Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
I'm your host coleeen Went and today we have very special special guests Chico Ben in the building.
Yes, yes, yes, thank you, thank you for having me on your wonderful, wonderful podcast.
This is a brilliant idea. I think this is dope.
Thank you and thank you for opening up.
I would like to say the eighty five South home to me and being so hospitable. I absolutely love everything about the eighty five South camp in totality.
Thank you guys so much for showing me so much less.
Oh man, We you know, try to pride ourselves on being a standard of you know, hospitality over here, to say the least, So I'm glad that you were received in that way.
Yeah.
I've been gossiping NonStop, but such amazing gossip behind your back.
Like yo, these guys are incredible. The character, the integrity that every day, Oh my god, it's amazing. Good and your dish. What are you gonna have us eating today?
Beef ravioli by chef Boyard.
Yes, this is a this is a real classic. It's money.
I don't think we've ever had it on the show, surprisingly, which I've had everything you could imagine a hundred times over. But I like that you and I are gonna take one for teen today, right, We're gonna we're gonna take baby baby baby.
Licks at it.
Pause.
But yeah, we we're gonna do what we could do to do to make sure that the content is what it needs to be for you know, for the podcast. We'll say that it's been a very long time since I've been able to eat anything remotely close to this, but there was a time in my life where this was, you know, five course for me.
Okay, So I want to make sure the jogg your memory.
So I want to see you make chef for I d okay, and uh, I want to take a swing a swing at it.
Going okay, all right, so you just try not.
To let any guests leave without taking a bite of their food.
Okay, all right? So I mean, I mean, is this on?
I think I turned the other one on? Maybe they both of which is heating sauce.
By the way, I accidentally did try Chef Bard recently and I was like, who was I think it?
Because I used to love it?
Yeah, so did I. Oh boy, this is you got the memories memory. Oh boy.
See that's the thing. You got to it come out and you got to you get that sound. That's what yeah, all right, all right, now, see I don't know if we got in need let me see what what what type of flavorings.
We got over?
So we add an extra flavor?
Oh you got to, man, we got to. This is a hood delicacy, you know what I mean.
Growing up? You know, I was what was called the latch key kid.
So my mother, you know, would get up at three o'clock in the morning to go to work since I was since I can remember. So I've been kind of cooking for myself and this little Italian season and right here, give it a little bit of a little bit of you know, make it seem like it's corrobbas or something of that nature.
No, did you come from two parent household?
No? No, No, I did not come from a two parent household.
My father was murdered when I was two years old, so it was just my mother, and uh, you know, because of that, she had to you know, it's a little different back in the day. You know, we're going black pepper right here, good in gather. We're going good and gathered black pepper. And then uh, no, salt. We try to stay away from the salt. As the garlic powder. We'll do a little bit of garlic powder on.
There, just slightly.
Do you cook at home.
Now, yes, very much so private No, hell no, okay, that is an expense I refuse to know.
So you're cooking, you're not eating out a lot?
Well, yes, we do eat out a lot because we are out a lot with what we do for a living, you know, I mean, you know, traveling and you know, just being on the road all the time. It kind of restricts what it is that you can eat because our job don't start till eight pm, so by the time we finish working, it's it's really not.
Much left open. So usually you have.
To go get something during the day to have after when you finish. And you know what I mean, it's it's very very much cooking when you go home, not when you're on the road. It's very difficult to cook when you're on it. You have to kind of set yourself up to be able to cook.
On the road.
So if you weren't eat and you were at home currently.
Water, yeah, just to stretch it out a little bit so it won't stick to the bottom of the pan. Yeah you real, let me see. Uh yeah, right there, we're right there.
I wasn't even that good. I was just heating in the microwaves.
Oh no, yeah, no, we got to do it on the stove. That's how you learn.
You get that mixed up and they get all them flavors mixed in in there. You got to separate them too, because if you don't separate them, then you'll have one that's cooked on the top and then you into that bottom. In that bottom with Bucky neked, it ain't got no heat on it. So you gotta make sure you go in and split them apart because they come in you know, they be stuck together, so you gotta split them apart right there.
Uh, there we go.
This is how I know I know. I know you was broke.
Because I didn't. That's the thing. You knew I was broke. I didn't.
I thought this was a delicacy because it really had Chef boy I d on the can no listen. We had a lot of that.
Well.
I can't remember the first the first time I ever had Frosty Flakes with Tony on the box.
I was in college. My Frosty flakes.
Had a snowman on the box frosty flakes. That's what we grew up eating, the frosty flakes with the eye with the wire on them.
All right, So we're gonna let that just do his thing right there.
We're gonna sit this off to the side, and then you know it's getting right when it started the bubble with the little bubble on it, then you're going you're cooking with grease.
So take me back, take me back to this time.
Woh Boy Washington, d C. Born and raised in Washington, DC. Grew up in the household with all my family members. At first, I say, the first eight nine years of my life.
I lived in the.
Household with my mother, my aunt Mary, who was like my grandmother. My grandmother passed before I was born too, so she was like the matriarch of the family. Four uncles, my uncle Ricky, my uncle Reggie, you know, I mean, my uncle Eric Harrold, who was you know, a cousin, but he was like an uncle. Sheel was like a who was a cousin but was like an aunt. They grew up with my mother, my mother of course, cousin Derk and it was just so many people in the household.
So I got to get the influence from all of those different people, from you know, good.
Bad, and in different Were you an only child, No, I.
Have a little brother. I have a little brother who's three years younger than me. But so I grew up there and we moved into apartment, our first apartment my mother got and this is where I would say my culinary journey began. And it began with cam Ravioli because it's an easy thing to make, you know, it was very easy for my mother to show us how to make that. It's just you just put it on the stove, heat it up, you know what I mean, season it
to where you want to season it. Two, it was a certain point where I was staying on the little stool and cook it. Because she was always at work, you know, she would have to get up at three o'clock in the morning and catch three busses to get to work, you know what I mean, and to go be a custodian. So by the time she got home, it was very red and she had the energy to do anything but go back to sleep so she can wake up in a couple more hours to go back to work.
So for me. This was you know, me and my little brothers. This was our delicacy.
There was no stepdad in the house or oh no.
No, no no.
There was you know, a couple of niggas that stepped in, but they weren't step das as they were just doing their thing, you know what I mean. And you know, that's pretty much the dynamic of how you know, my mother's relationships worked throughout my life. It was never very She was a very, very very stern woman to say the least. And I've learned from you know, God rest
her soul. I've learned that it takes a very special type of man to deal with a woman who is is very self aware and stern and not gonna let you just play no games. You couldn't play no games with Wanda Bean. You had to be honest. You had to be forthcoming and forward. And if once she saw that you weren't who you said you were, you wouldn't want to be around her anyway. Oh I hit a bubble, I hit a bubble, bubble, Wow, you gotta know you're moving and around there we go. But I was fortunate
enough to have male influence. I don't want to make it seem like I didn't have any male influence.
My uncle's and you.
Know, a lot of the guys I grew up with in my neighborhoods. You know, I was very active as a young man because my mother, you know, had a different sentiment. I say, she raised me and reverse, you know, with all the coddling and protection and you know, that's my baby. You think that a woman would give a young man whose father was a victim of gun violence and you know, try to protect me from all the things the streets of Washington, DC had to offer. That
wasn't her sentiment. She was like, you know, get out there and do something. You the man of the house. So I've always you I was the man of my house early. I have responsibility my whole life. So at the time when I was young, I didn't recognize how,
you know, blessed I was to have that responsibility. But in hindsight, I do now, because now I realize that it as an adult, a lot of the gentlemen who I grew up with and I was around, who were my peers and you know, older than me, still han't learned to, you know, take responsibility in the way that
I did. When I was nine ten years old. So as a man, it is you know, it's really prepared me for you know, life in ways where I'm able to do things instinctively that most people look at as heroic effort, but for me, it's just what I'm you know, used to doing.
Okay, But you were saying that she coddled you later on though.
Oh yes, a grown man.
As a grown yes, yes, when I became once I became a man and got out here and started to you know, live my life, and she saw that the lessons and things that she taught me were actually being applied without her presence. That's when she opened up. Like I didn't see my mother. I saw my mother cry. I saw a fight before I saw a cry, Just to put that in perspective, you know what I mean. But by the time I became a grown man and got out here, she would cry about everything. Was scared
of shit out me, every little thing. But hey, hey, what's all this sensitivity you got going? But yeah, so I would say that, you know, by the time I became a grown man, that open you know, loving, you know, that's my baby.
That's what she gave me, you know, that's what she gave me for sure.
Yeah, I think dang, I should take notes. I'm gonna take notes from me.
Oh well, thank you so Ravioli cooking or just life?
Wow?
I mean.
So, now take me to get closer and closer to I'm trying to get to the road to where you're at today. So at what point does what's your does comedy enter the picture?
Comedy enters the picture? My after I graduated.
From college, after college, not even high school. No, No, I love how everyone here is like a college graduate.
Well no, no, not at all. That was definitely not my perspective in high school. High school. You know, I had a very different vantage point than what I wanted to.
Do with myself.
What did you want to do in high school?
Be in the streets? Oh?
You wanted to be in the streets, as in like a dope man. Yes, yes, that was a goal.
That was my Yes, without question, that was That's all I wanted to do. All I wanted to do was be active and be the man in my neighborhood, in my section, and be known in that capacity because that's what my environment bred and that's what was normalized where I come from, you know, and my uncle Reggie God rest his soul, was murdered in two thousand and two, and I said, my father was killed when I was
two years old, and I don't remember. I have no recollection of my father, But my uncle Reggie was like my father. He was probably the closest thing that I had to a father figure in the consistency of his presence and in the things that he showed me how to do as a man. A lot of my characteristics and who I am as a man came from watching and mimicking and just being around him. So when he was killed, it scared me because I knew that my goals and aspirations wanted to be in the streets. But
I thought he was invincible. It's certain people you think it couldn't happen to, and I thought he was one of those people.
So when it happened to him, I knew that.
You know, I've never been as much as I've always been good at getting money and being responsible for myself. I knew I wasn't a gorilla, you know, and he was, and he lost his life in the streets. So I've never had a problem with a problem. But I'm also not aggressive, you know, just I'm not that person. You're not going to do anything to me, But I don't want to do anything to you either.
Yeah.
So that's always been my perspective. So when he lost his life, that's what put me on a trajectory into where.
I am now.
I didn't even want to go to college before then. I didn't know nothing about college. They didn't talk to us about college in DC public schools. They were just trying to get us to graduate before you know, something happened to you, or get you out of there before they realized you in the twelfth grade and only reading on.
The fourth grade.
Yeah, exactly right.
But you know, once I went to college, I went to Winster Salem State University in Winston Salem, North Carolina, where I still live and reside to this day. I went, you know, matriculated through school, and you know, I joined the fraternity and did all the things. I was immersed in the college experience, and you know, I would host all of the step shows and you know, the stroll offs and all of the banquets.
You are hosting them, hosting them. Okay, so you're definitely had sparks of outgoing.
Yeah. I've always been that way.
Now, that's one thing I will say has always been present in my life. I've always been public speaking. I did my first public speaking at four years old on Frederick Douglass in a competition. I was too young to win and one okay, But so I've never I've never been afraid to speak in front of people.
I've never had stage fright.
I've always been the person whenever they wanted somebody to speak at a certain level and communicate at a certain level, I was always wanted they would come and get Even throughout my entire school and all that, I've always been that person. My communication is, you know, my gift from God. I know that now, but at that point I didn't, but people were able to see that within me. So when I graduated, I went home and you know, my mother.
I had never been to my father's grave site. So I went to see my mom and told her I was going to see my dad for the first time. And I went to the gravesite. And when I went to the grave site, they took me to a older part of the grave site and you know, pointed to the grass and was like he in this area somewhere, and I was like, oh, you know, I hope I put these flowers on the right nigga.
That was my first initial thought.
But but in that same vein, I was like, man, whatever he had done in his life didn't garner him enough to have a market to let the world know that he existed. Nor did anybody around him have the capacity, the or the ability to do so for him either. So at that point I was like, Okay, I don't know what I'm about to do, but I gotta do something. You know, I can't be a patch of grass. I gotta be more than that. I have to, you know, leave more of a legacy than he was able to
leave before God took him away from here. So I went home and it gave me a sheet of paper at the gravesite, and I gave it to my mother, and my mother looked at it and immediately started crying, I mean balling crying.
She was like, he didn't down on his day. They got the day that he died, wrong on his day.
And I'm just looking like in mind you, I told you I saw my mother fight before I saw the crist So this is like spooky to me. I'm kind of standing there in all like no world is going on. But then at that moment, I also recognizing that in that moment that whatever was inside of that man impacted this woman, who I know is a soldier, soldier to where she's still reacting as though this just happened yesterday.
Wow.
So as even though I didn't have the ability to be able to physically see this man or not this man, I know this woman and I know how this woman has displayed my entire life to me how strong she is. But the sight of this man's death date being wrong took her out of her body and just made her lose it. So that means that whatever's inside of me is what made her feel the way that she feels about this moment right now. So I got something. I don't know what it is, but I'm about to start
figuring it out. And my homeboy, Jerome God bless him, Mom was like, man, you should do comedy. You should do comedy. I'm like, man, I like comedy. I'm a fan of comedy, but I ain't never thought about doing no comedy. And he was like, all right, man, we look, you need to do comedy, I'm telling you. So it was an open mic night at the Greensboro Comedy's On, which is my own club every first and second Thursday of the month.
I went on the first Thursday and.
Watched everybody bomb and I was like, well, I can at least do this bad and I went back the next week. I did my four minutes on stage. That's how much time they gave you at the open mic. I did my four minutes. When I got off stage, my feet hit the floor and I was like, this is it, this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
And from that moment.
Time, yes, I did.
I did great, amazing My first time, this was right around the time when Obama was running for president. It was always so My first joke that I ever told on stage was about what I wanted the inauguration to look like should a black man win the presidency. Well, it was basically like, I just don't want to have a black president and it not be a black experience. We already got Black History Month and we don't get to do nothing if we got a black president. I
want a black inauguration. I'm talking about Frankie Beverly before I let go to be played instead of the national anthem, I want the best fried chicken chefs around the country to be I'm talking about fried chicken on the stage and making fun of whatever it is, the stereotypes that white people thought that we was never going to be able to get to this position. I want all of those things to be put right in front of their face. We in here now, you know what I mean. And
that was pretty much the basis of the joke. And I got on stage and the guy who was the leader of the open mic at that time, who was like, the big name name is Chris Wilds, who's a mentor of mine, pull me into the side. I was like, it's your first time. He was like, man, that was amazing for your first time. Man, that's great.
Man. Should you should? You should keep going.
Then at that point I had already made a decision that devil what I was gonna do. But just getting that level of confirmation from somebody who was a professional. And then one thing I always tell people about comedy, You always can tell who's funny from the wait staff. If you ever go to a comedy club, don't ask
the owners. Don't ask the people, Ask the waitresses, the people who work at the club, because they are there every weekend watching these shows and they get a different perspective on what comedy is because they watched so much of it. So after Chris told me I was funny, Waitress Ghetto, who was my homie, came up to me and was like, you funny as fuck. You need to come back all the time. And so that was my introduction to comedy. So from that moment on, I been
doing comedy. And then that the next month, that next show, I went back like I was Eddie Murphy and bombed, and then you know, I got my come up ins in that regard. This is going to take some work. You know, You're not just gonna be able to get up here and wing it. You're gonna have to actually put your effort and time into this. And that's the reason why I stayed in North Carolina because I knew if I went home to d C, I knew too
many people and too many people knew me. So when people know you for something, it's very difficult for you to be able to.
Get out of that box that they know you for.
You know what I mean, because if they know you for being a certain way, when I come and I know what chasing a dream entails, you know I have already had that perspective on what it took to make it to do anything, because, like I said, I've always had responsibility. So I knew if I went home and you know, people that know me are saying, damn, bro, you broken, And they say.
Is who don't know you is different?
Yeah, when it's somebody who you know is coming from a place of maliciousness and they really are concerned, it makes you feel a little different. So I stayed in North Carolina where I didn't know anybody, and I said, I'm gonna make it work here. And it's the best decision I ever made. I think we might think you might be in the game.
Hold up, so how long did you struggle for? I love that you're getting into this. Wait, did the raviolis break?
That's what you want. You want that meat and the sauce.
You want certain ones to break open because you want that meat and the sauce. So even if you don't get a ravioli, that sauce still has the beef in it, so it's like, you know, that's why I put the water in it so it don't get sticky. But even when they break up, you want that flavor to get up.
In there.
Yeah, I think we are legit.
Let me move it over to here. You gonna let that just marinate a little bit. But what was your question?
Make sure you turn off that stove, man?
Oh yeah, I don't want to leave eighty five, not the way I found it.
There we go.
So how long did you struggle for.
Man? Struggle? You mean financially?
Financially financially from two thousand and eight to about two thousand and sixteen.
So eight eight years. And then during that struggle, how bad was it on you mindset and emotionally?
Like?
How much questioning did you do?
I never questioned whether or not I was doing the right thing. I always questioned whether or not I was doing it the right way. But how bad it got for me? Boy, I wouldn't even check my mailbox because I knew it wasn't nothing in it. I had so much mail in my mailbox they thought I.
Moved because you thought it was just bills or something ought.
That's all I want to understand that, Because like, I used to hang out with some guys that couldn't afford their bills, and I'd be like, yo, you not opening it and not dealing with it doesn't make it go away.
Yeah, but it makes me not have to look at what I'm not having at the moment. You'll get it when I get it. When I get it, I get back with all of y'all. You know what I'm saying, But you know the reality of it was I knew that, you know my responsibility the way that I've been taught and raised. The reason why I didn't want to look at it or didn't want to put myself in that position is because I know how to get money. I know how to go and do something that's gonna garner
me some type of financial game. But I don't want to look at something that I know I don't have and force myself into thinking that this is the only way I'm gonna be it, because, like you said, it's not gonna go away.
Yeah, it's not.
Whether I pay it today or in ten years, I'm still gonna have to deal with this. So I rather continue my journey and find my way and deal with it when I can deal with it the right way. And that was the best decision because even once I got on TV, I got on TV in twenty thirteen, so I didn't start making money to where I was able to get.
Ahead of what was your first move on TV? It was in twenty thirteen.
That's when we get on TV and.
You start two thous eight.
Okay, So it took me from two thousand and eight to twenty.
Thirteen, and you still wasn't like financially, No, no, damn.
And that and when I say twenty sixteen, I just took the struggle away. I wasn't struggling once twenty sixteen came. But I still stayed in my college apartment from twenty thirteen to two thousand and seventeen, So I was stacking money up because I was still paying the same amount of rent that I was paying when I was broke. Smart, so I was able to get ahead of the bills
that I owed in that space. But then once twenty seventeen came, I was able to start to get all of the debt that I owed diminished.
Did your mind play any tricks on you?
Because at this point you getting what I would say is like the accolades, but maybe the financials aren't matching it. Did your mind mess with you a little bit on that or your ego? No?
No, that's that's where I'm blessed because in those times where I was talking about growing up and having those responsibilities, those are the times where my ego messed with me when I was missing the bike rides and missing the football games because I had to walk to the safeway and get the groceries for the house.
And so I learned how to deal with that very early in life.
So by the time I got to a grown man and I was following those things, then I don't care what anybody thinks about me.
That's you know, I'm.
Very, very very selective with whose opinions I let matter in my life. So if you're not one of those people, you can think whatever you want to think about me.
That's your right.
You have the right to your opinion, just like I have the right not to give a fuck about it.
So we even so, by.
The time I got to chasing this dream, those things didn't bother me at all.
What bothered me was feeling like.
If I would have made a different move here, I might have not had to deal with this at this moment.
But you know, that was just the most difficult process.
Outside of that, I didn't have any problems with, you know, perspective of others.
And during this your mom's still present. Yes, okay, for sure.
So can you just take me to how you ended up getting on walling out?
Yeah, that's a very unique story too, young lady who I'm sure you might be familiar with Dolly Bishops.
I love Dolly. Yeah, that's that is that is my baby and my baby.
We went to school together.
Oh I didn't know that.
Yeah, we went to Winston Seld State together. So at this time and we came up together, like I.
Did not know that. I know, you guys are cool. She mentioned.
Dolly is like there's nothing that she couldn't ask me for.
There's nothing I wouldn't do for to this day, like if she was to call me and ask me for anything, you know, there's no situation she can be and why I wouldn't stand by her side.
I feel about her.
But she was working with Nick Cannon at the time as his assistant both eaton while I broke at that time.
For you know, yeah, she was you know.
Nine ten.
Yeah, so Nick was having a show called The Fresh Faces of Comedy in New York. So Dolly, being an advocate for you know us knowing us doing comedy in North Carolina, said that she wanted us to come up to do one of the shows. Myself and a gentleman named Beatott, who was a person that I started with in North Carolina w also as a graduate of Wants to sell them State University. And that went up the first week, and I went up the second week to
do it. And when I went up the second week, when I walked into the comedy club, the owner of the club was like, all right, man, we don't know who you are, so you can't say the N words. You can't talk about this, you can't talk about that. You're gonna see if you're funny now at this point, that's what I planned on talking to. So I went outside. And I don't really write jokes. That's not my process. I write down the idea, but my creative processes I
walk around and talk to myself. That's how I get it, you know.
So do you still record all your sets?
No?
No, have you ever?
Sometimes? But I have a very very keen memory. That's one of my gifts. I'm able to remember things, especially things that come out of my mind.
Once I get it.
Out and I hear it, it's there, you know, I'm able to retain it. So I was outside making up my set. And as I was out there talking to myself walking around in the circle, Nick came up and I'm sure now I know he just thought I was just some crazy nigga outside talking to himself in New York. But I went on stage and did my ten minutes and killed because my set was.
About what just happened.
Okay, Oh brilliant, yeah, brilliant.
It was literally about what just happened.
So and it was about my day that I had that day leading up until me being on stage. And when I got off stage, Nick was like, man, hey.
Bro let me.
I'll let you real quick. And he was like, man, was you just outside making all that up? Because I said something about him walking in seeing me talking to myself on stage, He said, was you just making that up outside? I'm like yeah, he said, Man, I'm around some of the best in the game. They can't do what you just did. Keep working so fast forward the next day, Dall invites me out to six Flags with them, and at this point, I'm just a fly on the wall. On the wall, I mean, I'm nobody at this point
in regards to you know where I sit now. And you know, I was out hanging with Dolly with Nick and everything, and we went up to ride a roller coaster and this is as close as I'd ever been.
To fame, you know that type.
Wow.
Okay, So I'm watching Nick walk up to ride the roller coaster and people are going crazy, ah, trying to take pictures, and the lady on the microphone that you use to say take off, and she's like, don't hang over the rails, and it's just trying to calm people down. And I'm looking like, Okay, if I make an impact in this game the way I feel like I'm going to and want to, this is what my life life will be.
Can you deal with this? Can you deal with.
Not being able to ride a roller coaster without people wanting to make noise and running up on you all the time?
And I said, and I looked and I thought about it, and I was like, yeah, I can do it. I can do it. I can do it.
Well, Nick has it easier compared to because I remember I did an event with Nick and Mariah once and never was phased by some of the stuff that Nick went through. I feel like he is truly a trooper when it comes to that stuff. But seeing what Mariah went through. I said that that I hate to say it, but that life sucks because Mariah was like almost like an animal like people.
Just she needed so much protection.
And I was like, yo, I actually feel bad, Like can you imagine never going to a grocery store.
Yeah, that's a different that's another level, you know.
But Nick's level is cool.
No, I mean, you know, it depends on the environment. You know, there are certain people who no matter what environment they go to, is going to be that. There's some people who you go to certain environments where it won't be that, but if you go to certain places, it's going to be pandemonium. So you know, that was my introduction to you know, Nick Cannon. Fast forward two years later, almost I see a tweet that he's bringing back wilding Out. So I immediately called doll like, dollars
is real. She's like, yes, it's real. He has already been talking about. So I'm like, man, whatever I got to do, Man, let me know, because I had just found out that I was getting laid off from my job. Now, my job that I was working at the time, I was a qualified professional. I worked with people with substance abuse issues, autism.
All of the difference.
I didn't know job.
Yeah when I before I became comedian full time.
Yes, And what was your college degree in?
It was in communications radio television with a minor in sociology. Oh yeah, So the sociology is what I was using to pay the bills up until I was able to make comedy and entertainment my main source of income. But I found out I was getting laid off. So Nick ended up doing an audition in North Carolina because he had a radio show that was naturally syndicated at the time, so it was one of his affiliates in North Carolina. So he just did a thing where he did an audition.
So me and my guy beat out went up and did the audition, and he tells this story, which is interesting.
I didn't even get this perspective. He said.
When he went in, you know, it was cool and wasn't nobody really laughing. But from his vantage point, he said, when I walked into the room, he said, I wasn't in there for ten fifteen seconds before the room erupted and laughter.
So that was my first audition.
And then Nick was like, you know, man, this was just something I was doing, just to do, like as a mock thing, but you just you got to come to the real audition. So he invited me up to New York to come to the real audition. Now at this point, I'm like, how nay, hell, am I gonna get to New York because I'm broke, you know what I mean. So I took some clothes. I've always been very.
I was gonna say yours. We got to point it out at the end. But your accessories, your stall and everything.
That's crazy.
And that's always been something that I've taken prior and that's that's my only vice. That's always been my vice because I started buying my own clothes when I was thirteen years old and I've been doing it ever since. So it's embedded in me. So I always have nice clothing and jewelry. Oh yeah, it was not The jewelry wasn't always nice, but the clothing was always decent. But uh, I took some clothes to play those closet and traded in the clothes to get the plane ticket to go.
To New York.
Oh wow.
And when I got to New York, I did the second audition, and I made a joke about the fact that I had to do good enough to come and have to do good again, and then I you know, killed the audition then. And then at the end it was like, hey, remember that joke you made at the beginning of your audition about having to come do good again? Yeah, we were gonna need you to fly back up to New York next week.
And I'm like, oh God, did you just well at that point, wasn't Dolly staying in New York?
Couldn't you have?
Like?
Yeah, I mean I could I stay. I did stay with you?
Oh did you pull that movie man to New York?
You know what I mean?
So I remember going to my rental office and the lady at the rental office, who you know, is a lovely lady, still friends to this day, and she tells me how proud she is of me all the time and always jokes about this.
You know. She the reason I made it.
But I went to her and told her, like, I have an opportunity that can change my life, and I'm gonna have to be laid on my rent to make this opportunity happen. But I promise you, just you know, give me, give me a couple more days, please, if I can just get it to you. You know, I'll be forever in your gratitude. She was like, baby, whatever you got going on, I can see in your eyes, go go do whatever you need to do.
I'll make it work. And I went back up to New York.
We did the group audition, and then after the group audition, I had, you know, waited a couple of weeks audition where they had all of the people that are considering for the show at the time. And I did the group audition, and when I came back home, probably about a week and a half. Two weeks later, I got a call from now Evans, who's one of the producers on the show, and he said, yeah, man, unfortunately we're not going to be able to bring you in.
The workshop for the show. I was like, damn. He's like, yeah, but welcome to the cast. A while orn out.
You made it, so some people have to come in and work. He was like, you made the cast and that was a tough one.
Yeah. So I got.
Officially laid off January eleven, if I believe it was, which was a Friday. That Monday, I flew out to shoot Wilder Out. I haven't worked since then.
Wow, what an incredible incredible, incredible story. Do you and Dall ever look back and joke about.
All the time?
All the time, man, all the time, like because we came up together, Like we really literally came up together,
like our whole experience, our whole growth process. Like to say I'm proud of her is an understatement, you know, because you know, we were having these conversations about what we were going to do and going through those you know, we were each other's therapists for years when it came to trying to go through all of the the ups and downs of entertainment, you know, from both sides of the game, from her being on the other side of the camera and me being on this side of the camera.
So you know, just seeing the growth that we both have been able to experience, coming from where we come from and really coming from starting together in the process of making the name for ourselves.
Man, it's a blessing, you know.
I mean, I can't even really put in the words how proud I am of her. And I know from all of the things that she's done and all of the love and you know, just opportunities that she's garnered me just from believing the meat the way that she has throughout the years. There's no doubt in my mind that she's my biggest fan.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it says a lot too.
Whenever I hear someone say they're friends with Dolly, I'm like, yo, you must have some level of integrity, some great level of integrity. Yeah at all, because I feel like with Doll there's just so much integrity.
And most people don't know who she really is. I know her for real, like for real, I feel like I know Doug most.
I know her.
She's authentic.
She is a very authentic, but there's a side of her that most people would be shocked if they saw.
I just leave it at down.
I believe that I recently had a conversation with her that actually did shock me, and I kind of felt bad afterwards, like you know, like that was shocked, Like I saw a more vulnerable side of her than she She shows so much strength that I was actually taken back, and I was like, damn, that's why we got to be nice to the people that think we think are so strong, like even like your mom, you.
Know, like if you if you knew Dog's background, man, And that's the thing. I know her whole family like everybody, like you.
Know, oh you know them when I show up.
I show up. You know, I'm family, you know what I mean? Like this is it?
It's different with us, like that's my partner, you know what I mean, like point blank period that there's nothing that I wouldn't share with There's nothing we wouldn't share with each other. We never lied to each other about anything,
no matter what it is. So you know when I go and you know, show up to see where she comes from and vice versa, Like people would never know our backgrounds when you meet us and have conversations with us, you would never know that we come from the type of environments that we come from.
But it'll really.
Shock you, like people, people, people would be ten times more enaminate shocked with her as a person if they knew where she came from.
Yeah, yeah, I'm a little familiar, but not all the way. But I know she came from a lot. But we're gonna go ahead and try to Yeah, we're gonna have to test your seasoning skills.
I'm gonna put one in here, and I'm gonna put one in here because I don't think they got any type of antaskit or anything for us here what you say and acids?
You know what I mean.
I'm gonna try and avoid as much of the beef because I am allergic.
I mean too.
I'm just I'm gonna get the tip.
Yeah, I'm not gonna get the tip or nothing, but I'm gonna get a little bit of this noodle here and.
I got the noodle sire shit h.
Y y that's the same.
Yeah, still even with the season.
Yeah, still still chef id It's crazy.
I used to like when I would go to the grocery store with my parents, I used to like pray. I would never really ask because you know, my parents would tell you can ask, but they always see the answer. No, it just gets annoying after a while. But I used to always pray. They would put like shepherd d in the basket. I used to think this was like filet.
Oh yeah it was back in the day.
But now but now I'm like, yo, what was I think?
Oh?
Yeah, that used to leave a film in your mouth.
What are some things that you learned about the industry after coming that were tough lessons?
Man?
Tough lessons. Uh, integrity is far and few between. But people pretending to happen.
Integrity is everywhere you go. So when you meet somebody who.
Is able to where everybody wears masks, you know just in general everybody does in some way, shape or form.
But it's very difficult.
To deal with the things that come with this industry when people got on two and three and four masks and you think that you know somebody somebody then they take a mask off and you realize they're not who they are, and they'd be like, well, I was just wearing that one just to be in this environment, and you see them take another one off, and its integrity is very, very fond few between real integrity.
Another hard lesson that I've learned is.
Every opportunity doesn't come with a check attached to it. Some opportunity is just opportunity, and you have to be able to accept opportunity without being given any compensation for it to really gain what is really there for you
to be compensated for it in the long run. So there have been and it's not after coming into the industry, but prior to coming to the industry, there were a lot of opportunities that I turned down because I needed money so bad and there was no money there that would have taught me certain lessons that I learned after getting money that would have saved me some money.
If that makes sense.
No, it makes sense. It makes a lot of sense.
What I've learned even just being here the last couple of weeks, is that everyone that has been on this set like they are every corner, they're looking for a window of opportunity and they are maximizing on it. And a lot of the opportunities I've heard sitting here this last week, a lot of them were not tied to a check. Yeah, but it definitely was a pivotal moment that led to that check wasn't right around the corner either. That's why I'm always curious about, like what the mindset
is when you're going through that. I know me personally, I'm always back my FOD, like, am I doing the right thing? Is this is gonna be my last run? Is this almost up? What's my next game plan? What's my next move? But you know, it's great when you love what you do. I love hearing people's stories like I love this stuff, Like I literally like I could do this all day for the rest of my life.
What made you start to do this? Why this of all.
Things, because I I love me and broke guye, but a lot of my friends a lot.
Of time out now I love me and broke and I'm just saying past me, past sends me.
You say that, let me say it right now.
I'm past tense, past tense.
I'm gonna say this.
I'm telling you this a nigga eating some ravioli right now that just drop the bowl like nigga.
I knew she was.
Mine, so I used to love me a broke guye and I started. But I also noticed that I had these like two different worlds I was in. I was constantly in the world of by accident or whatever, like I had Nick Cannon as a business partner for ten plus years, or always be in these environments where somebody in my life was extreme levels of success and being around them their thought process more aligned with mine. But growing up where I'm from, I'm more comfortable over here
in Brokeland. And one of my homies used to when I went through a breakup, because you know, some guys are more insecure than others. They'd be like, man, you can't hang out with this rich guy and I'm over here and we don't like you doing that. So journal one of my breakups, I was like, you know what, fuck that, I'm gonna hang out with whoever. Fuck I want my real friends, which were successful people. But you know,
I was constantly in between both worlds. So I started spending more time with my successful friends and they would tell me these amazing stories on like who they were to get to where they're at. And at the time, I was going through a breakup and one of my homies,
day storm Power, shout out to him. He always told these stories about like how he's an ascory, he went to jail, he did this, he did that, he did this intern da da da, and then like someone else that was successful, chiming, and they tell their story and I'd be like, man, these stories are so fascinating. I could listen to them forever. And I love mentorship. And so the stars aligned and I was thinking about the process and the pandemic hit true story. Dolly plays a
ironically weird role in my story. But Dolly and I, you know, we work with Nick together, and we both checked out. I'll say a couple of years within, you know, going growing up in the industry and seeing men go broke, seeing men had their kids sleep on floors, living closets. You exposed to so much craziness in LA and being in the industry, you'd be like, man, is this going to be my life? Especially as a young person, you be like, man, this dude's broken. He's ten years older me.
He got his wife and his kids sleeping in the car and he still was he doing it for the groupies, you know. So I was trying to get traumatized by like some of the brokeness I saw, and I was like, man, I was telling Nick, like, Nick, I should make it when I'm twenty four, I should be a billionaire, and He's like, don't worry about that. Like a lot of
stuff is fake. But anyways, hanging out with my friends, I started to realize like different mindsets and now I'm at the point where I'm like, you know what, maybe I just belong here and this is who I'm comfortable with. Like I'm comfortable with my broke friends, but now I'm like, I'm also comfortable with my rich friends because they're the mindset currently is more aligned than these over here. But anyways, long story short, the pandemic happens my current business tanks.
It was a corporate events company, and uh, I'm like, yo, I want to do this, So I pitched my friends. Of course, all the celebrity friends like you gotta do it.
You won't have a choice.
They're like, girl, you ain't never done nothing in front of the camera, and you don't have no production values whatever. And I was out the game for ten years. I was like, Dolly, you have more celebrity relationships than me at this point, so you got to be my partner. You don't have a choice. You're gonna be my partner because I need your roller decks whatever. And fast forward she becomes the president of Black Effect. Fast forward, they need a cooking show. Fast forward my baby that I
had been working on during the pandemic. She calls me. She's like, you're gonna murder me and I'm like why. She's like, I had this call with Icmiheart and everybody, and they need a cooking show. So I pissed your show and I was like, okay, why would I kill you?
You know?
And she's like, Charlottage wants it like now, and I was like, why would I kill you? Like girl, we broke the table. Sitting here in my garage, my neighbors are driving by, like what are you doing this time? You know? And so I was like, I really didn't have a functioning plan outside of building this concept. But luckily I was already working on it. So when sear I wanted to show, all I had to do was pressent. Everything was pretty much done at that point.
I'm gonna give you how I did it.
I just thought of you just said you love your broke man and passed. You need to get some of them niggas to come on here and make some of the meals that had you sleeping in the house with them.
They we need to know.
What we never gone back to.
You don't have to go back, but I'm I mean, I know what really kept you over there, because broke niggas fuck different.
They they broke niggas are going. Boy, that the good.
The motherfucker.
After I finished getting myself in this least right here, right on.
To this least, they have sex for a different reason.
You god damn right, boy, You.
Legs and I get tired the way of broke nigga. Legs don't get tired when he needs somewhere to sleep at night, but that nigga will fuck his way out of a jam gun, I'm telling.
You my homies.
My homies used to clown me all the time to be like, I don't get it.
But then I'll tell you this.
A lot of my successful homies would be like, oh, never date a girl like you.
No, Well whatever, I used to be that nigga, and I know I can fuck my way out of a jam gun if I mean, I'm gonna have somewhere to stay.
Thank God he didn't put me in that position.
But should I have been the young nigga that I was at a certain point trying to make this happen?
Whoa boy?
I'd have been in love in three states wherever I was getting booked at.
My wife is there?
Your whole area, man, is what it is.
But you know, luckily, you know, God didn't see that as my trajectory. And the thing that I say now to anybody that may be watching that may be broke, coming from somebody who was and came through that, the thing that keeps me humble, if you will. I hate that word because it's so overused now, but the thing that makes me recognize what blessings are and how you know progression work? The word to me The life that we live is all about perception. How you perceive things.
You know, I'm looking at you now, You'll never see what I see when I look at you. I'll never see what you see when you look at me. We only have two eyes that we get in this lifetime. So how you see things will shape your life. And for me, what keeps me in pocket is knowing that today the problems that I have, the issues that I have at this point in my life life would have been the solution to every one of my problems now, would have solved every problem I had when I wasn't
checking my mailbox. The things that I might oh, man, I goes for me.
I have to. I have to.
The things that are problems are issues that may aggravate me in my life now. For example, or I just had to pay six thousand dollars for flights for my team ten years ago, six thousand dollars. I might have did something to you for six thousand dollars ten thousand, ten years ago. You know what I mean, I might have I might have did something to you for six g's.
So it puts it in perspective.
The things that God puts into your life is just a moment if you can work through it. Because, like I said, me having to worry about the things that I'm having to worry about now, I have to recognize that I'm blessed to be able to deal with things. Because money isn't anything but a cushion. It doesn't stop problems. Instead of when you got money, now when you fall down, you don't fall down and break your leg and strap your knee and your face scratched up. Now you just boom,
you bounce back up. But that don't stop you from falling. They don't stop you from having to go through the problems in life. But it's all perspective, you know what I mean. If your perspective, if you still in the perspective that you were in, no matter how much money you got, you'll always be broke. But if you have a grandiose perspective, no matter how much money you don't have, you're rich.
It's just you ain't got the money yet.
Yeah. I like that.
I've been learning recently too, and I've been saying this to myself a lot more. Is life doesn't happen to you, it happens for you. So like even with negatives, I'll be like yo. But now I live by the Serenity prayer, which I don't memorize any prayers, but that's the only prayer I say one hundred times a day.
So what is that?
It's God gramm me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to recognize the difference. I say that, I promise, I promise you. It'll be two in the morning I wake up. I promise you. I'm saying that prayer. It'll be three in the morning. It could be walking the dog, it could be talking. It doesn't matter if I'm facing of a challenge or not. I'm having a good time. That's the only prayer I say to myself at least hundred times.
Yeah.
I'm working on a book right now called The bright Side of Bullshit, and it's basically that perspective, you know, always being able to find a silver lining no matter what the situation is. You know, my mother passed away in twenty twenty one from COVID. I lost my mom, which was the most devastating hit that I could have took in life. At that point, you know, I thought that I was immune to death because I had dealt with so much of it, but nothing prepared me for
my mother. But in finding the bright side of bullshit, I realized that although it was tough for me to have to rub her back while she passed away and watch her leave here, what it did to me isn't anywhere in comparison to what it would have did to her had she had to do it for me. And there was a time in my life when that could have really been a realistic possibility for my mother from the way I was living and the things that I
was into. So as tough as it is for me to have to say goodbye to my mother, that's the way the circle of life goes, and her dream came true because she left here before children did and where it's supposed to go. So being able to find the bright side of bullshit is something that you know, I'm very stoic in my mentality and a lot of things, you know, I mean, you know, I'm more faty. As one of my favorite sayings, it's just love your fate, because you know, I truly believe that God is real.
I believe in the High Power. I'm not religious at all, but I'm very spiritual, and I believe that whatever your journey is has already been planned out for you. You just got to walk it. So there's nothing that you can do to change it. The only thing that you can do is have a perspective that is strong enough for you to understand that you can't change it and embrace whatever comes with it. And because one day it's going to be your last day on this planet with everybody.
That you love.
So if that's the case, what do you want to be remembered by? Do you want to be remembered by all the things that you complained about, all the things you help people not complain about.
Damn you crying?
Did I make a cry?
Look at Joe?
Come have some to make you smile?
You got seasoning on it now, I mean it got season on it, But no, you know this is this is you know. I have to have these types of perspectives because you know, people look at your life and then they have this vantaged point that everything is grandiose once you get some money. Now, I don't want to make it seem like getting some money is a bad thing, because it's a blessing.
We all know, all of us. You know, I'm looking over at Joe.
We don't all came in like who we need a little five hundred, you know what I mean? But you know, so it's a blessing to not have to have those problems. But there's no such thing as not having problems, you know what I mean. Problems are going to come, you know what I mean, Like your problems are your problems. But when your problems turn into issues, that's when you got a problem. And I mean like you can stop yourself from getting to the extreme.
You know what I mean. Like I.
Watch a lot of affirmations on the daily and one of the things that to do named doctor Joe Esponanza that I listen to a lot, and he says, how many possibilities.
Are in the unknown? Are they in the unknown? How many? It's infinite?
Yeah, So why do we immediately go to the most fucked up one and let that drive us?
You know what I mean?
You have the ability to control your mind. Like that's something that I truly believe in. Like, the most consistent thing that will happen to you in your life is your brain.
On talking side, your brain.
While we're having this conversation right now, our brains is talking inside our brain. So that's what you got to navigate. When the lights turn off and it's just you and that mind of yours, that's your life. Yeah, so learn how to navigate and manage that. And you know, the better you're able to do that, the better you'll be able to deal with all of the external things that come that you can't control.
Yeah.
I did shout out to Sholin, but I did this landmark thing, and one of the things that I learned I walked away with is like, it's really the story we tell ourselves that matter. Like everything outside, like like you said, with perspective is just like, well, what is the story I'm telling myself in here? What is this invisible story I'm telling myself that may or may not be true. But controlling the mind it's very very, very
very difficult. That's why I hints I'm in the serenity prayer stage of my life.
But there's no such thing as a bad thought. There's only such thing as bad actions and speaking negativity. I think all types of wild shit all day. I mean, you think about some of the shit that popping your mind throughout there, like, man, fucked up ass thought, I got let me tell you what. But it's not until you let it drive your actions and your mentality that it becomes negative. There's no such thing as a negative thought. There's negative action, and if you speak negativity, then you
know that's action. Speaking is an action. So until you speak some negative shit, it's no such thing as a negative thought in my mind.
Well, when I first became Christian, I'm raised Jewish, but I became Christian at like thirty, I will say, you know, when you're born again, you're like religiously like oh snap, you know, trying to control everything.
I was like, yo, my brain is really messed up.
Yeah, my thoughts are terrible. I respect the religion. The religion, boy, you are a gangster man. That is a gangster perspective to have. You know what I mean, No matter which one you choose, I respect, I respect. I saw a post on Instagram that said what is the most normalized addiction? And I said, it's religion Because when you think about it, religion has normalized behavior in the name of a higher
power that nobody has ever talked to. But the books that are written, the texts that are written, are interpreted by the same people that we look at and walking around every single day, So you think about human error and just power how that works, you know what I mean? Like a lot of that those texts have been tampered with, if you will, so people utilizing that as a way to judge other people for where you're going to go. I never understood how somebody can be like you going
to hell? Like when the last time you went? How you know?
How you know when somebody's going?
So I think it's you know, and I just spective, Like I said, I'm not religious, but I respect all religions. I've read the Torah, I've read the Bible, I've read.
The Koran, You've read all of them.
I'm not in.
Totality, but I've read them, you know what I mean. And one of the things that is consistent is God. There's one God and everybody is trying to get to that one place. So for me, I always look at it as religion as the temp agency. God is the Fortune five hundred company, and people try to get you to convert, and you know.
Feel the way that they feel.
But my thing is, if I'm such a viable candidate, why can't I walk my application directly to the Fortune five hundred company. What's the difference between a pastor and me? Because God said in all of the text that we are creating in his image, So I should be able to have the same type of direct contact with this person, entity or thing that we can't see as the man who you trust to lead you into eternity is. So you know that's my personal perspective. But you know I
respect all religions enough to know that. You know, it's tough when you switch. So salute to you because that was a gangst the move you made.
Yeah, I'm telling you all the Jews in my family was best. Oh yeah, and it was weird because they were like, yo, Dad, you married a Jamaican. We go you eating pork over there?
Like what are we even arguing about? Since when does Judaism even matter? Until I make a switch?
Because you mean, Jesus as you stopped playing with us over here, it's a different game, man, you know what I mean?
But I respect. Has that been beneficial to you to switch?
Uh?
Yeah?
No, I mean I got to see a lot of the hypocrisies in both.
But I think I used to think that everyone was born with a moral compass. More recently, I'm realizing that not everyone is born with a moral compass.
But I thought we were all born with.
A moral compass.
You know, I mean, meet a couple broke niggas, you realize that not everyone happening.
These broke niggas have ruined You got you in here eating ravioli and canned salmon and shit, you stuck broke guys.
Listen, take this as a as a lessons.
As much as she don't want to fuck with broke dudes no more, she still got broke dude taste buds.
Because if you funk right now.
You'll never be able to get that taste out.
Of her mouth.
That's literally gonna leave it at that.
Man, I hope they edited this all this.
Yeah, they're gonna edit it out. But it's okay. It's love. You know.
I don't want none of them that's watching this be like, yeah, I knew I had a shot back at her. All I gotta do is make that grilled cheese with the bacon on top of be right.
Back over to the now. I'm one of those women.
I'm like the little clips you see online where the woman's like if a dude isn't making that much I'm like, yo, if you ain't even matching what I got and more, we're not doing it.
I mean all the way down to assets.
Really yep, No, I mean I mean, ain't nothing wrong with it now? Just at least you have served your duty to the community.
Man.
You got me here cooking ravioli. You have done your due diligence, You have done your bif you have given I hope that one of them. I hope at least, what do you have one success story? They got to be one of all of the broke niggas that you dealt with. They got to be one that made it, that made it, that made it, that made it to be successful.
Isn't that you? None?
Let me tell you it's so sad because.
Yeah, none.
I'm sorry, damn your track record is hard sad.
Because I've mentored so many people in my life. But yeah, I don't know.
It's a nigga with a job at UPS supervisor right now, Like, hey, I digress, you got me fucked up.
Man.
I make seventy six thousand dollars a year now. Now, I was making your money when I was fucking with you. So hey, man, if you send a letter into eating my broke fellas, not anonymous letter. Send an anonymous letter in and uh, let.
It know that you're it's so hard to date me at this point it is impossible.
What makes it hard to date you?
That's because I do.
I do full reference. Now I need numbers to exits, the same way you go to job, you have your references. I'm gonna be like, look, give me the number, steel Excess. Let's have a conversation because I give up my number. Smikes, they gonna say, Yo, my only regret was sucking up.
My only regret.
My only regret is not making sure that she didn't get to go around some niggas that made her realize she had regrets that I should have kept her in the house eating ravioli and grilled cheese, and she'd have never knew it was nothing.
Better of them.
If you talk to some of them, be like, I know I should try to get you pregnant, because you know that's every guy's go to trap.
Trap. Really yeah, I don't trust none of y'all.
Man, that's crazy. I don't know where you trying to trap you. Where you was dating you? You must have been dating and death jam Vendetta that was great.
God, it's interesting to me.
It's very interesting to me to hear that, because I know it's true.
They try to trap you.
They need roofs, they need credits, they need You got to think if you come up on somebody, you you know, and you broke.
But that's but that's ignorance. And in mind you.
I speak from the perspective of I always say it's our fault.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not blaming the woman. It's always the man's fault.
I'm want to because they be perpetrating.
But the reality is it's your fault. Though it's your fault, it's your fault as a woman. And I'm gonna tell you, I don't know how how real we can get on eating while broke. But these are the conversations you should have been having with them, niggas. Uh.
Here's the thing.
That I that I say, why I say it's your fault is in this Please? This is this is you know, this is you know, adult content, So you know what I mean. This is the reality. You are a woman, which means you have the prize, which is I agree with all this. The pussy pussy is valuable. It's one of the three things. They can be sold any where on earth. Guns, gold, and vagina will sell anywhere air
is being breathed. There has never been a man anywhere that's been down to his last dollar and said, you know what about to start selling some dick that's never happened.
That's never happened.
So with that being said, if you have the asset that is valuable, you are in control of what you allow to be the key that opens the lot.
I agree with you.
So therefore, if you continue to allow yourself to be tricked by baller costumes, then that is what the heck baller costumes.
You don't know what a baller costume is. They wear them all year round.
You see this, all of this, all of this, it came from hard work. But I can give this the same watch, the same ring, the same bracelet to somebody who has nothing, and they'll be able to get you because they have this. And you assume that, because they're wearing this, that they are all of the things that comes with the shininess. And that's your fault because you don't ask the right questions.
What you say you do.
Now, I commend you, because that's what you're supposed to do, and I say the same thing the men. We gotta do better because y'all got a whole list that you just said, you checking references every man out here.
You know what's on our list, pussy, that's it.
We ain't updated our list since the beginning of the time. That's all we have on our list.
That's it.
So therefore we got to ask better questions too. I say that the men all the time. You got to treat your dick like you treat your Social Security number. If a woman walks up and asks you for your social you're gonna be like, what type of question is that man?
Fuck out it?
She walk up and ask you for some dick? You you serious?
You're real? Give me, give me twenty minutes, let me you know what I mean.
And we don't even we don't even ask the type of questions that we should ask as men that would place value in who we are.
I'm curious, So what kind of questions now that we're here. I know we're going over guys, but that's.
All good, you know.
I mean, you want to know what type of questions that a man should ask? What is your gind of collegist name?
Okay, that's a good one. Okay.
If she can't answer that like it's on the back of her driver's license, then that means she probably don't have no health insurance. So you mean to tell me, ma'am, I'm supposed to be working hard for some vagina you ain't even had inspected.
Wow, Okay, that's.
What's the last book that you read from cover to cover?
Okay, that's a good one. That's a better one than the Gin of Colleges.
But I mean no, it's not because most women can't name their gno collegest because they don't have one.
Okay, all right, and then what's the next question?
Oh, there's plenty of them.
Let me think of a good one that a man should ask a woman. I don't want to get too in depth on the cooking while brother.
How does that?
How does that impact a man? Because usually it's men don't get really played like that?
What you mean played like?
Because you're like, why would a man benefit from that if all he seeks is viagina?
Well, that's a man that's asking those questions, not a man who only seeks vagina. Because a man who only seeks vagina is not even asking you nothing he just acting like he want to hear what.
You're saying and then so he could clone and be whatever you want him to be.
So a man that's asking certain questions in mind, you I have a daughter who I'm raising, so I have to give her the cheeks. Like I hear women complain all the time about broke niggas and shit that niggas do, and I'd be like, well, what questions are you asking these niggas? Because it's very easy to find out if a man is a liar. You just got to be out of your comfort zone to be able to find out quicker than you have found out already.
Stop asking the niggas. So what are your goals in five years? And what are your plans for the future? And what is what is? What is all that funk? All that man? How many times a week do you beat your dick? Sir?
You see how the whole room stop. Now if you ask a man that and he like, well, what you mean why you ask me that? But that's a nigga who's thinking about what he's going to tell you. A man who's being forthcoming and truthful will say, wells it as much as I can. Now, you know, you're dealing with somebody who at least has the capacity to be able to have a direct conversation without filtering whatever it is he's going to say to you. Also another question, what's your relationship like.
With your mother? Yeah?
I mean, we could you go on that all day. But there's some yeah, you.
Know what I mean.
And another one you can ask, man, if I had if we were in a relationship with each other and I had a contract that said you owe me every dime you make from the moment you cheat on me to the rest of your life, would you sign it?
Yeah?
Right there, that should be the question always said as before they get buried.
And if a.
Niggas say yeah, I mean I never do that, ask you to get up and leave.
Oh get up, get up and leave.
Take it from me that if a niggas say he has signed that contract, that nigga is a serial killer, get up and least.
That's crazy.
No man in his right mind whatever agree to them terms.
This is why I fall for the BS because I would have if he would have said what if, I would have.
Been like, Oh, that's how you end.
That's how sardines sitting the Indian style that is crazy apartment.
That's that was a perfect example.
I can't believe I would have for the sign answer the question correctly. There you okay, thank you for the lesson. Where can everybody keep up with Chico?
Keep up with me on Instagram at Chico Bean, Facebook at Chico Bean. Followed the eighty five South show and all of the things that our company and and our team is in telling we have a conglomerate with a building over here. Check us out on the Black Effect podcast Network. Salut to Charlamagne, Salute to Dolly. You know, just you know, keeping out. Were on tour right now. We the ones we're going right after that toward ends. We starting the eighty five South back up, so you know,
we got a lot of beautiful things. We got comment What about the book, Oh that's coming. I'm working on it now. So hopefully I'm thinking either by the end of the year or the top of next year, which be able to do it in Charlemagne already said he was going to look out for me and put me in place with some people that you.
Know can yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah.
So I've already done the due diligence, if you will, So I'm looking forward to, you know, getting that out to the people so they can you know, have this type of dialogue that we're having amongst each other teachers.
And then my last question, what's the last book you read from cover to back?
What's the last book I read from cover to back? The last book I read? I just reread a book that changed my life, Conversations with God by Neil Donald Walsh. I just went through a situation that was very, very very trying on me personally, and I had to whenever I get to those points where I feel myself about to revert to a mentality that I feel like I have surpassed, I always go back and read that book because that book saved my life.
I've heard people mention that book. I actually have it on a list of reading.
Conversations with God by Neil Donald Walsh.
That is, that's crazy, because that book is on my list.
That book saved my life. If it wasn't for that book, my old uncle J. God bless you Uncle J. If you see this, when my uncle got murdered, my uncle that I told you about, I was that probably would say that was the darkest.
Week of my life. Like that week after he was murdered.
I was, you know, it was very dark time for me, you know what I mean, And a lot of the actions and things that I did during that time I'm still rectifying now. And I was sitting outside and you know, and the worst way that you can probably be out in public, if you you know, when I think back on it, and he came outside, he saw me. This is somebody I have a high level of respect for, one of my big homies. And he took what I
had from me away from me. When the house came back out with the book and told me to go in the house and start reading. And under those circumstances, normally i'd have been like, man, the fuck out of here, and I'm out here, but something told me to go in the house and start reading.
And when I did, it save my life.
So I'm gonna check it out, please, I will. Yeah, I definitely.
I had it on my list, so it's crazy that you brought it up, So yeah, I'll check it out.
Another good one is The Way of the Superior Man. You should read that.
I heard about that, but yeah, you should read the women should read it.
Yes, women should read.
That's the thing I think men should read the books that women read, and women should read the books that men read. In regards to not necessarily that men or women read, but that are catered towards men, women should read those books, and the books that are catered towards women. Men should read those books because it gives you insight into the perspective that you probably wouldn't get in the general dialogue with the opposite sex.
Okay, you dropping gems. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it, no problem. Thanks for opening up the eighty five South home this last episode.
Everyone, Well, no I took that one bike out that Ravioli. Now my dudo gonna sound like a Russian nigga flugok a dish, and thanks for taking it for se look from Bro