Digital Studioz Podcast
Digital Studioz Podcast hosted by EL, Parrish and Jimmy Lennar The podcast where you never know what you will hear .
Digital Studioz Podcast
Director's Cut: The Rock Davis Story..
In this powerful episode of The Digital Studioz Podcast, EL and Parrish sit down with legendary filmmaker Rock Davis—the man behind the lens of some of your favorite music videos and film projects. From humble beginnings in Jersey to directing visuals for P. Diddy, Mary J. Blige, DJ Khaled, Wu-Tang Clan, and Nas, Rock shares the untold story of how a childhood spark turned into a global career. He talks creativity, setbacks, family, and the real hustle behind the camera. Plus, hear his thoughts on the state of filmmaking, working with his wife, and what it was like filming in Ghana, Egypt to name a few
If you love real stories, industry gems, and a little laughter—this one's for you.
You
SPEAKER_00:like?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You like? Yeah, I'm hype. You ever seen hype, hype, hype?
SPEAKER_02:How hype you want me to get, though? What's your name? My name is Parrish. There we go. That's who I am.
SPEAKER_00:All right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well guys, today for our show we have a film producing extraordinaire on our hands. He has done films, he's made movies, he's been behind the scenes of a lot of things that we actually have been watching and we didn't know. A lot of our favorite videos, some of our favorite movies. This man has been behind it. He hails from New Jersey. Yeah, he's a city boy and he's Yeah, what's up, man? What's going on? Nothing much, nothing
SPEAKER_01:much.
SPEAKER_03:We got Rock Davis on the line. Yes,
SPEAKER_01:sir.
SPEAKER_03:How's everything?
SPEAKER_01:Good, good. He's out here trying to, you know, be a creator, you know. There
SPEAKER_03:you go. There you go.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he's out here, man. You know, living a filmmaker's life. It's a decent life. Decent
SPEAKER_00:lifestyle. Oh, man. Oh, man. Well, everybody, this is Rock Davis, Paris. Yes. Please list some of the things this guy
SPEAKER_01:has done. How are you?
SPEAKER_02:Hi, how are you? Good,
SPEAKER_01:good. Good to hear from you.
SPEAKER_02:You as well. Let's see. Mr. Davis has done a good bit of work here looking at his portfolio. He's worked with a good list of people that I see here. P. Diddy. Mary J. Blige.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:DJ Khaled. That's a big
SPEAKER_01:one.
SPEAKER_02:Wu-Tang
SPEAKER_03:Clan. Yes, sir. Nice. A bunch of others. Oh, man. Oh, man. The list goes on, doesn't it? Yeah, it's a good portfolio. What's up, man? Well, we're going to start a little early, a little Rock Davis days, and then we're going to get up until where you're at now, what you got going on now.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_03:Tell the people where you grew up.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, well, I'm a New Jersey native. Okay. I got into the film business or I got sparked by my father. My father used to interview public figures back in New Jersey and North, Exeter County College, back in the early 80s. And during the summertime, we used to come as kids, come on set and see him operate for us, directing the telecast. And I was a kid and I would come on set. I'd be like, wow, this don't look like work, but people are having a good time. You know, you got the cameras set up, got people getting mic'd up, you know, the lighting and stuff like that. So I said, uh, I was just trying to take the easy way out because I remember being a kid. Everybody asked me, what you going to be when you grow up? You know, it was a, it was a thing back then. It was like younger in the eighties. Like you got to get out of this, you know, you know, try and make something of yourself. And, um, I was just trying to find an easy way out, I guess. And I saw that being on set as a film, film world. Uh, I thought it was fun and I was trying to do something that was fun. And, um, I took it to my father and I just kind of took it to the next level. So, Oh, wow. I credit my father on that whole process of becoming a filmmaker. That's great. That's great. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:How big of a filmmaker was he?
SPEAKER_01:It was local. It was because at the time, it was stuff that he had going on. He was teaching a summer program at Jackson County College, a film department, like Video 101. Okay. And it was him being a teacher in a sense.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, okay, that's
SPEAKER_01:great. Yeah, so I just took that, and he would bring all the equipment home, the stuff that they weren't using, and he would play with it at home. He did how to use the camera, he did how to do the video switcher, hook it up to the TV, and all this other stuff, record and all that. So it was just something to do, and it was fun at the time. Oh, wow. And I said, yeah. Did you make your
SPEAKER_03:own videos when you... You put the record button on and
SPEAKER_01:you
SPEAKER_03:turn Biz Markie on and you sing the words to it. You did
SPEAKER_01:that? Yeah, stuff like that. You know what's funny? I had something like that similar from our video production class last And I always tell the story. I remember I was in video one-on-one and my college was starting out or whatever. And my teachers asked all the students, like, what do you want to do when you grow up? Obviously, you know, once you graduate this film course and blah, blah, blah. And all these people would get up. They were like, yeah, I want to be a film producer in LA. You want to do this? Other people, I want to direct these big videos. And I kept it real. I was like, I just want to go back to my hood and shoot music videos. And then after that day, everybody looked at me like I was like, oh shit, I want to see what he's talking about because I was keeping it real. You know what I'm saying? I was trying to keep it honest as possible because I didn't really think a kid from North, whatever, would be fresh out of college, whatever, doing, you know, directing big films. It just didn't happen that way. You know, you had to put the work in and, you know, hit the ground running and stuff like that. So I stayed true to that and it got me to where I am now. You know, so I feel blessed that I said something and then I accomplished it and still got ways to go and, you know, follow my dream. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You definitely did that. I've seen music videos from, you know, They're probably locals to you, Redman, Lords of the Undergrounds,
SPEAKER_01:Well Do It All. I've seen a handful. Redman, Let's Go to Clean My Teeth, Naughty by Nature was one of my favorites. Been on tour with them. A lot of independent artists, a lot of the big artists, so I always try to keep my one foot in the industry and one foot out of it so I don't feel like I'm trapped in it. And the beauty of it too, my wife, she's the producer of all my work. I direct and she produces. It's someone I trust. I get to go to sleep at night. I always like to say, when I do my work, I'm not worrying about all the BS on the business side of it because she does all the business for me. So it works out like a perfect marriage. That's dope. When it comes to the film producing aspect of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sorry to have a kid to marry the whole other animal, but we'll make
SPEAKER_02:it work. Smart man.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Dead on, dead on. And you know what? I was going to bring that up saying later on, letting people know that you're super... family orientated on the set.
SPEAKER_03:I've, I've seen a lot of times where I've seen you saying you guys are in Dubai, basically, you know, in Dubai one week and probably two weeks later, you guys are filming something in Jersey together and you know,
SPEAKER_01:and
SPEAKER_03:that's,
SPEAKER_01:and that's, that's dope. That's dope. That's super dope. Yeah, man. Yeah. I'm fortunate, you know what I'm saying? The sense of, uh, I'm in, well, I guess the word, I guess the word I'm looking for is like in charge of my time, if that makes sense. Yeah. You know, I think we all try to follow career paths that kind of get you, that freedom of like you control your time, whatever that is you do. And, you know, I'm trying to juggle all that. It's not the easiest thing, but I'm managing being an entrepreneur. It's not the easiest thing. I see why people want to do it, but a lot of people don't do it.
SPEAKER_03:Right, right. And it's not easy. It's not easy
SPEAKER_01:at all.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:yeah so that's where I'm at with it you know just trying to keep the family together at the same time you know just trying to have a little career that's going back and forth jumping in and out of rounds with that stuff that's great
SPEAKER_02:so coming into the industry as a director what were some of your setbacks
SPEAKER_01:um some of the oh okay yeah I like that so that's a great question because I don't really want to call them setbacks, if you will. They're just learning experiences. I noticed when I first came into the game, I always had a partner. I would have somebody that would be going back and forth with ideas and stuff like that. And as I got older, I started to realize we're two grown people trying to have the same idea and trying to do the same thing. I've learned that For me going further, I would like to have a network of people opposed to just partnering up with people. Because there's a lot of egos involved with that stuff. People want to be the one that's right all the time and stuff like that. And I was managing that for a while. But then I smartened up back in 2017. And I parted ways with all the people that I was in business with. And I wanted to take a crack at it for myself. I've been doing the film thing for a while. I always had a partner. Always was in bed with certain people doing certain things, whatever, but now, let me just try to do it myself. And it's been better that way. So I guess you can call that a setback. It's like learning to try to work with people all day, every day, constantly bouncing ideas back and forth instead of knowing what you want to do on your own and kind of grabbing it by the neck and kind of going with it. So that's what I've been kind of doing lately. It's kind of been self-absorbed and doing things that I want to do creatively. That's dope. I guess that's a setback because I did have a lot of issues with that. A lot of great times, a lot of bad times, but there were some setbacks included in that. If I answered your question. You
SPEAKER_00:did.
SPEAKER_01:That's dope.
SPEAKER_00:I'm like you. I don't call it a setback either. I call it probably hurdles.
SPEAKER_01:Everybody
SPEAKER_00:goes through those hurdles.
SPEAKER_01:That's dope. That's dope. These are great questions. Thank you. Like I said, because it gets me thinking about, you know, the path that I'm on and things I accomplished and some of the setbacks, obviously, and, you know, just trying to juggle it all together to kind of make sense of it all, you know? That's dope. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So if there was anything that you could change from your childhood to adulthood about your life, what would it be?
UNKNOWN:Hmm.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, wow. You know what's funny about that question? I think a lot of people will always say, I mean, it sounds cliche, but I wouldn't change a thing because we are who we are. Things are what they are. So it's a difficult question. I mean, I would like to have the perfect answer. But honestly, I would say that's the beauty of the question. It's a good question. I don't really know how to answer that because I feel like everything that I've done, like certain things that, uh, certain things that happened, certain things that didn't happen that led to another thing, stuff like that. So I really want to change anything because if I change anything, maybe everything will be like different. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If I change one thing, maybe that'll change the course of everything. Yeah. That's
SPEAKER_00:like
SPEAKER_01:the time machine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a beautiful question. It's a beautiful question, but I just don't know how to answer that.
SPEAKER_00:That's
SPEAKER_01:dope. Yeah. I guess I'm saying I wouldn't change anything.
SPEAKER_00:There
SPEAKER_01:you go. There you go. keep going and see how it turns out. You know, I
SPEAKER_03:think, I think that's, that's a, that's a great question. I really, I look at something like that and I say, maybe I would have learned something more when I was younger or something like that, but shoot, there's no right or wrong answer
SPEAKER_02:to that.
SPEAKER_01:It's not. Yeah. That's dope. That's
SPEAKER_03:dope. Well, name some of these artists that you have worked with so that people know.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Well, um, well, I'm born and raised in New Jersey. I've been fortunate enough to do all the Jersey legends. Besides Shaquille O'Neal, because he's not really an artist, but I work with Redman, work with Naughty by Nature, work with Clean My Tifa, obviously all the boys on the ground, a lot of independent artists out here. Um, on a, um, on a global scale as far as like outside of Jersey, uh, you know, from the top, they dealt with Diddy, the Cowards, the Nodders, the Mary J. Blodgers, the Wu-Tangs, uh, you know, like even some of the current people that's like popular, like the Lil Durks and, uh, B-Loves, the A-Boogies and all these, you know, all these big artists and stuff like that. So I've been fortunate enough, um, and I gotta give credit, uh, My team, my wife, Josie, who's producer, and my man, Nigel Towie, he's like a moving, shaking industry. But he knows a lot of people. So all these big artists was on the strength of him kind of believing in me and said, this is my guy. You need to let him do something. And it worked out. He's always been a man of his word. And, you know, things have always been materialized. And when he said he's going to do something, he makes it happen for it. So I got to give a lot of credit to my guy, Nigel Talley, and my wife, Jody, for producing a lot of good things for us.
SPEAKER_00:That's dope. Hey, you got to give credit to that baby. That baby's all over right now.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's a good thing. And I got to give credit to my older partner. When I first started, my partner, Alex Patel, and then my partner, Jay Rodriguez from ET House. We have a former company called ET House. I kind of parted ways from that, but we do a lot of good things together as well. So I definitely got to give him credit. He was a big part of my life in the film business. I definitely want to shout those guys out. Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. They did a lot of awesome stuff. I know...
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was us. We did all the rap battles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. There was Arson. Arson's another one that's a big part of my career because, you know, he's from Jersey, North, whatever. And he's probably still one of the top three, like, most viewed battle rappers in the history. Yeah,
SPEAKER_03:definitely.
SPEAKER_01:Definitely. Yeah, yeah. So we got to, you know, we got to give our hats off to these people that's out here doing their thing. Yeah, yeah. Big step into all these people. North, it was great. A lot of these good people that I kind of came in the game with. That's dope. Yeah. That's dope. And the piggyback of what you said about my son, whatever. So, I came up with the idea to have a logo, right? Uh-huh. And the first logo I had was me holding some kind of contraption. It's like a ring thing. Yeah. And then I thought it was cool. I said, cool. But a lot of people ask, like, what is that? Like, I see it's a man, but what does another thing got going on? Right? Yeah. So my wife surprised me one day on my birthday with the new logo of my son, like, holding our camera. Yeah. And it just popped out a little bit more. So now we're going with that logo as the main logo because... he had no thinking ahead and said, okay, that was okay, but let me try to do some of my own. And he came up with that. So I give her credit for that as well. That one is dope too. It's like a cartoon
SPEAKER_03:feel to it. A
SPEAKER_01:cartoon. Yes, sir. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people told me that, like he kind of gives me that vibe. And that's one of my favorite shows too. And then when it was on, it was a lot of eye opening topics that I kind of gravitated to.
SPEAKER_00:What's your favorite episode
SPEAKER_01:then? It's been a while. I mean, you'll get me lying, but if I remember the detail, what episode was this? But it was a lot of gems in that show.
SPEAKER_03:It definitely was. It
SPEAKER_01:definitely
SPEAKER_00:was. Let's see what else we got. Have you worked with any artists that were just basically a local artist and end up being a
SPEAKER_01:lot bigger, you know, more mainstream artists? Well, I mean, yeah, so... As we spoke before, Arsene or whatever, Arsene is one of the guys that took his career being a battle rapper, becoming obviously an MC, and obviously opening his own league and stuff like that. So that kind of propels him to do bigger things and stuff like that. But to be truthful, it's been a lot of... I've shot so many artists. And to be truthful, it's kind of hard.
UNKNOWN:So...
SPEAKER_01:I feel like, you know, obviously I always say one step in, one foot in, one foot out. Like I dealt with a big artist and I dealt with a lot of locals, a lot of independent artists, whatever. Like sometimes that's all it's going to be for the independent artist, sad
SPEAKER_00:to
SPEAKER_01:say. You know what I'm saying? Like I want, you want people to propel and do their thing, whatever, but it's only so many slots in the public eye that you can kind of take on, you know? So let's think about this. Like right now, it's three of us on the phone, but it's three of us talking, whatever. But just imagine how many rappers, and how many filmmakers, whatever. It's probably more filmmakers than rappers now.
SPEAKER_03:You're right. Oh,
SPEAKER_01:you definitely. Yeah. Based on the camera, the commodities of having cameras. It's so easy to get a camera to get your idea out there. Like there's so many filmmakers. So imagine how many rappers it is, whatever. And then, you know, you got the social media stuff. It's like, it's only so much than a consumer or a viewer or audience can take in. You're right. Imagine, imagine us, we had to consume all this stuff. Like, yo, In your town, you got 70 rappers you're going to listen to tonight. Check all that stuff out. In your town, you got to take out another 200 rappers. You're like, bro, I don't have enough time in the day to even do that stuff. So imagine that based on the whirlwind for social media, the big networks, whatever, the video stations, the YouTubes and all that. It's just so much stuff floating around. I can't keep a gas on everything. It's a lot.
SPEAKER_00:With that being said, do you think basically
SPEAKER_01:not the industry, but do you think it's oversaturated with, you know, filmmakers or just guys? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. In every industry. I mean, it's, uh, I want to, um, I want to blame it and I want to, um, no, I don't want to say blame. Blame is a bad word. Um, I want to say, uh, credit, uh, the technology because, you know, let's start from the beginning. You know, you shot on film, you know, you got to get the film developed and you have to take a week to get it back. Or like, like even photography. When I first started, I was in a dark world. You know, this stuff had to take, this stuff took a while for it to get in your hand and say, oh, wow, look at this image or look at this film or blah, blah, blah. But now you take your phone, take a picture, put it on Instagram, color correct it, blah, blah, blah, put a caption on it. And now you're on top of the world. Oh
SPEAKER_03:man. And you know what? I'm, I'm a photographer. So, Yeah, you know that. Years ago, I would look at it. It was like, man, why are these phones not so much better now? Oh, they shot that on their phone. It looks better than my regular camera.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, sir. It's weird,
SPEAKER_03:man. Yeah, I got discouraged at one point. I was like, I was a little upset, but then I was like, you know what? Creativity is not going to help their
SPEAKER_01:career. Yeah. The camera's not going to help their career. It's all about... The creativity is an idea. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, so I feel good that people feel like they can get their ideas out because when we were younger watching movies, you'd say, wow, imagine you doing something like that. Imagine being a part of something like that. It seems so far-fetched because the technology wasn't there at the time. But now that it's here, whatever, so I do love the fact that people can get their ideas out. If they're thinking about whatever, if they got the time to do it and knock it out real quick, They can put something out and put something together quickly if it's done the right way. You know what I'm saying? So I do love that aspect of
SPEAKER_00:it. You're right. You're right. So
SPEAKER_02:speaking
SPEAKER_01:of... Because we're all creative in some degree, you know? Yeah, you're right. I feel like we're all creative in some degree, so... Speaking of creativity... I'm sorry. Say that again. Sorry.
SPEAKER_02:Speaking of creativity, what's your top five video
SPEAKER_01:shoots? Ah, that's fine. Wow. I wish I would have wrote that down. Wow. That's good. Great question. I love it. I love it. I love it. We like stumping people. That's why we got this button. I love it. I love it. Because you know what's funny? Because a lot of times I don't think about what I'm doing. I'm always working and trying to get stuff done. I never had time to think about these questions or whatever. So this is beautiful for me because it gets me thinking. Oh, wow. Before you answer it, I have to say,
SPEAKER_03:one of my favorites from you has to be, I don't know if you remember, I even contacted you and had you send me the snippet of this video, Ghostface Condition, I think it was.
SPEAKER_01:Condition? Oh, yeah, yeah. That was a fun time. That was my first time dealing with ghosts, too. Oh, man, that's one of my favorites. That's one of my favorites. I love the whole group. I can name five artists. How about if I name an artist? There's a couple of videos I did for one artist, a very varied video for one artist. If I could name the five artists, that would probably give me a better perspective on things. Yeah, go ahead. I got two independent artists that I love that I deal with. One guy, my man Nico, I kind of came in the game with. Nico got me hot because Nico had a lot of good music. And so in turn, the bills were dope because his music was dope. Oh, okay. A guy named Nico and my boy Vertical Jones, there's another guy, whatever it's called, became my muse, whatever it is, artist that had dope music and I did a lot of dope bills for him. And the Ghostface thing is one, so I'm going to put that down as three. The Calibri that we did for him was called Never Surrender. It's one of my favorites. DJ Khaled because I'll tell you the reason why because that was the first time I believe in Jersey we can take credit for being my partner Jay Rodriguez we can take credit for this and it was the first time that we had all these local artists acting in the music video and all the big artists performing in the big video to make the storyline of this one song called Never Surrender so when you get a chance just type in DJ Khaled Never Surrender you'll see all the bigger artists from Jersey acting And all the big artists like Meek Mill, Ross, Scarface at the time, David Kiss, and Howard C. Callaghan, whatever, Anthony Hamilton, John Legend, they're all on this song. And then I got all these independent artists acting in the video. So I merged those two worlds together. And it was a big deal. Oh, wow. And at the time, I think it was back 2013-ish, it was the longest video on MTV. It was seven minutes and 30 seconds playing every hour. What? Oh, man. A seven-minute video. Yeah, yeah, so... If you go on YouTube, you can check it out. I'll text it to you so you have it. Yeah, definitely. But that was a big moment for
SPEAKER_00:us. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:So he beat Michael Jackson's We Are The World. I
SPEAKER_01:don't know. I don't know. But, you know, seven and a half minutes. Yeah. It was playing. I don't know how long it was. Every hour. I remember it was playing every hour on the hour when it was out. Oh,
SPEAKER_03:man. I
SPEAKER_01:knew you. It was a big deal. Oh, yeah. I knew you. Yeah, it was a big deal. And that was four. That's four. Uh-huh. And five. Uh... Ah, man, so many. Oh, okay. Well, I'll say that the thing I did for Nas and Mary J. Blige, because back in 2019, they went on a tour called the Royalty Tour, Mary J. Blige and Nas. Oh, wow. It was the summer of 2019 or whatever. And I got a chance to direct their intro before they came up on stage. It was like a two and a half minute piece. I can see that too. I can picture all these people. Yeah,
SPEAKER_03:definitely. I'm going to check
SPEAKER_01:this out. It was a big deal. And then, um, when they, when they came to the prevention center and when they came to the practice center, I was there both nights or whatever. I mean, you know, just to see your work on a big jumbotron and like 50,000 people watching your joint. It was amazing. You seen it live. It was a big deal. People cheering and stuff like that. It was a, It was a feat for me because growing up, Mary was that one and I was not with that one as well. So to have both of them at the same time was a blessing in disguise for me. That's great. That's dope.
SPEAKER_03:And you know what? I want to go back to this Ghostface thing. You said that's
SPEAKER_01:the first time? Yeah, Ghostface is one of my favorite characters of all time.
SPEAKER_00:That's the first time you worked with them and you connected to Staten Island. You know that, right? Like you're right across the water.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Red Man's there, not to put his business out there, Red Man's over there. And I want to shout out my man Remedy for that. My man Remedy's a good guy, whatever. My man Remedy Wolf, he's a good people over there that kind of connected the shot with all that. He
SPEAKER_03:was
SPEAKER_01:in that video too, yeah. Yeah, yeah, good people, real good people. I call him a friend.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you know, I'm from Staten Island and you know my cousin. You know my cousin, you know, Ike Stapleton.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. That's what cousins. Oh man. When you was out working in, uh, I think it was Miami. That's when I had reached out to you about working with you. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Um, that is dope, man. It's, We got so many questions we can come up with. Yeah. Yeah, I'm here, man. I'm not doing that. I'm here. Don't worry. We got a quiz for you now. Oh, I love that.
SPEAKER_03:I love that. So you can get somebody near you if you need to cheat and ask some questions. Don't
SPEAKER_01:look. No, no, no. I'll go ahead. Come on. Come on. Come on. Wipe the kid in there. They'll know. I'm about over there watching TV. Don't be distracted. All right. Name. That's Jeopardy. That's amazing. That's Jeopardy for him? Yes. That's
SPEAKER_00:fire.
SPEAKER_02:He does Yeah,
SPEAKER_00:I try to stump everybody that come on the show. I try to hit them
SPEAKER_03:with a crazy question. Well, your first question is going to be name three. Let's see. Hold on. Let me see how I'm going to word this. Name three cameos that was in the Remember the Time video.
SPEAKER_01:There you go. And
SPEAKER_03:you know what? That's my three that I had too. All right. You got that one. I got a hard one for you. I know you're a film person,
SPEAKER_00:so you've probably seen a lot of local stuff. You've seen earlier stuff.
SPEAKER_03:1993. The movie
SPEAKER_01:Strapped. You remember Strapped? Name three cameos that was in that movie. I don't, I don't, I don't really know. So I remember a bouquet. One bar was the main character, right? Yep. He was, I'll give you, I'll give you a, I don't know. I don't remember that movie so much. I remember, I remember, I remember watching it. I don't remember the cameo. If you said who's the man, I don't know. I don't want to wrap up to that one. Look,
SPEAKER_03:you know what? I thought about who's the man. And I thought
SPEAKER_01:about it. That's easy though. That's easy. Wow. Wow. Cameo. Yeah, exactly. I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you, let me, Okay, go ahead. I'm going to give you one. Give me one, and then it'll probably refresh my memory. Fredro. Fredro was with... Fredro, obviously, yeah, Fredro. There you go. He was one of the main actors in the show, right? Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Was Tretch in it? I was still Tretch in it. Maybe he wasn't. Probably not. Let me think. I don't know, because Tretch... I know Tretch was having all these movies back then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He definitely popped up in everything. He was even in Juke. I know he was in Jason's Lyrics. That was my favorite character. Yeah. That was my favorite character. You got to know that one because I just forgot. It's been so long since I've seen that. I'm going to name a couple of them. Chi Ali. Chi Ali was in it. Oh, man. Chi Ali. Wow. And Busta Rhymes. Busta Rhymes. Das FX. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's all coming to me now. You know what? I'm going to go on YouTube. It was a good movie. I just don't remember. It was. It was. All right. Last question. This is a big one. You got to get this one. I can't help you out. You got to get it because you are in Jersey. You're a Jersey... How do you say it? A Jersey
SPEAKER_00:knight? He's a
SPEAKER_02:Jersey native. A Jersey
SPEAKER_01:native? A Jersey native, I guess. There you go. All right.
SPEAKER_03:This should be easy then. Name three Queen Latifah movies. Hold on. Since you got quiet. Hold on.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. No, no. I just made me think. Okay. So, Chicago's one. Oh, okay. That was a good one. I was sleeping. So, I'll shut it off. Okay. Two. And then, that's the point I'm watching now. I'm watching that right now. Okay. And then she played in Winterfell too. Ah, way to excel. There you go. You got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But there's other ones too. I'm mad. There's other great ones too she was in. There was the one with Carmen. I didn't even know the name. The one with Carmen she was in. That was a good one. Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Wright. I would be doing Equalizer, the show. Equalizer, yeah. I actually had a chance to work with her in L.A. one time. I was doing a song called God Is Us. And she was singing on it. And that's the first time we met her. And that was an amazing environment. She was mad cool. Oh, that's dope. Yeah, so that was dope. Me and her. It was real good. Okay. Well, you got that one. I'm going to give you that one. I'm going to give you that one. She was his mother. What's her name? She's the one with what's my man's name? Jimmy Fallon, the cab driver. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I think that was Taxi. Taxi
SPEAKER_01:driver. Like I said, because All that popped in my head. I just remember the title. Yeah. It all popped in my head. So I had about seven, eight in my head. Beauty shop. Beauty shop is. Beauty shop. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.
SPEAKER_02:Steel Magnolia.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, for real? Steel Magnolia. Yeah. I got girls trip. Girl's Trip, the newest one. Girl's Trip was fun. Oh, man, I forgot. How could I forget that one? Yeah, that one was a good one. That was funny. That was a good one, yeah. Yeah. All right. All right. You on your P's and Q's. P's and Q's. Yeah, so I've been quiet about it. I mean, I promoted some of it, whatever, but I'm finally getting everything locked in. September 29th, Thursday, the third of the evening, I'm premiering my feature film for the first time. It's Shaq Theater in Norfolk. Oh, wow. I see y'all on the trailer right now when we get off this call. Oh, definitely. It's going to be a big deal. I've been quiet about it, but at the beginning of September, I'm going to start putting all the promotional material out for the trailer and screening and all that good stuff. If you don't mind, we'll post it up also. I mean... Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's going to be a big deal. It's going to be everywhere. All the people that see the movie... all the people that's behind it. Actually, my guy, I'll tell you, he actually hit me today, but y'all need to send me the trailer. I got to meet with somebody. He didn't ever tell me, but he's around so many people, so it's always a good thing when he asks and stuff like that. Oh, that's dope. We're trying to get it sold, hopefully. If not, we'll probably self-distribute it ourselves. But we feel good about it. It's about a kid trying to get a film done. So it's what I know. Oh, wow. And I kind of dramatized it, so it's going to be fun. Oh, wow, man. You'll see the trailer. You'll see the trailer. That's dope.
SPEAKER_03:That messes up one of my questions. I had a question that I was going to ask you. If you was able to do a short film movie, name three of the people in the industry
SPEAKER_01:that you would add to the movie itself. I mean, say that again. Name three people that you would like to have in the film? That you would like, yep. Okay, okay, okay. That's a great, okay. I like... Wow, give me a second on that. That's a good one, that's a good one. Go ahead. I like the guy from Snowfall. Oh, yeah. That's an easy one. What's his name? Well, I couldn't remember. Dimson or something like that, Dimson.
SPEAKER_03:That's the main character?
SPEAKER_01:The
SPEAKER_03:young guy?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like him a lot. I like his temperament.
SPEAKER_03:I just found out he had a British accent.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. No, no. He's from there. Yeah. I
SPEAKER_03:didn't know that. I didn't know
SPEAKER_01:that. I like the... What's the... Not Key and... Jordan Peele. What's the other one? What's the other one's name? Key? The other one. Key and Peele. Yeah, yeah. Is it Key? Key. Yeah, Key and Peele. Yeah, I'm so bad with names.
SPEAKER_00:I am too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like that guy a lot. Everything he does on Magic, he's always going to be a character for you. Oh, that's dope. A character for you. And then, I'm going to get a shemo on it because there's a lot of dope shemos I see all the time. I just love the name. It's so bad. Yeah. Oh, what's her name? The girl, Jess. She's a comedian. Yeah. Oh, Jess Hilarious. What's her name? What's her name? What is her name? Jess Hilarious. Yeah. Yo, yo. She's like, she's like, you know, she's super like on point with her craft. It's amazing to me. Every time I go to a page, I laugh all the time. And it's not like sports. Like, she knows how to get that out of you. Man, you know what? So, so, so Jess, it's the Dimson guys, the guys, those are the three guys I would love to work with to see them in that space. Wow. To see them on set or see them on the set or something. I would love to see them three.
SPEAKER_03:Man,
SPEAKER_01:that's dope. Those are my three.
SPEAKER_03:That's dope because you know what? Most people have been like, I
SPEAKER_01:want
SPEAKER_03:to
SPEAKER_01:use. That's cool. It's great. That's amazing. Fine. There's so much other talent out here.
SPEAKER_03:It is. That's the super humbleness in you, man. That's dope. You can't get no better
SPEAKER_01:answer than that one. Yeah, those are the three. I like those three. And he
SPEAKER_02:has the power to make it happen. We'll be
SPEAKER_01:looking. Yeah, exactly. I feel like it's attainable. You know what I mean?
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So, like, it's attainable, you know?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, man. You blew my mind with that
SPEAKER_01:one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You
SPEAKER_01:blew my mind. Yeah, because, you know, I would say they're all three different people from different angles of the industry. And, you know, I would say some bigger than others or whatever, but it's just a perfect match with people that I like. Yeah. They don't necessarily have to be the top of the top, but because, you know what I'm saying? I feel like there's a lot of cliche stuff. Like, when we talk about art, everybody wants to go to the top of it. Like, there's so much art out here that's super dope that never gets to the mainstream. So, if you tap it in that kind of stuff, like, it kind of shows me that you're a true artists. Name out the particulars and the regulars and, you know, the pop culture ones that's so easy to name. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. You know what? That's super
SPEAKER_03:dope about you. I really salute that because, you know what, I'll let the people know this. You have filmed Dubai... Any
SPEAKER_01:way you can think
SPEAKER_03:of, you've been there
SPEAKER_01:filming. So can I name all the places I've been to? Because I'm proud of that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:definitely. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_03:You've basically filmed everywhere and with everyone. And I can remember you definitely were put in a second on social media that if you're in Jersey right now
SPEAKER_00:and you want to come help out with this locks video, boom.
SPEAKER_01:And you don't see that with, you know, people of your caliber at all. Yeah, you're right. I remember that time, too. It's funny you said that. I remember that time we had a gang of people in North Dakota. I'll never forget. I don't know what you're
SPEAKER_03:talking about. Yeah, man. Yeah. And that's super. That's big. I look at that as a real humble person could do that. Because you can
SPEAKER_01:easily go... And that was the first time in my life that death happened to my immediate family. Like your mother, father, brother, sister, whatever. I call it the immediate family. So I would say I had other deaths in family. Uncles, you know, whatever. Grandmoms, grandpas, all that good stuff. I've seen death, whatever. But seeing it firsthand, like somebody that you looked up to, like your father, whatever. So that made me humble back in 2009. Because... you know, I'm younger back then when I was running around, whatever, but, you know, I'm not learning much, whatever, but then when that happened to me, I got real humble. Yeah. I got real humble. That's what shaped everything up for me. I was like, oh, this is real. Like, you think everything is one way, but this could happen in a heartbeat, then it's over. That's, yeah. You know what I'm saying? So, that's what made me realize, like, wow, all this stuff ain't really, ain't really too gassed me. Like, you really can't be too gassed about anything. Yes. Just tell her, like, you know, just tell her, do what you do, whatever. Try to help people out at the same time. So, I try to, I try to do that all the time, anything I do. Kind of like it's in my head. That's dope. Because I always feel like if I'm the only one having a good time, and I got a bunch of people around me that's not having a good time, that's not a good feeling. So I want everybody to feel good about, you know, if you're in my space, I want you to feel good that you're here. You feel good that you're right here right now with the environment we're in. So I try to create that on my steps and stuff like that. Yeah, man. That's super
SPEAKER_03:dope. I got one more question for you. Okay. I'm going to let Paris torture you a little bit before we let you go.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love her question. Bring them on. She got me thinking.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, there you go. What's the biggest video budget have you worked on that you have worked
SPEAKER_01:on? Okay, so... Um, the biggest budget to date, uh, was there, was that, uh, the thing we did for, uh, the marriage, your body mountains, 170. Oh yeah. So, so, so, so, so my phone, we did, and they came out to like one 20, a good friend of mine. Uh, not, not to put the business out there, but who cares? Like he gave me 60, I'll put up 30. And then, um, I edited all the equity and ask about like another 30, uh, So that's about$120 for my film. And then the biggest budget for that little two and a half million promo is like$170. Oh, wow. I mean, that's big, but it's a prime example. A good friend of mine who's a video commissioner for Atlantic, my man Kareem Johnson, he said the video with Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B, the WAP video. Yeah. WAP, I don't want to say, you know, I don't want to say the other stuff, but, you know. We know what you're talking about. Don't follow him up. That was down, that was down$190,000. Wow.
UNKNOWN:What?
SPEAKER_01:For that? Wow, it was crazy. Yeah, that budget was crazy. He said, because of the COVID stuff too, it was like four days on set. It was a lot of, you know, it was a lot of money being spent. Oh, wow. It was a lot of days. So, and I was doing COVID and all that, so he said that was like$190,000 or whatever. And that's kind of high for today's today's market. Yeah, it is. It is. Cause
SPEAKER_03:everybody got a
SPEAKER_01:camera now. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, but, um, I can't even imagine the hype win days, you know, they talk about me and all the budgets and Diddy stuff. Exactly. So I always pride myself with having a chance to work with Diddy because, you know, he didn't, he was, uh, you know, he was the king of all that. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Shooting the big videos and all that big stuff, whatever. So I was fortunate enough to actually put my camera in his face, you know, so I felt good about that. Wow. Wow. Man. Yeah, he, He trusted us. Like, oh, I trust y'all. I do all the big shit. And then blah, blah, blah. Okay, who are these guys? Okay, cool. You say what it is. I like what they do. Let's do it.
SPEAKER_00:Hold on. Hold on for a second. Let me go get this. Don't worry. I got to grab a pen and write these people down that you had.
SPEAKER_01:donate. Who's these
SPEAKER_03:people that you had donated? Because we need some funds over here. Let me write this
SPEAKER_00:down.
SPEAKER_03:I'll just mess
SPEAKER_00:with
SPEAKER_01:you. It's been a whirlwind. I feel like I'm younger now because I did every video. Now, Coming to September, I'm trying to venture over to more narrative stuff. I feel like a new kid in that. Oh, wow. That's great. I'm excited about trying to conquer that arena. Man. How much is
SPEAKER_03:100
SPEAKER_01:in?
SPEAKER_02:That's a lot of
SPEAKER_01:money. 170 is decent, but 999 is a lot. That's almost a million. A million dollars.
SPEAKER_02:Just for
SPEAKER_01:that. Well, go ahead, Paris.
SPEAKER_02:They would have been upset with me. In charge of that. All right, Mr. Davis, um, name your least five favorite video shoots.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, uh, I mean, you know, it would be true, but it's a lot of the independent stuff because, um, sad to say, you know, a lot of independent artists are like budget constrained. Uh-huh. So they had these big ideas, but sometimes they don't have a lot of money to do it. Yeah. So it's a lot of that. So honestly, I, I can give you the top 50. Because there's so many, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, don't name them. Yeah, there's so many. And it'd be hard for you to name that because there's so many that I feel bad for, you know what I'm saying? They try and they want to feel bad, but we are who we are. You are who you are in this game. That makes sense. Yeah. It's impossible, in fact, because there's so many.
SPEAKER_02:Well, we'll let you slide on that particular. So since we're going to let you slide on that one. What was your favorite video shoot location since you've been all over? What's your
SPEAKER_01:favorite? Oh, okay. That's a good one. That's a good one. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, yeah. As far as for me, okay. As far as the grittiness to me, we shot a video in Ghana. And what is this artist? This artist was a reggae artist, whatever. But, you know, he was popular in the country. And he took us back to like original, original hood. Oh, wow. And when I tell you, man, like, you know, you see the story of, like, you know, the Hutch and the Shanty housing with the metal and, you know, in between, going in between, like, corners in here and dipping into now, like, there's sewage everywhere. But it's still livable, but it's gritty. It's super gritty. And for me, for me just to be out there in Ghana, like, in the West Africa shooting, and a lot of, like, a lot of my, a lot of us don't go there. A lot of us think, Africa is like going to space because I'll never forget the first time I'm going out there and me and my mentor, someone, Davis, he came back. He said, yo, we should do like a quick little documentary. So we started it. So we're asking people that was here in Jersey, like, yo, what do you think about going to Africa or whatever? You know, you got a vacation or travel. It's like, ah, man, going to Africa is like going to space. I'm like, what? It seems so far up to them. Like they, They couldn't even decide, okay, I'm going to go to Africa. But they wanted to go everywhere else. They wanted to go to the Caribbean. They wanted to go to Europe. They wanted to go to all these other places. But nobody wanted to go to Africa or whatever. It's changing now. I'm not saying it now. But back then, it was a big deal for us to go at the time we went. Wow. To go out there and shoot videos every day. We were out there for about three months at one point.
SPEAKER_02:And I want to go
SPEAKER_01:so bad. Yeah, it's amazing out there. It's amazing. So yeah, that's one of my... favorite place to go to shoot was Ghana. Wow. That was amazing. That was a good experience for me.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Great experience for me.
SPEAKER_03:That's the life right there, man. Traveling,
SPEAKER_01:dude. Yeah, yeah, man. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. So can I piggyback and name all the places? There's been a lot of places I've been to. Definitely. Name every single one. Yeah. I can try to name them all, but obviously I've been to Africa and All the countries, I've been on the West Coast, I've been to Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, I've been to Johannesburg, been to Durban, been to Swaziland, Cape Town, all them historical places, been to Egypt, Europe, been to London, been to Dubai, I've been to Australia, all four of the major ones, like the first Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. That was a story by nature. That was a story with them. Thailand, I've been to Bangkok. I've been to all the Caribbean. I've been to Colombia. I'm going to Brazil August 5th. What time? What time? What time? What time? No, what time? What town? What town?
SPEAKER_00:Know what time. Oh,
SPEAKER_01:yeah, you want to pull up? Yeah, I need to get my bags ready. And who
SPEAKER_02:are you flying? You
SPEAKER_01:flying Delta? Southwest? Yeah, just let me know what time. I'll be ready.
SPEAKER_02:The time? I need to know what flight. We flying
SPEAKER_01:Delta? Southwest? I've been fortunate. And to give you a quick story to those So the first time going to South Africa, the first time I went to Africa ever, like it was back in 2007, right? It was November 2007, I forget. It might have been 2008. It was 2008, November. And, you know, a lot of times if you're going there, whatever, like, you know, they probably tell you, like, don't drink the water, blah, blah, blah. You're going to the hotel, you're going to tourist and blah, blah, blah. And it's kind of like a fake experience in a sense because, you know, you probably, because for the most people, it's like a tourist experience. They're probably trying to pick the best hotel. They're probably trying to stay close to the hotel that they do go out. It's like a tour guide kind of thing. So it's just like, okay. It's like going to the islands almost. I'm going to sit in one of these resorts, all-inclusive, and I'm not really experiencing the island, but I'm out here. You know what I'm saying? That kind of thing, right? So the first time I went, I was fortunate enough to go with a UN diplomat and a lady from Wall Street. They had formed a company. And he wanted to go out there to work on commodities like agriculture, mining, stuff like that. So the first time I went, I went top shelf. The first time I went, I was meeting presidents. I was going in gold mines. I was staying in the best hotel. We was on private jets. We was, uh, meeting with so many different people, ministers of agriculture, ministers of this, whatever. And I got paid to document this whole trip of, uh, these two people. Yeah. So, so the first time me going, the first time me going was going top shelf. I've seen all this shit how it was supposed to be seen. Not seeing it like, oh, it looks like it's, oh, it looks so bad. Oh, you feel bad. Like, nah, I didn't see the people that was getting to the money. I didn't see people going to oil reserves. I didn't see like gold tips and going, going, going a hundred yards into the ground and these mines, stuff like that. It was, It was a trip for your ass. It was amazing. That's
SPEAKER_02:crazy. My imagination is just...
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it was a big deal for me because I always wanted to go. And if I said I'd go, I never knew what that was going to be like. The first time going was that experience. And I was blown away. Absolutely blown away. I feel like they've been lying to us because even us going out there, Like, we were the only African-American on the plane. Like, everybody else was going there but us. You got Africans going, you got whites, you got Asians, whatever. I was like, yo, where's all my people been? Ain't nobody going to Africa? Like, ain't nobody going. No. But everybody else is going. Every other nationality is going out there, though. Everybody else is going. Yeah. Yeah, so I tried to educate my people. I was like, bro, it ain't what they lied to you about because they don't want you to go back there or whatever because there's a lot of enterprise out there for
SPEAKER_03:us. Yeah, you're right.
SPEAKER_01:And we don't know that. You know what I'm saying? We just think, you know, we out here in America, we got to be slaving and be doing this and busting our ass and still be kicked in the back because, you know, all this silliness
SPEAKER_02:out
SPEAKER_01:here. My brother. My brother. Say it again. Say it again. Say it again, Patrick. My
SPEAKER_02:brother. My brother. There
SPEAKER_01:we go. So look, I'll tell you a quick story that you might laugh at. So When I got back, okay, so the first time I went there, whatever, I got back, I was like, okay, cool, cool. Then the second time we went, we went out there to go conquer the music video world because the guy, my mentor, was a film director, my man, Samad David. He had set that first trip up with his father, the lady from the UN, and the dude, he put all this stuff together and said, Me and my team would come out there and document all this stuff for you guys, right? So when we went out there, he got connected with some other people in the entertainment field. Oh. So the second time he went out there, I was out there for like three months. We were shooting all these videos and stuff out there and stuff like that. So when I got a chance to come back, I was like, bro, I had a three-family house. I said, bro, I'm not paying my mortgage. What I'm about to do is I'm about to stop paying my mortgage and then collect all this rent from my tenants or whatever. Yeah. Because at the time, I didn't leave my job yet. I was working at PSNG at the time. It was 2008 when I left my job. 2008, after I came back. The funny thing is that trip to Africa sparked me to say, you know what? This is living. Let me get my shit together. Let me go. So when I came back, I saved all that money from collecting money from all my tenants. And then, um, but the good thing is like all these tenants, all these tenants, they were my friends. So like it was my cousin. I had two other friends. So they was like, cool with everything I was doing. It's like, cool, whatever. Um, but they didn't know I was selling myself. I was like, yeah, I might sell my house down the line, whatever. Oh, whatever. So, so, so they said, let me know when the time is, the time is up. But eventually, they kind of whizzed it out anyway because, you know, we start paying your mortgage. It takes time for them to physically take your house. It'll take like another two years from
SPEAKER_03:now. Oh,
SPEAKER_01:wow. So they physically take your house. No, you're dealing with litigation and blah, blah, blah. So I saved all that money or whatever, but they left my job. I saved all the money up to get all the money for my tenants without paying a mortgage and stacking my money or whatever. I said, all right, I got enough money and I'm leaving. So that's how I left. That's how I came back from Africa for the first time.
SPEAKER_03:Wow. Sweet people. Yeah. See, you hear that? You hear that, people? If he can do it, if he can quit his job and go wherever he want to go, Fear is not an
SPEAKER_02:option.
SPEAKER_03:Huh?
SPEAKER_02:Fear
SPEAKER_03:is
SPEAKER_02:not an
SPEAKER_01:option. Yeah. People thought I was crazy because I had one of the best jobs. I know I worked for the gas, I had worked for CSNG, the gas and electric company out there. Yeah. The biggest one in New Jersey. Yeah, that's one of
SPEAKER_00:those jobs they say, that's the good job. You got
SPEAKER_01:a good job. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you'll never make more than the boss. People thought I was crazy when I left. They said, you're leaving the job to do what? People thought I was nuts at my company.
SPEAKER_02:I applaud you. I applaud you because you would have never made more than the owner of that company. But now you're in the same playing field as him.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. He's at the desk and he's in Dubai.
SPEAKER_02:Right. That's
SPEAKER_01:why. Like they
SPEAKER_02:say, this is chess, not checkers, but you got
SPEAKER_01:a lot of people. The funny thing, my wife did the same thing. So she worked for a big pharmaceutical company. She left her job. Oh, did you do this producer thing for Dom? Yeah. Like they thought she was crazy too. Like, you know, you did this easy ass job. You just sitting here pulling up on these pharmacies, making sure everything, all the inventory is right. Like we left it. She left it. But that's a cap on
SPEAKER_02:her income. They determine how much money she can make. She can only make but so much. But when you're in your own business, there's no cap on your income. You make exactly what it is you want to make. preach it again. Go
SPEAKER_01:ahead. And it'd be true for us, it's the time. It's the time for us. Like the money is one thing. Because I was talking to my older brother yesterday and we was talking about your work, what your life work is and what your purpose is. It's two different things. Everybody thinks work and purpose is the same thing. And so for me, the purpose is time. It's just seeing other things out there and I had time to do it. When I was at my job, I had to be at work every day at 7.30 in the morning and stuff like that. So it was just like, bro, this is tortured to me at the time. You know, so I had to make a decision and I said, no, I'm
SPEAKER_03:out of here. That's a motivation for you, man. That was a
SPEAKER_01:good choice. Yeah, I was scared to death, but I did it. And to be true, what you said, like, it's not an option. Honestly, it's a lie because once you start doing it, that's the last thing you think about when you start doing it. Like, okay, I'm scared to do it, but then you're doing it. Oh, I can't think about that no more because I'm doing it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, Yeah. So that was right out the window. That's a good point. Well, yeah,
SPEAKER_03:I think, I think Paris got something else
SPEAKER_01:to ask. She got another one. Yeah. I mean, I mean, I hope, I hope, I hope I was informative, you know, enough. No, you definitely are. Definitely. Go ahead, Paris. Um, and like I said, I'm still going, man. I still don't say I'm 44. I still feel young. Uh, Me and my wife try to work out. We try to keep it together. We try to, you know, raise these two kids. And I want to credit my ex-wife too. My ex-wife was a big part of my beginning part of it. And when she gave me my first child, my daughter, who I'm madly in love with, she's loving how she's growing and stuff like that. So I applaud everybody that's in my life that's, you know, just rocking with
SPEAKER_03:me. That's dope. And that's family. That's family counts first.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Number one. Yeah. Yeah. And my mother, father, my two brothers, who have been part of my life through my brother, Ramvis, my little brother, Raheem. So my mother, Rosetta, my father, Robert, like, you know, that structure was a fun structure to grow up in that house as a kid. Oh, man. I applaud my mother and father for creating that environment for us to be, you know, be kids and, you know, in the midst of all this madness. That's dope. That's dope. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm here. Which was
SPEAKER_02:your least favorite location? Which location that you visited and you're like, uh-uh, we ain't
SPEAKER_01:doing this no more? Alaska. That's a good one, yeah. I'm trying to think hard about that one. It was Alaska,
SPEAKER_00:where it was cold.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. I'm trying to think of something I was scared of. Okay, yeah, so I wasn't really filming, but I had a camera that I was docking on. My wife was pregnant at the time. We was in Egypt. And we had to go to one of the... It was like one of the pyramids that was kind of off the path. It wasn't one of the main streets that you see all the time. Yeah. And they had this little tunnel you had to go into.
UNKNOWN:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:So I wish my wife was right here. Well, I was telling her to come in because she lied because she was pregnant at the time. Yeah. And it was like this little... It was like a... I want to say a rectangle, like a little pathway going into the ground, but it was on an angle, like diagonally going all the way down so you can get into the pyramid from the bottom. But you had to bend down for at least about, I want to say easily about 40 yards maybe to the ground. So you're looking down like, yo, I'm up here now. It's sunny as hell up here. I feel good up here. But now I got to go down to this little diagonal little stairway walkway. You don't know what's down there. So I told the tour guide, I was like, I don't think we're going to do this because my wife is pregnant. My wife's like, no, what are you talking about? I'm about to go down there. And it made me feel like a sucker because I was scared. She wasn't scared.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you was the one that said, nah, she don't want to go.
SPEAKER_01:But I did it though. But then when I got down there, I was like, wow. I'm seeing this beam of light. Coming from where I was just at, at the top. Oh, wow. But the funny thing is, when you get down there, it's wide open. It's all these rooms and apartments and it's air. It's weird. It's like, who would build this stuff? It's amazing. All this stuff is amazing.
SPEAKER_03:So do you think aliens built them? That's what they say. They say aliens
SPEAKER_01:might have... So, it's funny you say that. I'm quite in between because I feel like In those times, it wasn't really nothing to do with us. All you had to do was work kind of thing. There was no distractions. So I credit the humans to that. But then I was talking to a friend of mine. He was saying the planet Mars was once how the globe was, how Earth was, but wars and how things are going now, whatever. This planet here is going to be the same as Mars after we get done with it and we're going to try to leave out of it.
SPEAKER_03:Get out of here. Like Total Recall?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I do believe it could be Ellis when you think of the universe in that capacity.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm told between it could be aliens. I'm told between it could be, you know what I'm saying, people that just had nothing to do. They thought about, you know. So imagine us right now, us three right now on the phone. We didn't have no phone. Us three on the plane. There's nothing here. We see the sun, moon, the stars, whatever. And it's like nothing around. You're like, bro. I got to figure out how to get civilization moving. Let's do something. Yeah. Yeah. So they had to have all this time to think about it. You're right about that. That's one theory. And then another theory is that whole Mars is a bite and it's like, it's like strip the life, whatever, because we didn't use it, destroyed it, took all the resources and moved on to the next.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I believe Elliot could have did that when you think about it like that.
SPEAKER_03:I'm thinking aliens built these pyramids because
SPEAKER_01:the angles. You're thinking aliens? Yeah, because it's like,
SPEAKER_03:what do you have to make some of these? Yeah. They didn't have bulldozers. They didn't have certain tools. You
SPEAKER_01:see the top of a
SPEAKER_02:pyramid? It's a point. Yeah, the top
SPEAKER_01:of the pyramid is supposed to be gold. To give you another perspective on that too, so So when you see the pyramid, like when you see pictures or whatever, whatever, it's deceiving because those stones, right, each stone was bigger than me. Like the height on them. Yeah, see? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So those stones, I'm like, bro, how they do all this? And this is limestone. It's like one of the heaviest stones ever.
SPEAKER_03:And
SPEAKER_01:I'm like, how did they do this? And I'm with you. I'm mystified by it. Very mystified
SPEAKER_03:by it. You know what? We can have another show talking about aliens. Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:I'm mystified. That's crazy. Yeah, so that's the answer to your question. Going in those tunnels scared the life out of me. It's a beautiful experience, but I was like, ah, it was nerve-wracking. It was nerve-wracking. That's crazy. That was a scary experience.
SPEAKER_02:Well, man. Who we have? I got two more.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, you do? Okay, yeah, let's go. I got two more questions.
SPEAKER_02:And I think these last two is what's going to get you some, get the music ready. Okay,
SPEAKER_01:okay. That one? Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:that one. All right. Name three movies that will have your black card revoked for not watching.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay, okay. To me, okay, I mean, this might be different, but my three favorites, what I think are heavy, heavily black, heavily, so for me, Coming to America is like one of my favorites. There you go. I
SPEAKER_02:see everybody. I see
SPEAKER_01:everybody. Exactly. It's like one of my favorites. Last Dragon is like my top.
SPEAKER_00:Look, I said that last week. Last Dragon is a classic.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. It's just unreal to me. And then for me, it's B Street. The other one is like the one B Street. So B Street, B Street, coming to America and, uh, last dragon, my three favorite movies are black for me, black, black, black entertainment. Those are my top, those are my top three. I'm not sure. I'm not, I'm not sure that the cost of the category that you get your car revoked, but those are my three favorite black films. I was like, bro, these are my three. All
SPEAKER_03:right, hold on.
SPEAKER_01:Last dragon and, uh, coming to America.
SPEAKER_03:All right, hold on. I got one for you. I'm here to stop people. And, and I need one line from each one of those movies. You can start
SPEAKER_01:with beach street. Give me a line for B-Street. B-Street, wow. You can say one word, and then we know. Yeah, I was trying to figure something, whatever. Tomorrow's a long way off, man, with my man, Carlos, what's his name, Ramos? There you go. Say his name one time. Say his name one time. Go ahead and say his name. Say it
SPEAKER_03:again. Say his name. You remember at the end of the movie, they were singing that song, Let Me Hear You Say...
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Raymond. Yeah, Raymond. Yeah, it was a classic, bro. I actually had my daughter watch Last Dragon fight. I want to say the wintertime. She don't know about it. She fell in love with it. I was happy for her. to get it. Like, you know, you know, you want the kid to get something like, yo, it made me feel like this. So hopefully you can feel like that too.
SPEAKER_00:She
SPEAKER_01:felt like that. It was a good movie. She was laughing at certain things. I did the same thing.
SPEAKER_03:I did the same thing with Last Dragon and The Wiz.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my God. That's what I'm saying. So many movies I can name. I can name a lot of movies right now. You want me to? No, let me get, let me get a line from The Wiz. I mean, from Last Dragon. Okay. Last Dragon, Playtime, Little Boy, one of my favorites from Shona. Playtime, Little Boy. When he had to glow, the first time he realized he had to glow, he
SPEAKER_00:was like,
SPEAKER_01:oh shit, who is this guy? So that was one. And then there was America, oh my God, so many. I mean, you pick one, because everything was funny in that movie to me.
SPEAKER_03:The boy got his own money.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I just remember being young and It made you feel good about being black. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So let me correct myself, too. So in my household, we never felt no way about being black. Let's be clear. We was never like, oh, we wasn't raised like that. We the shit, blah, blah, blah. You know what I'm saying? I live in a nice little black community in northern Bellsburg section. Everybody had one. Everybody had a nice little spot, whatever. It wasn't the biggest stuff. Everybody had their shit together. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I didn't feel like, oh, we had to sort it in six. I mean, I was fortunate enough to be raised in a decent little household that I didn't feel like that at all, never. That's dope. Yeah, so I started being around the world when I had to go to college or whatever because going from elementary to high school, I was all around all black folks. It was a good feeling to see. I had a good time. You know what I'm saying? I had a good time. It wasn't until I started working and going to college and start dealing with other people, thinking they all listen, not really. Like, knowing we the dominant, you know, knowing we the dominant, you got to deal with all the BS that come with that. So, you know, all that stuff.
UNKNOWN:Yeah, man.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you always won more, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Oh, no, I said the three. Two times over, boy. The BC one we did, the Ramos one, and then you said the money one. After you name it, there's so many. Okay. Yeah, from Coming to America. All
SPEAKER_00:right. Well, Paris, you give me one from Coming
SPEAKER_03:to America. Now, why would you do? You know, I got it. You know, I always got to flip it.
SPEAKER_02:Go ahead. That boy can sing.
SPEAKER_01:Sing again? That boy good. Yeah, all that. That boy good.
SPEAKER_03:Uh-huh. Good and
SPEAKER_01:terrible. So, look. So, look. So, it's more movies that I grew up on, like... Like, I was a big fan of the corn burrow with me with our young Warren Fishburne. Is it Lawrence Fishburne or Larry? Larry. I'm going to call him. His real name is Larry. I have a story about how Lauren Fitzberg, she did want to be called Larry. It was funny.
SPEAKER_00:That story was so funny. I've seen exactly what you're talking about. That story.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. So Larry Fitzberg. Yeah. Cornbread Earl was one of my favorites. The Miseducation of Sonny Carson with the War Hill album. Come on, man. What you know about that? Bro, I grew up on it. I was stabbed in one of my favorite movies. Sweetback Badass, the original one. I grew up on it. My father had it on Motown and had it on his old black quotation film. Had it on and had it. Sonny Carson. I was pretty stabbed. Superfly, all that stuff was good, but there's a lot of those good movies that I saw that I fell in love with. Cooley High one was amazing. There's so many that I'm What's other ones that I grew up on? Black Mama White. Black Mama White. Yeah, I remember that. I don't know that one. I've been kicking ass.
SPEAKER_03:Oh,
SPEAKER_01:man. Shit. There's so many. There's just so many that I grew up on. Those are my favorite three that I remember as a kid. I started watching them. Yes. Stuff like that. I gotta give credit to Hype Williams. He tried, but a lot of people didn't like the movie, but a lot of people loved it as well.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I didn't like it when it first came out, but after... After
SPEAKER_01:watching it, yeah, after the hype died down, you're like, you're gonna appreciate the cinematography from my man Malik Sahini. That was the DP. I loved everything about it. For me, I was growing up, and I was just becoming a man. People were like, nah, the DMX, these rappers, like... That was the energy I needed to kind of get through that era, you know what I'm saying? As a young adult. That's dope. That's dope, man. Well, good. Give him one more
SPEAKER_02:question. It's the last question. I promise it's the last question.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Who would you pick to do a versus battle?
SPEAKER_01:A music? Yeah. Okay, yeah. That's a good one. I don't have no answer for that, but I'm going to think of it right now. I don't want to waste time. We're getting quick on that. Version battle. Yeah. The sad thing is I feel like all the people I wanted to see I've seen so far, but there's got to be some people that hasn't been on it that I'm like, I got to connect these guys.
SPEAKER_03:They could be dead. It could be Michael Jackson against James Brown. Oh, gosh.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Yeah. Okay. Oh, okay. Yeah. So I would say, oh, Some of my favorite, one of my favorite groups is The Temptations. So The Temptations, well, there's the four top ones because they both have amazing songs.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So you wouldn't put them against the Five Heartbeats? That's
SPEAKER_01:not a real thing. They ain't nothing to play with either, though. That's a classic. That's one of my favorite movies, too. I can't believe I forgot that one. That's in my top ten. That's a classic. Yep, exactly. All the magic played the hell out of them characters. That's
SPEAKER_03:a classic.
SPEAKER_01:And
SPEAKER_03:talk about that. We're supposed to have a big red on the show. Probably. Oh,
SPEAKER_01:wow. Okay. I don't know exactly. Yeah. I don't know his real name, but big. Yeah. Wow. Hawthorne
SPEAKER_03:James. We should have
SPEAKER_01:him. Okay. Yeah. That's a big one. Yeah. To answer your question, the fourth house versus Temptation because I want to say Temptation is one of my favorite motel rooms. If I had to pick one, Temptation is my favorite. Wow. I would say that never happened. That would be amazing. That would be great. Alright. I would love to see Jay-Z go up against somebody. I don't know who, but I would love to see that. See where the energy is. I said Drake. I said Drake. Drake against Jay-Z. No, no. I can't even say that. It's hard to say. It'll have to be a debate. Like you said, you have to sit down and people have to have a think tank and say, who can we put up against who? But I wouldn't see Jay-Z go up against somebody because Jay-Z's one of the hardest. It wouldn't be Drake. Jay-Z and Drake. No, because the era's a little different. The era's a little different. I'm thinking about views. For views, I think that'd be one of the biggest ever. Oh yeah, that'd be crazy. Yeah, people will
SPEAKER_02:watch it, but
SPEAKER_01:you
SPEAKER_02:really can't say who won out of that category because they're on two different, it's not going. So,
SPEAKER_01:All right.
SPEAKER_03:Well, Rock, you definitely was entertaining and informative. Thank you. Thank you. And we definitely going to have to get you on the show again. I don't care if you in Venezuela or the UK's or
SPEAKER_01:wherever you at. This is fun. This is fun. And it's helping me, too, because I never like the way I sound because I talk fast sometimes. I kind of go with certain words, whatever. So. Maybe he's talking to you now or whatever. It's helping me out. Oh, that's dope.
SPEAKER_03:That's dope. That's dope. All
SPEAKER_01:right, man. Yes, I appreciate you. I appreciate y'all, man.
SPEAKER_03:Send
SPEAKER_01:me
SPEAKER_03:all the
SPEAKER_01:information. Yeah, send me that stuff and send me
SPEAKER_03:the time I need to be there to, where
SPEAKER_01:were we? The airport. Yeah, the airport. Brazil, yeah. I got both of y'all coming if y'all want. What'd
SPEAKER_02:you say? He didn't tell us how, you know, whether we was Delta. I don't care. I think
SPEAKER_01:it's Delta. I think it's Delta. And I don't want to say North. I want to say North. I want to say we're leaving out of North. Oh,
SPEAKER_03:okay. I can make it there. I know people. Yeah, me too. That's what. Five
SPEAKER_01:hours? Yeah. No, a little bit longer. Where y'all at? Where y'all at now? Where y'all at? It's
SPEAKER_02:about five hours. Where? From here? From where? From Florence to Norfolk. To Florence? No, the drive.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, on the phone right now. Where you guys at now? Oh, we're in South Carolina. Virginia. Okay, well, all right. Yeah, because you are... My mother's from Columbia. Okay, that's an
SPEAKER_02:hour away. Right an hour away. We're in Florence. But Norfolk
SPEAKER_01:is nine hours.
SPEAKER_02:Norfolk, Virginia is nine hours from here. No, he's in Newark. Oh, I thought you said Norfolk. I'm
SPEAKER_00:in
SPEAKER_01:Newark. Oh, okay,
SPEAKER_00:yeah. That's a ride. You heard that Newark slang, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:see? Yeah, I was in Dillon back in February. Oh, that's right. I shot a video right there.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah, yeah, you did. You was at that house. I've been watching, man. I was about to pull
SPEAKER_01:up. Yeah, my man. It was a funny trip because we left like I want to say we left like 10 at night. Got there like in the morning. We shot all day. Then we drove back the same night. It's like, we getting the hell out of
SPEAKER_03:here. Yeah, I remember. I remember.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah, we, we, that was like one day trip. It was fun though. We left in the morning like late. No, we left, we left on like a Thursday, a Thursday night and came back like a Saturday morning. Yeah, I remember seeing you. Shot all day Friday. That's dope. Well, give all the people your social medias and how they can get in contact with you. Yes, yes, yes. So the website is rockdavis.com. That's R-O-C-K-D-A-V-I-S.com. And the ID is R-O-C-K-D-A-V-I-S-C-O-M. Rockdavis.com is one word. And obviously the website is rockdavis.com. So it's all relative and no different letters and hashtags and everything. I'm not MC O Ice and then my ID is something else. It's all one thing. Rock Davis is the mainstay in that.
SPEAKER_03:Definitely, man.
SPEAKER_01:Appreciate you. We
SPEAKER_03:definitely thank you for coming by.
SPEAKER_01:Appreciate y'all. The questions were amazing. You got me thinking. That's all I can ask for. That's all I can ask for. Thank you. I love it. All right,
SPEAKER_03:man. We'll definitely catch you on the next one.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Yes. I love y'all. Appreciate it. Thank
SPEAKER_03:you.
SPEAKER_01:All right. All right. See y'all later.
SPEAKER_03:Bye bye.
