SHABAZZ THE OG : TALES FROM THE JAILS EPISODE 59

SHABAZZ THE OG sits down on Tales From The Jails for a real conversation about life, lessons, prison experiences, survival, growth, and the mindset it takes to come home stronger. This episode brings raw stories, honest reflection, and game for the youth from someone who lived it.

Tap in with another powerful episode of Tales From The Jails and make sure you like, comment, subscribe, and share.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:22

First of all, I think everybody was been tuning in to tell us from the jails. Listen, we need everybody do something for us. If you really like what you see on Tells With the Jails, if you're really interested in what you see on Tells from the Jails, we need you to go to YouTube and add Tells from the Jails and become a member. Subscribe as well and also become a member. That way you can get updated on all the new content as we continue to bring you these amazing episodes. So if you want everyone to go to go to YouTube, add Tales from the Jails and become a member.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

As you're hurting, go to YouTube, add Tales from the Jails and become a member. We got an array of content that's coming out that you will be thoroughly entertained by. As you can see by the content that's previously been released, you're entertained by. It's only going to get better. I'm telling you, there is only up to go. And we want to thank y'all for uh rocking with us, man, and listening to the awareness that we're bringing about prison life. So go to where again, bro? Go to YouTube at Tells from the Jails and become a member. YouTube at Tells from the Jails and please become a member.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

TNS meeting group is the team and the family. I got my counterpart, Mr. Braheem Jackson. We got a special guest today who uh someone who, you know, you may see giving game a lot of times uh through all social media platforms. A person that's in the city today of Philadelphia came through to, you know, kind of spread his wings and give some advice to the youth and those out there who may be treading the wrong path. I got my guy. Tell him who you are for those who don't know.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Shabazz, the OG. Here's old What's Poppin'? What's the deal?

SPEAKER_01 2:07

So I talked to you earlier about, you know, what this podcast is about. You know, um, the podcast is about spreading the awareness of prison, um, you know, through real stories to ultimately deter the youth or individual out here breaking law uh from going to prison. So from my understanding, you had a you know, you know, a brief stint inside the prison system. And um let's talk about it. So, where are you from originally?

SPEAKER_02 2:31

Well, born in born and originally in Georgia, you know. Okay. That's how I was born. Born in Cordillo, Georgia. Uh came to Philly early, 18 months with my mom, then went back to Georgia in uh third grade, then came back to Philly in uh seventh grade. Came back to Philly in the seventh grade, then been in Philly ever since. But I've been gone from the city since 08. Been in Miami since then.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

What made you leave the city?

SPEAKER_02 2:58

I went to Miami in 08 because I got a music industry background that that stretches all the way back to internship early on, that fast-forwarded up to promotions and uh road management project consultants. So in 08, I went to uh Miami working on the independent project. What I was doing was consulting indie labels, who didn't really have the uh didn't really have our faculties to navigate through the industry. They, you know, they had their own bread, they had the artists, but they didn't really have the contacts and the network to really you know navigate. So that's what I was doing at the time, and I took a project in Miami, worked that project for about nine months, and then that project led into something else, one thing led to another, and I never left. I never really like made an actual plan to move to Miami. It's just that once I was there, it just continued to make more and more sense, and now I can't, I I ain't I ain't got no interest in leaving.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

I hear that. So let's get to it. So you you know, you you um you were arrested at some point um in your life. Um if you can talk about that, what happened initially, what led you to you know being arrested?

SPEAKER_02 4:12

So my um what I've you know early in life, you know, I've been arrested plenty of times. I was always arrested for guns, minus when I first got locked up at 12 for some recklessness, throwing rocks and hit somebody window windshield coming out Willand Avenue who happened to be an off-duty cop. That was my first interaction with law enforcement. But fast forward when I finally did go to prison, because like I said, in the state of Pennsylvania, I had about three different gun charges, right? And I always you know would get probation. You know, I don't know if you know the lawyer Gerald Stein.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

From Philly, no, I don't know what it is, no.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

Gerald Stein was my lawyer. He was so I had Stein at this time, you know, Fred Perry. So lawyer Fred Perry.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Fortunato Perry, I know. But Brian McGonne going on. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Right. So Fred, when I was back in the 90s, when I was getting in trouble, Fred was actually under Gerald Stein. So Stein was the lead attorney, and Fred was working on he was, you know, he was Fortunato, but he went, you know, start they start calling him Fred. But um, this was before he really took off on his own. And he's you know, he's doing great now, but obviously, um back then it started with the gun charges. But I always got probation. I always got probation. Never went never never went down for none of the guns. He would get my cases consolidated, probation, but just never went down. And then when I got jammed in Jersey with a gun is when is when I went to prison. Uh you know, again, it was a three-year, it was a three-year sentence. And then I was expecting to go in, do nine months, you know, like I told you, come home. Because it wasn't that deep, you know, but it's interesting, like you were saying, the brother Brahim did 20, did 21 years. So what and I and and I'm glad that I'm on a I'm on I'm on a platform with someone that did that much time versus the time that I did. Because I I um I have a show that I do called uh 3 to 30 seconds live. That's that's a spinoff of my initiative. 3 to 30 seconds can change your life for 3 to 30 years. Or you got 3 to 30 seconds to walk away or walk the yard. So it's all based on critical thinking and making decisions in a moment of impulse, in a moment of haste. Don't do something that'll land you behind the penitentiary walls for three to thirty years when you could have taken three to thirty seconds to think about it.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

He always says that all the time. Like, you know, uh he uh during our podcast, a lot of times when we closing out the podcast, he always speaks about just that half a second or a second or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Just to think on something. Yeah. A lot of people don't do that. Me myself, I have to tell it to the mass to hear it for me. Because, you know, we grown men. Just because we grown don't mean we've got it all figured out. I might leave out of here today, and you know, somebody might say that this and that. And that just that fast, uh a situation could can create itself. But if you give yourself that extra, like you said, three to thirty seconds, that extra little bit, it can either ruin your life or save your life.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

Right, I promise you. See, I was just talking about that this morning when I was over there with S Dot and Ace Capone and Mel Wells and then like I had this thing that I had to train myself to really think. You know, like I said, I used to be quick to react, but then I learned to relax because you can blow it all, man, in a little bit of time. Just like you said, we grown men, and when you done moved around society, especially in the streets, certain networks around certain types of people, certain types of ways, you you know, you create this, you know, you create this internal dynamic for yourself. And a part of it as being a real man, an alpha male, it's like, oh, like dog, I don't play like that, dog. Like, like, don't play, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's really, especially, you know, as men, and then we Muslim, then we got the discipline, like we focus. So it's like games ain't really something that we do. So it's very easy for somebody to go outside that dynamic and instantly put you in the mode of stop playing with me and get a reaction out of you. But, and you can still be that way, but you gotta put that effort in the thinking. You have to put that effort in the thinking first. So, the point that I was getting at when I was talking about the show that I have, I had a sister um who had been sentenced to 30 years. First, first time of first time offender, non-violent offense. They gave her 30 years on the drug charge, and she ended up giving it giving 16 back. She did 14 years though. And we were talking about the experience, and that's what people don't really, people who haven't been in prison, don't understand. It's not necessarily about the time, and you can attest to this because we could do the you could do the time. It's the conditions that make us never, if you guys have sense, never want to return. It's the conditions. So me doing 14 months, her having done 14 years, you having done 21 years, me knowing people that done dead 20 years, 15 years, I still have those same experiences. I just didn't have the same amount of time to experience it. But I know what it feels like to go to those, though, to go to those visits and want to see your family, but hate to go on the visit because of what you got to do going and coming. You gotta strip down.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Yeah, he always talks about that too. It's crazy. You mentioned it, he says it all the time. He he actually talks about that, you know, just taking all your clothes off in front of other men. Other men. How demoralizing that is.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

And see, so it's not, it's the time is the time because once you get accustomed to the environment, you waking up, eating, going to the yard, going, it's it's your routine. It's your routine. But again, going back to being a certain type of man of a certain type of stature, you get tired of that. And then you get tired of the ones, the CEOs that you know for a beyond a reasonable doubt of a fact that they cold suckers and get to talk to you any kind of way, and you can't do nothing about it except risk adding more time, going to the home or to the shoe or whatever you know, your facility house you at for disciplinary reasons. Like these are all the things that you have to deal with.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

It's funny that you say that, right? Not to cut you off. Because I told a judge when I was getting resentened, and I said, Yana, whether you give me 40 years today or one year, it's up to me if I'm going to change. Correct. It's up to me. And while I go back and I listen to you say, like, you know, I might have did this or you did that time, but it's up to the individual to sentence the hell with all the time that he got, or the little bit of time he got. It gotta come to a point in that individual where it clicks, okay, boom, I can't be doing this no more. Whether you got 40 years, 14 days, one hour, is up to the individual. And I liked it that you brought that point up.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Yeah, because this is no lie. I haven't been in trouble with the law since 2006, right? However, prior to 2006, I was my time that I did was April 9th, 1998 to June 2nd, 1999, right? 14 months. Then I came home, did the rest of the time on the parole.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

But how much time was on parole?

SPEAKER_02 11:48

This the final 16 months. 16 months, okay. So I did I did the whole three, just 14 in, 16 out.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

So but the problem with it is like he said, whether it's 14 years or 14 days, you gotta it's something about those conditions that you have to tell yourself, I don't want to do that no more. And and that's what it was for me. So fast forward to 2026, and and and and I'm I'm and I'm saying this definitively, there is not a time that when I make salat that I don't remember when I was locked up. I promise you.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

I think about it every day.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Listen, any every, I mean, obviously, you know, you never forget, but it's something about when I'm making salat. Every time I'm in salat after I tasle him out and I'm sitting there and I'm bickering, it's something about remembering when I was locked up. I don't know if if it's because that's when I, you know, when you outside, you running around. Sometimes Allah sits you down for you to correct your deed. Sometimes Allah sits you down for you to get closer to Him. You know, it's it's different reasons that Allah put us in the situations that we find ourselves in. But for whatever reason, it's a lot stuck with me. And I mean, from then to now, anybody that knows me will tell you when it's time to pray, I'm finding somewhere to pray. And it's and it's been consistent like that. That's a reminder for me. When my mother came to visit me, was a reminder for me. You know, being in the hole under that federal investigation I was telling you about, and they snatched me out of the comfortability of a camp. You know, because you know, camp's supposed to be sweet, you know, and I was gonna do the, you know, I thought I was gonna do nine months. I'm doing the camp. I was already in the camp, actually, um, in Jersey, Central Jersey was Marlboro camp. Right? And, you know, we out there, no, it looked like a big farm. And the inside looked like a dormitory. Okay, cool. Got there. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't too uh, wasn't too tragic. And then come coming coming in one day off the work detail. The uh CEO, you know, come come greeting, coming off the bus, and he like, yo, low. Um, he's like, he's shaking his head. I'm like, what's wrong? Because you know, I got a good rapport with them and everything, and I could just see it in his face. I'm like, what's up? What's wrong? He said, man, he said, dog, I gotta, I gotta lock you up, man. So you gotta lock me up for what? He said, I don't know. I said, What you mean you don't know? He said, Man, all we know is we got a call. We got a call from from the big jail, rawway. So, like I was telling you earlier, so the camps, Railway camp, Marlborough camp, and I think it might have been another couple more facilities, but the central, the central jail was East Jersey State Prison, Rawway, the big jail. The John I ain't never seen except on TV. Square straight, seeing scared straight and stuff like that. So he was like, no, it came from it came from the administration that you know that we that we was um we gotta detain you. So I'm like, for what though? It's like we don't know. He's like, we really, they really didn't tell us. They just he showed me the paperwork, it said administrative hole. So I'm like, damn, all right, well. But when they shackled me, it was different. You know, when I went up on the bus, that was one thing. But when they took me from the camp to to Rawway, and they put the chains around my waist, and they put them um you seen, you remember the drums, the uh the hand cut, they got the black box in the middle, but they don't put your hand to get they stack your hand. It was just a different, it just felt different. Like, like I felt like a real criminal now. Like I felt I felt dangerous. I'm like, so now I'm tripping. Like, where are they taking why where am I going that requires all of that? Exactly. Like that.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

I'm not gonna check.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

I'm just gonna say, what do they what have I done? Because now I'm tripping. Because you know, sometimes you can you could tell by the way you transport it how serious your offense might be. So when they strapped the chains around my waist and the ankles and the in the black box, I'm like, yo, I'm in trouble. And didn't I know what was going on?

SPEAKER_01 16:16

He talks about that black box all the time. What'd you say about the black box? You said like once they put that on you, like you.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

You ain't going nowhere. Then, like you said, they stack your hands. You ain't at a comfortable ease. They stack it. The way you gotta put it in, your arms got to be like this and lock them into place. That's not normal trans uh transition. Well, that's just different. No, they give it to the people that like high classified, you know, you know, troublemakers or you know, it's just it's designed for people that escaped before. Okay, you know what I mean? Because everybody don't transfer with the black box.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

That's what I'm saying. So when you see, you could tell the by the way a person is transported, you might not know what they did, but it's not normal.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

The severity of this case, they put them in choke bows in them joins too. Put a bunch of chokes, especially in the federal system. Then that's how the guards uh let men know these are child predators right here. So why the why do why do they put a chokehold in there? What is it? It's not no why. It's just they just they're trying to let the men know the convicts, like yo, we get these motherfuckers right here. And it's open game on them. It's open game on them. But that's their way of telling them, telling you without telling me.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

Yeah, it's it's uh what they say, uh non-verbal communication.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

That's what they exactly is non-verbal communication, you know, it's open season on these boys.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

I'm asking a question though, or if y'all can answer, like that you said the non-verbal communication. Um, the black box is non-verbal meaning like this, just like you know, you do know this person has a serious case or is it chomo? What other non-verbal communication you gotta like pick up on in jail?

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Well, like in the state or whatever in Jersey, then it you know, and you maybe you can attest to this, Brahim. It depends on where you at. Because different facilities got different ways of communicating. It demand it depends on if you're around a bunch of Spanish boys, like like it just man, jail is so man, it has layers to it, it's exhausting, man.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

It's a whole nother world.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

It's it's it's it's it's its own world. And and the best thing, the very best thing you can do to survive, the best thing is to mind your business, man, and stay low.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

He said the same thing all the time.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Listen, so he this is about the fourth time you done said he said the same thing I said, and he did considerably more time than me. This is how you can really understand. I know what I'm talking about. It's the can it's the conditions. People get caught up on the time. I hear people talking about, oh, a year, 12 months. Y'all can do that standing on my head, nigga. You bugging because guess what? You do not know if that 12 months is gonna turn into 12 years because of something that happened behind that wall.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

And mentally, it's it's taxing mentally. Yes. A lot of dudes, especially if you've never been there and you got to go that route at an older age and you never been to no type of incarceration, which is cool. We this is what we're promoting, not to never do it. But when you go in there at an age like this or older age, man, a lot of dudes, man, can't handle that. I can't handle that right now, and I've been in there all my life. The go back right now, what I tell you. No, I'm never going for them to come in here and take, they got to pull shoes off, drawers there, y'all got to pull me out of this drone. I'm not just getting up and willingly go getting out, go in there, bro. Listen, it's it's you lose your mind, man.

SPEAKER_02 19:25

Because it's it's it's so it's in addition to the degradation, it's just the the thought pro the mindset that you have to put yourself in. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Every day, 24 hours a day.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

You know, so I I got homies that's still out here, you know, that's figuring it out. That, you know, unfortunately, you know, they still trying to get their way out of here. You know what I'm saying? Get their way out these streets. And up in age, you know what I mean? And one of my homies, he just, I'm talking about he's 50 plus, took the police on a high speed chase. I'm saying not too long. Because it's just like, man, if I gotta go, we not doing it the easy way. Because that's just not where you want to be. You know, it's it's it's just not. You you gotta deal with, you have to deal with everybody else's traumas and hang-ups and habits and small proximities of spaces. Because everybody's on top of each other. When I went, when I when I fell, I had to, you know, I was in Jersey. So I had to go through Camden County first. That's why I was waiting to get sentenced at, or get that's why I got sentenced, and then I had to wait to go upstate. I'm in Camden County, four people in a cell, one in the bunk, top, one in the bottom bunk, one sleeping on the floor next to the bottom bunk, and the other one, either your head is at the door or your head is under the toilet. This is everyday conditions. You know what I'm saying? I'm one of the last persons in the cell. So where was I at? On the floor. You know what I mean? Then from there, and that's another another thing that makes your bed a nightmare is movement. I did 14 months, but I was in Camden County, then I had to go to Trenton for uh uh uh quarantine, then I left left Trenton, left Trenton from quarantine, then they took me to Rawway, they took us to the big jail to hold us there before they took us to the camp. So from Rawway, then I went to the Marlboro camp. From Marlborough camp back to the Rora Ray again when they had me under the investigation, which I didn't finish. When they took me out of the camp to Rawway, because I was under the investigation, not knowing why I was there. I was there for I was in the hole. They took because they couldn't house me. Because I'm not sentenced to that jail. I'm not classified. I'm I'm down on a gun charge. They can't put me, they can't put me in population in Rouway State Prison. You fucking around put me in the cell with with somebody that's doing a will, he might wake up in the middle of the night and decide he wanna stab me because he Know I'm going home.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Do they make mistakes and do that?

SPEAKER_02 22:03

It ain't no mistake.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Well, do it what as far as the good place. He's got too many bodies, man. They can't keep their eye on everything. They make a mistake and put you near a code finit that you told on. Yes. It's so massive. Mistakes always happen in there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

No, no, if they do that, do they fix it right away or is it something like that? Yeah, they'll fix it. But you will fix the position. They catch it. Yeah. Something might happen.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

Then it's like, yeah, depending on how fast they catch it.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

You know what I mean? But they gotta be on because you can't, that's not something that you should do. Because then you got a dude that's never going home. Imagine what's going on in his mind every day. And then you put somebody fresh off the street in his cell who he knows is going home in months. In months. That that that constitutes a certain type of jealousy in everything.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

Everything.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

I'm talking about just because you're going home. Do they ask you, like, say if you go in a cell with somebody, they don't ask you, like, yo, how much time you got? What you mean? Do who asked you? The guards or the no the inmate, the person, your celly.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

Yeah, yeah. Sometimes nigga might, because you got the this is who you in there with. You got the kicking it and all that. Y'all won't get the kicking it. Yeah, you know, but even with that though.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

So is it better to lie to them be like, no, I got I got it? Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

You can. Yeah. You can lie, is it's better for you, but then it, but then if you do that, you gotta really make sure you don't get out of your toes and it don't get out. Because now you got a different problem.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Like now, what you went lying for?

SPEAKER_02 23:29

It's a whole nother now because you lied about that. Oh, now what you what else you done lied about? Who now they're gonna start doing homework on you? Who is bore? Like, why he lied about a little nut ass nine months? It just turned into just complete buffoonery.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

I mean, jail is just chaos, bro.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

It's just chaotic.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

So it's like you're damned if you do, or damned if you do. Exactly. In that case, I'm in I'm in a jail with somebody who got three life sentences and I got nine months in a body.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

You can't be in no cell with him.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

No hell no.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

You can't be in no cell with him. I remember when I was locked, because in Rawway, so they call the uh the area of the hole is um it's like literally in in the in the uh in the guts of the jail, the belly. So I want to say it was I forget the name of the tier. It might have um I forget which tier it was, but there was a population tier right above us. And I promise you, man, I I I I I hear boy in the middle of the night, drilling boy, the boy in agony. But I'm in my, I'm down in my cell and I'm hearing them like damn. Like, I don't know if he's taking it or if he enjoying it, but he's drilling him though. You know, and I'm listening to this and I'm like, damn, dog, like this ain't it. Yeah, this is not it, man. And so it's like it's the middle of the night. Yeah, middle of the night, man. I hear the boy drilling, boy, man. And I'm like, man, so so when I say 14 months, I'm talking about just imagine, imagine 14 months every single day being somewhere you don't want to be, every single day around people that you don't want to be around. You know what I'm saying? Even when I left the jump, man, I when I come outside, I had a migraine for two days because I wasn't used to sunlight. You know what I mean? I had a migraine for two days straight, couldn't get rid of it because I had been in, I had been inside so long because there wasn't no windows down there. Only windows was at the top of the journal like these windows up top there go all the way up to maybe like a quarter of that. That's how much sunlight was coming through there. Like the guard, and even with the guards, a lot of dudes don't understand it's anguish for them. They locked up all day, too. That's why a lot of the some of them, even though they're going home at the end of the day, they aggravated, they annoyed, they don't want to be in here every day.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

So, like they're serving time because they especially the guards who uh because they some guards get the with the solitary confinement block. Whereas they gotta sit there. There's no sunlight, no nothing coming in. So they just basically down there all day. So, what's normal shifts down there or what? Just regular shifts. Eight-hour shifts, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

Eight-hour shifts, yeah. They come in 7, 73, 30, 30, level.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Somebody come in, relieve them, and you know what I mean? Eight-hour shifts. So they so they basically like got the attitude, like they doing time too.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

A lot of them act like that. That's why a lot of them being, believe it or not, that's see the the stuff that goes on in the jails, a lot of the times they're the foundation of it. Drugs, the the the contraband, they the ones, you know what I'm saying? Because it's it's it's it's it's a hustle for them too. It's a bid for them too, in a sense. They just go home every night, but they gotta come back the next day too.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Wow. Now, when y'all see like um like inmates, like I just want to rewind a little bit. When y'all see inmates who have um a certain amount of time, like he's he got life, he got life, he got life, and he may have 10 years, 20 years. Is it the lifers hanging with the lifers and the people that got less time hanging with people that got less time, or is it just or they were just all intermingling or whoever?

SPEAKER_02 26:55

From what I've noticed, you know, just in my travels, based on how people have been sentenced, based on the facilities. The facilities kind of try to house short, you know, people that's short versus putting them with people that got a lot of time for that reason, for the reasons that we were talking about earlier with the violence and all that.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

So that's why they got something called custody level.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

Right. And that's the federal, and that's that's more so in the federal in the federal system.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

But even in the state, though, in our state, though, we got custody, they got max pen, yeah. You got max pen, like uh like Greaterford. Greater for was a max penitentiary. Like you wouldn't see too many dudes with 10 years and five years in that penitentiary. Like you got uh green uh uh uh all the all them but the penitentiaries is classified. Big sandy for the feds, like big sandy for the feds is a max penitentiary.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

Right, unless people got like a lot of a lot of time 30s, 40s and like unless you got enough time to be there.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Now you can jack yourself, like say if I come in with five years, but I'm at a low and I'm doing stuff, I'm stabbing niggas and shit like that, my custody level shoots up. Yeah, oh you can be around these niggas now. You you one of the animals. Exactly. Now I go to an FCI, but I only got five years. But I go in there, I knock out a guard. Oh, penitentiary, here you come. Yeah, they get you right up there to the bigwig if you went there cutting up and you got a little bit of time. But starting out, they're gonna classify you like, all right, you got four or five years, you send him to that camp or send him to this. Don't send him, you're not going straight to a penitentiary.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Yeah, like my nephew, my nephew, my nephew, um he got 13 and a half recently, right? A couple years ago. He got 13 and a half, and he was over Allenwood.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

And Allenwood was one of them penitentiaries back in the day.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

And but he went in, he went in Allenwood, he was first time offending everything, and he went in as a low. And they're what they call a horse plant, playing around or whatever. They zero tolerance. They snatched him, put him in the hole, reclassified him, made sent him, uh gave him uh uh a med, sent him right up uh West Virginia somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

No, wrong turn. Everything down West Virginia is wrong turn. How fast it gets you out of there?

SPEAKER_01 29:01

I'm saying like you how fast once something happened, how fast did they get you to the next gym?

SPEAKER_00 29:06

No, it'd be months. You'd be sitting on the hole. First of all, you gotta do your time in the hole, then they gotta put you in for designation. That's another another three, four weeks. Then you gotta wait for the bus to come get you. So you might be in a hole for about three months, but only had three days to do in the hole. But the reason why you're there on it, they can't let you back to the park.

SPEAKER_02 29:23

Because you're not there no more. Yeah, they like it.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Yeah, so now you got to sit in this hole until they come get you.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

It's like you're homeless. Like you, it's like like You just sit in a limbo, rather. That's what I'm saying. So that's what happened with me when they took me out that camp. That's when I sat in a hole. I was in the hole from from from June. I was in the hole from June to August. So what they did, I was in there for a week before I even knew what they remember when they told me they didn't know what I was there for.

SPEAKER_05 29:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

So I was there for a week before I even found out what I was there for. Feds came finally. They came, did they questionnaire, drilling me and all that, and then once they didn't get what they was looking for, they left. I'm thinking, you know, in a logical mind, all right, they came, they saw they didn't conquer. They gonna they go about their business, the people gonna come back and get me. La. No, sir. I didn't hear nothing from them. I ain't hear nothing from the jail, I ain't hear nothing from classification, who the uh uh uh uh the ombudsman in Jersey. I ain't hear nothing from nobody. I sat there for two months not knowing when I was gonna get out that hole.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

You just down there. What was the biggest the biggest loss for you? And how were you when is this going on?

SPEAKER_02 30:37

29. So was it so I turned 30, I turned, I went to jail at 29, I turned 30 and 31 in jail.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

We understand being inside, you know, being inside the prison wall, like things happen, like you know, outside and outside world. Was there any um significant losses that you took while you were incarcerated for things in the outside world?

SPEAKER_02 30:57

To be honest, I didn't lose, I didn't lose anybody. I didn't lose nobody perished while I was gone. But the but the thing for me the most is I I really understood the uh the preciousness of freedom, man. You know what I'm saying? I never really, it's just like when I went home, I I didn't know what a lot of dudes experienced. Like when I when I got out and I was on parole and they had me on that uh I wasn't on ISP, but I was still, I was on parole and I never forget the first time I went to the store. Man, I was nervous, I was scared to death because you don't want to do nothing. Like, I didn't even want to be around people. Because it's like they got it hanging over your head.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

The wrong move is over.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

You back. You back, like you, you if you're the wrong thing, you you you get re you get violated, you get reported. I never forget even in the assessment center. I was at this assessment center, you know. Once you leave the jail on your way home, I didn't go to a halfway house, but they had this assessment center up in Kearney, New Jersey called Talbot Hall. And I'll never forget this dude, man. I I won't forget this man for as long as I got a memory. His name was Derek Watson. And this man seemed like he had a passion for either sending people back or reminding you that he can send you back. And I remember my mom and my sisters came to visit me one time. You know, those assessment senders sometime on the speakers, you know you can't really hear. They might be calling you for a visit, but it's so much going on, you just really might not hear it. So I guess he might have, I guess they might have called me a couple times before I actually heard that I was up for a visit. So when I get down there, my mom's standing at the desk and he's standing there, he just started talking crazy to me in front of my mother. Like, you think people got time, you think people got all day to be down here waiting for you? Like you know you can go back, right?

SPEAKER_01 33:03

And you can't say nothing, you can, but it ain't wise, ain't worth it.

SPEAKER_02 33:08

So it's just like that's the degradation I'm talking about. Because on the street, I know you wouldn't talk to me like that. And you're trying to do it in front of my mind.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

Terrible. And that's it, and that's just like um we always talk about to the youth and people that are here breaking law. Once you go in there, they they talk to you in any kind of way. They'll put you in situations where you feel like you want to just go crazy, or you might go crazy because they're locking you in, locking, locking you down, and then ultimately, like it's like they stripping you in your manhood, basically. A million percent.

SPEAKER_02 33:43

A million percent. That's but that's that's the um that's the foundation of it all. That's the etymology behind it. Is to break you down mentally, to make you feel less than the man. That's what the whole strip searching is about, and you know, you know, going to visit your loved ones is is uh uh is supposed to be a happy time. But imagine sitting in your cell, dreading going on the visit, because you don't feel like getting strip searched today.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

I said I went to go see him at SEI Ray Brooke one time. We was I think we shook hands too many times. And we sitting down, he might I don't know if you can remember this, but we sitting down and the guard came over, made him stand up. Took him in the back, he came back, shirt wasn't tucked in the moisture. They made me they stripped me real fast.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

Yeah, but they thought you was passing something. Yeah, if you if if that happened, you said y'all shook hands too many times, they they thought you was passing him something. So they so immediately they gonna go shake him down.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

It's a normal interaction. I might have shook his hand twice, maybe three times, and like we just was just and they came, they came right over, stand up for a second, and took him right in the in the room and and um and made him strip.

SPEAKER_02 34:43

Yeah, as far as they're concerned, you passed two pistols and bricks that quick.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

Yeah, the violence in there, he has this thing he talks about all the time. I don't know. A lot of him asked the question, man, about the uh this thing he asked about locking the sock or uh But have you seen violence in there though?

SPEAKER_02 34:58

Yeah, so I so remember um remember uh remember uh this was probably this was This was 95 I was here I was up DC up State Road So I was in the detention center, I was in the detention center for uh two or three months on a uh on a shooting and while I was there F Dorm went to war with the guards. She was on the news, helicopter, like it was a zoo, like it was so bad. The uh the uh uh uh so the guard I was on it was F Dorm, I was on D Dorm, and the guard that we had on our dorm, who old here boy, he I asked him, I said, yo, please let me use the phone to call my mom. He said, Come in the booth. He let me he let me go in the booth, I bent down so nobody could see me using so we ain't draw. He let me call my mom because the shit was everywhere. The guards and the Muslims, they waited the uh they waited for the they waited for the um for them to call Christian services that night. And when they called Christian services, all the Muslims came out with the t-shirts tied around their faces like masks, and they went to war with the guards. I was able to call my mom and let her know, look, I know you probably gonna see this on the news, but I'm cool. Because what happened is earlier that day a Muslim was in one of the holding cells, and the guards had jumped him and then pumped him up with Thorazine. And he was a thorough boy. So, you know, Muslims, they they went crazy that night. So I seen, I seen them fire extinguishers, busting dudes in the head with the fire extinguish, they using the fire extinguishers to fight like it was a like that was that right there, and uh again, I'm up there in the county waiting to go to court. This ain't even me being upstate. So what he had probably seen is that on steroids. And this is what young boys, this is what I be saying when I this is what I mean when I be saying you don't know when you sitting in the county, you waiting for a court date, you waiting to go to court, and the next thing you know, the whole jail lockdown because it's a whole war in the jail between the inmates and the girl. Anything could happen.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

And they stop everything, you won't go to court that day, nothing. Oh, they can't, so the no movement.

SPEAKER_02 37:30

They will shut all the time.

SPEAKER_00 37:35

All that you automatically get a postpone. The judges and all that know what why Jack? Oh, Jackson's in custody, but they had a ride up there, oh yeah, we're we give him another date.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Yeah, and that date can be six months down the line, five months, a year, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 37:47

You missed that date.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

You're not going to court that day. How you how you find out that you got it that the court date has been postponed like that? Like would you know? You know right then there. The jail is locked down. You're supposed to go to court tomorrow. This happened today. Ain't nobody can. You're not going nowhere. I'm saying, how long how long do you find out your next court date? Like, what will you do? Oh no, no, your lawyer, somebody within the next couple days, you'll have a court date that day. You just courts, you just won't know until you contact the lawyer or somebody.

SPEAKER_02 38:11

Right.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

But when once they see you ain't at court and they know why the reason, or it will give them, they gotta give you a court date that day.

SPEAKER_01 38:17

So if some inmates in there who dread the actual the conflict between some inmates be like, yo, y'all gotta chill. I'm trying to come home.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

Well, yeah, something it ain't going to stop you from coming home because whether we locked in or not, they come to the cell. If you gotta go home and you gotta date.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

No, so you might you might have you might have trial, or it might be at some time where somebody might not come to court for the third time. You might be ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

Oh, yeah, well, yeah, yeah, that right there, yeah. So some dudes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

Some dudes in there like, man, like I could be going home and I gotta wait another six months to get out.

SPEAKER_00 38:43

Yeah. But see, but when it's stuff like that, though, they make sure the date would probably be next week or something. Because you can you can go to court while the jail was locked down. While the jail is on massive lockdown after they didn't got anything in order and they ordered. But when it first started, oh yeah, everything done.

SPEAKER_02 38:59

And you already 23 and 1. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? You already 23 and one. Like when I was when I was up when I was up at the detention center, you know, the the the housing was what it was, but we was already 23 and one. But when that happened, I I don't even think we went to chat hall.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

No, they bring that to the unit.

SPEAKER_02 39:18

I'm about to say, Yeah, you don't go to chat. I don't even think we went to eat.

SPEAKER_00 39:21

You get cold packs, you don't get no hot food.

SPEAKER_02 39:23

That you go, Brahim. No hot food.

SPEAKER_00 39:25

Cold packs. So it was like one of them the uh school lunches. Like it's a drawing like you get when you go to court, when you come back from court and all that. Exactly a milk and a juice. You get that when you go to court because you know you're missing the mills of the day for you being down at court. Yeah, like when you get off the bus and go into the courthouse, they give you a cold pack, huh?

SPEAKER_02 39:40

So that's still gotta feed you. So that's another that's another way. Dudes that got a lot of time or dudes that got quote unquote seniority over the over over the jail, they kind of try to keep order with dudes because every ain't no every if somebody caused an incident, everybody suffers. Everybody suffer. So you do not wanna be somebody who ain't really somebody and cause the jail to get locked down because you're gonna have a major issue. You're gonna have an issue. You're gonna have an issue.

SPEAKER_00 40:07

Oh, so the person who actually caused the issue. Yeah, but nine times out of ten, you're not even gonna be around no more. Yeah, you go into the hole and once everything clears, but if you are, dudes is on your line.

SPEAKER_02 40:18

Like, man, what like you gotta be somebody, like you can't just be any, you gotta be somebody that's respected in that jail to be able like the boys that came off F-DOM, but nobody's gonna do nothing to them because they had certain status in the jail. But like you can't be like you like you just running around being a little nut-ass young boy, and y'all do something crazy and you get the jail lockdown. You it would behoove you to pray that you're not going back to the same area you was in, because something's gonna happen to you.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

Now, he's talking about this lock in the sock. I don't know if you've seen that lock in the sock.

SPEAKER_02 40:47

I ain't see it. I know what it is. I you know, I I know about the I know about the lock in the sock. I know about the wax, I know about the shanks, I know about the dudes that turned toothbrushes into knives, you know. I don't, you know, the jail tattoos, you know, that was one of the most fascinating things I ever seen. Watch a dude take a little Debbie cake box and burn it and melt the and melt the uh melt the lettering on the box and turn it into the ink and and take a and and take a staple and straighten the staple out and melt the toothbrush, jam the jam, jam the staple into the and now that's the that now that's the uh uh uh that's the tattoo needle. And they they they they they they sticking in, they uh mixing it inside a little uh tooth uh toothpaste cap. Because they done melted the ink off the off the off the cake box and poured the ink into the toothpaste cap. And now that's the ink that make these tattoos. I got this tattoo, I got this tattoo of detention center with the process I just told you and got my mom's name. I got this tattoo of detention center.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

Dang.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

So you know you're going, it's a I It's a world inside.

SPEAKER_01 41:52

Some of the best art tattoo artists is in um in jail.

SPEAKER_02 41:54

That's a fact, and I'm telling you what they use for ink.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

But now they're using chess pieces. Oh, wow. Did they melt the whole chess piece down? Get all the black chess pieces, and they they they they enhance now. It's called what it's called, soup that or off the side of the box.

SPEAKER_02 42:10

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 42:10

That's what they make it with the whistle name. But now they don't even go through that because now the guards will smell that. Like, oh, what did the guard that'll raise an alarm? They run around. Who tagged it? Because you know you ain't allowed to be in there. How they melt the piece down? How they melt it down? Melt it down.

SPEAKER_02 42:22

You burn it.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 42:24

Yeah, they burn it.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

Yeah, burn it, burn it until it turns to a ball of wax. Then they they got another something else that they put with it, like Vaseline, they keep it in a uh uh like a liquid form. Wow. Yeah, they got they got the best of everything in there.

SPEAKER_02 42:38

They hustle.

SPEAKER_00 42:39

Wow, man. They charge 150 to 200 for a whole cover, a whole sleeve.

SPEAKER_02 42:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:44

I think I think I pay $60 for that. And then it'd be like like you got it done at the at the tattoo parlor here. Yes, you have dudes that's trash, you have dudes that's like that.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

Yeah, you got some dudes that's really tattoo artists. Yeah. Telling you these are the tools.

SPEAKER_00 42:56

I'm talking about come home and open up shops off of doing it from in jail.

SPEAKER_01 43:00

It's a boy, I believe. I don't know if he, I think he did time, but he did uh all 50 cent tattoos, one on his back and all stuff. He's like, I think he did time. Now you came home and you got a um relationship with, you know, you know, TBE, uh, you know, uh Floyd Mayweather. How did you uh get to know Floyd?

SPEAKER_02 43:18

So I met Floyd in 2017, so this is our ninth year in change being friends. I met Floyd. Actually, um, you know, like a lot of y'all, you know, he he saw me on social media. You know, he was following the page, seeing the content. And at the time, one of my really good friends before she passed away, she was his assistant. I knew I knew, you know, Keichi and I were friends. And he ups ultimately he ended up saying, like, you know, he he he always watched the content, had been sharing it, the people talking about me in his circle. And then one day he he asked Keichi, like, yo, he told her right, like, yo, I want you know, I want I wanna I want to meet homie. I want to meet him, he be talking that talk. You know, so you know, Keichi caught me up and uh Invited me to his 40th birthday out in LA. And I went out there and here we are.

SPEAKER_01 44:06

That's what's up. And uh no, knowing somebody like like flick me, whether, you know, as far as um, you know, him, you know, being arguably the best boxer ever, lace up a pair of gloves, and he's continuously pushing the envelope and then him serving time at a point in time for a a reason. Um what was the do you remember his mental did you know? Do you know him at the time when he served time?

SPEAKER_02 44:30

I didn't know him at the time when he when he um when he when he did that when he did that stint. But you know, we've we've discussed it, you know, we've talked about it, but um, but I didn't know him at the time that he did it now.

SPEAKER_01 44:42

Do you think it's harder to do time when you when you when you Dan there a billionaire opposed to just doing time when you're just a a person that just has a regular 95?

SPEAKER_02 44:50

I mean, yeah, you know, like right now, you know, a lot of people know Puff, my man. You know what I mean? You know, and Puff dealing with his situation, and you know, I, you know, uh I had asked, you know, if he, you know, if he if he wanted, you know, if he wanted me to come visit him. And my man who went to go visit him, you know, he said Puff had already told him, like, you know, tell everybody to chill because you know, I'll be home soon. You know, as he said, plus, you know, he don't like being out on the dance floor. You know what I'm saying? That's what they call the visiting room. Yeah, you know, because when you out there, it's like all eyes on you type stuff. You know what I'm saying? So it's it's it's it's like it's a different, it's a different type of bed, you know, but who because of who the person is, but it's still a bed. And it ain't no favoritism for real. You know what I'm saying? It's it's gonna it's gonna go the way it's supposed to go. Matter of fact, you know, if you ain't careful, you know, if if you if you're too famous and too popular, you know, you might be in there financing the whole situation if you ain't careful. Because if you ain't like that, you know, dudes will they they will have you sending money home to people's folks, you know, and he'll tell you, I ain't lying.

SPEAKER_01 45:56

So that so people look at you, uh you coming through there, you got some stuff going on, have a name, some type of status, and they like, yo, look, I need you to send this, take it this situation for me. So it's it's really going on. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 46:10

And that ain't got he ain't gotta be no celebrity for that to happen. He just gotta have something with you. If you was getting, if you're bored and they know you was getting money on the street, they consider you still having it, and you ain't you like I said, you ain't like that, you ain't with the right people, you ain't really, you know, putting it down like, hey, listen, I ain't going. So whatever we gonna do, let's go ahead and get it out of the way. I'm not sending nobody no money, I'm not doing this, I'm not doing like and sometimes that's what you have to do. You know, I've been in, I wasn't in the penitentiary with a situation like that, but you know, we were discussing earlier about me being in Miami, you know, for Philly. You know, when I first went to Miami, you know, you know, I was faced with a situation like that with some Haitians. You know, they my brothers now, we like family, but the initial interaction, you know, this when they was down there, any, you know, because this was around the time when a lot of people was coming up from up north, going down south and being in the music industry and running through the clubs, and you know, and a lot of times when dudes is from out of town, they don't respect the natives. They don't, you know, they don't, they don't, they, you know, they come down and you know, they're throwing a bunch of money around having a good time, but you're not really respectful of the women, you're not respectful of the culture, you're not, you're just not a respectful person. So, you know, things happen behind that, but then you have dudes who just, you know, their interest is taking advantage of the new faces in time. So, you know, long story short, you know, I was approached on some, you know what I mean. If you ever need, you know, we, you know, we this and we that, and if you need to move around down here, you know what I mean, see, see if your people got this or that in the budget. And I got a phone call concerning this, and and and and the boy on the phone, I'm I say, listen, I'm hit. I get it. I'm not mad at the hustle, but this ain't that. I said, Ain't nothing gonna happen to me unless God says so. I don't got no budget, I'm not coming up with no budget, I'm not paying nobody to look out for me, I'm cool. And the dude that I was on the phone with, he's like, you know what? He said, You the first person that ever took that position with us. Wow. He said, You know what? You alright with us. We've been cool from that day. I'm talking about where we are right now. If I got an issue, that's who I can call. You know, by the grace of Allah, I don't live that life no more. But I'm saying that to say that's how much the relationship progressed. Because it's like I'm a man, and from that day to this one, they ain't never seen me be nothing other than that. So if you behind the wall, it's a little bit different because it's a little bit more frightening, it's a little bit more confined, you don't know who's against you and who's for you. So if you really take a stand like that, you really, really gotta be prepared to lose your life. Because it could happen if you take that stance.

SPEAKER_01 49:04

Now, you you live in Miami or you or you frequent Miami a lot.

SPEAKER_02 49:07

I'm there.

SPEAKER_01 49:08

Okay, you there in Miami.

SPEAKER_02 49:09

I frequent here now.

SPEAKER_01 49:10

Okay. We you know Philly, you know how Philly is with the you know right the murder rate here was like, I think probably tops in the in in the US, I believe. For what's like one year we was like tops, and we always like in the top five type tent.

SPEAKER_02 49:24

I'm gonna give you some credit. They down 65% in the last five years.

SPEAKER_01 49:27

Yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_02 49:28

That's good.

SPEAKER_01 49:29

And now, living in Miami, is it as rough as it is here in Philly down there?

SPEAKER_02 49:36

A million percent. Because people had this misconception. They confuse South Beach with Miami. Miami is dangerous. Miami is a dangerous place if you don't know how to move and if you're not moving correctly. Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, like those are bigger cities. Miami has more, Miami has more uh dynamic to it because you got the South Beach, you got the party, you got the nightlife, it's so many other tentacles from the spiders, so to speak. But those pockets, Dade County, Little Haiti, Carroll City, you know, when you go up into Broward County, it's it's the same as here, man. And you know, sometimes the smaller places be more dangerous. You know, once upon a time, even up here, Camden had a higher murder rate than Philly.

SPEAKER_01 50:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:30

So I tell people, don't ever get it confused. Don't think Miami's sweet because of the palm trees and the sunshine, because that's South Beach. A lot of Miami natives don't even go over there. They don't even like South Beach, they don't like the tourist stuff, they don't like the people visiting that like they the they call it that's that's the real Miami. And I was thankful enough that when I went down there, that's the part of Miami that I got acquainted with first. Yeah, you know, they you know they they call it cross the bridge. You know, South, you when you on the inland, as they call it, when you in the city, you cross either one of those bridges, you're going over into South Beach. Yeah, that's a whole nother world. When you leave South Beach and come across that bridge, you gotta act like you got some sense. Or somebody gonna see about you.

SPEAKER_01 51:19

Hey Young, is it a uh federal uh pen over there in Miami?

SPEAKER_00 51:24

In Florida, yeah. Uh they got uh you got them right. Oh my god, man. What's the federal pen in Florida, man? Everybody woke to a lot of people like to get down there too. They got a bunch of little, they got a couple facilities.

SPEAKER_02 51:36

I know they got the one, I know they got the one downtown. I know they got a federal, I know they got a federal detention center downtown, Miami. My man 50 plus just got 30 years.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

They got a penitentiary down Florida, too.

SPEAKER_02 51:46

But I don't know the name, I don't know the name of their federal penitentiary though.

SPEAKER_00 51:49

You have you been there yet? No, I ain't never I ain't never been down floor. I've been down south, but not down Florida.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

Matter of fact, I know somebody, somebody that I know deal with somebody that's locked up and he's trying to get down there.

SPEAKER_00 52:01

Um the jail is right here, and the name is in my head, man.

SPEAKER_02 52:04

I just heard about it recently. I didn't know the name of it. But damn, man.

SPEAKER_00 52:08

It's a pen they got a penitentiary down there, uh USP for a federal penitentiary.

SPEAKER_01 52:12

Um is it tough? Is it like a is it is it a have a name being like a rough spot? Well, all penitentiaries in the feds is a rough spot. But I'm saying, but some of them got the reputation like don't go there.

SPEAKER_00 52:22

Like you said, all penitentiaries, bro, wrong term. Like you said, wrong term, that's that's that's just down West Virginia. But I'm just saying you give them like a all penitentiaries, bro. All USPs, federal USPs do not, you don't want to be there. They don't have one USP that's solved at all. If it's a USP, a federal USP, that joint is crazy. But so the FPFI. That's a medium. Okay. And then the lows, and then you got kinks.

SPEAKER_02 52:50

The USPs is the United States penitentiary. Yeah. So penitentiaries is different.

SPEAKER_01 52:55

So you collide with all races, all different people from all different, everywhere. Everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 53:00

It's just like I did, I just did a um a speaking engagement last last summer or something before last in Atlanta. I did Atlanta USP. Same thing. Same all demographics of people, all right. He talks about Atlanta.

SPEAKER_01 53:15

See, like that's what I'm saying. Like certain spots, let me cut you off, but certain spots I've heard him say, like uh USP Atlanta. Like, don't, like they said, they're knocking people out there.

SPEAKER_00 53:23

Yeah, the guards will beat you up there.

SPEAKER_01 53:25

Yeah, so it has like a reputation of being like rough, but a little bit more spice on it because of the incidents that happened in that place or what it's known for. Like he it's not a transit spot you said that is like rough as far as the the um the cells is dirty and it's trying to. Oh, Atlanta. Atlanta was one of the nastiest drones.

SPEAKER_00 53:42

Okay, see, so they have different places that have like different reputations. I'm mad as hell, I don't remember the name of that penitentiary in Florida right now. I'm sitting here trying to, that's why you see me zoning out over here because a couple of my men went. It's right here that as soon as the show was over, watch, I remember it. Like I it's crazy, but is this is not nowhere where men need to be at. But I want to ask you a question, though. From doing that time, right? Do you think jail is really a rehabilitation?

SPEAKER_02 54:09

No, hell no. Hell no. Ain't you gotta think about that because it's not the jail that rehabilitates you? You started off the conversation saying it starts with you. If you told the judge, you can give me 40 years, you can give me one day, it's still gonna be up to the person, man. You gotta make a choice. You gotta be so disgusted by those conditions because you gotta think. This is a business. I told somebody a long time ago, when I'll never forget, and this will made me think about it. I was leaving, and and and and one of the one of the uh one of the CEOs said, all right, now we don't want to see you back in here no more. And I thought about that one day, and I was like, Yes, you do. You might not want to see me because you might have taken a liking to me.

SPEAKER_00 54:59

USP Coleman, not to cut you off. USP Coleman in Florida. In Florida. They gotta go, but go ahead. What the guard say? You might you you you you might you might FCC Coleman. But they got a complex, they got a penitentiary FCF.

SPEAKER_02 55:12

You might want to, you might not want to see me particularly because you might have taken a liking to me, right? But you want to see somebody else, because if you don't, you don't got no job. So the rehabilitation part of it, that's cap.

SPEAKER_04 55:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:26

That's cap. Because if if everybody, if everybody straighten their act up, y'all gotta find a new career.

SPEAKER_00 55:33

We just was talking about that man probably yesterday. Like if you bring the guards, all the people, because but prison guard is a career. That ain't just a job. That's a career. That's a career. They got families working there. Yes. You got grandpops, the sergeant, his son work up front, they daughter work out back. I'm talking about whole family. They married, she married to him and him. Listen, this joint is a horse and pony show.

SPEAKER_02 55:54

People get grandfathered in like Fortune 500 companies. Like you can't get it unless you know, like that's how that runs.

SPEAKER_00 56:01

They put these jails in these little hick towns that they ain't never ever probably seen black people in real life. Only on TV. Like I say wrong term, West V deep, deep West Virginia. They put a jail right there inside a mountain. Boom. Now that's bringing employment to the community. These is goat herders for form and you know what I mean? And they ain't really had for real. Now you in here, you're not even equipped to deal with men of danger, and they just putting them in these positions. But it's get bringing the job, the community's job, these little communities is in. And authority. And authority. I'm talking about this is how dangerous it is. Like you in here, you you're not even equipped to work with men of this caliber. First of all, you ain't never even seen this before. How do you think you're gonna come in here and gun? But they do. They do. Colin Powell said one time, and I'm gonna get it get a mic back to you. Colin Powell said one time, they said, why you don't take, you know, the the criminals to war and fight for our country instead of taking our loved ones. He said, Why would I take somebody that listened to one guard that tell them to lock in their cell and everybody go lock in? And I'm like, wow, wow. It's 200, 300 niggas on the block. Men, everybody, we all say we men, we standing on business and all that. They go to lockdown. Everybody be walking to their cell. Damn, what happened, man? Electric lady shutting their come on, man. So they shutting their own cell down. Yeah. Come on. It's lockdown time.

SPEAKER_02 57:25

And you better, you and it ain't like you're not gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 57:29

So how many how many guards is on the block? One, one. It's one in the federal system, it's one guard on each block.

SPEAKER_02 57:36

Yeah, so like in so like where so it's different depending on the type of facility. Like when I was talking about when I was up the detention center, in the detention center, all the sales, it was a like a big dorm up DC, but all the sales is like a it's like a big circle. But the guard is in the center of the floor in his uh, you know, in his little booth. Well, it's not even a bubble because his was open. He had, you know, he had an open uh in up DC, he had an open booth. But it just depends on what type of how the facility is designed. Because we might have had, I think maybe two when I was up Ray Camp and they had, you know, the uh I think we had two up there, but yeah, but most of the time it's just it's it's a guard to a tier, guard to a block.

SPEAKER_00 58:27

Guard to one to governing 100 to 150 to 200 niggas.

SPEAKER_01 58:33

And so now that you're home, right? Um you're home, you're doing some some good things. I see you moving around as far as speaking at events and you know being uh motivational to the people I have here who uh need the motivation, even myself and him as well.

SPEAKER_00 58:49

I love watching your 30-second comment uh uh comment. I love it. I stay on there watching. I appreciate that, Brahane.

SPEAKER_01 58:56

So with that, and along with I know you have a million other things going on, uh, what's been the most uh I'll say this, what's been um the most enjoying part of doing what you're doing?

SPEAKER_02 59:08

The response that I've gotten from the people that I've been trying to reach, which is the younger guys. Just yesterday when I was at um, and I just posted it, I ran into a guy yesterday at uh in Atlantic City, right after they finished doing the peace walk at the end of the conference, and it was a young man. He was there with his son and his daughter. He was like, Man, I saw you yesterday. He said, I saw you again today. He was man, I just been hesitating to speak to you. He said, But I just told myself, man, stop being cool and go speak. And he said, Man, I've been watching you since 2017. He said, Man, I was outside. He said, and the mayor in his office, they gave me a chance to be a part of this anti-violence program. He said, Man, I love it. He said, but on my journey, watching your videos and getting a lot of gain from you, is what helped me make a lot of the better decisions that I made. So that right there is the fulfilling part for me. Because I've had that happen numerous times. I've had fathers reach out to me and ask me to speak to their sons. I've had mothers reach out to me and ask me to speak to their sons. So the fulfilling part of me, like the views and the likes, the Instagram part of it is cool for awareness and branding. But for it to for it to translate over into real life, real coaching classes, real speaking engagements, having real phone conversations with people who say, hey, listen, you know, I'm I really need to talk to you. I can't afford to talk to you, but can I talk to you? Like, and I'm gonna talk to them. Like I'm never, you know, I'm never gonna allow money to stand between helping somebody who can't help themselves, and the only reason they can't get to help is because they can't pay for it. You know, that's when you, you know, you have to trust the law at that point. Allah is gonna reward you.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:59

I'm asking you a question. Now, being in the opposition of what you're doing, and um, you know, like like we said, social media has propelled you to a certain point. Along with having a social media presence, how important is it to be out and about, at events, people seeing you, moving around? Is that is that just as important as being on social media?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:19

It depends on what you're using your social media for. For me, it's imperative because people have this thing about people of influence, celebrities, people that they see but can't touch, right? They they have this they have this thing in their mind where these people are untouchable. So when they see somebody that they admire, somebody that they look up to, somebody that they respect, and then they see that person amongst them, and then they speak to that person, that person speaks back, they ask, can I take a picture? And the person takes the picture, that means a lot to these people. You know, I understand the celebrity component with you know, people who have really big names because you know, once you start, it's hard to stop. So they might not want to put themselves in that position to do it for anybody, but it's still important for you to be out and about, depending on what you're using your social media for. Like for me, it's important because a lot of people really apply what I'm saying on social media to their real lives. So when they see me outside, it's like damn, you you you bought from, can I get a pick? Or you know, they'll tell me, you know, what the page do for them, they'll give me an experience, and you know, they'll share something with me. So for me, that's the that's a fulfilling thing for me because I always want people to feel like they matter, dog. Because a lot of people make people feel like we over here, y'all over there. And I I I just don't I don't I don't rock I don't rock like that. I don't I don't subscribe to big eyes and little you's. Yeah, I ain't with none of that.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:10

So I feel what you're saying with that, but I'm the opposite. I don't really, I don't know. I'm I'm I just like my my my the people that I know. Don't get me wrong though. If somebody sees me and I'm I'm gonna go ahead and cause I I know I'm saying something that they like. So I'm gonna give them the appreciation, I'm gonna show them appreciation that I appreciate what you got going on, but I ain't the go out type and wanna, I ain't with all that. Like he always come, come on. I ain't I don't have to go out to spread my message. He don't. I don't, I don't have to, I don't think I have to be there or be here to to sit here and talk. You like what I said, like I it's just something with me, and he knows that more than anybody else.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:45

But that's why I said it depends on what you're doing and what you're utilize, like what he's describing, that's that's him and his element. And he has that's actually safer. It's actually safe to be that way because I'm gonna tell you why. Everybody don't like us, and everybody knows us. We don't know everybody. Like a boy run down on me yesterday. It'd be making me nervous, like oh boy run down on me yesterday, and and the whole time he's talking, yeah. You yeah, because he's talking to me about a video that I posted some years ago that pertained to him, and he said, I've been I've been waiting to run into you so I could tell you you was wrong. Like I wanted to and I'm saying to myself, like Where's this going? Like, oh I'm so I'm reading his body language, and once I once I finish my assessment, I could just tell he just really wants to talk. You know what I'm saying? But at the same time, it's like that shouldn't have even been that important to you for you to want to tell me years later, you know, that and I'm not mad at him because he wasn't disrespectful, he wasn't aggressive, but he was assertive. He really wanted to let me know what was on his mind, your perspective was wrong. He couldn't remember exactly what I said, he couldn't really remember what it was all about, but he did remember that you thought you were that he, if he ever saw me, I gotta give you a piece of my mind, young fella. And again, he wasn't disrespectful, but I'm just saying that to say that's the dangerous part of this. Because you, this is why I don't argue with people on social media, I don't disrespect nobody because you don't know who's who everybody knows you, but you don't know who's who. So his perspective is actually safe. Because if he thinks it's necessary, you can correct me if I'm wrong. If he thinks it's necessary for him to be somewhere, he's gonna be there. Yeah. But if just to be out the beat, he ain't doing it. And I'm not mad at him. You know, my life has been a little bit different because I always been in the promo game, in the music industry. I always been out front. My my face has always been attached to, you know. That's what really brought me into who I'm doing, or who I am and what I'm doing, because a lot of people have seen me transition to so many from so many different levels. So it's like, damn, I remember when Baz was doing that, then Baz was doing that, now Baz is doing this. So a lot of people have gotten a chance to witness the elevation. So for me, it's fruitful as well as fulfilling to be interactive and to be out because part of that is what made me who I am. So I wouldn't abandon that. But I'm still very careful and meticulous now about where I go, when I go, who I go with. And when I do, now it's known and understood. If you see him there, you want to say something, hurry up, because he ain't gonna be there long. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:53

So what's next for you? Like what's uh like you know, what did you see yourself, you know, what's I'll say, what are your plans uh or what is it that you want to do uh going forward, you know, from this day forward? Like, you know, what is it that you uh you want to see yourself doing, or what's what's the highlight for you?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:09

Well, thankfully, I'm already in the mix of what I'm doing. It's already at play, and um, I'm just watching it, you know, continuously, you know, uh coming to fruition. So this whole 3 to 30 second initiative that I started, it it transitioned into um an actual nonprofit. It's a 501c3 now. Um I have two curriculums, you know, one for um for education on how to flip your life in three to 30 seconds. Then I have one for the Department of Corrections, uh 3 to 30 seconds to walk away or walk the yard. And then I have the five steps to thinking and three to 30 seconds handbook. So it teaches you how to pause, assess, analyze, consider, and decide on your final decision within those three to 30 seconds. So that's the whole ecosystem in in addition to some technology that uh a friend of mine and I are working on uh for for behavioral detection, impulse detection, and um and then there's also the wellness component of it. Well, I'm working on a uh a reset shot, not necessarily an energy drink, but a like a reset shot that that that targets the brain. So these are all the things that I'm working on. But these are all actively. This is not a vision, this is not hopeful, like all of these places in motion as we speak.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:34

So, you know, uh outside of that, you know, and and I wish you the best, man, and may Allah get your good success in your endeavors. I mean, um, what message do you uh if you have a message to anybody that's watching right now that may be going to uh going through any difficulties, whether it's financial, whether they're faced with, you know, going back to prison, whatever it may be, what advice that you can give to someone that you may not have given on any other platform, but that you can give today?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:02

Um actually, I'm gonna echo something that I said earlier, which is something that I I believe it may be uh the first time me really saying publicly, but this will probably be the first platform that I that I said this on. And it's and it's to remind us, man, that when we wake up, that's the blessing, right? That's the first blessing. That's the most, that's the primary blessing because no matter what we want, we can't get it if we don't wake up today.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:28

I agree.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:28

So no matter what, so no matter what you're going through, no matter what you're trying to run to, no matter what you're running from, none of it is gonna happen if you don't wake up. So if Allah wakes you up, give thanks. Thank God for today, and then go straight into being grateful. I'm grateful, I'm here now. My troubles, my ambitions, my perspectives, anything that I'm going through now, how do I get through that today? That's not yesterday is gone, tomorrow not here yet. You know, the past causes depression, the future causes anxiety, so let's deal with right now. Can we get through today? And that's what I encourage so many people to do, man, because a lot of times you can you can you can wake up today and you know today is is is the 15th, right? And you know the first is two weeks from now and you don't have the bills, money. You don't got it, but that's still 14, 15 more days, 16 perhaps, you still got six. Do you know what can happen? Then, like we say in three to 30 seconds, do you know what can happen in 16 days? If you believe that Allah is all everything, all provider, all merciful, all giving. You know what I'm saying? If you, if you if you program your mind to really live like this, and I'm not talking about in the moment, I'm not talking about just thinking like this for the day, you really have to recondition your thinking to understand that, and if you're not Muslim, God, you Muslim Allah, that Allah controls everything, and nothing is going to happen without his permission. Nothing. So once you tap into that and you understand that the day that you're worried about July 1st to pay the bills, once you realize and think and understand and stand on business that July 1st, not even promised. Who said I'm gonna get to July 1st? When I hear people talking about the president, oh and the president about to do this, and oh man, he's gonna take us through this, and we're gonna, who said he's gonna live long enough to do all this? You understand what I'm saying? We have to understand that we're not in control, and that's the biggest problem that a lot of us as human beings have. We think we're in control, but we're not. Allah is in control, so deal with today, deal with today's successes because they could be gone tomorrow. Deal with today's issues because they could be turned around into successes tomorrow. Just deal with today and understand that whatever is meant for you is gonna happen. Your responsibility is to be a good person, be respectful. Remember that Allah's creation, from humans to animals to plants, are all to be respected. Respect Allah's creation and ask for his mercy and his grace and get through that day.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:29

Wow, that's a powerful. Uh, where can um people find you at? What what platforms or where can they you know reach out to you if you need to?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:36

I'm primarily on on Instagram, Shabazz the OG, but the way my Instagram is tied into so when I post on Instagram, it goes straight to Facebook. So you'll be both of those, but primarily on Instagram.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:49

Yeah, so when next time you gonna be in Philly, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:52

Um, I mean, this this home. My mom here, my my son here, brothers and sisters here. So I'm always here. I just when I'm here, I'm here for a purpose. And I I meet that purpose.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:05

It's fleeting. It's fleeting. You're right back out the door. Well, we we got a live event coming up, July 18th, man. If you ever if you're here in the city on July 18th, we have a live event at uh World Live Cafe. So if you're here, you know, on July 18th, you come through.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:20

Live Cafe.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:21

It's on 34th in Walnut.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:24

Mm-hmm. Good parking, police dance. I think it's been that for all the time. World Live Cafe, you've been there for years.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:30

34th, 34th, 34th, 35th Walnut, yeah. Walnut going up.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:36

Mm-hmm. You coming down Walnuts on the right hand side. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Got the food stuff in there. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:42

Okay. I know what you're talking about. I know exactly where it is. I'm gonna say I seen that name. Matter of fact, I seen the last time I was home because I was uh coming down Walnut Street over there by I had to no, I was on Chestnut where that Starbucks is over there. But yeah, yeah, for sure. If I'm in if I'm in channel, yeah, come through.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:58

Uh anything you want to say young before we get about there? Man, you know, my whole motto is think about it. Think about it, man. Two, three seconds, man, could destroy your life or save your life. That's a fact. Every last time, I don't care what situation it is, it can make you go broke, it can make you be rich. Think about it. Just two to three seconds. That's all I asked.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:19

Yeah, three to thirty, if you will. Huh, man. Say that again.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:22

You heard that? Three to thirty. I gotta get me some uh apparel, man, a hat or something, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:26

Yeah, no, this um, you know, I I I left the I I got the I got the three to thirty-second wristbands, I left them home, but I got a bunch of these. And then, you know, I got merch on the website. Okay. Um, I have merch on the website and the handbook, the actual the uh the uh the five steps to thinking the three to thirty-second handbook is actually in the process of getting published now. So that'll that'll be out on Amazon pretty soon.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:46

And which website where they can go get the merch from?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:48

Shabazz the OG.com.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:49

All right. So I want to thank everybody for tuning in. What I do want to say, I just want to say, you know, stay focused, stay safe, stay free, and uh take heed to um, you know, viable uh you know lessons that you know uh Shabazz and Braheen Jackson and myself that we bring to you because at the end of the day, like like he said, three to thirty seconds can change your life. And he says two to three seconds can change your life. So ultimately, you have to make a decision, a sound decision, when you're faced with adversity, you're faced with emotional situations where it can uh lead you to the prison or to lose your life. So just think first, man. I want to thank you for coming on, man. And uh I we should have been did this, you know, a while ago, but it was kind of my fault.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:28

But I'm glad I ain't even your fault, you know. Me and you busy, I'm busy, it happened when it's supposed to. We here.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:36

But I appreciate you. And also, y'all can find uh Tells from the Gels. We on all platforms Spotify, I um, uh Apple Podcasts, uh, YouTube, uh Kick, Twitch. Uh we are um on all platforms, and you know, thank you guys for supporting us. It's Tell us from the Jails. We up out of here.