For Steppers Only: Raw, Uncut, and Unedited
Welcome to the For Steppers Only podcast—the spot where real ones from all walks of life link up to chop it up about everything under the sun. We’re talking relationships, careers, education, sports, the supernatural, sexuality, personal growth, entrepreneurship, family vibes—you name it. With a mix of laughs, raw conversations, and deep dives, this podcast is all about learning, leveling up, and hearing voices you might not come across every day. Pull up and vibe with us as we break it all down and celebrate the journey of life from every angle. Let’s step into something real together.
For Steppers Only: Raw, Uncut, and Unedited
Real Hustlers Vs Imination Crab Meat
Ever felt like you're battling life with nothing but imitation crab meat and a dream? Join me, Jack as I unravel the raw truth about what it means to be a real hustler. With vivid analogies and personal stories, including my time as a combat veteran, I highlight the difference between those who fake the hustle and those who live it. Hear firsthand how my past trials have molded me and the incredible people who've supported me along the way. This isn't just my story—it's a tribute to authenticity, resilience, and the power of a solid support system.
Struggling to juggle a day job, side gigs, and family? You're not alone. Discover my journey from the confines of a plant job to chasing my passion in videography, all while managing financial hurdles and family demands. Learn about the hustle required to keep moving forward, no matter the setbacks—like building an "oh shit account" to brace for life's curveballs. It's a candid glimpse into the relentless drive needed to provide for my family and set a positive example for my kids, even when the odds seem stacked against me.
Imagine choosing between productivity and crime—what's your move? This episode pushes you to ponder our paths and their impact on ourselves and our communities. We explore the dual nature of people and the potential each choice has to tip the scales. I share insights on the struggles and lessons from my own life, reminding you that true hustlers never stop learning. This is a journey of self-improvement, resilience, and the relentless pursuit of better choices. Tune in, and let's get real about what it takes to hustle.
Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system At the tone. Please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up or press 1 for more options. Yeah, nigga, fuck everybody. Fuck everything. Nigga, give money. Nigga, run that shit up. Nigga. Run that shit all the way up nigga till you can't run it no more. To fuck them all. Nigga, all the way up nigga, up up nigga till the motherfucking ceiling. Nigga, fuck these bitches, fuck these niggas too. Fuck them all. You know what I mean? I mean this shit For real, for real. Nigga, straight up. Ay Yo, what's happening? It's 4 Stepfas Only and we're back.
Speaker 1:Hey, this Jack Solo Dolo and I just gotta come back. You know, step back up to the mic a little bit, but sometimes you gotta hear some Impactful shit To tell you Fuck everybody, fuck their opinions, because people are gonna have opinions like assholes. Shit to tell you Fuck everybody, fuck their opinions, because people are going to have opinions like assholes and they never are going to understand what it takes to be at a certain point in your life. They don't understand. People have ups and downs, trials and tribulations. They just want to see the glitz and glamour. They want to see you shine like hollywood, but then they want to talk shit behind your back. Sometimes it ain't even the motherfucker that you think is the most, is the motherfucker that crossed the room that's hating on you. It's the motherfuckers that are standing right beside you, the ones you call those friends, the ones those you call those enemies. Man, that ain't no target to nobody, it's just a um, just a point to be proven. But that's like what we talked about today imitation crab meat and real and real hustlers.
Speaker 1:A lot of y'all don't understand what I mean by, why the comparison comes into part. But those real hustlers and motivators and real shakers out there understand where the fuck I'm coming from, because I mean shit. I've had my cousins tell me shout out to T-Main, shout out to Extra Round, shout out to Sniper, shout out to my big bro Bu. Hey, big bro, shit, you know where we came from. But a lot of y'all don't understand what it takes to be a real hustler. It ain't about you, just you know, you pushing this, pushing that, you selling this, selling that Real hustlers get up every fucking day and grind for that extra mile, grind for that extra inch, just for a little bit of daylight, shit.
Speaker 1:Oh, I can't forget Al Bisham, can't forget Dean and shit. Free all the members and shit till we see each other again. Shit, alpo Driecus Rucker. But a lot of y'all don't understand why the fuck we say that? Because some people give off the image that they are hustlers, that they are grinders. I mean, those are the ones that really flaunt because, as Frank Lucas said, it best the quietest one in the room I'm sorry, I said that, fucked up, it's the loudest one in the room, that's the weakest and the motherfucker that's putting on the loudest in the room sometime ain't no real hustler. That's what we call imitation crab meat. It's the motherfucker that's sitting in the back just studying, the one that's just learning more. You know, being around those who motivate them. Um, but a lot of people will never seem to understand what it takes to be a true hustler.
Speaker 1:Um, because if y'all didn't know shit, I've done a lot in my lifetime Combat vet Navy, 13 years, traveled around the world, did different certain things. I think it's 13 total years, but I remember a couple years ago, which was my hardest time in my life, to where I didn't know what the fuck I was going to do. I had just quit my job and I feel like I had been working and certain things that I did in my life I wasn't too proud of. I still had my kids to feed, I still had to do this, I still had to do that. But anybody who actually knows me knows me. I mean, shout out out my kids parents. Um, they actually know my trials and tribulations. Um, they understand, if walls could talk, they would say a lot. But to the man that y'all see before you now, isn't the man that I was 10 years ago. Um, shit hell, I'll take that even further. It wasn't the same that I was 10 years ago. Shit hell, I take that even further. It wasn't the same man five years ago.
Speaker 1:Because when we look at certain things and certain aspects of our life, shit, you understand, there's a difference between what you want to do and what you got to do. I remember at one point in time that this is a little story time for y'all, before y'all know I'm I'm a goofy motherfucker period. But shit, it's just a little story time just to build up to where this damn four steppers only came from. Because when you step on some shit, you better stand on that shit. Um, a couple years ago, shit, I wasn't working Shit. I had about 10 grand in my hand, didn't know what the fuck I was going to do, but I knew I didn't want to work at the time. So I used certain things to my disposal that I knew how to do and knew how to wear. I still had my camera, I still had my videography. So I went real hard on that.
Speaker 1:But at this point in time in my life, shit, I took a good chunk of that and shit, I'd be out in the streets all day. Like when y'all say y'all out in the streets, y'all just think y'all partying and shit. But actual, real, motherfucking hustlers know when we out in the streets, we out there trying to make a dollar, we make trying to grow up two pennies together to make two dollars, and they don't say that you don't out there doing shit illegal, you just trying to pave a way. Because it don't matter if you cutting grass, it don't matter if you got them reinstalling somebody's motor in their car, swapping them out, it don't matter if you got them doing break exchanges. Them the real hustlers, because you can never knock somebody's hustle.
Speaker 1:But back to the story. Um, I was out here, moving and shaking. Some nights were longer than others some nights. Shit, I can't even tell you. I ain't come home until like 4 o'clock in the morning just because I didn't know how to face the person that was at home with me because of the shit I was out there doing, because I knew this is she wouldn't be too proud of me. But with that being said, bills were still being paid, money was still being spent, I was still spending time with my kids, still seeing my kids, but I had to do what I had to do.
Speaker 1:At one point in time she pulled me to the side and said you need to figure this shit the fuck out. You need to get your head out of clouds and honestly sit your ass down and actually think. Can you sit back and expect the same? You know these same tactics from your children. Could you explain to what your children are doing right now and nowadays and could you tell them straight to their face what their dad is out here doing? Shit, not really so shit.
Speaker 1:I quit what I was doing and I started trying to. You know, just go get me a job, do shit the right way, the nine to five way, which I've never really been fond of, because it's just controlled slavery. They give you enough money to come back the next next day, but in retrospect you sit back and you listen to a lot of shit. So I got this job. Man, I'm driving to Atlanta, I'm wearing suits, I'm going door to doors, I'm being a fucking customer service person. That shit was ass. I swear to God, that shit was fucking ass. I remember and she jokes with me to this day, which I'm going to go ahead and tell y'all. That's my ex-wife who jokes with me to this day exactly about how I was busting my ass.
Speaker 1:Monday through Friday, I wouldn't get home until after 11 pm. I leave out at nine in the morning, won't get back home until 11 pm At night. That motherfucker Clown me, but in a what the fuck Type matter, because y'all got to understand Certain people are allowed To clown you In certain lights and certain people Aren't, because they come, the one, the ones that are good, they don't come from A malicious place, they try to make light of the situations that you're going through. So, boom shit, she came at me talking about something. What the fuck is this type of shit? You on, you brought home a $23 check. Yeah, she said so. Where the other $11.50?.
Speaker 1:I said, well, I had to split it with my coworker cause he ain't had gas to get home and I I had a little bit of gas. She said so what you, finna, do? I said I'm, finna, got down, keep doing this shit. I said because it taught me a lot. It taught me drive, it taught me motivation. It told me this some bullshit. But this told me hey, regardless of how tough shit get, how big shit get, there's always a way. So next thing I know I found out that shit. I got another job interview. I'm gonna go work at a plant. Man, I ain't never worked at a plant A day in my life, never.
Speaker 1:This is my first time working at a plant, and I think I was 32 but I was making decent. I was back making an hourly wage To where I had a guaranteed paycheck coming in. But then that shit. What you gotta realize is I was still doing my videography on the side. I'm still grinding that. So I'm talking is I'm still doing my videography on the side, I'm still grinding that. So I'm talking about I'm doing any gig, every gig that I could possibly get to pave a way. So, boom, shit starts to start looking up. But then shit started looking tough too, because I wasn't making the funds that I was making before because I was still on child support. So, boom, that fucked up check hit. I was like what the fuck am I going to do with this? So, man, I had some shit around the house. Man, I started selling shit Just to make sure rent was paid, making sure we had food on the table Right, because at this time I got a newborn dude, not alone from my other kids.
Speaker 1:I still, hey, daddy has to be daddy, regardless of what light he's in. Daddy still has to be king. Daddy still has to show a good example. Daddy still has to do the shit that daddies have to do. Daddy still has to do the shit that daddies have to do, regardless of what daddy has to do. On the back end and the shit that everybody don't get to see the quiet times, the doubting himself, the wish everything would end, the times daddy just wants to break down and fucking cry. Sometimes we can't, but y'all got to understand.
Speaker 1:But that's where a real hustler comes into play. Shit, ain't that little boy. Shit Ain't that goddamn shit. I just want a goddamn party. Nah, shit, I ain't got time to do that. I'm trying to goddamn build this shit back up. So boom, everything, everything. So you're doing what you got to do to survive. You're not doing what you got to do to survive. You're not doing what you want to do to survive, you're doing what you got to do to survive.
Speaker 1:There's a big difference. Little boys do what they want. Men do what they can't have to do. You got to understand that. But then shit I'm talking about, I'm selling the computer I had, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. That's why I tell my kids now sometimes you got to have that fuck up money. What is it? That old shit account? It's not fuck up money, it's old shit. Fuck up money is when you fuck up a bag and you just flip that shit back the next day. That old shit money is when some shit pop off that you weren't expecting A bag and you just flip that shit back the next day. That old shit money Is when some shit pop off that you weren't expecting it, like lights get cut off, phone bill get cut off and you got to reach in that pocket that old shit account and shit that you was saving for. You got to spend it to God. Make sure you stay afloat. Make sure y'all still able to eat ramen noodles and vinyls and shit. You stay afloat. Make sure y'all still able to eat ramen noodles and beanies and shit. But like. This is the difference though.
Speaker 1:So, boom, I got to this plant. I was there about a year. That money wasn't good enough for me. I was working plastics. It's hot as fuck. I'm driving an hour to work. I'm working overnight again. Boom, I left that plant to go to another plant when I'm making a little bit more money.
Speaker 1:Alright, now I'm an equipment operator, but I'm in a plastics plant. I'm a machinist. So, boom, you know, I done knocked up a couple notches. Man, this shit, hot the fuck in there, bitch, I'm coming home dirty, I'm coming home exhausted, I'm coming home top, but guess what? That is still gotta do, this hustler still gotta be a hustler. I'm still lining up gigs. Boom, this ain't enough. So I get a god damn proposition from another plant. Oh, this guy, I know Shit, I need you. Come over here and be a superman, hey. So I'm like shit, how much they paying. Boom, oh shit, for real.
Speaker 1:Man, I went over though I was making 26 an hour. No, I don't, I take that back. I was making 23 an hour, remind you, I'm just trying to get back in my groove, man, to where I would be, you know, be afloat, man, when I got over there. When they say, the grass ain't always greener than what they promised you, man, I'm over there being pimped like a hoe on Broad Street. I'm doing this job, that job, this job, that job Ain't no organization, this shit, a fucking hot mess. So I started looking for jobs. I go back to the only career that I'm good at, but, remind you, I'm still, I'm still a hustler, I'm still gonna find a way. So, boom, I was like, man, I gotta get this job. They end up getting me a job all the way out in Sandy Springs.
Speaker 1:Now I'm driving an hour, hour 10, hour 20, and that's without traffic doing front work. I'm talking about like hey, that's what, almost three hours out of my day. God forbid, it had traffic on 85. You ain't got no, boom, you on 285. God forbid, it had traffic on 85. Gang got down. Boom you on 285.
Speaker 1:So, boom, I'm trying to figure out what the fuck I got going on. So, boom, next thing, I know I'm there six months. No, the first day of the job. Man, these motherfuckers don't know that I'm coming, they ain't got no uniforms for me. I'm showing up in intact pants and a black shirt and some boots. Now, sometimes you gotta take them risks To reap the reward. So I'm back on night shift. I'm doing eight hours a day. I'm back feeling a little bit better, like a human being.
Speaker 1:Next thing, I know I'm dealing with some shitty ass management. The grass ain't always greener on the other side. I'm going to tell y'all Shit. They damn near tried to fire me my first fucking 30 days telling me I don't fit with the rest of the team. Nah, you right, I don't fit. I'm nothing like these motherfuckers. I can tell pretenders versus genuine people. I end up going to my manager hey man, I'm going to go ahead and school you on this. Either I get transferred to this other place or I'm gonna quit.
Speaker 1:I said because, number one, I don't fit in here. I said the type of mind frame that y'all got here is not applicable to my lifestyle and what I've been trained and what I've been trying to do. I'm not taught to be a fucking puppet. I've always been a leader. I guess that comes from my mom teaching me hey, no matter who's standing in front of you. You stand up for what you believe in, you stand up for what you got to do. So, boom, I go for the interview. I start recognizing people on the panel. I'm like, oh shit, here we go. So I get to this new spot. Next thing I know I've been there three years. I done got three, four, two, three, four, five promotions in three years.
Speaker 1:That's a real hustler mentality. I'm trying to get more and more the more out of you that I could possibly get To where it grows me as an individual, not for a company, but as an individual. So sometimes, yeah, the grass ain't always greener, but sometimes you got to make it out to what you got to make it. Sometimes you got to be your own puppet master and play with your own strings so you can get to what you got to make it. Sometimes you got to be your own puppet master and play with your own strings so you can get to where you got to go. So, with that being said, um, that's why, shit, like I was telling somebody else, they were asking me why I started a podcast in the first place.
Speaker 1:I was at a dark spot in my life, real, real dark. I was about to have shoulder surgery. Shit got dark. Shit got real dark and shit. A couple of things went through my head, but because of the shit I had going on, shit. So, boom, I thought, hey, shit, maybe it wouldn't be too bad not to wake up on this table.
Speaker 1:But then next thing I know, after I said that, five minutes later my kids come walking in Zy Fat, tink, dude, and they let me and that was my sign saying man, I can't quit, the fuck is wrong with me. Hell, no, I can't quit because y'all gotta understand shit. Them little motherfuckers is who I wake up for every motherfucking day. When I don't have the energy to get up out of bed myself, they make sure I get up to make. They make sure they call me and talk about some.
Speaker 1:Daddy, I appreciate you, daddy, I love you. Daddy, thank you for all you did for me, thank you, the little shit, because, like I tell them all the time when I'm gone, you are my legacy, the things I'm to have to show you to, where you don't have to yell or beg nobody for no goddamn money or be like, hey, I'm fucked up, you make your own way. That's what hustlers do. We ain't these imitation crab meat ass niggas out here. The fuck, I ain't no goddamn flaker, no flunker. I ain't out here doing this, doing that just to make everybody else to think I'm a motherfucking hustler. No, I do that shit for my kids. I do that shit for my family because what you got to understand is sometimes it ain't about me, it's about them how I gotta get up, how I gotta provide for them.
Speaker 1:So sometimes when you hear that fuck everybody, fuck everything, that ain't no derogatory, that means hey, fuck everybody's opinion, fuck everybody's thoughts, fuck everybody else what they feel about you. So sometimes you got to make your own way. Sometimes it is, you got to stand on them too. You got to stand on your pivot to where these niggas understand who the fuck you really are. Because a lot of time people get a misconception of what they hear from other motherfuckers that don't even have a pot of piss in or a leg to stand on and they looking like Lieutenant Dan out this bitch. You cannot tell an aunt how to be an aunt if you never walked in that man's shoes. So you cannot tell me how to be a fucking man or go to my trials and tribulations without being able to walk through my shoes, because half of these motherfuckers have been and killed theyself three times over by this time in their life.
Speaker 1:Because a lot of motherfuckers that goddamn fragile like motherfucking goddamn glass, fragile like paper, because they don't know how to revamp, they don't know how to get that shit out the mud, they don't know how to wash that shit off, they don't know how to dust that shit off, because they don't understand. Oh shit, what you got moving, what you got, man, shit. Who. I will sell water to a? Well, I will sell air to you. I will tell you hey, taste the L. Don't that shit taste like grapes? Don't that shit taste like watermelon? Don't that shit taste like mango? Man, I'm always looking to elevate. I don't care who I'm learning from. I don't care if I'm learning from my 18-year-old all the way down to my five-year-old. I'm learning from the motherfuckers. I can learn shit from a junkie. I don't give a fuck. Because when the day I stop learning is the day you put me in a pine box. That's what a real hustler is.
Speaker 1:Because I sat back and I listened to this little young boy last year no cap, no kizzy. He asked me, could he cut his grass? I was just fucking with him because the little young man had a little ambition. He wanted something out of life. Little young man had a little ambition. He wanted something out of life. He was getting out his ass, off his ass instead of in front of a game in the house, wanting to make something of himself. So I was like shit, hell, yeah. When that motherfucker told me it was 70 dollars. I was like 70 dollars to cut my grass. I said so. I started and this only thing he doing is weed, whacking, edging and cutting no extras. So next, I know I threw him, you know, I threw him 80. So I'm thinking every two weeks, you, you cut my grass for 80, that's, that's 160 a month. I said so.
Speaker 1:I asked a young man how many, how many yards do you cut? He said, oh, I cut about, you know about 10 in a weekend. I said, wait a minute, you cutting 10 yards a weekend. I said, yeah, ten at eighty dollars a pop. You making eight hundred dollars? He said yeah, but yeah. Then I got my little friend, he, he, um, he helped me. What this this guy doing? 13 year old boy, now has an employee, what of? What the fuck is going on. So I could nothing, do nothing but salute that young man because I I admired his dreams and ambitions when it came to this shit, because that's a, that's a true hustle. Next thing, I know I had my son. Hey, why don't you got down? You know, learn something from that little boy. Next thing, you know, my son started hanging with him. My son started learning from.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it's not about what you do or what you can learn from a book, sometimes it's it's about chess. Sometimes you got to put another piece beside another piece beside another piece that are all in the same correlation so you can learn from them and so you can grow from them, because you ain't gonna learn everything from your own experiences. Sometimes you got to surround yourself by hustlers, motivators, shakers instead of bum ass niggas just and and and to. To put it in retrospect, when you talking about imitation crab, meat ass nigga to.
Speaker 1:When you talking about imitation crab, that's the motherfuckers that em that play like. They all that but never come up with an idea they own, never have the motivation themselves to do whatever. They just want to do the same shit somebody else doing instead of creating their own path. Or they try to, they try to butter themselves to everybody in a room to make you feel like they are that person when, true enough, they are truly imitation crab meat. They ain't no cream crab, they ain't no lobster, they ain't no blue. Honest to god, they a bust down wig on a mannequin.
Speaker 1:That being said, shit, a lot of these motherfuckers that are imitation crab meat are always all over around you. They just trying to wait for your opportunity to blow to where that. You can goddamn listen to what they got going on or be a part of what we call, like my dad used to tell me, like what we used to call them was leeches. You don't come up with your own ideas. You don't come up with your own motivation. It's like shit. Sometimes it takes energy off a hustler to not motivate and it's like man, this shit draining man, this shit. Too much work to me to sit here and motivate another nigga to do what I want to do, to where I want to be, to where they they trying to learn the ins and outs, the chess pieces when they still playing chuckles, because I'll give y'all another story. I mean shit.
Speaker 1:I was paying child support, I was paying a hefty amount and this dude I was friends with was so-called friends with. Come to find out, man, that nigga was a hater. I remember this motherfucker told me one day. I said, shit, I was always had house having a couple beers. You know, just back in chilling, I was like shit, man, I'm only, I ain't gonna have too much more.
Speaker 1:I'm about to go home, come out to take a nap so I can go around uber. Oh, nigga you a taxi driver, nigga you a taxi driver. I was like, no, I'm a uber driver, there's a difference. Oh, when you get you, when you get to a certain point, bro, shit, I'm gonna call you and let you come pick me up, because you a taxi driver, nigga you, I'm gonna buy you one of them hats. I said, okay, let me go ahead and preschool you on something young fella.
Speaker 1:I said would you rather me doing uber as something productive or you want to sit over there and keep hating or being disrespectful? I said because I could be out here doing some bullshit or on some fuck shit and, goddamn, peeping out your house and make a phone call to have somebody come and got a crackhead from around the way. Pay him, goddamn, fifty dollars and a double out to come, kick in your front door then bring me everything he got from your house. I said, damn, ask him what he want to charge for certain x, y and z's. So would you rather me be that taxi driver, nigga, or would you rather me be a goddamn motherfucker that's kicking in your front door? You make the opportunity, you make the choice before you out here, disrespecting another man.
Speaker 1:Remember there's two sides of a story with a man the good side and that demon in him. Because a lot of times people don't understand. It ain't the person I don't trust, it's the demon inside them I don't trust Because everybody can't walk with the devil in the pale moonlight, because sometimes you got to get out here and get your hands dirty and niggas don't understand that. Niggas don't learn to under respect that. So I want to thank y'all for listening to me on. Four Step is on and I'm out. Peace. Thanks for watching.
