Ron Obasi: Creation Through Initiation

In this episode of Dear Art, I Love You. We sit down with Ron Obasi, a father, creator, and man of intention, to explore the deeper layers of artistry, identity, and purpose.

This conversation goes beyond music, diving into the importance of initiation, the role of community in Hiphop, and what it truly means to create with intention.

Ron shares his journey, from navigating the music industry to building community through his “Welcome to Earth School” initiative, offering a perspective on growth and self-awareness.

This is not an interview, it’s a conversation about becoming.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Hello there. Welcome to Dear Art. I love you. I'm your host, Mr. Narmada, creator, visionary, and lifelong student of expression. This podcast is my love letter to creativity, to the moments that shape us, challenge us, and remind us why we create in the first place. Each episode, I sit down with artists, dreamers alike, and visionaries to explore the relationship between art and the soul. Together, we'll talk about the love of art, discipline, struggle, and the divine process of creation itself. So if you ever find yourself healed by a song, inspired by a story, changed by an image, or even learned something about yourself, this space is for you. Welcome to Dear Art. I love you. Dear Art, I'm coming to you today, not with criticism, but with help and understanding. Because I see what's happening in today's media landscape. How the music scene has been built around negativity and chaos. It's like we've forgotten what you were created for. You were never meant to divide us or destroy us. You were meant to heal us. To give people a language for what they feel but can't explain. Somewhere along the way, we traded reflection for reaction. And I get it. The word is heavy, pain sells faster than peace. But even through all that noise, I still believe in you. Because I've seen what happens when your power is used with intention. When art becomes a mirror instead of a mask. You remind us who we are. You remind us that creation is sacred and expression is divine. You turn chaos into color and pain into poetry. That's why I'm writing to you today. Not to condemn what we've become, but to remember what we are. Because if we can remember that, we can rebuild a culture where art doesn't exploit emotion. It elevates it. Where every song, every film, every stroke of the pain burst becomes a form of truth telling again. I still love you, but I need you to help us remember how to love ourselves again. Welcome back to the creator's today. He's an artist who's respected to go with beyond music, and it's a things like culture, identity, and understanding. In this conversation, we explore the state of your power. What it really means is stay true to yourself in an industry that often says integrity. We don't have anything about spirituality, uh, initiation, you know. It takes into becoming and you know, defining your purpose. This isn't just about music, this is about an overall perspective the rules of your your very being and why art is such such an important thing. So let's not get too long-winded. And let's bring Ronald onto the show. Again, this is dear art. I love you. Enjoy. Man, how you doing, man? It's it's it's been a a long time coming, duh.

SPEAKER_03 4:36

No, it's been a it's been a uh long time coming for sure, bro. I'm excited, man. I'm good, bro. Man, I literally just got home and just we just settled in from the day. You know what I'm saying? Trying to take all the breaths as possible, but but everything else is everything else is ingratitude, bro. You know what I'm saying? The family healthy, the girls healthy, bro. We got a roof. I can't complain, bro. How you?

SPEAKER_02 5:00

Man, same, same, bro. It's it's it's been a journey, it's been a process, you know. Um getting into this whole podcasting thing, the content thing. Bro, this this this new world we in, you know, but um, like I told you, bro, I don't want this to come off as no interview, just a just a real solid convo between two individuals. No, for sure. Um It's the landscape today today is just weird, man. It's weird, you know. Um artists, I guess you I guess if you want to call them artists, but you know, it's it's it's more so what would you say? Uh um popularity contest. Yeah. Yeah. More than doing it for the love of the art, you know. But um, yeah, man, let's get into it. Welcome to Dear Art. I love you.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

Nah, man, thank you, bro. Uh, thank you for having me. You it's crazy because first let me say, uh the again, bro, the the first episode, bro, was was beautiful. I was literally, I think I told you just a little bit, I was riding around listening to it, bro, while I was outdoor dashing for some extra cash. And I'm damn, bro. I was like, bro, this is it was what I needed to hear at the time for for real, for real. And uh, so it's definitely an honor to be here, bro. And then, you know, you you said something, you literally, um, I'm not sure if this is the totality of the conversation, but you just talked about, you know, your journey or your transition into the the podcast and writing then the uh content, bro. I I just wanted to speak on that because that shit been on my mind heavy too. You know what I mean? Like what is my what is my like my wills and my wants with this, like my whole relationship with it, bro. And it's like you know, it is a popularity contest, and then you gotta, and then I'm like, I I consider all of the the different ways where someone can find themselves caught up in it, because in a way we all been caught up in it, you know what I'm saying? 100%. So it's like it's like really crazy, bro. It really is crazy. It's like, you know, for me, it's like, damn, bro, like uh where is the I guess for me personally, I've been having the mindfulness of like where do I draw the line with this? Because it's like I'm not a I'm not a content creator. And a lot of the things that I be wanting to say, a lot of the things that I be wanting to say and do, I do know how to create art around them, but they happen so much in like real time where it's like, bro, if I get to, if I get to focus in on it's it's tough, bro. I don't know. It's it's so many different things that people talk about when it comes to that content creating space. And that's I'm really starting to look at that shit as why it's a valuable skill, bruh. Because people who I can see why people who got it down pack, bro, like are valuable in this time or they have value, you know what I'm saying, on the media.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

That's part of why I started the the podcast. Was like, okay, you know, I I did the music management thing for a little minute with my little bro in Houston. And, you know, I got to really see what the music industry is from the business standpoint, and then from what you doing it for, meaning like from your heart, like what's your heart in it. So it's like, I know artists that all day hit me up, Kendall, you know, um, man, help me out with my music, help me out with this, this, and that. And it's like, bro, what you really doing it for? You know, like I've been able to negotiate deals and been able to look at the deal and be like, nah, this ain't it. You know, whether this would have been a good like trampoline or a good boost to get us in it, but it's just kind of like, man, do I really want to walk my people into this? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. No. So yeah, we go, we go talk about it, bro. Cause I think in this summer, I seen you post a thread and you said so. I don't know like the fool of it, but what I got from it was, you know, hip hop like broke your heart. Yeah, it did. You know what I'm saying? And just how you said, like, your music is very intentional. Yeah. Right? And we in a landscape now where like these kids, they don't even care for real. Like, you know, what they're listening to or if it's feeding their mind or pushing them forward or elevating them in any way. But that's that's like what I grew up on, you know, the outcast. You dig what I'm saying? I never was the kid um that knew anything spiritually, but I always measured music in a way for me to view life through that lens, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 9:46

Hell yeah, it makes sense. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

You know what I'm saying? So it's like when I seen you post that, it's like, yo, it's a lot of artists that really make intentional music that may feel the exact same way. Like, am I creating from a space where people gonna even pay attention to it? Cause that it ain't what's popping. You know what I'm saying? It ain't it ain't what's finna get us in a club or nothing like that.

SPEAKER_03 10:11

Bro, you know, for me it wasn't the club, right? But it was like our people. You know what I'm saying? Like, if anybody, if anybody seen me from my journey up to now, you're right. I was always intentional, but I'm not like the word they use is like monolith or like one-dimensional. You know what I mean? Like, we cool as fuck, bro. Like, we cool people, we creative. You know what I'm saying? The places we come from, we got a million things to think about. And for me, it was just like when people hear Ron Obasi, I want them to understand why those elements are a foundation to what we really trying to get to. And there's no reason for us to be stuck, stuck in the trying to be cool and stuck in the trying to be ignorant. You know what I mean? Like we got places to be, we got places to go. And that thread is crazy because I feel like that was the very first time I had said it out loud, which really wasn't out loud. It was just like at that moment I felt like threads were raping up space. Yeah, and I and I had been holding that in, bro, because like one, I I felt like I didn't, I didn't want to communicate it too early, you know what I'm saying? And I feel like I was going through this process of like saying what's real and make sure I'm also not, you know what I'm saying, playing a victim too. Uh, you know what I'm saying, because there was a lot of decisions that I made. That was another reason, you know, when I heard what you spoke on, bro, like I've sat across some deals, you know what I'm saying? Like, there was a time when it was just like, oh, you could you could really feed everybody off this right now. You know what I mean? And, you know, from 2020 to 2022, I was I was paying bills out of music. You know what I'm saying? So it was like I in those in those moments alone, what I was what I was still trying to do, bro, was like stand in that, stand strong, like stand in integrity. Like I can name so many different moments where it was like tested, you know what I mean? Because, bro, we it's not just art, it's not just like artists doing it like it's not just what I'm how am I trying to say this? There's definitely intentional artists, right? And then you also have uh artists with integrity as well, bro. And we live in a, we we live in a predatory world, but specifically, bro, but specifically the music business is predatory as hell, bro. Like, they can't wait to remind you that another art is gonna do what you won't do. They can't wait to tell you that, bro. Like, you must not want it, you know what I'm saying? You must not fuck, you must not really care about, you know what I'm saying, getting rich or being poppin' if you won't do this. And I'm like, bro, that's not the point, bro. Like, that's not the point at all. Like, I'm not saying that shit don't work. I'm saying it don't work for me. And I'm not, you know what I'm saying? I'm not disrespecting processes, right? But bro, the music business, bro, they can't wait to remind you of like what everybody else done, what everybody else had to cave into, what everybody else had to sacrifice. And it's like, man, like, bro, but before this became a billion-dollar industry, you know, like this shit like bloodline, bro. Like, my pop, my pop's been dancing and rapping, bro, since he was in single digits. And he was so natural that's he's he was so natural at it, bro, that when I, you know, I come once I become an adult, become a man, like I realized, like, oh, that's like, that's like heirloom shit. That's like heritage shit. Like he was real legacy. You know what I'm saying? And it was, you know, by the time I came to realize, like, bro, I I don't know what to say anymore, bro, to like not have to deal with those conversations or not have to deal with those. And it was just like, it came, it came with a loss of money, loss of friends, and just like I was just trying not to. You said something real valuable to me, bro, when you was like, I'm just trying not to lead the people into the burning house, bro. Cause it's like I don't, I can't just make it's like those decisions, I I was never making them by myself, no matter what. You know what I'm saying? Because if that was the case shit, I I would have took, I would have took all them weak ass 360 offers. I would have took all the, I would have, you know what I'm saying? It was it was a lot of whack shit going on, man. But bro, I really did, it's so crazy. I really tried to hold my own, bro. So it's like hip hop as a culture, we know how important it is to us. And you like spiritually, we know how important it is to us. So you got you got present-day people who like, you know, I won't keep beating a dead whores, but all the things that I just said, and then you also got people that it's like I I heavily respect, right? And it's like I see why, you know, like he, not even he, but they. There's a lot of artists, bro, that I really do heavily respect, bro. But it's also sometimes I have conversations with them and I also lose them as well. So I'm like, bro, maybe this might not even be the place that I need to be in right now, bro. So it was like, it was really crazy because I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

You you probably don't have Twitter, bro, but right around that time all that Cole and Kendrick shit happened, I pretty much I might have deleted my shit out of that was going on.

SPEAKER_03 15:19

You ain't miss shit, bro. But I I pretty much like went viral for the wrong reasons. For the righteous reasons for me. The righteous reasons for me, but and this is like one of those moments where I was like, I just have to make sure, you know what I'm saying, like I ain't playing victim, you know what I'm saying, and I'm not just going against the grain just cuz. But it's like I do my homework just like everybody else, right? So everybody was having a conversation about hip hop, right? And they were all saying, it's it's this global opinion right now, brother. We wouldn't have, we wouldn't have hip hop if there was no competition. Oh, that's crazy. And it or and the global opinion, it's like I and I don't want to put words in people's mouth, but this is what people was communicating to me. It was pretty much saying like competition is what hip-hop was born from. And I'm like, man, like, bro, like, like we don't have to lie, you know what I'm saying, to make shit feel good. You know what I'm saying? Like, we really don't. It's like if niggas wanna if niggas wanna compete, if we want to sharpen our swords, if we want to get shots up, if we want to lock in and say something in my way, I'm cool with all of that. Like, that's just like I'm just acknowledging a part of it, but I'm not gonna be the person to just be like, oh no, like we need competition to have great hip hop, and that's just not true. And it's like, but they they they was they was on my head, man. Like from big artists to local artists to people who write articles on hip hop and shit. I think that was like my last start. I ain't even gonna hold you, bro. I think that was like my last, like, fuck. Maybe I don't, maybe I missed it this whole time, bro.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

It's kind of insane for people not to understand like the KRS ones, the ones that actually started it. You know what I'm saying? Like, this was never bred from competition, it was always community first.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

Bro, I'm like, but it may have settled problems when niggas had issues with each other. You know what I'm saying? And competition is just a definitive term that you probably gave for that at the moment. Dance battles, rap battles. I I get all of that, but that's not what it a nigga had to develop the skill, the love for to even get to the point of competing with somebody. So it's like had to be oppressed, had to fall in love, had to do all kinds of things, bruh, like to to to channel something to even get to that point. It's like, man, that's like the last, that ain't even a competition, ain't even a pillar of hip hop. So I'm like, how what we what we doing with this conversation, bruh? I was I was I was I was hurt, bruh. I really was not in the sense of like what people were saying was hurting me. It was more so like maybe I fucking missed it. Maybe I just don't know what this is, bro. Yeah. My bad.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

You know, that's my nah, that's that's because we was definitely gonna get into that. I had to like, because when I seen you, when y'all seen that, I said, that's why my boy ain't dropped in a minute. I'ma I'm gonna let you know why you're important to the to the culture and to to all of this. You feel me? I'm saying peace it together. But like, um, Joey Badass had a interview with Gilly the Kid, and it's similar to what you just was speaking on, and Gilly was talking about the competition, and you know, somebody come and take your spot or come and take your bag, and Joey was looking at him like it's too much money out here for that. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's it's that's that's not where we at with it. If somebody's scared for their spot to get took, you ain't supposed to be doing it. Right. You know what I'm saying? Or you ain't you ain't you ain't as good as you thought if you worry about your bag getting took. You know what I'm saying? So that it's kind of strange that even people in the in the industry disagree with that. Like you said, that's not even the pillars of hip-hop. You feel me? Don't nobody really know. They did the pillars have been forgotten. Um people forgot. KRS1 and them went to the United Nations to establish this as a global culture. You feel what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 19:16

So it's really crazy, man. I'm sorry. I don't even I don't but I I listen, bro, listen. KRS1 got something called the hip-hop Bible, bro.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Bro, I got I just bought that like two months ago. The gospel of hip-hop.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

The gospel of hip-hop, bro, and this, listen, bro. I have not finished it, right? But I I started reading it after all of that melee happened, you know what I'm saying? So it wasn't nothing, but I but everything before that was like, I, you know, like I said, I was I was being studious. Cause it's like when you're passionate about something and you want to communicate something effectively, you want to do right and righteous by, you know what I'm saying? I why would I just leave it at like, why would I just leave it about other niggas, you know what I'm saying? Like, why would I, why would I make it about everything right before that? Now, if there's a time for the for the skill set of the vernacular to be used for that, we gonna embrace that too. But you know what I'm saying, like I said, we're gonna have to make shit up, you know what I'm saying, just for shit to feel good. And it was like, I saw that clip. I really did, I saw that clip, and I I didn't see the whole totality of the conversation with Joey and Gilly. But I but I think Joey got on them. Because it's like, bruh, like we we come, we got raised by the cultures of the 90s, you know what I'm saying, the 90s and the 2000s, right? By that time, by that time, rap, streets and sports is the way. So, so much so, so much so that at that point, when people say hip hop, all they thinking of is somebody with a mic in their hand. They ain't thinking about dancing, they ain't thinking about graffiti on the wall, they ain't thinking about revolution, they ain't thinking about knowledge, they ain't thinking about none of the art none of the other art forms that make hip hop. And in fast forward time, it's like, man, damn. Y'all telling me this, bro. Like, we can't even have a real conversation. And one of those moments where you know, like I went back and it was just like the whole mass is on this moment, is Kendrick, it's cold as straight. Like, I understand. I listened to every song. I'm getting twisted, I listened to every song, bro. Wow. I was wild with what I was hearing, bro. The skills, the, you know what I'm saying, the anger, the emotion, all of it. I fucked with every moment of that. And it was just like, bruh, but I don't got a lot of myself to enjoy this. And I know this is just one, I know this is just even at the moment, it was that's just one dimension of those artists. All of the all of that things that they gave us before that, bruh, had nothing to do with that moment. And everybody made hip hop about. But I feel like that was what was boiling over, you know what I'm saying? I feel like 100%. And it's like I said. We got bro. I got a lyric, bro, on uh uh it's it's on uh Dragon Balls and it's on the 30 Sons project. And I and I say, just seen a rich white man last week banking on me to hate you, you hate me. Yeah, cold game. Cause it bro, I done I'm trying, bro, I don't I over a course of time what I was trying to say with the 90s and the 2000s things, bro, we got raised by a culture, bro, who feel like, bro, like if I don't get these niggas out the way, if I don't get my people out the way, using something that could really get a system out the way, that could really get, that could really get an entity out the way that, you know what I'm saying, is really in the way of hip-hop. You know what I'm saying? It's like when the last time a nigga used music, bro, to be like, and you know what I'm saying, this ain't nothing, you know what I'm saying, nothing to be like a disclaimer, nothing, bro. Like, we know who's exploiting hip-hop. We know what it's public information, bro. And I when the last time you ever seen anyone in hip-hop use their stance to call that out. But it's like, it's all, but it's but you know what I'm saying? I I don't know, man. We get we get into the spaces. If you even remove hip-hop, if you even not even thinking about hip hop, man, you like you see it in so many spaces, is pretty much what I was trying to communicate. And I feel like that's what Joy Badass was trying to communicate too. It's like, bro, like, do y'all know like the 1% is not like some joke or something like that? Like, 1% of the world, bro, own 90% of the wealth. You know what I'm saying? They own everything. Everything and they use you to get it. They use that same mindset that you're trying to double down on to get it. And it's like, bro, you could be, you could be, you could be mobilizing soldiers, bruh, with all that energy, bro, that you really giving somebody else. And it's like, I think, I think hip-hop, man, I think hip hop got some some uh some digging to do. Some reprogramming, reprogramming to do.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

Some refinement, bruh. Um, I don't know who said it, but we sold hip-hop. We gave our culture away because we needed that bag. Like you said, it's quick to remind you what you need for art. My the word I hate the most is the the opportunity. I call it the old word. I hate that word. Man, before we before we hop in the time machine, man, we done got deep. But um, man, so so who are you today, man? Creatively, personally, you know, what what role have you been like? Like what's the season been like for you?

SPEAKER_03 24:37

No, that's a great question. Um in this season, um, I think, not even think, I I know, you know, uh shit, me as Ron, me as Obasi, family man, and father man. I a lot of my creativity, man, has been um first it was by force, you know what I'm saying? We can get into those spiritual matters for sure, and then it was by choice. Yeah, then it was by choice, but it was just that the creativity is a service. And I I I have forgot that. You know what I mean? I have forgot that along the way. I needed to be reminded. Um sorry to say, um you know, with with welcome to earth school. Welcome to earth school has been giving me the opportunity, man, to to try some new things and do some new things that uh keep, you know what I'm saying, keep my spirit sharp, keep my creative uh nurture that inner child. Um because I it's not that I didn't know, but you know, working in a nonprofit space or just working out in the world, bro, with people who, you know what I'm saying, who do stuff do stuff other than music, I never knew why I really fit into those, like those rooms. That was another reason why kind of hip hop, you know what I'm saying, kind of losing the grip on that kind of fucked me up, because it's like, damn, what do I put in now? Like, how do I connect to the people now? Cause I ain't really, I'm not communicating anything else that I that I feel proud about, you know what I'm saying, are worthwhile. At least I thought, but over time it was just like, man, uh, no more victimhood shit, you know what I mean? Remove the cloud, work out, you know what I'm saying, get grounded, keep loving on your family, bro, you know what I'm saying, get a routine, and you know, uh things would come to me. It wouldn't even, it was it's crazy because like it don't come to me like rap come to me. It comes to me like when, you know what I'm saying, when, you know, Mosai, or, you know what I'm saying, who whoever feeding me, it's like, okay, now is the time to do this. And then I just do it, you know what I mean? And then it's just like one of those things. But here recently, because I have found a good routine, man, I done start writing again, and uh start writing again, and the the photography, I've been doing like some photography and stuff. So the looking at those photos and you know what I'm saying, trying to find words for those photos, or you know what I'm saying, all of those things have helped me get back into writing, bro, writing the beats. I haven't recorded anything yet. I went to the studio literally the first time, bro, in a year, literally like two days ago. In a year? Man. It's been I bro. I never thought like I would go that long, bro, without even without even being in the studio. And it was like I I didn't, I needed it, bro. And I still I didn't get it, man. I really didn't get it. Even after all of those things I just told you about those moments that kind of like just kind of piled on to it, I think they were just like catalysts, you know what I mean? For me to really, really do like some some inner work, you know what I'm saying? Some looking in the mirror. Cause I I forgot, bro. Like I really did forget. Like I'm I, you know, in those moments, I may have felt like I was doing a righteous thing by trying to remind people what hip hop was or what I stood for, you know what I'm saying? But I I think ultimately I just kind of I really did forget like like how I got this, you know what I'm saying? And how I got into this. I've I literally I forgot. And now it's not even a, you know, now I know. Like I now I know, you know what I'm saying, that my story is not trying to, bro. I used to be so hard on hip hop, bro, on myself, bro, because it was like it was paying the bills. So just imagine the ma imagine the masculine mind, bro, when some shit ain't going right in hip hop or when people ain't you know what I'm saying. I've already that adds a whole that adds a whole different layer on it. It's like it's it's not fun no more, bro, when you trying to turn it into that, bro. It's not, it ain't, it ain't, it was never supposed to be that for you. You may have gotten blessed and lucky a couple times, you know what I'm saying, to put you in certain places, but it was never supposed to bring me, it was, it was never, it's just part of it, you know what I mean? But it but a big part. It's a big part. It's always been the way that I can. But I sell that to say, bro, like the present moment. Most how my ancestors and the people who support me even in this lifetime, I think people are proud of me now, for sure. I think they can see that that I get it. But I think I think it's still like 75%. I think I'm not I'm not rushing whatever this initiation or this thought process, this changes. Initiation. I'm just I think I just I can see, you know what I'm saying, what they say, uh hindsight 2020. Like, you know what I'm saying? In all those moments, I thought I was really just standing on uh uh I thought I was like defending my my spot, you know what I'm saying, my honor, but like most of how it was just trying to get me to look look forward, look up something. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, you said something important, like you starting and doing Welcome to Earth school, because I've been paying attention to what y'all doing out there. You and um your homie were banged for liberation. Yeah, man, Josh. And you you sitting down, you know, for that year and getting into that. You know, I got a little homie in Houston, you know, he he kind of did the same thing. You know, after we denied the deal, he just trying to figure out, like, okay, what's gonna be like my thing instead of just music, just like you said, you know, um you got little Russell, right? That's my favorite favorite person right now in the in this space. You know, Lil Russell. He he he is who he understands culture and community. You know what I'm saying? And my little bro in Houston, he started his nonprofit organization. And he feeding the homeless. He he like on his sixth drive. Let's go and the people in the city know him, you know, people knowing him for that. And it's like, look, you creating a window for yourself that you didn't even know was possible. You didn't even think you doing this was gonna be a space for you to start getting your name out. You think, you know, we gotta go viral from you know the the live mic drop or you know, drop it freestyles every day.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

Bro, go be go do some humanitarian work, you know what I'm saying? Bro, go go read some books to the children.

SPEAKER_03 31:14

For real, though. For real though. That's uh and my bad, if you was, if you was still going, I wanted to. Oh no, no, no, you good. Nah, and uh peace to the guy, your homie too, because it's like I I already know he's doing it for the righteous reasons, or he would have just, you know what I'm saying, stop that. He probably wouldn't even have started, you feel what I'm saying? But but but it's like it's one of those things, bro, where it's like I was um listening to you talk, you know, it's I was listening to you talk, and then it reminded me of something I heard Ryan Kugler say. And how I, and then I remember how much I related to that, bro. Like how much that whole space was just dark. But the example was you spoke on, you know what I'm saying, playing ball, football, playing sports and shit.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

First love.

SPEAKER_03 32:01

First love, bro. Like, and then having to find yourself, having to find an entire, you know, or the layer of your identity underneath all of that when it's no longer there. And Ryan Kugler, I don't know if you ever heard the story, but he was playing college football and he broke his leg, bro, and that's what sent his ass to film school. And now we got Ryan Kugler. Come on, man.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

Look, I'm in fan school, right?

SPEAKER_03 32:26

So when that is, that's like, and for me, bro, like my my first loves, bro, my first, my, my first loves, for sure, for sure, is the arts. You know what I'm saying? But where I grew up, that suffocated, you know what I'm saying? It's like, it's supported by you, it's supported by the people that that like, how can I explain it? So I grew up in East Nashville. We called it our East Growing Up, you know what I'm saying? All all the places I grew up, but I'll give you a long story, all them shits was rough, you know what I'm saying? They made me who I am. I got a lot of friends, you know what I'm saying, that, or a lot of people that I know, you know what I'm saying, that completely saw, like, you know what I'm saying, the world different, but we was like all the same at the same time, type shit. At the same time. So like sports is one of those things where like all of us can relate to, because we all playing Pico Smith, we all, you know what I'm saying, we all can hoot. And, you know, as I grew, you know what I'm saying, like, because of how much I was passionate or like could, you know what I'm saying? Like, my mom always kept me in practice and shit. You know what I'm saying? I got I got good enough at it to be respected at it. There's millions, there's there's thousands and millions of people very better than me at football. But I was good enough in it, you know what I'm saying, to like literally get, you know what I'm saying, a whole lot of awards and shit. I played D2 football for like a year, you know what I'm saying, in Virginia.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

So it's like man, you you went to the collegiate level. Like.

SPEAKER_03 33:55

Bruh, but I was, I by the time I got there, I had no clue who the fuck I was, bro. And it was like my heart really, really wanted something else. It really did. It really wanted something else. But I ain't I didn't know. I didn't really know how to communicate that. Because like when I came home, all people kept asking me, bruh, for like, maybe, maybe three, four years, bruh, to be honest. Like, when you going back to school? You know what I'm saying? Like, bro, like I'm still playing, like, you know, flag leagues and all of that shit, man. But I I was saying all that to say I can relate to those parts of my journey. And again, hindsight is 2020. I damn sure didn't know that shit now. But I when I started like really, really pinning, like, I'm like, oh nah, I'm I'm saying some shit that like is me, but I'm saying some shit that is like I don't know, I don't know where half of this shit coming from was in college, bro. I was, I was, I was, bro, I was down. I was like depressed. I wanna say that was definitely the one of the darkest parts, you know what I'm saying, that I was going through. But like all I was doing was writing. I wasn't going to no class, none of that shit, bro. Like, you know what I'm saying? It was hard to take care of myself, type shit, what my mentor was, bro. But like I was it was crazy. I was just writing, I was just writing. Come home, and I think it still took me a minute, you know what I mean? But like, you know, just like oh shit, I can really do this. And then people started paying attention, bro, and it was like then the attention became, you know what I mean? The attention and like all of the accolades or whatever came from that shit, you know what I'm saying? The same thing happened with football, you know what I'm saying? You get, you get, you get, uh, I don't want to say I got wrapped up in it. I just feel like if I'm not giving it 100%, then nothing's gonna move like it's supposed to. So that's what I was. I was a hip hop artist, you know what I'm saying? Like I was, you know what I'm saying, and that's how I right around that time, uh got, you know, uh got ordained and gifted the name Obasi. I ran with it. Man, that's tough. The shit crazy. It's really crazy. I I ran with it, and then it's like even coming back all full circle when I was just like, damn, bro, maybe this ain't, maybe it just ain't what I'm supposed to be doing right now. And I ain't gonna lie, like I was thinking like at all, like never ever again, bro. Like, and that could yeah, that could be the man, but it hurt, bro. Like, I ain't gonna lie, I'm one of those people, bro. Like, when something hurt me, like hurt me for real, like, I'm gonna be, I'm damn near dramatic about it, bro. Like, and it means it may not be, it may not be outwardly expressed. Yeah, it may not be outwardly expressed, bro, but like, you know, my the people that love you see it more than anybody. I'm sure my wife probably heard me say all kind of shit about it. It was just like, okay, like, okay, like, bruh, you beating a dead horse. But it's just like to the world, it's just like, you know what I'm saying, like, I'm just figuring this shit out, bro. And you know, nobody really knows, but I know, you know what I'm saying? Like, I know that I just like I I sit down to write, and it felt like it's just so much in the way, bruh. And it was weird to me, man. It was weird. It was just like, I don't know what to really fucking do with this, bro. And it's like, you can hear, I'm I'm listening to projects like Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers before I stopped writing. And then, you know, he said he couldn't write nothing for four years, and I'm I'm like, that shit'll never happen to me. Please. Please. Yes, it will, and yes, it can, bro. Like, so you, you know, bro, there's these. I love these kind of conversations, bro, because like, man, at the at the base of a lot of this shit, man, I sometimes I'd really just be wanting reminded that I'm not like, that I'm not talking at people over people. You know what I'm saying? That like I'm just like, I'm I'm communicating some shit, man, that I really, really feel. Not only that, that I know, a lot of it could be intuition, or I could really, really have, you know, some some facts and some research to, but it's also like, nigga, I'm you know, shit, I I wanna I always wanted people to just feel me, bruh. That's hip hop.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

You know what I'm saying? Like this is this is the essence of it, you know, and I was gonna um because man, you you hitting all the questions I was gonna ask you. My bad.

SPEAKER_01 38:29

Look, I'm about to close this up for real.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

How old were you when you, you know, started getting ordained and started heading down that path, man?

SPEAKER_03 38:37

Man, that's a good question. So shit really all happened as far as like being being pushed, like, you know what I'm saying, towards, you know, the the initiations, the right of passages. So I remember when I was, when I first was like, okay, I'm an artist. Like I feel it in my heart, like it's time, you know what I'm saying? I was calling myself Ron C. The God. I was calling myself Ron C the God. And the reason why I was calling myself Ron C. The God, because like when I was in college, bro, I was studying uh a lot of a lot of KRS one, a lot of 5% of work, a lot of, and they were the first time being injured, I'm from the South, bro. Nobody called it, don't nobody really be calling, you know what I'm saying, like in Nashville anyway, Tennessee, with our our vernacular ain't like, what up, God? You know what I'm saying? What up, God, by facts, you know what I'm saying? Or just communicating to that high spirit, you know what I'm saying? We got nigga, we got ho, we got what up, bitch, what's happening. Fool, we got all we got all of that, you know what I'm saying? And it's like, I'ma always give you the head nod, but I'm never hearing this kind of language, you know what I'm saying? So, like, right around the time I'm paying attention, I'm like, oh shit, I this hip hop, this is what I want to be when I'm in it. So I start calling myself Ron C. The God. And I had my first daughter, I had my oldest daughter, and a whole lot of shit changed. Maybe a year and a half, two years after that, I'm working a security job. At this time, I'm like, hell yeah, I'm like 22, 23. I'm working a security job, bro. 16 hour shifts. When I'm when the shift over, I got a homie named Omar who, you know what I'm saying, who shout out to Big Bro, he he um he had an apartment and it's a it's a it's a high-rise apartment, bro. Like expensive downtown shit and that shit.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

Real players, yeah. Real player shit.

SPEAKER_03 40:42

But I live, you know what I'm saying, I just worked the front desk, bro. Like, bro, if you ever need to just crash on the couch, bro, you could crash on the couch. So I literally from that for like two years, for half of those years, I was just staying with bro, you know what I'm saying? Like, you know what I'm saying, clean myself up, you know what I'm saying, get some rest. I'm right back at the desk, you know what I'm saying, in the morning, type shit. Cause I wasn't I wasn't staying with, you know what I'm saying, my daughter at the time. I was really getting the weekend. So I'm just trying to get my bread up. I'm writing, I'm going to the studio. And there's this, there's a uh a Nigerian woman who comes to our building. She don't come every day, she comes every other day. But her son stays in the building. One of her older sons stays in the building, her youngest son is still in Nigeria. Uh she comes through the she comes to the lobby, she comes to the lobby. She's talking to me, you know what I'm saying? We get to know each other. One day she's just like, you know, I'm gonna start calling you Obasi. What Obasi mean? You know what I'm saying? She was like, she was like, I'm gonna leave, she said, I'm gonna leave it up to you to look into it, but that's that's my family's name. That's my youngest son's first name and his last name. So it they named him Obasi twice, you know what I'm saying? Like you know what I'm saying, in the custom. But I'm like, oh, I'm I'm I'm I'm gonna look it up. She called me Obasi literally, bro. Every single time I saw her, but I didn't work there. When she gave me the name, I wasn't working there for the next the two months I was working, then I left that job. But which is crazy, you know what I'm saying? How then? So I'm I'm looking into the name, I'm like, I'm calling myself Ron C the God, but Obasi is the servant of God. You know what I'm saying? It's like, it's the higher power, you know what I'm saying? Like praising the supreme. And I'm like, oh, for some reason it just made sense, you know what I'm saying? Because surely, you know, when I say peace to the God, or even when I call myself God, I'm just recognizing God in myself. But Obasi is more of a, I understand I'm not walking this path alone. You know what I'm saying? And this is not mine alone. But even then, I I don't even know if I still got it then, but I did take the name. I took it and ran with it. Um, and then from there, crazy, this, just, just crazy shit, man. So from there, I want to say, right when I, right when I saw, you know what I'm saying, calling myself Ron O'Bossi, bro, it wasn't, it wasn't even two years before, like, you know, I got my first write-up in DJ booth. I was the first Nashville artist, bro, to get rolled up in DJ Booth. You know what I'm saying? We ain't really in the the the uh journalism times a lot, but DJ Booth is a pretty big deal at the time still. So I got rolled up on, and then around that time as well, me and my now wife, we started communicating. We just talking, you know what I'm saying? We was sometimes it was consistent, sometimes it wasn't. Back and forth, she was staying in Dallas and uh I save all the details, but we you know what I'm saying, we was like, Oh yeah, this is for real. So 26, I was turning 27, I moved to Dallas. Now but in between all of that is all of this shit going on well, not just hip hop, but me kind of just getting like spiritually like pushed on. Like, no, you're gonna draw your line right now because things are happening for you. People are coming into you, bro. Like you seeing shit that you ain't never seen before. I'm talking about like up close, you know what I'm saying? Like, like I said, I there's people it it's it's weird, it's weird, bro, because like you said, man, that's literally how they get us. And it's like it's it's it's it's it's funny, not in a ha ha at people kind of way, but it's funny because it's like they also know that this is not normal for us. You know what I'm saying? They know, they know, you know what I'm saying? And they and they they talk to you like that. They they I was on 85 South Man, and this is like one of the other stories that's just like maybe it's just gonna be a part of my my jacket, you know what I'm saying, until I'm up out of here. But DC Unfly asked me to rap, bruh. And I said, no. I said no.

SPEAKER_02 45:16

I think I watched that interview, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:18

Yeah, and I said, nah, man. I said no. And man, I feel like people done, not a whole lot of people done heard the story, but I have spoken on it in performances. So he asked me to perform, and I was like, nah. And nigga, they was they were cutting up, you know what I'm saying? Like people in the comments was on my head talking crazy, people locally, everything. And what I saw there is was like another grown ass man asking me to, you know what I'm saying? Like, I he he asked me in a sense of like, oh, you can rap? We'll rap something. And I was just like, you know what I'm saying? Like, if I seen you out on the bar, nigga, now I'll be like, oh, you DC Young Fly, tell me a joke. Nah, we talking to two grown ass men, you know what I'm saying? Like, me saying I don't want to rap is no disrespect. I'm I'm on this couch, bro. Like, you know what I'm saying? So I ain't I'm don't get it twisted. It's like this, I'm having fun with y'all, I'm enjoying the moment. But I ain't I ain't come here to, you know what I'm saying, like yank nobody. Yeah, I ain't come here to yank nobody change. Not only that, like I came back to perform, you know what I'm saying? Like they knew I was coming back to perform. So that moment was one of the moments that happened. I had just, I was at that, at that moment, I was I was doing work and in negotiations with Umg, but they had a sub label, which is good partners. And at that time, I was the I was the very first person that was negotiating the subcontract. The people that got signed or accepted deals after me were Chris Patrick, uh Dinde, uh they had um there's another bro, he cold too. Why is it slipping my name? Why is it slipping my mind? Oh man, it slipped my mind. But they were they were signing these acts and it was like, oh shit, like, you know what I'm saying? Obviously, these are all like up-and-coming artists and shit like that. And I was able to negotiate stipend. I'm doing contract work, you know what I'm saying? And that was just to me like having lengthy conversations. Yeah, I'm this was just me just having lengthy conversations. I'm not in a rush to do anything, bro. Like I could take the butt. I'm take I don't have a car. I was staying with mom's crib and then I had my own crib for a year before I moved to Dallas. But while all of the negotiations in between all of that was like, I ain't I ain't have, like I'm still stacking up, you know what I'm saying? Like I I I got myself here, you know what I'm saying? So it's like none of this is like making decisions off dire need. So what I was able to really just, you know what I'm saying, discuss with them was like, okay, stipend. Like, you see my commitment, you know what I'm saying? Like, I've always I showed up when y'all not, you know what I'm saying, when nothing's getting paid for. Uh y'all can, y'all can pay my rent. And it's contract work. It's a it's a stipend every month. You know what I mean? Y'all not paying for no merch, y'all not paying for no studio time, y'all not paying for no videos. Let's put this on paper, you know what I'm saying? I'm an employee, I'm an employee, but we not shining no contracts, no likeness. You don't own no albums, you don't own no music, you don't do any of that. Um that was the first deal. The second deal was for two singles, bro. I was able to negotiate two singles. The first one was this a layup, and the second one was Vill Like Mookie. And those songs, as far as like commercial success, was like my like my two biggest ones, obviously, because I was able, okay, y'all can put money behind a song, XYZ. But those moments were like all of those moments, while those things are happening, I'm getting spiritually attacked, bro. I really am. Like I can't sleep. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm you know what I'm saying, I'm I'm doing everything really, but again, you know what I'm saying, taking care of myself, you know what I'm saying? I'm taking care of writing, you know what I'm saying? I'm locked in the studio, I ain't really but energetically, I'm just you know what I'm saying, all over the place. I'm scattered. So fast forward time, when I get to Dallas, none of that has access to me no more. None of that has access to me no more. When I when I decided that, oh, this is it's the right thing to do to move to Dallas, you know what I'm saying? My daughter was still living in Nashville, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, but I was it was just time, bro. Like, you know what I'm saying? And I and I I couldn't really explain it to nobody. I I figured like, you know what I'm saying, I always thought I knew what I was doing, you know what I'm saying? So I moved to Dallas. That don't got access to me no more, but I also don't have access to it. So it's like I'm I'm doing my best to go back and forth, but not consistently, you know what I'm saying? So I'm not I'm still not uh recording as much as I want to, you know what I'm saying. It's not easy to come up on some bread or some show. People in Nashville, you know what I'm saying, at that at that moment, you know what I'm saying, it was always the art would be like, oh, okay. But I still had to stipend while I was in Dallas. Uh for that for that moment I was there, up until the last moment I left. I said all this to say, Dallas was where I got my first hair eaten. Now the the the details, you know what I'm saying, are to be spared, but by way of my not for sure. No, but by by way of my wife, I got loved and welcomed into a family that had a rich spiritual background that was able to help me communicate things, but that I wasn't able to say to people that I grew up with. You know what I mean? Like we we so they southern church folk, you know what I mean? My homies, they're not they not trying to hear that shit. They not trying to hear uh, you know what I'm saying, like uh what I'm reading. They don't they ain't talking about no kabbalas, no emerald tablets, they ain't jumping in and it's not none of that. None of that, you know what I mean? And it's not that it's not to draw the line with them, but I love them. You know what I'm saying? They got their own path. Everybody gets knowledge from everywhere. But these are the things that's fit in my spirit, but I don't have a I don't have an environment that's conducive to that. You know what I mean? These are the things that I'm communicating in my music, but I don't have an environment that's conducive to that.

SPEAKER_02 51:49

Yeah, you don't have to, you don't have that release for nobody next to you. Nobody, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 51:54

And that shit's really crazy. So I get to Dallas and it's all there, you know what I'm saying? I got an elder, non a quake who God bless him, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 52:01

Yeah, I hear you're right, rapping about it.

SPEAKER_03 52:03

Yeah, you know what I'm saying? My my daughter, I mean my trip, well, my wife's parents, you know what I'm saying? Her father, you know what I'm saying, like real one, you know what I'm saying, gave me a few rights of pastor as soon as I got to Dallas. And the the head spirit reading came from my wife's mom, you know what I'm saying, who's a very well respected oracle in Dallas, you know what I'm saying? Like, like ties. So it's like lovely, bro. It's super lovely, but at the it's still at the time, it's like, you know, you you get you get you can get they can give you all the tools, but you know what I'm saying, the choice was mine. And you you you gaining this spiritual richness, but you gotta let all the bullshit go. You gotta let all the bullshit go. Hey, man, we finna we finna get on to it, bro. Yeah, so it's like, so it like it was just like, man, all of all of that shit is like, all of those things are just like, it's like wearing and tearing on me, man. Like it's wearing and tearing on me. And I I didn't like no love around me. Now when I was in Dallas, you know what I'm saying? I felt super supportive. You know what I'm saying? Like, who the like who am I? So all of that is like initiation work, bro. All of that is straight initiation and ordain work with with the with me not understanding why the name Obassi came. You know what I'm saying? Up until this point that I always realized that it was just like service work, bro. Service work. Your hands are messed up. Your hands. That's the all of that I just said was just to get to the point was like, bro, where I realized, like, oh, you just been initiating, bro, to just to just really, really like, you know what I'm saying, hold your hold your name. Hold hold hold the honor of your name that you've been given, you know what I'm saying, and the tools that you've been given to just serve, bro. You know what I'm saying? The gifts ain't mine. I had to realize that with hip hop, like, you could be super, super great at some shit and just wake up one morning and it's just not yours no more.

SPEAKER_02 54:12

Come on, man.

SPEAKER_03 54:13

You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 54:13

And it's like, so that was called the quantum leak. Bruh. When did when did Kundalini drop with you and my boy No ID? Peace to the God.

SPEAKER_03 54:24

That's my boy, that's my bro. Uh uh 2020. We made that, we made Kundalini was one of those songs that breast at the future. I want to say it was like 2020.

SPEAKER_02 54:38

2022.

SPEAKER_03 54:39

That's when it dropped. That's when it dropped. But we had the song. Okay. I had a I had that song, and the other song I dropped around that time was 101 the beat, which is just a radio station that I grew up on. I just titled it, but it's uh both of those songs was made in 2021 for sure. So I had all of those like ready and done for a year, and then when I got settled in Dallas, maybe like two months after I got settled, me and him was able to shoot the video. So he had sent the verse when I was still living in Nashville. So I had the song while I was still living in the vehicle.

SPEAKER_02 55:16

But so 2022, man, that's that's when I was introduced to you. Cause I I had been living in Dallas from 2019 up until last year. And um in 2022, bro, it's such an important and special year for me, because that summer, I want to say, bro, I remember like it was yesterday. It had to be the weekend of Father's Day, so like around June 17th through like the 20th, I wanna say. Bro, I I I I I still tell people I had like a the craziest dream ever. You know what I'm saying? Um the best way I can explain it, right, for you to for you to understand and for people listening, you know, if you ever seen Interstellar and the part in the movie where he fell into the wormhole. You feel me? And he went back and he was looking at, you know, the decision he made when he left his daughter, and and it was this room just full of full of books. It was like a library. And he was doing it. And bro. So I'm I'm having this experience, bro. This around the time. Me and my my uh, the mother of my youngest, we just split up. Um, I was doing stuff with my concert series I created out there. Like everything just kind of went to shambles. You feel me? I was just like you as an artist, you know, I was putting my my eggs in this basket. My little bro in Houston, I'm managing, he gets into a shooting uh incident. So everything just was like, you know, here I am feeling like I was when I stopped playing football. Like, damn, what what am I about to do now? Because here I was being the music manager, trying to find the best record deal. And that's what's gonna, that's what's gonna get me straight. You know, we're gonna go on tour. We're gonna, you know what I've said, all of this. So this these in these three days, it felt like it was three days long, bro. I'm in like this void, this, this I felt invisible for like three days. You know what I'm saying? And I'm seeing, I'm seeing all the decisions I made throughout my life, the course of my life, from like playing football all the way up into dealing with some of the females I was dealing with, you know. Um, what type of son was I, what type of friend was I? Like, I'm just seeing everything from like a remote view, in a sense, right? Like, I'm outside my body at this point, and I'm like freaking out. Because it would be times like where I would be going to sleep, but I wasn't asleep. Like my eyes are closed, but I was still wide awake. You feel what I'm saying? And I ain't gonna get too deep into it on the show. Yeah, it's really because I don't want people to be like, oh yeah, bro, over there hallucinating. You know what I'm saying? But around this time, I was I was on a three-day fast. I was taking Dr. Sebi C mouse, bro. Like, I was like, bro, I'm about to get back to it, bro. Like, 19 keys and all of them was dropping, you know, all this Billy Carson stuff on, you know, and I had always been introduced to like the spiritual side of things, but not in a in a, you know, like you said, it wasn't pressed on me. You know, I never like I said, I grew up in New Orleans, grew up in a Baptist church, but I was never the kid, you know, rebeling against religion because I didn't really, I didn't have any curiosity behind it. Like it didn't, I went because my mom and them told me I had to go, type shit. You feel what I'm saying? So I never was in there like you you got a funny verse, a funny line where you say, bro, you thought Jesus was a scarecrow. Oh yeah. And like, like stuff like that. I always thought it was different, but I'm like, nah, this, this, this don't apply to me. You know, and it never gravitated to me. It's just like, you know what, this these verses my grandmother give me, my great aunt give me. I'm I'ma just rock with it. You know what I'm saying? For from from 2022 all the way up until this year, I've been in that, like you said, that initiation. You know, reflecting and really making that decision to understand and know, like, the power, the power is what it is, right? You know, we we we call ourselves guides in this man and always tell people, like, at one point, yeah, when I when I went through that and I was reading the Kabalion, that was like the first book I read after that. And that was like, bro, it's like one of my favorite books. You know, whenever I feel like I'm, you know, falling back into the human way of thinking, it's like, wait a minute, let's let's go back to what we know is unreal. You feel me? So listening to your music, bruh, really helped me understand why that experience happened to me. You know what I'm saying? Like, what was why would some somebody like me experience something like that and actually make it out? Because I've heard people don't even make it out of that. You feel me? Do it. And that's what scared me the most. Like, man, I'm like listening to your music. Yeah, your music, bro, has as a thousand percent helped me understand that entire moment. You feel me? Because it felt like, bro, it felt like it was three days long. My cousins and them looking at me like, you good? You straight.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:34

Three pieces to God, because like I mean, if you you shit, you listen to the music. So you know a lot of times, like I'm I don't know if I'm communicating it effectively, bro. Like, I don't know if I'm giving it the power that the power gave me, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:48

Nah, nah. And it's like I remember I hit you up and was like, yeah, bro, you you you gifted. Like, you know what I'm saying? It's like some some is is is guiding that pen to get through to people like me that's that has this like this bit of confusion or this this gray area about the spirituality. Because at the end of the day, like you said, it's on us. You know what I'm saying? Once we realize like we really this our stage, then it all makes sense. Then it's like, oh, I experienced this because I low-key chose to experience this.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:27

That's the that's the funniest part of it all. Like, you know what I'm saying? It was like it was the soul's choice. And then it's also your personal choice. Like, it was it's crazy when I was, you know what I'm saying, listening to you, you know, talk about uh some of your uh ascensions, you know what I'm saying? Your your times going through uh and moving through what you just said you was moving through, and like shit really be reminding me, man. Like, because now again, like I'm now I'm able, I I feel like the frequency is stabilized while I can have these conversations, bruh. And not not not specifically with the world, bro, but like one-on-one like this. You know what I'm saying? Or with a, you know what I'm saying, a small community of people that maybe like I found across the world.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:10

For real, real soul tribe, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:12

For real, because like, man, half of this shit, bro, like if I'm sure if you thought long enough and hard enough, and you probably are, you don't even have to. I'm probably if we would just we don't have enough time today, bro. But a lot of the shit that we experienced now, we experienced as children. You know what I'm saying? Like, and I ain't I ain't had the words to communicate it then. I ain't had the words to communicate that shit then, you know what I'm saying? So it's like you you you you you go through a world of you know what I'm saying, being conditioned and trained and you know what I'm saying, like and some people, you know what I'm saying, some people don't forget along the way, but we do kind of we still don't have the word, you you become an adult, and if it's not your environment, if it's not your words, if it's not the vocabulary, if it's taboo, if it's X, Y, Z, then it's like, who, who, who am I communicating this to? So even when you hear something like my my earlier stuff, like I'm still I'm still kind of like just like like just jabbing at it. You know what I'm saying? Like I'm kind of just like jabbing at what I'm going through. I'm not not going through, but like what I really wanna really want to try to say. You know what I mean? And I crazy enough, man, by like those last couple like projects or songs that I was putting out, though I fully understood it, I feel like that's when I started to lose people the most. And I know not to like doubt none of my art down to like that. I started I started, I feel like I started to lose people, man, because like you know, you you started you starting to kind of get not you or you know what I'm saying, that person, more so me. I started to really see like, oh, okay, like I'm I'm not just communicating my truth, like you know what I'm saying, I'm communicating my knowing, bro. Kundalini was one of those songs where it's like niggas, I posted the clip, niggas, niggas heard the hook, you know what I'm saying? We was going crazy. But then like when I you know I'm saying when people found out what Kundalini was, like, you know what I'm saying, a few people was like, oh, this is this is like evil, you know what I'm saying, type shit. Like they would you so it's like you gotta, I'm going through all this, I'm just like, okay, I see what this finna do. You know what I'm saying? Like, I see.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:34

That's crazy, right? Because not to catch you, not to cut you, bro, because it's like if if if anybody listening to Earth Winna Fire, that's that's what they talked about.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:45

But Roy Ayers, Alex Coltrane, all of them, bro. Like, it don't it the the list don't stop. Outcast, the list is not stopped, bruh. That's the craziest thing. I'd be like, bro, what I'd be like, what what portal nigga am I living in sometimes, bro? Because like I'd be like, I'm like, niggas be I'd be like, but maybe I'm the one but that's just like really tripping, bro. Cause you I'm talking about hundreds, you can name hundreds of artists, bro, who spoke on spirituality. So it's not like and they and your grannies and and your mamas and everybody played them all. Everybody played them all. Shaka Khan, all of them. They put they all they all played them, bruh. So it's like I you know what I'm saying, like I ain't I ain't coming out of left field with this shit. Spirituality has been a part of our communication. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:36

So it's like it was it was it was spook it it became spookism when you know the people we spoke on earlier, the people that own everything, they know like, oh, the moment they tap into what this is, and so what they they real power is, our business is no longer valuable valuable. It ain't valuable.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:56

You can't like you can't exploit bro, you can't un And I think what I was trying to say when you was talking about like who you said it was your it was your sister boyfriend? Was it my cousin? When he was pretty much like, you know what I'm saying, like kind of dropping those nuggets, right? And then you had your experience, right? But your experience don't do nothing but like get even when you read Kabbalah or you got manuscripts or something that like take you back to like a foundational identity. You know what I'm saying? A foundational identity, not the one that's been sold to us. And it's like you can't you can't exploit someone who really knows who they are. You can't exploit somebody who really knows who they are. It's ineffective. You I see I see straight through it. Cause you just you want me, you want me to as soon as you start saying shit, bro, that you know compromise my entire makeup and being that I know the conversation ain't we what we talking about? What we talking about? I already know. I already know where this is going. You know what I'm saying? That it's not good for either one of us. But it ain't just music industry shit. It's all kind of shit. You know what I'm saying? It's all kind of shit. And it's like we don't get it, we don't walk this walk to convince other people to compromise themselves either. Everybody got their own walk, you know what I'm saying? Everybody got their own choices. It's like we we kind of I think I think that was like a lesson for me to still learn too. Like I said, I don't ever want to be in a position where no longer where it feels like I'm talking at people or trying to tryna, you know what I'm saying, uh beat how I feel about certain shit over people's head, you know what I'm saying? Like I that ain't because that ain't how I came into it. You know what I'm saying? I was I was graced enough to be, I it wasn't eased into it, but you know what I'm saying? Nobody forced this on me, you know what I'm saying? Like nobody, nobody for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:47

Man, Kobe, Kobe Bryant, bro, he got one of my favorite quotes, bro. I'm getting it tatted on me. Um, one of his last interviews he did, bro. And he he was asked the question, um, it was by this dude, Patrick Bet David. I don't know if you're familiar with him, but um, he asked Kobe, he like, man, do you think your advantage over everyone was because you was focused on this one thing. And he was like, Yeah. But at the time, he, you know, he said, at the time I didn't understand that. But he said once he realized every conversation he had, every person he met, um, every TV show or commercial he watched, it was for the betterment of being the best basketball player. You know what I'm saying? He's he's like, the world, in a sense, becomes your library. The universe becomes your library because you know exactly what it is you want. And bro, I said, I said, boy, I broke down in tears crying after listening to that, bro. And I was like, wait a minute, because ever since that moment that happened to me in 2022, it's almost like literally, I I've created my own algorithm. Like, whatever I want to search for, it's coming to me. Whatever random conversation I'm having with somebody, ah, I needed to hear that. You know what I'm saying? I didn't become so like hyper aware to certain things because I know what's for me is for me. You feel me? I just was telling my little homie the other day, he he sent Bible verses in a group chat, right? And he, yeah, fellas, this would this mean. I had to tell him one night, like, look, I get, I get where you at with your faith, I get where you at and what you believe in. But I'm like, a lot of people are not opposed to you may not be the one they want to hear it from.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:36

You know what I'm saying? Like, you gotta give people the opportunity to at least be like, hey, bro, how you how you became this, or how do I become a better person? So once they ask that question, boom, then open up them floodgates. Yep. You know what I'm saying? Because we can't hide the knowledge that's been bestowed on us. But I can't. We've learned just from me learning about the Black Panthers, all our revolutionaries, we seen what happened. We seen how it ended. So who am I to continue to repeat that? And when I went through that experience, it hit me. We gotta reprogram our people the same way they programmed us.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:15

Facts. Facts, bro. Real deep psychological, real deep spiritual, real deep emotional, mental work. For real.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:24

Whatever type of media, whatever type of TV shows, we gotta psychologically program our people the same way they did us. That is the only way. Bobby Heming said it best, bro. Man needs myth. That's why everybody loves the Jesus story. I have no pro I have no problem with that. Some people need those training wheels. Perfects. It just so happened. Like in the in the Kabalian, it says it. It breaks down the difference between metaphysics, theology, religion, and philosophy. And it says you have to use religion in a human, in, in a human like conversation. You can't, I can't go to my daughters right now and be like, talk about Kundalini and the and the chakras and sitting still and listening. They're gonna be looking at me like daddy. The fuck I got. I'm about to go to watch YouTube.

unknown 1:11:18

You feel what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:20

So it's like it made so much sense because I was just like you said, bro, it was at one point when I was getting this information, I would tell people, bro, it's it's on us. You gotta, you gotta listen, you gotta look at it this way. We guys, we guys, we this, we this, we that. But I didn't have a a way for it to be digestible. And it's like, wait a minute. For one, it's not on me to even be doing all of this. It's not even on me to do all of this. If if if and and and it's back to our regular convo from earlier, like as an artist, the main thing that needs to be on your priority list is culture and community. And if it's not that, you in it for the wrong reason.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:02

Facts. I don't think a lot of people want to hear that though, bruh.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:06

They don't. I tell my little partners this. Shout out to Charleston White. You dig what I said? He he done came and became the Dick Gregory of this generation when it came to this fake street stuff. I used to tell my bruh, you bruh.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:26

When I started digging into Charleston White, bro, the very first person I compared him to, bro, was Dick Gregory. Because people don't even know, bruh, how Dick Gregory, bro. Like, man, nigga used to be at, man, please, bro. By the time he got, but we get, we, well, the Dick Greg, the Dick Gregory that we got to see, right? He was well into like his, I guess, you know what I'm saying, respective elder role. But Dick Gregory growing up, bro, that was a comedian, that was the one that was running for president, that was, man, come on, bro. But but he was, he was the one that was like, okay. He was one of the people that's like, okay, what's the what's the best psychological way to show people who they are? You know what I'm saying? And that's why you get things like sat satire, satirical comedy. That's where you get things where it's like, but you also got the the Charleston White's where it's like, bro, like, if I can if I can show you, you know what I'm saying, how how how goofy the suit that you wearing is, how how how characterized you are, versus, you know what I'm saying, or how you perpetuate something that someone else really gave to you. You know what I'm saying? Like, I see through, I just I see through all of that, bruh. You know what I'm saying? We or we see through all of that, you know what I'm saying? And it's like, and it's like Charleston White is one of those people where it's like how many, he knows how many people on the internet ain't gonna go and do and look at uh none of the social work and all the community work he has done ever. They ain't gonna look at the journey, they ain't gonna look at how he got that point, they just gonna be like, oh, this is a dumb nigga. You know what I'm saying? Or this is a nigga who like disrespectful, this nigga who just a media nigga. And it's like, bruh, like you sometimes you really need a spook, bruh. Sometimes you really need a spook. Cause it's like if if I but and in this and then in his way, it looks, you know what I'm saying, like reversal. And it ain't even about every man agreeing what somebody says, because the way Charleston White is going about it is not the way that Ronald is gonna go about it. You know what I'm saying? Not ever. Not ever. You know what I'm saying? But before I, but before, but before I cut a man short, because it because I know what it's like to try to be the man who really just trying to like feed or trying to trying to do what, you know what I'm saying, I feel is righteous, and I still get cut short. It's like, oh, you learn, you learn to, you, you learn to you learn to respect the man for what he's trying to give. Even if it's not for you, you learn to respect the man for what he's trying to give, whether it's your yes or your no. So in specific, it's like when I'm listening to a Charleston White or somebody that I just disagree, like, nah, I just disagree. And I don't, and I don't have to make a big point about us going about this in different ways. It's just more so like I disagree. But I'm also do my homework too, if a man is, if if a if a if a if I know I'm listening to someone talk, you know what I'm saying, specifically a man, and it's just a certain energetic thing, you know what I'm saying? Like, he don't sound like he don't know what he's talking about. Why he keep saying, fuck all these fake ass rappers? Why you keep why he keep saying like niggas is putting on facades? Why he keep saying the the thing that's gonna catch my attention? Just like watching his interviews, and I'm like, damn, not only is this nigga intelligent, this nigga keep telling people he doing this shit on purpose. And it's like, again, I wouldn't do that, and I don't want this interview to be used as a as a as a an example. I just thought it was super like it's aware, bro, that we both also know Dick Gregory also played that same kind of role, bro. Like, for people around him. You know what I'm saying? He was an awakener in that way, he was a disruptor in that way, you know what I'm saying? He was a disruptor.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:10

He really was because we we we needed this, bruh. Like, because of what it is for media today. Like, we know what the people want. It's chaos. It's chaos, it's all chaos driven, bro. Back to the viral tweet. People want chaos. That that is what we were born into. That is what we were programmed to feed that that entity. You feel what I'm saying? Because the only chaos I know is on that football field. That's that's the only way. That's that's when I know I could really hurt a man and not get in trouble for it. You know, you feel what I'm saying? So it's like when when when my artist got his record deal, right? Um, I don't know if you're familiar with the Chicago artist, Lud Foe. You ever heard of him? So his label was the one reached out to us. And after my pop, after we denied it, and he got into a shooting accident, I just started really, you know, doing a whole psyop on a just the entire music industry. Like, okay, why did we get this record deal? Why did they hit us up? You feel what I'm saying? And the song he had at the time was a was a street, was was a street anthem in a sense. And I'm like, oh, this is why. They they see that he on that street shit. Like, and they see this is where it's going because I would listen to, I would have these conversations with the AR, and he would be saying things like, yeah, bro, he got a, you know, the drill music. He kept, he kept like hitting with the, yeah, bro, you know the drill sound, it's what's was popping right now. You know, these kids love it. Um, New York rapper, I don't know if I'm saying his name right, but I think it's Chef G. He was managing him at the time. You know, he telling me about, oh, he got a he got a case right now, we're helping him fight. And I'm like, is this what y'all really hit my man's up for so he can continue to feed that? And it made sense because everything else he dropped after that, it was, nah, we don't like that. We don't, we don't want him to go that way. So it's like, wait a minute. This this is what's really messing up the community. NBA Youngboy at the time. NBA Youngboy in there, oh my God. Like, like that's that's what these kids want. So when you talk about the music you make, you making and it's and it's not reaching people, it's because they know what's it's not the climate right now. So I understood. Like, I was hurt that you you made that thread, but at the same time, I'm like, I'm like, damn, bro, I fully understand. Because we're in that great space, like Saba speak about it. Like, bro, I can't, I can't, I'm putting my heart into this music, and people listening to my album one time and they not messing with it. So it's like, wait a minute. Like, how are we listening to music? You know what I'm saying? Like, we didn't forgot how to listen to music. We didn't forgot how to card.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:05

I'm sorry, bro, but it's a book, man. What you're saying is a book, is it, and it's like I've I've found, man, again, you can read shit, you can listen to shit, right? And then it's like you never think like you you can experience the emotion through what somebody's saying, but it's not your emotion until you experience it. So it's a book called The New Negro, bruh. And it's pretty much a collective of essays, but what glues it all together is an author named Alain Locke. Allain Locke was pretty popular during the Renaissance, the Harlem Renaissance time. He was a writer, he was an author, he was a poet, right? He's not the most popular name of the people that we got from Harlem Renaissance, but he knew all of those people. He talked to all of those people. He got a book called New Negro. And he got an excerpt, and I've posted a few times. It's on, it's literally on my Instagram feed right now, bruh. And it's talking about our spiritual essence through what we do with art, is no longer what it once was. And mostly because the listeners or the consumers and the creators, which is us, are no longer looking at this as a spiritual or honorable privilege. It is now an indulgence. And he and that was in 1920. That was that was during the Harlem Renaissance. He was writing this, bruh. He wasn't even thinking about us. He wasn't even as heavy. He wasn't even, he wasn't even. So it let me know, like, even when they was going through their moments of like choosing what to do with the blues and choosing what to do with the art form, it's like, bruh, this is our own economy. Like, don't get this shit twisted. This is our own economy. It was the Harlem Renaissance and all of that shit that turned that into Black Wall Street because what was the what was our breads and butters? What was our we agricultural people, we creative people, we so now, but we it was like that was what started to feed ourselves, you know what I'm saying, until all of the bullshit started happening or continuously happening. But he was he was talking more about like cultural and community responsibility. Like we not even supposed to be looking at the art like this, bruh. Go get at all. Go he and he made sure to communicate, like, go get all that's rewarded and and and earned and deserved of you. We're we're a people, we're a nation of people. You know what I'm saying? And God forbid someone with creative talents isn't supposed to reach the ever uh uh global ends of the world. God gave you a voice, God gave you an instrument. People all over are supposed to have enough access to you by your choice. You're not supposed to be a slave to it though.

unknown 1:21:58

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:58

You ain't supposed to be a slave to it, and they're not supposed to feel comfortable treating you as a slave.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:04

So it's like, bruh, and it's they not supposed to feel comfortable treating as well. But they do though.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:10

Like before Kendrick popped out, how many times was it was like a punching bag for to be like he don't drop enough to be considered one of that's just dumb as fuck. Like, bruh, like it's an insane statement to say, bruh. Like, it's an insane thing to say about music. And it's like people, people are at that point. But when I read that book, it's like, oh shit, like, and I read this in like 2021, 2022, but during all of this moment, I went back to read it, bro, because he was also speaking on like community work, how to turn your creativity into service work and how to understand that. And I didn't understand that shit when I first read it, but it was like, oh shit, like it's true, bro. Like, art is the spiritual essence. It's not some shit that just fell out of the sky one day, bruh, because we we was oppressed. It was here before that, it was here before that, and it'll be here before, and it'll it'll be here after that. That's just that's just God acting itself out. Creation is just God acting itself out, bro. So when we get into all of this, it's like, bruh, why would I let someone else or anyone uh define it or you know what I'm saying? Yeah, or deduce it to some shit that is not. But it's like as a culture though, we have start, we everybody again, everybody guilty of it, bro. Like, we all guilty of it. So it's like we've allowed the, you know what I'm saying, in accountability ways, we've allowed people to run away and start telling our stories. And it's like we've allowed people to start misres misrepresenting us, you know what I'm saying? Because it's like we played safe, we don't want to ruffle no feathers. We got this thing where I know man, we got this thing where the like the you know what I'm saying, a nigga looking at a nigga be like, hey man, don't do that, you gonna fuck up the money.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:57

And like in my first episode, bro, like art has always been my way to get through this human experience because ever since I was, bro, I could I was like four years old. I used to always ask, like, what is this? Like, why am I here? You know what I'm saying? Like, why why was I chosen to be Kendall? You know what I'm saying? Like, who is who is these people? Like, I know they my family, but why was this life chosen for me? You feel what I'm saying? And I never could get a like a straight answer. So I just like you said, we we go about our lives. We we listen to what's given to us, we program how we program, and like I just went on a little hiatus because I smoked, right? So I stopped smoking for about like four months. Right? I said I'm gonna finish the year out because I'm getting back to it come 2026. You feel what I'm saying? But it it was really just an experiment to see, like, you know, everything is all mental. You know what I'm saying? Like in the cabalion, bro, all is mine, mine is all is mine is all. You feel what I'm saying? So one of my favorite parts of you. Man, my favorite, like when I finally understood that, I was like, oh yeah, bro. It it's gotta be me. And I stopped smoking and I realized I was having the same thought patterns. I was still feeling this anger, you know what I'm saying? And I'm like, wait a minute, like, what is this? I wanna be better. I'm trying to become the highest version of myself, but why am I still feeling like I'm still having this fight with this old version of me? And I was talking to one of my mentors, bro, and he was like, you know, what what you what you know about unfulfillment, right? And being unfulfilled. You know, we we we we blame a lot of things on like, oh, I drank too much, or oh, I smoke too much, I need to stop. But it's still, you're still feeling unfulfilled in some way, and you don't know why. You know what I'm saying? Like the unfulfillment is why we are the way we are. Our people are the way they are. They're greedy. It's that crab in a bucket mentality. I can't go tell my partner, hey bro, go read this book. They gonna look at me like, go read a book. You know what I'm saying? That ain't my focus. Because I'm still to this day, I'm trying to find a tribe, I'm building this platform. And it's like we got artists like you, but we don't have any platforms out here supporting people that really love art. We got people of other communities and other races doing lyric breakdowns. And I'm not saying that they don't understand it, but it's like how do people that don't look like us are supporting these people? So it I can't I can't give you the blame for you to say something like hip hop broke your heart because it's people like us that need to be creating these platforms, bro.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:58

For me, I'm always praying for a balance of shit. Just a balance of shit. Because again, like I ain't create none of this. And just like everything else, you know what I'm saying, God and universe demand balance. So it's like, how do you know what this is if you don't know what that is, type shit. You know what I'm saying? Like, we we we on we on a we on a plane where like polarity must exist, right? But as a people though, as an as a nation of people, black, brown, indigenous people, you know what I'm saying, we imbalanced. We super imbalanced because we living by somebody else's rules, somebody else's, somebody else's spirituality, somebody else's you know what I'm saying. So we we man, like you said, bro, like you know what I'm saying, as an individual, we understand it's our choice to get back to it, and it ain't our responsibility to make anybody else, you know what I'm saying, see it for what it is. But I also understand during these times, just like you understand, bro, like if we See a lack of infrastructure, just create it. You know what I'm saying? Like if we see a lack of support somewhere, just create it. Cause like like you said, when I was expressing myself, bruh, like, and real, real talk dog, like gratitude, you know what I'm saying, for for being seen and seeing that for what it was. Cause it was like, that was my honest feelings, bruh. And even when I expressed that, you know how many people was like, nah, bruh, like, nah. And they and it wasn't clearly the communication was just like, man, hip hop broke more. You know what I'm saying? Like, I ain't feel like what I was saying was appreciated. And all people could communicate back to me was accolades. And I'm just like, bruh, nigga, ain't you ain't you ain't hearing what I'm saying. You ain't feeling what I'm saying. So like, it's always a blessing though to be seen, is what I'm trying to say. Cause it's like, I ain't, I I again, bro, like, I don't want to, I can talk to anybody. You know what I'm saying? I can speak with anybody, and it don't, it don't have nothing to do. I don't have to use the tricky words that someone else may not mean. You know, a person don't, I can we get to a point where we communicating, bro, like we don't even have to say the kabaya. You know what I'm saying? I you can just tell by the way we communicate with each other that we understand the the different fields of a person, different versions of a person, where a person coming from when they're talking philosophy, where a person coming from when they're talking religion. You know what I'm saying? Like, so I'm at this point where it's like uh I really just want to keep understanding, bruh. I just want to keep understanding. And it's a blessing to be able to just, you know what I'm saying, keep understanding, bruh, because it's like I'm seeking, bruh. Like I'm seeking, I'm digging, and it's like, why do I be feeling this way? You know what I'm saying, when I look at my people. Why I be feeling this way when I look at our people, you know what I'm saying? Like, why, why like I can't turn away? Like I love her so much, I just can't turn away. You know what I'm saying? Like, I can't, I can't turn my back on none of it. And it's like, but I don't, but I don't want to be the one that's that's punching at it either. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm just gonna keep giving it love, bruh. I'm just gonna keep creating the best while I keep can't, like keep keep creating the best way that I know how, keep being of service, bruh. And it's like LaRussell's one of those like people that really get it, bruh. Like when the when when he was looking at his music, when he knew something was a value, you know what I'm saying? It wasn't about running up on people and putting the music in their hand first, bruh. People are in need. I'm in need. People are in need, and I'm in need. What a common ground that, you know what I'm saying? People need knowledge, they need music, they need food, they need support, they need hugs, they need conversation, they need all of these things. Before I even get to the point about commerce, trying to trying to sell people some shit or trying to get some people to believe in some shit, bruh. Like, what else can I give people? You know what I'm saying? Like, I got to do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:51

What do you provide for the culture?

SPEAKER_03 1:30:53

Bruh, like, you know what I'm saying? I got an able body, I got an able mind, you know what I'm saying? So, like, those are the things I be thinking about. And I don't know, I don't know if this journey, I know this is what I'm supposed to be doing for sure. This community work, you know what I'm saying, being embraced. And you don't got, I'm not able to do this work without being embraced by community. You know what I'm saying? It's crazy. I'm also having those epiphany moments. The same people that I didn't think appreciate the music are people I see out in the community. When I'm, you know what I'm saying, when we serving and we all working together, they got, it's all love, you know what I'm saying? So it's like maybe they just needed to see you in a different way, bro. You know what I'm saying? Maybe you were somewhere where they couldn't see you. You know what I'm saying? So it's like we got, we got, and that's that's the things that you and I will start to see as we just start to step into these these purpose roles, bro, and just keep creating these infrastructures. People just gotta see us, bro. Like, I feel like that's a part of our job too, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:48

Like 100%. Bro, when I say it took a long time for me to get in front of this and and and speak, like I didn't have a problem with it, but I was I knew that I was the only one in my circle and in my peer group that had the mind to think infrastructure and systems. All right, if I can't be I can't do that and this at the same time, but I was wrong. I was I was totally wrong. Because like my my even my little sister used to have to beat my head, like, bro, you need to get on camera so people could hear you. Like, you got a story, you people wanna come talk to you all the time. We calling, we calling Kendall, man. Kendall, Kendall goes gonna give us the answer. He gonna he's gonna be in the middle of a conversation. You said something just now about how you be you you've been seeking, you know, and I put a post on Facebook a while ago about, you know, elevating from seeker to becomer. And that that hit for me. You know what I'm saying? Because from that experience, like I said, up until now, I just kept trying to, I'm I'm rewatching Bobby Hemmitt videos, A.A. Rasheed, Delvet Blair, just to the real ones. And I hope that, man, look, I'm trying to figure out how to download as many of those videos as I can. Because even when I went through my experience, I'm like, damn, is my daughters gonna go through this? You know what I'm saying? And how am I gonna be there for them to explain why they went through it, you know what I'm saying, and how it even happened. You know what I'm saying? Like, we really the original people of this land, this world. We really connected to it, but we gotta be aware enough to acknowledge it. And I think a part of why those things happen is because we ask those questions to ourselves, and it's like, okay, he might be ready. He might be ready to get a glimpse of what's really going on.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:45

Bro, I teach my daughter, man, it's crazy, because like, I ain't gonna say you gotta be careful what you tell your kids, but this is like it's funny because like I tell her, like, don't be scared to ask questions. And don't take no one's first answer as the answer. If you got another question, ask the question. Ask the question. You read something, you see something, ask the question. You know what I mean? And listen to how people tell you, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, but even with that, you know what I'm saying? She took it to rent with it. She asked questions about everything, but even shit that don't even got, you know what I'm saying? But to her, it's like, why though? Why and what and who and when, you know what I'm saying? This shit crazy. But the other day, she was just telling me and my wife, she was like, I'm so glad, like she was happy. She was like, I'm so glad that y'all are my parents, and I get to talk to y'all because I'm in school and we reading about the trail of tears, and we're reading about the Native Americans and everything I'm reading, I know it's just a lie. And it and it what in the what and it wasn't because of what we said, she was just like, she was just like, why would that make sense? Why would why would indigenous people kill other indigenous people for a land just so white people can get it? That don't make sense. And it's like, oh, okay, you go, you gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. Because it's like, I don't I don't want you to think like me or feel like me through this world. Develop your own sense of purpose. And the only way to the only way to do that is to just keep asking questions, bro. We get we we come from a culture where the questions get shut down immediately when everybody gets uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:25

When everybody don't get the Christian doctrine, don't act, don't question God.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:30

It's like, but for why why would why would why would my creator not want me to ask questions? That ain't the credit that I want. And I know that ain't that ain't the credit that I want, you know what I'm saying? Or need, I need to ask questions, because what if I'm lost? What if I don't what if I don't get what the fuck? I'm just supposed to just you know what I'm saying? I'm just supposed to accept slavery, I'm just supposed to accept, I'm just supposed to accept uh uh not knowing. Nah, I got questions, right? And the God that created me will want me to know that. But we groomed, bro. We groomed, bro, to not ask no questions, to not ask it, to not ask no questions, to not say shit. So it's like, I don't I don't want my daughters like that, bruh. Like, even if you make me uncomfortable with a question, we just gotta have to figure it out. Because like I think I need you, I need you to ask these questions though, because TV, you don't want to leave it up to TV to define it for you. You don't want to leave it up to word of mouth to define it for you. You don't want your friends, you don't even want to leave it up to the adults to define it for you. You know what I'm saying? You gotta you gotta really what you say, what you said? The adults funding.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:42

The children been looking up to dummies we've been led astray and it and it's not their fault either.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:51

It's just a culture of just like it's just a it's just a culture along. Your daughter gonna be a real one. You got a great one on the rise, bro. I'm like, oh man, you're gonna be good. You gonna be a hate, you know what I'm saying? Because if some shit don't make sense, you gotta make it make sense. You know what I'm saying? Like, and it and it it ain't it ain't all about like just getting the totality of it, you know what I'm saying? That ain't what the world is, you know what I'm saying? Because then we wouldn't have metaphysics. And we, you know what I'm saying, we wouldn't have all kinds of shit.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:20

But it's like and then and metaphysics is so beautiful, like, for creatives and people that only understand through metaphor and story. Because then it can now it's like, oh, okay. And now, bro, my favorite thing now is bro, I pick, I pick and find movies to watch that have this knowledge in it. Like, bruh. I just finished watching Tenet. Um, Tenet. Have you ever watched Tenet?

SPEAKER_03 1:37:46

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:47

That's good. Oh my God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my God, bro. I'm sitting here and it's like my second time watching it. It gave me that moment, like when I finally understood Inception. You feel me? I'm like, shit insane.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:00

Tenant, you said three different movies Tenant, Inception, Interstellar. All three of those movies, bro, like are like, you know what I'm saying? And the the metaphysical properties are Christopher Nolan, bro. That's crazy. And it's crazy, bro, because they know the secrets.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:17

They know it. He put it dead in our fake, even if it's a good thing. It'd be used to man, Dark Knight rises. It'd be us.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:24

It'd be it'd be us. So it's like, bro, they they they take they take what's innate to you, you know what I'm saying, and tell you to deal with this. Don't deal with that. Like you said, spookism and it's taboo, and it's the occult. And it's just like, man, a man, anybody, anybody with power know it's what you do with it. Anybody with knowledge know it's what you do with it. That's where you get the difference between manipulators and you get the difference between change makers, you know what I'm saying? It's just the same people, just two emotionally intelligent people, you know what I'm saying, understanding what they can do with somebody. That's it. So it's like we ain't see what I'm saying, this, and then we get we could talk forever, bro. But I I those are the those are the things that I feel like, you know, for a minute, I feel like it was me that needed to look at look at myself, bro, before I can start having these conversations more freely with people. You know what I'm saying? I feel like I had to earn that. I really do. I feel like I had to earn that, you know what I'm saying? Fluidity.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:27

Bro, uh man, I feel the same way. But when, like I said, that secret to becoming, we have to become knowing that we're still learning at the same time. You feel what I'm saying? Because then that gives space for for somebody to hit you up personally, an elder to hit you up personally, like, hey, I want you to go look into this, because what you what you spoke on, you you own it, but I want you to go look further into it. And it's like, bet. I can respect that. I'm not finna debate or have some type of back and forth with you. Like, I know I'm still learning. I tell people this, bro. If if you don't know anything, study the brain. You know what I'm saying? Understand the brain. You feel me? The subconscious in the conscious mind, if you could, if you could understand that and break down that, you you'll be alright. I tell my partner, he like, he like, man, why everybody gotta go through through these rough times and these rough patches? Because it's needed. Because you ain't you ain't ready, you, you ain't ready to experience the blessings. You you not ready to be receiving of this because you either still a people pleaser, you still worrying about outside validation, or you still dealing with vanity.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:37

Oh man. You talking to me. You thought that was that that's it's crazy, right? Because we got my bad, but those moments were like someone, we're we're the vessel, right? At the moment, where the vessel or with a person or the pillar where the person is coming to the receiver. And we still have to face those reflections even through our life. Even, even when I see my like man, my nana quaku, or like, you know what I'm saying? I've had the the uh there's an elder in the community here in Azra, Baba Musa. And he was, you know what I'm saying, like when I'm listening to them talking it's like, damn. You you know what I'm saying, you flu you fluidly telling me like just because you know, you know what I'm saying, don't make this shit easier. You know what I'm saying? And actually make it harder. Like, matter of fact, once you see, you can't unsee. You know what I'm saying? Once you see, you can't unsee. And it's like, I guess that's the comfortableness of like this truth and the ignorance, you know what I'm saying? Because once you partake, you can't, you can't, you can't, you can't unsee, you can't put it down, you know what I'm saying? Like it's just it's on you. But you're gonna have to find your why. You're gonna have to be. You're gonna be finding your why. It's really crazy, bro. Everything about this conversation, like I said, I feel like I'm I'm glad we had it, bro. Because it was it was supposed to be had. It was supposed to be.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:01

Yeah, bro. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:04

My neurons been connecting that goddamn million uh three times a second, bro, just having this conversation, bro. Cause like, nigga, I'm still learning, bro. And it's like, that's what I just been opening myself up to, man. I love a book, bro, and I love them as the teachers, but it's like, I them ain't them ain't one-on-one conversations, you know what I'm saying? Nothing to ever substitute for that, bro.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:26

Nothing to ever substitute for. Ah, fact. I used to tell myself all the time, damn, bro, I gotta meet Bobby and them. I gotta actually have these conversations because this is going on in real time. Like, I'm watching videos from the 90s. 90s, bro. You know what I'm saying? Bro, don't even lecture no more.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:43

Skinny, skinny Bobby, chubby Bobby.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:45

I'm saying it all, bro. Man, what though? Bro. So, and that's when I I watched one video and he was like, you know, we gotta start applying it. You know what I'm saying? We gotta start applying it in any any way. And and um we have to put the knowledge in a craft. I can't remember who said that, but it was like, we gotta put the knowledge in the craft, and that's when you'll find your purpose. Because the process is always what we have to marry. You know what I'm saying? I just telling my partner this yesterday, like, bro, it's process over potential every day. Every day we fall in love with the potential because we know what it looks like. Oh, I'm gonna be the highest version of myself, man. I'm I'm gonna go to the gym and I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna say my affirmations, I'ma write my goals down. But it's like, bro, what about the in-between them days when you don't feel like going, them days you don't feel like creating? You know what I'm saying? Them days where it's just like, man, I don't I don't feel like being bothered with the world. That that human side of you start to kick in. You know what I'm saying? But it's like, damn, if I don't do it, who will?

SPEAKER_03 1:43:52

Facts. Ain't nobody gonna do this shit for you. And if you are looking for somebody to do this shit for you, bro, then, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 1:44:01

You might as well lay down. Go go get you, go get you a go be average Joe. I said, bro, I said, man, look, I wish I I wish I could be an average Joe. I I wish I didn't I didn't see this shit the way I see it, because I can't ignore it. I can't get away from it.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:17

No matter what, bruh. No escape, no weed, no, no, no song, no, none of that shit, bro.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:25

Get out of here and be a soldier, a creator, like I would gave you the power to be.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:30

Yep. Yep. Simple as that, bro. But you'll die, you'll die a thousand old deaths, bro.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:36

Man, say that again. Yeah, you'll die a thousand no deaths. Like I ain't look, what Joey said, bro. This is my last, this is my last go round. I'm like, bro. This is my last go round.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:47

I'm trying to let you know I understand, bro. What's you know what I'm saying? Not so much like I'm like, what's next? It's more so like this frequency, you know what I'm saying? Like I'm, you know what I'm saying? I'm I want I I want to vibrate higher, bro. And not higher than any, I'm not in comparison to anybody, bro. I just want to vibrate higher, bro. But like you said, like that's a choice too. I be irritated as hell. So I'm one of them people, bro, like I'm easily irritable. Cause I don't really, because I'm cause my my communication is delayed. You know what I'm saying? Like, I be feeling a whole lot of shit, but my communication is delayed. So I'm easily irritable. That's just something I know about myself at this point. And it's like, but the vibe, but but vibrating higher than that though, is where it's like, nigga, you don't gotta choose to be that. That's not who you are. You know what I'm saying? You also a patient person, you an understanding person, you know how to talk, bruh. You know how to use your words, bruh. You know how to laugh this shit off. You know what I'm saying? But it's like, what, and it's like when I hear these things, it's like, bro, damn, ain't nothing like some great, you know what I'm saying, some spiritual minders, bro, that like that remind you of like the beauty of being human too, bro. You know what I'm saying? And like in that process. Because it's just like refining it. You know what I'm saying? It ain't punishment, it's just refining it. You know what I'm saying? I would not be ready for no community work at age 25, 26. I just wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to serve people, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 1:46:15

Like I wasn't ready to-like, look, I ain't like people back then.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:18

Bruh, like, yeah, I was, I was, you know what I'm saying? Like, everything still kind of like agitated me. You know what I'm saying? Everything was just like ego and respect driven, just the way niggas was brought up. Even though I was gaining knowledge, even though I was watching the Bobbies, it was just like, you ain't ready. Bruh, when I first sat down in front of my Nanaquaku, me and my, like, really talked to him, me and my wife, she we weren't married then. So we went to her grandparents' house. Quite crazy enough, Nanaquaku. He's he's been an elder in her community, in the community, he just so happened to marry my wife grandma. Shit crazy. Wow. Super crazy. Medicine man, he make the drums, he do all of that shit in the Dallas community, bro. Like, I and you probably like have seen him in the way, bro. Like, cause he he's so involved in the Dallas community, but we was uh we went to uh we went to their crib and we stayed a night before we went out of town the next day. But I we was just sitting there talking, and we was just talking about the young black man mind, all of that shit. And he said something, and I was getting ready to combat it. Like I it was about brainwashing. And I was like, no, he was like, you know what I'm saying? Like pretty much was trying to he was trying to ease me into the point of letting me know like he communicated something that like he can guarantee that I just not have experienced, bruh. Or that my mind can't can't can't fathom at the point of being a man, of being a family man, of being a married man, of being a community man, of being a committed man. Like not not as I'm committed to my lady, but he's talking about like committed to the people, committed to change, committed to vibrating higher, committed to taking care of your body, your vessel. And he could just he was just like, you ain't we'll see, you know what I'm saying? Come back and talk to me. You're a baby, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:16

Like you were like, come back, come back, we'll see.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:21

You know what I'm saying? And it was just like in the moment, in the moment, my mind at first, you know what I'm saying, like so easy to take shit as like a like a slight, you know what I'm saying? Like, nah, I can have a conversation with an elder, but like, you know, bruh, respect the feet. Just respect the feet, you know what I'm saying? And it's like, now that I know, now that I know that he wasn't treating me less than equal. You know what I'm saying? Or he didn't see me as less than equal. He ain't say that at all. We had a we had a 10, we we had a half a day conversation. We talked all day, bruh. And if we wasn't talking, we was sleep. You know what I'm saying? So he talked to me, he gave me all the knowledge he could, let me borrow books. He don't even let people borrow books. He gave me the books. You know what I'm saying? That's so it's like sacred for sure. You know what I'm saying? So it's like all of those moments was just like, I know, you know what I'm saying, I get it, you know what I'm saying? It's just about, bruh, like, how how a man supposed to figure out any of this, bruh, if you know what I'm saying, if he can't talk to people, you know what I'm saying, if he can't listen, if he ain't patient, if he ain't. So it's like all of those things like be pulling me out of those ruts and just remembering, like, bro, you can't hear shit when you're irritated, bruh. Go breathe, bro. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 1:49:36

Go breathe. But Kendrick said, I still got some healing to do. You know what I'm saying? And that at the end of the day, that's just what it be. Like, we've been, like, for me, I'm I was 27, turning 28 that summer when all that happened. And it was like, man, I thought I was ready to, you know, just like you, I'm ready to, yeah, I'm ready to front line at this point. But it's like But it's like, wait a minute. Hold on, brother. I just we just gave you a glimpse. You gotta go back into the darkness. Bruh. And that's what I wasn't ready for. Like I had to really experience, like, oh no, you finna get kicked in solitude, my boy. Next year will be my year. I'm about to step back out and get integrated back into community building. You know what I'm saying? Building this platform and giving it my all. But it was times like I told you, my cousin boyfriend. It would be times where he I would I thought he would look in at me like I was less, like I didn't have the answers. Which I didn't, but at the time I'm looking at him like, you know, you a little hurt by, you know, you getting into your spiritual thing, and then your people turning back on you. So that's really the only lens you're looking at a lot of things through. I'm looking at it from a standpoint, like like I just told you, we have to reprogram the mind psychologically. There's no other way. There's no standing on the block selling newspapers and getting on the microphone like the Israelites. Like it it that's not the way this finna happen. You feel me? If we're not doing it like Fred Hampton, uh uh a 20, 21-year-old Fred Hampton doing um breakfast, giving kids clothes, like if that's not what we doing because that's in our heart and the community, then we're not trying to see any type of change.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:20

Facts.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:21

What after school programs you that you see in the in the in the trenches. Like, we know what the trenches look like. I'm from New Orleans. Like, it wasn't a lot of after-school programs or anybody out here focused on the development of the mind of our youth. No. What you said? Put them in little league football, put them in AE basketball while we go to work. You know what I'm saying? This ain't got nothing to do with, like, bro, it's it's it's it's dangerous out here. Super dangerous, bro. And if we don't apply ourselves, like the Nipsey hustles, the the little Russell's, mind you, you know, Nipsey was on the street stuff, but he understood I have to build this stuff in my community so they have a resource to get up out of here. There's no resource, there's no STEM STEM program to teach kids how to build computers or or or trade school type things. No, it's none of that.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:18

Facts. And if I had that, or if he had that, he said it. Like, I would have never, why why would I be a 60? Why would I be on the block? If I had that, I was always smart. I always wanted to build computers. I built a computer, you know what I'm saying? I built a computer, you know what I'm saying? So that's what I would have been. And he still did it the most he could. But it's like you said, like it's dangerous, because like if it, if the if the if the if it's not enough for the for the child to figure out who they are, to figure out what they love, bruh, it's gonna always be another ignorant motherfucker looking to pull them in and tell them who they is. Look, young, you look just like me. I can't I can't tell you how many times I, you know what I'm saying, got caught up because somebody older than me, you know what I'm saying. Just something like just something slight, bruh. Just something slight. We we look at we looking for the guidance. I saw we knew here. We we we we we born with knowing, but we knew here. You know what I'm saying? So it's like and and older people know that, you know what I'm saying? That's why I said not just the world, not just the industry, it's like predatory, you know what I'm saying? Like we can introduce the shit way younger than we can even than we can even process it. So we are growing up with these angers, we are growing up with these voids. No right of passages, though. No, no, no, none. You know what I'm saying? No, no one to sit us down and be like, this is what this is, this is why you feeling this, and this is why this is what this is, you know what I'm saying? So we like you said, we got a responsibility, bro. We got a responsibility, but we still learn that it's not just our responsibility to shoulder, you know what I'm saying, and burden. But sometimes it don't feel that way though. So that's another thing that we, you know what I'm saying, we reckon ourselves with, but like, damn, why why I feel so heavy? Even though I don't want the responsibility, why it feels so heavy? So it's like sometimes I be communicating that too. Like when it's heavy, I'ma choose it. Because you know what I'm saying? If I was a kid, I wish, I wish, I wish someone was running around the project, you know what I'm saying, who was able to. I had all I had mentors, I had coaches. I I had love, you know what I'm saying? But it was hate around too. It was danger around too, you know what I'm saying? So it's like while I'm getting introduced to all of that, you know what I'm saying? Why ain't nobody telling me how to really protect myself? Why ain't nobody really telling me how to protect my family for real fruit? Why ain't nobody telling me how to protect my mind? Why ain't nobody telling me XYZ? I'm learning off straight observation. Sometimes that ain't enough.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:44

Observation, that ain't enough. That could be the worst. That could be the worst thing. You know what I'm saying? If I'm doing what I see. What? Oh my God. Monkey, what did monkey see monkey do? You feel what I'm saying? The the blind leading the blind, me coming from New Orleans, bruh. Like the hot boys, you know. Um, I grew up in in the like before Hurricane Katrina, bro. I was living in the in the east, in these little um apartments. And it was number dope dealers around there.

unknown 1:55:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:15

You feel me? Nothing but dope dealers. They got the f they got the freshest Air Force Ones on. So I'm like, man, it's clearly, it's clearly the move. You know what I'm saying? Like, this clearly what I'm supposed to be going towards. You know what I'm saying? I was still wanting to play football, but at the same time, I'm like, see, I'm gonna get to the money too. But why would not?

SPEAKER_03 1:55:36

Why would not? You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 1:55:37

Like, right. I mean, I'm going to church camp. I'm chasing behind girls and stuff like that, bro. I remember being, man, nine years old. I'm in a uh a sexual education class. I done snuck in a class because I look like um I'm 13 or something. Like this this is what I'm on. You know what I'm saying? I'm not even on like nothing of what like what we really supposed to be trying to develop ourselves in the being, bro. Like, nah. After Katrina, bro, sports was on.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:09

My bad, bro. I was just like, man, we're curious as hell at that time too. So it's like super curious. So it's like you need, man. It's again, it's crazy. We got, you know, you don't you don't want to look at the lenses like you gotta raise uh uh girls into women different than you gotta raise boys into men. But speaking specifically towards like boys, you know what I'm saying, growing in a growing in a man, bro. Like I'm telling you, like when I look back, like niggas was only telling me and showing me all they all they knew and what they could really tell me. And we was also being raised by young men, you know what I'm saying, who was like not who didn't, you know what I'm saying? They they raised themselves too. My pops dropped out of my pops dropped out of high school sophomore year, bro. Man, my pops in I don't think my I think my pops got a GD, bro. My pops got a GD, bro. So it's like, and that's not to say he wasn't dumb. Street smart as fuck, he know how to get some money, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 1:57:10

No resources, it's it's no resources, bro.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:13

It is like, for me, like I said, my my pops tell me his story, bruh. It's like it's crazy to me, because like he traveled the world, bruh, all the way up until like from 15, 17, bruh, off dancing. But was still a street when he had to come back home though, the jungle is the jungle, and I'm not fooled. I ain't you know what I'm saying, like, and I ain't finna be someone, it's easy, like if you come out here, if you outside, you either over there or you over here. And can't nobody tell me why I can't go, you know what I'm saying? So it's like so it's like when he when he in and out in jail, like we really just are being able to have these conversations now, bro. Like, as men, I'm like, bro, like you missed a lot. Like, when you was going through what you was going through when you was fighting 25 years, all of that shit, pops, like I was out here, bro, having to have to earn mine, you know what I'm saying? I was out here having to like really go at this like in an abrasive way, you know what I'm saying? And all that developed was a man that was just on guard, that felt like I had to fight. You know what I'm saying? I gotta fight for everything, I gotta prove everything, I gotta, and don't get me wrong, it gave me some attributes that I never, that I never, you know what I'm saying? But it's like, bro, I could have learned something else. Where was the balance at? Where was the balance at? You know what I'm saying? And it's like I just didn't get the balance. I had to had, but I feel like we also, man, we we could have, we could really like, you know what I'm saying, and it would be a blessing to like just think about how we it is a gratitude to be a generation of people who can can see that though. Can see that like it was submissive elements. To see that it was submissive elements and be like, oh, I can I need to just plug this here, you know what I'm saying? So generations after generations like they can, they can, it's they it ain't missing for them, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 1:59:10

It ain't missing, yeah. It's in it's it's damn near in the blood at that point. Like you know what I'm saying. It's in the blood. Like she gonna be great. It's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:20

It's like that's it's like you need to, so I need to, that's what, that's what, that's what I'm embracing this role as to, you know what I'm saying, as a as an in the flesh guardian, you know what I'm saying? Like, you came for me, you know what I'm saying, you got my DNA, but like I understand, like if I'm not doing my best to carve out a conducive path or tradition or a way or rights, you know what I'm saying, for you to just walk into who you are. You know what I'm saying? I'm I'm missing, I'm missing everything I done read. So you we got our we got our we got our uh that's why I love Reeds, bro. I love them because it was like we got our we got our cabalion, I need that, you know what I'm saying? I need uh the uh the ways of the superior man's. I need those books, but it's also Yes sir. You know what I'm saying? But we also got uh uh like I said, the new Negro. You know what I'm saying? Like I need I needed that book because it's like that book didn't speak on no like spiritual self-growth. He's probably looking for a book you finna pull something out.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:24

So you say, like, this one of this one, bro, for your daughter, bro. Like, this one of my favorite children's books of all time, bro. Um, it's older places you'll go. I got this as uh it's one of my last like little birthday gifts my mama gave me. And this was when I moved to California, bro. 18 years old by myself. And of course, I'm like, man, it's Dr. Seuss. You know what I'm saying? But bro, when I went through what I went through and I read this book, it was kind of like watching the movie Tenet. You feel me? Like oh, this is the journey. This book is literally telling us about the journey, bro. And I'm like, Dr. This is a Dr. Seuss book?

SPEAKER_03 2:01:12

Everybody. Oh, I got so many, everybody.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:15

And it's just little, I got a lot of digital books.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:18

Nah, it's crazy. Like, I be thinking about that shit too. Not uh I bro, like there's a lot of things that like we watch, it's like we watched or that we saw as kids. Like my favorite cartoon was Dragon Tales, bro. Like when I was growing up. That was like two, that was, that was two kids, bro, working with working with crystals that took them somewhere else. So it's just like, but I'm but you know what I'm saying, even down to the anime, you know what I'm saying? That was like we watched, you know, Dragon Ball 1. So Dragon Bonaruto. All of that is like all the lessons and the metaphysics and the elements, like it's all in there. It's all all in there. But I'm gonna I'm gonna get that book for sure just because I want my daughter's.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:58

Yeah, older places will go. That's yeah, bro. That's the one. It it talks about being in a waiting place, like being in that void, you know what I'm saying, and waiting for something to happen. But you realize you gotta get back out there and and and put your feet to the ground. And that's what I realized, bro. I'm like, damn, bro, I moved across the country at 18, chasing this football stuff.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:22

I went to Dolo. I went to Virginia, bruh. But that's shit crazy.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:29

So so it's like you on your own, bro. And like you said, bro, like your pops was in and out of jail. Like, and like I had my pops physically present, but my pops couldn't teach me nothing. You know what I'm saying? It was go to work, work 20 hour shifts, nigga barely here. I remember my nigga pulling up to football games, just waiting at the gate. Like, cause it's too late for him to even just pay to come in. You know what I'm saying? So it's like me going to California, bro, that's when I really got to I let's see, see how, see how I'm built out here for real, for real. You know what I'm saying? Like my communication skills, you know, what I'm what I'm standing on, my beliefs, like, and it took me a long time, bro, to adapt. Like, started hustling. You know what I'm saying? Like, it was things that I had no business doing, but it was part of that that process. It was part of just the learning. You get to see how people is, you get to see what type of women is out here. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 2:03:29

When I hear stories like ours, you had The Alchemist. And it's like, bro, like Santiago, like metaphysically and you know what I'm saying, like for real on the ground was like going through those journeys of like being tempted and seeing all of that. All of that just to really see like this is like who I am, what I'm capable of, what I'm a part of. You know what I'm saying? What I'm coming, and it's like all of that was like there of like this is who you're supposed to be, waiting to define you. This is where you're supposed to stay, this is how you're supposed to feel. It's just like bro.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:08

Man, bro, it got to a point. My favorite part of the book is when he met his him, he met his wife, right? He was on his he was on his mission to find his treasure. He went into this village, he fell in love and lost track of of his initial of his initial mission. And you know, bro, when I was reading that, I'm like, bro, this is me. Like, every time I would I felt myself going on an upward trend, and I and I and I was messing with a female, probably wasn't the right one for me, everything would come at a standstill. Or everything would just start spiral down. And it's like, man, how did this happen? And then I look back like, damn, I didn't over here playing house. You know what I'm saying? I didn't, I didn't I didn't fell in love. I'm over here tender than a motherfucker. I didn't forgot the whole the whole mission. You feel what I'm saying? Every time, bro. And when I read this book, I said, wow. Bro finished his journey, realized that the purpose was the journey. The treasure was at the crib.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:17

Bro, um, but it's like he had to make a he had to make a like it responded to his, you know what I'm saying, his choice in the way he decided to internalize that moment. Like, purpose, me understanding my purpose, bro, it does not indicate my lack of love for you. You know what I'm saying? And it's not a comparison. But for you, for anybody to feel the the fulfillment and the the completion, you know what I'm saying, or the the higher version of me, I gotta, I have to do this. I have to do this, I have to do this. Nah, that's one of my that's one of my reads, bro. That's one of them on the I gotta keep it. Yeah, that's one of the ones. Follow Quello, you gotta read what Warrior of the Light, too. That's one of my other favorite books by him.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:01

Bet. You said Warrior of the Light mother, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:06:03

It's called Warrior of the Light, bruh. That's one of my favorite ones. I stay person I stay posting excerpts from that, bruh. Because like it's one of the manuscripts. It's easy to go back. It's not, it's not told. It's so the book opens with a story, but it goes into ways how Warrior of the Light, different aspects and philosophies and spiritualities that a warrior can equip himself with, and you know what I'm saying, along the journey. But yeah, yeah, you gotta read that.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:34

So look, man, look, I ain't gonna hold you. We've been time.

SPEAKER_01 2:06:38

We gonna have to we're gonna have to do a part two of the song, man.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:42

Nah, bruh, if you ever it don't it don't even matter what kind of conversation, but uh it'd be an honor, bro, to be back on here for sure, bro. Oh yeah, we're gonna do that then. You did. We gonna do that, man.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:53

So yeah, bro, look, it was an honor and a privilege, bro, to have this conversation with you, bro. I'm glad you, you know, was able to give me this time, man.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:01

Nah, man, yeah, it was, bro. Like I'm glad the girls ain't the girls sound like they good in there, bro. They it's a blessing. They let me get these two hours, you know what I'm saying? Because I needed it. I needed this, bro. Nah, it was it was a fulfilling conversation, bro. You you man, if you don't hear from nobody else, bruh, you know what I'm saying? Keep doing it and keep speaking, bro. Because I know you said I was, I know you said it was my music that did whatever you said it did, bruh, but man, your voice is needed, bro. The energy is needed, bro. Peace to the guy. Peace to the guys, man. You have a good night, man. We're gonna talk soon, bro. You as well, bro. Dear Art, gratitude. Thank you for being my first channel, my uh first means of communication. Thank you for gifting me with the ability to process emotional depths that lack definitive terms. Thank you for nurturing and curating a healthy relationship with the most high, the earth, the people around me, uh, my family, my kids. Thank you, R, for helping me nurture a better relationship with myself. Thank you, R, for bringing uh so many so much support. Uh can alike and uh people in the same frequency. R, you definitely did that. And thank you for giving me the most dignified stage to speak deliberation into people. And say fuck this dad is cool every single chance I get. Thank you, music. Thank you, art. Thank you, creation.