Conversation About the Hood

we didn't ask him his opinion. Hey, we're ready back there. That's when you know we're in the pocket. Then. Yeah, Sometimes it just gets so compelling that you can't be compelled to resist. We're talking. See, it's exactly how it worked. It is. You know most people podcast King the Engineer don't talk. I don't know. I've been watching one where they really do talk. Well, let's see, uh, I was watching who was the engineer for the really Idiots podcast?

Don't get me lying because don't talk? I thought it was the girl with the computer and stuff. I thought she was engineering. Now we got the diddy of engineers all up in the audio. Yeah, You're like should not. You're like, oh no, that's you who should And I was talking about that's a good point. All up an audio, all of that song. This must be an l a music thing. No, no, it's quite a big deal, the source of awards in New York with sug coming on. If you don't want show producers all up in the

videos and all that ship. So you got under stay. I was probably gonna lockdown when it was playing at Yeah, so I didn't see no TV at that time. That's good to know. Now I'll go since you came home. It's because you know, usually engineers be behind the scenes. But we ain't tripping over Sugar juxtapost here all up in the audios and he's all the videos and I ain't. We ain't tripping. We're not like death row. We're letting you seine. Yeah, no ceilings, glasses, l O. See my

boy Pete for me. I gotta Pete brought a player, a special player through the spot. We we started late, but we're on time, so we're gonna make this motherfucker happen. Glad to be here, man it. Yeah, I go by q um just hereque for a little bit. Que one letter. Yep, just real quick qu that's solid. Okay. So I was asking Pete like, right, like, what are we gonna do

with this podcast? Because I don't think most people understand with no ceilings and Pete does, but he like, we never talked about how are we gonna do the podcast? So my focus point was always having conversations, right, um, about Pariah's in the community, you know, in the culture, or things that are very polarizing, you know, topics that we don't want to talk about. So some of the some of the future shows are you know, abusive husbands, um snitches, um nuns, all of these different ideas and

having conversations just talking to people. It's never really an interview, it's just really conversations. So I feel like and I think Pete brought you here because we both are from the hood, and I guess are our past were different,

right how we went about it. It's also like in knowing to you guys fairly well, it's a lot of what drew the interest to me for the conversation was really just the individual perspective, like your take and I think in general, like like like your specific like your gang is a little anal anomalous to like compared to a lot in l A and that you're pretty small and you all seem to like have a like a money making machine. There's a lot of people seems like

they're just kind of they're hanging out. Well, I mean, so the thing about gangs is they everybody's gangs come together differently, you know what I mean. Like, um so the concept that my gang is more of an anomaly or my homies is not right. Um, I guess we are to be a seven Street nigger. You do. At a time, you had to be a part of the economic system. You had to get some money. You couldn't be a broke nigga from the hood. That was just

like a joke, Like you couldn't do that. Um. Like you talked about like South Sides culturally being really about their super culturally, so comparatively, that must mean that relative to some other crews that aren't so much of their they have other agendas or other priorities. Maybe. Well, I mean I think that's in the hood period, right, Um, everybody don't know how to monetize their territory. You know,

it still requires a business mind to monetize your territory. Uh, some of my older homies, I think they can run Fortune five businesses. They like monsters when they come to marketing business and understanding. So it just depends on which part of the hood you act like. Um so like my neighborhood is a certain way because poverty was super super dense like right is, people was poor, not quite project you know, level of poverty right where they kind

of stick everybody right next to each other. But again like in in my in my sex, and you can buy a house for forty dollars all the way probably up into ninety nine, so comparatively like to six olds, like if you go to the avs like um, like in that part of the the hood right where you right, Um, what I took you king with boys in the Hood was that if you, um, if you own Vans or Arlington, whichever where you want to call it, that same street, if you a couple, you know you you uh, that

would be south of Florence, you know, mean south of Florence, south of Slawson, south of Slawson between High Park and Slawson right uh, behind the shopping center and Vans, that little section that's where they shot boys in the hood. Those houses are peppers pepper? Yeah, peppers? Did you make a stout peppers? But if you're in that section, I think houses in hundred and undred and forty thousand. Yeah, so again we're the poorest people that That's also where

the hustle is too. That's a big hustling thing poor people. Also is crackheads? Is people smoking crack? You know, it's it's a different level of economic opportunity available just right there for you to take advantage of. Versus if you go on the west side. The further you start going west, it ain't as many crackheads because it's like it ain't

really for poor people. That's why you don't really hear a lot of stories of super wealthy you know, west side drug dealers, like not the further you start getting west, it's not a ton of them because the poverty is different. Once you start passing normity in the hood, right, you gotta kind of be on the east side of the one tim That's where you know at Los Angeles, you know Hoovers. Once you get to where the Hoovers is,

you started coming into poverty. But the further you go east, you come to Watts, you know, you Linwood you know, like Compton that it's a different type of poverty, so the opportunities is more available. That's what you know, people on cracking and poor people you know, tending to live. So I think I get the concept. So my hood is more of an anomena in theory because it's small. But I think on the East side that's most games.

Well that's for sure, that's true. It doesn't and it's different than l a like and I don't know Oakland anymore. Like I lived up there in the early two thousand's and there wasn't like you have down here, like generational type of like entities so to speak. You know, it was like six seven guys that know each other. They were out doing their thing, and they might have given themselves a little bit of a name to their crew, but it wasn't like other people were trying to join

over the course of years and years and years. I mean, like the only names are like outfits. I even remember from up there will be like a corn Assassins, which I don't even think was like representative of all of acorns. It might have been so that a corps ship and uh that's in the movie because the movie with Queen Teeth and that's a real that's a real project. Yeah,

that's a real project. That's that was like one of the first new projects because right around the corner from there on, Mandela's like what looks like what you've seen and watch like the older square beat up like that Acorns is on like ade line seventh. It's like a it's much nicer looking facility business projects. So to that point, I think, again, it depends on which hood you at, right, So it depends on the hood itself. The hood is

kind of the opportunity. I don't know if it's as I don't know if it was ever as many smokers that lived in you know a trade as smokers that lived in Watts. Yeah, And I think you know, when you're looking at the dynamics of you know, the set or the gang, you're looking at again how that person runs this business. And like you said, like some folks could go out and run a fortunate five hundred company. Um, some folks diversify, you know, So crack again is going

to be a cheap jug. That's how you can easily exchange money. You're gonna have a lot of transactions. You're gonna be able to stack your money up in a in a quick way. And you look at some of the other gangs that are running around even to this day now human trafficking. You know, they find some way to find it. They will find a way to get their hustle and get their money up. Right, let me ask you a question, how many crackheads do you remember in Orange County? Not in my part of Orange County.

Basket pushing crackheads, not in my part of Orange County. But like there's been in general in Orange County, it's not happening. Like like even if you go down there now right, you're gonna see some of that stuff downing Fortune, You'll see some of that stuff. Maybe there's a lot of there's a lot of you, but you have a lot of method comes in there. But it's still it's

not really crack. It's been methy right, Okay, So like what I'm saying, so prime crack right when it was street sales, like you don't remember a ton of of of crackheads and HB or Newport Beach. No, that was that's that's power country, Okay. So right in in in the Bay and the E p A and Paalo Alto. Do you remember, Uh, yeah, do you? Did you ever sail Grt? No, I never did. I actually I never actually got into the game at all, which was, you know, crazy because it was around me. You know, it was

in my neighborhood, it was in my family. Um. But just like you said in regards to those folks that could run Fortune five companies, I just looked at the money exchange and I said, I could do the same thing. I can make that same money, are more without the risk,

you know. And and I tried to talk to people a lot in regards to those that may want to get into the game or they're flirting with the game, and we talked about like, hey, what's what's the reason for this gang that you want to jump into, right? Is it for to figure out a way to bring level up your money, you know, to bring resources to your community. Can you do those same things in a more effective way? Takes the rest away? And so that's

kind of what I look at. What was weird is so like when you were comparing like gangs or or or neighborhoods in the Bay Area and in hoods in Los Angeles, it's always a belief that it is this difference, right because l A has cribs and bloods, but the Bay Area has the same gangs. Right, even if they don't have a title, whether or not they identify themselves under a banner or you know, color to associate their

you know, affiliation, they still have the same gangs. These guys right in this hood grew up together, and they together, and those guys grew up in that hood and they together, and the class comes into this fight of you know, most of the time it's a resource issue or pride issue.

We talked about this right in the hood. Pride is like the the most valuable stock the way like to me, and I wasn't really like that shoulder shoulder with a lot of people in Oakland at that time, but enough and they kind of get the sense, like I don't know when, like it probably would be like that when you say, like in l A really like the mid to late seventies where lines really kind of started getting drawn and names were really kind of put onto certain areas,

but it would where were where. It was kind of like in that Generation one, an organic establishment of whose where so to speak by name, It seemed more so like it was always Generation one up there all the time, like you might have still lived there, but the older guys were the older guys. Well, I mean, I think the hoods in l A are definitely branded. L A in general is branded really well compared to the rest

of the country. But I mean that's the us A talking to like the community, right, we're in Hollywood, We're in the media mecca, you know, and branding it it's across the board, so it doesn't just hit within the gangs. It hits across every every aspect. And the only other cop to me, it's like Chicago, where like you know, for sure there's like, you know, some big factions that are and some of that has to do with history.

Some of that has to do with the amount of years that they were able to be established before you came over to l A, because l A is kind of a younger city in that regard in terms of gang culture and just in terms of people period. But yeah, the reason and I agree with you, that's part of the reason that the brand of what's happening here in it's kind of simplest explanation, became big because it is the home of all, you know, Hollywood media and films.

I'm sure so. But also I mean just being a hood nigg in l A. There is a like it's a costume as a it's a uniform to be a hood in the get in the left, whether you want to wear it or not. You can go somewhere and everybody don't know you from a hood in that left. It don't matter which one you're from. Right, there's a whole uniform completely right you. You know, whether that's you could be in l A nigga or Southern California nigga for Halloween. It's easy and it don't matter where you

at around the rest of the world. You mean, they'll be like, oh, that's that West Coast Southern California ship and up top right when you go to the Bay, it's not like that. There's no uniform, right you the average Bay Area person, if you if you're talk about somebody from the hood, you don't really pick it up until they talk. If you know the movements certain things,

if they flamboyant, you could tell. But just there's no uniform and it's smaller, but like, yeah, they're going up there, like well, there's distinctly a way that Bay Area people dressed. But I think it's not exclusive to Bay Area. That's the thing, Like, what's what's the most bay Area article, what's the what's the most bay Area article in the hood. You can wear that, Okay, that's some Bay ship. Yeah,

I mean that's it's gonna be. Nothing's gonna be exclusive to the Bay Man because they just kind of yeah, I mean that that white t. To me, what stood out at the time was those fucking jackets, those north face no, the puffy jackets, like yeah, yeah, but those those came out from by Moore. That's the Baltimore, Chicago, New York all this guy. So like, I don't in the Bay I don't know if there's anything that stands out. And I was like, I don't think people to wear

them anymore. No, But I mean you knew who they were at that time in that moment because they had that well because they're right. Yeah, but you couldn't take that sign uniform from that hood to any other hood in California and they would I excuse me, to any other hood outside of California and they would be to identify like, Okay, this person is from a Bay Area hood, right, Um. The culture is not exclusive fashion wise, the culture is

exclusive language and lingo wise. Where you listen to a Bay Area nigger from the Bay Area hood talk, you're gonna know right off the rip he's from the Bay. If he's talking, he from the hood, You're gonna be like, Okay, he from the Bay. From cars, that's a Byrey thing. They have a certain style about how they style cars, and the cars that they choose are very much of

representative of Bay Area hoods. Um, and he might be right Again, I don't think it's just a lack of exposure, right, I think, Um, the easiest part of branding, right is the outfitting of something, you know, the pain job. For me that that's the easiest out in it, I mean of a brand, right, So to be a hood and in the l A. Everybody, you could take that outfit to anywhere around the world and they're gonna be like, oh,

he must be from l A. From the West. So again, these are all great business moves, right, you know, that's that's that's that's from the hoods of Los Angeles. So even in his particular situation, like what you're saying, like he might be somebody that went a different direction. Everybody's going the same direction, right, everybody is you know, the product is irrelevant, the product that seems to get way more credit than it deserved. Like everybody can't just sell

rocks in the hood. You really, Like, I was talking to my barber. He asked me a question. It is sounded craziest here. I almost went to calling racist and ship, but he was like, he said, gee, like out of hooked up a lot of people with birds and ship, Like I got people hooked up through my people's right. You know a lot of times brothers burn him. And I was telling him to get a kilo of dope. Is like trying to ask the average America to open up their own business, Like you're setting them up to

open their business. You think that business gonna be opened up twelve months. No, you think every dollar coming in they know how to save it and make sure they budget for the month of parent And he was giving them out front. Yeah, so he knew somebody that needed a street dealer, and he knew the street dealers that needed to connect. But the problem is the the misunderstanding that the buyers weren't walking out with the full purchase

price and doing the transaction. No, hell no, you mean just sellers know, the buyer, the one who would show fired. It was no cash to transact, that's my question. He was so he got they got burned waiting further the cash to come back happened like they got robbed or something like. No, no, it was literally just us. You know the deal, the transaction didn't work out. Well. I think it's a confusing that that people want to steal and it's like, no, they don't know how to run

this business. Like, bro, to have a fucking bird of dope, you know, a thousand Grahams thirty six ounces. Lord knows if you took that ship and somebody you know rocked it up, that ship is fifty six. Bro. You actually need to have a location. Yeah, Like you cannot be driving that ship to where you think you're settling that every day you risk your chances. You need to open up a location, which means you need to be able to put the house of somebody name. You gotta put

the bills of somebody name. You still gotta go out and market it. You gotta promote it, you gotta advertise it. You gotta get publicity. Smoker's gotta talk about your ship. You gotta give free rocks away for other smokers to talk about your ship. You have to run a business. The average person who might in the hood, who might get front of the bird, feel me, he's going to go to somebody else who sells dope. I'm black man,

you know, get this off of me. So it's like, imagine if we gave the average American person right a business. Here's a McDonald's bro. They're gonna lose that motherfucker in a year. There's no chance because again, if you don't know the discipline and sacrifices it takes to run a business, to me, you're not gonna be successful. The people who I knew were selling dope and good at it, they could run any business. The only difference in the hood.

You're just educated about dope more than other things. You gotta understand, like particularly that that that my hood right that she was talking about, Like they're talking about making PCP. PCP is a really different process. Like I had a p chemistry in high school and they a green yard reaction is like a experiment that you get in the in the class and it's not more than it's like five teachers to tend students. That's how dangerous it is.

You got a bunch of niggas who ain't educated past the fifth grade level trying to do a green yard reaction. That makes the PCP. So that's why houses is blown up, That's why niggas is dying. They're not educated on what's going on. So it's easy, like the information about you know, selling dope is easily and at that time more available on how like it's more people in the hood right that could teach you how to rock up a bird. No, they can explain to you, teach it to you. You

can get educated on that. Who the fund can they go talk to about opening the McDonald's. That person was not living where we was living. They're not gonna live if you own the McDonald's and the King of Han shopper center right there where we're at, you for sure ain't for living in the house that costs fifty dollars around the corner. M Yeah, So I think Pete, like I'll be like I said, I noticed, we always talk and use somebody to me that has vested interest in it.

You had experience in it. But I think there's an underlying unbelief, disbelief and it's not just you. It's Head, you know, DJ Head, Tom Salace. It's a couple of people that have to have this believe like they don't believe exactly as advertised, Like it's like no, I gotta be it can't be that. It's like, yes, that is specifically that the education or what you're exposed to. It's easy right here. And when you again, like we talked about right, uh, that safe mode, survival mode, it's what

you see in front of you as success. And I think like just to kind of piggyback off of that, because I do agree with you in terms of sometimes you see people walking down to the product of their environment, what's being brought to them, what's available to them, what's being taught to them, and so on and so forth, and so it's so much easier for you to just jump into that path, right at least for you know,

young black man in the hood. Are young men in the hood, you know that are going through it to see if this might be something that lets him go to the next level. But as I went through my path and I went a different route, I went a different journey, I saw those same things, right I would sit in the house, I would see the deals taking place. I would see the women coming through, in and out and so on and so forth at different spots, you know what I mean. So I saw the prostitution, I

saw the drugs, I saw the money being exchanged. I saw it all. I let me ask your question, did you see something? Did you know something exists past it? I knew that the one who was leading was making money, but I also saw that the ones who were a part of it that weren't leading, We weren't doing what

I thought would be impressive for my life. Well, what I'm saying, I'm saying because I'm saying it's important to establish you know, why some people don't take the path I was trying to say, questions, did you believe there was something more to the business or beyond life, beyond that life beyond that? Yeah, way way more. Yeah, and and and that's and that's and that's not necessarily because it was necessary. It was talking to me, but you knew it existed, but I but I had a curiosity

about it. And and in general, for me, I'm in a situation where somebody tells me something, I'm gonna be I'm gonna be skeptical about it, and then I'm gonna do my research and I'm gonna try I'm gonna I'm an inquisitive person. I'm gonna try to enquire about the situation. So every time I would jump into any situation, but especially when I was young, when I would jump into these situations, I would just observe pete and this, and I want to cut you. But I'm connecting to some

of me. Talk about that's i Q that's into it, that inquisitive mind and the belief like I like to refer to intellect. It sounds crazy as vision right where you can see beyond what's in front of you, because I'm privileged of the same thing. I just also realized that I was going to be good at this. I didn't worry that it could be more like I had plans to go to college and be a pharmacist, a

real pharmacist, and open a pharmacy. But the economics of what was going on was literally just I didn't have a moral compass to be like, this is wrong because I thought people were making the choice. Um. Also, I just wasn't scared of jail. My mom was weird, is right? This affects me? My mom went to jail growing up a couple of times, so I just didn't have a fear of jail. That was never thought like, jail is

the worst thing. You know. That's interesting because my dad was imprisoned for almost all my life, right, and that could make you be like, I don't never want to like it kind of depends, but but yeah, I would. I would agree with you there, And I think that like, did that impact did you consider that? Did you like what impacted that have on on your perspective of risk,

let's say, or your perspective of consequences. Oh, I mean I understood that the consequence of my dad being imprison meant that we did not have a relationship with each other in the way that I would wanted to write you understood as a kid, Yeah, I mean I talked to him on the phone, you know, when they would have those collect calls and so on and so forth. Right, I would get these letters, right, I would be sad. I'd be remorse that I wasn't able to see my dad,

you know. So I don't know if I fully understood it, but I understand wouldn't meant to feel the strain of not having a father right there, But this did it work because as a him it did not work. As a turn it calloused the figure understanding right, And I think that for me in regards to how I made my choice and decision, it wasn't just one thing that made me make a decision to go, you know, I'm gonna pursue it this way as opposed to jump into this,

that and the other. Because everything is enticing when you're young. In the situation, right, You're seeing all these cute girls walking by, right, and You're like, I could get that too, and I could have that quick cash there too, and I could do all this, that and the other. But I wanted to be and I wanted to be an owner. I wanted to be a creator. I wanted to be the one at the top. So whether it was going to be in that game or in a different game, I wanted to make sure that whatever I did, I

was at the top of it. So I needed to have I needed to take in as much information as I could and analyze my risks and my situation in order to to jump forth. Go ahead. Yeah, I was gonna ask you, like, how short was the navigational path for you? Just in that regard to to go for because you said you started off getting paid to yell if the cops are coming right. No, I first got paid.

I got paid to watch us. So my o g Hommy would chop up the rocks, he said them on the tray, and I would be able to do my homework and just make sure nobody took more than there are a lot of share and he would pay me fifty dollars for that. So it might take him an hour to do what he had to do. He might have chopped up every bit of a quarter piece or a half ounce, and I would just make sure people paid their proper share. And when he come back, he get the money counting, and he gave me fifty to

seventy five dollars for that. That's my first introduction to it. Um Puff Puff, we called you puff because that's what she would have called him. Puffy got a giant Canibus logo on his hat. I thought it was for the smoke. That's what I was thinking too. How did you remember the first time you was enticed to in the hood to hustle? Uh? Well, my parents my family, like I come from a family that was hustling since I was a little kid. So I was culturally like, yeah, that's

what they did. Like I would watch them as a kid. I'm going to the bathroom when somebody come out and blood beyond the toilets because they were shooting up, you know at Washington, Man, this is what I've seen. And then you know, I have people that was family members that were stripped and you know, prostitute and it was normal.

It was normal if you didn't get in the game. Then, Like I remember when I was young, I had a phone bill at the age of three because my parents were put phone bills in your name when I was young, because so the hustler was always put into me from a very young age, where when I got old enough, I was putting phone bill and kids names too. So did you ever get mad at your parents and cut

off their phone privileges? I would if I wouldn'ld have been off the time E been off when it was five, Like to you, m oh, yeah, you're not calling ship and kids? Do that now? Tell parents, no, we ain't everything off. Yeah it is. I mean, it is really interesting that that product of our environment, right when we're raised, what we see, what we take in, it bleeds out, you know, and again right to add to that point. Like I said, I apologize, I just you stimulate certain

things to build off that specific point. That's where intellect comes into play because it gives you vision past what everybody's talking about. Because I'm a naturally inquisitive person. Even within the culture, I'm asking my homeboys, why are we doing this? Why are we doing that? Why are we going the world over this? Why are we crips? Why? I would ask a million questions and niggas will get offended.

My dad used to talk, maybe you ask a million questions, and but that was nobody taught me to ask questions. The average person either don't have the mind to ask questions or are in fear to ask questions. So I had to fight to ask questions. Like when my dad, it became like I could annoy him. But so I had to take the risk of him being annoyed of me asking questions, you know, to learn, you know, And that's tough because it could make a painting moodel like

he's not a good father or something. It's not, it's just he comes from a different era of you don't ask a lot of questions. So in my in my pops a seventy four, so he is on that level. But I'll still ask him a million questions anyway, you just think, go like it. And in the hood, it's different, right with the homies, the older hommies, they definitely didn't want to be questioned. So you know, you start getting

you start getting in fights because you're asking questions. Then you start winning the fights, and now Nigga's got to really answer the question. And that's when you start realizing that some of the answers are not you know, I don't want to say it's they were passed down the same information. They don't necessarily understand why they never they have an uncomplete book, you know what I'm saying, Like a lot of times we walked through this life, you know and hood or in the hoods that I grew

up with, and we have an uncomplete book. Right, we got like five chapters to this thing, and we and we we we we were writing it as we're rolling, you know, in the situation. And so so yeah, like a lot of people that I knew that jumped into the culture and the life they were they were riding to the wheels fell off, and then the wheels fell off because they didn't know the rest of the book.

What's crazy. The average person, right, is on autopilot. Like I've always said this, like okay, like you know on the plane they fly most planes autopilot, like they tapping the destination and the plane knows where to fly. And that's how people in the hood come up culturally, right, it's autopilot. It's like, okay, if you know they said this is what you do to get here, this is what is saying to do. That's universe. It was like that where But that's that's the most followers and most people.

But again, I don't want to say followers. I believe God. And this is the thing where this is not gonna make sense because you don't believe in God. But I believe like God blesses some of us with intellect to lead the people without. Yeah, but those are the few. I agree with you, but I'm saying I agree with you. I'm just saying, so how we deal with it at that level is going to determine who we are as people. Them following don't make them anything but who they are.

Announce an exposure of of infrastructure in some capacity or another. As far as outcome goes okay. So my situation, I've always flown manually, even just growing up in the hood for me, like niggas is drinking to try to deal with, you know, the trauma, the smoking drugs, to deal with the trauma of all the experiences versus in your community, there is trauma, like I don't want to neglect nobody trauma, but it's also fun. Like I think drugs where you from,

like most white people, I know, it's recreation. I don't think so, because I think most people on drugs from huh, I mean not just the hard ones I'm talking. I'll say this much. I perceive recreation itself differently where I grew up. So it's like it has to deal with where Like it's a relative to ceilings and floors, so

to speak. So you grow up in a top one percent environment, Well you're larger than one percent effectively, so you're trying to pack too many people into an outcome that they can't all fit kind of pressure because pressure is pressure, and that's among the adults though, you know, so for the kids, it's like, well the parents all like say, went to Harvard from all over the country and moved to that location. So not everybody in that location.

It can go to Harvard. So the pressure is to be in the top nine point six of a people. So it's like your capacity to survive the anxiety of slipping just a fraction of a percentile and outcome is perceived as catastrophic by your family and your peers. So when most people where I grew up go out to go do what they call recreational ship on the weekends, it's just get away from that goddamn pressure cooker. Ain't that fucking crazy? And that's why people it is scary.

That is a real truth. Like somebody from from from the hook look at them and it's like, no, but that don't change that. That's pressure beyond to somebody else, Like they frustrated they got into U C. L A. And we're like, well, you're right, your kids getting college. No, he didn't even make me. Just go trust me with the bid. You don't want to tell nobody you got, like I'm telling you, like when I was in again,

do you see l A. It's cool? But like here's like what the morsel is is, Like the biggest anxiety record where I grew up is the academic progress supports coming out in the mail, and they usually come out one of two days. This is real ship when I was in eleven, Like, if you're in eleventh grade, and I mean you went out of your area to go to school, but you probably would pull to what Jordan or lock Jordans. Okay, so I went to Paramount. I know you went to Paramount, but that's not where you

that's a transfer paperwork. So like if you're like I would be in like a p U S History in the eleventh grade, for example, if I showed up with a C plus in that class, I'll be scared to death. I'm like, this is gonna be like I'm gonna get butchered. If if if my parents intercept that thing that says after six weeks of school and I gotta C plus an AP history, life is great. Well, I think that's fair in the hood, if your parents are if your parents are half asked aware seas in the hood or not,

nobody that's the thing that is common. Nobody's showing off seas even place one. No, I'm saying nobody's showing off sees either place. Yeah, but yeah, and and it kind of expound on that. I think that there's a lot that we can take from other cultures and other communities

that actually can bring in this wealth building. What's what we need in the in the in the you know, the poverished communities, because a lot of poverished communities are in a situation where that some of the deck is already stacked against them in certain ways, right, and then that aspect, it's gonna be a macro level, multifaceted many years, blood sweat and tears in order to like shift some of the those structures or systems that are in place. Right.

But the biggest thing that I think that poverished communities can do is help educate and present a full picture, right, more of the book, more chapters than what we've done before. And I try to like I go, uh, this is probably about fifteen years ago. I helped open a church and Wattson Imperial Courts and then uh right, right, yeah exactly. So then I did a garden project and Nickerson Gardens just on and so forth Right, we did garden healthy.

We did something so simple, right, we did like healthy food concepts. Right, So we go to the garden and I don't know if you know, miss Hooper from Nickerson. But she's yeah, man, if you if you're from the hood, you know her. Right. So we go we hang out with Miss Hooper and the kids and so on and so forth. We go to the garden. We figure out where the greens are, you know, the best ones to pick out some of the other vegetables and so on and so forth, and we pick them out. We get

a barbecue pit, and we get some some chefs. We bring some chefs in and we talked about the healthy concepts. We cooked the food right there, and we grub out every single week. And what this did, what's is like simple you're saying, you know, you're just having a meal, right, But now what you're doing was impressing into the community the eye the value behind the nutrition that we have sometimes neglected in our in our poverished communities. You look

at poplished communities, nutrition is like a huge your head. No, no, yeah, because think about like right where you at, you can't

get fresh pruduce, fresh produce. So so that's ill that that did that Homie Sticks tried to do like he does stuff like that too, But that's I was just yeah, and that's across the board, right, because like there's two fronts that have to be fought in this situation, right one frost one front is going to be in a macro situation, mostly faceted, many systems, system chances are gonna happen. The other front is mic, which happens with us leaders

right that we we we are. There are certain people that already know their leaders, right, and they know that when they come in, they command the room, they command the presence of the community, and they get the buying from the community even if you weren't even from that community originally, right, And so what what you do with that is, you know, an opportunity to to make a clearer picture for folks. And then they start to jump into these other opportunities where they're like, oh yeah, I

can I can see myself going beyond. It's a lack of expulsion. And and it's tough because right because I agree with you, I feel like and this is something to me, Pete talk about consistently. I've talked to King it's not on them nocause and the older the older people and this again and a lot of that, like I was thinking about the other day, like as far as not to like dogs looking to a political thing.

But I'd like people to understand how to follow money, you know, like you have to be able to follow money to understand what's happening where you live. We gotta have something. No, I'm not even talking about your money. I'm talking about the money that exists over you. Well, you gotta have something. I know that sounds crazy, Um, not for glasses. Tell me. You can tell me a thousand things and I'll be like, damn, Pete, you can put me on game that's your personal finance. Well it's not.

It's not just that, right, it's not just even watching minds. You can tell me about something else and I watch it that don't have nothing to do. Yeah, you'll watch it, but you understand how to watch it. Well. But but but I hear what you're saying. You're saying you gotta have something. And one thing that I was the average person for the average person, you gotta have some. But one thing I had challenged us to do is we've got to have our minds have the ability to know

how to get that. Because we teach people how to get money a lot of times impoverished communities, and sometimes we teach them the ill ways to get it. Are the ways that we'll have more, I should say, right, but we're doing We're telling them something right, either through the music videos, through O G. That's down the street, right through a cousin or this, that and the other. You're finding little ways to hustle. Everyone's finding ways to hustle.

Hustle is like, you know, the second oldest things you know in the world that we do. Right. But if you teach people to hustle and float in a way that creates less risks, that's not gonna necessarily leave you behind bars are six ft under, so on and so forth, then it starts to give them that next option. Right. Because when I was young again, I wanted to be an owner, and I flipped. I didn't I didn't flip crack, right, but I flipped candy. Right. I go to the store,

I got to, you know, pick up candy. Let's say I would get it for four or four dollar, right. Then I would go to my school was solder for you know, a dollar apiece, and I cut the market and I sold them for fifty cents a piece, right, So I made you know, each piece, I made you know, double my money, right, and all it was all I was doing was all right, I saw a market, I saw opportunity, I saw people, and I went in and I came. I came in underneath what they were offering,

and that's how I stacked my chips. But to even see that, and I don't and I think that older man, I think that older man, we know how to do this. Well, I don't think they should once you get older. But but again, now it's like those opportunities still aren't there until we until we bring part of the two aspects.

We got to bring them there, right we got like we was listening to that uh that video that was talking about the fact that hey man, why don't why are we not stacking chips and running businesses in our own communities? Right? Like, that's that's huge. Like the older people in the community, we have to gather around and say, can we find ways to keep resources in here, improve them and teach the others? Right, Because it's kind of like Nohl's bar out there sometimes, man, I feel like

everyone's like fighting for themselves. And if you look at a different culture type, and you look at a different community type, whether poverish or unmpoverished, they're sticking together and as a village. Well, I think. I think also it depends, like like even if we compare it to the struggle of of our Mexican brothers, they come from a whole the way the way we visualize struggling to them, but they stick together well because I think because they don't

stay together in Mexico, but here they do. It's what you're saying, because this is not once you make that trip, you take them fucking what is that miles? Four hundred miles? Your commitment is different if you if you travel from you know, Michu Khan or Senna Lore from there to here, your commitment to success nine point nine percent of the times is completely different than somebody who just wakes up here.

Like if you come from t J and you start illegally crossing borders, risking your kids freedom, your commitment to a better life is completely unique because if you go there, they got the same problems. Motherfucker's getting gunned down over different ship. It's different crews trying to get money as cartels. It's a thousand things happening right where people are having issues and they're dealing with them primitively. But the ones that we get that's here, right, that's coming back to

take back this land that was there. Bro. That's a different like that's that's like if somebody you know, decided I'm going to get a job and the jobs are in Detroit. They opened up the factories, the GM factories and the four Factories back in Detroit now and they all booming. If you move your ship from l A to Detroit, commitment different. So I think to compare it at times, it's almost a disservice in the hood because all I experience like that hood, like if you've been

to T. J. Watts is like Beverly Hills. That's disrespectful, but it's true. Like when you see some of the spots that people live in ship with no roofs. You could go like Google's street image like almost anywhere on the earth, like like where you can look at what it looks like from the middle of the street there. And to be honest, when you really think about most ghettos around America, the way they look l a ghetto just don't have that same significant down look real nice.

It's like nice. Like if when I take people to Compton, maybe like this is Compton. It's like, yeah, this is right. But if I sing you to the liquor store at the Miracle Market, don't matter that it's a meat market there, don't matter that this is across the street from the Richland Farm area for me, and there's a Louisiana chicken as an air import across the street. If you walk in that store, there's a decent chance you may be shot. So I guess the point I'm saying when we're talking

about the hood is I don't. I don't, And this is where Pete I think me and a lot of people disagree. I think we have to teach, right, that's our job, Like this brother said, like you're saying we have to teach because it's gonna reach. If it reached one out of a hundred, it was worth it because it's teaching. But if we want to help ninety out of the hundred, it's going to be on its elite leaders to bring the opportunities there. That's what I was saying when I say follow the money, like, I'm not

talking about Yeah, I'm not talking about personal finance. I'm saying like that there isn't uh a lot of resources. It's like on an individual basis to be able to really like, I mean, you can advocate, but you can't lobby, you know, politically. So when there is a block of allotment of capital that goes to three middle schools and Watch or whatever the hell it is, people in that neighborhood need to be really, really dialed in on where the funk the money is going, because it never gets there.

It never gets there. But to tell a bunch of people who already believe the system is against them that they're being deprived of money that should be going to them, they would be like, yeah, exactly, So I'm watching the money right. I'm understanding why it was important to separate Wats from willow Brook or Rancho Dominus from Compton. I'm paying attention to why on Alameda what's going on. I've always paid attention before I even and understood anything about economics.

I always thought that was strange when you're in the hood of Compton, or you in the hood of Watch and you look down Alamed that's all these warehouses, yet nobody can get a job that has a livable ways always noticed that before anyone, nobody ever explained that that

was a problem. I knew it was a problem it's like, that's weird, Like and then you start learning about how they build urban communities and they built them to live, work and play and everything within walking distance, and you're like, oh, so when y'all built this, y'all knew you were building these houses, you know, based off of these businesses. That's why you do it. Like Hershey, right, Hershey, Pennsylvania. John

Hershey right uh, I think that's his name, right. He created the factories in Pennsylvania in Hershey, in the center that called the Hershey and then he built houses where you could live here while you work here. So I totally understand it. But imagine those people that live in Hershey,

Pennsylvania that was working there. You get all of those people out of the Hershey, Pennsylvania factories and now people from let's say Philadelphia, which I don't think that's even close, but let's say from Philadelphia right there driving now, and they're working at the factory. What happens to the town that's Hershey, Pennsylvania when there's no gigs close? For sure? I think a lot of the issue is with that

is Hey. I mean, you've got people who work for forty freaking years and they move and be if there was an effort to say, all right, well, this is gonna pull people from these four high school so we're gonna throw a bunch of money together so that we can have these people adequately trained to walk right out of high school into these jobs and have something on paper that says that there ready to rock and roll today.

The problem was with a lot of those high schools is the ten million dollars buys one drill and elevates everybody's retirement pension. Ah, And that's just a fact. Well, again, that still speaks to the corruptness of the elite, of course, because if it's if it's people in the educational system of Compton High School or Compton School District and ten million dollars is disappearing and Compton, to me, I think that's partial because because then that would speak of a

place that doesn't have systemic oppression. That would speak on we're doing the right thing and you're not doing the right thing with the economics. And I don't think it's as simple as that. I do think there are some cases where that's happening, but I don't think that's the consistent consensus of what's happening. I do think generally they're doing things to make sure the money doesn't get there, and and that would be the thing to do. Now

why is a different question. I think it's a few things. I mean, it's a complicated question. I mean, Compton is a lot different than l A. Just I mean Centennial versus Lock. Are they on the same street. No, they're not the same street, but there you can walk from one to the other. Um one of them is l A u s D, which is the largest school district in America, and the other one it's a city of ninety people. I mean like it's its own school district.

You know the mayor, you know the city council. It's small. It's easy to get watered down if you're in l A school because you're part of such a giant thing. Yeah, but I still think the elite level schools in Los Angeles Unified School District benefit a certain way. And again, Pete, my belief, and this is my problem, this is my issue. I don't believe it's on America to take care of us. I don't believe that. And that could be like a very conservative way of thought. You know what I'm saying.

I think it's on every citizen. But I also app this is right, but this is the socialist belief in me, that it's on the community itself to care for saying community, well, this is just the way I'm saying that the community can care for itself by managing its appropriations of capital a little bit more like, I mean it's that you say this. I'm not saying black panthers back all over again, but I mean the Black panthers, I mean, that's what they That's a portion of what they did, right, the

old school gang community and culture. That was a aspect of what happened, is they took in the community and all of its concerns and needs and trying to bring a coalition around to help improve and shift and change certain things within the community. Right. So if you're talking about I think there's a little bit of a victim of their own bad branding. Well, no, it's not necessarily branding.

It's not that it's been a shift of the direction in a lot of ways, right, But but in terms of in terms of things that we could do within our own commun city, whether it be through a coalition of a group I a Black panther or a gang or just a coalition of a community. Right would be to buy the things in the actual community that we live in and own them businesses. I don't care if it's a grocery store, I don't care if it's a franchise of McDonald's. Buy them, keep them, pass them down.

And a lot of times you see those that get the money and the wealth, they're out, they're gone, and the people who own they own the community. The people who own the businesses own the community. And we think that we own the community because we live in it and we rep it, and because if someone comes on our block, we'll smoke them if we don't want them. I don't think. I don't. I don't. Again, I don't think it's as simple as that. I do agree with

you with the first part. I agree with the fact that the people who own the businesses own the community. But I don't I don't think we like we want to just hold the block down when you have only this, this is all you have. You protected vigorously because it's all you have. And I'm a risk right because you have Yeah, so, bro, I mean I ain't had nothing when I started, right, I had nothing, so I can't lose from not from food stamps. You know what I'm saying.

We have to go double cupe on days, you know what I'm saying, walking down trying to find quarters and nickels and dimes just to get a little three these

all right at ice cream. So for me and a lot of folks in our community, we don't necessarily have anything right, and we have this concept that the thing that kills me the most is we have a concept it's kind of like we do the Stockholm syndrome with our with the finances that we think we have, we're moneyed up so much quote unquote that we don't want to lose it or perceive the thought of losing it, and we don't want to take the risk that's actually

more of a healthier risk. So we'll we'll stay on some type of government assistance situation so we can keep that thing flowing in and not get like a legitimate job, so we can keep the flow of the money getting I mean, I have people and people that say that, right, But I think that's a very minute percentage of I'm not disagreed, cause I know, well, I'm not saying just

just that, right, I'm saying the concept. Well, I think I think at the end of the day, right, I don't think such crappy as that saying right, because I've heard that point and I know people who think like that. It is a stream of consistent income that's available that should work your ass off to keep. Now that is crazy because it's off the government. Right, But then again it becomes a thousand different things. I think the issue is when you don't try to get more than that revenue.

All right, all right, so take the government out. So I shouldn't have said that, right, take the government right, So, because because that's my frustration. It is like you have a thousand dollars a month, but there's a potential earning that you may not be aware of yet that your

community can speak to you on. Matize it right. The trauma makes you believe you don't reach because if you reach, right, it's not even just Stockholm right, um into intellect makes you realize our conquerence anyway, like rap, like rap has never whop, like rap could be whooping my ass and it ain't never knocked me out, Like no matter how challenging has been to do certain things, I'm like, I'm

going to figure out how to get it. Like my intellect always allows me to be like, oh, I'm gonna make this plan to me back up, how do I that's not consistent, Like if you keep slapping one person, if they don't have what you have, they'll just stop coming around you. They won't even try to to to topple you. So it's it's it's tough because I've heard that point from certain people. They're be like, gee, man, why would somebody want to stick on accounting? And I'm like,

because it's the consistent. It's the most consistent thing in your community that's available that you can see. I mean, it's statistically like, I think it's more preflem you give credit to that human behavioral mindset, like you can see kind of like a seismic shift culturally on like a broader like the whole unit of states right now, right now people well, yeah, we're looking at it happen people

outside of the that and then get a job. But additionally, just the concept in general of I don't know where all the bell curve the actual line is, but it is substantial some probably majority of people that will choose security over opportunity. Most of the time. That's a great point. I never where he got because I would have never thought to look at it. Like the County check or s side is a level of security. But that's like if somebody's working a gig, my boy, Joey west Side

is I'm working with this group. I'm marking this group called the l A Giants, And like he's good with the security of his career, right. It pays him a significant way to where he can afford his own lifestyle, but it bothers him because he worries about how it's gonna affect if he wants to pros to his lady take care of his family. But so he has this opportunity right where he's this incredible MC that makes great records, you know, really a bright guy. But it's so scary

to to stop putting time into the security part. And this is the difference in the County. This is a gig where he's making money, and he's like, uh no, I don't gotta wrap it up, nig I could this my show? I go for three hours? Why is you trying to make me wrap it up? You spoil the ship. This ship don't at the end of the hour. If it's more games. Ship. You're tired, you sleepy? Tell you so? So like Joe, Okay, we're gonna wrap up a kid. So when y'all asked me why the podcast isn't longer

than hour? Puff, y'all get on his instagram. What's king? What's what's next? So when y'all asking me, So, when y'all asking me, why is it? Excuse me? It is that should be five hours. If you're asking me, why is it? Uh no ceilings longer than the hour? It's fucking puff funt. So go to his instagram, O G King DMC and tell him I want longer than an hour. So let me fit at this point where and you can figure out the way to wrap it up Pete, like we always do. You get a point in Peter,

figure out how to wrap it up. The point I'm saying is he has his career right, and it's a great gig. He's making good money, right, He's able to afford his own lifestyle. But he worries that if he wants to, you know, start a family or make a bigger family, he's not gonna be able to afford, you know, to go out as a man. The way we've been

taught how to provide for the whole house. Yeah, he has his opportunity with this record company that I helped him start, right, that's his own company, and I'm marketing it right, and you can actually make as much or whatever you want. You're not there's no ceiling. It's you know, it's not an hour, it's not a hustle. But it's so hard for him to start taking I'm away from his security, right and then invest in his security and

didn't invest in um his opportunity, that the possibilities. It's tough. So it's not just this thing in the hood where it's just the county. It's even careers. You have some of the most brilliant minds. Still, my manager, my big bro still is like a brilliant mind if you're sitting and talk the States, brilliant. But his security and desire to make sure he's provided for his wife and his you know, his kids. Now, the two of them, a grown one of them in usc one of them's gonna

open up prone nail shot. They're fucking all brilliant kids. Exactly a couple of days, right, So kid for to go pro, but he will not step away from his gig. So I think, like he said, that's the human condition. But for a perfect example, stops not even close um king puff for example, he would not go drive a

truck right now out right. So he's so y'all all know out there his situation and what he's been through and when he's overcoming to to get back on track with life, never to get back on the same track, but to get back in the path of God in the light of going where you're supposed to go in this world, my destiny, destiny right, he's not fit to go draw no fucking truck. He don't give a funk if they pay him four hundred dollars a day. That's

about to go work for nobody myself. So his ante lay won't even allow him that soul it's something built in the equipment or something you become exposed to. I think it's something that you come e supposed to, but not for me and you but not for me. Was like, don't do whatever I want to do anyway different My mo mom told me that from jump right from rep so, I mean a couple of things that maybe could help in the situation. I know we're gonna wrap up but

these things here, right, so more man mentors impoverised areas. Man, it would be a game changer. And uh may very family unit will be a game changer in the regards the wife supporting the goals of her man. I'm telling you, it will shift the poverty line like nobody has seen before. It will bring us back to what we were trying to do. And Black Wall Street went burnt down and all that stuff. So those two things I think would be huge for for the impoverished communities to get to

get level. Yeah, and those and those things were particularly target to create that. Yeah, but you can just see it because yeah, I mean, I don't want to keep going over and over, keep keep all right, I guess why would you wrap it up? I mean to go off the point of like male mentors to look again, following the money, there's a governmental exploitation of neighborhoods like that because they are they're like vacuums for government funding dollars.

So the best way to keep a neighborhood like that tethered to those government funding dollars is to remove male mentors. And an easy way to do that is, as we've seen statistically, is there are futable is through various social programs and stuff like that, where that where you make them a little obsolete it first, then you change the cultural layout and the next thing, you know, trip in the day, puffy beyond me out. If you believe this,

it's crazy. You're giving like million dollars gam he like, hey man, I was. I was just gonna attack them on the idea of women backing their men's you know, pursuits and dreams. But just why why keep it toxic down to the wrap