I'm Tamika D.
Mallory and the.
Shit Boy my son in general.
We are your host of TMI.
Tamika and my Song's information, truth, motivation and.
Inspiration, new energy.
What's up, my songle How you doing today?
I'm good to make a D. Mallory? How you feeling today?
I'm good book tours and progress.
People.
When I say that, my friends are showing out, not just friends, but everybody on the team. People are working together. You know, as I said to you, I really have been pouring my heart and soul into this project, really doing the same work that I've done for everything else, doing it for myself, and I am so very proud of you know what I've been able to accomplish thus far, and a lot of it. I have four dates that were planned specifically by the publishers, so Simon and Schuster work on them.
Shout out to my girls Shya car who has been.
Busting up her sides working really hard to make sure that we have the right events, the right PR and all of that. And very grateful to her Serena Oglesby who has taken on the PR around other things and helping us to target local markets. Awesome obviously the rest of the team, LaToya and everybody that I don't even have to mention because I say all the time that they have really really been working together as a well
oil machine to make this thing happen. But my friends who have churches, who have different, different places and experiences that they can offer, they have been doing the work. They've been acting like this book is their own. And I'm so grateful to everybody. If I start naming people, I'll leave somebody out, so I know better than to do that.
But everything from.
My party that you all helped to put together for me in New York City, obviously Charlemagne and ni kiavs there and did such a great job. And then in and on Thursday, and a shout out also to Duce and Poppy Wines for providing us with all the wine and spirits.
It was at a place.
If you live in New York City, you need to make sure you go to Pebe Brasserie on one hundred and twenty fifth Street. It's sixty West one hundred and twenty fifth Street. It is an African own An inspired restaurant, steakhouse. Amazing food always amazing, and the food was actually good
that night. Then we you know, went into January to February thirteenth, which we had a nice event at the New York Public Library with my friend Janelle Aggie, who is the executive director of Editorial at Ebony Magazine and the Public Advocate of New York City Jimani Williams. And then it has just gone on and on, from Jamal Bryant his church to now you know, we've had a
number of events across the country. I again, I don't want to get myself in trouble, but it has just been people open indoors, people saying can you come here, I'm buying this book. One hundred, two hundred, three hundred, people just really doing their thing, And so I am so very appreciative of every single bit of support because you know, it's not easy to sell a book. We all know that it's not easy to tell your life story, it's not easy to be vulnerable, it's not easy to
do any of these things. And people don't got to buy anything from you, nobody, you know what I'm saying, There's no guarantee that somebody's gonna say, oh, let me go pick up to Meeka Mallory's book they could say it's not the time, I'm not interested.
But folks have not just been buying one book.
They've been buying five and ten books and sending them to friends and posting on socials.
And I'm just very very.
Very very very very appreciative that my story, my book I live to tell the story is doing as well as it's doing. So that's that's my testimony.
No, it's an amazing book. I'm gonna do chapter three right now. And you know, it was a bad little girl. I could see you just running around with pigtails and your mother like what is going on with you? But it's it's a it's a beautiful read so far. And everybody that I hear you know, they break out in tears. And I just want to say, congratulations. Man, Like you said, you worked hard, you put it in. This's your second book.
And I know the emotions that go into this book because you know, you speak, you're very open about your past and about all these things. A lot of things you you never talked about, but things that I know that you talked about then I know, just reliving those things publicly, but publicly they're just reliving those things, you know,
and going retraumatizing yourself, you know. And I've seen a lot of times you talk about just as you read and you did the audio version that you you had to cry a lot of times because you know, it touched you in a different way. So I just wanted to say, man, we appreciate you, we honor you, and continue to be great.
And the book is going to do amazing because it's supposed to.
That's yeah, I hope, so I believe. So it's already throwing amazing. And the good thing about understanding the world we live in is that for me, the win is that I got it done. I put it in the world, and there have been hundreds of people who I'm in touch with. So there's even more than that in terms of folks that don't have my phone number who have reached out to me to say, this is really incredible.
It's a real page turner.
I'm into it, or I'm listening to the audio book, I feel the passion.
You know.
Now, finally, my father has said to me it was really tough for him to get through those first few chapters. He said, the early stuff was really, really, really hard. And now that you know he understands even more about what was happening. You know, it hurts, but he's able to let it go also, so it's here and release of a lot of years and years decades of pent up stress, aggravation.
You know.
My mother's like, you need a switch to your ass today for the stuff that was happening then that I told you not to go, not to do, not to say, and so you know, but I know it's hard. I
know it's hard. I know it's hard for him to hear that my teacher, when I was a young girl, you know, asked me to sit on his lap, like whose father wants to hear that type of experience your daughter had and never said anything, just to try to keep from there being any you know, anything in the household, you know, keep him, you know, try to protect my dad. So it's difficult, but nonetheless, as he said that, he
had to encourage my mother to keep going. Because as you get deeper in the book, then it becomes some light stuff, some fun stuff, some great moments, and you begin to see this person who started in one place blossom into something and it all makes sense. It's like it all clicks. So that's what I live to tell the story it's all about. If you haven't purchased my book yet, please please please, I'm asking you to get you a copy, give one away for yourself, purchase a copy.
And an audible version.
Purchase a copy and an audio version, and an audible version rather and a kindle version. Just get it all
and you know it's all good. So that's that. Let me tell you what my thought of the day is today, because I know, you know, we are running up against time and we have a real good guest coming up today that you know, I want us to give the proper time too, So I just want to say this publicly, and by the way, on this tour, it's freezing across the whole country, so you know, that's another part of the whole thing is that we chose to do this
in the winter time, and it's phrasing in America. Is a freezing where you all live, I don't know, but it's definitely freezing everywhere. Degrees two degrees twenty eight thirty thirty being like the highest. So that's that makes it a little bit more challenging, but it is what it is. So here's my thought of the day, y'all. If it walks like a duct, and it quacks like a duct.
It's a duck. Okay. We spend a lot of time trying to make excuses and find ways to you know, make sense of and also to try to take on mentally these concepts or thoughts and ideas and realities that's around us. And what I mean by that is that it's so much shit going on in our society that in order to be able to deal with it without losing your mind, you will find yourself trying to believe and process certain things, hoping maybe what I see I don't really see, because what I see is so serious
that I don't want to see it. That's where we are. We just it's like, you know, maybe Donald Trump and them are not actually you know, going through the government firing people and trying to reduce the number of whistleblowers that's around to see what they're doing and to report
on it. So they're replacing they're taking many people out and then replacing people with folks who they claim are committed to their principles, people who are more aligned with their political strategies, and people who are supposed to be doing the work to audit the government and find corruption and so you try to make yourself believab. Well, maybe actually is because there's got to be corruption, because we all know that.
Corruption is absolutely in the government.
But the problem is that the chief corruptors are looking for a way to with corruption and instead what they're really doing is replacing people so that their corruption does misdirection, so that their corruption does not end them up or end up in them being indicted again and again and
actually having to serve prison time. That's what it is they're eluding, if you will, the government looking for places where people can make money, where they you know, they can get contracts, they can give their friends the things that they need, they can restore some relationships, and they're just doing their thing right, and that's it. So so so it's not so what you see is actually happening right in front of you.
You know.
And I would say it's akin to you just being like, well, you know, I don't think that my wife, you know, is ready to leave me. I don't think my wife is ready to leave me. I don't think my wife is ready to leave me. I see signs. She don't want to have sex, she don't want to talk. We don't go anywhere everything looks like she's leaving me, but I still want to believe that maybe she's not right. That's what we tell ourselves so that we don't have to face what's in.
Front of us.
So I was doing some research on Elon Musk because we believe that he is actually the one who's running the show right now. I know that I believe this not because of what somebody else told me, but I actually have been listening to his words, and now I've done some research on where Elon Musk actually comes from. Now there may be people out there who are like, we already know all of this stuff, but I don't think so because I don't hear enough people talking about it.
So Elon Musk, by the way, is I believe he's running things, And like I said, it is because of some of the things I've heard him say. So he was on a conference call, it's just several days maybe a week ago, which was reported in which on a conference call he said, you know, if it's now or never to do all the things we want to do. If we don't get it done now, we're never going
to be able to do it. So we should just do everything we should, you know, reduce the government, you know, terminate people, just do everything that we want to do now while we can get away with it. And he said, if we make a mistake or we miss the mark, then we could just add people back. So let's just fire people and then we'll find new people to add back. So that's his mentality. And then and then Donald Trump says, Elon Musk is not doing anything that we have not given him the you know, the.
Green light to do.
So that means that they've agreed that whatever he's saying is what it is. And I interpret it as I don't really know Donald Trump, because I'm not that bright any damn way, and I don't really know how to
do it. But I like other people that I see, black, white, all kinds of people who are mesmerized by the amount of money that Elon Musk has, and therefore they have accepted that he must know something because he's been able to build all these businesses and he's the world's most richest man, and he's got all of this you know, wealth and whatnot.
He's got all these.
Toys, tunnels under the ground, he's got spaceships, he's got all these things. So we're gonna just, you know, pretty much figure let him be the lead and we'll see if maybe he can do that.
For the rest of us. Bullshit.
So number one, I just want to say this. Let me just give give you a couple of points. So in doing my research, what I found is that Elon Musk's grandparents were a part of basically, they were neo Nazis, right and his grandparents when they were in Canada, they were a part of a right wing society that supported be Nazis. They supported the ideals of neo knots. That's
who they were. This is something verifiable. In fact, In fact, his mother May had a boyfriend who tells the story that Elon's grandparents who were her It was his girlfriend's parents. They were weird, that they had these ideals that were like far far right wing ideals. He says that they were actually pretty like dangerous and scary people and he didn't like them. He didn't even want to be around them. So he broke up with her because he was like
these people, they're not good people. I don't want to be associated with it. This is the grandparents. So we're back with it walks like a duck. It quacks like a duck, and that's who raised them. So no, these other people who raise them. Then you come to his parents, his family, and how they got to South Africa.
It is outlined in multiple articles. It is being.
Discussed by historians. How they went to You know, obviously Canada started to shift to become a little bit more liberal, so they weren't able to be as outwardly racist in in in Canada, and so they were looking for other places. They found South Africa and somewhere that they wanted to go because they supported apartheid. They supported apartheid, and so they wanted to be there. They went there supporting apartheid.
Now recently we see that Elon musk In on a zoom he was a part of an all right conference in for some for some German group, right, these people are like extremists as well. He got on their call. He didn't say, well, I don't think that it's appropriate for me to be a part of this type of conversation. Understanding who these people are and and understanding their ideals and then ultimately how this will look to the Jewish community, to Black communities, to everybody, because we know that it
needs all right groups. Oftentimes that's where you find racist people, baked in people who believe in in fascism, and ultimately people who believe in apartheid.
And and and and and.
Colonialism stealing people's land. Right, So he didn't say, well, I don't think that's an appropriate place for me to be. Not only did he go and speak to the people at the conference, he told them, hey, I don't you know, I think that we should be moving past the point where you will feel guilty about what your ancestors or your parents or other people did now again. And then of course there is the symbol that he did that we know exactly what it looked like, and we believe
that the symbol was exactly what it represents. So people will say, well, I don't you know, I don't know, maybe not maybe his parents, But if the man today is still carrying the same mindset, talking points and involved in an administration, leading an administration and doing things like rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion, speaking of immigrants migrants and disable people and other people, degrading them, and wanting to criminalize people, talking to President of the United States
talking about police having immunity. This is the type of thing that he is a part of. So why would we think that somehow what he said where his family comes from the fact that his parents raised him in apartheid South Africa. Why would we believe that somehow he is not exactly what we see in front of our faces. And he is running the government, has access to every single bit of our information, our social security numbers, our
payment systems. Now people will say, well, we think that he's good at, you know, seeking out government corruption and whatever. Elon Musk, the same man who last week called people on government assistance people who you know, just folks who are regular working people. He said they are parasites. He used these words. He used that word. I didn't use that word. He said they are parasites. Right, he's also a parasite if his definition of people who are taking
government assistance and government resources are parasites. Let's be clear, his businesses failed and he used money from government assistance, government subsidies to help him build his businesses back and to be able to be the richest man in the world. If that's true, I don't know, but that's what they say.
He used government subsidies. You should just look it up so we better be real clear about what we see in front of our faces, because a lot of people are sitting by acting like what we see is normal and it's cool, and you know, well, we're gonna see what comes out of it. Meanwhile, we've got a rampant white supremacist who learn what he knows from a place that we fought to ensure that the people of South Africa would be free from the type of tyranny that
his grandparents. At least we know that. I'm still getting to understanding where his parents stood. But this is how he was raised. This is what these people believe, and this is what he now is a part of trying to design in our nation, which is an all white, all male led nation that leaves everybody else to be servants that make sure that other people are in a tear or a class beneath him. It is real. It's happening in front of your eyes in this particular moment.
What you see is what it is. It walks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, and it is an actual duck. So be clear, in fact, we are where we think we are.
No, we're definitely and I have this conversation all the time, and you know, it was a lot of people loud before the election.
They're very quiet now.
You know they've moved on and we're still here because we understand the seriousness of what we're dealing with. And when I'm listening to Elon, what he's doing is it's a playbook. You know, people don't study Hitler, they don't study the Nazis. If you study what they did, they created distrust in the government. Right, that's the first thing
you do, and it doesn't have to be true. So what he's doing now by saying that there's billions of dollars being stolen from our tax player's money, but never providing who's stealing it. Right, If you're going through there and you're saying that they stole billions of dollars, you're saying that they got one hundred and fifty year old man that's on social security. What's the man's name, what's
his social security? Now, if you're saying that people are making thirty million dollars that make twenty five, that make two hundred and fifty thousand, who are these people? Why you know what I'm saying. Why don't you have any information to substantiate any claim. You just throw that out to people who already distrust the government. And you do
that to people and they just grab onto it. And it doesn't have to have basis that just the fact that you're inside those rooms, people validate those statements as being true.
And it's very dangerous. And what you do is create people to believe.
That you are the only hope that they have if you're the savior, right, you create this set, you create the savior process, and you make yourself look like the savior, and you're saving American people from shit that you've actually created. And it's called misdirection. They missdirection, and they have us focusing on this ship while they over actually stealing and
doing a bunch of shit. Yet the eggs and the milk is still not low, and we still have and it's actually higher, and nobody's focusing on it, talking about, oh, we didn't have no wars. This man is about to have damn in World War three. He's talking about taking over Gaza. He's ready to empower you know, put in,
he's empowering Ananiahu. Even more so, it's like for me, he made threats like this this is this is a is really what I call the ship show is a complete ship show, and watching it happen in real time, and watching people act like it's not happening, and people thinking that we're gonna we're gonna get money and get a couple of dollars and it's gonna get out of it. Capitalism has never helped black people. It's never got us out of our situation.
You know.
I was listening to Nick Cannon. He was doing the stand up cor and and I say this all the time. He's like, he was like, one hundred years ago black people was well had one percent of this America's wealth, and he said, you know how much wealth we have in America?
One percent. So you look and you think people are doing better.
You see these things, it's the same exact shit, and it tricks you to believe something that's not happening.
You know. So when we think that, we go, okay, the plan is we're gonna.
Get money, and we goot money and were not unified, and we're not building our own and were not on the same accord. Gonna be a bunch of people that's not unified with money. We're gonna be individuals that spend our money and nothing that's built because these people are strategic. These people are diabolical and they're strategic and they're building. Like Elon Musk, they talking about he got a four
hundred million dollar contract with the government. That Tesla is the call for the government, Like this is this ship is real. When they when they fire all the people that's supposed to be running these organizations, who you think is gonna be running AI is gonna be running everything. So this is this they know what they doing. This is a play of course, get rid of all these people. We go fuck them.
They don't need a job.
We're gonna get AI to do the job that they got and we're gonna keep the money and we're gonna throw it in our pocket and we're gonna say that we paid for the resources because these motherfucking AI robots that they got is thirty or forty and fifty or sixty thousand dollars.
So this they got a strategy.
We just got it's.
Still going to take the money and pay for the new systems and everything exactly.
They're gonna go to knocking out accomplish your black ass.
And these people federal workers who are being fired from their jobs every single day that we're not even talking about. The faces haven't really appeared on the news because there's all these lawsuits going on and so you're not seeing them. But they are real, live people who have been working. This is how they've maintained their families. Now they will not have jobs anymore. And to your point, it's not that they're saving any money. They're just going to figure.
Out how to.
In robots and building systems and machinery. They're still going to spend the money. They're just gonna spend it with people who look like them, and they're not going to spend it on what they call diversity, equity and inclusion, which means that the white men will be in power, running everything, controlling the actual machinery, you know, doing the programming.
Maybe some other people, a little bit of folks. But as has been said, I forget the man's name who said it, there needs to be white men that's competent to help run this country. This is coming out of the mouths of people who work within the government that
it needs to be white men. So they're gonna put white men over the entire there in terms of all the leadership positions they might have some white women able to work in some of the departments to do the administrative stuff, and then everybody else is considered to be dei and unqualified and they don't need jobs. And let me tell you, let me just let me also say to you.
Let me just also say.
They have not told you that when they find all this money, they're gonna somehow put it back in your pocket. They haven't said that, where's the plan, where's the well, since we don't since we found all of this money, now we're gonna redirect it to you. No. Part of the problem is that people who are hearing this, some of the people who see folks getting fired and whatever,
they haters. They're haters. They they it makes them feel good that allege fifty two, fifty three years old, who has worked for the last twenty years and a good government job, that does her work every day. They are happy to see that that person got fired because you know what, they know, they don't feel like they ever made anything of their own lives, Tony.
And that's that's the thing. That's that's the era we year. We're in the era where people are mad at people who have been successful, and they want to see you fall They do not want to see people who have a mass, some level of wealth for success that they have in a mass. They do not want that to continue on. And they celebrate you losing. They they salivate to see somebody fall from grace and and it's terrible. And that's what that's That was what Trump's America is
to me. They want to see people lose. Like there's this a meme going around, you know, about about immigration, and it has the white man sitting in the middle with a whole plate full of cookies, and it's a black man, got one cookie on this plate, and then there's a Hispanic man on the other side, and a white man is looking talking to the black man, saying, he's trying to get your cookie, right, and when you look at it, he got all the cookies, but he
telling us to fight over this one cookie because that's the cookie that he wants. Your cookie, so you got you gotta make sure he get the fuck out of here. Don't worry about my cookies. I got a hundred cookies over here, but y'all need to you need to protect that one cookie you got over there from him. And it got us thinking we the enemy. But the reality is you're the one that's depriving us of the cookies.
So there it is, well, I think, speaking of the cookies and deprivation and all the things that we're suffering with this brother that we have coming up today is a part of a cast for a movie called Sing Sing, and I look forward to hearing him talk about, you know, the success.
But yet brother Lot.
Is coming up.
So once again we have a friend to the room or brother to me, someone that I've known a very long time, real good brother, and he's doing a million things that are positive. You know, he came we were incarcerated together, and he came home and he hit.
The ground running.
And right now he's like the talk of the town, My brother, Clarence Divine, I Macklin, How you doing.
Pace payse y'all. This's it's a pleasure of blessing to be here with you. Brother. Wish I could be in the studio in person, man, But you know, my schedule is crazy right now.
We all got the same kind of things.
You know.
To me, it's on her book tour, so sh running around. I'm helping her do that. And then I got all these programs and we're doing boycotts.
So it's a million stuff going on and the kids.
So for everybody, man, man, ah man, fantastic. It's just
been a ride, man, you know what I'm saying. Meeting so many fantastic people and having the honor to be in the rooms where you know, a lot of the people that we watched on TV and watched in the movies and all that, and to see them have have have like real human problems like the fire and all that, real human problems, you know what I'm saying, to see how they plumb under that too, Like this pressure don't don't don't, don't got a prescription.
It takes it just bite anybody.
That's true.
So that's interesting because you're in uh entertainment, in film, filmmaking and acting, and uh to hear you say that people are dealing with real life issues.
Folks.
Forget that some of the people who lost their homes or dealt with the fires in California are regular folks who work on.
Sets, right right, not just only the movie stars.
You got people that uh make a living from from the peripheral things that happen in the industry, like waiting, waiting at tables at the galla or something like that, or being a waiter of being a cook or whatever. You know, their lives are disrupted too.
Right, absolutely real.
So I want you to explain the process. Like I said, I met Divine in side prison in B Block. You know what I'm saying. We was working out together. He was like one of the big brothers that took me under the wing when I first got to Sing Sing And you went from that to coming home to being one of the co stars in the movie Sing Sing, Like, how did how did that actually happen?
My brother?
Well, you know that, you know when you was in there, when we was in there, you know, we was putting on shows. Yes, Archia Rehabilitation through the arts programs. We put on two shows a year. Now.
First, you know when I first, when I first got there, they was already doing it. I had really no intention on being an actor, getting on stage, none of that.
You know what I'm saying.
What happened was, you know, I was going to the yard take care of some business, you.
Know what our I was on my other thing.
But you know the yard got shut down because of the the thundering and lightning, so we had to divert the business, to to to the UH to the chapel where they was putting on a plane. You know, when you get in there, when you get in there, you in there.
It ain't no early. So now I done took care of the bnins. Now I'm just sitting here and I'm watching. And as I'm watching, I'm seeing I'm seeing brothers that I know from the from the yard, Brothers I know from the from from the mess hall, that work in the kitchen, lords eye Bury, Brothers that I respect that I came to the prison and learn to respect because of they handle and you know, because past things they they owe g's now, but they had their time and they well respected.
So I'm watching them brothers put it on. And and you know, I used to draw and all that when I was younger. It's pretty much like you. You and the music, the art, the art, it just stays in you, no matter I came up with the art, you.
Know what I mean.
But it's something about that situation turned that artists back on and made me want to reconnect with the artist part of me, you know what I mean.
And and and that's how I got into the program. I got it.
I had to wait a whole year, because you know, you can't have no tickets. You can't be getting in no trouble or nothing for a whole year before you can even get in the program. So you know, at that time I was a hot boy son, I was getting in trouble.
I had to wait a whole year.
I did that shit, got in the program, and like kind of like when you learn how to do the right and live right, it's kind of hard to go back and to live in the same way you used to because you.
Know, now you know what I mean, it's another way. We got options.
I don't have to be I don't have to be the yard hound or you know, I don't have to be the nigga that's in everything all the time, you know what I mean. I got my own goals, I got my own life, and I got my own people that I'm responsible for coming home a better man too.
You always know that you wanted to be in arts and entertainment.
No I didn't.
Actually, I'm like I said, I like to draw and paint and be more constructive with my hands. But once I seen them doing it, you know, the khaki me is like if they could do what I could do, right, So you.
Know I've seen the movie, right, Yeah, you sent me to send me to invite, like, yo, pull up to the premier. I wanted another one of our brothers. We was locked up with my brother Molly mal Thatt there and we watched the movie in amazement and the job you did. Like, I knew from then that it was gonna get the reviews that it got. I knew that you were gonna people was gonna look and be like, Yo, this dude is a start. Because I was, I was shocked. I'm just used to seeing my brother, you know, this
is my brother. But when I see in that form, it was it seemed authentic, but it still seemed like you was acting, right, It just it worked.
It was you, but it was acting.
It was it was you learned how to turn on emotion, turn it off, how to be this at this time. And then you was alongside one actor that I loved.
Domingo was like one of the actors.
So and one of the greatest people, you know what I mean, genuinely just a great dude. Bro.
Watching y'all feed off the energy that y'all fed off each other was just a maculum man.
So so a lot of people ask me how was it to be playing myself?
But I'm saying, you know that there was a difference.
There was an acting part in that because what I did was I took a lot of the elements from experiences that I witnessed, not that I had to partake in or even behaviors on a course of that seventeen and a half year period and going to college studying by studying psychology at the time.
Getting a degree of in behavioral science.
While we was there, I'm studying people, so at that time, I'm taking behaviors and experience that I already witnessed and weaved all that into that character.
It wasn't just me exactly.
And that's what That's what I said. It was masterful because I know the part of it that was you. But then I had him seen where you had to improvise and you had to create, you had to draw within and and have a skill level. So I just wanted to see. It was amazing what you did, man, it was.
I appreciate that can word up.
Some people would say that it's brilliant right that you can actually do that, because not everybody can do it. To us, they would and to you know, be in a situation where now you have people interviewing you, talking to you, asking you to tell more about your story. It has to feel like it's bigger than a movie. It has to feel like you're really shining a light on and bringing awareness to what goes on within the system and the human people, because we often forget that.
We think when we think about prisons and you know, people going away, they become a part of like a silent society that we never turn out. And you're bringing so much attention to it. So does how does that feel for you? And what is the message that Sing Sing is getting across to the world.
Well, you know, it feels kind of like I'm putting it in an ambassadory position, like I'm an ambassador for this message now because I've done the very first film festival in San Quentin.
I was there, we showed the movie.
I did a conversation with the guys, and I went to Utah Prison. I spoke with both women and male prisoners, and you know a lot of them are lwops. An LWOP is life without parole and a lot of them are questioning what is the purpose of change now? And my message to them is that the purpose of change now may not be for you. It may be for those who are watching you, the babies at home, whoever looking up to you, for whatever reason, your purpose for change could be for them. You know what I'm saying.
If they could see a better you, then maybe they could be a better them. And that may be what your mission is now, you know what I mean. So that's what my mission would be. That my message to those behind the wall, but for those on this side of the wall, my message would be that the people inside prison are just that people, and they shouldn't. You
should see some redeemable qualities in everybody. I mean, if you are a religious person, if you are a righteous person who goes by whatever spiritual you go to, then you know that there's redeemable qualities in everyone. Does that stop when you get simplest? Am I no longer redeemable? Can I still be up some good?
And that's the question, and that's the question that we all got to we all got to answer within ourselves, you know, like being incarcerated, how long did you do?
Actually I did seventeen and a half years in prison.
After doing seventeen and a half years, coming home. You you made up your mind that you was redeemable. Because this is although you've taken acting and you hitting the ground runner and I foresee you just doing amazing things.
But that wasn't the first thing you did.
You came home dealing with at risk youth, mentoring kids, you know, doing all of those things in schools, and we were working together to do things right right, So we all knew that we had things to offer. We all knew that our experiences and the things that we went through and we had redeemable qualities we can offer
to these these children into the next generation. So now you've taken not only did you take that warrior spirit and that redeemable quality and come back outside with it, now you put it into this actor and it's amazing just watching this transition. How many awards have you been have you won?
Like every time?
I think, like twenty one, twenty one awards and like thirty something nominations.
I'm still on the road though, I'm about to go get that. I'm about to get the NAACP.
Image Award, the Spirit Award Oscar hopefully you know.
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
Speaking into existence. You were supposed to attend something in Europe.
Yeah, the Bathter, the Bafter, It's like the British equivalent equivalent of the Oscars.
Okay, so you're supposed to be there, but you were denied entry. Yeah, told, you're denied entry into Europe? How does that feel that the concept?
What is it?
The collateral consequences? As our brother Jay Jordan would say, still Linger.
Yeah, it makes you feel like someone wants me to be reminded that I'm a product. And you know what I'm saying, I belong to someone or something because the stigma that's attached to me is more than thirty years old. The last time I had police contact was more than thirty years ago. So how long am I supposed to be an ex offender?
How long am I an ex felon? How long? You know what I mean? I thought the debt was supposed to be paid, whether I did it or not, the time is paid or right now? So why am I still stigmatized? And why is it cool?
I know it's not on the part of the bastards, It's not a part. It's not on the part of the people that wanted me there. Shout out to them, Shout out to all the love I received from.
Across the poem, because I got a lot from brothers and sisters over there that I've met in these states on this on this Oscar run, on this awards run with all these great people I've met that are over there now, and they're thoroughly up there as upset as or maybe even more upset than I am that I'm not there because of what it's seen in how juxtaposed it is to the message in the.
Yeah you know, it almost makes the point of the film.
Right, it does. Actually, Yeah, well.
I think you know, what you're doing is amazing. I hope that every person, first of all sees it, but certainly young folks who are coming up or people who might be, you know, in their early adulthood, because I think what you are trying to do now is it will help somebody to see the perspectives and make different decisions, and so hopefully that's quite a loud I wish you an Oscar, I wish you the NAACP Award and everything else,
because you know, it's not easy. It's just like in my book, it's not easy to tell people your true story and to like be vulnerable and open up spaces and wounds. I can't imagine how it feels for you having to play a part that's it wasn't all good days, right, seven right, had to open up some wounds.
Yeah.
Well, you know, it's got to be a level of apprehension to walk right back into a place that you clawed yourself out of. You did everything to get out of this spot, you know what I mean, And to voluntarily walk back in and to voluntarily put back on the same uniform that so readily identifies you as an outcast to everybody, with the number and everything, your whole identity being reduced to this.
Number on your show, on your shirt. And so it's got to be some.
But however, the message that needed to be given to the people about people in here, about people who find themselves in hell, because you got to be a different kind of strong to to find yourself in hell. You know, it's a different level of strength needed here and to and to hold on to that, to hold on to that is a different kind of strength, you know.
So, but that message that these kind of people.
Do exist inside hell, people that has found themselves and has held on to themselves.
So that message needed to be heard.
Wow, So you have a new film called Sing Sing. Tell us what it's about.
Yeah, same thing is really it's uh, it's filmed this it's framed inside of a prison, but it's not a prison movie. It's more of a human story about growth, transformation, about being tender and gentle in a place where those things are not really allowed. So it's about becoming, it's about growing, it's about men in a sense.
When I when I watched it, that's what I got, you know. I sat there and and I and I'm a very I watched movies, Yeah, and I and I just picked it apart and it was like it really sto It told the tale and it was like being somebody who was in Sing Sing knowing you know.
The intricates. It brought me back to being in Sing Sing like it brought me back.
And then at the end of the movie, it shows brothers that we were locked up and doing the program. It literally shows the program, and I see, like, I see like for there, I see, I see, I see all the brother I see Shorty King. I'm looking like wow, brothers that we was literally locked up with and they's showing the pieces of it at the end, and it warmed my heart just to see the evolution that we've made.
So I just I'm so proud of you brother, you know, and and and I believe that you're definitely gonna get that Oscar because you deserve it, you know, in this little minuset with the Bastra, you know, next the next film, they're gonna make sure that they give you a clemency to make sure to get out there because you're gonna be such a big star that they're gonna make sure that you're out there.
So man, continue, continue to do what you made to do.
Man, you always had even and I tell this other til You've always been a good dude, even when you was out there doing whatever you was in jail, when you was hustling, it was never negativity.
Your energy was always authentic.
You embrace me, little brother, make sure I was safe all the time, make sure I was good, worked out with me, pushed me to the next level, all of those things.
So I just want to say, man, I appreciate you.
Man. Yeah, good looking bro, Thank you brother, Thank you such that's amazing.
It's amazing to hear you all bond in this way.
And I love it. I'm so proud of you for what you're doing. Keep going sing. Thing is just one. You're gonna have ten, fifteen, twenty more films to come. And we know that's true. We claiming it, already claiming the hour and the whole thing. It's gonna happen.
Thank you so much, Thank you for having me.
He is your life away. God has to restore you and give you something back.
So you good.
Thank you, I love you, brother, be safe man, a right peace. Thank you.
Shout out to.
My brother claimence divine I macklin Man. As you can see, he's one of the most authentic people. His energy has always been like that. You know, when I first met him, he had dreads, he was working out. He was probably one of the most diesel dudes in the jail. Used to have me on the market and working out. Always been a good dude man. So to see him elevate to this place, you gotta see Sacy. I'm making sure you see sing sing real soon.
This Absolutely he's very animated. He's going to have a great career in entertainment, and thankfully he's able to do entertainment with a purpose.
So with a purpose. So that brings me to my eyes don't get it. Now.
What I don't get is, you know, the super Bowl happened, and it's just been all of this talk about Kendrick Lamar and you know, and people are angry, and it was I don't understand why white people are so mad that a black man decided to talk about black stuff when he had an opportunity. And it's a in a stage like it really is crazy to me, like white people are pissed off. They got this one actor, you know, his name is Robert d v and he's been in like a lot of gang movies.
And you know, gangst the movies, and he plays a gangster.
Life and he is so pisched off and he said, I'm tired of the street stuff and I'm tired of the ratchet stuff, tired of gangstter this and that, and I don't want to hear it no more. You know, let's go back to to to blues music and jazz and you know who who authorized Kendrick to be there? You hear all types of people. So I just don't know why white people are mad at Kendrick them all. But I really don't get it. Like the man I
loved it. To me, it was the best halftime performance and numbers of men live women line and numbers don't the numbers say it's the best, is the most viewed of old times? Y'all still curitique any two weeks afterwards. So I don't understand what the white people were so mad about.
I really don't. I just don't get it for you.
It's not just white people. I think that there are black folks that are also, you know, feeling whatever kind of way about his performance. But I think the best meme that I saw was the one that said, you know how many times white people have performed?
I didn't know anything they were.
Saying nothing, didn't know what they were saying, didn't understand any of the lyrics.
Then the music doesn't resonate with me.
I didn't want to.
Watch the Grammys to say that.
Yeah, I mean you were saying, people's what Grammys and I be like, who the hell is this and where did this song come from?
Yeah?
I mean, I promise you.
And I'm not suggesting that she's good, bad, or indifferent, because I have no problem with tail Swift. She never did anything to me. I think she's fine. She seems to be beloved by lots of young kids, and especially white kids, love a lover a lover.
I'm fine with her.
Taylor Swift, I got no problem because don't want anybody sayd to Meka said Taylor Swift.
I have no problem with her.
But what I will say is that I did not even know who she was or what she said.
I didn't know.
All of a sudden, I started to hear that Taylor Swift had more of a following and was actually more I guess prominent if you are, or bigger celebrity than Beyonce. So when I heard that, I'm like, who y'all talk like it's just that's really hard to accomplish being a bigger celebrity than Beyonce. So I'm like, who is this? It was Taylor Swift? And then people went back and reminded me of Kanye and you know, the different things that's happened throughout her career, and I'm like, oh, that's her.
I don't know who tell us with this. I could not sing. If you right now said I better sing it or you're gonna throw eggs on me, I would be egged up because I don't know the worst songs. I don't know them.
I know probably like one or two songs.
It's just but I don't even know I know it. I don't know that I know her songs. I know I know certain people's songs. I know I know Bruce Springs things music. I know I know Madonna's music. I know I know certain white folks. I know what they sing, and I like it right, and I like it, or at least it's mall music that every time I walk in a certain store, I hear the same songs they played on the plane.
I get it. It is what it is. I did not know who.
Taylor Swift was until recently when they started talking about her and Beyonce and sort of making comparisons there. And I love the fact that her and Beyonce came out together, like we're not allowing this to be a thing.
But nonetheless, I didn't.
Know she was.
I'm not mad when they have white artists. I expect that over the cycle of time, there's gonna be different types of people that come with different types of music and so what. And then when they said then they said, well, he couldn't find one white person. You know, I meantimes I've watched white people do everything all white everything. Everything.
Everything's music, jobs, companies, boardrooms, I mean shit everything. The damn president has a primarily almost every single person white cabinet, So like, what are you talking about? And I can't even tell you who's the person that's not white? And certainly, even if there is somebody there that's not white, I think there's a black man over.
Maybe it was Hud I don't know.
Position.
Even if he ain't on No TV, ain't nobody pumping him up. He ain't in the Oval office, but we're seeing them all the time, and he's standing next to Trunk. We don't so what's the problem.
It comes with the game? Man, get over it. It's not for you. If you didn't like it, good, I loved it.
Let's go k that.
People not happy with you for liking it so much?
Man, people.
Did you say if you mad? Scratch your ass and get glad. So that brings us to the end of another episode of the TMI Show. Thank you for all the support that you give us. Make sure you continue to follow us. Let us know if you love us, let us know if you hate us. Leave us messages. Who do y'all want us to interview? We need all of the feedback. We appreciate you. Make sure you follow us on Instagram, at TMI Underscore Show and on YouTube
TMI Show PC. I'm not gonna always be right, Tamika d Maories and I can always be wrong, but we will both always and I mean always, be authentic