Rebel and I had it up untilI moved here.
Then, when I lost my job, Ijust took money and just bought
the first mirrorless we had.
The first mirrorless that cameout was a Canon RP and I just
went crazy with it.
I bought like two lenses andwent crazy and I never looked
back since.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
So, just taking that leap of faith, after you know
what I mean deciding on if youwas going to be at WWL or being
an entrepreneur, starting yourentrepreneurship you just went
straight into theentrepreneurship.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah, because I'm like in my head I'm like I can
always get a job.
If it don't work out, I cancome get back and get me a job.
So I'm like I'm going to justtry this photography thing and
if it don't do nothing then I'llget me another job.
But shoot I was making moremoney than I ever seen Good,
fast money, and I enjoy what Ido.
It didn't feel like work.
So I'm like shoot.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
I'm going to stick with this.
Your wife's AKA shoot turnedinto a network of Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah, I did that one shoot.
Then you know Murfreesboro,like I'm in Murfreesboro, I was
in Murfreesboro, so it's small.
So all the black people stucktogether, and then somebody
reached out for a fashion showlike, hey, I seen the pictures
you did for such and such and Iwonder if you could do my
fashion show that had somecelebrities.
So I'm like, yeah, I'm going todo that.
I'm just going to get my footin it, though, and I did that
shoot and boom, everybodystarted booking me.
(24:30):
After that I was doingeverybody's pictures and
business pictures, so that'skind of like where I started at.
They kept me busy.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
So how did you get linked to the Titans players?
Speaker 2 (24:40):
So actually, this was actually what 24?
So in 21,.
I talked to him.
His name Trell, he played forthe Titans.
But his girl at the time shereached out to me.
She's like, hey, my boyfriend,he's such-and-such playing for
the Titans and we want to dolike a couple shoot and a
birthday shoot for me.
(25:01):
I'm like, okay, cool.
So I did that shoot and thenthey posted it and got a lot of
likes.
And then another player reachedout to me, which is Bud.
He called you pre, yeah, bud,pre, yep.
So I think he with the Chargersnow shout out to Bud yeah, he
is with the Chargers.
So his wife reached out to meand I did a shoot at his crib
dope crib, yeah, shout out hisfamily.
(25:22):
And he's still following.
We still follow each other tothis day.
And then Big Dog, jeffreySimmons, shout out to Jeff.
His girl always booked me forall her shoots, so I do all her
stuff.
Then I started shooting Jeff.
He came along, I shot him.
He came to my crib, shot him.
Then I shoot all their babyphotos.
(25:42):
And then I got to the crib.
He called me if he needssomething for the surprise
birthday party.
He called me yeah, that heneeds something or he'd like to
surprise a birthday party.
He'd call me.
So yeah, that's how I kind oflike, got a LinkedIn with the
Titan players, so it's been agood, a wonderful journey.
And then I do stuff.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I've done stuff for Monica the singer, quite a few
celebrities man, so it's been anhonor and doing a shoot with
one of your, you said your loyalclients, yep, and you were
saying how, like you had deadshoots or dead events with
senators.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I done senators.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
How did that work?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Man.
So actually, shout out toKaniece, she's a creative
director, like a big-timecreative director in Nashville
and Memphis.
She's from Connecticut yeah,and I do.
We do a lot of projectstogether.
And she had a client actually,which was Lamar London.
Shout out to Miss London.
She's a senator from Memphis.
So she reached out to me,wanted me to hey, can you come
(26:38):
shoot this Because you're goingto be fired?
You can pose and do all thisstuff.
So Lauren London, that's hername, Lauren London.
I said Lamar London, yeah, MissLauren London.
So I went to the senator thatchecked in and went to check my
bag and stuff.
So I did a shoot with her andher family in her new office
downtown Nashville.
Then we went to the chambers orwhatever where they do all the
voting and stuff.
So she had to get sworn in.
(26:58):
So I'm taking pictures.
I'm the only black guy in there, All these older white folk in
there, but it was cool.
So just to be in these rooms isa blessing man, and then also
just to get these connectionsand you just never know who you
might need and when you mightneed them.
So it's been a blessing manLike this.
Photography has taken me tomany different rooms and, you
know, networked with greatpeople, yeah, and look, man, you
(27:19):
said something dope too.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Man, before I go to the next little slide or
whatever what I want to talkabout, you said something about
having a membership.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Mm-hmm Yep, so pretty much what I do, too, is have
clients on retainers Retainers,yeah, or subscriptions.
So pretty much what I do is Ihave 10 slots.
So what I wanted to do was fillthose 10 slots with clients
that need, like YouTubers orpeople just always need content.
Lot of you like contentcreators and stuff like that.
You know just business people.
(27:53):
They just always need images.
So what I did was put them onretainers.
Every month like $300 per eachperson, you get three shoes and
you get like 10 edits per month,right, so I got 10 people on
that.
So it is like guaranteed money.
So I know, every month I gotthese 10, I got these
subscriptions coming out, sothat's residual income for me,
yeah, so that's perfect.
(28:15):
So I like that.
So that's kind of like what Iwanted to go to anyway.
Just have like more like peopleunder-retained, you know,
because it's guaranteed money.
You just never know, like withbusiness, because I may have
five shoots or seven shoots, butI know like I got those
subscriptions so, yeah, thenthey got to cancel.
Like the way I got it set up,you got to do it within like 35
(28:37):
days or something like that.
You just can't like cancel andnot pay, like if your payment
due tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
You can't cancel before you pay, so it's in the
contract, so yeah some peoplewill do that, okay, so, yeah, so
you, you, you got like residualset up.
You know I mean reoccurring,yeah, you know I mean got
payments coming to you.
Yeah, um, a lot of people uh dodifferent businesses.
And you know, for me and whatI've noticed in the black
(29:05):
community, um, it's always likenegative or something Like we
trying to one-up each other.
But in photography, what I'veseen from you, what I've seen
from Kadeem, like it ain't that,it's money.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
It's enough for everybody?
Yeah, but it is somegatekeepers.
Yeah, it's a few of those.
Like I remember, when I firststarted off, like trying to
figure out how to edit certaingear, People wouldn't say
nothing.
It was making me or they wantedme to pay for certain stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I'm like man, I can get the game free for YouTube,
right, you know what I'm saying.
But some people be gatekeepers,like especially if you're up
and coming, because they don'tthey be.
You know they be trying to makesomething like you, ain't
nothing you know when you'refirst starting off and they just
be like whatever, whatever,right.
So I've seen people read mymessage and respond, but when I
(30:02):
started booming I was too man,because when I reached out to
certain models and when I firststarted, oh, you got to pay me.
You know what I'm saying.
But now they want to work withyou and want to do it for free.
It ain't nothing free.
I don't do nothing free.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Yeah, yeah.
So a lot of people don't know,but you also, you know Kadeem
Mm-hmm and where you know Kadeemfrom Through you, yeah, okay,
yeah.
And the thing that I lovedabout it too man is like you,
you and Kadeem, you.
Whatever you knew, you gave himthe game.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
You know what I'm saying.
Like you shared the game.
Yeah, it's been plenty of timeshe'd reach out for advice.
I'd give it to him or we'd geton the FaceTime and I'd show him
how to do certain stuff, likewhen he was first starting,
where certain lights and stuffto get Right and shoot free game
and then shoot, just blew up,yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
And that's the thing, man Kadeem doing his thing,
shout out to him.
Yep, yep, shout out to my broKadeem.
Everybody doing their thing,man, and it's like it's not
taking away from what you gotgoing on.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yeah, it's enough out here for everybody.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Yeah, and that's what I love to see about it, because
everybody, and they in theirown lane, seem to like feel like
they got to one up or be be theholder of all the news.
But nah, like just spread theword you spread the word.
It's going to come back to youTen times.
Yeah, I mean, or tenfold, Likeyou know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
So and it's not for everything either.
For me, like photography, likeI love, I enjoy doing them, but
I'm 36.
I'm not trying to be doing thiswhen I'm 50, you know so
because I want to pass this downto the younger cats.
But the goal is to, you know,just have, have a bigger brand
and have people working under me.
So it'll still be under my name, but, like if it's events or
(31:42):
something like under my name, mybusiness name.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Okay, yeah, that's dope.
What you feel like is next likefor you, like outside of the
photography, Because you yeah,more so.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Real estate I do want to get some properties Me and
my wife invest in someproperties and stuff like that.
Get a few Airbnbs, just startgetting, just add more income to
our household, like for ourkids, so they'd be set and
things like that.
But we, our main goal is to getsome property in Detroit, own a
(32:16):
few homes and flip a few homesas well.
Just that's pretty much whatwe're working to next and just
own it, flip the property, yeahwe gotta get, we gotta.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
We gotta get 5755 back.
We get that back, we good.
We gotta get 57, 55 back andall of us me, you, keisha,
tanisha, all of us, we all,dietrich, we all can get, get
together and figure outsomething, man to where we can
have that, turn that into Airbnb, whatever you know, what I mean
(32:45):
.
Extend it out whatever toAirbnb, whatever, yeah, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Extended out whatever you got to take care of where
you come from Got to man.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
That's like a landmark for us.
So it's very prominent toattack that issue at hand.
But other than that, because welost one of our cousins first
in piece to Quest yes sir, howdid you handle that?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Man, it was tough.
It's still tough to this day.
You know, I kind of like I meanI don't know how real dreams
are but I knew he was gonebefore I got the call.
It was like that night I gotthe call, my mom called like at
4 or 5 the next morning and likebefore she called me, I had a
(33:40):
dream Like I was coming in thedoor and Quez was going out.
He had like a suit on, he had ahanger.
It was like a suit.
I was like Quez going out.
He had like a suit on, he had ahanger.
It was like a suit.
I was like Quez, I'm like youready.
He was smiling, like yeah, man,I'm ready.
I was like man, I love you,like I love you too.
And I woke up from a dream andlike not even like a minute
(34:07):
later, my he was gone.
I already knew, but dealing withit it's been tough, man,
because when I go to certainplaces I be like dang.
This is the place I was at whenI taught the quiz or one of the
lights I got.
Every time I turn that light onI think of quiz, because I got
that light that same day, justeven some of the stuff we did
together.
We both played ball.
We related a lot.
(34:27):
I had his ID coming up.
I was always with him.
We always went to the same highschool, you know.
So it was yeah, that ID man,yeah, I had his ID for a long
time.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
So this is when I tell people like.
I'm done with the clubbing.
It's because we had Questmaking Reese IDs at 14, 15, 16
years old, getting into StAndrews and all the other clubs
with ease, so it's like it's oldto us, so like when you said
that, man, that definitelybrought back some crazy memories
(34:57):
, man.
But we stuck together, man, westuck together.
We was thick as thieves,especially on Wade.
We used to have themthree-on-three tournaments,
three in the backyard.
We were smaller.
Have them three-on-threetournaments, three-on-three in
the backyard.
We were smaller.
The big three was Chris Reeseand Mank Mank and me, you and Ro
, yeah Then.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Tone ain't never play .
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Tone ain't hoop, little Tone ain't never hoop man
.
No, just us six.
Yeah, us six most of the time,but yeah, man, man, it's
definitely it's been tough it'sdefinitely been tough, but I
don't how I deal with it.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
I mean, it's like how I feel.
It's like a pain that willnever go away.
It's like a piece of your heartthat can never be.
It would never feel the same,but I just I think they're just
part of life, because you'regoing to lose people you're
going to use, and that hurt.
It would never go away, becauseQuez was like the toughest death
for me like ever, like I wasyoung, like I miss my
(35:52):
grandparents and stuff.
But I was young, I was 11.
I was 9 and 12, you know, Imean I didn't fully understand
it like how I do.
Now you know what I'm saying,but like someone that was
closest Quez to me and all of us, you know it kind of hurt, did
it, because it was like a realbrother.
you know what I'm saying?
Because we were more thancousins, yeah, we were brothers.
So that really, really hurt,and it still hurts to this day.
I just learned how to justexcuse me, like just how to deal
(36:15):
with it, man, in this life, youknow.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Yeah, hopefully man we can get.
We can see baby Qued so we canyeah around and show them.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Look, just like them.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Look just like them, man.
Yeah, well, yeah, we hopefully,hopefully, that that pan out
well too, man.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
But you just got to be grateful for the times you
have with people, man.
Yeah, because you never know.
Yeah, that's why, like I don'thave no regrets for nobody, I
enjoy, like, all myrelationships with my cousin, my
family.
I'm no bad blood with nobody.
I try to enjoy him while I can.
You just never, know, like theygone, like he gone, it was hurt
, it hurt, but we had a greatrelationship.
You know what I'm saying Like alot of great memories.
(36:54):
That's how it should be, youknow so.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yeah, remember the State Fair.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
State Fair.
That was the spot.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Man.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Yeah, state Classic, have your paper and your pen.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Have your pen and paper ready.
Who going to get the mostnumbers?
That was the man I think we wasin that trippity and Quez just
say Quez, just say what's theworst thing they're going to say
to you.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Right, no, that's it Okay.
Go to the next person.
Had the jabots on.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Yeah, had, or Jabot James, whatever time it was, man
Durack Definitely.
Oh, he always had Durack onthat was early 2000s 2001, 2002.
Yeah, and with that man Ialways like we talked about it
early, like I just feel like mebeing in the military, you going
(37:43):
, you know, to school and allthose things.
Yeah, like I didn't realizeother people have PTSD outside
of the military until after mydoctor told me, hey, you had
trauma before you joined themilitary.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Like just coming from where you come from.
Yeah, just coming from whereyou come from.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yeah, then you get into the military and boom
you're in Iraq.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
It's getting worse.
Yeah, it done got worse.
You know what I'm?
Saying Now you double triggered.
So how do you let me ask youthat like, how do you process
that?
Like, do you like have I mean,I know you ain't really supposed
to ask people, you know whatI'm saying like what they
experience, but like, how isyour mental state, you know,
after saying um?
Speaker 1 (38:24):
man.
It took a while, man.
It took a while for me to likecommunicate.
I think that's what reallyhappened with me and Benita Like
I just shut down, she'd betalking or whatever.
I just shut down and I didn'tcare about nothing.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
It's good that we still got a great friendship now
afterwards and we co-parent.
Therapy definitely helped.
I, we co-parent, but therapydefinitely helped me.
I ain't even gonna lie Therapy,therapy is the, the great cause
of how I am now man, becausebecause trying to trying to like
handle Iraq, marital issues,previous issues before I joined
(39:10):
yeah, all the issues all thatstuff, yeah, yeah, all of that
stuff.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
It was hard Piling up on you.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Yeah, it's piling up on me, man.
And then you know we raised tolike be tough.
Oh yeah, don't show emotions,don't cry, don't do this.
And then it's like all thisstuff hurt us too.
Yeah, you know, like that toughman have that tough mentality,
just being tough all the time,like you ain't gotta be tough,
like you only need to be toughwhen you need to be tough yeah,
(39:37):
and it kind of like hurt a lotof relationships too.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Yeah, like people we may have been with Yup, because
we never had like that soft side, we only hurting ourselves and
the people that you know that wecare for.
So I had to thanks thanks formy wife, cause I had to fix
myself you know and be softer.
You know, sometimes alwaystough.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
Yeah, the girls man.
I ain't know a lot of girlsmade me.
That's what helped to havingthe girls man.
The girls Cause I was so strongout on having a boy, having a
boy.
I think me personally, if I hadsons, I'd still be the same way
.
I wouldn't be healed, Iwouldn't be able to communicate.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
I'd just be shutting down.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
So, having the girls, it made me fall all the way
back and slow down and then takecare of what I need to take
care of as far as being a greatdad and listening, listening
with a purpose.
You know what I need to takecare of as far as, like, being a
great dad and listening,listening with a purpose.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Listening, to understand, not to react.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Not to react, listening to build trust and
listening for facts and feelings.
So when I did all of thosethings, shout out to Marine
Corps Recruiting.
That's how I learned all ofthose four things from, even
though I hated it.
I hated recruiting man, but itreally helped me be a better
person when I got out, because Ilistened more than I talked.
Yeah, and when you startlistening more than you talk,
(41:01):
you start understanding thesepeople feelings.
They're valid feelings, yeah,and you're like damn, I need to
check myself.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Yeah, for sure, yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
So that's why sometimes, like with the girls,
man, I let them they're notreally talking back, I let them
talk to like express themselves.
Because, remember, we couldn'tdo that.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
You shut up, you hit your in the mouth and knock you
out as soon as you say somethingyou know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Nah, I let them explain themselves and get their
thoughts across before we shutthem down, because if you shut
them down especially for girlsthey're going to shut all the
way down.
They might not talk to you forlike a week or two, and then
every time, someone.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
I think that's kind of like what affected us too,
while we shut down because wewasn't allowed to talk.
Yeah, we weren't allowed totalk or express ourselves.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
We're always talking back or being disrespectful.
We just grew, just trying toexplain.
We were really just trying toexplain ourselves and that's
what I learned, man, when youjust sit back and listen, you
just be like damn okay, youright.
I see where you coming from.
I understand that like, andthen it.
You know what I'm saying.
I think that's the.
The relationship gets betterwith your kids you know what I'm
(42:10):
saying and with relationshipsyou create a safe space?
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Yeah, you create that safe space man, when you got
that safe space?
Speaker 1 (42:16):
they can come to you about anything.
And today we out doing familyat a family event, you know,
bowling and playing arcade stuff.
We playing basketball, we'rehooping.
We see Daylon and Melainaplaying connect for shooting a
hoop.
Yeah, and some boy come up toher.
(42:37):
I'm watching it and I'm likedang the buddy trying Mm-hmm
Elena just kept shooing him away.
He finally caught the picture,yeah.
But yeah, it's just crazy whenyou see those things.
It's like you sit back and youwatch and you're like, okay, and
even if she came and talked tome you know what I mean it would
have been like all right.
(42:57):
Yeah, because you know, a lotof times too, our parents
thought they knew all theanswers, so they was going to
answer you before you even saidwhat you was about to say.
Oh, I already know what you'retalking about and like nah, like
, give them the opportunity totalk and everything will be all
right.
But yeah, man, you got thetherapy.
(43:20):
It's important you got, you know, before we get out of here,
because what's something youthink you can give to the
community I used to call?
I call it gym class.
It's called gym class G-E-M.
You know what I mean.
It's the first episode for thesecond season?
Yeah, so we got to start thisone off with a bang.
(43:41):
What's a gym you can give toeverybody in a toolbox that can
keep you know what I mean, aquote or whatever.
You feel that you know what I'msaying.
I can help them out in whateverjourney they're trying to get
to.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Yeah, I would say well, first I'm going to speak
to married people.
Okay, my advice would be topretty much just be on the same
page, be equally yoked, praytogether, whatever you believe
in, that's very important.
(44:12):
Prayer is very important.
Um, pray, prayer is veryimportant in your marriage.
Uh, communication, um then likehalf like was maybe helped, me
and my wife.
It just like half like goeslike weekly, goes like um, just
sit down with each other andjust talk about your plans for
the month or the week, what'sgoing on.
It just make everything moresmoother and that way you be on
(44:34):
the same page.
But that would be my advice forfor marriage and just keep
whatever you're going throughbetween you and your spouse
because can't nobody fix itbetween you and your spouse and
God, you know what I'm sayinglike no outsider, because we
have we tend to do that a lotlike talk to your boy, your girl
on the side, let them knowwhat's going on in your
household, and especially thesingle friends, yeah, they can't
(44:56):
help at all.
Yeah, so always just keep thatwhatever's going on in your
household between y'all and thenjust like for it's like younger
, younger kids, um, I would say,because I got three girls.
Um man, like I was when I goback to talking about earlier,
like we were talking about thestudent athletes and just get
(45:17):
your education.
Like therapy we talked abouttherapy.
You need to see therapists.
That's important to do it young, you know, don't be afraid to
because people would think youknow.
Like we were talking about.
like the black community andtherapy people think they're
just like oh, we don't do thatwhich we, we struggle with that,
like with the black community.
Yeah, just get therapy.
(45:39):
If you're younger kids, Reachout to your parents, tell them
you need a little help, becausewe all have been through some
things and seen some things.
Yeah, man, that's what I wouldsay.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Man, yeah, all right, all right, cuz, before we get
out of here, I want to shout outto Pilar man for this dope
custom hoodie man.
And if y'all not subscribed,please subscribe, like comment
and share.
Make sure y'all following.
Deep Pleasure Photography.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
For sure y'all Deep Pleasure Photography, yeah, Deep
.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Pleasure Photography, let For sure, yeah, deep Plays
Photography, yeah, deep PlaysPhotography.
Let me know if you need toshoot Anywhere, he'll come to
you.
But you gotta pay.
Gotta pay that travel fee.
Gotta pay that travel fee.
And yeah, man, relationshipsworth more than money.
Season two, first episode, sir,appreciate you.
Thank you, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yo Yo Season two
Relationships worth more thanmoney.
This one's very special to meBecause not only do I got
somebody that's really close tome, but this is really family
Bloodline Kennedys Not evengonna do too much To my right,
who I got.
This is really family.
Bloodline Kennedy's Not evengoing to do too much To my right
(01:28):
, who I got.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It's your boy, damon man.
D-pledge Boop.
No, that's me.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Bookie.
Yeah, yeah man.
So we just had a specialweekend, man.
Thanksgiving at Boop Crib man,it's been a blessing.
Thanksgiving at Boot Crib man,it's been a blessing.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
We had a good time.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Family came through and that wasn't even a third of
the family.
Yeah, 15 of us, man, 15 of usout of like, and it was just
like it's two families, threefamilies, yeah, out of like,
honey, you know what I'm saying.
But no man, I've watched.
You know what I'm saying, butno man, I've watched.
You know what I mean.
I just look back at the timeswhere we were kids growing up.
You, me, ro, k-ken, quest,reese, you know what I'm saying.
(02:18):
We all were just being kids,man, and you know we never knew
what the future was going tohold for us.
You know what I'm saying.
And now to see you, man, in abrand new house, you know what
I'm saying.
You, your wife, your kids, man,the kids playing around,
(02:38):
playing together, laying on thesteps right now playing yeah,
yeah, man.
It brings back so much memories,man.
But first and foremost man, Iwant to say congratulations to
getting the crib.
Let's take it back, man.
Let's take it back to.
I mean, I know where you from.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
You know what I'm saying, but take it back for the
people, for the audience.
You know what I mean.
Tell them where you from.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Pretty much same thing as Twine Tweez.
Born and raised Detroit,michigan.
Yes, sir.
Grew up on Maxwell, off of VanDyke and also off of Mack on
Sheridan.
Back in the day Went to FinneyHigh School Shout out to the
Highlanders Class of 06.
(03:21):
But shoot, just coming fromhumble beginnings, coming from
nothing, coming from dirt Notsaying that we were poor, you
know what I'm saying.
But everything that we have now, we got out the mud.
I'm grateful for the journey.
It's molded us to be the manthat we are today and I'm just
enjoying the ride right now.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, man, yeah, we wasn't poor, poor, it was just
like I would say, like it waslike lower middle class and then
middle class, yeah, and nothingwas given to us.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
We had to earn it.
We had to earn everything.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, man, and the whole thing.
Man is just crazy, like how weall are doing great things,
uh-huh, and we all different.
You know what I mean?
You got families now it's likewe're the unks and uncles
aunties and uncles and all that.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
We the OGs now.
We the OGs now.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
So I'm going to take it back to ninth grade.
Uh-huh, ninth grade, your ninthgrade, but it was my senior
year.
Yeah, he was about to playbasketball.
I've been knowing you've beenplaying basketball all your life
, you were the first one out ofour family.
I think that jumped on a planeat a young age.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
First one to like just travel with AAU, with the
Roadrunners.
But yeah, man, I had this coachman Shout out to Coach Jordan.
I tried to tell him man.
I said, coach, you got to watchout.
What was your number back then?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
In high school, yeah, in my grade For basketball.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I had dang.
That's a good question.
I don't know what number I hadOn JV.
Yeah, jv was different BecauseI played JV for a few months and
then, after like five games,they put me on varsity and that
fifth game happened to beagainst Osborne, my school, and
I told the coach.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I said, coach, gave him a good 30.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Watch out for him.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
And he was like why?
And I was like you know him.
I said yeah, that's my cousin.
He was like I ain't worriedabout him.
I said, all right, he ain'tdrop no 30.
He dropped 50 on him Easy.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And ever since then Boop was in, Boop was in varsity
.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, yeah.
So you did basketball and Iremember Auntie Jackie wouldn't
let you play football with us.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, she didn't let me play football.
I didn't play football.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
At all.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
None.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
We played for the.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Eastside Raiders Yep, I was going to see y'all go to
practice all the time You're theonly one out of the family that
didn't play.
I didn't play.
She didn't want me getting hurt.
She didn't let me playbasketball.
Yep, I made JV and I ain'tgetting no burn.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
No.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I ain't getting no burn.
Then that summer I just workedmy butt off and shoot.
I went to like a training camp,like tryouts and then, like the
summer workouts, it was killingthem.
I was ready, Shoot.
I was on varsity Starting thatreceiver Tim Grade, I was the
big boy.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
so what you think?
May auntie, auntie change hermind on that football, cause you
didn't play none, no C team, bteam or A team.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah, at that point I was in high school.
So I mean, I just had to, Ijust played, I just tried out.
It wasn't no cause, I wasn't alittle baby, no more, you know
what I'm saying like I'm 12, 11,so she was afraid of me getting
hurt.
But going to high school, I'm14, you know.
So it was a different ball game.
Plus, I made the team.
So she was like, oh, you'regoing to try it.
And when she came out there,you know I was showing out.
(06:53):
So she kind of laid off of it alittle bit and just wasn't
scared no more.
And let me play ball.
Because I played basketball andfootball in high school for all
four years.
So that's kind of like how thathappened.
When she saw I was good, I'mlike okay, okay, then she just
started, she just took it, andthen I started getting offers
and everything.
So she was with it, she startedtraveling, coming to all my.
(07:13):
She was my biggest, became mybiggest fan, right right.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And what for the youngins out there, man, what
you think you can give back tothe, to the youngest that's been
playing sports, that's playingsports right now in high school.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, the biggest thing I would say, man, the
biggest priority is school,school, school, school.
Like sports is going to bethere.
It's cool, but you just got tothink about it as it's.
It's not a forever thing.
You know what I'm saying.
So getting them grades and justmake sure you're hitting them
books, that's the most importantpart, because, at the end of
the day, your career can end atany moment, any second.
(07:49):
You can break an ankle Because,like me personally, I broke my
ankle and I broke my foot myjunior and senior year.
So just say that was my careerif I was professional.
You got to have something tofall back on.
You got to have your education.
So that's one thing that I Iwould really push like I was to
give.
I'm giving back to the kids.
Yeah, grades come first,because at the end of the day
(08:10):
you're a student athlete right,you know.
Athlete come second.
You're a student first.
So I would say always keep youreducation first, then sport,
yeah, because that that's gonnacome, because if you got
god-given talent, that's gonnabe there.
Right, just hit them booksfirst.
That that's the biggest thing,because when it's all said and
done, when the sports is over,when you get older, you're going
to have something to fall backon, which is your education.
So that's the most important.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, okay, okay.
You got to your senior year,you balling out at Finney,
playing receiver.
And then was Kyle thequarterback, then Kyle Gaskin
yeah, shout out to Kyle.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Kyle was a freshman Kyle was a sophomore.
That was my senior year, yeahand he got injured.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Right yeah, he got hurt.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
No, he didn't get hurt my year Nope.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
What made you play quarterback then?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
So our quarterback was Vincent Phillips.
That was my quarterback.
He was a junior, I was a senior, he was our quarterback.
He, he got hurt, he had a toreshoulder and then they ain't had
nobody to throw me the ball.
So I ended up playingquarterback three games.
We won all three.
Then Kyle came in so he endedup playing because I needed to
be back at receiver.
But that was actually I'm sorry, that was my junior year
(09:16):
because my senior year I didn'tplay football until to the state
, to the playoffs, to the citychampionship.
So to the playoffs, to the citychampionship.
So I broke my foot.
So I had broke my ankle.
My junior year for basketball Iwas the lead scorer in the
state.
We played Southeastern.
I came down and broke my ankleso I was out for the rest of the
basketball season.
Then I'm getting ready forfootball season, but I was
(09:39):
playing basketball in the gymand broke my foot.
So I didn't play no senior yearfor football until the city
championship.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, it's, mumford right.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, we played Mumford but they didn't really
throw me the ball.
I was pissed.
I was playing, I was out there,I'm like man throw me the ball,
yeah.
But then I ended up playing atthe state championship, I mean
the state playoffs.
I ended up scoring and stufflike that.
I was still banged up a littlebit but that was my senior year.
If I was healthy it would havebeen a different story, but I
did play basketball my senioryear and you had Michigan man,
(10:11):
you had Michigan on you tough.
I had big schools Michigan, iowa, nebraska, georgia Tech, all
the Big Ten teams, the SEC teams, pretty much all the big
schools, wisconsin, and of themyou know they was sending me and
my mom, my dad, out, so we wasgoing taking them different
states and different stadiumsand stuff, just getting them out
(10:32):
and seeing what other schoolshad to offer so it was a good, I
had a good run.
You know, the only regret I haveis just my school work.
If I would have went to classand stuff took my education
series, it would have been adifferent story.
But you know it is what it is.
I'm grateful for my journey andI'm just hopefully I can give
back to the younger generation.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Now, after the transition from high school, you
then had a grade to go toMichigan.
You know Braylon and all ofthem yeah, right in the Edwards
Michigan guy, all of them lovedyou, man.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Lloyd Carr was still there too.
Yeah, lloyd Carr, that was myguy.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
I talked to Lloyd Carr yeah, lloyd Carr was still
there.
But after high school, what wasyour?
What was your next thing like?
What did you do after high?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
school.
Actually, I still had an offeron the table which was Eastern
Michigan.
They still offered me, but theywas going to give me a partial
if I wanted to come to thatschool and I would have the red
shirt and stuff like that, getmy grades which is cool, but I'm
just like nah.
So I ended up going to actuallyto play basketball at Port
Huron.
I went to Port Huron to play.
(11:36):
They paid for my school andstuff.
I had a full scholarship.
I ended up going there for ayear, balled out, won MVP.
My other college team went tothe All-Star game and that's
pretty much all the top playersin the state of Michigan, like
Juco, go to the games like theEast and the West.
So I went to that and that waspretty cool and I got offers
from like Houston University anda few other D1s and the other
(11:56):
one was D2.
So I did that for a year.
Then I sat out for two yearsbecause I ended up having my
daughter.
So I went home and worked forthose two years and I'm like I
got to get I was 20.
I'm like I got to get backplaying ball.
So I drove up to Central Stateand just tried out Like I stayed
with a friend and I tried outwhen the team got back from a
away game, talked to the coaches.
(12:18):
They worked me out for about 30, 40 minutes.
It was like shoot man, we loveyou, we're trying to get you
here, we're trying to get youhere.
And they offered me ascholarship right then and there
, and shout out to Pastor Grayat our church she actually
funded the money for me to gothere because my old school was
trying to.
You know, like if you leave theschool they be wanting you to
pay all these fees and stuff.
But they wanted me to pay fivegrand for my transcript.
(12:40):
But my old pastor, she paid forme to get my transcript so I
can be able to go to college.
So shout out to her and my momfor putting that together.
So that's why I finished atCentral Michigan I mean Central
State and I played basketballand football there.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Okay, yeah, what do you feel like in your time from
becoming a dad?
From becoming a dad Like when?
Did you feel like thetransition of, you know,
prioritizing school sports andthen, yeah, fatherhood?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah, so pretty much, I think.
Like my junior year at CentralI had Angel, like I always used
to come because I had a car, soI used to drive back to Michigan
and pick her up so she wouldstay at my dorm with me sometime
on the weekends.
I'd have her for four or fivedays.
But I just reached a point, youknow, like I was getting hurt.
I was missing my daughter.
Like my daughter was justeverywhere and I didn't want
(13:36):
that responsibility to be myparents.
So it was a tough decision.
I could have stayed at school,but I'm like I got to get my
daughter because at the end ofthe day it's not my parents'
responsibility.
So I ended up leaving school.
My junior year came back home,started working, take care of my
baby, so that's kind of likewhat ended my career.
I still could ball, but it justwasn't fun for me no more.
(13:57):
I just left school, man, andcame home just started taking
care of my baby.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
So, taking care of Angel.
Shout out to the baby cuz yeah,Taking care of Angel.
Shout out to Baby Cuz yeah,Taking care of Angel.
Man.
What was the next thing Like,what were the next steps that
you did to transition to here inTennessee, Because you know,
coming from Detroit and makingthat.
When did you decide to makethat jump From Tennessee?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, Yep, so pretty much.
So I moved back to Michiganfrom Central State in 2011, 2012
, down there, but then I met mytwin's mom in 2012.
Yep, we started dating.
I sent her to the club.
Shout out to Lash, yeah.
Shout out to the wife.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Shout out to the wife yeah, I met her in 2012.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Like, I went to school with her.
I never talked to her, I justknew of her.
I saw her in the club in 2012and we started kicking it and
shoot, not even two months later, she was pregnant with the
twins.
So that was another situation.
So I went from coming home totaking care of one baby and then
got two more on the way in afew more months.
So more months.
So it was pretty quick, but, um, pretty much.
To answer your question how Itransitioned here, um, that was
(15:07):
2018 november.
Uh, we was married.
Um, me and the wife hadseparated.
She moved here in 2017.
I was still in detroit.
I was in detroit for a wholeanother year, but we just
decided to try to make it work,um, make our marriage work, and
you know what's best for ourkids too.
So I came down here in 2018 toThanksgiving and shoot, I've
been down here ever since.
(15:28):
Man.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
How important is it to have a partner that's with
you through thick and thin?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Man.
It's very important, especiallyin today's society.
A lot of people it's very, veryquick to leave with something
not going right.
I think the younger generationthey give up too easy.
I just think about our parentsand stuff.
They stuck to stuff.
Whatever Our grandparents, nomatter what they did, they
always stayed together.
And I think our generation, theones after that you do a little
(15:59):
thing, they're ready to breakup.
It's over, we done.
Nobody's willing to fight forthe marriage and relationships
anymore.
I don't think so.
But it was important for us,because it was mainly important
for me too, because I come fromfamily Like my mom and dad.
Marriage was never perfect, butno matter.
At the end of the day theyalways try to make it work and
stick it out.
You know, so and I'm big onfamily.
So no matter what we wentthrough, you know I was always
(16:21):
going to try to make it work, ifI can you know, not just for my
kids, because you don't want tojust do stuff for your kids,
but just to save our marriage,because we made vows at the end
of the day and that's important.
You know I take those vows veryserious, so it was a part, but
I'm just like we got to try tomake this work.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
We did.
You know what I mean generationof pleasures.
You know what I'm saying.
I mean Kennedy's pleasures, youknow.
I know you, your dad and yourname Pleasure, but you were.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Kennedy, sure Mama Kennedy yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Auntie Jackie Kennedy .
But what do you feel is likepart where people think that
everything is easy transitioning.
Transition as far as what?
Transition as far as gettinghere and you got the kids and
you got married.
You know what I'm saying, andwhat job was you doing at that
(17:24):
time?
Speaker 2 (17:24):
When we first moved here?
Yeah, so when I first movedhere, I was working for this
company called WWL it's prettymuch connected with Nissan and
what we did was load.
So once the cars come off theline, we load them inside the
trains to be transported out thecountry in different states,
and I was outside freezing.
So I mean, at that time in 2018, I was making like $21 an hour.
That was decent back then, 2018, then I was working 10, 11
(17:48):
hours a day.
So get paid every week.
So that was pretty straight.
So that's what I was doingduring that time in 2018.
Then, after the pandemic, Istarted doing photography
full-time, you know.
But it was important, like, asfar as like just to go back on
what you were saying like howimportant it is to have a
partner Like, honestly, Iwouldn't be the man I am today
without my partner, because sheinvested in me, you know, like I
(18:12):
was doing photography, like Iwas editing on my phone and
stuff, and she took her littlebonus money and bought me a
laptop, you know, so I can startediting, and that took my
business to a whole other level.
A whole other level.
Yeah, so I'm forever grateful.
And level oh, another level,yeah, so I'm forever grateful,
and that's why you have to havethat balance in a relationship
as well.
And then you want to make surethat the person that you're with
is down for you.
You know what I'm saying,because a lot of us they say
(18:33):
they down, but when stuff gettough and hard, things hit the
fan, they gone.
You know, complaining andtalking about you broken is
instead of supporting you andbuilding you and molding you to
be.
You know what I'm saying.
So that's what it's about.
It's about building each otherup, you know what I'm saying
Like she's made me the man I amtoday, like she helped build me,
like even the woman she istoday, like I'm molding her and
building her to be the womanthat I need her to be.
(18:54):
For me that's what it's about.
Like a lot of herself, not forjust for herself, but for me as
well.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
You know and vice versa yeah, she did.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
She did the same, like I know what I wanted, and I
try to mold her and make her,you know, to my best ability to
mold her to the woman I need herto be and she's been that vice
versa, you know.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
So, yeah, and it's great man, you, daylon, dallas,
lash Angel, all of y'alltogether, right, yeah, and then
now that's what made me.
When you started talking aboutthe photography, I was going to
transition into that.
(19:41):
We, we come from a hustlingfamily, like whatever.
Yeah, well, they'll sell youanything.
You know what I'm saying, forsure, whatever we come from a
hustling family, like whateverBoy, they'll sell you anything.
You know what I'm saying, forsure.
Whatever.
And it's always been grind.
How did you get intophotography?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Man, that's crazy.
So I wasn't even thinking aboutphotography.
Like I said, I was an athlete.
So I got a camera because Iwould start.
Everybody was saying you funnybecause I was just joking and
stuff like that.
So I actually bought a camerabecause I was doing skits before
Skits was out, before that waslike known.
I was doing skits in 2014,2015,.
Like on my phone and loadingthem on Facebook yeah, you know
(20:17):
what I'm saying Before they camehot, and so I'm like I'm going
to invest in this.
So I got a camera.
I was just going to recordmyself growing my jokes.
I was going to do stand-up too,so that's why I got the camera,
but I never shot.
I never did nothing with it.
So I just started like justtaking it around my family and
friends and taking pictures.
So I just became the man withthe camera.
I started making money on theside at work.
(20:39):
I used to work for Chryslerback in Detroit, so on the
weekends I do people, partiesand events, make my little money
and then.
So it just became a littlehustle.
But when I moved here, my wifegot me a little gig, like with
the sorority girls, and I didone shoot and then everybody
started booking me for that, forlike portraits and stuff like
that.
So I learned I had to learnquick on the go.
(21:00):
What sorority is that?
So my wife?
Speaker 1 (21:02):
she's an AKA, so Neck Crazy, neck yeah, aka, yeah,
shout out to the AKAs man.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Shout out to my baby Pinky green, to the pervs yeah,
man, that's dope.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
So you just, I remember you doing the skits,
but I didn't know.
That's what started it.
Yeah, that's what I startedfrom.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Because I used to do the little church skits, the
church skits, the choir director.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I was doing all that with my phone.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
I'm like I'm about to get me some high quality,
because nobody really had nohigh quality videos back then.
They just had like from theirphone.
Like I'm about to change thegame.
I was doing like a few littleskits with like other people in
Detroit yeah, they doing realgood right now too.
I just kind of like just let itdie, because you know, when you
have a family, you work, you'retrying to take care of your
family and everything.
(21:46):
Yeah, put food on the table,yeah.
So everything else just kind oflike die out like things that
you enjoy doing so.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
You went from skits to starting to be a photographer
, doing the side gigs on theweekends, a small weekend to
full time.
How did it go from on theweekends to full time?
What did you do to invest more?
Speaker 2 (22:05):
into that, Yep.
So, like when I was in Detroit,I was just doing weekends
because I was working Mondaythrough Friday, but when I moved
here, I was still working forWWL and I was just doing stuff
on the weekends still, yeah, butactually I ended up getting
fired because they was workingus too you know these jobs be
working us crazy.
They wanted they had mandatorydays too, like I work my regular
(22:25):
40.
But then they'd tell me on mylast day of work oh yeah, we got
mandatory tomorrow and the restof the week.
So it was messing up mybookings like people that have
books.
So I had to cancel the shootsand it was kind of like bad for
business, like I'm tellingpeople I've got to be there
tomorrow.
And I got to, but I came inlate, but it was not within a
(22:47):
certain amount of time.
So at the end of the day theylet me work and then fired me.
So after that I was just like Ireally got to go hard with this
photography, Damn Craig.
Yep.
So they let me get my money.
They gave me all my money andthen shoot.
I just bought a brand newcamera and two lenses and shoot.
I just went to work, juststarted hustling, I started
grinding because I'm like I hadto pay these bills.
What was your first camera?
(23:09):
My first camera was so thefirst one I bought was a Canon
T6S Rebel and I had it up untilI moved here.
Then, when I lost my job, Ijust took money and just bought
the first mirrorless we had.
The first mirrorless that cameout was a Canon RP and I just
went crazy with it.
I bought like two lenses andwent crazy and I never looked
back since.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
So, just taking that leap of faith, after you know
what I mean deciding on if youwas going to be at WWL or being
an entrepreneur, starting yourentrepreneurship you just went
straight into theentrepreneurship.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah, because I'm like in my head I'm like I can
always get a job.
If it don't work out, I cancome get back and get me a job.
So I'm like I'm going to justtry this photography thing and
if it don't do nothing then I'llget me another job.
But shoot I was making moremoney than I ever seen Good,
fast money, and I enjoy what Ido.
It didn't feel like work.
So I'm like shoot.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
I'm going to stick with this.
Your wife's AKA shoot turnedinto a network of Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah, I did that one shoot.
Then you know Murfreesboro,like I'm in Murfreesboro, I was
in Murfreesboro, so it's small.
So all the black people stucktogether, and then somebody
reached out for a fashion showlike, hey, I seen the pictures
you did for such and such and Iwonder if you could do my
fashion show that had somecelebrities.
So I'm like, yeah, I'm going todo that.
I'm just going to get my footin it, though, and I did that
shoot and boom, everybodystarted booking me.
(24:30):
After that I was doingeverybody's pictures and
business pictures, so that'skind of like where I started at.
They kept me busy.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
So how did you get linked to the Titans players?
Speaker 2 (24:40):
So actually, this was actually what 24?
So in 21,.
I talked to him.
His name Trell, he played forthe Titans.
But his girl at the time shereached out to me.
She's like, hey, my boyfriend,he's such-and-such playing for
the Titans and we want to dolike a couple shoot and a
birthday shoot for me.
(25:01):
I'm like, okay, cool.
So I did that shoot and thenthey posted it and got a lot of
likes.
And then another player reachedout to me, which is Bud.
He called you pre, yeah, bud,pre, yep.
So I think he with the Chargersnow shout out to Bud yeah, he
is with the Chargers.
So his wife reached out to meand I did a shoot at his crib
dope crib, yeah, shout out hisfamily.
(25:22):
And he's still following.
We still follow each other tothis day.
And then Big Dog, jeffreySimmons, shout out to Jeff.
His girl always booked me forall her shoots, so I do all her
stuff.
Then I started shooting Jeff.
He came along, I shot him.
He came to my crib, shot him.
Then I shoot all their babyphotos.
(25:42):
And then I got to the crib.
He called me if he needssomething for the surprise
birthday party.
He called me yeah, that heneeds something or he'd like to
surprise a birthday party.
He'd call me.
So yeah, that's how I kind oflike, got a LinkedIn with the
Titan players, so it's been agood, a wonderful journey.
And then I do stuff.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I've done stuff for Monica the singer, quite a few
celebrities man, so it's been anhonor and doing a shoot with
one of your, you said your loyalclients, yep, and you were
saying how, like you had deadshoots or dead events with
senators.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I done senators.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
How did that work?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Man.
So actually, shout out toKaniece, she's a creative
director, like a big-timecreative director in Nashville
and Memphis.
She's from Connecticut yeah,and I do.
We do a lot of projectstogether.
And she had a client actually,which was Lamar London.
Shout out to Miss London.
She's a senator from Memphis.
So she reached out to me,wanted me to hey, can you come
(26:38):
shoot this Because you're goingto be fired?
You can pose and do all thisstuff.
So Lauren London, that's hername, Lauren London.
I said Lamar London, yeah, MissLauren London.
So I went to the senator thatchecked in and went to check my
bag and stuff.
So I did a shoot with her andher family in her new office
downtown Nashville.
Then we went to the chambers orwhatever where they do all the
voting and stuff.
So she had to get sworn in.
(26:58):
So I'm taking pictures.
I'm the only black guy in there, All these older white folk in
there, but it was cool.
So just to be in these rooms isa blessing man, and then also
just to get these connectionsand you just never know who you
might need and when you mightneed them.
So it's been a blessing manLike this.
Photography has taken me tomany different rooms and, you
know, networked with greatpeople, yeah, and look, man, you
(27:19):
said something dope too.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Man, before I go to the next little slide or
whatever what I want to talkabout, you said something about
having a membership.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Mm-hmm Yep, so pretty much what I do, too, is have
clients on retainers Retainers,yeah, or subscriptions.
So pretty much what I do is Ihave 10 slots.
So what I wanted to do was fillthose 10 slots with clients
that need, like YouTubers orpeople just always need content.
Lot of you like contentcreators and stuff like that.
You know just business people.
(27:53):
They just always need images.
So what I did was put them onretainers.
Every month like $300 per eachperson, you get three shoes and
you get like 10 edits per month,right, so I got 10 people on
that.
So it is like guaranteed money.
So I know, every month I gotthese 10, I got these
subscriptions coming out, sothat's residual income for me,
yeah, so that's perfect.
(28:15):
So I like that.
So that's kind of like what Iwanted to go to anyway.
Just have like more like peopleunder-retained, you know,
because it's guaranteed money.
You just never know, like withbusiness, because I may have
five shoots or seven shoots, butI know like I got those
subscriptions so, yeah, thenthey got to cancel.
Like the way I got it set up,you got to do it within like 35
(28:37):
days or something like that.
You just can't like cancel andnot pay, like if your payment
due tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
You can't cancel before you pay, so it's in the
contract, so yeah some peoplewill do that, okay, so, yeah, so
you, you, you got like residualset up.
You know I mean reoccurring,yeah, you know I mean got
payments coming to you.
Yeah, um, a lot of people uh dodifferent businesses.
And you know, for me and whatI've noticed in the black
(29:05):
community, um, it's always likenegative or something Like we
trying to one-up each other.
But in photography, what I'veseen from you, what I've seen
from Kadeem, like it ain't that,it's money.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
It's enough for everybody?
Yeah, but it is somegatekeepers.
Yeah, it's a few of those.
Like I remember, when I firststarted off, like trying to
figure out how to edit certaingear, People wouldn't say
nothing.
It was making me or they wantedme to pay for certain stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I'm like man, I can get the game free for YouTube,
right, you know what I'm saying.
But some people be gatekeepers,like especially if you're up
and coming, because they don'tthey be.
You know they be trying to makesomething like you, ain't
nothing you know when you'refirst starting off and they just
be like whatever, whatever,right.
So I've seen people read mymessage and respond, but when I
(30:02):
started booming I was too man,because when I reached out to
certain models and when I firststarted, oh, you got to pay me.
You know what I'm saying.
But now they want to work withyou and want to do it for free.
It ain't nothing free.
I don't do nothing free.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Yeah, yeah.
So a lot of people don't know,but you also, you know Kadeem
Mm-hmm and where you know Kadeemfrom Through you, yeah, okay,
yeah.
And the thing that I lovedabout it too man is like you,
you and Kadeem, you.
Whatever you knew, you gave himthe game.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
You know what I'm saying.
Like you shared the game.
Yeah, it's been plenty of timeshe'd reach out for advice.
I'd give it to him or we'd geton the FaceTime and I'd show him
how to do certain stuff, likewhen he was first starting,
where certain lights and stuffto get Right and shoot free game
and then shoot, just blew up,yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
And that's the thing, man Kadeem doing his thing,
shout out to him.
Yep, yep, shout out to my broKadeem.
Everybody doing their thing,man, and it's like it's not
taking away from what you gotgoing on.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yeah, it's enough out here for everybody.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Yeah, and that's what I love to see about it, because
everybody, and they in theirown lane, seem to like feel like
they got to one up or be be theholder of all the news.
But nah, like just spread theword you spread the word.
It's going to come back to youTen times.
Yeah, I mean, or tenfold, Likeyou know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
So and it's not for everything either.
For me, like photography, likeI love, I enjoy doing them, but
I'm 36.
I'm not trying to be doing thiswhen I'm 50, you know so
because I want to pass this downto the younger cats.
But the goal is to, you know,just have, have a bigger brand
and have people working under me.
So it'll still be under my name, but, like if it's events or
(31:42):
something like under my name, mybusiness name.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Okay, yeah, that's dope.
What you feel like is next likefor you, like outside of the
photography, Because you yeah,more so.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Real estate I do want to get some properties Me and
my wife invest in someproperties and stuff like that.
Get a few Airbnbs, just startgetting, just add more income to
our household, like for ourkids, so they'd be set and
things like that.
But we, our main goal is to getsome property in Detroit, own a
(32:16):
few homes and flip a few homesas well.
Just that's pretty much whatwe're working to next and just
own it, flip the property, yeahwe gotta get, we gotta.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
We gotta get 5755 back.
We get that back, we good.
We gotta get 57, 55 back andall of us me, you, keisha,
tanisha, all of us, we all,dietrich, we all can get, get
together and figure outsomething, man to where we can
have that, turn that into Airbnb, whatever you know, what I mean
(32:45):
.
Extend it out whatever toAirbnb, whatever, yeah, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Extended out whatever you got to take care of where
you come from Got to man.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
That's like a landmark for us.
So it's very prominent toattack that issue at hand.
But other than that, because welost one of our cousins first
in piece to Quest yes sir, howdid you handle that?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Man, it was tough.
It's still tough to this day.
You know, I kind of like I meanI don't know how real dreams
are but I knew he was gonebefore I got the call.
It was like that night I gotthe call, my mom called like at
4 or 5 the next morning and likebefore she called me, I had a
(33:40):
dream Like I was coming in thedoor and Quez was going out.
He had like a suit on, he had ahanger.
It was like a suit.
I was like Quez going out.
He had like a suit on, he had ahanger.
It was like a suit.
I was like Quez, I'm like youready.
He was smiling, like yeah, man,I'm ready.
I was like man, I love you,like I love you too.
And I woke up from a dream andlike not even like a minute
(34:07):
later, my he was gone.
I already knew, but dealing withit it's been tough, man,
because when I go to certainplaces I be like dang.
This is the place I was at whenI taught the quiz or one of the
lights I got.
Every time I turn that light onI think of quiz, because I got
that light that same day, justeven some of the stuff we did
together.
We both played ball.
We related a lot.
(34:27):
I had his ID coming up.
I was always with him.
We always went to the same highschool, you know.
So it was yeah, that ID man,yeah, I had his ID for a long
time.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
So this is when I tell people like.
I'm done with the clubbing.
It's because we had Questmaking Reese IDs at 14, 15, 16
years old, getting into StAndrews and all the other clubs
with ease, so it's like it's oldto us, so like when you said
that, man, that definitelybrought back some crazy memories
(34:57):
, man.
But we stuck together, man, westuck together.
We was thick as thieves,especially on Wade.
We used to have themthree-on-three tournaments,
three in the backyard.
We were smaller.
Have them three-on-threetournaments, three-on-three in
the backyard.
We were smaller.
The big three was Chris Reeseand Mank Mank and me, you and Ro
, yeah Then.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Tone ain't never play .
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Tone ain't hoop, little Tone ain't never hoop man
.
No, just us six.
Yeah, us six most of the time,but yeah, man, man, it's
definitely it's been tough it'sdefinitely been tough, but I
don't how I deal with it.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
I mean, it's like how I feel.
It's like a pain that willnever go away.
It's like a piece of your heartthat can never be.
It would never feel the same,but I just I think they're just
part of life, because you'regoing to lose people you're
going to use, and that hurt.
It would never go away, becauseQuez was like the toughest death
for me like ever, like I wasyoung, like I miss my
(35:52):
grandparents and stuff.
But I was young, I was 11.
I was 9 and 12, you know, Imean I didn't fully understand
it like how I do.
Now you know what I'm saying,but like someone that was
closest Quez to me and all of us, you know it kind of hurt, did
it, because it was like a realbrother.
you know what I'm saying?
Because we were more thancousins, yeah, we were brothers.
So that really, really hurt,and it still hurts to this day.
I just learned how to justexcuse me, like just how to deal
(36:15):
with it, man, in this life, youknow.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Yeah, hopefully man we can get.
We can see baby Qued so we canyeah around and show them.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Look, just like them.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Look just like them, man.
Yeah, well, yeah, we hopefully,hopefully, that that pan out
well too, man.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
But you just got to be grateful for the times you
have with people, man.
Yeah, because you never know.
Yeah, that's why, like I don'thave no regrets for nobody, I
enjoy, like, all myrelationships with my cousin, my
family.
I'm no bad blood with nobody.
I try to enjoy him while I can.
You just never, know, like theygone, like he gone, it was hurt
, it hurt, but we had a greatrelationship.
You know what I'm saying Like alot of great memories.
(36:54):
That's how it should be, youknow so.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yeah, remember the State Fair.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
State Fair.
That was the spot.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Man.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Yeah, state Classic, have your paper and your pen.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Have your pen and paper ready.
Who going to get the mostnumbers?
That was the man I think we wasin that trippity and Quez just
say Quez, just say what's theworst thing they're going to say
to you.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Right, no, that's it Okay.
Go to the next person.
Had the jabots on.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Yeah, had, or Jabot James, whatever time it was, man
Durack Definitely.
Oh, he always had Durack onthat was early 2000s 2001, 2002.
Yeah, and with that man Ialways like we talked about it
early, like I just feel like mebeing in the military, you going
(37:43):
, you know, to school and allthose things.
Yeah, like I didn't realizeother people have PTSD outside
of the military until after mydoctor told me, hey, you had
trauma before you joined themilitary.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Like just coming from where you come from.
Yeah, just coming from whereyou come from.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yeah, then you get into the military and boom
you're in Iraq.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
It's getting worse.
Yeah, it done got worse.
You know what I'm?
Saying Now you double triggered.
So how do you let me ask youthat like, how do you process
that?
Like, do you like have I mean,I know you ain't really supposed
to ask people, you know whatI'm saying like what they
experience, but like, how isyour mental state, you know,
after saying um?
Speaker 1 (38:24):
man.
It took a while, man.
It took a while for me to likecommunicate.
I think that's what reallyhappened with me and Benita Like
I just shut down, she'd betalking or whatever.
I just shut down and I didn'tcare about nothing.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
It's good that we still got a great friendship now
afterwards and we co-parent.
Therapy definitely helped.
I, we co-parent, but therapydefinitely helped me.
I ain't even gonna lie Therapy,therapy is the, the great cause
of how I am now man, becausebecause trying to trying to like
handle Iraq, marital issues,previous issues before I joined
(39:10):
yeah, all the issues all thatstuff, yeah, yeah, all of that
stuff.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
It was hard Piling up on you.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Yeah, it's piling up on me, man.
And then you know we raised tolike be tough.
Oh yeah, don't show emotions,don't cry, don't do this.
And then it's like all thisstuff hurt us too.
Yeah, you know, like that toughman have that tough mentality,
just being tough all the time,like you ain't gotta be tough,
like you only need to be toughwhen you need to be tough yeah,
(39:37):
and it kind of like hurt a lotof relationships too.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Yeah, like people we may have been with Yup, because
we never had like that soft side, we only hurting ourselves and
the people that you know that wecare for.
So I had to thanks thanks formy wife, cause I had to fix
myself you know and be softer.
You know, sometimes alwaystough.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
Yeah, the girls man.
I ain't know a lot of girlsmade me.
That's what helped to havingthe girls man.
The girls Cause I was so strongout on having a boy, having a
boy.
I think me personally, if I hadsons, I'd still be the same way
.
I wouldn't be healed, Iwouldn't be able to communicate.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
I'd just be shutting down.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
So, having the girls, it made me fall all the way
back and slow down and then takecare of what I need to take
care of as far as being a greatdad and listening, listening
with a purpose.
You know what I need to takecare of as far as, like, being a
great dad and listening,listening with a purpose.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Listening, to understand, not to react.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Not to react, listening to build trust and
listening for facts and feelings.
So when I did all of thosethings, shout out to Marine
Corps Recruiting.
That's how I learned all ofthose four things from, even
though I hated it.
I hated recruiting man, but itreally helped me be a better
person when I got out, because Ilistened more than I talked.
Yeah, and when you startlistening more than you talk,
(41:01):
you start understanding thesepeople feelings.
They're valid feelings, yeah,and you're like damn, I need to
check myself.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Yeah, for sure, yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
So that's why sometimes, like with the girls,
man, I let them they're notreally talking back, I let them
talk to like express themselves.
Because, remember, we couldn'tdo that.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
You shut up, you hit your in the mouth and knock you
out as soon as you say somethingyou know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Nah, I let them explain themselves and get their
thoughts across before we shutthem down, because if you shut
them down especially for girlsthey're going to shut all the
way down.
They might not talk to you forlike a week or two, and then
every time, someone.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
I think that's kind of like what affected us too,
while we shut down because wewasn't allowed to talk.
Yeah, we weren't allowed totalk or express ourselves.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
We're always talking back or being disrespectful.
We just grew, just trying toexplain.
We were really just trying toexplain ourselves and that's
what I learned, man, when youjust sit back and listen, you
just be like damn okay, youright.
I see where you coming from.
I understand that like, andthen it.
You know what I'm saying.
I think that's the.
The relationship gets betterwith your kids you know what I'm
(42:10):
saying and with relationshipsyou create a safe space?
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Yeah, you create that safe space man, when you got
that safe space?
Speaker 1 (42:16):
they can come to you about anything.
And today we out doing familyat a family event, you know,
bowling and playing arcade stuff.
We playing basketball, we'rehooping.
We see Daylon and Melainaplaying connect for shooting a
hoop.
Yeah, and some boy come up toher.
(42:37):
I'm watching it and I'm likedang the buddy trying Mm-hmm
Elena just kept shooing him away.
He finally caught the picture,yeah.
But yeah, it's just crazy whenyou see those things.
It's like you sit back and youwatch and you're like, okay, and
even if she came and talked tome you know what I mean it would
have been like all right.
(42:57):
Yeah, because you know, a lotof times too, our parents
thought they knew all theanswers, so they was going to
answer you before you even saidwhat you was about to say.
Oh, I already know what you'retalking about and like nah, like
, give them the opportunity totalk and everything will be all
right.
But yeah, man, you got thetherapy.
(43:20):
It's important you got, you know, before we get out of here,
because what's something youthink you can give to the
community I used to call?
I call it gym class.
It's called gym class G-E-M.
You know what I mean.
It's the first episode for thesecond season?
Yeah, so we got to start thisone off with a bang.
(43:41):
What's a gym you can give toeverybody in a toolbox that can
keep you know what I mean, aquote or whatever.
You feel that you know what I'msaying.
I can help them out in whateverjourney they're trying to get
to.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Yeah, I would say well, first I'm going to speak
to married people.
Okay, my advice would be topretty much just be on the same
page, be equally yoked, praytogether, whatever you believe
in, that's very important.
(44:12):
Prayer is very important.
Um, pray, prayer is veryimportant in your marriage.
Uh, communication, um then likehalf like was maybe helped, me
and my wife.
It just like half like goeslike weekly, goes like um, just
sit down with each other andjust talk about your plans for
the month or the week, what'sgoing on.
It just make everything moresmoother and that way you be on
(44:34):
the same page.
But that would be my advice forfor marriage and just keep
whatever you're going throughbetween you and your spouse
because can't nobody fix itbetween you and your spouse and
God, you know what I'm sayinglike no outsider, because we
have we tend to do that a lotlike talk to your boy, your girl
on the side, let them knowwhat's going on in your
household, and especially thesingle friends, yeah, they can't
(44:56):
help at all.
Yeah, so always just keep thatwhatever's going on in your
household between y'all and thenjust like for it's like younger
, younger kids, um, I would say,because I got three girls.
Um man, like I was when I goback to talking about earlier,
like we were talking about thestudent athletes and just get
(45:17):
your education.
Like therapy we talked abouttherapy.
You need to see therapists.
That's important to do it young, you know, don't be afraid to
because people would think youknow.
Like we were talking about.
like the black community andtherapy people think they're
just like oh, we don't do thatwhich we, we struggle with that,
like with the black community.
Yeah, just get therapy.
(45:39):
If you're younger kids, Reachout to your parents, tell them
you need a little help, becausewe all have been through some
things and seen some things.
Yeah, man, that's what I wouldsay.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Man, yeah, all right, all right, cuz, before we get
out of here, I want to shout outto Pilar man for this dope
custom hoodie man.
And if y'all not subscribed,please subscribe, like comment
and share.
Make sure y'all following.
Deep Pleasure Photography.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
For sure y'all Deep Pleasure Photography, yeah, Deep
.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Pleasure Photography, let For sure, yeah, deep Plays
Photography, yeah, deep PlaysPhotography.
Let me know if you need toshoot Anywhere, he'll come to
you.
But you gotta pay.
Gotta pay that travel fee.
Gotta pay that travel fee.
And yeah, man, relationshipsworth more than money.
Season two, first episode, sir,appreciate you.
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