September 29, 2020 • 33 mins
My next guest Lecrae is recognized as the first artist to have an album hit the charts at number one for both the Billboard 200 and the Gospel chart simultaneously. His ninth album and accompanying documentary, Restoration, features artists across all genres, including John Legend, Kirk Franklin, and YK Osiris. His work is fueled by building bridges, changing narratives, empowering the disenfranchised, and restoring the dignity of those on the margins. In his new book, I Am Restored: How I Lost My Religion but Found My Faith. He shares how he found the courage to stop ignoring his trauma and instead begin working through it, step by step. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Lecrae.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yes, Welcome to Money Making Conversation. I am your host,
Rashan McDonald. Each Money Making Conversation is about entrepreneurship and entertainment.
I recognize that we all have different definitions of success.
For some it's a sizable paychecks. Mine is helping people
wake up and inspiring them to accomplish their goals and
live their very best life. These are my passions. That's
what I'm trying to do for everybody who listening to
(00:21):
my show, some people catching on video, majority listening on
via podcast. I want you to stop tripping over small
challenges and preparator rise above the bigger obstacles that life
will present to you. And it's very important to understand
it's all about you. Focus on you will yourself to success.
That's the story of my next guest, Lacre. He is
(00:41):
recognized as the first artist to have an album hit
the charts at number one for both Billboard two hundred
and the Gospel Charts simultaneously. His ninth album and accompanying
documentary that's going to be associated with the album, Restoration,
features artists across all genres including my Man John Legend,
my Man, Kurt Frank, and y K O. Cirius. His
(01:02):
work is fueled by building bridges, changing narratives, empowering their disenfranchised,
and restoring the dignity of those on the margins. In
this new book, which I read this morning, I am
restored how I lost my religion but found my faith.
He shares how he found the courage to stop ignoring
his trauma and instead to begin working through it step
by step. Please work from the money making conversations. My man,
(01:25):
look graz about you look great for I brought your
online up. Yeah, you know that the beauty of you,
like I seld you the first time I got to
see you perform was uh in Houston, that was doing
the Super Bowl weekend and and even even though I
(01:45):
didn't know you, I knew there was a gifted person
speaking there singing at that time. But at the time
also you're dealing with a lot of trauma in your life,
and but you're able to mask that and not allow
it to affect your abilities as an author, performing artists.
Talk to those different steps. And then we're gonna go
through the book that uh wonderful book, wonderfully honest book
(02:09):
and I think a necessary read that I'm recommend to
all my all, my putting it in my mailing list
that goes out to fans on Wednesday, which is tomorrow,
ninety thousand people. You know, I got over a million
social media follows, so you'll see me posting them there.
Because when you when people release information to the general
population because you are a celebrity. We talk about it
(02:30):
in your book being a celebrity, and sometimes being a
celebrity allows you to be a victim of your success
because people can to dissect a celebrity or an important
person versus an everyday person kind of like skates through.
And you know your book tells that story, but talk
about your performing even though you're dealing with a lot
of emotional drama. Yeah, you know, sometimes I think you
(02:55):
you wear that face that you just put on, those
lenses that allow you to just keep going and pushing
through without dealing with the problems and the trauma. And
you allow uh successes to define you instead of um,
you know, you being successful out of a healthy and
whole version of yourself. You're allowing the successes to convince
(03:19):
you that you are healthy and whole. And I think
that's that's a very different thing. And so for me,
it was. It was a matter of becoming a healthy,
whole individual and dealing with some historical traumas and um
and recognizing that, uh, you know, I was a slave
to uh what other people wanted of me and not
(03:39):
being who I was created to be and uh and
that that that meant all? Did you say that now?
With your book titled you Know I Am Restored, How
I lost my religion but found my faith, I gotta
ask you what is the difference between religion and faith?
That's a great question. Um, you know, I think uh
a lot of us are are tied to religion, and
(04:01):
religion is essentially performing to be accepted. Religion is performing
trying to do all the right things so that God
will accept you or maybe that other people will accept you.
And and faith or relationship is more about saying, I know,
I've been accepted, so let me function out of that acceptance.
(04:21):
Let me do the right things because I've been accepted.
And so I always say it like this. If I
come home to my wife and I knock on the
door and I handed some flowers, and I say, ago,
and I'm supposed to do this, that's religion, and I'm
I'm probably gonna speak on the couch that night. Uh
but but but but faith or relationship is me coming
(04:41):
home and say, man, I've been thinking about you all
day and you just you're so wonderful and I appreciate
you so much. I just brought you these flowers because
you're amazing. And I don't I have faith. You know,
I don't know what's gonna happen, but probably something that
is gonna happen because of that reality. And that's that's
because people, you know, people will question your faith before
(05:03):
they question your religion. They were, and you know, it's
really interesting that that happens like that. And that's why
I asked that question between religion and faith, because people
will they will challenge your faith. They will challenge you
because your faith can be tied to so many things.
You know, where you live, how you walk, how you talk,
or how much money you make, how much what your
expectations for yourself or for your family. That can be
(05:25):
that word faith has such an expansive term to it,
but it's also tied to religion, and it allows you
to It's over when I'm reading a book, which is,
like I said, a thorough read about from your childhood
to adulthood. And uh, it really amazed me because if
the talk of being a healthy person, which is really
key in the diet, and I think that plays in
(05:46):
every chapter in the book as you talk about being
a man and being a young man and being a
young boy, meeting your father and and he picking you
up and you're thinking, that's a great moment of life,
and then guess what, he basically kicked you to the curb,
which was one of those unhealthy moments in your life
when you're trying to live a life as a healthy person. Correct. Yeah, absolutely,
(06:08):
And I mean that's that's that's a huge part of
it is is uh, you know, not having those those models.
You know, you can only be what you've seen, you
can only become what you've bailed and so not having
those models becomes a traumatic thing for for a lot
of us. And and uh, and so I'm just that's
really interesting. When I talked to you. The first time
(06:29):
I talked to you, like I said, it was like
I knew you, but we were developing a relationship. Now
this second time around, I'm much more comfortable on how
hard speak to you. And it's really based on reading
this book and because we all have dark sides. You know,
when I say dark sides, secrets we don't reveal. We
lived through life with it, but we won't tell even
(06:49):
our closest loved ones. You know, I have them, and
you're sharing a lot of them in this book. And
you know, and and I have been fortunate to have
been a popular stand up comedian, and you and in
your book you're talking about you know, when you're when
you're in a church, you knows you kind of know
who your audience is. And I remember when I was
(07:11):
in the comedy club, I kind of know who my
audience is. But when I got booked in a nightclub
or booked in a private party, I really didn't know
who I was performing too. And it always put additional
stress in my mind on how to relate to these
people are if they will relate to me? And you know,
when you talk about your experience opening up for Kevin
(07:31):
Hard at the you know, at these at the Mercedes
Being super Dome and you're looking at the audience, who
you know, we're here for Kevin Hall, okay, and but
you're going out there not knowing How does that? How
does that work in your mind when you when you're
in that environment. You know, you know they're here for
the because he's filled up that he filled up the dome. Okay,
(07:52):
you're blessed to be an opening act for him and
because it allows you to grow your bread. How does
that trigger in your mind? From a performing standpoint, who
you are? You trying to relate to everybody, You're trying
to just get them understand the Crae experience. Yeah, you
know what it is is a lot of it is,
like you said, understanding how to read the room is
(08:14):
understanding what people are there for and m and and
finding some common ground and and being able to connect
to people in a real way. And I think authenticity
is is where you can always win. You know, people
crave and hunger for authenticity. But it's the hard thing
for us to do because we're so worried about what
(08:35):
everybody thinks. But how how authentic and connecting what it
has been for me to just come out and say,
I know y'all aint for me. I know you'll want
to see Kevin hard. You know that's that's immediately gonna
endear people to me, immediately, gonna make them say, okay,
keeping it real. And now I hear what this guy
has to say, and so I think that's that's that's
a big piece of life, you know, because of the
(08:58):
fact that you know, eleven years old, you walk on
stage and you bust out with a wrap and everybody
now now gives you value. And and in my book
and your book, you know, and in of your craze.
Here this book I am restored, how to how I
lost my religion but found my faith. Each chapter is
about value and that's the part of healthiness. But in
(09:21):
order to achieve value, if I'm reading this wrong, you
have to admit and go public with what's bothering you inside,
with that draw, that trauma, you know, that chaos as
you talk about and when did you really start realizing
that because black the Black community is really interesting community.
(09:41):
Were we are in denial community, were in denial about
COVID and ainteen, when the denial about our eating habits,
when denial about gay gay community, we're denying. We're just
an in denial community and it holds us back a lot.
And so and it also is in the evel when
it comes to mental and social stress, you know, not
(10:03):
admitting that we we have issues that should be somebody
should be talking to us about and that that that
false ability to move forward not emitting that we are
a flawed community and uh holds us back. And so
that in it turn, in turn, we'll did some some
setbacks for you because you couldn't figure out what was
(10:25):
wrong with you exactly. You're you're you're, you're hitting the
hammer on their uh. A big piece of our struggle,
um is what what what what someone called post traumatic
slave syndrome right and and and post traumatic slave syndrome
is we have adopted and adapted these views that were
(10:48):
instilled in our ancestors that we are we're almost like
um uh cattle and we can just be driven and
and pushed and pushed and pushed until no end. And
the problem is we're not addressing our traumas, we're not
addressing our pains, we're not addressing our fears. We're treating
ourselves like animals. You know, I say sometimes you know,
(11:12):
you can be a speedboat or you can be a
raft or a sailboat, and a speedboat is the things
that can plow through, you know, and just I'm just
gonna make it all the way, especially going around the
gas and then you're gonna be out in the middle
of the ocean just floating, and and nobody wants to
be a raft where you don't have any sense of direction.
And so the reality is we have to become sailboat.
(11:33):
And the sailboat takes us acknowledging the way the wind
is blowing so you can adjust your sails. It takes
a little bit of work, it takes some thought, it
takes some time, and not just plowing through stuff. And
I think that's a part of our problem. Um. We
want to catch up. You know, in society, we've been
held back so long and we're trying to catch up
it so we won't acknowledge our motions or the problems,
(11:55):
and the pain is just too much to acknowledge. So
we're living denial instead of becoming healthy and whole um,
which is, you know, if you want to be successful
in life, it's gonna first start with being healthy and whole.
Everything else is in an addition to that if you
want to you know, every million dollars you make is
has way more value if you're healthy and the whole person.
(12:15):
But if you are an emotional and mental and spiritual disaster,
that million dollars is not gonna make you any better.
I always help people. My my goals in life are
tied to my experience because not my my money. Because
if I never go in the deal, I'm gonna be
honest with the crew. I'm never going to deal trying
to figure out how much money I'm gonna make. It's
about the relationships. He's about to what do I get
(12:37):
out of it for my brand, for my career, because
I always know that I'm gonna make money. That's just
that's just an idea. My wife would go, I don't
know why you ever worry about money, because you're gonna
make it. You're gonna figure out how to make it.
And That's just been a skill set I've had since
I was seventeen eighteen years old, and I've carried it
through because I'm just a guy who sits around just
thinking about how to make money, and and and and
(12:59):
when when I look at your your brand, you know
you know your entrepreneur, you're an activist, you know you.
Of course we know your talent from you working on
this documentary with your new your ninth album. All these
different layers started where though, you know, because like you said,
you know, you know, you all you know because your
father was in your life, your your mom or you
(13:20):
put you in a situation with what what with a
man who who physically abused you from a standpoint, struck
you and whichhich intimidated you, and then put that with
that decision make you know whether he can come back
into the house on you okay? And what was you
supposed to say? No? You know? And so so where
where where along the way did you start shaping the
(13:42):
desire to be this be la craze m You know
what I think, um the journey of all that pain
and trauma, Um that that the place where I found
the most health was being was expressing myself, you know,
(14:03):
expressed myself through initially poetry and then it turned into
music and and that that's a even if you go
to therapy now they'll tell you that's one of the
biggest things you need to do. You need to start
writing things down because something happens with your mind, if
your brain chemistry. Once you start writing out the things
that that that your experience and it's journal and or
a diary, it is very helpful for you. And so
(14:25):
that that's where I learned the healthy technique. The problem
for me was some of the darkest corners of my world.
You know, I was not ready to deal with. I
was not ready to to wrestle with in the process,
and so it took a mental collapse for me. It
took me, took my mind and my body having to
shut down. You know they some people call it Ceo syndrome,
(14:48):
where the stresses of life just overwhelm you all at
one one time, and the body keeps the score. So
your mind may say, well, what happened to me attend
was was you know, a million years ago, but your
body is and it might as well have been yesterday.
So you're just piling up stuff, all the trauma from
your childhood, and now you're in your adulthood and maybe
you have kids, and that's adding more stuff. And now
(15:09):
you're working on deals and you're working on career. All
this stuff is piling piling up, and if you're not
addressing it, eventually it's gonna catch up to you. And
so you have to be able to decompress and address uh,
those those particular issues in order to find you important
that people understand that you have to find yourself. And
despite all my success, la Craze. I didn't really find
(15:30):
myself till I was in my forties. You know, people
would tell me, you're showing you successful. But I was
successful because I accomplished things. Here mean when I say
that I was successful because I accomplished things, that doesn't
necessarily meant that I was accomplishing things that made me happy.
And that's why I I always speak to people, is
that you know a lot of people there, they're stopped
(15:53):
there in their career because guess what, they're not happy
making money that way, and so guess what, it eventually
catch up with you. That's why companies file bankruptcy. That's
why companies closed because the vision or the vision there
a person, visionary, person who's tied to it, just stopped
thinking because that didn't make them happy. And so this book,
(16:14):
when I talk, when I listened to you, it is
a journey in finding your happiness, because if you don't
find that happiness, there's not a fifty year old Lakrez
sixty year old Lakrez that we have today. Am I
correct when I say that? Absolutely? Absolutely? Yeah? You won't.
You I won't. It's not gonna, it's not gonna. You're
(16:35):
never gonna ride there and and and that's you know case.
And point is that I think a lot of times
you don't even know the things that will ultimately bring
you happiness or bring you joy because you haven't done
enough work to know who you are. And so you're
looking at what everyone else has, thinking that, well, I
get what they get, then I'll be happy, then I'll
(16:58):
be healthy, instead of understanding who you are, and you're
wiring and and and realizing, no, this is what's gonna
bring you that. And I had to go through that
exact same process in me, thinking that if I could
just be as famous as this person or as renowned
as this person, And truthfully, that's not the way that
God created me. You know, I'm I'm an entrepreneur by nature.
(17:20):
You know, I like performing and I like art. But
end of the day, I'm I found a lot more
purpose when I'm building things and I'm architecting things, and
I'm giving other people opportunities. And so when I'm using
all my energy on creating opportunities for myself, I'm not
as I'm not as happy. But when I'm creating opportunities
for other people, you know, then I find more. I
(17:43):
find it more fulfilling. I want to do good in society,
but I also want to do well financially, so you
can do you know, I do it well. You can't
do good, but you have to be happy doing it
though for long term. And that's what I'm talking about
in this interview. I don't want everybody to hear this
is that you know, you go out there and make
a lot of money. I would tell people life should
(18:04):
not be tied to the lottery effect. You know, just
wait doing that money, waiting that moment. You build a
career in your and you and you put people around
you that can support you. I know I've survived this
career because I've had a couple of key people in
my life that whenever I doubted myself La Craze, they
told me be Rashawn, Be Rashawn. They should be You.
(18:25):
Don't care what they're saying. Do be you now? Be
you has helped out a lot of people. Here be
you trust you And because because success man and in
reading this book and reading about the chaos, reading about
the trauma, we talk about the molestation, the we can
talk about the physical abuse. Let's talk about the life abusive.
(18:48):
As a successful people can go through if you don't
have the right people around you and you don't admit
that you need help, right as my goodness. You know
what's funny if if you the problem for a lot
of us is that there is freedom in confession, but
(19:11):
there's always gonna be suffering and suppression and and and
denial will always lead to death. If you're talking about
a life threatening disease, right you, you cannot deny that
you have it. It's gonna be detrimental for you, you know,
(19:32):
And acknowledging is always painful, but denial is always deadly.
And that's what I want people to understand. Acknowledging is
gonna be painful, but denial is deadly. When you can
acknowledge that you have these issues in your life, then
it is hurtful. It is painful, It is hard to
to plow through, but to deny it is deadly for you.
(19:53):
And so you'll never be who you were created to be.
You'll never walk in the fullness that you were created
to walk in if you keep denying you know the
issues that are going on in your world. And I
think a lot of us just don't realize that. Um,
you know my story is is. Like you said, there's
there's all the major trauma that you can experience. You know,
(20:15):
I've gone through them, and so you know, I don't
care what you've experienced in life. I don't care if
it's death, division, uh, discrimination, divorce, debt um. All those
things can be restored if you can acknowledge the pain
that they have brought you and then move forward. You know,
when reading your book UH interviewing, look Craze just in
(20:37):
case people may have just tuned in, you know, his
book I'm with discussing I am restored, how I lost
my religion but found my faith. A couple of courses
I want to bring back up now the book, the album.
Want to flip to the album right quick, because you're
doing a documentary tied to the album. Okay, is that
is that? Is that going to be a documentary. We'll
see you on like a Netflix or an Amazon. It's
(20:59):
just something that's available that you're putting out that so
we can go to your your website, you know, I
mean your YouTube challenge to see Yeah, so you can
check this out. It's the video series is UH is
on YouTube now and and there'll be a longer form
documentary that will come out down the line. But but
(21:20):
this this web series, you can see me addressing the
chaos in my world. You know, I meet my father
for the very first time on this on this video series,
and so people are able to see you know that
you're trying to run a successful business, you're trying to
raise a family, you're trying to be a leader, and
you have to deal with meeting your father for the
(21:40):
first time. And many people would run from that reality
and say I got way too much of my plate
to be dealing with that. But I knew that there
was a piece of me that would not be whole
until I had that meeting. I didn't have any expectations.
I wasn't saying, now me and him are gonna be
best of friends and we're gonna make up for lost time.
But I knew that I had questions that I wanted
to add ask and maybe I wouldn't get the answers
(22:01):
I wanted, But I knew I didn't want to go
to my grave without asking some of those some of
those questions, and that's what I thought, Uh, hey man,
you know I'm Roushan McDonald. I've done a lot of
great things in my life. But if you put together
a documentary, let's talk if you if you don't have
anybody else talking to you, because because I enjoy talking
(22:23):
to you, and you have a voice that um that
shapes this world, not just the community, this world. And uh,
you articulate, you're smart and look good and plus more
important that you have a story to tell that is
tied to trauma. It's tied to honesty, and it's tied
to faith. Okay, let's be real okay, and uh and
(22:45):
and and it's important that you know I've learned when
I when I talk to people that have a unique
point of points of views, that I have to let
them know what I think. And it's something that you know.
Your YouTube challenge is great. In fact, I'm I'm I'm
gonna look at the in you that you have when
you first met your day and they probably put in
our newsletter to let people see another side of your
honest side of you. Because in Hollywood, it's really interesting
(23:09):
that you know, we're we're put under and that's just
the celebrities or athletes were put on the microscope based
on what you know, but not the life that we live.
When I say that is that, you know, it's we
have makeup on. When we hit camera, we we we
speak a certain way. A lot of times we hit
the camera, we perform a certain way. When we walk
off that stage and get out of that arena, then
(23:31):
that's a different life. And sometimes were held accountable to
what they saw on TV or what they saw in
the movie or what they saw in the performance. How
do you deal with that? La Craze mm hmm. Man,
you know, honestly, you've got to uh, A lot of
it is discernment. A lot of it is is recognizing
and realizing that some relationships you walk into, uh, you know,
(23:59):
relationally and some people walk into transactionally, you know, and
you've got to be able to decide which is which
because a lot of the relationships in the entertainment space
are transactional that they may seem like they're relational, and
people may come at you and say, hey, let's let's
hang out, let's be friends. But it's gonna take some
time for you to understand who your real friends are.
And not to not to allow people who say, you know,
(24:23):
this is what they think about you, and and not
to a lot of those voices to dictate who you
really are. So al looks like being a professional athlete
because everyone's gonna say something from the sideline. But you
got to realize who your teammates are and who are
the people who want the best for you. Those are
the voices that you that you have to listen to.
And so that's that's one of the biggest things that
I had to learn early on, is that you know,
(24:44):
all those voices are not voices that I need to
listen and read the book look great, um, when you
brought up Calvinism, Okay, now you know, uh, a very
few people know Calvinism. You know, I early in my
college career, I took a European history and I learned
(25:05):
about the Roman Catholicism and how and how Calvinism was
born out. They were just tired. It was tired, and
so so I just smiled when I got to that
part of your book, I go, wow, I've read a
lot of books in my life. This is probably the
first book I read since college that articulated Calvinism. And
(25:26):
it was important in your development. And so tell everybody
about that, because that's why I said, Man, you know,
when I read that, I said, I gotta have a
bigger part. Well, you're not gonna. I'm based in Atlanta.
I just bought it. I just bought it for my
office in Atlanta. I'm headquartered here and uh, four quarters
gonna be amazing. And it was just so many things
(25:47):
in that book that needs to be you need to
be talking to other people with it based on it.
You understand that I'm saying this is a this is
a series to me, and that you should be interesting,
that you should be translating that's that's black, that's white,
that's that's feel with different different layers as minority community,
(26:09):
because like you, like you, I had success as a
stand up comedian in the white community before death Comedy
Jam came out there. And then when I proceeded to
become a go over to death comming and looked at
me like I didn't blow Hey, uh, you can't make
black people Okay, don't do that. And I had to
prove myself. And the same thing with my business world.
(26:29):
I graduated with a math degree and I worked in
and went to work for ib AM. I to achieved
for one with deemed the ultimate passage into the white
corporate world. I was working for big blue. You know,
that's all you want, you know, So that wasn't enough
for me. I said, I wanted to be an entertainer.
I want to be a stand up comedian. And so
there's so many layers that that talking to you and
(26:49):
reading this book allows me to understand that you have
a unique point of view. That's really this book is cool.
But man, it's some other stories we gotta tell. Brother,
you and I gotta tell together. I like that. I
like that you you you use somebody what we say
has range, you know what I mean? A lot of
a lot of folks. You know, they can walk in
(27:12):
a lot of different worlds. That that shows that they
have some range. They've been exposed to a lot of
different places. So I finally that interesting that that that
that you even know some of those those things. It
just shows your range. So I love it. I might
have to just just try pull up on your build
if I was just you know, man, you know the
fact that you wrote a fantastic book. But but I
don't want to remiss tell everybody about Calvinism before we
(27:34):
leave this show, because I tell you something I tell
that changed my life man in college. But I mean
about that, man, Lutheranism and Calvinism and gld over to England.
Oh brother, come on that. Yeah. So so a lot
of times, you know, essentially you you look at the
Roman Catholic Church and and you saw, like, uh, there
(27:57):
was a lot of rules that were at it to Bible,
you know what I mean, A lot of a lot
of a lot of amendments were made and it became
seen as gospel truth. And all of this stuff has
happening in Europe. Meanwhile, the Bible is an Eastern you
know faith. You know, there was Christianity was in Africa
long before whatever in Europe. But but but then you
(28:21):
get you know, John Calvin and Martin Luther and these
individuals who you know are railing against the Catholic Church
and uh and and they kind of create what we
call Protestantism uh today, which is taken root in America,
which is you know, pretty much what American Christianity is.
A lot of it is built off of of that perspective,
(28:45):
which is very European in nature. And so it though,
and I say this about everything, you know, there's always
some truth mixed in with the lies. And that's how
people get fooled, is because there's always some truth mixed
them with the lives, and so there's lots of great
uh points and things that I think people can appreciate.
But you also have to remember that there's a lot
of cultural nuances that really don't fit who we are
(29:09):
and are not really applicable to the Bible. And so
I think people that have to realize that when they
when they approach it and just realized how much the
European culture um has been transposed over to us more
so than actually you guys words transposed. When I read that,
(29:29):
that opened my eyes. Man, That's why college changed my life.
I always tell people go to college, college, because high
school they deny you so many You see what Donald
Trump trying to do right now. You know, don't live,
don't want to, don't the truth to be read because
it acknowledges that when you're trying to take down these
Confederate statutes, there's a reason not to glorify when you
(29:51):
realize the folks were attempted and so we call black
lives matters thugs. You know that that you gain knowledge, information,
information by being allowed to openly learned. That's what college
did for me. And when I took that course, man,
It's like wow, really, and and I want to close
with this interesting story that you had when you was
(30:12):
in Egypt and the god was meaning from a religious perspective,
was from a historical perspective, and she was talking about
the worst Pharaoh and then you and then you went
from a religious perspective. She go what you're talking about?
And so she likes what're talking about because of the
(30:34):
fact that we are so guided by religion that we
can allow facts to be misinterpreted. And that I'm chancing
You have a great book, man, you have a great bye.
I think you just just dude, read my book. Have
(30:55):
to be respectful and understanding that you didn't. You know,
you did this for a reason, and your career has
allowed me to believe that you're trying to change lives.
And really, in reading this book allowed me to see
a personal side of you, and then a side of
you that says, Okay, I gotta do better, I gotta
do better. I wake up with that whole attitude I
(31:17):
gotta do better, and I gotta do better, not for
myself because I feel that I do this podcast because
I'm trying to make other people do better or hear
better or learn better or get some facts about it.
This interview I'm doing with you is an open interview
about people hearing about somebody who's telling them. Go by
this book because it enabled Rashan McDonald's see some things
(31:37):
about La Cree that enables me to understand that I
can do better. I can be honest about myself. If
I feel there's a dark side of me, tell somebody
it's all right, it's all good. That's your book, man,
that I appreciate you, Lacreze, I really do, man. And
like I said, this is my second time interview, and
you and I the first time. It's a good interview,
But this is an interview from from a sole perspective
(31:59):
that uh our journeys are definitely gonna be uh even
bigger in the future, man, because you're special, Lucreze. And
I think you at the ninth album dropping, you know,
dropped in August. You got October thirte The book comes
out um on YouTube right now as a series. But
you and I, You and I got to my backyard.
(32:21):
I got a little lake. Man, We're gonna go fishing.
That's where I go. That's where I go to La craze.
Life is bad for me. I have to go down
there and wash that water. That water at water at
water calms me, man, because and and and and and
my property. It drops down just enough. Well, I can't
see any cars. No, I can't see anything. And it
(32:41):
just allowed me to look at that water, man, and uh,
catch your fish and throw it right back and give
it back to God. Man. That's what I do. Brother, Man,
I love your brother. Thank you for taking the time. Man.
I hope this was a nice journey talking about the
part of your life that was very personal but more
important to book. I am restored how I lost my
religion but found my faith on sale October. Thank you, brother.
(33:05):
If we have no Money Making Conversation interviews, please go
to money Making Conversation dot com. I wish Sean McDonald
I'm your host.
Yes, Welcome to Money Making Conversation. I am your host,
Rashan McDonald. Each Money Making Conversation is about entrepreneurship and entertainment.
I recognize that we all have different definitions of success.
For some it's a sizable paychecks. Mine is helping people
wake up and inspiring them to accomplish their goals and
live their very best life. These are my passions. That's
what I'm trying to do for everybody who listening to
(00:21):
my show, some people catching on video, majority listening on
via podcast. I want you to stop tripping over small
challenges and preparator rise above the bigger obstacles that life
will present to you. And it's very important to understand
it's all about you. Focus on you will yourself to success.
That's the story of my next guest, Lacre. He is
(00:41):
recognized as the first artist to have an album hit
the charts at number one for both Billboard two hundred
and the Gospel Charts simultaneously. His ninth album and accompanying
documentary that's going to be associated with the album, Restoration,
features artists across all genres including my Man John Legend,
my Man, Kurt Frank, and y K O. Cirius. His
(01:02):
work is fueled by building bridges, changing narratives, empowering their disenfranchised,
and restoring the dignity of those on the margins. In
this new book, which I read this morning, I am
restored how I lost my religion but found my faith.
He shares how he found the courage to stop ignoring
his trauma and instead to begin working through it step
by step. Please work from the money making conversations. My man,
(01:25):
look graz about you look great for I brought your
online up. Yeah, you know that the beauty of you,
like I seld you the first time I got to
see you perform was uh in Houston, that was doing
the Super Bowl weekend and and even even though I
(01:45):
didn't know you, I knew there was a gifted person
speaking there singing at that time. But at the time
also you're dealing with a lot of trauma in your life,
and but you're able to mask that and not allow
it to affect your abilities as an author, performing artists.
Talk to those different steps. And then we're gonna go
through the book that uh wonderful book, wonderfully honest book
(02:09):
and I think a necessary read that I'm recommend to
all my all, my putting it in my mailing list
that goes out to fans on Wednesday, which is tomorrow,
ninety thousand people. You know, I got over a million
social media follows, so you'll see me posting them there.
Because when you when people release information to the general
population because you are a celebrity. We talk about it
(02:30):
in your book being a celebrity, and sometimes being a
celebrity allows you to be a victim of your success
because people can to dissect a celebrity or an important
person versus an everyday person kind of like skates through.
And you know your book tells that story, but talk
about your performing even though you're dealing with a lot
of emotional drama. Yeah, you know, sometimes I think you
(02:55):
you wear that face that you just put on, those
lenses that allow you to just keep going and pushing
through without dealing with the problems and the trauma. And
you allow uh successes to define you instead of um,
you know, you being successful out of a healthy and
whole version of yourself. You're allowing the successes to convince
(03:19):
you that you are healthy and whole. And I think
that's that's a very different thing. And so for me,
it was. It was a matter of becoming a healthy,
whole individual and dealing with some historical traumas and um
and recognizing that, uh, you know, I was a slave
to uh what other people wanted of me and not
(03:39):
being who I was created to be and uh and
that that that meant all? Did you say that now?
With your book titled you Know I Am Restored, How
I lost my religion but found my faith, I gotta
ask you what is the difference between religion and faith?
That's a great question. Um, you know, I think uh
a lot of us are are tied to religion, and
(04:01):
religion is essentially performing to be accepted. Religion is performing
trying to do all the right things so that God
will accept you or maybe that other people will accept you.
And and faith or relationship is more about saying, I know,
I've been accepted, so let me function out of that acceptance.
(04:21):
Let me do the right things because I've been accepted.
And so I always say it like this. If I
come home to my wife and I knock on the
door and I handed some flowers, and I say, ago,
and I'm supposed to do this, that's religion, and I'm
I'm probably gonna speak on the couch that night. Uh
but but but but faith or relationship is me coming
(04:41):
home and say, man, I've been thinking about you all
day and you just you're so wonderful and I appreciate
you so much. I just brought you these flowers because
you're amazing. And I don't I have faith. You know,
I don't know what's gonna happen, but probably something that
is gonna happen because of that reality. And that's that's
because people, you know, people will question your faith before
(05:03):
they question your religion. They were, and you know, it's
really interesting that that happens like that. And that's why
I asked that question between religion and faith, because people
will they will challenge your faith. They will challenge you
because your faith can be tied to so many things.
You know, where you live, how you walk, how you talk,
or how much money you make, how much what your
expectations for yourself or for your family. That can be
(05:25):
that word faith has such an expansive term to it,
but it's also tied to religion, and it allows you
to It's over when I'm reading a book, which is,
like I said, a thorough read about from your childhood
to adulthood. And uh, it really amazed me because if
the talk of being a healthy person, which is really
key in the diet, and I think that plays in
(05:46):
every chapter in the book as you talk about being
a man and being a young man and being a
young boy, meeting your father and and he picking you
up and you're thinking, that's a great moment of life,
and then guess what, he basically kicked you to the curb,
which was one of those unhealthy moments in your life
when you're trying to live a life as a healthy person. Correct. Yeah, absolutely,
(06:08):
And I mean that's that's that's a huge part of
it is is uh, you know, not having those those models.
You know, you can only be what you've seen, you
can only become what you've bailed and so not having
those models becomes a traumatic thing for for a lot
of us. And and uh, and so I'm just that's
really interesting. When I talked to you. The first time
(06:29):
I talked to you, like I said, it was like
I knew you, but we were developing a relationship. Now
this second time around, I'm much more comfortable on how
hard speak to you. And it's really based on reading
this book and because we all have dark sides. You know,
when I say dark sides, secrets we don't reveal. We
lived through life with it, but we won't tell even
(06:49):
our closest loved ones. You know, I have them, and
you're sharing a lot of them in this book. And
you know, and and I have been fortunate to have
been a popular stand up comedian, and you and in
your book you're talking about you know, when you're when
you're in a church, you knows you kind of know
who your audience is. And I remember when I was
(07:11):
in the comedy club, I kind of know who my
audience is. But when I got booked in a nightclub
or booked in a private party, I really didn't know
who I was performing too. And it always put additional
stress in my mind on how to relate to these
people are if they will relate to me? And you know,
when you talk about your experience opening up for Kevin
(07:31):
Hard at the you know, at these at the Mercedes
Being super Dome and you're looking at the audience, who
you know, we're here for Kevin Hall, okay, and but
you're going out there not knowing How does that? How
does that work in your mind when you when you're
in that environment. You know, you know they're here for
the because he's filled up that he filled up the dome. Okay,
(07:52):
you're blessed to be an opening act for him and
because it allows you to grow your bread. How does
that trigger in your mind? From a performing standpoint, who
you are? You trying to relate to everybody, You're trying
to just get them understand the Crae experience. Yeah, you
know what it is is a lot of it is,
like you said, understanding how to read the room is
(08:14):
understanding what people are there for and m and and
finding some common ground and and being able to connect
to people in a real way. And I think authenticity
is is where you can always win. You know, people
crave and hunger for authenticity. But it's the hard thing
for us to do because we're so worried about what
(08:35):
everybody thinks. But how how authentic and connecting what it
has been for me to just come out and say,
I know y'all aint for me. I know you'll want
to see Kevin hard. You know that's that's immediately gonna
endear people to me, immediately, gonna make them say, okay,
keeping it real. And now I hear what this guy
has to say, and so I think that's that's that's
a big piece of life, you know, because of the
(08:58):
fact that you know, eleven years old, you walk on
stage and you bust out with a wrap and everybody
now now gives you value. And and in my book
and your book, you know, and in of your craze.
Here this book I am restored, how to how I
lost my religion but found my faith. Each chapter is
about value and that's the part of healthiness. But in
(09:21):
order to achieve value, if I'm reading this wrong, you
have to admit and go public with what's bothering you inside,
with that draw, that trauma, you know, that chaos as
you talk about and when did you really start realizing
that because black the Black community is really interesting community.
(09:41):
Were we are in denial community, were in denial about
COVID and ainteen, when the denial about our eating habits,
when denial about gay gay community, we're denying. We're just
an in denial community and it holds us back a lot.
And so and it also is in the evel when
it comes to mental and social stress, you know, not
(10:03):
admitting that we we have issues that should be somebody
should be talking to us about and that that that
false ability to move forward not emitting that we are
a flawed community and uh holds us back. And so
that in it turn, in turn, we'll did some some
setbacks for you because you couldn't figure out what was
(10:25):
wrong with you exactly. You're you're you're, you're hitting the
hammer on their uh. A big piece of our struggle,
um is what what what what someone called post traumatic
slave syndrome right and and and post traumatic slave syndrome
is we have adopted and adapted these views that were
(10:48):
instilled in our ancestors that we are we're almost like
um uh cattle and we can just be driven and
and pushed and pushed and pushed until no end. And
the problem is we're not addressing our traumas, we're not
addressing our pains, we're not addressing our fears. We're treating
ourselves like animals. You know, I say sometimes you know,
(11:12):
you can be a speedboat or you can be a
raft or a sailboat, and a speedboat is the things
that can plow through, you know, and just I'm just
gonna make it all the way, especially going around the
gas and then you're gonna be out in the middle
of the ocean just floating, and and nobody wants to
be a raft where you don't have any sense of direction.
And so the reality is we have to become sailboat.
(11:33):
And the sailboat takes us acknowledging the way the wind
is blowing so you can adjust your sails. It takes
a little bit of work, it takes some thought, it
takes some time, and not just plowing through stuff. And
I think that's a part of our problem. Um. We
want to catch up. You know, in society, we've been
held back so long and we're trying to catch up
it so we won't acknowledge our motions or the problems,
(11:55):
and the pain is just too much to acknowledge. So
we're living denial instead of becoming healthy and whole um,
which is, you know, if you want to be successful
in life, it's gonna first start with being healthy and whole.
Everything else is in an addition to that if you
want to you know, every million dollars you make is
has way more value if you're healthy and the whole person.
(12:15):
But if you are an emotional and mental and spiritual disaster,
that million dollars is not gonna make you any better.
I always help people. My my goals in life are
tied to my experience because not my my money. Because
if I never go in the deal, I'm gonna be
honest with the crew. I'm never going to deal trying
to figure out how much money I'm gonna make. It's
about the relationships. He's about to what do I get
(12:37):
out of it for my brand, for my career, because
I always know that I'm gonna make money. That's just
that's just an idea. My wife would go, I don't
know why you ever worry about money, because you're gonna
make it. You're gonna figure out how to make it.
And That's just been a skill set I've had since
I was seventeen eighteen years old, and I've carried it
through because I'm just a guy who sits around just
thinking about how to make money, and and and and
(12:59):
when when I look at your your brand, you know
you know your entrepreneur, you're an activist, you know you.
Of course we know your talent from you working on
this documentary with your new your ninth album. All these
different layers started where though, you know, because like you said,
you know, you know, you all you know because your
father was in your life, your your mom or you
(13:20):
put you in a situation with what what with a
man who who physically abused you from a standpoint, struck
you and whichhich intimidated you, and then put that with
that decision make you know whether he can come back
into the house on you okay? And what was you
supposed to say? No? You know? And so so where
where where along the way did you start shaping the
(13:42):
desire to be this be la craze m You know
what I think, um the journey of all that pain
and trauma, Um that that the place where I found
the most health was being was expressing myself, you know,
(14:03):
expressed myself through initially poetry and then it turned into
music and and that that's a even if you go
to therapy now they'll tell you that's one of the
biggest things you need to do. You need to start
writing things down because something happens with your mind, if
your brain chemistry. Once you start writing out the things
that that that your experience and it's journal and or
a diary, it is very helpful for you. And so
(14:25):
that that's where I learned the healthy technique. The problem
for me was some of the darkest corners of my world.
You know, I was not ready to deal with. I
was not ready to to wrestle with in the process,
and so it took a mental collapse for me. It
took me, took my mind and my body having to
shut down. You know they some people call it Ceo syndrome,
(14:48):
where the stresses of life just overwhelm you all at
one one time, and the body keeps the score. So
your mind may say, well, what happened to me attend
was was you know, a million years ago, but your
body is and it might as well have been yesterday.
So you're just piling up stuff, all the trauma from
your childhood, and now you're in your adulthood and maybe
you have kids, and that's adding more stuff. And now
(15:09):
you're working on deals and you're working on career. All
this stuff is piling piling up, and if you're not
addressing it, eventually it's gonna catch up to you. And
so you have to be able to decompress and address uh,
those those particular issues in order to find you important
that people understand that you have to find yourself. And
despite all my success, la Craze. I didn't really find
(15:30):
myself till I was in my forties. You know, people
would tell me, you're showing you successful. But I was
successful because I accomplished things. Here mean when I say
that I was successful because I accomplished things, that doesn't
necessarily meant that I was accomplishing things that made me happy.
And that's why I I always speak to people, is
that you know a lot of people there, they're stopped
(15:53):
there in their career because guess what, they're not happy
making money that way, and so guess what, it eventually
catch up with you. That's why companies file bankruptcy. That's
why companies closed because the vision or the vision there
a person, visionary, person who's tied to it, just stopped
thinking because that didn't make them happy. And so this book,
(16:14):
when I talk, when I listened to you, it is
a journey in finding your happiness, because if you don't
find that happiness, there's not a fifty year old Lakrez
sixty year old Lakrez that we have today. Am I
correct when I say that? Absolutely? Absolutely? Yeah? You won't.
You I won't. It's not gonna, it's not gonna. You're
(16:35):
never gonna ride there and and and that's you know case.
And point is that I think a lot of times
you don't even know the things that will ultimately bring
you happiness or bring you joy because you haven't done
enough work to know who you are. And so you're
looking at what everyone else has, thinking that, well, I
get what they get, then I'll be happy, then I'll
(16:58):
be healthy, instead of understanding who you are, and you're
wiring and and and realizing, no, this is what's gonna
bring you that. And I had to go through that
exact same process in me, thinking that if I could
just be as famous as this person or as renowned
as this person, And truthfully, that's not the way that
God created me. You know, I'm I'm an entrepreneur by nature.
(17:20):
You know, I like performing and I like art. But
end of the day, I'm I found a lot more
purpose when I'm building things and I'm architecting things, and
I'm giving other people opportunities. And so when I'm using
all my energy on creating opportunities for myself, I'm not
as I'm not as happy. But when I'm creating opportunities
for other people, you know, then I find more. I
(17:43):
find it more fulfilling. I want to do good in society,
but I also want to do well financially, so you
can do you know, I do it well. You can't
do good, but you have to be happy doing it
though for long term. And that's what I'm talking about
in this interview. I don't want everybody to hear this
is that you know, you go out there and make
a lot of money. I would tell people life should
(18:04):
not be tied to the lottery effect. You know, just
wait doing that money, waiting that moment. You build a
career in your and you and you put people around
you that can support you. I know I've survived this
career because I've had a couple of key people in
my life that whenever I doubted myself La Craze, they
told me be Rashawn, Be Rashawn. They should be You.
(18:25):
Don't care what they're saying. Do be you now? Be
you has helped out a lot of people. Here be
you trust you And because because success man and in
reading this book and reading about the chaos, reading about
the trauma, we talk about the molestation, the we can
talk about the physical abuse. Let's talk about the life abusive.
(18:48):
As a successful people can go through if you don't
have the right people around you and you don't admit
that you need help, right as my goodness. You know
what's funny if if you the problem for a lot
of us is that there is freedom in confession, but
(19:11):
there's always gonna be suffering and suppression and and and
denial will always lead to death. If you're talking about
a life threatening disease, right you, you cannot deny that
you have it. It's gonna be detrimental for you, you know,
(19:32):
And acknowledging is always painful, but denial is always deadly.
And that's what I want people to understand. Acknowledging is
gonna be painful, but denial is deadly. When you can
acknowledge that you have these issues in your life, then
it is hurtful. It is painful, It is hard to
to plow through, but to deny it is deadly for you.
(19:53):
And so you'll never be who you were created to be.
You'll never walk in the fullness that you were created
to walk in if you keep denying you know the
issues that are going on in your world. And I
think a lot of us just don't realize that. Um,
you know my story is is. Like you said, there's
there's all the major trauma that you can experience. You know,
(20:15):
I've gone through them, and so you know, I don't
care what you've experienced in life. I don't care if
it's death, division, uh, discrimination, divorce, debt um. All those
things can be restored if you can acknowledge the pain
that they have brought you and then move forward. You know,
when reading your book UH interviewing, look Craze just in
(20:37):
case people may have just tuned in, you know, his
book I'm with discussing I am restored, how I lost
my religion but found my faith. A couple of courses
I want to bring back up now the book, the album.
Want to flip to the album right quick, because you're
doing a documentary tied to the album. Okay, is that
is that? Is that going to be a documentary. We'll
see you on like a Netflix or an Amazon. It's
(20:59):
just something that's available that you're putting out that so
we can go to your your website, you know, I
mean your YouTube challenge to see Yeah, so you can
check this out. It's the video series is UH is
on YouTube now and and there'll be a longer form
documentary that will come out down the line. But but
(21:20):
this this web series, you can see me addressing the
chaos in my world. You know, I meet my father
for the very first time on this on this video series,
and so people are able to see you know that
you're trying to run a successful business, you're trying to
raise a family, you're trying to be a leader, and
you have to deal with meeting your father for the
(21:40):
first time. And many people would run from that reality
and say I got way too much of my plate
to be dealing with that. But I knew that there
was a piece of me that would not be whole
until I had that meeting. I didn't have any expectations.
I wasn't saying, now me and him are gonna be
best of friends and we're gonna make up for lost time.
But I knew that I had questions that I wanted
to add ask and maybe I wouldn't get the answers
(22:01):
I wanted, But I knew I didn't want to go
to my grave without asking some of those some of
those questions, and that's what I thought, Uh, hey man,
you know I'm Roushan McDonald. I've done a lot of
great things in my life. But if you put together
a documentary, let's talk if you if you don't have
anybody else talking to you, because because I enjoy talking
(22:23):
to you, and you have a voice that um that
shapes this world, not just the community, this world. And uh,
you articulate, you're smart and look good and plus more
important that you have a story to tell that is
tied to trauma. It's tied to honesty, and it's tied
to faith. Okay, let's be real okay, and uh and
(22:45):
and and it's important that you know I've learned when
I when I talk to people that have a unique
point of points of views, that I have to let
them know what I think. And it's something that you know.
Your YouTube challenge is great. In fact, I'm I'm I'm
gonna look at the in you that you have when
you first met your day and they probably put in
our newsletter to let people see another side of your
honest side of you. Because in Hollywood, it's really interesting
(23:09):
that you know, we're we're put under and that's just
the celebrities or athletes were put on the microscope based
on what you know, but not the life that we live.
When I say that is that, you know, it's we
have makeup on. When we hit camera, we we we
speak a certain way. A lot of times we hit
the camera, we perform a certain way. When we walk
off that stage and get out of that arena, then
(23:31):
that's a different life. And sometimes were held accountable to
what they saw on TV or what they saw in
the movie or what they saw in the performance. How
do you deal with that? La Craze mm hmm. Man,
you know, honestly, you've got to uh, A lot of
it is discernment. A lot of it is is recognizing
and realizing that some relationships you walk into, uh, you know,
(23:59):
relationally and some people walk into transactionally, you know, and
you've got to be able to decide which is which
because a lot of the relationships in the entertainment space
are transactional that they may seem like they're relational, and
people may come at you and say, hey, let's let's
hang out, let's be friends. But it's gonna take some
time for you to understand who your real friends are.
And not to not to allow people who say, you know,
(24:23):
this is what they think about you, and and not
to a lot of those voices to dictate who you
really are. So al looks like being a professional athlete
because everyone's gonna say something from the sideline. But you
got to realize who your teammates are and who are
the people who want the best for you. Those are
the voices that you that you have to listen to.
And so that's that's one of the biggest things that
I had to learn early on, is that you know,
(24:44):
all those voices are not voices that I need to
listen and read the book look great, um, when you
brought up Calvinism, Okay, now you know, uh, a very
few people know Calvinism. You know, I early in my
college career, I took a European history and I learned
(25:05):
about the Roman Catholicism and how and how Calvinism was
born out. They were just tired. It was tired, and
so so I just smiled when I got to that
part of your book, I go, wow, I've read a
lot of books in my life. This is probably the
first book I read since college that articulated Calvinism. And
(25:26):
it was important in your development. And so tell everybody
about that, because that's why I said, Man, you know,
when I read that, I said, I gotta have a
bigger part. Well, you're not gonna. I'm based in Atlanta.
I just bought it. I just bought it for my
office in Atlanta. I'm headquartered here and uh, four quarters
gonna be amazing. And it was just so many things
(25:47):
in that book that needs to be you need to
be talking to other people with it based on it.
You understand that I'm saying this is a this is
a series to me, and that you should be interesting,
that you should be translating that's that's black, that's white,
that's that's feel with different different layers as minority community,
(26:09):
because like you, like you, I had success as a
stand up comedian in the white community before death Comedy
Jam came out there. And then when I proceeded to
become a go over to death comming and looked at
me like I didn't blow Hey, uh, you can't make
black people Okay, don't do that. And I had to
prove myself. And the same thing with my business world.
(26:29):
I graduated with a math degree and I worked in
and went to work for ib AM. I to achieved
for one with deemed the ultimate passage into the white
corporate world. I was working for big blue. You know,
that's all you want, you know, So that wasn't enough
for me. I said, I wanted to be an entertainer.
I want to be a stand up comedian. And so
there's so many layers that that talking to you and
(26:49):
reading this book allows me to understand that you have
a unique point of view. That's really this book is cool.
But man, it's some other stories we gotta tell. Brother,
you and I gotta tell together. I like that. I
like that you you you use somebody what we say
has range, you know what I mean? A lot of
a lot of folks. You know, they can walk in
(27:12):
a lot of different worlds. That that shows that they
have some range. They've been exposed to a lot of
different places. So I finally that interesting that that that
that you even know some of those those things. It
just shows your range. So I love it. I might
have to just just try pull up on your build
if I was just you know, man, you know the
fact that you wrote a fantastic book. But but I
don't want to remiss tell everybody about Calvinism before we
(27:34):
leave this show, because I tell you something I tell
that changed my life man in college. But I mean
about that, man, Lutheranism and Calvinism and gld over to England.
Oh brother, come on that. Yeah. So so a lot
of times, you know, essentially you you look at the
Roman Catholic Church and and you saw, like, uh, there
(27:57):
was a lot of rules that were at it to Bible,
you know what I mean, A lot of a lot
of a lot of amendments were made and it became
seen as gospel truth. And all of this stuff has
happening in Europe. Meanwhile, the Bible is an Eastern you
know faith. You know, there was Christianity was in Africa
long before whatever in Europe. But but but then you
(28:21):
get you know, John Calvin and Martin Luther and these
individuals who you know are railing against the Catholic Church
and uh and and they kind of create what we
call Protestantism uh today, which is taken root in America,
which is you know, pretty much what American Christianity is.
A lot of it is built off of of that perspective,
(28:45):
which is very European in nature. And so it though,
and I say this about everything, you know, there's always
some truth mixed in with the lies. And that's how
people get fooled, is because there's always some truth mixed
them with the lives, and so there's lots of great
uh points and things that I think people can appreciate.
But you also have to remember that there's a lot
of cultural nuances that really don't fit who we are
(29:09):
and are not really applicable to the Bible. And so
I think people that have to realize that when they
when they approach it and just realized how much the
European culture um has been transposed over to us more
so than actually you guys words transposed. When I read that,
(29:29):
that opened my eyes. Man, That's why college changed my life.
I always tell people go to college, college, because high
school they deny you so many You see what Donald
Trump trying to do right now. You know, don't live,
don't want to, don't the truth to be read because
it acknowledges that when you're trying to take down these
Confederate statutes, there's a reason not to glorify when you
(29:51):
realize the folks were attempted and so we call black
lives matters thugs. You know that that you gain knowledge, information,
information by being allowed to openly learned. That's what college
did for me. And when I took that course, man,
It's like wow, really, and and I want to close
with this interesting story that you had when you was
(30:12):
in Egypt and the god was meaning from a religious perspective,
was from a historical perspective, and she was talking about
the worst Pharaoh and then you and then you went
from a religious perspective. She go what you're talking about?
And so she likes what're talking about because of the
(30:34):
fact that we are so guided by religion that we
can allow facts to be misinterpreted. And that I'm chancing
You have a great book, man, you have a great bye.
I think you just just dude, read my book. Have
(30:55):
to be respectful and understanding that you didn't. You know,
you did this for a reason, and your career has
allowed me to believe that you're trying to change lives.
And really, in reading this book allowed me to see
a personal side of you, and then a side of
you that says, Okay, I gotta do better, I gotta
do better. I wake up with that whole attitude I
(31:17):
gotta do better, and I gotta do better, not for
myself because I feel that I do this podcast because
I'm trying to make other people do better or hear
better or learn better or get some facts about it.
This interview I'm doing with you is an open interview
about people hearing about somebody who's telling them. Go by
this book because it enabled Rashan McDonald's see some things
(31:37):
about La Cree that enables me to understand that I
can do better. I can be honest about myself. If
I feel there's a dark side of me, tell somebody
it's all right, it's all good. That's your book, man,
that I appreciate you, Lacreze, I really do, man. And
like I said, this is my second time interview, and
you and I the first time. It's a good interview,
But this is an interview from from a sole perspective
(31:59):
that uh our journeys are definitely gonna be uh even
bigger in the future, man, because you're special, Lucreze. And
I think you at the ninth album dropping, you know,
dropped in August. You got October thirte The book comes
out um on YouTube right now as a series. But
you and I, You and I got to my backyard.
(32:21):
I got a little lake. Man, We're gonna go fishing.
That's where I go. That's where I go to La craze.
Life is bad for me. I have to go down
there and wash that water. That water at water at
water calms me, man, because and and and and and
my property. It drops down just enough. Well, I can't
see any cars. No, I can't see anything. And it
(32:41):
just allowed me to look at that water, man, and uh,
catch your fish and throw it right back and give
it back to God. Man. That's what I do. Brother, Man,
I love your brother. Thank you for taking the time. Man.
I hope this was a nice journey talking about the
part of your life that was very personal but more
important to book. I am restored how I lost my
religion but found my faith on sale October. Thank you, brother.
(33:05):
If we have no Money Making Conversation interviews, please go
to money Making Conversation dot com. I wish Sean McDonald
I'm your host.
Host
Rushion McDonald
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