We're Still Here, Babe
We’re Still Here, Babe, hosted by actress Natanya Ross, is a celebrity interview podcast that goes beyond the highlight reel. Featuring familiar faces from the ‘90s and beyond, each episode explores life after fame through honest conversations about mental health, recovery, resilience, addiction, trauma, personal growth, and the moments that happen when the cameras stop rolling. From iconic actors to unforgettable television and film stars, We’re Still Here, Babe offers a behind-the-curtain look at the human stories that remind us we’re all a lot more alike than we think. Because quitting was never an option.
We're Still Here, Babe
Ep. 5 - Darris Love
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This week on We're Still Here, Babe, Natanya is joined by her longtime friend and The Secret World of Alex Mack co-star, Darris Love. The two reflect on their decades-long friendship, growing up in Hollywood, and the journey they've shared since their Nickelodeon days. Darris also opens up about his career after Alex Mack, from acting in film and television to his work as an entrepreneur and business leader. It's a fun, heartfelt conversation filled with nostalgia, laughter, authentic and honest real-life lessons you won't want to miss.
Hi guys, welcome to We're Still Your Babe. And today is it's just a different episode. It's just a whole different thing. You'll see in a minute. It's I'll be very emotional the whole time, I'm sure. But my guest today is somebody who's been part of my life for nearly as long as I can remember. Darius Love and I grew up together on the set of The Secret World of Alex Mack, where he played Ray Alvarado. And he very quickly became one of my first best friends in life. Decades later, we've remained close, which makes this conversation beyond meaningful. Beyond Alex Mack, Darius has built an incredibly impressive career with roles and projects, including actually I'm gonna save that because I'm gonna let him tell you guys Darius Love is an entrepreneur, he is a change maker, and he will soon show you globally what a change maker actually looks like. So I'm beyond honored. I can't believe I even get to say this that we got here to this point to introduce my brother, Dara's motherfucking love. Let's go, boy. Yes, G, I did it. Look, we're in a podcast studio. You know, you know. But you kill me. You're the you're always the first one that's like, what's the issue? Did fucking do it, Natanya. What are you waiting on?
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna tell you guys about this red-haired, little freckled, cute faced, Jewish princess that I know. Um I'll never forget. I've never seen a queen possess such a young but old soul, all in one amazing spark of beauty. To witness her awesome and her blossom, to see her tell her mom why and how all of us as kids would come to her house, and we didn't have a safe space or a place to congregate our fellowship about being in an entertainment business as children. And the things that came with, you know, success' responsibility, the things that came with those responsibilities were heavy for some, which caused substance abuse, which caused mental abuse, and not really understanding how to tap into regular life. And if it wasn't for those nights and days that we all could congregate in Italian Ross's home, and I mean it is not just the Alex Mack cast, but it was multiple shows, which is why I knew that this podcast in a platform like podcast would bring us back to that room where you can have those uncomfortable conversations.
SPEAKER_03That's deep. Whoa. You with people we're back in the fucking room in Beverly Hills adjacent. We're back in that bedroom.
SPEAKER_02We're back in that bedroom, and we're back in that vulnerable place and that uncomfortable conversation that doesn't need any condemnation. It needs edification, it needs unification, it needs communication without segregation, right? And so for you, my love, my beloved, um not even consequences, no coincidence. And what's ordained doesn't need to be explained.
SPEAKER_03That's one of my favorite D-Love sayings.
SPEAKER_02Well, we got the t-shirts and quotes with the D-Love sayings and and and the Global Good News Network. We created the love exchange.
SPEAKER_03I want to get into all of that. We're gonna do like a full 20 minutes on all of that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, go pick up your quote.
SPEAKER_03We're just gonna get through Alex Mack, because you know they want the tea. You know? And so you're the first cast. So, okay, couple facts. You are the first cast member from Alex Mac to come on the podcast.
SPEAKER_02Beards.
SPEAKER_03That is because you are the I'm and this is respectfully, this was for a reason. You are the only one that's been asked so far.
SPEAKER_02I'm big brother, I'm big brother. I'll be first, yeah, I'll be last year. Person be last last year.
SPEAKER_03That's right. And there's a couple there's a couple of reasons because we have such is such personal uh messages and stories that uh just belong to him and I that we can share. And also, as I'm I mean, definitely by the time this comes out, you guys I'm sure have all seen that we got asked to be at 90s con this year.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Which is amazing. So I think what we'll do Thanks to you, shout out to you for producing that, just like you produced our reunion show at Universal that happened to go on entertainment tonight. Hello.
SPEAKER_03Well, actually, let's uh what happened with entertainment tonight is Darius and I were just walking by at City Walk. We were just like kind of checking out what the set would look like, and they happened to be there filming that day, and we walked by, and the guy was like, Are you guys on Alex Mac?
SPEAKER_02And we really shout out Jason Strickland, he was with us.
SPEAKER_03And Jason, that's right, Jason Strickland. And we the three books we produced that yeah, we're gonna be. Oh, I love that. That's so cute.
SPEAKER_02Do you guys see it?
SPEAKER_03There it is, yeah.
SPEAKER_02All right, so that's a picture of us at Natalia's wedding that I had into that just for this show, and then there's more on Alex Mack.
SPEAKER_03Hey, yes, this gift you got me. I love it. They're so cool. Well, what I was gonna say, what I was gonna say is so so where I want to start with Alex Mack, and because you and I have told the story so many times, and I just think that you and I have never been afraid to have the uncomfortable conversations together during the BLM movement and George Floyd. You were the first person I called because I really wanted to make sure that I was being respectful. I I I felt like I had always been such an ally and advocate and really respectful, but a bridge to the diaspora of all. And and I've never seen any difference between any human beings, you know. But we talk about this a lot, and I think it's an important story to tell because I do come from a family that was not one that taught me um inclusion or equality. Okay, we'll just leave it like that. And for whatever reason, you were like the only young male at that time. And granted, my mom knew we were brother and sister, but you know, you've you've said we've said openly in interviews, she let like a young black man come into her daughter's room, and it's because she knew I was taking care of her daughter, you know. And I think that's an important story to talk about because at that time there was a reason why you felt like it was extra special because of the color of your skin that you were let into the bedroom. And that when I heard it, it broke my heart. It also made me proud that it was you, but you know, and and I've always told you I'll never understand your experience in life or in this industry, but I think it's important. Let's talk about what was it like for Darius Love as a young black man in the 90s. We weren't we were not talking as openly in the 90s as we are now, and I know your personal story, but talk about having a lot on your shoulders to carry uh uh house, you know, you had a lot more stuff going on. So let's let's just get into all of that.
SPEAKER_02I'm really glad you asked that question because you're the only one that's gonna get the exclusive, like no other. Because you're my you're my sister, and the biggest lie ever told is that black and white are not from the same mother or from the same womb. One is Esau and Jacob. And the biggest lie, again, is that God, the reason why God has vengeance, and vengeance is the Lord's, is because being Father's Day, right?
SPEAKER_03Yes, it's fine.
SPEAKER_02Right, so shout out to all the fathers, right? Like, if you were as a father, are you gonna let anyone reprimand your children before you?
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_02No. You're not gonna let anyone lie to your children, steal, kill, bear false witness. So we are all God's children. He doesn't see white or black or race or religion. He wants a relationship. To be able to reprogram my mind, I was taught as a young black male growing up in Compton Watts that all black, that all white males wanted to kill or hurt me because this is what's shown on TV. And then what's shown opposite is that we black males want to hurt, kill, or steal you. Or the opposite, right? So the hardest act that I ever had to pull was to quickly reprogram my mind. I'm on an all-white set at age 13 years old, and I'm contracted where I'm making five to ten thousand dollars a week, and I can't miss a line, miss a day, miss school, and then I gotta drive back to where all of my friends and families don't have anything.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_02And so it was this duality of this yin and yang, and every day I would have to understand that this is this Daris, and then there's this Daris, but I could never lose Daris. So it was very interesting because the Alex Mack family um were where I learned some of the most important things about life. And for me to play the character Raymond Alvarado and to be that real character in life and everyone's life I go into. I feel like I've never stopped playing Ray because I've always was Ray. And Ray is a part of me and who I am, and I'm Darius Love and Daris for Love. And I think in the time of hate, in a time of anger, in the time of abuse and manipulations and all these things, um, I wanted to always stand on morals over money and my integrity being my identity. Because I knew when Natanya would become this princess of Hollywood that she already was then and is now, that she could look back 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, and always know throughout the blood, sweating tears, that it was someone that was pure and someone that brings pleasant and brings peace and joy with their presence. And because that's what she does. And I um wanted to protect her. I wanted to like any big brother, you know, like protect her from anything that was stopping her from being pure. And so it was just natural, you know. I I fought bullies growing up, so I wasn't gonna let nothing happen to her. Yeah, you were and I took it serious.
SPEAKER_03You did, you took it very seriously. You know, Larissa and I make fun, and we say like anywhere USA, but it was Paradise Valley USA, right? Shout out Tommy Lynch and Ken Lippard. Tommy Lynch, Ken Kenny Knuckles, and and for writing a show where in our first two seasons we had Alexis Fields, you know, where it was literally uh equal cast. Yes, yes, two black actors, two I'm just all playing best friends, nothing weird about it. I I don't know if it's I don't know if this was good or bad now in today's view, but also it's like not something that's mentioned on the show. We don't have an episode, and and this maybe we needed it, but I think for the 90s, it shows a lot that that there was not a need to explain why rain was black. No, and I don't know and Nickelodeon, that was big for Nickelodeon.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and thank you for pointing that out because I always say in my warmups and businesses are speaking on a panel that I was the first black or Nickelodeon.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_02And I um I take that that history and I take that very serious because when I realized that, right? When I realized that, it was it was, I mean, the the experience in the journey was already awesome because we're timeless. Like we're like you said, we're going to the 90s con.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Right?
SPEAKER_03And Jerry's is like, what is it? Um she told me to be there, I'll be there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm like, I seen, I seen over the years like all these famous like TV shows and groups.
SPEAKER_03They finally asked me.
SPEAKER_02And I'm like, and I'm like, damn, how come I ain't never got that call? I wonder, I wonder, is Alex Mac big enough? And one day will I get that call, right? So we found out so we got the call, right? But what the the point I was making is like to make it was the journey and the experience to Alex Mac was so amazing because it helped me mature in life and be an example in life of being able to be a bridge. Like I know, like you, when you had to go in the time that you lived in the black community in Inglewood, and you know, I was seeing this, uh I was watching this uh documentary just on uh Tubi, and it was this, it was this brother, and it was it was all about how I'm working on a George Floyd life story, so I'm studying like old documentaries of those times in the 20s when you have like the the I got a documentary.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, how do you ingest all of that being with a smile on your face the way you do?
SPEAKER_02I love it because one thing about the human humanity is that things sometimes have to be destroyed to be rebuilt, but when they're rebuilt, it's a America that comes out of it. It's a new beginning, a new creation, a new understanding, and every day is a new life. And if we wake up, you know, looking at if we if we don't if we wake up bitter and not better, right, right, if we wake up bitter and not better, then now the devil is stole your presence because he has no future and he doesn't want you to have one. Because his his his past, he's fallen, right? So he wants you to get in the past so you can stay fallen. But Babylon's fallen, we ballin'. I want to stick to the topic, which was being able to make that kind of history and then it to not just stay in Paradise Valley or stay on the TV screen for it to impact others' lives. And they say, Hey, I grew up with you. Hey, I was on TV with so now here I am where I'm still carrying that flag and that torch. And I tell a lot of my actors and friends, I say, You think the job is being on the movie set where they put makeup on you and they drive you to work and they feed you and they clothe you. And I feel like a prince on the movie set. I'm like, shit, this ain't work. I'm a real man's man. My hands gotta really, I gotta get some busted knuckles, a couple little cuts and bruises, you know, a little dirt, little dirt on the on the belly, you know what I'm saying? To feel like a man's man. A man's man wanna eat what he kills, right? He don't want no made meal. He don't want no TV dinner, ladies, okay? He wants a home cooked meal. So, long story short, for me, it's like being able to, the real work is when you get to the celebrity. I mean, when you get to the fan and they're saying, I grew up to you, and they're saying, I, I, I, I look, uh, like I watch you on your God morning, and I've I there I grew up in everything you've been in, and and you've been positive, like you're so real, like Ray. And like, do you still are you still friends with the girls? And like, yeah, why wouldn't our friendship stop, right? What you saw was real. I think uh Alexis and Natanya hung out just like they did on TV. Yeah, Larissa, Alexis, and Natanya hung out, right? Um, for me, you know, they were girls, so they hung out more, but they called me when they needed a ride. I had the car.
SPEAKER_03I made series drive me everywhere.
SPEAKER_02You know what I'm saying? If they needed to go somewhere, I'm the big bro and watch out, Andrew Keegan. Watch out, all you hot actors that want to date my sisters, Jessica Albers, Cassie. You know, they always trying to date my sisters, and I'm like, look, man, Alex Matcast is starting a study, but you gotta go through big bro to get to them. Ain't none of y'all suckers get into my sisters, man.
SPEAKER_03I love you so much. I want to ask you a question, and it's a question I was thinking about as I was kind of, you know, preparing for this episode. I wanted to ask you, it's a sensitive question. Did you feel extra pressure on the set because at a certain point you were the only black actor in the entire cast, which, you know, I I think as a society and an industry, we've come a long way. I think we still have so far to go. Um, I, you know, talking about ingesting the things on the screen, um I don't have the right not to watch because like my brother has had to live it. So if you've had to live it, then I'm gonna at least fucking watch it right alongside with you if that's what come on. But I can imagine in the 90s, as a young man of color, did you feel like you had to be extra better, like you had to work extra hard, like harder than me or Larissa, or whoever was on the show at the time, and you know, because I know me, at a certain point, I was kind of like a sassy little queen. I'd come up like the script I was supposed to memorize. Sorry.
SPEAKER_02But you were but you were a professional Italian because you could turn it on, you could go party the whole night and come back and ace the test. It was just a gift you had. You could do that in school, you could do that in the movie business.
SPEAKER_03And it ended up being my Achilles heel, sadly, because I was able to cover it up so much that you know I could get away with having people like you not really know what was going on with me. Because you remember at a certain point, I stopped letting you hang out with me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And I did that because I I it would have broken my heart for you to see me like that.
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, at the end of the day, like I said, not even consequences, no coincidence, but I will go to hell to get you back to heaven. The devil's a liar, we're gonna burn them with his own fire.
SPEAKER_03I know. See, okay. Tell me, tell me about the pressure though. Did you extra or no?
SPEAKER_02So the pressure was because you remember these beautiful I can't say. You remember these people right here? Hold on. Let me see. Let me put my head back in. Do you remember them?
SPEAKER_00Oh my god, yes.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so these were these were my grandparents that would drive me to my movie set. But this was my grandparents that my mom married into. So they weren't of blood, but they were the love. And this is who taught me how to read and write, and um draw put me in church plays. And I um did a black history play where I was Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, MC Hammer, and James Brown, all for black history at my junior high, and Alex Mack came in.
SPEAKER_00That's what got me. That's right.
SPEAKER_02And I'll never forget my grandmother in her heavy Jamaican accent. I always say, one grandmother's Jewish and one's Jamaican. I'm Jamaican, you get it?
SPEAKER_03Jamaican!
SPEAKER_02Excuse the cologne, excuse the cologne, it's a little strong, right?
SPEAKER_00So my grandmother says, Yeah, boy, you go down to this movie set. You bet not touch one of these girls. You bet me better not hear me story about you're not doing your job. Me bet not hear one bad thing about you, boy. Oh, you're gonna have a problem. Good.
SPEAKER_03That's amazing.
SPEAKER_02So my love You minded her word. My love of letting him down. See, God wants you to have a kind of love, not a fear of him like a boogeyman, but a fear of letting them down.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_02So my love for my grandparents helped me override the temptation of wanting to touch a date, Natanya. My love for my grandparents overriding me ever not missing one line, and they called me first take love. When I when I came on the set, I would do it in one to two takes. I knew every line, knew everything every year, every word. Because I had to be better because they expected me to be worse. Right. They expected me to touch these girls, they expected me to be on drugs, they expected me to fail.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly. And yes, that's what I'm talking about. And, you know, it's not things I ever thought about until the these days and ages. We didn't think like this in the 90s, but I thought I did. It's really sad if Darius felt so much extra pressure when he was.
SPEAKER_02And Larissa thought she had pressure, right? Imagine, I mean, Larissa thought she had pressure, right? But imagine when you when everybody looking at you like, when is he gonna do it?
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_02When is he gonna do it?
SPEAKER_03That's what I was saying is I I was wondering if maybe it felt like all eyes were on you at times because you're literally.
SPEAKER_02You know, now you know why I'm the two Pac Kobe the Kobe Pac.
SPEAKER_03Yes. I want to get into that too because I know fans want to hear about that. But um, so okay, when our show finally, like, when obviously when we first did it, no one knew. Well, you and I weren't even in the pilot. They we were the replacements, actually.
SPEAKER_02No, they didn't. Well, because I tested here and they could resist.
SPEAKER_03Well, I tested so many times for Alex and then Annie, and finally they were like, give this girl part, this poor girl. But you know, so when we went into it, we didn't obviously didn't know how big it was gonna be. First season comes out and it, you know, it hit pretty well with ratings. But then second season, something changed, and I noticed for me when I was going out and stuff, like it was getting harder to go to the malls, you know, our our Saturday night fun stuff, the the movie theaters, the the uh Beverly Center, wherever our little hangs were, and all of a sudden you have groups of people starting to scream, oh my god, you know, and stuff like that. And I actually was like, I did a lot of stuff in the 90s. I wasn't just on Alex Mack.
SPEAKER_02No, you were you were that that's why I said you were the Princess of Hollywood then.
SPEAKER_03So when did you start realizing, like, oh shit, this is something, and because I never knew. I never asked you. I think I just maybe didn't want to know because like, you know, with your brother, ugh, you don't want to know this stuff, but like, were like a lot of girls hitting on you and stuff, and like, because you were becoming a heartthrob, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was weird because I went it's weird because I went from being the ugly guy to the wanted guy, because my best friend, his name was Cassie Wingate. I know Cassie. He was half black, half white, and and Latino. So he had the curly hair and the cool, you know, cool look then that every girl wanted.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he was.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_03But you were never ugly. I have to interrupt. You were never ugly. Never.
SPEAKER_02I appreciate that. But I know, I just know growing up when you're told you're gonna be dead, you're gonna be in jail, you never make it. So getting that energy to, oh, we love you, oh my gosh, oh my you're so handsome. Oh, I want to be with you. I was, I could never like lie to myself. Like, so that's why I don't know how to lie to other people. It's like I I don't know how to lie. It's like I don't lie to myself and I don't know how to lie to others. So I was always honest, but I was respectful. And I think my whole model that I stuck to and followed is if you ain't struggle with me, you can't bubble with me.
SPEAKER_03That's right.
SPEAKER_02You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03I remember girlfriends though. Like, I don't remember girlfriends taking success.
SPEAKER_02My grandmother taught me, yeah, my grandmother taught me to to never work with, to never um associate. Yeah, like never, never, never, never party with who you work with. Because your personal business is gonna end up in your working environment. So no matter how beautiful Jessica looked, no matter how tempting Alexis are, no matter any of these things, I my love for my grandparents when I made a promise to them, God rest their souls. Because if they didn't take me and my mom from the crack era and the crack epidemic, and out of the era, I wouldn't have made it. If we didn't see what love was, if we didn't have a real loving family to put us in churches, who knows with a mother at 16 who mom and dad died at 18, she had me at 16. Still graduated high school, still graduate with the college, graduated college, got married at 21, been just had her 50, 40, 50, 40th.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's daddy love, right? Daddy love. And you remember I saw him at what concert was I at? Uh-huh. When I saw him, I was like, excuse me. He was like, it's not you. I'm like, it's me. And he's like, oh my God. It was so I said, it was just, and that's just the whole love family, truly. Like they're all very similar to each other. Darius is the president, we all know it, but you know, you're all the same, and it's like so fucking cool, just such an inviting family, you know, would never make anyone feel weird at a cookout. You know what I mean? No, no, you everyone's invited to the cookout, doesn't matter what you look like, and that's what I've always loved to be. Your family's always been really good to me as well. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02And that's why I'm saying, no matter what we go through, when we lose hope and humanity, that's when we lose humanity. And we all gonna have our Joe moments, you know what I'm saying? Because we're here to kill the flesh. So, in order to kill the flesh, you're gonna be tested in the flesh. So when you go through it, it's like it's how you go through it. We all gonna go through it, but how you go through it is determines who you are.
SPEAKER_03Right. So, so okay, we let's we we end Alex Mack.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_03Like, we that wasn't our choice. We I think Daris and I would have gone on another 10 years if we could have.
SPEAKER_02Um Yeah, it was it was like, you know, it's like you know how you have um when a when a championship team, one of the championship team members says, Hey, you know, I'm I'm ready for retirement, and another one says, Hey, I wouldn't I wouldn't mind if you're gonna retire, I'm only here for you.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_02So when we came together as a team and we looked across the board and said, What's the best thing for the overall? Now, when you're a kid and you sacrificing, you look at Michael Jackson, you look at Whitney Houston's, you look at Robin Williams, why are they OD and why are they suiciding? Why are they saying that, you know, my childhood was stolen? That's because they didn't have balance. And when we say morals over money, when we say our integrity is our identity, and we say love is a sacrifice, I knew that no matter how much money or fame or success or fortune, that's not gonna fulfill me. The only thing that's gonna fulfill me is my purpose. And my purpose is doing this motivational ministry and helping others find their purpose. And at that time, my sister, her purpose was to go live and go to college and be a woman and be a w uh and find what she is outside of this. And I'm not gonna say the name or who, but I thought that was the sisterhood. That was the vote for me. Yeah, I wanted to keep working and keep the legacy going.
SPEAKER_03My vote was let's go, let's keep going.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I want to keep feed my neighborhood, feed my family. I need the money for my people that's broke, that's dependent on me at the time. And I'm the lifeline, you know what I'm saying? So I need to keep going. Yeah, and I need and I need more money, not because I'm money driven, but now I understand the power of money success is responsibility. So now I'm I'm responsible for my community.
SPEAKER_03And now you've spent four years taking care of your community, your family, your grandparents, you've had a little money in your pocket.
SPEAKER_02So it's a different ending for me.
SPEAKER_03Go buy that like new tribe album when it comes out, you don't have to wait to like get a secondhand burned copy simply from your homie. Yeah, I do feel like that's the same.
SPEAKER_02So the so the ending was different for me. It wasn't a happy ending, it was an ending. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03Interesting. Well, I can ask you what happened where because so after Alex Mac, you know, and I want to ask you your thoughts on this too, but that's when things got very bad for me. I I man I lasted another three, four years in the industry, booked, kept working, never stopped working, never stopped working. Yeah. I I gave it back. I because I was so broken and hurt inside. I said, that's okay. You can have it. I'd rather you know.
SPEAKER_02I did the same thing. Take it away from me, God.
SPEAKER_03Take it because I want to I want to square.
SPEAKER_02You realize, no, you realize that fame and fortune didn't fulfill you. You we had it all, we reached the pinnacle, and now this is what it's about. So the dream can become a nightmare, is what we're seeing.
SPEAKER_03It can. And you and I played it's interesting, you know, because when you're not the namesake of a show, you're a a side character, you know, although a main character. And it's interesting because the whole show, I mean, there would be no show without all of us. We all made it. It's a story. She was a perfect God, she was the perfect Alex. She's so incredible in all of those things. But yeah, you know, listen, I mean, it's it's a story that's out there, and I it's okay.
SPEAKER_02And a shout out to the team and the producers, and and again, assembling. Like, I think with Alex Mack, why it was so great. They took their time and create and finding great people. You can have a great project, but you got to put greater people behind it. Yeah, and that's what Tommy. I I want to give a shout out to Tommy Lynch. And I know Kenny wrote it, but I think what Tommy's skill was and their dynamic was he he was a he's good at seeing talent and picking people and like and putting them together and like, you know what I'm saying? Like, and then he will move out the way. He'll put the best writer, Kenny Knuckles. He'll put some sent Sean McNamara, best producers around, have an idea, let them cook it. Go in, ah, do I like this person? He sat down with each and every one of us. Tommy Lynch brought me inside. He said, Look, man, he said, You you know, I heard you're not getting paid, you know, what you should. Larissa's mom told me, You need an agent. They got you an agent. Your contract was already signed. He said, What can I do to help you though? I said, Shit, I need a car. And I want to go to college. He said, What? He said, yes. Yeah. I said, I never told nobody. So I told you I'm gonna give you exclusivity. Then shout out the Lynch family. So he goes, All right, go pick out, because I didn't get paid. Like he knew I should have got paid more in the long run. Like how I got kind of screwed, right? So he was like, All right, what he was like, I'm gonna get you a car, and then when college comes, I'm gonna get you. And he wrote me a check. Straight up. I found me, my Nissan Pathfinder, right? The gray one, right?
SPEAKER_03The one I used to make you drive me all around in.
SPEAKER_02And he was like, And he's like, don't tell nobody, but I just want to take care of you, you know what I'm saying? And let you know how proud I am of you, you know what I'm saying? Like, and like, um he um he really um we used to ride around in his um 740 IL listening to Ice Cube um Bob Gun. Yeah, and um he was the coolest white boy I ever met, man, because he had told me he had told me he was proud of me for what I was like, how I was handling um my dad's situation. My dad came home and said, My real dad, and he was just telling me how he was proud of how I was handling responsibility. Like, you know what I'm saying, like all the pressure. He said it without saying a lot of shit. He just he just knew that he was like, he the way he said, I'm proud of you, you know what I'm saying? It was like a father and a son, and I never had that that feeling, you know what I'm saying, from any man on the planet, not even my stepfather, really, you know what I'm saying? But when he did that, it was like I became a man, you know what I'm saying? It was like it was like wow, yeah, it was like it was like this shit is bigger than than fans, girls, like this shit is bigger than being on TV. This shit is big, you know what I'm saying? Like, this is this is life-changing, like this man changed my life, and I'm changing people's lives. And I got addicted to that, you know what I'm saying? That was my addiction, you know what I'm saying? And I I promise myself to this day, you know, I want to I wanna one day show that man better than I could tell him by how many other lives I I impacted. You know what I'm saying, by him giving me that opportunity.
SPEAKER_04I know.
SPEAKER_02Because it's always somebody that helps you, it's always somebody that that, you know what I'm saying? And it's and and all skin folk ain't kin folk. That's why it ain't about a black or white thing. You know what I'm saying? Sometimes it's the people on the other side that help you the most, and then it's your people on your side that hurt you the most. So it's like I can't be biased, Darius Love. I'm I will never be biased because I'm an example that you can't be. Like, my life is an example that you cannot do this white or black shit. It's way bigger than that. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03I want to say something real quick. I'm s and me and Darius have always been able to cry together because we're, I think, uh truly because we've met ourselves as human beings. And when you meet yourself as a human being, you give yourself permission permission to feel. Right? And when the documentary Quiet on Set came out, a lot of attention came back on Nickelodeon. I'm sure Daris as well. I got TMZ, people I got every an outlet calling me. Do you have a comment? Do you have a comment? No, I I was on a different set. And I watched the documentary and I was gutted, of course, because seeing any child get hurt in that capacity is disgusting. And then it's like, oh, our our I can never say this right, but our alma mater, like our you know, our high school is now I'm I'm having fans DM me like, I'll never look at Nickelodeon the same. You guys this ruined my childhood, Alex Magazine. And I'm like heartbroken. And I, you know, I I took the time and I called Tommy Lynch and I said, you know, in this documentary, the whole time they keep saying the hitmaker of Nickelodeon, the hitmaker of Nickelodeon, but there's two. Okay, so I'm gonna say this on public record. I hope please clip this, TMZ, people, Us Weekly, fucking anybody. There were two hitmakers of Nickelodeon. Unfortunately, Dan Schneider was one of them, and many children got hurt because of that, alongside with the acting coach Brian Green. Now, Daris and I come from a different side of Nickelodeon, which was the Tommy Lynch side. Now, Lynch Entertainment also created probably shows you had no idea he created Alex Mack, Kids Incorporated, Alan Strange, Double Dare, Double Dare. I mean, it could we could keep going on.
SPEAKER_02Shout out to Lynch family.
SPEAKER_03I'll tell you, he kept our set so safe. He'll he's gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna make him come on the podcast. He has a story, and I love this. Uh it was it's so smart that he said he would whoever kid had the earliest call time, whatever time it was, 5 a.m. He would be there. And he would wait till each kid showed up for their call time, went in makeup, and he went and stood next to them, and he wanted to see if he could smell alcohol or weed or drugs from the night before. Crazy, right?
SPEAKER_02I love you.
SPEAKER_03And here's the really kind of heavy and poignant thing is that at the time of Alex Mack, you know, he he was helping himself become, you know, a better person, right? And when Alex Mack ended, the irony is that Tommy probably would have been the best person for me to call to say, I need help. I've somehow gotten myself addicted to drugs. This is what was really going on in my house that I didn't tell you or Dee or Larissa or anybody about. This is what my mother was really doing. This is how long I've been whatever. Because he had, he would have known exactly what to do, and it would have been the same thing. Oh, you need a car? Done. You need to go to college, done. Oh, you need to go to rehab? Oh yeah, done. You know?
SPEAKER_02I just and he always, you know, would would forewarn us that if it get that heavy, call me.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_02Like this is bigger than this is family. This is bigger than I got y'all. And that's why that's why that's why I talked to Burke Saul, Todd Hilliard, rest in peace. I mean, uh uh Alex Watt, rest in peace, Todd Hilliard. You know what I'm saying? I I talked to the first ADs, the the the gaffers, the these were the men that was driving me back to Watts.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_02I I always remember when they would drop me off that picture of Reginald Denny getting beat in the middle of the streets during the riots. So I would go right in my house and I would pray that Alex or Ty would get to their freeway and get home. Because they was taking a risk to drop me off from work every day. Or Cassie's mom, who was all white, you know, woman, beautiful hair, driving in the middle of watch late at night. Nothing never happened. And it's like, I remember I was saying on, I was watching this documentary, and it was this older um alcoholic, like, I don't like to call people bums, but he was an older Caucasian man. And he was like, yo, on one of the KKK documents, he was like, hey, he said, I hate to tell you, man, but the black people got more love. They show me more love and protection when I was in my worst than than my own people.
SPEAKER_03Seriously, I I was more protected in South Central and Compton than by my mother. My mother, when I by the time I realized it, robbed me blind, not a dollar left. But in South Central, for some reason, and and and now I'm the only white person, right? What a trip. I grew up in a industry where like there's very there were very few black people in the 90s. It was very sad to the point where like we made spoof movies saying token black friend, that's horrible to me. I never found that to be a funny saying, you know, but I mean whatever. So so when I was in the depths of my addiction down in South Central Compton, I was really taken care of, you know, like this this narrative that this narrative, I mean listen, was there some bad shit going on? Sure. I was doing it too, and I'm white, people. Hello. It's like, but because the person I'm doing it with has a different skin color, they're it's worse that they're doing it than it's the fucking same. But it was an interesting thing to me. I listen, I've always um I've always explored all cultures. You know, I want to say that Darius Love bought me my very first Tribe Call Quest album for my 16th birthday at the old spaghetti factory. I I don't have it still, but I still have it in my spot. Put me on to a lot of really incredible hip-hop artists. And the truth is, is that that I've related, you know, and and felt so connected to that culture from from like 12 years old.
SPEAKER_02Because you are, you're part of the culture, and it's not it's not um what we gotta realize is that human culture, right, is culture, and we gotta stop segregating our culture as if it's separated because we're more alike than we are separate. It's funny how you know you would get more sympathy and empathy for being an addict, being an addict than someone else, right? Yeah, right. And it's like, but these are the systematic programming that we've been programmed to do because it's sheep, if we see the other sheep doing it, we do it. So we have to make what's not popular popular, right? So that the sheep follow what they're not following that they should. And that's why this podcast, this platform, and you being able to open up, we've we've had them laugh, cry, we've given them a history lesson.
SPEAKER_03We have, you know, that's something to go. And what's great, and what's crazy too is like, yes, I want to see if I can make some sort of impact on destigmatizing mental health because as I've gotten older, especially in the last five years, I've been through divorce, I hear some rumors that um they're not happy about some of the things I might be saying. Um, but I have said nothing about anything other than my personal experience. I've said no names, no names. You have a right because I'm a classy woman, right? Of course, you have a right to say that. This is my story, and I have a Yeah, I have a right to say it because I want another woman out there to hear you do not have to be with a man who doesn't understand your words, and that's okay, you know. So that's why I tell my story. Um, but okay, so what I was gonna say to you is this so Alex Mack is done, right? You and I were not hanging out as much anymore. Not because you didn't want to, you were trying. I was slowly cutting you off. I would say the 16th birthday party you broadcast, I remember that whole thing. That was probably like the last year I was really holding it together. You know, on Alex Mack, you guys, just so you know, because people who are like, you only did four seasons, we did double episodes, so we really did like eight seasons, just so everybody you know, don't don't take it from us. We did we did double seasons and they they worked us like dogs. You know, we didn't have a summer, we didn't have a hiatus, we just kept going. So we just kept going. So, okay, it's all over. Alex Mac ends all the things, blah blah blah. My first question before I want to hear what this next chapter is about to be, which is Tupac, which is I mean. I mean first of all, one of my idols. Um and then it my brother is studying. And it was during a time that I was stuck, Darius. Not because I was a hostage, but I was stuck. South Central in a trap house, I cannot get myself to stand up and walk out. And during that time, you are now studying and in in the most prolific way to play my top three idols of all time.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_03Well, and my guilt is I don't get to see and be a part of that. I don't get to stand next to you. I didn't get to stand next to you.
SPEAKER_02It's okay, you know, and I didn't know, and you know, here's the thing about life, right? Just as much as you could have called, I should have been reaching out.
SPEAKER_04Well, we don't know.
SPEAKER_02Because here's the thing, here's the thing about life, right? You you don't realize who's thinking of you. And and then, and then, you know, and you're like, and then if you do think of that person as thinking of you, do you activate in that moment? Now means never an opportunity wasted. And I learned as I get older to move in the now because the voice versus the voices, if you don't move in the now, never an opportunity wasted, and the voice says to do it, there's a domino effect of delay. But if you move in the now and you do and be obedient to the voice, then there's a domino effect in manifestation. So do you want to delay your manifestation by the by delaying being obedient, or do you want to manifest, not delay your manifestation by being obedient. So this is what we gotta do. So my thing was with Tupac.
SPEAKER_03Walk us through it. It's I mean, it was you guys have no idea.
SPEAKER_02It was deep because love you, King. Um, it was deep because I have um I originally I had got called from a YouTube video. Um, I was in Vegas. I was in Vegas. I had a woman's shoe company before Red Bottoms. It was called Velvet Angels, and I was the blackout bunny with a black part. I was balling, okay?
SPEAKER_03I was bunny.
SPEAKER_02I was giving Chloe, clip that.
SPEAKER_03We're using that.
SPEAKER_02Yo, I was giving women shoe gasms. Clip that, Chloe. I'm talking about pulling up on women, dropping off these Velvet Angels shoes with gel-suede pads on the inside, buff leather bottoms. You know what I'm saying? Got all my leathers from Italy. So I'm putting up in this $130,000, $75,000 limo bus with this 80-inch screen, a bar, and I had on our logo was a grenade with a rose coming out of it for explosive romance.
SPEAKER_04Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02I grabbed them some leggings, put a little Velvet Angel romance logo on them. So I brand them. Well, I give them a little shot of the vodka, and I bring them the shoes. What size are you, honey? I'm an eight and a half. Hold on, let me give you a shoe gasm. Look at our presentation. We were in American Idol. We were in Sex in the City, that open purple Pitoe, where she says, look at her shoe in Sex in the City. I know everything about sex.
SPEAKER_00No way!
SPEAKER_02Project Runway, three years in a row. American Idol.
SPEAKER_03If she just had to be on drugs during all this shit, I could have had some Velvet Angels.
SPEAKER_02I would pull up, I had I had Shiny O'Neal with all of the Hollywood housewives. Listen.
SPEAKER_00I love it.
SPEAKER_02So long story short, somebody's filming me at the magic convention doing my Velvet Angel thing. And they go, You just look like Tupac. They go on with a Tupac. You know, Tupac was killed here in Vegas and this and that. And I turn, I'm like, man, I ain't no Tupac. I'm Darius Love. It's a Darius Willove. Do I look like I'm running around with a bandana or a nose ring in my? And he like, nah, man, not like that. I'm just saying, honey, like the way you talk, the way you move. I'm like, all right. So that video got to his manager. I guess that was called going viral.
SPEAKER_03I mean, you know you do look just like him, right?
SPEAKER_02I get the Kobe Tupac. What a compliment.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I guess if we combined Tupac and Kobe, then maybe. But also you're one of one. You're dearest love. People look like you. You don't look like other people.
SPEAKER_00There you go, kid. But you know what?
SPEAKER_03You and Tupac were soulmates in some sort of lifetime. That's not in a weird way, people. Relax. But you know what?
SPEAKER_02What changed me, what made me go 10 years and studying it was when the mom said, No, you not only you remind me his energy, you have the Pac energy.
SPEAKER_03You're saying a Feeney said this to you.
SPEAKER_02She's grabbing my cheeks at the Grammy Museum. It's on my Truth About Tupac. If you go to the Truth About Tupac YouTube channel, we end up getting 250 million views, a billion minutes watch time, and a million subscribers. And I filmed the making of me becoming Tupac. And one of my last episodes is the mom. She's holding me, going, I see why people say you remind me of my son. You have his energy. And that's when it hit me like, oh, my passion for the things I stand for, humanity, people, rights, bully, fighting bullies. Like this was all Pac energy. And I didn't so happen to look like him. So now I'm going, okay, now I've took this serious. And right as I start taking it serious, she hires me for the voice for NWA. Dr. Dre hires me for the voice for Coachella for the hologram.
SPEAKER_03Can you talk about those two things? Because they're huge.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, you know.
SPEAKER_03Huge.
SPEAKER_02Well, they're not as huge as having the LOI to play the biopic, which I had, I had a discrepancy with the production company and the and the producers because I just thought that the mother should have more creative control and have the, they were saying she was executive producer, but she had no say so in the story. And she is she had said that she had fought her whole life to get his rights, get his music, get everything back, to finally tell the story she wanted to. And I just felt like having her name as an executive producer, but not letting her tell a story was fraud. And I just couldn't live with myself. So it was a sacrifice. I had the role. But again, I gotta be able to look myself in the eyes. I've seen Michael Whitney's Robin Williams, like I mentioned, not be able to handle the success and the pressure because they sold their soul and went against something, or went against their integrity, or went against their morals, and they compromised. And now nothing matters. Now they have no peace. They have no joy. The devil has stolen it from them.
SPEAKER_03I want to tell you one thing. It's a little random, but it's relevant. So you so how old were you, do you think, around this time?
SPEAKER_02Like when you when it felt like I'm 26, 28.
SPEAKER_03Okay, perfect. And you're how old you're only a couple years older than me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm I just hit 46 on the 26. Yeah. You look good though. I got boy gray hairs though.
SPEAKER_03I do too. I just dye them. Nice. So as you're listen to just how crazy. So, like five, six, seven years ago, we're best friends shooting the one of the biggest shows in the world. And then, you know, all this time later, you're you're literally training to put it. And guess what?
SPEAKER_02I had this for 10 years. I mean, seven years it was off and on with this film because of litigation and laws.
SPEAKER_03I remember as you're doing this, but check this out. And you're so just a couple years older than me. So I'm about twenty two, twenty-three.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_03And I got myself to rehab somehow. And it was you know, my mother didn't help, nothing. We found we found a free well, I it didn't I ended up having to go again, but whatever. We found a free place in San Francisco, right off the tenderloin, which is a rough area, and it was a government-funded place. Obviously, I know a lot about this now. I've been working in treatment for so long, but it was government funded. Thank you. And so they let anybody in, right? So we so we went in. I was with, you know, an an ex-boyfriend at the time. We go in, and it's it's people straight off the street. I my room was right across from it, it was the saddest thing. It was like he was a paraplegic, no arms, no legs. He was a veteran and just a gnarly addicted to methana. And he was screaming detoxing. And I looked around and I thought, okay. But there was one album that got me through the entire thing.
SPEAKER_02Me against the world.
SPEAKER_03No. Best of.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's even better. You got a mixture of everything.
SPEAKER_03Best of. And I played that C D till there was nothing. And there for and and you know So deep, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Smoke the pain of every person's struggle.
SPEAKER_03I it it was, and even as a white person, I could understand. Like the darker the village. Yeah. The darker the flesh, the deeper the roots. Like, I get that. I understand what you're saying.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So just sorry to cut you off, but that alpha is a good thing.
SPEAKER_02Is the difference. You feel.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_02See, like you said earlier in this call. You you said something earlier in this call, you said so my brother who's living it. So the reason why you can relate is you lived some shit. And a lot of times, God, when you're done when you're just because you're denied doesn't mean you're delayed.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02Right? So he was denying you, but he wasn't delaying you. And you needed, you needed those those moments to be able to relate to and pull from because right now in the time that we're going through, right? This is your ministry. Your people gonna need you to be able to help them in a time where they're gonna lose all their riches, they're gonna lose all their jobs, they're gonna lose having that power and that wealth. And then one thing you're not gonna let them lose is their humanity. Because you're gonna be able to say, hey, if I did it, you could do it. If Christ could defeat death, we could do it. If Christ could defeat the devil, we could do it. So if Natalia could go and walk amongst the worst communities and be loved and still hold her light, that gotta be God, sis. It could only be God that's with you. He's with you. So now all this was no not even consequence, was no coincidence. This was all part of your purpose.
SPEAKER_03It was, and the second you realized that nothing ever happens to you in life, but only for you, so you can go on and help another person, you will never be a victim ever again.
SPEAKER_02Ever again. We are victors. Victors.
SPEAKER_03Okay, speaking of victors, because you are just maybe one of the wildest entrepreneurs I've ever known in my life. I've had many people, even in interviews, ask me, what's Darius Love like? Explain Darius Love in one sentence. I was like, well, that's not a possible challenge. Darius Love is everything, he's everything, and sometimes he's just honed in on one thing, but he's he's the president. I mean, he's literally the president. That's how we've all described him our whole life. Darius Love is the fucking president of the United States of America, as far as I'm concerned. You are an anomaly. You are um, you know, you are a lot of things to a lot of different people. To me, you have been a very safe space for me. Um I'm curious, did you ever like, did anyone ever catch wind that something was going on with me? Or did we all kind of just split ways and think that like, eh, she's Me and Jason stay very close to each other.
SPEAKER_02And he was directing, and I was doing a lot of, like you said, I was um heavily into building infrastructure. So I'm a I learned, I said, it's either own or be owned. And I saw from working with the woman's shoe, I then moved into investing in water and food. I was working with the Hidden Valley family, the Mormon family in Utah and the farming, learning farming, and then I won a United Nations Award doing water remediation in Brazil. Then I befriended Neymar, the soccer player, became his sports agent in China. So now I got a water company, a food company. It's called Kids Feeding the World. We were feeding kids with a product from Cornell University.
SPEAKER_03Were you the editor of a magazine for a second?
SPEAKER_02I was part of AZ Foothills, the COO of a magazine during COVID. Um, and then I formed, obviously, throughout all of this time, I formed my Global Good News Network over 20 years, and it's a wireless infrastructure telecommunications industry.
SPEAKER_03We have tell us about all that. Yeah, let's tell us I want to hear everything about like just what is about to explode in the world.
SPEAKER_02Yes. So basically, all of those different businesses are now under one umbrella, which is GG and N, which you can see behind us.
SPEAKER_03That's smart. Okay.
SPEAKER_02I saw over 20 plus years ago from really going into the word of God in the ministry and not just being a uh like I believe not a race or religion, but having a relationship was important, and I started to see that the word of God was living, whether I believed in it or not.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_02Right. And so I started to align with the divine so we could be on time at the time of prophecy versus philosophy. So having a water company, right, having self-sustainable food, having a manufacturing in Arizona where we manufacture Addy. It's an organic uh version, plant-based version of what Adderall is one chromosome from.
SPEAKER_03I saw that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I want to get this for you for PSCD and mental illness. We're helping with the veterans, and it's uh it's an all-organic product that's been certified by the Cleveland Clinic. We had $16 million in over 10 years of studies to prove it. And um I loaded it all in 138 fries in Arizona. Arizona's my second home. My little brother graduated at ASU. I've been offered to be the new film commissioner of Arizona. Um, so we're gonna launch. Um, we already have a 64 satellites and over a full server stack farm in Arizona when we partnered with Ace Media. They're connected to the United Nations. They have 195 countries with 100 million eyeballs. They reinvented on Focus TV channel, they reinvented MTV, but in the global market, um, I met Dr. Jerry Frawley, the founder, when I won the United Nations Award. And he says, I love your global good news network. Uh uh thing is positive. I said, Yeah, it's a it's a platform for where people could submit all their good news stories to one location. And it's not that it's not just good news stories, there's just not a place or a space for them to live. So we are that platform 24 hours where people send in their good news stories. And the good news stories with us is that with our water company, with our Kids Feeding the World Food Project, with our global good news, fireproof, bulletproof, self-sustainable homes, and with our now wireless infrastructure, we can provide cable, internet, cell phone, and TV and all of these in the love exchange for five to ten dollars a month per end user. So when the grid goes down, we come on for humanity. It's kind of like in a nutshell, it's the American Red Cross for all of those that are of the good news, which is the gospel. The gospel is the good news, and the good news is Christ defeats death and the devil, so we don't have to walk around worrying with the spirit of fear. Fear and faith cannot dwell in the same place, just like wickedness and righteousness. Christ has resurrected us to where we no longer go to the church, which is a building or a synagogue, but the temple is now within the body. When he shed the blood upon the stone, he re reconciled us to now be a part of the temple is in you. The God is in you. You have his one mind, one body, one spirit that is the church is in you. And that and that and that spirit is the Holy Spirit of love. And so when we come back to loving one another, because what's gonna happen is the devil's gonna take your food, take your water, take your shelter. Oh, yeah. He's gonna cause all these atrocities to force you to take the mark of the beast.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And down, do you choose peace, do you choose war? As you can see, there's a race war brewing. Do we choose love? Do we choose hate? Do we choose peace? Do we choose war? We've had World War I, World War II, we're on the brink of World War III, three strikes out. Right? So now we're coming down to once we as a people, if our lights go out, if our power goes out, if there's a bomb or a natural disaster, you could go to the Global Good News Network and log into our love exchange, and you can barter and be smarter to avoid the slaughter. So if Natanya did hair, I could give her water for my hair. If we all trade each other's trades as a trade in the love exchange.
SPEAKER_03I love that. I love that, you know, you've really like in your lifetime carved just you've just carved your own lane out. I read an article of an interview you did, and it was so powerful to me. Um, and you know, listen, I think that most people would be afraid to ask these kinds of questions. And and if I'm being perfectly honest, I guess if we didn't have the excuse me, relationship that we do, it might be a little bit more sensitive. But you said in the interview, you said, I'm fucking tired of playing a thug. I'm fucking tired of playing the gangbanger. Just because I'm black doesn't mean I have to play a gangbanger or a thug. And I think you said something along the lines of like, I come from Nickelodeon. I was on a kid the biggest kid show in the world. And the last 20 years I can't seem to play anything but someone who shot the guy or the gangbanger, and it it kind of broke my heart a little bit, only because I know your talent. Two, I don't think the world actually really knows how deep the Tupac stuff was. I mean you're speaking with Aphini Shakur, like that's that's deep.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if I were to play Tupac, um I probably would be one of the world's biggest stars right now, which is why the powers without him. Which is why the powers that be probably stop that. But the power that be, the only power that be, it said, Darius, you no longer have to live in the shadows of Tupac or Kobe, but it's better to be known as the Kobe Tupac child actor that's bringing a George Floyd that owns his own TV network that can empower others because real leaders reduplicate themselves. So what my job is to do what Pac could be doing.
SPEAKER_03Say that again. Say that that's a profound statement.
SPEAKER_02Real leaders reduplicate themselves. So my my purpose and my destiny is to do what Pac couldn't do.
SPEAKER_03So why do you think that people don't empower other people then to duplicate?
SPEAKER_02Because they want to be, they think that that it's only a number one. They think that they'll always be number one, and greed kills the monster. So the monster of greed is taking over them. They let the spirit of greed, the spirit of lust, the spirit of envy, the spirit of jealousy. They don't have the spirit, the Holy Spirit of Christ. See, this is the difference between spirits and your soul. Do you know that the difference between the soul and the spirit, my love? There's only one Natalia Ross's soul, but what spirit is she? Spirit of anger, spirit of alcoholism. When you go to the liquor store, it says wine and spirits. These fallen spirits are looking to host and take over your body. You can only let the spirits in if you empower them through your emotions.
SPEAKER_03Never thought about that. Why aren't you a pastor?
SPEAKER_01I am. You're like, I am, Natanya.
SPEAKER_03I also own a church. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01I do. You wake up.
SPEAKER_03No, I'm sure I know.
SPEAKER_01I know.
SPEAKER_03And let me let me tell you something. If like if you are a real churchgoer and you want a real experience, go to church in Compton, go and watch. They will welcome you with open arms. They don't give a fuck. They're not weird like us out here in Hollywood.
SPEAKER_02Isn't it crazy how the stigma has us all afraid of each other? That's programming. It's right, and that's why we have to break the monotony. We have to break the lies with the truth. The truth will set us free.
SPEAKER_03The systemic racism is is, you know at its highest.
SPEAKER_02And it's the stupidity.
SPEAKER_03I agree. It's at its highest when it should be at its lowest. You know? That part. A big part of why I created this podcast too. One to destigmatize mental health. Oh, just don't say that's nothing embarrassed about it. There's nothing embarrassing about it. I have depression, anxiety, CSDs. Who does it?
SPEAKER_02We all got it. And then they talk. Listen, they need to listen. We're all diagnosed with all the shit. All right. Everything's all together. Let's go. We're going to clean our house out. We're all done.
SPEAKER_03We really are. But I want I also wanted to give an hour, two hours, whatever, to my friends.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03That there's chunks of you that the world doesn't know. So instead of like, you know, the first few episodes.
SPEAKER_02The regular interview that we did.
SPEAKER_03I had questions, I was like postcards, and then I said, you know what? Fuck it. We're not doing it like that. Let's just talk. We're just gonna talk. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So that's the mental therapy that gives clarity that gives people the understanding. When you have a great conversation, it's overstanding, meaning you overstand yourself, their situation, and now you're able to move with leaving with something. When you leave from a great conversation, you don't Just leave with clarity, you leave with conviction, right?
SPEAKER_03And also, I have curated the list of people that are coming on the show.
SPEAKER_00Beautiful.
SPEAKER_03I know why Darius Love needs to be on We're Still Here, babe, the podcast. Because I know you should yeah, I'm not so, and for me, it was so important not to create like this isn't a 90s podcast, and it's not a podcast about being sober. It's not, it's not about recovery, and it's not it's also not really about mental health.
SPEAKER_02It's actually a little bit about life and everything. It's about life comes with it.
SPEAKER_03And it's about people like Daris Love coming on the show, getting honest, saying, I was fucking terrified as a kid. I had imposter syndrome. I looked around it, and then all of the things you've experienced in your lifetime, getting typecast, all of this stuff, and getting honest enough about it to say it out loud, because I promise you, there's probably hundreds of people. Because is Dara's love is sought after. You don't do a lot of interviews, you don't do a lot of signings, you're active on social media, but you're elusive. And I know you do that on purpose. I know you do this was an opportunity for the world to get to know you a little bit more in the way that I do.
SPEAKER_02Only my sis could do that, only you could do that.
SPEAKER_03I know, I know, I know. I have two more questions, okay? This next one's really heavy because listen, you know, if we're doing a podcast about getting real, we have to get real and we have to talk about the real stuff, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03We you and I did a podcast together, I would say, five-ish years ago, hosted by my ex-boyfriend Eric Stretch and Tom Big.
SPEAKER_02I like E. He was cool. He was the gay.
SPEAKER_03He was cool, he's gay now, but you know, that's okay. I was the last girlfriend. I don't think I had anything to do with it. Let's hope not. But we're still we're still besties, and he's the best. But he had us on together. And, you know, so we had this incredible podcast, all of the stuff, and then I drove you home, and um I hadn't I hadn't told you a story yet. And I'll never forget I drove you back to well, I don't want to dox you, but your really cool place in a pretty hip area, one of my favorite areas in LA. And we stopped the car and I said, Daris, I have to tell you something. I said, I think I need to tell you what's been going on the last 30 years, and I think I need to start at the beginning and tell you everything. And I sat in the car and we both wept, and I told you the abuse that was going on at home that none of you guys knew about. Abuse in the form of my mother's alcoholism, her sexual addictions, um, my father before he left, his alcoholism. He left at 14, stole some money from me, and transitioned into a woman. And there was just a lot of things that that I was not, you know, I should I very much should have been in counseling. I should have been, there was a lot of stuff that you guys just didn't know. Um, there was different men in my house every time. Our last season of Alex Mac, I remember one time I took a chance, and you remember my best friend Jenna. She was always there with us, but I love Jenna.
SPEAKER_02She's at on the birthday party.
SPEAKER_03That's right, that's right.
SPEAKER_02Follows me. That's a really great best friend.
SPEAKER_03She is. That's that's like a lifer. She's a lifer for sure.
SPEAKER_02But we gotta do the best friend awards.
SPEAKER_03Oh my god! We well, I wait till my last question, but so I remember so so yeah, so I would come home, and our last season on Alex Mac, I never invited you guys to my apartment at that point. I'm sure you remember. I took a risk one day because Jenna was like, invite Will over, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, Okay, and we did, and I fucking knew what was gonna happen. I fucking knew it, and I did it anyway. And we got home and there were cops everywhere. And we went in, and one more time, my mom called the cops on my then stepfather, who she said was trying to beat the shit out of her and had guns all over the house. Cops came, no marks on her, guns are all locked up, they're like, nothing we can do here. They leave, it's just me, my mom, and this man. And um that was just a fraction of what was going on. And then I said, and then Darius, there's more. I said, about two years ago, I found out I'm adopted. My mother's not my mother, my father's not my father. I said, I have a different birthday. My birthday's not October 8th, actually, it's October 4th. And they did that to hide me even more. Um, and I told you everything, and I just, you know, and and then I told you about my experiences with the drugs. And I told you about how protected I was in South Central and Compton, but I was not protected and on Skid Row. You know? It's it's a it's a it's a it yeah. And we knew that we wept. Yeah, and we wept and and it really, I mean, I've never not known how much you love me, but I really really knew in that moment because you've wept with me, and I knew there was a part of you that was like, you know, that you like peacocked up really you're like, tell me where the fuck this person, you know. But also so long ago, it's like fuck, my sis went through all that. So I wanted to talk about that a little bit because it was a powerful experience when you get to finally tell your childhood best friend your castmate. We're not just best friends, we did a television show together that impacted a lot of people's lives. And Darius and I are the only two people in the world that can relate to each other about that specific experience. So I'm just kind of wondering what what did you think of all that?
SPEAKER_02My aunt was a crack addict, and how many times we would go out and get my aunt in the middle of the night, and my mother would never quit or give up on her and pick her up, and I would be there witnessing that, and that was what motivated me to be positive and do something in life and never be a statistic. So to see that my sister, who was the only example of love and uh purity, to be tainted, dirty, ravished, and all of the the filth of the world is taking my pure innocent little sister that I can't protect no more, and it's now taking her innocence. So as a man, as a man's man, when that happens when you can't protect who you love, it's the worst pain. It's the worst pain a man, a father, anyone could bear because you're not a man if you can't protect the ones you love.
SPEAKER_03And then we've talked so much publicly about how nice my mom was to you and all of the things, and like I think it was an act personally, because she's just not a great person, you know.
SPEAKER_02But always with my spirit, I always discerned something was wrong, which kept me even more closer to you because I never like you know how dogs and kids could sense something wrong. Yes, so that was that was like my discernment, like our spiritual discernment is high, like especially mine. I could before my mother would ask for something, I would know what she wanted. Like women I'm dating, I do that with, like, I'm very intuitive.
SPEAKER_03Also, Larissa's mom, your fam, everyone was close except for Dina. Dina was not part of it. She was in the dressing room. If she was even there, she was guilty.
SPEAKER_02She she like I'm I'm from the streets, so I know when somebody stole something, they got a certain look. Somebody killed somebody, they got a certain spirit on them. Somebody uh lying, they got a certain look, a spirit on them. So she had all these spirits on her, like a guilty conscience. And it was like, huh, I'm scared. You can do this to me. So what happens is people project their fears of what they're guilty of.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02So when she was doing that, yeah, when she was doing that, it made me be like, Hold up, let me get close to the sis without telling you, because it's your mom, so I can't disrespect you. But all I could do is be there to catch her and be like, yo, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And then I knew it my whole life, everyone's like, sue her, sue her ass.
SPEAKER_02And I'm like, Nah, then I become the best thing that happened. The best thing that happened is just like like I got two sides of the family, right? They love me when I'm successful, and then they despise me when I'm not, right? So at the end of the day, that what they did to Christ, they're gonna do to you. All skin folk ain't kidful.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_02The best thing that I came out of there was when how fast you met your new family, your real family, and then they was real family, and then you got a real family, and then you saw what real family is about, and it didn't matter how long or how much time, but once you got that loving and you was back home, and you was back at home base, and I seen all your real family and how deep it was.
SPEAKER_03Crazy, right? At the wedding, wasn't that crazy?
SPEAKER_02Now, guess what though? You got the best of both worlds because you got the strength, right, that made you who you are. So when you go into this other world, everybody's gonna envy you. Like I said, your ministry is gonna be able to show these the rich that's about to lose, the wicked's riches is stored for the righteous. So if these if these wicked people don't confess their wickedness before judgment, they're gonna go into being poor. That's how the first shall be last, last shall be first. The riches is stored for the poor. But if you can get them to submit and admit all they shit, and then start helping people with their old clothes and their old things. That's the love exchange.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02We gotta be our Red Cross, we gotta be our salvation army, we gotta be the salvation army. So you're going to go to the rich on the Esau, Esau and Jacob. One was bronze and woolly, brown and bronze and woolly, one was red, red and Esau. They came from the same mother and father, and they lied to us and made us believe that white and black are not brothers. And so now you have this division. If I was the devil, I would divide white and black, I would divide man and woman, I would divide marriages, kids, and families. Right. So now how do you unite them with the truth, Natalia? The truth is, I've been in the world with the blacks who have my back. I'm still here at my worst. And now, guess what? I'm coming over here with all that knowledge that's my college to tell you the truth to free you from they don't want to kill you all. They don't want to hurt you all. They don't want reparations to go buy guns and come kill you. They just want to have it so they can eat and have kids and have generational wealth and have a regular fucking life like you too.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_02The American dream is what it's called. No, it's the human rights, is what it's called. Bare human rights, because if you don't, how you treat me, Christ God says, is how you treat one of my own is how you treat me. And that's why I said God's vengeance. Why is he a vengeful God? Because we're all his children. If you had children, Natanya, you gotta, you got your dog. You gonna let somebody hit your dog before you, you're gonna let somebody steal reprimand, touch, hurt. We're all his children. So that's why we can't touch one another, hurt one another, or lie to one another. And once we get that, once we get that, we'll get out our own way.
SPEAKER_03And love.
SPEAKER_02Because we are about to destroy ourselves. We're like a dog chasing our own tails, eventually dicking our own ditch over the same shit, arguing in the same marriages over the same shit, right? Having the same wars over the same shit. The same shit. Aren't you tired of all the shit?
SPEAKER_03I'm so tired of it. And both you and I got so blessed because, you know, we've both been, you know, we've we've had some relationships in our time.
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, it shouldn't hurt to help when you can you cash your, you know, loving for me. I'm a always I'm a I'm a hard lover. I love helping everybody. I learned to now say no. I make my no as popular as my yes.
SPEAKER_03Me too.
SPEAKER_02That that lesson taught me that you have to be very calculated these days, especially. It's not after COVID, it's just not the same. There's so much going on in the air and the food and the water, and people having things in their system and their bodies, and they're crashing out and flipping out. And that's why your mental illness and your movement for mental illness and this mental illness ministry. I want you to keep keep calling this this is a mental illness ministry. Because right now, the way the the reason why death is risen, because sin is risen. The reason why people are mentally ill is because they're taking the wrong foods, they're eating the wrong, taking the wrong medicines, and this is calculated to cause them to crash out. It's calculated to cause them to be suicide. These these medication side effects is to cause you to be addictive. So why is right? So you have a way to continue to say, hey, I did it.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_02I lived it.
SPEAKER_03I lived it. And also I have a way to show the world, hey, you just heard 45 minutes of stuff about Darius Love that you've never heard in your life. And now you've gotten to know him a little bit more as a man, an adult man, as opposed to our beloved Ray, and then our beloved Tupac.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_03You know, real quick, tell us about um, so you voiced Tupac in NWA. So if we watch the movie, when we hear it's in the booth. I mean, I know your voice like I could hear it.
SPEAKER_02So in the rap scene with Mark Rose, the mother didn't want to sign off on John Singleton's actor. They asked me to play Tupac at NWA, but I had I had the role for the biopic, and I was like, why would I go play Tupac at NWA and mess up the biopic?
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_02Right. Down everybody saw what I did at NWA. They won't come to the Tupac biopic, right? So I had to make a serious choice because Tupac was supposed to come before NWA, but NWA had their shit together and came out before us. That's how bad they screwed up Tupac.
SPEAKER_04Damn.
SPEAKER_02So I'm watching this other kid play Tupac at NWA, and then I get the call. And they go, my partner, Asher Underwood. I'll never forget he goes, I love him. I go, what's up?
SPEAKER_03He's thinking to me.
SPEAKER_02He goes, he goes, yo, he goes, what's up? He goes, he goes, look, I got Molly on the phone, and that's Afini's uh lawyer and partner. And then Feeney, that's Tupac's mom.
SPEAKER_03You don't have to tell me twice.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, she likes, look, they won't sign off on Mark Rose's voice rapping as Tupac in the movie. He don't sound like Pac. They need you to do the vocals.
SPEAKER_04No.
SPEAKER_02So I'm like, she had heard from Dr. Dre that you had did the hologram. So I said, bet. So that boom, next thing you know, the next day, I'm at the NWA Universal Backlot, and I'm in there, Evergary Gray and the Foley and the directors there, and he and he played a scene where the actor comes in and he got a rap. He got a rap Tupac. He got to go in the studio and actually.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So when he so like when I when I go into my Tupac voice, like for instance, like I'll do it one example for you, like just lower the volume, whatever. Like Pac didn't say this. So that's why they hired me for Coachella. So Pac would say, What the fuck is up, Coachella? So, like, the like when the he Coachella wasn't around when Pac was around. So they needed. So when the holographs say, What the fuck is up, Coachella? That like pulling from the voice in the gut. Like, I know I learned how to, like, I could do a whole Tupac song and sound just like him because for 10 years, I would, yeah, I would study his cadence, how he breathed. I went to his writers, I went to his engineers, I went to his movements.
SPEAKER_03I've asked you on the side.
SPEAKER_02I mastered him.
SPEAKER_03Like it's like put a bandana and a nose ring. Woo! Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02Like people to this day, all my fans still ask me, please do something for Tupac.
SPEAKER_03And it's like no, but you did you feel you aged out?
SPEAKER_02Well, I could always do if Tupac was alive. Like it could be alive. But I but but what I but what I what I wanted to do is I wanted to do something called a Shakur's. I created it with Oliver Stone's son, Sean Stone, and I wanted to go like Shakur's is like Godfather meets the Sopranos. And it would start from the father, Matulu Shakur, a Fini Shakur, Asada Shakur, all the way to Tupac Shakur. You would start 60s, 70s, 80s, up into the 90s, and it would have been a TV series that would have covered how his father was a Black Panther, how his underpanther. They had the New Jersey turnpike and she went to Cuba. So like all of this is our black history that would have covered the whole history of the Shakur family.
SPEAKER_03Do it, do it, do it. You have to do it.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, you get so Sean Stone to this day loves it. And people just be like, please do some. So, you know, I could easily do that. But I focused on the George Floyd biopic because I took all of that. Yeah, I took all of the knowledge that we came on college and shout out A Queens Production, Dr. K Rankin. She owns the rights. The George Floyd family came to her. Okay, um, you know, all of the different people, Tyler Perry, Oprah Winfrey, 50, all these people missed the mark. She got it. Never really did too much filmmaking. And I was in her life at that time, and she was like, Hey, should I get the rights of George Floyd? Should I? I'm like, I'm like, Dr. K, this is this is, I know everything about biopics. I just came for the Tupac. Let me help be lead producer. Let me connect the dots. Give me a vision board. I could I could get to anybody in Hollywood. So, long story short, when you hear the announcements on this George Floyd life story and how we put it together, just know your big bro is behind it. Thank you. That's all I can say right now.
SPEAKER_03Damn. Wow.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's gonna make history in one movie. One movie is gonna change the whole world, like you said, we're doing.
SPEAKER_03Always. Let me ask you a question. Two last questions. I know I said that before. This this question I ask every guest that comes on. When you hear we're still here, babe, I know the babe is like a Natanya, it's Natanya coded. I get it, but like we're still here. What does that mean to you like when you just first hear that?
SPEAKER_02Um appreciation. Because we don't, it's like I don't have nothing to do with that. That's all the fans, that's all God.
SPEAKER_03You're the only one who answered it that way. Everybody else was like, Yeah, of course we're still here. We're still f we didn't we didn't, you know, and part of that's true, but what a spiritual, of course. Beautiful answer. Yeah, we're still here because of you guys. Because of all you guys listening, the universe, God, whatever you choose to believe in, that's why we're still here. But because we're still here, we still have an important story to tell. And I'll tell you, D, I woke up one day and I was like, yo, this self-tape shit is not it, okay? If I want to sustain a career in television, film, whatever it's gonna be, and actually be able to pay my bills, it's not gonna work, just auditioning. So I said, hmm, all of these kids, I mean, they're basically filmmakers on TikTok, right? And I thought, well, who the fuck says I can't do something? And then I thought, well, what is it that I would want to do? And I said, Well, I want to like you, I want to carve out something different that no one's ever heard of before. And I want to figure out how, you know, I'm a storyteller. I'm a storyteller. And and it's just a l it's just now I'm able to help tell my friends' stories one week at a time, and let everybody get to know you guys in a way that that they don't know. But here's the very last question that I'm gonna ask, and I'm probably gonna clip this because this is what everybody wants. Now, we have just for the fans, for the listeners, you guys, I want to promise you that me and Daris together and Jason Strickland, together we have gone around and pitched the reboot for The Secret World of Alex Mack so many times that I think we have all reached a place of acceptance that it is not going to happen. And also that's okay. Sometimes if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Let's leave the legacy exactly as it is. Does that mean we can't do a movie one day? Perhaps? Oh, we could do that. But the series. We're gonna leave it like that, but here's my question for you. I'm gonna put you on the spot.
SPEAKER_01Let's go. Let's go.
SPEAKER_03I've wanted to do this for years. I know it's trendy, everybody does it. I think we could do it in a very different way. Let me ask you one question. Tell the truth, and it's okay. Have you watched every single episode of The Secret World of Alex Mack?
SPEAKER_02Never.
SPEAKER_03Okay, ask me the same question.
SPEAKER_02Have you watched every single episode? Only three.
SPEAKER_03Only three. The ones I starred in. Um no, I have not. I've barely seen the show.
SPEAKER_02Me neither. We're too busy making it.
SPEAKER_03That's right. And the people, they're dying for a rewatch podcast.
SPEAKER_02Ah, I think that would be awesome.
SPEAKER_03So what that means is you and I separately would watch every we would start season one episode. We watch it and then we come on the pod. Yeah, I'm on a podcast. It's something to think about. So you guys, all of our listeners, you heard it here first. I am officially asking Darius Love to do a Secret World of Alex Mac rewatch podcast with me. If you think that would be so special and sacred for fans, oh man. So I will let you guys.
SPEAKER_02I'm all in, I'm all in, let's go.
SPEAKER_03We got our answer.
SPEAKER_02We're in. You know, you know, you know you got me, Taya. You got me. Well, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Well, now I just have to figure out how to do it, but I will absolutely do that. So you guys listen to it.
SPEAKER_02I think we should start it at Comic Con. I think I think we should kick it off there.
SPEAKER_03That's a great thing to end this podcast with. We could kick it off at 90s con, and episode one can be with all four of us.
SPEAKER_02From our mouth to God's ears, this is your year to check clear. You're about to have a Learjet that says, Hey, we are hit me with the Q word.
SPEAKER_03Ray and Robin forever.
SPEAKER_02We're still here, baby.
SPEAKER_03We're still here, babe. I love you so much. Tell us um one where we can find you.
SPEAKER_04Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_03Like socials, um, if there's any projects we should be looking for. I know there's a main a mainstay um flagship like brick and mortar now. I don't know if you want people going there. I'm I won't do. Please tell us everything you want to know.
SPEAKER_02So our NIL, so you can go to NILAcademy.org. I've also aligned all life's ionic elements. We help athletes, entertainers, um, influencers now monetize their name, image, and likeness. So I have over thousands, 30,000 plus athletes in our NILAcademy.org. I was the head of business development of Peak NIL, Blake Horm, Michigan Champion, Rose Bowl Champions Company, and I learned that over uh 45 states, there's over 7.5 million athletes on the high school level, and an additional 506,000 on the collegiate level, a total of 8 million athletes, a total of $2.2 billion in this infancy. They're now able to monetize their name, image, and likeness. You're now seeing athletes with a range of a million to $2 million salaries coming out of high school and the college. So they need help with managing their money, getting trademarked, getting incorporated, get in a living trust, get in the corporate. So these are the things that we teach at the NILAcademy.org. And we have the old school athletes teach the new school athletes. It's a TED Talk meets like masterclass in a live setting where we edutain you with different CMOs and different financial advisors and make sure that you're financially equipped. So if you are interested, please hit us at global goodnewsnetwork.org.
SPEAKER_03I'll be calling. I'm IO Academy Gotham. I'll be a client.
SPEAKER_02And we got all of the top CMOs, top financial advisors the past three years that I went to go partner with. So look forward to it. We'll be doing private events at Gravitas in Beverly Hills. And Natanya will be hosting and moderating some of the uh different panels that we have.
SPEAKER_03And, you know, you guys keep your eyes out. Jarress and I, um, you know, I'm gonna force this guy to start making some appearances with me. So we were we will be appearing at a lot of places together. I'm gonna make sure of it.
SPEAKER_02And with this film commissioner role in Arizona, I have a full-fledged studio, so I'm gonna bring you a board there to be like head of studio and help with some content. I got Jason, I've been talking to Jason yesterday since love. He sent me a check um out of the blue for a deal that had closed, and he just told me that he loved you and he appreciates you, and he's got a big deal in Netflix and a movie he's gonna put us in.
SPEAKER_03Obviously, he's I would love for him to be on the podcast and all of good that's good stuff. I'm so I'm so glad you got a check.
SPEAKER_02Maybe we can get him out to the 90s con just for the podcast that day before, like we was talking about.
SPEAKER_03That could be really cool. And let's tell everybody a little bit about 90s con. Most people so it's the bit Daris is so cute because he doesn't know a lot about the signing world. So I have to teach you.
SPEAKER_02I just did it because she told me to, guys. So tell me. I'm waiting to hear too. Tell us the time.
SPEAKER_03Okay, I mean, I'll tell you then. I'm his well, number one, I'm Darius's agent now. So if there's any requests, please tell me. So 90s con is the biggest, I think, pop 90s pop culture autograph signing show in the world. They focus on reunions, so full casts. They love a good reunion. We are in our 30th little over a year. We have never appeared anywhere together as a whole cast. Um and then I would say the three of you, I don't I know for a fact Larissa and Meredith have not made appearances. You've been out and about, but not like this.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_03Very interesting. Yeah, there will be a photo op opportunity. I think they're announcing them in the next couple days. I'll put it on my Instagram. I'm gonna force Daris to I'm gonna actually text him and remind him, hey, post this. And so you thank you, Agent. So you guys will have a fucking dope opportunity to buy a photo op so all of us together. They give it to you, I I believe, right then and there, and then you take it back and we can sign it all. I mean, it's just gonna be so much fun. There's a whole panel called I think The Secret Worlds of Alex Mack, and they usually will split us with another show. So my guess would be Sabrina the Teenage Witch if they're there, or Professor House, or there's no other Nickelodeon shows, so um, that's awesome. We'll be at the panel, it's like thousands of people.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Um great job in setting this up, Natalia. I really appreciate so Dream Come True and it's celebrated with you. And you got the whole crew there, and you work real hard behind the scenes doing a lot for others. And um, that's why I want you guys to support this podcast and support her movement. And I'm I know a lot of people are gonna come on here, so I'm thankful to get on here first for all the Andrew Keegans and all of the bigger 90s uh uh uh stars that and icons and and the nostalgia because you got them all as friends and we all love you, and they go support you. And then I'm gonna talk to my partner about getting you a broadcast deal to where you have a really cool advertisement play where you had the money to really produce it the way you want, but then you have the creative control or global.
SPEAKER_03Thank you for saying all of that. This podcast really does mean so much to me, Darius. You know, I thought that a career in entertainment was I thought it was done for me. I thought it was a dream that that didn't that that wasn't gonna happen. And I woke up one day and I said, no, bitch, you create your own.
SPEAKER_02You are you are you are your your woman star star power is gonna be ten times like a hundred, a thousand times bigger than your childhood star. If you thought your childhood star was like big, you were the top five chicks in Hollywood, right? But I'm saying, there, but I'm saying there's no there's no red-headed Jewish chick that's lived what you live that could go put it in so many different films. Like you could.
SPEAKER_03Bar to bar. Just go bar to bar.
SPEAKER_02You could put all that shit you live now and you can turn it into brilliant performances and channel that that that energy into just a masterpiece of a career. But first, you need a platform that shows you have the numbers.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_02New projects, all of this is gonna stem cell. Give him high five because he's trying to tell you if it's going down. You feel me, baby. Smoochies from the pooches. Smoochies from the pooches. That's our new T. That's the t-shirt by you. I love that.
SPEAKER_03Okay, Darius, I love you so fucking much. You are, I mean, there's just uh in the last 30 years, I've tried to use the English language to explain the depths of my love for you. I have succeeded, I think, but there will never really be like strong enough words for me to tell you how much I love you. We have wept together, we have laughed together, we've won together, and we've lost together. And that is what makes a real friendship is when someone will stick by through all of that, because I I know who's there when Natanya's not shiny and pretty and bubbly and Natanya y. When Natanya can't get out of bed, because Natanya's fucking depressed. When Natanya can't eat because she's having PTSD about her divorce. When Natanya's having a panic attack because something got triggered about stuff with her mother, you're still there.
SPEAKER_01Hallelujah. Always.
SPEAKER_03In fact, I think you love me more sometimes when I'm like that.
SPEAKER_02Not because you like to see the pain, but because you uh you love the I want you to have a ex I want you to have a a safe space to exit because it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_02And they don't in life they think that celebrities and icons and heroes don't hurt, they think heroes don't bleed, they think heroes don't need.
SPEAKER_03It's why they say check on your strongest friends. It's why they make memes of Robin Williams and Chris Cornell and Chester Bettingfield and and all of these incredible people who have taken their life because check on your fucking strong friends. Just because we're out here, like, you know, it doesn't mean that we're not dying inside sometimes. And and I'll tell you, the older I get, I I am very clear on who has stuck around the whole time and who has dipped during the times it didn't look so good, and then oh wow, just back around later on, right?
SPEAKER_02Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_03Very aware of that.
SPEAKER_02And and that's called maturity, sis. You live long enough.
SPEAKER_03That's right. And the older I get, you know, my my circle becomes a little bit more smaller, and I'm telling you, I'm loving it. I love that.
SPEAKER_02It's the best part in life when you get to that point in life where you understand why your circle is who it is. I mean, you can either be in a cage, either be in a cage, or you could be in a circle of love and friends.
SPEAKER_03Right. I love you so much. I love you more. Thank you. Thank you. There's this is gonna be a very special. This is a two-hour episode. So we're we're gonna promote it.
SPEAKER_02I know I missed a lot of I missed a lot of calls, but it's all good. I hope you're gonna be able to do that. But you know what?
SPEAKER_03Our fans deserved this from us.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. And you got you might you might even want to two-part it or four-part it, however, you break them up.
SPEAKER_03Oh, well, part two is at 90s con.
SPEAKER_02You can edit it and spread it out.
SPEAKER_03That's right. So just so you guys know, we will be at 90s con. It's October 14th through the 16th. Darius and I will be there on that Friday. We will not be signing, but we will be there. He's got the candle. We are gonna, we are gonna kill it with some merch we're gonna think of. We're gonna we have a couple months to come up with some stuff. We can't wait to meet all of you guys. Darius, what are what are your social media handles as he smells the candle?
SPEAKER_02Uh my social media handles is Darius Love, like my name, like I'm in the Darius for Love. D-A-R-R-I-S-L-O-V-E.
SPEAKER_03Not Darius, people. Okay, that pisses me off so bad. It's like, come on. It says it right there. There's no you in there. It's not Darius Love.
SPEAKER_02You know, I see people when they say it wrong.
SPEAKER_03It doesn't bother me because I know it doesn't, but it bothers me. Yeah, I appreciate you. Just like when someone calls me Natalia, it bothers you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You're like, no, no, no, it's Natalia. So you get it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So my one and only, Darius, the one and only, one of one, uh, one of the smartest people you'll ever know, one of the kindest people you'll ever know. He will protect you at the same time as remind you who the fuck you are. And I I don't know that I would have made it in the last 10 years without how close we've gotten again. You've picked me up during some very dark moments where um I had no idea who I was. I didn't know how to see Natanya.
SPEAKER_02I see you all the time, kiddo. I see you're awesome and your blossom all the time. You got that ball sauce. And it doesn't matter where you are in the journey because your destination, right? It's not about where you are in the current journey because your destination is gonna be so beautiful. It's so powerful and so important to so many people. So now you can see why you had to go through the darkness to be the light. You are the light.
SPEAKER_03I'm just following in my big brother's footsteps, that's all. And we love you guys, we love you.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. We see guys in 90s con.
SPEAKER_03Let's go, let's go, 90s con. We'll see you there.