Today on The Breakfast Club, Ben Crump Talks 'Worse Than A Lie,' Black Community Missions, ICE Incidents, Boosie Badazz, Trump Administration, Jessie Jackson. Listen For More!
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every day a week ago picks up the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You don't finish for y'all done morning.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Everybody is DJ en Vy just hilarious. Charlamagne the guy.
We are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest
in the building, indeed, Attorney Benjamin Crumb.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome, brother, How you feeling the morning and birthday King Queen?
Speaker 4 (00:18):
How are you kiddy Man? Happy to catch you out
doing black history much?
Speaker 5 (00:24):
Yes, sir, Yes, sir, I feel like you've been keeping
more with a low profile lately, Brother Crump.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
You know, I've worked on this novel and I was
really trying to inspire the next generation of civil rights
lawyers social justice warriors, because it has always be building
for the future. We're gonna pass this torch, and we
got to make sure the next generation go even further
than us. And so Bett Man, I've been working by
(00:51):
But if I just ain't been in the public so.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Much, is there a reason for that?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
No, it's just that.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
We put we got the me for how to suit
the clan that was in the media. We've been fighting
on these environmental racism cases. I'm battling in Altera Dina
the wildfires while everybody moved on. Those black people are
still this place, still homeless, and we're still fighting the
whole the company accountable and the county because they gave
(01:20):
it the evacuation notices to the people on the east side,
the more affluent white people, and then the black people
got their evacuation notices late, and nineteen black people died
and nobody's talking about it. And if we're not careful,
Charlemagne man alter Dina, which was the predominantly black historic
(01:44):
distraction of Los Angeles, will become California's Katrina. And that's
what we cannot afford, for black people to lose their land,
their generational wealth. And we sometimes with this administration, we
forget the trouble, I mean just the craziness they're doing.
(02:05):
They didn't even allow FEMA to come in and build
the infrastructure because this president was opposed to California and
it's democratic leadership, so they said, we're not going to
help them. So now we're having to hold the state
and the county and the City of Los Angeles accountable
to do infrastructure. So the black people, if it would
(02:28):
have took a year a year and a half to
get back in your home, now it's going to take
two years, two years and a half. Can you imagine,
you know, can you imagine Charlotte Maine, y'all, just one day,
you minding your business and then a fire comes from
the transform and just in a matter of minutes burning
(02:49):
everything everything you.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Had is gone.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Your children are not being able to go to school,
your cars were burnt, so you can't go to work.
And then the theme of the emergency management system that
was built for this exact moment then says, for political reasons,
we're not going to do anything.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Please please, I'm glad to know that you on that case.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Man.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Memi Browna does off Front page News.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
She did a whole special on Alter Dina call from
Altadina with Love and she and she talks about that
a lot, and the people she talked to talk about
that a lot. And people call up here all the
time just looking for help. It's in assistance and feel
like they can't get it. And people aren't remember what happened.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
What about this show.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
We're suing the hell out on Charlamagne so they ever
know that we if they ain't got nobody at least advocating,
call us and we'll keep fighting the insurance companies. You know,
Governor knew, some of the Attorney General and them. They
did a mortgage moratorium for a year, and then we
got to extended another year because think about it, envy
and just yeah, you're paying a mortgage on a house
(03:52):
that you can't even live in. I mean, and a
lot of people just ain't doing it. And so you
got the whether the disaster capitalists the opportunitist because you know,
the Olympics coming into la they got World Cup coming. Man,
they've been trying to bop these black people land forever anyway,
(04:14):
and now with this tragedy, they're taking the opportunity to
throw pennies on the dollar. And still our land, still
our generational wealth. And so the inshurance companies, you know,
have been doing what they do. I believe all of them,
State farm, all state, everybody. They try to get your premiums,
(04:34):
no matter how many times you pay.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
The first time you make a claim, they come.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Over every single reason to say, well, we're not gonna
deny that, we're gonna deny this claim, or we don't
think this land is that valuable. Lauren and Charlamaine because
it's in a black neighborhood.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Yeah, but once they get all black people out, then
they didn't bring the white people in not land increase tripletye.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Ten times with the Olympics.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Man, they gonna be building high rises and this is
prime land Los Angeles already is what they said, five
times more than any of the property in America price wise,
and so this is going to go up even more.
It's so many things that don't make the media Charlemagne
that we work on and fight on, you know, banking
(05:23):
while black, and right now, all the black women who
are being fired and terminated, the coust this attack on
DEI and diversity equit inclusion. We're suing all these corporations
for these black people who are losing their jobs with
no rhyme or reason, just that you know, this administration
gave us an excuse now that we don't have to
(05:45):
tolerate you all.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
I mean.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
And it's funny as funny as our test figuring. I
always laughed when we were representing lower people at the
corporation and they bought discrimination claims. You would these black
people sitting at the table helping to defend the corporation's
actions justifications to fire them.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
But now you got a lot of those people calling
me in. I'm like, wow, ain't this interesting?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
The tables have turned now it's you on this side
while you are helping protect them. So it just says
to us, especially during Black History Mark, the future of
black people won't be determined by how white people treat us.
The future of black people won't be determined how white
people support us. The future of black people won't be
(06:38):
determined how white people invest in us. But the future
of black people will be determined how we treat each other.
The future of black people will be how we support
each other. The future of black people, Charlamagne, will be
how we invest in each other.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
And that's the God's honest.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Truth when you really think about it, man, we need
to be supporting black businesses, black lawyers, black doctors, black restaurants,
black dry cleaners, black mechanics, black insurance agent. I mean,
we got that every week have dinner or at least
every month, have dinner, lunch with our colleagues and so forth.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
And we got to hold each other accountable.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
But like jes you know, the fifty percent of your money,
at least forty percent go to black businesses.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Okay, Well, who let's talk about it. And I try
to be honest with myself.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
God bless me immensely, and I'm like, I don't want
to be a hypocrite. I want to be true. And
I got to look in the mirror first and foremost
and hold myself accountable. And so I say to myself,
when I really think about it, Our Aging sisters and
brother brothers, their dollar in their community stays in their
(07:48):
community twenty one days before it leaves Our Jewish sisters
and brothers, their dollar stays in their community, seventeen days
before it leaves their community. Black Americans, our dollars stay
in our community seventeen minutes before it leaves our community.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
And it's sad shall the man because I love how.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Leeby Armstrong out of Minneapolis and Jamal Bryant when we
boycotted Target and those things. Because it's such a philosophical decision,
it's a mindset. They say, I'm going to be intentional
about supporting black businesses, and you gotta be intentional. And
with the Internet we can find black businesses. They say, no, no,
(08:38):
I'm going to find a black Dennis. I'm going to
find a black you know, insurance agent. Now and it's
intentional because now we're building a strong black economic base
and we can then tell this administration that, hey, like
how new Jack City cash many brothers are self contained unit.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
We will be okay with or without you. We don't
need you to say.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
But it's crazy though, because these conversations have been going
on since the beginning of the time, Like, you're not
saying nothing that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad didn't say that,
Martin Garvey didn't say that, Martin Luther King Junior didn't
say like. It's just like, at what point are people
going to realize unity and group operation is the way.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
You know, Charlomagne, we have to keep saying it though,
you know, as my grandmother and them, you say, I
know we're singing to the choir, but the choir gotta
sing louder.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
And it just got to be something that.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
We remind each other, like you, Lauren, just Envy, y'all
every month say hey, how many black businesses do y'all support?
Because it's easy to just spend money. I know my
family they spend it quick. But what when you stop
and take account and you really try to be honest
with yourself and you start writing down, Well, did I
(09:49):
at least give twenty five percent of my money? I
know I paid all these white people. I bought this stuff.
I went to corporate America, you know, to.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
A Mexican.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
And with this book, we've done so much to try
to push people to independent black bookstores, even though I
know Amazon, you know, it's so easy, so convenient, and
so forth. But I was so proud of sh'all the
main when they wrote that article saying that being Crump's
worse than a lie drove a surge in book sells
(10:24):
at black bookstores. I mean, that's what it's about, if
we're being honest with ourself. It's one thing for you
to come up, but how do you help bring everybody
else up with you? That's what I love about you, man,
with the black effect. You're bringing a lot of people up.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I appreciate you.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
Why did you choose fiction as the vehicle for the
story instead of like nonfiction?
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Yeah, you know it's interesting because my personal hero, third
Good Marshall. He once said that most people will never
know what really happens in a courtroom when you're fighting
for liberty and justice for marginalized people. And he said
(11:04):
That's why Charlamagne he would write his legal memorandums and
his pleadings and his briefs to be very engaging, because
he wanted to entice people to read those pleadings so
they could be educated on what really happens during due
process and court proceedings and so forth.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
And so I said to myself, well, what could be
more engaging than a legal thriller?
Speaker 4 (11:29):
I mean John Grisham with The Rainmaker, Michael Conley with
the Lincoln Lawyer. They say, millions of books every year
because legal thrillers are intriguing, you know, you excited trying
to figure my page turners and so forth. And I said,
you know, man, I grew up with my grandmother watching Perry.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Mason, you know, the old TV show.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
You know he figured it out his brilliance, his resources.
And then when college, you know, you got the Grisham
and there. But I kept saying, man, when are they
gonna make a superhero black trial lawyer and everything? And
I kept trying to figure out that they're ever gonna
do it. And so when I said lawd God said, Negro,
(12:13):
that ain't their lane. You know what they know about
being a black lawyer understanding the coach and fighting the
civil rights struggle.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Said that's your lane.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
And so that's what inspired me to write Worse Than
a Lot and create this superhero trial lawyer named Bolie Cooper.
This person with his team of social justice warriors, they
go in and they exalt the brilliance of our community.
We have returning citizens, we have a Puerto Rican sister
(12:45):
who's a lawyer, all working on the team, saying that
you know, we are just as brilliant as anything they
can create. And I want the next generation of people
who look like us to have heroes that they can
count on and say, na, nah, you get your Lincoln Lawyer,
we'll take Body Cooper.
Speaker 6 (13:04):
So in Bullie's journey through the book, right, there's a
lot of messaging that people will pick up on as
a followed the story. How did you choose which messages
you wanted people to pick up on? Because I'm sure
you experienced so much stuff that we need to know
and that we should be learning.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
You know, absolutely, Lawyer, and what you do as a writer,
especially a fiction writer, you're intentional with what you're trying
to convey, but you don't want to come across to preaching.
And so forth, and so even you know, I've been
getting very good reviews, and I'm thankful for it, but
it doesn't matter because I knew the audience I was
(13:38):
writing for. I was trying to do dis generations, to
kill a mocking bird that inspires so many young people
to say, I want to go be a lawyer and
try to make the law be an instrument for good.
And so I was intentional the lawyer. Even from the
beginning of the book, people keep saying it's a civil
rights legal thriller and it's wrapped in black culture, but
(14:02):
it's also a historical reference point because what I did
are Hollis Montrose, this black police officer who shot by
four white police officers on the night of two thousand
and eight, the historic election of President Barack Obama becoming
the first black president. Because I was trying to create
(14:25):
an allegory where we took symbolic characters and events and
settings to try to create abstract ideas, like the idea,
if you have the election of the first black president,
as many people believe Charlemagne in two thousand and eight,
(14:46):
we were now going to have a post racial America.
And even in the book, the chapter before Hollis is
shot ten times. On that night, Boli Cooper is talking
to his wife. He was on an airport when the
election results came, and he told his wife when he landed,
he said, you know, there was a white gentleman on
(15:06):
the plane who said to me, well, buddy, looked like
you're gonna have to find a new career now that
we've elected a black president. There won't be a need
for civil rights anymore. And I was intentional about those
things because really it was for shouting, because in fiction
you can do that because envy the way we were
(15:27):
all proud and happy and had this feeling of hope
and optimism when for Barack Obama was elected the first
black president.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yeah, I feel like society. I did.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
And then but what we did not fathom was that
there was a whole lot of people who had a
different reaction to us, and they were also going to
be able to express their ways and their actions and
even when they shoot. Two things that's been pointed out
(16:00):
by a lot of the literary people read the book.
When Hollis Montrose, this black po police officer, you can't
find nobody better. Because we wanted to intentionally do that
because when they killed George Floyd, when they killed Mike Brown,
when they kill Stefan Clarke, all these brothers, if they're
not an angel, if they've ever been arrested, if they've
ever been a convicted felon, if they are undocumented, they
(16:23):
come up and they say, oh, well, you know they
really were criminals.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
They not worthy of your consideration.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
I wanted to say, no, no, we got a person
who was a model citizen. And it didn't matter Charlamagne,
because when those police officers saw Hollis Montrose, they didn't
see him. They saw what they projected on him. And
so when they are down there, Hollis is saying, I'm
an officer, I got my idea and everything they tell him,
(16:50):
shut up, just comply. We don't care if that boy's
in the White House. We're still in control because I
am trying to create the setting for the book.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
And the second thing.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
That they point out when they shot him ten times
and that hot metal was going into his body, I wrote,
he cried an ancestral cry out to God, and I
tried to paint that picture for all the black people
who had been brutalized and killed unjustly by police, the
(17:23):
cries that they must have had, thinking that this was
it for them.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
And I wrote this and during the pandemic with.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Breonna, George Floyd, Ahmad Arbery, Andre Hill, and I was
very emotional at that time because this was therapeutic in
many ways. But I thought about looking at Brianna's picture
with eight bullet holes in her body and her nightgown
(17:55):
lying in the hallway of her apartment when I was
writing a Hollis And so it is hopefully one of
those things that is enticing and engaging, entertaining. But I'm
really trying to teach people about how hard it is
to fight for civil rights in America.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
When you talk about that title worse than a lie, right, like, like,
what in your view is actually.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Worse than lying?
Speaker 5 (18:23):
And do you think America understands how often that shows
up in the courtroom.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
I certainly think they don't. My grandmother who helped raise me.
My mom worked two jobs to raise me and my
two little brothers, so oftentimes we stay with my grandmother,
And you know, black grandmothers are brilliant. My grandmother, I
think was the wisest person I ever met in the world.
And I remember her saying, Charli Man on occasion, what's
(18:48):
worse than a lie? To tell the truth and have
nobody believe you? I mean, that's and then in this
book it really goes so much deeper, where when you
are seeing where hollis, who's been shot ten times, survived
and now he's charged with four counts of attempted murder,
(19:10):
is really life imitating art when you think about what's
going on in Minneapolis with ice and stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
But to answer your question directly.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Charlemagne Man, I don't think many people understand how many
sisters and brothers have to go in courtrooms all across
America every day and lie on themselves and except trumped
up felony convictions and trumped up felony plea agreements, because
(19:45):
they understand that the alternative of going to trial well
for jury of peers that have nothing in common with them,
the likelihood that they would be convicted and sentenced for
decades and have to be wrongfully convicted for a crime
(20:05):
they didn't even commit. That's worse than a lie. And
it happens every day, man, every day.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
How do you deal with stepping from the beside from
the book for a second, but how do you deal
with that, right, because I feel like even on social
media now, people are lying more and more and more.
But the problem with the line is I feel like journalists, newscasters, papers,
they're taking what these people are saying and making it factual,
(20:32):
you know what I mean. So now when people hear it,
they think they're hearing it from Channel four, but it's.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Really a lot that they heard online.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
How do you deal with that when you go into
those courtrooms?
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Oh, it's getting so much worse already.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
You have two battles when you're representing people of color,
especially in America, because there's a credibility factor. Every time
we're fighting the police off, we're fighting these large banks
of a banking while black discrimination cases are we're fighting
these corporations like Elon Mussen thew' about poisoning our community
(21:04):
with these data centers. There's this credibility gap where they
want to believe what white people say over black people.
And the worst part about it, envy, is our people
want to believe it too. Our people are so quick
to attack one another. I mean, every day I pray
to God and say God, help me love our people
(21:24):
more than they hate themselves. You know, I really believe,
because when you've been blessed, you gotta try to do
better to help other people. And you got to even
make allowances for their criticisms too, because slavery, I mean,
they have such a psychological effect on our people, and
we got so many haters out there on us when
(21:45):
we got so much. We're fighting against white people. I
don't care what black people do. Try to get them
some grace, you know. And so the line is so
real now with social media, I mean, it's being proliferated
hundred times than what we were used to before social media.
But that's why in the novel, you know, early on
(22:07):
Boli Cooper realizes why he's fighting the Chicago machine and stuff.
To beat the broken system, He's gonna need more than
just the truth. What we're gonna need is our whole
community being gavnized, with our resources, with our brilliance, with
our connections that come together just to get justice. And
it's never about one person. That's the other thing I
(22:29):
tried to emphasize in the book. It's always a team effort.
The fact that we I was intentional about having returning
citizens brothers who were convicted of drug dealing and you know,
being street wise and so forth. It was like Malcolm
X said, some of our most brilliant minds in America
(22:51):
are locked up in five by seven cells, never given
the opportunity to expose their intelligence and so forth.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
And this new series I wanted to.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Give those brothers opportunity to say, what would it be
like if they got to expose themselves using their street
smarts and their intellect and brilliance to help solve cases.
And so that's how you try to overcome the truth.
But it's hard, man. They was those saying a lot
of goals around the world.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Around the world, what the truth is putting on the
shoe exactly.
Speaker 6 (23:24):
I saw the press conference you did about you, but
YouTube and the targeting of like people like falsely on
the YouTube and foreign people.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Len who's doing it?
Speaker 4 (23:35):
I mean, you got these foreign actors in country like
India and uh Career and so forth coming up with accounsel.
That's why we're looking at Google and YouTube and them saying, well,
you all are pailing them even though it's being shown
to be false. With Judge Faith and Judge Mathis and
I mean all these lives, uh, Margie har Stevie wonder.
(24:00):
I mean, just putting out lines and our people believe
it so quickly. Jes, I don't know why it is
we are so prone to be leave negative versus positive.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
You want to you want to think the worst of people.
Speaker 5 (24:12):
I feel like, mister Crump, that's why I think you
got a little profile.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
I think you got overwhelmed.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
By all the negativity because you all wanted the people
that's really out here on the front lines helping our people.
But for whatever reason, people wanted to villainize you, especially.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
A lot of our own.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
And you know it's so interesting, Charlemagne, because Man, the
more good you try to do, God just keep blessing you.
So I don't even think about any negativity criticism. Ts Lawrence,
the British soldier known as Launch of Arabia. He said
(24:47):
something so profound. He said, the most dangerous person in
the world is the person who dreams with their eyes open.
They're so focused on their objective that they have very
little time to focus on any other distractions. That's how
I run my life. We're now twenty one cities. You know,
we have sixty over sixty member staff, two hundred lawyers
(25:09):
working with us, and I'm just focused on my mission
in life that God put on my calling. I can't
worry about what you're saying. Man, We too busy trying
to help liberate black people.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
I'm too busy now trying to do stuff.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
Globally with Africa and so forth, because we if we
learned anything from this administration, it's not enough to think nationally.
We really got to think globally and the African diaspora,
Like Marcus Garbin said, that's what's gonna save our people.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
Is there a constitutional crisis when the president repeatedly attacks judges, prosecutors,
and juries. Are that I guess protected under some type
of First Amendment?
Speaker 4 (25:49):
You know again, schaw Man, That's why I wrote this
legal thriller because I want so many people to go
out hopefully independent bookstores are Amazon bars and or whatever.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
You can start reading this book learning.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
Because we talk a lot about civil procedure and criminal procedure.
It's funny because my cousin Vinny, you remember that movie.
It was funny and entertaining, but you watch it, you
learn a lot. And so like a few good men
and Lincoln lawyer rain Maker when they read this book
about black superhero lawyers. I want people to be learning
a lot because they need to understand about the Constitution.
(26:25):
I was talking about this is art imitating life and
life imitating art Charlamagne. When I wrote this book, you
know it was in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one. Hollis
Montrose gets shot ten times by four white officers, and
there's a sister who records it on video from her apartment. Wonder,
(26:46):
but none of that is enough when the system starts
to conspire to oppress the truth. And then we think
about what happened two months ago with Alex Peretti, four
or five officers around him, he gets shot ten times.
Like Hollis, he was licensed to care gun had it
on him. Hollis licensed care gun had it on him.
Both arguments said that even though there's video, we felt
(27:10):
them fear of our life and that's why we killed them.
And then you saw the powers that become and start
saying it was justified. I mean, even with video, it's
no guarantee that you're gonna get the truth in justice out.
And so when we think about the constitution crisis, I
immediately think about the actions of ice and what's going on,
(27:30):
how it is a complete assault on the Constitution of
the United States.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
I mean it's an assault on.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
The First Amendment right to free speech, freedom of assembly,
freedom of press. When they're arrested at Georgia Fort and
don Lemon. The second Amendment, right, I mean the attack
on it. When you think about Alex Parade, they said
that he wasn't can bring his farm to this protest.
Even you have western young Kyle Rittenhouse, they let him
(28:01):
march right up there, made him a hero for having
the gun at the rally for Jacob Blake. But then
the third, the fourth Amendment, assault against the prohibition of
unlawful searches and seizures. My god, I mean they're kicking
in people front doors with warrants based on racial profile
(28:22):
and nothing else. I mean busting people card windows when
they're driving in the street. I mean, no warrant, no
probable cause, just that now you look Spanish, or you
look Samarian, or you look Haitian. So black people don't
take it lightly that they ain't coming for you next,
because they're gonna say, oh, you look like our Haitian cousins.
You look like our Samalian cousins. The Fifth Amendment right
(28:45):
to do process of the law. How they just turned
that on its head, Charlamagne. The fact that it was
one of the most cherished principles in America to say
that you're innocent into proven guilty.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Well not with ice, not not.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
You have guilty, and you got to prove your innocent,
You got to prove that you're an American citizen, that
you got your papers, and so forth. It reminds you
of South Africa doing apartheid.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
And then you think about the sixth Amendment right to counsel.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
The fact that you got people and ICE detention centers
and their lawyers are trying to go meet with them
and have consultations with them, and they're being denied access.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
And then worst of all, y'all, worst.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
Of all is the attack on the Eighth Amendment rights
against Cruel and Unusual punishment, Charlemagne. The fact that, man,
you got people in these detention facilities who are American
citizens too, and they need their insulin, they need their
(29:47):
heart medicine, and they're not being given that reasonable medical.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Attention.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
That it's clear from medical records and everything, and people
are dying and nobody's saying anything about it. And you
got these private corporations with these contracts to keep.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Building these detention facilities, to keep building these prisons.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Y'all, we need to stop attacking each other because they're
attacking us, and they.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Mean for our people, your children.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
Your cousins, your spouses to end up in those prisons.
Trump certainly don't mean for his kind to end up
in those prisons.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
Does it ever get overwhelming for you being that you
are to go to you know, civil rights attorneys, Like
when people think, and especially the generation you're like somebody
called Ben Crump, did it ever get old woman for you?
Speaker 6 (30:35):
You know?
Speaker 4 (30:36):
I try to always thank God and be humble, never
get the big hair, you know, black American's Attorney general.
I say, well, I'm proud that people would think that
of me. But what I also know Charlemagne, it can
never be about one person. We can't have one leader
(31:00):
because they'll take them out and then where will we be.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
So I'm all.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
About community and building the bench we gotta keep. I'm
so happy that Tess is in law school. I'm so
happy that other people are going to law school because
we need like third Good March, she said, we need
an army of civil rights lawyers to be able to
deal with all the injustices we have. And so I
try never ever to say old woe is me, because
(31:26):
you know, Charlamagne, if I did not choose to go
take on these big fights, then I wouldn't have to
worry about people calling me. But I choose because I say,
God bless me, and shame on me if I don't
use the influence that God gave me to go try
to help others.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
And that's what.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
It was, Jamie Fox and I and oh at Harry Bellefonte.
Harry Belafonte said, what good is having influence if you
don't use it when it matters most? And I worry
so much about other sisters and brothers who got the
influence who just stay silent.
Speaker 7 (32:06):
Man.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
I'm like, you got all this money, all this power,
you see what's happening to our people, and you ain't
gonna say nothing. I mean it, and again I shot
you out the breast. I love how you use your
platform to speak truth to power. And we all got
to do it, y'all because God is watching it. One
day he gonna say, but what did you do with
(32:28):
the blessings Eye bestowed upon you?
Speaker 1 (32:30):
What did you do with the influence. Did you just
use it for yourself or did you try to help others?
Did Boosy reach out to you? Boosy said he was
gonna reach out here. He did, he did.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Well, what happened with Booty case, I know that Boosy said,
Louisiana is kicking his ass, kicking his butt.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
Well, you know, I do think there are times when
people try to use their authority to come after people
who are in our community, who have high profiles, and
they do an intention and so I know they did
it with NBA young boy. We were able to get
(33:05):
him a bell and that was Louisanna. I think they're
doing it with Boots. I think they do it to
a lot of us envy. So in short order, we've
broke down Boots's case.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
We think he's gonna be fine.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
I've worked with great lawyers and Louisana like attorney James
Williams Tez and Sue Anne Robinson helped me on that case.
And it was really one of those things, just doing
the legal research and so forth, saying this is where
I believe their bark is worse than their bike. And
so I said, if they come for you, we'll have
(33:40):
the community ready, and that's why it's good to work
for the lawyers around the country. So it ain't just
Ben Crump. But when you call Ben Crump, he's calling
his network of attorneys saying, Hey, how do we help Bootsy,
how do we help you know, I'm gonna look at
Tod Dollar signed brother. He believes in a lot believe
or wrongfully in California. So we're gonna look at those
(34:03):
cases because that's what we have to do, Envy. We
have to be there to answer to bell fire people.
And I smile when you say, Boots, just call the office.
When you put it on social media, I got a
hundred calls.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Boots are trying to get you crumped.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Had the Trump administration targeted you anyway?
Speaker 4 (34:25):
I'm sure I'm on some enemy lists, but I try
not to think about it, because you know, I have
the honor of representing the family of Malcolm X. You know,
and this was sixty one years ago. They were targeting
our people, and I don't think nothing has changed with
the CIA or the FBI. Tell them I think you
and me both on this enemy's list. Brother, h you know,
(34:49):
come with me. We know who we are, whose we
are and I refuse to be afraid. I tell my
security and everybody all, I refuse to let them make
us live in fear, standing up, fighting for our children's future.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
And you know.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
God has ordered our steps, and whatever happens, I want
my daughter, I want our children to know we believed
in them so much we were willing to fight for them,
sacrifice for them, and if need be, die for our children.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Man.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
I Lyn really got to see that black people believe
in black liberation. And just like and I mean this
from the heart, just like they are unapologetic in their
white supremacist beliefs, we have to be unapologetic defenders of
black life, black liberty, and black culture.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
I mean now more than ever, y'all.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
They they saying it, well, they chest how they think
we're inferior. We got to say it with our chest.
Now we think black is the greatest thing and we
don't care. And we got to say it a hundred
times over, Like Jesse just saying, you know, we got
to talk about I am somebody because everybody in society
try to tell a little black boys and girls you
ain't nobody.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Now, what did Jesse you mention?
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Jesse Jackson rest in peace. Jesse Jackson.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
What did Jesse Jackson mean to you?
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Man?
Speaker 4 (36:13):
You know, for the greater part of my life. I'm
in the fifties. You know, Jesse was the standard bear
for civil rights that we knew. And the thing I
remember the be specific I remember. You know, you fight
the campaigns, you get people who show up for the cameras,
(36:34):
and then when the cameras go, you see people showing
up on a consistent Bacey Jesse, even the old age,
was still trying to show up.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
And I have to salute that.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
I'll never forget we were and I won't call the corporation,
but we were representing agents of a certain insurance company
where they were ran lining in the black agents where
they could never make as much as the young white
boys and girls.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Who was twenty years there, junior.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
And we were in federal court in Chicago, and you know,
I believe, like third good. We got to fight in
the court of public opinion, in the court of law,
and one of the states. One of the agents was
Jesse Jackson's insurance agent, who was one of the class
action representatives. So I asked Reverend Jackson to come to court,
and we were in court envy. And we were there
for about four or five hours at this federal here,
(37:25):
and the judge was really giving it to me, man
and my team.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
I mean, he was coming.
Speaker 4 (37:30):
At us left and right, and you know you're like, man,
this ain't gonna go well for us, and so forth,
and you know you had a defeat. This mentality stunting
to set in a little bit, and we went on break. Man.
Reverend Jackson got me in the corner and he said,
he said, Attorney Crump Man, you gotta remember, you don't
(37:52):
drown because the water is deep. He said, you drown
because you stopped kicking. He said, our people can never
see our leaders or people they believe in, stop kicking.
He said, you just always gotta keep kicking.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Man.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
He said, you keep kicking, you will make it to
the shore. You keep kicking, you'll overcome.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
But you just gotta keep kicking.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
I don't care what the ours are, I don't care
how the cars are stacked against you. You just keep kicking.
And I was like, wow, you know, all right, just
let's go. And as fate would have it, man, we
went back in court for another hour or so, and
the judge, even though he berated us and talked down
to us, like Thirdgod Marsha got talked down to And
(38:36):
that's part of it. You know, you gotta understand that
the system really doesn't think black people supposed.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
To get equal justice.
Speaker 4 (38:46):
Every bit of justice we get, every ounce we get,
we gotta fight for it. We been making that court
room and the judge denied. They motion to dismiss, and
I said, man, what a legacy to jessep We just
writing now more than ever in this here black people.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
We just got to keep kicking.
Speaker 7 (39:04):
Is a very important piece of literature, especially for the
youth right. I heard that it's gonna be a book
of series. This is the first book, yes writing more. Yes,
is it gonna be You're gonna change it up. It's
gonna be the same storyline like a continuous story, or it's.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
Gonna be the same main characters like Bowleie Cooper as
our black version of Perry Mason.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
And what people don't realize Jess is man.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
Perry Mason was written by Aaron Stanley in the nineteen
twenties and nineteen thirties. So one hundred years later, we
are still talking about Perry Mason. They're still making movies
based on that character. So I would hope that you
know we were our children children will be talking about
(39:50):
Bollie Cooper and his investigator Cape saying, you know, Princess Avarez,
the smart Hispanic sister from Puerto Rico, who's on his team,
who a lawyer, and all that kind of stuff, because
we want to have our heroes people look like us.
And so we are cautiously optimistic that the book is
selling great.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
I want you know about books, keep going and keep
buying them.
Speaker 4 (40:14):
Tell everybody who's listening, go right now and go to
Amazon barsing over your black bookstores. Are they audit because
the more people buy, the more opportunity we have to
keep writing books about our cases, our stories.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
This is my last question.
Speaker 5 (40:31):
At this stage in your life and career, what does
this book represent for you personally?
Speaker 2 (40:36):
Is it a warning? Is it a release or or
a legacy move?
Speaker 4 (40:40):
I think it's a combination of warning and legacy. And
the reason it's a warning, Charlemagne, is that Bolie Cooper,
even though they got so many things pointing to the truth,
the point where this black man should get justice, his
(41:02):
family should get justice. It doesn't matter. The system doesn't
care about the truth. The system cares about the system,
and what we have to understand is that we have
to make sure our young people are more intelligent than
(41:25):
those who will seek to oppress them. That's what this
book is about. The warning in the legacy because you
hear how bro Lee in them. Even though they denying
the man bail, even though he's paralyzed, they want to
put him in prison because not only are they trying
to kill him, they trying to kill the truth and
everything about it. Just like with George Floyd when they
assassinated him, they had to assassinate his character.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
And so that's the one piece.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
But the legacy piece of it is this man I love,
and please write reviews black people. A lot of writers said,
publishing company, you know, they part of American coaching. I
remember the movie where Philadelphia, where Denzel Washington says that
famous line he said, in this court room everything is colorblind,
(42:13):
and he said, jeedge regrettably, we don't live in this
courtroom in America.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Publishing companies everything.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
They go by what they see happening, and so we
need people writing reviews on good Reads and Amazon. And
one of the best things this lady said to me
after reading the book, and I don't want to give
it away because it got a legal a lot of
twisting turns, plots and everything changes, she said, and she
(42:44):
was crying. We've been having these this worse than a
lot of Book two. We've been going to all these cities.
We were at Howard Law School last night. We're gonna
be at Newark, New Jersey Symphony Hall tonight with Mayor
Rod's Baraka. But she said, Attorney Crump is so happy
to read your book into where we can find black
(43:05):
joy in each other. She said, that's where she took
away from it, and that made me feel like it
is why we do this. The fact that there was
one reviewer who said this was a great legal thriller
novel written by us for us, about us, our struggles,
(43:29):
our community, and our victories and our gods.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
And I said, wow.
Speaker 4 (43:37):
I mean people are writing their reviews on their own,
and that's what heartens me. But we got to write
those reviews, as Charlemagne knows, and everybody wrote a book
because you can't trust their numbers and stuff always. But
when you see the reviews keep coming in, you're like, no, Na,
somebody somebody reading the book, and so I thank you all, Charlemagne, Lauren, Envy, Jess, Queen,
(44:03):
y'all were in this together.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Absolutely appreciate you always into the phone.
Speaker 6 (44:09):
I'm just seeing her thinking like you've been doing a
lot of things, but you always enter the phone for us,
right hey, Lauren.
Speaker 4 (44:14):
And I appreciate the cause when we're trying to use
our platforms to help our people tell our stories.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
So you keep doing what you do.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
Queen Attorney Benjamin Crump, It's the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Good morning, thank you, yes.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Sir, every day a week ago up the Breakfast Club.
Finished for y'all. Done,
Every day a week ago picks up the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You don't finish for y'all done morning.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Everybody is DJ en Vy just hilarious. Charlamagne the guy.
We are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest
in the building, indeed, Attorney Benjamin Crumb.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome, brother, How you feeling the morning and birthday King Queen?
Speaker 4 (00:18):
How are you kiddy Man? Happy to catch you out
doing black history much?
Speaker 5 (00:24):
Yes, sir, Yes, sir, I feel like you've been keeping
more with a low profile lately, Brother Crump.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
You know, I've worked on this novel and I was
really trying to inspire the next generation of civil rights
lawyers social justice warriors, because it has always be building
for the future. We're gonna pass this torch, and we
got to make sure the next generation go even further
than us. And so Bett Man, I've been working by
(00:51):
But if I just ain't been in the public so.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Much, is there a reason for that?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
No, it's just that.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
We put we got the me for how to suit
the clan that was in the media. We've been fighting
on these environmental racism cases. I'm battling in Altera Dina
the wildfires while everybody moved on. Those black people are
still this place, still homeless, and we're still fighting the
whole the company accountable and the county because they gave
(01:20):
it the evacuation notices to the people on the east side,
the more affluent white people, and then the black people
got their evacuation notices late, and nineteen black people died
and nobody's talking about it. And if we're not careful,
Charlemagne man alter Dina, which was the predominantly black historic
(01:44):
distraction of Los Angeles, will become California's Katrina. And that's
what we cannot afford, for black people to lose their land,
their generational wealth. And we sometimes with this administration, we
forget the trouble, I mean just the craziness they're doing.
(02:05):
They didn't even allow FEMA to come in and build
the infrastructure because this president was opposed to California and
it's democratic leadership, so they said, we're not going to
help them. So now we're having to hold the state
and the county and the City of Los Angeles accountable
to do infrastructure. So the black people, if it would
(02:28):
have took a year a year and a half to
get back in your home, now it's going to take
two years, two years and a half. Can you imagine,
you know, can you imagine Charlotte Maine, y'all, just one day,
you minding your business and then a fire comes from
the transform and just in a matter of minutes burning
(02:49):
everything everything you.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Had is gone.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Your children are not being able to go to school,
your cars were burnt, so you can't go to work.
And then the theme of the emergency management system that
was built for this exact moment then says, for political reasons,
we're not going to do anything.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Please please, I'm glad to know that you on that case.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Man.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Memi Browna does off Front page News.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
She did a whole special on Alter Dina call from
Altadina with Love and she and she talks about that
a lot, and the people she talked to talk about
that a lot. And people call up here all the
time just looking for help. It's in assistance and feel
like they can't get it. And people aren't remember what happened.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
What about this show.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
We're suing the hell out on Charlamagne so they ever
know that we if they ain't got nobody at least advocating,
call us and we'll keep fighting the insurance companies. You know,
Governor knew, some of the Attorney General and them. They
did a mortgage moratorium for a year, and then we
got to extended another year because think about it, envy
and just yeah, you're paying a mortgage on a house
(03:52):
that you can't even live in. I mean, and a
lot of people just ain't doing it. And so you
got the whether the disaster capitalists the opportunitist because you know,
the Olympics coming into la they got World Cup coming. Man,
they've been trying to bop these black people land forever anyway,
(04:14):
and now with this tragedy, they're taking the opportunity to
throw pennies on the dollar. And still our land, still
our generational wealth. And so the inshurance companies, you know,
have been doing what they do. I believe all of them,
State farm, all state, everybody. They try to get your premiums,
(04:34):
no matter how many times you pay.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
The first time you make a claim, they come.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Over every single reason to say, well, we're not gonna
deny that, we're gonna deny this claim, or we don't
think this land is that valuable. Lauren and Charlamaine because
it's in a black neighborhood.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Yeah, but once they get all black people out, then
they didn't bring the white people in not land increase tripletye.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Ten times with the Olympics.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Man, they gonna be building high rises and this is
prime land Los Angeles already is what they said, five
times more than any of the property in America price wise,
and so this is going to go up even more.
It's so many things that don't make the media Charlemagne
that we work on and fight on, you know, banking
(05:23):
while black, and right now, all the black women who
are being fired and terminated, the coust this attack on
DEI and diversity equit inclusion. We're suing all these corporations
for these black people who are losing their jobs with
no rhyme or reason, just that you know, this administration
gave us an excuse now that we don't have to
(05:45):
tolerate you all.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
I mean.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
And it's funny as funny as our test figuring. I
always laughed when we were representing lower people at the
corporation and they bought discrimination claims. You would these black
people sitting at the table helping to defend the corporation's
actions justifications to fire them.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
But now you got a lot of those people calling
me in. I'm like, wow, ain't this interesting?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
The tables have turned now it's you on this side
while you are helping protect them. So it just says
to us, especially during Black History Mark, the future of
black people won't be determined by how white people treat us.
The future of black people won't be determined how white
people support us. The future of black people won't be
(06:38):
determined how white people invest in us. But the future
of black people will be determined how we treat each other.
The future of black people will be how we support
each other. The future of black people, Charlamagne, will be
how we invest in each other.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
And that's the God's honest.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Truth when you really think about it, man, we need
to be supporting black businesses, black lawyers, black doctors, black restaurants,
black dry cleaners, black mechanics, black insurance agent. I mean,
we got that every week have dinner or at least
every month, have dinner, lunch with our colleagues and so forth.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
And we got to hold each other accountable.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
But like jes you know, the fifty percent of your money,
at least forty percent go to black businesses.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Okay, Well, who let's talk about it. And I try
to be honest with myself.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
God bless me immensely, and I'm like, I don't want
to be a hypocrite. I want to be true. And
I got to look in the mirror first and foremost
and hold myself accountable. And so I say to myself,
when I really think about it, Our Aging sisters and
brother brothers, their dollar in their community stays in their
(07:48):
community twenty one days before it leaves Our Jewish sisters
and brothers, their dollar stays in their community, seventeen days
before it leaves their community. Black Americans, our dollars stay
in our community seventeen minutes before it leaves our community.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
And it's sad shall the man because I love how.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Leeby Armstrong out of Minneapolis and Jamal Bryant when we
boycotted Target and those things. Because it's such a philosophical decision,
it's a mindset. They say, I'm going to be intentional
about supporting black businesses, and you gotta be intentional. And
with the Internet we can find black businesses. They say, no, no,
(08:38):
I'm going to find a black Dennis. I'm going to
find a black you know, insurance agent. Now and it's
intentional because now we're building a strong black economic base
and we can then tell this administration that, hey, like
how new Jack City cash many brothers are self contained unit.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
We will be okay with or without you. We don't
need you to say.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
But it's crazy though, because these conversations have been going
on since the beginning of the time, Like, you're not
saying nothing that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad didn't say that,
Martin Garvey didn't say that, Martin Luther King Junior didn't
say like. It's just like, at what point are people
going to realize unity and group operation is the way.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
You know, Charlomagne, we have to keep saying it though,
you know, as my grandmother and them, you say, I
know we're singing to the choir, but the choir gotta
sing louder.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
And it just got to be something that.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
We remind each other, like you, Lauren, just Envy, y'all
every month say hey, how many black businesses do y'all support?
Because it's easy to just spend money. I know my
family they spend it quick. But what when you stop
and take account and you really try to be honest
with yourself and you start writing down, Well, did I
(09:49):
at least give twenty five percent of my money? I
know I paid all these white people. I bought this stuff.
I went to corporate America, you know, to.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
A Mexican.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
And with this book, we've done so much to try
to push people to independent black bookstores, even though I
know Amazon, you know, it's so easy, so convenient, and
so forth. But I was so proud of sh'all the
main when they wrote that article saying that being Crump's
worse than a lie drove a surge in book sells
(10:24):
at black bookstores. I mean, that's what it's about, if
we're being honest with ourself. It's one thing for you
to come up, but how do you help bring everybody
else up with you? That's what I love about you, man,
with the black effect. You're bringing a lot of people up.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I appreciate you.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
Why did you choose fiction as the vehicle for the
story instead of like nonfiction?
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Yeah, you know it's interesting because my personal hero, third
Good Marshall. He once said that most people will never
know what really happens in a courtroom when you're fighting
for liberty and justice for marginalized people. And he said
(11:04):
That's why Charlamagne he would write his legal memorandums and
his pleadings and his briefs to be very engaging, because
he wanted to entice people to read those pleadings so
they could be educated on what really happens during due
process and court proceedings and so forth.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
And so I said to myself, well, what could be
more engaging than a legal thriller?
Speaker 4 (11:29):
I mean John Grisham with The Rainmaker, Michael Conley with
the Lincoln Lawyer. They say, millions of books every year
because legal thrillers are intriguing, you know, you excited trying
to figure my page turners and so forth. And I said,
you know, man, I grew up with my grandmother watching Perry.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Mason, you know, the old TV show.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
You know he figured it out his brilliance, his resources.
And then when college, you know, you got the Grisham
and there. But I kept saying, man, when are they
gonna make a superhero black trial lawyer and everything? And
I kept trying to figure out that they're ever gonna
do it. And so when I said lawd God said, Negro,
(12:13):
that ain't their lane. You know what they know about
being a black lawyer understanding the coach and fighting the
civil rights struggle.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Said that's your lane.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
And so that's what inspired me to write Worse Than
a Lot and create this superhero trial lawyer named Bolie Cooper.
This person with his team of social justice warriors, they
go in and they exalt the brilliance of our community.
We have returning citizens, we have a Puerto Rican sister
(12:45):
who's a lawyer, all working on the team, saying that
you know, we are just as brilliant as anything they
can create. And I want the next generation of people
who look like us to have heroes that they can
count on and say, na, nah, you get your Lincoln Lawyer,
we'll take Body Cooper.
Speaker 6 (13:04):
So in Bullie's journey through the book, right, there's a
lot of messaging that people will pick up on as
a followed the story. How did you choose which messages
you wanted people to pick up on? Because I'm sure
you experienced so much stuff that we need to know
and that we should be learning.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
You know, absolutely, Lawyer, and what you do as a writer,
especially a fiction writer, you're intentional with what you're trying
to convey, but you don't want to come across to preaching.
And so forth, and so even you know, I've been
getting very good reviews, and I'm thankful for it, but
it doesn't matter because I knew the audience I was
(13:38):
writing for. I was trying to do dis generations, to
kill a mocking bird that inspires so many young people
to say, I want to go be a lawyer and
try to make the law be an instrument for good.
And so I was intentional the lawyer. Even from the
beginning of the book, people keep saying it's a civil
rights legal thriller and it's wrapped in black culture, but
(14:02):
it's also a historical reference point because what I did
are Hollis Montrose, this black police officer who shot by
four white police officers on the night of two thousand
and eight, the historic election of President Barack Obama becoming
the first black president. Because I was trying to create
(14:25):
an allegory where we took symbolic characters and events and
settings to try to create abstract ideas, like the idea,
if you have the election of the first black president,
as many people believe Charlemagne in two thousand and eight,
(14:46):
we were now going to have a post racial America.
And even in the book, the chapter before Hollis is
shot ten times. On that night, Boli Cooper is talking
to his wife. He was on an airport when the
election results came, and he told his wife when he landed,
he said, you know, there was a white gentleman on
(15:06):
the plane who said to me, well, buddy, looked like
you're gonna have to find a new career now that
we've elected a black president. There won't be a need
for civil rights anymore. And I was intentional about those
things because really it was for shouting, because in fiction
you can do that because envy the way we were
(15:27):
all proud and happy and had this feeling of hope
and optimism when for Barack Obama was elected the first
black president.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yeah, I feel like society. I did.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
And then but what we did not fathom was that
there was a whole lot of people who had a
different reaction to us, and they were also going to
be able to express their ways and their actions and
even when they shoot. Two things that's been pointed out
(16:00):
by a lot of the literary people read the book.
When Hollis Montrose, this black po police officer, you can't
find nobody better. Because we wanted to intentionally do that
because when they killed George Floyd, when they killed Mike Brown,
when they kill Stefan Clarke, all these brothers, if they're
not an angel, if they've ever been arrested, if they've
ever been a convicted felon, if they are undocumented, they
(16:23):
come up and they say, oh, well, you know they
really were criminals.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
They not worthy of your consideration.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
I wanted to say, no, no, we got a person
who was a model citizen. And it didn't matter Charlamagne,
because when those police officers saw Hollis Montrose, they didn't
see him. They saw what they projected on him. And
so when they are down there, Hollis is saying, I'm
an officer, I got my idea and everything they tell him,
(16:50):
shut up, just comply. We don't care if that boy's
in the White House. We're still in control because I
am trying to create the setting for the book.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
And the second thing.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
That they point out when they shot him ten times
and that hot metal was going into his body, I wrote,
he cried an ancestral cry out to God, and I
tried to paint that picture for all the black people
who had been brutalized and killed unjustly by police, the
(17:23):
cries that they must have had, thinking that this was
it for them.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
And I wrote this and during the pandemic with.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Breonna, George Floyd, Ahmad Arbery, Andre Hill, and I was
very emotional at that time because this was therapeutic in
many ways. But I thought about looking at Brianna's picture
with eight bullet holes in her body and her nightgown
(17:55):
lying in the hallway of her apartment when I was
writing a Hollis And so it is hopefully one of
those things that is enticing and engaging, entertaining. But I'm
really trying to teach people about how hard it is
to fight for civil rights in America.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
When you talk about that title worse than a lie, right, like, like,
what in your view is actually.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Worse than lying?
Speaker 5 (18:23):
And do you think America understands how often that shows
up in the courtroom.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
I certainly think they don't. My grandmother who helped raise me.
My mom worked two jobs to raise me and my
two little brothers, so oftentimes we stay with my grandmother,
And you know, black grandmothers are brilliant. My grandmother, I
think was the wisest person I ever met in the world.
And I remember her saying, Charli Man on occasion, what's
(18:48):
worse than a lie? To tell the truth and have
nobody believe you? I mean, that's and then in this
book it really goes so much deeper, where when you
are seeing where hollis, who's been shot ten times, survived
and now he's charged with four counts of attempted murder,
(19:10):
is really life imitating art when you think about what's
going on in Minneapolis with ice and stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
But to answer your question directly.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Charlemagne Man, I don't think many people understand how many
sisters and brothers have to go in courtrooms all across
America every day and lie on themselves and except trumped
up felony convictions and trumped up felony plea agreements, because
(19:45):
they understand that the alternative of going to trial well
for jury of peers that have nothing in common with them,
the likelihood that they would be convicted and sentenced for
decades and have to be wrongfully convicted for a crime
(20:05):
they didn't even commit. That's worse than a lie. And
it happens every day, man, every day.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
How do you deal with stepping from the beside from
the book for a second, but how do you deal
with that, right, because I feel like even on social
media now, people are lying more and more and more.
But the problem with the line is I feel like journalists, newscasters, papers,
they're taking what these people are saying and making it factual,
(20:32):
you know what I mean. So now when people hear it,
they think they're hearing it from Channel four, but it's.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Really a lot that they heard online.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
How do you deal with that when you go into
those courtrooms?
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Oh, it's getting so much worse already.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
You have two battles when you're representing people of color,
especially in America, because there's a credibility factor. Every time
we're fighting the police off, we're fighting these large banks
of a banking while black discrimination cases are we're fighting
these corporations like Elon Mussen thew' about poisoning our community
(21:04):
with these data centers. There's this credibility gap where they
want to believe what white people say over black people.
And the worst part about it, envy, is our people
want to believe it too. Our people are so quick
to attack one another. I mean, every day I pray
to God and say God, help me love our people
(21:24):
more than they hate themselves. You know, I really believe,
because when you've been blessed, you gotta try to do
better to help other people. And you got to even
make allowances for their criticisms too, because slavery, I mean,
they have such a psychological effect on our people, and
we got so many haters out there on us when
(21:45):
we got so much. We're fighting against white people. I
don't care what black people do. Try to get them
some grace, you know. And so the line is so
real now with social media, I mean, it's being proliferated
hundred times than what we were used to before social media.
But that's why in the novel, you know, early on
(22:07):
Boli Cooper realizes why he's fighting the Chicago machine and stuff.
To beat the broken system, He's gonna need more than
just the truth. What we're gonna need is our whole
community being gavnized, with our resources, with our brilliance, with
our connections that come together just to get justice. And
it's never about one person. That's the other thing I
(22:29):
tried to emphasize in the book. It's always a team effort.
The fact that we I was intentional about having returning
citizens brothers who were convicted of drug dealing and you know,
being street wise and so forth. It was like Malcolm
X said, some of our most brilliant minds in America
(22:51):
are locked up in five by seven cells, never given
the opportunity to expose their intelligence and so forth.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
And this new series I wanted to.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Give those brothers opportunity to say, what would it be
like if they got to expose themselves using their street
smarts and their intellect and brilliance to help solve cases.
And so that's how you try to overcome the truth.
But it's hard, man. They was those saying a lot
of goals around the world.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Around the world, what the truth is putting on the
shoe exactly.
Speaker 6 (23:24):
I saw the press conference you did about you, but
YouTube and the targeting of like people like falsely on
the YouTube and foreign people.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Len who's doing it?
Speaker 4 (23:35):
I mean, you got these foreign actors in country like
India and uh Career and so forth coming up with accounsel.
That's why we're looking at Google and YouTube and them saying, well,
you all are pailing them even though it's being shown
to be false. With Judge Faith and Judge Mathis and
I mean all these lives, uh, Margie har Stevie wonder.
(24:00):
I mean, just putting out lines and our people believe
it so quickly. Jes, I don't know why it is
we are so prone to be leave negative versus positive.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
You want to you want to think the worst of people.
Speaker 5 (24:12):
I feel like, mister Crump, that's why I think you
got a little profile.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
I think you got overwhelmed.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
By all the negativity because you all wanted the people
that's really out here on the front lines helping our people.
But for whatever reason, people wanted to villainize you, especially.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
A lot of our own.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
And you know it's so interesting, Charlemagne, because Man, the
more good you try to do, God just keep blessing you.
So I don't even think about any negativity criticism. Ts Lawrence,
the British soldier known as Launch of Arabia. He said
(24:47):
something so profound. He said, the most dangerous person in
the world is the person who dreams with their eyes open.
They're so focused on their objective that they have very
little time to focus on any other distractions. That's how
I run my life. We're now twenty one cities. You know,
we have sixty over sixty member staff, two hundred lawyers
(25:09):
working with us, and I'm just focused on my mission
in life that God put on my calling. I can't
worry about what you're saying. Man, We too busy trying
to help liberate black people.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
I'm too busy now trying to do stuff.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
Globally with Africa and so forth, because we if we
learned anything from this administration, it's not enough to think nationally.
We really got to think globally and the African diaspora,
Like Marcus Garbin said, that's what's gonna save our people.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
Is there a constitutional crisis when the president repeatedly attacks judges, prosecutors,
and juries. Are that I guess protected under some type
of First Amendment?
Speaker 4 (25:49):
You know again, schaw Man, That's why I wrote this
legal thriller because I want so many people to go
out hopefully independent bookstores are Amazon bars and or whatever.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
You can start reading this book learning.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
Because we talk a lot about civil procedure and criminal procedure.
It's funny because my cousin Vinny, you remember that movie.
It was funny and entertaining, but you watch it, you
learn a lot. And so like a few good men
and Lincoln lawyer rain Maker when they read this book
about black superhero lawyers. I want people to be learning
a lot because they need to understand about the Constitution.
(26:25):
I was talking about this is art imitating life and
life imitating art Charlamagne. When I wrote this book, you
know it was in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one. Hollis
Montrose gets shot ten times by four white officers, and
there's a sister who records it on video from her apartment. Wonder,
(26:46):
but none of that is enough when the system starts
to conspire to oppress the truth. And then we think
about what happened two months ago with Alex Peretti, four
or five officers around him, he gets shot ten times.
Like Hollis, he was licensed to care gun had it
on him. Hollis licensed care gun had it on him.
Both arguments said that even though there's video, we felt
(27:10):
them fear of our life and that's why we killed them.
And then you saw the powers that become and start
saying it was justified. I mean, even with video, it's
no guarantee that you're gonna get the truth in justice out.
And so when we think about the constitution crisis, I
immediately think about the actions of ice and what's going on,
(27:30):
how it is a complete assault on the Constitution of
the United States.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
I mean it's an assault on.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
The First Amendment right to free speech, freedom of assembly,
freedom of press. When they're arrested at Georgia Fort and
don Lemon. The second Amendment, right, I mean the attack
on it. When you think about Alex Parade, they said
that he wasn't can bring his farm to this protest.
Even you have western young Kyle Rittenhouse, they let him
(28:01):
march right up there, made him a hero for having
the gun at the rally for Jacob Blake. But then
the third, the fourth Amendment, assault against the prohibition of
unlawful searches and seizures. My god, I mean they're kicking
in people front doors with warrants based on racial profile
(28:22):
and nothing else. I mean busting people card windows when
they're driving in the street. I mean, no warrant, no
probable cause, just that now you look Spanish, or you
look Samarian, or you look Haitian. So black people don't
take it lightly that they ain't coming for you next,
because they're gonna say, oh, you look like our Haitian cousins.
You look like our Samalian cousins. The Fifth Amendment right
(28:45):
to do process of the law. How they just turned
that on its head, Charlamagne. The fact that it was
one of the most cherished principles in America to say
that you're innocent into proven guilty.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Well not with ice, not not.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
You have guilty, and you got to prove your innocent,
You got to prove that you're an American citizen, that
you got your papers, and so forth. It reminds you
of South Africa doing apartheid.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
And then you think about the sixth Amendment right to counsel.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
The fact that you got people and ICE detention centers
and their lawyers are trying to go meet with them
and have consultations with them, and they're being denied access.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
And then worst of all, y'all, worst.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
Of all is the attack on the Eighth Amendment rights
against Cruel and Unusual punishment, Charlemagne. The fact that, man,
you got people in these detention facilities who are American
citizens too, and they need their insulin, they need their
(29:47):
heart medicine, and they're not being given that reasonable medical.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Attention.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
That it's clear from medical records and everything, and people
are dying and nobody's saying anything about it. And you
got these private corporations with these contracts to keep.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Building these detention facilities, to keep building these prisons.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Y'all, we need to stop attacking each other because they're
attacking us, and they.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Mean for our people, your children.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
Your cousins, your spouses to end up in those prisons.
Trump certainly don't mean for his kind to end up
in those prisons.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
Does it ever get overwhelming for you being that you
are to go to you know, civil rights attorneys, Like
when people think, and especially the generation you're like somebody
called Ben Crump, did it ever get old woman for you?
Speaker 6 (30:35):
You know?
Speaker 4 (30:36):
I try to always thank God and be humble, never
get the big hair, you know, black American's Attorney general.
I say, well, I'm proud that people would think that
of me. But what I also know Charlemagne, it can
never be about one person. We can't have one leader
(31:00):
because they'll take them out and then where will we be.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
So I'm all.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
About community and building the bench we gotta keep. I'm
so happy that Tess is in law school. I'm so
happy that other people are going to law school because
we need like third Good March, she said, we need
an army of civil rights lawyers to be able to
deal with all the injustices we have. And so I
try never ever to say old woe is me, because
(31:26):
you know, Charlamagne, if I did not choose to go
take on these big fights, then I wouldn't have to
worry about people calling me. But I choose because I say,
God bless me, and shame on me if I don't
use the influence that God gave me to go try
to help others.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
And that's what.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
It was, Jamie Fox and I and oh at Harry Bellefonte.
Harry Belafonte said, what good is having influence if you
don't use it when it matters most? And I worry
so much about other sisters and brothers who got the
influence who just stay silent.
Speaker 7 (32:06):
Man.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
I'm like, you got all this money, all this power,
you see what's happening to our people, and you ain't
gonna say nothing. I mean it, and again I shot
you out the breast. I love how you use your
platform to speak truth to power. And we all got
to do it, y'all because God is watching it. One
day he gonna say, but what did you do with
(32:28):
the blessings Eye bestowed upon you?
Speaker 1 (32:30):
What did you do with the influence. Did you just
use it for yourself or did you try to help others?
Did Boosy reach out to you? Boosy said he was
gonna reach out here. He did, he did.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Well, what happened with Booty case, I know that Boosy said,
Louisiana is kicking his ass, kicking his butt.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
Well, you know, I do think there are times when
people try to use their authority to come after people
who are in our community, who have high profiles, and
they do an intention and so I know they did
it with NBA young boy. We were able to get
(33:05):
him a bell and that was Louisanna. I think they're
doing it with Boots. I think they do it to
a lot of us envy. So in short order, we've
broke down Boots's case.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
We think he's gonna be fine.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
I've worked with great lawyers and Louisana like attorney James
Williams Tez and Sue Anne Robinson helped me on that case.
And it was really one of those things, just doing
the legal research and so forth, saying this is where
I believe their bark is worse than their bike. And
so I said, if they come for you, we'll have
(33:40):
the community ready, and that's why it's good to work
for the lawyers around the country. So it ain't just
Ben Crump. But when you call Ben Crump, he's calling
his network of attorneys saying, Hey, how do we help Bootsy,
how do we help you know, I'm gonna look at
Tod Dollar signed brother. He believes in a lot believe
or wrongfully in California. So we're gonna look at those
(34:03):
cases because that's what we have to do, Envy. We
have to be there to answer to bell fire people.
And I smile when you say, Boots, just call the office.
When you put it on social media, I got a
hundred calls.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Boots are trying to get you crumped.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Had the Trump administration targeted you anyway?
Speaker 4 (34:25):
I'm sure I'm on some enemy lists, but I try
not to think about it, because you know, I have
the honor of representing the family of Malcolm X. You know,
and this was sixty one years ago. They were targeting
our people, and I don't think nothing has changed with
the CIA or the FBI. Tell them I think you
and me both on this enemy's list. Brother, h you know,
(34:49):
come with me. We know who we are, whose we
are and I refuse to be afraid. I tell my
security and everybody all, I refuse to let them make
us live in fear, standing up, fighting for our children's future.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
And you know.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
God has ordered our steps, and whatever happens, I want
my daughter, I want our children to know we believed
in them so much we were willing to fight for them,
sacrifice for them, and if need be, die for our children.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Man.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
I Lyn really got to see that black people believe
in black liberation. And just like and I mean this
from the heart, just like they are unapologetic in their
white supremacist beliefs, we have to be unapologetic defenders of
black life, black liberty, and black culture.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
I mean now more than ever, y'all.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
They they saying it, well, they chest how they think
we're inferior. We got to say it with our chest.
Now we think black is the greatest thing and we
don't care. And we got to say it a hundred
times over, Like Jesse just saying, you know, we got
to talk about I am somebody because everybody in society
try to tell a little black boys and girls you
ain't nobody.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Now, what did Jesse you mention?
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Jesse Jackson rest in peace. Jesse Jackson.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
What did Jesse Jackson mean to you?
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Man?
Speaker 4 (36:13):
You know, for the greater part of my life. I'm
in the fifties. You know, Jesse was the standard bear
for civil rights that we knew. And the thing I
remember the be specific I remember. You know, you fight
the campaigns, you get people who show up for the cameras,
(36:34):
and then when the cameras go, you see people showing
up on a consistent Bacey Jesse, even the old age,
was still trying to show up.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
And I have to salute that.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
I'll never forget we were and I won't call the corporation,
but we were representing agents of a certain insurance company
where they were ran lining in the black agents where
they could never make as much as the young white
boys and girls.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Who was twenty years there, junior.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
And we were in federal court in Chicago, and you know,
I believe, like third good. We got to fight in
the court of public opinion, in the court of law,
and one of the states. One of the agents was
Jesse Jackson's insurance agent, who was one of the class
action representatives. So I asked Reverend Jackson to come to court,
and we were in court envy. And we were there
for about four or five hours at this federal here,
(37:25):
and the judge was really giving it to me, man
and my team.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
I mean, he was coming.
Speaker 4 (37:30):
At us left and right, and you know you're like, man,
this ain't gonna go well for us, and so forth,
and you know you had a defeat. This mentality stunting
to set in a little bit, and we went on break. Man.
Reverend Jackson got me in the corner and he said,
he said, Attorney Crump Man, you gotta remember, you don't
(37:52):
drown because the water is deep. He said, you drown
because you stopped kicking. He said, our people can never
see our leaders or people they believe in, stop kicking.
He said, you just always gotta keep kicking.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Man.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
He said, you keep kicking, you will make it to
the shore. You keep kicking, you'll overcome.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
But you just gotta keep kicking.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
I don't care what the ours are, I don't care
how the cars are stacked against you. You just keep kicking.
And I was like, wow, you know, all right, just
let's go. And as fate would have it, man, we
went back in court for another hour or so, and
the judge, even though he berated us and talked down
to us, like Thirdgod Marsha got talked down to And
(38:36):
that's part of it. You know, you gotta understand that
the system really doesn't think black people supposed.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
To get equal justice.
Speaker 4 (38:46):
Every bit of justice we get, every ounce we get,
we gotta fight for it. We been making that court
room and the judge denied. They motion to dismiss, and
I said, man, what a legacy to jessep We just
writing now more than ever in this here black people.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
We just got to keep kicking.
Speaker 7 (39:04):
Is a very important piece of literature, especially for the
youth right. I heard that it's gonna be a book
of series. This is the first book, yes writing more. Yes,
is it gonna be You're gonna change it up. It's
gonna be the same storyline like a continuous story, or it's.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
Gonna be the same main characters like Bowleie Cooper as
our black version of Perry Mason.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
And what people don't realize Jess is man.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
Perry Mason was written by Aaron Stanley in the nineteen
twenties and nineteen thirties. So one hundred years later, we
are still talking about Perry Mason. They're still making movies
based on that character. So I would hope that you
know we were our children children will be talking about
(39:50):
Bollie Cooper and his investigator Cape saying, you know, Princess Avarez,
the smart Hispanic sister from Puerto Rico, who's on his team,
who a lawyer, and all that kind of stuff, because
we want to have our heroes people look like us.
And so we are cautiously optimistic that the book is
selling great.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
I want you know about books, keep going and keep
buying them.
Speaker 4 (40:14):
Tell everybody who's listening, go right now and go to
Amazon barsing over your black bookstores. Are they audit because
the more people buy, the more opportunity we have to
keep writing books about our cases, our stories.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
This is my last question.
Speaker 5 (40:31):
At this stage in your life and career, what does
this book represent for you personally?
Speaker 2 (40:36):
Is it a warning? Is it a release or or
a legacy move?
Speaker 4 (40:40):
I think it's a combination of warning and legacy. And
the reason it's a warning, Charlemagne, is that Bolie Cooper,
even though they got so many things pointing to the truth,
the point where this black man should get justice, his
(41:02):
family should get justice. It doesn't matter. The system doesn't
care about the truth. The system cares about the system,
and what we have to understand is that we have
to make sure our young people are more intelligent than
(41:25):
those who will seek to oppress them. That's what this
book is about. The warning in the legacy because you
hear how bro Lee in them. Even though they denying
the man bail, even though he's paralyzed, they want to
put him in prison because not only are they trying
to kill him, they trying to kill the truth and
everything about it. Just like with George Floyd when they
assassinated him, they had to assassinate his character.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
And so that's the one piece.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
But the legacy piece of it is this man I love,
and please write reviews black people. A lot of writers said,
publishing company, you know, they part of American coaching. I
remember the movie where Philadelphia, where Denzel Washington says that
famous line he said, in this court room everything is colorblind,
(42:13):
and he said, jeedge regrettably, we don't live in this
courtroom in America.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Publishing companies everything.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
They go by what they see happening, and so we
need people writing reviews on good Reads and Amazon. And
one of the best things this lady said to me
after reading the book, and I don't want to give
it away because it got a legal a lot of
twisting turns, plots and everything changes, she said, and she
(42:44):
was crying. We've been having these this worse than a
lot of Book two. We've been going to all these cities.
We were at Howard Law School last night. We're gonna
be at Newark, New Jersey Symphony Hall tonight with Mayor
Rod's Baraka. But she said, Attorney Crump is so happy
to read your book into where we can find black
(43:05):
joy in each other. She said, that's where she took
away from it, and that made me feel like it
is why we do this. The fact that there was
one reviewer who said this was a great legal thriller
novel written by us for us, about us, our struggles,
(43:29):
our community, and our victories and our gods.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
And I said, wow.
Speaker 4 (43:37):
I mean people are writing their reviews on their own,
and that's what heartens me. But we got to write
those reviews, as Charlemagne knows, and everybody wrote a book
because you can't trust their numbers and stuff always. But
when you see the reviews keep coming in, you're like, no, Na,
somebody somebody reading the book, and so I thank you all, Charlemagne, Lauren, Envy, Jess, Queen,
(44:03):
y'all were in this together.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Absolutely appreciate you always into the phone.
Speaker 6 (44:09):
I'm just seeing her thinking like you've been doing a
lot of things, but you always enter the phone for us,
right hey, Lauren.
Speaker 4 (44:14):
And I appreciate the cause when we're trying to use
our platforms to help our people tell our stories.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
So you keep doing what you do.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
Queen Attorney Benjamin Crump, It's the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Good morning, thank you, yes.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Sir, every day a week ago up the Breakfast Club.
Finished for y'all. Done,
The Breakfast Club News
Hosts And Creators
Charlamagne Tha God
DJ Envy
Jess Hilarious
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