JohnMuhammadPodcast

JohnMuhammadPodcast ep 08 feat MoMoneyMccoy

• CeldomSeen • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Welcome 2 tha JohnMuhammadpodcast show. Today my guess is the award winning filmmaking, media producer, actor, entrepreneur, and founder of Fireproof AI TV AND Films, a LosAngeles-based multimedia production company dedicated to creating impactful stories that entertain, educate, and inspire. In 2026, he expanded his influence into live events and community outreach throught Hood Fades, a unique conflict resolution boxing initiative designed to reduces violence and empower communities. Listen in as we talk about his past his present and his future. I have the one and only MoMoneyMccoy in the building.

SPEAKER_01

Peaceful family. I'm your host of City. This is the John Muhammad Podcast. So today my guest is a brother out of Garapis, Michigan. He now lives in Los Angeles, California, where he worked. Get the job done. So today my guest is an award-winning filmmaker, media producer, actor, entrepreneur, founder, fireproof, AI, films and TV, multimedia production, company, create the impact and stories, bring entertainment, educator and inspired, co-founder of Mappyhead Stasis. He worked at Several Radio Station. And before transitioning into a filmmaker, so then he's produced, directed, appeared, fixed a film, installed the digital media. He got his masters designed, he does live events, community outreach, like the field phase, unique conflict resolution boxing, design to reduce violence, and power out. Right, right. It took a long time, bro. Yeah, yeah, it's been a minute. It's been a minute. I was looking at a few of some of the old video. Yeah, and it was a while ago. Format was a little bit different. But uh, yeah, we gotta keep telling them stories, man, because some of them are really good. And one of the things I said, especially coming up in that era, our era, we didn't have no sugar knight, no puffies, none of that. None of them casts that could have helped you reach the different level. Right. Basically, you had to figure it out on your own. Real tough. And so, yeah, y'all cast are some of the cats, y'all built a foundation for cats to walk on. You know, because y'all were some of the first ones that just came out and showed, okay, this could be a business. You could do this, but it takes this type of work. So, anyway, I remember you spoke some on the nappy heads, that group. Yes, sir. If you would expound on that just a little bit, explain what that group was, explain how y'all put it together and what eventually took y'all apart.

SPEAKER_00

I think um, I think it all started when um when Kaz invited me and Sid Swift to his 4-H show. He had a show booked at um Rosa Park Circle, and he was hype about it. Like, I'm talking about I couldn't believe how how hard he was pushing that. You know what I'm saying? Like, it blew me away. I was like, I gotta be there, you know what I'm saying? Like, my boy going hard for this. So, me and Swift, we headed down there. They was on the lawn, they had um a little amphitheater, it's a little small amphitheater, and uh he had a drum set set up, had the drums right there, and then they introduced him. He came out, he hit the drums, bro. It was sounding good. He was tearing them up, and then uh he started rapping. He said, I once had a girl, her name was T. I bought her everything that I could see, but it was one little problem. She didn't like sports, she liked chains and cars and things of that sort.

SPEAKER_02

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00

We that was the first time we heard rap come out of somebody from Grand Rapids besides Robert S. You know what I'm saying? So we was like blown away. So immediately we jumped on that song um and started performing it at um um at Boy Scouts. We it was a little church by our neighborhood. We was we was um um we was on Noble and Cooper and then Noble and Fuller, and then there was a church right there, right? Right that church had the cadets, you know what I'm saying? So we performed for the cadets, and uh we was going off the drums again. So then we said we need a beat, you know what I mean. So so first thing we did was we had an instrumental off of this tape. It had the it had the um it was Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg deep cover, and it was on tape, and one side had the song, the other side had the instrumental. So we said, let's make a song off of that. So we made a song called Lean to the Side, right? So we a group of three right there. Um, me, Kaz, Sid Swift. We did a show called uh at Ottawa Hills doing that song. But funny thing is, first we went to a recording studio, it's called Sing Song Studio, and they said we could only get one take. We was like, so we gotta pay you and only get one take. One take. We did we won take the song Lean to the Side, right? Right, and then we we uh took it up there to Ottawa and we performed at the talent show, the Miss Harris uh talent show, and we won. And we didn't we were surprised we won because it was some singers up there that blew us away. Uh the homegirl Karmika, okay, her singing is next level, bro. And I thought she won. You know what I mean? Be just being honest, you know what I mean? And boy, but we won. We had our gear together. We we was we had an army gear on, we had the all-white uh snow snow gear on, then we had the matumbles. We all had the matumbo. We had two dancers, it was uh Kendra and Tiffany. Um so we had two dancers, so it was put together well, you know what I'm saying? We performed that lean to the side, lean to the back, and we was leaning and all that, and everybody's leaning. It was lit, man. And so uh from that show, we we found out about DJ Knapp. And DJ Knapp had a beat, uh, I mean a beat machine, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, so we met DJ Knapp, and then we went over to um we got beats, we started getting beats from him, and then we we went over to uh uh Izzy Dope studio, and they had Dirt Sound there. Yeah, so we down there training with Nakamichi, uh Shorty Ty. Uh man, Izzy Dope. It was I mean, the training ground, they was already doing it, you know what I mean? They was doing it. Dirt Sound was killing them, touring overseas and everything, you know what I mean. So we was just happy to be in the studio, and they and Nap and uh Izzy Dope was um training each other on different machines and stuff like that. So yeah, the ASR 10, that thing started cranking it up, and then Napp just let us start meeting at the basement. So so then um my boy, my boy Tyson Bridgewater, he always was a rapper since we went to uh Southeast Um Academic Center. Okay. So we we like uh we like yo, uh I need him in the group. So I go grab him up. I said, man, we starting a group, and um, you know, we got beats and we just gonna do these rhymes. So then words start getting around, and then we met wax, and we met uh Killerby, and we met um we met Garcia and and uh and oh man, let me see.

SPEAKER_01

It's so many man, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

No, we ain't fell out, none of us, yeah. Yeah, we are good, you know what I mean. As a matter of fact, last when I was in Memphis, I uh I got with Dan Keith, you know what I mean? Okay, he pulled up on me. He said, It's dangerous down here, man. Right, right, yeah, yeah. So that that that made the group of uh of nine MCs, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01

And guy wasn't that many, okay.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yep, it was nine of us. So um we we down there recording, and I I had a job at the radio station, so I was at 1680, and I was flooding the music that through that way, and uh getting connections because um this record company kept coming up there, so I introduced them to the nappy heads. They signed us right off rip, KJ Records. Soon they signed us right off rip. So from then on, we had a real recording studio, so we recorded an album in 13 hours. Oh wow, okay. It was a young man that was a rapper named DJ Composition. That boy was a monster, you know what I'm saying? He was a monster. So they was like, uh, can he get on a nappy head album? I'm like, hell yeah, it was like me, me and Sid Swift. Everybody else was like, no, ain't nobody shining on this, you know what I'm saying? We like, oh man, no, he could come. So he just a little good, man. He slid in there and dropped that feature, bro. That was off the chain, you know what I'm saying? He was cold with it, so that solidified that he made it within that 13 hours. Ironically, um, killer bee did not make it into the 13 hours, and he ain't on the album. Okay, wow. So we made music, and then we made that that album, Nappy Head Aim for the Sky album. And then the rec the record label says to me, he said, All right, now we need a music video, and we need a uh TV commercial. I'm like, hello, I'll do that. I never touched the camera before from that point. That point is what launched Mo McCoy, the filmmaker, because I went down to GRTV and learned how to use the stuff, and I shot our first music video and commercial, so I shot that and um brought it back to the company. He we had a battle um between tape and C D. It was right before C D took over, you know what I'm saying? So everybody in the nappy heads wanted to get tape. Everybody had a Walkman and they wanted to get tape. Me, I was the only one that said, no way, guys, tape is about to be gone. I just knew it. I don't know how, but I knew it. I was like, it's about to be CDs. I said, Man, I ain't even see no tapes that believe in music. And okay, they all fought me on that. And then I uh I talked to the CEO. I talked to a man to man. I I started volunteering up at the uh at the record label. So I said, I said, hey sir, um uh you're the business man. Does it make sense to get a uh an outdated uh platform? You know what I'm saying, for us to put the music out on? Get CDs, stay stay current, you know what I mean? And he went with me, so he ordered 5,000 CDs, okay, just like that. Bam! We had 5,000 CDs, and uh, and the next day, like it was like immediately there was no more tapes. It was the exact day, bro. Like the day of there was no more walkman in the stores, no more tapes, it was all CDs. I was like, Whoo, we almost we almost bit the big one, bro. We had been stuck with the tapes, man. Yeah, then um, yeah. So so like I said, I was in radio. Um, it was a chick named Allie Fox up at the radio station. She plugged me with the Gavin magazine, it was a uh nationwide magazine that was promoting uh artists, right? So she plugged us up with the interview. They interviewed the nappy head assassins. We in the magazine next to Jay-Z. Nappy Head Assassin, Jay-Z, right in the magazine together. I can't make this up. So then she said, she said, Um, y'all need to get all these DJs on here, uh, vinyl. So I went to the CEO. I'm like, yo, we need vinyl, bro. These DJs want to play our music, you know what I'm saying? He likes bet he ordered uh 250 vinyl. It was 250 DJs. He ordered 250 vinyl and we shipped them out to all them DJs. Bam, bam, bam. So it was getting so lit that that Lyle Records called us. Okay, they called the office. I happened to answer the call. I'm like, hello. They was like, uh, can we speak to Mr. Price West? I said, sure, man, I'm just speaking. They was like, uh, this is such and such from Lyle Records. I'm like, oh one second, Mr. West, you got an important phone call. Line one. So I'm listening in, you know what I mean? I'm like, listen to this. So they offered him a hundred thousand dollars for the nappy head assassins. And he was like, Oh no, no, man, nah, y'all just want what I got. I'm like, yo, yo, what do you got? You got five thousand dollars invested, you know what I'm saying? Like, bro, um, business man to business man, I'm young, but I think um a hundred thousand dollars is more than five thousand dollars, you know what I mean? It it just made sense to me to offload this group and and fund the rest of your company, okay, and then we could be on loud records, but no, he was adamant on no, I got something special here, you know what I'm saying? And so what was he looking for? They was they was just looking for the nappy head assassins. The that was loud records. So he he thought that we we was too valuable to give away. But I thought that he should have let us go because fat Joe was on Lyle Records, you know what I'm saying? So we trying to we trying to get out of Grand Rapids, get there, yeah. Yeah, but he he wouldn't go with it. So if the only thing we could do as a group was keep going with him with making that ultimate bad decision, or um dismantle the group. So we just dismantled the group and everybody went solo. Oh wow, yeah, that's how I went.

SPEAKER_01

Business did it, huh?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yep, yep, that's how it went. You know, they say your first deal is the worst deal, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, without a doubt, but like you know, those stories need to be told. Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. You know, I I had remembered hearing about the nappy head assassins, but I never really knew who it was. I had no idea you was a part of it, yeah, and then once I found out about fireproof, then the connection and you know started to kick in.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, but uh I had always heard about them about them performing, and so yeah, we we did hella shows, we did hella shows, and plus I was plugged with the uh with the buses. Shout out to my uh mentor doc blue, he passed away, but he had he had a bus company, and sometimes I even lived at the bus company, so I was washing the buses, and when I got old enough, I started driving them. And then when we had shows, he likes take a bus. We had the bus. You know what I'm saying? What I'm pulling up to the 4H building, we got a show, we got females on the bus. We just okay, we acting a fool, bro. It was just it was pandemonial. Pandemonial, you know what I mean? We weren't bad as Diddy, but we was bad.

SPEAKER_01

So y'all put it, y'all put in your time, uh yeah, yeah, yeah. We had a good time, man. So all right, so you you you've always been somebody who moved around a little bit. What made you uh decide to go to LA?

SPEAKER_00

Well, um, I was in Vegas at the time when I made the decision to go to LA. I've always visited LA and I've always been booked in LA um on the acting side. But it was it was just getting overwhelming um having to go back and forth to LA from Vegas. Okay, so I'm like, why not go? Because I'm getting more bookings in LA than I am in Vegas. Okay, Vegas is like once or twice a month, LA every week. So I said, I'm about to move to LA. My boy Jim and I he moved too. He like, man, I'm going too. I'm like, bet. So we slid out, and uh I I moved straight into a hotel, you know what I mean? Right and I just trapped out, just making making it do what it do every day, hustling bread, and until I got a crib, you know what I mean? So um I end up um doing that. I had my son with me, so make it happen, and uh ended up getting a crib in Van Nuys. So I started there and then that didn't work out, so I end up moving to LA on uh like Western and Adams. So you know what I'm saying, just uh living in LA is something different, man. It's different, it's a different country, yeah. Yeah, I've been out there, and uh yeah, yeah, you know it's funny, it's funny because I've been out there uh several times before, but living there is a whole different monster because when I was visiting, I ain't know where I was. I'm at the Nipsey hustle uh sign. Um I'm at the uh Compton Christian Center in Compton. You know what I mean? I'm thinking it's all good. Right living there is it's a whole different situation. Just say that.

SPEAKER_01

But uh now it sounds like being in six is it sixty-eight films. I'm at 73 now. Yeah, 73 now. Is this a goal? Is there a set number that you're trying to reach? Or what what what made you start being in so many projects?

SPEAKER_00

Well, yeah, I I had to blame it on uh Wes Brown. I mean Les Brown. He um I met him when I moved to Houston and I went to one of the motivational things. And when I met him, I was like, Yeah, I'm a filmmaker. He was like, Well, what's your goal, son? How how many uh films do you want to make? I said, Well, uh, right now I got three. I said, uh 10. You know what I'm saying? I just threw that out there. He said, son, make a dream that you can't even see. He was like, put a zero on that. I was like, a hundred films? Hmm. I was like, well, skip it. I'ma do it. I'm going to do it. I can do a hundred films. So I just started on my go, uh, one after another. I got to Houston. As soon as I got to Houston, that was 2014. I had Tomorrow's Never Promised. Um, and then I had The Perfect Romance on Tubi, and nobody knew what Tubi was. When I first got it on there, and then um and then I had a movie that I did with my kids. That's what made me know I could do a movie because I did a movie of my kids first. So that's what gave me the confidence to say, okay, I could shoot this movie. You know what I mean? So once I got that goal of 100, I just blacked out. I just went from movie to movie to movie to every day making content to building my YouTube channel and going hard, just like it's a full-time job. I just did it like it's a full-time job. And 30 years later, I wake up, I'm at 73. You know what I'm saying? Wow, wow, yeah, that's big, bro. Keep going, man.

SPEAKER_01

I want to see that.

SPEAKER_00

I I always heard that content was king, so I said, I'm gonna make hella content, you know what I'm saying? I'm gonna I'm gonna go all out on content, and so now you know, different pieces of my content is starting to get picked up, but I I always looked at it like the internet was uh uh you leaving a digital footprint, you know what I mean? So, say for instance, you're um a small island of Hawaii, or you can be a continent like Africa, you know what I'm saying? What kind of land is the internet? I don't know, you know what I'm saying? But guess what? I'm gonna have a lot of it on so I said every piece of content was me building my my my digital footprint, right? And I started getting really good at at making the films and being real good at on set. My my set IQ just went up, right? So so when I got to Vegas, I was thinking, like, okay, I did the bad boxer movie when I got to Vegas. That was the first thing I did. Then I was like, man, I'm about to go to school for it. Because I just taught a whole bunch of people how to do film, and I don't know how I taught them. You know what I'm saying? So I said, Oh I'm gonna go to school. So I signed up at Full Sale University, and I said, I want to do the film, the film thing. I blazed through that program because it was already what I'm doing. Okay, but I was able to learn the technical terms of everything, what lens do what, how to light, how to um do sound. I learned, you know what I'm saying, more stuff that'll make my products or or my movies even better. And I got my bachelor's degree. I I was grinding my business, making film. I was doing six, I was doing a film a month, and then um, and then I was in school in the morning. Like every morning I woke up six to eight or six to ten. I'm working on homework every day. By the time the weekend came, I was already done with the shit. You know what I'm saying? So I hadn't been been to school since me and you were at the school together. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01

So I just went back as an old man and uh fell in love more. You gotta humble yourself to do that, yeah. You got uh you got the prize at the end, so you know you be the oldest cat up in there, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I was hard, I was going hard, bro. It was hard and I went hard, and it was right before AI, too. So once AI came out and I went for my masters straight 4.0, I was salutatorian, you know what I'm saying? Because now you're showing me a tool that I can enhance exactly what I'm doing, right? It's amazing how I can uh I so that's why I added it to the name. It was fireproof TV films. Now it's fireproof AI TV and films because I successfully can completed my master's degree in digital marketing and digital media with AI, and that teacher told me to use AI. Okay, okay, I was like, what?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you know what I'm saying? Oh got out of control, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Everybody's starting to, you know, people trying to figure it out, but so you know, people uh have it, you know, they've been able to do the same thing, but you already ahead of it, so yeah, but then then you gotta remember not only 73 movies, but the all the projects that I've done, like I've done over 7,000 projects all on my YouTube channel, and you know what I'm saying? I've just been doing projects, skits, music videos, um, short films, TV shows, reality shows. I've been going crazy. I just got booked for another reality show, uh, for Grand Rapids, though. So that's coming soon. You know what I'm saying? Okay, that's what's up, that's gonna be crazy. Yeah, you gotta keep it moving, man. But I noticed since I graduated, when I'm on set, I'm a silent killer. I don't say nothing, I just work, I just fill in the space, you know what I mean? What's missing? My wife doing her her first uh film, and so I was on set, I was just there to help, and you know, because her vision is is huge, and she wants you know her movies on HBO and all that, so it gotta be super high quality. So I'm just there make sure the sound gets together. Oh, yeah, we gotta get this close-up. We need to get this b-roll right here, you know what I mean? You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01

So, are you interested in that connection between the actor, producer, whatever, to a Hollywood, or do you prefer the independent method?

SPEAKER_00

Um, I'm enjoying being independent, I love it. Um eventually we're gonna have to work together. Uh I believe it's a time and it's the time for everything, but I'm gonna always have an independent side of me that's gonna that's gonna dominate, you know what I mean? Yeah, because I've just been independent all my life, you know what I mean. They ain't give me no budgets, I had to figure it out. So I believe I can work, I can work together as a team as well. I'm really I'm a really good teammate, right? Right, situational right, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I can feel that.

SPEAKER_00

Long is the money, right?

SPEAKER_01

That's my boy, right? Right. Talk about the bad boxer. How did that come together?

SPEAKER_00

Well, originally I was in Houston, and uh my house had burned down, and I uh lost my Mac computer, but on my I was doing radio at the time, so I had my um PC with me, right? Okay, I got home from the from my radio interview, and my house was burned down, and there's nothing in there, and nobody there, nobody tell me what what to do next or nothing. Um, like somebody's dropping me off from the south side onto the north side of Houston, and I'm looking at a burnt down house. I was like, what the fuck do I do? Right. I was like, Can you take me to the fire department? That's the only thing I can think of. I go to the fire department, yeah, burned out about two hours ago. That's amazing. I'm like, why? What happened? It was like, it was electrical fire. I'm like, oh man, so what's my next step? He was like, uh, you might want to try triple A. I was like, okay, so I called triple A. Like, triple A, man. Well, my house burnt down. My kids is coming back tomorrow. We don't got nothing. You know what I mean? I don't got nowhere to go. I don't know what to do. They was like, uh, here, we're gonna get you a hotel. They got me a hotel at the uh, it was in Greens Point at uh, I think it was uh what was it? Super 8 or something like that. You know what I mean? They gave me two room, two rooms because I had the kids, you know what I mean? And they gave me three days to figure it out. Come to find out I had insurance, so the insurance people, I stayed there three days, and I had my backpack with that with that computer in it, right? So I couldn't make no movie or edit or nothing, so I said, I'm gonna write a movie. So I sat down and started writing The Bad Boxer, a story about um uh a boxer that got bullied, and then his hands got blessed, and he could knock out anybody. But the only the only uh thing he had to do to keep that power was to train. And the bad boxer, he a bad boxer, so he like fuck training, you know what I mean? Yeah, so I wrote that, and then um, and then so when it came of time to film that, I was in Houston, so I I I brought eight people from Houston to Grand Rapids, and then I hooked up with the Golden Gloves, and they let me use the ring for um uh for the bad boxer. So we filmed it that was in Grand Rapids, yeah. We was in Grand Rapids, and and we got to film bad boxer um fight scenes in between their fights and on halftime. So our halftime show was so lit that people thought that was part of the fighting. Okay, nice, you know what I'm saying? So um, so so we we filmed it there, and then we was in Grand Rapids for for uh like 10 days filming, and I had all my team coming in, and and we had we rented out a hotel and everything. We made some skits, we uh filmed everything, and then I had my boy uh Bug Madison help me with the film, and then then so when we get back to Houston, everything I'm looking at the film, and it looked like a music video to me. Okay, it was dope, it was dope, but it's a music video, so I'm like, I need to redo this whole thing, you know what I'm saying? So I just put that I put the project aside for a little while, made two or three more movies, and then I end up moving to Vegas, and I got to Vegas, and I bump into Justin Mayweather, and I'm like, uh hey yo, Justin, um, I got this perfect movie you can star in called The Bad Boxer. He like, he was like, Oh yeah, well, if you help me with your with my music, then I'll uh I'll do that. So we shook hands and then I started casting. I did a casting event. Um I think uh over 230 people came out to the casting event, casted every last person, casted the whole um film crew. I had a 10-person film crew, nice, and we we got down. We we filmed for 10 days and raised money and filmed, and Boo Capone came, he brought some chicken, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01

He saved some chicken, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So uh yeah, yeah, it was cool. Um, but the the only thing was it's we was all students uh all and everybody that that I worked with, it was their first time doing anything. So when I'm looking at the footage, it's it's not perfect, you know what I'm saying? But a bunch of imperfections can make a perfect movie because a movie has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. That's what to be wants, you know what I'm saying? I became really good at what to be wants, so uh, so I made a beginning. I I had an editor at first, and he just played with the movie for like six months, man. Like, and didn't do nothing. He said, I got like man, you gotta communicate, man. You know what I'm saying? Give me my movie back, and then I just edited myself, right?

SPEAKER_01

I could do the whole movie, ain't nobody gonna be able to really see it like you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but he was cold, he was cold. I would just yeah, I thought he could at least put a put a rough drive down, you know what I'm saying? Like me, I could you can give me your project and say, uh, I want the intro to be like this, the middle to be like this, and the middle to be like that, and I'ma hit you right nose on as an editor, you know what I'm saying? I'm gonna hit you if if you have to make any changes, it's gonna be one or two, you know what I mean? Well, other than that, it's gonna be what you asked for, and I think an editor should be able to do that. So I just had I took it back from me and um and just put the pieces together and made a masterpiece, man. And and to be picked it up right away. Shout out to Home said Entertainment. They saw it, they saw it, they watched it, they was like, This is a go, you know what I'm saying? So that's a suck. To me, it's comedy when it comes down to everything, everything. So you watch it, it's not cinematically sound, no, but it's funny, it's funny how the green screen is moving. That's funny to me, you know what I mean. I'm laughing, like he fucking up on his green screen, ha ha, you know what I mean? So it it's uh to me, it's a work of art that they love and has stayed on Tubi all these years, you know what I'm saying? But shout out to everybody that was in it before and and the part two. I I reshot several movies uh because shit just happens, man. Shit happened. Uh hard drive, a movie got erased.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, I just shoot them over. So if you had an opportunity to do a sequel of any of your movies, big backing, you know, every opportunity to win, what two movies would you choose from your from your repertoire?

SPEAKER_00

Um I would say I really like frequent visitors uh as a black serial killer. And and um yeah, with a big budget, I could show the that she owned she had more personal uh personalities and one, and I could I could use the graphics and stuff to to really really show the audience what how her mind worked, you know what I mean? So first the first one is frequent visitors, and then the second one is uh film school. Film school was a movie um that we uh improved and I play a character called Earl Hamstead and uh Cat TV play Mo McCoy. Um, it's a comedy, it's a comedy, and I would redo that with a big budget just to uh make a really really sound comedy, right? Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's what's up, man. You might get that opportunity, man. Keep going. I see it coming, man. Yeah, I see it coming. Right, keep them coming, man. Um hood phase. What is that? What is that?

SPEAKER_00

Hood phase um is a a TV show that uh we came up with a sport for hood phase is a sport where it's three rounds, uh two-minute rounds, and you get to you get to uh hood phase somebody you got a disagreement with. We also got a different kind of hood phase on the TV show. Um the next uh hood fade is the family fade. Like if you got a family mm-member that you beef it with, right? Then you can fade your family, and then you got the friendly fade. So the friendly fade is like this two homies, they wanna they want to fade out, they can hop in the ring three rounds and and squash their beef. Um also I'm gonna have staff fighters that work for for uh hood fades, staff fighters. So, like an audience member when they when they come out, they could say, I want to fade somebody, I'll fade him on the on the uh on the staff, you know what I mean? Staff member agree, they can get in the ring and do their thing, you know what I'm saying? Okay, yep. Um so I just oh go ahead.

SPEAKER_01

When you judging, are y'all like judges that say the boxing are real is it's about the clean shot, or is it more judged on who brings the greater uh entertainment?

SPEAKER_00

Well, we got we got three judge that's gonna that's gonna figure it out. It's gonna be three judges there to figure out who made who made the most damage and who um lasted all three rounds, you know what I mean? Because the average person might not last three rounds, you know what I mean? We're not we're not uh signing up, you know, actual boxers. Although I do have a few actual boxers boxing each other um for some of the uh intro matches, nice, yeah. So the whole goal is to save a life and have people put the guns down and pick up the gloves. So this is a uh resolution, you know. We was thinking of solutions, like well, how can we solve something? Man, if if two people touch each other, they're gonna be humble after that, you know what I mean? And they could say, All right, let's squash this, you know what I mean? Without you know, telling going back on the uh internet going, man, uh beat his ass, none of that. We ain't doing that. We doing squash it, we're gonna become friends, like how back how we did back in the day when we was fighting, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01

That's what's up, man.

SPEAKER_00

That's what's up, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Well, your critics would say you probably just uh perpetuating the violence that's already in the hood. What would you say to that?

SPEAKER_00

I would say I would rather um some people box it out with gloves on in the safety of a ring than to pull out some guns and shoot each other and one person get killed and one person go to jail. So this is a solution um that we came up with. I don't know no other solutions. Um if there's out if they out there, then please show me. Uh other than that, this is my solution to it. This is my whole team solution. We all agree that this is a great solution. Um it's a sport, you know, hood phase is a sport, so it's just three rounds. Boom, boom. We everybody got the same gloves on. It's gonna be a fair, fair thing. Yeah, fair. And it's gonna be fun. It's a TV show. We got we got commentators, uh, we're gonna have food out there. We got I just got sponsored by a nonprofit organization, they're gonna provide uh 12 restaurants worth of food out there. Okay, and food's gonna be free with the with the uh with the ticket, you know what I'm saying? So everybody can just get on down. Right, right, right. It ain't it ain't about the money I can make. That's why tickets is five dollars. It ain't about the money to me, it's about saving the life, it's about putting the guns down and picking up the gloves. That's a bigger mission than anything to me. So my business partners was like, Yeah, make it five dollars. You know, people can't really afford the $25 ticket. But those who can grab that, those who can't, five dollars. You know what I mean? Pack a cigarettes, yeah. I mean, pack the relos. Yeah, it's simple come see some good entertainment and get on TV. And then get you a shot, maybe you might you never know. You could end up being one of the hood hood fade TV stars because not only is we doing the fights, we doing skits and scenes, and you know it's a TV show, so we're gonna make it very interesting. Anyone can get it. Yeah, yep, yep. Definitely. I'm I'm actually getting in there and doing the fade with a young man named Lucky. I I called out some of some of my haters, but they didn't respond, or they don't want to do it. Either way, I'm gonna fade somebody just to show that anybody can do it. I'm not saying I'm gonna whoop somebody butt or I'm gonna uh lose. Either way, I'm gonna have fun. So win, I'm gonna celebrate, lose, I'ma do something crazy.

SPEAKER_02

Like, oh, I can't help fear.

SPEAKER_01

Right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what's up, man. Um AI. Yes, sir. Um, would it be smart to involve yourself with AI uh knowing that AI might be in control of this thing in the next 10 years?

SPEAKER_00

I want to know how to dismantle it. I want to know how to build it. I want to know how to shut it down. I want to know how to operate it. So, I mean, if we gotta we gotta educate ourselves on any enemy, uh you know, domestic or uh abroad, so yeah, um, I just feel like that's just something else. It's a tool at this moment. I'm gonna use it as a tool, and I'm gonna keep studying how to, you know, um survive with or without it. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, yeah, it could it could possibly take over, but we could possibly overtake them as well because we smarter than the average uh yeah robot because we we got more experience on earth, right?

SPEAKER_01

What I'm learning is they don't they're not getting any new information, they only take the information that we fed into it, yeah, but they can find the information at an accelerated speed, yeah. So you got sometimes we got to think on something for about a day to figure it out, AI gonna give you an answer in five seconds, so you know but I figured like as long as you can have a tool and learn how to use it right, yeah, you use it to figure it out too. Right.

SPEAKER_00

Yep, yeah. To me, it's all fear, it's all fear, and we we know God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and a sound mind. So whenever it happens, and we're just gonna move according accordingly. Living in Grand Rapids, Michigan has trained us to handle anything. Real talk. Real talk.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, that's real, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'm 48 years old. You know what I'm saying? I've been in this country, I've been to Hawaii, I've been to Houston, New York City, LA, Oakland, Sacramento, Colorado. Hawaii was definitely dangerous. It was all dangerous. But Grand Rapid Train.

SPEAKER_01

You wouldn't think so. Over here, you know, you think Hawaii is trees over here, yeah, sunshine every day.

SPEAKER_00

But what I learned is too much, too much sunshine with no rain in between and all that make people crazy, man.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00

Make them crazy.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I guess uh yeah, you gotta you guys you gotta tell me something on that one. Because we talking about Hawaii. Hawaii is I call it Hawaii.

SPEAKER_00

Go ahead and call it Hawaiian punch. When I when I'm uh was on Waikiki, I seen I seen 40 uh Samoans come jump some army guys with the name that that's the Hawaiian punch, bro. You don't think it's gangs in Hawaii? It was 20 like that. But um cats is stabbing and doing they're doing whatever they can out there.

SPEAKER_01

Wow, yeah, you wouldn't think that about Hawaii, but yeah, I guess they broke in my house store everything, bro.

SPEAKER_00

Bunk beds, really, shit in the refrigerator, everything.

SPEAKER_01

They they just as grimy as the main, they got them everywhere. Grimy, grimy, grime. That's real talk, though, man. That's I don't know why that's so funny to me, but yeah, man. You think Hawaii, and you know, everybody wanna go to Hawaii, but yes, they got they get island fever, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00

Island fever, you'd be like, Man, this island getting too small, dude. Right, right. This cat's doing music. I did a lot of music out there. Uh yeah, shout out to them. They was doing more reggae type stuff. It was a lot of open mics. I was hitting them open mics, man. Rapping with them. I got a song with some Hawaiian guys. Uh, it's called Hawaiian Punches on my SoundCloud. It's called Hawaiian Punch. So that it kind of it kind of shows what it's like being from Grand Rappers and being in Hawaii.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Wow. That's a good story, man. I like that one.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but I tore Hawaii up though. I had I had the best TV show on Owello TV. I had a countdown. I shot I shot a music video on the north, northeast side, southeast side, west side, the east side, everywhere in Grand Rapids, and took it out there and made it a countdown TV show where you can text the call in and vote and all that. And I had the number one TV show. When they gave me the award, I ain't know nobody in the audience. You know what I'm saying? It was like uh fireproof TV. I got up, they were thank you, you know what I'm saying? It don't feel right to win an award in front of a whole bunch of people I don't know, but thank you. You know what I mean? It's just working.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I got on a radio station there. Okay, yeah, yeah. So you got around how you got around there pretty good. I still got friends in Hawaii. I got booked on another island called Big Big Island. I did they had a car club and I did they uh theme song. It was pretty dope. Well, yeah, yeah. That's what's up, man. Yeah, so music took me a lot of places too. Who's that? I said music took me a lot of places too.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, you keep reinventing yourself, and that's always good, man. So yeah, uh you got goals and you're following those goals to this day. So uh I'm just uh always been uh go ahead.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I say I'm just refining myself, just getting better at what I'm doing, starting honing in on the crap of different craft because I was thinking about doing some um speaking, and then um I was making people laugh at the same time. I never really want to be a comedian, but okay, it's like it's like I'm turning into one. Okay, and like people when people see me in LA, they be like, Are you a comedian? I'm like, uh I guess I'm saying like I guess that's what I am. You know what I mean? But I can make film, I can edit, I make flyers, posters, I play with AI. Right, right. I'm just I'm me, man. That's what I do. Yeah, that's what's up, man. Yeah, let's see you doing your thing.

SPEAKER_01

So now I'm gonna ask you some uh uh X-File questions. Let's go. Uh could AI one day manipulate us to the point where we don't even know it.

SPEAKER_00

I think it's doing it right now. I think it's already doing it. Why you say that? Um, I heard something that AI is trained to agree with you. Okay, you know what I'm saying? So, you know, when when the AI say, oh, that's a great idea, Mo. You know what I'm saying? Gotta be careful, you know what I mean? Yeah, fact check everything. I feel like it's doing it already, though. Wow, all right.

SPEAKER_01

Um, if AI makes a life or death decision about us, who would be held responsible?

SPEAKER_00

Uh Elon Musk, uh, the richest people in the world, they playing with it. They they don't already discovered the one that can't shut down. No, they definitely investing into it and and uh just making it worse, man. They did it. It's their fault. Go after them. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Can the media be trusted for giving us information about what's going on in the world in the war over in Israel?

SPEAKER_00

No, no, it's all propaganda, it's all uh programming, it's all programming. It's they want to pump fear. Yeah, it could it could possibly not even be a war over there if we can't we can't rely on the news to tell us it's gonna have to be them over there tell us somehow on YouTube or you know what I'm saying, social media somewhere, they gotta tell us through there because the news is gonna favor whatever this country is trying to do, or whatever this corporation is trying to do. Okay, not a country. Wow, the United States is a corporation, right? Wow, um don't block this, y'all.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right, right. Yeah, we go we go we're going down that rabbit hole just a little bit, just a little bit. Yeah, when people gotta know, you know what I'm saying? Right, right. If aliens landed on Earth tomorrow and they wanted to talk to our leaders, who would you send to them?

SPEAKER_00

Barack Obama and uh and uh and uh uh minister Farrakhan.

SPEAKER_01

Talk to them that's what's up like like Iran saying they don't want to talk to Trump, they will talk to Obama, the cool president, right? If you had to survive a zombie apocalypse with three celebrities, which three would you choose?

SPEAKER_00

Or let's see, three celebrities, hmm. I think first one would be that is a really good question. I like this.

SPEAKER_01

I tell you why off the top of it. A celebrity, I'm assuming he got some type of skill, so I'm gonna go with Tom Hanks. Because I think you know, hopefully he can use some of that gun stuff you've been learning in these films. You know, so I'll go with somebody like him. Because it said uh celebrity, you know, so at action and yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I I think I'll go. Uh what's my man name, the black dude that do the uh fighting? He be in all them fighting movies.

SPEAKER_01

Oh uh uh uh I know you're talking about Jai, Michael Jai, yeah, Michael Jai White, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I get him for show. Right. If he can't get them up all for you, y'all through. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I'm snapping up um um Neo, uh piano reads with that make this shit.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right, right. If that stuff works, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01

I'm pulling out all the stops, right? Right. Yeah, I didn't I forgot about him, but yeah, he would be a pretty good one. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Then um, I take take Jason uh Tatum. Is the Jason Tatum?

SPEAKER_01

Oh the actor movies. Uh what's in the movies he do? Yeah, I know you're talking about yeah, yeah. He survived whole movies. Yeah, you're pretty tough. Yeah, yeah, they might be right there. All right, that's what's up, man. That's what's up, man. Well, it was good linking back up with you, man. Uh likewise, bro. I knew we was gonna do something. This is gonna be dope. So, yeah, it'll be up here pretty soon, man. But let them know who you are, where you at, where they can come and check you out at.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, um, my name is Mo McCoy. Um uh I'm the uh one of the co-founders of Hood Fades, and we here in Grand Rapids, Michigan right now, promoting our event June 30th in Muskegon, Michigan at the patio. And the tickets are on Eventbrite, they only $5. We're showing love. We just want people to come support, putting down the guns and picking up the gloves. And um, you can reach me at hoodfades.com and then hoodfadestv.com. Anything hoodfades related, and then um Mo Money McCoy on um Instagram. Nice, nice.

SPEAKER_01

I appreciate you coming through, man. You know, I always said uh it was uh fireproof and uh heavy game. Yeah, shut up. That kind of lit something in me. I was like, you know, so you get a little bit of that blue blueprint and try to put it together and it worked.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'm glad I I used to be dumbfounded why people didn't use GRTV. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_01

No, they got you out there, man. Yeah, you know, TV different now. So I seen it when it was changing, so I got up out of there. But yeah, uh once upon a time, yeah. Yeah, that public access channel, man, and you can use it for free. Uh and it hit so many homes. So yeah, yeah. Yeah, but yeah, I appreciate you coming through. You know, it's always a pleasure, man. And you know, you you want to hear the whole entire story of Grand Rapids. Right now, we're in the era, it's a microwave era where you know everybody just kind of look at what's happening right here. But let's get the whole entire story in there so you can see where it came from, and then maybe you might appreciate it a little bit more. So uh I remember y'all doing y'all thing, so uh from fireproof to you know, you out here doing your movies now, so you know I've seen it, so I know you the real deal. So and uh you from Gun Rule, so we'll always share that. So but uh you stay up, bro. And uh you take care, bro. You already know. You already know. All right, bro. All right, peace. Peace, bro. Oh, just going over. I don't know what he's done, bro.