September 15, 2025 • 50 mins
Dr. Dennis “Prince” Mapp is living proof that redemption and resilience can transform not just one life, but entire communities. After serving nearly two decades incarcerated, Dr. Mapp turned his pain into purpose—becoming a nationally recognized community safety strategist, entrepreneur, and author.
Today, he serves as Head of Community & Culture at Citizen, where his leadership has reunited families, saved lives, and built groundbreaking safety collaborations with law enforcement, hospitals, and Fortune 500 companies. He’s also the Founder & CEO of BLK Squares LLC, the powerhouse behind programs like Swag Swap, Pull-Ups for Peace, Financial All Stars, and Freedom Elite Sports Academy—initiatives that uplift youth through mentorship, financial literacy, fitness, and violence prevention.
Dr. Mapp’s impact doesn’t stop there. He has helped locate over 800 missing persons since 2018, fought to reduce gun violence across NYC, and been honored with awards such as the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a father, grandfather, mentor, and above all—a Hope Dealer, creating safe spaces and opportunities for the next generation to thrive.
This episode of Dog in the Yard dives deep into Dr. Mapp’s extraordinary journey from incarceration to influence, and his mission to end cycles of violence, expand access to resources, and bring lasting peace to our communities.
Today, he serves as Head of Community & Culture at Citizen, where his leadership has reunited families, saved lives, and built groundbreaking safety collaborations with law enforcement, hospitals, and Fortune 500 companies. He’s also the Founder & CEO of BLK Squares LLC, the powerhouse behind programs like Swag Swap, Pull-Ups for Peace, Financial All Stars, and Freedom Elite Sports Academy—initiatives that uplift youth through mentorship, financial literacy, fitness, and violence prevention.
Dr. Mapp’s impact doesn’t stop there. He has helped locate over 800 missing persons since 2018, fought to reduce gun violence across NYC, and been honored with awards such as the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a father, grandfather, mentor, and above all—a Hope Dealer, creating safe spaces and opportunities for the next generation to thrive.
This episode of Dog in the Yard dives deep into Dr. Mapp’s extraordinary journey from incarceration to influence, and his mission to end cycles of violence, expand access to resources, and bring lasting peace to our communities.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Himself.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
That'll be hope a south darks a over your mouth.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Right, your less.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Clear?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
That's right?
Speaker 4 (01:29):
What else? What are you already know what it is?
Your boy pistol p walking back to the dog in
the yard today we got prints in the building Prince
Day eighteen years and a half. Now he's home. He's
doing great things and his heads to break that ship
down with us. Man, you already know peace for pull ups,
your boy pistol dog in the yard. What what up?
(01:50):
You already know what it is your boy pistol p
walking back the dog in the yard. Today we got
prints in the building from Queens South of Jamaica. What's up? Man?
Thanks for having me man, Man, pleasure man as well? Brother?
What's going on? How you been? Brother?
Speaker 5 (02:03):
I mean before I even start, man, I just I
just want to say this, like I was looking at
you know, your page, and I was seeing all the
brothers that you give opportunities to, man, and it was
overwhelming to me because like a lot of brothers get overlooked.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
You got to be the certain status to get on
these shows, a big platform like you and you get
in the morning, you getting them exposure, of course a lot,
you know.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
What I'm saying. So I just want to say that man.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Appreciate appreciate that appreciating. You know, this was about man,
you know when I first created you know, and it
came up with the dog, you know, with dog in
the yard. You know, I wanted something. So brothers gotta
have a voice. You know, we as as men in prison,
we never had a voice, you know what I'm saying.
So I want to give us. This is this platform,
it is our voice. So will you be able to
(02:44):
give you your opinion on how you felt and what
you went through and your whole and what you're doing
now and know the greatness that you're doing now or
anything that you have in the future as well. But
this is this is our platform, This is for us.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Right and we had the time that we had a
chance to think those things out and those things saying
on the way out, like if you didn't come home
with a plan, you're gonna fail.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
I mean saying a lot of us, a lot of
the brothers that you had on your show already came
home with a plan. That's why it even looks like success. Yes,
of course so, and that journey is absolutely the best
part of it.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
You know, we just give you that extra push too,
you know what I'm saying, Like, you know, those brothers
that wanted to give you the extra push get up
on here. We don't, we don't, you know, we don't.
We don't discriminate anybody. We accept everybody, you know what,
wants to be on here and get the story out
and get it off their chests. A lot of brothers
is the sense of therapy. You know what I'm saying.
We sit here and they just letting it all out.
(03:40):
You know what I'm saying. You know, and I love it,
you know, and I love what I do. You know,
I love. I love to make you feel good, make
you feel special like you you are special. You feel
me like like I don't know if if nobody ever
told you, but when you hear, I'm gonna let you
know you special, brother.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
I felt that way in the green room, bro, you know,
just sitting in here, yeah, come in you know, I
felt specially.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I felt like like like there's.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
A certain of importance as even when I met you outside,
he wasn't no different outside than you are right now.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Always the same way man. You know how we do.
We don't switch up, man, bro. You know when it's real,
it's real all the way, all the way. Bro. Anyway,
with that being said, Prince, so give us a little
bit about your background. You know, I know you from
Queen's upbringing, Uh, your siblings, dad, moms in your life
and when what happened and with what occurred that that
(04:32):
you know you started to get yourself in jams, in
trouble and what led to your eighteen years and a half, well,
you know.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Typical household man. I had had a mom's you know
what I'm saying. My father, My father fought in Vietnam,
right and my father unfortunately got addicted to heroin and
he passed the overdose some heroin on Father's Day, you
know what I'm saying. So my mom's basically raisers by itself.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Well, how old you was?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
I was six?
Speaker 4 (04:59):
I was very It's very complicated for you.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
I got this vivid memory of my pops because I
always wanted to be with him, and he used to
buy me cherry balls from the candy store, you know.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
What I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
And no matter where he was at, whatever drug he
did or what like, he always wanted me to be
with him as well, you know what I'm saying. So
I never forget my post and that, like even to
this day, that really hurt me a lot.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
That I didn't have my father growing up.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Of course, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
I had stepfather, but they don't. They're not the same,
Ye your dad, right? You know that that that that
that person that you look to that you want to
be like no matter what they do, you.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Know what i mean. So, yeah, him just being on drugs,
they make up a bad dad, make them a bad person,
That's what I'm saying. You know. You know some people
think that you know, because you're on drugs. You know,
he just caught up with the disease.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Do you want to be judged for going to prison?
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
You want people to treat you accordingly.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
Right, So, you know, I grew up in a household
or my mom's She worked two jobs. She took care
of all of us, you know, and I grew up
in the house, you know, but I like hanging out
in the projects. You know what I'm saying. I was
a smart kid from first to let's say sixth grade.
I was a very smart kid. Well, most of my
friends was in other classes, and I wanted to be
with them, so like sometimes I even had to dumb
(06:09):
it down, you know what I'm saying, just to fit in.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
You know, I didn't want to be a nerd.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
I didn't want to, you know what I'm saying, Like
right now, to me, Squares is winning now, and I
love being nerves saying that we winning, you know, like
Geeks is winning.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
All this time, we was laughing at the nerves, the.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Squares of winning, you know, we was laughing at the
dudes that was locking us.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
In fact, they were going home every night, you know
what I mean, So it feels good to go home.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
So at thirteen I got in trouble. You know, I
got I got wrestled for a crime I didn't do,
or robbery I didn't do. At sixteen, I got shot,
you know, in a robbery attempt. At nineteen I got
shot again. Eighteen nineteen I got shot again. We almost passed,
And at.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Wow, what's all this queen queen shit?
Speaker 5 (06:52):
And at twenty, what was going on was just my lifestyle,
you know what I'm saying, Like, like it's it's unfortunate.
But most of my friends are dead now, you know
what I'm saying. Most of my friends I grew up with.
I got about four or five people that I actually
grew up with, Like my friend just passed away yesterday
from kmpsas.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
You know what I'm saying. So I already hear the.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
Rest in peace, my man Tyrone. But most of my
friends got killed, you know what I mean? And I like,
I didn't know. I didn't know when I.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Was going to get killed.
Speaker 5 (07:21):
Nose, I didn't say if I didn't know when, because
I knew my time was coming to what prison saved me? Listen,
going to jail actually saved my life because the lifespan
was the actuality of me living past twenty five wasn't real,
you know what I mean. So I'm one of the
ones that might sound crazy, but I say I'm grateful
(07:43):
for prison.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Yeah yeah, yeah, of course it saved your life. It
saved my life too, you know. So I went to
jail with somebody to do. I was mad and all that,
but it actually saved my life because half of the
guys that I went when when I when I went
to jail, and I came home, it was all dead.
And the ones that they it's not dead. They got
they got eighty years, one hundred years, they like, you know, they.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
So And I made some I met some great individuals.
You had a couple of guys on the show that
I you know that I grew up with him, some
grab and dre Okay, fifty years, yeah, twenty five years
with something he didn't do. You know what I'm saying.
So you did something for you and do my man
Sean did twenty Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
You know, back in the days, that was like a
more common thing. It was a lot of corrupt ship
and them the only reason we we because I see
this ship clearly now, you know what I'm saying. We
were just lack of education is everything. Man, You know,
no education out there lost his ship with no no
no guidance, no no, no no condo. You get lost,
you know. And them that's their job at that time.
(08:41):
You know, you have all the crooked cops, all the
crooked detectives, you know, make up anything just for you
to get that to get that little bit, you know,
get me, get that fenerally, you know what I'm saying.
And but we we all are naive and ship like
we all like, you know what I'm saying me while
they dogging us out.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
I was telling their brother in the green room, I
was telling them that that the information that these young
people have, they're young first of all. Right, now, the
young people way smarter than us because they way more
access to information.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
It's different now, right.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
We might have had the smarts and the common sense,
but they have all the information.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
They have everything there right at the prominent hands.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
So it's almost impossible for them not to know. Like
some things we just didn't know, right, We wasn't exposed.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That is a fact, you know what I mean. So
they exposed to every everything, you know what I mean,
we didn't have.
Speaker 6 (09:28):
If they want to be a fun up, that's on them.
They only knew Jamaica. You only knew the Bronx. You
know what I'm saying that We only knew where you
was at until you want that you know, the cool
things to go to North Carolina and these places, and
we knew that, but we didn't know the world.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Like but like the kids today know the world.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Yeah, absolutely they know the world. That's a fact. That's
a sure fact. They definitely have a they if they play,
they don't have no reason to fail, you know what
I'm saying, Like everything is right here, that.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
They utilize the information correctly. Man, they can see, but
they have to define their own success sometimes. The problem
that they have, especially these young people, is they compare
their success with other people. Yes, you know, so they
see these these illusions in front of them, these rappers
and stuff like that, and they want to get straight
from zero to that.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
They want to get to that take. They think it's
just like that.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Right right, just like you know what. They want to
be in your seat instead of being over there behind.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Instead of just yeah, yeah, that's a fact. Word. So so,
so you got shot at the age of what you
got shot twice your sail.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Age sixteen and robby attempt and nineteen again.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
So doing the process of the robbery, you got shot. Wow,
and then you did you go to jail?
Speaker 5 (10:43):
No, I was getting robbed, like the dude was robbing
me from it was robbing you. Yeah, and I got
shot and the second time was it was an unfortunate situation,
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I claim it was a reckless It was a reckless situation.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
The bottom line is the person that I took his life,
he didn't deserve to lie. You know what I'm saying,
even though even though we was in situations where we
was doing you know, crime and stuff like that, he
didn't deserve it. So let me just let me tell
you something, bro. The things that I'm doing today is
the citizen that I'm pull us with peace on that stuff.
All of that stuff wouldn't exist if I didn't get
(11:22):
this one text. It was about ten This was about
ten years ago. I do something called swags about sneakers.
Since twenty sixteen, I give up about five thousand pairs
of sneakers. Right, So I went for a rockaway giving
out sneakers, and I get a text and it says, simple,
you killed my brother.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
That's all the texts said.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
I'm looking at the text now, started looking around because
I just came home. I wasn't home long and I'm
looking around, like.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
You know what I'm saying is right, I'm giving away sneakers.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
This is about a year after I came home and
the text that you killed my brother. So I looked
at it and I just waited for a second then
I'm text back. I said, yes, I said, and unfortunately
you're right, and I regretted to this day. I was
on a different type of time, I said, but I
promise you your brother didn't will not die in vain.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Right, this is like basically the just of the text.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
The next text came and said, we've been watching since
we since you've been home, and we forgive you.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
The next text that that's that text changed my life
because that's all I ever wanted, like my whole bid,
I wanted to be forgiven.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
For all the things I've done.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Absolutely, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
And like I said, I took a life you know
where it could have been avoided. You know, I didn't
even I shouldn't have been in a situation. You know
what I'm saying. I shot somebody and took his life.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
And he was what thirteen?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
No, No, this was when I was the oldest. This
was I was nineteen. You know what I'm saying. So
you know I would take for responsibility for it, absolutely.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
But when I got sentenced, the mother and the father,
who are pastors, were in the back in the court
and talking and I just gave them my back.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I didn't even look. I didn't even acknowledge them.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
And even at that time, the mother was trying to
forgive me, but I was so naive.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
And so so caught up in your own world.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Know what I'm saying. Just mad that I'm about to
get half my life.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Yeah, you went about that I care about I don't.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Even care about that. I'm mad at you know the
fact that you're there. Right.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
It took me about eight years to learn the difference
difference between regretting remorse.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
I had regrets. It took me a while with education,
like you just started geting my education. I started to
know the difference, the difference in when I learned that
I need to be more remorseful than regretful. That's when
my life started to change.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
The transformations just started kicking it and started so so
now you got shot, so they try to they try
to rob you for whatever. You got shot twice when
you started going to jail, Like when when? When? When? When?
Your journey, as far as you know, right right as.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I recount started for me, juvenile started.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
Judy started for me first because I got locked for
crime ouney and commit I went and met a whole
bunch of criminals in in Spotted.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
You remember Spotty, of course, the Bronx I.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
Spotted and I progressed. When I came home from that,
I progressed. I got locked up again. I was adolescent
on Records Island. You know what I'm saying, four building.
I did the shot program with Records Island.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
How was that? How was your your first experiences on
Records Island?
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I mean most of you wen't gonna say. I was scared. Yeah,
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
I didn't know what to expecting over the bridge, Like
what the you know.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
What I'm saying, and like, you know, like and I'm
not trying to be funny, but Reykors Island was full
of Brooklyn dudes.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
A lot of Brooklyn dudes going to jail. Not a
lot of Queens dudes was in there. So I had
to go in there. I had to fight. You know.
It was like it wasn't easy, you know, so most
a lot of queens wasn't in there.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Very challenging.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
But I'm a person that people gravitate towards and we
end up, you know, we end up like clicking.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
And it was all right, you know, Okay.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
So yeah, I went to Records Island a few times
and basically when I when I finally went to prison,
pretty pretty much prepared.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Yeah. Yeah, it was almost like, Okay, I'm going up state.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Now.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
It's different than Records Island, but I'm pretty I know
what the prison system looks like.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I know what jail looks like.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
You know, you know what to expect more.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
I was kind of but you know, but then you
get the rude of waking in downstate.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Yeah, there you go, because he tell you.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
This ain't Records Island. Tell you what will kill you
in here, and he will call you the N word,
and they will call you a number, and they shave
all your hair off. They put you in a cold shower.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
That so, so you.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Think that you know, you think that.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
You know where you're going, and you think that you're
prepared for the real prison.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
But when you get the downstairs, they show you, they
bring you.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
Back down to life and they re humble, you know,
say they re humble you.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
And then you know and dare you to be tough,
and they did.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
You to be tough, and he'd be the smallest dude
on the CEO in the jail. You know what I'm saying,
will tell you, he will tell you. I will punch
you in your mouth right now.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I will drag you all over the fuck your place exactly.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
And there's nothing that anybody can do about it, you know.
So I went to prison. Shout out to Sean Peaker,
who bought the Huttling program to the prison system.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
So you blew trial. No, I copped out, So you
cut out to eighteen years.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I capped out because I already had a drug charge.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
I would would have got way more than twenty five years.
I was probably facing like forty years, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
So I copped out to eighteen Okay, And what was
your your parents?
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Like, my mom's just my mom with your mom?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Yeah, what she was going through?
Speaker 5 (16:42):
That mean man, It's funny that you see that because
I was just talking to my moms recently, and I
talked about this all the time.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
My mom's was she didn't think that she was going
to be alive when I made it home.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
Mhmm, you know what I'm saying. And I made it
home and she's been here ten years with me, and
she he progressed, you know, what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
She washing what a great feeling.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
She's like, she has my doctorate degree in her Like
her house is like a shron.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
You already know you gotta drop everything over the mall,
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
So she's like, we.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
Ain't gonna We're gonna lose those habits.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I want to know.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
She just screamed recording and fact people. You know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
So she's proud of her son.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, man, but there was there was a moments. There
was moments bro where she wasn't powered.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
I mean, you know that I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
But she stock with me.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
But there was moments in that court room and she
like like she wished I would have just turned around
and acknowledged the family or something like.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
So not only did I just respect my victors family,
I just respect my family.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Yeah, absolutely, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (17:39):
And I left two small children. My children were babies
when I went in. Wow, when I came out, they
had children.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
He was a grandfather, you know what I'm saying. The
good thing is that you do your head to witness
and be your grandfather.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Children. Man, I love them to death.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
So you so what was that journey though? You have
that I got the eighteen years Uh tell us that
journey you went with?
Speaker 2 (18:04):
I went to uh obviously downstate. Then I ended up
going to five Points. Five Points was a new jail
that we opened.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Okay, so it was new. So they Yeah, it's new
to me because I just I just heard about it.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Level. Nobody knew how to do anything. Basically, it was
supposed to be a box.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
They didn't have enough population for it, so it just
turned them to a regular jail and it was.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
It was disgusting.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
It was terrible.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
Oh really yeah, like that's the first time that you know,
I never saw I never saw a black and white TV.
At the first time I saw a black and white TV.
You know what I'm saying that I added myself. I
had a little black and white TV ship. Say they
called you the N word morning. Yeah, there's no black officers,
there's no Hispanic officers there.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
Five Points is the automatical that will bunk mean you
have to have to have a bunkie. So there's just
two people in the cell and it's disgusting. It's terrible,
you know. Then after five points, I went to green Haven.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
So green Haven is you know the most like it
is in the state, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
And then you're.
Speaker 5 (19:02):
Around a lot of knowledge in Greend and I'm saying,
you got your around brothers, that's not that's never going home.
The kids about you though, and they see that you're young,
and they see that you have a chance to go home,
so they want to like encourage you.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
So right, So yeah, I started doing programming.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
I started like just you know, going down to j
school and I met Frank Lewis.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
He's from Brooklyn. You know, he was a o G.
He's meant to me.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
And that's where you know, I started to like almost
like find myself.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (19:37):
Then from from greenhere and with the sink Sing, and
that's where my view of prison started to change.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Because that's why I started get my education. You know,
I got my education.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
I started going to college and sink Sing okay, And
I was in there with a lot of tomorrow yo, bro,
Like I'm I work in tech and I'm around some
of the smallest people in the world.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
There was more of people in sing Wow. You know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
There were brothers that was will blow your mind some
of the things, some of the ideas that they had,
and some of the things that they wanted to implement
into the world. But couldn't you know what I'm saying,
because they were confined, you know what I'm saying. Not
only it was confined physically, they were still confined mentally.
But you can see the spurts of it in college
and then getting the eight pluses on certain paple.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
It just you can see it, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
And good thing is that you you surrounded yourself with
that as soon as you as soon as you you know,
you hit the system. You ain't like get caught up
with the yard. You was in that with noo gangs
and nothing.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
No, no, never, never saying gangs nothing.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
You know, I mean, I got caught up with the yard.
I played basketball for like the first seven years, you
know what I'm saying. You know, I wanted to I
still wanted to define my you know, my NBA. You
know what I'm saying, My NBA, you know, same potential.
So I played basketball and enjoyed myself. You know, but
because I wanted to like escape some of the real
reality of me in prison.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
So basketball was like a big part of it.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
You know, it's the biggest skate because I mean I
used to work out. Yeah yeah, so that was like
my escape. And after that I used to play ball.
It was in the best basketball player but you have
but I have fun and it was great and I
get my CARDI on in and it was great and
is definitely an escape.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Then, you know, That's what I was saying.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
That's why I learned when I got educational and learned
the difference between regret and remorse. I gradually got my
bachelor's at the time, then I was going to get
my I mean, I got my associates us at the time,
I was going to get my bachelors, and I ended
up getting trapped off and sing sing.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
And going to the box. Wow, I went to the box.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
And for cell phone. My team we had we got
caught with some stuff.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
You know what I'm saying, go into the box. But
that's why I wrote my books.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
I realized how how how talented I was when I
had nobody around me. You know what I'm saying, when
I was confined in the space by myself with all
of these creativities came out.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Because everything is at that point, you know, all the
walls are down, ain't no front end. It's you know,
it's just you.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
It's just you. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
That's sometimes that's a hard thing to do it clo.
You know, like you know, right, did something about the
mirrors in prison that you can't see yourself Like they're
stainless still for a reason, so that can't really see yourself.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
So when you go to the clinic and you see
a real mirror, like, oh this is how I really look?
Speaker 4 (22:26):
How look? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
But when you're and yourself mirror, yeah right, So but
on self clean up. One day I use like baby
or you and something else, and I started polishing my mirror,
made it more shiny, and it was like, I'm serious, bro,
It's one day I looked in the mirror myself and
I was disgusted with that person. Like because most of
(22:48):
the time, even now, right while you're home, you might
look at the mirror for two or three seconds and
keep it moving.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
You don't stay in the mirror a Longe. You know
I'm saying, you just take a glance.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
But when you take a hard glance, as a fact,
you might not like what you see.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying, You might not be
comfortable with that person.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
And I was totally uncomfortable with that person.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
He was unhappy with you, that person.
Speaker 5 (23:08):
And and I and I didn't realize it until I
a polish my mirror, you know what I'm saying. And
that's when I started to like transition into, like, you know,
someone somewhat of a better person.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
When I became disgusted.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
With that that you know, when you when you go
to jail with a body, right, because you notice how
I use the term that unfortunately I took a life
recklessly and stuff like that. When you go to jail
with a body, you weigh as a badge, you know
what I'm saying. Because now your son's son get busy
something queens this and that and that, and you know
you you own it.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
You take you, you know what I mean, respect you. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
a body.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
He gets busy, you know what I'm saying. And you
kind of like that, you.
Speaker 5 (23:47):
Know you kind of Yeah, I became disgusted with that
I didn't want to be known because, right, I didn't
want to be known for having a body, bro, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
He was almost ashamed of that, ashamed of it. I
get it small.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
I want to be known for being intelligence. I want
to be known for being a leader. Bro, you know
what I'm saying. I didn't want to be known for that.
I didn't want to be known for taking a body
that didn't for a person, especially didn't deserve to die.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Right, I got you, you know what I'm saying. So
my life started to change, man, and I made it home.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
The eighteen years in program, you got your college and
no altercations or nothing like that.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
I mean I went through the box and stuff like that,
you know what I'm saying. But with the grace of God,
I made it home.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
When I graduated, I got my bachelor's, I went back
in front of the time.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Lone was committee. They gave my time back, and I made.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
It home, you know what I'm saying. And when I
was in the war, Yeah, you went to the boar
first first ball you.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yeah, I mean at home?
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Yeah? Wow, that was like yeah, that makes you really
really you really was on your ship. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
But also I went in and I was honest like
like you know, like I didn't go in there and
talking about like you know, like I didn't do it
or you know, listen, it was something that it was
the time of my life.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Well I ain't know where I was going, you know
what I'm saying. And I took full responsibility for it,
absolutely real.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
And and you was, you was in total remont So
so it was only God. It was on the right
that God let you go.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
God let me go.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
You feel me because you you was really remolted from
the heart. You could lie to anybody, but you can't
lie to God. Let me go. And you know exactly
where you're always at.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
And you know I was ready, He was ready.
Speaker 5 (25:23):
And when I came home, I adopted into community work
work with young people home.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
September seventeenth makes ten years for me. Okay, yep, two
weeks in September seventeen make ten years.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Gratulations, man, That's what I'm saying. So you got right
into what So tell me when you came home? What what?
What was what?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I went to this, I went to this lady.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
What year was it?
Speaker 2 (25:46):
It was just a.
Speaker 5 (25:47):
September seventeen, twenty fifteen, I went to this lady. Her
name was Erica Ford, and I asked her. I said,
I said, I want to I want to help young people.
She said, I can't hire you. You just got out
of prison. She said, we don't do that. I said,
I need you to give me a shot. I'm telling
you I got it. I got some ideas for these
young people. So she said no, I can't hire you.
Two weeks later she called me back. Long story story,
(26:09):
she gave me a job. I started a program, an
entrepreneurial program called Blocks the Socks where young people were
getting caught with guns. But now I was helping them
create their own sock. So they put down the glocks
and now they were selling their own sock. So you know,
that started to take off. You know, said, I started
going in parole and talking to the young people. Was
like on parole and stuff like that. So I started
(26:30):
to get my cleaner fame. I ended up meeting Deepop
Trumper and all these other people, and Russell Simmons. I
started going to the Writor Island and we're doing meditation
with Russell Simmons. So long story short, I ended up
meeting the CEO from Citizen App, who ended up hiring
me and asking me to along with Erica Ford, to
introduce Citizen into the world.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
And I was giving this.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
Incomparable task to introduce something to the world because to
the average person, you think that Citizen app is a
police app, and it's that.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
And it's not.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
What it is is an app that that keeps you
safe and informed, that tells you what's going on around
you have to tell gangsters, Yo, bro, this is not
a police App'm telling you, Like I come from where.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
You come from, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
They had these apps like that and community apps like
like a Florida Yeah for a while and then like
they have the community at it was a guy, strange
guy walking around.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Oh yeah, the neighborhood and all that.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:29):
Yeah, but we we kind of like like that. The
quarter app is kind of like, you know, based on
just getting information and putting it out there. You know
what I'm saying, Like, we're not ask you for anything,
We're getting the information and we're giving you the information
for the public. Right, somebody got robbed in the corner.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
He care for that corner.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Don't go to left, ye left that's all we want
to do.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
That's great man, That's that's a good one. Right.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
So so you know we we started doing citizens citizen apps.
So from there, from twenty sixteen to today, we had
over twenty million downloads during seventy cities. Wow, know what
I'm saying, We're all over the country. I got a
nice little team. I hired some of the brothers. You
know what I'm saying that was in prison with me,
(28:14):
that you should full time job.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
You should. So he's a post.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
Brought the team, you know what I mean? Right, And
it's good man, life is good when it comes to that.
That's that's my full time job.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Executive.
Speaker 5 (28:27):
I know I do well with that. And now you
know I do a lot of philanthropy. Like I got
something called the Swags where I was telling about to
give way to sneakers. I give ways over five thousand
pairs of sneakers.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
Since where you get the sneakers from?
Speaker 5 (28:38):
So I started with my man Me and my man Sean.
Like you know, he was exonerated. He did eighteen years
for something he didn't do. He was exonerated, you know,
got compensated for it. So he has he had this
closet full of a whole bunch of sneakers that he
only wore like once. So I said, oh, man, let
me take him out, put them on the team and
see what happened. Bro, And like twenty minutes, every paid
sneaker was gone.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
So I said, Yo, we're gonna replicate this.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
So I started putting a post like yo, if you
got sneakers that you did that, And I joke about
saying not like saying with that Jesus war, it's like.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Halfway know that you don't wear.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
You know what I'm saying, Let's put them on the table.
So I started putting on the table. And now every
year people just call me and not just go pick
up bags and bags and bags of clothes and sneakers.
I just put it on the table. I find a
neighborhood and we just give everything away for free. Look
at that, man, it's called the swag spop. You can
actually bring swag that and you take something. So it's
not I don't want you to think that it's for
(29:30):
like homeless people, like yeah, you know it's somebody if
you're fresh, no, but if you're not, if you fresh
and you see something on the table that's fresh, bring
it and drop something off and take the fresh.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
It's a swag spot. We be having brand new.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Sneakers on the table, but sometime we get brand new
stuff too, you know what I mean. Come get someone
on the table and if you don't have nothing to leave,
we just tell you one thing. Do something nice for
somebody today. That's all we want you to do. Just
do something nice. Everything is free. We don't don't take
the nations.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
They try to drop money in a cup with me,
I don't.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
Everything is free. You don't take anything. You know what
I'm saying. So that we've been doing that. But now tomorrow, bro,
I'm doing a video shoot for pull ups for Peace.
Can I tell you what pieces?
Speaker 4 (30:15):
Yes, sir, I love your hat, Thank you man.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Man, So so pull up a piece.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
Man started with And this is a funny story because
Jim Jones made a comment about NAS when you heard
about it, right when you say I'm.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Better than NAS, that's not right. So I was like,
damn man, Jimmy bugging right now?
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Man?
Speaker 5 (30:37):
So I played, I posted me. I was in Dominican
Republic and I posted me. When it's this just glowing
the dark shirt. It's like a battery that that lights up.
Oh yeah up, yeah, And I was and I played
verbal Intercourse when NAS and I said, I added Jim Jones,
I didn't think he was gonna respond back, and I said,
I'll wait because I played the NAS verbal in the
(31:00):
Course song, right, because that's that's a hot song. Jim
Jones reposted it and said, this old end he's talking
about me looked like he drink forties and smoked Newport Long.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
So I had a bucket hat on. You know what
I'm saying. So he did me.
Speaker 5 (31:13):
But yo, people was like, I got like two thousand
views on that point.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
I was like, yo, cool, he did great. Right.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
I reposted something else with Niles and I and I
and then I posted a video of me doing pull ups.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
You know what I'm saying. So because he said I
look like an old dude that drink for.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
This is this old man fifty yea.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
So he inboxed me and said, yo, meet me on
one twelve and Saint Nick and bring twenty thousand.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
I'll batter you right now.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
This is Jim Jones said to me in my inbox.
So I said, yo, bro, I ain't gonna lie, I said,
I don't have twenty thousand cash, but I do have
an accountant where, you know, we can make it happen,
he said. He said, you know what, let's just do
it for the culture. And not right that that inbox
text is.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Where postal he started because he said, yo, let's just
pull for peace. I said, beat.
Speaker 5 (32:03):
So I started like pulling up and having people pull up,
and I was tagging him and playing his music outside.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
He had a song come out outside.
Speaker 5 (32:09):
I just kept playing it and just start picking up steam,
start picking up steam, and people just started doing it.
And my song did it, and a couple of other
people did it.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
You know what I'm saying. A couple of people did it.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
And now it's national, not even it's global.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
People all over the world is doing pull ups on
the corners, now, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (32:26):
So now, then two young brothers, Struck Bands and Greco
came to me like a week and hal him and
Sae Yo where we did a song for you? I said,
he did a song for me, and he played the
song and I loved it, and he was like, yo,
just that's just yours.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
So after I listened to it. I said, Yo, it
just can't just be mine. We got to do a
video for this. We gotta, like you know what I'm saying.
We can help propel y'all.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Now you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Just this moving is already moving.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Why not make it big.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Let's make it bigger. So so you know, we we
we That's what pulled Up for Peace came from.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
Man.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
It came from a joke.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
I took that. I didn't take offense to it. You
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
I loved that.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
I love the fact that he posted me.
Speaker 5 (33:01):
We were going back and forth a couple of times
on social media, and I thank Jim Jones for that.
I even went the one twelve and Saint Nick and
the pull us on his block and his man called
him in FaceTime and he was we was talking on FaceTime.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
He was laughing at I'm saying that program reminds me
of Bartenders. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
I love Giant Man. I love Giant you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
I love Giant Man. Giant is for the community. Man,
He's he's you know, he's about peace, you know what
I mean. And I and I and I wish him
the best and I hope that everybody that that thinks
like that we can come together and do something collectively.
Of course, you know what I'm saying, because trimmings and
numbers and but I don't want to be devisive when
it comes to this, because the core behind Poose for
(33:42):
Peace Right is that bounces down in New York City,
but you bounce is up. Yeah, the young kids is
dying at an alarm and rate. A sixteen year old
girl got killed in the Bronx. Another girl got shot
ahead of the basketball game in the Bronx. The Bronx
off the they talked about bringing the military here.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
You know what I'm saying, We got to tie them
out somehow. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
We gotta get on these street corners. We got to
talk to our young people. We can't be afraid to
have conversations with them. I jump out the car. I
do pull ups. I offer fifty cents to pull up.
Sometimes they broke me though, bro I ain't gonna lie.
I was paying fifty cent a pull up. They was
lined up from one corner to the corner and dudes
were doing twenty I like, that's ten hours.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
You know what I'm saying, So I was running out
of money. You know, I had to stop that.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
But but it's a good it's a good start.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
You know what I'm calling it. I'm calling it a
beautiful distraction.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
Beautiful distraction, you know.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
What I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (34:32):
That's what I'm calling bro, I'm calling it a beautiful distraction.
I think that it's something that that the world needs
right now. So the video, I'm hoping right because I
put U up post, I'm hoping that I can get
a person on Israel, I get a Muslim, I get
a blood, a Crip, a person from Russia, a person
from Ukraine, just a hug on the video. I want
to send a statement, you know what I'm saying. I
(34:52):
want I want to send a statement to the world
that you know, we can live in this world together
without killing each other. And I'm telling you like you're
talking to a person who had no problem with taking.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Something like his life. You know what I'm saying, You
can you can do something else.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
You can like talk tak young person in your mama's
check your some book back before you go outside, because
his life is gonna be over once he shoots somebody.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
Talk to them. Prince talk to them, bro, Tom, how
many themselves? Bro?
Speaker 5 (35:16):
Yeah, talk yo, brow many girl Mammy crying themselves at night.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Now you're wanna pull that triggers and do that and
and they know on you're gonna be in the self
crying your ass. So none of your friend's gonna be there.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Your wife is gone.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Oh that the girl's going.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Your main man that y'all y'all smoke with and you
pass it blunt with.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
He's with your kids, with your kids now, yeah, all.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
That he's answering and he's hanging up the phone when
you call facts. Yeah is that real?
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Bro? Yeah, it's super real, super real Prince. So now
you've been home ten years, two weeks. Congratulations on that.
You're doing a lot of great things out here.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Man.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
You know what I'm saying, We definitely uh uh uh
uh would love to uh somehow, you know, invite me
to one of your joints and whatever. I'm there, I'm there.
I like to support as well. You know the same
thing with me, Like you know, the platform is here
and it was created for you for your for us
to have a voice. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Invite me to your house. You could come to my house. Literally,
you could come to my house.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Respect I went from a cell to a I don't
have no neighbors. I have a pool.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
When I said I don't have no neighbors, like you
go outside and you don't see anything, no other house.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, house like.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
I wanted one day. I always had ambitions of owning
the block. I owned the block. Now you know what
I'm saying. So I don't tell you can come to
my house, appreciate what I'm saying and jump in the
pool and chill out.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (36:43):
And that and that listen. That didn't come from selling
no drugs. That didn't come from robbing nobody and come
from scammings to nobody. That comes from hard work and
dedication and utilizing the information.
Speaker 7 (36:51):
That we have.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
Absolutely, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (36:54):
So, young person, man, this is a message'm gonna give
to you and ever forget this.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
You don't got to be like me. To be like me.
Speaker 5 (37:01):
You don't got to be shot, you don't want to
go to prison, you don't got to be stabbed, you
don't want to be none of that. You can go
straight to the information and go straight to the success
bottom line.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
That's right. How do you feel about prison reform?
Speaker 2 (37:13):
I think that is needed, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
I think that that prison reforms needed, but I think
people reformers needed even more.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
Right.
Speaker 5 (37:24):
So I had this professor and he gave us. He
gave us this assignment to write an essay. And the
essay is was what's wowing the world right? And I
know we can talk about it all until week and
we can write a two thousand words essays what's wrong
with the world right?
Speaker 2 (37:43):
But the simple answer to the essay was I am
m hmm.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Can just start with one.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
It's start with you, as you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (37:51):
So as much as we reform prison, if the people
going into the prison are not thinking about reform, the
prison will never reform.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
Like, Yo, bro, we don't need prison to be comfortable.
You know what I'm saying. We don't need you to
be able to get a Super three and a CD
player and the Color Team.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
We don't need that. We need you not to go.
Speaker 5 (38:16):
Right, don't don't don't start buying your tabling, your Super
three and all the ship now before you even get
the prison.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
How about not.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
Going how about that one right or wrong?
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Bro?
Speaker 4 (38:26):
Yeah, of course absolutely, it starts. It starts, you know
because if you and I always tell the young brothers, man,
you have to take charges of your life. You can't
let you know these nowadays we live in a life
with they They other people make choices for them. You
know what I'm saying, and and and and and the
choices that they do would be based on some my crew,
(38:50):
you know, my surrounding. You know what I'm saying. And
then when when when? When? You when? When? At the
end result, you be the one that's there by yourself
because once everything is all the sudden done, you're the
one that's going to be dealing with the consequences. Man,
Not your friend, your cousin, your girlfriend, none of that.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Just you.
Speaker 5 (39:08):
A few months ago, I did a training. I trained
three hundred and fifty cops from all over the.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Country in Chicago.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Right.
Speaker 5 (39:15):
I went on to be half a citizen and I
did a trauma training for police. Right, And I was
talking to him about you know, every time you respond
to a call, you responding to a traumatic experience. You
know what I'm saying, When you go see a four
year old kid who's been shot. You know you really
you see the kid and you show no emotion, right,
just doing your professional You have to do your job,
(39:36):
sitting up the tape, you put the blanket over him.
Then you get another call, a thirteen year old kid.
You go to the call, you see the kid, you
put the tape over him. Each time you respond to trauma,
you're absorbing that trauma, but you're not dealing with it.
So over twenty five years of time, you become numb
and desensitized where you can't feel. This is how George
(40:01):
Floyd happens. Because you can't feel, you don't know how
to respond right, and you don't notice that. You don't
know how to know that you're want to correlate a
call with trauma, so when you respond to the call,
you don't even know what to respond to the trauma,
so you don't feel your numb So I told them,
if you can't feel, you can't heal m right. If
(40:25):
we don't have any feelings, that's how he was right.
When we were in the street, we didn't care, we
didn't have no feelings. We became the sensitize, nothing bothered us.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
So it was no. It was almost impossible for us
to heal.
Speaker 5 (40:38):
Impossible until you start being vulnerable, start understanding. When you
come from understanding how many people you hurt, then you
can start the healing process. You don't get a chance
to sit in the call with your with your partner
and say that call fucked me up.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Because you don't want to look soft. You know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 7 (40:57):
You want to You're gonna get that little yeah right
name one time anybody in this room, and one time
when you went to when you went to something that
something happening, police was on the scene, you saw a
police officer crying or he was hurt that he saw
a little kid dead.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Never because they have to remain with fishing him.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
They like robots.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
They're taught not to feel. Robots can't feel. Yeah, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (41:22):
So after that training, though with three hundred and fifty cops,
seventy cops a day for five days, after that training,
I received a call from probably eighty percentemon wow, saying
thank you, because you're right, I can't feel anymore.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
One guy said. He retired and after.
Speaker 5 (41:42):
Twenty five years, everything every call he went to started
playing in his head.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Wow, he had to go back on the job, not
to kill herself.
Speaker 4 (41:52):
Sh You know, it's tough for anyone, even that job,
even that job, you know what I mean, just because
they got the police officer, is that they hold a
big responsibility unions, the human you know what I'm saying.
And then to deal with you know, because we we
all look at them as just robots and the cops
fucked them. This dad the cop, but not knowing that
(42:13):
they they also go through it. They also deal with
you know, the emotions just like you said, they oh
they're old, and then they deal with a lot because
they see a lot of trauma.
Speaker 5 (42:22):
That's their job is to see tupa and trauma every day,
every day, entire life. Yeah, so you know it's tough, right,
you know, we gotta give them, we gotta give them
a little bit of grace, but they also.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
You gotta salute them for that. Man, you gotta salute
them and and not be ashamed to salute absolutely because
these are these are the people that's keeping our community safe. Yo.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Bro It takes a lot, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (42:43):
It takes a lot, because we want to have we're
gonna uphold this image that is us against the police.
For yo, Man, when I got shot, man, I was
looking for the cops. I was hoping that somebody come
and saved me because I didn't want to die. Of course,
you know what I'm saying. Because nobody else in the
neighborhood is gonna come out and try to They're gonna
come up on your shot exactly what guns drawing.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (43:00):
So man like, like let's be real, like we got
to give them some grades. We got to school them,
but they also have to take responsibility and know that
they have to start the process of healing.
Speaker 4 (43:09):
Absolutely, you know what I'm saying, Bro, It's the same
thing we we we we had. Uh I went up
to you know, be going to the jails and UH
speak to the brothers yesterday, right yeah, go Thurs days,
I go so and then my you know, and I
go to up state too, like shaweg got I've been
in you know, gre here with Andre Norman. If you
ever heard of Andre Norman Brothers Beasts. This is what
(43:32):
he does. He's he's been out here doing this way
longer than us, and he has accomplished a lot of stuff.
He's the only black man that I see bringing cameras
and all that the.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Jail.
Speaker 4 (43:43):
In jail. I did dog in the yard in gret Haven.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (43:47):
I did dog in the yard in Showanga. Wow. With
brothers that have been in jail thirty six years, forty years.
And I interviewed them like like this the same way
I did that, and they was I had brothers cry,
I've been in jail man thirty six years. Man, do
I want to do? Just be my kids? Man, Pete,
you know what I'm saying, this is not its real brother,
(44:07):
it's real and it was an honor.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
Man.
Speaker 4 (44:09):
I got a lot. That's that right there is like
I see the need. You know what I'm saying. I
see that they you know, I see that that. It
don't matter how smart, how how how slick you think
you are. You know you always gonna need that that
that that push. You know you're always going to need that.
You know.
Speaker 5 (44:29):
Yeah, I just just you mentioned that and I said
this somewhere else. Man, Like I didn't love my children
talk went to prison. I cared about him a lot.
I bought them sneakers and I picked them up and
I put them down and went back outside. Yeah, Well,
once I no longer had access to them and couldn't
hold them at night and talk to them when I
went into because phones calls was fifteen dollars. You know
(44:51):
what I'm saying, That I couldn't get on the phone
all the time. Nobody had no money. Nobody said that
I had no bag. I left and it was until
I was actually in prison where I realized how much
I love them. And that's another motivator for me, you
know what I'm saying that to get out there to
them and now like they're so proud of me.
Speaker 7 (45:08):
Bro bigand she just started correction that man like.
Speaker 5 (45:18):
Yo, Brianna, I would tell the joke that I would
tell her, tell the joke. She said, Dad, I wanted
to follow your footsteps. She went the correction, but she
went the right way.
Speaker 4 (45:29):
Congratulations, man, Now keep doing your thing. I told us
my son is the same thing. Man. Listen, don't be
a shamed don't be a shame man. Go get that
job the benefits. Go make a change. You don't have
to go in there and be a uh you got
you got to go to jail and be a wax
CEO or tough CEO or going there where you want
(45:49):
to challenge, you know, the brothers that's locked up and
already oppressed. You want to go in there and change.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
I'm mentoring her, bro, I'm mentoring her. You know what
I'm saying. I'm showing her how to be human in there.
Speaker 5 (45:59):
Like because I said, I said, God forbid, if the
prisoners take over the asylum, you're gonna be the one
person that they gonna look out for because.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
You treat them like humans.
Speaker 5 (46:09):
Don't remember that, right, They're gonna remember, you know, and
always so. Just so shout out to Baltimore Corrections. You
guys in prison, trust and believe that's because of me
you're getting take care of.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (46:22):
That's right word. Trust and believe.
Speaker 5 (46:24):
You know what I'm saying because I mentioned my daughter
and I tell her, like, listen, don't nobody disrespect you
because they're gonna be brushing their head doing in front
of you know what I'm saying. It's passing you notes.
But you know, majority of people, man, they're not bad people.
They just made some bad decisions.
Speaker 4 (46:38):
That's it. Not perfect man, not perfect, bro, God is man? Uh?
Anyway that anything else that you want to people out there,
you know, the youth, the youth for anything you want
to you want to announce, where to find you anything
you have to coming.
Speaker 5 (46:51):
I mean, I mean you can find you can find
us at pull up for Peace Challenge dot com.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
You can follow us that pull up on Instagram.
Speaker 5 (47:01):
Man. I think that it's something that's needed right now
in the world today, you know. Like I said, I
wanted to bring like those different sects to the to
the video to show the powerful statement of hugging, like
the Israeli and the Muslim hugging. Like I think it'll
make a powerful statement able to stop some of the
stuff that's happening. The Bluzzs and Crypts, the Bloods and
Cryptu are not really beefing anymore like they used to.
(47:23):
It's blood on blood and crip on crip. You know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Like you know and and all of you, every last one.
Speaker 5 (47:29):
Of you peer groups, you know, you should know why
you were started. If you go back to the history
and see why you were started, you won't be beefing
with nobody. You will be helping the communities like the
Black Panthers did and all these other people that you
will be helping the community instead of becoming you know,
problems in the community.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
You know what I'm saying, that they.
Speaker 4 (47:47):
Knew the history right besides being destructed right now?
Speaker 5 (47:50):
Yeah, you know I'm saying you would know if you
knew and you have the information, go back and check
why blood started, why crips started.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
You know.
Speaker 5 (48:00):
You know what I'm saying, why starting? You probably want
to do something different with your life facts.
Speaker 4 (48:05):
Because you could be all you want to be and
rep whatever you want to be. But let's do it right.
That's it, you know what I mean. We ain't got
to crack each other's heads. You ain't got to do
all that. We ain't got to shoot each other, we
ain't got to talk bad to each other. We ain't
got to mistreat each other. We just gotta be able
to communicate with each other. Man, you know, community communication
is the key. That's it. I think you can.
Speaker 5 (48:27):
I thank you for everybody that came before me, and
all the brothers and sisters are going to come behme me. Man,
you are an amazing individual. First, appreciate you your platform.
I wish you the most overwoman's success because you are
setting the tone and you just bring in regular, ordinary,
ordinary people like me.
Speaker 2 (48:45):
You know what I'm saying. I'm not doing nothing extravagant.
Speaker 4 (48:47):
I'm doing special, but we all special in our ways.
Thank you, man, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (48:51):
You hear people before me and the brothers and sister
are gonna come be ham me.
Speaker 4 (48:56):
Appreciate you, Appreciate you. Appreciate you know what it is man.
And with that being said, you already know it's your
boy pistol peek. Prince Queens, you already.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
Know you pull up for piece. Man, you already know
what it is.
Speaker 4 (49:06):
Let's go pull up for Pece. You already know your
boy pistol dog in the yard. What you already know
is your boy pistol Peek walking back to the dog
in the yard. First and foremost, I want to thank
Prince for coming through. What up Prince, shout out to Queens.
Appreciate you coming, my brother. I love what you do.
Peace for pull ups. Keep doing the amazing job out
(49:30):
there working with the kids, with the community, because that's
what we need. I'm here, the platform is here for you.
At any given time. You want to come back up here.
You already know this is your home and we're here
for you. With that being said your boy pistol dog
in the yard.
Speaker 2 (50:01):
See I it was flying Nigger.
Speaker 4 (50:04):
We're alive and South Shot Nigga wen live in South
Shot nig You were the guys.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
We them guys.
Himself.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
That'll be hope a south darks a over your mouth.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Right, your less.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Clear?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
That's right?
Speaker 4 (01:29):
What else? What are you already know what it is?
Your boy pistol p walking back to the dog in
the yard today we got prints in the building Prince
Day eighteen years and a half. Now he's home. He's
doing great things and his heads to break that ship
down with us. Man, you already know peace for pull ups,
your boy pistol dog in the yard. What what up?
(01:50):
You already know what it is your boy pistol p
walking back the dog in the yard. Today we got
prints in the building from Queens South of Jamaica. What's up? Man?
Thanks for having me man, Man, pleasure man as well? Brother?
What's going on? How you been? Brother?
Speaker 5 (02:03):
I mean before I even start, man, I just I
just want to say this, like I was looking at
you know, your page, and I was seeing all the
brothers that you give opportunities to, man, and it was
overwhelming to me because like a lot of brothers get overlooked.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
You got to be the certain status to get on
these shows, a big platform like you and you get
in the morning, you getting them exposure, of course a lot,
you know.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
What I'm saying. So I just want to say that man.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Appreciate appreciate that appreciating. You know, this was about man,
you know when I first created you know, and it
came up with the dog, you know, with dog in
the yard. You know, I wanted something. So brothers gotta
have a voice. You know, we as as men in prison,
we never had a voice, you know what I'm saying.
So I want to give us. This is this platform,
it is our voice. So will you be able to
(02:44):
give you your opinion on how you felt and what
you went through and your whole and what you're doing
now and know the greatness that you're doing now or
anything that you have in the future as well. But
this is this is our platform, This is for us.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Right and we had the time that we had a
chance to think those things out and those things saying
on the way out, like if you didn't come home
with a plan, you're gonna fail.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
I mean saying a lot of us, a lot of
the brothers that you had on your show already came
home with a plan. That's why it even looks like success. Yes,
of course so, and that journey is absolutely the best
part of it.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
You know, we just give you that extra push too,
you know what I'm saying, Like, you know, those brothers
that wanted to give you the extra push get up
on here. We don't, we don't, you know, we don't.
We don't discriminate anybody. We accept everybody, you know what,
wants to be on here and get the story out
and get it off their chests. A lot of brothers
is the sense of therapy. You know what I'm saying.
We sit here and they just letting it all out.
(03:40):
You know what I'm saying. You know, and I love it,
you know, and I love what I do. You know,
I love. I love to make you feel good, make
you feel special like you you are special. You feel
me like like I don't know if if nobody ever
told you, but when you hear, I'm gonna let you
know you special, brother.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
I felt that way in the green room, bro, you know,
just sitting in here, yeah, come in you know, I
felt specially.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I felt like like like there's.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
A certain of importance as even when I met you outside,
he wasn't no different outside than you are right now.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Always the same way man. You know how we do.
We don't switch up, man, bro. You know when it's real,
it's real all the way, all the way. Bro. Anyway,
with that being said, Prince, so give us a little
bit about your background. You know, I know you from
Queen's upbringing, Uh, your siblings, dad, moms in your life
and when what happened and with what occurred that that
(04:32):
you know you started to get yourself in jams, in
trouble and what led to your eighteen years and a half, well,
you know.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Typical household man. I had had a mom's you know
what I'm saying. My father, My father fought in Vietnam,
right and my father unfortunately got addicted to heroin and
he passed the overdose some heroin on Father's Day, you
know what I'm saying. So my mom's basically raisers by itself.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Well, how old you was?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
I was six?
Speaker 4 (04:59):
I was very It's very complicated for you.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
I got this vivid memory of my pops because I
always wanted to be with him, and he used to
buy me cherry balls from the candy store, you know.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
What I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
And no matter where he was at, whatever drug he
did or what like, he always wanted me to be
with him as well, you know what I'm saying. So
I never forget my post and that, like even to
this day, that really hurt me a lot.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
That I didn't have my father growing up.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Of course, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
I had stepfather, but they don't. They're not the same,
Ye your dad, right? You know that that that that
that person that you look to that you want to
be like no matter what they do, you.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Know what i mean. So, yeah, him just being on drugs,
they make up a bad dad, make them a bad person,
That's what I'm saying. You know. You know some people
think that you know, because you're on drugs. You know,
he just caught up with the disease.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Do you want to be judged for going to prison?
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
You want people to treat you accordingly.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
Right, So, you know, I grew up in a household
or my mom's She worked two jobs. She took care
of all of us, you know, and I grew up
in the house, you know, but I like hanging out
in the projects. You know what I'm saying. I was
a smart kid from first to let's say sixth grade.
I was a very smart kid. Well, most of my
friends was in other classes, and I wanted to be
with them, so like sometimes I even had to dumb
(06:09):
it down, you know what I'm saying, just to fit in.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
You know, I didn't want to be a nerd.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
I didn't want to, you know what I'm saying, Like
right now, to me, Squares is winning now, and I
love being nerves saying that we winning, you know, like
Geeks is winning.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
All this time, we was laughing at the nerves, the.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Squares of winning, you know, we was laughing at the
dudes that was locking us.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
In fact, they were going home every night, you know
what I mean, So it feels good to go home.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
So at thirteen I got in trouble. You know, I
got I got wrestled for a crime I didn't do,
or robbery I didn't do. At sixteen, I got shot,
you know, in a robbery attempt. At nineteen I got
shot again. Eighteen nineteen I got shot again. We almost passed,
And at.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Wow, what's all this queen queen shit?
Speaker 5 (06:52):
And at twenty, what was going on was just my lifestyle,
you know what I'm saying, Like, like it's it's unfortunate.
But most of my friends are dead now, you know
what I'm saying. Most of my friends I grew up with.
I got about four or five people that I actually
grew up with, Like my friend just passed away yesterday
from kmpsas.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
You know what I'm saying. So I already hear the.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
Rest in peace, my man Tyrone. But most of my
friends got killed, you know what I mean? And I like,
I didn't know. I didn't know when I.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Was going to get killed.
Speaker 5 (07:21):
Nose, I didn't say if I didn't know when, because
I knew my time was coming to what prison saved me? Listen,
going to jail actually saved my life because the lifespan
was the actuality of me living past twenty five wasn't real,
you know what I mean. So I'm one of the
ones that might sound crazy, but I say I'm grateful
(07:43):
for prison.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Yeah yeah, yeah, of course it saved your life. It
saved my life too, you know. So I went to
jail with somebody to do. I was mad and all that,
but it actually saved my life because half of the
guys that I went when when I when I went
to jail, and I came home, it was all dead.
And the ones that they it's not dead. They got
they got eighty years, one hundred years, they like, you know, they.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
So And I made some I met some great individuals.
You had a couple of guys on the show that
I you know that I grew up with him, some
grab and dre Okay, fifty years, yeah, twenty five years
with something he didn't do. You know what I'm saying.
So you did something for you and do my man
Sean did twenty Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
You know, back in the days, that was like a
more common thing. It was a lot of corrupt ship
and them the only reason we we because I see
this ship clearly now, you know what I'm saying. We
were just lack of education is everything. Man, You know,
no education out there lost his ship with no no
no guidance, no no, no no condo. You get lost,
you know. And them that's their job at that time.
(08:41):
You know, you have all the crooked cops, all the
crooked detectives, you know, make up anything just for you
to get that to get that little bit, you know,
get me, get that fenerally, you know what I'm saying.
And but we we all are naive and ship like
we all like, you know what I'm saying me while
they dogging us out.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
I was telling their brother in the green room, I
was telling them that that the information that these young
people have, they're young first of all. Right, now, the
young people way smarter than us because they way more
access to information.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
It's different now, right.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
We might have had the smarts and the common sense,
but they have all the information.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
They have everything there right at the prominent hands.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
So it's almost impossible for them not to know. Like
some things we just didn't know, right, We wasn't exposed.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That is a fact, you know what I mean. So
they exposed to every everything, you know what I mean,
we didn't have.
Speaker 6 (09:28):
If they want to be a fun up, that's on them.
They only knew Jamaica. You only knew the Bronx. You
know what I'm saying that We only knew where you
was at until you want that you know, the cool
things to go to North Carolina and these places, and
we knew that, but we didn't know the world.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Like but like the kids today know the world.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Yeah, absolutely they know the world. That's a fact. That's
a sure fact. They definitely have a they if they play,
they don't have no reason to fail, you know what
I'm saying, Like everything is right here, that.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
They utilize the information correctly. Man, they can see, but
they have to define their own success sometimes. The problem
that they have, especially these young people, is they compare
their success with other people. Yes, you know, so they
see these these illusions in front of them, these rappers
and stuff like that, and they want to get straight
from zero to that.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
They want to get to that take. They think it's
just like that.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Right right, just like you know what. They want to
be in your seat instead of being over there behind.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Instead of just yeah, yeah, that's a fact. Word. So so,
so you got shot at the age of what you
got shot twice your sail.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Age sixteen and robby attempt and nineteen again.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
So doing the process of the robbery, you got shot. Wow,
and then you did you go to jail?
Speaker 5 (10:43):
No, I was getting robbed, like the dude was robbing
me from it was robbing you. Yeah, and I got
shot and the second time was it was an unfortunate situation,
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I claim it was a reckless It was a reckless situation.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
The bottom line is the person that I took his life,
he didn't deserve to lie. You know what I'm saying,
even though even though we was in situations where we
was doing you know, crime and stuff like that, he
didn't deserve it. So let me just let me tell
you something, bro. The things that I'm doing today is
the citizen that I'm pull us with peace on that stuff.
All of that stuff wouldn't exist if I didn't get
(11:22):
this one text. It was about ten This was about
ten years ago. I do something called swags about sneakers.
Since twenty sixteen, I give up about five thousand pairs
of sneakers. Right, So I went for a rockaway giving
out sneakers, and I get a text and it says, simple,
you killed my brother.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
That's all the texts said.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
I'm looking at the text now, started looking around because
I just came home. I wasn't home long and I'm
looking around, like.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
You know what I'm saying is right, I'm giving away sneakers.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
This is about a year after I came home and
the text that you killed my brother. So I looked
at it and I just waited for a second then
I'm text back. I said, yes, I said, and unfortunately
you're right, and I regretted to this day. I was
on a different type of time, I said, but I
promise you your brother didn't will not die in vain.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Right, this is like basically the just of the text.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
The next text came and said, we've been watching since
we since you've been home, and we forgive you.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
The next text that that's that text changed my life
because that's all I ever wanted, like my whole bid,
I wanted to be forgiven.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
For all the things I've done.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Absolutely, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
And like I said, I took a life you know
where it could have been avoided. You know, I didn't
even I shouldn't have been in a situation. You know
what I'm saying. I shot somebody and took his life.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
And he was what thirteen?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
No, No, this was when I was the oldest. This
was I was nineteen. You know what I'm saying. So
you know I would take for responsibility for it, absolutely.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
But when I got sentenced, the mother and the father,
who are pastors, were in the back in the court
and talking and I just gave them my back.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I didn't even look. I didn't even acknowledge them.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
And even at that time, the mother was trying to
forgive me, but I was so naive.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
And so so caught up in your own world.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Know what I'm saying. Just mad that I'm about to
get half my life.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Yeah, you went about that I care about I don't.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Even care about that. I'm mad at you know the
fact that you're there. Right.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
It took me about eight years to learn the difference
difference between regretting remorse.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
I had regrets. It took me a while with education,
like you just started geting my education. I started to
know the difference, the difference in when I learned that
I need to be more remorseful than regretful. That's when
my life started to change.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
The transformations just started kicking it and started so so
now you got shot, so they try to they try
to rob you for whatever. You got shot twice when
you started going to jail, Like when when? When? When? When?
Your journey, as far as you know, right right as.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I recount started for me, juvenile started.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
Judy started for me first because I got locked for
crime ouney and commit I went and met a whole
bunch of criminals in in Spotted.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
You remember Spotty, of course, the Bronx I.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
Spotted and I progressed. When I came home from that,
I progressed. I got locked up again. I was adolescent
on Records Island. You know what I'm saying, four building.
I did the shot program with Records Island.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
How was that? How was your your first experiences on
Records Island?
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I mean most of you wen't gonna say. I was scared. Yeah,
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
I didn't know what to expecting over the bridge, Like
what the you know.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
What I'm saying, and like, you know, like and I'm
not trying to be funny, but Reykors Island was full
of Brooklyn dudes.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
A lot of Brooklyn dudes going to jail. Not a
lot of Queens dudes was in there. So I had
to go in there. I had to fight. You know.
It was like it wasn't easy, you know, so most
a lot of queens wasn't in there.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Very challenging.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
But I'm a person that people gravitate towards and we
end up, you know, we end up like clicking.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
And it was all right, you know, Okay.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
So yeah, I went to Records Island a few times
and basically when I when I finally went to prison,
pretty pretty much prepared.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Yeah. Yeah, it was almost like, Okay, I'm going up state.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Now.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
It's different than Records Island, but I'm pretty I know
what the prison system looks like.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I know what jail looks like.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
You know, you know what to expect more.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
I was kind of but you know, but then you
get the rude of waking in downstate.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Yeah, there you go, because he tell you.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
This ain't Records Island. Tell you what will kill you
in here, and he will call you the N word,
and they will call you a number, and they shave
all your hair off. They put you in a cold shower.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
That so, so you.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Think that you know, you think that.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
You know where you're going, and you think that you're
prepared for the real prison.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
But when you get the downstairs, they show you, they
bring you.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
Back down to life and they re humble, you know,
say they re humble you.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
And then you know and dare you to be tough,
and they did.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
You to be tough, and he'd be the smallest dude
on the CEO in the jail. You know what I'm saying,
will tell you, he will tell you. I will punch
you in your mouth right now.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I will drag you all over the fuck your place exactly.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
And there's nothing that anybody can do about it, you know.
So I went to prison. Shout out to Sean Peaker,
who bought the Huttling program to the prison system.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
So you blew trial. No, I copped out, So you
cut out to eighteen years.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I capped out because I already had a drug charge.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
I would would have got way more than twenty five years.
I was probably facing like forty years, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
So I copped out to eighteen Okay, And what was
your your parents?
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Like, my mom's just my mom with your mom?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Yeah, what she was going through?
Speaker 5 (16:42):
That mean man, It's funny that you see that because
I was just talking to my moms recently, and I
talked about this all the time.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
My mom's was she didn't think that she was going
to be alive when I made it home.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
Mhmm, you know what I'm saying. And I made it
home and she's been here ten years with me, and
she he progressed, you know, what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
She washing what a great feeling.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
She's like, she has my doctorate degree in her Like
her house is like a shron.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
You already know you gotta drop everything over the mall,
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
So she's like, we.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
Ain't gonna We're gonna lose those habits.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I want to know.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
She just screamed recording and fact people. You know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
So she's proud of her son.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, man, but there was there was a moments. There
was moments bro where she wasn't powered.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
I mean, you know that I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
But she stock with me.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
But there was moments in that court room and she
like like she wished I would have just turned around
and acknowledged the family or something like.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
So not only did I just respect my victors family,
I just respect my family.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Yeah, absolutely, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (17:39):
And I left two small children. My children were babies
when I went in. Wow, when I came out, they
had children.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
He was a grandfather, you know what I'm saying. The
good thing is that you do your head to witness
and be your grandfather.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Children. Man, I love them to death.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
So you so what was that journey though? You have
that I got the eighteen years Uh tell us that
journey you went with?
Speaker 2 (18:04):
I went to uh obviously downstate. Then I ended up
going to five Points. Five Points was a new jail
that we opened.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Okay, so it was new. So they Yeah, it's new
to me because I just I just heard about it.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Level. Nobody knew how to do anything. Basically, it was
supposed to be a box.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
They didn't have enough population for it, so it just
turned them to a regular jail and it was.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
It was disgusting.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
It was terrible.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
Oh really yeah, like that's the first time that you know,
I never saw I never saw a black and white TV.
At the first time I saw a black and white TV.
You know what I'm saying that I added myself. I
had a little black and white TV ship. Say they
called you the N word morning. Yeah, there's no black officers,
there's no Hispanic officers there.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
Five Points is the automatical that will bunk mean you
have to have to have a bunkie. So there's just
two people in the cell and it's disgusting. It's terrible,
you know. Then after five points, I went to green Haven.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
So green Haven is you know the most like it
is in the state, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
And then you're.
Speaker 5 (19:02):
Around a lot of knowledge in Greend and I'm saying,
you got your around brothers, that's not that's never going home.
The kids about you though, and they see that you're young,
and they see that you have a chance to go home,
so they want to like encourage you.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
So right, So yeah, I started doing programming.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
I started like just you know, going down to j
school and I met Frank Lewis.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
He's from Brooklyn. You know, he was a o G.
He's meant to me.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
And that's where you know, I started to like almost
like find myself.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (19:37):
Then from from greenhere and with the sink Sing, and
that's where my view of prison started to change.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Because that's why I started get my education. You know,
I got my education.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
I started going to college and sink Sing okay, And
I was in there with a lot of tomorrow yo, bro,
Like I'm I work in tech and I'm around some
of the smallest people in the world.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
There was more of people in sing Wow. You know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
There were brothers that was will blow your mind some
of the things, some of the ideas that they had,
and some of the things that they wanted to implement
into the world. But couldn't you know what I'm saying,
because they were confined, you know what I'm saying. Not
only it was confined physically, they were still confined mentally.
But you can see the spurts of it in college
and then getting the eight pluses on certain paple.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
It just you can see it, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
And good thing is that you you surrounded yourself with
that as soon as you as soon as you you know,
you hit the system. You ain't like get caught up
with the yard. You was in that with noo gangs
and nothing.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
No, no, never, never saying gangs nothing.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
You know, I mean, I got caught up with the yard.
I played basketball for like the first seven years, you
know what I'm saying. You know, I wanted to I
still wanted to define my you know, my NBA. You
know what I'm saying, My NBA, you know, same potential.
So I played basketball and enjoyed myself. You know, but
because I wanted to like escape some of the real
reality of me in prison.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
So basketball was like a big part of it.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
You know, it's the biggest skate because I mean I
used to work out. Yeah yeah, so that was like
my escape. And after that I used to play ball.
It was in the best basketball player but you have
but I have fun and it was great and I
get my CARDI on in and it was great and
is definitely an escape.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Then, you know, That's what I was saying.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
That's why I learned when I got educational and learned
the difference between regret and remorse. I gradually got my
bachelor's at the time, then I was going to get
my I mean, I got my associates us at the time,
I was going to get my bachelors, and I ended
up getting trapped off and sing sing.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
And going to the box. Wow, I went to the box.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
And for cell phone. My team we had we got
caught with some stuff.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
You know what I'm saying, go into the box. But
that's why I wrote my books.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
I realized how how how talented I was when I
had nobody around me. You know what I'm saying, when
I was confined in the space by myself with all
of these creativities came out.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Because everything is at that point, you know, all the
walls are down, ain't no front end. It's you know,
it's just you.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
It's just you. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
That's sometimes that's a hard thing to do it clo.
You know, like you know, right, did something about the
mirrors in prison that you can't see yourself Like they're
stainless still for a reason, so that can't really see yourself.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
So when you go to the clinic and you see
a real mirror, like, oh this is how I really look?
Speaker 4 (22:26):
How look? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
But when you're and yourself mirror, yeah right, So but
on self clean up. One day I use like baby
or you and something else, and I started polishing my mirror,
made it more shiny, and it was like, I'm serious, bro,
It's one day I looked in the mirror myself and
I was disgusted with that person. Like because most of
(22:48):
the time, even now, right while you're home, you might
look at the mirror for two or three seconds and
keep it moving.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
You don't stay in the mirror a Longe. You know
I'm saying, you just take a glance.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
But when you take a hard glance, as a fact,
you might not like what you see.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying, You might not be
comfortable with that person.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
And I was totally uncomfortable with that person.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
He was unhappy with you, that person.
Speaker 5 (23:08):
And and I and I didn't realize it until I
a polish my mirror, you know what I'm saying. And
that's when I started to like transition into, like, you know,
someone somewhat of a better person.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
When I became disgusted.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
With that that you know, when you when you go
to jail with a body, right, because you notice how
I use the term that unfortunately I took a life
recklessly and stuff like that. When you go to jail
with a body, you weigh as a badge, you know
what I'm saying. Because now your son's son get busy
something queens this and that and that, and you know
you you own it.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
You take you, you know what I mean, respect you. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
a body.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
He gets busy, you know what I'm saying. And you
kind of like that, you.
Speaker 5 (23:47):
Know you kind of Yeah, I became disgusted with that
I didn't want to be known because, right, I didn't
want to be known for having a body, bro, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
He was almost ashamed of that, ashamed of it. I
get it small.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
I want to be known for being intelligence. I want
to be known for being a leader. Bro, you know
what I'm saying. I didn't want to be known for that.
I didn't want to be known for taking a body
that didn't for a person, especially didn't deserve to die.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Right, I got you, you know what I'm saying. So
my life started to change, man, and I made it home.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
The eighteen years in program, you got your college and
no altercations or nothing like that.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
I mean I went through the box and stuff like that,
you know what I'm saying. But with the grace of God,
I made it home.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
When I graduated, I got my bachelor's, I went back
in front of the time.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Lone was committee. They gave my time back, and I made.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
It home, you know what I'm saying. And when I
was in the war, Yeah, you went to the boar
first first ball you.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yeah, I mean at home?
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Yeah? Wow, that was like yeah, that makes you really
really you really was on your ship. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
But also I went in and I was honest like
like you know, like I didn't go in there and
talking about like you know, like I didn't do it
or you know, listen, it was something that it was
the time of my life.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Well I ain't know where I was going, you know
what I'm saying. And I took full responsibility for it,
absolutely real.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
And and you was, you was in total remont So
so it was only God. It was on the right
that God let you go.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
God let me go.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
You feel me because you you was really remolted from
the heart. You could lie to anybody, but you can't
lie to God. Let me go. And you know exactly
where you're always at.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
And you know I was ready, He was ready.
Speaker 5 (25:23):
And when I came home, I adopted into community work
work with young people home.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
September seventeenth makes ten years for me. Okay, yep, two
weeks in September seventeen make ten years.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Gratulations, man, That's what I'm saying. So you got right
into what So tell me when you came home? What what?
What was what?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I went to this, I went to this lady.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
What year was it?
Speaker 2 (25:46):
It was just a.
Speaker 5 (25:47):
September seventeen, twenty fifteen, I went to this lady. Her
name was Erica Ford, and I asked her. I said,
I said, I want to I want to help young people.
She said, I can't hire you. You just got out
of prison. She said, we don't do that. I said,
I need you to give me a shot. I'm telling
you I got it. I got some ideas for these
young people. So she said no, I can't hire you.
Two weeks later she called me back. Long story story,
(26:09):
she gave me a job. I started a program, an
entrepreneurial program called Blocks the Socks where young people were
getting caught with guns. But now I was helping them
create their own sock. So they put down the glocks
and now they were selling their own sock. So you know,
that started to take off. You know, said, I started
going in parole and talking to the young people. Was
like on parole and stuff like that. So I started
(26:30):
to get my cleaner fame. I ended up meeting Deepop
Trumper and all these other people, and Russell Simmons. I
started going to the Writor Island and we're doing meditation
with Russell Simmons. So long story short, I ended up
meeting the CEO from Citizen App, who ended up hiring
me and asking me to along with Erica Ford, to
introduce Citizen into the world.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
And I was giving this.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
Incomparable task to introduce something to the world because to
the average person, you think that Citizen app is a
police app, and it's that.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
And it's not.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
What it is is an app that that keeps you
safe and informed, that tells you what's going on around
you have to tell gangsters, Yo, bro, this is not
a police App'm telling you, Like I come from where.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
You come from, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
They had these apps like that and community apps like
like a Florida Yeah for a while and then like
they have the community at it was a guy, strange
guy walking around.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Oh yeah, the neighborhood and all that.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:29):
Yeah, but we we kind of like like that. The
quarter app is kind of like, you know, based on
just getting information and putting it out there. You know
what I'm saying, Like, we're not ask you for anything,
We're getting the information and we're giving you the information
for the public. Right, somebody got robbed in the corner.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
He care for that corner.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Don't go to left, ye left that's all we want
to do.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
That's great man, That's that's a good one. Right.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
So so you know we we started doing citizens citizen apps.
So from there, from twenty sixteen to today, we had
over twenty million downloads during seventy cities. Wow, know what
I'm saying, We're all over the country. I got a
nice little team. I hired some of the brothers. You
know what I'm saying that was in prison with me,
(28:14):
that you should full time job.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
You should. So he's a post.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
Brought the team, you know what I mean? Right, And
it's good man, life is good when it comes to that.
That's that's my full time job.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Executive.
Speaker 5 (28:27):
I know I do well with that. And now you
know I do a lot of philanthropy. Like I got
something called the Swags where I was telling about to
give way to sneakers. I give ways over five thousand
pairs of sneakers.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
Since where you get the sneakers from?
Speaker 5 (28:38):
So I started with my man Me and my man Sean.
Like you know, he was exonerated. He did eighteen years
for something he didn't do. He was exonerated, you know,
got compensated for it. So he has he had this
closet full of a whole bunch of sneakers that he
only wore like once. So I said, oh, man, let
me take him out, put them on the team and
see what happened. Bro, And like twenty minutes, every paid
sneaker was gone.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
So I said, Yo, we're gonna replicate this.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
So I started putting a post like yo, if you
got sneakers that you did that, And I joke about
saying not like saying with that Jesus war, it's like.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Halfway know that you don't wear.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
You know what I'm saying, Let's put them on the table.
So I started putting on the table. And now every
year people just call me and not just go pick
up bags and bags and bags of clothes and sneakers.
I just put it on the table. I find a
neighborhood and we just give everything away for free. Look
at that, man, it's called the swag spop. You can
actually bring swag that and you take something. So it's
not I don't want you to think that it's for
(29:30):
like homeless people, like yeah, you know it's somebody if
you're fresh, no, but if you're not, if you fresh
and you see something on the table that's fresh, bring
it and drop something off and take the fresh.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
It's a swag spot. We be having brand new.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Sneakers on the table, but sometime we get brand new
stuff too, you know what I mean. Come get someone
on the table and if you don't have nothing to leave,
we just tell you one thing. Do something nice for
somebody today. That's all we want you to do. Just
do something nice. Everything is free. We don't don't take
the nations.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
They try to drop money in a cup with me,
I don't.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
Everything is free. You don't take anything. You know what
I'm saying. So that we've been doing that. But now tomorrow, bro,
I'm doing a video shoot for pull ups for Peace.
Can I tell you what pieces?
Speaker 4 (30:15):
Yes, sir, I love your hat, Thank you man.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Man, So so pull up a piece.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
Man started with And this is a funny story because
Jim Jones made a comment about NAS when you heard
about it, right when you say I'm.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Better than NAS, that's not right. So I was like,
damn man, Jimmy bugging right now?
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Man?
Speaker 5 (30:37):
So I played, I posted me. I was in Dominican
Republic and I posted me. When it's this just glowing
the dark shirt. It's like a battery that that lights up.
Oh yeah up, yeah, And I was and I played
verbal Intercourse when NAS and I said, I added Jim Jones,
I didn't think he was gonna respond back, and I said,
I'll wait because I played the NAS verbal in the
(31:00):
Course song, right, because that's that's a hot song. Jim
Jones reposted it and said, this old end he's talking
about me looked like he drink forties and smoked Newport Long.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
So I had a bucket hat on. You know what
I'm saying. So he did me.
Speaker 5 (31:13):
But yo, people was like, I got like two thousand
views on that point.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
I was like, yo, cool, he did great. Right.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
I reposted something else with Niles and I and I
and then I posted a video of me doing pull ups.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
You know what I'm saying. So because he said I
look like an old dude that drink for.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
This is this old man fifty yea.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
So he inboxed me and said, yo, meet me on
one twelve and Saint Nick and bring twenty thousand.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
I'll batter you right now.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
This is Jim Jones said to me in my inbox.
So I said, yo, bro, I ain't gonna lie, I said,
I don't have twenty thousand cash, but I do have
an accountant where, you know, we can make it happen,
he said. He said, you know what, let's just do
it for the culture. And not right that that inbox
text is.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Where postal he started because he said, yo, let's just
pull for peace. I said, beat.
Speaker 5 (32:03):
So I started like pulling up and having people pull up,
and I was tagging him and playing his music outside.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
He had a song come out outside.
Speaker 5 (32:09):
I just kept playing it and just start picking up steam,
start picking up steam, and people just started doing it.
And my song did it, and a couple of other
people did it.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
You know what I'm saying. A couple of people did it.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
And now it's national, not even it's global.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
People all over the world is doing pull ups on
the corners, now, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (32:26):
So now, then two young brothers, Struck Bands and Greco
came to me like a week and hal him and
Sae Yo where we did a song for you? I said,
he did a song for me, and he played the
song and I loved it, and he was like, yo,
just that's just yours.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
So after I listened to it. I said, Yo, it
just can't just be mine. We got to do a
video for this. We gotta, like you know what I'm saying.
We can help propel y'all.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Now you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Just this moving is already moving.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Why not make it big.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Let's make it bigger. So so you know, we we
we That's what pulled Up for Peace came from.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
Man.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
It came from a joke.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
I took that. I didn't take offense to it. You
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
I loved that.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
I love the fact that he posted me.
Speaker 5 (33:01):
We were going back and forth a couple of times
on social media, and I thank Jim Jones for that.
I even went the one twelve and Saint Nick and
the pull us on his block and his man called
him in FaceTime and he was we was talking on FaceTime.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
He was laughing at I'm saying that program reminds me
of Bartenders. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
I love Giant Man. I love Giant you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
I love Giant Man. Giant is for the community. Man,
He's he's you know, he's about peace, you know what
I mean. And I and I and I wish him
the best and I hope that everybody that that thinks
like that we can come together and do something collectively.
Of course, you know what I'm saying, because trimmings and
numbers and but I don't want to be devisive when
it comes to this, because the core behind Poose for
(33:42):
Peace Right is that bounces down in New York City,
but you bounce is up. Yeah, the young kids is
dying at an alarm and rate. A sixteen year old
girl got killed in the Bronx. Another girl got shot
ahead of the basketball game in the Bronx. The Bronx
off the they talked about bringing the military here.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
You know what I'm saying, We got to tie them
out somehow. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
We gotta get on these street corners. We got to
talk to our young people. We can't be afraid to
have conversations with them. I jump out the car. I
do pull ups. I offer fifty cents to pull up.
Sometimes they broke me though, bro I ain't gonna lie.
I was paying fifty cent a pull up. They was
lined up from one corner to the corner and dudes
were doing twenty I like, that's ten hours.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
You know what I'm saying, So I was running out
of money. You know, I had to stop that.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
But but it's a good it's a good start.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
You know what I'm calling it. I'm calling it a
beautiful distraction.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
Beautiful distraction, you know.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
What I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (34:32):
That's what I'm calling bro, I'm calling it a beautiful distraction.
I think that it's something that that the world needs
right now. So the video, I'm hoping right because I
put U up post, I'm hoping that I can get
a person on Israel, I get a Muslim, I get
a blood, a Crip, a person from Russia, a person
from Ukraine, just a hug on the video. I want
to send a statement, you know what I'm saying. I
(34:52):
want I want to send a statement to the world
that you know, we can live in this world together
without killing each other. And I'm telling you like you're
talking to a person who had no problem with taking.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Something like his life. You know what I'm saying, You
can you can do something else.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
You can like talk tak young person in your mama's
check your some book back before you go outside, because
his life is gonna be over once he shoots somebody.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
Talk to them. Prince talk to them, bro, Tom, how
many themselves? Bro?
Speaker 5 (35:16):
Yeah, talk yo, brow many girl Mammy crying themselves at night.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Now you're wanna pull that triggers and do that and
and they know on you're gonna be in the self
crying your ass. So none of your friend's gonna be there.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Your wife is gone.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Oh that the girl's going.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Your main man that y'all y'all smoke with and you
pass it blunt with.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
He's with your kids, with your kids now, yeah, all.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
That he's answering and he's hanging up the phone when
you call facts. Yeah is that real?
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Bro? Yeah, it's super real, super real Prince. So now
you've been home ten years, two weeks. Congratulations on that.
You're doing a lot of great things out here.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Man.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
You know what I'm saying, We definitely uh uh uh
uh would love to uh somehow, you know, invite me
to one of your joints and whatever. I'm there, I'm there.
I like to support as well. You know the same
thing with me, Like you know, the platform is here
and it was created for you for your for us
to have a voice. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Invite me to your house. You could come to my house. Literally,
you could come to my house.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Respect I went from a cell to a I don't
have no neighbors. I have a pool.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
When I said I don't have no neighbors, like you
go outside and you don't see anything, no other house.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, house like.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
I wanted one day. I always had ambitions of owning
the block. I owned the block. Now you know what
I'm saying. So I don't tell you can come to
my house, appreciate what I'm saying and jump in the
pool and chill out.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (36:43):
And that and that listen. That didn't come from selling
no drugs. That didn't come from robbing nobody and come
from scammings to nobody. That comes from hard work and
dedication and utilizing the information.
Speaker 7 (36:51):
That we have.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
Absolutely, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (36:54):
So, young person, man, this is a message'm gonna give
to you and ever forget this.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
You don't got to be like me. To be like me.
Speaker 5 (37:01):
You don't got to be shot, you don't want to
go to prison, you don't got to be stabbed, you
don't want to be none of that. You can go
straight to the information and go straight to the success
bottom line.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
That's right. How do you feel about prison reform?
Speaker 2 (37:13):
I think that is needed, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
I think that that prison reforms needed, but I think
people reformers needed even more.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
Right.
Speaker 5 (37:24):
So I had this professor and he gave us. He
gave us this assignment to write an essay. And the
essay is was what's wowing the world right? And I
know we can talk about it all until week and
we can write a two thousand words essays what's wrong
with the world right?
Speaker 2 (37:43):
But the simple answer to the essay was I am
m hmm.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Can just start with one.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
It's start with you, as you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (37:51):
So as much as we reform prison, if the people
going into the prison are not thinking about reform, the
prison will never reform.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
Like, Yo, bro, we don't need prison to be comfortable.
You know what I'm saying. We don't need you to
be able to get a Super three and a CD
player and the Color Team.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
We don't need that. We need you not to go.
Speaker 5 (38:16):
Right, don't don't don't start buying your tabling, your Super
three and all the ship now before you even get
the prison.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
How about not.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
Going how about that one right or wrong?
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Bro?
Speaker 4 (38:26):
Yeah, of course absolutely, it starts. It starts, you know
because if you and I always tell the young brothers, man,
you have to take charges of your life. You can't
let you know these nowadays we live in a life
with they They other people make choices for them. You
know what I'm saying, and and and and and the
choices that they do would be based on some my crew,
(38:50):
you know, my surrounding. You know what I'm saying. And
then when when when? When? You when? When? At the
end result, you be the one that's there by yourself
because once everything is all the sudden done, you're the
one that's going to be dealing with the consequences. Man,
Not your friend, your cousin, your girlfriend, none of that.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Just you.
Speaker 5 (39:08):
A few months ago, I did a training. I trained
three hundred and fifty cops from all over the.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Country in Chicago.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Right.
Speaker 5 (39:15):
I went on to be half a citizen and I
did a trauma training for police. Right, And I was
talking to him about you know, every time you respond
to a call, you responding to a traumatic experience. You
know what I'm saying, When you go see a four
year old kid who's been shot. You know you really
you see the kid and you show no emotion, right,
just doing your professional You have to do your job,
(39:36):
sitting up the tape, you put the blanket over him.
Then you get another call, a thirteen year old kid.
You go to the call, you see the kid, you
put the tape over him. Each time you respond to trauma,
you're absorbing that trauma, but you're not dealing with it.
So over twenty five years of time, you become numb
and desensitized where you can't feel. This is how George
(40:01):
Floyd happens. Because you can't feel, you don't know how
to respond right, and you don't notice that. You don't
know how to know that you're want to correlate a
call with trauma, so when you respond to the call,
you don't even know what to respond to the trauma,
so you don't feel your numb So I told them,
if you can't feel, you can't heal m right. If
(40:25):
we don't have any feelings, that's how he was right.
When we were in the street, we didn't care, we
didn't have no feelings. We became the sensitize, nothing bothered us.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
So it was no. It was almost impossible for us
to heal.
Speaker 5 (40:38):
Impossible until you start being vulnerable, start understanding. When you
come from understanding how many people you hurt, then you
can start the healing process. You don't get a chance
to sit in the call with your with your partner
and say that call fucked me up.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Because you don't want to look soft. You know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 7 (40:57):
You want to You're gonna get that little yeah right
name one time anybody in this room, and one time
when you went to when you went to something that
something happening, police was on the scene, you saw a
police officer crying or he was hurt that he saw
a little kid dead.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Never because they have to remain with fishing him.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
They like robots.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
They're taught not to feel. Robots can't feel. Yeah, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (41:22):
So after that training, though with three hundred and fifty cops,
seventy cops a day for five days, after that training,
I received a call from probably eighty percentemon wow, saying
thank you, because you're right, I can't feel anymore.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
One guy said. He retired and after.
Speaker 5 (41:42):
Twenty five years, everything every call he went to started
playing in his head.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Wow, he had to go back on the job, not
to kill herself.
Speaker 4 (41:52):
Sh You know, it's tough for anyone, even that job,
even that job, you know what I mean, just because
they got the police officer, is that they hold a
big responsibility unions, the human you know what I'm saying.
And then to deal with you know, because we we
all look at them as just robots and the cops
fucked them. This dad the cop, but not knowing that
(42:13):
they they also go through it. They also deal with
you know, the emotions just like you said, they oh
they're old, and then they deal with a lot because
they see a lot of trauma.
Speaker 5 (42:22):
That's their job is to see tupa and trauma every day,
every day, entire life. Yeah, so you know it's tough, right,
you know, we gotta give them, we gotta give them
a little bit of grace, but they also.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
You gotta salute them for that. Man, you gotta salute
them and and not be ashamed to salute absolutely because
these are these are the people that's keeping our community safe. Yo.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Bro It takes a lot, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (42:43):
It takes a lot, because we want to have we're
gonna uphold this image that is us against the police.
For yo, Man, when I got shot, man, I was
looking for the cops. I was hoping that somebody come
and saved me because I didn't want to die. Of course,
you know what I'm saying. Because nobody else in the
neighborhood is gonna come out and try to They're gonna
come up on your shot exactly what guns drawing.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (43:00):
So man like, like let's be real, like we got
to give them some grades. We got to school them,
but they also have to take responsibility and know that
they have to start the process of healing.
Speaker 4 (43:09):
Absolutely, you know what I'm saying, Bro, It's the same
thing we we we we had. Uh I went up
to you know, be going to the jails and UH
speak to the brothers yesterday, right yeah, go Thurs days,
I go so and then my you know, and I
go to up state too, like shaweg got I've been
in you know, gre here with Andre Norman. If you
ever heard of Andre Norman Brothers Beasts. This is what
(43:32):
he does. He's he's been out here doing this way
longer than us, and he has accomplished a lot of stuff.
He's the only black man that I see bringing cameras
and all that the.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Jail.
Speaker 4 (43:43):
In jail. I did dog in the yard in gret Haven.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (43:47):
I did dog in the yard in Showanga. Wow. With
brothers that have been in jail thirty six years, forty years.
And I interviewed them like like this the same way
I did that, and they was I had brothers cry,
I've been in jail man thirty six years. Man, do
I want to do? Just be my kids? Man, Pete,
you know what I'm saying, this is not its real brother,
(44:07):
it's real and it was an honor.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
Man.
Speaker 4 (44:09):
I got a lot. That's that right there is like
I see the need. You know what I'm saying. I
see that they you know, I see that that. It
don't matter how smart, how how how slick you think
you are. You know you always gonna need that that
that that push. You know you're always going to need that.
You know.
Speaker 5 (44:29):
Yeah, I just just you mentioned that and I said
this somewhere else. Man, Like I didn't love my children
talk went to prison. I cared about him a lot.
I bought them sneakers and I picked them up and
I put them down and went back outside. Yeah, Well,
once I no longer had access to them and couldn't
hold them at night and talk to them when I
went into because phones calls was fifteen dollars. You know
(44:51):
what I'm saying, That I couldn't get on the phone
all the time. Nobody had no money. Nobody said that
I had no bag. I left and it was until
I was actually in prison where I realized how much
I love them. And that's another motivator for me, you
know what I'm saying that to get out there to
them and now like they're so proud of me.
Speaker 7 (45:08):
Bro bigand she just started correction that man like.
Speaker 5 (45:18):
Yo, Brianna, I would tell the joke that I would
tell her, tell the joke. She said, Dad, I wanted
to follow your footsteps. She went the correction, but she
went the right way.
Speaker 4 (45:29):
Congratulations, man, Now keep doing your thing. I told us
my son is the same thing. Man. Listen, don't be
a shamed don't be a shame man. Go get that
job the benefits. Go make a change. You don't have
to go in there and be a uh you got
you got to go to jail and be a wax
CEO or tough CEO or going there where you want
(45:49):
to challenge, you know, the brothers that's locked up and
already oppressed. You want to go in there and change.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
I'm mentoring her, bro, I'm mentoring her. You know what
I'm saying. I'm showing her how to be human in there.
Speaker 5 (45:59):
Like because I said, I said, God forbid, if the
prisoners take over the asylum, you're gonna be the one
person that they gonna look out for because.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
You treat them like humans.
Speaker 5 (46:09):
Don't remember that, right, They're gonna remember, you know, and
always so. Just so shout out to Baltimore Corrections. You
guys in prison, trust and believe that's because of me
you're getting take care of.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (46:22):
That's right word. Trust and believe.
Speaker 5 (46:24):
You know what I'm saying because I mentioned my daughter
and I tell her, like, listen, don't nobody disrespect you
because they're gonna be brushing their head doing in front
of you know what I'm saying. It's passing you notes.
But you know, majority of people, man, they're not bad people.
They just made some bad decisions.
Speaker 4 (46:38):
That's it. Not perfect man, not perfect, bro, God is man? Uh?
Anyway that anything else that you want to people out there,
you know, the youth, the youth for anything you want
to you want to announce, where to find you anything
you have to coming.
Speaker 5 (46:51):
I mean, I mean you can find you can find
us at pull up for Peace Challenge dot com.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
You can follow us that pull up on Instagram.
Speaker 5 (47:01):
Man. I think that it's something that's needed right now
in the world today, you know. Like I said, I
wanted to bring like those different sects to the to
the video to show the powerful statement of hugging, like
the Israeli and the Muslim hugging. Like I think it'll
make a powerful statement able to stop some of the
stuff that's happening. The Bluzzs and Crypts, the Bloods and
Cryptu are not really beefing anymore like they used to.
(47:23):
It's blood on blood and crip on crip. You know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Like you know and and all of you, every last one.
Speaker 5 (47:29):
Of you peer groups, you know, you should know why
you were started. If you go back to the history
and see why you were started, you won't be beefing
with nobody. You will be helping the communities like the
Black Panthers did and all these other people that you
will be helping the community instead of becoming you know,
problems in the community.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
You know what I'm saying, that they.
Speaker 4 (47:47):
Knew the history right besides being destructed right now?
Speaker 5 (47:50):
Yeah, you know I'm saying you would know if you
knew and you have the information, go back and check
why blood started, why crips started.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
You know.
Speaker 5 (48:00):
You know what I'm saying, why starting? You probably want
to do something different with your life facts.
Speaker 4 (48:05):
Because you could be all you want to be and
rep whatever you want to be. But let's do it right.
That's it, you know what I mean. We ain't got
to crack each other's heads. You ain't got to do
all that. We ain't got to shoot each other, we
ain't got to talk bad to each other. We ain't
got to mistreat each other. We just gotta be able
to communicate with each other. Man, you know, community communication
is the key. That's it. I think you can.
Speaker 5 (48:27):
I thank you for everybody that came before me, and
all the brothers and sisters are going to come behme me. Man,
you are an amazing individual. First, appreciate you your platform.
I wish you the most overwoman's success because you are
setting the tone and you just bring in regular, ordinary,
ordinary people like me.
Speaker 2 (48:45):
You know what I'm saying. I'm not doing nothing extravagant.
Speaker 4 (48:47):
I'm doing special, but we all special in our ways.
Thank you, man, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (48:51):
You hear people before me and the brothers and sister
are gonna come be ham me.
Speaker 4 (48:56):
Appreciate you, Appreciate you. Appreciate you know what it is man.
And with that being said, you already know it's your
boy pistol peek. Prince Queens, you already.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
Know you pull up for piece. Man, you already know
what it is.
Speaker 4 (49:06):
Let's go pull up for Pece. You already know your
boy pistol dog in the yard. What you already know
is your boy pistol Peek walking back to the dog
in the yard. First and foremost, I want to thank
Prince for coming through. What up Prince, shout out to Queens.
Appreciate you coming, my brother. I love what you do.
Peace for pull ups. Keep doing the amazing job out
(49:30):
there working with the kids, with the community, because that's
what we need. I'm here, the platform is here for you.
At any given time. You want to come back up here.
You already know this is your home and we're here
for you. With that being said your boy pistol dog
in the yard.
Speaker 2 (50:01):
See I it was flying Nigger.
Speaker 4 (50:04):
We're alive and South Shot Nigga wen live in South
Shot nig You were the guys.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
We them guys.
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