WOOD THE MENTOR : TALES FROM THE JAILS LIVE!!!

Wood The Mentor speaks about his young child hood the upbringing in Philadelphia. Wood explains how he turned to a life of crime which ultimately led to serving prison time. Wood explains his thoughts and plans now that he has been released. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 2:34

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SPEAKER_09 3:06

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SPEAKER_09 7:26

We're sponsored by TNS Media the Group, man, and we're in Pod Rooms USA, man. We out here getting it, man, as we should. It's a beautiful Friday, man. On this Friday, we bringing y'all, you know, a wonderful guest today, man, to um break down a little bit more and go into just life, man, and staying out of jail, man. Introduce yourself, man. Tell everybody, the family, who you what your name is, who you're from. Yes, there, because I'm quite sure. They looking at you like, who is this guy that they got up here on Tails in the Jebs?

SPEAKER_08 7:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 7:53

So go ahead and rectify that and inform them who you are.

SPEAKER_08 7:56

Yeah, y'all already know what it is, man. It's Wood the Mentor. And I'm from 29th from Leah. It's count time.

SPEAKER_09 8:02

I got my uh counterpart up here with me today, man. Dot. Everybody know dot, man. Shout out to big dot sitting over here, man. Um, I want to uh just hit on something before we start and get into the you know the uh topic for the day, man. I want to uh let everybody know, man, that Tells in the Jails is a platform that we do not glorify, we do not glamorize, and we're not making it a badge of honor by sitting up here and talking about these jail stories. What we do is we bring you these jail stories at an alarming rate. We bring you truth, we bring you facts for you to not make the same mistakes that we have made, man, that you know brought us to this point. It's it's a hum duty lies, God willing that we didn't get caught up and have to spend the rest of our life there or even died, man. You know, because that's the case sometimes in these matters, man. So again, man, we're not glorifying, glamorizing, or making this a badge of honor. This is strictly real talk for those that want to understand and listen and keep your ass up out of there. So, you know, um man, we up here, man, today, man. What's up, Wood? Man, I you know, I had you up here before, man. Things got messed up, man, you know, with the audio and all that, man. I feel sorry about that. I want to apologize to you right now in the front of the audience, man, because you know the topic that we talked about last time was very, very good. And this one is gonna be even better for today, man. But uh, what's up, Wood? Tell them a little bit about you, man. What's going on, man? What you got going on, man? And where you what you come from, man?

SPEAKER_08 9:26

Like, oh man, um yeah, I went to jail at the age of 16. 16? 16. 16.

SPEAKER_09 9:34

You sitting in the penal system at the age of 16. For what? At 16.

SPEAKER_08 9:37

I was convicted of murder in an attempted murder.

SPEAKER_09 9:40

Convicted? Convicted. Not beat it, but convicted. Convicted for those who don't know what it means. Lost. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So if you if you want, you know, leave out what you want to leave out or you know, fill in what you want to fill in, but you mean give us a uh at six? I'm trying to think, at 16, like 16, we was kids, man. Yeah. 16 running around, you know, our 16 probably is different from the 16-year-olds now today. For sure. You know, because times change. Time is gonna elevate the next 16 year olds that's coming up to be is gonna be different from the ones that's now. But what was your 16 like, man? For you the whole Troy, was it was it because of something you did, or you was just mistaken identity?

SPEAKER_08 10:17

No, it was something I did.

SPEAKER_09 10:19

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_08 10:20

You gotta take accountability, gotta take accountability of that. It was definitely something I did. Um, you know, growing up in North Philly, man, Lehigh Avenue, you know, getting caught up in named Chucky Giles. That everything that he pulled into me in there, because he had 55 years in.

SPEAKER_09 10:36

In or 55 to do? No, he had 55 in. Like he actually did by the time you met him.

SPEAKER_08 10:42

He had well by the time I met him, he had about 33, 34.

SPEAKER_09 10:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_08 10:49

You know what I'm saying? Um, and he kept trying to pull into me, but I was young and I wouldn't try to hear that shit. I still wanted to run around, I still wanted to do whatever I wanted to do. I still at that moment thought the jail was Lehigh Avenue.

SPEAKER_09 11:02

Right, right.

SPEAKER_08 11:03

You know what I mean? I still thought it was a play pen.

SPEAKER_09 11:05

That young mindset.

SPEAKER_08 11:06

Yeah, I didn't care about none of that. Or the old ass man, oh, I ain't trying to hear that shit you're talking about. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, and I'm running around and he wouldn't stop pouring into me. And he finally got through to me about 2016 and asked me what you want your end goal to be.

SPEAKER_09 11:19

How much time did you have in about when the time he got through to you? 14 years. 14 years. I told I sat up here the other day, right? And we was having a topic about a bunch of these gang members that they recently addicted in the city. And a bunch of these dudes is young, man. These dudes ain't even 23 years old yet. Right. And my brother had asked me about accountability. I'm like, man, I can't talk for these young dudes that's recently getting charged with certain crimes or whatever, but I could talk for me. It took me 12, 13 years before I was like, damn. And you just said that without even me having to say nothing to you.

SPEAKER_08 11:53

Before you realize it, um, he just poured into me and he wouldn't stop. And he asked me, so I don't want you to answer that question now. I want you to go in your cell and think about it. What do you want your end goal to be? And I sat there and it took me about three days, and I came out. I said, I got it. He said, What is it? I said, Everything that you poured into me in here, I want to go out here and pour into these kids. And from there, man, I knew that's what my mission was, and I came out here, and I ain't stopped doing it since.

SPEAKER_09 12:19

So let's rewind, man. Let's go back, man. You know, I want the I want the audience to get familiar with you, man, of the the turmoil that you came from to where you are at today. But you know, you said uh you were 17, 16 when you first caught the charge?

SPEAKER_08 12:32

Yeah, I was I was 16 when I first caught caught my case.

SPEAKER_09 12:36

All right, so uh what were you out there doing at 16? You could leave out what you want to leave out or put out what you want to put out, but what was it? Because I want them, I want to I want the people to fill a mindset.

SPEAKER_08 12:45

Um selling drugs, playing with guns, playing basketball, but I still was getting good grades in school. Right. No matter what I did, I still went to school because my mom said, You better bring a diploma through this door. You know what I'm saying? So I still was going to school, still, I was always smart, right? But I was searching for something. And what I was searching wasn't in the house. I didn't have that male figure.

SPEAKER_09 13:09

I mean, but so you ain't had no father.

SPEAKER_08 13:11

I ain't had no dad. I seen my dad two times in my whole life, and I'm 40 years old. Wow.

SPEAKER_09 13:15

You know, and um men count, men count, man. We do count. Shout out to the mothers, not taking nothing away from y'all.

SPEAKER_08 13:22

For sure, for sure. And um, my big brother stayed in jail, so I had nobody to look up to. My mom, she was doing doubles, she stayed at work, she was addicted to drugs also, so she was what you call the functional addict. You know, she got high, but she went to work. So after that, I just ran to the streets and I was searching for something, and I was running in the old heads that I thought that loved me, but they didn't love me. They just was using me.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

So, what you got certified as adult?

SPEAKER_08 13:52

Yeah, yeah. You know, that's 2002.

SPEAKER_09 13:55

So well, tell them what certified means because we're gonna get all the way to the nitty grip. I want them to feel this shit.

SPEAKER_08 13:59

Certified man is that listen, man, I don't care how old you is, you committed an adult crime. So you're gonna get charged as an adult and you're gonna get what if you're 14, not to cut you up.

SPEAKER_09 14:09

What if you're 13 and I did adult crime?

SPEAKER_08 14:11

I was on a juvenile block with people that was 13, 14 years old. They had a young boy on his name was Lil Gatos. He was 12 years old. He was convicted of murder, sent upstate. He stayed on the juvenile block till he was about 17 years old. They had him on it for five years, then they sent him to Pine Grove. So you want to play a big boy game, you're gonna get some big boy pride.

SPEAKER_09 14:34

So basically, what you're telling me is what, which I know a lot, but you could inform me too. These people ain't playing.

SPEAKER_08 14:41

No, they ain't playing.

SPEAKER_09 14:42

At all. No. Would you would you say, and I know I just asked you this, but from your point of view, is they playing or is they No, they ain't playing because one thing about it is they never gonna run out of bed space in them jail cells.

SPEAKER_08 14:53

That's why they're kicking old niggas out of jail now. So we could bring this you, we could bring this youth in. I done got 50 years out of you. You can't do nothing else for me. You got see, people gotta understand this that it's 40,000 plus inmates in jail. They make 43,000 plus off you a year. We not even counting about commissary, none of that other shit. It's a business. A big and dollar business. It's a business. I mean, I don't, it's a business. So, you know what I mean? You can play if you want. So let me ask you a question. So you blue trial, you went to trial? Yeah, I went to trial. Uh my right-hand man told on me. Um friends, huh?

SPEAKER_09 15:32

What about your friend?

SPEAKER_08 15:33

Friends, how many of us have them? Right. I mean, both of my homies, they told on me. You know what I'm saying? Took the stand, they told on me. And um, yeah, so I lost and I got 20 to 40. No, we weren't even co-defenders. Crazy thing about that was, man, it was a joint like, yo, man, it's a situation going on around here, man. Let me yo man, come around here, man. Situation got situated, and uh they told.

SPEAKER_10 16:02

It was the only witness on your case?

SPEAKER_08 16:04

Yeah, they told. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 16:08

That's crazy. So were you in juvenile facility then? Yeah, so no, I was at the House of Corrections again. I was charged. On juvenile block. On a juvenile block. So let me ask you this. Um, how long did you sit before you went to trial? 18 months. 18 months. They're making a 16-year-old sit 18 months before he even goes to trial to get determined if he did it or didn't do it. So 18 months after that, you how long you went to trial for?

SPEAKER_08 16:35

A week and a half.

SPEAKER_09 16:36

Whole week and a half for them to come back with a did you take a jury trial or a header?

SPEAKER_08 16:40

I took a jury trial because I felt those like I got a better chance of convincing one out of 12 that I didn't do instead of convincing this one person that I did. Because in my eyes, the judge already thinks I'm guilty anyway. I mean, so let me go ahead and see, can I convince one out of 12? But you know, they came back with a unanimous decision and they said he's guilty on all charges.

SPEAKER_09 16:59

Tell me something, man. Tell the audience, man. Uh, how old were you at that time? I know you were older than 16 at the time. 17. So 17 years old, a 17 young adolescent. Uh, can you say man or boy? I still was a boy. Yeah, okay. So I'm gonna go with that. Boy, I agree with you. Um, as a 17 man, when you got that guilty verdict, what was that? What was that? What was that feeling like? What was what was your mind when you heard the judge say, yeah, or you know, all the differences for that?

SPEAKER_08 17:27

What? So first degree murder is basically premeditated murder. Like we gonna go ahead and we plan to go kill this person. Third degree murder is that I went to go hurt you. I wasn't trying to kill you, but you died in the process. Voluntary manslaughter is basically like I'm defending myself and you died in the process.

SPEAKER_09 17:48

Okay. All right, so you you you're you're you're in your mind, you're like, damn, what what what degree are y'all finding me guilty?

SPEAKER_08 17:54

Right, because then I need to understand. I know third degree carries 20 to 40. I know voluntary manslaughter can get me five to ten to seven after 15, but I know first degree murder can get me life because I just watched my man go upstate last week with a life sentence. So now I understand. I'm like, okay, what uh what degree? So when she said third degree, I still was a little hurt, but I was a little relieved because I said, damn, I could still come home. And and then I got sentenced on August 21st because I lost on my brother's birthday, June 24th, and I got sentenced on August 21st.

SPEAKER_09 18:28

About roughly two months later.

SPEAKER_08 18:29

About two months later, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 18:31

So during your sentencing date, right? Right, but let me back up. Let me back up. How was it over there for you over the House of Correction during that time?

SPEAKER_08 18:39

Um it was fun. And the only reason I said it was fun because I still didn't know what was going on, I still didn't understand what I was locked up for. I knew it was something bad, but I didn't understand the magnitude of it. And I was over there with my peers. I'm over with dudes from around the way. I'm over there with dudes that went to I went to school with. So we like shoot, we thinking this is all right. This shit again. This shit ain't about nothing. Only one dude over there that was going to the law library, and his name was Mike Johnson. And he was locked up at this time since he was 14. He was the only dude that was going to the law library while we all play ping pong and basketball, and we looking at him like, man, he a nut. He a fucking where the where is he keep running over there for? But Mike had a whole nother plan that we wasn't even on yet. That y'all ain't even know nothing. He didn't even dig what Mike Johnson was doing. So once I was getting closer to trial, that's how I started to understand about what third degree carry because I started to talk to Mike Johnson. You took your ass to Mike Johnson, yeah. I started to roll with Mike Johnson, the nutball. Yeah, the nutball. I stopped playing that basketball. Hold up, yeah. Mike Johnson got some other shit going on. You feel what I'm saying? Yeah, so I wrote with Mike Johnson. I mean, that's how I was that's how I was doing it for the last couple months.

SPEAKER_09 19:52

All right, so now after your sentence, after they gave you your time, how um how long was it before they came and got you to take you upstate?

SPEAKER_08 20:00

Two days, two days, yeah. Because when you get sentenced, we're putting you in the hole. Oh, so you went to the hole, yeah. Because we got to put you in the hole because you're you're a state inmate, right? You can't be you can't be on the block no more, you're no longer a county inmate, right? So that means if something happened to you or if you do something to somebody, you liable to sue the jail because you ain't supposed to be on population with us, right? So they put me in a hole and speedball me, and I went right up there in two days, and that's it.

SPEAKER_09 20:25

Hey, that that that that that right there, man. When I think about that, that's like that's even more traumatizing to the mind of a young man that's getting sentenced under these conditions. If you just sit there, audience, if y'all sit there and just think about having this weight over your head, getting sentenced now. As soon as you sentence me, I'm thinking, boom, all right, cool. I'm sentenced, I'm gonna go to my no. The next chapter start. They sent this man the segregation housing unit. And for those of y'all that don't know what that means, it's 23 and 1. Yeah. And hopefully you better get you, hope you better get that one because sometimes they skip you, so it's 24, none. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? So, all right, so Brian, you go upstate. What's what was the first jail that you hit?

SPEAKER_08 21:05

I had to go to Greatford. You had to go to Greaterford, scared to death. That was so at the time Camp Hill wasn't. Well, I had to stop at Greaterford because I gotta get my state number. Okay, you stopped at Greaterford, get your state number. Yeah, and they put me in uh in a firmary because I was a kid, exactly. So I'm walking through these long ass blocks and I'm scared to death because I don't understand what's going on in this hallway right now. Because where I just came from, it was only like 50 or 60 of us, right? Why the fuck it look like it's 2,000 people in this hallway, yeah, and why it look like half of them looking like they're trying to do something to me, right? What's going on? Mind you, I'm going up there. I got no facial head, I'm a baby. Right. Oh man, listen, man, they put me in the firmware, and I didn't know that was the firmary. I only realized that that was the firmy because the nigga next door to me, he was back there because a nigga just knocked him in his head.

SPEAKER_09 21:58

Wow, and you see. This all was this your first time in jail, man. Yeah, that was my first time. So I know this was a mind-altering experience for you.

SPEAKER_08 22:06

Yeah, this this was this was it was it was like I'm like, he's like, yo, you got a rapy? Mind you, I don't even know what a rappy is. I don't even know what that word is. Well, tell him what because a lot of people don't know. When he asks you, do you got a rappy? I'm like, what is a rappy? But then I come to find out it's just another word for co-defendant. I thought he was asking me, was I a rat? So I get defensive from the rip. I ain't no fucking rat. Yeah. I'm thinking that's what he was asking me. You got a co-defendant. Yeah. I'm like, why are you back here? Oh man, man, I tried to, you know, man, I ain't get off the phone.

SPEAKER_09 22:38

Motherfucker hit him in his head. Let me let me rewind a little bit because I skipped over a part, right? When you pulled up to that greater for wall for the first time before y'all even entered the jail, I'm quite sure you got to pull up in a gate or a wall open up to keep y'all interested. Like when you seen that jail when the first pull-up, like, because you know you hear all the stories created for Camp Hill or for Retreat Forest, whatever the jail may have been at the time that was built. So you, you know, we on the streets committing crimes. We hear about jail stories. Right. But it's one thing hearing it and actually seeing it. Right. But I'm talking about seeing it before you even get inside. What was your mind like?

SPEAKER_08 23:13

Damn, this is it right here? Like, what was your thinking? When I got there and I looked at that wall, my heart went in my ass. And then when that shit lifted up, I said, Yeah, I done fucked up now. I fucked up. You knew it. You knew in your heart like- I said I fucked up. But then it got even real after that. Well, tell me how. Because when I got off the bus, the nigga he didn't ask my name. Who? The guard or the guard ain't asked my name or nothing. He just said, Where you want your body sent? I said, Dang!

SPEAKER_09 23:44

Yeah.

unknown 23:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 23:46

Yeah, Wood, you fucked up now. Yeah, ain't no mommy to help you, save you, none of that. You can't, ain't no, you yeah, you fucked up now. You done stepped into the big leaves. And I asked him, I said, huh? He said, Where do you want your body sent at, young man? I said, I don't know. Um, my mom, I guess. We need our address. I said, these motherfuckers about to kill me. Yeah, I probably've been thinking that too. Like, what? These motherfuckers they about to kill me. And I uh Yeah, man, and I got my state number, man.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

You remember that for the rest of your life?

SPEAKER_08 24:24

Yeah, man, FM 2205. I never forget that. FM 2205. I never forget that. Is you still on parole right now?

SPEAKER_09 24:31

Yes, I don't get off parole until 2042. 2042. We only in 26, man. Yeah. All right, so applying getting into Camp Hill, I mean uh uh Graderford, right? So that was like a like an intake joint for you?

SPEAKER_08 24:46

Yeah, intake. I was there for like a day, a night.

SPEAKER_09 24:49

Oh, and then they took you to your gym.

SPEAKER_08 24:50

Yeah, they just put me in the ferry because they ain't had nowhere to put me because I was a juvenile. Right. So they just put me there and then they sent me to Camp Hill. And Camp Hill at that time, they had a block for young boys because everybody was going upstate. So they had a block for young boys called H Block. So I stayed, I went to I went to H block with the young boys that was in the county. So I was like cool. I was like cool because there was everybody I knew from the county.

SPEAKER_09 25:12

You just had Camp Hill. Yeah, they just was upstate. All right, so was this a classification jail for you, or that was your jail?

SPEAKER_08 25:17

No, that wasn't my jail. I had to get classified because everybody was going to Pine Grove after that. Okay, what jail did you go to? Pine Grove. Pine Grove. Yeah, because I was still I was still 17. So oh, they sent all the juveniles to my so that whole jail was full of juveniles? Well, they had a juvenile side and they had an adult school. Okay, okay, and they had a program up there called the YAOP program, the young adult offender program. Okay, basically, if you graduate that program, it's five levels. If you graduate that program, you're allowed to pick any jail in the state that you want. If you know you wanted to get back home, closer to home, things like that, because that Pine Grove was out in Indiana. That's just six and a half hours away. Yeah, man. Yeah, your mom and them ain't gonna keep making that trip. Nah, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_09 25:56

That's that's about two, three times a year, if that.

SPEAKER_08 25:58

Yeah, my mind came out like twice, rather.

SPEAKER_09 26:02

Yeah, yeah, we gotta be grateful for that. Yeah. So at Pine Grove, like how how did your first, like the first how long did you do at Plot Grove? Did you stay there and do all your time at Pine Grove? No, so how much time did you do that? I got the hell out of there. So, how much time did you do?

SPEAKER_08 26:16

I did, I graduated the program. The program prior did like 18 months there.

SPEAKER_09 26:20

So basically, that was your introduction to jail, Pine Grove.

SPEAKER_08 26:25

It was my introduction to jail, and then it wasn't because again, I'm still on the juvenile side with dudes that was in the county and dudes that went up before me. You know what I mean? So it was a little bit rowdier, but the other side was the adult side, right? Like if you turn 18 on that side, you can go to the adult side if you choose to. But me, once I graduated, I came right back down to Greaterford where it started at.

SPEAKER_09 26:49

Right where you went, you got right out close to home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 26:52

I wanted to be close to home, and the counselor was trying to convince me not to go. She said, Why do you want to go down there? That's the most dangerous drill in the state. They're gonna kill you.

SPEAKER_09 27:00

So, how much um time did you serve all together? 20 years. All right, so how much time did you do at uh Greaterford?

SPEAKER_08 27:07

I went I was at Greaterford from 05 to 2018. Damn, 05 and 2000. That's a nice little about 13 years? Yeah, and then I opened up, um, they closed that down, and then I opened Phoenix up. Okay. And then from 18 to 20 to 2022.

SPEAKER_09 27:21

Okay, so I'm quite sure you probably done seen your fair shares of everything. So this is when you really got to learn the etiquettes of jail.

SPEAKER_08 27:28

Yeah, this is when I get to know the understanding of how this shit goes now.

SPEAKER_09 27:32

So, what's what's the understanding though? What is a let me ask you this before you get into the explanation. When you get your explanation, I want you to answer this question first and then get into your explanation.

SPEAKER_08 27:42

Is jail and society the same rules on on certain levels.

SPEAKER_09 27:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_08 27:51

One of the things is mind your business. So the you so you're saying, okay. Mind your business. In jail or out here. Both. Okay. Mind your business. It pays you nothing to mind your business. Right. And I learned that the hard way.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Right.

SPEAKER_08 28:04

You know what I'm saying? I remember I was on the block and I was walking the block, and I all and I was told when you get on that block, you walk straight to the child hall. You don't look in nobody's cells. Why not? Why you don't look in nobody's cells? Because you you have no business looking in there. You don't live there. It ain't no, it's no business in there of yours. And I met and I fucked up and I turned my head and I looked in somebody's cell. And when I came back, he was waiting by my cell. Wow. And what did he say? And I asked him, I said, Dan, what's up? He said, Do you know me from somewhere? I said, no. He said, Do you know somebody in that cell? I said, no. He said, Well, what the fuck was you looking in there for? Wow. I said, my photo head. He said, youngin, I'm gonna give you the game. You just came. Keep straight ahead. It's anything liable to be going in in that cell. And I said, like what? He said, fighting, fucking, anything. Mind your business. Yeah. And from that day on, man, in 2005, August of uh 31st of 2005. From that day on, I mind my business. From that day on, you getting remembered the day and I mind my business.

SPEAKER_09 29:21

That's how traumatized it in there. It sears on your brain. Certain events 31st is being five. I mind my business. Damn. So after that, you pretty much had a uh understanding any more bumps that you had to go through before you got it all the way right like that.

SPEAKER_08 29:37

I I it it it it was shit where that they just I remember old head boy named Kev. I just getting it. Now mind you, when you come to your jail since you're on a promotional, you have to do a year clean, no misconduct. If you don't, you get sent back to your home jail. Okay, because you violated your contract.

SPEAKER_11 30:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_08 30:01

The boy Kev, old head boy from Logan. I guess you know, I'm young. I ain't got no muscle no weight on me, though that was sweet. We in line for commissary. He said, Man, I need you to go grab me some cigarettes. So I said, Well, is there anything like you need me to trade off? Like, you know. Yeah, but we could be even. We could be even because I know you only allowed to get a certain amount of cigarettes, and we only allowed to buy one thing of ice cream. All right, well, look, you give me an ice cream, I get you a cigarette. He said, No, youngin, you ain't picking up what I'm putting down. I said, Well, what you mean? I need you to bring me back some cigarettes. I'm not trading nothing off. Okay. Cool. I got you. Kept messing with me. My old head boo. I went and said something to him about it. And you know, I never forget the Eagles was playing Kansas City. It was August of two, I mean it was October of 2005 on a Sunday night. The Eagles was down like 31 or 3 or some shit like that. And McNabb and them brought them all the way back to win the game. And I went in that cell, and I told my old head, I said, When I turn this radio up, I want you to shut this door. I turned that radio up, he shut that door, and I went and started whooping his ass. And that was my introduction to Greater Fur. And I start stabbing him, hitting him in his face with Noxema bottles, banging his head on the metal joint and all that. He finally But this is the way of life in jail. Yeah, this is how I'm gonna live. But this is how I got to make my introduction now. Because I see now the first thing that happened, oh here, check me. Okay, the second time now, ain't nobody just gonna keep doing that shit. We ain't gonna just keep doing this shit now. Y'all tripping. And I went to the hole for six and a half months behind that.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

Right, but hold up. Well, imagine if you that gave it to him. Explain that situation.

SPEAKER_08 31:53

Oh, if I would have gave him them cigarettes, man, I probably then they probably would have been his bitch. Well, what you mean?

SPEAKER_09 32:00

Like what?

SPEAKER_08 32:00

I'd have been doing everything else for him. Or he would have been washing clothes. Yeah, he would have been spreading thing. No, it ain't no one-time thing. Because he would have been spreading the word then. Damn, man, I got this nut, I got this sweet ass young boy, man. I mean, you could get him, he goes to store for you and all that. Oh, yeah. And we could make the young boy wash clothes, and what they call in that in there, Maytag.

SPEAKER_09 32:21

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_08 32:22

We make him Maytag.

SPEAKER_09 32:25

For those that don't know what that is, is somebody that washes, draw socks, and t-shirts and khakis and scrub shoes. Yes.

SPEAKER_11 32:32

Alarming rate.

SPEAKER_08 32:33

Yes. At an alarming rate. At an alarming rate, willingly and unwillingly. Yes, because some people gotta do it because that's how they make their money.

SPEAKER_09 32:43

Damn, man. I'm sitting back just thinking about, like, I'm reflecting off of everything you're saying, man. And it's like, it's a whole nother world in there, bro. Yeah. That's not like society, man. Yeah. No, see, see that's like sad, like barbaric. Like, yeah. Would you say that?

SPEAKER_08 32:59

I that's how because you might not agree with me. No, I agree with you a thousand percent. Right. You have to be a different. Listen, I remember, I remember I heard Wilo say this before, right? And which was a true statement because I say it too. You have to put your brain and your mind in a psychotic mind for you to stay insane in that motherfucker. You got to make yourself believe that this shit not really going on in here, man. When you got men in there thinking that they women, I'm saying old head in that these listen, man. The homosexuality shit is out of the roof in there. This shit that we see out here is nothing. You gotta understand in there, it's more closed in.

SPEAKER_09 33:48

You see it. It is like more accepted in there.

SPEAKER_08 33:50

Yes. This is a way of life, prison. Way of life, they got they got their own showers, bro. They got their own showers, they got a naked shower. Don't don't go in there because if you go in that neck shower, don't be upset with you about to hear in that jump. The steam is on the door, niggas is in there getting hit. Don't be upset because you shouldn't win in there. It's a naked shower. And it'd be the undercovers is in there that you just won't even dig it. You don't even know that these boys are gay, man.

SPEAKER_00 34:22

Oh, and they go in there as soon as everybody at yard.

SPEAKER_08 34:24

They catch you at yard. I mean, yard, they be like, yard out, yard out. Go ahead on out there, black. Damn, I thought we was going out and play handball. I'm gonna fall back and chill today, man. Inside. He done slid main man in the cell real quick. Yeah, like that. That that that become a I always told people, man, that the one thing they I was scared about jail was also was getting used to it. Did you become used to it? I became used to it. I knew at six o'clock I had to get up for camp. I knew at seven o'clock I gotta go to breakfast. At eight o'clock, I gotta do line movement.

SPEAKER_09 35:03

Well, let's let me not to cut you off, but I want you because this this is so intricate, and this is the first time we really touched on that. I ain't never even brought that up. But you say that six o'clock, you talk about P.M. or AM? No, AM. Is you gotta get up feet on the floor?

SPEAKER_08 35:16

Feet on the floor, lights on it's count time. And if not, you get in the misconduct and you go into the hole, and we're gonna put you in a place that you ain't gotta get up. You ain't gotta get up. That's the reason why that I said, you know what? I'm gonna go ahead and turn that negative in there into a positive. That's why I came out here and I said, I'm making count time a brand.

SPEAKER_09 35:38

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_08 35:39

That's what it is. I'm gonna make count time a brand. And anybody that's been in the penitentiary knows what count time is.

SPEAKER_09 35:46

Count time, count time.

SPEAKER_08 35:48

Lights on. Lights on. So 6 o'clock in the morning, you got to get up. I'm banging on this door with this clipboard and I'm throwing that light on. Okay, you don't want to get up, don't worry about it. I'm gonna come back around again. I'm gonna slide this misconduct on beneath your door.

SPEAKER_09 36:05

And if film guilty upon that misconduct, what can that lead to?

SPEAKER_08 36:09

It depends. You can get 30 days in the hole, you can get 15-day cell restriction. You might get cell restriction your first warning, but your second time, you're definitely going over. Because obviously, it seemed like you got a hard time following the rules. So we're gonna put you in a place that you ain't even gotta get up. You can sleep all day. So I had to do that for 20 straight years. It's count time. Six o'clock, 12 o'clock, four o'clock, and nine o'clock. Feet on the floor. Feet on the floor. You and your celly, or just you. No, you and your celly. Yeah, they ain't they ain't got no picks. Top bunk, bottom bunk, feet on the floor, lights on. Let me ask you if it's an old man, he gotta get up too. It depends. It depends. But more than likely, he's gonna get up. Greater for give you a little lean way, a little lead way. Okay, but when you go up in the mountains, you're getting up in the mountains, and you messing with them with the crackers up there, you getting up. I don't give a fuck if you're eight to eighty, you blind crippled crazy, you gonna get up. You gonna get up.

SPEAKER_09 37:19

So now, doing your times in here. Um, I like to say, like, like I said, it took me a long time to get the understanding, to get to accountability, to get to me to be like, damn, I'm here because of me. Like when I first came in, my first five to seven, eight, nine, ten years was all I was reflective. Everything someone said to me, I reflected back. No, it's because of this. Or the judge, he was biased, or uh my codifenders, they told on me. Until I got like, damn, I actually did some shit for a nigga to tell on me. If I never did that, he couldn't tell on me. So before you came to the mindset of accountability, like how was your time like after you know you got indoctrinated into uh into the uh great you went back to uh uh greatest for your main jail, right? Like what was some of the things that you was doing? Like when you were seeing guys go to law, like what was you doing besides playing basketball and all that? Like some of the things that goes on in the penal system that guys sit around and do.

SPEAKER_08 38:17

Playing cards all day long, just wasting the way house playing cards in the field house, playing basketball, working out, fighting, still not understanding, and like you said, accountability. I still kept sitting there because I done told the courts for so long that I didn't do it. I started to believe that shit. You tricked yourself, I done tricked myself and start to sit there and like, damn, you ain't you ain't do this shit. But then it's like, come on, Wood, come on, man. So I had to really take accountability and really look at myself and say, Wood, you did whatever they said you did. These people ain't just picking on you.

SPEAKER_09 38:57

Right.

SPEAKER_08 38:58

When you gonna take accountability and when you gonna say, listen, you know what, it ain't your fault, it ain't your fault, it ain't your fault. It ain't even the nigga fault that's told on me. It's your fault. You gotta handle that. And once you really do that, you're gonna be able to start to see and start to see the growth in you. Once you start to accept the responsibility of your actions, and then you'll start to see that you start to grow and things like that. I think that's the only way you'll start to see yourself. Yes, you gotta accept responsibility of your actions, and it just don't have nothing to do with jail, it's life period. You have to accept responsibility of whatever you've done, you have to accept that and then change it.

SPEAKER_09 39:41

See, well, you did an extensive time, right? You did you did a nice stretch, man. Yeah, that ain't no that that is a man. I just to be think about it and reflecting on it gives me chills, man. Because I man, I'm embarrassed I did that. I'm ashamed. Like, it's like, damn, I actually went through all that. Okay, it made me who I am today. Right. Because I had to go through that turmoil to get to some solid ground. But I learned is that during long stints, such as yourself and myself, and that, um, for me anyway, I lost a lot of people. Did you lose anything of good in your life during that 20? Was it anything that you sat there and when you came home, like, damn, that I had before I came in, and now damn, I didn't get a chance to make nothing or anything, whatever it was, whether it was a person, property, was it anything that you lost during that time?

SPEAKER_08 40:32

Only the years with my mother.

SPEAKER_09 40:33

Right.

SPEAKER_08 40:34

You know what I'm saying? Only them years with my mother, and that's what I asked God, man. I said, listen, no matter what, just let me make it back out to be on this other side with my mother.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

Right.

SPEAKER_08 40:43

I don't care about nothing else. Because all my mind you, all my homies left me at trial. So they didn't, they didn't come upstate with me.

SPEAKER_01 40:51

Right.

SPEAKER_08 40:52

Mind you, I had about 10 friends when I went to jail. Not one of them never did a date with me in jail. None of them never sent me a letter, a picture, a check or nothing. So they was already disappeared and gone. I was young, I didn't have no like no, wasn't in no full-blown relationship.

SPEAKER_09 41:07

Yeah, so I was very asked you about a girl or something like that.

SPEAKER_08 41:09

Yeah, I had a little girlfriend, but I wasn't in no full-blown relationship, so I didn't have no experience on that level. No kids or nothing. I don't have I didn't have no kids, so I wasn't no spirits on that level. So my only thing and my only weak spot was my mother. And that's all I was trying to get back to. And that was it, man. Did you did you make it back to your mother? Yeah, I made it back to my mom. And um what's crazy is right, the day that I came home, which was March 20th, 2022, I called her around like 10 something that night, right? And um, she like, boy, why are you calling me this late? What you home? I said, No, mom, I'm not home. But she knew that my block stayed out, T block stayed out till like 11 something that night, 11 o'clock at night. So I said, Ma, you know we stay out late. Whole time I was down the street. She didn't know. I had my man nose knock on the door. And when he opened the door, and she was, I said, Mom, my man about to drop some money off to you. He opened, she opened the door, she seen him, and I stepped around him. Like the pass out. That same scream that she gave me 20 years ago, she gave me that night too. And that's it was it was it was this time it was joy though, instead of hurt.

SPEAKER_09 42:26

All right, well let's rewind a little bit. So I is it safe for me to assume like the last five, the well, I don't know, but I like to go five because I like to think that you started to get a lot more understanding about life, about you, about responsibility that you as a man have to take on before you got uh released into society. Like, did that don't like and what were some of the things that you helped propel that while you were incarcerated? Because I like to tell people, not to cut you off, I like to tell people that jail do offer you some things. It ain't just uh and niggas get knocked out. Oh, that's at a warming rate. Yeah, yeah. But they have things in place if you're willing to go ahead and take these clay. They don't force you, but they have it in place. So was some of these things at your disposal the last five, six, seven years, once you came to an understanding that you gotta do better.

SPEAKER_08 43:16

Yes, I took a um, it's crazy you said five years because that's when I really started to take things like so serious in 2017. And um, all these programs in there, Thinking for Change, Violence Prevention, Um, Money Smart, Um, little college courses, Villanova classes, and all these things that I started to take advantage, along of me working on and trying to be a mentor. Now, I mean, because young boys was coming into jail, and now I became the old head now. Now I mean I became that the old heads that taught me, but they said, No, we outdated. We need you to talk to our young boy. So I became that. So mentoring didn't just start out here, it started in there. So I was preparing myself. For the outside world. I ain't got my diploma in jail. So I did all of these things. Like again, I told you, I was always, always smart. I just was always It's crazy. Because see, jail is really designed to destroy you mentally and emotionally. You went in there, you getting locked up. That shit come out the joint, look up there. What the fuck is going on? They bring him out white sheet over his jaw. He went up there and hung himself. His cell he came back from line movement and he was in there hung up like asthma tech.

SPEAKER_09 44:30

Jail topics, as long as they jail topics, as long as they got prisons open in the United States or wherever you at, they got prisons all over the world. It's always gonna be a topic. It's gonna be somebody going in, it's gonna be somebody coming out. Now, upon coming upon your release date, right? While you was in there at the serving 20 years, or when you had about 16, 17 years in, how was your thing in the jail? I didn't know how to wash my ass. I ain't know how to do things properly. Jail indoctrinated me. Yes. So I'm asking you, the closer that date got there, when you was like 30 days out. I'm guessing you got a green sheet or something to let you know. When you got that green sheet informing you, you received your date, and here it is.

SPEAKER_08 45:14

Yeah, I was scared of that.

SPEAKER_09 45:15

Did you tell anybody? Did you go to a couple friends? Like, yo, it's good.

SPEAKER_08 45:18

So you gotta know that um it's still around the pandemic time.

SPEAKER_09 45:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_08 45:25

So every me and my homie, we both go see them. And um, he get his green sheet back in like five weeks. And he like, yo, they just let me go. Right. And I'm like, all right, well, where my shit at? My shit took 11 weeks.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

That's a long time.

SPEAKER_08 45:47

Right. So every day I kept going to the board because they said if you see this lady named P Bryant, name under your under your pass, you get to go home. So I uh uh you know, everybody going up, they getting hits. But I said, damn, I don't got no pay.

SPEAKER_09 46:02

What a what what a hit mean?

SPEAKER_08 46:04

Like you're going up or you getting a hit because a lot of people Oh a hit a hit mean is that uh you know you went to the parole board and you they didn't like what you were saying. And they said, I think you need to sit down for another year or two years. See, people gotta understand is this, right? Parole is a privilege, not a right. I don't have to let you home in 20 years. Because you still got another, you really supposed to do 85% of your time. Like the feds do. Yeah, I don't like got to let you home. I'm being nice. But you gotta show me that you've been being you gotta show me that you're nice, that you're ready for society. It ain't I mean it ain't up to me, it's up to you. So I'm waiting on the green sheet. They said, damn wood. Pete Brian up there. You get your green sheet tomorrow. I was hype. But also, you know, you still got the secret haters that say, well, I heard she giving out hits too. I played with my psychic a little bit. I went over there, got the green sheet, and said you been the granny parole to go home. I went right back and I had to go to the bathroom. Because I said, shit. And my man said, yo, why you ain't upset why you ain't happy? I said, because guess what? I gotta I gotta live up to everything now. I got to be, I gotta be Yeah, I gotta be who I said. I gotta put my money where my mouth is. I gotta put my money where my mouth is. I told my mom I'ma be a mentor. I told my mom I'ma check, uh yeah, I gotta do this shit. I told my old he is in here that I'm gonna go home to do this. Shit, yo, let me get back with you. I go back to the bathroom again. And as the days get on, mind you, the pandemic's still going. They moved me off the block, and then they moved me on another block because like a week, and then I had then I went home. And when they lift that gate up, man, I started crying. That was the first time I ever cried. In your life? No. In jail? Oh, in jail. I didn't cry when they gave me the time. I didn't cry when they did none of that. Now I cried when I found out my mom was sick real bad. Okay. But I'm saying when they lift that gate up. For you to go out, not in. For me to go out, the weight of the world felt off my shoulder, and I just broke down right there and cried. And my and they was looking at me, everybody was looking at me like, what, my homie? Like, yeah. Because I was like, not that I just cried because I'm home, I cried because I made it out. And I know a lot of dudes didn't make it home. And that's why I broke down and cried. Till this day I still cry.

SPEAKER_09 48:46

I think I might have cried, and if I didn't, I damn near cried. Why? Because I was leaving a lot of good men behind and never gonna take this walk that I'm taking out that door.

SPEAKER_08 48:54

That too, that too. And and that's why I gotta answer them phone calls. Right. I mean, you lead them guys around out there. I mean, you you that's why I'm glad that you know that this second degree came down for a lot of these guys, because these guys, some of these guys will get an opportunity to be able to take that same walk that I took. Let me ask you a question.

SPEAKER_09 49:18

And I want you to be honest with this. We we all three of us sitting up here as former, I like to say rehabilitated convicts. Yes. Um do you think that prisons is needed? Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_08 49:36

Yeah, I think the same thing. Structure. Structure. Prison saved my life. Prison saved my life, and they asked me, would you change anything? No. Prison saved my life. Prison made me the man that I am today. Prison was the father that you didn't have. Yes. Prison. I felt my purpose because of prison. I felt my passion because of prison.

SPEAKER_09 50:03

Let me ask you this too, another question. You know, it's going around the streets now, and I know you done heard it a thousand times. Fuck the streets. What's your mentality on that? Right.

SPEAKER_08 50:15

The streets is who may die.

SPEAKER_09 50:17

Right.

SPEAKER_08 50:17

You look what I'm saying. If it wasn't for the streets, this this this wouldn't be there.

SPEAKER_09 50:21

Right.

SPEAKER_08 50:22

This wouldn't be a thing.

SPEAKER_09 50:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 50:23

You look what I'm saying? And also, you also gotta when people say that, I gotta hear who's saying it. You look at what I'm saying. Um, not just not yeah, uh a dude, but not just a dude. Say if a dude all of a sudden he done turned sour, and now you want to say F the streets.

SPEAKER_10 50:44

Everybody on the bandwagon with him.

SPEAKER_08 50:46

No, you can't say F the streets now because you done turned sour milk. Because you done now, you tell him now you saying F the streets. Yeah, no, it's only F the streets because it's in the benefit of you now, because you done told. Talk to him, would so that's why it's F the streets. Because if you never told, you wouldn't even you wouldn't never even said that.

SPEAKER_09 51:07

But what about a citizen that never even been in the streets because you got some of them saying fuck the streets? I don't know why them guys out there, and they don't know nothing about the streets, or they know it's working. They I don't think they wrong for saying that. They not.

SPEAKER_08 51:17

Okay, they not. This is what I'm saying. You can't get you can't, I can't hold dot at the same standard that I hold Miss Mary to. If Miss Mary go and tell and make a statement, Miss Mary's supposed to do that. You shouldn't have done that in front of Miss Mary. But if Dot go or somebody go, or anybody, one of us goes and make a statement, we can't do that. Yeah, wrong.

SPEAKER_09 51:44

Especially if we street dudes, yeah. We live an outlaw life committing crimes and whatever.

SPEAKER_08 51:51

Even right now, where our lives changing the way that it is, and we on a different trajectory and a different path in life, we still can't do that. We still can't say, oh well, you know, black wood and dot citizens now, and they get a pass to tell. No, you don't. You don't get a pass to tell, you just don't put yourself in that position to have to tell. Because you out the streets. You out the streets, so you shouldn't even be with dudes that's in the streets. Because he's about to put you in a position to do some shit that you don't want to do. If you're gonna go back to jail or you're gonna tell. All that be avoided, so you got to separate yourself from that. Yeah, so no, I can't never say fuck the streets because the streets is is who made is who made me.

SPEAKER_09 52:45

I like that your answer on that, would that was a real that was that was like needed for me too. Yeah. Because when I think about it, I I'm like half and half. Okay, but I'm only half and half on a of the wrong I did out there. Fuck that. Yes. But and I'm the same way you is on a, but at the same time, I wouldn't be me without the street. You wouldn't be. I don't know what I'd be without being, I'll probably be a nerd, not to say nerd is corny. Right. But I like to be, yeah, give me the fly ball. I don't want to be the nerd, but I'm not saying they corny either. But I damn sure don't want, they don't get no yeeks. Yeah, until they old, they don't get nothing going towards it.

SPEAKER_08 53:22

The nerds don't get nothing until they get older. The big money. You understand? That's why I said I don't know. They don't get nothing until they don't get the fly girl with the big earrings and all that.

SPEAKER_09 53:30

Shout out to Ray, man, for sending that money. You know who you is. Thanks for the donation, and thank you for becoming a member, man. Um, yeah, man. So uh I want to ask you that ask everybody this question, right? About prison. I'm quite sure you've seen your fair share of violence and been in your fair share of violence, Nick. You just told me how you just pummeled a man to damn near to death about having you try to go get him some cigarettes for the free honey.

SPEAKER_08 53:55

Yeah. Um I've been on the other side of it too, though.

SPEAKER_09 53:58

Oh, yeah. Well, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll take it, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 54:00

We ain't gonna nickname that.

SPEAKER_09 54:02

I've been on the other side too. All right. Um, you seen somebody ever get stabbed. This is just I'm I'm quite sure you have, but I'm asking you for the audience. You seen I've been stabbed. Okay. You seen someone get hit with that lock and sock or lock on belt, but that lock used with it. Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna give you a hypothetical question. Say you got an altercation with another convict. Y'all arguing first. Going at it, y'all calling each other out each other's names. But good men jump in it and break y'all up because they know y'all like, yo, come on, man. Y'all ain't got to do that. Right. He like, damn man, I was tripping wood and this and that, you know what I mean? And you like, yeah, my fault, man. We ain't because y'all ain't hit nobody, nobody got hit, nothing like that. Right. You go, you go about your day, you thinking it's over. But he on some dog time. Yeah. We all lunch sometime. Yeah, you watching TV. Unbeknown to you, he's creeping up behind you. You don't even know he's coming. He's coming to get you. And this is something that you're gonna have to take on the chin till you either get back or you might not never get back.

SPEAKER_11 54:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 54:59

If you can choose a weapon that he had to use on you, yeah, whether it be that knife or that lock and sock, which one would you take?

SPEAKER_08 55:07

The knife.

SPEAKER_09 55:08

Well, tell me why. Would you take this knife over the lock and sock? Because that lock and sock is different, bro.

SPEAKER_08 55:14

What's different about that lock and sock, bro? When that motherfucker hit you, and if he knows what he's doing with that jaw, when he hits you first, you yelling out a scream, but you ain't seeing nothing. So it's just a silent yell on a yeah, you not seeing nothing. That shit hit different. See, if he stab you, he liable to drop the knife and do all the extra shit. He got that jaw and he got that, and he listen, I've seen it. I seen that shit, how that boy go to work on it, bro. Like he won't stop. That lock in the sock is different, bro. That's that shit hit different, dog. It it it messes you, it takes your whole equilibrium. It just if it makes your whole thing shift, man.

SPEAKER_10 55:58

Come slow.

SPEAKER_08 55:59

Yes, you you you come from you come, listen, and there's no knock against nobody when I say this. You go from a straight A student to being in the LD class quick.

SPEAKER_09 56:13

But you say LD, you don't even know your numbers. Yes, you go from being with a helmet on your motherfucking head after getting hit in that lock in the slap. You sit up here and we laugh about it because we reflect about it, but it's serious, man. It's very, very serious, bro. And again, it's going on, and uh, someone probably is getting hit, getting hit in their head as we speak, as we speak, right now, and he's getting he's getting tuned up with that lock in the slap. I'm talking about man, the ones that I seen, bro. I I'm I'm trying to I can't undo like it's so graphic and so hideous that it's embedded in my I can't even I can't lock it away. I can't not see it.

SPEAKER_00 56:49

Yeah, I got hit with a lock one time. But I tried to block that shit, man. That shit like shot my wrist a little bit.

SPEAKER_09 56:55

Yeah, but 12 gauge shotgun to the wrist. You probably couldn't use that joint for months.

SPEAKER_00 56:59

I could have used for three months. I wasn't supposed for three months, they wrapped that joint. I couldn't like when I prayed and try to push up, like that joint was dead.

SPEAKER_08 57:06

That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 57:06

Like that shit, that I blocked that jaw, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 57:09

Yeah, you yeah, yeah, because you would have had you would have a permanent jaw. Yeah, imagine that on your head, yeah, right next to his prostration. Like you said, to give you break, yeah, right next to his got two of them. Yes, because see, now you trying to hurt me for real. We when you hit me with one of those, you trying to severely hurt me. You trying not to make me back. I can't make it back on to my mom and though, right?

SPEAKER_09 57:34

We only had a disagreement or disfigure me heavily.

SPEAKER_10 57:37

Yes, you told me for you smoking that. I don't want to do this to you, Doug.

SPEAKER_09 57:40

Yeah, because they know that's a damn situation, bro.

SPEAKER_08 57:45

That shit don't make no sense, but it's crazy how no, and I felt it because you was just looking off just now, like it don't make no sense. Yeah, because that shit don't make no sense, because it's crazy how you brought up that whole scenario watching TV and sitting up. Yeah, you just because it happens like that. That's how I got stabbed, just like that. Sitting there watching TV, you know me, I'm good with these dates. So it's fucking Super Bowl Sunday, February 8th, the Denver playing Seattle in 2014. I'm popping shit to the bull because you know me. I got 12 years in there at this time. Yeah, you plug in West Philly Bowl. I'm popping shit with a man. What the name was a bitch man, you already know what's up with me, nigga. I ain't got no rap. Yeah, I'm gonna block slippers on and everything, watching TV or YouTube bowl. Yeah, hey nigga, this is my block, nigga. Like I got time in there. I mean, yeah, I'm the OG now for real around here. You know what I'm saying? I done put my work in and all that. Man, I'm sitting there. Next thing I know, man, I hear motherfuckers say, What? I turn around just in time. Because if I don't turn around in time, he's gonna put it in my neck. Fucking knife this long, he slide it right in my arm. I got this permanent mark still here. He slide it right in my arm, boom! But he was so scared with it when he did it, it stuck in my arm and he ran.

SPEAKER_09 59:02

Left it there.

SPEAKER_08 59:03

He left it there. So now I'm running chasing at him, trying to take it out. Old here from West Philly named Toky pulled me in the cell. Yo, younger, hold up, man. Let me get this joint out your arm.

SPEAKER_00 59:12

And shout out to okay, man.

SPEAKER_08 59:14

Tokyo that's saying he alleged. Took the joint out my arm, wrapped my joint up, now I'm looking for him all over the block. I couldn't get back until after I got out the hole because or he locked you up. Yeah, because you know, they you know, shit going there. Super Bowl Sunday, bro. You know what I mean? So lock me up, boom. I mean, and the you know, I finally got back, you know, after that. But yeah.

SPEAKER_09 59:36

Callers, man, get ready to call in, man. Another five minutes, man. Uh, I don't remember the number right off top. Uh as soon as it comes up, you'll see it up on the screen, and I'll recite the number a couple times, but call in, man.

SPEAKER_10 59:48

You gotta talk about what we're doing out here for the youth and all that, though.

SPEAKER_09 59:50

Yeah, see, yeah, yeah. We're gonna do, we're gonna, I'm just saying, get ready to call in. So now, applying your release, would like upon your release, you getting out, you crying when that wall or gate opened up. Um, how was you how has your transition in society been these last four years? And what are some of the things that you, you know, different that you were barking on that you was that you wasn't doing when you first came in?

SPEAKER_08 1:00:15

Um, you know, like I said, um, working with these kids, enjoying every moment of that. Um, just pouring all my experience and everything I came in into these youngers.

SPEAKER_09 1:00:27

Let me cut you off, Wood, because I'm gonna forget. Do you think these kids listen?

SPEAKER_08 1:00:31

Some of them are.

SPEAKER_09 1:00:32

Like it don't become fussed, like seeing, like, like sometimes I'll be like, I'll be a little standoffish. I'd rather sit right here and give my message. Um, but I want to get out there too, but I'm like, I'm stuck in a way, like, they not gonna listen. No, but they but they need you. Right. They need you, right? And I know that. That's why I do it. And because But I need to stay alive because I don't want to be walking up like me and Torfix up here talking about, yeah, would you go to a corner, Diamond Street, West Philly, uh North Philly. Yo, young boy, you're corner. I'm not doing that. No, but so I'm jumping out, yo, tails in the jails right here.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:05

Y'all young boys for a second, can I get so the thing is this, it's always a way, it's more ways, more than one way to skin a cat. Right. And it's ways to approach situations like that. You have to understand is that you done dealt with them, you done dealt with them, you done dealt with them white people in there for so long. So you know how to talk and articulate yourself. Right. And when you go to these young boys, you don't go with them and telling them that you don't talk at them, you talk to them. So you don't go telling them what they need to do or what I mean, it's damn young, and let me holler at you. I mean, so when I go and I talk to these young boys, I'm getting the air because I'm going to them on a respectable level. I'm not going to them like I know it all. Because I don't know what you're going through.

SPEAKER_09 1:01:48

Exactly.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:49

You dig what I'm saying? Exactly. And then a lot of times my young boy is they old head. Right. So I go through my young boy to get through them. To open the door for you. Right. Because they're gonna wonder, well, damn, if my old head is listening to him, old head must be somebody. So it's a way it's a method to it. Yeah, it's a method. You don't just you don't just do that because you're not gonna get everybody's air.

SPEAKER_09 1:02:09

Because a lot of people don't like they got that same approach as me. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:15

You get that leader, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 1:02:16

So you're saying a crowd got a leader, yeah. A young nigga crowd got a leader. Yeah, they got some crazy. They got a person they look up to.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:22

They got somebody they look up to. You think what I'm saying? Again, that's where I that's where is that if okay, if I'm your young boy, black, and I got a young and I got some young boys, you come to me, yo, man. I need to holler at your youngest, man. Your youngest, yo, my old head needs to holler at your official boy. Listen, give him your air, man. You need to holler at y'all for like an hour. They're gonna listen. Right. Because they respect me. Ain't got nothing to do with you.

SPEAKER_09 1:02:46

Exactly.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:46

They respect me and they know that I respect you.

SPEAKER_09 1:02:48

Exactly.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:49

So it's the whole thing is that this is about to be, we about to work this thing here.

SPEAKER_09 1:02:53

Right.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:53

You dig what I'm saying? And then when you get them together, minus me, you get to figure out which one really is the one that they listen to, and that's the one that you lock in on. You know what I'm saying? So it's it's it's different ways, but now sometimes it don't go like that. Exactly.

SPEAKER_09 1:03:08

Sometimes we ain't living in the braid sale.

SPEAKER_08 1:03:10

Sometimes they say, may say, oh, hey, man, get the fuck out of here before I shoot the pants off you. And when you say that, oh, all right, I'm gone. Yeah, I'm fans and what? That's I'm hot telling them on my bike. That's cool. But I'm gonna try you again, though. You gotta try him again. But I'm gonna try you again. But now see, I see you told me that when it was 10 of y'all. I'm gonna try you again when it's just you. And let me see if you got that same type of energy. You feel what I'm saying? So, like me, my this is my thing. They always ask me, what's the difference between you and other mentors out here or other guys that you know do motivation? What's the difference? Because we all want to know. The difference is I'm willing to die about this shit. Say that again. That's the difference. That I'm willing to die about this shit. I'm willing to die about what I believe in. Right.

SPEAKER_09 1:03:59

Strong conviction.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:00

Yeah, I'm willing to that my stomach. I'm willing to die. I'm willing to die about this.

SPEAKER_09 1:04:03

Right.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:04

This is not no get rich scheme for me. This is not none of that. Right. This is my life. This is what I wake up to do.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:11

Right.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:12

I go to sleep, I cry about this shit.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:14

Right.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:14

So that's the difference between me. So that's why I could never give up on these young boys out here.

SPEAKER_09 1:04:20

Right. It's even a grown mental. A lot of a lot of us, even me. I had to start checking myself and keep saying the young the young. A lot of us grown niggas is probably more so fooled than these young niggas. Yeah. A lot of us is out of out of 40, 50 years old. You like, yo, you're 52.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:36

You out here with rocks in your pocket. And and and and and this is why that the young boys don't respect dudes that be our age and older because we still be out here trying to be their equal. You not they equal. You can't be their equal. You shouldn't be you shouldn't be standing on the corner with them.

SPEAKER_09 1:04:56

That's where a lot of people get it, Mr. Screw. Not to cut you off. But go ahead, explain.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:00

No, but I'm saying you can't be standing on the corner with them, listening to Lil' Baby, Lil Durk, and Meek Mills, and they gonna think that you they equal. So that fast, you done went from his old head to his young boy that fast. Now he's sending you to the store. Because now you think, because old head, look, man, man, for a minute, man. You go to the store, man, grab us a bunch of shit, man. This that and the third man, and keep the change. What? Hold the fuck up. How was your old head now? How become your young boy like that? Because I you I you we think you are equal now. We don't got no respect for you. I mean, so that's and and that and that be the problem, man. You gotta be able to stay in your lane and you gotta be able to know the difference. A lot of these young boys, you ain't gonna get through, but some of them you are. But I still got young boys that call me and ask me what's my opinion. Yo, look, man. What you think I should do, man? I'm about to listen, I'm gonna give you my best advice. You're gonna do whatever you're gonna do, but I'm gonna tell you something. This is what comes with this. You know what I'm saying? Just the aftermath of what's gonna happen to you. I mean, and then you know some of them be like, damn, man, oh it look, man, I don't got stayed there, man. I ain't even go out there, man. I mean, some uh some people they may call me from JVC or they call me from the county. Damn, I don't I listen, I told you.

SPEAKER_09 1:06:17

Let me ask you this question. Since you've been doing this line of work motivation, you know what I'm saying, a mentor for the youth. Do you think you reached one or if not a bunch of them by now, or do you think it's still an uphill battle?

SPEAKER_08 1:06:30

It's it's always gonna be an uphill battle, but I done reached them because, like I said, they call me.

SPEAKER_09 1:06:34

Right.

SPEAKER_08 1:06:34

Because they wouldn't be calling you if they weren't into it. No, they call me, they call me. And that call is a plea. That's a plea, like. Yeah, they call me like help me. Exactly. They moms call me, listen here. I need to because you gotta understand is that before a little boy be able to be a man, he gotta see one first. He gotta see a man first. A lot of them growing up where there's no male figure in the household. Their moms are still running around in the streets or they may just be working. So she likes them. I need somebody to be able to grab it that he can gravitate to. Oh, he may have a male figure in the household, but guess what? The male figure ain't like me, you a black.

SPEAKER_09 1:07:12

Exactly.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:13

He may be a dude, and it's sad to say, he may be a person that went to work every day. That's not who he wants to look up and listen to.

SPEAKER_09 1:07:21

That's crazy, right? It's crazy, but that's crazy, but that's crazy, bro. Like this man working, busting his ass every day, keeping that roof over.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:29

He a man in my book. Yes, but that's not who he wants to look up to. It's a it's it was the movie, but it was a reality, Bronx tell. He didn't want to look up to his dad, he wanted to look up the sunny. That's what he wanted to do. So it's like that's fact. That's not broken.

SPEAKER_11 1:07:45

That's fact.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:46

Yeah, he didn't want to look up to his dad driving that bus. He said the working man was a sucker. Yeah, he wanted to look up the sunny.

SPEAKER_09 1:07:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:55

And his dad was a cool-blooded man in my book. His dad was a man. So when these kids got these men in the house, and they be like, Well, he got his dad in the house, yeah, but that's not who he wants to look up to. That's not who he wants to hear because he's gonna look at man, my dad ain't my dad don't know nothing about no streets. My dad ain't never been in jail, my dad ain't never did that. But when he comes across some people like us, he's gravitated to the story. It's the aura. When we come across them, we like we foot, man, we like uh um off the last dragon. Right. It's that glow, it's the aura that we come with. Damn, he's been in jail. And we not, like you said, we not glorifying it. We just letting you know that we done made enough mistakes for y'all.

SPEAKER_11 1:08:39

Exactly.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:39

You think what I'm saying? And yet we don't, y'all don't have to go down the path that we went down.

SPEAKER_09 1:08:44

And when I think about it now, Wood, when you give it to me in that perspective, and it's sad to say, but what, but it's the truth. What can a person that never been to jail worked all his life a father? Give a youth, but what he done done this far that I can't give him better. The one that actually walked through the fire, that actually went to jail and trying to rehabilitate us and getting there. And it's sad to say, like, then you're listening to me more than you listen. This person, you see for a fact did it right way. Yes. But I guess it's the thrill and the rhythm.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:18

It's the thrill, and you gotta understand everybody the rush, everybody like it's it's the thrill. It's the thrill. Oh, he been to jail, he did how much? Oh my god, what you was locked up for? You caught shootings, you was down for homicides. That's the thrill. What sounds better to them is that or yeah, son, I went to work today, nine to five, did 40 hours. You think me? But it's really the right thing, though. Right, it's that's the right thing to do. I did 40 hours, I did overtime, um, took my mom, took your mom out. That shit ain't a sight in the hell.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:01

What what it's like in jail. He wanna know what it's like in there.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:07

Yeah, you you got them bodies, or you know some people that got them jones, and mine, they actually all that right.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:15

That's that's what they want to do. So that's what they want to know, right? But really, the real man ain't you, the real man is the one that went to work every day, that punching the clock in for real. But they ain't trying to hear that shit from them. That's why when they be like, Well, we don't know what's going on, because he got his dad in his house, so yeah, but that ain't who we want to listen to. He ain't no man. I need to turn on tells from the jails. I want to watch black and them.

SPEAKER_09 1:10:46

Yeah, this who I need to listen to, yeah, and hopefully they've listened. If they is doing that and they looking at this, they're gonna get fairly educated at an alarming rate. Yeah, super alarming. No, for sure, though. You know, and um, I'm glad you was coming up here, you came up here today, Wood, man. Again, I need you back up here again, man, because your voice, man, rings loud and clear, man. Yeah, you know, and we, you know, we're not uh physically brothers, you know, from the same mother, but we're brothers through circumstance. Exactly. From where we come from. For sure. You know, we don't walk the same roads, you know. Um, and I love the question that I asked you, and you answered in the affirmative. Yes, jail is needed, man. It is like these dudes is running around here like me. I'm not no rat, never been a rat, never thought about being a rat, but I'm just older. I've got majority, a lot of it. Yes, a lot of accountability. You can't be going around here killing four or five people out here.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:40

You can't you can't you can't do that and it say jail is yes, jail is needed because jail is structured, right? You feel what I'm saying? Right. It's just like you saying growing up in our era was ass whoopers needed. Yes, yes, yes, ass whoopers was needed because they don't do that now no more. They go to jail for that. My mom whooped my ass so much that to this day I still don't curse in front of her.

SPEAKER_09 1:12:02

Exactly.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:02

You feel what I'm saying? But ass whoopers was needed, right? Because it was structured, you know what I'm saying? So jail, yes, is needed because it's structured, because you can't just go around and just thinking that you can just take people lives. That's not cool, bro. That's not cool for you to destroy all these people's families. You're not, you're not, you're not God, bro.

SPEAKER_11 1:12:26

Right.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:27

You don't supposed to determine when a person lives or dies.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:30

Right.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:31

That's not what you're supposed to do. And I tell these youngers, listen, we all gotta take that ride. We all gotta take that ride to the graveyard. But why do you want to catch an express train and go there? Oh man. Put me on a local.

SPEAKER_09 1:12:47

Oh man, put you on a local, huh, man?

SPEAKER_08 1:12:49

I want to stop at every stop. You feel what I'm saying? And it's not funny. I'm laughing because how real it is. You feel what I'm saying? Like exactly. I want to stop at every stop. Don't put me on that fucking express train. You know what I'm saying? And we all we all gotta go.

SPEAKER_09 1:13:05

Right. We all gotta get you gonna get there, that's promise.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:08

Yeah, but what you rushing there for? Because once you get there, you can't come back out. That ain't like jail. No, I'm saying you ain't no once you did. That's a rap. That ain't like jail, ain't no case law coming down to let you out. Yeah, that grave ain't no case law getting you back to life. Ain't no case law getting you back out. You think what I'm saying? So don't rush there to get there, man. And and and and you know, man, I just hope that, man, you know, like I said, but again, a lot of them is gonna have to learn that way. I mean, but you know, man, I hope that a lot of them get it, man. You know what I'm saying? I hope that a lot of them take heed to what exactly what's going on, man, because it ain't no game, bro.

SPEAKER_09 1:13:48

You put the number up, Topic. Yeah, we got we got the number for the uh callers to call in, man, to ask wood.me questions, man. We love the answer. We don't care what kind of questions it is. We love your jokes, we love your seriousness. Super love that. But you know, a lot of guys call in, man, ask wood what's going on, man. He is again, he is a mentor for the youth, not only for the youth, but for grown men and women. For sure. Everybody, me also. Everybody is you're not exempt from getting knowledge.

SPEAKER_08 1:14:16

No, you ain't exempt from this, man. Cause you, you know, you never could be too old to get knowledge.

SPEAKER_09 1:14:21

Again, the number is 215-316-4492. Again, 215-316-4492. Call in. Tell us in the jails, man. What's up? Who we speaking to today? Hello, Tells in the Jels. Oh who? Oh, they hung up. All right. Yeah, but um, yeah, Wood, that's this is strong. This was a strong message that you brought up here today, man. Tell us in the jails, who we speaking to?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:53

Chris.

SPEAKER_09 1:14:54

Hey, what's up, Chris? Man, how you doing, man? Where you calling from?

SPEAKER_07 1:14:57

I'm calling for Philly, man.

SPEAKER_09 1:14:59

What's going on, man? What you got to say today, man?

SPEAKER_07 1:15:01

What's up, Chris? Nothing much, man. I've been a fan of the show since y'all came out, man. I just put I ain't gonna be on here too long.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:07

Shout out to Top F. Shout out to Black, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:10

Congrats on the getting all probation and stuff.

SPEAKER_09 1:15:13

Yeah, man. Thank you, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:15

Shout out to Wood, man. I'm I'm tuned in every I'm tuned in every time, man.

SPEAKER_09 1:15:20

Man, please, man, spread the awareness, man, to your nephews, man, little cousins, man. Even the females. We're not leaving females out because they go to jail too. Yeah, that's it. Man, we just trying to get, and then I like to say our people first, you know, as far as black, the black skin, because the problem is coming from majority of our people, but to all humankind. All humankind, man. No, no man left behind. You know, I don't just I don't I don't discriminate against the color, but at the end of the day, it's an overwhelming amount of my colors, you know, that's in involved in these types of activities that we try to detour these kids from. But I appreciate the call, man. I appreciate the call. Is that all you had to say for the day?

SPEAKER_05 1:15:58

That's that's about it, man. I appreciate y'all, man. Y'all bringing awareness. It's very yes, sir. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_09 1:16:05

All right, man. Be safe out there and stay free.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:07

Yes, sir. You as well.

SPEAKER_09 1:16:09

But yeah, would, man. I and you know, sometimes, man, like when I when we get calls like this to call them, and you know a lot of people, a lot of moms and all of them call up. Like the moms for real be really like, yeah. You know what I'm saying? What's going on? Somebody on? Somebody on topic? Hey, hello, tell us from the jails. Who's speaking?

SPEAKER_07 1:16:29

Sean Lako, it's Naeem.

SPEAKER_09 1:16:30

Wow, they come slime. Where you calling from, Naeem?

SPEAKER_07 1:16:33

Uh, I'm calling from Georgia, uh, but I'm from Philly though. I'm from uptown.

SPEAKER_09 1:16:38

Okay, what's up, man? What's going on? What's your question for the day, bro? How you feeling?

SPEAKER_07 1:16:41

Well, I just wanted to congratulate you too, because I'm in the same situation. I still got like a year of probation left.

SPEAKER_09 1:16:48

You're gonna get it done. That joint's gonna fly.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:51

Yeah, I did 22 years, just got out April 2024. Been on probation since I was like 16, 17 years old. I'm 50 now.

SPEAKER_09 1:16:58

Man, you gotta, I'm talking about you gotta be biting at the bit for this year to go past.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:02

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_09 1:17:03

But it becomes it becomes relatively easy for men that know not film their way, but know their way now. Right. Because just because you know the way don't mean you found the way. No, you know the way you're supposed to go. I'm gonna step over this crack right here because I fell in that one last time around. Oh, this corner I can't turn because I see them three dudes when I walked down that block seven years ago. Um, so we know, man, it becomes easy, relatively easy. So I know you're gonna do this, bro. With what I'm talking about, I have absolute 100% alarming rate trust that you will get off this and be the man that you're supposed to be in society.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:38

Um definitely uh that's all I do is work, yeah. That's all I do is work, go to Jimmy, and that's up, that's pretty much it. Come home. I got a house, I got a new car uh not too long ago. All the right things. That's all I do.

SPEAKER_09 1:17:49

Yes, that's me. Working man, shout out to the working man. We out here winning, we winning and we gaining. Right. Thanks for the call, man, and be safe, man.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:57

Yeah, I'll fix it. All right, so they go.

SPEAKER_09 1:17:59

I'm slow. Another coffee. Y'all up. Yeah, man. So you know, I'll just be full. Tell some of the jails who we speaking with today.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:12

What's going on, fellas?

SPEAKER_09 1:18:14

Why did I come slam?

SPEAKER_05 1:18:16

It's Chuck from North.

SPEAKER_09 1:18:17

What's up, Chuck, man? North Philly stand up. What's going on today, Chuck?

SPEAKER_05 1:18:20

You are ready. So listen, I wanted to give a little pushback, right? I I forgot the guest name because I tuned in a little late, right?

SPEAKER_09 1:18:28

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:29

But what I'm gonna say is, all right, so how he portrayed the when he said the working man be like, No, ho, ho, ho, you can you can address him.

SPEAKER_09 1:18:36

His name is Wood, and he's right here. He he's listening to you. Good man.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:39

Oh, what's up, Wood? All right, what's going on, Wood? How you feel?

SPEAKER_08 1:18:42

Hey, what's going on with you, homie?

SPEAKER_05 1:18:44

So, so listen, my only pushback would be the working man, right? When you said the working man, yeah, I did 40 hours this week, babe, da da da. Right? Now, I I would say not everybody presents going like having a job, like y'all say, ain't the worst thing in the world, right? So I would think that would be a false uh narration of the working man. You know, we got dudes out here that work that's turning up way more than the street do, right? I just think that with the young boys, I think we are around the same age, middle 40s, right? So that means these young boys that's in a late teens, early twenties, we probably like they pop age.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:30

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:31

And we and we see where most of the dudes that's our age is. A lot of them there substantial amount of jail time. So they're not there to raise the young. It's not that they're not excited because the working man, you know, ain't getting no money or they don't live an exciting life. It's just that the working man or or or at least the dudes in their life ain't around to raise them right. They show them like, yo. So therefore they look to the street dudes for the excitement. Because they don't know it's like to get took on vacation year after year like him. My pop been working his whole life, and we done been an age, you know what I'm saying? Because they dad's probably not around.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:11

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:11

It's not that the working man doesn't present an exciting lifestyle. It's just it's just a void that they don't see. They don't see an adequate working man, somebody that can motivate them and tell them, yo, you're not here, you know what I mean, trying all people and do this, that, or third. No, you can go to work. Yeah, sure. You can matter of fact, don't work 40 hours, work 58 hours. That's more money for you. You know what I mean? It's just how it's packaged up and presented to them. And I just think look at it now, like y'all said, these young boys, 18, 19 years, they only like we were fortunate enough to be able to be born. They're not even gonna have kids.

SPEAKER_09 1:20:48

Ain't that crazy?

SPEAKER_05 1:20:49

Like, yeah, so their generation, like, it's after them, it's pretty much done because they're not even gonna be around. At least our pops, per se, if they did do a little jail time, at least we was able to be born, right? And and kind of see what it was hitting for these young boys at the rate they going, they ain't even gonna have no kids. They gonna come home 40, 50. Some of them ain't gonna never come home. I'm like, dang, I'd have wasted my whole life out this joint. But I just think because they don't have a strong mell in their life, that can I'm talking about like somebody that ain't afraid of them, not no yes man, like, oh no, go ahead, do what you wanna do. But you know what I'm saying? Like, that's what these young boys need, and it seems like that's what they're missing. They don't got no strong man in their life. They're like, nigga, I'm gonna break your jaw. You go out here and you disrespect me. You know what I'm saying? That's why they go around disrespecting people at an alarming rate, like my man Black would say, because they don't have no fear of a strong man. They think a strong man is somebody that went to jail. No, that's not the only representation of a strong man. It's it's real life stand-up killers and pushers and movers and shakers that go to work and punch the clock. But if it's not presented to them, they don't dig it like that. So I just think for them, it's it's they just looking at it from one side. With a solution, who knows? But that's just my you know, my point of view.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:25

Okay. I know, um, I appreciate um you calling in and I appreciate uh you know your insight on that. Um it's really not no right or wrong answer right there with that. So yeah, I definitely appreciate that.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:40

Listen, man, variety is the spice of life, right? Me, like I say, I come from the tongue just like, but I know for me, my pop, my pop would have broken my jaw. All that talking back, and I got brothers and devil's out here in the streets and and all that. But you they just gotta be presented with something else other than that. So it's more or less about where they where they pops at, where they uncle's at. And like I said, they probably our age. I'm 46, right? So I know these young boys like 19, 20, 21, nine times out of ten, they pops is somewhere in our age range. You dig what I'm saying? So it's like, well, where they at? Is they in jail doing a 15 to 20, they 10 to 20, they seven and a half to 15. So therefore, these young boys is out, and you already know mom can only do so much. You already know a woman can't raise no boy, especially once they even got introduced to the street. So they don't even really have old heads to look up to. They just doing what they do on social media, they doing what they parents do, they doing what the young boys out of Chicago's doing, they do it. They don't even got no real life old heads. We already know for their generation. There ain't no old heads, cause we the old heads now. You know what I'm saying? So if we ain't really giving them no isn't it, they running the fuck out this junk. You know what I'm saying? So it's like that's why I think they glorify jail so much. Because they don't not paying a few guys, not not not like like I bang with y'all all day, every day. I'm paying them. That's why for them it's easier to take a take the message from somebody, no, young and young, y'all go to jail, do 20 years, and come out and join and turn up. You can be turning up your whole life in a good way. You know what I'm saying? So I just think that's really what it is for these boys because we at that age where it's like we learn from our mistakes. But these young boys, they way more radical at 18, 19 than I than I ever seen. You might have one or two young boys when you at that age, you like, yo, he he got he off. You might think he's crazy. You might stay away from him, but now they they come a dime a dozen.

SPEAKER_09 1:24:59

Man, I appreciate your feedback, man. We gotta let you go. We had you all for a minute, but man, call back in, man. I love the feedback. The audience loved your feedback also, man. But you know, we gotta start somewhere, bro. We gotta start somewhere, even if that's with trying to figure out a solution.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:15

Right, right. That's what it's all about, man. You're trying to figure out a solution. But I ain't gonna hold y'all hostage, man. Enjoy your night.

SPEAKER_09 1:25:20

All right, man. Thanks for support, man. Stay free out there at an alarming rate.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:24

You already, y'all too, man.

SPEAKER_09 1:25:26

Yep. But yeah, man, you know, the people, man, the the the the the the the the the audience, the family, man. They you know, people feel the message, yeah, right? But it it don't stop there with just feeling it. No, it got to be implemented, it got to be really like my cousin liked to say, feet on land.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:45

No, you got to though. You got because we gotta be more action. You know what I'm saying? Like we could sit here, we could talk behind these mics, and we can do all of this all day long. But if you ain't putting no action together, tell some of the jails who we got today.

SPEAKER_09 1:26:03

Tell some of the jails who calling in today. Hello?

SPEAKER_08 1:26:11

But um, yeah, you gotta like Dot say, man, you got to have feet on land, man. Um, and you got to be there and and and and they got to see that you care. Bro, you gotta keep showing up. Ain't no winning. Got me, because old head kept showing up for me. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_09 1:26:26

You ain't gonna never forget that.

SPEAKER_08 1:26:27

No, you know, I he he home now. And I had went to go see him like a couple weeks ago when they got him in a um old folks home, but he home at the door in 55 years. You know what I'm saying? You know.

SPEAKER_09 1:26:39

Tell us in the jails who we talking to today.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:42

Yeah, how you doing? My name Jose.

SPEAKER_09 1:26:44

Hey, hey, what's up, Jose? How you doing, man? You alright?

SPEAKER_05 1:26:47

Yeah, I'm good, man.

SPEAKER_09 1:26:48

Where you calling from?

SPEAKER_05 1:26:49

Yeah. I'm from Philly, I'm from Philly.

SPEAKER_09 1:26:52

All right, Philly, stand up. What's your question?

SPEAKER_05 1:26:55

Yeah, I well, I just wanted to mention that it's not only just the working man or or you know, the help of it, but you also got, you know, creative. You got people that come up with ideas and get them done, come up with businesses and get them done. You know, people with skills, we gotta go back to learning about skills. You're always gonna have a way to make money.

SPEAKER_09 1:27:16

If you got that skill.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:18

If you got a skill, you know how to cut hair, if you know how to do concrete work if you as a Christian. You know what I mean? Yeah, you'll always have a way to make money, buddy. And you know, it's kind of community. And even if that's a community, you know, people go outside, they don't know their neighbors no more. You know, back in the day when we were younger, you couldn't go three or four blocks away with one of your friends or your dad friends for all you so you were scared of watching.

SPEAKER_09 1:27:45

Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:46

So, you know, I I think we should go back to you know, our things were back in the day. And and and you know, we'll be able to make progress. And even as far as even you know, with social media, even even that it separates us even more because you know. You know, they think the grandparents had the house the United States is the country that got the most grandparents in um in their grandmoms and the grandfather kept the family together, kept the young ones. You know, always they kept the always alive. Now you don't got the always no more. You know, now you have control, you have control of them. You don't got nobody telecom to and and they just following each other.

SPEAKER_08 1:28:46

No, you definitely right.

SPEAKER_09 1:28:50

All right, man. Thanks for the call in, man. I appreciate that, man. You enjoy your day.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:54

Yeah, keep doing what you're doing, man. I appreciate y'all.

SPEAKER_09 1:28:56

Yup.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:57

I watch y'all every day.

SPEAKER_09 1:29:01

Tells in the jails, who we speaking with?

SPEAKER_05 1:29:03

Black was good, big homie. This is King Riley in the chat, bro.

SPEAKER_09 1:29:06

What's up, King Riley? Talk to me, man. How you doing today, man? Y'all right? I'm I'm I'm I'm living, bro. I'm free. Man, what's what's free? I feel good being part of society now. What's free?

SPEAKER_05 1:29:20

Hey, I know that's right, babe. But look, hey, the chat, we can't hear y'all. Something wrong with the sound. Like it went out. We can't hear nothing.

SPEAKER_09 1:29:26

Oh, so you can't hear nothing at all in the chat? Everything alright over there?

SPEAKER_05 1:29:29

Nothing at all. Yeah, it's out.

SPEAKER_09 1:29:32

Oh, you gotta go in and come back. For everybody that can't hear nothing, go in and come back. Can you type that in the chat right now, Doc? Huh? All right, man. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:42

Congratulations, big dog. Hey man, we out here, baby.

SPEAKER_09 1:29:45

All right, you already know, man. I'm trying to go with somebody saying feet on land, cheeks and sand.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:51

Damn. It will be getting out on duty. Hey man, y'all be good though, man.

SPEAKER_09 1:29:58

All right, man. Stay free, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:00

Hey yeah, I'm about to make a little donation too on uh on behalf of your freedom, bro. I got you.

SPEAKER_09 1:30:05

Thank you, man. Appreciate that, man. Thank you for all the support.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:08

Always.

SPEAKER_09 1:30:09

But yeah, man, like we was talking about, what man? Is it somebody calling in? But yeah, man, you know, if it's a will, it's a way. And I used to I used to hate that saying.

SPEAKER_08 1:30:19

Yeah, because a lot of sayings, you know, be like cliche. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, man, um, what don't kill you make you stronger. You know, all them type of cliche sayings, but they really be reality.

SPEAKER_09 1:30:32

Tell us from the jails, who we speaking with today. Uh, this is Kyle from North. North, stand up. What's up, Kyle? How you feeling?

SPEAKER_06 1:30:39

I'm good. I'm good. How y'all? I I just wanted to get y'all a little quick little insight on uh my dad's situation. My dad been locked up uh about uh Albion 17 years now.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:50

Uh my daddy Pennsylvania.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:52

Yeah, uh Albion uh when he first got locked up in 2009, they they ran sent as well. They gave my dad uh what 10, 6 to 12 and uh right now he he in a higher court in a he he uh he's getting heard by a federal judge so he wanted to pill and they just waiting on to see what she gonna say now. Uh basically my uncle told me to say like they trying to make sure that they can vacate his sentence and not he just throw the whole case out. Uh how would y'all feel if y'all was in that situation?

SPEAKER_09 1:31:37

Well, I'm gonna let you attack it. I'm gonna let you attack that question. No, you more uh So overall overall, can you can you repeat that again just the back of it? Like you said he got sentenced, right?

SPEAKER_06 1:31:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 1:31:53

And what you were saying then?

SPEAKER_06 1:31:56

Alright, so in 2009 he got sentenced to uh it was basically a legal sentence that gave me six to twelve, ten times. My dad was the only four to get uh three, six to twelve. Okay, uh he one is a pill, but now he's waiting on the federal judge to review the case. And now he just uh he just waiting and playing the waiting game. If she just gonna vacate the whole sentence and just go about it like that. Uh but I I I've never who I never held the grudge against my dad. I just say that. Uh, you know, he's a stand-up dude. But I feel like if y'all was in that position, like, would y'all be stressed or like like, you know, y'all just wait.

SPEAKER_09 1:32:47

What as far as in like uh waiting for the judge? Yeah, like Oh, I'll be stressed out. I'll be stressed out, but I have a little hope in me because they could have denied it. Right there from the gun bus. Motion denied, appeal denied. Yeah, they don't have no, they don't have no problem with denying nothing. So now this is not to say just because they're hearing it, he got an automatic go home. No, I'm not saying that. But it's some rhythm there.

SPEAKER_08 1:33:13

He got a shot.

SPEAKER_09 1:33:14

If it was outright denial, man, they don't have no problem. Get it out of here. I got thinking how many case logs they got and case logs they got in front of them that they gotta go through, and they get to that one and say, all right, I'm gonna hear this one.

SPEAKER_08 1:33:24

Yeah, he got a that's taking time. Yeah, he got a shot. He got a shot.

SPEAKER_09 1:33:27

He got a shot, he got a shot, man. So that's a that's a little slither of light in that dark alleyway.

SPEAKER_08 1:33:32

That's a blessing. And um, because they taking the time and just to hear it, yeah. He should be, you know, that's exactly what it is. That's that's the hope. And that's all we asked.

SPEAKER_09 1:33:41

That's the hope. That's everything, not to cut you off. That's that's everything in one.

SPEAKER_08 1:33:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_09 1:33:46

Yep.

SPEAKER_08 1:33:46

Yes. So yeah, I mean, stressing, you're gonna stress anyway. That's just what's gonna happen while you in jail for anything, you know what I'm saying? So yeah, he um I mean to cut you off.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:57

I mean to cut you off, but he um basically I guess he owe the feds sometimes. So I I don't know if they're gonna stare and say, oh yeah, well, you did a lot of state time. Now we just gonna run it concurrent with your your feds time. I I don't know how that works. I I I got I I know y'all know more about the census over the town. Yeah, so I I just wanted to get a little insight from y'all and all. I appreciate y'all.

SPEAKER_09 1:34:23

All right, man. Thank you for the call, man. And stay free, man. And stay doing what you're doing. Sound like you got a good head on your shoulders, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:34:29

Congratulations on your on your probation.

SPEAKER_09 1:34:31

Thank you, man. I appreciate that, man. Somebody else calling feet. Yeah. It is. Tell us from the jails who we speaking with today.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:45

What's up, black?

SPEAKER_09 1:34:46

What's up with your Dizzy D? What's up with your homie?

SPEAKER_04 1:34:50

I like them.

SPEAKER_09 1:34:51

Why they come slam?

SPEAKER_04 1:34:53

So yeah, I'm uh I want to ask a question about the consulting that y'all do for prisoners, for people that's locked up and whatnot.

SPEAKER_09 1:35:00

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:00

So um, do you do y'all do anything dealing with uh compassionate release?

SPEAKER_09 1:35:06

Well uh consulting for the compassionate release?

SPEAKER_04 1:35:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 1:35:10

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:12

Okay, so uh I want to reach out to y'all about that. I got a brother that's in federal uh prison right now. He's in Hazleton, USP Hazleton.

SPEAKER_09 1:35:19

Okay, well you you can uh email uh et tells from the jails and uh put your request in, and it will get seen in the proper manner in time, and you will be uh receiving a response with in a reasonable time.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:33

Okay, so send an email. Okay, got you.

SPEAKER_09 1:35:35

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:36

Well, man, salute, man. Congratulations to getting off the road, man.

SPEAKER_09 1:35:39

Yeah, man, yeah, man. That's yeah, I mean, these days, man, it seems like it's come hard in between to find being a free man.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:47

Man, I know the feeling, bro. Yeah, 21 years, man. Like, that's gotta be a blessing. Yeah, salute, man.

SPEAKER_09 1:35:53

Thank you, man. Thanks for the call in, man. Stay free out there, D.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:56

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_09 1:35:57

Yeah, man, we're gonna take a couple more calls before we wrap it up, man. And you know, we ready to get on with our weekend, man. Remember, man, stay free, man. But Wood, man. Yes. Uh, how can people find you and meet you, man? Like, what platforms are you on, man? Like, tell everybody where to find you at. Like, social media is on.

SPEAKER_08 1:36:14

Yeah, you definitely can go on Instagram um and type in Woodgrain. Wood the mentor. You can find me on there. You can DM me on there. Um, you can see me on TikTok. I'm under the same, everything is the same. It's uh I don't always mess it up. It's W-O-O-D-G-R-A-O-N. Okay. Yeah. Woodgrain. Yeah, we're grown. Yeah, wood grown. What grown, wood grain, stuff like that. It's right there. Yeah, just type it in, man. Um, you know, mothers, if y'all having any problems with your sons or daughters, it don't even matter. Hit my DM up and we can figure some things out and we could talk and we could see if we could come to a common ground.

SPEAKER_09 1:36:58

Hey, if it's anything that you can give right now to the youth, to the older men, to the women, any advice from you right now, what would it be right now?

SPEAKER_08 1:37:08

All in one, or you just saying breaking it down.

SPEAKER_09 1:37:11

All in one. Or you can break it down. You can break it down. You could give it, you could give it sex as youth, grown men, women.

SPEAKER_08 1:37:18

Um when I when if it's for the youth, I would just basically like love.

SPEAKER_09 1:37:24

I think you're the first person I heard get up in say that when I asked that question.

SPEAKER_08 1:37:28

Love, because that's what they lack in. A lot of them is lacking love. If I can do that, I wish I could just be able to just get them love. And if you could ask a young boy for real today, man, this is about seven o'clock, and ask them how many did anybody tell you that they love you today?

SPEAKER_09 1:37:45

That's heavy, man. That just touched me just now.

SPEAKER_08 1:37:47

Did anybody tell you that they love you today? And a lot of them is gonna say no because that that that get overlooked. They get overlooked, you know what I mean? That get overlooked. So that um as far as the males, especially coming from our situations like this, just be patient. Don't rush nothing. You know what I mean? Like, don't, don't, don't, don't rush nothing. Don't feel like that you need to come out here to compete with somebody. Take your time and build your brand or build your platform or just live your life. You know what I mean? Don't rush good food, man.

SPEAKER_09 1:38:25

Don't rush good food, man. God damn, boo boo. You up here cooking the day, ain't you? Don't rush good food.

SPEAKER_08 1:38:31

Yeah, don't rush good food, man.

SPEAKER_09 1:38:33

And um for the women, mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_08 1:38:37

This is a tricky one, ain't it? Can't leave out the woman, can't leave out the women. We would tell you we wouldn't be here if it for the to the women, like um, damn. Like they I don't know.

SPEAKER_09 1:38:52

You know, and then that was honest. That was past honest. Like uh uh because you got women out here that's breaking law and they getting time too. Yeah, they doing time up, Muttsy, Dan Barry. They you got women in there. You see the woman that just came home when she had like 66 years, 56 years in it, just came home.

SPEAKER_08 1:39:08

Yeah, they doing it too. Yeah, to the yeah, the women, man, they um they got a lot of stuff going on, right? You know what I mean? They got a lot of stuff going on. Um, yeah. Just stay being a woman. Just be a woman. You know what I mean? Don't, don't, don't, don't be out here trying to play in this lane, in this man lane that we in, man. Because just be a woman. Don't be out here, you know, disrespecting men. Don't be out here, don't be out here just thinking you a man.

SPEAKER_09 1:39:40

Yeah, and I see that a lot of damn days. I hate when the women, I walk up on a group of women and they all conversing with each other. Bro, what's up, bro? Bro, that burns me up.

SPEAKER_08 1:39:50

Yeah, because you trying to act harder than me. You dig what I'm saying? In some cases, they may be harder than me. And they may be, right? But don't be um, but one thing about it is they do. But one thing I will give them is when they see a man, they know it's a man standing in front of them. Yeah, yeah. They know it's a man standing in front of them, but just be a woman, ladies.

SPEAKER_09 1:40:14

That's all. Yeah, man. Um, Doc, what's up? Anything you got to say to the man, to the fans? Not the fans. I like I hate using that word. That's a I gotta eradicate that from my vocabulary because y'all are not fans. Y'all not groupies standing around. We all here for information, me included. Huh?

SPEAKER_10 1:40:32

There are people, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 1:40:33

Family. This is a family, you know what I'm saying? Like, all I again, I apologize for the word fans. I got to eradicate that from my vocabulary because y'all not fans, man. We all up, it's like we all co-defendants. I don't hate to use that word, yeah, but we all here for the same cause. So you can't be no damn fan. We all on one case. Yep, exactly. Yeah, if you want to put it that way, we all on one case together. We all on one case, my butt. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. But with that being said, man, I want to tell everybody, man, we enjoyed y'all tonight. We enjoyed bringing y'all content at our lawman rate, thorough, correct, accurate content. Um, hopefully we see everybody back here Monday, man, because in in the in the real world, everybody ain't gonna make it back. Somebody ain't gonna listen.

SPEAKER_11 1:41:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_09 1:41:20

Somebody's gonna be probably watching these episodes and get mad Saturday and Sunday and do something without thinking.

SPEAKER_11 1:41:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_09 1:41:27

Yeah, use that one second or two seconds just to think it over.

SPEAKER_08 1:41:31

I guarantee you you come up with another option. That was I I like how you put that though. Because I can't tell y'all that we all be back here Monday because somebody really might not. Yeah, man. Somebody like somebody tonight probably gonna say, that's that black and wood is up there talking some bullshit, and I'm gonna go another route. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So, you know. Sad to say, but that's the truth.

SPEAKER_09 1:41:56

Yep, man. Yeah, man. But again, man, I want to shout out to all the audience, man, the family members, man. Um, be safe out there, man. Protect y'all weekend, man. Uh, me and Dot is coming back in here tomorrow and Sunday. We got some things going on, man. We're gonna uh start the crazy clips again, man. We got some, so tune in for that, man. We're bringing you content at an alarming rate. The merch should be out within the next. I know we keep saying that we're gonna have it out, but within the next month and a half, merch will be here. About time the spring is ready to come to an end, the merchandise will be here with uh at an alarming rate, not on duty. I just want to erase that from vocabulary too. You know, along with other things, sliding down a razy blade into an alcohol river, crunchy. You know it's crunchy. You better not forget about that crunchy. A lot of y'all in a crunchy shit. I just came from a crunchy situation to yesterday. I'm a free man, it ain't crunchy as it was, you know, but you know, it is what it is. But we out of here, man. Shout out to all the members, man. All the subscribers, man. And again, if you could become a member, man, become a member. Next week, we're starting back up with the episodes of the guest every Thursday. We got a magnificent episode coming out Thursday. Again, the members will see the episode, the full episode. Subscribers will see parts that we drop. Who gonna we? No, tell them they can know we on the week out.

SPEAKER_10 1:43:18

Man, we dropped a main o this week coming up.

SPEAKER_09 1:43:20

Main old this week coming up. Stand up, everybody. Main old this week coming up, New York. All right, y'all. We out of here, man. Hope to see y'all tomorrow.