August 21, 2022 • 60 mins
Russell Vann is a freelance writer that began writing his memoirs in 2013. He was born in the South Bronx and lived there for the majority of his life. His two books, Ghetto Bastard and Ghetto Bastard 2 both reached #1 on Amazon. The third book in the series, Ghetto Bastard III was released in 2019.
He attended Cardinal Hayes High School for two years and then Howard Taft High School for one year. As he didn’t graduate, he attended a program where he worked and took classes so that he could get his G.E.D. In later years he took Computer Science College courses.
His work background includes hard labor, Corrections and being a Caregiver. He has often held two jobs at a time to provide for his family.
His great-grandmother was the biggest influence in his life because she raised him. She gave him his great sense of family where other members of his family failed him. As a young boy just entering manhood, he ran the streets and had his share of trouble but always learned from the mistakes he made.
His love life was no different. He made a lot of mistakes there too. Fortunately, he finally got it right and married the love of his life.
He attended Book Expo America and Book Con in 2019 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York, NY.
Important links:
Website: ghettobastard.com
Facebook: Russell Vann
Twitter: @Ghetto_Bastard
Email: Russell.dynasty.biz@gmail.com
Blogs: GhettoBastard.blogspot.com
& GhettoBastard.com/Brutally-Honest
My books are available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Russell-Vann/e/B075CS5NXQ?ref=dbs_m_mng_rwt_byln
www.worldmovement.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/can-a-playa-play--3433224/support.
He attended Cardinal Hayes High School for two years and then Howard Taft High School for one year. As he didn’t graduate, he attended a program where he worked and took classes so that he could get his G.E.D. In later years he took Computer Science College courses.
His work background includes hard labor, Corrections and being a Caregiver. He has often held two jobs at a time to provide for his family.
His great-grandmother was the biggest influence in his life because she raised him. She gave him his great sense of family where other members of his family failed him. As a young boy just entering manhood, he ran the streets and had his share of trouble but always learned from the mistakes he made.
His love life was no different. He made a lot of mistakes there too. Fortunately, he finally got it right and married the love of his life.
He attended Book Expo America and Book Con in 2019 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York, NY.
Important links:
Website: ghettobastard.com
Facebook: Russell Vann
Twitter: @Ghetto_Bastard
Email: Russell.dynasty.biz@gmail.com
Blogs: GhettoBastard.blogspot.com
& GhettoBastard.com/Brutally-Honest
My books are available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Russell-Vann/e/B075CS5NXQ?ref=dbs_m_mng_rwt_byln
www.worldmovement.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/can-a-playa-play--3433224/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Yeah, yeah, old school, That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Listening.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This ain't for everybody. Some of y'all need to hear it.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
I know you're in the trenches fighting, but check it out.
I'm gonna put it down like this, waking help the things.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Understand everything you're going through. It's all part of the.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Master plant or what you thought, cause you got saved,
everything was gonna be picatures with Queen.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
You better wake up.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Son.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Don't nothing come to a super foot train. Worse is
dead reaching fire.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Well you know what he says.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
He don't work, don't blackness, don't get said.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yeah, he's just said. He hoops his hands to the pot,
looks back to say makes fit. Some of y'all ain't been.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
In the switch of five minutes and you about ready
to quin. I ain't mad. I'm just sitting you with
the wheel.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
If you got from me, I was still Now how
do you think that makes you feel? Check this out?
He's gas this his deep hunt. I mean, y'all have
saw nothing, but your son is trying to read something.
But I though he was there for the position of
farmers fight.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
His glory trumble.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Might be part of your testimony, but it ain't end
to the stoke now I want to step his proper's
side way back.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
In the day. Why I sing the hook right here
and see if the church get my lace.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Working out working up?
Speaker 5 (01:11):
We wor.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yes can, yes he can?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Think you're not saying the fire replis to just fly you.
You say, why you what your shirt shake? What would
Jesus do? Why you're asking if he ain't trying to
do what he's saying. You told you he was gonna
have tipulations, but you thought he was playing for one minute?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
You telling how good guy the be?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Can't nobody missing talk the next vintage of back fight
so fast?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I'm like your moon walking. Oh yeah, I'm listening to
myself souse. I ain't no better. It ain't like I've
been falling as every word, obeying it to the letter.
But we sold us. We gotta remember that.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
We say yo, yeah, found down the fast, say.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Humble, let him annoy it. It ain't even as I
thought it was.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I've been lying up, I told you, but it showed
up being better all the time.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Trusted that's the best, ain't if we going through the
KP Hill? God put that on this hub like they say,
you can show. Now you walk to.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Soh Yes, we're gonna pump the brakes right there because
I know we're gonna make it. I had to give
a big boy his time. You know. That's my belief,
and I hope it is yours, boy, because this world
right about now full of some crazy ish but I
(02:25):
know we're gonna make it. I know we're gonna make it.
Welcome to the show. It's your host, Lamar Patterson. This
is kind of play and play. I hope everyone is
doing splendid. Hope you stand safe and doing everything that
you can, you know, loving your neighbors, loving yourself and
doing all that great stuff. We have a fantastic show
lined up for you today. Get out your pen, you know,
(02:48):
pads and a lot of us I know around the
world can relate today. I guess mister Russell Van and
uh who he definitely has a testimony. Mister Russell Van,
the author has a series out Ghetto Bastard, you know,
(03:08):
number one on Amazon. So let me see as I
guess with us, mister Van, are you with us?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yes, sir, how are you?
Speaker 4 (03:20):
I am blessed man? I could honestly say, even though
I forget to look around and smell the roads or sometimes. Man,
I am really blessed.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
How about yourself, sir, I am also blessed, and I
want to thank you for having me as your guest today.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Man, you have a testimony. Man, And I'm always pleased
and now should I say honored to have gentlemen such
as yourself, because people can relate. You know, there's a
lot of ways to deal with life. You know, you
could watch it or you could live it, you know,
and guys such as yourself, you know, I mean, you've
(03:58):
been into trenches. You know what I'm saying. You've been
in trenches and and you didn't let circumstances stop you.
And I hope our listeners can hear your story and
and resonate from that.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I hope, So, I hope, so, I hope it touches
a lot of a lot of hearts. But I wanted
to put out there, you know, everything is from God,
as they say, if not for the grace of God,
because I'm I'm nothing special. There are millions of people
(04:36):
like me out there, different colors, races, and creeds, so
that things. I just was fortunate enough to be in
a position to put it, put it in print.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
I read a couple of things that that that you said,
a couple of quotes man that I thought I was
very powerful too, you know, definitely jewels and they were
just because you're from the ghetto doesn't mean you have
to stay in the ghetto. And even though you're born
a ghetto bastard, doesn't mean you have to act like one.
Ghetto is just not a place that's a mindset. And
(05:13):
I totally agree with that one strong words, man. So
let's talk about your book.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Man, Should I say you.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Have you have more than one?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
So, yeah, I'm writing them before right now, called the
American Dream Ghetto Bastards for the American Dream. Oh yeah,
you know, I'm going to show that, uh that you can,
you can achieve the American Dream no matter where you
come from. You know, even though all the odds are
(05:46):
you know, uh piled against you. You know, perseverance and
always moving forward, you know, you know, like they say,
the journey of a thousand miles into one step. We
don't have to think of the whole young, you know,
as as the resold. Well, let's let's make it a goal.
We'll get there and just take one step at a
(06:08):
time and sooner and this well have we say keep
your head down and just keep how My wife and
I say, keep doing the grind, just every day and
just sooner. Way you're going to get your destination.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Absolutely, absolutely, Russell, let's do this. Man, tell our listeners
a little about I guess, a little bit more about
who you are, where you come from, and how did
you get on your journey to even start to write
your first book?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
All right, well, of course, everybody, my name is Russell
van Uh two s, two l's and the A N N.
And I was born in the myha In section of
the southbon I don't know how many people are aware
of that, but it's right across to speak from Harlem,
right across the bridge from Harlem. And at the end
(06:58):
it was nineteen sixty eight. At that time he was
one of the most at that time now one of
the most drug invested her and you know addicted areas
in the world, in New York City especially, you know
how the New York City was in the early seventies,
and like sixteen and I was, I was, I came
(07:25):
out of an unholy union. To me say, my mother
and father were teenagers. She had a boyfriend he was
a young hustler. He was from Queens, she was from
the Bronx. I guess they met at a pool party
or something like that. And you know, I guess she
was seeing him on the side and she was seeing
this other guy. And then of course when I was born,
(07:47):
she might have been pregnant at seventeen. I was eighteen
and she was born when I was born. So and
she came from a broken home. Also, nobody wanted to
take responsibility for me. I don't know who they were,
some kind of I guess back in the days they
used to have people that take care of kids for
(08:09):
you and stuff like that. And I was abused there,
you know, physically abused there. And my mother, I mean,
I guess she just wasn't ready for a kid. My
father was in jail and at the time I was born,
I think, and they was just there was no I was.
I was just everywhere, anywhere and everywhere. She would leave
me any place with anybody, my mother to the point
(08:32):
that my great grandmother. Now this is so.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Hello, Ah, I guess something happened to uh. The gentleman's call,
(09:05):
So I am sure he's gonna be calling back in
just a second here, So I ain't on. We're gonna
go to a commercial break and we will.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Be right back.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
Can I play and play Second Love? Relationships and Politics
hosted Bottle of My Good Patterson every Sunday at you
thirty pm, sixth Standard time and five hundred Standard time.
Joining in the conversation call six four six year. I
(09:41):
ain't tell for the wait, Steven, go up online the
world Movement dot Com. Announce yourself. Can I player?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I'm on the kid?
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Yeah, we're back, Russell Van, Yeah, I don't know what
happened there, man, you just was gone, but it's okay,
you're back.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Then where did that? Emore? Did you get me at
by great grandmother?
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Yet? Yeah? Yeah, you saying that's your great grandmother? You
know she was a queen that raised you.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Okay, Yeah, so she stepped in, which that tells you
about the dynamics of being a ghetto bastard, because I'm
the epitome of it, and that degree, you should have
two sets of grandparents before a third grandparent steps in.
So she stepped in, raised me in the ghetto. We
got the old school values, which I'm grateful for. And
(10:31):
just to show you how appreciative I am of her.
She was also taking care of her elderly mother. She
was about sixty at the time. She was taking care
of her elderly mother, and she was married and working
a full time job at the time as a waitress,
and took in a four year old So and of course,
(10:56):
if anyone knows the ghetto, all the attributes of the ghetto,
should I say, were present. And this was a single
not you know, any sense, because her husband didn't really
take part in my upbring or anything like that, and
they got separated after a short time. But she taught
me a lot of old school values and so raised
(11:20):
in the ghetto, she sent me the boarding school. Can
you still hear me?
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yes, okay, Well basically we all cut off, okay, and
I got my wife listening too, So if it comes off,
she comes in and says, hey, I can't hear you
anymore because the country and so and uh so, I
(11:47):
got into a lot of different things because uh I now,
at the age that I am, now I can understand it.
When you grow up in the ghetto and you don't
have a father, TV in the streets and the movies
are your guys. When I grew up my interpretation or
(12:10):
my impression of being a man was Jim Brown, Fred Williamson,
Jim Kelly, you know Ron O'Neill, Richard Rowntree, you know
all of those guys, that masculine type of that narrative.
You know a lot of a lot of women, big
(12:30):
big cars. That was the narrative I mean. And it's
so ironic because you know, that's the poison that said
to us, But ironically it's transferred. It's the same narrative
a little bit differently told, but now it's through the music.
It's more through the music and the videos and the rappers,
and it's giving out that negative imagery that the fatherless,
(12:53):
which is what I was, are trying to imitate. Because
no matter what all, most young men are trying to
imitate some type of masculinity. They're trying to relate to something.
So that was what I was trying to relate to.
And let me see what else can I tell you
about me? So I think I never never went to jail,
(13:14):
and I never gotten sent in trouble like that, only
by the grace of God because I did a lot
of eager actions. But one of the main factors for
me not going to jail was my grandmother said, if
you go to jail, I'm not coming to get you.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Yeah, that was a little bit of a.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
And and I knew in the soul and now I
can laugh at it, but when you're younger, you can't
laugh at it. I knew that nobody else cared about me.
I knew nobody else loved me. So if she wasn't
coming to get me, nobody was coming to get me.
And I didn't want to go to jail. And back then,
you know, all you heard about jail was either he
(13:53):
was getting shanked or screwed. He said, what are the other?
So you know that scheduled it death as a child.
So I always remember that, and I always remembered in
my mind thinking as I was growing up, I really
didn't want to disappoint her. I wanted to be, you know,
a success for her. Now, I made a lot of
dumb mistakes and a lot of dumb moves that I'm
sure she shook her head sometimes, But I just believed
(14:18):
do her guidance. Well, God, first of all, but do
her guidance, and the way that she raised me just
just changed the direction I had in life. But so
what's so crazy, though, is she was about sixteen, Maye big,
a little old, a little younger when she took me in.
I loved it a death you she could walk on
(14:40):
water if you asked me. But her daughter, her son,
they hated her, yes, yes, they hated her hat and
they told me so after she died, you know, hated
her the way they treated her and she you know,
(15:00):
it's just miraculous. But a lot of my life and
a lot of the way I treat my children, the
way I treat my grandchildren are based on the way
that you know, she treated me, you know, and the
sacrifices that she made. So that teaches me. But a
lot of people from the ghetto, young black men, don't
have that guidance. A lot of young black men from
(15:21):
the ghetto are raised by single mothers. Now, even though
a lot of them are strong single women, a lot
of them are also bitter single women, and a lot
of the resentments that they have towards the different fathers
or father is taken out on that child, and when
(15:44):
that child doesn't have that balance of the mother and the.
Speaker 7 (15:48):
Fathers, there's treacherous results.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
So, you know, I just had a mix up a
lot of that and what was so great. And the
one thing about my book that a lot of people
when they being the title, because it's such a sensational title,
they think it's one way, and then when they read it,
they they see, Wow, this is about life. This is
a story about life itself. It's not it's not this
(16:13):
glorification or this narrative that you know, the media cells
or the TV cells. It's about true rights. It humanizes
people from the ghetto, you know, because there's a whole
lot of ghetto.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
What did you think about the title of the name
of this show?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Can Well, I mean you could have a title. First,
I didn't know what to expect from it. So I
just took it and said, hey, listen, let me get
out there and let me just talk. Because what one
thing I believe, especially as a writer, I believe that
everybody should be able to communicate anyway they want to.
Speaker 5 (16:53):
Okay, now we mind. The reason I asked you that
is because you you made you made an example and
I was just saying, the name of the show is
kind of play, a play which in my mind is
also thought provoking.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
That's why I reach out for guys like you. The
guys that have a testimony and story that can help
you know, other people. You know, I talk to other
you know CEOs of other corporations, uh, you know, other
self help organizations. But that's what this whole thing about.
Can of play A play can can the guys that's
(17:31):
really calling the shots, making moves, doing stuff productive and
helpful in the community. I think that's what camvs. How
I came up with the name. But anyway, both but.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Were praying at life though, you know what I mean.
So a player, I guess it's it's just the thing
on words. A player is you're using the power for good.
What's mad with it? But something like people like what
you said, it might have put in a negative connotation,
say or a player someone who plays women or buffles
(18:03):
or this, that and the everything, But that's not necessarily.
Usually a player is like somebody is going for his
somebody that's you know, saying like has doing what they
gotta do, striving to get ahead, you know, doing what
they gotta do. Go on, player, You know what I mean.
It's all with the way that you say it. It's
all with the way to tone that you protect it,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (18:19):
So when you look at when you look at the
news and look at our politrictions every day, what are
they doing.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Playing words in they're playing with words. I can't stand them.
I hope nobody's listening to us. Go you know, black something,
But I mean, boy, because thes ain't no joke.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
Man. I wish they pat for gas like we doing.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
But you want to know something, what's so funny, uh
Michter Patterson, is that they are smart people. They're not
dumb people. Because when you sit down and you see
them and just something press conferences or certain.
Speaker 8 (19:01):
Interviewss, they're they're spending the questions, they're answering the questions.
They're going into the lions. Then but they they've got
their their their lives and the narratives.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
So practice is so complete. So they're very smart people.
It's just that they have wells.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Yeah, but how well do you play chess? Because that's
all that's all. That's that's all I see them doing.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
That's absolutely what they do it. But the whole thing
is we as this class of people, this level of people,
we're not even in the game.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
And you guys, hey, look we don't get to be
we don't even get to be a pond man.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
We ain't upon or nothing, and you're just looking for
the scraps. We just look at that the scraps coming down,
because they're sitting there behind these Because we're sitting there
watching this stuff. I mean, we're not blind, we're not stupid,
you know what I'm saying. But they'll sit there and
tell you, you know, like they say they had that old expression,
you know, don't piss on me and call it fun
drops or something like that, something in that, you know,
you know, what of of thinking. And they're sitting there
(20:08):
and you look at them, and you know they're turning
lies and you know they're exploring stuff. They're sitting here
signing seven hundred and forty billion dollars for this. They're
sending forty billion dollars, you know, over to U printing
role to send eighty billion over the Ukraine that we
know about. And then you turn around and you look
and you go to skid roll and you see how
these people are rhything. Or you go to any city
(20:29):
in the United States, major city in the United States,
and you got home with people whatever issues they have,
drug issues, home, you know, mental health issues, whatever issues.
But you got all that money to send them all
of these countries to make sure these people is all
right to fight wars and get weapons and stuff like that.
But you can't make.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Sure the people, did you peep the big lie though,
mister Vane. The big lie, the big lie America United
States is not involved in that war. That's the big lie.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
How can they say that you're setting them weapons? Are
you sending them money? You know what I mean? But
this is everything and Russian and from the very beginning.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
If you're sending arms, ammunition and money to my enemy,
you in the war.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Of course. But see this goes back this but this
is common sense here, but you so, but see this
is a distraction. All these things are distractions. Now sometimes
I'm sitting, I'm going because I'm not in the game.
And like you said, it's a chess game. I absolutely
agree with that, But I don't think we're in the
game because when you when you're playing chess, you're looking
at your opponent and you're trying to go moves above him,
(21:45):
and you know how many moves ahead of him to
get your feace, and blah blah blah. In this game
that they playing, we're so consumed with all of the distractions.
We can't see what they're doing, you know what I mean,
We don't have I have no idea on what level.
And these people, you gotta remember, you're dealing with evil. Okay,
(22:06):
You're not dealing with regular people. You're dealing with evil.
You're talking about evil people that will take on an
airplane of two hundred and fifty people just to kill
one type of evil people, you know, certain meaning that mentality.
So we're not even on no level. So what we
have to understand, and I think my book talks about
(22:26):
this because we come where I come from. Are people
like me, where we come from, we come from the
epitome of where these people think we are nothing right
is you have to be responsible for yourself. You have
to know within your heart as you moving on in
life and how you're treating people, that you're doing the
(22:47):
right thing. Now. I'm not gonna say you're not gonna
make mistakes, because we all make mistakes. I'm not gonna
say in my youth, I have not done things that
here in my fifties sitting back, oh man, I wish
I wouldn't have done that. Thinking differently, But the thing
is in life, there's nothing wrong with making mistakes as
(23:08):
long as you learn from them. And I want my
books to say that to people, all creeps and colors,
because ghetto don't necessarily just mean black and Hispanic poor people. Okay,
because it's ghettos in white neighborhoods too, they called trailer parks. Okay,
they're just pour differently, but we're still human beings. And
(23:29):
what happens is we become statistics instead of human beings.
And I think what my Ghetto Bastard series does is
humanize the statistics. Because when you hear ten people got
shot in Chicago, five people got shot over here, peo people,
They're more than just people. We're human beings. Go ahead,
(23:51):
I'm sorry, sir. I don't mean to be.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Black the no, no, no, no, that's fine, man, that's fine.
I was gonna ask you, though, in writing starting writing
your Ghetto Bastard series, what would you feel was your
main motivation? I mean, was it just your experience from
your life? You know, I agree we all are a
product of our environment to a certain extent, But what
(24:16):
was your motivators?
Speaker 2 (24:17):
The main one My motivation was therapy because in life
and a lot of things that you go through. Sometimes
you carry a lot of anger and you don't understand
that you're carrying it around. We think that anger is
just that straight out explosive anger, that that's the only
(24:39):
anger that you got. No, you'll be carrying anger around
from the stuff that people then did to you when
you were younger. And then what's crazy is people do
those things to you when you're younger, and then you
got to be around them when you're older, and you
still carrying around that anger, and at some point in time,
if it's not expressed, it's going to explode. And I
(25:01):
was working in an environment that was only adding to
my anger. So at a point I needed to speak
seeks of therapy. So I started seeing a therapist, you know,
like once a week. And after I told that it
was so crazy. It's like, I think that everything is
in God's plan. But this guy told me a thousand things,
(25:23):
and I said a thousand things to him. But after
I told them my story, the one thing he said
stuck in my head. He said, you know what, you
should write a book. And that stuck in my head.
I remember nothing else that dude said, but you should
write a book. And I said, well, you know what,
maybe I should write a book, and a lot of
(25:45):
different stuff happened. I got hustled a little bit, but
I started then Monday. I just said to myself, you
know what, I could do this. Nobody's gonna be able
to put down what I'm feeling and where I've come
from better than me. Right, And that's how it started.
And it just was from Mayor man and and my
(26:05):
wife was just the greatest verson because I've been with
her since I was fifteen. And I don't be read the book,
but you know, the ghetto Bastard toss a love story.
So this also they showing my wife and I were
just talking. I know, I've been in a relationship with
her for forteen years. Wow, And yeah, man, I love
her to death. You know what I'm saying. I ain't
tired or none, you know, but that's right, you know.
(26:34):
And man, and this book thing, she says like I'm
the writer, but man, she's everything behind it, you know,
the handler she does it. We would do the book
fairs and and go to the book shows and stuff
like that, and which I mean. And that's why I
really got out there and really realized, Wow, this is
something here. She set all that up. I was like, man,
I don't know no book fans. Man I want say here, right,
(26:55):
I just want to Man, you know, you gotta go
out there. You gotta meet people, you gotta talk. She says,
you're talking at She telling me all the stuff that
I didn't believe in myself, Like you know, you could
just be doing stuff and don't realize that you have
a talent. She's telling me all this stuff, and I'm like,
you're my wife, You're gonna tell me anything.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
But man, I got out there and I went to
these different book shows and these different tools. And what's
so crazy is it wasn't just black people that was
coming up to me. White people was coming up and
talking like you got to be able to talk. You
just can't sit there and be like, hey, buy my book,
buy my book, you know, And you had to sit
there and you had to talk to them. You had
(27:32):
to communicate, you had to be able to be articulate
and really, and it was something. All types of people
were coming up and talking to me and needing the
book and buying the book. All John Old's colored shape sizes, Asian, black, white, everything,
and I was like, Wow, this is really, this is something,
this is really you know, I'm being myself. I'm going
(27:55):
this is God's plan. But you know, COVID kind of
shut me down there for a while. So now I'm
just waiting for everything to kind of get lifted, and
I'm hopefully trying to try to go international. You know,
I was to start getting getting into Canada and stuff
like that and getting across the country because it was
I had a real good audience. The only thing that
(28:15):
I was missing was the advertising and the marketing. So
what's good about print? What was good about, uh, the
literary business is that if it's in print, it's always
going to be there. So now you know, it's something
to fall back on, something that I can start putting
more into it. And that's why I'm doing these interviews
(28:37):
also and just getting the world out there. And I
just said being a motivational person, but I'm not a
motivational speaker, but I'm just telling people listen.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Well, first of all, well I'm not changed.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
I'll just say that's a survivor. That's all I survivor.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
I think that's the truth. Man, you may not agree. Well,
first of all, let me say, this show is herle
hundred worldwide, so that's already international. So that's one part
of it. The second thing is you're already a motivational speaker, man,
because there's people out there. Man, it's going to hear
what you're saying and your struggles I'm telling you, and
it's going to benefit them. So people don't necessarily learn
(29:16):
from books. I'm not the one that learn a lot
from the books, man, But I learned from living life,
you know, and usually the lessons that I paid for
are the ones that I retained. So having said that,
and I heard you a little while ago, but do
you have a certain thing as a target audience?
Speaker 2 (29:34):
No, I have all people because it's a book about life.
It's a book about just because it's about ghettle. That's
what people starting to kind of just list us and
this is the leans unfortunately. But it's a book about life.
It's a book about love, it's a book about dysfunctional relationships.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
It just goes and it goes through the different stages,
thrown through the sixties, the seventies, the eighties, the nineties,
the two thousands, and it's different kind of people and
it just shows. You know, it humanizes everybody. So I
just think one it would kind of be if I
(30:16):
was almost to describe it in a sense, I would say,
this is something that white people should read. If you
wanted to say, oh, this is a book that all
the questions white people wanted to ask people from the ghetto,
but we're afraid to ask because you know, we're closely
in a sensitive time now. But this is a book
(30:37):
that I think people from the outside of our culture
can read, and it would humanize us. I think people
from the outside of our culture. Because I didn't even
tell aout white such hous I said, man put me on,
give me on some white supremacist radio shows or something
like that. I talked to them people, you know, because
when we get liting the hate, when we get lived
(30:58):
in the negativity and we man, you got problems too.
Who was that guy? I just saw the show the
other day, is it mister Hampton? Said Hampton? He was
the Black Panther. Oh okay, and yeah he was he
And there's something the Messiah, Judas the Messiah whatever the
(31:21):
show was, and Freda Hampton one of his key things.
And why the FBI or whatever the systems that be
wanted to get rid of him was he wasn't just
going and talking to black people. He was going up
to the Operation Trails and stuff like that to all
(31:41):
of those poor people and all those poor white people
and talking to them and bringing them together with the
poor black people. And the government don't want that because
knowledge is power. So my book, I want to reach
out to everybody and I want them to look into
our world, and then I want us to be able
to I wanted to create dialogue. I want us to
(32:03):
be able to talk. I don't want people to believe
what they look at on TV.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
You still will, oh yeah, because I'm listening with you
saying thank you, thinking as well, because you know, knowledge
is power, and this country has always been threatened at
at you know, to a certain extent, and that's why
they didn't want certain cultures to even be educated or
(32:32):
learned how to read. And that's the same movement we
see now where they're trying to take certain books out
of schools as we speak.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Right, right, right, right, absolutely, I agree.
Speaker 4 (32:47):
So, so what have you learned, sir in the process
of you writing your books.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Well, I've learned that I've changed as a person, as
far as my viewpoints on a lot of different things,
I learned. It's difficult raising it's difficult having grown children.
I have grown children, you know, twenty three, thirty three
(33:15):
and thirty thirty one now, and I'm a grandfather. So
I look at a lot of things differently and just
life itself, because I'm always trying to look back at
when I was their age and say, oh, I was
(33:37):
like this or I was like that. But then I
have to sit back and go, wait a minute. They
didn't have I didn't have a father, I didn't have
a mother, I didn't have grandparents. I didn't have people
who loved me, you know what I'm saying. So I'm
always constantly making the comparison. But that's something I learned,
you know, just you know, I don't getting older. That's
something that I'm learning and that's a daily process because
(34:00):
when you have children and grand children, it's not one
monolithic person. They're all multi faceted because everybody has different personalities,
so you got to have different you know, different uh,
come at them everybody differently. As they say. My wife
and I say this constantly, and here's the saying. We'll
(34:20):
know about heavy is the head that read the crown.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
Hello, yeah, I heard it. Heavy is the head? And
where is the.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Where's the crown? Okay? And that's the Rife family and
everything else that isn't a question. I mean sometimes I
thought ramble hood.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
So I don't want to know we're good.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
Because while you're talking, man, you know, my mind is
also running. I surey listeners is running too, man. Because again,
people could read about life, or they could live life.
And the person that that has had certain experiences and
know what they're talking about because they lived in It's
a lot more powerful than somebody sent it on TV
(35:09):
or read it somewhere. But my question is, you know
we kind of like kind of skimmed over some things.
You know, we went from your first book, but we
didn't even really touch about your second and the third one.
So how how is the second book different from the first.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Well, the first book is building the character, letting you
see where this person comes from, where this individual comes from,
what is exposed to Because what a lot of people
don't understand is our environment and our upbringing is what
(35:52):
builds that character, positive or negative. It has a massive influence.
So the first book is showing where I come from
how I got there, the people around me, and should
I say a rise, because the whole the book series
(36:15):
is kind of like a roller coaster, just like life is.
So the first book is my rise, you know, rising
from from my environment, or trying to rise, because sometimes
when you rise, you have to fall, rising from my
environment and then I take a fall, and when I take.
Speaker 7 (36:36):
That fall, life hits me back in the face.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I mean, it hits me real hard. That's what Book
Tour is about. But through adversity and as they say,
when one door closes, another door opens, I understand. And
now initi is what the second book is A lot.
If a lot of things didn't take place, I wouldn't
have been where I was at or for the second book.
(37:05):
And that has to do with the love story. And
sometimes you're with people, and that's what I'm saying. It's
a human story. It's just not about a ghetto bastard story,
but a human story. Sometimes you're with people and sometimes
you break up and then when you break up, you
realize how good that person was and then you want
to get back together. But you think you've done a
(37:25):
deed that's so you know.
Speaker 7 (37:27):
Treacherous or so bad that they can never get back
together with you.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
But you know, all things are possible if there's love.
So you know, that's kind of in that second book too,
in this ghetto environment, of course. And then if the
second book also deals with the challenges of the ghetto, unemployment, poverty, HIV,
(37:55):
and it just shows the struggle of people in the ghetto,
how well some people are just how you quoted what
I was saying before, Some people are stuck in the ghetto.
They don't want to get out the ghetto. We used
to call them ghetto fabulous. So it just speaks about
all kinds of people. In the book three, I don't
(38:18):
know if you mentioned that was but book three is
called Life after Death, and Life after Death just brings
it all together, and it's about getting out of the ghetto.
It's about getting it all together, even if you have
to die trying to.
Speaker 7 (38:34):
Get out of the ghetto, and it speaks about that,
and and book three just brings it all full circle.
And by the time you're done reading book three, they'll
be begging for book four because book four is called
Ghetto Bastard the American Dream, and it speaks about the
American dreams and how this ghetto bastard from the South
(38:59):
Bronch my Haven section of the South Bronx, who didn't
have a mother, all father, all grandparents, didn't have anyone
who cared anything about him, was able to achieve the
Americans without having to go to jail, without having to
kill somebody, without having to pimp some women, without having
to do all the negative connotations that attached with successful
(39:22):
black people that come out of the ghetto. You know,
besides being an.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Athlete or something like that, you know, an athlete or rapper.
So you know, that's that's what they're all about.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
And I heard you say you're not a motivational speaker,
but all the time, I'm yeah, I know, I just
heard you talking. But I know we have I know
we have some at risk youth all over the country. Bro,
all over the country. Needed to hear just what you said.
(39:53):
You know what I'm saying. They need to hear that.
They need to hear just what you said, all over
the country.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
So that's how I started. I mean, that's in the
book too. I used to work for this place called
Youth Energy Core, and I actually when I dropped out
of high school, I actually joined their job training program,
and at that time that was installing windows. Since the
early eighties, that was installing windows. That was a big
thing in New York. So they were teaching us how
to install windows. And I took that trade and ran
(40:21):
with it, and then I ended up becoming like a
crew reader trainee there. So I just moved up within
the company.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
There for a while and helped build.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
A company and had to outreach and the injustice giving
people a positive outlook and perspective on our troubled youth
and letting them see that our trouble youth is not
just what people see on TV, but our trouble youth
are troubled for a reason, and we have to understand
that if you give them some structure and some guidance
(40:56):
that you know, they won't be so troubled.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
Right right, So that's that's so true, so true. So
what what what are your goals for your for your series?
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Well, I want to finish up number four, The American Dream,
and then I'd like to write book number five, which
I want to call God Remain And what I'd like
to do there is just go kind of through the
book and show how God has got how God intervened
in my life have if if it wasn't for the
(41:31):
grades of God, it's what happens, so kind of kind
of a you know, uh, just a scenario was showing
looking back through the books, how God was an influence,
How was he was the influence because God's what was
into it. And then my last book is going to
be my first novel, and I'm going to call it
(41:53):
what If Ghetto Bastard what If? So it's going to
tell the stories of the three books, but me make
different decisions and different things turning out differently. So it'll
all be fitching, I'll all be making up, but it'll
be I think it'll be a work ard. It'll be beautiful.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
Well, it's amazing. First of all, it's amazing that you
was able to maneuver through through the journey that you
had without being caught up and going to jail.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Thank God for the grace of God, for the grace
of God.
Speaker 4 (42:33):
Because so many, so many do, I mean so many,
you know.
Speaker 5 (42:36):
Get caught up of God.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
And you know what's so crazy is people try to say, oh,
it's not systematic, and you know, I don't want to
try to get all political too much and everything, but
you know if you got too million. If black people
only make up thirty percent of the country or is
it ten percent in the country.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
It depends on which day you count.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Okay, let's go with I'm I think it's ten percent,
because that means there's about thirty million of a thirty
five million. So I'm gonna go black people make up
ten percent of the country. Okay. So if black people
make up ten percent of the country, how do they
make up half of the prison population? So when any
(43:23):
time people try to speak about racism or the system
or anything like that, all I do is say, I'll
throw those statistics and just say explain that. When you
can explain that to me, then we'll say everything is
fair close to board, because there's no way in the
world out of a country of three hundred million, three
(43:44):
hundred plus million people, that thirty million people make up
half the prison population without there being something in effect
to make it happen. Do you agree?
Speaker 4 (43:55):
Oh? I totally agree.
Speaker 5 (43:57):
Man.
Speaker 4 (43:57):
But hey, look, if I was playing the Devil's advocate, man,
I need somebody to make license plates and handle all
the dairy and produce all the furniture for the military. Man,
I need workers. Man, for that, Well, else can I
get workers man and pay them a dollar a day?
Speaker 5 (44:16):
Man?
Speaker 4 (44:16):
Come on?
Speaker 2 (44:18):
And who can't vote, and who can't vote, and who
can't own firearms? When they get out? You under saying,
so I understand that, and I see that because some
people with all you can't do that. No, there's a
whole lot of things you can't do. And it's kind
of like, and here's just another way. And you know,
(44:41):
I don't want to get through conspiracy theories and anything
like that. But it's the same way with student loan debt.
When rich people go to college, they don't come out
of school in debt. Debt is povaty. So when most
(45:01):
minorities I say most, not all, because I want people
to say, oh, you said all of them and put
me you know, and put it on the blanket. But
when most minority children come out of college, they are
in debt. Debt begins poverty. When you come out like that,
(45:21):
they have no con Their thing is, let we get
the job so I can start paying off this debt.
Then they start getting to a habit of paying that debt.
They get on a job that they don't like, they
don't want to work at and they're miserable because they
got to pay that debt. Rich people come out of college,
debt free connections, job opportunities. See, that's the systematic, that's
(45:47):
the systematic racism there. But it's not racism against per
se black people. It's racism against poor people. Your opinion.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
Hey, yeah, well if I was one of them. Well,
first of all, we call it bankruptcy. They call it
that restructuring. They call it that restructuring. Look, we're gonna
say that for a whole another show. So listen. How
many how many books do you see in your series? Man?
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Six all together? Yeah, the what If will be the
last one. So I'm working on number four, the American Dream.
Like I said, the number five will be ghetto bastard
the godly man, and the last one will be ghetto
bastard what if. So the one and two, you know, dudes,
the foundation. Number three brings it all together, and then
(46:47):
number four just shows you know, opportunity and where we
can go and just reaching for the stars. And number
five shows the spiritual aspect of it, how God is
them and all of it. That you don't do anything
on your own and if any time you sit there
and you look in the mirror and you think that
you do something on your own, you have to lose
(47:07):
your on you know. And then, like I said, number
six will be my first novel, and that's gonna be
the what If. And it's gonna take all the characters
from the first three books, first four books, and bring
them all together in a fictional manner. So that hopefully
(47:27):
that's what the future holds. And hopefully, yeah, hopefully there's
COVID stuff for all be listed. I can start going
back on my book tours and I can hit Canada,
maybe a couple other.
Speaker 9 (47:39):
Coatries and stuff like that, because you know, a lot
of foreign people are interested in the black culture, but
they're getting that buffoonery black culture.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
They're not getting the real black culture, you know what
I mean. You know, they getting the hip hop pants pants,
you know. You know what I'm saying. I don't want
to start putting run down, but they get that kind
of I want them to see the real the human
you know, the real black people, the real culture, you know.
And that's why I'm proud of the title, because a
lot of people, well, why would you name it that? Well,
(48:13):
you mean, I know it's a sensational title. Bro Listen,
I am from the Ghago and I'm a bastard child,
so I'm just streaming as ow I'm black and I'm proud.
Speaker 4 (48:25):
What are you doing well? You're definitely definitely doing some
good work. I'm not gonna even ask you, well, I
don't know. The question I have is like, does your
family support your career as a writer? But I already
know your queen is your number one everything, So how
is the rest of your family supporting you?
Speaker 2 (48:45):
You know, I don't know if you have grown kids
and that. So I'm gonna say, old people, okay, you
know you got to be real careful, okay, because you
know you have to write and you got to speak
the truth. I'm not gonna sit here and start a
liar guy because I'm writing a mamoir. So I can't
sit here a lillary gag and sugar coat something. If
(49:08):
you want to make a difference, if you want to
have an impact, you have to speak the truth. And
sometimes I mean I'm speaking my truth. You have to
speak that truth, that gut wrenching hard to talk about. Truth. Me.
I got to put my stuff out there, but now
you got to remember my truth. And what was going
(49:30):
on a lot was with their mothers immigrationships before they
were born. So then sometimes you know, they'll never admit it,
but sometimes I see it in their real thing. They
get a little sensitive that you're saying something about their mommy,
you know, whether it be the truth or not. They
get a little sensitive, or they're young and they're doing
(49:56):
things that teenagers do, and then when they be thirty
or so, they look back and go, oh, when I
was a teenager, I did that. But when they were
a teenager, they don't understand the stuff that they're doing.
They'll fight you tooth and them to tell you. You
know that they're right. So it's kind of like that
with the team with my grown children. I have to
(50:18):
be able to speak my truth and speak that real
truth and try not to offend them. But now I
didn't realize that till after book three, So being a
little more careful with book for should I say, Hey,
it took me to three to realize that. I'm like, wow,
they got to look these kids are they got kids
of boy Thesese gold people. They're like, they look like
(50:39):
they got some issues. Are like what time I have
my daughter like reading excerpts because I was writing them,
and I guess I wrote something about the time and
whatever happened, man, And then I noticed the next day
she had like a little attitude, you know. I was like,
oh boy, now I gotta be careful. And then that
limits your artistic ability, you know what I mean. Now
(51:00):
you got to be thinking what this person's gonna feel
if you're writing this. And then, like you said, this
might be able to affect somebody else differently, who might
be able to who will happened to me? And blah
blah blah. But now I'm sitting here worried about them.
So you know, it's a double ed cell. So I
take it as I'm writing it and something comes up
about them, I sit back and see how much I
(51:21):
gotta go ass over it or something. Like my editor said.
When I was writing my first book, and I would
get too much into a particular character, a particular person,
they would say, listen, that book ain't about them. That
book's about you, you know what I mean. So less
about them and more about me. So I kind of
try to focus on that to you know, help navigate
through this little family tree, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (51:44):
Well, you know, no matter what, you can't say nothing
bad about the mama, you right know that?
Speaker 2 (51:48):
So oh no, mama, Well listen, you know I was
you know, and I wasn't saying close it. But you know,
if you're talking about the relationship, and I mean we've
had relationships and you're talking about because the relationships break
up for a reason. People just don't break up, you
know what I mean. They just don't wake up and
look at the person next to them and say, yeah,
you nowhere. I don't want to be to you no more.
(52:09):
It don't work like that, you know what I mean.
There's a process. And if you know any kind of
relationships from the ghetto, it ain't just them leaving, you
know what I mean, there's a whole It's just takes
six months to break up.
Speaker 4 (52:23):
Hey look and how many Hey look at how many
broken windows close thrown out?
Speaker 2 (52:29):
Yeah right, oh, because it's oh please give them the flash pass.
So you know, our children do not understand that as children,
as teenage, until they get into an emotional relationship. Because
when you're dealing with stuff like that, it's emotions, and
the majority of us, as we become older, they're going
(52:51):
to control our emotions. Much better now when we're younger,
and especially coming from the ghetto, especially not having a
man to teach you. There's no guidance, no parent, role
models to show you how to fight and stuff like that.
You're looking at stuff, you're minding you. You know, you're
looking at shaft smacking his woman, saying shut up, bitch.
You know, you know that stuff, thinking that's the macho man.
(53:16):
That's what you do. You grab a woman your shape.
Yeah no, dude, you don't do that kind of stuff.
But if you don't know that, you learn through trial
or ever. So you know, unfortunately that that that's what
happens with us and stuff like that too. It is
what it is.
Speaker 4 (53:32):
That's a lot of that. Again, that's the normal for
a lot of kids in America. I mean, that's the
that's the dysfunctional situation they live in. And I'm careful
with that word dysfunctional because sometimes dysfunctional is somebody else's normal.
You know, we think it's just funk snow based on
how we live. But absolutely that's that's other people's normal.
(53:55):
You know, because I heard you know a couple of
chicks matter of fact, on this show, they don't feel
like they loved him unless he slapped him aside the
head once in a while.
Speaker 2 (54:04):
They may have done that, dude, And then it got
to the point he was a commodating you was wait,
he was accommodating them. And then it got to a
point you didn't care enough to hit him.
Speaker 4 (54:17):
I don't want to touch you.
Speaker 2 (54:20):
They come in, they you know, you want to hit me.
You did. I don't even want to look at you.
I just want to get that out of here, you
know what I mean. It's been like that, you know,
so I understand that. You know, like, like you said,
you the word dysfunctioned. Yeah, you got to use it
carefully because I think me myself growing up, very's dysfunctional
as far as what I thought or what I saw
(54:41):
was a family, you know. But one thing though, I
can just say, you know, even in my books, there
was always that yearning. I don't know if it was working,
and I mean it's just something from the heart. I
yearned to have a wife. I wanted that woman that
I could love and I knew love me and was
(55:02):
going to be in my corner. I was seeking that. Unfortunately,
what happened was when I found it, I found it
so young but didn't know what's to do with it,
didn't know how to keep it, didn't know how to
love it, didn't know how to respect it, didn't know
how to cherish it, didn't know how to put it
on the pedestal because no one taught me how to
do that. So then I had to lose it. See
(55:25):
all that other stuff that was out here, there's stuff
that's not queen material, and you know what I mean,
right and after that, I was begging the queen. I
was pleased. I can't be a king until I get
my queen back. So the book talks about that also,
Like I said, it's a love story also, so I
(55:45):
mean it's just humanizing it. But I mean it goes
with just everything that you're saying. And I think also
what you were saying, and just as you were saying
about your title world, so it talks it's going old school,
it's you know, can a player play? You know, it's
teaching these young men out here who are misguided, is
(56:09):
giving them some guide and something that they can look through,
something that they can look at and say, oh, I've
been there, I understand. I don't think really there's too
much out there. Everything out there right now is spending
that negative narrative of you know, imagery of our people.
And I just want my books to make a difference
in that.
Speaker 4 (56:26):
And that's what's powerful, man, because it really is important
that each one teach one and I hope that's what
we're doing on this platform that I have. Hopefully we're
educating and touching some people out there so some way,
somehow it can enhance their lives, you know, in a
positive direction. Man. Listen, tell everybody how where they can
(56:46):
go get your book, man, because time be flying when
we be having fun.
Speaker 2 (56:50):
Well, you could go I have a website, ghetto bastard
dot com and if you want to get a little
first episode of the first chapter of the little television
there that are, we'll read the first chapter for you.
So that's Ghetto Bastard dot com. And you can also
go to Amazon and look, you know, Russell Van and one,
two and three all popped up there. That's Russell R
(57:11):
U S S E L L VAN V A N
N And it's up there, man, And you know, I
just hope people will pick it up, read it, and
I hope it will really up with people and and
just give them hope and for like I said, people
that don't understand the ghetto are wan't more knowledgeable and
really want to put a humans face on the ghetto,
go there and pick that up on Amazon or ghetto
(57:32):
bastard dot com.
Speaker 4 (57:35):
Absolutely, and I ain't gonna say it, but I'm gonna
say it. We'll be looking for our autograph copy man,
so you know we make sure.
Speaker 2 (57:43):
That we man send me the way send man, I'll
send that to you. Man, I'll get that to you,
no problem, no problem.
Speaker 4 (57:49):
Love absolutely, man, for sure, for sure, Yeah, we know
you will. Absolutely, Man. We appreciate it and definitely appreciate
you taking time to come through. Man, chop it up
with us. And again, I'm sure your testimony, your journey
gonna touch some people out there. And that's what we're
all about. Man, each one, teach one.
Speaker 5 (58:05):
Man.
Speaker 4 (58:05):
You're doing a fantastic job out there, man, and you
are hey, look and you are a motivational speaker.
Speaker 2 (58:12):
I don't care what you say yo, as the God is.
Speaker 4 (58:18):
Thank you, sir man. You be safe out there, man,
and tell your queen continue to crack the whip.
Speaker 2 (58:27):
There you go. Thank you, you take care all right?
Speaker 4 (58:31):
All right, everybody, you know what I'd like to say,
you know, if you don't know where you can hear
the show, you know, as the lady crossed the street,
as your neighbor, ask the milkman, as the guide the corner.
Somebody should be able to tell you we can hit the show.
So you ain't got no excuse not to hear the
show in its entirety. And much respect and we'll see
you guys next week at the same time to thirty PST.
(58:55):
Be safe.
Speaker 1 (59:01):
Hey, I'm seven of you.
Speaker 4 (59:02):
You're a now listening to Can I Play A Play?
Speaker 2 (59:05):
Live Every Sunday at two.
Speaker 6 (59:17):
You Cannot Play and play Second Love Relationship and policis
hosted by of my tepid Patterson every Sunday at two
thirty pm six Standard time at five.
Speaker 5 (59:30):
Thirty PC Standard time.
Speaker 1 (59:33):
Join in in the conversation.
Speaker 6 (59:35):
Call six four six
Speaker 1 (59:38):
Nine two eighty seventy two
Yeah, yeah, old school, That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Listening.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This ain't for everybody. Some of y'all need to hear it.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
I know you're in the trenches fighting, but check it out.
I'm gonna put it down like this, waking help the things.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Understand everything you're going through. It's all part of the.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Master plant or what you thought, cause you got saved,
everything was gonna be picatures with Queen.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
You better wake up.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Son.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Don't nothing come to a super foot train. Worse is
dead reaching fire.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Well you know what he says.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
He don't work, don't blackness, don't get said.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yeah, he's just said. He hoops his hands to the pot,
looks back to say makes fit. Some of y'all ain't been.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
In the switch of five minutes and you about ready
to quin. I ain't mad. I'm just sitting you with
the wheel.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
If you got from me, I was still Now how
do you think that makes you feel? Check this out?
He's gas this his deep hunt. I mean, y'all have
saw nothing, but your son is trying to read something.
But I though he was there for the position of
farmers fight.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
His glory trumble.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Might be part of your testimony, but it ain't end
to the stoke now I want to step his proper's
side way back.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
In the day. Why I sing the hook right here
and see if the church get my lace.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Working out working up?
Speaker 5 (01:11):
We wor.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yes can, yes he can?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Think you're not saying the fire replis to just fly you.
You say, why you what your shirt shake? What would
Jesus do? Why you're asking if he ain't trying to
do what he's saying. You told you he was gonna
have tipulations, but you thought he was playing for one minute?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
You telling how good guy the be?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Can't nobody missing talk the next vintage of back fight
so fast?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I'm like your moon walking. Oh yeah, I'm listening to
myself souse. I ain't no better. It ain't like I've
been falling as every word, obeying it to the letter.
But we sold us. We gotta remember that.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
We say yo, yeah, found down the fast, say.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Humble, let him annoy it. It ain't even as I
thought it was.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I've been lying up, I told you, but it showed
up being better all the time.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Trusted that's the best, ain't if we going through the
KP Hill? God put that on this hub like they say,
you can show. Now you walk to.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Soh Yes, we're gonna pump the brakes right there because
I know we're gonna make it. I had to give
a big boy his time. You know. That's my belief,
and I hope it is yours, boy, because this world
right about now full of some crazy ish but I
(02:25):
know we're gonna make it. I know we're gonna make it.
Welcome to the show. It's your host, Lamar Patterson. This
is kind of play and play. I hope everyone is
doing splendid. Hope you stand safe and doing everything that
you can, you know, loving your neighbors, loving yourself and
doing all that great stuff. We have a fantastic show
lined up for you today. Get out your pen, you know,
(02:48):
pads and a lot of us I know around the
world can relate today. I guess mister Russell Van and
uh who he definitely has a testimony. Mister Russell Van,
the author has a series out Ghetto Bastard, you know,
(03:08):
number one on Amazon. So let me see as I
guess with us, mister Van, are you with us?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yes, sir, how are you?
Speaker 4 (03:20):
I am blessed man? I could honestly say, even though
I forget to look around and smell the roads or sometimes. Man,
I am really blessed.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
How about yourself, sir, I am also blessed, and I
want to thank you for having me as your guest today.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Man, you have a testimony. Man, And I'm always pleased
and now should I say honored to have gentlemen such
as yourself, because people can relate. You know, there's a
lot of ways to deal with life. You know, you
could watch it or you could live it, you know,
and guys such as yourself, you know, I mean, you've
(03:58):
been into trenches. You know what I'm saying. You've been
in trenches and and you didn't let circumstances stop you.
And I hope our listeners can hear your story and
and resonate from that.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I hope, So, I hope, so, I hope it touches
a lot of a lot of hearts. But I wanted
to put out there, you know, everything is from God,
as they say, if not for the grace of God,
because I'm I'm nothing special. There are millions of people
(04:36):
like me out there, different colors, races, and creeds, so
that things. I just was fortunate enough to be in
a position to put it, put it in print.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
I read a couple of things that that that you said,
a couple of quotes man that I thought I was
very powerful too, you know, definitely jewels and they were
just because you're from the ghetto doesn't mean you have
to stay in the ghetto. And even though you're born
a ghetto bastard, doesn't mean you have to act like one.
Ghetto is just not a place that's a mindset. And
(05:13):
I totally agree with that one strong words, man. So
let's talk about your book.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Man, Should I say you.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Have you have more than one?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
So, yeah, I'm writing them before right now, called the
American Dream Ghetto Bastards for the American Dream. Oh yeah,
you know, I'm going to show that, uh that you can,
you can achieve the American Dream no matter where you
come from. You know, even though all the odds are
(05:46):
you know, uh piled against you. You know, perseverance and
always moving forward, you know, you know, like they say,
the journey of a thousand miles into one step. We
don't have to think of the whole young, you know,
as as the resold. Well, let's let's make it a goal.
We'll get there and just take one step at a
(06:08):
time and sooner and this well have we say keep
your head down and just keep how My wife and
I say, keep doing the grind, just every day and
just sooner. Way you're going to get your destination.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Absolutely, absolutely, Russell, let's do this. Man, tell our listeners
a little about I guess, a little bit more about
who you are, where you come from, and how did
you get on your journey to even start to write
your first book?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
All right, well, of course, everybody, my name is Russell
van Uh two s, two l's and the A N N.
And I was born in the myha In section of
the southbon I don't know how many people are aware
of that, but it's right across to speak from Harlem,
right across the bridge from Harlem. And at the end
(06:58):
it was nineteen sixty eight. At that time he was
one of the most at that time now one of
the most drug invested her and you know addicted areas
in the world, in New York City especially, you know
how the New York City was in the early seventies,
and like sixteen and I was, I was, I came
(07:25):
out of an unholy union. To me say, my mother
and father were teenagers. She had a boyfriend he was
a young hustler. He was from Queens, she was from
the Bronx. I guess they met at a pool party
or something like that. And you know, I guess she
was seeing him on the side and she was seeing
this other guy. And then of course when I was born,
(07:47):
she might have been pregnant at seventeen. I was eighteen
and she was born when I was born. So and
she came from a broken home. Also, nobody wanted to
take responsibility for me. I don't know who they were,
some kind of I guess back in the days they
used to have people that take care of kids for
(08:09):
you and stuff like that. And I was abused there,
you know, physically abused there. And my mother, I mean,
I guess she just wasn't ready for a kid. My
father was in jail and at the time I was born,
I think, and they was just there was no I was.
I was just everywhere, anywhere and everywhere. She would leave
me any place with anybody, my mother to the point
(08:32):
that my great grandmother. Now this is so.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Hello, Ah, I guess something happened to uh. The gentleman's call,
(09:05):
So I am sure he's gonna be calling back in
just a second here, So I ain't on. We're gonna
go to a commercial break and we will.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Be right back.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
Can I play and play Second Love? Relationships and Politics
hosted Bottle of My Good Patterson every Sunday at you
thirty pm, sixth Standard time and five hundred Standard time.
Joining in the conversation call six four six year. I
(09:41):
ain't tell for the wait, Steven, go up online the
world Movement dot Com. Announce yourself. Can I player?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I'm on the kid?
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Yeah, we're back, Russell Van, Yeah, I don't know what
happened there, man, you just was gone, but it's okay,
you're back.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Then where did that? Emore? Did you get me at
by great grandmother?
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Yet? Yeah? Yeah, you saying that's your great grandmother? You
know she was a queen that raised you.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Okay, Yeah, so she stepped in, which that tells you
about the dynamics of being a ghetto bastard, because I'm
the epitome of it, and that degree, you should have
two sets of grandparents before a third grandparent steps in.
So she stepped in, raised me in the ghetto. We
got the old school values, which I'm grateful for. And
(10:31):
just to show you how appreciative I am of her.
She was also taking care of her elderly mother. She
was about sixty at the time. She was taking care
of her elderly mother, and she was married and working
a full time job at the time as a waitress,
and took in a four year old So and of course,
(10:56):
if anyone knows the ghetto, all the attributes of the ghetto,
should I say, were present. And this was a single
not you know, any sense, because her husband didn't really
take part in my upbring or anything like that, and
they got separated after a short time. But she taught
me a lot of old school values and so raised
(11:20):
in the ghetto, she sent me the boarding school. Can
you still hear me?
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yes, okay, Well basically we all cut off, okay, and
I got my wife listening too, So if it comes off,
she comes in and says, hey, I can't hear you
anymore because the country and so and uh so, I
(11:47):
got into a lot of different things because uh I now,
at the age that I am, now I can understand it.
When you grow up in the ghetto and you don't
have a father, TV in the streets and the movies
are your guys. When I grew up my interpretation or
(12:10):
my impression of being a man was Jim Brown, Fred Williamson,
Jim Kelly, you know Ron O'Neill, Richard Rowntree, you know
all of those guys, that masculine type of that narrative.
You know a lot of a lot of women, big
(12:30):
big cars. That was the narrative I mean. And it's
so ironic because you know, that's the poison that said
to us, But ironically it's transferred. It's the same narrative
a little bit differently told, but now it's through the music.
It's more through the music and the videos and the rappers,
and it's giving out that negative imagery that the fatherless,
(12:53):
which is what I was, are trying to imitate. Because
no matter what all, most young men are trying to
imitate some type of masculinity. They're trying to relate to something.
So that was what I was trying to relate to.
And let me see what else can I tell you
about me? So I think I never never went to jail,
(13:14):
and I never gotten sent in trouble like that, only
by the grace of God because I did a lot
of eager actions. But one of the main factors for
me not going to jail was my grandmother said, if
you go to jail, I'm not coming to get you.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Yeah, that was a little bit of a.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
And and I knew in the soul and now I
can laugh at it, but when you're younger, you can't
laugh at it. I knew that nobody else cared about me.
I knew nobody else loved me. So if she wasn't
coming to get me, nobody was coming to get me.
And I didn't want to go to jail. And back then,
you know, all you heard about jail was either he
(13:53):
was getting shanked or screwed. He said, what are the other?
So you know that scheduled it death as a child.
So I always remember that, and I always remembered in
my mind thinking as I was growing up, I really
didn't want to disappoint her. I wanted to be, you know,
a success for her. Now, I made a lot of
dumb mistakes and a lot of dumb moves that I'm
sure she shook her head sometimes, But I just believed
(14:18):
do her guidance. Well, God, first of all, but do
her guidance, and the way that she raised me just
just changed the direction I had in life. But so
what's so crazy, though, is she was about sixteen, Maye big,
a little old, a little younger when she took me in.
I loved it a death you she could walk on
(14:40):
water if you asked me. But her daughter, her son,
they hated her, yes, yes, they hated her hat and
they told me so after she died, you know, hated
her the way they treated her and she you know,
(15:00):
it's just miraculous. But a lot of my life and
a lot of the way I treat my children, the
way I treat my grandchildren are based on the way
that you know, she treated me, you know, and the
sacrifices that she made. So that teaches me. But a
lot of people from the ghetto, young black men, don't
have that guidance. A lot of young black men from
(15:21):
the ghetto are raised by single mothers. Now, even though
a lot of them are strong single women, a lot
of them are also bitter single women, and a lot
of the resentments that they have towards the different fathers
or father is taken out on that child, and when
(15:44):
that child doesn't have that balance of the mother and the.
Speaker 7 (15:48):
Fathers, there's treacherous results.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
So, you know, I just had a mix up a
lot of that and what was so great. And the
one thing about my book that a lot of people
when they being the title, because it's such a sensational title,
they think it's one way, and then when they read it,
they they see, Wow, this is about life. This is
a story about life itself. It's not it's not this
(16:13):
glorification or this narrative that you know, the media cells
or the TV cells. It's about true rights. It humanizes
people from the ghetto, you know, because there's a whole
lot of ghetto.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
What did you think about the title of the name
of this show?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Can Well, I mean you could have a title. First,
I didn't know what to expect from it. So I
just took it and said, hey, listen, let me get
out there and let me just talk. Because what one
thing I believe, especially as a writer, I believe that
everybody should be able to communicate anyway they want to.
Speaker 5 (16:53):
Okay, now we mind. The reason I asked you that
is because you you made you made an example and
I was just saying, the name of the show is
kind of play, a play which in my mind is
also thought provoking.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
That's why I reach out for guys like you. The
guys that have a testimony and story that can help
you know, other people. You know, I talk to other
you know CEOs of other corporations, uh, you know, other
self help organizations. But that's what this whole thing about.
Can of play A play can can the guys that's
(17:31):
really calling the shots, making moves, doing stuff productive and
helpful in the community. I think that's what camvs. How
I came up with the name. But anyway, both but.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Were praying at life though, you know what I mean.
So a player, I guess it's it's just the thing
on words. A player is you're using the power for good.
What's mad with it? But something like people like what
you said, it might have put in a negative connotation,
say or a player someone who plays women or buffles
(18:03):
or this, that and the everything, But that's not necessarily.
Usually a player is like somebody is going for his
somebody that's you know, saying like has doing what they
gotta do, striving to get ahead, you know, doing what
they gotta do. Go on, player, You know what I mean.
It's all with the way that you say it. It's
all with the way to tone that you protect it,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (18:19):
So when you look at when you look at the
news and look at our politrictions every day, what are
they doing.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Playing words in they're playing with words. I can't stand them.
I hope nobody's listening to us. Go you know, black something,
But I mean, boy, because thes ain't no joke.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
Man. I wish they pat for gas like we doing.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
But you want to know something, what's so funny, uh
Michter Patterson, is that they are smart people. They're not
dumb people. Because when you sit down and you see
them and just something press conferences or certain.
Speaker 8 (19:01):
Interviewss, they're they're spending the questions, they're answering the questions.
They're going into the lions. Then but they they've got
their their their lives and the narratives.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
So practice is so complete. So they're very smart people.
It's just that they have wells.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Yeah, but how well do you play chess? Because that's
all that's all. That's that's all I see them doing.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
That's absolutely what they do it. But the whole thing
is we as this class of people, this level of people,
we're not even in the game.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
And you guys, hey, look we don't get to be
we don't even get to be a pond man.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
We ain't upon or nothing, and you're just looking for
the scraps. We just look at that the scraps coming down,
because they're sitting there behind these Because we're sitting there
watching this stuff. I mean, we're not blind, we're not stupid,
you know what I'm saying. But they'll sit there and
tell you, you know, like they say they had that old expression,
you know, don't piss on me and call it fun
drops or something like that, something in that, you know,
you know, what of of thinking. And they're sitting there
(20:08):
and you look at them, and you know they're turning
lies and you know they're exploring stuff. They're sitting here
signing seven hundred and forty billion dollars for this. They're
sending forty billion dollars, you know, over to U printing
role to send eighty billion over the Ukraine that we
know about. And then you turn around and you look
and you go to skid roll and you see how
these people are rhything. Or you go to any city
(20:29):
in the United States, major city in the United States,
and you got home with people whatever issues they have,
drug issues, home, you know, mental health issues, whatever issues.
But you got all that money to send them all
of these countries to make sure these people is all
right to fight wars and get weapons and stuff like that.
But you can't make.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Sure the people, did you peep the big lie though,
mister Vane. The big lie, the big lie America United
States is not involved in that war. That's the big lie.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
How can they say that you're setting them weapons? Are
you sending them money? You know what I mean? But
this is everything and Russian and from the very beginning.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
If you're sending arms, ammunition and money to my enemy,
you in the war.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Of course. But see this goes back this but this
is common sense here, but you so, but see this
is a distraction. All these things are distractions. Now sometimes
I'm sitting, I'm going because I'm not in the game.
And like you said, it's a chess game. I absolutely
agree with that, But I don't think we're in the
game because when you when you're playing chess, you're looking
at your opponent and you're trying to go moves above him,
(21:45):
and you know how many moves ahead of him to
get your feace, and blah blah blah. In this game
that they playing, we're so consumed with all of the distractions.
We can't see what they're doing, you know what I mean,
We don't have I have no idea on what level.
And these people, you gotta remember, you're dealing with evil. Okay,
(22:06):
You're not dealing with regular people. You're dealing with evil.
You're talking about evil people that will take on an
airplane of two hundred and fifty people just to kill
one type of evil people, you know, certain meaning that mentality.
So we're not even on no level. So what we
have to understand, and I think my book talks about
(22:26):
this because we come where I come from. Are people
like me, where we come from, we come from the
epitome of where these people think we are nothing right
is you have to be responsible for yourself. You have
to know within your heart as you moving on in
life and how you're treating people, that you're doing the
(22:47):
right thing. Now. I'm not gonna say you're not gonna
make mistakes, because we all make mistakes. I'm not gonna
say in my youth, I have not done things that
here in my fifties sitting back, oh man, I wish
I wouldn't have done that. Thinking differently, But the thing
is in life, there's nothing wrong with making mistakes as
(23:08):
long as you learn from them. And I want my
books to say that to people, all creeps and colors,
because ghetto don't necessarily just mean black and Hispanic poor people. Okay,
because it's ghettos in white neighborhoods too, they called trailer parks. Okay,
they're just pour differently, but we're still human beings. And
(23:29):
what happens is we become statistics instead of human beings.
And I think what my Ghetto Bastard series does is
humanize the statistics. Because when you hear ten people got
shot in Chicago, five people got shot over here, peo people,
They're more than just people. We're human beings. Go ahead,
(23:51):
I'm sorry, sir. I don't mean to be.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Black the no, no, no, no, that's fine, man, that's fine.
I was gonna ask you, though, in writing starting writing
your Ghetto Bastard series, what would you feel was your
main motivation? I mean, was it just your experience from
your life? You know, I agree we all are a
product of our environment to a certain extent, But what
(24:16):
was your motivators?
Speaker 2 (24:17):
The main one My motivation was therapy because in life
and a lot of things that you go through. Sometimes
you carry a lot of anger and you don't understand
that you're carrying it around. We think that anger is
just that straight out explosive anger, that that's the only
(24:39):
anger that you got. No, you'll be carrying anger around
from the stuff that people then did to you when
you were younger. And then what's crazy is people do
those things to you when you're younger, and then you
got to be around them when you're older, and you
still carrying around that anger, and at some point in time,
if it's not expressed, it's going to explode. And I
(25:01):
was working in an environment that was only adding to
my anger. So at a point I needed to speak
seeks of therapy. So I started seeing a therapist, you know,
like once a week. And after I told that it
was so crazy. It's like, I think that everything is
in God's plan. But this guy told me a thousand things,
(25:23):
and I said a thousand things to him. But after
I told them my story, the one thing he said
stuck in my head. He said, you know what, you
should write a book. And that stuck in my head.
I remember nothing else that dude said, but you should
write a book. And I said, well, you know what,
maybe I should write a book, and a lot of
(25:45):
different stuff happened. I got hustled a little bit, but
I started then Monday. I just said to myself, you
know what, I could do this. Nobody's gonna be able
to put down what I'm feeling and where I've come
from better than me. Right, And that's how it started.
And it just was from Mayor man and and my
(26:05):
wife was just the greatest verson because I've been with
her since I was fifteen. And I don't be read the book,
but you know, the ghetto Bastard toss a love story.
So this also they showing my wife and I were
just talking. I know, I've been in a relationship with
her for forteen years. Wow, And yeah, man, I love
her to death. You know what I'm saying. I ain't
tired or none, you know, but that's right, you know.
(26:34):
And man, and this book thing, she says like I'm
the writer, but man, she's everything behind it, you know,
the handler she does it. We would do the book
fairs and and go to the book shows and stuff
like that, and which I mean. And that's why I
really got out there and really realized, Wow, this is
something here. She set all that up. I was like, man,
I don't know no book fans. Man I want say here, right,
(26:55):
I just want to Man, you know, you gotta go
out there. You gotta meet people, you gotta talk. She says,
you're talking at She telling me all the stuff that
I didn't believe in myself, Like you know, you could
just be doing stuff and don't realize that you have
a talent. She's telling me all this stuff, and I'm like,
you're my wife, You're gonna tell me anything.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
But man, I got out there and I went to
these different book shows and these different tools. And what's
so crazy is it wasn't just black people that was
coming up to me. White people was coming up and
talking like you got to be able to talk. You
just can't sit there and be like, hey, buy my book,
buy my book, you know, And you had to sit
there and you had to talk to them. You had
(27:32):
to communicate, you had to be able to be articulate
and really, and it was something. All types of people
were coming up and talking to me and needing the
book and buying the book. All John Old's colored shape sizes, Asian, black, white, everything,
and I was like, Wow, this is really, this is something,
this is really you know, I'm being myself. I'm going
(27:55):
this is God's plan. But you know, COVID kind of
shut me down there for a while. So now I'm
just waiting for everything to kind of get lifted, and
I'm hopefully trying to try to go international. You know,
I was to start getting getting into Canada and stuff
like that and getting across the country because it was
I had a real good audience. The only thing that
(28:15):
I was missing was the advertising and the marketing. So
what's good about print? What was good about, uh, the
literary business is that if it's in print, it's always
going to be there. So now you know, it's something
to fall back on, something that I can start putting
more into it. And that's why I'm doing these interviews
(28:37):
also and just getting the world out there. And I
just said being a motivational person, but I'm not a
motivational speaker, but I'm just telling people listen.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Well, first of all, well I'm not changed.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
I'll just say that's a survivor. That's all I survivor.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
I think that's the truth. Man, you may not agree. Well,
first of all, let me say, this show is herle
hundred worldwide, so that's already international. So that's one part
of it. The second thing is you're already a motivational speaker, man,
because there's people out there. Man, it's going to hear
what you're saying and your struggles I'm telling you, and
it's going to benefit them. So people don't necessarily learn
(29:16):
from books. I'm not the one that learn a lot
from the books, man, But I learned from living life,
you know, and usually the lessons that I paid for
are the ones that I retained. So having said that,
and I heard you a little while ago, but do
you have a certain thing as a target audience?
Speaker 2 (29:34):
No, I have all people because it's a book about life.
It's a book about just because it's about ghettle. That's
what people starting to kind of just list us and
this is the leans unfortunately. But it's a book about life.
It's a book about love, it's a book about dysfunctional relationships.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
It just goes and it goes through the different stages,
thrown through the sixties, the seventies, the eighties, the nineties,
the two thousands, and it's different kind of people and
it just shows. You know, it humanizes everybody. So I
just think one it would kind of be if I
(30:16):
was almost to describe it in a sense, I would say,
this is something that white people should read. If you
wanted to say, oh, this is a book that all
the questions white people wanted to ask people from the ghetto,
but we're afraid to ask because you know, we're closely
in a sensitive time now. But this is a book
(30:37):
that I think people from the outside of our culture
can read, and it would humanize us. I think people
from the outside of our culture. Because I didn't even
tell aout white such hous I said, man put me on,
give me on some white supremacist radio shows or something
like that. I talked to them people, you know, because
when we get liting the hate, when we get lived
(30:58):
in the negativity and we man, you got problems too.
Who was that guy? I just saw the show the
other day, is it mister Hampton? Said Hampton? He was
the Black Panther. Oh okay, and yeah he was he
And there's something the Messiah, Judas the Messiah whatever the
(31:21):
show was, and Freda Hampton one of his key things.
And why the FBI or whatever the systems that be
wanted to get rid of him was he wasn't just
going and talking to black people. He was going up
to the Operation Trails and stuff like that to all
(31:41):
of those poor people and all those poor white people
and talking to them and bringing them together with the
poor black people. And the government don't want that because
knowledge is power. So my book, I want to reach
out to everybody and I want them to look into
our world, and then I want us to be able
to I wanted to create dialogue. I want us to
(32:03):
be able to talk. I don't want people to believe
what they look at on TV.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
You still will, oh yeah, because I'm listening with you
saying thank you, thinking as well, because you know, knowledge
is power, and this country has always been threatened at
at you know, to a certain extent, and that's why
they didn't want certain cultures to even be educated or
(32:32):
learned how to read. And that's the same movement we
see now where they're trying to take certain books out
of schools as we speak.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Right, right, right, right, absolutely, I agree.
Speaker 4 (32:47):
So, so what have you learned, sir in the process
of you writing your books.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Well, I've learned that I've changed as a person, as
far as my viewpoints on a lot of different things,
I learned. It's difficult raising it's difficult having grown children.
I have grown children, you know, twenty three, thirty three
(33:15):
and thirty thirty one now, and I'm a grandfather. So
I look at a lot of things differently and just
life itself, because I'm always trying to look back at
when I was their age and say, oh, I was
(33:37):
like this or I was like that. But then I
have to sit back and go, wait a minute. They
didn't have I didn't have a father, I didn't have
a mother, I didn't have grandparents. I didn't have people
who loved me, you know what I'm saying. So I'm
always constantly making the comparison. But that's something I learned,
you know, just you know, I don't getting older. That's
something that I'm learning and that's a daily process because
(34:00):
when you have children and grand children, it's not one
monolithic person. They're all multi faceted because everybody has different personalities,
so you got to have different you know, different uh,
come at them everybody differently. As they say. My wife
and I say this constantly, and here's the saying. We'll
(34:20):
know about heavy is the head that read the crown.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
Hello, yeah, I heard it. Heavy is the head? And
where is the.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Where's the crown? Okay? And that's the Rife family and
everything else that isn't a question. I mean sometimes I
thought ramble hood.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
So I don't want to know we're good.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
Because while you're talking, man, you know, my mind is
also running. I surey listeners is running too, man. Because again,
people could read about life, or they could live life.
And the person that that has had certain experiences and
know what they're talking about because they lived in It's
a lot more powerful than somebody sent it on TV
(35:09):
or read it somewhere. But my question is, you know
we kind of like kind of skimmed over some things.
You know, we went from your first book, but we
didn't even really touch about your second and the third one.
So how how is the second book different from the first.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Well, the first book is building the character, letting you
see where this person comes from, where this individual comes from,
what is exposed to Because what a lot of people
don't understand is our environment and our upbringing is what
(35:52):
builds that character, positive or negative. It has a massive influence.
So the first book is showing where I come from
how I got there, the people around me, and should
I say a rise, because the whole the book series
(36:15):
is kind of like a roller coaster, just like life is.
So the first book is my rise, you know, rising
from from my environment, or trying to rise, because sometimes
when you rise, you have to fall, rising from my
environment and then I take a fall, and when I take.
Speaker 7 (36:36):
That fall, life hits me back in the face.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I mean, it hits me real hard. That's what Book
Tour is about. But through adversity and as they say,
when one door closes, another door opens, I understand. And
now initi is what the second book is A lot.
If a lot of things didn't take place, I wouldn't
have been where I was at or for the second book.
(37:05):
And that has to do with the love story. And
sometimes you're with people, and that's what I'm saying. It's
a human story. It's just not about a ghetto bastard story,
but a human story. Sometimes you're with people and sometimes
you break up and then when you break up, you
realize how good that person was and then you want
to get back together. But you think you've done a
(37:25):
deed that's so you know.
Speaker 7 (37:27):
Treacherous or so bad that they can never get back
together with you.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
But you know, all things are possible if there's love.
So you know, that's kind of in that second book too,
in this ghetto environment, of course. And then if the
second book also deals with the challenges of the ghetto, unemployment, poverty, HIV,
(37:55):
and it just shows the struggle of people in the ghetto,
how well some people are just how you quoted what
I was saying before, Some people are stuck in the ghetto.
They don't want to get out the ghetto. We used
to call them ghetto fabulous. So it just speaks about
all kinds of people. In the book three, I don't
(38:18):
know if you mentioned that was but book three is
called Life after Death, and Life after Death just brings
it all together, and it's about getting out of the ghetto.
It's about getting it all together, even if you have
to die trying to.
Speaker 7 (38:34):
Get out of the ghetto, and it speaks about that,
and and book three just brings it all full circle.
And by the time you're done reading book three, they'll
be begging for book four because book four is called
Ghetto Bastard the American Dream, and it speaks about the
American dreams and how this ghetto bastard from the South
(38:59):
Bronch my Haven section of the South Bronx, who didn't
have a mother, all father, all grandparents, didn't have anyone
who cared anything about him, was able to achieve the
Americans without having to go to jail, without having to
kill somebody, without having to pimp some women, without having
to do all the negative connotations that attached with successful
(39:22):
black people that come out of the ghetto. You know,
besides being an.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Athlete or something like that, you know, an athlete or rapper.
So you know, that's that's what they're all about.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
And I heard you say you're not a motivational speaker,
but all the time, I'm yeah, I know, I just
heard you talking. But I know we have I know
we have some at risk youth all over the country. Bro,
all over the country. Needed to hear just what you said.
(39:53):
You know what I'm saying. They need to hear that.
They need to hear just what you said, all over
the country.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
So that's how I started. I mean, that's in the
book too. I used to work for this place called
Youth Energy Core, and I actually when I dropped out
of high school, I actually joined their job training program,
and at that time that was installing windows. Since the
early eighties, that was installing windows. That was a big
thing in New York. So they were teaching us how
to install windows. And I took that trade and ran
(40:21):
with it, and then I ended up becoming like a
crew reader trainee there. So I just moved up within
the company.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
There for a while and helped build.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
A company and had to outreach and the injustice giving
people a positive outlook and perspective on our troubled youth
and letting them see that our trouble youth is not
just what people see on TV, but our trouble youth
are troubled for a reason, and we have to understand
that if you give them some structure and some guidance
(40:56):
that you know, they won't be so troubled.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
Right right, So that's that's so true, so true. So
what what what are your goals for your for your series?
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Well, I want to finish up number four, The American Dream,
and then I'd like to write book number five, which
I want to call God Remain And what I'd like
to do there is just go kind of through the
book and show how God has got how God intervened
in my life have if if it wasn't for the
(41:31):
grades of God, it's what happens, so kind of kind
of a you know, uh, just a scenario was showing
looking back through the books, how God was an influence,
How was he was the influence because God's what was
into it. And then my last book is going to
be my first novel, and I'm going to call it
(41:53):
what If Ghetto Bastard what If? So it's going to
tell the stories of the three books, but me make
different decisions and different things turning out differently. So it'll
all be fitching, I'll all be making up, but it'll
be I think it'll be a work ard. It'll be beautiful.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
Well, it's amazing. First of all, it's amazing that you
was able to maneuver through through the journey that you
had without being caught up and going to jail.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Thank God for the grace of God, for the grace
of God.
Speaker 4 (42:33):
Because so many, so many do, I mean so many,
you know.
Speaker 5 (42:36):
Get caught up of God.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
And you know what's so crazy is people try to say, oh,
it's not systematic, and you know, I don't want to
try to get all political too much and everything, but
you know if you got too million. If black people
only make up thirty percent of the country or is
it ten percent in the country.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
It depends on which day you count.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Okay, let's go with I'm I think it's ten percent,
because that means there's about thirty million of a thirty
five million. So I'm gonna go black people make up
ten percent of the country. Okay. So if black people
make up ten percent of the country, how do they
make up half of the prison population? So when any
(43:23):
time people try to speak about racism or the system
or anything like that, all I do is say, I'll
throw those statistics and just say explain that. When you
can explain that to me, then we'll say everything is
fair close to board, because there's no way in the
world out of a country of three hundred million, three
(43:44):
hundred plus million people, that thirty million people make up
half the prison population without there being something in effect
to make it happen. Do you agree?
Speaker 4 (43:55):
Oh? I totally agree.
Speaker 5 (43:57):
Man.
Speaker 4 (43:57):
But hey, look, if I was playing the Devil's advocate, man,
I need somebody to make license plates and handle all
the dairy and produce all the furniture for the military. Man,
I need workers. Man, for that, Well, else can I
get workers man and pay them a dollar a day?
Speaker 5 (44:16):
Man?
Speaker 4 (44:16):
Come on?
Speaker 2 (44:18):
And who can't vote, and who can't vote, and who
can't own firearms? When they get out? You under saying,
so I understand that, and I see that because some
people with all you can't do that. No, there's a
whole lot of things you can't do. And it's kind
of like, and here's just another way. And you know,
(44:41):
I don't want to get through conspiracy theories and anything
like that. But it's the same way with student loan debt.
When rich people go to college, they don't come out
of school in debt. Debt is povaty. So when most
(45:01):
minorities I say most, not all, because I want people
to say, oh, you said all of them and put
me you know, and put it on the blanket. But
when most minority children come out of college, they are
in debt. Debt begins poverty. When you come out like that,
(45:21):
they have no con Their thing is, let we get
the job so I can start paying off this debt.
Then they start getting to a habit of paying that debt.
They get on a job that they don't like, they
don't want to work at and they're miserable because they
got to pay that debt. Rich people come out of college,
debt free connections, job opportunities. See, that's the systematic, that's
(45:47):
the systematic racism there. But it's not racism against per
se black people. It's racism against poor people. Your opinion.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
Hey, yeah, well if I was one of them. Well,
first of all, we call it bankruptcy. They call it
that restructuring. They call it that restructuring. Look, we're gonna
say that for a whole another show. So listen. How
many how many books do you see in your series? Man?
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Six all together? Yeah, the what If will be the
last one. So I'm working on number four, the American Dream.
Like I said, the number five will be ghetto bastard
the godly man, and the last one will be ghetto
bastard what if. So the one and two, you know, dudes,
the foundation. Number three brings it all together, and then
(46:47):
number four just shows you know, opportunity and where we
can go and just reaching for the stars. And number
five shows the spiritual aspect of it, how God is
them and all of it. That you don't do anything
on your own and if any time you sit there
and you look in the mirror and you think that
you do something on your own, you have to lose
(47:07):
your on you know. And then, like I said, number
six will be my first novel, and that's gonna be
the what If. And it's gonna take all the characters
from the first three books, first four books, and bring
them all together in a fictional manner. So that hopefully
(47:27):
that's what the future holds. And hopefully, yeah, hopefully there's
COVID stuff for all be listed. I can start going
back on my book tours and I can hit Canada,
maybe a couple other.
Speaker 9 (47:39):
Coatries and stuff like that, because you know, a lot
of foreign people are interested in the black culture, but
they're getting that buffoonery black culture.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
They're not getting the real black culture, you know what
I mean. You know, they getting the hip hop pants pants,
you know. You know what I'm saying. I don't want
to start putting run down, but they get that kind
of I want them to see the real the human
you know, the real black people, the real culture, you know.
And that's why I'm proud of the title, because a
lot of people, well, why would you name it that? Well,
(48:13):
you mean, I know it's a sensational title. Bro Listen,
I am from the Ghago and I'm a bastard child,
so I'm just streaming as ow I'm black and I'm proud.
Speaker 4 (48:25):
What are you doing well? You're definitely definitely doing some
good work. I'm not gonna even ask you, well, I
don't know. The question I have is like, does your
family support your career as a writer? But I already
know your queen is your number one everything, So how
is the rest of your family supporting you?
Speaker 2 (48:45):
You know, I don't know if you have grown kids
and that. So I'm gonna say, old people, okay, you
know you got to be real careful, okay, because you
know you have to write and you got to speak
the truth. I'm not gonna sit here and start a
liar guy because I'm writing a mamoir. So I can't
sit here a lillary gag and sugar coat something. If
(49:08):
you want to make a difference, if you want to
have an impact, you have to speak the truth. And
sometimes I mean I'm speaking my truth. You have to
speak that truth, that gut wrenching hard to talk about. Truth. Me.
I got to put my stuff out there, but now
you got to remember my truth. And what was going
(49:30):
on a lot was with their mothers immigrationships before they
were born. So then sometimes you know, they'll never admit it,
but sometimes I see it in their real thing. They
get a little sensitive that you're saying something about their mommy,
you know, whether it be the truth or not. They
get a little sensitive, or they're young and they're doing
(49:56):
things that teenagers do, and then when they be thirty
or so, they look back and go, oh, when I
was a teenager, I did that. But when they were
a teenager, they don't understand the stuff that they're doing.
They'll fight you tooth and them to tell you. You
know that they're right. So it's kind of like that
with the team with my grown children. I have to
(50:18):
be able to speak my truth and speak that real
truth and try not to offend them. But now I
didn't realize that till after book three, So being a
little more careful with book for should I say, Hey,
it took me to three to realize that. I'm like, wow,
they got to look these kids are they got kids
of boy Thesese gold people. They're like, they look like
(50:39):
they got some issues. Are like what time I have
my daughter like reading excerpts because I was writing them,
and I guess I wrote something about the time and
whatever happened, man, And then I noticed the next day
she had like a little attitude, you know. I was like,
oh boy, now I gotta be careful. And then that
limits your artistic ability, you know what I mean. Now
(51:00):
you got to be thinking what this person's gonna feel
if you're writing this. And then, like you said, this
might be able to affect somebody else differently, who might
be able to who will happened to me? And blah
blah blah. But now I'm sitting here worried about them.
So you know, it's a double ed cell. So I
take it as I'm writing it and something comes up
about them, I sit back and see how much I
(51:21):
gotta go ass over it or something. Like my editor said.
When I was writing my first book, and I would
get too much into a particular character, a particular person,
they would say, listen, that book ain't about them. That
book's about you, you know what I mean. So less
about them and more about me. So I kind of
try to focus on that to you know, help navigate
through this little family tree, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (51:44):
Well, you know, no matter what, you can't say nothing
bad about the mama, you right know that?
Speaker 2 (51:48):
So oh no, mama, Well listen, you know I was
you know, and I wasn't saying close it. But you know,
if you're talking about the relationship, and I mean we've
had relationships and you're talking about because the relationships break
up for a reason. People just don't break up, you
know what I mean. They just don't wake up and
look at the person next to them and say, yeah,
you nowhere. I don't want to be to you no more.
(52:09):
It don't work like that, you know what I mean.
There's a process. And if you know any kind of
relationships from the ghetto, it ain't just them leaving, you
know what I mean, there's a whole It's just takes
six months to break up.
Speaker 4 (52:23):
Hey look and how many Hey look at how many
broken windows close thrown out?
Speaker 2 (52:29):
Yeah right, oh, because it's oh please give them the flash pass.
So you know, our children do not understand that as children,
as teenage, until they get into an emotional relationship. Because
when you're dealing with stuff like that, it's emotions, and
the majority of us, as we become older, they're going
(52:51):
to control our emotions. Much better now when we're younger,
and especially coming from the ghetto, especially not having a
man to teach you. There's no guidance, no parent, role
models to show you how to fight and stuff like that.
You're looking at stuff, you're minding you. You know, you're
looking at shaft smacking his woman, saying shut up, bitch.
You know, you know that stuff, thinking that's the macho man.
(53:16):
That's what you do. You grab a woman your shape.
Yeah no, dude, you don't do that kind of stuff.
But if you don't know that, you learn through trial
or ever. So you know, unfortunately that that that's what
happens with us and stuff like that too. It is
what it is.
Speaker 4 (53:32):
That's a lot of that. Again, that's the normal for
a lot of kids in America. I mean, that's the
that's the dysfunctional situation they live in. And I'm careful
with that word dysfunctional because sometimes dysfunctional is somebody else's normal.
You know, we think it's just funk snow based on
how we live. But absolutely that's that's other people's normal.
(53:55):
You know, because I heard you know a couple of
chicks matter of fact, on this show, they don't feel
like they loved him unless he slapped him aside the
head once in a while.
Speaker 2 (54:04):
They may have done that, dude, And then it got
to the point he was a commodating you was wait,
he was accommodating them. And then it got to a
point you didn't care enough to hit him.
Speaker 4 (54:17):
I don't want to touch you.
Speaker 2 (54:20):
They come in, they you know, you want to hit me.
You did. I don't even want to look at you.
I just want to get that out of here, you
know what I mean. It's been like that, you know,
so I understand that. You know, like, like you said,
you the word dysfunctioned. Yeah, you got to use it
carefully because I think me myself growing up, very's dysfunctional
as far as what I thought or what I saw
(54:41):
was a family, you know. But one thing though, I
can just say, you know, even in my books, there
was always that yearning. I don't know if it was working,
and I mean it's just something from the heart. I
yearned to have a wife. I wanted that woman that
I could love and I knew love me and was
(55:02):
going to be in my corner. I was seeking that. Unfortunately,
what happened was when I found it, I found it
so young but didn't know what's to do with it,
didn't know how to keep it, didn't know how to
love it, didn't know how to respect it, didn't know
how to cherish it, didn't know how to put it
on the pedestal because no one taught me how to
do that. So then I had to lose it. See
(55:25):
all that other stuff that was out here, there's stuff
that's not queen material, and you know what I mean,
right and after that, I was begging the queen. I
was pleased. I can't be a king until I get
my queen back. So the book talks about that also,
Like I said, it's a love story also, so I
(55:45):
mean it's just humanizing it. But I mean it goes
with just everything that you're saying. And I think also
what you were saying, and just as you were saying
about your title world, so it talks it's going old school,
it's you know, can a player play? You know, it's
teaching these young men out here who are misguided, is
(56:09):
giving them some guide and something that they can look through,
something that they can look at and say, oh, I've
been there, I understand. I don't think really there's too
much out there. Everything out there right now is spending
that negative narrative of you know, imagery of our people.
And I just want my books to make a difference
in that.
Speaker 4 (56:26):
And that's what's powerful, man, because it really is important
that each one teach one and I hope that's what
we're doing on this platform that I have. Hopefully we're
educating and touching some people out there so some way,
somehow it can enhance their lives, you know, in a
positive direction. Man. Listen, tell everybody how where they can
(56:46):
go get your book, man, because time be flying when
we be having fun.
Speaker 2 (56:50):
Well, you could go I have a website, ghetto bastard
dot com and if you want to get a little
first episode of the first chapter of the little television
there that are, we'll read the first chapter for you.
So that's Ghetto Bastard dot com. And you can also
go to Amazon and look, you know, Russell Van and one,
two and three all popped up there. That's Russell R
(57:11):
U S S E L L VAN V A N
N And it's up there, man, And you know, I
just hope people will pick it up, read it, and
I hope it will really up with people and and
just give them hope and for like I said, people
that don't understand the ghetto are wan't more knowledgeable and
really want to put a humans face on the ghetto,
go there and pick that up on Amazon or ghetto
(57:32):
bastard dot com.
Speaker 4 (57:35):
Absolutely, and I ain't gonna say it, but I'm gonna
say it. We'll be looking for our autograph copy man,
so you know we make sure.
Speaker 2 (57:43):
That we man send me the way send man, I'll
send that to you. Man, I'll get that to you,
no problem, no problem.
Speaker 4 (57:49):
Love absolutely, man, for sure, for sure, Yeah, we know
you will. Absolutely, Man. We appreciate it and definitely appreciate
you taking time to come through. Man, chop it up
with us. And again, I'm sure your testimony, your journey
gonna touch some people out there. And that's what we're
all about. Man, each one, teach one.
Speaker 5 (58:05):
Man.
Speaker 4 (58:05):
You're doing a fantastic job out there, man, and you
are hey, look and you are a motivational speaker.
Speaker 2 (58:12):
I don't care what you say yo, as the God is.
Speaker 4 (58:18):
Thank you, sir man. You be safe out there, man,
and tell your queen continue to crack the whip.
Speaker 2 (58:27):
There you go. Thank you, you take care all right?
Speaker 4 (58:31):
All right, everybody, you know what I'd like to say,
you know, if you don't know where you can hear
the show, you know, as the lady crossed the street,
as your neighbor, ask the milkman, as the guide the corner.
Somebody should be able to tell you we can hit the show.
So you ain't got no excuse not to hear the
show in its entirety. And much respect and we'll see
you guys next week at the same time to thirty PST.
(58:55):
Be safe.
Speaker 1 (59:01):
Hey, I'm seven of you.
Speaker 4 (59:02):
You're a now listening to Can I Play A Play?
Speaker 2 (59:05):
Live Every Sunday at two.
Speaker 6 (59:17):
You Cannot Play and play Second Love Relationship and policis
hosted by of my tepid Patterson every Sunday at two
thirty pm six Standard time at five.
Speaker 5 (59:30):
Thirty PC Standard time.
Speaker 1 (59:33):
Join in in the conversation.
Speaker 6 (59:35):
Call six four six
Speaker 1 (59:38):
Nine two eighty seventy two
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com